Southwest Airlines and Adams Golf, a pair of Dallas-based companies, have created a partnership that will put logos of both brands on the hats and golf bags of eight PGA Tour pros, beginning this week at the Shell Houston Open. The move marks Southwest’s first foray into golf, and the airline will use the promotional tag “Official airline of golf” to highlight the deal. The airline is working with CAA Sports. Two golfers who use Adams equipment, Aaron Baddeley and Kenny Perry, will be flying on a Southwest flight today from Orlando to Houston and will surprise customers by posing as gate agents and making announcements on the flight. Southwest Senior VP/Marketing & Revenue Managment Dave Ridley, Adams Senior VP/Sales Scott Blevins and Adams President John Ward also will be on the flight. The partnership between Southwest and Adams actually came together when Ridley went for a club-fitting session at Adams’ HQs, which led to subsequent conversations about a co-branded marketing effort. Southwest will follow up this announcement with special fares to golf-specific destinations. As part of Adams’ ongoing “Easy Million” promotion, a new sweepstakes will award one million Rapid Rewards points. A Southwest ad buy on Golf Channel will support the “Official airline of golf” theme in an effort to raise awareness for the airline with a new group of potential customers. A new weekly Golf Channel segment -- “Runways to Fairways” -- will feature Golf Channel hosts traveling to golf hotspots around the country.
