It’s a surprisingly good time to be 22 years old and ranked, say, 183rd on the PGA Tour money list.
Thanks to Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and other precocious players, the endorsement marketplace for young golfers on the PGA Tour has heated up — even for those who rarely appear on television broadcasts. In fact, there is a distinct and developing market for youthful players who appeal to startup and smaller companies with high financial ambitions but lower budgets.
These players — such as 24-year-old Octagon client Lucas Glover, who endorses Herndon, Va.-based McDonald Bradley, a government technology consultant — are good-looking, often college-educated, inexpensive and have come along when “young” has the buzz.
The companies aren’t paying for television exposure. Instead, they are paying for PGA Tour cachet and the players’ youthful eagerness to represent the firm at hospitality events and golf outings. The companies do strike gold occasionally, when a player makes a Sunday run or has a breakout year. But this can also raise the endorsement price the next year.
“It’s the same with every other sport we’re looking at. Golf has just gotten younger,” said Mark Steinberg, a senior vice president of IMG Golf and agent to Woods and Annika Sorenstam. “The progression used to be that you went out and took your lumps and earned your stripes … and in your mid-30s start to develop [an endorsement portfolio]. But the game has skewed younger, and it forces companies to take a look at these younger players.”
Steinberg points to IMG clients like 22-year-old Hunter
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| Hunter Mahan, second-youngest PGA Tour player at 22, endorses Under Armour. |
Mahan, who has $173,000 in career earnings and at press time was 183rd on this season’s PGA Tour money list. Mahan has an endorsement deal with Under Armour, the performance sportswear company.
Under Armour usually doesn’t pay its endorsers, as there’s prestige simply in appearing in the company’s edgy print ads. But it signed the talented Mahan — the top-ranked amateur last year and the second-youngest PGA Tour player this year — and company President Kevin Plank says similar signings are imminent as Under Armour branches into golf apparel.
Steinberg and Plank wouldn’t discuss the terms of Mahan’s deal, except to confirm that it is for cash. But many of the agents and companies interviewed for this story said these deals are in the mid-five figures, a pittance for a Titleist or a Buick but likely the biggest single marketing expense for a smaller company.
“Our marketing is almost entirely based on networking relationships, a little bit of direct mail, Google ads. … So outside of networking and time, this really is a great deal of our marketing effort,” said Tom Dixon, CEO of Intwine, a 10-person software development company in Reston, Va. Intwine’s first and only deal was signed last year with SFX client Cameron Beckman.
At 34, Beckman’s not a youngster, but he was 103rd on the money list last year and he fit Intwine’s budget.
“We’re kind of investing in each other,” Dixon said. “We couldn’t possibly afford an older, more experienced player, but he’s definitely going to advance in his career, and so will we.”
Other companies speak just as optimistically, but their deal terms reveal a cautious approach. McDonald Bradley’s only deals are with Glover and 30-year-old SFX client Kris Cox, who has won $34,725 in his short career, and the deals are year-to-year with options.
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| Franklin Langham carries a pair of endorsements from tee to green. |
A few companies and agents described this type of endorsement strategy as like “a stock play,” as companies sink their money into one golfer or a small portfolio and hope someone hits it big.
“Sometimes it’s like a mutual fund of guys — you get six and hope three make the cut,” said Molly Fletcher, vice president of client representation at Career Sports & Entertainment. In the past few years, Fletcher’s agency has placed young golfers with companies ranging from Continental Airlines to the Penta Hydrate sports drink.
The feeling is that even a younger, lesser-known pro golfer can help a company gain a share of mind in a cluttered marketplace.
“I don’t think [an endorsement] can swing a [potential business client’s] decision at all, but it will get me some access to ask questions and better understand their needs and requirements,” said Ken Bartee, CEO of McDonald Bradley.
McDonald Bradley’s contracts call for logo space on the player, the use of player likeness and at least two appearances a year. But Bartee said the golfers “have made it clear if we’re in the same vicinity, they’ll be available to us.”
Intwine’s Dixon echoed that thought. “This is not a mass-marketing strategy. It’s not Tiger Woods and Nike and Accenture. [Cameron] has offered numerous times to play golf with our clients, and it’s a relationship-building thing.”
