B
rad Buffoni first signed
Zach Johnson as a client in 2002, when Johnson was 26 and playing on the NGA Hooters Tour, a mini tour below the main developmental tour for the PGA. Johnson didn’t have an agent, and his wife was his caddie.
Johnson was not the best golfer in his college class. In fact, Johnson wasn’t even the best golfer in his high school class, said Buffoni, executive vice president of Wasserman Media Group.
 |
| BUFFONI |
“I just thought there was something special about him and about his drive,” Buffoni said. “He wasn’t the biggest guy. He was very average as far as distance, compared to a Dustin Johnson or a Rory McIlroy. It’s just he was probably the best competitor I’ve ever seen.”
Johnson showed what he was made of last week when he won the British Open in a three-way playoff.
Johnson has endorsements with Transamerica/Aegon, McGladrey, Titleist, FootJoy, Oakley, NetJets, John Deere, BMW and Carlson Cos., parent of Country Inn and Suites.
 |
British Open winner Zach Johnson
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
|
All of his endorsements have incentive clauses and the highest tier is winning one of golf’s majors, but Buffoni would not say whether Johnson would earn more from those incentives than the $1.8 million share of the Open purse he took home. “All of the partners with us right now are pretty much long-term partners,” Buffoni said. Two of them are up for renewal at the end of this year, but Buffoni would not say which ones.
Johnson is open to new opportunities, but they have to be the right ones, his agent said. He’s won a major before — the Masters in 2007 — and turned down many offers to play internationally, Buffoni noted.
Time is the most precious commodity for Johnson, Buffoni said. Johnson has three young children and is busy with them, as well as the Zach Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping children and their families in Johnson’s native Iowa.
Buffoni joined Wasserman Media Group in 2011, when Wasserman bought the former SFX Golf, where Buffoni was a principal owner. Buffoni’s other clients include PGA Tour players Kyle Stanley and Mark Wilson, and Patrick Rodgers, who was the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world before he turned pro last year.
When Buffoni signed Johnson in 2002, Johnson wasn’t even looking for an agent, Buffoni recalled last week a few hours after his client had won the British Open.
“That is part of our business, to try to locate up-and-comers and people we think are going to be successful players, and he is one that I identified,” Buffoni said. “He’s always been a guy who — when the game is on the line — he wants the ball.”
> TY LAWSON BACK AT RELATIVITY: Relativity Sports has signed Houston Rockets point guard Ty Lawson as a client for the second time.
Relativity Sports CEO Happy Walters is representing him and negotiated Lawson’s deal last week to join the Rockets from the Denver Nuggets.
Lawson had been a client of Relativity Sports from 2012 to 2014 but left to join CAA Sports. Lawson was the 18th pick in the 2009 draft, and CAA signed him after the draft. He was represented by Peake Management Group before being drafted.
Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.
