Natural Evolution of Advertising Hits Golf

ProBagAds might be changing how player sponsorship and advertising for golfers work. SBJ reports the company has released a golf bag with a built-in H-D, weatherproof digital display that can show advertisements, similar to the outdoor digital billboards that are growing in popularity. Tour player Michael Allen debuted the bag in August.
At a time when [...]

PGA Shows Online’s Ability to Attract International Fans

Omniture data showed South Korea accounted for .9% of Turner’s record setting web traffic for Thursday of last weekend’s PGA Championship, ranging up to 2.3% for Sunday’s final round. In absolute numbers the 30-50k unique users may not move the needle, and Y.E. Yang may not be the player that captivates a nation (at least [...]

Buick Open Worth Saving (Sponsors Needed)

Did you see today’s Final Round of the Buick Open, likely the last of the annual event in the Detroit area? Outside of Happy Gilmore, never have I seen a golf crowd (gallery for those golf insiders) so into the tournament, having so much fun, yet still respecting the game. Not Bethpage, not the Ryder [...]

LPGA Needs Visionary Leader and Game Changing Support

It’s not often that an entire league of players unifies against a commissioner without any intermediary coming to the latter’s defense. Usually these disputes have two sides. Not so here, Carolyn Bivens performed so poorly nobody could logically defend her. She leaves the tour in a vulnerable situation heading into 2010 with major questions surrounding [...]

Tiger Sets Model for Recovering Golf’s Image

Everything in golf comes easier when Tiger Woods is involved – sponsorships, TV ratings, attendance, media coverage, energy, excitement, everything. So it’s no surprise that the tournament Tiger hosts, last week’s AT&T National, and Tiger eventually won on the final few holes, scored tremendous ratings and record attendance. But how they drew the attendance opens [...]

More Golf Commentary: Turner Extends PGA Partnership, US Open Decisions

Turner announced a long-term extension to continue carrying the PGA Championship and operating PGA.com. The burning question – when will they start to leverage the asset for the value its worth? Turner should take a note from the USGA’s digital presentation of the US Open – then take it up a notch from there.
Golf is [...]

Athlete Actions Feed the Sponsorship Stereotype

One action served as a good example of why two stereotypes currently plague the world of sports sponsorship. As the public continues to criticize public companies for frivolous spending during a recession and the people cringe at the ever escalating salaries of athletes in walks Vijay Singh sporting his Stanford Financial sponsored apparel.
The same Stanford [...]

US Open Makes Strong Push Into Digital and Social Media, Supplemental TV

Heading into the final week before the US Open at Bethpage Black, the USGA has pieced together the most coherent, immersive digital media experience of any major sports even in the fledgling digital age. I’ve ranted about the unique position of golf and tennis to capitalize on digital media because of the international appeal, simultaneous [...]

Twitter-LPGA Debate Misguided, Focus Should Be On Fans

Thus far, the debate on LPGA players tweeting during tournaments has focused on the divergent views of Commissioner Carolyn Bivens desire to have players actively messaging on the course and the players and media outspoken refusal to tweet during competition. However, the real underlying question is if players tweeting on the course can move the [...]

Golf Needs to Revisit Business Model

Golf is arguably seeing the most direct impact from the economic recession. The higher income, older demographic of golf fans attracts a higher proportion of financial institutions as sponsors than other sports, many of which have had to pull back advertising. Not to mention that Buick and Chrysler have bigger problems than golf sponsorships right [...]