Golf Sponsorships Generate Millions of Dollars in Brand Exposure

Professional golfers are some of the most elite athletes on the planet. Their hand-and-eye coordination alone is astonishing, and only the most mentally-tough players are able to survive the rigorous PGA Tour atmosphere.
Many people struggle to refer to golfers as athletes. But what they can’t deny is that these players are walking billboards generating millions of dollars just by whacking a white ball around a green field with some trees, sand, and water posing as obstacles.
Now an average golf round is about 4–4.5 hours, but professional golfers appear on television screens for less than an hour of time. In fact, they may receive only a few minutes of airtime per round depending on where they are on the leaderboard.
But in those moments when they are gathering the spotlight, so are their brand. And the brands who can target the top golfers — or golfers that get hot during certain points of the year — yield tremendous value from those precious television minutes.
Take Tiger Woods for example…
Woods, who made his long-awaited return to golf in 2018, has generated over $10 million alone for his apparel and shoe sponsor Nike. According to Apex Marketing Group, Woods generated over $10 million in media value during this year’s Valspar championship where he finished T-2.
That should give you a pretty good indication that Woods yields well over $10 million in golf’s major championships or anytime he is in contention.
Even brands that don’t sponsor Woods benefited from his return. KT Tape, a recovery tape used to soothe muscles of aches and pain, was seen on the back of Woods’ neck during the Open Championship. Woods is not sponsored by KT, but having the tape on the back of his neck generated $3.96 million in media exposure. Traffic to the KT website actually increased 300 percent that day.
That use of tape has opened up a new way for brands to get their logo or product on players arms, as opposed to just their clothes, hats, shoes and bags.
Ok, so Tiger Woods is an easy target because he is the most transcendent golfer in the sport’s history.
So here is a look at what the following golfers generated for their sponsors during the 2017 Masters tournament, according to Star-Telegram and Apex:
- Jordan Spieth: $4.84 million in brand exposure for Under Armour
- Justin Rose (Masters’ runner-up): $6.1 million in brand exposure for Adidas
- Sergio Garcia (2017 Masters Champion): $13.5 million in brand exposure for Adidas.
- Bernhard Langer: Would have generated $2.2 million during the 3rd Round of The Masters for the front of his visor, had he acquired a sponsor for it.
Brand exposure doesn’t always rely on the athlete wearing the logo. Sometimes it just needs to be in the right place and the right time.
That’s how Instant Sponsor plans to help brands, by identifying golfers — or other athletes/teams — that are getting hot at the right time and have sponsorship openings that will lead to millions of dollars in exposure.
The Instant Sponsor platform will even allow for brands to buy sponsorship opportunities after a tournament or season has begun.

It is essentially betting on a horse after the race has begun. So, why wouldn’t you ‘throw the house’ on that stallion if you know it will win the race?
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