As the PGA Tour Season winds down and the minuscule month of an off season approaches, many players and equipment sponsors are beginning to look for new signings and sponsorship deals that will boost their public attention, as well as their appearance in the media. Brands such as Nike Golf and Titleist are two of the most well known golf superbrands in the game today, and both work around the pinnacle of advertising and player sponsorship. Titleist, for almost as many years as it has been around, has run off of the advertising claim that they produce the number one ball in golf. Commercials promoting the brand will almost indefinitely portray the linchpin to the company, the Pro V1 and Pro Vx golf balls, and describe to the viewer how no other brand of ball comes even close to the number of played by professionals across the world. Titleist commercials also try to appeal to the amateur golfer as well, which is the largest and most profitable market for golf that the world has to offer. These commercials usually promote the same equipment and apparel, but put the focus on becoming a better golfer, and how Titleist equipment will help you achieve just that. Now, Nike, on the other hand, has taken a more alternative approach to its ads and sponsorships as of late. When it comes to advertising their golf balls or clothing, the commercials that you see will almost always depict one of the staff pros that is sponsored by them, and they will be portrayed in a new-wave sort of manner that brings the cool and youthful side of golf into play. I believe their objective is to promote a new, radical, and fresh take on the game of golf, and with that, a new following that will break away from the old and comfortable, and into the new and alternative golfing lifestyle of Nike.
Now the big news in the golfing world as of late has to deal with the new professional signings that Nike has managed to snatch up for the next season. The biggest golfer on this list has to be, without a doubt, Rory McIlroy, the number one golfer in the world. Now Rory doesn't just bring obvious talent and prestige to the company, but he also brings millions of young golf fans as well. Being only 23 and at the peak of his golf game, he has become the face of the new golfer; the young, talented, alternative, and recognizable athlete. Now this signing has brought about more interest in the golfing world due to who Rory was previously signed with: Titleist. Titleist has made a name for itself over the years as a company with strong fundamentals, world-class equipement, and for starting rookie Tour member out on the right foot. Some previous golfers that Titleist has sponsored in the past are the cream of the crop, including Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. However, these golfers as well have left the company many years ago and switched to more attractive sponsors. Nike, being one of these new-wave brands, is most famously known for sponsoring Tiger Woods and promoting him as an athlete. If it wasn't for Nike, some might say, Tiger Woods wouldn't be as famous as he is today, no matter what his accomplishments in golf entail. The point I am trying to get to here is that golf is turning into a sport that revolves and functions around endorsement deals that are blown up into millions and millions of dollars. The Rory McIlroy deal has been rumored to be 10 Milllion dollars deep, with Nike paying out of pocket for Rory's name with the brand. I believe that the game of golf needs to stop promoting these sellout situations, and I think that the players should pay more homage to the brands that raised them as rookie and helped them get on their feet. I also believe that it is this ridiculous amount of money and the aura that comes with it that deters average people from playing golf and from becoming intertwined with the the culture of the game. Long story short, professional golfers should be less worried about who is paying for their entire lives than on focusing on their golf games and promoting the sport in a positive way. The advertisement and sponsorship way may be the future of the game, but I believe that for the healthiest growth, players should stick with the sponsors that have groomed them and work out of these companies to help teach, promote, and grow the beautiful game that millions around the world have come to know and love.
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