The Primary Cut

Third installment of The Primary Cut – weekly insights from the world of golf player management and other golf-related industry and player news.

“The Jake” enters the player management fray

Always one of golf’s most colorful personalities and most liked individuals, Champions Tour player Peter Jacobsen, much like Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, has made a mark not only with his on-course achievements, but also with his off-the-course business endeavors. Jacobsen is co-owner of Jacobsen Hardy Golf Design Co. with former PGA Tour player and swing instructor Jim Hardy, a company that works in golf course design. And in 1988, Jacobsen founded Peter Jacobsen Sports, which up until now was primarily an event management company that as of this year conducted a handful of professional golf tournaments (the CVS Charity Classic, the Save Mart Shootout and one Champions Tour event, the Jeld-Wen Tradition) as well as several non-golf events. It also was (and still is) a sports marketing/brand marketing business that in the past 18 months has handled an array of deals, including Lexus’ agreement to serve as the first automotive partner for the U.S. Golf Association (USGA), and Jeld-Wen’s arrangement to become one of three official partners for golf’s “fifth major,” the PGA Tour’s Players’ Championship (along with UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers).

However, Peter Jacobsen Sports is now a full-service sports and entertainment marketing firm that specializes in event sales, management and operations, sponsorship consulting and player/talent relations. And this past week, Ed Kiernan, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Peter Jacobsen Sports, stated that announcements are planned for the first quarter of 2008 that the firm will add a player representation division, as well as a real estate division.

While underscoring what he described as the right “market climate” to “help build luxury and lifestyle brands,” Kiernan also stressed that the division will remain modest, at least for the time being. Kiernan’s statements echo what many player managers have related to me in the past: the key to representing professional golfers, from an endorsement, sponsorship and brand relationship and growth standpoint—is to seek out companies whose internal culture and financial climate allow for an investment in a given representative (i.e., your client) and an overall professional athletic-minded vision. “We feel that we can help some brands with the right mix of players. And that’s the key–the right mix of players. We’re going to be very picky. We want people who can resonate and help build … [certain] brands and fit the right brand attributes.”

The “Most Powerful People in Golf” ranking goes international

Golf is truly an international sport. In fact, although course profits have been economically stagnant in the U.S. relative to their boom period of the late 1990’s (The Economist noted last year that the number of course closures in the U.S. had surpassed the number of openings), and although golf course design and development accordingly tempered its once torrid pace, the growth of the game itself—not only in terms of the number of new participants picking up the game, but also in terms of course design and formal junior development programs—has skyrocketed internationally.

In terms of securing corporate sponsorships and endorsements for a client, therefore, agents, or player managers, must look and think across borders and cultures when envisioning suitable brands and marketing strategies for their clients. Tiger’s appeal is massive domestically, but when you consider the strength of his brand in Asia, for example, the comparison is not even close. And while no one will likely be as popular as Tiger ever again (never say never), any player can potentially take advantage of this global boom if he knows how to. During agent Mark Steinberg’s initial talks with Nike Golf, for example, you can bet that Nike’s overall vision for the brand’s Asian expansion was explicitly linked to how the company projected its future earnings with Woods in tow.

One way to increase a player’s brand exposure overseas is to schedule him to play more often in exotic locations. Phil Mickelson, for example, is playing this weekend in the Asian Tour’s flagship event, the Singapore Open. Then next week he will play in China. “More trips like this will be good for two reasons,” the ever-glib Mickelson noted. “To help promote golf on an international basis, and to help educate my children on a more global basis, as well.” And one thing agents must keep in mind is that as these developing nations continue to invest in, grow and nurture their newfound middle classes, recreational outlets like golf will only increase in popularity. Growth in the game worldwide will trickle down to all outlets, from course profits, to course management firms, to the balance sheets of club and apparel manufacturers, to the television rights and related-licensing deals that the PGA Tour negotiates, to tournament sponsorship deals, and finally to how much individual professional golfers may legitimately command in their endorsement and marketing deals.

Keeping golf’s burgeoning global appeal in mind, the October 2007 edition of Golf Inc. magazine released its annual “Most Powerful People in Golf” list, and in doing so decided to go outside of the U.S. for the first time and include individuals who hold leadership positions in golf outside of the country. As the editors note, “some of those, like Dr. David Chu of the 12-course Mission Hills complex in China and David Spencer, who heads up the progressive Istithmar Leisure Firm in Dubai, have played leading roles in opening up entire countries to upscale golf community development.” Otherwise, however, the list is dominated by some familiar names. Jack Nicklaus, CEO of Nicklaus Design, heads the list for the fourth consecutive year. “Golden Bear” designed courses can now be found in 30 countries around the world, and currently the company has 54 projects in various stages of development in 37 countries (two-thirds of which are outside the U.S.!). Nicklaus Design is just one company under the umbrella of parent Nicklaus Companies, LLC, which recently took on a minority partner for the paltry sum/investment of $145 million.

Tiger ranks as number five. Note that Woods began his foray into golf course design this past year, and recently finished the first three holes at his course in Dubai (don’t hit it in the sand). He’s also broken ground on his first U.S. design—The Cliffs at High Carolina near Asheville, N.C., and now also hosts the PGA Tour’s AT&T National golf tournament, proceeds of which help benefit his own Tiger Woods Foundation. Oh yeah, and he allegedly changes diapers too. And while there are no player managers in the list, there are plenty of CEO’s of club and apparel manufacturers: Mark King of TaylorMade-adidas Golf is nineteenth; George Fellows of Callaway Golf is twenty-eighth; and Bob Wood of the aforementioned Nike Golf fell in at thirty-second.

–Jason G. Wulterkens