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On To The Next One: Gary Woodland

In October 2011, PGA Tour golfer Matt Kuchar became Mark Steinberg’s first big client (not named Tiger Woods) since Steinberg moved from IMG to join basketball agent Jeff Schwartz and baseball agents Casey Close and Victor Menocal at Excel Sports Management.

Expect Steinberg to gain many more golfer clients as he begins to settle in with his new company.  Recently, Steinberg signed Gary Woodland, who just became a student of Butch Harmon.  Woodland was 5th in driving distance on the PGA Tour in 2011.  Harmon is going to work with Woodland to make him a better all-around golfer.

Woodland was formerly represented by Blake Smith of Hambric Sports Management.  Blake’s father, Randy Smith, used to coach Woodland, but parted ways with Woodland after he left for Mark Steinberg.  Woodland finished 24th in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions to kick off the season.

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.