Golf

Seve’s Spanish Sporting Legacy

by Chris Conway|May 10th, 2011

On May 7^th the sporting world lost of one its finest ambassadors. Golfing legend Severiano ‘Seve’ Ballesteros sadly passed away at his home in Pedrena, Cantabria, Spain. Ballesteros, diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008, was aged 54.

Seve’s golfing record speaks for itself. The Spaniard won five Majors – three British Opens (‘79, ‘84 and ‘88) and two Masters (’80, ’83) – and numerous other individual titles, including a record 50 European Tour titles. He also won the Ryder Cup five times, both as a player and as captain, as well as triumphing in the World Match Play Championships a record-tying five times. He had talent, passion, charisma and style in abundance. As the tributes have flooded in over the last few days, German golfing star Bernhard Langer has claimed that Seve “produced the most amazing and miraculous shot I have ever seen”. He changed the course of European golf. Earlier today a number of European golfers were in favour of the European Tour logo honouring Seve.

For me, Seve achieved so much than that. [click to continue…]

About Chris Conway

Chris is a strategic programs analyst at the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) focusing on, amongst other things, sponsorship research, analytics and acquisition. He holds a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Business (AGSM). Chris took part in the school’s exchange program by completing a semester at Stern business school, NYU where he studied sports marketing and sports economics. Connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Playing Golf Without A Membership

by Lewis Howes|November 4th, 2010

(This is a guest post by Debra Miller)

Golfers use approximately $800 million in golf balls every year. We all know how expensive the game of golf can be, let alone a golf membership at an exclusive country club. However, there is a way to play at famous private courses without mortgaging your house or calling in a favor of a friend who knows someone who belongs there.

Every year, thousands of non-profits across the country conduct golf outing fundraisers, typically on a Monday, which is a slow day for most clubs. It’s an opportunity that provides exclusive access for golfers at just a fraction of what a club membership costs.

I recently coordinated the local Liberty Mutual Invitational at TPC (Tournament Player’s Club) Jasna Polana in Princeton, New Jersey. Amateur golfers from all over were more than willing to pay the $300 entry fee to play the course designed by the legendary Gary Player to help support the Hunter’s Hope Foundation. Over $48,000 in prizes and giveaways were donated to the outing by Liberty Mutual Insurance, TaylorMade adidas, Polaroid, Sports Vision Eyewear and Golf Digest.

This tournament was unique in that it also provided an opportunity for the local first place team to compete in the National Finals at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina – a 72-hole cumulative scramble tournament played on three Tour quality courses. Now, who wouldn’t feel like a professional golfer after playing there?

With 72 Invitational tournaments being held throughout the country, you have plenty of options. You can find one at the Liberty Mutual Invitational website.

The opportunity to play a TPC course with your friends also makes for great bragging rights and the networking opportunities can be endless. After all, we know how key building relationships can be, especially in the sports industry. The best part is that it’s all part of a good cause.

So if you think of your golf game is up to par, perhaps you can consider testing your skills for a shot at the finals. If you have a good day, you may just find yourself ending up at Pinehurst Resort.

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Debra Miller is the President of Central Jersey based DM Events LLC. Her expertise in assisting non-profits enhance their events has resulted in increased participation at golf outings, galas and special functions for various organizations who utilized her skill set for both small and large projects over the years.

Image by deltamike

About Lewis Howes

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PGA Responds to Missed Opportunity

by Gail Sideman|September 30th, 2010

Has it really been one month since I constructively criticized the PGA Championship for not allowing fans to bring their cell phones into its 2010 event at Whistling Straits?

It should not have been that long, because it was quickly after that blog was posted that I received a phone call from Ken Lovell, Vice President of Media Development for the PGA Tour.

With the Ryder Cup on the docket for this weekend and people thinking golf during an already predictable media-heavy football season, I decided that today was the “better late than never” time to share what Lovell told me about how the PGA is in tune with its fans’ desire to shoot photos and react to what’s going while they attend a professional golf tournament.

While I fully expected a defensive rant about what I wrote, I was wrong, not just about the PGA’s reaction, but by writing that it wasn’t in tune with a fan base that wants to share their tournament experiences via social media networks. [click to continue…]

About Gail Sideman

Twenty years of public relations experience, including 10 in NCAA Division I sports information during which she received national awards for her work, have helped Gail Sideman emerge as a nationally-respected publicity professional in sports, social media and publishing. She is also a veteran support staffer of sports television crews for events that include the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA regular and postseason and others. You may learn more information about Sideman's business at www.publiside.com or follow her at www.twitter.com/PUBLISIDE and www.facebook.com/gail.sideman.

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PGA misses PR Opportunity with Fans

by Gail Sideman|August 25th, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I was faced with a challenge unlike anything I’d experienced in the last few years while attending the Professional Golf Association’s premier event – the PGA Championship — at the beautiful Whistling Straights golf course in Kohler, Wis. I went to the tourney as a fan, not as a member of the media, which limited my communication throughout the day.

According to PGA rules, I was not allowed to bring a phone or mobile device of any kind (which in my case, are one in the same) into the venue. I could deal with having to silence my phone, but to be removed from social media and email was trying for someone who depends on those tools to run and monitor a publicity business.

After all, I was pretty excited about the prospects of how I could monitor other holes from my iPhone – the PGA touted its apps like few other organizations do. But they weren’t app-licable to me. I was there.

As it turns out, it was a Friday in August and people who may have contacted me were either at the beach or cutting their days short so correspondence wasn’t crucial. There’s always that “what if” though, and I was nervous that the biggest opportunity of my career might come across in a tweet while I was incommunicado.

Alas, all remained calm on the social media front. [click to continue…]

About Gail Sideman

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Bubba Watson Tops List of Rising Sports Stars to Watch in July

by Lewis Howes|July 23rd, 2010

(This is a guest post by Allie Savarino Kline)

PGA Tour Travelers Cup champion, Bubba Watson, topped a debut list of Rising Sports Stars to watch in July. Watson survived a six shot deficit and a nail biting three-way playoff to emerge the victor of the June 27 tournament and recorded his first ever win in a PGA Tour event.

Other notable athletes who made July’s Rising Sports Stars list include USA Soccer Team midfielders Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey; John Isner, who won the longest match in tennis history; and NHL’s #1 overall draft-pick Taylor Hall.

Rising Sports Stars is a new monthly list distributed by Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) and ranks the top ten U.S. professional athletes from all major sports who experienced the greatest relative growth in popularity during the prior thirty days.

While most lists only track a single data source once or twice a year, Rising Sports Stars takes a unique approach in gauging a particular athlete’s popularity, measuring multiple data points for more than 27,000 athletes that are tracked on a daily basis.

The complete Rising Sports Stars list can be found here and people can learn when new lists go live at the start of each month by subscribing to BAT’s Twitter feed at @BATimpact.
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Classic Golf Tournament Mistakes

by Lewis Howes|April 27th, 2010

(This is a guest article by Dan Westervelt)

Mistake 1: We’ll rent a golf course that charges a $65 green fees and charge our golfers $165 to play in the event. While this may seem like a reasonable price you must remember that golfers are very familiar with the local courses and their green fees. Better to offer them a higher priced course to justify the increased fee, golfers will pay more for perceived value i.e. it is far easier to sell an event on a $150 course at $250 than a $65 course for $165.

HINT: Private club green fees are now definitely negotiable and sadly, people don’t bother to ask about them about their current rates, you will be surprised by doing so.

Mistake 2: Our format has always worked with our golfers so we’ll stick with what worked last year. The big problem with this thinking is that as golfers improve their needs change, for example a starting golfer is very happy to play in a scramble format. An advanced golfer probably is not, they either want to play their ball throughout the match or at least have a more hands on approach in play. SOLUTION: Before you announce the format, survey the golfers from last year, ask if they would prefer a change?

HINT: This should be a part of your regular tournament promotion activity anyway, as once you have hosted a golfer, you need to stay in touch with them about upcoming events and a short 3 question survey is the way to gain valuable information before making this mistake.

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Driving Value for Event Sponsors

by Lewis Howes|April 13th, 2010

(This is a guest article by Dan Westervelt)

One of the first mistakes that inexperienced event planners make with golf tournaments is to ask for donations for arrival gifts. This usually results in a hodgepodge of miscellaneous and unrelated logo’d merchandise like pens, mouse pads, drink cozies in a recycled plastic bag. What message does this send to the players? This is an unprofessional/budget event. The problem with this is that your experienced players have come to expect a quality arrival gift and will judge your tournament very harshly without it, i.e. they won’t be back next year.

Solution? Find a sponsor for the arrival gifts and buy nice ones, like leather duffel bags, shoe bags, a golfer kit, or maybe a valuable pouch to clip on their golf bag. These all come with your sponsor’s logo on them so look for items that can be attached to the golfer’s bag. Classy but inexpensive, keep in mind this is the ‘first impression’ your tournament makes on these golfers, and they are your next year’s starting lineup of repeat players. The average successful event spends $30- $40 per player on these items. A 100 man event times the $30 budget is $3,000 but you sell this package for $4,000.

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Tiger Woods Nike Ad, a Bad PR Move?

by Gail Sideman|April 9th, 2010

The Nike ad. Just say those three words this week to a sports fan and it’s pretty much understood they’re talking about the Tiger Woods ad for the shoe and apparel company that debuted on SportsCenter and GolfChannel.

The social mediasphere immediately began to weigh in on its value or misplacement. By Thursday, I believe that at least 50% of my Twitter stream, sports and non-sports people alike mentioned something about the ad. That’s a boatload of tweets on one subject, and something I don’t think I’ve ever seen.

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Tiger Woods Press Conference: Do You Believe Him?

by Sam Taggart|February 19th, 2010

tiger woods statement Over the past 48 hours, the Internet has been buzzing because of the announcement of Tiger Woods’ first public appearance since his infamous November 27th accident. All of the major sports, news, and entertainment publications have written about it. Yesterday #tigershouldsay was trending on Twitter (e.g. #tigershouldsay blame it on Nike, they told me to just do it), and this morning, “Tiger Woods” was a trending topic.

Many have questioned the timing and format of Woods’ appearance. Tiger chose to make his statement during the middle of the WSG-Accenture (Accenture being a previous Woods sponsor) Match Play Championship. Further, he opened the appearance up to only a small group of family and friends, and several members of the media. Oh, and no questions.

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About Sam Taggart

Sam is a Creative Strategist for VaynerMedia, a social media agency based in New York City. Sam previously worked as an Account Executive for the New York Jets as well as the New Jersey Nets and spent time working with former NBA player Jalen Rose as well as NFL safety Kerry Rhodes. He now focuses on creative strategy across VaynerMedia's portfolio. You can follow Sam at http://twitter.com/gosam & visit VaynerMedia at http://www.vaynermedia.com.

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Well, This is Awkward. Tiger is Decade’s Top Athlete.

by Sam Taggart|December 17th, 2009

tiger woods 001 Three weeks ago, Tiger Woods had it all. He was the world’s best golfer, a superstar athlete with a beautiful wife and kids, millions of dollars, sound endorsements from big brands, and an untarnished image. Then, in the very early hours of Black Friday, Tiger Woods was involved in a single-car accident on his neighbor’s front lawn, and not because he was trying to get a jump on his holiday shopping. Allegations came out that Woods was cheating on his wife with a number (10+) of women. He eventually admitted to some “transgressions.” Woods then lost several of his endorsements and recently took an indefinite leave from the game of golf, presumably in an attempt to stay out of the public eye for a while.

Then, just when you thought you’d heard the last of Tiger for a bit, the Associated Press went and named Woods the decade’s top athlete. What timing! Only weeks after one of the darkest moments of Tiger’s life, he’s given a ridiculously awesome award. And here I thought I’d missed the window to talk about Tiger Woods.

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