Behind MLB’s Affinity For The PGA Tour

If you scan the leaderboard of the American Century Classic, a top tier tournament on the celebrity golf circuit that was played earlier this month, you’ll notice an outsized contingent of former big leaguers like Mark Mulder (a three-time champion), Derek Lowe and John Smoltz populating the leaderboard.

It’s no secret that golf is a popular pastime for ex-ball players but the crosscurrent flows both ways and while baseball participation rate among recreational players drops as adults age, the fandom component of the equation tends to stick.

“There is tremendous crossover with golf and baseball going both ways. Baseball players love golf and golfers love baseball. They typically played it when they were younger and remain fans of it as they get older,” Buffalo Groupe CEO Kyle Ragsdale explains.

The most recent acquisition made by Buffalo Groupe, a golf centered company with marketing agencies, media properties and event planning holdings under its umbrella, was Baseball’s World Series of Golf. The week-long tournament for MLB players and guests, held at Pebble Beach Resorts, will celebrate its 30^th edition later this year.

“The number one affinity and fandom in terms of crossover with golf is the NFL but there it is always a very strong number too with baseball,” Ragsdale, whose firm also operates the NFL Alumni Association’s Super Bowl of Golf, says.

When golf fans picture Cameron Young, the bearded big hitter who tied for third at the PGA Championship and finished as the first runner-up at the Open in St. Andrews, the dyed in the wool variety may envision his elongated backswing pause before he powers through the golf ball but for most casual fans, he’s the rising star with the Major League Baseball logo patch under his left shoulder.

The iconic red, white and blue logo got a number of television name drops during the British Open as the young player remained in contention all week long and his MLB sponsorship became a go-to talking point.

“When I first saw MLB was using golfers as brand ambassadors, I thought it was a strange choice. Upon reflection, I think it was a strong marketing decision for a relatively low marketing expenditure,” Anjali S. Bal, an associate professor of marketing at Babson College, explains.

She goes on to cite the similar demographics of the target markets, the high potential for crossover fans and professional golf’s global reach among the enticing factors that would make a marketing deal with PGA Tour pros resonate with Major League baseball.

“Numerous people tweeted and shared through social media that they noticed the MLB sponsorship when Young was advancing in the British Open. This meant the spread of the sponsorship was wider and the impressions were more significant. It made the sponsorship a talking point when normally it is not. The fact that it stood out meant that it broke through the noise,” Bal says.

Cameron Young’s upper body is also festooned with the logos of cybersecurity firm Drawbridge, insurance company Mutual of Omaha and boutique retail investment brokerage Berkley Capital Advisors but you don’t hear color commentators or golf fans for that matter mentioning those sponsorships at all as they’re culled from the typical industry segments that support golf.

“The organic spread for MLB sponsorship was higher because it was novel,” Bal adds.

Chez Reavie, who won the Barracuda Championship a couple weeks ago, has been sporting an Arizona Diamondbacks logo on his hat since his rookie season in 2008, in a sponsorship deal that really got the ball rolling in bringing the big leagues to the fairway.

“The relationship with Chez was a unique partnership at the time but was one that made sense from the outset. Chez is a Phoenix resident and an enthusiastic D-backs fan, and we both felt like this would be a natural fit, regardless of how unique the concept was at the time,” Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall explains.

“I am proud that we had the opportunity to see our brand represented by a driven and hard-working up-and-coming golfer. It was an easy decision and I am grateful that the partnership has continued,” Hall adds. He also believes that the crossover fandom between golf and baseball has been on the rise in recent years.

“We have had numerous players or coaches play in the Waste Management Open Pro-Am and they continually draw crowds and receive some of the loudest ovations at the event. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn of other teams forming partnerships with other golfers. The link between the two sports is too strong to ignore,” Hall says.

Major League Baseball itself began sponsoring golfers in 2013, placing their logo and web address on then freshly minted PGA Tour pro Shawn Stefani’s golf bag. Stefani didn’t exactly have a sizzling rookie year, making 11 cuts in 21 starts while notching a pair of top-10 finishes to finish 135^th in the FedEx Cup standings. But the logo grabbed coveted airtime when he hit a hole-in-one during the U.S. Open at Merion. In the ensuing years deals were struck with Peter Malnati, Billy Andrade, Adam Long, Brendon Todd and Spencer Levin.

“If you think about what Stefani might have been looking at as far as sponsors back then, it might have been a logo of something you’ve never heard of. But instead, you get MLB which is a very recognizable logo and MLB probably got that deal on the cheap so they both won,” Ragsdale says. He adds that Stefani gained credibility that probably put him on future sponsors radars while characterizing the deals with up-and-comers as ‘scrappy’ on the part of professional baseball’s top tier.

“If one of these players breaks out like Cam Young did, MLB wins all the way around,” he adds.