Equipment endorsement money can
help Tour players pay the bills

FROM THE GOLFWEEK.COM WEBSITE
By JAMES ACHENBACH
Senior Staff Writer
LA QUINTA, California — Apart from the on-course competition of the US PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, there is the off-course competition among golf equipment companies.
Any player advancing through Q-School -- no matter how obscure or unknown he may be -- can parlay endorsement money from equipment manufacturers and other commercial businesses into a minimum of $150,000 to $200,000 a year.
Just look for the logos to see who is sponsoring whom. For well-known golfers, the pay-off can easily be $300,000 to $400,000 in endorsements. These figures were verified in a multitude of interviews with players and agents.
Looking at the big picture, that’s how important it can be to earn a PGA Tour card. It’s guaranteed money that is not based on victories or high finishes or television exposure or any other yardstick measurement.
Why do golf equipment companies pay endorsement money to so many touring pros? There are two big reasons.
One, tour validation is extremely important in the sale of golf balls and golf clubs. If the pros use it, amateurs want to use it, too.
Two, an official golf equipment count is conducted at each tournament by the Darrell Survey, which has been doing this for 75 years. Golf companies want desperately to win as many equipment categories as they can.
The big tug-of-war these days on the US PGA Tour is between Titleist and TaylorMade. Callaway, Nike and Ping also are in the middle of the weekly equipment skirmish, but it is Titleist and TaylorMade that dominate the weekly counts.
It could be argued that golf companies are buying loyalty from the players, but the counter argument is that no intelligent player would use equipment that didn’t provide confidence and flashes of birdie-laced brilliance.
Here at the 2008 Q-School at PGA West, Titleist won the ball count, along with the iron, wedge and putter categories. TaylorMade was No. 1 in drivers and fairway woods.
Perhaps the biggest surprise came in putters, where Titleist and its various Scotty Cameron models outdistanced Callaway’s Odyssey models by a 61-39 count. Ping was third with 22.
Traditionalists often lament the demise of small golf companies, so Adams Golf and Rife Putters have emerged as heroes to many who follow the results of the weekly Darrell Survey.
Adams, focusing heavily on the development of new hybrid clubs, has rampaged to the top of the hybrid category (labeled as utility irons/hybrid woods by the Darrell Survey). At Q-School, Adams had 75 hybrids in play, more than 50 ahead of second-place TaylorMade.
TaylorMade may have invented the modern hybrid club with its many Rescue models, but it has been overwhelmed by Adams among touring pros who use hybrids.
Rife has been the dominant putter of the 2008 Champions Tour, and the company finished fourth in the putter count here at the PGA Tour Q-School. Rife claims that no player is paid to use its putters.
Keep in mind that many golfers are in fact paid to use specific equipment.
PGA Tour veteran Harrison Frazar, among the leaders at this Q-School, carries a TaylorMade bag. However, that doesn’t stop him from using Callaway X-Forged irons.
How can this be? Frazar’s TaylorMade contract specifies that he carry the bag, wear a TaylorMade cap and use a TaylorMade driver.
Winning the driver count is a big deal for TaylorMade, No. 1 in PGA Tour driver usage for nine years in a row.
“They wanted to include the irons in the deal,” Frazar revealed, “but I took less money in exchange for the freedom to use whatever irons I wanted. It can be a big mistake to tie yourself completely to one company. TaylorMade makes great clubs, but I just wanted to be free to use any irons.
“I’ve seen a lot of players get locked into situations (contracts) that really hurt their golf games. I wasn’t going to do that.”
Randy Smith, Frazar’s instructor, said simply, “If a guy doesn’t have confidence in his clubs, he has a big problem that often can’t be overcome.”
James Nitties, tied for the lead after three rounds of the Q-School, has a contract with Nickent Golf that requires him to carry a Nickent bag, wear a Nickent cap, and play a Nickent driver and hybrid. So Nitties is using Titleist AP2 irons.
On the other hand, many established US PGA Tour players have contracts that specify the use of a minimum number of clubs -- such as 10 or 12 -- from a sponsoring company.
The details of his contract are not made public, but Tiger Woods continued to use Titleist irons when he first signed an equipment contract with Nike. Eventually he switched, and now he uses 13 Nike clubs (all but the putter, which is a Titleist/Cameron).
Superstars such as Woods and Phil Mickelson make millions a year from their equipment companies. To a fledgling pro, though, a smaller but significant six-figure endorsement deal can make a huge difference.
It wasn’t always like this. Former US PGA Tour winner Pat Fitzsimmons, whose heyday occurred in the mid to late 1970s, carried a Hogan bag and used Hogan clubs exclusively -- and wasn’t paid a dime.
“You got your equipment free,” said Fitzsimmons, now the head teaching professional at The Palms Golf Club, located next to PGA West. “They didn’t pay anything. There was very little money out there unless you were a big name.”
What does Fitzsimmons think of today’s endorsement climate?
“It’s hard to me to fathom,” he said. “Real hard.”