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Insights by Repucom

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WORLDGOLF

FROM TEE TO GREEN

The state of play in golf

today.

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©2015 Repucom

WORLD GOLF

Paul SmithFounder and CEO, Repucom

Golf today is a sport that transcends entertainment, lifestyle, health and community. It is a multi-billion dollar industry that is experiencing some of its most tumultuous times.

A beacon in these difficult times, professional golf is arguably at its zenith; a new generation of players with diverse personalities are congregating at the top of leaderboards around the world, providing an enticing new dynamic for fans, broadcasters and sponsors.

Golf fans are now able to watch these rivalries develop in new ways, as the major tours and broadcasters deploy new technologies and platforms to meet the demands of a social and digital age. Tournaments, sponsors and players, meanwhile, are increasingly building a platform in social media as a way to engage with fans and promote themselves.

Geographically, too, changes are afoot. The traditional heartlands of golf, North America and Europe, remain at the top of the rankings in terms of view-ers, interest and, at mass participation level, even number of golf courses, but other markets, primarily Asia, are joining the party. The growth of the game in the emerging markets highlights the global context of golf, particularly the profes-sional game. For a long time, The European Tour has pioneered these regions and has built a global framework that has delivered new fans and revenues.

Despite all these positives the underlying challenges for golf, declining play and associated consumption, remain. The 2016 Olympics will put golf back into a very historical sporting context, but it is no quick fix. The traditional con-fines of golf will need to be challenged from within to create an openness to change; a concerted effort to engage former and future players in an innovative way is the pathway to growth.

2015

CONTENTS04 I FANS

Interest by market and what golf fans are buying.

10 I SPONSORSHIP The major brands and how they activate.

14 I EVENTS A multitude of options for brands and fans.

18 I PLAYERS The impact of winning and the relationship with brands.

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In collaboration with IMG and the HSBC Golf Business Forum, Repucom carried out a survey of the global golf community – the golf industry and who subscribe to the Golf Business Community – during August and September to gain an insight into the current state of the game, its tournaments, the sponsor-ship landscape, the spectator experience and how the sport’s future is shaping

up. Respondents were predominantly male – 84 per cent versus 16 per cent female – and nearly a quarter each came from the United States and United Kingdom, where the golf industry is most established and mature. 39 per cent of respondents said they play golf themselves.

WORLD GOLF INDUSTRY SURVEY 2015 – WHO TOOK PART?

Golf sport Journals Print

< 29 25%30 ‒ 49 49%50+ 61%

Social Media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube)

< 29 78%30 ‒ 49 76%50+ 39%

Specific TV Broadcasts (live, replay)

50+ 88%30 ‒ 49 84%< 29 69%

THE STATE OF THE GAME

Asked to use one word to describe the current state of golf, significant differences in sentiment emerged amongst age groups.

The younger respondents tend to be hold a more positive view of golf; im-portantly, fewer under-29s believe the sport is declining than the older age groups. The use of words such as ‘stagnant’, ‘stale’ and ‘steady’, particularly from the older two age categories, point to a perception of a lack of progress. Some of the most-used words included:

Up to 29 years

Changing, Competitive, Crossroads, Declining,

Democratisation, Depleting, Elitist, Expansion,

Expensive, Fragile, Good, Growing, Healthy, Hopeful, Improving, Old, Optimistic,

Rebounding, Slow, Stagnant, Struggling,

Technical, Underachieving, Underplayed, Youthful.

30-49 years

Challenging, Changing, Declining, Exciting, Fun, Global,

Rising, Stagnant, Stale, Steady, Struggling.

50+

Challenging, Declining, Elitist, Exclusive, Good, Pressure, Rising, Stable,

Stagnant, Struggling.

Multiple responses

WHAT DOES THE INDUSTRY THINK ABOUT ITSELF?

SPONSORS

Underlining that the respondents were largely members of the golf industry, the unprompted brands awareness scores were high. BMW, Nike, Titleist, Rolex and HSBC achieved the higher scores in this survey, suggesting that these sponsors are achieving a high level of cut-through amongst the keenest followers of the game.

CONSUMPTION

Clear differences emerged amongst the three age groups when the industry was asked about how they consume media, particularly around use of social media and television.

72% of respondents say new

media platforms would have a positive impact on golf, while

79%

would like to see improvements in broadcast coverage using

technology, such as better replay systems and other innovations

such as those demonstrated by Fox, CBS and Sky Sports during

golf coverage in 2015.

SPECTATOR EXPERIENCE

Asked what would improve the spectator experi-ence at tournaments, there was a strong response, regardless of age group or gender, for more player interaction – it is a unifying theme. Those under 29 also want more hype and social interaction; those aged 30 – 49 are keen for stadium course designs, more seating and better viewing opportunities; those over 50 expressed a desire for cheaper tickets.

Higher importance over

80%Athletics

Swimming/AquaticsCyclingTriathlon

medium importance over

50%Basketball

BoxingGolf

ShootingEquestrian

less importance below

50%BadmintonTaekwondo

Rugby

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE OLYMPICS TO THE PROFILE

OF DIFFERENT SPORT?

4Events

©2015 Repucom

EVENTSProfessional golf tournaments generate major economic impacts for host regions, while on the participation side Asia is becoming a major force alongside North America and Europe.

5Events

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THE PROFESSIONAL GOLF CALENDAR

Like all major sports, golf’s sponsorship landscape is diverse, with various governing bodies, tours, promoters, tournaments and players all presenting commercial opportunities for brands.

The men’s professional golf season is dominated by the four ma-jor championships – the Masters, US Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship.

Although there are several other tours, such as the Asian Tour, two dominate the golf landscape at the highest professional level. America’s PGA Tour and the European Tour are in constant competi-tion for players and eyeballs, but both manage to co-exist, not least in recent times by tweaking formats to help retain interest and attract or retain the best talent.

The FedEx Cup, introduced by the PGA Tour in 2007, concludes with four play-off events – in 2015 they were The Barclays, the Deutsche Bank Championship, the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship. The winner claims a US$10 million prize, part of a total US$35 million prize fund.

The European Tour, mean-while, has introduced its own seasonal narrative device over the last decade. Since 2009 the Race to Dubai has run through-out the season, culminating in the DP World Tour Champion-ship at Jumeirah Golf Estates – DP World is a Dubai-based shipping logistics company.

The European Tour has also broken free of the continent’s borders, running tournaments successfully in South Africa, the

United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Thailand, India, China, Mauritius and Morocco. In August, the European Tour announced an ‘innovative joint vision for the future of professional golf’, with the Asian Tour.

Every two years room is found in the crowded calendar for team matchplay events – the Ryder Cup, between the United States and Europe, and the President’s Cup, between the US and a team comprised of the best non-Europeans from elsewhere in the world.

Senior tours and second-tier competitions, such as America’s Web.com Tour (formerly the Nationwide Tour) and Europe’s Chal-lenge Tour, and their affi liated tournaments open up other commer-cial possibilities.

Women’s golf is structured in similar fashion: the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour are the major seasonal contests, but each year is also peppered with major tournaments. For the past three years, women’s golf has had fi ve major tournaments

per season – in 2015 they were California’s ANA Inspiration (for-merly the Kraft Nabisco Cham-pionship), the KMPG Women’s PGA Championship, the US Women’s Open, Ricoh British Women’s Open and France’s Evian Championship. The Sol-heim Cup, held every two years, is the Ryder Cup-equivalent for the women’s game.

In 2016, every top-level tour will be punctuated by a trip to Rio de Janeiro for the return of golf to the Olympic Games, at an under-construction course in Barra da Tijuca. The men’s and women’s tournaments will fea-ture 60 players.

Venues with a strong focus on music events and without a sports team as anchor tenant are in bold.Source: Repucom Market Intelligence

CASE STUDY

THE MAJOR: THE MASTERS

Professional golf’s most traditional and romantic tournament, the Masters, held each April at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia and organised by the club’s committee, plays largely by its own commercial rules. The Masters brand is fi ercely protected by the organising commit-tee, so much so that live television coverage is still restricted to a set number of hours per day. CBS, host broadcaster in the United States, has shown the Masters every year since 1956, although its deal is be-lieved to be renewed every year. Along with other broadcasters around the world, such as Sky Sports and the BBC in the UK, CBS is restricted in what it can broadcast live. The 2015 tournament had just fi ve sponsors: IBM, AT&T and Mercedes-Benz were the three global partners, with Rolex and UPS designated as ‘international partners’. With branding rights so limited, the sponsors are collectively granted four minutes of advertising time per hour during live broadcasts on CBS across the US in return for a multi-million dollar spend.

David Horsey, the winner of the European Tour’s Made In Denmark tournament in 2015.

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©2015 Repucom

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Copyrights of images:Front cover: AFP; Page 4 and 5 (at the bottom): Getty Images; Page 5 (at the top): AFP; Back cover: Shutterstock/Yellowj