Business Golf Blog

Part 1 - As prominently displayed on our website, 2013 marks the 10th Anniversary of the Colvin Sports Network (CSN) founded by golf industry expert Bill Colvin.  

As a matter of interest, Bill Colvin and our colleague, Curt Curtis, worked together for many years at IMG when “the father of modern day sports marketing,” Mark McCormack, was at the helm. Later, they joined forces at GolfWatch (an official hospitality licensee with the PGA TOUR), MarComm Partners and Octagon. The author of this article has had the good fortune of working with both Bill and Curt since our days at GolfWatch and MarComm Partners.

Bill Colvin’s career in the golf business spans more than 25 years. During that time, Bill has worked with most of the biggest names in golf from Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino to Tom Watson, Johnny Miller and Greg Norman to Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, Annika Sorenstam and Suzann Pettersen.

This is the first of a two-part article celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Colvin Sports Network and highlighting its biggest milestones.

In your role as the chief sales officer for your New York Metro-based company, your pain points are client acquisition and getting your existing clients to do more business with your firm than with your competitors.

You are conducting an audit of your marketing partnerships – inclusive of your golf sponsorships – to determine how they measure up in terms of the drivers of marketing effectiveness to the results of the 2012 Effie Report. The Effie Report is produced by Effie Worldwide and winning an Effie Award has become a global symbol of achievement.

In your role as a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), you know that the continued uncertainty in the economy is taking its toll on your company’s bottom line, competitiveness and plans for growth. And top management is reacting to that uncertainty with a  mandate that  calls for a reduction in expenses across the board. 

In your role as CMO, you know that the continued uncertainty in the economy is taking its toll on your company’s bottom line, comptitiveness and plans for growth. And top management is reacting to that uncertainty with a  mandate that  calls for a reduction in expenses across the board. 

You oversee your company’s professional golf sponsorships and are exploring options where you can devote resources to programs that help grow the game.  While uncertain at this time as to the impact the presidential election will have on our tax policy, here are five programs your company could support to spur growth for the game both here at home and on a global basis.

In case you missed them, see which of our articles with content related to the PGA Tour were most popular with our readers since our business golf blog went live in Q2, 2011.

You are looking for more options where your pro golfer sponsorships can deliver halo benefits for your brand. Below are some recent examples for you to consider:

Your company wants to ramp up its involvement in professional golf to differentiate itself from your competitors who also use the game as a marketing platform.

Your company has a golf sponsorship with a PGA TOUR player who has made the Ryder Cup team. The event takes place September 28-30, 2012 at Medinah and you are putting in place a strategy that leverages the connection your brand has to the Professional Golfer competing in the Ryder Cup Matches and through that connection, the Ryder Cup itself.  Your strategy includes the following: