I was in college the last time the PGA Tour unveiled a headline-generating marketing campaign.
I know this because the marketing campaign was an unexpected birthday present – a blue T-shirt that arrived in the mail in Syracuse with no return address. I opened the package expecting to find a clue about the sender. I was greeted with bright yellow letters and a three word phrase that I didn’t really understand.
LIVE UNDER PAR.
By then, golf had wrapped its tail around me. I was a sick, brave—the kind of guy who listened to his hosts There is no stretch AND Fried egg as if they were the oracles of a sacred text. But as I looked at the shirt, I was stunned. What the hell was this
I was greeted with no such surprise Thursday morning, the same day the PGA Tour unveiled its latest marketing campaign via a 30-second promotional video. The video began with a series of memorable sounds for any golf fan: Rory McIlroy on cementing his legacy; Scottie Scheffler at following his childhood dream; Tommy Fleetwood on the difficulty of winning against the best. As the video played, highlights of some of the tour’s biggest moments and stars were woven over the audio. Finally, the music was added to reveal a new old star, Brooks Koepka, smiling from his younger days, followed by the Tour’s wonderful new label.
WHERE THE BEST BELONG.
As I watched the promo, I felt something shift. Video has not lacked respect for itself. It was proudly hyperbolic. It was, above all, one proclamation. But it felt like something more than that. For the first time in my adult life, the PGA Tour seemed to understand himself.
Now, some caveats: 1. I don’t believe that advertising makes sense in the grand scheme of things. 2. I am not advocating THIS ad as uniquely meaningful in shaping the opinions of golf fans. 3. I can’t promise I won’t resentment this ad after several months of viewing aired 12 times an hour. 4. I can’t promise I won’t hate it after a while hour. 5. I, like most fans, see advertising as a symptom of a significant institutional problem … not a solution.
But in every advertisement there are two parties: The people TAKING history (which is us), and people showing he (this is the PGA Tour). And for the first time in my memory, the Tour seems to have its story right. It is the most powerful tournament in golf. It is the place that holds the largest volume of meaningful events and crowns the most meaningful champions. It is where the best players in the world belong.
You can debate whether these ideas are true truebut that’s not really the point. The point is that Tour BELIEVE they are real and he believes in their virtuosity more sincerely than he believed in the morality of “living” “under” “par”. We only have to use the tournament’s attitude over the last few weeks (including its decision to welcome LIV’s relatively Scottish-less selective stars) to know that the Tour is talking off its chest.
It may sound silly to give meaning to a slogan, but this slogan comes after a prolonged existential journey for the Tour. In the years since LIV’s arrival in the sport, the Tour has torn up and discarded key components of its competitive format on an annual basis. She has opposed war and peace. It has traded executive leadership and board structure and capital. It has changed the rules often enough to require a new rule-making structure — and it appears on the verge of doing so once again.
But those years of strife revealed something: For all its flaws, the Tour has figured out at least some of the components needed to give “meaning” and “significance” to golf tournaments. Winning the Players may never be the Masters, and winning the Memorial may never be the US Open – but these events mean more than winning your local charity scrimmage. Money is part of it—it certainly helps your perception of “importance” to watch twentysomethings get rich beyond your wildest dreams—but money isn’t all of them her. Players matter (in part) because history tells us it’s a litmus test for those on the road to greatness. Genesis matters (in part) because it is held on a great golf course. The memorial matters (in part) because Jack Nicklaus told us so.
History and legacy can never be the PGA Tour’s strengths, especially if it continues to have no ownership stake in any of the four majors or the Ryder Cup. The tournament is too small and new — and the rest of golf too big and ancient — to gain that high ground. But you don’t have to own it all of them of history and heritage to be the best for at least 47 weeks of the year. You just have to master enough of it, and Tour certainly believes you do.
I’m not sure the Tour should start printing t-shirts with the new slogan plastered across the front, but I think it might give the focus groups a break. The new message means something. it understand something.
He no longer lives. IS belonging.
