The biggest equipment signing of 2023 didn’t tee it up in a single PGA Tour event last year. Let that sentence marinate for a second. In an industry that has long believed tour pros offer the best opportunity for product visibility, Callaway’s partnership with Good Good Golf all but confirmed the traditional spokesperson hierarchy is dead.
Sure, tour pros remain an integral part of the product promotion process. However, depending on who you ask, they may no longer be at the top of the food chain.
Content creators, particularly those on YouTube, aren’t going away. If anything, their incredible reach and relatability have turned them into the ideal spokesperson for the biggest equipment brands in the industry.
There’s a reason why Good Good Golf (Callaway), Fore Play Golf (TaylorMade) and No Laying Up (Titleist) all have equipment deals.
The bigger question that must now be answered is whether this is merely a fleeting trend or the beginning of a seismic shift within the equipment industry.
In an exclusive InsideGolf conversation, GOLF’s Fully Equipped crew tackled the topic following last week’s Creator Classic at East Lake Golf Club, site of the Tour Championship, that pitted some of the biggest names in the content creator game against one another for bragging rights.
Jonathan Wall is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s Managing Editor for Equipment. Prior to joining the staff at the end of 2018, he spent 6 years covering equipment for the PGA Tour. He can be reached at jonathan.wall@golf.com.
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