How do you loosen up Tiger, Rory and Rahm? Ask TaylorMade’s content whiz
TaylorMade's lead content creator gets to be creative with the world's top players for a living.
Instagram.com/@ollieneglerio
Every job in golf is a good job. But some gigs — like TaylorMade’s content creator (below) — make us especially envious! To browse more Best Jobs in Golf, click each link here: USGA Museum Curator | Luxury helicopter pilot | Titleist club builder | Superintendent’s dog | Course designer | Gold Putter Vault guardian | Social media content creator | St. Andrews Starter | Callaway equipment innovator | Course photographer | Pinehurst bartender
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Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to execute. You know, like getting Tiger Woods to squeeze into a tiger costume for a Halloween social media post. Simple in theory, complex in reality. Mr. Woods can require some convincing.
That’s where Ollie Neglerio steps in.
As the lead content creator at TaylorMade, Neglerio has made stuff like this week’s festive post look simple. Take, for instance, the Christmas-themed content three years ago that saw Woods and gang zip up in onesies. That’s the goofy kinda work Neglerio does. Then there’s the more sentimental content, like capturing Woods and his son Charlie at the PNC Championship, or Woods waltzing around St. Andrews’ Old Course at dawn. If a TaylorMade golfer is doing something special with a TaylorMade club, chances are Neglerio is capturing it.
“Being able to travel the world to the best golf courses on this earth,” he says. “Walk them three to four days a week and say ‘This is my job.’ Then shooting some of the best golfers on this earth, that’s the best part.”
Neglerio began as a web designer for TaylorMade in 2012, and a year later was asked if he wanted to run the company’s Instagram account. It had roughly 30,000 followers, which at the time felt like a lot, and even freaked out Neglerio a bit. He had been given the position because he enjoyed photography on the side (you can find his own account here). Nine years and thousands of post later, the account now boasts 1.5 million followers, thanks in no small part to his photo skills and creativity. When you see TaylorMade post a video of Rory McIlroy’s stock yardages, like the brand did last week, Neglerio was involved. When you see a victory post designed to look like a baseball card, Neglerio is at the helm.
Over time, Neglerio has moved into a managerial role over the content suite, but only slightly. “I’m still a doer,” he says, very much bent on continuing to actually make stuff. He and his team of a half-dozen use the internet as their index, tracking content that works for other brands, sports teams, etc., all with the goal of elevating their company. “[We] kind of throw everything in this bucket and sees what sticks,” he says. It’s a recipe that works. TaylorMade’s social following outpaces all the other equipment brands.
The secret sauce, he says, is developing a trusting relationship with the talent. No surprise there. “I think that’s the value I play for this company today,” Neglerio says. “You can’t be the guy who rolls up and takes photos of DJ in his face and he’s like, ‘Who the hell are you?’”
In other words, it takes the right touch and a good amount of time. “You can’t be pushy,” he says, fully aware that his workspace directly intersects with their workspace. But to get six of the best golfers on the planet to recreate a scene from “A Christmas Story,” requires about 10 years of proof that the goofy juice will be worth the squeeze. On that front, Neglerio says he’s closest with Collin Morikawa, thanks to much time spent together before the 25-year-old became a world-beater. Neglerio has watched the NBA Finals during U.S. Open week with Dustin Johnson. He’s even gotten Woods thinking about the pose he should make after a practice shot, just so Neglerio can get the photo he needs.
Who else has Tiger’s attention while he’s hitting balls? It’s a short list, but Ollie does.
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