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The week each golf fan seems ahead to is upon us, because the Masters Match begins on the iconic Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership with observe rounds starting on Monday.
It’s not solely the primary main match of the PGA Tour schedule yearly, however from a enterprise perspective, the Masters acts as an enormous hub for brand spanking new offers, networking and way more for the golf business.
In brief, consider the Masters because the Tremendous Bowl of golf.
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The primary leaderboard is seen following the ultimate spherical of the Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Novice at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (Kieran Cleeves/Augusta Nationwide / Getty Photographs)
However the conventional enterprise behind golf, particularly the advertising facet of the business, has utterly modified the game. It requires a brand new playbook, because the nine-figure tour and participant sponsorships simply to get visibility on manufacturers has turn into a factor of the previous.
WME Sports activities, which represents a few of the finest athletes, coaches, broadcasters, executives and extra throughout all sports activities, has been main the cost on that altered playbook, and this week is crucial in doing so with golf above all else within the business.
WME Sports activities golf brokers Sean Guerrero and Jordan Lewites gave an inside take a look at Masters week throughout the business throughout an interview with FOX Enterprise, the place they shared perception and their very own pleasure for what this week means for them and their shoppers.
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“Masters week throughout the golf business is fascinating,” Guerrero, who has been within the golf enterprise for nicely over a decade, defined. “Clearly, it’s essentially the most magical week of the 12 months, and all of us moving into the golf business have had so many various reminiscences alongside our journey. As you enter the golf business, you discover it’s a novel alternative the place the entire choice makers are in a single concentrated space, and all people’s obsessive about golf. They wish to develop how they present up within the sport in new, inventive methods.
“Whereas within the business, we’re excited for the glitz and glam of the Masters, we’re additionally excited that all of us get to assemble collectively to satisfy, catch up, and actually community throughout the business to offer new methods, a minimum of from our perspective, to create how these corporations present up within the sport we love.”
Lewites, who works with PGA Tour star Jordan Spieth, golf influencer Paige Spiranac and lots of extra, echoed Guerrero’s sentiment, as he believes the Masters permits entry to each sector of the business.
“We’re so fortunate within the golf business, particularly us that work across the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour and any skilled golf excursions, there’s one occasion per week that’s the focus. Particularly, there’s 4 weeks a 12 months – I’ll even throw The Gamers in there. There’s 5 instances a 12 months the place it turns into an business convention for us,” he mentioned. “… We will see everybody from the model facet, the media facet, the expertise facet, and the occasion facet of the enterprise. The governing our bodies, all people’s there. And the Masters is our kick-off to begin having latter half of ’26 and ’27 discussions for brand spanking new deal circulate, pipeline and see what of us have deliberate. It’s all people’s massive launch. Domestically, half the nation goes to begin taking part in golf for climate altering. So, it’s the most important week for the golf business and kinda kicks off the 12 months.”
Jordan Spieth walks on the seventeenth inexperienced in the course of the second spherical of the Masters Match at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership on April 11, 2025, in Augusta, Georgia. (Ben Jared/PGA TOUR / Getty Photographs)
The Masters is constructed on custom, and it’s why so many, from the informal fan to the golf superfan, tune in to look at each April. However golf has seen an incredible shift in how manufacturers can get entangled within the sport, and brokers like Guerrero and Lewites are serving to these manufacturers make an impression they didn’t assume was attainable up to now.
Whereas conferences “beneath the tree” by the clubhouse nonetheless happen, as Lewites talked about contemplating the expertise ban at Augusta Nationwide, model activations, dinners, conferences and way more happen on the town all week lengthy. Whether or not it’s stepping right into a model’s hospitality home to take a look at new gear and work together with their visionaries, or assembly PGA Tour legends throughout a dinner after watching some golf, and even taking part in at programs across the space, that is the place companies like WME Sports activities thrive in constructing connections and bridging gaps for his or her shoppers to enter the golf area.
“I feel it’s like 500-plus company homes that we have now by means of (WME’s sister firm) On Location, and loads of our golf consulting shoppers use On Location as nicely for his or her company housing conferences. Whereas we used to do it ourselves, we have now a tremendous sister firm to do this with. It’s turn into very structured and really detailed-oriented,” Lewites detailed.
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“There are hosted dinners each single night time that we’re offering expertise to on most instances. Cameron McCormick, Jordan’s coach, Sean Foley is booked each single night time on the Masters, doing talking engagements generally as intimate as six folks.
“We’re seeing loads of inbound lastly throughout the board from corporations that notice the Masters is really the final word hospitality alternative.”
A major instance of the kind of alternatives WME Sports activities is creating for his or her shoppers is what Guerrero did with a fantastic Masters custom – John Daly’s “dwelling” for the week.
An in depth view of a pin flag on the ninth inexperienced throughout a observe spherical previous to the 2025 Masters Match at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership on April 7, 2025, in Augusta, Georgia. (Harry How/Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
Whereas he hasn’t performed within the Masters in years, Daly, a fan-favorite within the golf world, would keep in an RV, particularly at a Hooters restaurant on the town, the place he would work together with followers with autograph signings and movie taking. However his traditional set-up was scrapped, as that Hooters location was torn down earlier than this 12 months’s match.
Enter Guerrero, who helped Daly’s workforce get related with Topgolf, the high-tech driving vary and lounge firm, who needed some extra eyes and a focus on their Augusta location.
“They re-homed him on Thursday and Friday on the market. Retaining that custom alive,” Guerrero mentioned. “We is usually a useful resource for these manufacturers in so many various methods.”
Guerrero referred to as “Inventive and alter” the optimum phrases to explain what is going on within the golf area as we speak. Whether or not it’s knowledge and expertise corporations like CapTech serving to the governing our bodies in golf with their statistics and analytics, or smaller, cult-favorite manufacturers like Swag Golf discover that company avenue, WME Sports activities makes use of occasions just like the Masters to get the ball rolling, or preserve it rolling, in the correct route to make impacts they may not have thought attainable.
The truth is, Swag Golf created a partnership with Bryson DeChambeau, the two-time U.S. Open champion who has additionally embraced the creator area in golf, which is one thing WME Sports activities has helped pioneer, particularly with its work alongside Good Good Golf.
“We began working with Swag once they have been doing a pair million bucks in income,” Lewites mentioned. “We knew they have been on tempo to do $50 million in shared income, and we’d assist construct their complete licensing program, so all of their head covers that you simply see which are every little thing from WWE, MLB, NBA, NFL – they’ve partnerships with all of them. They’ve a tremendous partnership with DICK’S. They’re in each DICK’s and Golf Galaxy location with their hometown assortment, and their collegiate licensing program we put collectively for them. Once more, right here’s a small golf firm now that confirmed how manufacturers can activate and the way that’s modified.”
A normal view of the eleventh gap inexperienced in the course of the third spherical of the Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Novice at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership on April 4, 2026, in Augusta, Georgia. (Hector Vivas/Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
Guerrero added: “Golf is in contrast to another sport. If you happen to’re a fan of golf, you play it and also you eat it’s merchandise. I’m an enormous baseball man, I’m an enormous soccer man. I’m not taking part in baseball on the weekends. It’s such a novel life-style sport, the place in the event you’re a fan of it, you eat it’s merchandise and you’ve got a client for all times. Yeah, you can begin at three and play till 93.
“So, all of those manufacturers on the surface of golf wanting to hitch the business and see the worth of it – I actually root for everyone throughout the area. Whether or not we work with them or not, all of us develop collectively.”
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Golf actually is a life-style in comparison with different sports activities. Not solely do golfers play the sport all year long, they’re additionally consuming the merchandise they see their favourite athletes utilizing every day on the course.
The Masters additionally accentuates that time, which is why WME Sports activities and the remainder of the business is happy to get right down to Augusta and proceed its impression on this ever-evolving sport at one in every of its signature occasions.
“Everyone’s enthusiastic about golf, and after the Masters hits, all people’s acquired the bug,” Guerrero mentioned. “Plenty of these corporations place a premium on both displaying up at or across the Masters, or launching merchandise or new providers or new no matter it’s alongside that very same timeline.”
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