Yahoo Finance Why the golf business still has appeal to big names like Bill Murray
If it seems like the actor Bill Murray is everywhere lately—from his bizarro Christmas special on Netflix to crashing a bachelor party in Charleston to mixing drinks at his son’s new bar in Brooklyn—now he really is: the “Caddyshack” star launched a golf apparel line on Wednesday.
The company, William Murray Golf, will offer polos, button-up shirts, t-shirts, shorts, and hats. The full line comes out October 20, but two items released early on Wednesday, tied to the actor’s 66th birthday: a hat ($32, with silhouette of an insouciant Murray tossing his putter) and a polo shirt ($75, in Chicago Cubs colors, the This Is The Year shirt), both for sale exclusively at The Chive, a web site that mostly posts photo galleries of college girls in bikinis. William Murray Golf aims to be, “Where golf meets irreverence & fun inspires style.”
You might ask: Huh? Or maybe: Why?
Indeed, it’s a strange time to jump into the golf business. On the equipment (clubs and balls) side, companies have had mostly bad news to share. But in terms of viewership, there are indications that the golf audience is no longer just the old-and-rich demographic you’d think. NBCUniversal’s Golf Channel saw 50% growth in its millennial audience last year, according to Nielsen data.
.@GolfChannel says it had its most-watched 2nd quarter ever. pic.twitter.com/MDllrnhFwL
— Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) June 29, 2016
The daily fantasy sports company DraftKings offers contests for PGA Tour events (FanDuel does not), and DFS enthusiasts have made the argument that this is to thank for golf’s boost with young people.
people are convinced that DraftKings is the reason Golf Channel ratings are up… people who play DraftKings. pic.twitter.com/CWaSFxE4fs
— Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) September 23, 2016
There’s no way, for now, to confirm the claim, but it’s an interesting possibility. It is widely thought that fantasy football has had a huge positive impact on NFL ratings, but fantasy’s impact on golf viewership is less clear.
So while young golf fans may may not be gobbling up equipment, more of them are watching golf. Reaching those eyeballs is appealing to marketers, and one way to reach them is with logos worn by pros on the course.
Adidas announced in May it is looking to field offers for TaylorMade, the golf equipment company it acquired in 1997 that was, for many years, the No. 1 club-maker by market share. Nike announced in August it is immediately halting its equipment business after Nike Golf sales fell 8% last year; it will no longer make clubs and balls. Golfsmith, the country’s largest wholesale retailer of golf equipment (not a manufacturer), filed for bankruptcy this month.
It was not a sunny summer for golf companies.
And yet, Bill Murray isn’t the only big name to jump into golf just as others are jumping ship.
Bob Parsons, the controversial billionaire founder of GoDaddy, launched a golf-club company this year, Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG). He told Golf Magazine he aims for PXG to be “the Ferrari of golf.”
Parsons has managed to sign a number of big-name PGA Tour pros to the company, including Zach Johnson (winner of last year’s British Open), Billy Horschel, and Charl Schwartzel. Each of those stars now uses PXG clubs in competition, and they don PXG hats, making the brand name recognizable in a short time. Parsons claims PXG didn’t have to break the bank to get them, either: “All of ’em came to us,” he told Golf Magazine. “We didn’t reach out to any of ’em. And all of ’em are making less than what their prior spouse wanted to pay ’em.”
Michael Jordan’s Nike-owned apparel line, Jordan Brand, began making golf shoes just last year. Golf legends Greg Norman, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus all have successful golf clothing lines.
While Nike and Adidas are exiting the golf equipment business, both are holding on to their golf apparel lines; Adidas Golf and Nike Golf will continue to make shirts, hats, and other gear, and will still sign athletes to wear that gear. (Nike just made a splash by signing World No. 1 Jason Day, even though he will use TaylorMade clubs.)
Apparel has appeal. Adidas doesn’t want the three stripes to vanish from the golf course. And Tiger Woods, as the New York Times points out, made the red Nike golf polo iconic.
Clearly, golf still has cachet to retired pro athletes, to Hollywood celebrities, and to executives like Parsons; it is still the de facto sport of business and networking. (The Republican nominee for president owns 17 golf courses.) But its challenge now is to keep getting younger. That will happen very slowly.
Bill Murray is just one celebrity, but he is an almost universally-beloved celebrity. He’ll represent America in the Ryder Cup Celebrity Match next week, with Michael Phelps and others. Murray’s entry into the golf business is a plus for golf. Amidst bad business news about Nike Golf, Golfsmith and others, the playful Murray clothing line is another point in the positive column for golf, after the sport’s well-received return to the Summer Olympics.
So: which pro golfers will rush to sign with William Murray?
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Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Sportsbook is our recurring sports business video series.
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