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Affordable Ways to Play Golf

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:26:00 GMT

Typically, the very mention of the sport Golf evokes responses such as, “Its an expensive game,” “the clubs and equipment is too costly,” “I can’t afford it” so on and so forth. However, golf is not just about money, it’s about passion and desire. While the fact that playing golf can be heavy on the pockets is true, it is also true that there are many affordable ways to play golf. But before getting into the game of golf, it is important for you to be as honest and as committed to the game as possible. After all, the amount of money you spend is related to the level of dedication you have for golf…isn’t it?

An easy way to familiarize yourself, without spending thousands of dollars on golf equipment, is to take a few cursory classes in golf. Learn to swing and putt and generally get a feel of the game. When you begin to start enjoying your lessons in golf, it will be time to pursue the game more seriously and with more dedication. To start with, you will need some golfing equipment. An affordable option for golf clubs is to buy pre-owned clubs. Buying used golf clubs doesn’t mean that you will be sacrificing quality over money. It simply means that you can enjoy golf even if you don’t have the capacity to spend several hundreds of dollars on new golf clubs. A great place to look for some amazing used clubs deals is the internet. Of course, there are many golf equipment or general auction sites as well which allow you to place bids on pre-owned golf club sets.

Before you buy any pre-owned or used golf clubs, you must ask yourself if you need a different type of golf club because of the change in your golf game? If your handicap has risen because you are unable to devote several hours in a week to play the game, you may want to opt for cavitybacks instead of musclebacks. On the other hand, if your golf game has improved due to regular and frequent practice, then you may be willing to opt for golf clubs that can further help improve your game. Ideally, you should try to match the level of your game and your dedication towards the game with the playing ability of new clubs.

Another great suggestion to save money and ensure that playing golf remains affordable for your pocket is to only buy as much equipment as you really require. There is absolutely no need to buy every piece of golf equipment available under the sun. The idea is to enjoy the game of golf as much as possible. Step out into the market and you will find some really fantastic bargains on every piece of golf accessory and equipment such as shoes, hats, ball markers, gloves, bags, and whatever else. However, you must be willing to spend time searching in order to find the most affordable golfing accessories and equipment possible to ensure that you not just enjoy your game, but make it a fun and great game too!

Golf Sponsorship Opportunities

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:23:00 GMT

Golf is a popular game and is growing in popularity each day. Golf tournaments have also become a popular way to raise money by charities. Arguably, this is also the prime reason why many corporations and companies offer sponsorships to golf tournaments. Nevertheless, golf sponsorships opportunities are not just a great way to support a worthy and noble cause but also offer a fantastic and effective opportunity for advertising.

Why Golf Sponsorship Opportunities?

With increase in popularity of the game, more awareness, and growing acceptance, Golf sponsorship opportunities are being seen as a wonderful opportunity for companies to increase visibility. Let’s take an example. Assuming that a car dealership has decided to bite the golf sponsorship opportunity, the dealership cannot only appoint a person to ensure that their advertising strategy is executed properly, but also that their products get displayed properly and their gift bags are given to every participating golfer in that tournament. Typically, a marketing manager for that car dealership would be responsible for the above. Companies can exploit golf sponsorship opportunities to ensure that they get maximum mileage, visibility, and exposure besides enjoy the game. Nothing works better than ‘word of mouth’ publicity and with golfers and their team members being privy to the benefits of the services of the sponsor’s business; it wouldn’t take too long for the word to spread.

Instead of spending millions of dollars on media advertising, companies are quickly learning the various benefits of golf sponsorship opportunities. Some extensive researches on event sponsorships such as golf sponsorships have reported that media advertising is less cost effective and less result intensive.

How To Utilize Golf Sponsorship Opportunities

Golf sponsorship opportunities allow companies to promote their brands. For example, a company can decide to give away caps, shirts, mugs, pens, at each golf tournament they sponsor. Still relating with the car dealership example it can be said that golf sponsorship opportunities for such a dealership will not just bring it plenty of visibility when they display the cars and their logo and signs at hole-in-one as well as other contest holes, around the golf course, and give aways. Additionally, their name will also appear on the sponsor lost in the paper as well on that particular golf tournament’s website. This, quite literally, spells into more exposure and many more people showing up at the car dealership, the time they decide to buy a car. Undoubtedly, this tryst with golf sponsorship opportunity proves to be more profitable than the media ads the dealership ran in the newspapers and on radio and television.

Typically, companies spend over many millions of dollars on a single golf sponsorship opportunity. To divert this advertising budget towards golf sponsorship opportunities would be a major decision, especially given the money involved. Therefore, it’s important to do homework before making the decision as well as researching on an ongoing basis to ensure that the money that is spend on golf sponsorship is effective as expected and bring tangible returns. After all, golf sponsorship opportunities are effective for a number of viable reasons.

Sponsorship In Golf

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:17:00 GMT

As a game, Golf can be quite demanding and a player needs to be constantly in focus. This is a game of patience but the one thing it has always missed is active sponsorship. Games like soccer, basketball and tennis have some big brands like Nike, Adidas, Lotto sponsoring players and equipments but that is not so in Golf. Although off late, some of the tournaments have been sponsored by big brands including Johnny Walker, yet it seems like the sport lacks a lot more in terms of sponsorship.

There is one event that some fans worldwide remember and it is the point where’ The Tank'' K.J. “The Tank” Choi was gearing up to take on the final round of the Compaq Classic PGA Tour in 2002. What attracted the fans world over was not his game but the Superior visor that he was seen sporting. It was a perfect platform and moment for Superior to reach out to the world and since the game of golf was being broadcasted in many countries live by BBC, CNN and NBC, Superior was able to find its potential customers. According to marketing experts, Superior was an unknown brand prior to the event but after the event they enjoyed a successful promotional campaign that was worth in excess of 300 billion from that particular tour.

This is an example of sponsorship at its best level. Sponsorship in Golf needs a sound marketing strategy as unlike other competitive sports, Golf doesn’t have a huge fan following. As a sport, it is still a niche. One of the new companies that have entered the world of Golf as a sponsor successfully is ANZ. ANZ has worked its position as a Golf sponsor right to the last detail. They managed to turn the sponsorship of a Golf game into a multitude of different marketing activities and created relationship-building opportunities.

It all started 6 years back when ANZ was working on sponsoring a high profile game, which could get them national as well as international coverage. Another important thing was the target audience. ANZ wanted the sport to reach out to its target audience and after extensive research, they concluded that the sport that could help them achieve their target was Golf and that’s how the ANZ Championship was born. As of today, ANZ has quite a few golf programs like the Team ANZ (players’ squad of male and female players), ANZ Ladies Masters, ANZ Ladies Masters of Business Conference, and ANZ Golf Media Awards. The most important fact is that each of these programs provides them with a platform wherein, ANZ can build there customer relations, marketing, public relations, staff integration and corporate social responsibility.

Sponsorship in Golf is basically two-fold: one is sponsorship of the game itself and the other is sponsoring the golfers and their equipments. Both cater to a global audience. Sponsoring a golfer basically comes down to covering some of the basic costs like sporting goods and equipments, contract fees, and offering various incentives based on the golfers performance. There is much more in terms of sponsorship that can be derived out of Golf as it is slowing becoming a global sport.

Golf Investors: The New Avenue

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:19:00 GMT

Golf is known as a humbling game as many would say but there is many a face to the game than we normally get to see at a 9-par course or on television. There is more to Golf than the PGA tours. One of the new faces of the game is investment. Yes! Golf investment is coming of age. A decade back when the multi-ethnic, multi-talented uber-golfer arrived, it made of the greatest bull market pointer in history and laid the foundation for an investing heaven in Golf.

In 1997, Tiger Woods became a champion by winning his first Masters and that was a high point because it initiated higher sales of golf products. The impact was overwhelming as Golf suddenly became overtly popular especially with Armani starting a special line of golf apparels etc. In 1999, enter two new-to-the-market fund managers, Jeffrey and Ross Provence and we see the launch of the Value Trend Links Fund. It was an equity mutual fund that specialized in investments on sponsors of Golf tournaments and golf companies.
The golf industry over the last decade or so has been quite flat in spite of the fact that there are 30 million golfers in the US alone. One of the premier organizations related to Golf investments in America is the Golf Trust of America, which is a sort of self-administered REIT (real estate investment trust). They have most of their interests in upscale golf courses. But there are many Golf investment companies, who have closed their doors due to losses suffered. There are some success stories regarding Golf investors and investments and it is all about timing. One such story revolves around Callaway Golf, which held the top spot in a bearish market and those who invested in the shares enjoyed an annual return of 20%. But five years back, the stocks fell.

This is mostly so because in spite of the Golf industry being comparatively big, investment options has not been good enough so far. But things are about to change and investors need to keep their eyes on the par and the ball. Restraint has to be exercised and investors need to be careful especially in the light of the fact that Golfing is an overbuilt marketplace that has been pulled down by an uncertain economy.

Golf investors have different options available, which could be investing in Golf training centers, Golf courses, shares, Golf Homes and mutual funds. You will have three options for Investment in Golf training centers and they include regional franchise, Area development agreement and Individual franchise. The investment amount can vary anywhere from $150,000 to $350,000. Investing in a Golf course is similar to real estate investments.

One of the major investment sector will still be the stock market & mutual funds. Let us take a look at the performance of some of the stocks. The main companies in mutual funds include Callaway, Fortune Brands, and Nike.

Adams Golf ADGO Annualized return: -59.80%

Annualized return: -1.59%

Annualized return: 19.41%

Annualized return: 10.03%

Ways To Accelerate Sponsorship Opportunities in Golf

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:06:00 GMT

Golf is an interesting game that has created its own niche in the world of competitive sports. Some of the greats of Golf include Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo and many more but Golf really hit mainstream with Tiger Woods. Suddenly, Golf became a larger than life sport and appealed to the youth worldwide. But even after the success of Golf as a sport there remain a few hurdles and one of them is getting sponsorship.

Sponsorship for golfers is a herculean task even when the game has found a new life, meaning and more fans. Sponsorship is important for a golfer because it takes care of most of the aspects and of course ensures that the player gets a nice paycheck at the end of the tour. After all, not everyone can win a PGA and sustaining one self in a game like Golf can be fairly expensive. The sponsors take care of most of the expenses from traveling to the venue to the equipments that include the different types of clubs used and even the Golfing tees.

Where to Start

The best place to start is with companies who offer different types of Golfer’s tools that can accelerate the process of receiving various sponsorship opportunities. The different types of tools offered by these companies can add more value to your being a Golf player and thus attract sponsors. Here are some of the tools being offered by different sponsorship opportunity hunting companies:

Website: Website is like the face of any business today and as a player having a website is important. The website will not only have your profile as a player but will include all the relevant statistics, golfing games you have won, career spell so far, PGA tour records etc. The website will ensure that you have a 24x7 presence, 365 days a year.

Proposals: When talking about sponsorship, you will require a detailed business proposal. After all, why should a company sponsor you and especially a golfer when they can sponsor a basketball player, a tennis player or a baseball player? A proposal will highlight all the ways by which a sponsor will be benefited and offer them a deal that they can incorporate into their marketing strategy.

Teams: Most of the sponsorship hunting companies have their own members and teams. As a part of the team, you will be able to get the right amount of exposure into the golfing industry as well as the marketing industry. You will be able to meet potential investors and discuss your sponsorship requirements, which can open newer and exciting promotional avenues for future. As member or as a part of the team, you will be able to get exposure in financial management, health management and accounting, which is as important as the sport itself.

Agreements: The sponsorship hunting companies will not only be able to get you the right sponsor but will ensure that your agreement is in place. They can handle all on-course and off-course agreements and deals so that you can focus on playing the game.

Let the Journey Begin

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:42:00 GMT

It has been an interesting last four years. I have seen the good, bad, and ugly when it comes to golfing events, tournaments, business, and tours. I have seen young players loose thousands of dollars and others make it to the show. Let's face it, the sport is relentless! Some days good, most of the days rough going.

Let's not kid ourselves here. Out in the business world it is all the same if you choose to play at the highest level. As a golfer, your goal is to make it to the PGA or LPGA Tours. That's when all the hard work pays off and you can enjoy the experience, right?

Wrong, that's when you have to work the hardest and fully develop the plan you create today. You will never get to a destination unless you have an idea of where you are going. I suggest you develop that plan and strategy do that you can capitalize on a all the amazing things that will occur on the journey.

Just like a professional golfer plans his or her round on the course, you MUST plan your business off the course. It will make you or break you, it is that simple. To win the war, you have to win the battles, and plan for those battles before you take your first step. It is about preparing your mind, heart, soul, and business to succeed from day one.

Prepare for an amazing journey. You are about to experience life in a unique way that only a very few in the world have done before you. If you are one of the lucky ones that makes it to the top and stays there, then pat yourself on the back and get work harder!