SBJ Unpacks: Tiger Woods remains golf’s most marketable player

Tonight in Unpacks: Although he hasn’t made more than one cut in a tournament in two years -- let alone win one in the past five years -- Tiger Woods is still No. 1 in the heart of marketers, reports SBJ’s Josh Carpenter in a survey of more than 40 industry execs.

Also tonight:

• PGA Tour easily tops LIV in first head-to-head TV battle
• Ovechkin sets Fanatics NHL merch sales record
• NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship audience comes back to Earth
• Op-ed: Will the WNBA’s wins keep coming in 2025?

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour discusses President Charlie Baker’s pledge to stick with the NCAA, the women’s basketball championship game down big (but still delivering strong viewership numbers), the Mets’ efforts to improve ticket sales already paying off and more.

SBJ PSA: Nominations are rolling in. Join the hundreds of companies nominating themselves for SBJ’s Best Places to Work in Sports 2025. This program is a fantastic way to highlight your organization’s dedication to employee engagement, satisfaction and overall workplace excellence. Nominations close April 25.

Despite making the cut in just one officially sanctioned tournament in the last two years, Tiger Woods is the most marketable player in men’s professional golf, according to an SBJ survey of more than 40 industry executives.

Over the last two months, Sports Business Journal asked media, tournament directors, current and former CEOs and brand executives to rank their top five most marketable men’s professional golfers. Points were awarded on a five-point scale, with a player awarded five points for a first-place vote, four points for second place, etc. Respondents were asked to list active male players across any tour.

Woods (166), Rory McIlroy (144) and Bryson DeChambeau (123) received by far the highest point totals. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (48) and fellow Texan Jordan Spieth (42) rounded out the top five.

From the 44 respondents, Woods received 68% of first-place tallies with 30 votes. McIlroy recorded six first-place votes, while DeChambeau had five. Scheffler received two, while Collin Morikawa had one.

McIlroy had the highest ballot placement of any other player, appearing on 39 of 44 overall. Woods was included on 36 of the 44 ballots, while DeChambeau was on all but nine. All told, 29 players received at least one vote. At 54, Phil Mickelson was the oldest player to receive a vote, while 17-year-old Blades Brown was the youngest.

Woods has the most combined followers across Twitter/X, Instagram and Facebook with 13.2 million, followed by McIlroy with 7.4 million. Spieth actually ranks third across those three platforms, with more than 4 million followers. DeChambeau has just under 3 million, but also adds another 1.5 million on TikTok and close to 1.8 million on YouTube, platforms that Woods, McIlroy and Spieth are not active on. Scheffler has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, but isn’t active on Facebook or X.

Still on top

Woods’ last win came more than five years ago at the Zozo Championship, and a slew of injuries have limited him to competing in only six official events over the last two years. But he’s still an easy draw for TV networks, and won the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program again last year. Woods’ official sponsors are Bridgestone Golf, Monster Energy, Full Swing Simulators, Hero, Kowa, TaylorMade, Upper Deck, 2K Sports and Sun Day Red.

With his on-course appearances limited in recent years, Woods’ approach with brands has evolved, said his longtime manager Mark Steinberg of Excel Sports Management.

“We can’t go to existing partners or potential partners and say he’s going to play 15-17 events around the globe,” said Steinberg, who spoke to SBJ just days before it was announced Woods had surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon. “But there are other areas where he can be branded. Ancillary businesses that he’s gotten involved with, whether it’s PopStroke or TGL, those bring new platforms for partner opportunities.”

That investment portfolio includes TMRW Sports, which includes TGL, PopStroke, TGR Design and the apparel brand he founded last year after leaving Nike, Sun Day Red. The apparel brand has signed one official ambassador to date in PGA Tour rookie Karl Vilips, who won the Puerto Rico Open in his third start as a pro.

“Let’s face it, when he does play it, even if on a more limited basis than the past, it’s still in the very highest of profile of events. Regardless of where he is on that leaderboard, he’s going to have pretty much every shot shown on television.”

—  Tiger Woods’ longtime agent Mark Steinberg

As for Woods’ sponsorships, Steinberg and Excel stay relatively selective. And though his events are limited, Woods still provides maximum screen time for those brands.

“Let’s face it, when he does play it, even if on a more limited basis than the past, it’s still in the very highest of profile of events,” Steinberg said. “Regardless of where he is on that leaderboard, he’s going to have pretty much every shot shown on television.”

Woods has played in two non-major official PGA Tour events dating to the end of 2020. He’s been mum about his PGA Tour Champions plans once he becomes eligible for that tour when he turns 50 this December. But even if he does dabble on the 50-and-older tour, Steinberg doesn’t see his endorsement strategy changing drastically.

“He’s such a global icon that there’s going to be interest in him being a part of companies even when he’s not playing,” Steinberg said.

Bob Harig, the longtime golf reporter who has written two books on Woods and has been in attendance for all of his 15 major wins, sees Woods’ image as being remade in the past eight to 10 years. Woods underwent spinal fusion surgery in 2017 and was arrested in Florida on DUI charges that same year. But he won three times over the next two years, including the 2019 Masters, and seemed to open up more to media, fans and even his fellow competitors, a stark change from the past.

“Tiger almost became a sympathetic figure, he became the underdog in a weird way for a little while,” Harig said. “No one expected him to be good after that spinal fusion. Tiger brought more people in, he let guys get closer. He never did that back in the day.”

The face of the PGA Tour?

Aside from Woods, there probably hasn’t been a more visible, and vocal, player in the men’s pro game over the last 15 years than McIlroy. The Northern Irishman easily topped SBJ’s last “Most Marketable” survey in 2015, and has only grown in stature since then. Though his last major win came in 2014, McIlroy has been a mainstay in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings and has consistently ranked as one of the most popular players with fans.

He also took on the unofficial role as face of the PGA Tour in its battle with LIV Golf over the last three-plus years. It’s been a bit of a polarizing spot for McIlroy with fans. In LIV’s infancy, McIlroy was among the most outspoken about it hurting the men’s pro game, but as the PGA Tour and PIF have worked toward a deal, that stance has softened.

Similar to Woods, McIlroy has been mostly selective about his partners and sponsors. His Nike deal precludes any other brands from showing up on his apparel. His portfolio, managed by his longtime agent Sean O’Flaherty, is split between B2C deals (Omega, TaylorMade) and more B2B (Optum, FM) and are mostly long term. McIlroy’s Nike deal is for 15 years, while TaylorMade and Optum are both for a decade. He also has a long-term pact with NBC through its GolfPass property.

Equally important has been his investment shop, Symphony Ventures, which he started alongside O’Flaherty seven years ago. The firm has made 25 investments to date across health, technology and sports. Along with being a co-founder and investor in TMRW Sports, Symphony has backed the Alpine F1 team, TickPick, Puttery and Troon Golf, among others.

Golf’s most interesting man

DeChambeau has gone through three distinct phases since turning pro in 2016. He began as the scientist or tinkerer, transitioned to a “villain” role as he moved to LIV, and now has turned the page to become one of the most popular players in the game. But nonetheless, whether scientist, villain or people’s champ, most would agree he’s been one of the most interesting players in the game over the last decade.

“He always wanted to be Arnold Palmer growing up and someone who engaged with fans,” said Brett Falkoff, DeChambeau’s longtime manager at GSE Worldwide. “The reset button hit when he went to LIV and got the ability to do things differently.”

DeChambeau’s sponsor roster has leveled off substantially since he joined LIV in 2022. When he joined the league, he lost 13 of 14 sponsors due to either expiring deals or companies that exited a contract. Some of those exits were due to the deals having PGA Tour event minimums built into the contracts.

As for the start of the month, DeChambeau had official deals with Rolex, NetJets, Reebok, LA Golf and supplement company Bucked Up, with more in the works, Falkoff said. Players on LIV must have deals approved by the league before signing on the dotted line.

“It’s different when you don’t own your name, image and likeness,” Falkoff said. “Ultimately we have to find a way to make things work with both sides.”

DeChambeau’s sponsor roster being smaller doesn’t mean his visibility has dropped off, though. He has more than 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, and he just signed a teamwide sponsorship for his Crushers GC with Reebok, which is re-entering the golf space.

“It deserves more mention, when you talk about brand and marketing, I think Bryson illustrated a rebrand of his brand,” said Bill Colvin, the longtime golf marketer who now runs his Colvin Sports Network. “In today’s world, if someone goes from unlikable to likable, and fun and gracious even, that’s pretty powerful. And he’s done it in an embracing way.”

Soft-spoken Scottie

Scheffler is less vocal about golf’s hot topics than McIlroy is, and is less active on social media compared to DeChambeau. But his noise on the course is as close to Woods as the golf world has seen in the last two decades. Including the nonsanctioned Hero World Challenge and the Olympics, Scheffler won a staggering nine times in 2024 in 21 starts.

Similar to McIlroy, his Nike deal precludes any brands from appearing on his apparel. And like most other top players, Scheffler has a relatively small portfolio with big-name companies. Scheffler has agreements with Nike, TaylorMade, NetJets, Rolex, Veritex Community Bank and fitness company GolfForever, in which he’s also an investor.

Though he prefers to keep a low profile, Scheffler appeared in Season 1 of Netflix’s “Full Swing” and will appear in “Happy Gilmore 2,” which debuts this summer on the streamer. Scheffler is repped by Blake Smith of Hambric Sports.

The Golden Boy

It’s a testament to Spieth’s marketability that he remains so top of mind despite his on-course play leveling off in recent years amid struggles with injuries.

Eleven of Spieth’s 13 career wins — including three major championships — came between 2013 and 2017, cementing him as one of the game’s biggest young stars both on and off the course. It’s been nearly three years since his last victory of any kind.

But Spieth, whose style of play and personality has been compared to a mashup of Phil Mickelson and Arnold Palmer, is considered by many to still be golf’s “needle” behind Woods as it relates to generating a television audience.

His last win, at the 2022 RBC Heritage, drew nearly 3.7 million viewers for the final round, making it the most-watched non-major on tour that year. Spieth lost in a playoff at the same event the following year, and the final round was once again the most-watched final round of the season excluding majors, with more than 4.1 million viewers.

The Texan had one of his worst seasons as a pro in 2024, hampered by a wrist injury that required surgery and also serving on the PGA Tour Policy Board. But he’s rebounded and shown signs of improvement this season with a pair of top 10s as of the start of April.

He has nine official sponsors, including long-term deals with AT&T, Under Armour, Rolex, Titleist and FanDuel. Spieth’s sponsors also all support financially and activate around the Jordan Spieth Family Foundation. The foundation, which has four pillars including special needs, military support, junior golf and pediatric cancer, celebrated its 10th year in 2024, and has donated more than $10 million since it was founded.

Spieth has been repped by WME’s Jay Danzi since he came out of Texas in 2013.

Honorable Mentions

Ludvig Aberg, the up-and-coming Swede, finished sixth in polling. He has only two official PGA Tour wins, but has another on the DP World Tour and finished second in last year’s Masters, along with competing for Europe in the 2023 Ryder Cup.

“He has the look and he’s squeaky clean,” Colvin said. “His upside is unlimited.”

Several respondents brought up President Donald Trump’s impact on the men’s pro game, as well as the rise of golf influencers. And while not technically falling under professional players, they’ve had plenty of influence on the sport. Trump is now at the center of a potential deal between the PGA Tour and PIF of Saudi Arabia. Just last week he hosted LIV Golf’s first U.S. tournament of 2025 at Trump Doral Miami.

On the influencer front, it could be argued that DeChambeau is more popular for his YouTube channel than his wins on LIV Golf or at the U.S. Open. The PGA Tour started its Creator Classic Series, which drew thousands of fans to TPC Sawgrass in March. On the LIV side, the league hired YouTube golf influencer Rick Shiels, who has close to 3 million subscribers, and also held its “Duels” event in Miami this past weekend. There are also groups such as Good Good Golf, which just raised $45 million in funding.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The PGA Tour handily outdrew LIV Golf on Sunday as the two tours went head-to-head on broadcast TV for the first time. The tour averaged 1.75 million viewers for Brian Harman’s three-shot win in the Valero Texas Open, while LIV averaged just 484,000 viewers for Marc Leishman’s victory in Miami.

The tour’s number is 260% higher than what LIV drew, even as the Texas Open was down 20% from last year when 2.18 million watched Akshay Bhatia’s playoff win over Denny McCarthy. Sunday’s leaderboard for the PGA Tour was lacking in big names, as Maverick McNealy was the only player in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking to finish inside the top 10 of the tournament. Both this year and last year’s Texas Open went up against the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship (the Texas Open also couldn’t take advantage of the 55% audience decline for the women’s hoops championship).

On LIV, Leishman won by a shot over Charl Schwartzel, but LIV’s early and mid-round leaderboard was stacked with well-known names like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia and more. LIV’s previous viewership high came for its season opener in 2024, when it drew 432,000 viewers on The CW.

In the same Sunday window on Fox last year, the network drew 205,000 viewers for an MLS match (Timbers-Sporting K.C.) and 849,000 viewers for a UFL game (Roughnecks-Defenders).

Looking at some other competition in the Sunday window this past weekend, CBS had 323,000 viewers for a SailGP telecast, and 356,000 for a USL match (San Antonio FC-Phoenix Rising FC).

Predictably, LIV’s U.S. numbers have been modest to start 2025 as it played its first four events overseas in Saudi Arabia, Australia, China and Singapore.

LIV landing on Fox Sports was a seen as a major win for the tour heading into 2025. CEO Scott O’Neil has consistently pushed that LIV is focused on its global footprint rather than only the U.S., but last week in Miami said its most recent numbers would be important.

“Is this weekend important? Of course, it is. This one is important in the U.S., for the U.S. broadcast, and it’s on Fox, and that’s an exciting opportunity,” he told the Palm Beach Post. “I have no problem being judged. Judge me this week, for sure.”

Capitals LW Alex Ovechkin on Sunday set the record for the most merchandise sales revenue by an NHL player in a single day via Fanatics’ network of e-commerce sites, which includes NHLShop.com and the Capitals’ online store. The sales surge followed Ovechkin’s record-setting 895th goal against the Islanders that afternoon, for which Fanatics released a collection of celebratory apparel, headwear and memorabilia products.

Ovechkin was the top-selling athlete across all sports on Fanatics sites on Sunday, and the Capitals were the top-selling team. Since Sunday, seven of the 10 top-selling items on Fanatics sites have been Ovechkin-related. Top products have included an autographed 895th goal puck and several different commemorative T-shirts. Fanatics also launched a “flash T-shirt” featuring the image of Ovechkin’s diving goal celebration.

Sunday’s NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship audience fell 54% from last year’s Caitlin Clark-fueled figure and dropped 13% from Clark’s appearance two years ago, but it still maintained an audience good enough for the third-best women’s title game on record.

ABC and ESPN combined to average 8.6 million viewers on Sunday afternoon for UConn’s ninth NCAA women’s title, a rout of South Carolina that wasn’t really close after the first quarter (that figure includes the “Bird & Taurasi” alt-cast on ESPN). The Gamecocks’ win over Iowa last year in the same game in the same window drew a record 18.9 million viewers, while LSU-Iowa two years ago was 9.9 million.

Prior to the last three seasons, no women’s title game had topped 6 million viewers since EPSN began airing the event in 1996. Beyond being the third-best championship number, UConn-South Carolina is the fifth-best women’s tourney game on record (also behind Iowa’s Elite Eight and Final Four matchups last year).

The title game peaked at 9.8 million viewers on Sunday.

The ESPN “Bird & Taurasi” alt-cast drew 703,000 viewers on its own, around half of the 1.4 million last year for the same show.

After finishing in the top 100 shows of 2024 last year, this year’s UConn-South Carolina game likely will not crack the top 200 for 2025.

For some other sports programming comps, UConn-South Carolina finished above what TNT/TBS/truTV drew for the SMU-Penn State CFP first round game in late December (6.6 million), but below what the Clemson-Texas CFP first round game did on the same day (8.9 million). UConn-South Carolina had the same audience as ABC’s Georgia-Georgia Tech game during rivalry week in November, which was the best Black Friday college football game since 2011.

Tipoff for the 2025 WNBA season is just a few weeks away, and excitement is growing among fans and marketers alike. For good reason, 2024 was the WNBA’s most-watched regular season in nearly 25 years, drawing record viewership of 54 million (unique viewers), the most in its history.

With higher attendance figures than it had seen in more than two decades, the league’s success benefited its many media partners with the top seven most-watched WNBA games on ESPN, two on ABC (including a record for the All-Star Game) and the most-watched game on ESPN2. CBS saw an 86% increase from the previous year with 1.1 million average viewers, while Ion saw a 133% increase at 670,000 average viewers.

There is every reason to expect that 2025 will match or surpass these stats when the season kicks off in May. But how did we get here, after what was a pretty unremarkable start? Following initial interest in the league’s inaugural season of 1997, viewership declined, reaching a low point in 2011 before its gradual climb and spectacular success last year.

Exciting new talent

As in previous years, the 2024 season was marked by exceptional performances from standout players who made significant impacts on their teams and the league. It’s no surprise that players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese boosted WNBA viewership, given the massive audiences their college games attracted. Caitlin Clark made an immediate impact in her rookie season, living up to the high expectations set for her. She led the league in scoring, earning Rookie of the Year honors and an All-Star selection. Also in her rookie season, Angel Reese contributed to the league’s growth, being named to the WNBA All-Rookie Team and earning a spot as a WNBA All-Star. She also led the league in rebounds, setting a single-season record. While both players (among other stars) dominated on the court, Caitlin Clark was in a tier of her own when it came to her effect on ratings. Clark and her team, the Indiana Fever, played in all the top 10 highest-rated games for the season. Ratings when Clark wasn’t playing were still drawing more viewers than prior years, but when Clark was on the court, she put up numbers that were in line with MLB and NHL regular-season games.

The WNBA’S new national media deal will increase exposure

While women’s sports have seen growth in viewership, the WNBA’s close association with the NBA provides unique advantages. Other women’s sports, like the NWSL, have grown in popularity, but they don’t have the integrated support from a major men’s league. Although the media rights were not formally combined, the NBA’s support and influence helped the WNBA secure significant broadcast deals with major media companies. This collaboration ensured that WNBA games will see increased coverage and visibility, leveraging the NBA’s established relationships and marketing power to benefit the WNBA. The NBA’s new media rights deal, announced in July 2024, is a landmark 11-year agreement with Disney, NBC and Amazon, set to begin with the 2025 NBA season and the 2026 WNBA season. This integrated approach guarantees that WNBA games are accessible to a broader audience, like NBA games. The WNBA is also expected to sell two additional packages of games that could be worth $60 million that will add to the 2026 media deal — and that’s when we can expect another big boost. CBS and Ion, which already have deals with the WNBA through 2026, are the favorites for those additional packages.

The WNBA’s future

The WNBA is entering a new era in terms of popularity and growth. By the time the new media rights kick in, three more teams will be added to the league, and all are in sizable markets (Bay Area, Toronto and Portland). The league will have a presence in most major markets across the U.S. and will have more games televised than ever before. Viewership for the WNBA will only grow in the coming years due to these factors. The 2024 season’s success is a testament to the WNBA’s strategic growth initiatives, the star power of its athletes and the unwavering support of its fans. As the league continues to break records and set new standards, the future of the WNBA looks brighter than ever.

Danny Senor is senior research analyst at Active International, an AMS company.

• Monday’s House settlement proceedings in the Northern District of California came and went without a ruling -- an outcome most largely expected -- while Judge Claudia Wilken gave attorneys one week to “fix” a handful of the issues she raised during the hearing. SBJ’s Ben Portnoy breaks down what’s next after the judge’s decision.
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