The first winner’s check at the Masters, in 1934, was $1,500. This year, Scottie Scheffler, took home $2.7 million.  $1,500 in 1934 is equivalent to $37,000 today!

In His Own Words

You have likely heard about the incendiary words Phil Mickelson shared regarding the new professional tour bankrolled by Saudi government. While many agree with his viewpoint, there was an equally strong counter response. For you to decide…“They are scary motherfuckers to get involved with. We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates. They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse.” – Phil Mickelson

Effectiveness of Banner Ads

Did you know? Consumers spend an average of 45 seconds engaging with written branded content, versus an average of 1.6 seconds with a banner ad.  “Banner blindness” is a real issue with click through rates falling to less than 0.1%.

A Normalizing Economy

The debate continues if golf’s robust increase in rounds is unsustainable as the economy normalizes. While winter is the slowest time of the year for most private clubs nationwide (with Florida, Arizona and parts of California being the exception) statistics for January and February do little to calm nerves. According to the National Golf Foundation, rounds played in January were down 12.1% (over last year). In February, rounds played were up 13% (over last year). Thus, we are basically flat in rounds played entering the spring golf season.