PGA Tour's business side is booming despite uncertainty in men's pro golf
Adam Schupak- The PGA Tour has secured nearly $4 billion in sponsor commitments through 2035, a 143 percent increase year over year.
- Multi-year deals include sponsorships with Valspar, 3M and Stanley 1913.
- Tour executives credit the platform's strength and the value it provides to sponsors for the continued momentum.
During a turbulent and uncertain time for the PGA Tour, the business side, which now includes a for-profit enterprise with equity investors, hasn’t skipped a beat.
Speaking to reporters at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando on Tuesday, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan noted that over the last three months it has signed 14 deals totaling $400 million in revenue, which is an increase of 143 percent year over year. That brings the Tour to nearly $4 billion in sponsor commitments secured through 2035. The latest title sponsor renewals have been Valspar, which extended through 2030 last week, and 3M, which inked a new five-year deal this week. That follows deals in the second half of last year to add Truist and Baycurrent as replacements for outgoing sponsors and extensions with Coca-Cola, a presenting sponsor of the Tour Championship, RSM and Hero MotoCorp.
“We are very blessed to have a partner base that, you think about all of our partners, 40 percent of our partnership deals are deals that (have been running at least) 10 years,” Monahan said. “I think looking at the Valspar announcement last week, the 3M announcement this week, and, you know, the strength in those announcements and the commitment that they're making says an awful lot about the complete platform of the PGA Tour and I just want to say that, on behalf of the players, we're all very grateful for that.”
Brian Oliver, the Tour’s executive vice president of corporate partnerships, says the Tour will be announcing a string of new deals in the coming months, including with two more official marketing partners next week during the Players Championship. Those announcements come hot on the heels of renewals with ServPro last year and an announcement this week of a new multi-year partnership with Stanley 1913 as the official Insulated Drinkware of the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. The Tour signed 13 new sponsors last year including ProCore (title sponsor), OnePassword (Presidents Cup sponsor) and Blackstone (OMP).
It's an encouraging sign that both long-term and new partners are extending or creating partnerships in the infancy of the Tour’s new scheduling model, which has created eight signature events. All of this is happening despite uncertainty of how negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will play out and at a time when TV ratings took a hit last year – though trending back in the early stages of 2025 – and fans are becoming increasingly apathetic with the greed in the game.
It begs the question: how has the Tour been able to gain so much momentum in the face of headwinds? Oliver echoed Monahan in crediting the platform.
“It’s a really good time right now,” he said. “There’s a variety of things leading to it but the fundamental part of it is we’d expect and encourage all of our partners and prospective partners seeking a relationship with the Tour to do an evaluation to see if the Tour is the best expenditure for their marketing dollars and it’s validating that they go through that exercise and are continuing to determine that the PGA Tour is the best place to invest to help their business. I think that is the continuing strength of the platform.”
Negotiations remain active with AT&T and RBC to explore multi-year title sponsorship deals. [The Mexico Open at VidantaWorld contract also is up this year. Oliver separately said there are no talks at this time about an event returning to Trump Doral.]
“We used to have two considerations as it related to the future of the game,” Oliver said. “The first was what could the role of the PIF be as minority owner of PGA Tour Enterprises and the second piece was how and when will this all come back together? I think what our partners have realized is our product is really strong and everyone wants the game reunified and they understand we’re working hard towards that but they also understand if that’s not a positive outcome, that they are happy with how the PGA Tour is.”