Pro golf becoming a women’s game in New Jersey

BY JOE FAVORITO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

ON N.J. SPORTS MARKETING

There is perhaps no more golf-happy state in the Northeast than New Jersey. Courses criss-cross the State and can be seen off of every major thoroughfare, from the Turnpike to the Parkway. The United States Golf Association calls New Jersey home, and many of the sports signature professional events, like the U.S. Open at Baltustrol, have occurred on New Jersey’s fairways.

However in recent years the shift of professional events away from the Garden State has been a cause for concern, albeit more tee time for the amateurs and those who were club members at places like the newly revamped Upper Montclair Country Club. This year, at least for those who enjoy watching the ladies, a lack of professional golf will not be an issue.

The LPGA will make two stops in the area in the next month or so, first with the Sybase LPGA Match Play at Hamilton Farms in Gladstone on May 18-21 and then at the ShopRite LPGA Classic at Seaview in Galloway Township on June 3-5, The two events will give fans to the northwest and to the south a shot at seeing some of the best and brightest names in a revamped and healthier women’s tour this year. It is also great business sense to bring the sport into the area again, at a time when sponsors are looking for more and more ROI from their sports and entertainment dollars. Two stops that can draw corporate eyes from New York and Philly, as well as TV execs looking for quality programming, give the tour a platform to host and explain the changes of format, sponsorship and outreach that are now in place, and create a great opportunity to make sure those changes, and the personalities of the tour, are now adequately explained and exploited.

For all its success over the year’s NASCAR has remained out of the mind of the casual area fan because there was no way to effectively engage without a race close by. Tennis has had its ups and downs breaking through the clutter without a New York or Philly area stop outside of the US Open, and even the PGA sees a lag when the area does not host a prominent annual event with the games biggest names. Golf is heading into a very interesting time as an international sport with its Olympic acceptance for the 2016 games in Rio, and keeping the game healthy and fans and brands engaged year-round is tantamount. Doing that requires the proper amount of time to showcase the sport in the biggest markets in the United States, and that includes trips into the area. For all one can talk about the globalization of sport, and the closeness television and social media brings to engagement between fan and athlete, there remains no substitute for the live event.

Is there risk in having two events in relative proximity both in location and calendar? Perhaps. However these two LPGA events will take on a different format and serve the needs of two very different title sponsors. Sybase’s global technology business will be a nice backdrop for the Match Play event, whole ShopRite can use their event for a great pass-through promotion to their partners brands and consumers. Different approaches, different audience but one goal: using professional golf in New Jersey to enhance relationships and align a quality company with a quality event.

So are two too much this spring? Not for those who are now taking to the links with the better weather, and certainly not for the LPGA, who is in a healthy recovery mode as a business and can use the face time in and around New York and Philly.

Joe Favorito has over 24 years of strategic communications/marketing, business development and public relations expertise in sports, entertainment, brand building, media training, television, athletic administration and business. Visit him at JoeFavorito.com.