Welcome to Issue #31
“Golf is the easiest game in the world to make hard”
Scottie Scheffler
What’s on my mind this week
Bryson's pillow talk with Gemini, well done to everyone for making Women's Golf Day a massive success, Nelly Korda swapping her custom LeBrons for her normal Nikes mid-round, twins qualifying for the US Open - the Herrmann brothers making golf history, Shinnecock in two weeks and the rough is already being described as brutal (obviously), Cam Smith talking sense about prize money, the Memorial quietly losing its shine in the signature event era, Rahm says he knows nothing about business - I know a newsletter he should subscribe to.
In the news
Why it matters: LPL Financial announced a four-year partnership with the PGA of America on 3 June, becoming the official wealth management partner across the PGA Championship, KPMG Women's PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship and PGA HOPE, in the first sports sponsorship in the firm's history.
Our Take: LPL has 32,000 affiliated financial advisors. The PGA of America has more than 30,000 Golf Professionals. The commercial logic is simple: wealth management in front of a high-net-worth audience already taking advice from someone they trust on a different topic. Unlike most sports sponsorships, this partnership creates a direct overlap between two credentialed professional communities whose members are often advising the same households. LPL will also present limited commercial interruption hours during the PGA Championship broadcast in partnership with CBS and ESPN, a fan experience model that flips the usual sponsorship logic from interruption to enabled viewing. The deal may offer a template for other financial services firms looking for access to affluent audiences without competing directly in the crowded NFL and major-league sponsorship markets. The fragmentation of advisor led wealth management makes golf's professional network unusually valuable as a distribution channel.