What you may have missed in the Bryson v Cobra Golf saga

Earlier this week Adam Schupak of Golfweek published an eye-opening piece of reporting on Bryson DeChambeau’s ongoing equipment sponsorship drama. The LIV Golf player, once a long-time Cobra Golf staffer, finds himself as an equipment free agent of sorts following what appears to be a messy breakup with Cobra.

While much of social media gravitated to passages within the article describing how difficult it was to meet Bryson’s demands — including a Cobra spokesperson (rightfully) questioning Bryson’s “scientist” persona — we also learned a small tidbit regarding LIV Golf’s player endorsement policy:

A source said that as part of DeChambeau’s LIV Golf contract, the upstart league had to sign off on the equipment deal and allow Cobra to use his likeness from its tournament footage. LIV had a proposal since at least October and had been unresponsive, according to multiple sources.

On its surface, this seems like a minor thing. It is far from uncommon for a professional sport league maintaining a player endorsement policy for its stars, especially when it comes to sponsorships and advertisements.

However, when compared to the PGA TOUR’s policy, there are a few stark differences presumably within LIV Golf’s contracts.

First, some backstory on sponsorships

Professional golfers haven’t always had sponsor logos on their clothing and golf bags. It wasn’t until 1968, when “appliance manufacturer Amana first offered PGA Tour players $50 per week and health insurance to put the company’s logo on their hats.” As reported by the Monterey Herald, Bob Goalby, the 11-time PGA Tour winner (including the 1968 Masters), was the first golfer to accept the sponsorship.

Since that time pro golfers and their sponsorship counterparts fit hand-in-glove. You can’t think of Tiger Woods without thinking of Nike, Phil Mickelson without Callaway, nor Bryson DeChambeau without Cobra/Puma.

The influx in sponsorships over the last 40+ years required the PGA TOUR to implement a player endorsement policy, just in case a player chose to represent a brand that could paint them in a light the TOUR deemed inappropriate.

What is in the PGA TOUR’s policy?

For the most part, the PGA TOUR’s policy is straightforward. You can read the entire policy below, but for the most part players are allowed to represent most brands, with some special criteria regarding tobacco, alcohol, and gambling companies.

Even with that criteria, however, players are still allowed to partner with those brands. All-in-all, the policy is pretty lenient, all things considered.

What is interesting to consider, if we learned anything regarding LIV’s policy from the Golfweek article, is that with the exception of gambling sites, the PGA TOUR doesn’t get too involved with golf equipment brand sponsorships as long as all parties respect the policy above. It’s safe to say, of course, that every major golf brand knows this very well and have played by the rules for decades.

In stark contrast to this, it would appear that LIV’s policy is much more strict. The implication that LIV must “sign off” on any golf equipment brand’s use of a LIV player’s likeness in any advertising is incredibly restrictive. It could also suggest why we haven’t seen a ton of advertisements involving Bryson, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, or any other players who commonly graced our television commercials and website banners.

Instead, what we do know is that LIV players’s contracts explicitly require their players to don the LIV Golf logo, especially when playing in a non-LIV event (with notable exceptions).