Swinging for a Bigger Audience

THE CHALLENGE:

Raising Awareness Around USGA’s Role in Golf

Despite its pivotal role in governing golf, public awareness of the United States Golf Association (USGA) was extremely low. Many were unaware of the USGA’s role behind the scenes, particularly compared to the more visible Professional Golfers Association (PGA).

“In fact, most people don’t know that the USGA is actually the governing body behind the PGA,” notes BJ Kito, Virtuoso’s Chief Strategy Officer.  

Beyond setting the rules of play and preserving the traditions of the game, the USGA exists to help attract the world’s best players to PGA tournaments, recruit new players, and expand overall participation in, and advocacy for, the game. To truly support and build the game, the USGA needed to significantly raise its profile; to become synonymous with golf.

Simply put, our goal was to reshape the USGA’s brand visibility to enhance audience engagement, thus increasing membership and ticket sales.

Crafting a Marketing Strategy 
Deeply Rooted in Emotion

Any strategy we developed needed to strike a balance between preserving the game’s exclusivity and expanding its accessibility to new and diverse audiences. 

What we had on our side was a visceral, deep-rooted love of golf; an emotion we knew we could play off and build on. While data always helps us create direction around target audiences (and this engagement was no exception), we had the game’s built-in sentiment and sensory appeal to lead our efforts. 

Golf is more than a game with winners and losers; it’s a passion, a lifestyle, and for many, a lifelong obsession, featuring equal parts struggle and love. That love-hate relationship golfers have with the sport was a key element: it’s not just a game of victories, but of personal battles. The frustration of missed shots followed by the thrill of that one perfect swing is what keeps players hooked. The campaign needed to capture that allure, commanding players to come back time and again in pursuit of mastering a game that refuses to be tamed.

Ultimately, our success hinged on tapping that deeply personal and emotional bond golfers have with the sport. While consumer behaviors and preferences can be tracked, analyzed, and predicted, our depiction of that bond had to be felt, not measured.

Among our challenges was developing a campaign that resonated with both long-entrenched golf enthusiasts and those new to the game; to retain golf’s traditional appeal and exclusivity while enticing broader audiences to explore it. 

Sharing a Closely Held Secret

At the core of Virtuoso’s campaign was the concept of golf as a “secret” cherished by those who play it. 

As Kito puts it, “Golfers, especially those who are traditionalists, love the game, but they almost don’t want everyone to know why. It’s also a tough game. Most people shoot 100, not 65 like the pros, yet they keep coming back for decades. We had to convey the emotion of what continually drives them to return to the course. We needed to tap into its mystique.” 

By framing the USGA as the keeper of this secret, Virtuoso subtly conveyed the association’s role in preserving the purity and integrity of the sport without over-commercializing it. 

In this case, we wanted to share the secret and appeal to the “everyperson” of golf. Avoiding the typical formula of using glitzy visuals or using star athletes, we opted for a subtler, more thoughtful approach, designed to connect emotionally with audiences on multiple levels. It was a nuanced departure from conventional sports marketing tactics, focused on a core element that is inherently difficult to quantify: sheer love of the game.

 Leveraging Sensory Storytelling

A distinctive feature of the campaign was its focus on the sensory elements of the experience — from the smell of freshly cut grass to the quiet anticipation in the moments before a big shot.  

“When everyone’s quiet and staring at you on the course, there’s tension in that moment. There’s as much excitement as there is in any other sport,” expresses Kito. “Moments like those are what we worked to capture.”

Visual storytelling and immersive marketing techniques brought a range of personal stories and memories to life. Whether it was a nostalgic connection to playing with a loved one or the camaraderie of friends on the course, the campaign highlighted the experiences and connections that make people fall in love with golf.

“These experiences might bring you back to your first 18 holes with your dad who’s no longer around,” he asserts. “They might make you long for an escape to a beautiful course with friends.”  

These personal connections were expressed in everyday life — in boardrooms, social gatherings, and other interactions between people — reinforcing the idea that golf has broader appeal and relevance beyond the course.

Reaching New Audiences

The campaign also aimed to broaden golf’s appeal to more diverse audiences, including women, while avoiding outdated or patronizing messaging. 


“We didn’t want to pander with the usual ‘look at this great woman playing golf’ messaging,” explains Kito explained. “Instead, the messaging worked to genuinely empower women within the sport, showing how they were advancing in the game just as they were in the workforce.”
Virtuoso’s strategy depicted golf as an inclusive sport, offering opportunities for everyone — regardless of gender or background — to excel. The campaign also targeted casual players and families, highlighting how golf can be a part of everyday life, whether through family trips to the course or year-round engagement.
Interactive digital elements, including virtual play against the pros, simulators in VIP areas, and pop-up retail experiences, were introduced to maintain audience engagement even during the off-season. This innovation allowed audiences to experience golf in unexpected ways.

“We wanted to reinforce the idea that golf is not just for die-hard fans but can be part of a broader, lifestyle-driven experience,” Kito says. “We even pitched the idea of creating a fake Athleta store, featuring a golf simulator behind the clothing racks.”.

Even the Pitch was Unconventional

Caption: Our Guided Meditation immersed the USGA team in the emotional core of golf, capturing the essence of our marketing approach, and highlighting the sensory elements and personal connections that make the game unforgettable. 

When it came time to present our ideas to the USGA, our pitch was a deliberate departure from the fast-paced, high-energy presentations typical of sports marketing. Instead, it was quiet and personal, mirroring the essence of our messaging. We wanted to communicate that golf is a reflective experience, so the pitch was designed to be a journey, rather than a traditional presentation.

At the heart of this pitch was a guided meditation designed to mentally take the USGA team to the renowned course at Pebble Beach. This is how we set the stage: “Close your eyes. Take a deep breath in… Exhale… Your spikes crunch as you walk past the Wall of Champions, exuding the course’s rich history.” In these moments, the room was completely still, immersed in the sensory and emotional experience that golfers know intimately.

It was a bold, unconventional approach unlike anything the USGA team had seen before. Eschewing flash and stats, we helped them tap into the strong emotional pull of golf and see themselves as the guardians of golf’s deeper meaning.

The Results: Refocused Sports Marketing

Our approach brought us to the final round of consideration, facing off against a handful of the country’s leading agencies. 

Although Virtuoso did not ultimately win the USGA account, our differentiated approach led to landing other clients, like the NFL, NBC Sports, USTA, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, Fox Sports, VKTRY, and Hartford Athletic. 

By focusing on the emotional, sensory, and deeply personal aspects of the sport, we positioned the USGA as more than just a regulatory body — it became a representation of golf’s enduring legacy.  

In balancing tradition with innovation, emotion with strategy, and exclusivity with accessibility, we were able to craft a campaign that honored the game’s roots while inviting new audiences to discover its beauty. The resulting work illustrates that even in a sport as steeped in tradition as golf, there are fresh, creative ways to ignite excitement and foster love for the game in new players.