The Gillette Championship. A new PGA TOUR event built for a sponsor that fits.

Design a new event with a defensible sponsor, venue, and stack.

Design a new PGA TOUR opposite-field event with a defensible title sponsor, a defensible venue, and a defensible supporting-sponsor stack. The constraints: $3.8M purse, real PGA TOUR scheduling logic, real brand-fit logic.

Opposite-field, July 8–14, 2024.

Co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour. The event falls the same week as the Genesis Scottish Open and the week before The Open. Opposite-field positioning gives mid-tier players a real win opportunity while letting the top of the field play overseas.

Cost-effective, championship-caliber, in a top-10 golf market.

• Cost-effective. TPC owned and operated by the Tour.
• Spectator-friendly. Layout designed for hospitality and spectator flow.
• Championship-caliber. 16 PGA Tour events 2003–2020. Arnold Palmer / Gil Hanse design.
• Top market. Sits in a top-10 golfers-per-capita market that drove $2B+ in direct economic activity in 2022.

Six points of brand-property fit.

• Brand identity. Globally recognized, premium-but-accessible.
• Audience alignment. Golf-affinity audience, predominantly male core, broader on activation.
• Sport association. Patriots and MLS sponsorship history.
• Boston region. Gillette Stadium synonymous with Boston sports; brand HQ nearby.
• Philanthropy. "The Best Men Can Be" platform, role-model program activations.
• Existing golf footprint. 72 Club, City Tour involvement.

Regional credibility plus category coverage. Every brand HQ'd in or around Boston.

The unifying thesis: a Boston-anchored event with a Boston-anchored title sponsor should activate alongside other brands rooted in the same region. Each pick covers a sponsor category the Tour expects (beer, coffee, wearable, daily fantasy, apparel, financial services) and reinforces the regional story for fans, hospitality guests, and the brand stack itself.

• Sam Adams. Official beer; New England flagship. Boston Beer Company, HQ Boston, MA.
• Dunkin. Regional coffee staple. HQ Canton, MA.
• WHOOP. Official PGA TOUR fitness wearable. HQ Boston, MA.
• DraftKings. Official daily fantasy. HQ Boston, MA.
• Reebok. Former Tour and player history. HQ Boston, MA.
• Fidelity. Former AJGA involvement. HQ Boston, MA.

Three additions, looking back.

1. A measurement layer the day-1 pitch deck doesn't usually carry. Title-sponsor brand-lift study, cross-sponsor halo measurement, and regional foot-traffic via mobility data. So the title sponsor gets a clean read on impact, not just a sizzle reel.
2. An activation calendar that runs 6 weeks pre, on-site week-of, and 2 weeks post. The current pitch is event-week heavy. The value lives in the lead-up storytelling and the post-event retention play.
3. An audience-first reframe. The pitch is property-first (event design, then sponsor fit). I'd flip it: define the target audience the sponsor wants to grow, then design the event spec around them.

Sponsorship strategy isn't picking the biggest brand. It's matching brand identity, audience, region, and existing footprint. This pitch is the same exercise I'd run for a real client: build the rationale before the pitch.

• Sponsorship strategy
• Title-sponsor pitch development
• Brand-property fit
• Sponsor stack architecture
• Regional sponsorship strategy
• Rights packaging
• Event design
• Market and venue analysis
• Take-home case-study development