Two Men That Paved The Way For The Likes Of Woods and Mickelson To Earn Millions

As players such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson cruise at 35,000 feet in their luxury Gulfstream jets heading to yet another one of their mansions or beach houses, they should take some time every now and again to remember the two men that made all of that possible.  

Arnold Palmer was the first true star of golf’s television age. 

Palmer was a good-looking, likable character that the every man wanted to be and every woman wanted to be with. 

Aside from having the rare combination of looks, personality and talent, Palmer was the son of a Latrobe, Pennsylvania greens keeper who grew up in a tiny home just outside of the country club gates. 

At the time, golf was followed almost solely by America’s most elite. 

Upon Palmer’s arrival, factory workers, mechanics, tradesmen, etc. began to take an interest in the game because one of their own, Arnold Palmer, was dominating a game that was typically reserved for America’s wealthiest people.

These hoards of blue-collar workers made up what came to be known as "Arnie’s Army."

Palmer’s ability to completely transcend socioeconomic classes and attract to his galleries everyone from Fortune 500 CEOs to the local butcher to the middle aged housewife, made an ambitious young sports agent by the name of Mark McCormack stand up and take notice.

McCormack had the foresight to see that Palmer’s ability combined with his uncanny likability could translate into massive amounts of money off the golf course.

In 1960, a young Mark McCormack approached Palmer and presented him with his plan for making Palmer a significant amount of money off the course through sponsorship and endorsement deals, appearance fees, and television commercials.

At the time, the idea of a golfer making a ton of money off the course was still a real visionary idea and Palmer wasn’t quite sure about it.   

Palmer finally gave in to McCormack’s persistence and allowed him to manage all of his off-the-course affairs on one condition–that he would be McCormack’s sole client unless given permission directly from Palmer to represent other athletes.

McCormack was young and on the brink of signing one of the most popular athletes in the world so he gladly agreed to Palmer’s demand.

Within a very short period of time, Palmer’s face appeared on what seemed like every single television and print advertisement for virtually any and every product imaginable.

As is still the case today, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies were more interested in rubbing shoulders with Palmer than whether or not their company was actually a good fit for him, and they would pay virtually any price to do so.

By the mid-60s Arnold Palmer was the highest paid athlete in the world and would continue to be until the emergence of Michael Jordan and his ultra-lucrative Nike deals in the 1980s.

Several years after McCormack planted the seeds that would deliver Palmer millions of dollars for the rest of his life, Palmer eased up on his demand that McCormack represent him and only him.

Palmer introduced a young Jack Nicklaus to Mark McCormack in the mid-60s and allowed McCormack to also work with Nicklaus. 

Later, Palmer did the same for Gary Player–not a bad way to start a career as a sports agent with your first three clients known as golf’s ‘Big Three’. 

As would be expected after McCormack’s astounding success with the

"Big Three", athletes from all over the world began approaching him about representation.

Palmer was swimming in money at this point and was getting closer to the end of his career so he relented and allowed McCormack to take on as many athletes as he wanted, under one condition–that Palmer receive a percentage of all commission made by McCormack’s company.  

McCormack agreed and went on to create the International Management Group, better known today as simply IMG. 

IMG represents virtually every world class athlete on the planet from Tiger Woods to NFL quarterbacks to European soccer stars.

Had Arnold Palmer and Mark McCormack not opened the door for modern day golfers to earn the absurd amounts of money off-the-course, it is probably safe to assume that someone else eventually would have.

However, if it were not for Palmer and McCormack one thing is for sure–Tiger Woods would surely not have made $111 million last year nor be well on his way to becoming sports first billionaire. 

Many times we look at the history of the game solely by how many major championships a player has won rather than the overall impact they had on the sport.

Palmer was one of the greatest golfers of all-time.  However, his contribution to the game of golf could be even more significant in terms of what he did off the course rather than his seven majors and 65 PGA Tour wins.

When Phil Mickelson finishes the Masters, changes out of his Bearing Point hat and Barclays shirt, hops on his private Jet heading to California to film a commercial for Crown Plaza, he can credit Arnold Palmer and Mark McCormack with paving the way for all of it.