Jordan On FanDuel Partnership: "It was pretty exciting to look into it."

You don’t normally hear players mentioning how much fun it was to investigate a possible sponsorship. But the hard sell mode only reinforces what seems like inevitable issues at some point with golf and gambling. At least players like Spieth express some trepidation in endorsing a gambling outfit.

From Steve DiMeglio’s Golfweek story:

“In my rookie year, this wouldn’t have been something that would have been on the radar given where sports gaming was back then,” Spieth said in a phone call with Golfweek. “But look at where it has gone the last couple of years. It was pretty exciting to look into it.

“Golf has a unique space to get into (gaming) to help bring more eyeballs into the sport, bring (other) sports fans into being golf fans, and with FanDuel being the biggest and doing the best job at responsible gambling, it made a lot of sense.”

The story also notes how Commissioner Jay Monahan played a role in convincing Spieth to take FanDuel’s money.

Spieth said Monahan convinced him golf could not refuse to welcome gaming considering its steady growth throughout the sports world. Spieth said the Tour’s movement into gaming “gave us the confidence as individual players to want to search out and look for opportunities in this space.”

Great how these independent contractors work with the Tour on a not-very independent basis.