USGA Names New COO, Says Goodbye To Its First-Ever Chief Brand Officer

Based on the recent USGA trajectory and just how these things go in the corporate—I mean, non-profit—world, it’s not a huge shock to see new CEO Mike Whan hiring his longtime LPGA Tour lieutenant a broad spectrum of duties.

For Immediate Release:

JON PODANY NAMED USGA CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER

Seasoned executive brings extensive experience in business development, television and brand management, as well as a proven track record of success with USGA CEO Mike Whan  

LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. (August 12, 2021) – The USGA announced today that Jon Podany will join the Association as its new Chief Commercial Officer, starting September 1. 

Podany brings to the USGA an extensive background in sports spanning marquee companies such as the PGA Tour, LPGA, Arnold Palmer Enterprises and Procter & Gamble. Podany’s roles as CEO, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer have touched virtually every aspect of the sports industry.

“Jon is a well-known, well respected difference maker with a track record of making organizations and people better,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan. “His vast experience in the game will be critical as we look to more deeply connect industry stakeholders to an even better future for our game. Jon and I have partnered before, and I love his passion for golf and his unwavering respect for the people in the industry – I am absolutely thrilled to call him my teammate!”

In his new role at the USGA, Podany will oversee corporate partnerships, hospitality, broadcast and digital media, communications, marketing, ticketing and merchandising.  

“I am very excited to be returning to the golf industry and reuniting with Mike Whan to build on the success we’ve had together,” said Podany. “I have had a lifelong passion for the game and have been fortunate to have a 25-year career in the industry, which I hope will position me well to champion and advance the game, our people and our partners.”

Most recently, Podany was a partner in two companies within the college sports industry, The Brandr Group (TBG) and CampusLore, focused on maximizing the value of athletes’ names, images and likenesses (NIL), primarily through group rights programs. TBG has the group rights for college with the NFL, NBA and MLB players associations, and recently created a group rights program for current student-athletes and/or alumni at schools including The Ohio State University, the University of North Carolina and the University of Miami.

During Podany’s nearly nine years at the LPGA, where he served as Chief Marketing Officer and then Chief Commercial Officer working with Commissioner Whan, he helped deliver a period of historic growth for the organization with revenues increasing 88 percent during his tenure. Additionally, the number of tournaments grew from 23 to 34 and prize money increased from $40 million to more than $70 million.

For most of Podany’s time at the PGA Tour, he developed new business and sponsorship relationships, including his final five years (2005-2010) where he led the department as Senior Vice President of Business Development and was instrumental in securing partnerships such as the FedEx Cup, title sponsors of tournaments, official marketing partners and media partners. In addition, Podany led the development and launch of various award-winning brand campaigns and marketing platforms, including “These Guys are Good” and “Giving Back: The Heart of the PGA Tour.” As Senior Vice President of Brand Development and Marketing Services from 2003-2005, Podany was twice named by the Sports Business Journal as one of the most prominent young executives in sports, earning their “Forty Under 40 Award.” 

Podany, who graduated from Miami University (Ohio) with a degree in finance, began his career at Procter & Gamble where he worked on several iconic brands, including Ivory, Oil of Olay, Safeguard and Pert Plus. He is married and has three daughters. 

Podany takes two jobs that amounted to around $1 million in salary and were performed without competence or class. The previous departure of Navin Singh came on Whan’s first official day and now quietly exiting stage left is USGA “Chief Brand Officer” Craig Annis.

The Annis departure was revealed in a brief mention by Todd Kelly of Golfweek, reporting here on Podany’s hiring.

That’s appropriate in the sense we follow the USGA and their championships for the golf, not the brand. That said, this sad few years in USGA relations should be noted.

Growing up around college and pro sports I was lucky enough to tag along with my dad as he broadcast college and pro sports. Between that time and my years as a golf writer, I’ve met or dealt with hundreds public relations representatives, sports information directors and now, when they make over $400k a year, chief brand officers. Dating to those wild and crazy 1980s, I can name four that were either openly hostile to media or just not very nice people. The rest tend to be some of the nicer and more accommodating folks you’ll ever meet.

Of the four, three were in golf, one in baseball (and who has since become a friend and dabbles in golf media work). Of those three in golf, two worked for the USGA. Both were the two most recent heads of communication and are now former USGA employees: Craig Annis and Joe Goode.

In attempting to make the USGA more likable, Annis worked hard to stifle honest coverage, ran off golf people in favor of younger, brand-friendly, sycophantic types. The overall tone—as it is with so many PGA Tour efforts—is that golf is lame and needs coolness to make it marketable to advertisers.

While this mindset is hardly unusual in today’s world, Annis brought a special kind of edge, attempting to use business relationships with various media outlets to control messages and scare people out of traditional coverage. This only made the non-profit USGA even more inauthentic to even the dullest observer and suggested an overall vibe that the organization with something to hide.

There was also the effort to preach inclusiveness while saddling up next to outlets generally associated with a toxic boys club edge. While that clubby stuff may resonate with the sons of some Executive Committee members or their aggrieved dads longing for a better day when you can proudly look down on the less fortunate, this “brand” exuded a level of almost incomprehensible hypocrisy. Unless you came from a background of spinning candy bars as part of a healthy diet.

The result for the USGA, like NBC’s recent “televisual-vomit” approach to the Olympics, was a strange form of branding vomit. In attempting to please multiple factions by spraying slogans and spending all over the place, the only “brand message” you can take away from the Annis years was little faith in the organization’s core values.

This sentence from Annis’s USGA page should have been a harbinger of things to come":

"With an impactful leadership style, Craig successfully develops and grows capabilities and motivate others to get behind company directive and direction to create a positive effect on engagement and business growth."

Brand vomit.

Hopefully Podany will restore order by not treating the “product” as something to be ashamed of. People over the age of 20 matter, too. Sure, the USGA should welcome new audiences, educate about the USGA’s initiatives and act as a more inclusive organization. Those are worthy goals but should not overtake the mission of protecting the sport. Thankfully, few were buying what Annis had the USGA selling, whatever it was. But the cost in lost integrity, financial and human capital may take a long time to mend. Good luck Mr. Podany!