ORLANDO – The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard was for years the King’s party, played at the course he took over in the 1970s and where he lived. Even after his playing days ended, he was the main draw, inspiring elite PGA Tour players to make the annual trip to Bay Hill Club & Lodge.
When Palmer passed away in 2016 at the age of 87, there was some concern about what might become of the tournament that bears his legendary name. Would top players still come to Bay Hill if he wasn’t there to present the red sweater to the winner? Would sponsors? It’s not uncommon for Tour events that lose their title character to suffer in ensuing years.
As it turns out, there was nothing to worry about. The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard is still one of the Tour’s top tournaments — now elevated as a premium signature event with a limited field of stars. And the players still remember the man known at Bay Hill as Mr. Palmer.
“I feel like a lot of kids like myself growing up, you would see this and it’s a massive event,” said Max Homa, the World No. 8 who sits tied for ninth place after the first two rounds this year at Bay Hill. Homa, who has finished in the top 25 each of the four years in which he has played at Bay Hill, now represents Mastercard on Tour.
“We have been so lucky with everything that he’s left us and built for us, that I think anytime his name is attached to anything, I feel you want to attach yourself to it, if that makes sense,” Homa said the night before this year’s tournament began. “I feel like we owe him. I would imagine he would disagree, but we owe him to kind of keep progressing things in the right way. Especially at his event.”
Mastercard feels the same way as it celebrates its 20th year as sponsor of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The relationship between Mastercard and the tournament is one of the longest-running on Tour, and Mastercard has committed considerable capital and efforts to make the event special, including raising the purse to $20 million. That’s up from a $6.2 million purse offered 10 years ago. This year’s winner will pocket $4 million.
And Mastercard’s involvement goes far beyond the purse. The company’s branding is ubiquitous at Bay Hill, from the flags on the greens to the seats in the premium event spaces. Mastercard holders receive discounts on tickets and are able to obtain access to special Mastercard pavilions around the course. The company also hosts several events where Mastercard partners mingle with golf’s stars, current and past. On the grounds this year, golf fans can even test their putting stroke in a Mastercard simulator that provides instructional feedback courtesy of artificial intelligence, an endeavor to highlight the company’s technical chops. From the pre-tournament pro-am to the trophy celebration after the closing round, Mastercard’s involvement is obvious every step of the way.
Mastercard’s sponsorship — alongside the Arnold and Winnie Palmer Foundation — also has generated tens of millions of dollars for local charities, a community involvement that was near and dear to Palmer. His and wife Winnie’s name adorn the local children’s hospitals operated by Orlando Health, and the foundation’s reach extends all the way to local parks and beyond.
Why does Mastercard make such a hefty commitment? We’ll let Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer and president of the company’s healthcare business, explain. Besides leading Mastercard’s marketing efforts, Rajamannar is president of the World Federation of Advertisers, authored the book “Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow’s Consumers,” and has his work serve as case studies at Harvard and Yale.
It doesn’t hurt that he’s a golf nut. He played alongside World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in this year’s pro-am for the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. During an interview for this story in the Mastercard trophy suite behind the 17th green, Rajamannar would pause to watch players putt, his animated reactions to their makes and misses as passionate as his discussion of marketing and his company’s role at Bay Hill.
A pavilion at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard offers access to Mastercard customers. (Courtesy of Mastercard)
Rajamannar: What we did, a few years back, is radically change our marketing strategy. It used to be an advertising-led marketing strategy. We realized there is too much clutter in advertising. You are exposed to between 3,000 and 10,000 ads a day, and it’s impossible to process it. Secondly, the span of attention of human beings is going down to less than eight seconds, which is less than that of a goldfish. And people are putting ad blockers on their devices, and people are preferring to pay money for advertising-free streaming channels and so on.
So we said advertising is good, it serves a purpose, but we need to have something else to connect with consumers, engage them and impress upon them that they should stick with us or prefer us over anyone else.
That’s when we hit upon this whole concept of experiential marketing. Curate and create experiences that money cannot buy, but you get them with Mastercard. We identified multiple passion points, areas that people care deeply about.
Sports is a passion point. And within sports, golf is one of the finest sports. It’s a beautiful sport, very elegant, very classy. So we decided to say this is one area we will take, and we renewed our contract at that time with the PGA Tour, pivoting to a lot of experiences, whether it is walking inside the ropes for our customers or having the kind of branding that you see, special pavilions only for Mastercard. A whole lot of things we began creating.
Our initial hypothesis proved very right, so we started deepening our partnerships everywhere. And as the PGA Tour went through its journey, we worked with them to make this one of the signature events with a nice healthy purse, so we are really assured of a fantastic slate every single time, even in the absence of Mr. Palmer.
So 20 years in now, our relationship is much stronger today than it ever was. If I look now, the past 10 years have been better than the previous 10, and the last five have been better than the previous 15. It’s great.
During the pandemic, as well, we stuck with them and they stuck with us. So we said this is a long-term commitment, and they appreciate that fact. Many sports have seen sponsors walking away because of whatever reasons, but we stuck with the PGA Tour and have found it to be a delightful experience.
So this is one of our signature events, literally, that we are so proud of, along with the Grammy Awards, Major League Baseball’s All-Stars, the MLB World Series. We have a few of these in the U.S., which are fantastic. So this is one of our marquee events, and consumer feedback has been fantastic. We have both customers and consumers coming here, card-holders as well as clients from banks and fintech companies.
Everyone who comes, the takeaway is very positive feelings toward Mastercard. That helps our brand, and that helps our business. We always aspired to be a relationship company, but we are realizing it to a greater scale today.
Kurt Kitayama, winner of the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, tees off in the Wednesday pro-am of the 2024 edition of the tournament. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Firstly, with the organization and its management, the chemistry has been fantastic. They understand our brand, and they understand our requirements. They are very accommodating, very flexible. When you have a partner of that sort, it becomes easy to work with.
Secondly, when we have raised concerns — for example, Mr. Palmer is not there, what’s going to happen to this event? What will guarantee we have a good audience? — they came up with solutions every single time. Like this, making it a signature tournament, upping the prize purse to where it’s now $20 million. All this is really, really positive for us.
All the turmoil they have been going through, they have been keeping us completely in the loop. We said, look, at the end of the day what we want is, as we call it, to connect people to priceless possibilities. Our people care about golf. We want golf to be winning. And we want an organization that does exactly that, and that’s the PGA Tour. So we have been sticking with them, and I think it’s been very positive.
Shane Lowry, who was tied for the lead after the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, warms up on the range Wednesday at Bay Hill near a golf bag that serves as a reminder of Arnold Palmer’s legacy. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
It’s critical. And now we are taking our lessons from here to other events, whether it be MLB where we are partnering with the Stand Up To Cancer foundation, or in places such as the Grammy Awards where we are partnering with the Recording Academy to support children and people from underprivileged backgrounds.
Here, what Mr. Palmer has done with the hospitals, also created a kind of momentum around it where the whole community is all in, in support of his vision. He was doing a fantastic job. I was very fortunate to have met him multiple times before he passed, and every time I would come away feeling inspired and energized and deeply touched. When he passed, we said his legacy needs to continue.
There have been challenges with other events when the person behind the event has passed, the event has lost some of its gravitas. We didn’t want that to happen here. So we spoke to a number of players and asked, are you going to continue? Is it really important for you? And the PGA Tour, what are you doing? It really was doing really well. So, this is one of the unique events with passion out here for the golf and purpose out there for the community. That is powerful.