In many ways, it makes sense that Aon, the international consulting firm, uses professional golf to market its services. After all, much of the company’s work is about helping customers manage risk and make better decisions. Which is exactly what the best players in the world are attempting to do when they tee it up in tournaments week in and week out.
From 2019 through the 2023 season, Aon, which operates in 120 countries and employs about 50,000, sponsored the $1 million Aon Risk Reward Challenge on the PGA and LPGA tours. Designed to showcase risk-reward strategies on one hole per tournament on both circuits, the event took the two best scores that individual players posted from a specific hole each week and tallied them up at the end of the season, with the winner being the one who posted the best average score to par. And that person took home not only a rather swell crystal trophy but also a check for a cool million.
This year, Aon, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and recorded revenue of some $13 billion in 2023, made some modifications to that marketing effort by creating a series of “Better Decisions Breakdown” segments for the PGA Tour, while continuing the Risk Reward Challenge on the LPGA.
In addition, the company, whose name is Gaelic for “one,” has rolled out the Aon Next 10 and Aon Swing 5 that are designed to serve as “mini-playoffs” on the PGA Tour by giving professionals other ways to play their way into the eight signature events that are now part of that circuit.
“We are committed to continuous innovation on behalf of clients and partners, and that mindset extends to our sports marketing strategy,” said Andy Weitz, chief marketing officer for Aon. “These new programs are designed to further enhance the fan experience by offering insights into how players make real-time decisions on the course and how those better decisions translate into opportunities to compete at the highest level.”
When the PGA Tour returned to a calendar-year season in 2024, it established those limited-field tournaments, for which the top-50 players in the previous year’s FedEx Cup standings automatically qualified. Regarding the Aon Next 10, the next 10 golfers in those rankings not already exempt are eligible to tee it up in those competitions as well (with that group determined in the first part of the year by their position on the FedEx Cup fall standings and after that the current rankings).
“We saw an opportunity with the change in scheduling and wanted to create something unique with the Aon Next 10 and the Aon Swing 5 that added a whole new layer of drama leading up to each signature event.” – Andy Weitz
As for the Aon Swing 5, the top five available players not otherwise exempt who earn the most FedEx Cup points from events leading up to each signature event will earn spots in that competition as well.
For a sense of how that setup works, consider what happened this past winter to Charley Hoffman. Before competing in the WM Phoenix Open in February, he had reached out to Tiger Woods for a sponsor exemption to the Genesis Invitational, which Woods was hosting the following week. But Woods told Hoffman, who needed that help because he had not posted a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour since the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic, that none was available.
Hoffman revealed to members of the golf media that he then told Woods he would play his way into the Genesis. Which is exactly what Hoffman ended up doing when he finished as runner-up at Phoenix, because that left him as one of five players with the most combined FedEx Cup points from the four previous events.
“We saw an opportunity with the change in scheduling and wanted to create something unique with the Aon Next 10 and the Aon Swing 5 that added a whole new layer of drama leading up to each signature event,” Weitz said.
For 2024, Aon added the Better Decision Breakdown segments during broadcasts that employ emerging technology to provide real-time analysis of player decisions on certain holes.
“Again, we wanted to offer something that was authentic to the game while also offering an insight as to how golfers think about their shot-making in ways that make the broadcast more interesting while helping the viewer better understand us as a company and the services we offer,” Weitz said.
It is still rather early in the 2024 golf season, with the year’s first major championship having just been played. But Weitz is nonetheless willing to call these evolutions in their sponsorship of professional golf a success.
“We feel very good about our relationships with the tours and how these programs are working for all involved,” he said.