Jake Yono

JY Journalism

7/2/25

Why marketing oneself is so Crucial in the World of Sports

In all areas of study, work and passion everyone should be trying to market themselves and showcase their work, create a brand and get themselves out there and with social media and generally outside of their field or workplace as it can lead to connections, people getting to know ones personality better, brand deals, business opportunities etc. it’s becoming easier than it has ever been. In some circumstances, athletes who market themselves better will have better careers in their life trajectory over athletes who don’t. This means better overall careers, not performances. Today, I will be showing you guys athletes who are less skilled than their competition but way better at marketing themselves and vice versa and how it grows leagues when players have a following in team sports and individual sports, and to close out, I’m going to talk about how I’m marketing myself and how it can benefit me.

The perfect example and what inspired me to write about this was last week in my Rocket Classic Article where I spoke about all the groups I scored in my 4-day 72 hole journey being a standerd bearer walking with 10 of the players in the field and 2 players stood out to me: the ethnically South Korean who resides in Australia Min Woo Lee currently ranked  39th on the FedEx cup who I walked with in the 3rd round of the tournament, and Joe Highsmith who I walked with in the 4th and final round of the tournament who’s currently ranked 42nd on the FedEx cup just 3 spots away from each other and both have 1 win on tour and Joe is 25 while Min Woo is 26.

 I came to a very brisk realization when I was doing my job, Min Woo is tremendously better at Marketing himself than Joe is. For example Min Woo has a style he consistently executes, he where’s his Oakley sponsored shades either over his eyes or on the back of his hat making himself noticeable, I’m not saying appearance is everything but fans realize when they see a consistent player doing something and gravitate toward them because they aren’t like the rest of the pack. Min Woo also has 2 nicknames he encourages and developed himself: “Dr. Chipinski” due to his expert around the green because he ranked in the top 20 on tour of short game around the green, sand save percentage and strokes gained around the green and nickname the “Chef” when he “cooks” on the golf course, he has a wide presence on social media with 900,000 instagram followers where he constantly posts edits every week of play and behind the scenes content and a Youtube presence on popular golf channels such as Foreplay, GM Golf, Golf Digest where he was the cover of the 2024 October/November issue and part of mini series for premium subscribers, and Good Good Golf playing rounds with youtubers, answering questions on golf digest and being friendly and cool with all involved, Min Woo is also present and open as guests on golf podcasts where fans get to know him more such as the Foreplay Podcast, Pardon my Take 2 of Barstools biggest podcasts and the Style Show hosted by SportsGrid that includes some of the world's top athletes on their shows. All of this popularity has led him to many brand deals with his main apparel sponsor Lululemon along with 2 other players, a very niche group incluing Max Homa and Lydia Ko on the women's side who work together as brand ambassadors, Oakley as I mentioned earlier in which he wears colorful shades, and smaller companies such as ADP and Linkage. Lee also will very rarely turn down an opportunity to enhance an event, for example, going through his driving range routine at The Open, where maybe he doesn’t want attention leading up to his round, and when on the European Tour, a video where he and other players attempted to break a world record. Also, the Aura of being from a different country in a U.S.-based league and actually being good and having a presence outside of the course goes a long way.

The other player I talked about is lefty Joe Highsmith who’s win is more recent than Min Woo’s but a lot of fans including myself had no idea who he was -10 going into the final round 9 shots off the lead but still in contention to win a lot of money and Min Woo was -12 coming in only 2 shots back. The whole round with Joe and his partner Luke List who also was -10 there were barely any cameramen inside the ropes and no extra security or police walking with the group because Highsmith just doesn't have a lot of fans compared to min Woo where he was 5 shots off the lead going into the 3rd round had a police officer walking with our entire group due to crowd control. This is because Highsmith is not good at branding himself, compared to Min Woo’s 900k, Highsmith has only 9000 followers on Instagram and there the same skill level mentioned earlier, Min Woo posts after every tournament while Highsmith posts after big tournaments and over time Min Woo has soared over Joe in popularity and not trying to be racist he is a what you would expect to see on the PGA Tour a normal American golfer who has no Aura factor to him and this is something he can change as many american golfers have connections with influencers so help boost their content such as american players such as Dustin Johnson, Max Homa, and Billy Horschel who all have similar rankings and skill levels to Min Woo and Joe Highsmith currently. The only branded content I can find of Joe is from his equipment sponsor, Titleist, and collaborations with the PGA Tour and its networks, which most golfers at that level get these benefits. Joe Highsmith is also reportedly sponsored by AMEX and other small companies, but his social media doesn’t express that well. I believe if Joe reaches out to golf media companies, they would let him make content with them, which can then further his brand, which ultimately leads to more recognition and sponsorships.

The point i’m trying to make with all of this is that even though 2 players can be the same performance wise at a given sport, for the entire trajectory of a career marketing yourself is the way to go and the player doesn’t half to do all the work for example Phil Mickelson and Bryson Dechambeau both have their own Youtube channels but they hire people to manage it all and they still make a lot of profits, these players choose who’s playing with them, what they're doing and where it takes place on the golf side, but in terms of editing, production, and filming they hire people to take care of it. Min Woo has done a great job with this while Joe Highsmith has not and it’s led him to deals with great companies and collaborations where he benefits and gets his name out there to as many people as possible while Highsmith is a very good golfer but when he goes to tournaments with mostly casual fans such as the Rocket Classic most of them aren’t going to know his name or anything he goes off the course because he doesn't have a brand for himself. 

In other sports especially fighting where it’s less structure then the PGA Tour we see this all the time, an example I like to give is fighters with vast differences in skill levels in the UFC’s Lightweight Division where the title was won by Ilia Tourpia and as a tradition post PPV UFC fight Joe Rogan is going to ask who would you like to face next? Ilia called out Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett who was in the arena strictly based on how he markets himself as being the cocky little kid with his accent and humor, and although he is ranked 12th in the division and Tourpia just won the championship, that came to his mind and Paddy came into the octagon and previewed with him. Nothing is official yet, but many advanced fans were critiquing this because also in the building 23-3 ARMAN TSARUKYAN, who’s the #2 contender behind Islam Machavev, was there and way more skilled than Paddy, but he does a better job at marketing himself, which drew the champion's attention. This is something to ponder in the world of branding yourself, even when one is not as skilled as someone, they can have a better overall career in terms of finances and connections when marketing themself. I believe the better an athlete is the more they should be marketing themself to better the improvement of the league or organization and some leagues are great at doing such as the NFL where top players like Lamar Jackson, Saquon Barkley, and Justin Jefferson have the most followers based upon the context of the league and many deals to further get their name out there and better the league as stars in their positions. To close out this whole journalism site is to market myself to show to colleges, employers and anyone wanting to have a connection with me or people in the sports media world to show my content and linking this site in all of social media bios on my LinkTree is highly beneficial to me as more people click on my content every day, Have a great day, Thank You.