One of the main narratives around recruiting superstar players to LIV Golf was the idea that owning shares in one of the teams would be a valuable investment for the golfer down the road. That would obviously be true if a deep-pocketed financier came in to buy one, but teams aren’t waiting around for the cash-out. Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC announced that golf apparel veteran Chris Rosaasen has joined as the team’s general manager, bringing real-world golf business firepower to the front office. The former Travis Mathew CEO is tasked with running the team and growing revenue opportunities off the course—a big deal as LIV starts making teams pay their own way.
That means teams will have to run like actual businesses—not vanity offshoots of their star players. For Rosaasen, it involves beefing up 4Aces’ sponsorship, marketing and merchandising operations to bring in more cash beyond team payouts for claiming top finishes at LIV events or the lucrative paydays from the season-ending championship, like the $14 million that Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers got last year. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of doing something that has never been done before in golf,” said Rosaasen in a release.
Chris Trotman/LIV Golf
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Tapping Rosaasen to lead 4Aces wasn’t a surprise. After leaving Travis Mathew, he founded golf athleisure wear company Extracurricular in 2021, and Johnson worked with the brand to develop the line he started wearing in early 2023. In August, Extracurricular became the official apparel company for 4Aces, which means Rosaasen won’t have to make too many adjustments to the product mix in the team store.
The leaders in the LIV clubhouse (so to speak) for off-course revenue are appear to be the Majesticks, led by European triumvirate Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Henrik Stenson, and managed by former player agent James Dunkley. Majesticks players carry bags using Seamless Digital’s mobile advertising technology—turning caddies into walking billboards—and the team has partnerships with companies ranging from clothing (Redvanly) to crypto (OKX) to travel (Destination Sport Group).
That doesn’t necessarily mean an investor would be ready to pay the pie-in-the-sky $100 million valuation that has been thrown around as a starting point for getting into LIV team ownership, but a path to profitability is starting to take shape—especially if peace between LIV and the PGA Tour is brokered.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
