The National Golf Foundation (NGF), the industry’s leading authority on golf research, data, and consumer insights, has announced a strategic partnership with KONETiQ, a leader in digital marketing innovation known for its data-driven and precision-targeted marketing solutions.
This landmark collaboration aims to enhance golf marketing capabilities by merging the NGF’s unmatched golfer data and behavior insights with KONETiQ’s direct-access media expertise. The result is an unprecedented ability to deliver custom-built, hyper-targeted campaigns across all digital media platforms, empowering golf brands and businesses to maximize engagement and ROI.
“This partnership takes NGF’s existing best-in-class marketing services and unlocks unprecedented digital ad targeting for golf companies. KONETiQ will leverage NGF’s proprietary consumer and facility databases across a gamut of marketing platforms,” said Greg Nathan, President and CEO of the National Golf Foundation. “This partnership further positions NGF as golf’s data-driven marketing leader, now supplemented with the media buying power, expertise and custom audience capabilities that KONETiQ brings to the table.”
According to the NGF, 47 million golfers represent a high-income, high-spending demographic, making them an attractive target for various industries beyond golf, including automotive, financial services, luxury brands and travel destinations. Reaching a perfectly targeted segment of the golf population is a key to marketing success.
“The National Golf Foundation brings unmatched depth to its golf industry research — the organization understands everyone who steps foot on a golf course in the U.S. or participates in the game in other ways,” said Josh Goodin, Managing Director of KONETiQ. “We specialize in direct media buying, with access to platforms like Netflix, Spotify, Disney, Hulu, and more — no middlemen. By combining NGF’s audience insights with our ability to target them precisely, we’re enabling golf brands to reach exactly the right people. That means we can integrate data about golf with the ability to buy media. So, for example, do you want to reach female golfers older than 25, who live in America’s top 25 DMAs, have a household income of more than $150,000, and have been shopping for clubs in the last 60 days? That’s what we’re bringing to the data.”
The partnership began through a joint initiative supporting the “Make Golf Your Thing” campaign led by golf’s governing bodies (including the PGA TOUR, PGA of America and United States Golf Association), which focused on engaging underrepresented demographic cohorts and encouraging people to experience the game at grassroots golf facilities. By utilizing custom audience segments based on real-world behavior, KONETiQ and NGF successfully reached nearly 3 million minority non-golfers in just six months. These efforts resulted in 250,000+ unique course visits, a notable success story in expanding the sport’s inclusivity.
In another campaign with a popular State Tourism Bureau, the duo created and executed high-impact campaigns targeting affluent and travel-prone golf consumers. With custom segments such as “Resort Travelers” and “Trophy Course Players,” these campaigns generated click-through rates nearly 3X the industry standard.
KONETiQ’s direct-buying access across various platforms allows for campaign execution without third-party intermediaries, ensuring a higher media value and unmatched efficiency. The agency is one of the few in the U.S. with direct access to Amazon’s media inventory, setting it apart in the crowded marketing space.
“This partnership eliminates wasteful marketing by delivering exact matches to client goals,” explained Goodin. “Golfers are valuable sports consumers but also high-value targets across sectors like travel, tourism, and home improvement, making this partnership a game-changer for brands seeking ROI-rich engagement.”
This partnership also benefits small and medium-sized golf businesses, which can now access marketing capabilities typically reserved for the largest advertisers and those with the most extensive budgets. Meanwhile, larger companies can access better audience data that’s not available through their typical partnerships or third-party data providers. All companies will benefit from more competitive rates, given the large volume of media KONETiQ buys annually.
“Our long-term vision is to elevate the standard of marketing performance across the golf industry,” said Nathan. “Putting your message in front of the perfect audience is data-science in today’s world. By making NGF’s data-enabled custom audiences accessible to companies of all sizes via KONETiQ, we aim to empower smarter decision-making, greater efficiency, and measurably higher returns on marketing spend.”
With both organizations deeply rooted in their respective areas of expertise, the NGF-KONETiQ alliance marks a new era in golf marketing—one that is data-enriched, digitally sophisticated, and deeply inclusive.
