Title sponsor involved in more than just the golf
By Craig Dolch, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- Every PGA TOUR event offers perks for the golf professionals. Whether it's milkshakes at the Memorial Tournament, Cajun cooking in New Orleans or zip-lining at the Mercedes Championship, there are extracurriculars that delight the senses as well as the palate.
But at this week's Transitions Championship, the perk is more practical. Actually, it's optical.
Not only can this perk -- free eyewear from Transitions Optical, Inc., the first-year sponsor of the event held at Innisbrook -- help a player perform better this weekend, it might enable the rest of his family to see more clearly throughout their lives.
"People value healthy eyesight as much as anything else in life," said Dave Cole, Transition Optical's managing director. "Yet many of them do the least when it comes to taking care of their eyes."
Cole is correct. While many folks make it a point to go the dentist for that six-month cleaning, they will allow years to pass before getting an eye examination. Usually, it takes a problem before someone will go visit an eye doctor.
Moreover, while moms will virtually coat their children with sunscreen when they go to the beach, they won't worry about making sure their kids are wearing the proper sunglasses to block out the sun's harmful rays. And with the PGA TOUR in the midst of its Florida Swing, many of the rounds are played under brilliant blue skies that also provide the most harmful rays for eyesight. That affects the players as well as the spectators.
"More than 50 percent of all sight diseases are preventable simply by wearing the proper sunglasses," Cole said. "Sponsoring this tournament gives us a nice platform to get our message of healthy sight out there."
Behind the 18th green on the Copperhead course, there's a "vision walk" where fans can see what it's like to try to putt with vision diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration.
"Man, I can't even see the ball, much less the hole," a participant said Thursday while attempting to putt with glaucoma-replicated glasses.
Most of the touring professionals have heard the message. "We spend so much time out in the sun, we have to do the proper things to protect our eyes," Australia 's John Senden said. "You simply can't play this game well if you have vision problems."
To be sure, beyond the health benefits, there's also a performance-enhancing aspect of proper eyewear. It doesn't matter whether we're talking 200 yards or 20 feet.
How can a player expect to hit a 5-iron close to the pin if he really can't see the flag? Or how can he tell whether a putt on Copperhead's Bermuda greens is down-grain or into-the-grain unless his eyes can distinguish a shiny color (down-grain) or a dull finish (into-the-grain)?
"When you don't have proper eyewear, it leads to eye fatigue, mental fatigue and physical fatigue," said Louis Wellen, a sports marketer for Oakley. "When you get to the last three holes of a tournament, that kind of fatigue can be the difference between winning and losing."
Wellen has been providing sunglasses to PGA TOUR players since the early 1990s. His most recognizable players are former major champions David Duval, David Toms and Rich Beem, along with top European players such as Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Alvaro Quiros.
Wellen says Oakley doesn't pay any of the players to use their product unless they become part of a promotional campaign. Despite that approach, Wellen stays busy during the pre-tournament days making sure his players are properly fitted.
Other golf equipment companies such as Adidas, Nike and Callaway also have eyewear used by the world's top players. But Wellen said Oakley is the only one to secure an agreement with Transitions Optical to use their photo-chromatic technology, which automatically changes the tint of the lens, depending upon the amount of light available.
"You need sunglasses that are going to work well in the middle of the day as well as the end of the day," Senden said.
Transitions Optical has brought into focus the future of a PGA TOUR event that appeared blurry with three different sponsors in the last four years. The local company -- it's based 15 miles away from Innisbrook in Pinellas Park -- has wasted little time in showing its commitment to the TOUR beyond the sponsorship dollars.
Transitions is giving away free glasses to each player, his caddie and the player's family. The tournament also invited 1,200 elementary school children to Innisbrook on Wednesday for free vision tests.
"They may be the most involved title sponsor, or maybe one of the most involved title sponsors we have," PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said this week. "They are very into pushing along how to make this a better tournament."
That's become clear to see.
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