And the winner is...

This year has seen the establishment of the New Generation at the top of professional golf. 

I’ve been following the US duo of Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth with particular interest: both end their seasons with career bests in the top 5 and both are admired for their impeccable personal management that will one day convert into magnetic personal brands.

However, unlike their nearest competitors, both are carrying lesser golf brands with them to the top of the game: for Fowler it’s Puma/Cobra - an established but relatively fringe golf brand, reinvigorated through it’s relationship with the amiable and flamboyant Fowler, and for Spieth it’s golf apparel’s newcomer, Under Armour (est. 1996).

The 22yr old American is the first ‘head to toe’ sponsored Under Armour golfer and Spieth is doing for Under Armour what Woods did for Nike in that brand’s golf breakthrough of the mid 1990’s. The ‘do no wrong’ surge of the Under Armour brand up the sports apparel market (recently overtaking adidas in the US as the #2 sportswear brand by sales) has been exemplified by the 2013 choice of sponsoring rookie phenom Spieth. He ends this, his second professional season, with 5 season wins - including two of the four Majors (the US Open and The Masters) and adding to that last night’s victory at the season’s lucrative finale, The FedEx Cup. That $11.5m win doubled his seasons’s earnings to close out golf’s most lucrative season of all time and enabled Spieth to close his season by ascending to the world #1 ranking.

Golf's quest to find the draw at the top of the game to fill the void left by Woods is over. Following the learnings of the Woods era, I’ll be fascinated to see how Spieth’s inevitable personal brand develops - and when it does, if it continues alongside Under Armour: and if somehow they have the stature to keep that precious relationship when Nike comes calling.

Update:

It seems that Under Armour are already on this, having filed trademarks this summer for use on Spieth related apparel, which follow the standard 'logo built from initials' approach. The front runner is a tidy S mark constructed from two Js - which is probably most remarkable for its close resemblance to another mark in the same brand arena - Footjoy.

Spieth (left), Footjoy (right)