We all know that Mercedes, BMW and Audi are vying for sales when it comes to luxury vehicles. They also know that millions of people are watching and playing the game of golf therefore a large sponsorship is often worth it. Last week, at the BMW Championship in Chicago, all the players and announcers had the opportunity to drive around in brand new 2018 BMW models. This means BMW had about 100 new vehicles being test driven around the city of Chicago.

So, is it worth it? While luxury brands are pushing to the higher income customer brands like Honda are pushing first time car buyer discounts. It is amazing to see how these different marketing strategies are executed. We rarely see national TV commercials for Honda, Toyota, Ford and Chevy during golf tournaments. That said, we see a ton of those commercials during college football, NFL football and NASCAR.

Does seeing a brand new Mercedes or BMW driven by a PGA Tour professional make you want to go out and buy one? Does the fact that these golf championships are named after luxury car makers change your vehicle buying decision. Would you rather go get a Ford F150 and spend $50,000 or a BMW 3 series and spend $40,000?

At the end of the year, the luxury brands have to decide where to put their marketing dollars. Golf is obviously one of the best places to do so as they keep coming back for me.