• Fast Company, Wednesday, April 28, 2010 10:47 AM

Rick Barrack, chief creative officer and a founding partner at design firm CBX, is not a babe in the woods when it comes to branding, and he admits that it is hardly news that sports events have become more commercialized? But golf? What's with that?

"For whatever reason, this pastime has always seemed more sacred than the others, more refined somehow," he writes. But in recent years, multiple logos have turned up on stars like Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Ian Poulter, Luke Donald and K.J. Choi to the point that they resemble NASCAR drivers. Not to mention Tiger, which we won't.

As Barrack watched a tournament recently, one of his favorite marketing terms came to mind: ad creep. "Don't get me wrong, I'm pro-advertising; I make my living in marketing and design, for goodness' sake," he writes. "But I suppose that at the end of the day, I'm also a traditionalist who holds certain things sacred, and fears for what lays ahead. Where will signage turn up next on the course: permanently tattooed on players' calves, forearms, necks and foreheads?"

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