Whether you’re a five handicap or a golfer who spends so much time in the sand you might as well show up to the golf course wearing a swimsuit, you’ve likely at some point marveled at how far above and beyond your talent level PGA professionals are. Watch a PGA event in person or on TV and you’ll likely at some point find yourself muttering “Wow, these guys are good.”

That simple exclamation has become the PGA’s most iconic and enduring tag line since it was introduced way back in 1998. This year, in concert with the beginning of the 2017 PGA Tour season, the Tour has spruced up the slogan, partnering with Los Angeles-based marketing agency Troika and longtime creative consultant GSD&M to produce a series of spots highlighting the talent of PGA golfers and the drama of the game itself. The four ads revolve around a shortening of the original slogan with a campaign simply titled “That’s Good.”

“In the golf landscape, a lot of the networks present a highlight-centric approach,” says Troika Creative Director Seton Kim. “Then there’s a highly-technical instructional approach that a lot of gear manufacturers present. We tried to do something that would stand out.”

Working with Austin-based GSD&M, who came up with the original “These Guys Are Good” campaign nearly 20 years ago, as well as with the Tour, Troika designed a series of ads meant to spotlight the personalities and accomplishments of golf’s great players, both new and old.

That contrast in subjects was on display in recent weeks, when the tour released two ads from players at strikingly different points in their careers.

The first celebrates the early-season success of 23-year-old Justin Thomas, who won the SBS Tournament of Champions in early January and followed that up with a win at the Sony Open that included a first-round 59, making him the youngest player in tour history to shoot a round of lower than 60.

The second spot features a tour legend who turned pro when Thomas was four years old.

When Tiger Woods returned to action last week at the Farmers Insurance Open for what was essentially just his second tournament in close to a year and a half, the Tour released an ad to recognize the moment. The spot, which features other Tour players talking about how hard it is to win just once, shows that in a field of guys who are really “good,” there’s only one still playing who was that good.

“We wanted to create a spot that wasn’t a ‘welcome back’ spot so much as it was a celebration of his extraordinary career,” says Chief Marketing Officer of the PGA Tour Ty Votaw. “All [the players] making the case that you gotta be really good to win once and then the end payoff line being ‘Get your head around 79 victories.’”

Another spot highlights Rory McIlroy, who finally took the FedEx Cup last year after multiple top three finishes. It was after that victory that Votaw and his team began talking with GSD&M about the following year’s ad campaign.

Troika’s designs were selected after a pitch process last fall.

“The design that was selected from that pitch was the catalyst for the overall look and feel of the campaign,” Kim says.

In addition to working closely with the Tour and GSD&M, Kim collaborated with Troika Sports Creative Director Gil Haslam and a team of art directors, editors, designers and animators. He says, despite working with multiple organizations, there were relatively few bumps along the road to completing the campaign.

“There really was great synergy about working within the teams,” Kim says. “The goal of this campaign was really about showcasing the personalities of the players and demonstrating what makes them so good.”

Troika is slated to deliver at least two more spots, but they’ve left the PGA Tour with a toolkit of design templates and color palettes. That’s allowed the Tour and its in-house PGA Entertainment group to turn around spots in short periods of time.

“The toolkit that was established lets us take advantage of some of these topical kinds of opportunities,” says Votaw. “We were able to turn around the Justin Thomas spot in about two and a half days, applying the graphic template that Troika helped us with.”

There’s more to come. The tour is likely to have a new spot ready for the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, the first one since The King’s death last fall.

“We want to take the opportunity to take the campaign and perhaps honor Arnie and his contributions to the game of golf in ways that are unique to him,” says Votaw. He’s mum on the details, but says any spot featuring Palmer would likely connect to his golf game and his commitment to various charities.

“We loved the writing,” says Votaw of the overall campaign. “We loved what we were able to convey from a video and from a presentation of our players…We thought all of those things came together in a very compelling way.”

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