From the McCormack Archives: In Another First, Mark McCormack Championed Women’s Golf

By Steve McKelvey, JD

Even the most casual fans of women’s golf know the likes of Nancy Lopez, Juli Inkster and Paula Creamer. All of these LPGA Hall of Famers were represented by IMG, the global sports, fashion, events, and media company founded by Mark H. McCormack as the International Management Group. But how about Marlene Bauer Hagge? Or Louise Suggs? While the legacy of McCormack and IMG started with one of the most famous stories in sports history—the “handshake deal” with Arnold Palmer—it is less known that at the same time, McCormack was creating very likely the first agency committed to representing women golfers, and on an equal par with the men (pun intended). Two of his earliest clients were Hagge and Suggs, both of whom helped revolutionize the women’s golf game and who were among the thirteen founding members of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).

Prior to the storied establishment of IMG, however, McCormack had started National Sports Management, the agency that launched his career and would later become IMG. After Palmer, McCormack signed Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player to form the “Big 3” of golf. However, what is less known to sports and golf fans alike is the fact that by 1960, McCormack and National Sports Management had signed at least four of the top women golfers in the country to representation agreements. There was Beverly Hanson (the 1958 LPGA money winner), Barbara Romack (the “glamorous” former U.S. Amateur Champion, who’d recently turned pro), Suggs (the “winner of every major tournament in the world’), and Hagge, pitched by McCormack as “one of the finest women players of all times.”  

McCormack and National Sports Management were intent on increasing publicity for golfers, both male and female, and offered the golfers they represented the opportunity to participate in exhibition matches around the globe (Exhibit A). But it’s difficult to imagine soliciting business today in the manner McCormack did. He mailed a flyer listing all of the golfers in National Sports Management’s stable of clients to golf clubs and tournament hosts across the globe. These golfers included 12 men, highlighting Arnold Palmer and Bill Casper, but also advertised the availability of Suggs, Hagge, Hanson, and Romack. The reverse side included a three-paragraph pitch:

The above players will be available on a limited or extended basis for golf exhibition tours in all parts of the world. These players are also available to participate in your National Championship or other tournaments in your country. ….

If you or another group would be interested in sponsoring, scheduling or arranging an exhibition tour, please contact me …

When you write, please state which player or players you might be interested in and please give me some indication of the dates you feel would be the most favorable from your standpoint, as well as them type of exhibitions, matches, or tours you would be most interested in.

As reflected in Hagge’s agreement with NSM (Exhibit B), her fee for an exhibition match was $300 on a weekday or $500 on a weekend (approximately $3,200 and $5,400 in today’s dollars). Also as stipulated in Hagge’s contract, McCormack’s cut was 20 percent of the exhibition fee (a whopping $60 for weekdays and $100 for weekends). It’s also interesting to note that Hagge rejected McCormack’s proposed five-year term, scratching out five and replacing it with a handwritten “one.”

McCormack and National Sports Management also endeavored to secure corporate sponsorships and endorsement deals for their clients. As an example, a Boston-based corporation, Summit Sportswear Company, appeared to have agreed to a clothing endorsement contract with Marlene Hagge for $1,000, or approximately $10,600 in today’s dollars. (Exhibit C). This simple two-page agreement provided that Hagge would wear a variety of the company’s apparel, including presumably the skirts that were standard issue for women pro golfers of the day. (Exhibits D and E).

These women paved the way for future generations of women golfers, but it’s also important to shine a light on the early role Mark McCormack played in promoting the women’s game and its earliest stars.