Many golfers say CBD is a hole in one for their game

By Andrew Ward

Professional golf is one of the, if not the most cannabis-friendly sports played around the world today. While Olympians and athletes from other sports remain banned for cannabis use, several professional golfers and the Professional Golf Association are becoming (PGA) have broadly embraced CBD and its global market value of $ 2.8 billion.

However, skepticism remains as the connection between professional golf and CBD seems to grow stronger over time.

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In the past few years, several top names in CBD and golf have come together. cbdMD, Inc. has a number of athletes including two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson who worked with the company in 2019. Cativa CBD also added Marc Leishman, 2009 Tour Rookie of the Year, as global spokesperson that year.

The deals were announced despite the fact that the PGA Marijuana Moment announced that it had warned players against using CBD in April 2019.

Kadenwood and its athlete-focused brand Level Select have added 2015 Players Championship winner Rickie Fowler as a 2020 brand ambassador. In 2021, Catriona Matthews signed OBE as a brand ambassador for the British brand Golfers CBD.

Erick Dickens, CEO and Co-Founder of Kadenwood, said Fowler is one of several athlete partnerships “that illustrate the brand’s commitment to integrating CBD into the mainstream sports world.”

Some continue their commitment. 10-year-old LPGA pro Amelia Lewis became an investor and vice president of the CBD brand Zeal Pure – a brand run by her mother. Others include Darren Clarke, 2011 Open Championship winner, who launched its Darren Clarke CBD brand in July 2021.

The PGA tour was also involved, with PlusCBD Oil, a CV Sciences, Inc company, announced as sponsoring the Farmers Insurance Open in January 2020. The PGA also signed a three-year partnership, sponsorship and education deal with the European CBD brand Cannaray earlier this year.

Why golfers and the professional tours are turning to the CBD

Golfers often use CBD to treat mental and physical pain like any other consumer could.

Alan Rownan, Head of Sports at Euromonitor International, said that the profile of the average golfer is an athlete who often plays well into retirement, which sets him apart from most other sports. He said the alleged benefits are against long-term symptoms that golfers face as they age.

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He added that CBD adoption plays a role in the sport’s recent initiative to expand the game. “From a marketing perspective, this is about how to get more progressive,” he said.

Still, he said the sport’s CBD connection needs to grow to meet the sponsorship footprint of financial and insurance sponsorship, which Euromonitor reports make up over 10% of deals on global tours. Consumer health was only 1%.

Reluctance remains

Despite growing acceptance by many in sport and on global governing bodies such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), some remain uncertain.

PGA expert Will Shaw is a UK-based Ph.D. in Biomedicine and founder of the Golf Insider UK Performance Center.

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He said golf “is becoming a game where they can control their arousal, anxiety, and thought process to carry them out when it comes down to it,” and that CBD is being marketed as a product that can enable those results.

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Shaw remains “very cautious” because of the lack of clinical scientific studies. He would like to see more analysis of the short and long-term effects of CBD on golfers.

“If you look at the references, you will find that they are either just 1) golf performance studies or 2) CBD clinical studies,” he said. Until he sees peer-reviewed research being applied directly to golfers, Shaw says he will remain skeptical.

Shaw reports that UK golf associations are pushing for the use of CBD. “I personally get one to two emails a week for CBD placements on my own website,” added Shaw.

Anecdotally, despite some marketing products, he doesn’t remember a top professional who used CBD.

“I might be wrong, but I believe the sponsorship deals with more elite players are meant to sell this to the mass market of everyday gamers rather than doing it to elite players,” he said.

There are some anecdotal use cases from professional golfers. In 2020, Billy Horschel, Dell Technologies’ 2021 World Golf Championship Match Play event winner, told the New York Times that he believed CBD had helped him break a six-month streak without a top eight finish on the Tour . After using CBD, Horschel made it into the top eight four times within four months.

The Horschel website lists partnerships with Ralph Lauren Corp, Velocity Global and Titleist, among others.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and was republished with permission.