Not playing for a top university? You can still score NIL money

Kalia Bonawitz didn’t think there was NIL money for her. She was playing at Hawaii Pacific University, a DII program, and shooting mostly in the 80’s when the rules changed in June of 2021 to allow college athletes to profit from name, image and likeness deals. “It seemed like more of an opportunity for people that play sports at a higher level, like the high Division I level,” Bonawitz said. But she had a 70,000-person TikTok following and posted a lot of on-course videos. Companies started reaching out to her. In a matter of months, she had over 25 NIL deals. Now a senior, she’s established her rate card. Every video she posts for brands earns her at least $200, and her minimum photo payment is $75. Sometimes, a series of videos will earn her as much as $1,000.

While most golf NIL money goes to top amateur and junior players with clear tour aspirations, extra money and publicity is there for golfers willing to be creative and do some work.

“I was really surprised at how making a video that took me an hour or two hours would make me much more than minimum wage,” Bonawitz said.

Smaller golf companies are interested in doing NIL deals with golfers who aren’t the top performers at top universities because they don’t have to compete against bigger golf brands with much bigger marketing budgets.

Ronan Galvin is the CEO and co-founder of the golf bag company, Sunday Golf, and he recognized an interesting opportunity to make NIL history. Sunday Golf currently sponsors Patton Green, age 6, the youngest golfer ever to ink an NIL deal. “Obviously, we must get very scrappy in terms of the marketing and the PR that we do. We were never going to have the luxury of signing a world number one or someone very mainstream,” Galvin says. The backstory: One day, Galvin's cofounder at Sunday Golf, Galen Brunelle, was randomly paired with Patton and his dad at a par 3 course. The boy could really play, and they kept in touch.

“We texted Patton’s dad and asked, 'Does Patton want to do this?'” and he and his dad were like, 'Yeah, this would be funny,'” Galvin said. The local news showed up to the signing. Sunday Golf now provides Patton with gear but does not pay him. When there are junior tournaments in the San Diego area, the Sunday Golf team shows up to support Patton, following him as he competes.

“It was creative, it was a bit of fun, and it doesn’t interfere with his eligibility to play in college one day or anything like that,” Galvin said.

Teagan Miller had a sponsorship with TaylorMade that got him discounts on gear as a junior golfer. He started his college career at Austin Peay State University, a DI program in Clarksville, Tenn., but was sidelined with a series of injuries including a torn rotator cuff and a broken finger. He transferred schools twice and is now playing at the New College of Florida in Sarasota, an NAIA school. In NIL, he saw potential.

“When NIL started, I thought, this is perfect,” Miller said. “I'm gonna jump into this and try to make as much money as possible. It’s been pretty awesome for me.”

Miller reached out to companies, saying he was a former DI golfer, offering to create videos to help sell products. His Instagram following was between 5,000-6,000 when he started. He was able to build a portfolio, which made him more appealing to other companies, and NIL business grew. He now has 8,700 followers and about 30 NIL deals.

At first, Miller would receive free products like rangefinders and clothes in exchange for creating posts using those products and tagging the companies. In time, the deals moved toward money. Miller’s first paid deal was with Izod. He had to post a reel and three photos, and was compensated $200. To date, his most lucrative deal was $1,200.

Most NIL deals in golf tend to be one-offs. The athlete gets paid a flat rate to produce a video and post it to their social account. Some deals follow a multi-month structure, where the athlete does one post a month about the product for a set term, usually three to six months, and also posts to their stories during that time.

While the compensation doesn't come close to the jaw-dropping multimillion-dollar deals top college quarterbacks might get, it can be real money for a young college golfer. Ideally, the work is integrated into what they’re already doing—playing golf. Instead of getting a student job, Miller and Bonawitz work when it’s convenient, like building in an extra 10 or 20 minutes to film a video before starting a range session. When they’re at their laptops, they can take a break from coursework and edit their videos.

Successfully balancing NIL obligations takes understanding from coaches, as well as restraint from the athlete. Both Bonawitz and Miller agree that you have to say no sometimes, and both have mostly stopped accepting gear as payment and set up minimum payments. Bonawitz, now a senior writing a thesis and working several hours a week as an intern for a wealth management company, has paused her content creation until golf season is over and she has more free time.

“I've realized how big of a responsibility [NIL work] really is and how hard it's been to manage with golf, school and everything,” Bonawitz said. “But I'm definitely super grateful for it.”

The gratitude is not only for the financial gains, but also intangibles.

“I think the biggest thing is learning how to make connections and then also learning a lot of business,” Miller said. “How to talk to different people, skills that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten in college.”

Bonawitz: “The experience of personal branding and marketing, and public reactions and communications has really helped me.”

While Miller’s goals right now are to get healthy and still pursue the dream of playing professionally, he also has a growing social following, the ability to connect and work with brands, and a proven method for making money.

“I definitely could see doing it full time,” he says.