The relationship between Jordan Spieth and AT&T would seem to make perfect sense.
Spieth already is regarded one of the bright young stars on the PGA Tour, with a short game as meticulous as his manners. He went from no status on any tour to No. 7 in the FedEx Cup standings and a spot on the Presidents Cup team, at 20 the youngest American to ever play.
He had a two-shot lead with 11 holes to play before finishing second to Bubba Watson. He made a solid Ryder Cup debut. He now is No. 9 in the world. And he grew up in Dallas, headquarters of the telecommunications giant. Spieth even belongs to the same golf club in Dallas as AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson.
But the nature of the endorsement deal signed in June — and what the company thought about Spieth — became evident when he showed up in Shanghai for the HSBC Champions with the AT&T logo on a black-and-orange golf bag.
The last golf bag with the AT&T logo belonged to Tiger Woods, and that didn't last long.
"It's an honor because it really was a big investment for them to get back into having branding on the golf course," Spieth said Wednesday at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. "They were almost, from what I had heard, kind of set on being very hesitant in doing that going forward when the split happened with Tiger. So it really was kind of a perfect scenario for me being Dallas-based myself."