LIV Golf Liftoff: Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces Partner With Magellan Jets

When 4Aces, the LIV Golf squad captained by Dustin Johnson, who has banked over $44 million in prize money on the nascent circuit, touches down in Southern Spain, the squad will literally have wings on their backs.

The broad-shouldered and bearded former No. 1 player in the world, along with teammates Patrick Reed, Pat Perez and Harold Varner III will swagger onto the sun-dappled fairways of Real Valderrama with Magellan Jets logos on the back of their polos, having named the Boston-based firm as their official private aviation provider.

“It’s a big deal for sure. Coming on as our private aviation sponsor is definitely a step in the future of what the 4Aces have planned,” team general manager Chris Rosaasen, said.

The partnership was forged organically, a natural progression of a pre-existing relationship. DJ was initially a customer and even opted to sport a Magellan Jets logo on his polo at this year’s Masters on his own volition, well in advance of a formal deal. Reed had also flown with the company, so there was a lot of history.

“For years, members of the 4Aces team were members of ours and they liked us and we really liked them,” Magellan Jets CEO, Joshua Marc Hebert, explained.

The game plan is for Johnson and his compadres to appear in promotions for the private aviation solutions provider. Client access is a major fulcrum of the deal, with Magellan Jets customers, many of whom are avid golfers themselves with memberships at multiple clubs, afforded unique experiences with the 4Aces.

“A big reason we are doing this is to have access at LIV tournaments for our customers. Our customers love all four of these players on the 4Aces and they’re willing to come to some of our events,” Hebert explained. He added that the rationale behind the deal mirrors the thinking behind their multi-year partnership agreement with the Boston Red Sox. The private jet broker sees sports marketing deals as a means to augment their flyers’ experience.

“When our customers come to Boston, they want to go see Fenway and we get them the most amazing access. They want to go meet Sam Kennedy, they get front row and we’re able to show them the locker room, which has Magellan Jets all over it. Hopefully, we will get introduced to more customers, but the secondary reason is getting introduced to some of the players. DJ is a well-respected golfer and one of the alphas in the league. If people feel he’s getting a great service from Magellan Jets, maybe they’ll want to chat with us too,” he said.

Pro golfers have been jet set since Arnold Palmer leased a Cessna 175 after winning the 1958 Masters and nowadays scores of players on tour have jet cards, a private aviation product that gives holders access to aircraft at fixed hourly rates. In Magellan Jets’ case, these rates run between $7,000 and $14,000 an hour, depending on the aircraft with Phenom 300 on the smaller jet side up to a Gulfstream 450.

In LIV Golf, which features a fourteen-event schedule that take place across eight different countries, ocean hopping on long haul international flights is par for the course. 80% of Magellan’s customer base are domestic and while the majority of those do fly overseas, linking up with the 4Aces who can be in Australia one week and Singapore the next can serve to broaden brand awareness in new markets.

Overall corporate interest in LIV Golf, currently in the midst of its third season, is on the uptick. This spring a multi-year partnership with New Era Cap was minted and last month Maserati North America signed on as an event partner for a series of tournaments. On the team level, Legion XIII just partnered with tequila brand Maestro Dobel.

4Aces GM Rosaasen, who was the CEO of TravisMatthew for eight years and also founded Extracurricular describes a stark difference between the overall sponsorship environment for LIV teams now, versus the landscape a year ago

“It’s definitely changing. We’re going from pounding the phones, trying to get people on the phone to having our phone ringing now. Last week we had two very interesting people contact the 4Aces regarding sponsorship for 2025,” he said.

Rosaasen’s deal prognostication is not mere bluster. A few months back, he told Sports Business Journal that the team was at the “finish line” with a pair of companies on three-year deals worth in the mid seven-figures annually and now confirms that the Magellan Jets link up was one of them.

Asked whether 4Aces polo real estate would get even more crowded in the next twelve months, Rosaasen concurs but also doesn’t want the team to become walking billboards

“I struggle with maintaining a look and feel for the team versus selling spots all over. The quick answer is yes, there will be more spots sold, but you will not see every location sold. We are going to save those for marquee players with higher dollar amounts rather than the NASCAR model—we definitely won’t be doing that.”

While the 4Aces don’t have a home airstrip just yet, LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman has laid out a vision for the future of the tour where each team has a home golf club venue that will hosts a tour event every year Rosaasen mentioned that the 4Aces are already location scouting to that end.

“DJ is from South Carolina and there is a lot of great golf in South Carolina. Not to give too much away but we’ve already started the process and South Carolina is one of the first places we are looking,” he said, adding that the golf club would include an onsite school to train up and coming players and the public would be welcome to play the home of the 4Aces eleven months out of year except during the month when the annual tournament is held.