PrivateAir - January/February 2007 

More than any other athletes, golfers have always been associated with the jet set. Whether it’s PGA Tour players hopping from one tournament to another or a group of executives flying off to a far-flung golf destination, private aviation is synonymous with the game.

And no one is more representative of this privileged means of travel than the “King” of golf himself, Arnold Palmer. Palmer first flew solo in a Cessna 172 50 years ago and holds the distinction of becoming the first athlete in the world to buy his own jet aircraft when he acquired a Rockwell Jet Commander in 1966. To this day Palmer, 77, still pilots his Citation X and maintains all the appropriate ratings and certifications.

Influenced by Palmer’s affection for aviation, fellow Hall of Fame golfer Jack Nicklaus logged about 800 hours in the cockpit in the early 1960s, but he never acquired a license. Nicklaus purchased his first plane, a twin-engine Aero Commander 680FL, in the summer of ’64. Three years later the Golden Bear traded in his Aero Commander and leased a Lear Model 24 twin-engine jet. Nicklaus, who now jets around in a Gulfstream IV affectionately known as Air Bear, has often said that his most essential business tool has been the series of airplanes he has owned.

Nowadays nearly every top professional golfer owns an airplane, not only for convenience and comfort, but also for security. Many others regularly charter private jets. Like Palmer, there have been a number of other golfer-turned-pilots, including Johnny Bulla from the game’s Golden Era and modern-day players such as Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson, Bobby Clampett, Scott McCarron, Bill Glasson, and Mike McCullough to name a few.

“I am truly not aware of what other players own or have,” Nicklaus recently said. “You don’t hear other players talk about what you might consider ‘toys.’ But I don’t view an airplane as a toy. You might call a boat a toy, but I consider an airplane a business tool. Just look at how many players have an airplane or some affiliation with a jet service. There might be a hundred or so players who fit into that category,” Nicklaus estimates. “My airplane is perhaps the best business tool I have. I probably save about a month or so a year in travel time by owning my own airplane.”

In the following pages you will read about how private aviation plays into the lives of a foursome of golf figures.

Steve Hankin

CEO, Sentient Jet Membership
The Official Private Jet Partner of the PGA Tour

When Steven Hankin moved to North Carolina in his mid-30s, he did what everybody else does in the Carolinas and started playing golf. Hankin ended up getting hooked on the game, but 10 years later the CEO of Sentient Jet Membership reports that he is a “struggling mediocre golfer” at best.

That should begin to change though, thanks to Sentient’s ever-growing list of golf connections. What started with an exclusive private jet partnership with the PGA Tour last January has since grown into quite a portfolio of golf partners, including official marketing ties to Pebble Beach Resorts, the David Leadbetter Golf Academy, custom club fitter Hot Stix, and most recently top private club owner/operator ClubCorp and famed Pinehurst Resort.

“I’m an aspiring golfer like everybody,” says a smiling Hankin, who has run the Weymouth, Massachusetts-based, company for nearly three years. “You would think with all these relationships that I would actually be a good player. Sooner or later I’m going to leverage these partners, and I’m going to learn how to play well. It’s a real passion—I love golf, and like many of our members I love to go to different courses and enjoy the experience.”

For members of Sentient that golf experience can mean of variety of things. Want to get take some personal lessons from one of golf’s preeminent instructors? Hop on one of Sentient’s lighter Citation, Learjet, or Beechjet planes and head to Leadbetter’s headquarters at ChampionsGate Resort near Orlando, Florida, where numerous PGA Tour players practice. Or if you’re in the market for a new set of custom-fitted clubs, fill up one of the heavier Challenger, Falcon 900, or Gulfstream IV-SPs with some golfing buddies and head to Phoenix for world-class golf and an appointment with Hot Stix, one of the emerging club-fitting brands for top amateur and professional golfers.

If playing some of the finest golf destinations is paramount in your mind, Pebble Beach and Pinehurst offer a multitude of preferred privileges to Sentient Jet members. But that’s just a start: Sentient’s hallmark flexibility can make for memorable experiences anywhere around the globe. For instance, at last year’s Senior British Open golfer Fuzzy Zoeller helped fill two 757s for a 10-day sojourn to Scotland to watch the tournament, interact with players, and play a number of classic courses.

“There’s just an endless number of unique relationships and unique experiences we have with people that are building over time,” explains Hankin, who came to Sentient after working for Starwood Hotels. “It’s the type of event you can only do with private aviation.” Indeed, and with Sentient’s flexible program that doesn’t require members to commit to a certain number of hours per year and a certain plane type, the program appears to be resonating with PGA Tour players since Sentient struck a four-year marketing deal last January, making the company the “Official Private Aviation/Jet Provider” of the PGA Tour. As part of the relationship Sentient provides PGA Tour members with a variety of benefits tailored to fit the unique demands of a tour golfer’s travel schedule. These include a special offer to join the program, flexible billing options, and guaranteed jet availability on short notice for tournament cut days. Hankin reports that as of November approximately 20 players had signed up for Sentient’s services.

Sentient’s membership “operates more like a debit card, where you put money with us, and then you call up and tell us you need to take a trip, and we help you figure out what size jet is good for it,” Hankin explains. “So it starts with the premise that we’re in the business of trips, not planes. That’s one of the reasons it’s so appealing for the PGA Tour player. Obviously their schedules change, and how much they want to fly private or not changes throughout the season. This really suits them well. And for the average client it works well too because you may have a trip with four guys who want to play golf, or you change it and it’s two foursomes. We really became famous for offering financial and plane flexibility and focusing the business on trips. In the end it’s not about the aluminum, it’s about the experience people have,” he emphasizes.

It’s an experience Hankin certainly plans on leveraging more in the future—from both a personal and professional perspective.