Why am I paying so much for Workday… just to see it on a pro golfer's shirt?
A love letter, a question, and a quote from a guy I'm skeptical of.
Andy Maren — April 7, 2026
I watched the Masters last weekend. Like I do every April. And I couldn't stop staring at the logos.
Rory won his second green jacket in a row. Unreal. And there on his bag, all four days, was the Workday logo — the same logo that's been traveling the PGA TOUR for years, the same one I've seen on Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Davis Love III, Brandt Snedeker, Phil Mickelson. The same one that presents the Memorial Tournament under a 10-year deal with Jack Nicklaus. The same one on the rear wing of Lando Norris's McLaren every other Sunday.
Then came the thought I've been chewing on all week:
Is this where our licensing fees are going?
Let me be clear before I go any further.
I love Workday. My career was built inside the Workday ecosystem. Some of the best peers I've ever had, the best conferences I've ever been to, the best relationships I've ever made — and let's be honest, a few of the worst hangovers — all trace back to Workday events. I'm not here to throw stones at a company that has given an entire profession, mine, a career, a community, and a lot of Tuesday-morning headaches. So take what follows in the spirit it's meant: philosophical, not personal.
The napkin math
Let me walk through the numbers, because I think it's worth sitting with.
Rory McIlroy — golf's reigning back-to-back Masters champion and the highest-profile athlete in the sport — has been a Workday brand ambassador since 2022, carrying the logo on his bag at every event. Deal terms aren't public, but top-tier PGA TOUR ambassador relationships at that level are estimated in the range of $5–10M per year or more.
McLaren F1 is an Official Partner relationship that started in 2023, with branding on the rear wing of the car and the team kit at every Grand Prix. F1 mid-to-upper partnerships are widely reported to run $10M+ per year. With roughly 24 races on the 2026 calendar, that's a per-race impression cost that would make most HR software buyers wince.
Workday's overall Sales and Marketing spend in FY25 was approximately $2.4 billion — about 28% of $8.4 billion in revenue. That's not unusual for enterprise software. It's how enterprise software gets sold. And yet. When you're a Workday customer looking at a renewal invoice and wondering why the price went up again, $2.4 billion in sales and marketing is worth having in your head.
The question I keep coming back to
I'm not arguing that sports sponsorships don't work. Brand recognition matters in enterprise sales cycles. Decision-makers are human beings who watch the Masters and the F1 race on Sunday and Monday.
But I've also sat across the table from clients who were struggling to get their Workday implementation properly supported. Who couldn't get answers from their account team. Who were paying for modules they couldn't fully use because the implementation budget had run out. Who were looking at renewal costs and not seeing the ROI conversation they expected.
It's a reasonable question to ask: what would it mean if a fraction of that $2.4B went into product instead of Paddock Club hospitality?
The quote from a guy I'm skeptical of
Sam Altman tweeted something in 2015 that I've been thinking about all week. I'll be honest: I'm an Anthropic girl — but more on that in a future post. I find Altman's persona exhausting. But this one landed.
"You can skip all the parties, all the conferences, all the press, all the tweets. Build a great product and get users and win."
He was talking about startups. But it applies.
The HR tech space is littered with companies that won on brand and sponsorship spend and then underdelivered on product. And there's a generation of challengers — some of them running leaner, spending less on polo shirts and more on engineering — who are asking what happens when you just build the thing.
Who's going to be the first to prove that model works at enterprise scale in HR and payroll? I don't know the answer yet. But I'm watching.
What I'd actually want
I want Workday to be the company that proves the two things aren't mutually exclusive. That you can build something your customers genuinely love and show up at Augusta. That the brand investment is a reflection of product confidence, not a substitute for it.
The Workday community is one of the best in enterprise software. The conferences are worth going to. The relationships are real. The product, at its best, is genuinely powerful.
I just want the licensing fees to feel like they're going somewhere that matters to the people paying them.
That's the question worth asking at your next renewal.
Update your curiosity.
— Andy
Andy Maren is the founder of Trailhouse Solutions, an advisory firm for HR and payroll leaders navigating the shift to agentic AI and modern HR technology. She has spent her career inside the Workday ecosystem and writes about what's actually happening in the market — without the keynote optimism.
