How much is a Masters victory worth? Some numbers are easier to quantify than others. For his breakthrough victory, Zach Johnson earned $1.3 million in prize money. His stable of corporate sponsors received a combined $7.5 million in broadcast exposure time, according to the sponsorship evaluation firm Joyce Julius & Associates, as cited by CNBC.com. But these numbers only begin to tell the story.

"I don't know what it means from a revenue standpoint," says Pat Baird, the CEO of Aegon USA, Johnson' primary sponsor. "All I can tell you is that this has had more impact than anything we could have done as a company. People now identify our company with a major event. We literally have a new face."

Baird still remembers the phone call that started it all. It was late 2003 and on the other end of the line was Larry Gladson, the head pro of Elmcrest Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Aegon USA is based. Baird was a longtime member at Elmcrest, as was Johnson's family, and Gladson was wondering if Baird might be interested in doing a deal with a soon-to-be rookie on the PGA Tour. Ironically, in certain golf circles Baird was considered a grinch. After Aegon acquired Transamerica in 1999, it was Baird who pulled the plug on Transamerica's long-standing title sponsorship of a Senior tour event in Napa, Calif. "I really struggled with our costs versus the value to the company," he says.

But Baird thought it might be helpful to have a Tour pro on the payroll for corporate outings, and he had known Zach since the future Masters champ was a pipsqueak running around Elmcrest. A one-year deal was hammered out, and after Johnson proved to be a hit with clients, Aegon re-upped for three more years, securing the prime real estate on the front of Johnson's cap as well as a Transamerica logo on his shirt. "We bet on the person more than the golfer," says Baird. "What has happened on the course has been over-the-top."

Aegon has 29,000 employees worldwide and is the fifth-largest insurance company in the U.S., as well as offering various other financial services. But at the outset of 2007 it was decided that the company needed to raise its profile in the domestic market, so $10 million was set aside for a branding campaign, of which Johnson was just one small component.

"That all went out the window Sunday night of the Masters," Baird said with a chuckle. "All the money was shifted to Zach, and we put two million dollars more into the pot." In the days after the Masters, Aegon took out splashy congratulatory ads in a variety of national magazines and big-city newspapers and almost instantly began filming the TV commercials that will debut during the U.S. Open.

Aegon's commitment to Johnson might seem risky given that this is the final year of their contract. (In fact, Johnson couldn't have picked a better year to win a green jacket, given that all of his deals expire at the end of this year, including pacts with Titleist/FootJoy, Dunning Golf apparel, and RSM McGladrey, an accounting and tax firm.) But Johnson is intensely loyal to those who have helped shape his career. He has had the same caddie and swing coach throughout his Tour career, and he calls Baird "a friend and a mentor more than a business relationship." Beginning this summer, Johnson and his wife, Kim, will employ Baird's 18-year-old daughter as a nannie to their son, Will, who is 4 months old.