• by Colin Kirkland , August 5, 2024

With golf influencers on YouTube stoking widespread engagement for the sport, the PGA Tour has announced its first-ever investment in social-media creators via the Creator Classic, a nine-hole competition at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta prior to the professional Tour Championship.

On August 28, sixteen of the most popular golf creators from across the globe will compete on the pro course, with eight holes of gross stroke play, followed by a playoff between the top four finishers.

The tournament -- sponsored by outdoor cooking equipment provider Blackstone, the PGA Tour’s official marketing partner in 2024 -- marks the first look at the new back nine at East Lake, giving the creators the opportunity to be the first ones to play the restored course.

Among the participants confirmed so far are Tyler Toney from Dude Perfect, the Bryan Bros, Fat Perez from Bob Does Sports and Good Good creators Garrett Clark, Brad Dalke and Sean Walsh.

“The Creator Classic is bridging the gap between conventional golf tournaments and the world of social media,” says the PGA Tour, which is attempting to channel the recent emergence of rejuvenated popularity around the game of golf among younger, more digitized audiences.

In 2023, the U.S. Golf Association reported 3 million players with official handicaps for the first time in its 128-year history, marking a 16% increase since 2020. Almost half-a-million of those players were establishing their handicap for the first time.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on restructuring peoples’ work schedules, has likely contributed to the increased popularity around golf, but digitization of the game has also made an impact through off-course Topgolf locations, the Netflix documentary series “Full Swing,” and viral golf influencers on social media platforms, who have amassed millions of fans.

“Golf is in the middle of an explosion in popularity and, for many young people, some of the biggest stars have emerged on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok,” says Chad Mumm, director of “Full Swing” and founder and president of Pro Shop Studios, the production company behind the Creator Classic.

Pro Shop Studios will run on-ground and broadcast production of the event, which will be streamed on the PGA Tour's YouTube channel, Peacock and ESPN+ as well as on PlutoTV, Roku, Samsung TV Plus, Tubi and XUMO. Hosts will be in the booth with talent covering the on-course action, the Tour says, while players and participants will be expected to capture and share their own content throughout the tournament.

The NBC Sports and Gold teams from Comcast will also support the Creator Classic with marketing, promotion and special offers for fans on-site at the Tour Championship presented by Accenture, Coca-Cola and Southern Company.

The PGA Tour's investment in the creator economy follows other major sports leagues' decision to create events around the social sphere. Most notably, the NBA introduced the Creator Cup last year, a game featuring 12 basketball culture personalities put on in partnership with YouTube, cultivating over 200 million social video views.

Tammy Henault, the NBA’s CMO, said that the league's creator events help cultivate reach and scale across the wide spectrum of fans, while also deepening the league’s engagement.