Golf’s Big Swing: YouTube, Gen Z & Creators Over Country Clubs
A deep dive into how the sport is reinventing itself for younger fans — and why media companies, investors & the PGA Tour are paying attention
I write about the business of creators. I reported on all the major deals and trends of the creator economy so far in 2025 and scooped a leaked Spotify deck revealing the company’s new assault on YouTube. Reach me at natalie@theankler.com
I’ve got a fun story today about what’s fueling the booming business of golf programming on YouTube — ahead of The Open Championship this weekend — and how a sport with a reputation for being, shall we say, a little stodgy is reinventing for modern audiences.
But first, did you catch the Emmy noms yesterday? They aren’t usually all that relevant to creators, but YouTube made a big push this year to help some of its top talent land Emmy nods. Well, bad news, that effort did not pay off. Hot Ones, Michelle Khare’s Challenge Accepted and Rhett & Link’s Good Mythical Morning were shut out. (Check out my colleague Katey Rich’s take on the nominations over at the Ankler’s Prestige Junkie — and sign up to be one of the first members of her new Prestige Junkie After Party for more awards dish.)
It was always going to be a tough road for Hot Ones, which was in a crowded talk series category that handed out just three nominations — to The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. But Rhett & Link seemed to have a good shot at the decidedly less competitive short form comedy, drama or variety series category. Unfortunately Emmy voters once again decided to nominate a crop of derivative projects that act essentially as marketing for their sibling long-form series, including The Rabbit Hole with Jimmy Kimmel and Late Night with Seth Meyers: Corrections. I’ll be interested to see how YouTube — and any creators gunning for Emmys — adjust their campaign messaging next year.
Now, on to the main event: This weekend the world’s best golfers will travel to Northern Ireland to compete in the last major tournament of the year. All the action will be live on NBC and Peacock, but there’s a pretty sizable segment of potential audience who won’t engage with it there. Instead, they’ll look to their favorite golf influencers and podcasters to break down the results.
Golf has always been big business, with the global market for golf clubs alone expected to exceed $8 billion this year. In the last few years, the sport has also surged in popularity on YouTube and other social video platforms. There are now dozens of YouTube channels and digital-first brands devoted to the sport, and the videos they’re pumping out aren’t your dad’s golf content. Good Good Golf, which earlier this year raised $45 million from investors including Creator Sports Capital, Manhattan West and Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, has attracted nearly 2 million subscribers with its focus on combining fundamentals with adrenaline-fueled challenges. Barstool Sports’ Fore Play mimics the beer-soaked experience of being out on the course with your friends. No Laying Up takes viewers inside the most exclusive courses around the world. And Grant Horvat is keeping pace with the pros on his channel.
New YouTube golf channels and series are popping up all the time. Earlier this year, Ken Griffey Jr. launched a series centered on the sport for Kevin Hart’s LOL Network. And I’m hearing that a well-known football player has become so obsessed with improving his golf game that he’s considering launching a YouTube channel of his own devoted to the effort.
This week I spoke to Laura Neal, executive vp of content and creative for the PGA Tour, who tells me that last year the organization conducted its largest-ever fan research project, surveying more than 50,000 people about how they wanted to experience professional golf. They gathered two key takeaways for drawing more 18-34-year-old fans: Showcase the personalities of top players, and engage more with the conversation happening about golf on YouTube.
So PGA Tour hired digital media firm ATTN to help with a social media strategy overhaul, and through that relationship, a new project was born. Truth or Putt, which debuted yesterday on PGA Tour’s YouTube and Facebook accounts, is a wacky new interview show hosted by comedian Druski in which some of the world’s best golfers put their skills to the test through a series of tricked-out putting challenges. In the first episode, if pro Max Homa can’t sink a putt using a banana tied to a stick, he must tell Druski about the worst accidental text he’s sent. Spoiler alert: It’s not even close. Homa recounts how he once accidentally texted his college coach with an invitation to go drinking later that night.
“This is the kind of content that we’re hearing our fans want more of,” Neal says. So far, it seems to be working. In its first day, the show — sponsored by Dunkin’ — has notched 17,000 views on YouTube and 316,000 on TikTok.
What’s driving the surge in popularity of golf content on YouTube? I spoke to a half dozen sources in the golf content business, including not just PGA Tour’s Neal but also the people behind media startups Good Good Golf and ProShop and an executive at YouTube, to get all the answers.
⛳️ Read on to learn about:
How golf is shedding its staid, exclusive rep, thanks to public courses, TopGolf and a younger wave of players
The PGA Tour’s plan to reach Gen Z now, not when they “age into” traditional fandom
Sports and social stars in the mix, Mahomes and LeBron to Josh Richards
How golf’s Instagram aesthetic draws in fans, creators and brand dollars
Inside the Tour’s social strategy reboot — from trick-shot shows to the Creator Classic
The YouTubers turning golf into entertainment, blending challenges, tutorials and merch empires
The inspiration one media startup took from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop
Scripted comedies, lifestyle brands, and golf’s unexpected cultural glow-up
Pro golfers as content creators — and what that means for the sport’s future