When Nick Stubbe steps onto the course at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta ahead of the TOUR Championship, his goal is somewhat simple.
“You just need to get one birdie. You just need to get one birdie and it's like house money. Then you just go with the flow from there,” Stubbe, better known as “Fat Perez” to the hundreds of thousands of fans who follow his content, told The Post in a recent interview.
Stubbe is not a professional golfer, but is part of the social media channel “Bob Does Sports.” The accountant-turned-golf content creator is at the center of the explosion of golf content on YouTube and social media.
And the PGA Tour has capitalized on that growing popularity by creating the Creator Classic, a nine-hole tournament on the day before the Tour Championship that pits some of the biggest golf content creators against each other on the same course where the pros play.
Stubbe will join Garrett Clark, Paige Spiranac, Gaby DeGasperis, Tyler Toney and 12 other creators in the inaugural tournament, which will be streamed on the PGA Tour's YouTube channel, Peacock and ESPN+.
The rapid rise of YouTube Golf and golf content creators across various platforms has helped to drive interest in golf and has also helped inspire younger generations to discover their love for the sport through the various creators with followings.
In July, The Athletic reported that golf videos on YouTube had been viewed more than 4.3 billion times in the first 90 days this year, with some of the most popular creators boasting more than 1 million followers.
For example, Clark, a member of “Good Good Golf,” has over 1 million followers on his personal page, and the “Good Good” channel has approaching 2 million followers.
“Bob Does Sports” has 832,000 followers on its YouTube channel alone, while DeGasperis has over 600,000 followers across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram combined.
Their videos range from fun challenges to trick shots to videos of them playing golf with pro golfers and celebrities. Frankie Borelli, co-host of Barstool Sports' “Foreplay” podcast, played a round with Islanders forward Mat Barzal, while Clark posted a video with musician Noah Kahan.
Bryson DeChambeau, a two-time U.S. Open champion and LIV Golf Tour member, is also active as a creator and made waves last month when he released a video of himself playing golf with former President Donald Trump.
One of the reasons content is becoming more popular is because it resonates with so many people and audiences develop a sense of familiarity and loyalty towards creators.
“Hopefully, seeing regular guys going out and playing golf resonates with our fans,” Stubbe said of why people are drawn to the content on “Bob Does Sports.”
“Maybe viewers see us as a foursome. In my hometown, we have a guy like Perez. [channel creator Robby Berger]Whatever it is. So, I think we're incredibly lucky, as I always say, that we do a great job of playing golf our own way. It's not hard to do that, and it resonates with people for whatever reason.”
“Great family show”
DeGasperis, better known to fans as Gabby Golf Girl, is the next generation of golf fans, the younger demographic the PGA Tour is hoping to reach as it dips into the world of creator content.
At just 16 years old, DeGasperis is in a unique position to gain insight into what people her age and older want from the content they create, and she has seen the impact this content can have in inspiring more people to become interested in sports.
In a conversation with The Washington Post, DeGasperis said her brother, who isn't a golf fan, became interested in golf content because of the trick shots and fun challenges content creators showed.
“The trick shots that I do are a big part of getting a lot of kids involved,” says DeGasperis, who has made them a staple of his content. “It's amazing. You just watch it for 15 seconds and it's amazing. I think golf exposes kids to so many different things they never knew golf could be.”
The figures suggest interest and participation in the sport is on the rise, with data from the National Golf Foundation showing increases in total reach, total participants and youth and young adult participation.
According to the annual Graphis report, the number of young golfers taking to golf courses in 2023 will be the highest since 2006 and has increased 40 percent since 2019. Young adults (ages 18-34) will see their third consecutive year of growth in 2023, marking the highest participation rate since 2015.
While it's not entirely clear how much the explosion in golf content is related to increased participation, it certainly gives the PGA Tour plenty of reason to take notice.
While DeGasperis and Stubbe's content differs in some ways, they both recognize that their audiences come from a wide range of demographic backgrounds.
“I've had 5-year-olds come up to me, and I've had 50-year-olds come up to me,” DeGasperis said. “I'm talking to a 20-year-old, and then I'm talking to a 15-year-old, a 40-year-old. It really reaches a whole range of people, and it's amazing.”
The content's ability to reach and inspire a wide audience caught the eye of Chad Mumm, founder of The Pro Shop and producer of the hit Netflix documentary series “Full Swing.”
The Pro Shop, a golf media and commerce company, is helping put on Wednesday's Creator Classic, and Mumm told The Post that he began looking at YouTube content, especially over the past four or five years.
“The interesting thing about the show is that in a way it's really a family show. The golfers are all pretty much all talented at golf, but there's a rhythm to it,” Mumm said.
Creator Classics “Experiment”
Chris Wandell, the PGA Tour's senior vice president of media, was very honest about what the Tour hopes to accomplish with Wednesday's Creator Classic, which he said is to draw a large audience of involved creators to the Tour Championship the following day.
Participating creators are encouraged to bring their video teams and film content during Creator Classic to release on their own platforms.
“But we also expect the PGA Tour to attract some fans who don't normally watch the PGA Tour, whether that be some of the diverse audience that watches the PGA Tour on ESPN or the Golf Channel on Thursdays and Fridays, or maybe on NBC on Sundays as the final round draws near,” Wandell said.
“If this test is successful, we believe we will see a significant live and non-live audience for the Creator Classic itself, and we hope that there will be enough content generated during and after the event to bring new fans and different demographics to the Tour Championship and the PGA Tour overall.”
Wednesday's event wasn't the first time the PGA Tour has worked with content creators: Earlier this year, the tour hosted “The Q” in Myrtle Beach, a qualifying tournament that hosted content creators and aspiring golfers for a chance to win a spot in the Myrtle Beach Classic.
Mumm said the goal for Creator Classic is to be “serious fun,” blending the YouTube golf experience with the professionalism and stakes of an actual PGA Tour event.
“We're not going to downgrade YouTube, but we're not going to take YouTube out of YouTube Golf,” Mumm said.
During the broadcast, there are reporters on site and the producers talk to them throughout the show, talking about what the filming was like and the tension they felt.
The 16-player Creator Classic is set up as a nine-hole competition using stroke play, with no handicaps, no strokes awarded to any player, and the four players with the lowest scores after eight holes moving on to a one-hole playoff.
“Even such a small thing [make it so] “Nobody's going to run away with the win in the first five holes, so there's going to be some drama,” Mumm said. “In professional golf, a lot of times, you get drama when you miss the cut. Who gets that last spot in the playoff, I think that's going to be very interesting on TV.”
Wandell also sees Wednesday's Creator Classic as a kind of experiment to see how the PGA Tour can increase its profile and learn something from the content creators who participate.
“We're encouraging experimentation, both with the talent and the cameras,” Wandell said, “putting the camera closer to the people, following the audio a lot closer, things we don't typically do on the PGA Tour. … We're here to learn. We're here to see what works and what doesn't work.”
He later added: “From the invention of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to the explosion of YouTube golf, we're looking for new fans. We love this recent tournament among golf fans because the audience is much younger and has different viewing habits. … It's all an evolution in content delivery and fan development, and we're excited to continue to evolve.”
