How PGA Tour’s new Creator Council will try to grow its fans

When Andy Weitz took over as the PGA Tour's new chief marketing communications officer and vice president of investor relations in June, there was one topic he wanted to address right away. It was about how touring connects with the next generation of fans.

While he was pleasantly surprised to see the tour already moving toward the Creators Classic, Weitz and the tour are struggling with the rapidly growing number of golf fans who consume the game through social media and YouTube. We are aiming for further involvement.

This mission is what led the PGA Tour late last week to announce the creation of the Creators Council, an advisory group comprised of some of the most popular and well-known golf content creators on the internet.

“That's when the question started: What if we had a platform where creators wanted to engage and be involved in that way… that we could build more lasting relationships, dialogue, ongoing opportunities to learn from them? “So that we can get feedback and co-create and therefore be able to reach and engage with our fans more effectively,” Weitz said. He spoke to the Post about his birth.

The Creator Council will initially include Bryan Bros Golf, Fore Play/Barstool Sports, Paige Spiracac, Tisha Alyn, Roger Steele, No Laying Up, and Erik Anders Lang, with other creators rotating in later.

The group will meet monthly to discuss future editions of the Creator Classic as well as broader initiatives related to fan engagement strategies, collaborative content opportunities, PGA Tour media regulations, and event/broadcast enhancements.

The Creator Classic was a nine-hole tournament hosted the day before the PGA Championship in August, featuring many of the top golf content creators and streamed on the Tour's various social platforms.

“I think the Creator Council is first and foremost a forum for these discussions,” Weitz said. “And our goal is to have an open-door, rotational approach to make sure we have the right people at the table that reflect the sentiment of our fans. So we're asking them how we can work with them.” I understand it best.”

Reaching fans is always a top priority for any professional sports league, but golf is in a unique situation with PGA Tour attendance declining even as the sport's popularity grows. .

Ratings for this year's tour have been weak on terrestrial television, with an average of 2.2 million viewers for the Sunday telecast (non-major), down 19% from last year's average of 2.7 million.

When the majors were included this year, that number jumped to 2.8 for Sunday's broadcast. Sports Business Journal reported.

Dan Rappaport, golf journalist and editor-in-chief of Pro Shop, discusses the current status of the tour in the sport, focusing on competition from rival league LIV Golf and the explosion of golf content on YouTube Golf and social media. This was considered to be the result of an increase in

“That's kind of my way of saying the PGA Tour no longer has a monopoly on broadcast golf,” Rapaport said. “But they're smart. And they understand that this especially resonates with younger fans.”

As popularity explodes online, it's hard to ignore the audience and reach that golf's biggest content creators have garnered.

A recent video of Trent Ryan, one of Fore Play Golf's members, attempting to shoot an 85 on an Arizona golf course has racked up more than 185,000 views in the four days since it was posted.

U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau has amassed quite a following among content creators, racking up 100 million views on TikTok in 16 days while trying to make a hole-in-one over his home.

Over the summer, the PGA Tour hosted the Creator Classic at East Lake Golf Club the day before the start of the Tour Championship to see the impact that golf content creators can have on viewership.

The event's live stream on the PGA Tour's YouTube channel had a total of 2.5 million viewers, making the event the No. 2 video on YouTube for 24 hours, according to data provided to the Post. I did.

The PGA Tour said the course saw a 39% increase in ticket scans on the Wednesday before the start of the PGA Championship compared to last year.

Weitz also said the PGA Tour recognized the need to work with creators and step further into creator territory through feedback from its “Fans Forward” initiative launched in June.

“We clearly recognized that YouTube as a creator community and platform is building the next generation of fans. They taught us a lot,” Weitz said.

He called the Creator Classic the first step on the tour and the creation of the Creator Council “a natural next step.”

“We think we have an opportunity to learn from creators in terms of how we connect with our fans,” Weitz later said. “And to give them access to our platform so they can see a future where our fans are both YouTube followers of their favorite creators and PGA Tour fans. is excited about the possibilities.”

Rappaport, who previously appeared on the Fore Play Golf podcast, also viewed the tour's move into creator territory through a broader lens.

“I think the PGA Tour is also being smart about the post-merger world, and hopefully thinking about the post-merger world.” [with LIV]” Rappaport said. “If you've already started working on this type of initiative, you can hopefully grow it. I think the PGA Tour is very smart about the long-term vision of how to capitalize on the momentum in golf. .

“You hear about ratings going down on tour and all this and that. [But] Let me tell you, it's harder than ever to get a tee time. The number of young people playing is also increasing. Golf club memberships are very expensive. The game is in a very healthy situation outside of the PGA Tour. I think it's within the Tour's control to move in that direction, and they're doing that.”