Golf is having a cultural second — and golf creators are taking benefit by signing extra model offers than ever.
As soon as considered because the territory of boomers and the wealthy, golf has surged previously decade, with general participation numbers within the sport rising from 30 million in 2014 to 45 million in 2023, the newest 12 months obtainable, in keeping with information from the Nationwide Golf Basis.
Golf’s second within the solar for advertisers has paralleled the rise of the variety of golf content material creators. In 2024, PGA Tour movies averaged 85,000 views and 34 engagements per video on YouTube; conversely, the favored YouTube golf channel Good Good Golf averaged 545,000 views and 717 engagements per video throughout the identical interval. In April, the video for “The Duels,” a creator-focused golf occasion hosted by LIV Golf, accrued over 1,000,000 views in beneath 24 hours.
“Golf could be very enjoyable to look at on TV, but it surely virtually feels inaccessible at occasions. Am I going to sit down down on Sunday and spend six hours watching a golf event if I’m not likely absolutely invested in it?” mentioned Ryan Dow, vp of creator, gaming and esports for the company Sportfive. “What the creator technology has accomplished is given the reins to people to make golf entertaining.”
Golf creators are effectively conscious of the extra informal place they occupy within the sport’s media ecosystem, and a few have capitalized on it with movies about golf-related consuming challenges and golf-themed recreation present spoofs as a substitute of specializing in the aggressive facet of golf — or by taking a specific competitor’s facet.
“Finally, we’re only a group of finest associates having enjoyable on and off the course,” mentioned Bob Does Sports activities creator Robby Berger. “And, that appears to resonate with individuals who watch and has led to some unbelievable model offers and partnerships.”
Golf creators additionally create alternatives for some manufacturers that hadn’t aligned with the game’s previously stodgy, upper-crust status to attach with golf followers. Mountain Dew, for instance, has spent the previous 12 months sponsoring golf creators comparable to Good Good and Bob Does Sports activities, with creators representing the model’s first-ever foray into golf, in keeping with Sam Graviet, vp of artistic at Doing Issues, the media firm that owns Bob Does Sports activities.
As a part of a year-long partnership with Mountain Dew, for instance, Bob Does Sports activities filmed a sponsored street journey that noticed the group play at varied golf programs throughout the U.S. earlier than assembly up with the model’s mascot, the Mountain Dude. On Sept. 4, Good Good will characteristic Mountain Dew as the principle sponsor of its King of the Mountain golf occasion, a bracket-style event for two-man groups.
Assembly golf followers the place they’re
For entrepreneurs, sponsoring golf creators generally is a less expensive means to achieve the golf viewers than TV advertisements or conventional high participant sponsorships, in keeping with Ryan Skeggs, a managing director on the company Wasserman, who primarily works throughout sports activities accounts. By sponsoring creators to attend tentpole golf occasions just like the annual main tournaments, he mentioned, manufacturers can attain these occasions’ audiences with out having to spend pricey charges to sponsor the tournaments themselves, which might usually go for between $15 million and $25 million. He didn’t say how a lot the influencer sponsorships value.
“You won’t essentially be a sponsor of a serious or one of many huge golf tourneys, however you’ll be able to movie content material there,” Skeggs mentioned. “Clearly, there’s guidelines and laws of what you’ll be able to and may’t do — however they are often seen there.” To keep away from interfering with official broadcasts, for instance, most golf tournaments usually don’t enable creators to submit movies of stay play or share real-time scores on their feeds. Some occasions, just like the Masters Match, have stricter guidelines barring attendees from utilizing any telephones or cameras in any respect whereas on the course.
As golf grows in reputation, manufacturers are stepping up their spending on creator and influencer advertising and marketing, with Unilever publicly declaring that half of its advertising and marketing funds would go towards social channels by the tip of 2025.
A few of this development is quantifiable on the company degree. At WME, for instance, Davis Holman — who has managed golf creators comparable to Good Good — joined in 2019 because the company’s solely devoted golf creator agent. Now, 5 years later, that group has grown to be 5 members.
“Relating to creators, we might be fairly nimble, so we will get issues accomplished in a short time, and we’re type of a one-stop store for the whole lot they want,” mentioned golf creator Paige Spiranac. “As a substitute of getting to go rent copywriters and producers and editors and entrepreneurs, we do all of that ourselves.”
In the mean time, the vast majority of golf viewership — and subsequently model curiosity — at the moment takes place on YouTube, per Sportfive’s Dow. In 2025, YouTube has extra golf content material than ever. Whole uploads of golf movies on the platform elevated from 427,000 to 454,000 between 2023 and 2024, in keeping with information from Tubular Labs. Up to now in 2025, YouTubers have uploaded 242,000 golf movies, placing the platform on monitor to have over 500,000 new golf movies by the tip of the 12 months.
Golf creators are on the rise on all platforms, each short- and long-form, in keeping with Dow. The golf creator with probably the most followers on any particular person platform is Spiranac, whose Instagram account boasts a following of over 4 million. This implies she is the most-followed golfer on the earth on any social media platform, with an Instagram following that exceeds these of massive golf names like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau. Spiranac mentioned that she had skilled an unprecedented inflow of name curiosity in 2025, though she declined to share particular numbers or identify particular advertisers.
“There’s one contract the place I make extra in a single month than I’d have even fathomed in a single 12 months [in past years],” Spiranac mentioned. “You’re seeing this huge development, which is de facto thrilling.”
