What McNealy would bring to Ryder Cup team
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The future of golf isn't just players; creators (and their cameras) are here too
ATLANTA — I saw the future of golf Wednesday afternoon on the East Lake Golf Club putting green. There, 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry and Ryder Cup hero Tommy Fleetwood lined up their last putts before the Tour Championship begins on Thursday. Just a few feet away from them, a handful of YouTube creators, podcasters and influencers — each with their own camera crew — milled about, reading putts and pacing before their own tee times. Wednesday marked the fourth installment of the Creator Classic, a PGA Tour-developed, YouTube-sponsored event pitting 12 of the best-known golf creators against one another in a nine-hole made-for-YouTube event, on the exact same course the pros will play in their season-ending tournament this week. A few steps away from the putting green, three of the stars of the 'Good Good Golf' YouTube channel (1.93 million subscribers) walked toward the first tee for their 3:54 p.m. tee time. On the nearby 18th, another professional golfer measured out his last putts of the day. A group of kids standing along a fenceline couldn't quite figure out whom to watch — the Good Good guys or the pro … a guy by the name of Scottie Scheffler. If that sounds weird or strange or flat-out wrong to you, well … you're not the target demographic for this particular brand of golf. But a whole lot of people are, and the PGA Tour is trying its best to reach them. 'These creators all kind of speak to their own audiences with their own production crews and their own voices,' Chris Wandell, the PGA Tour's Senior Vice President for Media, told Yahoo Sports. 'The amount of content that has resulted from this, and each one of these, has been mind-blowing … content that we could never have scripted just organically happens.' For as long as there's been golf, the relationship between player and fan has been clear: the player plays in front of the fans, the fan watches the pros. But the rise of cheap video capabilities and easy distribution created a third class: fans who play for other fans. Golf 'influencers' and 'content creators' — purists may cringe at the terms, but they're the ones that fit — play some variant of the game in front of literal millions of fans, demythologizing and democratizing a game that's been defined by its gatekeeping rather than its inclusivity. Wednesday's Creator Classic is the fourth installment of the series that began last year at East Lake, a creation born after the Tour recognized just how much Tour-adjacent work that creators were already doing — player interviews, analysis, even tournaments of their own. East Lake makes for a perfect The Tour Championship provided an unconventional, but ideal opportunity — with only 30 players in the field, the course was largely clear by Wednesday afternoon. (Scheffler, Lowry and Fleetwood notwithstanding.) Fans were already on the course and ready to watch more golf … why not give them something a bit outside the norm? 'It was kind of a test — would the idea resonate with fans? Would it resonate with sponsors? Would it bring new people to a tournament that might not otherwise come on a Wednesday at 4:00?' Wandell said. 'We ran it as a test with no solid plans to do it again, and the creators had a great time. Sponsors said, How do I get involved with that? A lot of tournaments called us and said, Can we do this at our tournament?' And so, here we are. Draw a Venn diagram of golf creators, and all you'd have in the center is the word 'golf.' Creators run the gamut from analysts to comedians, precise shotmakers to pranksters. Each style draws in a different subset of fans — fans who might not otherwise get anywhere near a PGA Tour event. 'My fans like to see my friends and I just bantering, talking nonsense,' said Luke Kwon (379,000 subscribers), winner of the 2024 East Lake Creators Classic. 'I think we tend to act like how they act. There's so much comedy that golf sometimes gets pushed to the side.' Others seek to set an example and open doors for people traditionally excluded from the golf world. 'You don't have to be from the best area, the best circumstances to find a place in this game,' Roger Steele (232,000 Instagram followers) said. 'I think that there's opportunities for everybody. You meet good people, and good people will do good things for you.' The twelve creators invited to play on Thursday represent a diverse group of interests and demographics. (Well, not age-wise. Most appeared to fit comfortably in the millennial/elder-Gen Z demo. There were no 65-year-old Boomers or precocious Gen Alphas in the mix. Maybe next year.) Some were here for the competition, some for the fashion, some for the laughs. But all brought massive audiences to the table. The live stream on YouTube easily topped 20,000 viewers — perhaps not massive numbers when compared to a seven-figure PGA Tour broadcast, but better than other golf YouTube streams we could name. 'We've tried our best to balance size of audience, diversity of audience and golf skill,' Wandell says. 'We would love to host 25 handicaps, but this golf course is so hard. Most of these guys are scratch, and even putting them on a course like this, they're going to have trouble breaking par.' The Creator Classic is the live embodiment of an internet truism: where vast viewership numbers gather, money and brands follow. Virtually all of the players in Wednesday's event have their own sponsorship deals, and many have their own merch lines. Akshay Bhatia, who would tee off in the Tour Championship Thursday, mingled with several creators around the putting green. No Laying Up's Soly even managed to wrangle Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan as a caddie. Oh, and there was $100,000 on the line for the winner. Not a bad paycheck for nine holes' work. It's always strange to see social media influencers in the wild. They locate, and mug for, the camera after virtually every significant moment. Their voices, their movements, their entire demeanor are exaggerated when the camera's on them, which works on a phone screen but is juuuuust a bit too much for real life. And oh, the cameras are everywhere. They're the reason these 12 are here, after all. Every moment — every drive, every putt, every chip, every expression — is potential fodder for content, so those cameras have to be rolling. Producers will be hard at work starting Wednesday evening, chopping and carving hours of footage into easily digestible social media content. 'We're trying to build all types of fans, and we want to create products and data and content for fans, no matter how much they want to consume,' Wandell says. 'A lot of the new fans may not have cable, or don't have ESPN Plus. So let's give them some snackable video content, develop the love of golf.' As for the golf itself … well, let's just say the spotters and fore-right paddle holders got more of a workout Wednesday than they're likely to get the rest of the week. Several players dunked their tee shots on the wicked 15th, and most got a chance to visit East Lake's lush rough. Most finished their eight holes over par — in some cases, well over par. But we have all weekend to watch exceptional players at East Lake; this was about watching men and women not all that different from us — better golf games, sure, but otherwise relatable — handling a challenge that most only get to watch on TV. 'My main goal?' said Peter Finch (753,000 subscribers) shortly before teeing off. 'To not be crap.' Haven't we all felt that way, every single round? (For the record, Finch would go on to finish at +6, two strokes out of last place.) In a very real way, the creators are the viewer's avatar, and that's what makes them compelling viewing — it's not hard to imagine ourselves in that spot, and not hard to wonder how we'd do trying to clear the waters of East Lake. (Answer: probably not well.) 'They're getting to play the course inside the ropes, and the full broadcast and all the production, but they're just as excited to see these guys play the course [Thursday] and all through the weekend,' said Chad Mumm, one of the creators of Netflix's 'Full Swing' and president of Pro Shop, a studio that develops original content like the Creator Classic. 'It's just so important for cultivating a healthy future for the fan base of the tour … The internet seems to be in love with what we're doing, and the engagement's been really good.' The Creator Classic ended up being one of the most dramatic finishes of the year on Tour, with four players competing on a single sudden-death playoff hole, in an absolute frog-strangler of a downpour, for $100,000. In the end, Good Good's Brad Dalke took home the title, soaked to the bone as he bro-hugged his way off the course. Golf is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the creator economy; no other sport combines the diversity of locales with the relatively low cost of entry. One tennis court looks pretty much like another, and racing is far too expensive for a casual creator, to cite two other individual-friendly sports. Baseball, basketball, football — none of those lend themselves to the combination of banter, skill and camera-friendly settings that golf does. This isn't the golf of Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods, true … but each one of those legends advanced the game far beyond where they found it, too. There's room for both creators and players in the game of golf, both metaphorically and literally. As several of the creators left the driving range, working their way through both a thicket of cameras and pros like Justin Thomas, one security guard nudged another and pointed at one of the creators, crowing loudly, 'He's internet famous!' A few years ago, that would have been a dismissive insult. Now, though, it sounds a whole lot like admiration.
Boston Globe
19 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Tiger Woods to lead PGA Tour committee that includes John Henry and Theo Epstein
Woods will lead five players from the board — Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas, Maverick McNealy, and Keith Mitchell — along with three from the business side that will include Fenway Sports Group owner (and owner of the Globe) John Henry, Fenway Sports group senior adviser and part-owner Theo Epstein, and board chairman Joe Gorder. Henry leads the Strategic Sports Group that invested $1.5 billion — with the potential to double that — into the tour in a minority investment announced 18 months ago. Advertisement Rolapp didn't have details on several issues he faces as he takes over for Commissioner Jay Monahan, including the future of a sport that has been splintered by Saudi money that created the rival LIV Golf League and lured away a number of top players. The PGA Tour's negotiations with the Public Investment Fund have stalled, and Rolapp did not make that sound as if it were a top priority when asked about the fans' desire to see all the best players together more often. Advertisement 'I'm going to focus on what I can control,' Rolapp said. 'I would offer to you that the best collection of golfers in the world are on the PGA Tour. I think there's a bunch of metrics that demonstrate that, from rankings to viewership to whatever you want to pick. I'm going to lean into that and strengthen that. 'I will also say that to the extent we can do anything that's going to further strengthen the PGA Tour, we'll do that,' he said. 'And I'm interested in exploring whatever strengthens the PGA Tour.' Woods, who has played only 10 times on the PGA Tour since his February 2021 car crash and has been out all of this year with a ruptured Achilles' tendon, already serves on the PGA Tour board without a term limit. Rolapp is not trying to reinvent a sport that held its first championship in 1860. He said among his early observations, after two decades at the NFL, was the strength and momentum of the PGA Tour. 'My key takeaway when you boil all this down is that the strength of the PGA Tour is strong, but there's much more we need to do, much more we need to change for the benefit of fans, players, and our partners,' he said. He said the committee would be guided by parity (he conceded golf already has that), scarcity, and simplicity. The tour released a 2026 schedule on Tuesday that adds another $20 million signature event, this one to Trump National Doral, as part of a 35-event schedule from January through August. Rolapp said the simplicity was mostly about connecting the regular season to the postseason. Advertisement He referred to the committee's work as a 'holistic relook of how we compete on the tour' during the regular season, postseason and offseason. 'The goal is not incremental change,' he said. 'The goal is significant change.' He did not set a timetable for any of it. The Tour Championship ends this week at East Lake for the top 30 players. The tour has eliminated the built-in advantage for top seeds so that everyone starts from scratch. Rolapp said he had a lot of ideas on how to the use the Strategic Sports Group money but none he was ready to share. But he said the involvement of SSG was a big reason he took the job. 'Not only does it provide necessary capital as we work through this competitive model and improved commercial model, I also think it also brings learnings from other sports, which I think is beneficial ... to grow the PGA Tour. 'I think outside perspective is always a very good thing, as long as it's applied in the right way. I think SSG has brought that and has been helpful.'
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Scottie Scheffler inspired by Tiger Woods, but doesn't feel worthy to comparisons to him
Scheffler was amazed by the only time he played with him in a tournament, a moment nearly five years ago that shaped the way the 29-year-old from Dallas now dominates his sport. It was the final round of the Masters in November 2020, both of them 11 shots out of the lead with no chance to win. What stands out from that autumn Sunday was Woods making a 10 on the par-3 12th hole and then made birdie on five of his last six holes. Advertisement Scheffler remembers the opening hole just as well. As he looks back to the start of his pro career, Scheffler felt he was guilty of not giving himself enough chances at winning and rarely being in the final group. 'I always found myself just a little bit on the outside looking in, and that's one of the things I learned from playing with Tiger,' he said. Advertisement 'We're in 20th place or whatever going into Sunday at the Masters. Tiger has won five Masters, he's got no chance of winning the tournament. Then we showed up on the first hole and I was watching him read his putt, and I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, this guy is in it right now.' 'That was something that I just thought about for a long time,' Scheffler said. 'I felt like a change I needed to make was bringing that same intensity to each round and each shot. And I feel like the reason I've had success in these tournaments is ... just the amount of consistency and the intensity that I bring to each round of golf is not taking shots off, not taking rounds off, not taking tournaments off. 'When I show up at a tournament, I'm here for a purpose and that's to compete hard, and you compete hard on every shot.' That's what golf has witnessed since Scheffler finally broke through at the WM Phoenix Open in 2022, and within two months he was a Masters champion and No. 1 in the world. It doesn't mean he wins every week — golf is still golf, an impossible game to master. This week is an example of that. The change to the format in the Tour Championship puts emphasis on getting to East Lake, and now the top 30 players start from scratch for 72 holes to see who wins the FedEx Cup. Scheffler has no advantage by starting at 10 under par, nor does he have a points advantage. It's a welcome change for most players because they signed off on it. Rory McIlroy, the Masters champion, says he didn't mind the starting strokes because great play should get some reward. Advertisement 'I didn't hate the starting strokes. I thought that the player that played the best during the course of the season should have had an advantage coming in here,' McIlroy said. 'But you could also argue if it was starting strokes this week, Scottie with a two-shot lead, it probably isn't enough considering what he's done this year.' Scheffler started with a two-shot lead each of the last three years and it still took him the third try to win the FedEx Cup. He loves the pressure of competing. And besides, not starting with an advantage is sure to get his attention from the start. He has his caddie, Ted Scott, back on the bag this week after dealing with a family emergency. Scheffler is quick to point out how his career took off when he brought in Scott. This year has been as good as any considering he started late because of hand surgery, and he added the PGA Championship and British Open to his two previous Masters titles. But it's not over yet. Scheffler was reminded of that in 2022 when he lost a six-shot lead in the final round to McIlroy. That was the year he won his first Masters, rose to No. 1 in the world and had four victories. But when he returned home, he was met with condolences for not winning at East Lake. 'It just irked me so bad finishing off the year where guys were like: 'Hey, great playing, I'm sorry about how it ended.' It's like, 'You know what, man, I won the Masters this year, won a few other tournaments.' It was a pretty good year.' Advertisement The tournament starts Thursday. It's already been a good year for Scheffler.
