Brilliant or Gimmicky? YouTube Golfers Have a Shot at PGA Tour Event

This sentence would have been unfathomable a few years ago: YouTube golfers are competing for the right to play in a PGA Tour event. 

The Myrtle Beach Classic, taking place May 9-12 in South Carolina, is holding a 16-man qualifier featuring notable YouTube content creators. The low finisher will get a spot in the tournament, which is an opposite-field event being held the same week as the Wells Fargo Championship (the Wells Fargo is a signature event, so all the best players will be in Charlotte). 

The 18-hole qualifier, hosted by Golf Tourism Solutions and Visit Myrtle Beach, will be on March 4 at TPC Myrtle Beach with a 90-minute video of the shootout being released April 23. Some of the participants will be releasing their own individual content from the event, as you would expect. 

No spectators or media will be allowed at the event—the results will be kept under wraps until the video comes out in April.

Is this a brilliant marketing strategy by a first-year PGA Tour event with nothing to lose? Or is this a gimmicky ploy to gain attention while taking a potential spot away from a better player? 

Let’s take a look. 

Who is Playing?

Many of the names on this list are legit players with extensive competitive golf experience. Some are not as battle-tested—but everyone meets PGA Tour regulations for sponsor exemptions, meaning they each have a USGA handicap of 0.0 or better. 

Not all of the players in the qualifier are YouTube golfers. Some are regularly featured in YouTube videos on other channels but don’t have their own content. And some are local standouts who aren’t on YouTube at all. 

• Matt Atkins: Has made 25 PGA Tour starts and won on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017. 
• George Bryan IV: Half of Bryan Bros. Golf and a former All-American at South Carolina. 
• Jay Card III: Has made 39 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour.
• Morgan Deneen: Assistant club pro at Dunes Golf and Beach Club. 
• Peter Finch: A combined 1.25 million subscribers/followers on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and X. 
• Grant Horvat: Formerly of Good Good, has a combined 1.35 million subscribers/followers. 
• Luke Kwon: Member of Good Good, has made over 50 starts in PGA Tour-sanctioned events. 
• Micah Morris: Formerly of Good Good, has more than 1 million subscribers/followers. 
• Turk Pettitt: Won 2021 NCAA Championship while at Clemson. 
• Dan Rapaport: Member of the Fore Play podcast and Barstool Sports. 
• Scott Stevens: Made 21 Korn Ferry Tour starts last year. 
• Nick Stubbe: Known as Fat Perez from Bob Does Sports, has more than 1 million subscribers/followers.
• Tyler Watts: High school sophomore from Alabama who won the Jones Cup Junior Invitational. 
• Jamie Wilson: Former All-SEC golfer from University of South Carolina. 
• Mason Nut or Cole Lantz: BustaJack duo will play each other to see who gets the spot in the qualifier. 

Who will win? Probably Atkins, Stevens or one of the other golfers with a lot of Korn Ferry Tour experience, but you never know what can happen.

What is the Point of This?

I think this is a phenomenal idea. 

Let’s face it, very few of us were going to watch the Myrtle Beach Classic. The field is going to be pretty rough. All of our attention will be on the Wells Fargo that week. 

This spot is for an unrestricted sponsor exemption. Tournaments generally use these on players they think will draw the most fans or generate higher levels of support. It’s the same way guys like Steph Curry, Tony Romo and Jake Owen got invited to pro events. 

It’s good for the tournament to get exposure. That is part of the entertainment product—and the PGA Tour could use all the help it can get in this area. 

A lot of people make the argument that this could take away a spot from a more deserving player. There is merit to that at some level—maybe you believe sponsor exemptions shouldn’t exist at all—but this particular spot would only be going to someone who didn’t earn their way into the tournament. 

Also, the first alternate for this event is probably going to be a 50-year-old former tour winner we haven’t heard of in over a decade. Opposite field events have really struggled to be filled out in recent years. 

At a time when YouTube golf has taken off and is arguably more popular than professional golf depending on how you want to measure that, why wouldn’t a lower-tier PGA Tour event take a chance on something like this? 

Imagine if Fat Perez wins? The hullabaloo around that would be insane. 

The worst-case scenario is that a lesser-known player wins and we still get a ton of interesting content from the qualifier. 

I could definitely see this concept being copied by other events. It’s a little surprising someone hasn’t already done this. 

Hey, we are talking about the Myrtle Beach Classic. That is the entire point.