Growth and Closure
When Bryson DeChambeau and Dude Perfect released the YouTube video of them playing billiards and baseball on Amen Corner, I hated it. The hoity-toity kid in me who was raised at Augusta National and was taught to never even run there, was now watching these guys chuck nerf footballs over Rae’s Creek. I stuck my nose up and refused to listen to anyone saying this was a great way to grow the game. Two years later, I found myself standing on the 10th tee at East Lake Golf Club not only watching, but cheering for those same guys from Dude Perfect as they played in the inaugural Creator Classic.
Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect on his first tee shot in the Creator Classic at the TOUR Championship
“This kind of growth is good. This kind of growth allows us to make a better closure.”
When we arrived at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Cardiology that day, we had every expectation to hear that the size of the hole in our son’s heart was shrinking. Instead, after an echocardiogram lasting over 45-minutes, our pediatric cardiologist told us that his Atrial Septal Defect was actually measuring larger than before.
Once they said the words “heart surgery” in reference to my five-year-old little boy, I basically blacked out. We had another referral appointment with the surgeon, and another appointment for more extensive imaging. We had countless phone calls to the billing department and scheduling department - thankfully locking in a date for the procedure at the brand new Arthur M. Blank Hospital. Through it all, they’ve told us repeatedly that his imaging is “textbook” and that we really “lucked out” finding this when we did. But I questioned them, “I thought we wanted the size of the hole to go down? Why are y’all so pleased that the hole grew?” That’s when they told us that yes, this growth did mean we’d face some pain. But the way the hole grew actually would allow for a better closure.
The conversation around “growing the game” has been going on for years now. In February of 2023, former professional golfer Frank Nobilo said, "We hear that phrase 'grow the game.' I'm sort of sick of it to be honest. In my opinion there's only three people who have grown the game: Arnold Palmer, Ballesteros and Tiger Woods. But from a professional point of view, no one has put more money in his fellow professionals' pockets than Tiger Woods."
And while it’s undeniably true that Tiger Woods changed the game of golf, he also changed the demographics of the average golf fan. But unfortunately Tiger isn’t playing many tournaments these days, and if he does we’re lucky to get a glimpse of him on the weekends. So if the majority of current golf fans are here because of Tiger, and we’re barely getting Tiger, what do you do to keep drawing them in?
This is where Netflix’s Full Swing comes into play. This is where YouTube golf makes a big impact. This is where TGL will move the needle. This is where more coverage of the LPGA and amateur competitions, including the Drive, Chip, and Putt, make a difference. The PGA Tour doesn’t want to - or need to be - their competition’s “golf, but louder” aesthetic to reach a broader audience. As we saw with The Creator Classic and the number of fans who came out to watch these YouTube golfers play at EastLake, the audiences are already there. The PGA Tour is now starting to make sure there’s an association between those two brands.
Some would argue that bringing that kind of growth into the game of golf is bad. But those are the ones who complain that they can’t get a tee time anymore, or the ones who will complain if you have a bluetooth speaker on your golf cart. Or the ones who complain that they don’t get to see Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods or Fred Couples play enough anymore.
But others would say that growth is good - especially for The Tour. The kids and teenagers who show up to a tournament just because their favorite YouTuber is playing in a nine-hole mini tournament at the end-of-the day, they’re still getting to see other PGA Tour professionals during the day while they’re there.
On Wednesday during the TOUR Championship, there was a dad standing near the Kids Zone watching his son get autographs from players. After each one the son (probably age 12?) would come running back and say, “Who was that?” and the dad would tell him. The kid had on a “Good Good” hat and I later saw him getting a picture with BustaJack. While he clearly bought a ticket for the YouTubers, he was still learning and becoming a fan of the pros while he was there.
That kid may never get to see Tiger Woods play golf, but he is going to be watching golf. And while it is a growth that comes with some uncomfortable change, it’s the best kind of growth to allow for closure.
In 2022 when that Dude Perfect video came out, I was still heavily grieving the unexpected loss of my grandfather. He passed 10 days before my son was born, and I was still harboring a fury that the two of them would never meet much less play a round of golf together or go to The Masters together. We never knew when that last time was going to be the last time, we never got any closure.
So when that video hit, I recognized that this was a shift for golf. But that also meant saying goodbye and closing the door on something I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to yet. The memories and experiences and traditions that I held onto so dearly with my grandfather. That was all I knew of golf at the time. I was so scared that if I embraced this new “growth” it would mean forgetting everything I had with him.
But as I’ve taken my son to the Drive, Chip, and Putt and handed out friendship bracelets, or watched some of the skills in a Dude Perfect video he asked if he could try, or stood next to him at a tournament as he cheered for Billy Horschel and Keegan Bradley - I’ve realized that I could never forget. Because all of the golf experiences that I get to have with my son today are because of what I had with my grandfather. This new growth that we see today, is because of how great it was before.
And my son may never get to watch Tiger Woods play golf with my grandpa, but he is watching golf. And while that growth comes with some pain, it’s the kind of growth that gives closure.
