Grant Horvat not playing in the Barracuda

[WesternRacing]

1 minute ago, Yuck said:

A lot of comments here from folks who are not familiar with Grant’s content.  His ‘persona” is not arrogant in the least, nor is he delusional about his playing agility.  He is a solid AM and has played with enough tour players to know how big the gap for is for him.  Also, I don’t think embarrassment is a big concern of his.

 

Then why not play in the event?  It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, for a truly skilled golfer to play in a professional tournament against some of the best players in the world.  Why not take it?

 

The only answer is that either a) he knows he’ll schnit the bed and embarrass himself or b) he knows that (a) is true and also that it will be a bad business decision for his YT channel.

 

Why on earth would you NOT take a sponsor’s exemption into a pro tournament if you are a highly skilled golfer, other than because you felt you were gonna embarrass yourself?

[Shilgy]

13 minutes ago, WesternRacing said:

 

Then why not play in the event?  It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, for a truly skilled golfer to play in a professional tournament against some of the best players in the world.  Why not take it?

 

The only answer is that either a) he knows he’ll schnit the bed and embarrass himself or b) he knows that (a) is true and also that it will be a bad business decision for his YT channel.

 

Why on earth would you NOT take a sponsor’s exemption into a pro tournament if you are a highly skilled golfer, other than because you felt you were gonna embarrass yourself?

I will add to @Yuck what is a “solid am”?
 

2025 Arizona Amateur Strokeplay scoring. 72.2/130

https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/5082063

[PedronNiall]

5 hours ago, BSI99 said:

Tour viewership is the highest its been in years. And they've done it without youtubers.

 

5 hours ago, Sixcat said:

YouTube golf viewership is the highest its been in years. And they've done it without the Tour.

 

Imagine what they could do if they worked together?

 

You're both incorrect. The Tour, NBC/Peacock, and a number of YouTubers have collaborated in multiple ways in recent years. Content creators have been invited to play in Tour-connected events the week of tournaments multiple times now with them being carried on TGC and later shown on YouTube. Peacock has carried a number of Good Good and other tournaments live and OnDemand. Next year will be year three of The Q at Myrtle Beach offering a path into a Tour event, year one of which saw one of the Bryans make it in. The Bryans are no longer involved because of choices they've made, but that's life. All of the partner events have allowed creators to have their crews present. The only exception has been during the actual Myrtle Beach Classic due to the media deal already in place. 

 

Both the Tour and YouTube golf have benefited from working with one another. That Horvat thinks he's special enough to reshape billion dollar deals around his wants is comical, and it shows that he doesn't understand there's give and take in all these things. If he wants to foot the millions in direct and logistical costs to run a tournament at the level of the Tour then he can set the ground rules. Until and unless he does he's going to have to live with missing out because he insists on doing it his own way. Or he could live in reality and handle negotiations intelligently as other entities have when wanting to use Tour footage. No one's fault but his he's being short-sighted about the opportunity.

 

What's also clear is his aspiration to play Tour golf isn't the priority he claimed it was. 

[Mr.Cleeks]

1 hour ago, WesternRacing said:

 

No, they won’t.  Go do some research on how much those YouTube channels make and then compare it to how much the major broadcast networks make in advertising during a PGATour broadcast.  Hint, one is pennies and the other is thousand dollar bills.

 

Again, I don’t think most people realize how little money is actually made by these YouTubers off the video itself.  It’s peanuts.

I'm pretty sure Grant is doing just fine financially. He's sponsored by Taylormade, Primo and has a stake in Takoma. 

[WesternRacing]

The PGA Tour makes $700 million a year for its broadcast rights. It’s not going to negotiate a special exclusion for a YouTuber making a couple mil a year at best.  And I seriously doubt that any of the major networks are going to agree to a deal that carves out the right for some YouTuber to monetise the video of the tournaments. The entitlement reeking out of these guys is comical.  I’m sure a mil or two a year is big money to Horvat.  To the Tour it’s couch cushion money.

[Chunked]

The tournament invited him. So clearly he was important enough for them to ask him to play in their tournament. 
 

The only reason they invited him was because of his YouTube presence, so it seems to me that the pga tour is making a stupid decision to not capitalize on the very thing that got him invited. 
 

They wanted his viewers to watch their tournament, yet they weren’t going to let him use that content to bring his viewers to the tournament. 
 

From everything I’m reading Grant doesn’t need to donate his time to help promote the pga tour. That’s not going to benefit him in anyway. 

[WesternRacing]

41 minutes ago, Mr.Cleeks said:

I'm pretty sure Grant is doing just fine financially. He's sponsored by Taylormade, Primo and has a stake in Takoma. 

But that’s not revenue for the media rights that would flow to the PGA Tour, so it’s totally irrelevant.  The sad reality of all the debate about the YouTubers and the LIVers is that most of the people commenting on it have no clue about the business/finance side of things. For those of us who do, it’s painful to listen to all the wacky opinions that have no basis whatsoever in fiscal reality.  YouTube is NOT the money printing gold mine that people seem to think it is.  One million views is worth between $1k and $10k to the content creator.  Given the time and costs of producing a video that will deliver one million views, the profit on that is immaterial.  Won’t get the average business professional out of bed.  The personal sponsorship is a different story, a little more lucrative. But that’s won’t accrue to a partner like the PGA Tour.  The Tour has THE SINGLE MOST VALUABLE DEMOGRAPHIC in hand through its network agreements.  The idea that it would cannibalize that for some rando YouTuber is beyond comical.

 

[Chunked]

1 minute ago, WesternRacing said:

But that’s not revenue for the media rights that would flow to the PGA Tour, so it’s totally irrelevant.  The sad reality of all the debate about the YouTubers and the LIVers is that most of the people commenting on it have no clue about the business/finance side of things. For those of us who do, it’s painful to listen to all the wacky opinions that have no basis whatsoever in fiscal reality.  YouTube is NOT the money printing gold mine that people seem to think it is.  One million views is worth between $1k and $10k to the content creator.  Given the time and costs of producing a video that will deliver one million views, the profit on that is immaterial.  Won’t get the average business professional out of bed.  The personal sponsorship is a different story, a little more lucrative. But that’s won’t accrue to a partner like the PGA Tour.  The Tour has THE SINGLE MOST VALUABLE DEMOGRAPHIC in hand through its network agreements.  The idea that it would cannibalize that for some rando YouTuber is beyond comical.

 

Yet the tour invited that rando to play in their tournament because they wanted to attract his audience. 

[WesternRacing]

1 minute ago, Chunked said:

The tournament invited him. So clearly he was important enough for them to ask him to play in their tournament. 
 

The only reason they invited him was because of his YouTube presence, so it seems to me that the pga tour is making a stupid decision to not capitalize on the very thing that got him invited. 
 

 

 

The Tour CAN’T grant him those rights, as they’ve already sold them to the networks.  Legally, their hands are tied.  And Horvat should have known that if he had even and ounce of business savvy/knowledge in his body. If I was his advisor, the first thing I would have said to him was ‘you know that they can’t let you film this, right?’

[WesternRacing]

1 minute ago, Chunked said:

Yet the tour invited that rando to play in their tournament because they wanted to attract his audience. 

 

To ‘play in the tournament’.  Not to ‘film the tournament and monetize the content.’  Do you understand the difference?

 

Oh, and, minor detail….but you understand that the Tour didn’t invite him, the sponsor did, right?  The PGA Tour doesn’t control the sponsor exemptions, the sponsor does.

[Chunked]

3 minutes ago, WesternRacing said:

 

To ‘play in the tournament’.  Not to ‘film the tournament and monetize the content.’  Do you understand the difference?

 

Oh, and, minor detail….but you understand that the Tour didn’t invite him, the sponsor did, right?  The PGA Tour doesn’t control the sponsor exemptions, the sponsor does.

Well then the sponsor felt he was good for their investment. Either way, somebody somewhere saw that he brings value to them. Yall keep acting like he was the benefactor of the invite when it was the other way around. They wanted him to bring his audience to their event. 

[Chunked]

5 minutes ago, WesternRacing said:

 

To ‘play in the tournament’.  Not to ‘film the tournament and monetize the content.’  Do you understand the difference?

 

Oh, and, minor detail….but you understand that the Tour didn’t invite him, the sponsor did, right?  The PGA Tour doesn’t control the sponsor exemptions, the sponsor does.

Total BS. The pga tour has tons of YouTube content. They could have come up with something. They chose to not try. More of the same dumb crap they do where the pga tour struggles to get out of its own way to grow its audience. 

[Pnwpingi210]

Just now, Chunked said:

Total BS. The pga tour has tons of YouTube content. They could have come up with something. They chose to not try. More of the same dumb crap they do where the pga tour struggles to get out of its own way to grow its audience. 

Right, but the pga tour owns the content they have in YouTube.  They are not going to give that to Grant Horvat for free.  It also sets a precedent since they don’t even let their players/members film content.

 

im guessing the marginal increase in views the pga tour would get from 4–16 yr olds that don’t watch pga tour golf (im guessing more young adults to adults the consumer Horvata content consume some pga tour content already) just isn’t a valuable commodity in their eyes….

[Mr.Cleeks]

11 minutes ago, WesternRacing said:

But that’s not revenue for the media rights that would flow to the PGA Tour, so it’s totally irrelevant.  The sad reality of all the debate about the YouTubers and the LIVers is that most of the people commenting on it have no clue about the business/finance side of things. For those of us who do, it’s painful to listen to all the wacky opinions that have no basis whatsoever in fiscal reality.  YouTube is NOT the money printing gold mine that people seem to think it is.  One million views is worth between $1k and $10k to the content creator.  Given the time and costs of producing a video that will deliver one million views, the profit on that is immaterial.  Won’t get the average business professional out of bed.  The personal sponsorship is a different story, a little more lucrative. But that’s won’t accrue to a partner like the PGA Tour.  The Tour has THE SINGLE MOST VALUABLE DEMOGRAPHIC in hand through its network agreements.  The idea that it would cannibalize that for some rando YouTuber is beyond comical.

 

The PGAT doesn't care about how much money Grant makes off a video. The sponsors see Grant as a medium to attract a larger audience to an otherwise sleepy event opposite a major. I'm surprised Grant thought he could just waltz on over to Tahoe and record without any issues. Whoever was advising him on this should be fired. 

[Pnwpingi210]

4 minutes ago, Mr.Cleeks said:

The PGAT doesn't care about how much money Grant makes off a video. The sponsors see Grant as a medium to attract a larger audience to an otherwise sleepy event opposite a major. I'm surprised Grant thought he could just waltz on over to Tahoe and record without any issues. Whoever was advising him on this should be fired. 

It might sell a few more tickets cause maybe a few adolescents ask to go to the tournament with dad… but most of the attention comes via the content and pundits talking about it.

 

The bigger issues is the precedent it sets.  Right now the tour owns players media rights for the tourney.  If they give Horvat an exception they going to have to give their member the ability to do the same.

 

[Frank Newport]

Wait. You guys are watching amateurs play recreational golf on the internet? Why?

[Frank Newport]

Copy

Edited July 16 by Frank Newport

[Frank Newport]

W

Edited July 16 by Frank Newport

[Lord Viking]

18 minutes ago, Frank Newport said:

Wait. You guys are watching amateurs play recreational golf on the internet? Why?

Entertainment with some is excellent. 

You'll see a side of the pros that play with them that you'd never see anywhere else.  Phil, JT, Rahm are entertaining as hell out there.

Tiger, DJ & Nelly are actually pretty boring when they're not hitting great golf shots.

You either love golf or you dont. 

Watch whatever you want

[Celeras]

2 hours ago, jimecherry said:

finally found a gif that perfectly encapsulates this thread

 

 

 

 

[mukster]

This thread has kept my attention for far longer than whether GH is going to play in the PGAT event or not 😁

[Frank Newport]

45 minutes ago, Lord Viking said:

Entertainment with some is excellent. 

You'll see a side of the pros that play with them that you'd never see anywhere else.  Phil, JT, Rahm are entertaining as hell out there.

Tiger, DJ & Nelly are actually pretty boring when they're not hitting great golf shots.

You either love golf or you dont. 

Watch whatever you want

Sadly I don’t have time to watch anything. I’m too busy shitposting on this website.

[CWT33]

Could you imagine two days of actual golf that he can’t control and doesn’t film? God forbid… 

 

I’m sure he plays church charity scrambles by the dozen every year. This is pure posturing because he has everything to lose. no chance he makes the cut. 
 

Better to not know and keep everyone guessing, but what balls to expect that he could film a pga tournament event with his own crew. Bush league psych out stuff

[Ferguson]

17 hours ago, hawkeye13 said:

I'm a fan of grant and would like to see him play. That said he is delusional for thinking he deserve some special ability to record a YouTube circus during the tournament. That would be a huge disservice to his playing partners. I think he is scared to play it anyways, he has always mentioned the competitive tournament nerves made him lose love for the game.

 

 

 

Two Haweyes? 

 

 

[dcmidnight]

How long before LIV signs him to play in an event with Phil and there's a big video series about it?

 

No cut to worry about. And frankly, I bet he could finish top half in the field.

 

Say what you want about Rick Shiels but he turned his YT popularity into a big fat bag - and he doesnt even play good golf. No reason Grant couldn't do the same. 
 

And if that was his plan all along, he's now built a villain into the story.

Edited July 16 by dcmidnight

[bcjim]

And he could still make plenty of content about it.  If he played ok,  it would be huge for him. 

 

The only logical conclusion,  imo, is he doesn’t want to risk shooting an embarrassing number.

[bcjim]

45 minutes ago, Ferguson said:

 

 

Two Haweyes? 

 

 

[Tpbiker]

I watch alot of YouTube golf and have seen alot of Grant's stuff. Got to say I'm disappointed by this. 

 

Firstly did he seriously think he'd be allowed to film his round? If so he's getting above his station. He clearly could have still made a great video based around his experience and the outcome, but for whatever reason he didn't

 

Grant always harks on about how grateful he is to his subscribers/fans, yet I'm pretty sure he's disappointed a large proportion of these by not taking on the challenge and letting us know how he did...me included

 

As much as I enjoy his other content, I'd love to have seen how a top youtube golfer (who despite what some say is a damn good player) got on in a pga event. I suspect he may well have come dead last but it would have been interesting to see by how much nevertheless 

 

 

[SnowbirdTom]

8 hours ago, Chunked said:

The tournament invited him. So clearly he was important enough for them to ask him to play in their tournament. 
 

The only reason they invited him was because of his YouTube presence, so it seems to me that the pga tour is making a stupid decision to not capitalize on the very thing that got him invited. 
 

They wanted his viewers to watch their tournament, yet they weren’t going to let him use that content to bring his viewers to the tournament. 
 

From everything I’m reading Grant doesn’t need to donate his time to help promote the pga tour. That’s not going to benefit him in anyway. 

 

The tour owns the video rights exclusively. To let others televise the content violates their contract with the broadcasters who paid dearly for the exclusivity.

[iBanesto]

12 hours ago, WHC888 said:

He starts getting annoying, every video, after every shot he acted surprised that he didn't holed the shot. 

 

He is quite bland to be honest.

 

Most of questions he asks the pros are quite banal which shows he doesn't have much knowledge about the history of the game. Lost of opportunity to get more of an insight into these great players.