The Creator Classic, a golf event featuring social media personalities, was held last summer for the first time at the Tour Championship to rave reviews. It will return at THE PLAYERS. And it’s the first of three Creator Classics for 2025.
Last summer’s event featured 16 participants who played the first eight holes of East Lake Golf Club’s back nine on the Wednesday before the Tour Championship. Then there was a cut from 16 to the top four at that point, and those at the top played the final hole to determine the winner.
Participating in the inaugural event were the Bryan Brothers (Wesley and George), Aimee Cho, Gabby Golf Girl (who is just 16, maybe 17 by now), Mac Boucher, Peter Finch, Luke Kwon, Micah Morris, Mason Nutt, Fat Perez (No, that’s not a typo!), Tyler Tony from Dude Perfect, Roger Steele, Paige Spiranac and three of the Good Good guys: Garrett Clark, Brad Dalke and Sean Walsh.
According to the PGA Tour, there are 20 content creators in total who will participate during the year. So not everybody will be in all three events.
CBS’s Mark Immelman was on-camera talent for the first Classic and did a good job of highlighting the talents of each golfer and remarking on their social media presence. He was joined by Jake Marsh, part of the Pardon My Take podcast (Barstool).
The final four who emerged to play the sudden death hole, the 18th, were Wesley Bryan, Roger Steele, Sean Walsh and Luke Kwon. Two women, Paige Spiranac and Gabby (Gabby Golf Girl) DeGasperis finished in the top 10.
“The inaugural Creator Classic served as a valuable testing ground as we look at new ways to connect with fans and creators,” said Chris Wandell, PGA Tour senior vice president, media.
Amazingly, last fall’s Creator Classic, which featured 16 of the most popular YouTube golf creators, had more than 2.6 million views on the combination of PGA Tour YouTube channel, ESPN+, Peacock and PGA Tour FAST.
The competition had staying power for fans, too, and was the No. 2 trending video on YouTube, reaching just under 60 million golf fans in all social media for a four-week time period. This is one time when having presence on social media for a long period of time paid off!
THE PLAYERS version of Creator Classic will be streamed live on the PGA Tour’s YouTube channel and ESPN+. In addition, it will be available on the PGA Tour channel on Pluto TV, Roku, Samsung TV Plus, Prime Video, Fire TV, Tubi, Xumo Play and LG Channels and NBC platforms. The Creator Classic at THE PLAYERS will utilize ShotLink and CDW scoring and data.
Anyone with a ticket for Wednesday’s PLAYERS or PLAYERS Practice Round will be able to watch the event in person. As with everything for THE PLAYERS, arrange your digital parking in advance. When parking is gone, it’s gone.
However, there will be more Creator Classics. Enough fans watched the first event to justify having more of them. In addition to the event at THE PLAYERS, there will also be one at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the 2025 host of the Truist Championship and at The 2025 Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
For the latest on the Creator Classic, click HERE.
