Grant Horvat is one of the best-known golf content creators on the planet, and when it came to prioritizing golf vs. content, he chose the latter.
Horvat, who has nearly 1.4 million YouTube subscribers, recently turned down the PGA Tour’s invite to play the Barracuda Championship at Tahoe Mountain Club. The tournament is an opposite-field event with most of the Tour’s top players set to play The Open Championship, the season’s final major, in Northern Ireland.
Even so, it could have been a good chance for Horvat to reach an even newer audience. Alternatively, the Tour certainly saw some benefit in exposing its product to Horvat’s YouTube subscribers and social media following (he also has more than 950,000 Instagram followers).
Grant Horvat Turns Down PGA Tour Over Content Dispute
Ultimately, though, Horvat turned down the sponsor’s exemption, revealing he had reservations about the Tour’s unwillingness to let his content team film the round.
“The reason I will not be playing in a PGA Tour is due to the rules and regulations around media rights and filming during tournament play of a PGA Tour event. Basically, that means I was not going to be allowed to film my round during tournament play,” Horvat explained in a video on his YouTube page, while sitting in his personalized, monogrammed golf cart. “For me personally, doing YouTube for a living and wanting to document everything I do — this is the reason we got the invite in the first place was because of YouTube and because of the amazing experiences I get to share because of you guys.”
Horvat Hopes for Another Chance to Make PGA Tour Debut
While Horvat won’t be teeing it up at the Barracuda, he’s hopeful he’ll get another chance to make his Tour debut down the road. However, he made it quite clear that has to happen under his terms.
“I am hopeful that sometime in the future we’ll be able to play in a PGA Tour event … and document and film the entire thing to share with you guys because I know what I’d be feeling teeing it up in a PGA Tour event and boy, do I want that on camera,” Horvat said in the video.
Of course, if Horvat were to play in the Barracuda, his play almost certainly would be on camera. To his credit, and at the risk of disrespecting an entire Tour tournament field, having Horvat would be the only draw in an opposite-field event like this. So, while there’s no PGA Tour Live this week, one imagines a good chunk of TV coverage in Rounds 1 and 2 (and beyond if he were to make the cut) would be devoted to Horvat.
Clearly, that wasn’t good enough for Horvat, who has made a wildly impressive living by having control over his content.
“If we’re playing,” he added, “we need to film it to show you guys.”
The rules and regulations Horvat mentions have to be enforced — otherwise, what’s the point? — so some might think it’s slightly out of touch for him to think that wouldn’t apply to him. On the other hand, Horvat’s YouTube video of him playing a Tour event might be the most exposure that tournament has ever received with every one of Horvat’s YouTube videos in the last year getting more than 1 million views.
Horvat and the Tour seemingly have a good relationship. As the Tour leans more into the creator world, there has been opportunities for personalities like Horvat to come on board. He has been part of the Tour’s recent Creator Classic tournaments, and he also did something similar with LIV.
The creator game is exploding right now, as evidenced by Barstool’s Internet Invitational in August in which Horvat will play.
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