PGA Tour players are still the stars of the sport in most people’s eyes, but there’s also a new generation of YouTube golf fans.
From Rick Shiels to Peter Finch, there are so many content creators these days with huge audiences – many of which prefer watching them to the pro game.
Justin Thomas played with YouTube golf’s biggest name, Grant Horvat, in a pro-am recently and it took him by surprise.
Horvat is an excellent golfer, but what Thomas described as ‘mind-blowing’ about the experience had absolutely nothing to do with his game”
Justin Thomas couldn’t believe what happened when playing with Grant Horvat
PGA Tour players often take part in pro-ams with content creators, athletes, celebrities and people from all walks of life.
Thomas said on the Throwbacks podcast that he played alongside Horvat not long ago and was amazed at the support he received.
He explained: “I played a pro-am with Grant Horvat, who is a Youtuber and a great player out in Phoenix and it was mind-blowing the amount of people who were yelling at him.
“I was like, ‘Dude, don’t take this the wrong way, but I can’t believe how many people know who you are out here.’ I was like, ‘It’s unbelievable!’
“It is just weird for me, so I can imagine the generation that was out on Tour before me thinking it’s even weirder, like this is just where everything is going. Everything is streaming, you’re having football games on Amazon or Paramount Plus or ESPN plus, and guys wearing microphones and stuff.”
Indeed, Horvat is more popular than most PGA Tour players, especially with younger golf fans.
For context, he has 828,000 followers on Instagram. Whereas, Xander Schauffele has 490k and Ludvig Aberg has 391k.
Justin Thomas says what it’s like to feature in Netflix’s Full Swing
In the same episode, Thomas also shared his thoughts on being featured in the Netflix documentary Full Swing.
The series follows several golfers throughout the PGA Tour season and broadcasts not only their golf but also their personal lives, which Thomas isn’t too keen on.
“Full Swing is interesting because it’s great, and we have gained a lot of fans because of it,” Thomas said. “But as somebody who is on it, I want to keep my personal life and my wife and family out of it.
“Obviously it’s their show, so they would rightfully love to film us. They would do anything I would allow, but for us personally I am like, ‘Hey guys, my wife does not need to sit down and do an interview. She does not want to. We want to keep this part of our life separate.’
“So once you get to a certain point, you get that I am not that interesting, I play golf 25 weeks of the year and when I’m not, I’m still practicing.
“But as a sports fan, I am watching these other documentaries on the wide receivers or the NHL and it’s so awesome. I’m like, that’s so cool. I’m a hypocrite! I am the one who almost doesn’t want to give it, but when I watch it, [I love it].
“It’s weird to think that’s what people think about us – the fact that I can have two people that are like, ‘We really loved watching Full Swing and getting to know you guys.’
“It is hard to understand that you guys, or anybody, could think the same about that show as I thought about getting to learn about Deebo Samuel on the Wide Receivers Show. It doesn’t compare to me, but it’s the reality.”
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