PGA Tour has qualifying event where influencers and YouTubers get chance to earn Myrtle Beach Classic spot
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The worlds of golf and social media regularly mix, but could we see an influencer get the chance to tee it up in a PGA Tour event this season?
The PGA Tour’s inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic takes place at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in South Carolina from May 9-12, live on Sky Sports, with the tournament featuring one-of-a-kind qualifying event to fill one to the spots in the field.
Organisers have launched “The Q at Myrtle Beach”, an 18-hole competition on Monday March 4, with the event seeing eight of the sport’s most prominent golf content creators and eight professionals compete for one PGA Tour exemption.
All professional and amateur competitors meet PGA Tour regulations for sponsor exemptions, which require a USGA handicap of 0.0 or better, with all of them eligible to tee it up on the PGA Tour should they qualify.
The influencer-half of the field includes George Bryan of Bryan Bros Golf, Luke Kwon of Good Good Golf and former Good Good members Micah Morris and Grant Horvat, whose have huge presences on YouTube and TikTok respectively.
Nick Stubbe, better known as Fat Perez from the YouTube profile Bob Does Sports, appears, as does UK-based golf influencer Peter Finch and journalist Dan Rapaport.
A 90-minute video about the event will be released on Play Golf Myrtle Beach’s YouTube page on April 23, with creators then posting content on their respective channels documenting their experiences.
A good move or a marketing gimmick?
The decision to have such a limited qualifying event divided opinion on social media, although bunkered.co.uk editor Michael McEwan told the Sky Sports Golf podcast why he supports the PGA Tour’s move.
“It’s an absolutely brilliant idea,” McEwan said. “They’re not taking a spot away from anybody. There’s a certain number of places in the field and there’s always only a certain number of players who get in through their rankings or whatever.
“There’s usually a couple of spaces put aside for tournament invites. It’s the same principle as the Ryder Cup – if you don’t get one of the automatic spaces, you can’t very well complain when you don’t get one of the wildcards.
“There’s a way to get in, and that’s by playing consistently good golf. That gets you up the standings and you don’t need to worry about invites to anyone else, you will play your way in over a period of time, so this is not taking anyone’s spot.
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“It shows a bit of savvy from the PGA Tour. They have clocked the fact that YouTube golf has sky-rocketed in terms of interest. There are people who have got YouTube channels, solely about golf, who have bigger followings than nearly every other professional golfer out there.
“The tour needs eyeballs, the tour needs to bring a new audience because it has been threatened in a way that it has never been threatened before, so this to me feels like a stroke of genius.
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“I think it’s a great idea. It’s no different to Tony Romo getting a spot or Steph Curry getting a spot. All the guys are very capable golfers, so good luck to each and every one of them.”
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