Why This YouTube Golfer Should Accept His PGA Tour Invite

Last week, Grant Horvat posted a tweet saying he had been invited to play in a PGA Tour event but wasn’t sure he should accept the offer.

It turns out the tournament in question is the Barracuda Championship, an opposite-field event at Old Greenwood in Truckee, Calif. The tournament will be played while the Open Championship is at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.

To me, this is a no-brainer: Horvat should play.

Why YouTube golf sponsor invites are good for golf

There is a lot to unpack here.

The first is that we are all aware professional golf needs as much publicity as it can get. Rory McIlroy’s Masters victory pulled in phenomenal ratings, but the Tour isn’t in a position to rest on its laurels. It needs to fight for every inch when it comes to entertainment value.

Given that is the case, the Tour has moved to a two-tier system where signature events bring the top players together and the rest of the calendar is meant for everyone else to battle for their livelihoods and future spots in the signature events.

Within that structure, sponsor invitations—spots tournaments use to invite popular players for increased exposure—can be tricky.

I have been against guys like Jordan Spieth getting free access into the signature events via sponsor exemptions. Personally, it would be more entertaining for him to earn his way back into those events. It would also help the lower tier of events by having guys like Spieth involved.

But when it comes to the lower tier of Tour events, more aggressive “one-off” sponsor invites make total sense.

There is nothing wrong with inviting a popular figure to play in a tournament. He isn’t taking someone else’s spot and he isn’t going to be a Tour member.

These tournaments are desperate for attention so why wouldn’t you bring him in?

If Horvat plays in the Barracuda Championship, I’m betting more than half the audience tuning in will be doing so to see how the YouTube golf star performs. I would be one of them.

How would Horvat fare if he played?

Honestly? Horvat would probably miss the cut by a wide margin.

He’s a good player but it’s not like he has much (or any) experience at this level. He didn’t even play high-level college golf.

Even with that being the case, Horvat is good enough to be in the field as a promotional tool.

And what if he did make the cut? That would be a story worth writing about.

Regardless, I could see how winners of the Creator Classic (which Horvat recently won at TPC Sawgrass) could get more exemptions into future Tour events. This is along the same lines as the Myrtle Beach Classic qualifier.

Take the immensely popular world of YouTube golf and get those characters involved with the Tour.

It’s also similar to someone like Steph Curry playing in a Korn Ferry Tour event or even an LPGA player like Michelle Wie or Lexi Thompson competing with the men.

It’s not something for every week of the year—but it’s great as a one-off to get more eyeballs on the product.

The responses to Horvat’s tweet say it all: he should play without any regret.

“If you want to play, you should play,” wrote Tour winner Michael Kim. “It’s a sponsor’s invite and any person or maybe even tour pro that wants to tell you that you’re taking a spot or you should ‘earn it’ is total BS.”

“You respect the game, respect the pros and actually have realistic expectations … give it a shot, use it as an experiment on yourself and show the people just how amazingly talented the alt fields are,” wrote Matt Gannon.

Exactly. There is nothing but upside here.

What do you think? Let me know below in the comments.

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