Good Good’s Mason Greene Wins ECP Brazil Open
YouTube Golf officially has another pro winner, after Mason Greene carded a final round 67 to win the ECP Brazil Open by two strokes. Greene led for a large portion of the event, with that final round 67 his highest score of the four-round tournament, which he finished on an impressive -22. Leading by a shot from Britain’s Charlie Crockett heading into the final round, Greene showed no signs of nerves as he came out and birdied his first five holes to open up what would ultimately prove to be an unassailable lead.
Greene, of course, has made a name for himself in the world of YouTube Golf through his appearances on the Good Good channel. Though not a regular, the 25-year-old has been on numerous videos alongside Garrett Clark, and as a member of the Good Good Pros cohort alongside Dalke, Walsh and co. He’s far from the biggest personality on the channel – both in terms of how often he appears on it, and his personality itself – but he has appeared increasingly comfortable in front of the camera with each appearance and has been generally very well-received by the YouTube Golf viewing public.
The victory is a significant achievement for Greene, who has openly admitted he considered quitting the game partway through his five years playing at UCLA. It was only two weeks ago that he qualified for the PGA Tour Americas, a feeder tour for the Korn Ferry Tour which is in turn a feeder tour for the PGA Tour itself. The win nets him $40,500 USD – not a patch on what’s on offer at the higher levels but a big number for someone a couple of tiers from the top – and, perhaps more importantly, puts him in a great position to continue to advance up the rungs of professional golf.
At the conclusion of the PGA Tour Americas season, which entails 15 events, the top 10 points earners receive Korn Ferry Tour membership for the following season (in turn, the top 20 players at the conclusion of each Korn Ferry Tour season receive PGA Tour cards). This victory yields Greene 500 points and puts him in a great early position to compete for those spots. Any player who wins three PGA Tour Americas events in a single season also earns automatic qualification to the Korn Ferry Tour, effective from the following week.
So most importantly, what does this all mean for Mason’s YouTube Golf career? Unfortunately for those who enjoyed seeing him as a part-time Good Good member, it probably gives him good reason to focus on his professional career rather than his YouTube one, though his qualification for the PGA Tour Americas season a couple of weeks ago had done that anyone. The season runs through until October, but the tour has plenty of weekends off during that time so it would be no great surprise to see him pop up on another video or two throughout the course of the year.
YouTube Golf and professional golf are often seen as being in direct competition with one another, but this victory is a good example of how interest in one can generate interest in the other. As good as the golfers on the PGA Tour Americas are, it’s not typically a tour in which the average golf fan pays a great deal of attention. But with the well-liked Greene’s early-season victory, the tour can expect a whole new cohort of followers for the remainder of the year.
