What is Source Golf?
For the second time in as many weeks, the landscape of YouTube Golf has shifted significantly with the official announcement of Source Golf. While the industry has been developing for years, this marks another level of growth, with some of the space's biggest individual stars unifying under a single professional media umbrella.
Source Golf is set to be a centralised network designed to aggregate content and professionalise the way YouTube Golf is sold to advertisers and consumed by fans. The platform is backed by Source Media Group and David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures, which in and of itself is a sign of the growth of YouTube Golf. Blitzer boasts an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion and is managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, so it would be safe to assumption that he has some acuity in the world of business and his involvement in this venture a likely sign of its promise.
The network launches behind three of the biggest stars of the YouTube Golf world in Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat and the Bryan Bros. Collectively, these three channels have racked up over 5 million subscribers and counting, with US Open champion DeChambeau accounting for around half of them.
Okay great, but what the hell does all this actually mean for me?
Alright settle down, we’re getting to that. Basically, not all that much – it’ll just make it a little easier to stay across all the content getting released by the creators in question. There hasn’t exactly been a great deal of clarity about where or how we’ll be accessing this platform, but essentially it means that you won’t have to navigate your way individually to each of these creators’ YouTube channels to find their videos – you’ll still be able to if you want, but it will also be available on a centralised platform, presumably still on YouTube.
The guys involved won’t be creating content specific for this platform. They’ll continue on their merry way posting videos which it appears will still be available on their YouTube channels, but it will be aggregated on Source Golf. Primarily this is an announcement which impacts the business of YouTube Golf rather than its consumers – by centralising the content they’ll be able to sell their content to potential advertisers as a bundle, and have the powers that be in the new network handle that side of their business.
Having a centralised platform for a handful of content creators isn’t an absolute necessity for us as viewers – it’s not all that difficult to jump from Bryson’s channel to the Bryan Bros’ to Grant Horvat’s. But it certainly won’t hurt, and presumably, this network of channels will grow and ultimately form a place where you can easily navigate the plethora of YouTube Golf videos from various creators in one place.
Wait, isn’t this exactly what YT Golf Talk has done with their X account updates?
Hey thanks for noticing, and it is a similar concept, albeit in a completely different ballpark. Our YT Golf Talk X account basically exists for a similar reason - YouTube Golf videos pop up on a variety of different channels, which can make it a little inconvenient to find new one. Having updates every time one drops can save you a bit of trouble and make it easier to find new content, and aggregating all this content into one unified platform is taking this idea another step or ten further. Clearly the ability to sell themselves to advertisers as a bundle is the major incentive behind Source Golf, but the convenience factor for us viewers plays a role too.
Does this have any correlation to ‘Your Golf Tour’?
This launch continues a big couple of weeks for YouTube Golf, and in particular our friends from the Major Cut. Horvat and the Bryan Bros, of course, only last week announced Your Golf Tour, their own creator’s circuit which will see 16 players compete across four events for $1 million, and for which there are big plans for rapid growth in the coming years.
The Source Golf endeavour isn’t directly related to this, but it’s likely no coincidence that two major announcements have come just a week or so apart and it would be a reasonable assumption that the YTG videos will be available on the new platform – probably as well as on the individual channels of Horvat and the Bryan Bros. No longer just a couple of handy golfers filming themselves on the course, these boys have put their savvy business hats on and are taking full advantage of their newfound celebrity status.
YouTube Golf has been growing at a rapid rate for the past few years, and the announcement of both Source Golf and Your Golf Tour are indications of the increasing professionalisation of the industry. Previously just a bunch of cowboys playing golf in the wild west that is YouTube (or something like that), increasingly our favourite creators are joining forces, collaborating rather than competing, and turning YouTube Golf into a far more substantial medium than any of them would have imagined a few short years ago.
