The Korn Ferry Tour isn’t exactly a household name with casual sports fans. The professional golf organization that is a step down from the PGA Tour draws most of its support and fandom from hardcore golf fans who are wanting to see the next generation of PGA Tour players who are fine-tuning their game or veterans who are hoping to win back their tour card.
The reality is the Korn Ferry Tour would have to look for creative ways to grow and engage an audience beyond whoever is watching 24/7 coverage of the Golf Channel on their DVRs.
Enter Barstool Sports.
Barstool and the Korn Ferry Tour partnered together on the NV5 Invitational in Chicago. Now the results are in and the Tour seems to be very pleased about the increased traffic, viewership, and average ave of the livestreams.
The KFT’s social channels grew by 220% during the tournament compared to a normal week. Additionally, the KFT’s tab on PGATour.com saw a 98% increase in traffic that week. Overall, 82% of the tournament audience tracked was under 35. The number of total streams for tournament days were not available.
“That 82% is the number I’m really excited about,” KFT President Alex Baldwin told SBJ today. “Traditionally, our media metrics are a lot older than that, so if we can combine this young audience with our other core viewers, that provides partnership opportunities and real value for everyone.”
Baldwin said KFT and Barstool convened in recent days for a tournament debrief and came out of the meeting with a commitment to hold more talks about what a future partnership looks like.
Love or hate Barstool, they certainly have a substantial audience. As a sport, golf needs to do anything and everything to capture younger fans and engage them on new platforms. Given the success of the Barstool partnership for their first event, it’s likely only a matter of time before we see more.