Golf media has experienced its fair share of disruption in recent years. However, one of the primary disruptors in the space is now teaming up with a legacy golf brand.
On Wednesday evening, Golf Channel will air the Good Good Desert Knockout, a live competition featuring the popular YouTube golf crew Good Good that will employ a unique format that might be unfamiliar to the average golf fan.
Twelve teams of two will compete in a “knockout” competition in which players are eliminated if they card the worst score on a given hole. The tournament continues until there’s one single team remaining.
Golf Channel’s George Savaricas will be on the call for the event, and when asked how he prepares for a unique format like this, he talked about leaning into what makes this event special.
“It’s so contrary to a standard week with what I’m accustomed to on the PGA Tour,” Savaricas told Awful Announcing. “It’s kind of referencing what the conversation has been on either social media or YouTube circles that is additive to the broadcast. Just to make sure…that I’m speaking directly to the audience, to things that they’re familiar with or that bring added context to who these people are and why they have a following.”
That following is quite large, and undoubtedly skews much younger than a traditional Golf Channel viewer. Good Good sports over 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube, nearly a million on Instagram, and over half a million on TikTok. They regularly post unique challenges and competitions to their platforms, sometimes featuring other professional golfers or celebrities. But make no mistake, the men that make up the Good Good brand are the true stars.
Last year, when Good Good ran this event for the first time, 2,500 people showed up in horrible weather to watch their favorite YouTube golfers compete in person.
“I had no grasp of just how sticky the audience is for Good Good,” Savaricas, who also called last year’s event, said. “I was talking with three guys, and they had drove up from Las Cruces, New Mexico, it was a six-hour drive, to watch the event and drive back that night. That’s when it really resonated with me just how diehard their audience is.”
Golf Channel hopes that by introducing Good Good viewers to the network, they can perhaps breed the next generation of Golf Channel viewers. Conversely, Good Good is being introduced to an entirely new audience, one that may not be accustomed to consuming golf content in places like YouTube.
Tom Knapp, EVP of Golf for NBC Sports, spoke to the mutually beneficial nature of the partnership.
“More than anything golf is a lifestyle, and it’s a lifestyle that has evolved very quickly. YouTube has provided today’s younger generation of golfers with an opportunity to form their own golf communities through creating and streaming really fun content, and they have a connection that is very real. We think that’s absolutely great and we’ve embraced what they’re doing.
“More young adults are participating in golf than ever before and Good Good has invited us into their community. Today’s Good Good/YouTube golf fans are tomorrow’s C-level executives and business decision-makers. Our partnership will provide Good Good with exposure to the Golf Channel audience, which is known to be the most impactful and influential audience in the country. Our partnership is truly mutually beneficial.”
Cross-collaboration in media is generally a net positive for those involved, but this tie-up is especially so. It’s difficult to find two more distinctive audiences that both share a common interest in the type of content they’re consuming; Good Good, with their young and online audience, and Golf Channel, with their older and linear-focused audience. Both groups are already inclined to consume golf content, but the likelihood that either is familiar with the other is lower than it should be.
At the end of the day, both audiences want to watch golf. And there are probably people in both audiences that would consume content produced by the other entity.
There’s probably no better way to attract fans outside of your primary demographics than a collaboration such as this. So the next time you get paired with a 55-year-old man at your local muni talking about what the Good Good boys are doing, you’ll know why.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.