ATLANTA — It wasn’t significantly classic, and it didn’t feature a lot of creativity, but in the end, there was a worthy winner.
The inaugural Creator Classic on Wednesday at East Lake Golf Club on the eve of the Tour Championship seemed like a great idea to showcase golf in a different way. But the 16 participants, a collection of many of the world’s best golf content creators, actually came to compete and not necessarily to entertain. To that end, they succeeded with some quality golf. But their seriousness demeanors kind of got in the way of showcasing why they were invited in the first place.
Isn’t serious golf supposed to come Thursday when the PGA Tour’s season-ending $100 million Tour Championship commences?
Still, the affair was largely a success because good golf always gets appreciated.
A proper champion was crowned in Luke Kwon, a former winner on PGA Tour China, who birdied the final hole to win the four-man shootout. Kwon, 31, sank a 10-footer on the par-five 18th hole to beat Wesley Bryan, Sean Walsh and long-hitting Roger Steele. Kwon won a handsome cup and a 36-inch griddle from Blackstone, the sponsor of the event.
The competitive format was eight holes of stroke play with the four lowest scorers advancing to a one-hole shootout. Bryan, the favorite as a former PGA Tour winner, was medalist at two under, while the other three men finished one under. Bryan said he might give up golf if he didn’t win, but chances are he’ll be battling again on the tour in the near future.
Kwon started the day with a double bogey on the 10th and had to sink a nine-footer for par on the 17th hole to make the final four and avoid a chip-off with three others who were in at even par. “It’s really cool to win because these are some of the biggest creators out there,” said Kwon, a former University of Oklahoma standout turned solo influencer. “Being able to win the first one is very special.”
Recognizing the value of content creators in golf, the PGA Tour organized the Creator Classic and made it a first-class venture with coverage on its YouTube channel. At its peak, more than 105,000 people tuned in on YouTube while NBC’s Peacock and ESPN+ also aired the broadcast to add more potential viewers. About 2,000 fans populated the gallery on a searing-hot afternoon.
Because it sanctioned the event, the PGA Tour also had rules officials on hand and the broadcast included technical enhancements such as Shot Tracer and ShotLink data.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan earlier in the day championed the organization’s embrace of new voices and storytellers in golf. Thus, the decision to host the Creator Classic. The creators were appreciative of the gesture.
“There’s really no place for our followers to watch us in person, so to have this opportunity for us to be together in a competitive setting where they can see all of us at the same time is unlike anything we ever expected,” Paige Spiranic, the most popular influencer in the golf sphere with nearly 10 million followers on Instagram, said after shooting a respectable two over par. “I think it’s special for us and special for them. It’s just been a crazy, amazing experience.”
“It was great. Everything about this was great,” Stone said. “Is there going to be a next time? By being in the top four I secured my invite to the one, right?”
Undoubtedly, there will be a next one.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
