Golf influencer Grant Horvat declines PGA Tour event over filming rules

Golf influencer Grant Horvat turned down a sponsor’s exemption to the Barracuda Championship this week, and his reasoning revolves around his YouTube content. 

Horvat is one of the most popular content creators in the YouTube golf space, sporting almost 1.4 million subscribers and playing with some of the best players in the world like Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson, to name a few. 

He was invited to play at Tahoe Mountain Club this week for the Barracuda Championship, but he turned down the sponsor’s exemption because, as he explained, the Tour wouldn’t allow his camera crew inside the ropes to film his rounds. 

“The reason I will not be playing in a PGA Tour event is due to the rules and regulations around media rights and filming during tournament play of a PGA Tour event,” Horvat said in a video on his YouTube page. “Basically, that means I was not going to be allowed to film my round during tournament play. 

“For me personally, doing YouTube for a living and wanting to document everything I do — this is the reason we got the invite in the first place was because of YouTube and because of the amazing experiences I get to share because of you guys.”

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Horvat said that he hopes he can participate in a Tour event in the future, but for now, he won’t be playing with the rules in the place. 

“I am hopeful that sometime in the future we’ll be able to play in a PGA Tour event… and document and film the entire thing to share with you guys because I know what I’d be feeling teeing it up in a PGA Tour event and boy, do I want that on camera,” Horvat said in the video.

The PGA Tour may have viewed a sponsor’s exemption for Horvat as a way to reach a new demographic. However, Horvat stayed true to his followers, which includes almost one million on Instagram, and didn’t want to play if it involved no cameras. 

The Barracuda isn’t a regular PGA Tour field, as The Open Championship, the final major of the year, is being played in the United Kingdom this weekend as well. Players like Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and many more won’t be available in California this week.

The PGA Tour has been leaning into the golf content creator space of late, though. They had the “Creator Classic” tournaments, which were similar to LIV Golf events. 

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