The PGA Tour’s updated social media policy allows players to post more content captured on-site at tournaments, but still includes some restrictions around what players can post—and how they can make money from their social media presence.
The new policy, which was first reported by Front Office Sports earlier this month, was officially rolled out to players last week.
“The changes to the policy … are designed to provide you with more flexibility to engage with fans during tournament weeks while still protecting the collective interests of the Tour and its members,” PGA Tour CMO Andy Weitz wrote in a memo to members. “As we worked on updating the policy over the last several months, we did a league-by-league review, and we are confident our policy is one of the most progressive and athlete-friendly in professional sports.”
It comes as LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau, also the most popular golf content creator with 2.7 million YouTube subscribers, weighs his future options—which include re-signing with LIV, returning to the PGA Tour, and not playing any tour full-time and instead focusing on content creation.
Here are the biggest things PGA Tour players can and cannot do under the guidelines of the new policy for use of on-site tournament content by players on social media, a copy of which was obtained by FOS.
Good to Go
PGA Tour players can:
- Post unlimited content from practice rounds and pro-ams, including live streaming (only on approved platforms: Facebook/Facebook Live, X/Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube).
- Post up to 3 minutes of organic on-course competition footage (after any live coverage window has ended) captured by an official on-site player content representative.
- Post up to 6 golf shots, totaling up to one minute, of broadcast footage per day, as well as 5 competition still images per day.
- Post videos using up to 120 minutes of archive broadcast footage during each calendar year, with an 8-minute-per-video limit.
- Earn ad revenue by activating YouTube’s run-of-site monetization program (however, the PGA Tour will claim and have a right to monetize content, including competition footage).
Not So Fast
PGA Tour players cannot:
- Post content that would be considered competitive with the media rights of PGA Tour broadcasters, like a speed round or recap of every shot during any given competition round.
- Capture content themselves during competition rounds (players must designate an official on-site player content representative for capturing competition footage).
- Use drones, virtual reality, augmented reality, 360 ̊video, or camera crews to capture content.
- Directly commercialize content by way of video sponsorships, tagging unapproved partners in post copy, collaborating with other accounts, or posting branded or sponsored content.
- Use any name or logo of the PGA Tour in the names, handles, or profiles of their social media accounts.
Additionally, players are responsible for obtaining permission from any other player or caddie appearing or heard within the on-site content.
Players are encouraged to tag the PGA Tour and that week’s tournament in posts. They are allowed to tag the social media handles of their own sponsors if those brands appear organically in a video.
The PGA Tour’s policy for content filmed away from event sites is far less restrictive, but does include some intricacies. Videos require PGA Tour approval if they feature more than a single PGA Tour member, include prize money, are live-streamed or near-live, or distributed on a non-social media platform like Netflix or ESPN.
Fairways and Greens
Should DeChambeau ultimately seriously consider a return to the PGA Tour, the policies around monetizing on-site content would figure to be of the most interest.
Under the current rules, DeChambeau would be allowed to film videos like his popular Break 50 series at PGA Tour events, although he wouldn’t be able to sell his own sponsorships for those videos like he often does now.
In the meantime, PGA Tour players like Jason Day, who have notable YouTube subscriber counts, will be interesting test cases for how the updated social media policy impacts current members.
