YouTube Golf Goes Pro: Peoples League Joins Creator Competition Boom

Golf content creators, who have exploded in popularity on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, are getting another way to feel like a pro.

The Peoples League is announcing its launch on Monday with an initial batch of 12 players who have a combined social media following of nearly 20 million. The first of four events is being filmed Monday through Wednesday at Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa in Palm Coast, Fla. 

It’s the latest attempt at bringing golf content creators together for a formal competition. 

“YouTube is like golf entertainment adjacent, whatever,” Rory McIlroy said ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this month. “Those guys are killing it. They found a niche and it’s really cool and it serves a purpose for a lot of people. But look, I would much rather sit down and watch real golfers play real tournaments and that’s just my opinion.”

While McIlroy may not be tuning into YouTube golf regularly, content creators are not lacking for viewers and loyal followers, that much is clear. 

Last month, the PGA Tour announced a three-event 2025 creator series that expands upon its inaugural Creator Classic which was played at the Tour Championship in August, featuring major names in the YouTube golf space.

For the Peoples League, founding members, who are all receiving equity in the league at no cost, range from former professional golfer turned social media star Luke Kwon (who won the PGA Tour’s Creator Classic) to rapper Ja Rule, who has become an avid fan of the sport in recent years. There will be prize money—specific amounts to be announced later—paid out to teams on a season-long basis, and individually each week through skills challenges.

At the outset, there will be four teams of three:

• Team 1: Martin Borgmeier, DOD King, Alexa Melton
• Team 2: Luke Kwon, Sam Heung Min, and Tooms Golf 
• Team 3: Ja Rule, Snappy Gilmore, and Claire Hogle
• Team 4: Jenna Bandy and The Pointer Brothers (Henry and Mike)

Tisha Alyn, who has nearly 2 million social media followers herself, will serve as host of the Peoples League. Expansion is planned, with a goal of having 32 individuals making up eight teams of four by the end of this year, and further growth in 2026.

How It Started

The Peoples League is led by cofounder and CEO Jared Augustine, an entrepreneur with experience in the startup space. An angel round of financing was raised to help get the league off the ground, and there are plans to raise a venture round later this year. The league also has a presenting sponsor, Underdog Fantasy, which is helping financially. Each creator will receive a percentage of all league revenue.

Given the skyrocketing popularity of golf content creators, Augustine calls it a “logical next step” to pull them together in a league format. “You’ve got creators, who are focused on creating and their channels and what they do,” he tells Front Office Sports. “You’ve got the PGA Tour, who’s focused on delivering the greatest, professional golf product on the planet. We think that someone needs to be focused on making sure that this league is really, really great.”

At this week’s debut event, the Peoples League Invitational presented by Underdog, each team will play three matches in a round-robin style tournament that will air over the next six weeks. Match broadcasts will be split into two parts between creators’ YouTube channels and the Peoples League’s official account. 

Match formats will vary, as each duo of teams will be allowed to agree to any terms they choose, including handicap, which tees to play from, and the scoring system.

A Crowded Creator Golf Scene

As the Peoples League gets off the ground, its competition includes more than just the PGA Tour’s creator series. 

The Q at Myrtle Beach will return for a second edition this spring, once again offering 16 players the opportunity to earn a sponsor exemption into the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic. Last year’s debut event, which featured Kwon and other players who ultimately competed in the Creator Classic, was similarly not shown live but filmed and aired on creators’ channels after the fact.

Last week, popular content group Good Good Golf, which has 1.74 million YouTube subscribers, partnered with Golf Channel for a live event, the Good Good GolfNow Desert Knockout, featuring two six-player teams competing at Grass Clippings Rolling Hills in Tempe, Ariz. ahead of the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale.

For the Peoples League, the ultimate goal is to have “every creator with influence in this space participating,” Augustine says. It’s unclear what that will mean for creators like Kwon who may potentially want to compete across multiple leagues and series. The PGA Tour has yet to announce its participants for this year’s creator series, which will begin at The Players Championship next month.

Will organized competition for these social media stars catch on, too? That remains to be seen. But for now, the sky seems to be the limit.