Golf is often stereotyped as being out of touch with younger generations, a Baby Boomer luxury that’s largely fallen out of favor with Americans under 50. Commentators have spent the past few years dramatically eulogizing the sport, citing its aging fanbase and the fact that traditional outlets like the Golf Channel have a difficult time attracting younger viewers. Golf, they say, will soon go the way of tweed jackets and smoking indoors.
Is really this a fair characterization?
Maybe not. In 2020, the sport has actually grown in popularity. Golf rounds are expected to exceed the record of 441 million set in 2019 by 4-8%, according to National Golf Foundation research. Even more remarkable is the recent and meteoric rise of golf-related new media, particularly in the form of podcasts and long-form interview shows on YouTube.
Podcasts are a great medium for news and stories and the emerging “golf entertainment” podcast have become popular with millennial golf fans. The “golf entertainment” podcasts interview the biggest names in the golf world to open up about life on tour, review golf resort destinations, and share funny behind the scenes stories that listeners would never hear elsewhere. The hosts of these podcasts are typically critical of golf’s stodgy traditions and broadcasting methods. Their influence in golf media is growing significantly.
Our Findings
We took a random sample of over 17,000 golf podcast fans and identified the top golf entertainment podcasts that they followed on social media. Here are the top golf entertainment podcasts that we identified:
- No Laying Up (249.3k Twitter followers 130k Insta)
- Fore Play (215k Twitter followers / 673k Insta)
- GOLF’s Subpar (3,203 Twitter followers / 12.9k Insta)
- The Shotgun Start (5,491 Insta)
- Get a Grip with Max Homa and Shane Bacon (5,648 Insta)
So, who are the people listening to these podcasts?
Screenshots taken from People Pattern’s Audience Intelligence platform
While in some ways, the demographic profile of this audience aligns with popular golf stereotypes, its (relative) youth is bound to surprise many people, with over half of listeners self-identifying as millennials. Only 12% of listeners are Baby Boomers.
Here are the most influential golf professionals with this audience:
- Tiger Woods
- Rory McIllroy
- Ricky Fowler
- Jordan Spieth
- Phil Mickelson
- Bubba Watson
- Max Homa
- Dustin Johnson
- Justin Thomas
- Brooks Koepka
It’s interesting to note that Max Homa, currently ranked 98th in the world, makes our list of the top ten most popular professionals. The picture becomes clearer when you realize that, in addition to his playing duties, Homa is the host of a popular podcast Get a Grip with Max Home and Shane Bacon.
The fact that hosting a podcast like Get a Grip can elevate an otherwise unexceptional pro like Max Homa so high into the consciousness of golf fans speaks to the influence of new media in the sport. It also suggests that young fans are taking an active interest – instead of looking to existing influencers like David Feherty (popular with Gen Xers), millennials sought out their own.
Taking all of this into consideration, it seems a little early to pronounce golf a thing of the past. Golf’s cable ratings may be down (which, by the way, is the case for virtually every sport) but that doesn’t mean the audience is leaving. Instead, what the data suggests is that millennial fans engage with golf in the same way they engage with so many other aspects of life: on their own terms.
Recent Comments