He's getting dragged for backing out and justifiably so. It may be a legit reason in his mind to back out, but it certainly comes off like he's scared to get shown up. I also think it's pretty selfish. There are so many amateur and semi pro golfers grinding 100x harder than him and that would die to get that invite and he takes it for granted. Not a fan of the move

zgolfz85 said:

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He's getting dragged for backing out and justifiably so. It may be a legit reason in his mind to back out, but it certainly comes off like he's scared to get shown up. I also think it's pretty selfish. There are so many amateur and semi pro golfers grinding 100x harder than him and that would die to get that invite and he takes it for granted. Not a fan of the move

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selfish? No way. He's an amateur who's built a massive YouTube following. He knows he's not going to win so what is the point in him playing if he cant film it and grow the game? He literally got the invite because of his massive YouTube presence and his ability to expose more fans to golf yet the PGAT won't allow him to do that. PGAT is proving g once again why their media rights bs has pissed off so many players and why it's dumb.

Hence why he backed out and allowed an actual pro to get the spot. Good on him.

AustinCountyAg said:

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zgolfz85 said:

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He's getting dragged for backing out and justifiably so. It may be a legit reason in his mind to back out, but it certainly comes off like he's scared to get shown up. I also think it's pretty selfish. There are so many amateur and semi pro golfers grinding 100x harder than him and that would die to get that invite and he takes it for granted. Not a fan of the move

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selfish? No way. He's an amateur who's built a massive YouTube following. He knows he's not going to win so what is the point in him playing if he cant film it and grow the game? He literally got the invite because of his massive YouTube presence and his ability to expose more fans to golf yet the PGAT won't allow him to do that. PGAT is proving g once again why their media rights bs has pissed off so many players and why it's dumb.

Hence why he backed out and allowed an actual pro to get the spot. Good on him.

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Can't disagree with you more. Your take is certainly a minority one too if you dig through the comments of various posts. Cool, he made a living from YouTube…as a good golfer. This is the PGA tour, the pinnacle of sport. I think he can hang up the cameras for a few days and be the guy that he seemingly aspires to be. I know it's not the open and it's the jv event of the weekend, but a pga event nonetheless. I think it's a bad look and reeks of him being scared to fail on the big stage.

It's like an and1 star getting an nba contract for a few games and being like nah, I think I'll stick to this and1 thing

I don't see why it's a big deal about him turning down the invite. I can understand the stances of both sides. Seems like the Barracuda and PGAT would benefit more with Horvat in the field than the other way around. Without being able to film and create content for his channel, the only thing Horvat would gain is to be able to say that he played in a PGAT event and obviously, he doesn't care that much about that.

zgolfz85 said:

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AustinCountyAg said:

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zgolfz85 said:

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He's getting dragged for backing out and justifiably so. It may be a legit reason in his mind to back out, but it certainly comes off like he's scared to get shown up. I also think it's pretty selfish. There are so many amateur and semi pro golfers grinding 100x harder than him and that would die to get that invite and he takes it for granted. Not a fan of the move

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selfish? No way. He's an amateur who's built a massive YouTube following. He knows he's not going to win so what is the point in him playing if he cant film it and grow the game? He literally got the invite because of his massive YouTube presence and his ability to expose more fans to golf yet the PGAT won't allow him to do that. PGAT is proving g once again why their media rights bs has pissed off so many players and why it's dumb.

Hence why he backed out and allowed an actual pro to get the spot. Good on him.

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Can't disagree with you more. Your take is certainly a minority one too if you dig through the comments of various posts. Cool, he made a living from YouTube…as a good golfer. This is the PGA tour, the pinnacle of sport. I think he can hang up the cameras for a few days and be the guy that he seemingly aspires to be. I know it's not the open and it's the jv event of the weekend, but a pga event nonetheless. I think it's a bad look and reeks of him being scared to fail on the big stage.

It's like an and1 star getting an nba contract for a few games and being like nah, I think I'll stick to this and1 thing

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Agree. If he doesn't want to play, find. Decline it and leave it at that. But to blame it on not being able to film it like a YouTube show is ****ing ridiculous. That would be a circus and would be completely awful for his playing partners.

His explanation of not wanting to take a spot away from a pro is bull***** If he cared about the other pros he wouldn't be trying to film a YouTube video with multiple camera men while he's playing with other pros.

He doesn't want to get DFL and so he's coming up with a bull**** reason to not play. He knew there was no chance in hell he'd ever be allowed to film it.

Did you even read his statement. He literally said the issue is that he couldn't film during tournament play and that he would not be able to film his round. Hes afraid of finishing DFL and is picking a terrible excuse not to play. It would be a circus if he was allowed to film during the round and shows he does not care at all for other pros.

"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. Basically, that means I was not going to be allowed to film my round during tournament play.

Jawn Dough said:

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I don't see why it's a big deal about him turning down the invite. I can understand the stances of both sides. Seems like the Barracuda and PGAT would benefit more with Horvat in the field than the other way around. Without being able to film and create content for his channel, the only thing Horvat would gain is to be able to say that he played in a PGAT event and obviously, he doesn't care that much about that.

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Yeah…except that HE'D BE ON TV BECAUSE IT'S A PGA TOURNAMENT. If he doesn't care about playing in a professional tournament that 99.999999999999999999% of the golfing world would never get the chance to do, he's a jackass. I like grant, but he took an L this week

I don't know. I've heard him admit that too. But the reason he gave is complete bull***** and he contradicts himself.

He says he doesn't want to take a spot away from a pro. But he would take a spot away from a pro if he's allowed to film his round? Okay, so it has nothing to do with not taking a spot away.

And he's not playing bc he can't film his round? So he doesn't care at all about the pros he'd be playing with? And he knew going into it that he would never be allowed to film during a round. Give me a break.

Maybe he isn't afraid of finishing DFL. But whatever his reasons for not playing, the reasons he gave aren't the real reasons. That's obvious.

Scottie also said the reason he got the invite was for the benefit of the PGA, not Grant. If Grant doesn't get anything out of it, and he freely admits he's not a pro and doesn't stand a chance, what benefit is there to him? He also said with Scottie that he doesn't want to take another persons spot (which others have already said). So he gets nothing for his channel, solely benefits the other party, takes away a spot from someone grinding to make a living…why would he do this? I don't buy the "people would kill to do that" theory as this guy plays with the pros all the time. He gets one on one matches vs the best in the world. He isn't star struck and his box to play with pros is checked.

AustinCountyAg said:

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You're missing grants point in that the PGAT doesn't allow any footage of tournament golf to be shared on YouTube, tic tock etc without them taking a huge cut of it. Why the **** would an influencer want to play in a tournament he knows he won't win in and not be able to influence then and only when it greases the back of the pgat. If they'd let him play and showcase footage on YouTube it would benefit both sides greatly. With him not being allowed to show footage online it benefit nobody. Hence why would he even play. It defeats the purpose of everything he does to play at that point

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An influencer playing in a pro tournament is the influencing. The insane value in him playing in the tournament is all the value he needs. He can do plenty of post tourney content. It's a bad biz move for him to pass on this any way you slice it.

I was never going to watch a second of the Barracuda Championship on tv. I don't watch a lot of YT golf at all, but had Horvat played and been able to film, I'd have watched some of that content.

It was gimmicky for the tournament sponsor to offer him a sponsor's exemption. So, all of this is partly their fault for being too cute at the outset.

But this is big business with billion dollar, exclusive broadcast contracts. Those don't just get thrown aside because a YouTuber makes great content. I can't imagine the amount of back room negotiations that would be required to approve Grant to bring a film crew. The PGA, CBS, golf channel, and whoever else is involved in that aren't going to jump through all of those hoops simply to help his YouTube channel.

This was an obvious outcome if you think of it from the perspective of the stakeholders. But I do appreciate the child-like innocence of those that are surprised when billion dollar industries don't tear up massive contracts for a one-off YouTube video.

Half of Grant's content is him getting his teeth kicked in by real pros. The idea that he's afraid of looking bad is nonsense.

I think he should play anyway, but the weirdest thing about the decision is the reaction to it.

Bunk Moreland said:

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I don't disagree with you that the powers that be (CBS) would not be happy with him filming it and thus it was a pretty silly thing from the start unless the PGAT had secured some sort of deal to share revenue from his YT videos at that tournament to themselves and their TV partner.

That said, in my scenario the net result won't be watching CBS' product less. I was never going to watch it at all.

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Sure. And with the Open on, I doubt many are watching this this week.

But there's also the precedent to think about. Maybe next week, you do decide to just watch a YouTube video rather than the tournament. The people in charge have to think more longterm than this week's Barracuda. As well as the precedent this would set and the requests for waivers they would then have to deal with (if Bryson ever comes back, he would definitely be asking for this if they gave it to Grant). And then there's just the timing and logistics of it. Just a lot to do in a short period, even if they were inclined to do it.

I'm mainly just surprised by how many people (who presumably are adults and hold jobs with some degree of authority) think this would have been an easy thing to do.

Yep, there is no way they are going to allow an influencer to film his round. Aside from the circus it would create, this was a big sticking point for some of the LIV guys that left. If they didn't give in to Bryson, Phil, etc, they certainly aren't going to do a 180 and allow an "influencer" to do it. And I don't even think Bryson and Phil were trying to film the rounds themselves, which Grant is.

Grant comes across as an extremely entitled brat here in my opinion. If it's not a big deal for him, and he's not excited to play, then don't play. But trying to blame the tour for not allowing him to film his round is a bad look.

zgolfz85 said:

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I just couldn't imagine getting invited to play in a PGA event and saying no....regardless of the circumstances. That indeed comes off as insanely entitled. Now, if he'd come out and said something more mature like it's not fair for me to take away an opportunity from a guy that's really fighting to make it as a full time pro, that would be so so so much better. His mistake was even bringing up the filming bs. He could have come out looking like a hero.

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Yeah sure, he's entitled because he doesn't want to engage in a transaction that benefits the other party more than him. :-/

He has played golf with Phil Mickelson, Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, et. al. He's not going to be all googly-eyed and giddy playing in the Barracuda with the likes of Martin Laird and David Lipsky. His Youtube videos probably get more views than what the Barracude will get.

The PGAT wants their cake and eat it, too.

Jawn Dough said:

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zgolfz85 said:

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I just couldn't imagine getting invited to play in a PGA event and saying no....regardless of the circumstances. That indeed comes off as insanely entitled. Now, if he'd come out and said something more mature like it's not fair for me to take away an opportunity from a guy that's really fighting to make it as a full time pro, that would be so so so much better. His mistake was even bringing up the filming bs. He could have come out looking like a hero.

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Yeah sure, he's entitled because he doesn't want to engage in a transaction that benefits the other party more than him. :-/

He has played golf with Phil Mickelson, Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, et. al. He's not going to be all googly-eyed and giddy playing in the Barracuda with the likes of Martin Laird and David Lipsky. His Youtube videos probably get more views than what the Barracude will get.

The PGAT wants their cake and eat it, too.

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are you honestly suggesting that playing golf with these guys casually is just as cool as playing in a PGA Tour event? If so, I think the convo ends here....cuz I don't know how to dumb myself down that much to further engage.

Also, this benefits both sides. He would be the first ever golf influencer to make it big enough to get invited to play in the PGA. That's insane. You make it sound like they're simply inviting him to play in a practice round par 3 pro/am tourney for charity.

Yes, refusing to play in a PGA event, when you are given the opportunity and could not qualify on your own, solely because you cannot film your rounds and make money on it yourself, is the definition of entitled. Even your post describes someone as entitled. I get that he plays with pros (i watch some of his videos). Perhaps that is what has made him entitled. But he's entitled nonetheless.

Plus, if he felt so strongly about it and thus wanted to back out, he should have just backed out and not given a reason or given some other reason. He made this a bad PR look on his own by posting and essentially blaming the PGA for not letting him film. He did that because he was hoping the PGA would receive backlash for their decision. But the backlash is going to other way, for good reason. Blaming the PGA for not letting him film and make money is the definition of entitled in my opinion. I don't think any tourney will bother asking him in the future because of trying to blame the PGA for not letting him film.