PGA Tour adds ‘Creator Classic’ series to Players Championship week after successful 2024 debut

The Players Championship will have golf shots in the air on a competitive basis before the best players in the world tackle the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

The PGA Tour announced on Wednesday that it is expanding its “Creator Classic” competition to include The Players and the Truist Championship at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in May.

The nine-hole competition at The Players, among 16 YouTube golf content creators, will be on March 12, the eve of the first round of The Players.

Who’s playing in the Creator Classic?

The field has not been finalized but competitors at the inaugural Creator Classic was held the day before the season-ending Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta last August included the Bryan brothers (PGA Tour member Wesley and George), Paige Spiranic, Gabriella “Gabby GolfGirl” DeGasperis, Roger Steele, Good Good, Nick “Fat Perez” Stubbe of Bob Does Sports and Dude Perfect.

That event was broadcast live on the PGA Tour’s YouTube Channel, ESPN+, Peacock and the PGA Tour FAST channels, with more than 2.6 million views, with a peak of 110,000 live viewers.

It was the No. 2 trending video on YouTube and engaged nearly 60 million golf fans across all social media platforms during a four-week period.

‘Full Swing’ producers involved

Pro Shop Studios, the production company behind the Netflix series “Full Swing,” will partner with PGA Tour Studios to run on-ground and broadcast production. Leading the production will be Greg Hopfe, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of PGA Tour Live, Emmy-winning producers and “Full Swing” creators Chad Mumm and Mark Olsen, and creative executives KP Anderson and Kiley Homan.

The competition at The Players will have expanded coverage on the PGA TOUR’s YouTube channel, ESPN+, the PGA TOUR channel on Pluto TV, Roku, Samsung TV Plus, Prime Video, Fire TV, Tubi, Xumo Play and LG Channels as well as NBC platforms.

The series will be produced to the quality of a premium broadcast, featuring live ShotLink powered by CDW scoring/data, Trackman shot tracing and on-screen graphics.

Fans with a weekly Players pass or daily practice round tickets can watch the competition.

There will be two other Creator Classics, May 7, the day before the first round of the Truist Championship at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, and Aug. 20, when it returns to East Lake the day before the Tour Championship.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: PGA Tour will bring ‘Creator Classic’ to Players Championship week