What if the next golf megastar came straight outta Compton? That’d be a story, right? You’d double-click that. But, how would something like that come about? Not too many country clubs in the immediate area last I checked, and the closest TopGolf is about 15 miles away. If anything, Compton is very anti-country club, so that kind of outsider story would likely appeal to a much wider audience outside the traditional golf world
The Need for Inclusivity and Innovation
The traditional golf world has been spinning ever since LIV disrupted the scene in trying to streamline the game, then agreed to merge with PGA, as the sport seeks to reshape itself for a wider, younger, more diverse audience. LIV, however, only goes so far in changing the game. While trimming the game, it’s still traditional golf, and it’s not doing that much to appeal to a broader audience.
When Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to win the Masters at 21 in 1997, he breathed life into what many were seeing as a dying sport, and was essentially responsible for putting Nike golf on the map. Now years later, Tiger Woods is helping to further revolutionize the sport and make it more accessible as part of the LA Golf Club, and taking it into the 21st Century, as the first announced team of the TGL.
Embracing Diverse Ownership and Storytelling
What sets LAGC apart from the other TGL teams, who are owned by some of the same companies that own the Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Falcons, is our owners’ background. Not only are Serena and Venus Williams investors but with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as one of our owners, our DNA is more aligned with storytelling and social-media interaction than traditional sports owners. And with LAGC, we’re not only telling the story, we’re providing the medium to help bring it about.
As far as I’m concerned, a modern sports franchise is 365-day-a-year storytelling, not just stories about the players, but about the community as well. But those stories, to appeal to a wider, younger audience, need to be repackaged using today’s technology to compete with all the other stories out there. Making golf a star-studded, team “one swing at a time action” sport, enhanced by technology, and bringing the action to a stadium TV-friendly level will not only make golf more accessible, but it’s how the PGA (which owns 18% of TGL) is going to evolve, and expand their audience, by making it more interesting and story focused.
Community Engagement and Accessibility
Not only will Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy play for LAGC over the 15-week season beginning in January, LAGC will also be taking golf out to the community with our Drivebox simulator, which folds out to become a LAGC billboard. I can go into any community that I want throughout LA, I can go to Watts. I can go to Compton, I can go to K town, I can go to schools. And if a golf simulator is good enough for Tiger, that’s going to get people who’d never think of using a simulator more interested in trying one out. There’s going to be stories of young kids, where golf is their outlet, their passion, and we’re going to be telling the stories about those that come from LA, that don’t look like the traditional golfer.
The Influence of Celebrity and Narrative
And if you don’t think the top-down approach of using star power and storytelling has reach, then you’re not familiar with a soccer, or football, team no one ever heard about until Ryan Reynolds bought them. I’m talking about Wrexham. They built a global fandom around this team that nobody had heard of. It was about their storytelling. They even launched a Hulu series called” Welcome to Wrexham,” that is now in its second season. We’re already made-for-TV golf, and unique in that not too many sports leagues launch this kind of star power and the prime-time slot usually occupied by Monday Night Football on ESPN from day one.
For those who think this is just golf “jumping the shark” to try to get new viewers, we’re capitalizing on things that are already happening. With franchises like TopGolf, people are already playing golf in a way that looks nothing like traditional golf. Why does a golf simulator have to hit out into a simulated golf course? Why not Jurassic Park, or Angry Birds? Shorter attention spans need to be courted, using technology not usually associated with golf, like sensors on the greens and drone footage.
A New Era for Golf
It’s like people who still dump on eSports with “Who’s going to watch people play video games?” when it’s already a rapidly growing multibillion-dollar industry. To get the younger demographic, the wider, more democratic audience that PGA wants — the Twitch streamers, the TikTok, IG, and other influencers, the story-hungry sports fan — golf has to evolve to appeal to an audience that already has their plate filled with distractions, that have been leveraged, and made more addicting with technology.
Is the NFL immune from disruption?
This topic kept coming up in our various events: the NFL is God. And God is immune to all the forces that are challenging the other incumbent leagues like the NBA and MLB. What makes the NFL so powerful? Is it a better TV experience? Is it a better sport? The rest of the world would argue against that. (And they probably want the word football back).
[ MAYBE ]
