The Feed: YouTube golfers are drawing galleries now … and that might not be a good thing

The saturation of YouTube has reached a point where you could sit and watch golf all week and not actually play any. That might be good news for those of us above the Mason Dixon Line, who are watching the embers of golf season die as we speak, but hopefully we can help the rest of you lucky SOBs decide how to balance your screentime and tee times this week.

With Fans Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

Since Dave Portnoy bought Barstool Sports back from Penn Entertainment for a single dollar in August 2023, the content strategy has been focused on two things:

Pushing scripted drama between podcasters until that drama eventually becomes real.

That’s important context for this week’s big Foreplay premiere, a much-anticipated “haters” match between Riggs—who needs no introduction around these parts—and Kirk Minihane, host of Barstool Sports’ The Kirk Minihane Show and co-host of The Unnamed Podcast alongside Portnoy and Ryan Whitney. Apparently Minihane and Riggs have a beef after Riggs and Robby Berger (Bob Does Sports) allegedly conspired to exclude Minihane from Barstool’s forthcoming Internet Invitational.

This week, the pair squared up at Granite Links in Quincy, Mass., to squash said beef once and for all. How much you care about the actual outcome depends on your fondness for Barstool’s personal storylines and office dynamics. On it’s own, the golf is fine and the autumnal Masshole setting is nice. But the real headline for most golf fans is the size of the gallery the two amateur golf influencers who play about as well as you and your buddies drew for their showdown.

Yep, you heard that right. Golf influencers are drawing galleries now. And not just curious golfers who wrapped up their rounds and wandered over to see what the cameras were all about. Riggs and Minihane had a throng of fans waiting on the first tee who had arrived specifically to watch them play golf. The scene was frankly unprecedented in the golf influencer space and bears watching simply to for a glimpse of what the future of YouTube golf could look like.

As we learned at the Ryder Cup, though, when golf fans—especially the younger male demographic Barstool caters to—are removed from the hush-hush environment of a PGA Tour event and emboldened by the fractious attitudes of the players themselves, things can get out of hand in a hurry. Tour pros are generally equipped to handle this. They’re used to it. They can tell themselves they’re richer and more talented than these idiots and brush off the insults. Golf influencers aren’t drawing from that same experience and social status, however, and without ropes, marshals or security, that opens the door to a whole new set of problems.

That rears ugly head on several occasions throughout Riggs and Minihane’s match. Around the 25-minute mark, Minihane sinks a big putt and wheels on a fan in the gallery, shouting “You still talking s–t!? You still talking sh–!?” He then shoves the fan, who puts his arms up as if to say “uhh, what did I do?” The whole thing is played for laughs, but Minihane isn’t smiling and the fan seems surprised to say the least.

Tempers build throughout the round. On the 11th green, Minihane snaps at Riggs’ caddie, Barstool Sports personality Frankie Borrelli, for talking during his putt. “I haven’t said a thing the whole f—ing time while you guys are swinging … you need to shut the while I’m f—king putting.” That sets the stage for the following hole, where he gets into it with a fan that has been following along and filming throughout the round. It’s hard to hear exactly what was said, but Minihane is clearly incensed, saying “you have to shut the f–k up is what you have to do” while walking right next to the fan.

That wasn’t the end, though. In a social media clip posted by The Kirk Minihane Show on X, the Barstool host later squared up to the fan, offering the classic fisticuffs invitation of “I’m standing right here!” while, also classically, backing away. Minihane accuses the fan of saying the n-word (which if he did, he deserves a fist in the face) as the sole guy working crowd control physically pulls the fan away from Minihane. It’s not a pretty scene.

In the end, the match spills over from fun friction—a little trash talk, some competitive spiciness—into general ugliness. It’s a bad look for everyone involved. This might be YouTube golf but it’s still golf. There’s a level of decorum that needs to be met and here it quite simply isn’t, both by the fan, who emblemizes the behavior we saw at Bethpage Black last month, and Minihane, who like most of us, is not emotionally equipped to play in front said fans. It’s cool to see golf influencers resonate with people deeply enough that they want to do more than just watch from their couch, but as this video proves, this might be a can of worms that’s not worth opening.

Quick Hits

Good Good Golf

Good Good is touting the “the greatest round in YouTube golf history” this week. That’s a big claim, then again, it’s been a big (nay, HUGE) week for the boys in baby blue.

Bob Does Sports

The Bob Does Sports Halloween Special is here as the fellas face off against the dreaded WHEEL OF DRINKS, BWAHAHAHA [crack of lightning strikes the spire of a forgotten clubhouse deep in the Carpathian Mountains]. As you can probably guess, things get a little messy. “We might have taken Halloween too far,” Berger admits. “HR is gonna hate this.”

Grant Horvat

Poor Robby Berger. Last week, he was riding high after firing a career-low 82. This week he’s getting whooped on by a fellow YouTuber playing with kids’ clubs. Life comes at you fast.

Embers Golf

One of the most interesting side stories in golf this week was the release of Amazon’s new Basics Core Soft balls, which entered the market at the price of roughly a buck a ball. The new budget balls generated plenty of curiosity, but are they any good? Embers Golf decided to find out, shooting them out against the Costco’s similarly wallet-friendly Kirkland balls. If you’re local track has a lot of water holes, this is must-see TV.

St. Andre Golf

St. Andre Golf plays the role of homewreckers this week as they pit golf power couple Hannah Gregg and Fredrik Lindblom against each other in a girls vs. boys golf match with domestic harmony on the line. Is Gregg and Lindblom’s bond strong enough to survive or will the greens be seeded with discontent? Only one way to find out …

Bryan Bros Golf

Ever wonder what a tour pro might think of your beloved 1-star dog track? Bryan Bros answered that question this week with a little help from Jason Day. Day is known as an all-time nice guy, but this flat patch of Ohio farmland might test the limits of his patience.