PGA TOUR, DP WORLD TOUR, LIV GOLF, MOVE OUT! In terms of YouTube subscribers and views, this tour is unmatched…
If I had been playing Who wants to be a millionaire? And I’ll feel pretty confident when the question “What’s the biggest professional golf tour in terms of YouTube subscribers?” comes up. “PGA Tour, final answer,” I’ll say, mentally tallying up my winnings. There might be a tiny lingering doubt in my mind, maybe the DP World Tour because of its great viral videos, or LIV Golf because YouTube is the main place to watch it, but I’ll stick to my guns.
I would lose all my money.
Because, every now and then you learn something that shocks you.
Peanuts can be used to make explosives.
Iceland has more golf courses per capita than any other country.
Queen Elizabeth II is a trained mechanic.
A single strand of spaghetti is called a spaghetto.
That kind of thing.
It occurred to me today that the professional golf tour with the most YouTube subscribers is not the PGA Tour, DP World Tour or LIV Golf Tour…
This is actually a legendary journey.
Legends Tour (formerly known as the European Seniors Tour) has more subscribers than all of the above channels at 1.78 million. It also has more subscribers than Good Good (1.64 million) and Bryson DeChambeau (1.29 million). In fact, Legends Tour is the second most popular golf channel on YouTube, with only Rick Shiels having more subscribers.
The Legends Tour has attracted more than 160,000 subscribers in the past two weeks, and its latest video – highlights from the finals of the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship – has garnered 889,000 views in just three days. The video of the tournament hosted by Colin Montgomerie at Trump International Golf Links has more than 1.9 million views in total.
For example, Xander Schauffele's highlight clip of winning the Royal Troon Open was viewed 437,000 times, while DeChambeau's highlight clip of winning the U.S. Open at Pinewood was viewed 500,000 times, both of which played for much longer than the highlights of the Seniors Championship.
But how did the Legends Tour achieve such impressive results?
Legends Tour Chairman Ryan Howsam said:
“It's fantastic that we've become the most popular golf tour on YouTube; now we need to build on that. The Legends Tour is a truly global event, with a line-up of some of the most successful golfers to have played the sport over the past 40 years. We now travel to Vietnam, India, Zambia, all over Europe as well as the UK and US. We are a global business, which is why we attract international golf fans and sponsors.”
It’s true that the Legends Tour has some big names, including Angel Cabrera, Paul Lowry, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh and Miguel Angel Jimenez, but that alone doesn’t explain its popularity on YouTube. That’s especially true when the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have the best players in peak form, playing on the best courses in the world.
The answer may have something to do with a common piece of advice given to emerging YouTubers: find your niche.
What do I mean? Let's look at some numbers.
YouTube is massive. With 2.49 billion monthly active users, it’s the second-largest social media platform (after Facebook).
Although YouTube is often seen as a platform for young people, 70% of people aged 46-55 and 67% of people aged 56+ watch YouTube, while people aged 55+ make up 17.8% of YouTube's total audience, reaching 445 million people.
There is a ton of golf content on YouTube these days, with new channels popping up all the time, but most of the content consists of videos made by young people that seem to be primarily targeted at other young people. While this is clearly a large market, competition in this space is fierce, with data showing that the average age of a golfer is 54. By targeting the older generation of golfers on YouTube, the Legends Tour is not only tapping into a larger potential market, but also has less competition.
“When I first took over the Legends Tour, my vision was to target the over-50 market,” Houssam explains. “It became clear to me that the tournament was not being marketed properly – the legends of the sport were not the focus of the tour. Our tour features players from all over the world, with a calendar covering four continents.
“If you attended last week’s flagship event, the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship, you’d have seen four Ryder Cup captains, six major champions, numerous other Ryder Cup players, and more [tour] Winners – that’s something to cheer about! We have so many household names on this tour. Many of our fans grew up watching and supporting these great players and now continue to follow their progress and want to see more of them in action across our social media and digital channels.”
The strategy is working. So far this year, Legends Tour content has been viewed more than 4.6 million times on YouTube.
Keith Mitchell, Chief Marketing Officer of Legendary Tours, revealed some of their growth strategies.
“It’s a lucrative niche that’s just waiting to be tapped,” he said. “From the beginning, owning the digital space and using video content to tell our story and attract new fans was a key goal.
“To reach specific audiences and maximise the relevance and effectiveness of content, paid media campaigns are used to grow awareness. This ensures the material reaches a wider audience that might otherwise be unaware of the Legends Tour and complements the channel’s organic success. This balance helps ensure continued growth and engagement, particularly in our emerging markets.
“The World Tour with players like Angel Cabrera and Jeff Milkha Singh helps expand the reach to new regions like Argentina and India – where Milkha Singh will host a Legends Tour in late August. This is a global product with global players.
“Four years ago, we began this journey by taking the first step of looking at the content team to see how we could break down the silos between digital, social and TV content to provide a more efficient production and delivery process that gives golf fans access to high-quality content through the platform of their choice. This streamlined process has allowed us to invest more resources into distribution and acquisition of new audiences and growing the Legends Tour brand globally. This milestone is a compliment to the entire team and shows that all of our hard work is paying off.”
What is the Legend Tour?
The Legends Tour (formerly the European Senior Tour and the Staysure Tour) is the men's professional golf tour for members 50 and over, with tournaments on four continents. The American version of the Legends Tour is the equivalent of the PGA Champions Tour.
Neil Coles won the inaugural Senior Open in 1987. Five years later, more than 60 professionals called for a formal tour, which was finally established in 1992. Many of the pioneering champions who played on the European Tour in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are active members of the Legends Tour.
Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam are among the recipients of the John Jacobs Trophy, which is awarded to the golfer who finishes first on the Rolex Legends Tour money list each season.
About the Author
Rob McGarr – Contributing Editor
Rob has been a writer and editor for over 15 years, covering a wide range of topics for leading magazines and websites.
He has served as features editor for Today’s Golfer magazine and digital editor for todays-golfer.com, and has held positions at FHM, Men’s Running, Golf World and MAN magazines.
You can follow him on YouTube, where – depending on the day of the week – he either does everything in his power to get his handicap down to par or stuffs his clubs into a cupboard, never to be seen again.
Rob is a member of the Royal North Devon, the oldest golf course in the UK, where he plays at a three handicap.
