The Creator Classic captures attention at East Lake

ATLANTA – Scottie Scheffer arrived to a crammed East Lake Golf Club practice green. On his right, Nick “Fat Perez” Stubbe of Bob Does Sports worked on his alignment. Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect stood to Scheffler's left, practicing his speed.

At least on this afternoon, they shared the spotlight.

Scheffler found an open hole at the back of the green and began a putting drill alongside his coach Phil Kenyon, finding a bit of calm amidst a frenetic scene as he prepped for the TOUR Championship. Soon after, Perez and Toney walked off heading for their tee time with camera crews behind them and a horde of shouting fans following.

YouTube golf’s banner year hit its high point with Wednesday’s Creator Classic, which saw 16 of YouTube golf’s biggest stars take on East Lake on the eve of the TOUR Championship. The first-of-its-kind event peaked with over 110,000 live viewers on YouTube. It was also simulcast on ESPN+ and Peacock. Luke Kwon beat Wesley Bryan, Sean Walsh and Roger Steele in a sudden-death playoff on the par-5 18th to win the inaugural Creator Classic.

“The response from fans and from the content creators themselves has been overwhelming,” PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday.

It was a momentous day for YouTube golf, which has slowly begun to intertwine with the professional golf world. In March, a mix of YouTube creators and pro golfers competed in “The Q at Myrtle Beach,” an 18-hole qualifying event that awarded an exemption for the PGA TOUR’s Myrtle Beach Classic. It was won by Matt Atkins, a former PGA TOUR player who has made cameos on the Bryans’ channel. TOUR pros make regular guest appearances for creators, who morphed into friends. The Bryan brothers and fellow content creator Grant Horvat hosted an alternative ESPN+ stream on Thursday and Friday of the FedEx St. Jude Championship, with Horvat calling the golf on-site at TPC Southwind.

Wednesday’s event was perhaps the most unprecedented, as the creators were the first to play the renovated East Lake on television, less than 24 hours before the first round of the TOUR Championship was scheduled to begin.

It caught the attention of plenty pros. Joel Dahmen provided on-course commentary for the broadcast, caddies Austin Kaiser and John Ellis watched Perez tee off and Akshay Bhatia watched from his rental home that backed up to the course.

The event mirrored the competitive, but zany YouTube scene that many of the creators occupy. The event began with ceremonial tee shots from Barstool's Fore Play members Riggs, Trent and Frankie. Left-handed Mac Boucher, a Canadian trick-shot artist, flipped a right-handed driver upright and smacked his opening tee shot 285 yards. Mason Nutt, of BustaJack Golf, hit driver off the deck. Garrett Clark, of Good Good, made a quintuple bogey on the par-4 12th. Steele, who hosts Callaway’s Range Talk, uncorked a 346-yard drive on the 10th, touching 195 mph ball speed. The whole way, TV, Netflix and YouTube cameras documented the experience. Several hundred fans remained when play finished just before 8 p.m. ET.

The top-four finishers after eight holes of stroke play advanced to a one-hole sudden-death playoff. Bryan finished 2-under in the eight-hole stroke-play portion, while Steele, Walsh and Kwon carded 1-under. Kwon won with a birdie on the 18th hole, pouring in a 15-foot putt.

See the full leaderboard below.