The Phil Mickelson-PGA Tour-Jay Manohan drama is continuing as LIV Golf’s The Duels racks up more and more attention. In the latest chapter, the banning of Wesley Bryan, a PGA Tour golfer and Bryan Bros Golf YouTube channel creator, gets an update. But first, let us check out all the incidents leading up to this current situation-

• In 2019, LIV Golf’s operational framework was first released, attracting many PGA Tour’s cream of the crop to its grounds in Dubai.
• Then, Jay Manohan, PGA Tour’s Commissioner, in order to keep the league alive, gave LIV Golf participants a tough choice to make– Stay in the American golf league and be part of a legacy or go for even a single event for LIV Golf and get banned from the PGA Tour.
• At the same time, Manohan also created a rule applying from the 2022/2023 season– “Any player who has participated in an unauthorized tournament is ineligible to compete in any event sanctioned by the PGA Tour for a period of one year.” According to Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard, this new rule could also, “Ban non-members for a year if they play ‘unauthorized’ events.” 
• Fast forward to this year when late in March, Flushing It reported “The PGA Tour reached out to creators involved with LIV Golf’s “The Duels” and threatened them with potential future suspensions if they participated in the unsanctioned event, in line with the rules for non-members who play full LIV Golf League tournaments.” These rules were dropped for the rest of the creators, however, Bryan, participating in a creator capacity, was still banned.
• Later, Pro Golf Critic tweeted, “Deleted my tweet about the YT creators at the request of ppl material to the events. Let’s hope sufficient pressure is applied so that these creators can enjoy the FREEDOM to create great content on ALL Tours so that we can enjoy their great content without fear of retribution!” However, the deletion of the post was seen by many as a false report on Wesley’s ban. And that’s when Phil Mickelson joined the conversation.
• Replying to the above post, Lefty commented, “You were absolutely correct. An email was sent threatening to ban all creators if they participated. They rescinded that threat to all creators EXCEPT Wes Bryan. They still banned him for a year.” 

While Mickelson has now deleted his comment on the PGA Tour’s actions against the creators, it seems like the league has not yet removed Wesley’s ban which was confirmed recently.

After The Duels were completed, Flushing It tweeted, “LIV Golf’s “The Duels” reached 1 million views on YouTube within 24 hours, which is the same amount as the PGA Tour’s “Creator Classic” at The Players Championship has received in more than 3 weeks.” The video included a peek inside the event where Wesley could be seen hyping up his golfing partner Dustin Johnson.

With the post pointing out a key difference in viewership of PGA Tour’s Creator Classic to LIV Golf’s The Duels, the comment section soon turned into a discussion ground. This is how one conversation went:

An X user commented on the video’s caption, “Nice framing lol. My god.” 

To this, Flushing It responded, “It’s justice for the Tour banning Wesley!”

X user questioned: “Did they actually ban? Comparing YouTube views for a live event vs a YouTube launched event is quite the framing lol”

Flushing It answered: “Yeah. Unless it’s been reversed over the weekend, he’s banned 🤦‍♂”

Now see, it is quite correct that comparing a live event from last year with limited viewership should not be compared to a YouTube-available event. Back then, according to Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter’s tweet, the made-for-the-internet event garnered 118k peak concurrent viewers for the live event. The video until the tweet had attracted about 2 million total views and was a number 2 trending video at YouTube at that in early September.

Still, since the news broke about the 2022/2023 rule applying to the creators even now, many fans believed that the PGA Tour’s actions may be an overreach, potentially stifling creativity and limiting opportunities for creators to produce engaging content after it has already banned over 17 golfers for joining LIV for the financial perks. And in case of Wesley, well, he only joined the event as a creator, so is the ban truly justified?

The PGA Tour’s collaboration with independent media and influencers has also sparked concerns about the objectivity and credibility of golf journalism, leaving fans wondering if the narrative is being shaped to favor the Tour. Well, Wesley is not the only one suffering from the PGA Tour’s ban.

PGA Tour’s ban on creators is a growing concern

Golf saw a huge boom after the COVID-19 pandemic and a part of that increased visibility was the content creator community. However, with the 2022/2023 rule still functional, the same not only divided the players but also the group of people who were bringing in the eyes to the sport and growing it. And if just creators were not in the heat, there was another person who also got caught in the fire.

Ben Baller, the LIV Golf Championship Ring designer, has also been banned from all PGA Tour Pro-Ams due to his affiliations with the Saudi-backed league. This move comes amid a reported clash between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf over the latter’s new creator-focused event, The Duels. The PGA Tour has criticized the Saudi-backed league for dividing the game, and the Tour has placed a ban on all PGA Tour players who have migrated to LIV Golf.

The controversy has sparked a reaction from Ben Baller, who called the PGA Tour’s actions “corny”. He revealed that he was banned from all PGA Tour Pro-Ams, except for the Farmers event, which he won. “So corny. They did this with me. I’m not a pro and it’s why I left my agency. Now I’m banned from all the PGA Tour Pro-Ams except for Farmers because I won it,” Baller said.

The PGA Tour’s threat to ban creators participating in LIV Golf’s event was met with pushback, and eventually, the threat of sanctions was dismissed. But, well, the opposite has happened with LIV Golf’s latest milestone. But what are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know in the comment section below!