The Feed: YouTube golfer qualifies for PGA Tour event ... via YouTube
Chaos reigned in golf this week, as reports confirmed that after weeks of speculation, the Saudi Public Investment Fund was finally pulling the financial plug on LIV Golf following the 2026 season. PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan stepped down from his post and LIV's New Orleans event, originally scheduled for June, was postponed . Thankfully the skies were a bit more blue in the world of YouTube golf, where one of the golf’s former top amateurs punched his ticket to the Big Show via the content platform. That might sound equally messy to some of the more traditional golf fans among us, but let us explain.
Ruffels Some Feathers
There’s been a lot sponsor exemption discourse in golf over the past several seasons. Many fans have taken exception to big-name players being handed lifeline after lifeline simply because they may elevate the exposure of the tournament and, more specifically, its title sponsor. The argument is that golf, like most other professional sports, should be a strict meritocracy. Players should have to earn the right to play based on current performance, not be given it based on former popularity. In many ways The Q, despite it’s non-traditional premise, solves this problem.
This week, Grant Horvat and the Bryan Bros.—who have become the de-facto competitive ambassadors of YouTube golf—hosted the second annual The Q, a made-for-YouTube competition with a BIG prize: The winner gets a sponsor exemption into next month’s ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic, a bonafide PGA Tour event with a $4-million purse. Last year, the competition featured eight creators, from Fat Perez to Sean Walsh, and eight aspiring professionals, with the winner (non-creator Nathan Franks) earning his way onto the PGA Tour … at least for a week.
With an 18-hole stroke play format and Shane Bacon narrating, the event felt very like a PGA Tour Monday Qualifier. This year, however, The Q has been content-tified. Gone are the fringe pros that nobody knows, replaced instead by a roster of YouTube’s biggest names, while the first episode whittles the field down to four with a seemingly made-for-YouTube match-play format. Spread across two different channels—another 2026 YouTube golf trademark— the competition came down to the wire but when the dust settled and the smoke cleared, only one man was headed to Myrtle Beach.
RELATED: This golf creator is getting absolutely DRAGGED for filming his U.S. Open local qualifier
Though this hyper-modern route to the PGA Tour might, ahem, ruffle a few feathers, we offer our heartfelt congratulations to this year’s winner [SPOILER ALERT] Ryan Ruffels. The means of his qualification (for a sponsor exemption, yes this gets confusing) were decidedly non-traditional, Ruffels is no influencer hack. He competes against and alongside Jason Day regularly on the pair’s YouTube channel, The Lads, was once the no. 3-ranked amateur in the world and recently won the All-Pro YouTube Tournament while teamed with Grant Horvat in a rout . He has one former PGA Tour appearance, at the 2022 Shriner’s Childrens Open, where he missed the cut after shooting 77-71. There’s a realistic case to be made, that of The Q’s eight competitors in 2026, Ruffels was the most deserving of the spot. If that isn't meritocracy at work, we don't know what is.
And that's the moral of the story. In a modern golf world where sponsor exemptions have become a hot-button issue and many YouTubers have become bigger stars than their professional counterparts regardless of skill, The Q delivers not simply entertainment, but a solution. Make sponsor exemptions—or at least one sponsor exemption—a matter of merit. Give popular golf creators a chance to test their mettle and let the chips fall where they may.
What if next year, when the PGA Tour is expected to move to a reduced schedule of 20-26 tournaments a year, we got one of these each week? The title sponsors could have their Rickie Fowlers, Jordan Spieths and hometown favorites, and the final spot could go to someone who not only played their way in but brought a self-made fanbase with them. It would add weekly intrigue to what is normally just a memo and help the PGA Tour meet many golf fans where they’re at in the year 2026 (i.e. on YouTube). Pie in the sky thinking for now, but regardless, join us in congratulating Ryan Ruffels on his big break. If you’re pulling for one guy at Dunes Golf and Beach Club next month, why not him?
Quick Hits
Good Good Golf
How much does golf equipment really matter? Can the most expensive, pro-level clubs turn an average golfer into a stick? That's a question that has plagued golfers for years and this week Good Good attempt to anaswer it with a unique match where club budget, not ability, is the handicap. If you’re in the market for a new set of sticks and wondering how to spend for your skill level, this is must-see TV .
Good Good Girls
If you’re the Brooks Koepka of YouTube golf fans and only lock in for the majors, then swing over to the Good Good Girls’ channel this week and check out their first capital-M Major . If you’ve been tagging along with GGG since the start, you already know Alexis, Marrissa, Hadley and Yoonhee, but Bobbi Stricker—the daughter of 12-time PGA Tour winner Steve Stricker—also joins the squad for this one, so make sure to check it out.
Bob Does Sports
After months—nay, YEARS—is this the week Bobby Fairways finally breaks 80 ? The law of averages says it has to happen eventually … right??
Brad Dalke
Fellas, tell me if this sounds like a good idea to you: Pitting your wife (who doesn’t golf) against your best buddy’s wife (who also doesn’t golf) and filming the whole match for YouTube? Needless to say, Brad Dalke and Sean Walsh are braver men than the rest of us. Good luck and good night, gents.
Peter Finch
As many of you know, it is U.S. Open qualifying season, and this week Peter Finch continues his journey to qualify for America’s national golf championship at Medford Village C.C. just outside of Philadelphia. See if he has what it takes to tame the “Monster of Medford” here .
Luke Kwon
Finally, Luke Kwon wraps up his Infinity Stone series with an epic finale against World No. 333, Nick Voke. That may not sound like much by PGA Tour standards, but on YouTube, Voke is a formidable final boss. Even though he comes armed with a couple of power ups from his previous Infinity Stone matches, Kwon has his work cut out for him if he wants to claim the final gauntlet.
