STRIPED or SHANKED: The PGA TOUR’s Death Grip on Media

You’ve probably heard this so many times now you’re sick of it; the golf mantra to “grow the game.” The unfortunate truth, however, is that a lot of people only want to grow the game if it’s growing their version of the game on their terms and to the benefit of their interests.

If you dare to grow your version of the game that doesn’t align perfectly with theirs, you can expect that they—the PGA TOUR in this instance—will do everything in their power to extinguish your competing version.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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No, I’m not talking about LIV—that’s for another article. I’m talking about the PGA TOUR’s relentless pursuit to chase down and, more or less, destroy anyone who posts “unauthorized” copyrighted TOUR media, including PGA TOUR player swings. One of Instagram’s most well-known pages to feature PGA TOUR and LPGA TOUR player swings, Sacred Links Photography, finally fell victim to an all-too-frequent message golf Instagram accounts receive:

The issue can best be summarized as the PGA TOUR contends that it “owns” all media content, “including rights to all forms of audio, video, and photography.” While many believe that comprises any media the PGA TOUR generates, chiefly among which being video from broadcasts, but that’s not the case.

The PGA TOUR, instead, believes it has the right to permit or—more frequently—deny people the right to use any media of any PGA TOUR golfer, including media that you personally take and for non-monetary usage.

For those unfamiliar with Sacred Links, it is—for lack of a better term—a rolodex of some of the best swings on PGA TOUR, consisting of down-the-line, caddie view, and slow-motion videos from the practice range or tournament rounds, dating as far back as 1990.

The account, per Sacred Links, was founded on the idea that not all golfers have the resources to pay for coaches and, instead, many golfers are forced to learn from watching the greats of their time.

Yuka Saso—the Filipino-golfing prodigy who broke into the LGPA at just 19 years of age—credits her development as a golfer to watching “hours” of videos of Rory McIlroy’s golf swing on YouTube.

Had the PGA TOUR denied her access to that and withheld videos of Rory behind a paywall on a website like, for example, PGA TOUR LIVE—it is not imaginable that there never would’ve been a Yuka Saso. That is exactly what Sacred Links provides to the social media public.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Quality free content is hard to come by, but Sacred Links made it a priority to provide it to his followers in the hopes that he could, ironically, help grow the game of golf by providing an invaluable learning resource to those who didn’t have access to private instruction and, instead, had to learn through imitation.

I think it’s important to note that Sacred Links isn’t some “ripoff” account that preys upon the endless well of social media posts. No, Sacred Links—whose account is followed by the likes of Justin Thomas, Max Homa, Sahith Theegala, and numerous other PGA TOUR and LPGA golfers and coaches—personally shoots the content he distributes.

For those who didn’t hear me:  Sacred Links is publishing media he personally generated, not media that poached from a PGA TOUR broadcast or elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If my position isn’t clear, the PGA TOUR should be ashamed of itself for doing this. While the PGA TOUR is quick to boast that it’s doing everything it can to grow the game, it’s quick to extinguish anyone who threatens what they believe is exclusively theirs. And that approach can hardly be described as helping grow anything.

So if the PGA TOUR is actually committed to growing the game, then perhaps it should show the public that by doing something that benefits aspiring golfers globally and #FreeSacredLinks.

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