A game that started as a means to pass time for shepherds in the valleys of Scotland, today stands as the most cherished game for Americans – with approximately more than one-third of the country’s populace consuming the content of the sport either online or offline. And yes, the average is only rising by the year. Merely two years ago, people engaging in a golf game exceeded 25 million in the United States alone, and it is only natural that the scope of the game will increase from here on. EssentiallySports (ES), which has marked its distinct place in the American sports journalism landscape with its ‘Fan’s Perspective,’ too has had a compelling journey till now in establishing and growing golf content. 

Golf as a sport and its media evolution through time

This sport, popularized for its outdoorsy, leisurely, and sophisticated appeal, got its rules first laid down in 1744. Since then, many organizations have tried to conduct this game professionally. However, it was only in 1929 that the PGA Tour, a non-profit organization, formalized the sport further. It organized professional golf tours all over America, gathering reputation and elite golfers on its way. Today, it has 4.7M followers on Instagram, 4.9M followers on Facebook, 1.35M subscribers on YouTube, and 2.9M followers on X. 

Inspired by the popularity of golf among men, enthusiasts established a golfing association for women in 1950, the LPGA. With significant progress made in recent years courtesy of social media, it possesses 562K followers on Instagram, 330.4K followers on X, and 1.4M followers on Facebook. 

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Even with its so-called quiet demeanor, the golfing world is far from controversies. Infact, one of the most surprising and striking controversies was the 2023 merger of LIV Golf and The PGA Tour. It was only two years back when LIV Golf was founded, mainly to be a rival of the PGA Tour. However, the announcement of an inevitable merger ended one of the massive rifts in professional golfing. The controversy only made the sport more popular in the USA, and there is only more to come. 

Amidst all the action off the field, how can one talk about golf and not mention Tiger Woods? Yes, the American golfing legend has played an essential role in making this sport popular not only in the US, but also the world. Not only did he open the space for his community, but also created unbreakable records by winning five Masters tournaments among other accolades. 

In other words, the sport is reaching new heights in attraction and participation daily. And ES, with tireless efforts and unceasing endeavors, is creating its own opportunity to deliver accurate and in-depth quality golf articles for enthusiasts.

Where did the stroke begin for EssentiallySports?

It started like every adventure we have probably heard about – clueless and seeking direction. The discovery only then takes place on the way! It was in March 2021 when EssentiallySports decided to cover golfing content, seeing its rising interest among Americans. They consulted Arjun Athreya, who was working as a writer, to discuss the prospects of setting up the sport division. Although excited about the new opportunity, he didn’t exactly now how to go about it first. 

The content strategist said, “Our co-founder Harit tasked me with the idea of setting up a Golf division, trusting me with all the responsibilities from planning and researching to pushing out articles. We didn’t have a lot of clarity at the start, but we were positive enough that we’d figure it all out along the way, and it was the trust and confidence that went into making the division what it is today.”

Even though the golf division stands successful today, the task Mr. Athreya found ahead of him was challenging to say the least. “The division formally began in the second week of March 2021, with me being the sole content strategist, writer, editor, everything. We only got our first content writer at the beginning of May. So I was writing all the articles of the day, and that was it!”

With limited resources at hand, Arjun began to work on exploring what fans of the sport really wanted. What made them read golf articles? What made the readers engage with the content? How do they view the sport, and what makes the fans tick? He began researching and writing about everything that he found intriguing and entertaining and looked to add value to every article he wrote. And sure enough, it took merely three weeks before his dedication started to reap results. “Our hopes came true when a basic query piece aimed towards trends began blowing up. I still credit this piece as the sign that elevated our mission with the golf division. It finished with thousands of pageviews. This gave us all the reasons to keep building this team and make it a cornerstone of EssentiallySports.”

The article that stood out in 2021 was ‘Did Rickie Fowler Qualify for the 2021 Masters?’. However, this was just the start of something very exciting to come.  

Things progressed rapidly from there on. Current divisional content head Bazif Qadri encompassed the journey of the division during the subsequent years effortlessly, while highlighting an extremely key point. “So you know, we started to capitalize on the momentum. As we provided the fans’ perspective, we targeted fan sentiment from there, going to the second year with 2022 Masters. We got good results, focusing on niches and trends, which amplified our coverage. The next year (2023), we got millions in web traffic – just for the month of March. Undoubtedly, the growth has been enormous, and it is only because of getting deep into each development in golf and trying to create something unique out of it.”

EssentiallySports goes the whole way with LPGA 

These successes were just the tip of the iceberg and so, the team decided to go further in covering the ‘depth of the niche’. And so in what seemed the logical next step, they looked towards LPGA. Even though women have been playing golf for a long time, it is still upcoming in terms of coverage. “In growth opportunities in 2024, we are focusing on taking the game up a notch by strengthening our LPGA Tour coverage. We feel that there are a lot of untapped things on the LPGA Tour and in female golf in general,” said Bazif thoughtfully.  

Anjana Prabhakaran, who has a background in writing and currently holds the position of deputy content strategist, is exclusively focusing on the analysis of LPGA coverage. “There are two ways we cover them mostly: A) When there is an event, we cover them based on Google Trends. Whoever is trending will become our focus. B) When there is something emerging in social media, we try to do reporting, next trend-setting, and then in-depth coverage, as much as the bandwidth allows us.”  

Aravind Menon, who is also working specifically with the LPGA reports, mentions how much potential the women’s golf coverage holds and how EssentiallySports is tapping into it. He elaborated, “LPGA has been a division that we have been tapping into for a while. Right now, the women’s division of golf is growing at a massive pace from Nelly Korda to Rose Zhang, numerous well-talented golfers are shifting the landscape for women’s golf. As a strategy for covering LPGA, we look into both a broader and an individual lens.”

What makes EssentiallySports arrive as the first one on the course? 

In the landscape of digital media, it is not always enough to write an article and cross one’s fingers. It becomes the duty of a journalism house to showcase them in places where it could become easy for readers to access the content, and there is no better place than social media. “Social media and exclusives are obviously one of our key growing areas. Our prime focus is building specific fan communities for enthusiasts who love the sport – just like us. At the same time, it also provides them with a platform to freely express the major issues concerning golf,” said Bazif with a hint of excitement in his voice. 

However, broadcasting articles on social media is the next step. For articles to be promoted on social media, it must be of value and ingenuity first. To ensure that, EssentiallySports has also created space for athletes, coaches, and people in the respective fields to share their candid feelings and thoughts with the audience directly through ES FanCast- a brand new way of podcasting. 

“In terms of ES FanCast, we started our campaign with Pete Cowen, who is probably one of the best coaches of the game of all time. Currently, he works with Brook Koepka and a bunch of LIV golfers, as well as being the ex-coach of Rory McIlroy, holding the position of world #2. I think that is by far one of the best interviews I have ever been a part of. It had everything- drama, banter, and his insights into the changing landscape of golf and sharing wisdom regarding the technicalities of the sport,” he added.  

Another sure-shot method the EssentiallySports team employs to keep the golf enthusiast on their toes is being first on the course : first to find the story and publish the article. “From an events lens, anything can happen anytime in golf. Fans can cause chaos, rounds can be paused, or even golfers may get penalties. Therefore, for the coverage of the events, we always have to be vigilant and nit-picky,” said Aravind thoughtfully. 

Creating the pathway to make top-notch golf writers 

Fresh methods can be employed to reach the audience or even to make the golf articles interesting. However, all the efforts amount to nothing if there is no way of finding ways to maintain it. For its upkeep, ES invests in the talent and its golf team by training and familiarizing them with the latest updates and nitty-gritties of this complex yet sophisticated game. 

Sheldon Pereira, who handles the training process, said, “So a couple of things we do in golf is to make sure the writers first try and develop an interest in the sport themselves. We do this by having them follow an event from time to time, or even having watch parties with the entire team.”

“The writers are then also asked to keep up with the latest updates through Instagram, X, etc. so that they get more involved with the sport regularly. While this enhances their perspective as a fan, to further get them to put that out through their writing, they read golf articles written at ES and elsewhere, which helps them understand the topics at hand thoroughly.”

For the EssentiallySports team, golf is not just another sport to create content about. Covering golf is a culture in itself. It is not only able to cover fans’ perspectives, but through its depth in niches coverage, it is able to attract new fans with each passing year. So the only question that remains now – are you ready to immerse yourself with ES Golf? 

Get all the interesting updates and daily content around the PGA Tour, LPGA, Tiger Woods, Rory Mcllroy and many more – only with “CLUB GOLF“, courtesy of EssentiallySports!