The PGA Tour has animosity toward LIV Golf. Or, at least, Tour pros who associate with the league, and Wesley Bryan’s case proved that this season. Following his participation in LIV Golf’s “The Duels,” Bryan received an indefinite suspension from the Tour. Interestingly, the host of “The Duels,” popular YouTube host Grant Horvat, received an invitation for a 2025 PGA Tour event instead of a suspension, unlike Bryan. Now, as per that recent Horvat update and much to Bryan’s “disappointment,” the Tour has “axed” him as well, though for an entirely different reason.

In April of this season, the Tour gave Horvat a sponsor’s exemption to play in the 2025 Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nevada. According to the schedule, Horvat was supposed to attend the event, held from July 17 to 20, but he did not. And it has everything to do with the PGA Tour. Why? The PGA Tour informed the YouTube star that he won’t be able to bring his own crew to film his rounds for his YouTube channel.

In a recent X post, Horvat explained, “Unfortunately I will not be playing in a PGA Tour event. The rules and regulations around PGA Tour tournament play will not allow us to film.” Though he thanked the Tour for inviting him to the event, Horvat stated, “The only reason I was in the position to receive an invitation like this is because of YouTube and you all watching the videos, so if I’m going to play, we want film it.”

Seeing this disappointing news, Wesley Bryan said, “My official comment on the Grant Horvat situation: I am disappointed in the TOUR’s decision to not let Grant film the Barracuda Championship. Sincerely, Grant’s unemployed caddie.” For years, the PGA Tour has removed videos featuring its players or clips from events on social media. However, this year, as reported by Sports Business Journal and confirmed by Sports Illustrated, the Tour is allowing tournament videos to stay online.

As per a February report from the 2025 season, the PGA Tour is implementing changes to enhance its media regulations and increase exposure for its tournaments. The Tour updated its media guidelines to grant additional rights to content for various stakeholders, including tournaments, sponsors, media partners, and content creators. The focus of these changes is primarily on practice rounds and pro-ams, allowing for more content to be shared on social media, provided it receives Tour approval. However, this creates residual friction as even though the PGA Tour wishes to be more inclusive, it still takes two steps back in the process, or in Grant’s case, the Tour not extending the exceptions/changes for independent filming.

This scenario is, moreover, not something new, as besides Grant Horvat and Wesley Bryan, a certain golfer has been raising his concerns against the Tour regarding media rights.

Phil Mickelson and his fight against the PGA Tour media control

Phil Mickelson has been up front about his grievances with the PGA Tour, particularly regarding its media rights policies. In a February 2022 interview, he criticized the Tour’s “obnoxious greed,” stating, “It’s not public knowledge, all that goes on. But the players don’t have access to their own media. If the tour wanted to end any threat [from upstart tours], they could just hand back the media rights to the players. But they would rather throw $25 million here and $40 million there than give back the roughly $20 billion in digital assets they control. Or give up access to the $50-plus million they make every year on their own media channel.”

Mickelson emphasized the financial implications of the Tour’s control over media rights, saying, “For me personally, it’s not enough that they are sitting on hundreds of millions of digital moments. They also have access to my shots, access I do not have. They also charge companies to use shots I have hit.” He further revealed that during “The Match,” the PGA Tour “forced” him to pay them $1 million each time for using his own media rights, adding, “That type of greed is, to me, beyond obnoxious.”

Fast forward to May 2024, Mickelson reiterated his concerns, stating, “We didn’t have an opportunity for elevated events [in the PGA]. We didn’t have an opportunity for equity. We didn’t have an opportunity to do our own social media. That was all controlled and shot down.” He highlighted that LIV Golf has provided opportunities for equity and social media engagement that were previously unavailable under the PGA Tour, noting, “Every event is an elevated event. We have equity, and we have the ability to do these social media posts and try to transcend the game of golf to different generations.”

So, given the outcry, are we likely to see more PGA Tour media changes in the coming times? With Brian Rolapp taking on the helm of the CEO, his previous job experience of bring NFL’s Chief Media and Business Officer may bridge the content control/content freedom divide. After all, he was able to close some of the biggest media deals for NFL, including CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN/ABC, Amazon and Netflix.