Golf Lost the Plot. Here’s How it Gets it Back

Professional golf has something most sports can’t replicate, but four years of executives arguing about money nearly buried it.

Golf is unique because so many people who watch it also play it, and that dual identity as fan and participant makes the golf consumer unlike many other sports consumers.

That was the subtext (and, at times, direct message) running through two conversations at Big Swing Media's first event this morning. In partnership with Old Tom Capital, we gathered more than 50 C-level leaders across golf, media, finance and PE near Shinnecock Hills, with an audience that included folks like president of NBC Sports Rick Cordella and broadcast talent Mike Tirico as well as former PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh.

Versant CEO Mark Lazarus and investment banker and golf power broker Jimmy Dunne sat down separately with Big Swing’s Jimmy Roberts. The pair came at it from different angles, but sketched the same problem.

Golf sells participation. The experience of being a golfer, of belonging to the game – that’s the product, and everything else flows from it, and losing sight of that core audience can damage the sport overall. 

Lazarus made the case most explicitly: “The ability to connect golfers with golf is what we all want to do, right? The thing that makes golf different is that everyone can participate at a very active level and people who watch golf, most of us also play golf.”

It’s why Versant’s GolfNow service booked over 40 million tee times in 2025, why a driver endorsed by Notah Begay sold out on Golf Channel, and why sponsors continue to write checks with multiple zeros. Reaching a golf fan means reaching someone who will spend money on the game itself, including the travel, equipment, memberships and technology.

“It's a niche sport, but that niche is filled with incredible passion, incredible engagement, and people with discretionary income who want to spend both for the experience of golf, the lifestyle of golf, the travel [and] the destination,” said Lazarus.

He named the biggest challenge in nearly the same breath: get clubs in more people’s hands, make the game affordable and entertaining, and help it fit into modern life.

“The more we can put golf clubs in people's hands and make it fun, whether it's on a golf course or in an indoor facility that has amazing technology that gamifies it, I think there's a tremendous amount of opportunity,” said Lazarus. “Then we've got to give them fun content. We need the personalities of our stars to come out more too.” 

 Dunne didn’t frame growing the base as a business argument, but he didn’t need to. As a teenager, Dunne painted houses on Long Island, ended up at Shinnecock on a Thursday afternoon by chance, and found it to be the “greatest golf course in the world.” At 70, he still feels the same. He listed Seminole, Cypress Point, Pebble Beach and Montauk Downs. "I get really excited about coming in the parking lot," he said – the feeling Lazarus described when talking about participation.

Four Years of Turf Wars

Dunne, a former PGA Tour Policy Board member, helped broker the framework agreement with the Saudi PIF (though he has publicly expressed regret for his involvement). 

The executive arrived at the PGA Tour policy board in 2023 as a true believer, convinced he could help unite the game. He was disabused of that quickly. “I was very naive,” he said. “I thought of the game of golf as this precious, valuable relationship-building wonderful thing, and that was wrong. That to them is their business. When you get in those rooms, everybody is worried about their turf."

Dunne was careful to say that the PGA Tour has every right to protect its interests, but between all the involved parties, four years of institutional self-interest, played out publicly, made the game feel like a negotiation.

Lazarus said it plainly: LIV was "a giant distraction" that turned every conversation toward money. "The game became all about money. I don't think the general population really wanted to hear athletes and business people who are all doing quite well talk about how much more money they can make or should be making."

“I don't like – as Mark pointed out – all this discussion about money,” said Dunne. “And if you are going to spend all that kind of money, why don't you put it in the Tour?”

For Dunne, the concern was the relationship between MbS [Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud], and Yasir Al-Rumayyan [governor of the PIF], and the possibility that Riyadh could sustain a disruptive presence outside the Tour long enough to do lasting damage. The liquidity problems came faster than anyone anticipated. 

"I never imagined they could go through so much money and create such a stressful liquidity situation for them as quickly as it occurred,” said Dunne. “That surprised me, how quickly that came apart."

The Next Test

Now, the game faces a different kind of pressure. Earlier this week, we explored how the NFL reopening its media rights deal (with ambitions to roughly double its current $12 billion annually) could affect golf’s slice of the $30 billion sports media pie.

We were pleased to hear Lazarus speak directly to the speculation: companies will rebalance their portfolios, and golf will be in that conversation.

Brian Rolapp, who came from the NFL and now runs the PGA Tour, will be looking for more value from media partners. Lazarus said the Tour has to earn it. "The first thing they have to do is prove that they're creating more value," he said. Sponsors are already under pressure — a CEO signing off on $20 to $30 million for a single tournament week faces scrutiny from boards and shareholders. 

Golf's argument in that environment runs directly through what Lazarus identified as the game's core asset. The audience participates, spends, and travels. The case to a network, sponsor, or rights negotiator isn’t built on raw ratings — golf isn't going to win that fight against the NFL — but instead on the depth of engagement of the people watching.

Lazarus wants the Tour's stars closing the distance between player and gallery — interacting with fans and building name brands. He told a Rusty Wallace story: the NASCAR driver who once said shaking one hand makes five fans, because they tell their friends. Golf already has the physical proximity built in, Lazarus noted. "The professional golfer is closer to their fans than any other athlete," Lazarus said.

Dunne, who watches “all” golf (but not LIV), said the real franchises are the events. People will turn on for Pebble Beach and for the majors. Stars matter, but "they're fairly fungible right now," he said — no dominant Tiger or peak Mickelson. What's durable is the attachment to the places and the occasions, like Shinnecock and Augusta, and the moment on the first tee.

That attachment is built by the people who play the game, and always has been.