For many people, golf used to be that thing your dad would do way too early on a weekend morning with his shirt tucked into a very unfashionable pair of khakis. But Dad might just run into Justin Timberlake and Travis Kelce or LeBron and Bronny James the next time he hits the links.
That’s right—golf is officially cool.
The sport, which was long associated with the Caddyshack-esque image of men at country clubs, has in recent years been drawing a more diverse group of players and fans. In 2025, it seems to have rocketed firmly into pop culture, with new movies and shows about the sport on major streaming services, golf content all over social media, a growing fashion scene, and superstar athletes from other sports swinging up a storm in their downtime.
With the Ryder Cup, already known as a unique and somewhat rowdy tournament by the golf world’s standards, coming to New York this weekend, golf’s new image is sure to be on full display. It’s “going to be like the Super Bowl of golf,” Kevin Hopkins, SVP of events at Excel Sports Management, told Marketing Brew.
Welcome to the simulation
Golf is nothing new for pro athletes across sports; it’s a relatively low-impact activity. But some have gotten invested in the sport beyond a hobby.
D’Angelo Russell, point guard for the Dallas Mavericks, last year hosted the Backyard Cup, “his own version of the Ryder Cup,” where NBA players competed against YouTubers on the green, according to Kevin Jones, founder and CEO of Blue Wire, the content company behind Russell’s The Backyard Podcast that helped him put on the event. A second edition of the Cup is in the works, Jones said, with Johnnie Walker on board to sponsor. The PGA has also embraced influencer golf, hosting multiple “Creator Classics” at tour events throughout the year.
“People actually like golf when it’s not the best in the world, when it’s someone a little bit mediocre,” Jones said. “They hit the ball in the sand trap. They duff a shot. You can relate to it a little bit more when someone’s not shooting 65 and is the best in the world.”
For the encouraged, it’s easier than ever to get into golf, thanks to indoor venues and simulators like Topgolf that don’t require memberships, tee times, or dress codes to access, and the PGA of America is all for new styles of play, according to Luke Reissman, its head of global partnerships.
“It’s just become much more acceptable to play golf in a variety of different ways, and I think that’s made it more accessible to a lot of different diverse audiences,” he said. “We certainly see that coming out in the numbers that we see around participation.”
Play isn’t the only kind of style that’s been changing on the green. Brands like Eastside Golf, Malbon Golf, and Metalwood Studio are weaving streetwear influence into golf, bringing some more fashion flair to the green. Dress has always been an important element of the game, according to Roger Steele, a golf content creator who started playing alongside his dad growing up in Chicago, but there’s more style options for golfers now than ever.
“There were a few brands, few tastemakers, that were willing to really challenge what golf could look like, while at the same time showing that they have respect for the game, and the history and the culture of the game,” Steele told us. “They were willing to challenge certain things about the way people were allowed to express themselves, and especially through apparel, through footwear. I think that those things paid tremendous dividends.”
Take a ride(r) with me
The Ryder Cup, a team-style tournament played every other year between the US and Europe, is usually a “hot ticket,” but with it taking place at Bethpage Black Golf Course in New York this year, it’s “a whole other animal,” Reissman said. Tickets are sold out, he said, and partner interest was similarly high.
T-Mobile, which has been a sponsor of the PGA of America for about two years, is going all out for the Ryder Cup, according to Amy Azzi, T-Mobile’s VP of sponsorships for sports, entertainment, and hospitality. For one part of its activation, the company is putting on T-Mobile Breakfast at Bethpage, a broadcast about the Cup hosted by SNL’s Colin Jost that’s modeled after programs like ESPN’s College GameDay and ManningCast.
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“It’s such a massive moment, especially for where golf is today,” Azzi said. “You could be a fan of any golfer, of any level, and the Ryder Cup is the moment you’re tuning in to see what’s going to happen.”
Diageo’s Johnnie Walker brand, though not an official Ryder Cup sponsor, is tapping into that fandom in part through fashion, partnering with streetwear golf brand Devereux Golf for a line of merch that’s available online and from a branded truck that’s making the rounds in New York City through this weekend. The Johnnie Walker team is also hosting watch parties, “street golf games,” and sampling cocktails out of the truck as part of an effort to connect with modern golf fans in a way that feels fun while still respecting the traditions of golf, Jesse Damashek, SVP of marketing for Diageo’s North American whiskey portfolio, said in an email.
“The modern golf audience is younger, more diverse, and very lifestyle-oriented,” he said. “We’ve found that blending golf with fashion, lifestyle, and experiential activations resonates with this audience.”
At Bethpage Black, there will be at least five alcohol brands on site, plus a handful of brands from “nontraditional categories that we may not have heard from before because golf might not have been trendy enough,” like sports betting, crypto, and fashion, Reissman said. The PGA is also working to make the event even more accessible to fans by hosting Ryder Cup Live, an event with screenings of the tournament and other golf-related activities, at Rockefeller Center.
“Not everyone can get a ticket to go to Bethpage,” said Christie Decker, account director at GDX Studios, the experiential agency that the PGA tapped to organize Ryder Cup Live. “They’re expensive, and now the audience is so much broader than just the country-club goers.”
Next hole
Beyond the Ryder Cup, golf finds itself at something of a crossroads. With newer leagues like LIV Golf and Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL emerging and the PGA embracing change, the landscape is changing, but some in the industry want to ensure that the tradition and the legacy surrounding golf isn’t lost along the way. In its campaign for the Masters this year, for instance, ESPN made an effort to highlight the history of the tournament while also attempting to attract younger fans.
There’s also still some work to be done in terms of cementing the golf-curious into regular golf viewers, according to Sam Yardley, EVP of North America at sports marketing agency Two Circles, which works with golf properties including TGL. Some people might head to a golf simulator because they want to be like Sauce Gardner, but that doesn’t mean they’re watching pro golf.
“You need to ultimately funnel [new fans] into watching the professional game,” Yardley said. “We’re trying to work with a lot of our clients to harness that interest and energy.”
A lot of the responsibility for converting casual green-goers into pro golf fans falls to the sport’s leading organizations like the PGA, golf experts said, but it can also come down to the players themselves. As proven by Drive to Survive, giving audiences an inside look at the lives of athletes can revolutionize fandom for a sport, and with a Netflix docuseries of its own, golf seems to be heading in that direction.
“I don’t want to say necessarily that [golfers] are household names quite yet, but I can tell you, it feels a little bit different when I’m watching the Tour Championship and Caitlin Clark and LeBron are tweeting about Tommy Fleetwood,” Hopkins said. “It just kind of feels different.”