Earlier this summer I shared that after much thought and deliberation, I made the difficult decision to step away from a job and a group of co-workers that I really liked to take a shot at fulfilling a long-held dream of being an entrepreneur.

Today I wanted to share more about my plans and how I arrived at this decision.

First, let’s not bury the lede…drum roll…I am pleased to announce that I have started a brand new, mission-driven media company called Ready Golf.  Working with my close friend and co-founder Spence Kramer, Ready Golf seeks nothing less than to change the face of the fan base of the sport.  Make it bigger, younger, more diverse.  Doing so will create value for all the game’s stakeholders – governing bodies, sponsors, and players.

At Ready Golf, we’re producers.  We make everything from long-form documentary series to short form video and social.  We also handle marketing and content distribution, partner deals and consumer engagement.  From strategy to creative delivery, we are “culture first,” ensuring we tell stories that matter to our audiences most.

Ok, that was a lot. 

Right now, you may be asking yourself:  why a media company, especially one focused on golf?

Let me take the second part first.  Why golf?  Well, because it really needs help.  I love playing golf.  I love watching it.  But as a media property the sport is facing existential challenges.  The television audience skews heavily, and I mean really heavily, old, white, and male.  Moreover, golf still can’t shake the perception that has dogged it for a long time – that is exclusive, for the rich and privileged, and inaccessible to large segments of our society.

Perhaps even more troubling, in a sport where the players are the product, the stars of the game have not made much of an effort to connect with young fans where they live – on social media.  One data point says it all:  look at the Instagram followers of the world’s biggest golfers – Tiger, Rory, Koepka, Spieth, etc. – not one of them has one-sixth of the number of followers of Odell Beckham Jr.  It’s telling – and not just slightly concerning – that these global athletes, some of whom have been in the public eye for decades, reach only a fraction of the audience of a player who didn’t even put on a jersey last year.

This is an enormous challenge for a sport seeking to recruit new fans among young people.  The new generation of fans are diverse, socially conscious and growing in economic might.  Most important for golf or any company that seeks to do business with them, young people shun brands that don’t reflect their values.

Martin Slumbers, the CEO of the R&A, said it best, “We believe the game needs to focus on increasing participation, growing diversity and making the sport truly open to all.”

Ok, so you get golf needs help, but why a media company?  The business is in turmoil right now.  Is it the right time to launch something like Ready Golf?

No question legacy media companies are struggling.  But media consumption overall is at an all-time high.  Watching our screens is more than the great American pastime, it’s our incurable addiction.

Once again, we need to look at trends.  In sports media, young people prefer watching highlights versus live events.  That’s not to say live events don’t matter, they very much do.  But if you want to engage young audiences you need to go to where they are. 

Which leads to our second trend – audiences increasingly are spending time watching “sports adjacent” content.  That’s a fancy way of describing shows like Cheer, Welcome to Wrexham, Drive to Survive, etc.  What draws audiences to these shows is the same thing that attracts them to any dramatic series:  compelling, relatable characters struggling to overcome obstacles or conflict to achieve their goals.  In these type of shows, sports and competition are the backdrop, not the primary focus.

The last trend is the same one that continues to upend all aspects of our lives: technology. Thanks to technology, anyone can be a producer. Owning the means of distribution in media isn’t necessary. In fact, it’s preferable not to, unless you have billions to launch your own. (Even if you do, the odds of failure are very high.) Posting on social media and YouTube is free. Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon and the other SVOD platforms are always in the market for quality content.

In the sports world, athletes have taken notice.  The smart, savvy ones are bypassing the traditional gatekeepers and leveraging their brands and the access their celebrity affords to launch their own media and production companies.  Tom Brady, Michael Strahan, Serena Williams, the Manning brothers, Steph Curry, Naomi Osaka…I could go on, all have hung out their own shingles and entered the business.

So, we have a sport with an aging fan base, little traction among young people for its premier players, and lack of a consistent strategy for addressing the trends driving sports consumption today. Something needs to be done. It’s more than past the time to get ready. (See what I did there?)

This is where Ready Golf comes in.  As I said before, we will produce compelling stories that meet young people where they are.  Not by leading with golf, but with culture.  We will focus on subjects that matter to young people, like fashion, mental health, travel, and technology.  Beyond storytelling, we have the expertise to create marketing and distribution strategies to ensure we “surround” audiences wherever they choose to consume.

Ready Golf will create value for everyone invested in the sport.

For governing bodies and other institutions invested in competitive golf, this means growing the fan base.

For sponsors, this means amplifying the reach of their investments in golf by producing content that attracts younger, more diverse audiences.

And for players, who today are independent contractors that don’t own a sliver of their media rights, this means turning them into full-fledged owners of intellectual property and content that accrues substantial value over a lifetime and expands the power and impact of their personal brands.

Ready Golf opened its doors less than two months ago and already we are seeing great traction.  I’m not going to sugar coat it, launching a business after 25+ years in corporate America is an adjustment.  The biggest is not seeing a regular paycheck deposit every two weeks.  And as with any new business, the risk of failure can’t be ignored. 

But at the same time, I haven’t had this much fun professionally in years.  I’m getting to do work I believe in with people I like.  And it’s the ultimate test from a career standpoint – you have total independence but at the same time total accountability.  There is no place to hide, success or failure rests with you.

So, there you have it, that’s Ready Golf.  Here’s a link to our website if you want to learn more.  We’d love to hear from you.  Thanks to all who have provided support, guidance, and encouragement so far.  Watch this space for more updates.