Creator Sports Capital Tees Up $45 Million Investment in Good Good Golf

The convergence of creator economy dynamics and traditional sports media reached a new milestone in March 2025 when Good Good Golf, a Texas-based golf content company, closed a $45 million funding round led by Creator Sports Capital, a newly formed investment firm founded by Benjamin Grubbs and Brian Kabot. The transaction, which closed on March 20, 2025, represents the company's first external investment and values the business at $45 million, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The deal, advised by Moelis & Company, brought together an eclectic investor syndicate that includes Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions, Manhattan West Private Equity, and Sunflower Bank—a composition that reflects both the entertainment value and commercial potential investors see in creator-led sports properties.

Founded in 2020 by Garrett Clark and Matt Kendrick following a conversation at a golf tournament, Good Good Golf began as a platform for founder Garrett Clark to showcase his golf trick shots. What started as viral YouTube content quickly evolved into something more substantial—a media company that chronicles the group's matches, travels, and lifestyle while building a vertically integrated business model around apparel and golf equipment sales.

The company's growth trajectory has been remarkable. In less than five years, the channel has amassed more than 1.75 million YouTube subscribers, establishing itself as one of the foremost golf content platforms on the internet. But subscriber counts tell only part of the story. Good Good Golf has successfully monetized its audience through multiple revenue streams, generating what industry observers estimate to be over $50,000 in monthly advertising revenue on YouTube alone—though that figure represents just a fraction of the company's total revenue when merchandise and equipment sales are factored in.

The company's evolution from digital-first content to a multi-platform media and lifestyle brand mirrors broader trends in the creator economy, where successful creators are increasingly building businesses that extend far beyond advertising revenue. Good Good Golf's model—using content as both marketing engine and profit center—has attracted attention from investors looking to capitalize on the blurring lines between media, commerce, and live experiences.

The decision by Creator Sports Capital to lead this round reflects a calculated bet on the creator economy's maturation. Benjamin Grubbs, a former YouTube executive, brings deep platform expertise to the investment, having witnessed firsthand how creator-led businesses can scale when given proper capital and strategic support.

For Grubbs and his co-founder Brian Kabot, the Good Good Golf investment represents what they view as the culmination of a broader thesis: that creator-led sports and entertainment properties, when properly capitalized, can compete with—and potentially outperform—traditional media companies in audience engagement and commercial returns.

The participation of Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions adds both credibility and strategic value to the deal. Manning, who has successfully transitioned from NFL superstar to media entrepreneur, understands the intersection of sports, entertainment, and brand building. His involvement signals that established sports figures see creator-led properties as complementary to, rather than competitive with, traditional sports media.

Manhattan West Private Equity and Sunflower Bank round out the investor group, providing both growth capital and banking relationships that will support the company's expansion plans. In a statement, Sunflower Bank emphasized its commitment to empowering innovators across the digital media space, driving growth, and unlocking new opportunities in an ever-evolving industry.

The $45 million in investment capital will allow the creator-focused golf media company to grow faster and invest in larger events, according to company statements. Specifically, the funding will fuel expansion across three core areas: content production, retail operations, and live experiences.

On the content side, Good Good Golf has already demonstrated its ability to produce television-quality programming. The company's Good Good GolfNow Desert Knockout, which aired on Golf Channel the night before the WM Phoenix Open, showcased the company's ambitions to move beyond YouTube and into traditional broadcast media. The new capital will enable more of these premium productions, potentially opening doors to additional broadcast partnerships and streaming deals.

The retail expansion represents perhaps the most significant opportunity. Good Good Golf has built a loyal community that actively purchases branded merchandise and golf equipment. With proper inventory management, supply chain optimization, and potentially physical retail locations, the company could dramatically scale this revenue stream. The content-to-commerce model allows them to use their marketing—in this case, YouTube content—as a profit center rather than a cost center, creating a virtuous cycle where content drives commerce, which funds more content.

Live experiences represent the third pillar of the expansion strategy. Golf tournaments, fan meetups, and experiential events allow Good Good Golf to deepen relationships with its community while creating new revenue opportunities through ticket sales, sponsorships, and hospitality packages. These events also generate content that feeds back into the YouTube channel, creating additional engagement and monetization opportunities.

The Good Good Golf transaction sits at the intersection of several converging trends in media and sports. First, there's the continued maturation of the creator economy, where top creators are increasingly viewed as legitimate media companies worthy of institutional investment rather than hobbyists with large followings.

Second, there's growing recognition among traditional sports investors that audience engagement metrics—not just raw viewership numbers—drive long-term value. Good Good Golf's audience may be smaller than a traditional golf broadcast, but the engagement levels, demographic profile, and commercial intent of that audience make it highly valuable to advertisers and brand partners.

Third, the deal reflects the democratization of sports media. Where golf coverage was once dominated by networks like NBC, CBS, and Golf Channel, digital platforms have enabled new entrants to build substantial audiences and businesses. Good Good Golf's success suggests that there's room in the market for multiple approaches to golf content, from traditional tournament coverage to lifestyle-focused creator content.

The involvement of Moelis & Company as financial advisor also signals that creator-led businesses are increasingly being treated with the same rigor and sophistication as traditional M&A transactions. The use of a bulge-bracket investment bank suggests that both buyers and sellers view these deals as substantial financial transactions requiring professional advisory services.

Despite the optimistic investment thesis, Good Good Golf faces several challenges as it scales. First, there's the question of whether the company's personality-driven content model can maintain its appeal as it becomes more commercialized and professionalized. Many creator-led businesses struggle to preserve their authentic voice as they grow, potentially alienating the core audience that made them successful in the first place.

Second, the company will need to navigate the complexities of multi-platform distribution. While YouTube remains the core platform, expanding into television, streaming services, and live events requires different skill sets, production capabilities, and business relationships. Managing this complexity while maintaining content quality and brand consistency will be critical.

Third, there's competitive risk. The success of Good Good Golf has not gone unnoticed, and other creators and media companies are likely to pursue similar strategies in the golf space and adjacent sports categories. Maintaining differentiation and audience loyalty in an increasingly crowded market will require continued innovation and investment.

Finally, there's execution risk around the retail expansion. Building a successful apparel and equipment business requires expertise in design, manufacturing, inventory management, and distribution—capabilities that don't necessarily overlap with content creation skills. The company will need to either develop these capabilities internally or partner with experienced operators.

The Good Good Golf transaction offers several important signals for investors, creators, and media companies. For investors, it validates the thesis that creator-led businesses with strong engagement metrics and diversified revenue streams can attract institutional capital at meaningful valuations. The $45 million valuation, while modest by traditional media standards, represents substantial validation for a five-year-old company built primarily on YouTube.

For creators, the deal demonstrates a pathway to scale beyond advertising revenue and brand deals. By building vertically integrated businesses that combine content, commerce, and experiences, creators can create more valuable and defensible businesses that attract growth capital.

For traditional media companies, the transaction serves as both warning and opportunity. The warning: audiences, particularly younger demographics, are increasingly consuming sports content through creator-led platforms rather than traditional broadcasts. The opportunity: partnerships with successful creator-led properties could help traditional media companies reach new audiences and experiment with new content formats.

The structure of the investor syndicate—combining creator economy expertise (Grubbs), sports entertainment credibility (Manning), private equity capital (Manhattan West), and banking relationships (Sunflower Bank)—may become a template for future creator economy investments. This multi-stakeholder approach provides not just capital but also strategic guidance, industry relationships, and operational support.

As Good Good Golf deploys its new capital, the company faces both tremendous opportunity and significant execution challenges. The funding provides runway to experiment with new content formats, expand retail operations, and invest in live experiences. Success will require maintaining the authentic, personality-driven content that built the audience while simultaneously professionalizing operations and scaling the business.

The broader implications extend beyond one company's growth trajectory. If Good Good Golf successfully executes its expansion strategy, it could validate a new model for sports media—one where creator-led properties compete directly with traditional media companies for audience attention, advertising dollars, and commercial partnerships. That outcome would have profound implications for how sports content is created, distributed, and monetized in the years ahead.

For now, the golf world—and the broader creator economy—will be watching closely to see whether Good Good Golf can translate YouTube success into a sustainable, multi-platform media and lifestyle brand. With $45 million in fresh capital and a star-studded investor group, the company has the resources to find out.