As hard-core golf fans, we saw a need for online users to get to know professional players on a more intimate (and much more casual) level – to deepen the lore, the fandom, and the buy-in that golf watchers feel toward LIV Golf League pros.
The Duels was built as a serialized competition with the goal of showcasing professional golf on YouTube as people-focused entertainment, designed for sustained audience investment. Over a five-event global arc, each episode contributed to a larger story of rivalry, momentum, and evolving creator-pro team dynamics.
With each installment, these partnerships deepened over time, competitive tensions carried forward, and storylines developed naturally through performance, banter, and shifting stakes. This structure encouraged repeat viewing and long-term engagement.
Episode pacing, length, and storytelling were shaped specifically for YouTube. Long-form formats allowed relationships and rivalries to breathe, while unscripted moments – trash talk, pressure swings, and genuine reactions – served as narrative beats rather than filler. Authentic competition grounded the storytelling, with $250,000 on the line, ensuring the drama was earned, not manufactured.
By designing The Duels as an episodic property, LIV Golf created a new repeatable format that the internet went wild for. The result was a culturally resonant series that proved golf content could function like prestige episodic entertainment – driving meaningful engagement, sustained viewership, and measurable digital impact the full season.
Our 2025 Duels generated more than 77.7M total views across YouTube and supporting social platforms, combining reach from both brand and creators.
The campaign produced 650+ social posts, including more than 60 posts published by the LIV Golf teams and pro athletes and 205+ in-feed posts by influencers and creators, with hundreds more published across brand and creator Stories.
On YouTube, 32 total videos drove 16M views, with the series’ five hero tournament videos garnering 10.5M combined views and more than 6M total hours watched.
Our social content garnered more than 3.5M total engagements and 17.25M media impressions, including features from Newsweek, Hypebeast, Golf Monthly, Golf.com, USA Today and The Dallas Morning News, among others.
