YouTube Star Peter Finch Set For Pro Debut

There's a growing trend of YouTube golf crossing over into pro tournament golf, with Peter Finch the latest after getting an invite to play in the Egyptian Open.

Finch, a Golf Monthly Top 50 coach with over 766,000 subscribers on YouTube, has received a sponsor's invite into the Asian Development Tour event - which will mark the return of the oldest pro golf tournament in Africa after a 15-year absence.

The Egyptian Open will take place at Madinaty Golf Club from 29 October-November 1 - and is the first time the event has been held since 2010, when Rory McIlroy was in the field of the tournament staged by the Challenge Tour.

First played way back in 1921, the historic event is the oldest in Africa and organisers hope that having Finch making his pro debut at the tournament will help boost its coverage.

As we've seen previously, YouTube golfers getting invites into PGA Tour events has been a thorny issue at times, but the situation in Egypt looks slightly diferent.

Finch, who made Final Qualifying for The Open this year, covers that angle, and with it being a much smaller event and one that could do with some added coverage, it makes sense to use some of his online reach.

"Sponsors using invites to attract people to play in events who'll bring more eyeballs to that event I think generally is a good thing," says Finch in his social media post.

"Becuase they're sponsors invites I'm not taking away a spot from somebody who would've otherwise get into that event.

"I've not gone through Q-School, I've not earned the right to play in a regular season but because this is a sponsors invite I'm not taking anyone's place.

"So I'm going to be able to play in this tournament, I'm going to be filming videos there and releasing them so from everybody's point of view it's a bit of a win-win."

There's no doubting the growing influence of YouTube golf on the pro game, with both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf leaning on digital content creators to tap into their online audience.

Former Good Good member and PGA Tour China winner Luke Kwon has made two cuts on the Asian Tour over the past two seasons as one of the more successful crossovers.

While events like LIV Golf Duels and the PGA Tour Creator Classic are just two examples of the trend, while a recent $45m cash injection into Good Good Golf has seen that channel sponsor pro golfers, a PGA Tour event and partner with Golf Channel to bring back reality show Big Break.

And now the Asian Development Tour hope Finch's content from his pro debut will help publicize its move into Egypt in bringing back a famous old event once won by Bobby Locke.

There's a field of 132 taking part in the Egyptian Open, with 85 from the Asian Development Tour and a number of players from the Arab Golf Federation region, which sees it as a step towards creating pathways for emerging pro golfers in the area.