There was a time, not so long ago, when pitching a golf project in Hollywood was roughly as promising as pitching a documentary about actuarial science. The sport carried a certain stigma — country club, a little stodgy, not exactly the stuff of streaming wars.

That was then.

Pro Shop, the golf media company founded in 2023 by Joe Purzycki and Chad Mumm, has raised $24 million in a series B funding round, the company said. The round was led by the family office of Arthur Blank, the co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons, and included Causeway Partners and Ares Capital. Returning investors included the PGA of America and Powerhouse Capital.

The company raised $20 million last year and used part of it to acquire Skratch, the PGA Tour's digital and social media brand. It has since opened a studio operation, with Netflix's "Happy Gilmore 2" as its first co-production. (The studio also produces "Full Swing," the Netflix docuseries that has done for professional golf roughly what "Drive to Survive" did for Formula 1.)

Mr. Purzycki, the chief executive, said the new capital would go toward expanding existing franchises — including the podcast "Dan On Golf" and "The Vanity Index Podcast," which airs on Golf Channel — as well as hiring additional on-screen talent and developing more programming.

But the company is also pushing into what its founders call, with some reluctance, "IRL" — live events and real-world experiences for golf fans. Pro Shop already has "The Skins Game" on Prime Video, scheduled for Black Friday, and is exploring other opportunities in live golf programming.

"Golf is experiential, but it's also a lifestyle," Mr. Mumm said. "It's not even a hobby anymore to people. It's a way to kind of define your life."

(This is the sort of statement that might once have drawn eye rolls in certain precincts of the entertainment industry. It draws less skepticism now.)

The broader bet is straightforward: more people are playing golf, more people are watching content about it, and more people — including, the company noted, LeBron James, who recently started a golf-centric YouTube channel — are making content about it.

"Ten years ago trying to get any golf project made was impossible," Mr. Mumm said. "You would get laughed out of the room."

He is not getting laughed out of rooms anymore.

Original story published in The Hollywood Reporter: "Golf Media Company Pro Shop Raises $24 Million In Expansion Push (Exclusive)"