Has Youtube Golf Surpassed Professional Golf?

Just a few weeks ago, one of the most iconic PGA Tour events of the year was underway in Florida, The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Typically, I would find myself fixated on the 17th green watching to see how many shots would be claimed by the surrounding waters of the infamous island green.

Instead, on the last day of competition during the Players Championship, I found myself glued to my tablet screen watching an amateur golfer by the alias name of Fat Perez take on world renowned long drive golfer Martin Borgmeier in a hair vs. hair match on Youtube. I never tuned in for one second to see who won The Players.

Over the last few years there has been a golf movement silently taking place on social media outlets such as Youtube that has the potential to disrupt the professional game. While the PGA Tour has been consumed with fighting with the LIV Golf Saudi backed league, normal people like you and I have been taking to social media and building golf entertainment brands that have begun to possibly surpass the entertainment factor of professional golf according to many.

Given all the above, I find myself asking, has Youtube golf surpassed the professional game? Call me biased as a Youtube content creator myself, but I personally think it has.

According to CBS published statistics, in 2023 the average viewership across the PGA Tour's 42 events was up one percent to 2.2 million viewers per event from the year prior, and up 5 percent across the nine designated (signature) events. In retrospect, let's take a look at some of the golf persona across the Youtube platform.

Rick Shiels, a teaching golf professional in the UK, has been creating Youtube content since well before the pandemic golf boom. He was one of the original Youtube golfers to come onto the scene and got his start doing golf course and equipment reviews. Today, he focuses mostly on unique equipment reviews, golf instruction videos, and interesting matchups with other professional golf as well as Youtube personas. He also runs a golf podcast of which is also available in video format on his Youtube channel.

Rick currently has 2.77 million people subscribed to his channel and has posted approximately 2200 videos. That means on average his channel is reaching more viewers than the PGA Tour. He recently posted a video of a match against Ian Poulter that has drawn 3.1 million views so far. He did another one on a match against him and Rickie Fowler that has drawn 4.1 million views. Now granted, these pro golfers are spotting ole Rick Shiels some strokes, not playing straight up, but it's honestly entertaining to watch. Almost every video that Rick has posted has averaged no less than 500k views.

Next let's take a look at a new up and comer in an alias known as Fat Perez, a former finance whiz who quit his job to join the Bob Does Sports podcast/Youtube crew as an amateur golfing phenom. Nick Stubbe (aka Fat Perez) is a plus handicap amateur golfer that was discovered by shear luck. The Bob Does Sports guys had a live podcast that Nick tuned into, and after throwing around some of his personal humor caught their attention. He was quickly invited to play a round of golf with them and the rest is history. The Bob Does Sports crew brings a comedic angle to the golfing world with their average golfing skills. They go around the country playing each other as well as some prolific names in the golfing world, and they do so while drinking and eating on course like a bunch of crazed frat buddies from college.

The Bob Does Sports Youtube channel only has 721,000 subscribers. A slightly lower following in contrast to Rick Shiels, but their individual video viewership is equally impressive. Nine months ago, they did an episode on their channel titled "Can we finish 27 fireball shots in nine holes of golf". That video has over 1.6 million views to date. They also did a match against Sam Darnold and Josh Allen from the NFL that has 2.1 million views to date.

Paige Sprianac, a former Ladies European Tour golfer turned Youtube golf sensation, has an equally impressive following. With 406k subscribers, Paige has proven her golf skills through her on camera matchups with some of the most prolific names in golf. She is also a brand ambassador for X-Golf, and has endorsements with Club Champion and sportsbook betting platform PointsBet. The majority of Paige's videos garner 100k to 2 million views, and she is highly involved in the professional and Youtube golf community.

Barstool Sports, who claims to have invented the internet (in sports anyways), has been doing the Youtube golf game for quite a while too through their Fore Play Golf Podcast. Currently sitting at 1.74 million subscribers, they bring a raunchy no bars-held style of golf to the entertainment world. They recently teed off against the Bob Does Sports guys in a scramble match that has drawn 3.4 million views so far. They average around 100k to 4 million views per video.

While all of these stats are impressive, nothing is quite as telling of what the Youtube golf movement is doing for golf than what just occurred in Myrtle Beach, SC. While not every golfer on Youtube has enough skill to play at the elite level (myself included), apparently some of them do.

In March, the PGA Tour held a special invitation only qualifying event called "The Q At Myrtle Beach". This event was comprised of 16 golfers, eight of which were well-known Youtube content creators, and all of which meeting PGA Tour sponsor exemptions requiring a handicap of 0.0 or better. The sole winner of this event would earn a qualifying spot to play in the PGA Tour's Myrtle Beach Open this year.

Among those invited was the previously mentioned Fat Perez (Nick Stubbe). As it turns out, Fat Perez can actually ball. Boasting a plus handicap, he has already proven his capabilities among some pretty high-profile names in golf on the Bob Does Sports channel. If "FP", as he has become known to many, can manage to win this event, he would officially be playing in a PGA Tour event.

Now let that sink in for a minute. A recreational golfer quits his job in finance, joins a golf social media platform, and qualifies for a PGA Tour event. It doesn't get much more Cinderella story than that, and I can't help myself but wonder - is this what golf has been missing?

My mind goes back to Joel Dahmen, and his unlikely journey to the PGA Tour. The amount of love and following that story got was astounding. Golf needs good guys like Joel Dahmen and it needs some bad guys like those defecting to LIV for money. Currently, in my opinion, all of professional golf is the bad guys. There's too much division among the leagues, the governing rules are killing the game, and the product that has been left for us to watch is less than desirable.

I personally think the Youtube golf community could be the saving grace of golf. Imagine a golf environment where good vs. bad on a regular basis. Where pro vs. amateur on a regular basis. Yes, for sure we have always had a couple amateur make it into random PGA events. Even the Masters has a few amateurs sprinkled in the field, but who has even heard of some of those people? Nobody cares about a no-name amateur that qualifies for the Myrtle Beach Open. However, you give me a Fat Perez from Youtube in the mix and I'll be glued to the screen all weekend long. Why you might ask? Because I've grown a connection to his story. I've watched him from day one that he hit the Youtube scene, and so has many other golfers across the world after he was featured in a recent article in Golf Magazine.

If the PGA Tour knows what is best for them, this will not be the last qualifier event of this nature that they hold for Youtubers. They have a huge opportunity to take the golfing entertainment world by storm. Give the people what we want. Give us our Cinderella story!

The Q At Myrtle Beach was not open to the public or covered live, but a video covering the event will be posted on April 23rd to the Play Golf Myrtle Beach's Youtube channel. Additionally, all Youtube content creators that played in the event will also be allowed to post video coverage of the event on their channels after that date. I personally have the date marked on my calendar.

So, has Youtube golf surpassed the professional golf game in the entertainment space? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments section. Until the next time though - Yinz get out there, hit em straight, and keep on hackin!

-The Pittsburgh Golf Hack

(Garan Baisden)