3.6+ million views. 67,000+ likes. 9,000+ comments. Nineteen of the most-watched golfers on YouTube, including the folks at Bob Does Sports, Fore Play Golf, the Bryan brothers, Grant Horvat, Rick Shiels, and Peter Finch, all got to play at Shinnecock Hills, a course steeped in history and the host of the US Open this week.
Here is a deep dive into how it went for YouTube golf.
One note before we go further, because I want to be clear... Each channel filmed its own rounds. I believe they were all shot across a few days in May, so the tees they played from should be similar, same for the conditions.
The winning score was two over par. The two leading scores were shot by Mac Boucher and Roger Steele, both at 72, and despite some proper golfers playing the course, no one was able to break par. Not one.
At the other end, twenty-seven shots from the leader in the clubhouse, Bobby Fairways and Trent Ryan both carded a 99. A pretty good achievement to break 100 on what looked like a windy day.
The most birdies anyone made all day was three, a four-way tie between Peter Finch, Wesley Bryan, Roger Steele and Kyle Berkshire. There were zero eagles, and across the entire field, in nineteen rounds, there was only one back-to-back birdie streak the whole day.
For a field including some 'current' and former pros, Shinnecock was not playing easy, and when that wind picks up, and the ball keeps rolling on the greens, birdies are hard to come by.
And that's perhaps why there were so many high numbers, disasters, some might say. And moving past the Bob Does Sports and Fore Play guys, who were perhaps expected to struggle, sorry, to see the Bryan Bros, Grant, Peter and Rick Shiels with 7 doubles between them, demonstrates the challenge this course presents when the conditions get testy.
It sounds obvious to say, but run your eye down the top of the leaderboard and then down this list, and it's clear that keeping the doubles or worse off your card is what made the difference.
And that appears to be the key to Shinnecock, and it's what the pros should be thinking about this week. You'll win the U.S. Open by making birdies, and you'll stay in with a shout by avoiding 6 & 7's... hmm sorry. If the wind is up, survival will be key, and looking at the course report, you'll see that even the easiest hole on the course gave back a fraction of a shot to the field. There was no banker.
If survival is the game, then somebody should hand Fat Perez, YouTube Golfs green jacket. He finished tied for seventh at +5, but along the way made zero birdies and no doubles. He just kept making fours and fives, without a single catastrophe, and out-scored Rick Shiels, Erik Anders Lang, Grant Horvat and George Bryan in the process. Most of whom are, on paper, "better" players.
If Fat Perez plotted his way around, Peter Finch seemingly did the opposite. Shinnecock's par 3s are nasty, and Finch was the only player in the field to play them under par, on a day they collectively played as the hardest stretch on the card.
He saved his best for last, too. Finch made the turn at five over, well below par for a player with his talent. But then he played the back nine in one under, and the only sub-par nine anyone managed all day.
How you actually win at Shinnecock
In looking at the co-champions, they got there in completely different ways.
Twelve of Shinnecock's eighteen holes are par 4s. They are where the round is won and lost, and Roger Steele was the only player in the field to get through all twelve in even par.
Mac Boucher matched him from a different direction, helped along by the par 5s, which present two genuine scoring chances on the property. Although the man who truly owned those was Wesley Bryan, who birdied both.
And the single best two-hole stretch of the day belonged to the longest hitter in the field. Kyle Berkshire on holes 4 and 5 got back-to-back birdies, the only person in the field to achieve this feat.
And now, with love, the 99s
Find Bobby Fairways' row on that heatmap and look at the wall of red. That's tough. He made double bogey or worse on twelve of the eighteen holes. Trent Ryan kept him company at 99, with his back nine doing most of the damage. Sam "Riggs" Bozoian (+24) and Frankie Borrelli (+21) weren't far behind, and Joey Coldcuts' +13 hides the fact that he played some great golf in between a few explosions.
But to be clear, and despite the scores, the Fore Play Golf and Bob Does Sports videos are arguably the most entertaining, and perhaps why they have grown the audiences they have. It's also the case that they were frankly experiencing what most of us would when playing (on camera) at one of the hardest courses in America. It can be cruel.
The hardest hole on the course was the 7th, a par 3 that took nearly a full shot off the field, only slightly more than the brutal 6th.
Which, to those who know Shinnecock, will not come as much of a surprise. The 7th is the famous Redan, and it has humbled many who have tried to take it on before.
On Thursday, 156 of the best players who have ever lived will tee it up at Shinnecock Hills for the 126th U.S. Open. The fescue will be up from what we saw on YouTube, the greens will be fast, and the USGA has promised, in their words, to let Shinnecock be Shinnecock.
Enjoy.
