- 4 minutes ago
In this exclusive interview, Neil Tappin sits down with Rick Shiels to discuss, among other things, his plans for the future. He talks about the best videos he's made and the direction he wants to take his video content, including collaborations. We also ask Rick about the best way to get potential ways to get golfers from the range to the course.
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00:00I love when that record button gets hit, that's when I feel like I'm in my element.
00:04And she'll even admit now, back then, she thought, golf? What the hell?
00:09She had an imprint of what golf is. I'd never think again, seven, eight years ago,
00:15would I be going, staying at Robbie Williams' house and playing golf with him.
00:18There was the burn, the Swilkin Bridge burn, only 30 yards in front of him thinking,
00:23don't dunk it in there. Just Tiger, isn't it?
00:25Yeah, fair enough.
00:26Anything with Tiger. He'd quit on the spot if I didn't invite him.
00:32I'm going to have to refer to my notes a couple of occasions.
00:34It's fine.
00:36Okay. Right, Rick, so the idea of the interview is, I'm sort of wanting to pick up the story
00:42from the last time that we sat down. It was Trafford Golf Centre.
00:46It was spring, I think it was April 2015. And I read over the feature, right?
00:53Now, April 2015, you and Pete together had combined subscribers on YouTube of 75,000.
01:02You're now at 2.4 million.
01:04Yeah. It's changed a bit, hasn't it?
01:06Well, if I'd said that to you, you know, in, what, seven years' time, you'd be at that level.
01:12What would you have said, do you think, back then?
01:13Well, I wouldn't have believed you. I think it was very difficult, and it still probably is now,
01:19to pick a number. What's the threshold? What's the ceiling?
01:22Yeah.
01:22And certainly back then, seven years ago, because they would, I'm not sure what the biggest channel
01:27was. It was either me and my golf or Mark Crossfield at the time, and they were on numbers bigger
01:34than
01:34us or bigger than me. Obviously, me and Pete had separate channels and still have, but it was like,
01:38what's the number? Is it 200,000? Is it half a million? Is it a million? I almost wouldn't allow
01:45myself to dream that there would be a million subscribers out there. Now, I think, sat here
01:50knocking on the door, hopefully, by the end of the year to get to 2.5 million, you think,
01:54what the hell? What's the possibility? Is there five million out there? In seven years,
01:58if we sit down again, you know, what could be the number then? It's really exciting.
02:02Yeah. What have been the key moments, do you think, over those last seven years? What have been the
02:07kind of the big things that have helped you to get to the point where you're at that sort of
02:12level?
02:13It's sometimes quite hard to identify from your own standpoint, but I feel like we've always
02:20continued to evolve. I think that's the big thing in the content. The content seven years ago is
02:25very different to the content now, and the content next year will be different to the content this
02:28year. So we always try and evolve it. I've strengthened the team. We're up to nine members of
02:34staff now, and I couldn't do it without them. I'd be killing myself. Back in the day, seven years ago,
02:42I was probably a one-man band then. Maybe I had my first videographer then, actually, an editor.
02:47Now I look at it and think, well, actually, we've got a full team now. It's a full production team.
02:51And, you know, taking on the right members of staff, you know, that's been instrumental.
02:57Took on a guy just over five years ago, just in the background, and taking on more editors,
03:04more skilled people. There's a really famous YouTuber called MKBHD, Marques Brownlee,
03:10is a tech reviewer. And he summarizes it really well. He said, at the start, when you first start,
03:15you're like an octopus with eight arms, and you're trying to do everything. But you're not very good
03:19at everything. So over time, you start to chop an arm off, and you give it to someone who's a
03:24more
03:24expert in that field. So for example, I've chopped an arm off from editing. I don't know how to edit.
03:29People are better than that, than me. I chopped an arm off for videography. I chopped an arm off
03:33for the content ideas and creation. So I think over time now, I know what I feel like I'm good
03:40at,
03:40and I allow other people who are much better than me to do the job that they're really good at,
03:44that enhances the whole product, really. But how important is that, because the videos
03:49still have that kind of organic feel of like, we are following you around, and it's not overproduced,
03:55and it's not kind of... Is that an important part of the whole thing?
03:58Big time. I love making mistakes and leaving them in, and not leaving them in,
04:03that's just natural. It's what happens. If I hit a terrible shot, we keep a terrible shot in.
04:07You know, and if I fuff a line, or I don't quite deliver it how I want to, it's okay.
04:12But I don't want it to be polished. I don't want some fancy ND filter and a fancy,
04:17you know, color grading that makes it look less relatable. It almost makes it look like there's a
04:23barrier between the viewer and the video. I do want it to have that nice, natural feel.
04:28I still want to up the production, you know, because that's really key, because YouTube's got
04:32so much bigger in that. You can't have bad production now. You can't have bad videos,
04:37or you can't have bad sound. You know, all of those things are important.
04:41So it's just been an evolution, really. But the big thing we've always stuck around,
04:47it's certainly my kind of motto, I would say in life to some degrees, is innovate or die.
04:51And I feel like each year, I've just tried to keep innovating and doing things that are
04:57different or no one's done before, enhancing the things that we used to do, and not being
05:03too guided by the audience. Because I think sometimes the audience, I think if the audience
05:09could dictate what the content would be, I'd probably still be at Trafford Centre making
05:14coaching videos and doing club reviews where it's like, well, actually, we're going to try
05:18and give the audience content they didn't know they wanted. Right, okay.
05:23Whether it's time with tour pros, or whether it's doing this Break 75 series, or whether it's
05:29testing these illegal golf clubs, the audience wouldn't have known that was something they
05:33wanted. I think it's a quote that Steve Jobs did for Apple, you know, give the world what
05:39they didn't know they wanted. And so that's what we're trying to do in golf YouTube content,
05:43really. Yeah. In a quite a deep, deep way. Yeah, no. But what about collaborations as
05:49well? You've had so many cool different collaborations with different types of
05:53people, from people who are very much a part of the game to people who very much are not part
05:57of
05:57the game. What have been the ones that you've enjoyed, the collaborations that you like? That's
06:02something totally different. Didn't expect to be stood here with this person. Well, there's a number
06:07of people, you know, going back to one of the biggest YouTube channels in the world, Dude Perfect,
06:11the biggest sports YouTube channel in the world, 40 million subscribers. Like, you know, they are
06:17literally at the top of their game. I've managed to do videos with those guys, with Robbie Williams.
06:22Like, not to nail you off, but I mean, that's an odd, you know, I'd never think again, seven,
06:28eight years ago, would I be going, staying at Robbie Williams' house and playing golf with him.
06:31Yeah. That he desperately wanting to film a video with me. I didn't even take my video stuff
06:37the first time, because I didn't think, I won't make a video. Yeah. And then he's inviting me
06:41down again and said, we need to make a video. I'm like, okay. Yeah. And Richard Hammond we had on
06:45recently. Yeah, yeah. Richard Hammond, you know, again, from someone who almost had been quite openly
06:51how much he's hated golf, to have him on a golf YouTube video. Yeah. And then to be on his
06:56channel
06:56as well, doing a really fun golf challenge. You know, and then there's other people in the
07:01kind of the podcast world that we've had on. So like, whether it be Bryson DeChambeau or whether
07:06it be Victor Hovland or Martin Borgmeyer, who's the world long drive champion or, you know,
07:12some of the other YouTubers that are out in the, in the world now, like the good,
07:16good lads over in America are killing it. I've always been open to collaborations. And I feel like-
07:22I remember that from our first meeting, actually, you telling us that part of the reason that you got,
07:27I think you got past that bit of like, why? Yeah. I remember there was a comment in there,
07:32it was like, you started doing it and then Pete started doing it and you were sort of looking at
07:36Pete going, oh, I see you're doing it as well. And then you decided actually, maybe we're better
07:39off kind of working a bit more together. Yeah. I don't, I've not never had an issue with
07:45collaborating with different content creators, as long as it's just good content. Yeah.
07:50But that's the thing, as long as it's really solid, great content, and I'm sure I've probably missed a
07:55handful of names out there. Is there any, like a handful of, anyone that I've really missed out
07:58on that list? Adam Scott, Lee Westwood. Oh yeah. Just Adam Scott. Sorry. Adam Scott, Lee Westwood,
08:03Tommy Fleetwood. Yeah. Sir Nick Faldo. Yeah. You know, it's Tom Watson, Tom Watson. Yeah. It's been
08:13a mix of people in the golf YouTube world, people in what would be outside of golf, but in the
08:20mainstream media. Yeah. And then really high profile people in the world of golf. Yeah.
08:26You know, and I think the audience seemed to really, really love it because it's like,
08:31oh God, that's, that's like Rick, the lad from, you know, Bolton. He's now hitting shots off the
08:37roof of the old course hotel down to 17th green. It's like, things are playing the old course in
08:43reverse with Tom Watson, or I actually played the old course in reverse with Min Woo Lee as well. So
08:47it's like,
08:48really just cool opportunities. And I think sometimes it's probably chats like this, or
08:53maybe in 20, 30 years when I sit down and maybe I'm retired, I'll, I'll look back at it and
08:58go,
08:59I did some pretty cool stuff. I did some pretty cool stuff back then, didn't I? Yeah.
09:03I think sometimes when you're living in it, you don't quite fully appreciate the next things coming
09:08up or the next project or, um, the next collaboration or something exciting. Yeah.
09:13I look forward to in a, in a few years to sit down and everything's documented, everything's on video.
09:19Yeah. I can sit back and watch and probably cringe at how bad it was because hopefully again,
09:24we're at a different level in our YouTube journey and to go, yeah, that was, that was pretty cool.
09:30So where does YouTube fit in the kind of the whole,
09:33sort of the whole range of things that you want to be involved in that you want to do? Is
09:37YouTube very
09:38much the number one thing and always will be, or the, the non YouTube stuff there is, there are,
09:43we've seen you, you know, the open doing other stuff outside of YouTube. Where does it all sort
09:47of fit together? YouTube is the number one. It's the driver of the ship. It's the,
09:52it's the thing that, that probably excites me the most still. Um, as much as we do have many
09:56different assets to the business now, whether it's the podcast or the Facebook page or other social
10:01media or presenting work for me, YouTube is, is what started it all. And I, and I still think
10:07there's huge opportunity for growth and that's a crazy thing to say, but you know, you read the
10:13stats where there's 65 million golfers in the world, we're only chatting to a small percentage
10:17at the moment in the grand scheme of things, which is crazy. I have got other dreams and ambitions I
10:23want to do outside of the media world, whether it's, you know, facilities or whether it's golf courses
10:27or whether it's setting up, you know, the, the biggest, um, amateur golf tour or whether it's setting up,
10:33um, the, the biggest way of getting people into golf, kids, getting into golf or, you know,
10:39I've got big dreams and ambitions around that, uh, which will coincide with what we're doing on social
10:44media, but still YouTube is the number one platform and what we put currently at the moment at still
10:5080, 80 odd percent of our time into really watch this space. I wanted to ask you about the reviews
10:57channel. Uh, I know you've already, you've spoken about it on your own, but just give us a, why did
11:01you decide to set up another YouTube channel and focus it on, on club reviews? Um, the number one
11:10thing, I still love testing products. You know, I get, I get excited about the new product that comes
11:15out and I'm sure you guys do, you know, you guys obviously review products, you know, from every single
11:19brand from every different asset and I, and I've thoroughly still want to review the next
11:27set of irons or driver or wedges or putters or whatever it may be. I think the challenge where
11:32we've come to at the moment is the main channel. We really trying to, um, specialize ourselves on,
11:36on standout content, right? Okay. Content that makes people go, wow, that was good. That was cool.
11:42I really remember that. And we'll still feature reviews on our, on the main channel. Okay.
11:47So some of the flagship drivers, sure. So like tailor-made and Calloways and ping drivers,
11:53et cetera, will still feature on the main channel because there's such an appetite for that.
11:56Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We get sent a lot of products and there is a lot of product that gets released
12:01every year. Yeah. And I still want an avenue and a space to be able to review that product.
12:06Not too dissimilar to how I used to do it even in the same, in this room all those years.
12:11Yeah.
12:11Where, you know, I still love the thought and the opinion to be able to give my information and my,
12:16um, feedback and my, my critique about a new set of clubs. Um, and I, and I think that therefore
12:24I still want to be known as a club reviewer. Okay. And that's probably got lost a little
12:28bit over the last few years because I don't do it as often. Yeah. So with this new channel,
12:32we can specify just all club reviews that are brand new clubs that have come out, whether it's
12:39irons, wedges, drivers, whatever it may be, we've got a platform where they can all sit. So if people
12:43still want club reviews, there you go. You can, you can have that channel. You know what you're
12:48getting with that channel. Yeah. What come to the main channel for some other bits of variety
12:52of content as well. Are you gonna be able to fit it all in? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's way more
12:57time
12:57we can shoot. Okay. Yeah. I feel like, um, we've just take, we've just extended the team even further.
13:02We've just taken on some more videographers because the challenge we have sometimes we're getting a
13:06bottleneck where when things are getting edited, we've got nobody to shoot content. Right. Okay. So we're
13:12trying to streamline the process now where we can shoot more content. Um, maybe, maybe more in bulk
13:19and maybe more in advance and then it can get edited as we go along. Yeah. Which will free me
13:23up a little
13:23bit as well to actually do other projects that I want to do, but we've, we've certainly got time. Yeah.
13:29And I'm, I'm still a million percent passionate about it. And I, and I, it, what gets me up every
13:34day.
13:34My most enjoyable part of creating what I do in a day to day is making videos. Yeah.
13:40I love when that record button gets hit. That's when I feel like I'm in my element. So the more
13:44I can do
13:45that, I don't want to be doing emails and boring stuff like that. I hate any of that. I hate
13:50admin.
13:50I hate, I hate any of the back office stuff, but get me in front of a camera. And that's
13:55where I feel like
13:55I, that's my strength and that's where I feel like I, I, I enjoy what I do the most really.
14:02Yeah. And where does coaching fit in? Is coaching now, there's just no time for coaching to fit in
14:06as part of it, or do you want to still be involved in coaching somehow? It, it, it feels like
14:11something's got to give, right? I don't know. Um, I would still say, and stats I think would prove
14:18this, that I'm probably still the most watched golf coach on the planet. Yeah. And hopefully I still give
14:24a lot of my coaching videos that I've done over the last 10 years are still relevant. Yeah. You
14:29know, they've not changed. They're not, they've not aged. You know, even coaching videos we did six,
14:33seven years ago now still get hundreds of thousands of views every single year. Um, because we, we did
14:40well back then to shoot it in a way that would last. Yeah. You know, we wanted it to be
14:44evergreen
14:45content and it still is. Um, coaching videos will still be a part of the channel and we've got some
14:50exciting ones coming next year. And I still want to be able to create, um, I still want to be
14:54known
14:54as a golf coach as well. Like that's my passion. That's what, that's really why I got into YouTube.
14:59You know, that story. Um, and, and, you know, that's what I still see myself as. I still see
15:03myself as a, well, I wear many different hats, but I still see myself as a PGA golf professional,
15:09a coach. Um, in-person coaching is the thing that had to give, which is a shame. Um, and I,
15:15and I,
15:16I, the last place I actually coached was in this room in 2020 in person. Um, do you miss that?
15:22I do. Yeah. Yeah. I really do. And I've had a couple of opportunities, um, like even coaching
15:28Richard Hammond on the channel recently and it's things like, you go, you know, I really like this.
15:34And I, and I, and I think I'm really good at it and I really enjoy it and I see
15:38results. And I think
15:39the main reason why I see results is a lot of the students that come to me trust what I
15:43say.
15:43Right. Yeah. Already. There's not that barrier. So that really helps.
15:47Where do you feel about where golf sits in relation to other sports and how it's grabbing people's
15:53attention and the way in which people are interacting with it?
15:55I think that an easy answer to that is golf has become cool. And I don't think it ever was.
16:01And I
16:02think over the last 10 years, but maybe even longer, it's becoming cool. I remember speaking,
16:08I met my wife 15 years ago and, um, when I was chatting her off and, uh, you know,
16:15trying to get things going. Um, she asked, what do I do? And I said, I'm a golf pro. I
16:20was an
16:20assistant pro at the time. And she like kind of rolled her eyes. And when I actually ended up
16:24telling her what I did as a, as a living, I work in a pro shop selling chocolate bars and
16:29drinks.
16:30She, she even more kind of was like, what the hell? And she'll even admit now, back then she thought,
16:34golf, what the hell? Like, it's not, it's not like she had a, she had an imprint of what golf
16:40is.
16:41It was flat caps. It was old men. It was pipes. It was plus fours. It was everything that golf
16:46isn't.
16:47Yeah. Yeah. But that was her perspective of it. I speak to her now and I speak to her friends
16:52and
16:52now I'll introduce myself as a golf pro, even to people who don't know me from social media.
16:57And it's like, oh wow, golf. Like, and they, they have a different opinion of it. Yeah.
17:03Like they know it's now a lot cooler. You're getting celebrities getting into golf. Like some
17:07of the biggest names in, in, in sports outside of golf are into golf. Yeah.
17:12Some of the big Hollywood stars are into golf. Some pop stars and et cetera are into golf.
17:17And all of them posting it on their social media and everything else. It's made golf cool. Yeah.
17:22Like golf fashion's different. We're both sat here wearing hoodies.
17:25We wouldn't have been sat here when we did that interview seven years ago.
17:28Well, I think you're in shirt and tie and a suit, if I remember from memory. But you know,
17:32I think all those things that have made golf, um, feel traditional and stuck in the past,
17:37they're all getting banished. Yeah.
17:39Places like this, where you can come down and to, we're down at Prairie Sports Village now,
17:42we're driving range where you can go and whack some shots on top tracing. You can have a beer
17:46and you can grab some food and you can hang out with your friends. It's in a different space.
17:51It's in a totally different, different avenue. And as much as I've got no
17:55probably hard hitting facts on this, and I'm sure you will have more,
17:59I've noticed from the type of people who come and come and spot me and they've watched the videos,
18:03it's a different type of crowd. It's a different, totally different.
18:06Yeah. Totally different.
18:07How does, how does, how do we make the most of that opportunity then as a golf industry?
18:12I think there's a massive missing gap in a pathway to get people getting onto golf courses.
18:18Right.
18:18It's a huge opportunity that needs to be captured.
18:20So it's hard to take them from facilities like this, actually playing golf, putting a score
18:25together and enjoying that side of it.
18:27Correct. There's nothing in between. And I think there needs to be, and hopefully that's something
18:31that I might be able to help with in the future. But I think, I think at the moment you'll
18:35see
18:35driving range golfers. And there are, there are golfers who just play on the driving range.
18:40Yeah.
18:40They've never stepped foot on a golf course in their lives. You'll get that. And that's great. I'm not
18:44saying that's a bad thing because at least they're still into golf and participating. They'll probably
18:49say to themselves or the friends, yeah, I play golf on the driving range, but I play golf.
18:54And then you obviously have your traditional members, but between here, a driving range or
18:59a practice facility or watching on TV or watching on YouTube to actually getting through the door
19:04of a golf club, it's become easier. Don't get me wrong. Like the barriers have started to lift
19:08at golf courses, things like no joining fees and, and, and new members incentives.
19:15Yeah. I don't think it's that. I think it's the actual golf element of it. Right. Like
19:21from a driving range to then go and play an 18 holes on a golf course, it's very, very different.
19:25Different thing, isn't it? Totally different. Like, I feel like there needs to be much smaller
19:29golf courses, a stepping stone from a driving range, whether you go to a little nine holer that's
19:35got massive holes. Yeah. You know, or, or you've got, um, you've got three or four hole golf courses
19:42that are just like the normal sized holes, but you can play them easily. Yeah. And there's no dress code
19:48and it, and it's, you can just go and have fun. And that's like, you know, you, you look down
19:53the
19:53road now and you see learner drivers. Right. And with a learner driving, you're patient. You sit
19:58behind them. You don't overtake them. You give them, you give them time. Yeah.
20:03We don't have that in golf. We need a golf version of that. Yeah. Correct. We don't have that in
20:06golf.
20:07Soon as you step foot on a golf course, you seem to be in, you know, a golfer. Yeah.
20:11Where people are like, whoa, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. And it's also hard. Golf is difficult
20:14and it's quite easy to lose that fun aspect that you were just talking about quite quickly. Yeah. Yeah.
20:19You see, again, I go back to the metaverse. There's the amount of rounds that we've been playing
20:22in the metaverse at the moment are scary. Like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of rounds a month
20:28being played. Well, what are those people going to get on the golf course? Because they're not golfers.
20:33Yeah.
20:33How do we get those people on the golf course? How do we, you know, so it's, it's all, it's,
20:38I'd love to give an answer, but I actually don't think there is one at the moment. I think it's
20:42a
20:42massive missing link that hopefully either the governing bodies can saw or, you know, it takes
20:47somebody with initiative or maybe some sort of social media power that can, that can generate these
20:52facilities. And I think that that's what's going to really help it. Yeah.
20:56I think we'll see a massive, massive change of events. I think new golf courses will need to be
21:01built if we get it right. Yeah. So if we're sitting here in seven years time, as we mentioned earlier
21:06on, and you said, I've got some big plans from a YouTube perspective, can you give us an insight
21:11into how you're planning to change things up? We've got to be better at creating content that is
21:16more engaging to watch. So I think at the moment there's content we sometimes put out and not that we
21:23don't plan it as well as we could do, but sometimes we slightly wing it. I think in the future,
21:28the plan is not to wing it as much and to be able to really put a structure together and
21:32to elevate
21:33the opportunities. So sometimes I get opportunities with tour pros. I think we do a good job. I think
21:38we could do a better job. And I think we could start to create different series. I think series
21:43have become a big aspect. So I've got my break 75 series. I've got two or three other series. I
21:47want to
21:47try and film next year as well, because it becomes like a storyline and you take the journey,
21:53you take the audience with you. I think YouTube certainly over the last seven years has all been
21:57mainly about standout videos, like casting the net. So trying to get cast the biggest net you
22:04possibly can by these big viral videos, these one-off videos that might get a couple of million views,
22:09et cetera. Well, they're all well and good, but how then do you bring those golfers in,
22:13those viewers in and watch every video every week all the time. So these series have become
22:19much more powerful for us where they'll watch it regardless. They'll watch it because they like
22:23the series or they like the way it's presented or the way it's been filmed, the way it's been put
22:27together or the opportunities, whether it's the golf courses or the locations. So it's just for us,
22:33it's better planning, better structure and be able to build these kind of franchise series
22:39that get people more engaged in the content. Yeah. So break 75 is here to stay.
22:43Here to stay, it'll get better. It'll get bigger. We're going to travel a lot more. I've not been
22:47on a plane for three years. And so we're going to travel a little bit more and just, just start
22:52to,
22:52you know, there's very, very, very fortunate. There's a lot of beautiful golf course in the world.
22:56Yeah. Like a lot. And, you know, viewers won't get a chance to play them all. They just won't,
23:03you know, so be able to showcase some of those a bit more. I've got a series I want to
23:07do next year,
23:08a bucket list series, 10 golf courses, my dream golf courses. That'll be very different again.
23:13That'll be, that won't be so much score related. It'll be like almost a mini documentary of going,
23:19playing Pebble Beach or Augusta, if anyone's watching from Augusta or Pine Valley or Melbourne
23:26or places like, or Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand. You know, being able to almost take the audience
23:32with you. Like they, I want them to feel like they're there. I want them to feel like I've also
23:37played it.
23:38Yeah. Through you, through, you know, through the way that the video was put together. So,
23:42you know, and that, and again, I never want it to have this kind of layer of,
23:46of, of glass between the viewer and the, the, the content. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
23:51Yeah. Just trying to improve on aspects like that. Yeah.
23:53Um, but normally we try and release upwards of a hundred YouTube videos a year, somewhat.
23:58I reckon next year I've already got 84 of them planned. Really?
24:02Which I've never done before in my life. Really?
24:03So that's quite, that's quite exciting. It takes a bit of pressure off, actually.
24:06It just, at least a skeleton structure. Yeah.
24:09It might change and it probably will, but there's, there's starting last year,
24:14I didn't have that idea or didn't have that planning. Um, and, and with the team and with
24:19Guy and with, with the production team we've now got in place at, at, at, you know, working for me,
24:24it's like, right, we can really elevate this and we can take it to the next level.
24:28And I do want, I want the audience to not notice these subtle changes, but I want them to look
24:33at videos in a year's time and go, Oh wow. You know, they're pretty good compared to two years
24:38or three years ago. Wow. I didn't notice the change, but there is a difference. That's, that's
24:43the kind of goal really. Yeah. Very good. Um, okay. Rick, some quick fire questions for you. Okay.
24:49Okay. What's your most viewed video on your YouTube channel? So how well do you know your YouTube channel?
24:54It's a full bag of illegal golf clubs. Correct. How many views?
24:58Uh, I, I was in between four and five. I only got 4.3.
25:06You've underestimated there. It's five and a half.
25:08All right. Is it?
25:10Yeah. Um, if you could collaborate with anyone on anything.
25:14Tiger. On golf.
25:18I'm just Tiger, isn't it?
25:19Yeah. Fair enough. Anything with Tiger.
25:22Tiger. Your favorite video of yours?
25:25Um, oddly enough, and it didn't absolutely, there's two of them that I absolutely loved.
25:30One of them was a hole in one challenge that I did. Um, it was last year. It was at
25:34a portal in,
25:35in, uh, Cheshire. 500 golf shots trying to get a hole in one. And it was probably because it was
25:40the most effort I've ever put into a video physically. Yeah.
25:43Yeah. And I don't want to ruin it, but it didn't, we didn't quite get the hole in one, but
25:48I just
25:49loved the fact that we managed to make a video that it wasn't original, right? This was a European
25:56tour rip off effectively. And I'm happy to say that. So we even said it in the video, but it
26:01was the fact
26:02that we managed to produce something that looked so good and it was so engaging and it was, and it
26:08was so
26:09concise. Yeah. It was like, I just thought it was a really well rounded video. Yeah. And the other one
26:14I really enjoyed was we did range night, a couple of, um, I don't know. I'll tell you what, no,
26:18even a different one to that. We went to a driving range, a random driving range. We gave a pound
26:22per yard each, how far a golfer would hit. And they got one shot and it had to be on
26:28the fairway.
26:29And literally we went to driving range. We didn't warn anyone.
26:32I went with a pocket full of money and we went to unsuspected golfers and said,
26:37you can hit any club in your bag and however far you hit it in yards, I will give you
26:42the
26:42same amount in pounds. And the reaction of like people, certainly in England, they're a bit like,
26:47what are you doing? What's the catch? And there wasn't a catch. Um, we, I thought that was one of
26:53our most, um, kind of fun to shoot and different again. You know, we, we do take inspiration from
27:00videos outside of the world of golf and try and kind of put a golf twist on it, but it's
27:05just kind
27:05of different really. Yeah. Yeah. Um, uh, your favorite video, somebody else's YouTube video.
27:12Uh, when good, uh, when, uh, sorry, when dude perfect got to play Augusta with Bryson DeChambeau.
27:18Yeah. That was a statement piece. Yeah. That was pretty good. That's pretty jealous of that.
27:23Um, uh, the best shot you've hit on camera.
27:27Uh, there's probably only two, so it's not hard. No joking. There was one, uh, years ago I played
27:33with Pete at North Hans and I put my shot in a, in a ditch and this ditch shot was
27:38ridiculously
27:38impossible. I was like really three or four feet down and no way you've even been able to hit the
27:44golf shot. And somehow I managed to catch it as clean as a whistle and put it to about two
27:48foot
27:48and not sitting for birdie. And then there was another one actually against Pete again,
27:52a golf bidder challenge at Woburn where it was, uh, neck and neck coming down the last.
27:56He hit it down the left in the trees. It is great. In fact, I was one up, sorry.
28:01It wasn't neck and neck. I was one up coming down the last. I hit my tee shot, right?
28:04He, his tee shot left. He played a really, really good golf shot out the trees to about six foot.
28:10I was thinking, oh crap, I'm in trouble here. It's going to be half match.
28:13I was in the trees on the right. Litch had a gap that was tiny, hit this lob wedge straight
28:18through the gap and put it to about this and knocked it in to win the match. So there's a
28:23couple of, there's a couple of really good ones there. Both beating Pete. Both beating Pete.
28:26And the other one was, and only because I was the most nervous I maybe have ever been. Right.
28:31When I played with Tom Watson this year at the old course, uh, at St. Andrews, we played in reverse.
28:37So he teed off the first tee and we were going to the 17th green. Okay.
28:41So Tom Watson hits this tee shot and I'm walking down the fairway and I've now got to hit the
28:46second shot. We played better, but we played alternate shots. I'm going to hit the second
28:50shot. Okay. Into the 17th off a tight links turf with maybe 20 or 30 people watching, but more
28:57importantly, Tom Watson watching, right? And I'm thinking, oh my God, just do not. Because you know,
29:02if you thin it, you're onto the road. If you push it a little bit right, you're in the road
29:05hole bunker.
29:06I was even, there was a, there was the, there was the burn, the Swilkin Bridge burn,
29:10only 30 yards in front of me. I'm thinking, don't dunk it in there. And I was only probably
29:14120 yards away, but I just hit this absolutely perfect struck pitching wedge. I think it was.
29:20And I only put it to maybe 15, four, but I was like, I could have retired then. I could
29:25have just
29:25gone, that's it guys. I'm off. Cause I think my heart was beating so much out of my chest that
29:30I was
29:31like, I don't even know if I'm going to be able to hit this shot and to be able to
29:33actually execute it to
29:35a level that was respectable. Probably Tom Watson thought it was crap, but at least,
29:39at least I felt like it was respectable. Yeah. Well, the flip side of this is what's
29:44the worst shot that you've hit on camera? Oh God, many. I've topped many, many, many shots.
29:48That seems to be my bad one. There's so many. Oh yeah. I played at Conway in a break 75
29:57and a par
29:57three and I wasn't playing well. My head was out of it. And I hit two massive, massive,
30:03massive shank on a par three and walked off with a nine and it's on video and it hurts.
30:09And yeah, there's, there's many of my followers still remind me of it, but sometimes leave some
30:15scars, but yeah, no, it's what I like about that. It shows that it's human. It shows that I don't
30:21vouch to be an amazing, amazing player. I can put it round sometimes. Sometimes I'll shoot a million
30:26and sometimes I'll play quite well. And, and that's kind of part of the story really,
30:30that's kind of part of the journey. Yeah. Um, you know, it'd be boring if it was, uh,
30:35600 every time. I wish it was 600 every time, but it'd be a bit more boring.
30:39Okay. So your perfect day on the golf course, golf day would consist of what?
30:45Um, a few pals,
30:48like I've got a group of lads who I play with who are good golfers. We will go out and
30:53we'll go and
30:53play some nice golf courses, have a few drinks, um, you know, have some nice food. You know,
30:59it's just quite chilled. It's no cameras. It's, it's, um, as much as sometimes though,
31:04I do feel a bit guilty if I play somewhere nice, not on cameras. And I have this kind of
31:09sense of
31:09like, maybe I should be filming this, but if I've had a few beers and I've, you know,
31:13I let my hair down a bit more, maybe that's not the footage that should be shown. But that's,
31:19that's where I find myself in my element. I'm quite chilled. I'm quite relaxed and I don't have to talk.
31:23And I can just, I can just kind of sink into the group and sink into the background.
31:28Yeah. And, uh, that's kind of my kind of dream down on the golf course, bit of sunshine,
31:35friends, playing with, playing in buggies, few beers. Yeah. It's a nice golf, nice golf course.
31:40That's the kind of dream. Yeah. Sounds good. Um, your favorite tour pro now,
31:44this is tricky because you've played with a lot,
31:47you will have made some friends along the way, but which,
31:49which would be if you were playing tomorrow with a tour pro, who would you play with?
31:53Um, I'd probably play with Tommy Fleetwood. Oh yeah. Um, I would say Tiger,
31:59but I don't actually know if I'd fully enjoy it. Um, I think Tommy, I'd feel super chilled with him.
32:04Like I wouldn't feel, I wouldn't feel particularly nervous. I'd feel quite chilled. Um, he's just a nice lad.
32:11You've got a four ball at Augusta. Which other three YouTubers are you taking with you?
32:16I would take, that's a great question. Um, the co-host from the number one podcast in golf,
32:25Guy Charnock. I think he'd kill me if I didn't. He'd quit on the spot if I didn't invite him.
32:32I would invite Pete because obviously we've had some great matches and challenges in the past together.
32:39And again, I think he would kill me, but I'd put a ban on cameras for him.
32:43Yeah. Right. So I could video it. Okay, fine. And, uh, to be honest, it'd be a toss up between
32:50Matt Fryer and Andy Carter, just because they're my pals. So yeah, I'd probably, I'd probably say,
32:56I, I, this is a good, I'm going to say Carter can play. Matt can carry for me because the
33:02last time
33:02Matt carried for me, I had my first ever hole in one. Okay. I'm my only ever hole in one.
33:07So yeah,
33:07I think that'd be a nice little group and you know, my five, five pals, you know, people who I've
33:12worked with and people who have, who have, um, create content, but, and it's the video goes on
33:19my channel. That's, that's the terms, that's the terms and conditions. Perfect. Rick, thank you.
33:24No problem. Thanks, Neil. Really good. Appreciate it. See you in seven years.
33:27Seven years. Make a date. So there you have it. That's our interview with Rick Shields here at
33:33Prairie Sports Village. A really fascinating insight into the sort of thought process of
33:38one of the most influential people in golf. He's come an awful long way over the last seven years.
33:43I hope you found that, that interview enjoyable. If you have, please do hit the like button below,
33:48but that's it. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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