If you want to lose hours of your life ingesting golf content then YouTube is the obvious destination. Whether you want coaching tips, advice on the latest clubs, banter-filled rounds with ex-professional footballers or deep dive analysis of Spiderman’s swing, you’ll find it.
As a reasonably new ‘serious’ golfer, I’ve probably spent more time watching golf videos than I have doing the actual sport (it’s the same for my other passion, photography).
This isn’t a problem, of course, as I’ve gleaned some really useful tips from coaches such as Danny Maude, Rick Shiels and Dan Grieve. I’ve even found myself warming to Bryson DeChambeau as he tries to break course records on public courses.
And, of course, if I want top-notch entertainment, education and buying advice, I need look no further than Golf Monthly’s own YouTube channel and Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show*.
My current favourite channel, though, offers absolutely zero in the way of education. Lets Golf (missing apostrophe them, not me) and its strapline is ‘Just a man trying not to be totally s*** at golf.’
As a newish high-handicap golfer trying desperately to improve – golf lessons and custom fitted Callaway clubs so far – this is something that I can relate to on the deepest of levels.
That the man trying not to be terrible is called Rob is pure coincidence, but if I were to start a Youtube golf channel the quality of hitting would at times be on par with Lets Golf.
And although I think I could give the host a run for his money when it comes to creative swearing, he is funnier than me. That isn’t surprising as Lets Golf is a new venture from British stand-up Rob Beckett.
Beckett, a hugely popular stand-up comedian, podcast host and regular on television shows including 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, LOL: Last One Laughing and The Celebrity Traitors, has been playing golf for around half a decade, with his first ‘televised’ round coming during an episode of Sky’s Rob & Romesh Vs in 2021.
In this, Beckett and fellow comedian Romesh Raganathan roped in a bemused Justin Rose for some coaching, played a bit of dress up – tartan plus fours etc – and then hacked around St Andrews.
Raganathan was new to golf, but Beckett had played before and, clearly, he’s continued to play as two months ago he started Lets Golf. He also admits that he didn’t give the Callaway Mavrik clubs he’s using back to Sky!
'Just Like Me'
I do, of course, really enjoy the aforementioned golf influencers and the work of my team here at GM and KP, but I can’t yet relate to them. Obviously, Bryson is one of the world’s best golfers; Shiels, Grieve and Maude are all incredibly handy and even the worst golfer on our channels is a single-figure handicapper.
These are all golfers I aspire to be even as half as good at. Lets Golf is a breath of fresh air because Beckett, on the other hand, is just like me!
He happily shows tee shots that head sideways into the bushes, fairway drives into the trees and repeated bunker shots that stay in the sand trap. He swings and misses ‘practice shot’, he swears (I know, bad form, he (and I) should stop this) and he repeatedly loses any semblance of composure and form as soon as ‘the bigger boys’ appear.
The bigger boys of Beckett’s videos are the players who catch him up on the tee. Like me, he appears to instantly assume that they’re brilliant, experienced golfers who’ll judge the hell out of him or get angry because he’s slow.
Of course, like most bigger boys on the golf course this is rarely the case. The caveat here is that Beckett is, in the UK at least, a celebrity known for his cheeky chappy demeanour, so he’ll probably get more leeway than me, even if I do try and pull the Golf Monthly Content Director card (note to self: don’t ever do this!).
Beckett is openly and happily an ‘improving golfer’. I won’t be recommending Lets Golf to our golf rules expert Fergus Bissett, though – I think the multiple infractions on display might be too much for him!
Beckett doesn’t appear to have a handicap yet, but I’m confident that unless he's a brilliant actor, he'd be a very high-handicapper and it’s a joy and a reassurance to see someone else publicly struggling with their game, sharing their insecurities and voicing frustrations.
Equally, I can relate to the sheer delight Beckett experiences when he hits that one straight and longish drive, or he plays a chip shot that lands on the green, vaguely near the hole.
It’s the moments like that make me and other crap golfers keep coming back and trying to become less crap. I hope Rob Beckett keeps coming back. I’ll keep watching, although I will be gutted if he improves faster than me and becomes one of those bigger boys.
* I am contractually obliged to plug Golf Monthly and Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show
