YouTube golf star Peter Finch is making his tour debut in the Asian Development Tour’s Egyptian Open, and against the odds, he has made the cut.
Finch, a Golf Monthly Top 50 coach with over 768,000 subscribers on YouTube, received a sponsor's invite into the event at Madinaty Golf Club, which is being played for the first time in 15 years.
The decision to offer Finch a place in the field could have been controversial, with the opinion among some that the inclusion of content creators in events takes away a spot from a more capable player, even if it does give much-needed exposure to the tournaments.
After receiving his invite, Finch released a video on social media, where he admitted to being “apprehensive” about playing, but justified his inclusion, saying: “Sponsors using invites to attract people to play in events who'll bring more eyeballs to that event I think generally is a good thing.
"Because they're sponsors invites I'm not taking away a spot from somebody who would've otherwise get into that event.”
The Englishman is no stranger to success, either, having made Final Qualifying for The Open this year, while his performance over the first 36 holes in Egypt offers further justification for his appearance.
Finch got off to a solid enough start with an opening round of 72 to leave him two over. Despite that, he would have known that he’d likely need an even stronger performance in the second round.
He was one under for the day at the turn following birdies at the third and sixth and a bogey at the eighth.
He remained in touch with successive pars until the par 4 16th, when disaster struck as he made a double bogey to leave him staring down the barrel of an early exit.
He wasn’t done there, though, and finished his round with successive birdies to head back to the clubhouse just above the cut line on one-over for the tournament after a one-under 69.
He faced a nervy wait to see if he had done enough before confirmation came that he would tee it up in the final two rounds after making the cut on the number, with the top 50 and ties all progressing.
Following his round, Finch wrote on Instagram that he was: "Excited, proud, and honestly a bit relieved. Could’ve been a few shots better, but scraped through right on the number."
He added: "Lots of work to do over the next two days to climb the leaderboard and see how high I can finish, but job one is done - made the cut in a four-round event full of unbelievable players."
In 2024, Finch explained to Golf Monthly what he sees as the key differences between himself and a PGA Tour pro.
He said: “First of all, consistency and then, really, the mental game is huge. These guys, they're not scared to go low. I get to two or three-under and I start crapping my pants, I go: ‘Oh no, what am I gonna do? I've never been here before!'"
Of course, the level of competition at the Egyptian Open is nowhere close to an average PGA Tour event.
For example, it has a field rating of 6.10280 compared to 195.34799 at last week’s Bank of Utah Championship on the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, the highest-ranked player in the field is Thailand’s Tawit Polthai, at 686th.
However, Finch’s rally to end his second round suggests that the nerves he described aren’t proving a big problem on his tour debut.
Despite Finch’s heroics, he still has some way to go to trouble the leader. After 36 holes, Moroccan El Medhi Fakori leads the field on 12-under, 13 shots clear of Finch.
