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,
00:22don't dunk it in there. Just Tiger, isn't it?
00:24Yeah, 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.
00:46Yeah.
00:47It was spring, I think it was April 2015.
00:50Okay.
00:50And I read over the feature, right?
00:52Now, 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 have said that to you, you know, in, what, seven years' time,
01:11you'd be at that level. What 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 of 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.
01:32And they were on numbers bigger than us or bigger than me, obviously me and Pete had separate channels
01:36and still have, but it was like, what's the number?
01:39Is it 200,000? Is it half a million? Is it a million?
01:44I almost wouldn't allow myself to dream that there would be a million subscribers out there.
01:48Now I think, sat here knocking on the door, hopefully by the end of the year,
01:52to get to 2.5 million, you think, what the hell? What's the possibility?
01:56Yeah.
01:56Is there five million out there? In seven years, if we sit down again,
02:00you 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?
02:06What have been the kind of the big things that have helped you
02:10to get to the point where you're at that sort of level?
02:12It'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
02:42ago, I 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,
03:14you'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 more
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 at
03:40and allow other people who are much better than me 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, how, is that an important part of the whole thing? Big time. I love making
04:00mistakes and leaving them in and not leaving them in, that's just natural. It's what we, what happens
04:05if I hit a terrible shot, we keep a terrible shot in. You know, and if I fuff a line or, you know,
04:09I don't quite deliver it how I want to, it's okay. Well, I don't want it to be polished. I don't,
04:14I don't want some fancy ND filter and a fancy, you know, color grading that makes it look
04:20less relatable. It almost makes it look like there's a barrier between the viewer and the,
04:25and the video. Yeah. I do want it to have that nice natural feel. So when I up the production,
04:30you know, cause that's really key because YouTube's got so much bigger in that. Yeah.
04:33Yeah. You can't have bad production now. Yeah. You can't have bad videos or you can't have bad sound
04:38and you can't, you know, all of those things are important. So it's just been an evolution really.
04:44But the big thing we've always stuck around, it's certainly my kind of motto, I would say in life to some
04:49degrees is innovate or die. And I feel like each year I've just tried to keep innovating and doing
04:56things that are different or no one's done before, enhancing the things that we used to do and not
05:02being too guided by the audience. Cause I think sometimes the audience, I think if, if the audience
05:09could dictate what the content would be, I'd probably still be at Trafford Centre making coaching videos
05:14and doing club reviews where it's like, well, actually we're going to try and give the audience content
05:20they didn't know they wanted. Right. Okay. You know, the, you know, the, whether it's time with tour pros
05:25or whether it's, you know, doing this break 75 series or whether it's, um, testing these illegal golf clubs,
05:31you know, the audience wouldn't have known that was something they wanted. I think it's a quote that Steve Jobs did
05:36for Apple, you know, give, give, give the world what they didn't know they wanted. And so that's what we're
05:41trying to do in golf YouTube content really in a, in a quite a deep, deep way.
05:46Yeah. No, but what about collaborations as well? You've had so many cool, different collaborations
05:52with different types of people from people who are very much a part of the game to people who very much
05:57are not part of the game. What have been the, the ones that you've enjoyed the collaborations that
06:01you like, that's something totally different. Didn't expect to be stood here with this person.
06:06Well, there's a number of people, you know, going back to one of the biggest YouTube channels in
06:10the world, dude, perfect sports YouTube channel in the world, 40 million subscribers. Like, you know,
06:16they are literally at the, at the top of their game. I've managed to do videos with those guys
06:21with, with Robbie Williams, right? Not to name drop, but I mean, that, that's an odd, you know,
06:26I never think again, seven, eight years ago, would I be going, staying at Robbie Williams's house and
06:30playing golf with him that he want, he desperately wanting to film a video with me. I was, I didn't
06:36even take my video stuff the first time. I didn't think I won't make a video. Yeah.
06:40And then he's inviting me down again and said, we need to make a video. I'm like, okay. Yeah.
06:44And Richard Hammond we had on recently. Yeah. Yeah. Richard Hammond, you know, again,
06:48from someone who almost had been quite openly how much he's hated golf to have him on a golf YouTube
06:54video and then to be on his channel as well, doing a really fun golf challenge. Um, you know,
07:00and then there's other people in, in the kind of the podcast world that we've had on. So like,
07:04whether it be Bryson DeChambeau or whether it be, um, Victor Hovland or, uh, Martin Borgmeyer,
07:10who's the world long drive champion or, you know, some of the other YouTubers that are out in the,
07:14in the world now, like the good, good lads over in America are killing it. Um, I've always been open
07:19to collaborations and, and I feel like I remember that from our first meeting, actually, you telling us
07:25that part of the reason that you got, I think you got past that bit of like, why? Yeah. I remember
07:31there was a comment in there. It was like, you started doing it and then Pete started doing it
07:35and you were sort of looking at Pete going, Oh, I see you're doing it as well. And then you decided,
07:38actually, maybe we're better off kind of working a bit more together.
07:40Yeah. I don't, I've not never had an issue with collaborating with different, um, content creators,
07:48as 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
07:54missed a handful of names out there. Is there any, like a handful of anyone that I've really
07:58missed out on that list? Adam Scott, Lee Westwood. Oh yeah. Just Adam Scott.
08:01Sorry. Adam Scott, Lee Westwood, Tommy Fleetwood. Yeah. Um, Sir Nick Faldo. Yeah.
08:06You know, it's Tom Watson, Tom Watson. Um, yeah, it, it, it's been a mix of people in the golf
08:16YouTube world, people in what would be outside of golf, but in the mainstream media. Yeah.
08:22And then really high profile people in the world of golf. Yeah. You know, and I think the audience
08:28seem to really, really love it. Cause it's like, Oh God, that's, that's like Rick from, you know,
08:35Bolton. He's now hitting shots off the roof of the old course hotel down to 17th green. It's like,
08:40yeah, yeah. Um, it, things are playing the old course in reverse with Tom Watson, or I actually
08:44played the old course in reverse with Min Woo Lee as well. So it's like really just cool opportunities.
08:49And I think sometimes it's probably chats like this, or maybe in 20, 30 years when I sit down and
08:56maybe I'm retired, I'll, I'll look back at it and go, I did some pretty cool stuff.
09:01I 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 it because the next
09:07thing's coming up or the next project or, um, the next collaboration or something exciting.
09:13Yeah. I look forward to in a, in a few years to sit down and everything's documented 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, so 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, is YouTube
09:38very much 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
10:12stats where there's 65 million golfers in the world, but we're only chatting to a small percentage at the
10:17moment in the grand scheme of things, which is crazy. I have got other dreams and ambitions I want
10:23to do outside of the media world, whether it's, you know, facilities or whether it's golf courses or
10:27whether it's setting up, you know, the, the biggest, um, amateur golf tour or whether it's
10:33setting up, um, the, the biggest way of getting people into golf, kids getting into golf or, you
10:39know, I've got big dreams and ambitions around that, uh, which will coincide with what we're
10:44doing on social media, but still YouTube is the number one platform and what we put currently at
10:49the moment, it's still 80, 80 odd percent of our time into really. Watch this space. I wanted to
10:56ask you about the, the reviews channel. Uh, I know you've already, you've spoken about it on your
11:00own, but just give us a, why did you decide to set up another YouTube channel and focus it on,
11:07on club reviews? Um, the number one thing, I still love testing products. You know, I get,
11:12I get excited about new product that comes out and I'm sure you guys do, you know, you guys obviously
11:17review products, you know, from every single brand, from every different asset. And I, and I've thoroughly
11:23still want to review the next set of irons or driver or wedges or putters or whatever it may be.
11:30I think the challenge where we've come to at the moment is the main channel. We really trying to,
11:35um, specialize ourselves on, on standout content, right? Content that makes people go, wow, that was
11:41good. That was cool. I really remember that. And we'll still feature reviews on our, on the main channel.
11:47Okay. So some of the flagship drivers. Sure. So like tailor-made and callaways and ping drivers,
11:52et cetera, will still feature on the main channel because there's such an appetite for that. Yeah.
11:56Yeah. Yeah. We get sent a lot of products and there is a lot of product that gets released every
12:02year. Yeah. And I still want an avenue and a space to be able to review that product. Not too dissimilar to
12:08how I used to do it, even in the same, in this room all those years ago, where, you know, I still love
12:13the thought and the opinion to be able to give my information and my, um, feedback and my,
12:19my critique about a new set of clubs. Um, and I, and I think that therefore I still want to be known
12:25as a club reviewer. Okay. And that's probably got lost a little bit over the last few years because
12:29I don't do it as often. Yeah. So with this new channel, we can specify just all club reviews
12:36that are brand new clubs that have come out, whether it's irons, wedges, drivers, whatever it may be,
12:41we've got a platform where they can all sit. So if people still want club reviews,
12:45there you go. You can, you can have that channel. You know what you're getting with that channel.
12:48Yeah. But come to the main channel for some other bits of variety of content as well.
12:53Are you going to be able to fit it all in? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's way more time we can
12:57shoot. 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
13:06a bottleneck where when things are getting edited, we've got nobody to shoot content. Right. Okay.
13:11So we're trying to streamline the process now where we can shoot more content, um, maybe,
13:17maybe more in bulk and maybe more in advance, and then it can get edited as we go along. Yeah.
13:22Which will free me up a little bit as well to actually do other projects that I want to do,
13:26but we've, we've certainly got time. Yeah. And I'm, I'm still a million percent passionate about it.
13:32And I, and I, it, what gets me up every day. My most enjoyable part of creating what I do in a day
13:39today is making videos. I love when that record button gets hit. That's when I feel like I'm in
13:43my element. So the more I can do that, I don't want to be doing emails and boring stuff. I hate
13:49any of that. I hate admin. I hate, I hate any of the back office stuff, but get me in front of a
13:54camera. And that's where I feel like I, that's my strength. And that's where I feel like I, I enjoy
14:00what I do the most really. Yeah. And where does coaching fit in? Is coaching now,
14:04there's just no time for coaching to fit in as part of it, or do you want to still be involved
14:08in coaching somehow? It, it, it feels like something's got to give, right? I don't know.
14:13Um, I would still say, and stats I think would prove this, that I'm probably still the most watched
14:19golf coach on the planet. Yeah. And hopefully I still give a lot of my coaching videos that I've done
14:26over the last 10 years are still relevant. Yeah. You know, they've not changed. They're not,
14:31they've not aged. You know, even coaching videos we did six, seven years ago now still get
14:35hundreds of thousands of views every single year. Um, because we, we did well back then to shoot it
14:42in a way that would last. Yeah. You know, we wanted it to be evergreen content and it still is.
14:47Um, coaching videos will still be a part of the channel and we've got some exciting ones coming next
14:51year. And I still want to be able to create, um, I still want to be known as a golf coach as well. Like
14:56that's my passion. That's what, that's really why I got into YouTube. You'll know that story.
15:00Um, and, and, you know, that's what I still see myself as. I still see myself as a,
15:05well, 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.
15:15Um, and I, and I, the last place I actually coached was in this room in 2020 in person.
15:21Um, do you miss that? I do. Yeah. Yeah. I really do.
15:25And I've had a couple of opportunities, um, like even coaching Richard Hammond on the channel
15:29recently. And it's things like, you go, you know, I really like this and I, and I, and I think I'm
15:35really good at it and I really enjoy it and I see results. And I think the main reason why I see
15:40results is a lot of the students that come to me, trust what I say. Right. Yeah.
15:44Already. There's not that barrier. Yeah. That really helps.
15:47What 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 think over the last 10 years, but maybe even longer, it's becoming cool.
16:08I remember speaking, I met my wife 15 years ago and, um, when I was chatting her up and,
16:14you know, trying to get things going. Um, she asked, what do I do? And I said,
16:18I'm a golf pro and I was an assistant pro at the time. And she like kind of rolled her eyes.
16:23And when I actually ended up telling her what I did as a, as a living,
16:26I work in a pro shop selling chocolate bars and drinks. She, she even more kind of was like,
16:31what the hell? And she'll even admit now back then she thought golf, what the hell? Like it's not,
16:37it's not like she had a, she had an imprint of what golf is. It was flat caps. It was old men.
16:43It was pipes. It was plus fours. It was everything that golf isn't. Yeah. Yeah.
16:47But that was her perspective of it. I speak to her now and I speak to her friends and now I'll
16:53introduce myself as a golf pro, even to people who don't know me from social media. And it's like,
16:58Oh wow. Golf. Like, and this, 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
17:06of 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 fashions different. We both were 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.
17:31But you know, I think all those things that have made golf, um, feel traditional and stuck in the
17:37past, they're all getting banished. Yeah.
17:38Places 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 watch 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.
17:50It's in a totally different, different avenue. And as much as I've got no probably hard hitting facts
17:56on this, and I'm sure you will have more. I've noticed from the type of people who come and
18:01come and spot me and they've watched the videos, it's a different type of crowd.
18:04It's different, totally different.
18:06How does, how does, how do we make the most of that opportunity then as a golf industry?
18:12I don't, I think there's a massive missing gap in a pathway to get people
18:16getting onto golf courses. Right.
18:18It's a huge opportunity that needs to be captured.
18:20What? So 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 see
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.
18:44I'm not saying that's a bad thing because at least they're still into golf and participating.
18:48They'll probably say to themselves or the friends, yeah, I play golf on the driving range,
18:52but I play golf. And then you obviously have your traditional members, but between here,
18:58a driving range or a practice facility or watching on TV or watching on YouTube to actually getting
19:03through the door of a golf club, it's become easier. Don't get me wrong. Like the barriers
19:07have started to lift at golf courses, things like no joining fees and new members incentives.
19:14Yeah.
19:16I don't think it's that. I think it's the actual golf element of it.
19:20Right.
19:20Like from a driving range to then go and play 18 holes on a golf course, it's very, very different.
19:25Different thing, isn't it?
19:26Totally different. Like I feel like there needs to be much smaller golf courses, a stepping stone
19:32from a driving range, whether you go to a little nine holer that's got massive holes.
19:36Yeah.
19:37You know, or you've got three or four hole golf courses that are just like the normal sized holes,
19:45but you can play them easily.
19:46Yeah.
19:46And there's no dress code and you can just go and have fun. And that's like,
19:52you know, you, you look around the road now and you see learner drivers.
19:55Right. And with a learner driving, you're patient. You sit behind them. You don't overtake them. You
20:00give them, you give them time.
20:01Yeah.
20:03We don't have that in golf.
20:03We need a golf version of that. Yeah.
20:05Correct. We don't have that in golf. As soon as you step foot on a golf course,
20:08you seem to be in, you're now a golfer.
20:10Yeah.
20:10Where people are like, whoa, I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
20:13And it's also hard. Golf is difficult. And it's quite easy to lose that fun aspect that you were just
20:17talking about quite quickly. Yeah. Yeah.
20:19You see, again, I go back to the metaverse. 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
20:28a month being played. Well, what are those people going to get on the golf course? Because they're
20:32not golfers. Yeah.
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 a
20:42massive missing link that hopefully either the governing bodies can saw or, you know,
20:46it takes somebody with initiative or maybe some sort of social media power that can,
20:51that can generate these facilities. I think that that's what's going to really help it.
20:55Yeah.
20:56I think we'll see a massive, massive change of events. I think new golf courses will need to be built
21:02if we get it right.
21:03Yeah. So if we're sitting here in seven years time, as we mentioned earlier on,
21:06and you said, I've got some big plans from a YouTube perspective, can you give us an insight
21:10into how you're planning to change things up?
21:12We've got to be better at creating content that is more engaging to watch. So I think at the moment,
21:19there's content we sometimes put out and not that we don't plan it as well as we could do,
21:25but sometimes we slightly wing it. I think in the future, the plan is not to wing it as much and
21:30to be able to really put a structure together and to elevate the opportunities. So sometimes I get
21:35opportunities with tour pros. I think we do a good job. I think we could do a better job. And I think we
21:39could start to create different series. I think series has become a big aspect. So I've got my
21:44break 75 series. I've got two or three other series. I want to try and film next year as well,
21:49because it becomes like a storyline and you take the journey, you take the audience with you.
21:55I think YouTube certainly over the last seven years has all been mainly about standout videos,
22:00like casting the net. So trying to get cast the biggest net you possibly can by these big viral
22:06videos, these one-off videos that might get a couple of million views, et cetera. Well,
22:10they're all well and good, but how then do you bring those golfers in, those viewers in and
22:15watch every video every week all the time? These series have become much more powerful for us,
22:20where they'll watch it regardless. They'll watch it because they like the series or they like
22:25the way it's presented or the way it's been filmed, the way it's been put together,
22:28or the opportunities, whether it's the golf courses or the locations.
22:31So it's just for us, it's better planning, better structure and be able to build these
22:37kind of franchise series that get people more engaged in the content.
22:41Yeah. 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.
22:48Really?
22:48And so we're going to travel a little bit more and just, just start to,
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 do next
23:07year, a bucket list series, 10 golf courses, my dream golf courses. That'll be very different.
23:13Again, that won't be so much score related. It'll be like almost a mini documentary of going
23:18playing 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 through you, through, you know, through the way that the video was put together. So,
23:42you know, and again, I never want it to have this kind of layer of, of, of glass between the viewer
23:48and the, the, the content. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 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.
23:59I 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. Takes a bit of pressure off, actually.
24:06It just, at least a skeleton structure. Yeah. It might change and it probably will,
24:11but there's, there's starting last year, I didn't have that idea or didn't have that planning.
24:17Um, and, and with the team and with Guy and with, with the production team, we've now got in place at,
24:23you know, working for me, it's like, right, we can really elevate this and we can take it to the next
24:27level. And 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 or three
24:38years ago. Wow. I didn't notice the change, but there is a difference. That's, that's the kind of goal
24:44really. Yeah. Very good. Um, okay. Rick, some quick fire questions for you. Okay. Okay. What's your
24:50most 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. And reviews?
24:58Uh, I was in between four and five. I only got 4.3. You've underestimated there. It's five and a half.
25:08All right. Is it? Yeah. Um, if you could collaborate with anyone on anything. Tiger. On golf.
25:16I'm just Tiger, innit? Yeah. Fair enough. Anything with Tiger. Your favorite video of yours?
25:24Um, 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 a 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. And I don't want to ruin it,
25:45but it didn't, we didn't quite get the hole in one, but the, I just loved the fact that we managed to
25:51make a video that it wasn't original, but this was a European tour ripoff effectively. And I'm happy
25:58to say that. So we even said it in the video, but it was the fact that we managed to produce
26:03something that looked so good and it was so engaging and it was, and it was so concise.
26:10Yeah. It was like, I just thought it was a really well-rounded video. Yeah.
26:13And the other one I really enjoyed was we did range night, a couple of, um, I don't know.
26:18I'll tell you what, no, even a different one to that. We went to a driving range,
26:20a random driving range. We gave a pound per yard each, how far a golfer would hit. And
26:26they got one shot and it had to be on the fairway. And literally we went to driving range. We didn't
26:31warn anyone. I 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 the same amount
26:42in pounds. And the reaction of like people, certainly in England, they were a bit like,
26:46what 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
27:01videos outside of the world of golf and try and kind of put a golf twist on it, but it's just kind of
27:06different 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. Uh, there's probably only two, so it's not hard.
27:32There was one, uh, years ago I played with Pete at North Hance and I put my shot in a
27:36in a ditch and this ditch shot was ridiculously impossible. I was like really three or four feet
27:41down and no way you've even been able to hit the golf shot. And somehow I managed to
27:45catch it as clean as a whistle and put it to about two foot and not sitting for birdie.
27:49And then there was another one actually against Pete again, a golf bidder challenge at Woburn where
27:54it was a neck and neck coming down the last, he hit it down the left in the trees. It is great.
28:00In fact, I was one up, sorry, wasn't neck and neck. I was one up coming down the last.
28:03I hit my tee shot right. He, his tee shot left. He played a really, really good goal
28:08shot out the trees to about six foot. I was thinking, oh crap, I'm in trouble here. It's
28:11going to be half match. I was in the trees on the right. Lich had a gap that was tiny,
28:17hit this lob wedge straight through the gap and put it to about this and knocked it in to win the
28:21match. So there's a couple of, there's a couple of really good ones there.
28:24Beating Pete and the other one was, and only because I was the most nervous I maybe have
28:30ever been. When I played with Tom Watson this year at the old course at St. Andrews, we played in
28:36reverse. So he teed off the first tee and we were going to the 17th green. So Tom Watson hits this
28:43tee shot and I'm walking down the fairway and I've now got to hit the second shot. We played better,
28:47but we played alternate shots. I'm going to hit the second shot. Okay. Into the 17th off a tight
28:53links turf with maybe 20 or 30 people watching, but more importantly, Tom Watson watching, right?
28:59And I'm thinking, oh my God, just do not. Because you know, if you thin it, you're onto the road.
29:04If you push it a little bit right, you're in the road hole bunker. I was even, there was the burn,
29:09the Swilkin Bridge burn only 30 yards in front of me. I'm thinking, don't dunk it in there. And I was
29:14only probably 120 yards away, but I just hit this absolutely perfect struck pitching wedge,
29:19I think it was. And I only put it to maybe 15-4, but I was like, I could have retired then. I could
29:25have just gone, that's it guys, I'm off. Because I think my heart was beating so much out of my chest
29:30that I was like, I don't even know if I'm going to be able to hit this shot. And to be able to actually
29:34execute it to a level that was respectable, probably Tom Watson thought it was crap, but at least I felt
29:40like it was respectable. Yeah. Well, the flip side of this is what's the worst shot that you've hit
29:45on camera? Oh God, many. I've topped many, many, many shots. That seems to be my bad one.
29:53There's so many. Oh yeah. I played at Conway in a break 75 and a par three and I wasn't playing well,
29:58my head was out of it. And I hit two massive, massive, massive shanks on a par three and walked
30:04off with a nine and it's on video and it hurts. And yeah, there's, there's many of my followers
30:12still remind me of it, but sometimes leave some scars, but yeah, no, it's what I like about that.
30:18It shows that it's human. It shows that I don't vouch to be an amazing, amazing player. I can put it
30:24round sometimes. Sometimes I'll shoot a million and sometimes I'll play quite well. And that's kind
30:29of part of the story really. That's kind of part of the journey. Yeah. Um, you know, it'd be boring
30:33if it was, uh, 600 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? Um, a few pals,
30:48right. I've got a group of lads who I play with who are good golfers and we'll go out and we'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 sense of
31:09like, maybe I should be filming this, but if I've had a few beers and I've, you know, I let my hair
31:14down a bit more, maybe that's not the footage that should be shown. But that's, that's where I find
31:19myself in my element. I'm quite chilled. I'm quite relaxed and I don't have to talk and I can just,
31:24I can just kind of sink into the group and sink into the background. Yeah. And, uh, that's kind
31:30of my kind of dream down on the golf course, a bit of sunshine, friends playing with, playing in
31:37buggies, a few beers. Yeah. It's a nice golf, nice golf course. That's the kind of dream. Yeah. Sounds
31:41good. Um, your favorite tour pro now, this is tricky because you've played with a lot, you will have
31:47made some friends along the way, but which, which would be if you were playing tomorrow with a tour
31:52pro, who would you play with? Um, I'd probably play with Tommy Fleetwood. Oh yeah. Um, I would
31:58say Tiger, but I don't actually know if I'd fully enjoy it. Um, I think Tommy, I'd feel super chilled
32:04with him. Like I wouldn't feel, I wouldn't feel particularly nervous. I'd feel quite chilled. Um,
32:10he's just a nice lad. You'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,
32:24Guy 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
32:38together. And again, I think he would kill me, but I'd put a ban on cameras for him.
32:42Right. So I could video it. Okay, fine. And, uh, 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 last
33:02time Matt carried for me, I had my first ever hole in one. Okay. I'm my only ever hole in one. So 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. Be warned. That's the terms and conditions. Perfect. Rick,
33:24thank you. No problem. Thanks, Neil. Really good. Appreciate it. See you in seven years.
33:26Seven 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 one
33:38of the most influential people in golf. He's come an awful long way over the last seven years. I hope
33:43you found that, that interview enjoyable. If you have, please do hit the like button below. But
33:48that's it. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.