It is hard to look at the success of YouTubers without envy and regret, knowing what we know now.
From Rick Shiels in the golf world to KSI in whatever world, they had the foresight more than a decade ago to stand in front of a camera and crack the code before anyone knew there was a code to be cracked.
Shiels has just shy of three million subscribers. He started on YouTube with basic instruction videos about how to grip the club and technique, and this evolved into golf club reviews, golf course vlogs at top venues and collaborations with top players.
You could mark his ambassador deal with LIV Golf as the peak of his success. A new tour with a portion of the game’s biggest stars, with the financial backing of an entire nation state, recognised the value of signing on the dotted line with a vlogger, and the vast audience that has watched him week in and week out for years.
“Over the years, more channels have come out and the viewership has grown. You’ve got more choice,” Shiels said to NCG.
“YouTube has taken over TV. People are now, in the evening, turning on their TV and pressing the YouTube button. It’s taken over mainstream media as long as the eyeballs are there.”
YouTube golf now mirrors a streaming platform like Netflix, and Shiels and a handful of others are pioneers. In the UK, you can also watch Peter Finch, Matt Fryer and Andy Carter, for example. In the US, you can watch Good Good, Grant Horvat, Bob Does Sports or the Bryan Brothers, and these names are just the tip of the iceberg.
You can watch it all for free. Once one video is over, the conveyor belt brings you to the next, and the wheels on the bus of addiction go around and around. The power of it is not lost on the professionals, either. Shiels once wanted to have the playing career of a Bryson DeChambeau or Tommy Fleetwood. Now, they want the career of Shiels, as both have their own YouTube channels.
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“What excites me is that I still meet golfers all the time who don’t watch YouTube golf. The more channels that come out, and it brings in more pockets of viewers, I still think there are huge growth opportunities in South Korea, or Japan for example. They don’t watch golf YouTube yet properly,” Shiels added.
“How can we tap into that? That is a huge advantage. There are so many Americans – as much as I’ve got the most subscribed channel, I’ve only got three million. There are 64 million golfers in the world – What are the other guys doing?
“Why are they not watching? I think they will do, it will just take some time with more channels, such as Phil Mickelson. Tommy Fleetwood has just set up his channel. More will think, ‘I know that person, I’m going to give that a go’, and I’ve been opened up to this huge world of online entertainment and instruction. I think it’s great.”
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In the time that Shiels has been in the YouTube space, he has over 925 million views. The very first views he received were from short and sharp instructional videos, sometimes filmed at Trafford Golf Centre, where he developed his coaching nous.
While instruction and advice still appear in his content stream in 2025, much of it is focused on entertainment. If you are looking to break into YouTube or social influencing, part of the beginner’s guide is to collaborate with other people doing the same thing. Recently, Shiels has made videos with James Robinson, former Premier League footballer Jimmy Bullard, the Fore Brothers and several stars from the LIV Golf League as part of his role with the circuit.
Shiels hasn’t forgotten that his PGA profession provided the foundation for his career to skyrocket to the level he is at now, but his platform now lives in a climate with the aforementioned channels that are focused on entertaining and bring a smile to the viewer’s face.
“I would say that is the biggest thing – it has changed from PGA golf coaches. Early doors, we weren’t called YouTubers back then. We were all PGA golf coaches who had the same idea. We wanted to promote ourselves as golf coaches. That was it.
“It was 90% instructional content back then, 13 years ago. That’s changed now. It’s gone from information to entertainment and that’s where Bob Does Sports comes in, or Good Good or Grant Horvat. It’s great as they’re helping to grow the game. There is still instruction, I still make instructional content, but after making 2,500 videos on my channel and probably 1000 of them are coaching, I don’t need to make another 1000.
“Those videos are evergreen, so if you want to fix your slice, there is a video for that. But I’ll also show you how you can have fun out on the golf course, or let me show you a cool golf course that I’m going to play or a golf club that you might want to buy, or a golf club you should avoid buying.
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“That’s how it’s changed. It’s changed from information to entertainment.”
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