Absolutely fell in love with teaching golf
Rick Shiels
Rick Shiels
One might think the PGA Tour or maybe The Open might have the biggest YouTube channel in golf, but far from it. With almost three million subscribers, Rick Shiels is the undisputed king of YouTube golf.
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“From 11-16, I played junior golf, then went to Golf College in Preston, did two years there. Even at 16 years old, I realised that I was nowhere near the best player, even in a group of 30 students. So I started to look at other options. I turned professional at the age of 18 with a handicap of 3. I got a job at The Mere GC in Knutsford and thought that being a club professional or a teaching professional could maybe be the way forward for me. I did consider delaying doing my PGA qualification."
Working with one of his fellow club pros who specialised in teaching beginners, he saw the satisfaction successful teaching lessons meant not only for the golfing novices but also for the teacher. "I absolutely fell in love with it. I was coaching kids, beginners, more established golfers. So, for two or three years, I got my head down and built a very loyal and fairly large clientele. I went out to coach at schools and recruited kids from there who took up the game and came to join the golf academy."
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Over the next couple of years, those humble beginnings turned into a golfing media juggernaut. In June 2020, he became the first golf content creator to crack the one million subscriber benchmark and widened his appeal by not only posting teaching videos but also club tests, destination films, and golf rounds with celebrities like Robbie Williams or former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond.
Today, Rick Shiels' media empire boasts an impressive audience of more than 5.8 million across all platforms, receiving 50 million views per month. In his talk show/podcast format "The Rick Shiels Show," he interviews a wide variety of guests from the golfing world like Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup legends Sir Nick Faldo and Annika Sörenstam but also current stars of the game like Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Ian Poulter, or Adam Scott.
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ECCO GOLF and Rick Shiels share a mutual appreciation of each other's expertise, skills and passion in Golf. The launch of the exclusive Rick Shiels ECCO BIOM C4 is testament to that.