Nicely earlier than Nick Stubbe grew to become Fats Perez—earlier than the five hundred,000 Instagram followers and showing in YouTube golf movies for Bob Does Sports activities that draw greater than 75 million viewers yearly—he was identical to most of you studying this.
Stubbe grew up within the Richmond, Va., space surrounded by a household of golfers, spending a lot of his youth at what’s now referred to as Lakeside Park Membership, a personal course on the north facet of town. He performed two years of school golf for Division III Hampden-Sydney about 70 miles west of his hometown, holding onto a dream of enjoying professionally so long as he may.
“And then I stopped growing height-wise,” Stubbe advised MyGolfSpy throughout an interview final week. “I didn’t quite have the distance of some of the guys I was playing with. Somewhere along the line at a frat party one night, I had a come-to-Jesus moment where I asked myself ‘What am I doing here? I’m a history major who doesn’t really care about school and I can barely crack the starting line up here. What am I going to do after that?’”
The reply was to go for the true world. After enjoying faculty golf in 2007-2009, Stubbe transferred to the College of Richmond for a few semesters after which completed off the tour by graduating from Virginia Commonwealth College with an accounting diploma he earned “quite a bit after” having began his faculty profession.
By the pandemic, Stubbe was in industrial actual property accounting with a typical job.
He was dwelling the lifetime of the everyman. However quickly he can be the everyman’s golf hero.
The origin of Fats Perez
A number of years earlier than he shot his first video, Stubbe unexpectedly discovered a nickname that may change the course of his life.
Having grown his hair out after securing employment post-college, Stubbe was enjoying a match at an area membership round Richmond. He was on fireplace at Hermitage Nation Membership, constructing a big lead over his opponent.
“One of my buddies said, ‘Man, hitting it like this and having the long hair, you look like Pat Perez out here,’” Stubbe remembers.
It was a praise to be in comparison with Perez, the longtime PGA Tour participant who now competes on LIV.
What adopted was not a praise.
“The man I used to be beating muttered, ‘Extra like Fats Perez.’ I believed it was fairly intelligent however within the second I hated it. I used to be like, ‘Oh shit, that was fairly good. I hope no one caught that or we’re all going to let that go as soon as we go away this tee field.’
“I acted like I didn’t care but my friends all thought it was the funniest shit they had ever heard. The next time I played golf, I kept hearing it. They wouldn’t let it go.”
The nickname lived solely in native circles for a few years—till the identify Fats Perez shortly discovered its means into the mainstream.
Fats Perez performs to a plus-1.6 handicap.
An opportunity encounter out of boredom
The start was innocuous sufficient. Over COVID-19, no one was going into the workplace. Stubbe discovered himself with loads of free time.
“I wasn’t a tax accountant so I wasn’t, like, grinding,” Stubbe mentioned. “Once you get your monthly reports out, you kind of have a week, week and a half, where you don’t really have much going on. You’d never tell your boss that but everyone kind of knows.”
To kill the time, Stubbe had began following comic Robby Berger and his YouTube channel The Brilliantly Dumb Present. That will finally encourage a brand new channel referred to as Bob Does Sports activities. (The unique intent of the channel, because the identify states, was for Berger to strive his hand at experiencing completely different sports activities—however the golf area of interest got here into clearer focus after unexpectedly gaining traction with movies of golf matches.)
Sooner or later within the meat of the pandemic, a bored Stubbe got here throughout a Zoom comfortable hour on Berger’s Patreon.
“I just happened to go into my office after hours to get out of my house,” Stubbe mentioned. “I probably wasn’t even allowed to be there but I just did it. For whatever reason, I just decided to (join the happy hour) and see what it was all about. I think it was just this combination of boredom and work procrastination.”
Out of an abundance of warning, Stubbe determined to not use his actual identify. His display identify learn “Fat Perez” to everybody else in digital attendance.
“That was sort of like the first moment that went one way that could have gone another way,” Stubbe mentioned. “I thought nothing of it but it all led here.”
Stubbe saved exhibiting as much as the comfortable hours, slowly constructing a rapport with the affable Berger.
“Everything he does seems to just kind of make you laugh and smile,” Stubbe mentioned of his friendship with Berger. “He never seems like he’s angry, never in a bad mood, which is honestly the case. He is the exact same guy viewers know. Like, none of this was an act. He’s not actually an asshole that turns it on for the cameras.”
By means of his YouTube escapades and Zoom comfortable hours, Berger constructed out a bit of ecosystem of characters together with Joe Demare (often known as Joey Coldcuts) and Binny Shicker (Binny the Jet). It was nearly like a golf sitcom.
Fats Perez match into that world completely.
Bob Does Sports activities involves life
Not like among the different characters, Stubbe can actually play (he’s a plus handicap). Berger and firm discovered that out after an opportunity assembly in Pinehurst the place Stubbe, within the space together with his spouse, occurred to attach with the crew that may turn into Bob Does Sports activities.
“Everything went from like meeting on the putting green to drinks behind 18 green to appetizers to, ‘Hey, do you want to come to dinner with us?’” Stubbe remembers. “And then it was, ‘Well, you might as well come play golf with us tomorrow.’”
The Bob Does Sports activities channel formally launched in September 2021 with an episode of Berger heckling golfers on the Ryder Cup. That December, Berger posted a viral video of pranking Demare (a central character of BDS) by promising him a spherical at Torrey Pines however as an alternative taking him to a comically dangerous golf course. Demare falls asleep within the automobile on the way in which to the course, waking as much as the horror of a run-down cow pasture. The video, which Stubbe insists was not staged, has greater than three million views.
“Everyone’s probably like, ‘Oh, what are the chances that he falls asleep in the car?’ No, Joey falls asleep in every car ride over 10 minutes every single time. That was gonna happen.”
With that second, BDS had cemented itself as a pure golf channel.
Berger and Stubbe remained shut all through that point, together with Stubbe flying out to Los Angeles a few instances to play golf with Berger. That led to the primary official Fats Perez video popping out in March 2022. FP loses the match on the final gap after taking up the two-man scramble workforce of Berger (Bobby Fairways) and Demare (Joey Coldcuts)—however he does debut the vaunted Euro step celebration after an extended birdie putt, shortly admitting he “might have done a little number” on his Achilles within the course of.
The folks cherished it.
Berger (left), Stubbe (center) and Demare are a formidable trio.
Shortly after that, Foreplay—a golf channel from Barstool Sports activities—invited Berger, Demare and Stubbe for a scramble. Frankie Borrelli, part of Foreplay, had relationship with Berger as a result of he was household pals with considered one of Berger’s cousins.
That video is nearly at 4 million views as of this writing.
“Even then, I wasn’t thinking about this being my tryout,” Stubbe mentioned. “It was just like, ‘This is wild. I’ve watched Foreplay. This is wild that I’m going to be in one of these videos.’”
However after having a lot success, it grew to become obvious to Berger, Demare and their media companions that Stubbe wanted to be concerned with the channel shifting ahead. The response had been overwhelming.
And with that, a thriving channel was born.
The place Stubbe begins and Perez ends
By July of 2022, Stubbe had left his job as an accountant to affix BDS full-time.
It was just one 12 months into his marriage with Anne Cole. She supported the transfer however wished to know that it wasn’t going to be an excessive amount of of a threat financially for the newlyweds. It seems that staying at his job would have been a a lot greater threat as a result of BDS instantly blew up into one of many largest YouTube golf channels. In 2024, solely Bryson DeChambeau, Good Good and Rick Shiels had extra views within the YouTube golf area.
The BDS model is pure chaotic comedy. Hysterical matches occur through the day and the group inevitably orders Chilly Stone for supply to their Airbnb at evening. It’s organized anarchy.
Whereas Berger and Demare’s presence is indispensable to creating that chemistry, Stubbe is the straw that stirs the tequila (and BDS does, in actual fact, have their very own canned tequila cocktail).
He can play at a excessive stage, competing within the inaugural Creator Traditional at East Lake this previous August. Extra importantly, he checks off each leisure field. His character is relatable—Stubbe appears to be like and acts like every random golfer you’ll discover—and his entire demeanor of not taking himself too significantly completely sings on digicam. He has the “well-rounded” aura of John Daly and the comedic timing of Charles Barkley.
I requested the 35-year-old Stubbe what it’s like “to play” Fats Perez and the reply is that there isn’t a enjoying Fats Perez. He’s Fats Perez. There isn’t a manipulation of his character.
“The good news is that it’s just me,” Stubbe mentioned. “I’m not an actor. I think it would be a huge burden if I acted differently and had to keep that up. I’m fortunate the only thing that’s different is the name.”
Entry plus character
That authenticity comes via within the BDS movies the place Stubbe might be discovered smoking a cigar, downing beers and chopping it up together with his co-hosts whereas nonetheless enjoying nice golf.
He can be doing that anyway—it’s simply that all of us get to look at it.
As I used to be scripting this, an Instagram story from Fats Perez popped up: a behind-the-scenes clip of a video they shot with Xander Schauffele. That’s the type of entry followers need in 2024.
“On the personality side, I think YouTube golfers have kind of built a more sun-up-to-sun-down kind of view of themselves,” Stubbe mentioned. “Rather than watching (the pros) from the first round to the fourth round, and then you’re stuck watching a commercial here and there. I think we’ve built just a quicker, more passionate base because of that.”
Fats Perez has greater than 500,000 Instagram followers.
The channel’s explosion has put them within the highlight and that has led to some unbelievable alternatives. Stubbe has his personal clothes line and the BDS workforce has a model referred to as Breezy Golf with a clothes line and its personal lounge at a 5 Iron location in New York.
The angle speaks on to the viewer, particularly followers in that 25- to 45-year-old demographic who’ve stopped constantly watching Tour golf. They need their golf on demand they usually need to really feel related to the folks on the display, whether or not that’s on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or elsewhere. Golf talent is just not the one factor being valued.
Just lately, the Bob Does Sports activities workforce was invited on Bryson DeChambeau’s Breaking 50 collection which has been taking on YouTube golf the previous few months. That video has greater than three million views.
“The Breaking 50 series feels like Saturday Night Live,” Stubbe mentioned. “It almost feels like we had no business being there. It feels like it’s something for real celebrities. He’s built that kind of platform where golf and golf on YouTube is part of world conversation.”
I obtained information for you, Fats Perez. You’re a actual movie star.
And the place all of this goes? Nicely, let’s account for a couple of drinks and see what occurs.
The publish How Fats Perez Grew to become a YouTube Golf Legend appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
