In the event you comply with golf personalities on YouTube, chances are high you’ve come throughout Padraig Harrington’s “Paddy’s Golf Tips” movies on his YouTube Channel.
Instruction content material can typically get overwhelmingly technical however Harrington’s “fireside chat” fashion is disarming and simply digestible. He’s constructed a small however loyal following of 176,000 subscribers after the thought for documenting his recommendations on a YouTube channel was born through the pandemic when he posted his first video on Sept. 29, 2020, (shot on his iPhone) on the chipping inexperienced of his Dublin, Eire, residence.
The three-time main winner says his inspiration for these movies comes from his ardour for recreation enchancment.
“I just love the game and I want people to get better at it,” Harrington said in an interview with MyGolfSpy. “Why do I do Paddy’s Golf Tips? It’s all because of pro-ams. I play a lot of pro-ams and I love coaching the guys that play in them. It just comes naturally, I suppose. I love looking at them and wondering why some of them are as good as they are and why some of them are underachieving.”
Whenever you learn the feedback on his YouTube channel, followers are clearly appreciative of the time he takes to make the movies and likewise how personable he’s at tournaments as they watch him from outdoors the ropes. Some are fortunate sufficient to play in pro-ams with him. Harrington acknowledges his gregarious persona naturally connects him with unlikely, and generally unsuspecting, college students.
“Basically, every person who comes within eye contact with me, you’re getting a lesson. That’s just the way I am,” the 53-year-old mentioned.
“I’m not going to become a YouTuber”
Harrington embraces the part-time coach position however his focus continues to be on taking part in full-time as he preps for his fourth full season on the PGA Tour Champions. The Irishman and long-time caddie Ronan Flood talked this subject over at size as they seemed round at what all the opposite YouTube golfers like Bryson DeChambeau are doing with their channels.
“It’s funny. We talked about doing teaching videos and (Flood) looked at me and said, ‘You know you’re not going to change.’ And I said, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ and he says, ‘If you want to grow your YouTube channel, you’re going to have to do what Bryson does. You’re actually going to have to go out there on your weeks off and spend time with celebrities, at different golf courses, with like Bryson’s topics like Break 50. That’s a great challenge.‘”
However Harrington is a realist and he understands there isn’t any means he has the vitality and further time that Bryson does to make that prime degree of content material. Harrington says he performs about 30 occasions per 12 months so it doesn’t go away him quite a lot of leeway.
“I’m not sure how many events Bryson is playing, 22 or something. So he’s got eight weeks on me to make that YouTube content. But it’s really good, I’ve got to say. As a player, he’s the first one to really cross that divide. I enjoy his content—put it like that. I watch it.”
Harrington’s need to instruct and provide leisure golfers a few of his sage recommendation is there however he has to handle his obligations.
“I must exit of my means to do this like Bryson does and my caddie informed me, ‘You still think you’re a participant. You continue to like taking part in.’ And that’s what I actually love—taking part in the sport. So I’m not going to surrender that point. I’m not going to turn into a YouTuber. I simply can’t. I cannot spend 30 days of the 12 months doing that.
“I’m happy enough to do my individual lessons and do the things that I have time to post because that’s on my time. I can do those when I want to and I can manage it. I’m in control of it. But to take the next step would be too much. I’d have to retire. And I don’t think I want to retire from playing golf at the moment. I don’t think I’m going to go to the next level like Bryson has done but I’m going to continue on with the stuff I like doing on YouTube.”
A distinct tackle the YouTube golf rat race
Most of Harrington’s movies are between six and 20 minutes in size which is smart for a chatty persona just like the two-time Open Championship winner who appreciates having the ability to say issues with out time parameters.
“I had finished industrial shoots prior to now for corporations and once they say that I have to nail my traces in two minutes it really creates a little bit of stress. Like you must be on level for that precise time. I like having some flexibility.”
And Harrington additionally likes to let his manufacturing workforce hit the report button, execute his first take and transfer on to the subsequent factor. He wouldn’t be bothered to restart from a small mistake.
“All of these videos and tips you watch are first takes. Every video I do. Now, I might restart in the first 30 seconds if I got it wrong but once I’m in the video for two or three minutes I’m not going back to the start. So if I fumble at that stage, I’m just going to carry on like nothing happened. I’m not going to re-edit a video because you try and do that and doing a two-minute video takes an hour. If it ended up becoming like that, I just wouldn’t do these videos.”
Fortunately he employs a multi-camera manufacturing workforce to report the movies with him and provide you with what he calls “glossy” thumbnails to get viewers’ consideration on YouTube.
“I do the content but I don’t know how to do the marketing side of it. YouTube is all about those sound bites and the thumbnails and all that sort of stuff. I wouldn’t know that and I certainly wouldn’t have the inclination. I’ve read a little bit about it but I need a production team behind me when it comes to the actual YouTube stuff and putting it out there and trying to get those clicks.”
So what number of days a 12 months does Harrington find yourself spending on his golf ideas movies?
That’s a loaded query. On the floor, he does two to a few lengthy manufacturing days at a course per 12 months. Harrington, his manufacturing workforce and supervisor Adrian Mitchell search to place out two quick movies per 30 days from these days of multi-camera filming.
“Every day I’m working on the preparation for my tips and thankfully I’ve discovered a great resource: it’s called the PGA Tour Champions. All the players have little nuggets of knowledge so I spend a whole year gathering—I’m basically plagiarizing, if you want to say. I’m looking everywhere to find these tips. So it’s the year of preparation and then I probably do two big days of filming and then a number of little days in terms of the video production.”
Mitchell critiques every quick video from a golfer’s perspective to make sure they’re comprehensible and informative—they usually often are.
Timeless, old-school classes
An amazing instance of Harrington’s brilliance at educating is his easy but informative explanations that attraction to a large viewers. His “How to Control the Clubface at Impact” video from this previous October is a chief instance. It’s 11 minutes lengthy—and he frequently speaks to the digicam and says issues like “we” would wish to do that drill. He then reveals two or three sensible drills for the bogey golfer that give prompt suggestions on clubface management.
“I’m getting feedback and that’s important,” Harrington says as he places water on the face of his driver to see every vary ball’s dimple marks from affect. He additionally attracts a black dot on some golf balls to assemble rapid suggestions of which groves he’s hitting with iron photographs.
With out breaking focus or vitality degree, Harrington then seamlessly transitions to incorporate newbie golfers within the second half of the video by instructing them to not give attention to hitting the ball straight, however relatively on hitting photographs that transfer to the left or proper by overly manipulating the clubface. The thought being that, in an effort to know the place sq. contact is, you’ll be able to determine it out greatest by exaggerating the opposites with both a shut or open clubface at affect.
“Padraig really enjoys coaching and helping golfers improve at all levels—from newcomers to the game to more experienced players,” Mitchell says. “That features through the pro-ams he performs every match week, in addition to via his YouTube channel.”
Harrington’s supervisor stays in contact with the manufacturing firm they use for manufacturing, post-production and social (Viral Nation) all through the enhancing course of, making requests for amendments—after which he offers closing approval when he deems every video is prepared for {the golfing} public.
“I take the attitude when I film these that you take it or leave it,” said Harrington. “If you don’t like what I’m saying or you don’t like my content, there’s plenty of other people to watch. If you do like my content, well, then that’s great. And this content all came from the COVID time when I first started doing these videos.”
As for what’s subsequent in 2025, Harrington is mulling whether or not he desires to return for a time to taking pictures some recommendations on his iPhone after which getting these shorter movies out on his X and Instagram feeds.
“I’d actually prefer to do (video tips) more often with shorter videos. And that’s maybe a model going forward where I just go back to two-minute videos on Twitter and Instagram like I used to do in COVID. That would be a lot easier. I could just film them on my iPhone and here you go, if you like it or if you don’t. The question always with these things is how much do you want to commit, how much production do you want to put into it to get to the next level? Are you prepared to go that extra way? Right now with my golf, I’m not prepared to turn around all that time.”
Harrington says he wish to produce extra movies in 2025 on how gamers can coach themselves.
“In the end, the weekend warrior is really most interested in hitting the golf ball better. So I’m probably thinking my next strategy on YouTube is trying to give lessons that will help people teach themselves. So if you see this, this is what you need to do if your divot looks like this. This is what you’re likely doing and this is what you need to do properly with divots.”
Harrington says he’s obsessed with teaching technique for golfers as nicely however thinks these varieties of movies simply don’t resonate with the YouTube golf viewers.
You’ll be able to’t say the person shouldn’t be obsessed with educating. And he’s an ideal instance of an skilled in his craft who’s in a position to get out of his personal recreation and outcomes to search out pleasure in others’ enchancment—even when he’s not concerned with maximizing views like different YouTube golf celebrities.
High Picture Caption: Padraig Harrington has a small however loyal YouTube following. (GETTY IMAGES/Christian Petersen)
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