A few of my favourite YouTube golf channels

Providing you with links to the best golf instruction on YouTube is the raison d'être of Finding the Tips.

If you want to improve your short game, there are coaches who publish amazing videos every week

If you need more distance, there are creators who have drills and techniques that will add to your power, often without making major changes to your swing.

There are also times when you just want to find someone who can make you laugh. Let’s face it, golf is a game that can make you want to cry, so anytime a YouTube golf creator can make you smile, chuckle or belly laugh, that’s a good thing!

In this issue of Finding the Tips, I’m sharing links to the YouTube channels that I think are the best in each category. Some of you may have already visited these channels, because the newsletter has already shared a video or two from them. But they each have more content that you can access when you want a refresher.

Bookmark the links to these channels, or better yet, subscribe to them. That way you’ll be able to see new content as they publish it.

In this issue

• Short game channels

• Hit if farther channel

• Golf with laughter channels

Short game channels

If your handicap is not scratch or better — and maybe even if it is — the fastest way to lower your scores is to improve your short game.

PGA Tour players hit about 12.5 greens in regulation in every 18-hole round. On those greens hit, they average 1.75 putts per hole. That means that they birdie two or three of the holes that they reach in regulation during each round.

Mere mortals like us will hit somewhere between two and six greens in regulation. Most of us will not birdie more than one in a round.

That means we need to get up and down for par or bogey as often as possible.

Here are two YouTube channels that can help you do that.

Dan Grieve Golf

Dan Grieve has coached major tour pros to three DP World Tour Order of Merit titles, a tour championship and a major championship.

Dan spends most of his time helping amateur golfers improve their game, via his short game school at his home at Woburn Golf Club in England, as well as private one-to-one lessons, and a variety of online options.

Dan has built a large social media presence with more than half a million followers across all his channels. His videos, in 2023 alone, garnered over 50 million views from golfers all around the globe. He helps them improve their scores, lower their handicaps and enjoy golf even more.

Short Game Chef

Parker McLachlin is a PGA Tour Winner who morphed from a player into one of professional golf’s leading short game coaches. He has recipes for essential short game strategies and techniques that will have you hitting the short game shots that the pros on TV hit.

In addition to his channel, The Golfer’s Journal channel has a playlist of lessons and insights from one of the world's best short game minds.

Hit it farther channel

When we watch the best golfers on TV, we can become blasé about the way they carry their drives 300+ yards time after time.

Most mere mortals cannot come anywhere near those numbers. Oh sure, we’ve all met guys who swear they hit it 300 yards.

The reality is that most of those claims don’t get backed up.

For us, just adding a few yards and improving our accuracy off the tee is a huge win. Here’s a channel where I think you can get both.

Steve Pratt Golf

Steve Pratt, based in Texas, is on a mission to help golfers hit it longer and farther down the fairway.

Steve is a disciple of the late Mike Austin, an enigmatic figure in the world of golf who is generally heralded as the game’s original bomber. In fact, at the 1974 National Seniors Open Championship at the Desert Rose Golf Club in Las Vegas, Austin hit his drive 65 yards beyond the green on a 450-yard hole. That 515-yard shot is one of the most legendary drives in the history of the game.

No promise of 500-yard drives, but Steve has a simple philosophy that can help you hit it farther and straighter.

Golf with laughter channels

I, for one, need to learn to laugh more on the golf course.

When I am calm and happy, I’m far more likely to play well.

Here are a couple channels where you’ll enjoy the content and perhaps get a few tidbits of instruction with a side of laughs.

Alex Etches Golf

Alex Etches refers to himself as Big Al and he is a combination stand-up comic and golf professional.

I certainly haven’t found any other YouTube golf creator who has as much fun as Alex Etches.

And one other thing – the guy knows his stuff.

The Smoking Golfer

This guy introduces most of his videos while standing barefoot in water over his ankles. Let’s just let The Smoking Golfer describe himself and his channel:

“I consider myself (to be) YouTube’s un-instructor. My goal is to clear out the complicated mind fog that the golf instruction industry puts us in. Rid your mind of all the useless clutter that they want to add to a simple little task. Come and share my unique knowledge and insight into the golf swing and all physical endeavors that we all do or have done.”

Enjoy!

A final word

French writer, historian and philosopher Voltaire once said: “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.”

This translates as “Perfection is the enemy of good.” In many activities, and especially in a sport as challenging and nuanced as golf, setting perfection as a goal can only lead to frustration and burnout.

Let’s all let go of the quest for flawlessness in life and in golf. Instead, relish the joy that comes from playing the game with passion and perseverance.

Also, don’t forget to share this newsletter with other golfers who might enjoy the tips that are found here.