Rick Shiels, the world’s most watched online golf personality, has hailed the inaugural YT Golf Day a resounding success, as he welcomed 44 of golf’s most popular content creators to Formby Hall in Lancashire on May 6 in aid of Prostate Cancer UK.
The first-of-its-kind event, which looks set to raise over £15,000 for Prostate Cancer UK, brought together golf content creators such as Peter Finch, Me & My Golf, Erik Anders Lang and What’s Inside, who have 6.5 million subscribers, alongside celebrity and golfing stars such as Carly Booth, Gary Beadle and Brian McFadden. In total there were over 19 million followers across all of the creator’s channels.
The event was supported by a number of sponsors, including golf marketing agency Performance54, host venue Formby Hall Golf Resort and Spa and Prostate Cancer UK.
Meanwhile a number of golf’s leading brands, including Titleist, TaylorMade, Callaway, TravisMathew, Golfbreaks, Golf Genius and Foresight, partnered with the event, offering a number of prizes and challenges for golfers to take part in on the day.
Lloyds BMW and Swatkins also provided prizes, while The PGA ran the competition aspect expertly and Blue Flag Visual provided drone footage of the day. The golf day was able to run smoothly with the help of 16 golf studies students from Myerscough College in Preston with support from Rick Daniels.
A total of 44 creators from around the world and 34 amateur golfers were drawn into teams, ahead of a 3pm shotgun start, with both individual and team prizes up for grabs on the day. Before the round, golfers enjoyed spending time with Titleist Product Specialists at the Titleist Speed Zone and testing their short game skills at the Odyssey Stroke Lab Charity Challenge, before heading onto the course.
With golf in full flow, players had the opportunity to take part in a number of on-course challenges, including the Titleist Long Drive challenge, Callaway’s Phil Mickelson Flop Shot Challenge, TaylorMade’s ‘Beat the Pro’ challenge, Foresight Straight Drive, Golfbreaks Nearest the Pin and Performance54’s Charity Challenge.
Speaking on the day, Rick Sheils said: “To be able to bring this event to life has been fantastic. Seeing everyone gather at Formby Hall was quite surreal, the support that I’ve had from everyone has been fantastic, and to get so many brands on board supporting such a great cause is brilliant. The generosity they have shown is overwhelming. To be able to raise awareness and money for Prostate Cancer UK has been amazing, the team is so passionate about what they do, it was never in doubt who I wanted to do this for. Hopefully, this is just the first event of many.”
Mike Dawson, with a score of 37 points, claimed a two-stroke victory to secure the title of YT Golfer of the Year and won himself a five-star holiday to La Manga courtesy of Golfbreaks. The Foresight Straightest Drive was won by Carly Booth, Hannah Davies smashed the Titleist Longest Drive, Liam Harrison claimed Golfbreaks Nearest to the Pin, and Simon Smith claimed Titleist Nearest the Pin. Finally, with a winning score of 80 points, claiming the team prize of a Titleist Tour Staff Bag and TaylorMade P790 Driving Iron were John Ogden, Rob Potter, Tobias Lehmann and Matt Brookbanks.