Back in October 2020, the inaugural 2020protour Grand Final was staged at Huddersfield Golf Club, England. To procure a taste of the ‘Tour Experience’ (for the second but hopefully not the last time) I played in the event organised by the 2020protour on Grand Final day for amateurs only with a handicap of 6 and above.
When I say played what I actually mean is that I made up the numbers in a really enjoyable fourball… thankfully the other 3 players, none of whom I knew beforehand, all played really well which more than compensated for my struggles on Holes 1 to 18!!
One of the players in the fourball was Paul Hemlin from Fulford Golf Club, York, England. Even before we had hit our tee shots on the challenging and picturesque Par 4 opening hole, I discovered that he was about to launch a new weekly golf magazine on YouTube to showcase an eclectic mix of interviews, product reviews, news, challenges, etc.
4 months and 17 episodes (and counting) later the Golf Show is most definitely ‘up and running’.
I recently met up again with Paul (albeit virtually due to the ongoing Covid-19 Lockdown #3 in the UK), to have an in-depth chat about his own golfing journey (the outward 9), the Golf Show (the inward 9) and finished at the Nineteenth with Fantasy Fourball…and as you will read Paul also shares some ‘amusing and entertaining’ golf stories…and a very painful/expensive match play story which is most definitely not for the squeamish!!
Hope you enjoy
First Tee
(Golfing Herald): I teed off by asking Paul how, where and when he first got into golf?
(Paul): I started by playing crazy golf and ‘pitch and putt’. I was born in 1973 so growing up I can remember some great memories of watching those fantastic Ryder Cups of the mid-1980s…The Belfry, Sam Torrance’s winning putt, Eamon Darcy’s 1 iron, etc. And listening to Peter Alliss on the BBC covering the Open Championships. My Dad would watch any sport on the TV and although he did not play golf we would stay up late on a Sunday to watch the final round of the Masters. I can still remember the excitement when Sandy Lyle won…it was brilliant.
Wooden Shafted
(Golfing Herald): Totally agree…I think the excitement and drama of Ryder Cups and the Sunday at the Masters resonates with all golfers, and we all have our own personal favourite magic moments. I am (slightly!!) older than you and mine is the Open at Turnberry in 1977 and the ‘Duel in The Sun’ between Watson and Nicklaus…just incredible golf and sportsmanship. So from playing crazy golf and ‘pitch and putt’ and watching golf on the TV, can you remember your first ever club or clubs?
(Paul): I got a second hand 5 iron from a car boot sale!! It had a wooden shaft so I covered it in electrical tape so it didn’t look really naff. I was born in Yorkshire but I lived in Blackpool from about 14 years of age until I went to University as my Dad had a business over in Blackpool. I used to go down to the local football pitch near where we lived in Blackpool and try to hit a golf ball from the penalty area of one side of the pitch and score a goal on the other side of the pitch!! It was good…me and a few mates just hitting shots on the football field. We weren’t members anywhere and at the time none of us had any aspirations to have proper golf clubs. Occasionally I got golf magazine to try and read some of the tips. A driving range opened up near us so we started going down there which was great. One of my mates got a job there collecting balls so we used to try to go to the range when he was working and ‘batter him with balls!!’. But eventually, I started building up a half set with more clubs…though (the make and model) of every club in the bag was different!!
Every Shot Counts
(Golfing Herald): So with your ‘bespoke’ half set, did you then try to go and play on a proper golf course?
(Paul): Yeah…there were a couple of 9 hole courses nearby, one of which was Poulton-Le-Fylde which was quite nice though it used to get a bit wet. It was famous for having a Par 5 that was over 600 yards!! I remember they changed the structure of the course and what was originally the 1st hole was a narrow Par 4 with loads of internal out of bounds all over the place and after about 180 yards there was a stream running through the fairway. Every Monday at school we would all be asking “did anyone knock it over the stream yet?” We played one week and my ball was going out of bounds but it hit a bridge, came back into play and bounced over the stream!! Everyone was going “that doesn’t count” but I said, “it b*$$£y does!!”.
(Golfing Herald): And I am sure the local rules didn’t explicitly state ‘that doesn’t count’.
(Paul): Absolutely!!
Golf All Day
(Golfing Herald): You have now hit a tee shot over the stream at Fylde, albeit challenged by your friends at school…so was the next step on your golfing journey to become a junior member at a local golf club?
(Paul): What I first did was join the municipal course at Stanley Park in Blackpool…sadly, I believe it is going to close down in a couple of years. A great course and it is actually a MacKenzie designed course as well which is incredible for a municipal golf course. It is right next to the Zoo in Blackpool so you would be teeing off and there would be an Elephant going crazy and would always be the loudest animal!! You got a license from the council to play and then junior membership of the club was only about £40. My Dad used to work shifts then so when he was on a 06:00 shift he would drop us off first thing in the morning. We would then play 18 holes, putt for an hour or two, hot chocolate and a bacon sandwich for lunch and then go back out again and play in the afternoon.
Nick Faldo Jumper
(Golfing Herald): Other than golf, were you into any other sports?
(Paul): I have always been into my sports…I was captain of the Football Team, captain of the Cricket Team and I was really into cycling in my late teens. I used to do time trials and road racing and within 20 miles of Blackpool, you have some fantastic cycling country out there such as Pendle Hill and the Trough of Bowland. But golf is always something that I have stuck with, which is interesting as when I was 16 I was playing in a match-play competition one day and I was well in control of the match. I think we were on the 12th hole and my opponent duffed his chip. He then threw his sand wedge out of frustration…not deliberately at me but it came straight at me. I just happened to turn around at the last second and this wedge hit me ‘shaft on’ straight into my face. Took one tooth out, root and all…sheared another two teeth off and another has had to come out since for more dental work. The guy was absolutely mortified…the shaft of the sand wedge actually snapped in two!!
(By this stage of Paul recalling this ‘horrific incident’, my facial expressions were seriously contorted…I then composed myself to ask a rather obvious question)
(Golfing Herald): Blood everywhere?
(Paul): Oh yeah…I had just bought one of those crazy Nick Faldo logo jumpers and there was blood everywhere…my first reaction was I can only afford one golf jumper and I am bleeding all over it!! As I said I was only 16, about to take my GCSEs and I must have had about 20 operations on my mouth. I had crowns put in but they didn’t work so I had a bridge put in…then about 3 years ago, having had the bridge for more than 20 odd years, which was putting a strain on the teeth around it, I had to have implants which cost a small fortune!! All that through some idiot losing his temper.
Hooked
(Golfing Herald): Sort of lost for words. As you rightly say, there is no room in this great game of golf for idiots such as that. OK, quickly changing tack, did you secure work after leaving school or did you navigate down the Tertiary education path?
(Paul): I went to University for 4 years at Nottingham and did a degree in Quantity Surveying. Didn’t play golf at Uni as I had a Saturday job and I also think I even sold my golf clubs!! After graduating I got a job with Railtrack (which became Network Rail) in York. Met my wife there…she was an accountant there. After about a year some of the guys at work were getting into golf and one of the guys got the chance to play on a Golf Day at The Belfry on the Brabazon course and asked: “did I want in?” And I was like WOW!! Didn’t have a lot of money at the time so I borrowed a pair of shoes and I went to American Golf in Leeds as they used to sell sets of second-hand clubs and off we went down to The Belfry. Had a grand time down at the Brabazon and reliving all of those Ryder Cup memories and just got hooked and got back into golf again.
Waiting List
(Golfing Herald): How did you progress with your golf after that great experience at The Belfry?
(Paul): In the early 1990s a lot of golf sprung up around York, courses such as Forest Park. But I played one round at Fulford Golf Club and the quality just ‘oozed out’. I didn’t know a single member there, nobody to propose me or second me, and you had to have an interview to go on the waiting list for membership.
(Golfing Herald): An interview to be placed on a waiting list?
(Paul): Yeah…that is how it was back in 1996/97. An interview with the full Board and not just the membership committee. There was about ten of us downstairs and then you got called up one at a time to be interviewed. Fulford was still pretty formal back then but one of the things I love about the club today is that it is so friendly. Anyhow, I got onto the waiting list and after 3 years I became a member of the club.
(Golfing Herald): What was your handicap when you finally became a member at Fulford?
(Paul): I didn’t have a handicap but I was probably playing to about 18…in the end, it took me about 3 years to get a handicap purely because I wasn’t playing enough as we had just had our first child and I had just set up my first business. In the first year, I think I only played about 3 times but then started to play a bit more but not on a regular basis…I would have 3 or 4 really good holes and then 3 or 4 disasters!! But gradually I started to play more and also (with my wife) started to attend some of the social events such as the Summer Ball. I remember when I was on the Board (of Fulford Golf Club) and revitalising some of the marketing literature for the membership and coming up with the strapline ‘Fulford is more than just a golf course’.
On The Board
(Golfing Herald): You just mentioned being on the Board…when and how did that transpire?
(Paul): I joined the Board in 2016 to very much help the Club with areas such as Social Media, Marketing and Legal Agreements…just attempting to help the members of the Board with my (many years of ) commercial experience in the private sector.
(Golfing Herald): It’s really good when you reach a stage and position in life where you want to ‘give back’ and start/continue to ‘give back’.
(Paul): That’s right…though I was only 43 when I got on the Board, which was pretty young. I had a 2-year term on the Board. Our year starts in April so I think it was New Year’s Eve in 2016 when one of our past captains came up to me and said: “Paul, have you ever thought about being captain?”. I don’t know who had the most to drink…him or me at that point, and I said something like “That sounds good!!”. Had a chat with my wife Rachel and I think she saw my eyes and just said: “Go on”. So I said I would do it and after a vote, I was invited to be the vice-captain in 2017 and captain in 2018. So I am working full time…I am on a project where I am in Paris every other week and then I start thinking how the hell am I going to do this…but will just worry about that when it happens!!
Captains Log
(Golfing Herald): That’s just detail!!
(Paul): Yeah, exactly…I was very lucky during my vice-captain year as Glyn (the captain), who was retired, had been on the Golf Club Board for years as Honorary Treasurer and knew the club inside and out. Fulford is a really good club in that the past captains ‘look out for you’…and we also have a ‘Captains Log’ which is a guide covering the (inter-club) matches we have every year, and these are the things you do, etc. For example, I didn’t know that captains and vice-captains represent the club at funerals for those members that have sadly passed away during your term of office.
A Year in the Life
(Golfing Herald): As captain of Fulford Golf Club, what else did your year entail?
(Paul): I had a super busy year. Just fantastic. The previous year (when I was vice-captain), Fulford was awarded the R&A Girls U16 Amateur Championship. The R&A were amazing to work with…they sent about a dozen people down to Fulford for a week, there were about 80 volunteers from the club all provided with iPads to go out on the course to do the live scoring just like a Professional event…that was really good. So I was captain when the event was played for the second time. I took a week off work to host the event on behalf of the club and the lady captain presented the prizes. A couple of months later Fulford hosted the Carris Trophy (the English Boy’s Under 18 Amateur Stroke Play Championship). My son, who would have been about 10 then, was walking around the course with one of the scoreboards for the leading players in the final round!!
(Paul): So I spent a lot of time on and around the course that week. During my year as captain, I was also very keen to get younger people down to the club…so we did things such as a family BBQ. Also, during the 36 hole Club Championship, we had a hog roast and cider festival out on the patio, with a live guitarist playing just next to the 18th green!! So as the players were walking up the 18th fairway they would turn the (dog-leg) corner and see about 100 people watching them…and putting them under a bit of pressure!! We had people aged 4 to 94 at that social event…was really good. We also had a marquee for the New Year’s Eve Ball and a marquee for the Summer Ball.
Dreamflight
(Golfing Herald): I honestly don’t think I would have the energy to organise and participate in even half of the events in the way in which you did Paul!! Any more?
(Paul): Yes!! I was very lucky in that back in 2013 a vote went through at the club for the equalities act. So unlike a lot of golf clubs, where the male captain is the lead figure, at Fulford ‘the lead’ is shared between the captain and the lady captain. I was really lucky in that Gillie Allison was the lady captain…she had also been captain about 10 years before. Gillie has such a young and positive mindset and I remember her saying something to me like “If you do something I don’t like I will let you know” and I think she only ‘raised her eyebrows’ once!! Gillie and I picked Dreamflight as our captain’s charity.
(Golfing Herald): Why Dreamflight?
(Paul): I had heard about Dreamflight at an Ian Poulter charity day down at Woburn Golf Club. Dreamflight is a brilliant charity based in the UK and every year they send 300 children who are very poorly or are disabled on a fantastic holiday to Orlando…and it costs about £3000 to take a child to Orlando. And we thought that £3000 was a tangible target. Aidan Healey, who is now a Pro at Garforth Golf Club, was a Dreamflight child…in 2009 he was very poorly and went over to Orlando. I kept in touch with him through the Ian Poulter charity days and he came over to Fulford 2 or 3 times and it really brought the charity to life when he stood up and talked about it. The charity really caught on with the members…for example, a few of us raised funds by playing 4 rounds in one day. There were guys who were members of the club who I hadn’t met until 05:00 on the day who said they just had to do it having read all about Dreamflight…and we raised £8200 on the day. My wife and children dressed up a Golf Buggy in the Dreamflight livery which was the support vehicle for the 16 golfers taking part…they came round with sausage rolls, blister plasters and some refreshing cold beverages after the clock had struck 12:00!! I really suffered from tennis elbow throughout 2018 so after playing 72 holes on one day I could hardly lift my arms for 4 weeks!! But it was more than worth it.
(Golfing Herald): Can you remember how much you, Gillie and the Fulford members raised in total for Dreamflight?
(Paul): Over the course of the year we raised £17,500 which was enough to send 5 kids. Amazing. We kept in touch with Dreamflight who were brilliant…Patricia Pearce, the founder of Dreamflight, came up to Fulford and had a game of golf with me, Gillie and Aidan and afterwards we presented her with one of those ‘comedy cheques’ for the amount we had raised.
Captains Dinner
(Golfing Herald): Traditionally, the captain finishes their tenure with a dinner followed by an after-dinner guest speaker…did you follow that tradition?
(Paul): Yes…my final event was the captain’s dinner. Black Tie, a five-course meal, a glass of port toasting the Queen…and basically don’t make any plans for the following morning!! And for my guest speaker, I got Terry Mundy, who is Ian Poulter’s caddy. Terry hadn’t done many after-dinner events so I had to coax him with a ‘big envelope!!’. But he came up to Fulford and he was fantastic and told some great stories. He spoke for about an hour and then he was going to do a twenty-minute Q&A…which went on for about an hour and a half!! He also brought a signed flag from the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris and that was auctioned off for £1500 for Dreamflight. We had a brilliant night…I just wanted it to go on. And at the end of my time as captain, my wife gave me a beautiful photo album which had photos capturing all of the events and highlights throughout my year…just a brilliant way to finish. And to be honest, unless I lived until I was about 90 and appeared on the 50-year board I thought it would be the only time my name would go up on the wall in the clubhouse!!
Honours Board
(Golfing Herald): Funny you should say that but it was either a tweet you posted or a snippet on one of your Golf Show episodes where you said you had managed to win not only your first but also a second major competition at Fulford in 2020!!
(Paul): Yeah…I think it was on the recent snowbound episode!! It was a very condensed season because of Covid-19 but we managed to complete all of our competitions. One was a Pairs event where I had a good front nine and my partner had a good back nine and we won on a countback. The other was a singles competition where I was playing great until the Par 3 14th. Hit a 6 iron and thought I had knocked it out of bounds. Hit a provisional…out of bounds so my head starts to go!! Hit another provisional…could be out of bounds. So I am now thinking I am out of the competition. Anyhow, took another provisional so effectively playing 7 off the tee on a Par 3..and that ball finished at the back of the green!! But then, as we were approaching the green we found my first ball…it must have hit a tree and landed about a yard from the out of bounds!! I then managed to find the green with my second shot and ended up with the best 4 I have ever made in my life. We were then on the Par 5 18th and I know I am having a good round. Middle of the fairway with my tee shot…couldn’t have been better. Hit a 3 wood, attempting to reach the green in 2 shots and hit a massive slice, thinking that could be on the 1st tee!! Found my ball in the trees and I ended up literally playing a shot almost backwards through my legs, finished 10 foot from the hole and then holed the putt for a birdie…to win by 1. The golfing gods were shining on me that day!!
St Andrews
(Golfing Herald): As per the old maxim ‘it’s better to be lucky than good’.
(Paul): Absolutely…and to just finish off my golfing journey so far, back in 2019 I also joined St Andrews. There are five golf clubs at St Andrews and what you do is join the club and then what you get is a licence to play on the Links. It is £150 a year to be a member with a waiting list and then you either pay for your golf or get an annual licence. I have been a member for 2 years now and I think I have another 3 years to go on the waiting list…and then for about £600 per year, I can play on all of the courses. The St Andrews Golf Club has competitions pretty much every day…it’s just a really friendly atmosphere and St Andrews is a lovely place.
Tenth Tee
(Golfing Herald): What a great way to finish the outward nine at the home of golf…so let me start the inward nine by asking where and when did you have the idea for a weekly magazine-style show on YouTube?
(Paul): The first episode of the Golf Show went out in October 2020 so I would say for at least a year I had been trying to find (to quench my thirst) some golfing stuff to watch on the TV. Obviously, you have got tournaments on the TV from Thursdays through to Sundays but I wanted to watch other stuff. There used to be a programme called Golfing World which I really liked and it was on for a few years and it was like a magazine with 4 or 5 different topics…such as a round-up of the week, course reviews, maybe walk a course with a Pro and player interviews. I really enjoyed watching the programme but I think Golfing World is now just available on a pay-to-view golf channel. Then over the past couple of years, Podcasts and Vlogcasts have got better. I was watching one in particular last year (2020) and it was an interview with some of the ladies playing in the Rose Series. One of the events was staged at the JCB course which looks out of this world….looks stunning. Then this guy was interviewing one of the female professionals who was going to be playing in the Series and he said something like “I believe one of the events is being played at the JCB club…I have never heard of it”. I just thought ‘I can’t believe you have just said that’…not done any research. Turned it off and thought ‘I can do better than that’. I am nearly 48 and I have been writing contracts for 25 years, been around the world through work but…I have had enough. If I never saw another contract again I would be quite happy. I wanted to do something different that I was passionate about.
Relatable Content
(Golfing Herald): That resonates so much with me as I got stale and sort of burnt out after over 30 years working in the Information Technology sector and so back in 2018 I decided to do something completely different…thus Golfing Herald!!
(Paul): Likewise, I thought what could I do in golf. I am not a Pro and my handicap is now 8.8 on the new World Handicap System. I even applied for a few golf jobs but didn’t get any replies. So I did a bit of research on YouTube to understand how it worked and I thought this is possibly doable…and I wanted to do something that was relatable for the majority of (club) golfers and something that was delivered in bite-size chunks…a couple of minutes on this, a couple of minutes on that and say five minutes on the main feature.
(Golfing Herald): Picking up on that, what that your USP from the outset to have a show comprised of as you say ‘bite-size chunks’?
(Paul): Possibly two USP’s I think. Certainly that but also the fact that I am not a Pro, so the content has to be relatable. I am knowledgeable about golf and I am getting more and more involved with golf…just being captain of Fulford and attending various meetings, the engagement I mentioned earlier with the R&A, the European Tour, Welcome to Yorkshire and those type of things. I have been involved with Chris Hanson and the 2020protour and Chris is such a nice guy, so generous with his time and he has been brilliant in supporting me on a few of the episodes for the Golf Show. I am getting more into it and I can see me putting some fingers into some other golf pies in the future. But my goal is when I am 50, which will be in February 2023, is to give up doing Contract Management and just work on the Golf Show and other golf-related stuff. And if I was doing the Golf Show full time I might do 2 episodes a week. There are people such as James Robinson, who I think is very good, putting out an episode every day.
Golf Net
(Golfing Herald): But as you know, it is imperative to try and achieve an optimum balance between quality and quantity.
(Paul): Exactly…and some episodes will be a ‘long burner’. I recently did a review on golf gloves where I got 4 different gloves and wore them each for 4 rounds. So that took about 4 to 5 weeks to film from the intro to the summary. I am doing one at the moment with swing speed sticks, with the interchangeable weights…using them 3 times a week over a period of 6 weeks where at the end of the 6 weeks I should get my swing speed up. I am 4 weeks into filming. It’s funny in that I thought I needed to do an interim update to see how it is going. So I bought a practice net for £20 off eBay. The instructions came and I built it in our back garden at the weekend…the instructions had been through a Google Translator from Chinese to English and there was not an adjective to be seen!! I filmed myself putting the net up which I will put into a future episode (speeded up into about 10 seconds of action!!). I then hit a 7 iron into it gently to see what it was like…and the lady who lives next door was watching so I was under a bit of pressure!! And it made the loudest noise you have ever heard. I then hit a full 7 iron and it was really noisy. So I got some cushions from our summer garden furniture and put them behind the net to try and dampen down the noise. So I pegged the driver up and start to think if this ball comes back it is going to kill me, or lose an eye, or break a window… I just couldn’t commit to hitting it fully…so I still don’t know if my swing speed has improved or not. Then the following day there was a foot of snow on top of the net and it collapsed!! Thinking about it, I might end up doing a review of golf nets!!
What’s In A Name?
(Golfing Herald): How did you come up with the name of the Golf Show?
(Paul): I quite like the ‘it does what it says on the tin’ mentality. My contract management consultancy was called Contract Management Direct Ltd so I thought if I called the company ‘Paul Hemlin Ltd’ nobody would know what that is. We generally got work because people googled Contract Management…so I thought if people are searching for Golf Show(s) then the Golf Show would be found. The only trouble with the Golf Show is that it is very generic as there are other offerings out there such as the Australian Golf Show, Dave’s Golf Show and the Californian Golf Show but as more episodes are put out on YouTube then we are getting more views. I just wanted the title to be really simple and to reflect that we are covering a variety of topics. Getting the name right is important as are the thumbnails we do for each episode on YouTube. I am very much learning as I go along whilst ensuring there is a consistent theme. I tend to have a backdrop with me looking at something (golf related) and then a bit of a story so if somebody sees it on YouTube they may think ‘I have seen that guy before’. I remember reading an article about Sebastian Faulks when he wrote the novel ‘Devil May Care’ in the style of Ian Fleming…it took him 6 weeks to write the book and 6 months to design the cover!! So getting those thumbnails right for each episode is important.
(Golfing Herald): Even more so in today’s world of social media and instant gratification where you may only have a few seconds to grab a potential viewers attention.
(Paul): Absolutely…and it has got to appeal to a lot of people as well. With YouTube as a creator, you get the YouTube Studio with all of the analytics so you can see where the Golf Show is being watched, what keywords people have used to find you, which bits they have watched, the device (tablet, laptop, mobile phone…) used to watch the Golf Show, etc. Lots of very interesting data. So now I have more episodes out there I can drill into the data more. I looked the other week and we were getting 9% of our views from South Korea and 10% from Japan…which is amazing.
Analytics
(Golfing Herald): Really funny you should say that as I was looking at the Google Analytics for Golfing Herald the other day, and in just over 2 years I have had ‘hits’ from 98 countries, including a solitary ‘hit’ from Greenland!! Turns out there are 2 golf courses in Greenland, one of which is a 9 hole course in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland…so it is sort of surreal and amazing in equal measures the potential global reach in today’s world.
(Paul): Totally agree…and that is one of the things I like about YouTube in that it is a bit like buying a lottery ticket. When you buy a ticket I think you are buying a dream…you are probably not going to win but if I did that Ferrari could be on the drive next week!! When an episode goes out on YouTube, usually 18:30 (UK Time) every Thursday, I will have a look about half an hour afterwards and you can literally see the number of views just going up in front of your eyes…that is just mega and really exciting.
(Golfing Herald): And I assume the number of people subscribing to the Golf Show on YouTube continues to grow as each weekly episode is released?
(Paul): Yes…I currently have 370 subscribers and I have worked out if I could add 2 new subscribers a day for the rest of the year I will reach 1000 subscribers by New Year’s Day. 1000 is important because that unlocks monetisation on YouTube which gives you a bit of an air of credibility. That could then enable me to ask other people for interviews or may be asked to cover an event or something like that…at some point, you might get to 10000 and then 30000 subscribers before you know it, very much self-perpetuating.
Eden
(Golfing Herald): Spot on…set targets, be patient but be as prepared as you can be for that potential explosion in views and subscribers. Moving onto the actual episodes and without recourse to a spoiler alert, for me, the Golf Show got off to a great start with the ‘unfortunate incident’ which you aired in the first episode.
(Paul): I swear on my life it was not stage-managed!! It was the Eden course at St Andrews where my son Zach and I were playing for the first time and we absolutely loved it…the first few holes are just amazing. Nobody in front of us, nobody behind us, a beautiful Sunday morning.
(Paul): We reached the Par 3 10th and there are 2 guys on the green so they have obviously started on the 10th. But it is amazingly relaxed up there at the Eden so we just opened a bottle of pop and had a bar of chocolate until they walked off the green. Zach was playing off the ladies tees as he was only 12 and I was playing off the men’s tees…pulled out my 7 iron and hit a lovely shot. I had put the camera in front of me so I think part of my concentration was on the camera as one bad shot would mean ‘no camera’…but what I didn’t know is that the 2 guys who had walked off the green were actually playing 2 balls!! I had been concentrating and focusing so much on the shot and the positioning of the camera that when I looked up after hitting the shot they were back on the green…they were either side of the flag and my ball ended about 10 feet from the flag right between them!! Thankfully you don’t hear the language after that clip stops!!
(Golfing Herald): Just as well being a family show.
(Paul): And then to cap it all the putt lipped out for a birdie…but none of it was stage-managed.
(Golfing Herald): As you say you just could not make that up…but then you turned that missed birdie opportunity into a seamless link for a review of putters with Daniel Hood at Doncaster Golf Club.
(Paul): Yeah…it is amazing how it can all sort of weave in between episodes.
Format
(Golfing Herald): Also, with your ‘bite-sized chunks’ approach, there will hopefully be something of interest in every episode for every viewer.
(Paul): The model I want to go for is a weekly episode where you have got five different topics, up to 15 or 20 minutes for each episode. And maybe once a month a special which could be could golf shoes, or the Garmin G80 or go to Royal Lytham & St Annes and review the course. Another idea I would like to possibly develop is playing the signature hole at a course with the club professional. There is no one doing that type of variety out there. And as you will have seen I don’t mind making a fool of myself. In a future episode, I am reviewing the new Adidas Trousers which are a very modern cut in that they finish above the ankle. I think if you are in your early 20s and slim with a suntan they will look great but for me who is nearly 48 in wintry York…not such a good look!!
(Golfing Herald): But as you said earlier Paul, the Golf Show does exactly what it says on the tin…a variety of content, a mix of serious and humorous, all of which is relatable. One question I wanted to ask you is what is the name of the music that accompanies the intro for each episode?
(Paul): I wanted the intros to be short, punchy and recognisable but I didn’t have anything in mind. My son Zach has done loads of filming and he is really into YouTube and I suppose from him I am discovering all of these creative talents I didn’t realise I had!! We were up at St Andrews, and I was stood on the Swilken Bridge, and I asked Zach to zoom in on me, then I will say “Hi, I’m Paul” then zoom out, get St Andrews behind me and then I will say “and this is the Golf Show”. It was brilliant…and we did it in one take.
(Paul): So we started doing intros like that each week. Then the music for the intro came from the Editor who has a licence to use/create music (for commercial use) so it’s not a particular song. But funnily enough, we had the TV on in the background the other day and I could hear the Golf Show music, so I thought someone was watching one of the episodes…but it turned out to be the music on an advert for Co-op Insurance or Co-op Funeral Services!! So they must have been using the same editing software.
(Golfing Herald): That’s brilliant…though you certainly don’t want people to associate the Golf Show with Funeral Services?
(Paul): Exactly, so we might need to go for something more like ‘Eye of the Tiger’ in future episodes.
Behind The Scenes
(Golfing Herald): Following on from that, there is obviously a lot of work that goes on with the ‘behind the scenes’ operation for the Golf Show…Filming, Recording, Editing, Planning, etc.
(Paul): Never done any filming before but I did some research and bought a decent Sony Camera and a couple of microphones. Initially, I tried to edit the show myself but that was really difficult, so I now engage the services of a professional editor…Michael Law from North Core Creative is a young guy who has started his own business and he has been great to work with. I am very computer savvy and if I can’t fix something I will Google it and work out how to fix a particular problem. But with software such as Adobe Premiere Pro and the editing packages…jeez, there is like a million buttons on the screen. For example, rather than a button just saying volume it has something that you would never guess has anything to do with volume!! And recording outside is challenging because of the noise of the wind. Bearing in mind I am working full time and really busy I do plan my episodes, I don’t just turn the camera and microphone on and just start filming!! I do the filming myself with the various cameras and I set them up at different angles and then the editor will cut between the main film (primary footage) and what is called the B-roll (secondary footage). I am learning all these words and phrases so when I now read some of my text messages I sound so LA with all these filming and editing terms!! So the editor glues all that together which is really important. For example, you might see me take a backswing from behind and the downswing being covered form the front and it looks more professional.
Enjoying the Journey
(Golfing Herald): It certainly does…and as the presenter, in front of the camera, your passion and enthusiasm for the game of golf are there for all to see.
(Paul): I am just really enjoying the journey with the Golf Show. If I wake up in the morning and I have gained 3 subscribers overnight it is a brilliant start to the day but if I lose one subscriber it is like ‘where have they gone…why have they unsubscribed?’.
(Golfing Herald): Identical for me with Golfing Herald in that there is no absolutely no point doing something totally different unless you really enjoy the journey…and of course at times the journey will have its ‘ups and downs’.
(Paul): I think we had released 10 episodes before we got the first thumbs down on YouTube. I am quite a sensitive kind of guy so if somebody says something and I don’t like it I will think about it for a while. But when this happened I just laughed and said to Zach “Was that you?”…and so far we have only had 2 thumbs down. If I get more thumbs down than thumbs up then I am doing something wrong but so far so good. But I am really enjoying the journey and I have got loads of ideas for the Golf Show when we eventually come out of (Covid-19) lockdown. What has been interesting as well is that I am well known at Fulford Golf Club from my time as captain and I am down there a lot and I am one of those guys who will say hello to someone even if I don’t know their name…and I really expected that I would get a lot of ‘ribbing’ from the members or a ‘bit of friendly grief and heckling’ when I am teeing off for what I am doing with the Golf Show. But they have all been incredibly supportive and I did hear that the first episode was screened on the Big Screen in the clubhouse…so I am just really loving it. Guy Wills (Head Pro at Fulford), Daniel Hood (Head Pro at Doncaster Golf Club), Aidan Healey (Assistant Pro at Garforth Golf Club) and Chris Hanson have all been amazing and so generous with their time.
Specials
(Golfing Herald): Talking of Aidan, one of your earlier episodes included ‘Challenge the Pro’ which had a variety of challenges between yourself and Aidan.
(Paul): When we did that we had 5 different (shooting) locations around Garforth and I had 3 cameras to set up…Aidan is a good mate so he was very patient!! I had to alternate between presenter mode and hitting golf shots and try not to look like an idiot. So after about 2 hours of filming and playing, I was ‘brain dead’. But I think if I do other specials like that, I will need a cameraman as it is too much to do. I have this idea for another special by maybe playing at Royal Liverpool Golf Club (Hoylake) which is rated as 155 on the new World Handicap System…the highest possible rating. I would love to go over there with Chris Hanson as that is where he played in the Open Championship, me as a 9 handicapper, my friend Bob who plays off 20 and maybe Guy as the Head Pro and see how 4 golfers at all different levels get on at England’s toughest course. That could potentially be very interesting for viewers but I would definitely need a cameraman for that type of ’30 minute special’. I am still working out what might work and to try and achieve the right quality blend throughout each of the episodes.
(Golfing Herald): One last question about a specific episode where you talked about nutrition…was it your good lady wife who cheekily removed that lovely full English Breakfast from you before you had the opportunity to ‘tuck-in’?
(Paul): Very funny!! Rachel had the Salmon and Scrambled Eggs, and I had the cooked breakfast and it was my son Zach who did it…but I can assure you none of it went to waste!!
Targets
(Golfing Herald): Again, that segment was a neat mix of a bit of fun and serious. A few minutes ago you talked about hoping to play at Hoylake for a possible Golf Show special. In terms of your own golf, have you any targets for the golfing season ahead once golf courses in England are opened post (Covid-19) lockdown?
(Paul): I want to play as much as possible. I want to play without feeling that I have to got to film every 5 minutes though I do have a selfie stick in the bag if an opportunity presents itself!! Before the World Handicap System was introduced I was playing off 10.0 (my lowest handicap so far) and at Fulford, I was starting to shoot 82, 83, 84… that kind of numbers as opposed to the year before when I was scoring in the high 80s, low 90s. So my goal for this year is to shoot more rounds in the high 70s than the 80s or the 90s (which will happen) and if I achieved that I would be absolutely delighted. I do keep a journal with my targets and this year I would like to practise more and strategize more and think about how I get around the course. Fulford is quite long and so you have to use the driver a lot. I want to think about where I am going to hit my next shot from.
The Nineteenth
(Golfing Herald): I can’t believe where the time has gone. So to conclude, and this is something I ask all of my interviewees…in addition to yourself, who would you pick for your Fantasy Fourball?
(Paul): My Fantasy Fourball…I have got two waves of thought about that. One would be my best buddy from school who lives in Vancouver and I see him every couple of years (he was the mate we tried to batter with balls at the driving range in Blackpool that I mentioned earlier!!), probably my son and probably another mate. Whilst that is a Fantasy Fourball it is something that I/we could do. So in terms of a real Fantasy Fourball, I would first pick Ian Poulter who I think is brilliant.
(Golfing Herald): We now have you and Ian Poulter…who else would you pick?
(Paul): I think someone like Seve would be amazing and then somebody like Billy Connolly to complete the Fourball.
(Golfing Herald): Why Billy Connolly?
(Paul): I saw him in concert once and he was very poorly. Everybody knows about his Parkinson’s and he had just been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and he walks out onto the stage and says “You have only come to see me because you think I am going to die soon”. Just a fantastic comedian…you wouldn’t be able to play any shots as you would just be in pain from laughing.
(Golfing Herald): Paul, what a great way to finish our chat. Thanks so much for sharing your golfing journey to date, some amusing and entertaining stories and of course chatting at length about the Golf Show…all the best for the future with the Golf Show and hopefully we can meet up for a game of golf once the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.
To watch the weekly ‘Golf Show’, or catch up with previous episodes, then please visit the Golf Show on YouTube.
Acknowledgements
Finally, a massive thanks to…
- Andy Crook ~ Photographer (to view his portfolio then please visit Andy Crook Photography)
- Jon Dry ~ General Manager, Fulford Golf Club
- St Andrews Links Trust
…who so kindly provided assistance and support for this article.
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