Long before Nick Stubbe became Fat Perez—before 500,000 Instagram followers and appearing in golf videos on YouTube for Bob plays sports which draws more than 75 million viewers a year – he was just like most of you reading this.
Stubbe grew up in the Richmond, Va., area, surrounded by a family of golfers, spending much of his youth at what is now Lakeside Park Club, a private course on the city’s north side. He played two years of college golf for Division III Hampden-Sydney about 70 miles west of his hometown, harboring a dream of playing professionally as long as he could.
“And then I stopped growing in height,” Stubbe told MyGolfSpy during an interview last week. “I didn’t 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 can barely break the starting line here. What am I going to do after this?’”
The answer was to go to the real world. After playing college golf in 2007-2009, Stubbe transferred to the University of Richmond for a few semesters and then finished the tour by graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with an accounting degree he earned “shortly after” starting his career. his in college. .
By the pandemic, Stubbe was in commercial real estate accounting with a typical job.
He was living everyone’s life. But soon he would become everyone’s golf hero.
The origin of Fat Perez
A few years before shooting his first video, Stubbe unexpectedly found a nickname that would change the course of his life.
Having grown his hair out after securing employment after college, Stubbe was playing a game at a local club around Richmond. He was on fire at Hermitage Country Club, building a huge lead over his opponent.
“One of my friends said to me, ‘Man, hitting it like that and having that long hair, you look like Pat Perez here,'” Stubbe recalled.
It was a compliment to be compared to Perez, the veteran PGA Tour player who now competes at LIV.
What followed was NO a compliment.
“The guy I was beating muttered, ‘More like Fat Perez.’ I thought it was very clever, but at the time I hated it. I was like, ‘Oh shit, that was great. I hope no one caught this or we’ll all be letting it go after we leave this tip box.’
“I acted like I didn’t care, but all my friends thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. The next time I played golf, I kept listening to it. They wouldn’t let him go.”
The nickname lived only in local circles for many years – until the name Fat Perez quickly found its way into the mainstream.
A random encounter out of boredom
The beginning was innocuous enough. During COVID-19, no one was entering the office. Stubbe found himself with a lot of free time.
“I wasn’t a tax accountant, so I wasn’t, like, grinding,” Stubbe said. “Once you get your monthly reports out, you’re going to have a week, a week and a half, where you don’t really have a lot of work. You’d never tell your boss that, but everyone somehow knows.”
To pass the time, Stubbe had started following comedian Robby Berger and his YouTube channel Great dumb show. This would eventually inspire a new channel called Bob Does Sports. (The original purpose of the channel, as the name suggests, was for Berger to try his hand at experiencing different sports — but the golf area came into sharper focus after suddenly gaining traction with golf match videos.)
One day in the thick of the pandemic, a bored Stubbe came across a Zoom happy hour on Berger’s Patreon.
“I just went to my office after hours to get out of my house,” Stubbe said. “Maybe I 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 procrastination.”
Out of caution, Stubbe decided not to use his real name. His screen name read “Fat Perez” to all virtual attendees.
“It was like the first moment that went in a direction that could have gone another way,” Stubbe said. “I thought nothing of it, but it all led here.”
Stubbe continued to show up to happy hours, slowly building a rapport with the amiable Berger.
“Everything he does seems to just make you laugh and smile,” Stubbe said of his friendship with Berger. “He never seems to be angry, never in a bad mood, which he honestly is. He is exactly the same guy that viewers know. Like, none of this was an act. He’s actually not a jerk who turns it on for the cameras.”
Through his YouTube escapades and Zoom happy hours, Berger built a small ecosystem of characters including Joe Demare (aka Joey Coldcuts) and Binny Shicker (Binny the Jet). It was almost like a golf sitcom.
Fat Perez fits perfectly into that world.
Bob Does Sports comes to life
Unlike some of the other characters, Stubbe can actually play (he’s a handicap plus). Berger and company discovered this after a chance meeting at Pinehurst where Stubbe, in the area with his wife, connected with the crew that would become Bob Does Sports.
“Everything went from the putting green meeting to drinks after the 18th green to appetizers, ‘Hey, do you want to come to dinner with us?'” Stubbe recalls. “And then it was, ‘Well, you can come play golf with us tomorrow.'”
The Bob Does Sports channel officially launched in September 2021 with an episode of Berger attacking golfers at the Ryder Cup. That December, Berger posted a viral video mocking Demare (a central character of BDS) promising him a tour of Torrey Pines, but instead took him to a bad golf course. Demare falls asleep in the car on the way to the course, waking up to the horror of a destroyed cow pasture. The video, which Stubbe insists was not staged, has more than three million views.
“Everybody’s probably thinking, ‘Oh, what are the chances he’s going to fall asleep in the car?’ No, Joe falls asleep on every car ride over 10 minutes each time. That would happen.”
By that point, BDS had cemented itself as a pure golf channel.
Berger and Stubbe remained close throughout that time, including Stubbe flying to Los Angeles several times to play golf with Berger. This led to Fat Perez’s first official video which comes out in March 2022. FP loses the match on the final hole after facing the two-man team of Berger (Bobby Fairways) and Demare (Joey Coldcuts) – but he debuts at the vaunted Euro step party after a long shot with bird. , quickly admitting that he “may have done a little bit” to his Achilles in the process.
The people loved him.
Soon after, Foreplay-a golf channel from Barstool Sports— invited Berger, Demare and Stubbe to a fight. Frankie Borrelli, a part of Foreplay, had a good relationship with Berger because he was a family friend of one of Berger’s cousins.
This video has almost four million views as of this writing.
“Even then, I wasn’t thinking this was my test,” Stubbe said. “It was just like, ‘This is wild. I saw Foreplay. It’s weird that I’m going to be in one of these videos.”
But after so much success, it became clear to Berger, Demare and their media partners that Stubbe needed to be included in the channel moving forward. The response had been overwhelming.
And with that, a thriving channel was born.
Where Stubbe begins and Perez ends
By July of 2022, Stubbe had quit his job as an accountant to join BDS full time.
It was only a year into his marriage to Anne Cole. She supported the move, but wanted to know it wouldn’t be too financially risky for the newlyweds. It turns out that staying at his job would be a much bigger risk because BDS immediately exploded on one of golf’s biggest YouTube channels. In 2024, only Bryson DeChambeau, Good Good and Rick Shiels had more views in the golf space on YouTube.
The BDS brand is pure chaotic comedy. Hysterical matches occur during the day, and the group inevitably orders Cold Stone for delivery to their Airbnb at night. It is organized anarchy.
While the presence of Berger and Demare is necessary to create that chemistry, Stubbe is the straw that stirs the tequila (and BDS, in fact, has their own canned tequila cocktail).
He can play at a high level, competing in the inaugural Creator Classic at East Lake last August. Most importantly, it checks every entertainment box. His character is relatable – Stubbe looks and acts like any casual golfer you’d find – and his whole not-taking-himself-too-seriously demeanor absolutely sings on camera. He has the “well-rounded” aura of John Daly and the comedic timing of Charles Barkley.
I asked 35-year-old Stubbe what it’s like to “play” Fat Perez, and the answer is that he doesn’t. playing Good luck Perez. He is Fat Perez. There is no manipulation of his personality.
“The good news is it’s just me,” Stubbe said. “I am not an actor. I think it would be a huge burden if I did otherwise and had to continue this. I’m lucky the only thing that’s different is the name.”
Access plus personality
This authenticity comes through in BDS videos where Stubbe can be found smoking a cigar, drinking beers and chopping it up with his hosts while still playing great golf.
He would do it anyway – we’ll just have to watch it all.
As I was writing this, an Instagram story from Fat Perez popped up: a behind-the-scenes clip of a video they shot with Xander Schauffele. This is the kind of access fans want in 2024.
“On the personality side, I think YouTubers have kind of created a bigger sun-to-sunset image of themselves,” Stubbe said. “Instead of seeing (profits) from round one to round four, and then you’re stuck seeing an ad here and there. I think we’ve built a faster, more passionate base because of it.”
The explosion of the channel has put them in the spotlight and this has brought some incredible opportunities. Stubbs has his own clothing line and the BDS team has a brand named Fresh golf with a clothing line and its own lounge at a Five Iron location in New York.
The attitude speaks directly to the viewer, especially fans in the 25-45 demographic who have stopped watching Tour golf consistently. They want their golf on demand, and they want to feel connected to people on screen, whether it’s on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or elsewhere. Golfing ability is not the only thing that is valued.
Recently, the Bob Does Sports team was a guest on Bryson DeChambeau’s Breaking 50 series that has has taken over golf on YouTube the last few months. This video has more than three million views.
“Breaking 50 feels like Saturday Night Live,” Stubbe said. “It’s almost like we had no business being there. It seems like it’s something for real celebrities. He’s built the kind of platform where golf and YouTube golf are part of the global conversation.”
I have news for you, Fat Perez. you ARE a real celebrity.
And where does it all go? Well, let’s count a few drinks and see what happens.
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