If you follow golf personalities on YouTube, chances are you’ve come across Padraig Harrington Paddy’s Golf Tips videos on his YouTube channel.
Contents of the instruction it can often get extremely technical, but Harrington’s “fireside chat” style is disarming and easily digestible. He has built a small but loyal following of 176,000 subscribers after the idea to document his advice on a YouTube channel was born during the pandemic when he posted his first video on September 29, 2020, (shot on iPhone) on the green of his home in Dublin, Ireland.
The three-time major winner says his inspiration for these videos comes from his passion for improving the game.
“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? This is all because of the pro-ams. I play a lot of pro-am and I love coaching the guys who play in them. It just comes naturally, I guess. I like to look at them and wonder why some of them are as good as they are and why some of them didn’t make it.
When you read the comments on his YouTube channel, fans are clearly appreciative of the time he takes to make the videos and also how personable he is on tour while watching him off the ropes. Some are lucky enough to play in the pro-am with him. Harrington admits his gregarious personality naturally connects him with unlikely and sometimes unsuspecting students.
“Basically, every person who makes eye contact with me, you’re getting a lesson. That’s how I am,” said the 53-year-old.
“I’m not going to be a YouTuber”
Harrington embraces the coaching role part-time, but his focus is still on playing full-time as he prepares for his fourth full season on the PGA Champions Tour. Irishman and long-time caddy Ronan Flood spoke at length on the subject while looking around at what all the other YouTubers like Bryson DeChambeau are doing with their channels.
“It’s funny. We talked about doing video tutorials 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 off weeks and hang out with celebrities, on different golf courses, with such Bryson topics like Break 50. This is a great challenge.‘”
But Harrington is a realist, and he realizes there’s no way he’s going to have the extra energy and time that Bryson does to make that high level of content. Harrington says he plays about 30 events a year, so that doesn’t leave him much leeway.
“I’m not sure how many events Bryson is playing, 22 years old or something. So he has eight weeks for me to make that YouTube content. But it’s really good, I must say. As a player, he is the first to overcome this division. I like the content of it – put it that way. I look at it.”
Harrington’s desire to mentor and offer recreational players some of his sage advice is there, but he has to manage his obligations.
“I’d have to go out of my way to do it, like Bryson does, and my caddy said, ‘You still think you’re a player.’ You still love to play.’ And that’s what I really enjoy – playing the game. So I will not give up that time. I’m not going to become a YouTuber. I just can’t. I will not spend 30 days of the year doing this.
“I’m quite happy to do my own tutorials and do the things I have time to post because it’s on my own time. I can do them when I want and I can manage them. I am in control of it. But to take the next step would be too much. I would have to back off. And I don’t think I want to retire from the game of golf just yet. I don’t think I’ll go to the next level like Bryson did, but I’ll continue to do the things I love to do on YouTube.”
A different look at the golf rat race on YouTube
Most of Harrington’s videos are between six and 20 minutes long, which makes sense for a chatty personality like the two-time Open Championship winner, who values the ability to say things without time parameters.
“I’ve done commercial shoots in the past for companies and being told I have to nail my lines in two minutes actually creates a bit of stress. Like you have to be on point for that exact time. I like to have some flexibility.”
And Harrington also likes to let his production team hit the record button, run their first take, and move on to the next thing. He wouldn’t mind starting over from a small mistake.
“All these videos and tips you see are firsts. Every video I make. Now, I can go back to the first 30 seconds if I got it wrong, but once I’m two or three minutes into the video, I won’t go back to the beginning. So if I make a mistake at that stage, I’ll just carry on as if nothing happened. I’m not going to re-edit a video because you try to do that and it takes an hour to make a two-minute video. If it ended up like that, I just wouldn’t be making these videos.”
Thankfully he employs a multi-camera production team to record videos with him and create what he calls “shiny” thumbnails to grab the attention of YouTube viewers.
“I do the content, but I don’t know how to do the marketing side. YouTube is all about those sound bites and thumbnails and all that kind 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 how many days a year does Harrington spend on his golf advice videos?
This is a loaded question. On the surface, he does two to three long days of production in one course per year. Harrington, his production team and manager Adrian Mitchell aim to release two short videos a month from those multi-camera shooting days.
“Every day I’m working on preparing my tips and luckily I’ve discovered a great resource: it’s called PGA Tour Champions. All the players have some knowledge, so I spend a whole year collecting—basically plagiarizing, if you want to say. I am 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 couple of small days in terms of video production.”
Mitchell reviews each short video from a golfer’s perspective to make sure they’re understandable and informative—and they usually are.
Timeless, old-school lessons
A great example of Harrington’s teaching brilliance is his easy yet informative explanations that appeal to a wide audience. His “How to Control the Clubface at Impact” video from last October is a prime example. It’s 11 minutes – and he’s constantly talking to the camera and saying things like “we” would like to try this workout. He then reveals two or three practice drills for the golfer that provide instant feedback on club control.
“I’m getting feedback, and that’s important,” Harrington says as he puts water on his driver’s face to see the dent marks of each ball of the range from the crash. He also draws a black dot on some golf balls to gather instant feedback on which fairways he is hitting with iron shots.
Without breaking focus or energy level, Harrington then seamlessly transitions to include the novice players in the second half of the video by instructing them not to focus on hitting the ball straight, but on hitting shots that move left or right by over manipulated. the face of the club. The idea is that, in order to know where the square contact is, you can best tell by exaggerating the opposites with either a closed or open face at the stroke.
“Padraig really enjoys coaching and helping golfers improve at all levels – from newcomers to the game to more experienced golfers,” says Mitchell. “This includes during the pro-ams he plays every week of the tournament, as well as through his YouTube channel.”
Harrington’s manager stays in touch with the production company they use for production, post-production and social (Viral Nation) throughout the editing process, making requests for amendments – and then he gives final approval when he thinks each video is ready for the public. of golf.
“I take the position when I film these that you take it or leave it,” Harrington said. “If you don’t like what I’m saying or you don’t like my content, there are plenty of other people to look at. If you like my content, well, then that’s great. And all of this content came from the time of COVID when I first started making these videos.”
As for what’s next in 2025, Harrington is wondering if he wants to come back for a while to shoot some tips on his iPhone and then release these shorter videos on his X and Instagram feeds. .
“I’d actually prefer to do (video tips) more often with shorter videos. And that’s probably a pattern going forward where I just go back to the two-minute videos on Twitter and Instagram like I used to do in COVID. That would be much easier. I can just film them on my iPhone and there you go, whether you like it or not. 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 ready to go that extra way? Right now with my golf, I’m not prepared to go back all that time.”
Harrington says he would like to produce more videos in 2025 on how players can train themselves.
“In the end, the weekend warrior is really more interested in hitting the golf ball better. So I’m probably thinking that my future strategy on YouTube is to try to give lessons that will help people teach themselves. So if you see this, this is what you should do if your partition looks like this. That’s what you’re likely to do, and that’s what you need to do properly with divots.”
Harrington says he’s passionate about coaching strategy for golfers, too, but feels these types of videos just don’t resonate with the golfing audience on YouTube.
You can’t say the man isn’t passionate about teaching. And he’s a great example of an expert at his craft who’s able to step outside of his game and results to find joy in making others better—even if he’s not interested in maximizing views like the characters of other golfers on YouTube.
Main photo caption: Padraig Harrington has a small but loyal following on YouTube. (GETTY IMAGES/Christian Petersen)
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