Brad Dalke, a longtime YouTube golf content creator, received a sponsor invitation to this past week’s BMW International Open at Golfclub Munchen Eichenried in Munich, Germany.
He made the most of it.
The 28-year-old, who recently parted ways with the Good Good Golf creator group, moved into contention at the DP World Tour event with a six-under 66 on Friday, putting him two shots off the lead. He faded slightly over the weekend thanks to a five-over 75 on Saturday and 73 on Sunday, but still finished in a tie for 30th.
Not too shabby for a former golfing prodigy who had been spending more time making videos than playing competitively up until now.
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“It’s also been cool to see how I stack up against these guys this week, I hadn’t really gotten the chance to test that out in a long time, and I always tell people, when I’m playing my best golf, I think I can compete with anybody,” Dalke said on Sunday. “I just have to get a lot better on the days I’m playing kind of average and not so great, that’s where these guys beat me. I putted well, just didn’t have my best ball striking.
“So, I need to get better, but I know that without having my best stuff this week I still made the cut, still had a decent finish, which is cool to see and gives me a lot of confidence moving forward.”
As for whether or not he’ll get more chances like this, the 2015 Junior PGA Champion who helped Oklahoma win a college golf national title says that he’s hopeful, but it’s out of his hands at the moment.
“I would love it,” Dalke said after the final round. “I mean, it’s not my call, but if there are any sponsors out there who want to give me a chance, I would love to. It was such a fun week. “I’ve played so much competitive golf in my life, but it’s been a while since I was in this kind of arena. Once I got into it, though, I felt right back at home, and it’s fun.
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“It’s a constant grind out there, a constant battle trying to bring that swing from the range under pressure, it’s frustrating sometimes but very rewarding when you do well with it. I mean, what a week, and I’d love to play more.”
Dalke added that his YouTube work helped him rekindle his passion for golf.
“Before I got into YouTube, I was not having very much fun with golf, not loving golf very much. Was going through a lot of struggles. YouTube helped me learn to have fun with golf again,” he told reporters. “I’m at the point now where I’m doing well enough on YouTube; I don’t need to go grind through PGA Tour Americas. Korn Ferry, like, that’s not what I want to do because there is not a whole lot of money in that, and it’s very stressful and a lot of travel, and so it’s a point of I’m in a good spot with YouTube. I’m not going to grind my way up.
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“But if I were to come to an event like this and play well and somehow kind of build off that or playing in the Rocket Classic in a month, if I do well there and kind of build off that, if I got a tour card, that’d be awesome. That’d be sick. I would play 100 percent. That’s been my dream since I was little is to play competitive golf. And my game’s finally in a spot now where I feel like I can do that and do it well. So it’s a yes; I would play if I got a tour card. I would 100 percent do that.”
Dalke has two more upcoming opportunities to show off his skills. He’s slated to play on sponsor invites at two PGA Tour events, the Rocket Classic (July 30 – August 2) and the Good Good Championship (November 9 – 15).
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