And just like that, I found myself thinking: I want the lives of those YouTubers.
See, I'm a millennial raised in the infancy of the internet — the iPhone was still a novelty during high school — and there are times I feel the generational chasm spanning myself, Gen Z, and, more extremely, the children of Gen Alpha. Our digital worlds are just different, and naturally so.
Younger folks want to be influencers more than any other career, polling has shown, which is a job that simply did not exist for a good portion of my life. It's an impulse I didn't fully comprehend, really, until I stumbled upon the channel Bob Does Sports. I get it now. Because, as a man in his 30s, I can safely say without a little bit of shame, I want the life those YouTubers have.
If I could succinctly summarize what the channel does, I'd go with something like: It's three dudes (and a few producers) who play golf together, mess around, play golf and mess around, gorge on copious amounts of food, travel across the globe, and did I mention mess around and play golf? To quote the parlance of our times: my dream date, cute.
Along the way, it’s turned into a lucrative career — over 1 million YouTube subscribers, major sponsorships, hangouts with famous athletes, and life as parasocial celebrities to, well, mostly dudes in my demographic.
"We never want to lose that feeling of how crazy it is," Robby Berger, the Bob behind the eponymous Bob Does Sports channel, told Mashable in an interview over Zoom. "Because, 'til this day, it's very, very hard for us to wrap our heads around — seeing [the channel] grow and seeing it get bigger, and going to golf courses and seeing how many fans are coming up [to us]."
Robby — aka Bob, aka Bobby Fairways, aka the D Man or Da — is the bandleader of the main trio, which is rounded out by Joseph Demare — aka Joey Coldcuts, aka Cutsy, aka the D man or Da (don't ask) — and Nick Stubbe, aka Fat Perez, aka FP. But real BDS heads know and love the producers Jet, Big Ticket, and J Bone, too. It's a carnival of characters, and the videos do a good job of highlighting their quirks. Watching the videos feels like being a silent participant in a buddies' trip — there's golf, inside jokes, and general fooling around from guys in their 30s. Typically speaking, each video features the group playing golf with some kind of challenge. That could be a score, a win-or-lose match-up, an amount of food to eat, a number of drinks to drink, or some combination of those goals. The golf matters — you root for these guys — but it's more about the comedy of the group.
And it might feel like a buddies trip because everyone involved is — or was, really — a normal guy. Berger and Demare met years ago working at the Four Season in Beverly Hills. Stubbe was a desk jockey working an accountant gig. Now, even if you're not a golf fan, you might recognize Berger from his funny TikTok account. He's been working toward being a creator for a while, but it was golfing with Coldcuts — and later FP — that really skyrocketed things.
So, where are they now?
A channel with 1.1 million subscribers.
A sponsorship deal with Callaway, one of the biggest names in golf.
Their own alcoholic drink line (Have A Day) and clothing line (Breezy).
Videos with some of the biggest names in sports, including Josh Allen, Jon Rahm, a few Yankees, and more.
Alongside Barstool, leading the upcoming Internet Invitational, a newly created YouTube golf tournament with a $1 million prize pool.
A few years ago, Berger was a part-time comedian who'd show up to sporting events to heckle the pros (playfully). Now, golf magazines write about his every move.
"It feels like these little moments," Perez told Mashable. "It's like a step ladder of things that's just like: That's wild, that's wild, this is crazy, how are we here?"
They all talked about experiencing moments like that, but perhaps none more than their match against popular pro Max Homa. That video has racked up more than 3 million views and was an amazing, funny, and suspenseful golf match. It was also a sign that the golf world saw BDS as legitimate.
A rising tide lifts all boats, and it's not like the BDS crew are the only YouTube golf creators spiking in popularity. Counterparts and frequent collaborators like Grant Horvat and the Bryan Bros, for instance, are super popular. YouTube golf, in general, has become a genre in and of itself — this amid golf's post-2020 rise in popularity online and otherwise — and has led to creators getting invited to participate in both PGA Tour and LIV Golf events.
What separates BDS, however, is that they're genuinely funny while playing the stuffiest sport known to man. Horvat might be YouTube golf's "golden boy" — he seems to draw his biggest crowd from younger golfers — but he simply could not crush an entire large pizza while playing like the BDS guys. Nobody else in golf is quoting deep internet lore. Nobody else in golf is fervently debating the merits of chili in hot weather. And nothing in the world is making me laugh as hard as Cutsy — who famously runs a bit hot — melting down as everyone else watches.
"If Bob had his way, I'd be the sequel of The Truman Show... He would just have eyes on me at all times. I think I would just be living in a simulation or something."
In some ways, that's the magic of the group. Between their videos, social presence, podcast, and more, you start to feel like you know these guys. You're hanging out with them. And all of them are one-of-a-kind, Coldcuts maybe most of all.
"If Bob had his way, I'd be the sequel of The Truman Show," Cutsy told Mashable. "He would just have eyes on me at all times. I think I would just be living in a simulation or something."
So when they're out in public, people playfully give them shit because they feel like old pals. It's a funny phenomenon. People love to rib FP for struggling in their food challenges, despite, you know, the word Fat being in his name.
"At the golf course or airports, [I'll get], 'You've got to step up your game with the donuts,'" FP said while laughing.
Bob, poor Bob, gets a lot of shit or even unsolicited advice about his golf game. FP is a genuinely good golfer, Cutsy can smack the hell out of the ball and is improving, while Bob...Bob sometimes fights demons out there. So, yes, like every golfer knows, other golfers can't help themselves but step in and share their tips.
"My mistake is, I'll listen to everything. I'll take whatever they give me," Berger said.
Still, talking to these guys, you get the feeling that they understand how fortunate they are to do what they do. For dudes our age, one golf buddies' trip a year is an amazing luxury. They do it for a living. It's a career path that didn't exist five years ago, let alone something they could've dreamt up as kids.
"I'm pretty sure my grandparents have no idea what I do," FP said. "We'll have 2-million-viewed videos. And then I make, like, Virginia Golfer Magazine, some free magazine, and they're like, 'Oh, look! You've made it!.' I'm like, 'Grandma, you gotta look over here, like, turn the computer on.'"
To see such a quick rise in popularity — and to see their lives shift entirely — it makes sense that the trio said they expect to keep doing more of the same. They emphasized that as they grow, they know fun golf videos are the bread and butter. But that doesn't mean they don't think about stepping it up. Late nights at Airbnbs often end with producers pitching more and more outlandish ideas.
"Jet wanted to do a food and drinking challenge, combined, for 18 holes," Coldcuts said, noting the idea got vetoed. "It's just like, 'Yo, we're gonna get stretchered out and airlifted to the ER."
There was also a Jet-pitched idea of eating an entire Thanksgiving meal...in a golf cart...in nine holes.
"One Turkey in Nine Holes, like, what's the title?" FP joked. "It feels like the guy just wants to see us suffer sometimes, which, you know, I don't blame him."
So yes, things might get weirder on the channel, but don't expect the formula to change. Berger said doing what they do has opened unimaginable doors. They'll keep at it and see what slides open next.
"Right now, we don't really want to change anything," Berger said. "Because we're having so much fun, and we're able to make a business out of it."
