What Would YouTube Golfers Shoot at The Masters?

Another Masters is in the books, with Rory McIlroy figuratively placing the green jacket upon his own broad shoulders for a second time following his breakthrough win last year. The Irishman managed to get to -12 across the course of the four days, one better than last year, while at the other end of the spectrum, poor old Davis Riley found himself in dead last with a total of +18 over his two rounds following scores of 82 and 80. Davis Riley, of course, is a proper pro golfer with multiple PGA Tour wins under his belt, so if he ends up at +18 after just two rounds, it begs the question; what would some of the biggest YouTube Golfers shoot over the entire tournament?

A note that obviously, everybody with the exception of DeChambeau and arguably a couple of others would be incapable of making the cut, but for the sake of comparison we’re dragging it out across the full four rounds.

Bryson DeChambeau

Despite having previously claimed that he views Augusta as a Par 67 for him, DeChambeau struggled enormously and a triple on 18 ultimately saw him miss the weekend’s action. In another year, or another weekend, DeChambeau would obviously be capable of better, but we’ll keep things simple for his four-round score and just extrapolate him out to a +12. 

DeChambeau’s four-round score: +12

Wesley Bryan

Having played and won on the PGA Tour, Wes Bryan is obviously among the best golfers on YouTube. He has also actually competed in the Masters back in 2018, when he managed +8 and missed the cut. Wes’ major issue is a lack of control off the tee, but if Rory’s game this week is anything to go by that doesn’t need to be a major issue at Augusta. The younger Bryan brother wouldn’t be completely out of place in the Masters field, but would still be among the least qualified players there. Given he was on track for +16 if he played four rounds back in 2018, we’re pencilling him in for a few extra strokes now that he’s not a full-timer on tour.

Wesley Bryan’s four-round score: +22

Brad Dalke

Dalke is the final YouTube Golfer to have appeared in the Masters, having done so one year before Wesley Bryan and finishing one stroke worse than him at +9 – comfortably missing the cut. Dalke, as we saw at the Internet Invitational, is a cold-blooded assassin on the course, but it’s testament to just how good the PGA Tour guys are that he’s still a level below them. Like Wes, Dalke would likely finish right towards the bottom, but could hang around the high-70s mark for the bulk of the tournament.

Brad Dalke’s four-round score: +24

George Bryan

George is the polar opposite to younger brother in many ways, including that he is delightful to watch off the tee and would probably find plenty of beautifully manicured fairways at Augusta. The rest of his game, however, often fails to match that off his brother, particularly the part which exists between the ears. George is a great golfer to watch, but he would absolutely succumb to the pressure of Augusta and put up at least one shocker over four rounds.

George Bryan’s four-round score: +32

Grant Horvat

The Bryan Bros’ Major Cut buddy and co-founder of the recently announced Your Golf Tour, Horvat is another high-level golfer, albeit a tier below the above names. That buttery swing of his has, however, taken his game up a notch recently, and has been playing some very good golf in recent months. Horvat, for all his ability, is not good enough to go with the best in the business, but his recent improvement could see him put together a couple of decent rounds at Augusta. Still, his scores in the Major Cut at difficult courses have often veered into the 80s, and that would likely be the case for at least a couple, if not all of his four Masters’ rounds.

Grant Horvat’s four-round score: +38

Rick Shiels

The most successful YouTube Golfer out there, Rick Shiels is a touch better than a scratch golfer and clearly knows his way around the course. For reference, when he has the pros on his channel he gives them a 10-shot head start and that gap is probably exacerbated at Augusta, so if we take the average total score from this week’s Masters as a little worse than even (it was around even for those who made the cut; obviously worse for those who didn’t) that gives us some idea of what he might shoot over four rounds.

Rick Shiels’ four-round score: +48

Fat Perez

Or Fit Perez, as he is known these days. Perez is a roughly scratch golfer, and he is particularly lethal on and around the greens, which would be a huge advantage at Augusta. Since losing a ton of weight he’s said that he’s added more distance, but he’s still not a big hitter and would be battling off the tips. Green in regs would be hard to come by for FP, and while he’d probably be able to scramble reasonably well, he would still be battling to put up a decent score.

Fat Perez’s four-round score: +58

Frankie Borrelli

Fore Play Golf’s Frankie Borrelli is allegedly a reasonably low handicap despite what his game looks like – Handicap Tracker has him at around about a 5 – but it’s hard to imagine him doing particularly well off the tips at Augusta. If we could get Dave Portnoy following him around reminding him that he’s never made a putt of significance, things could quickly spiral out of control for him. The scores are beginning to get pretty large at this stage of things; Frankie would struggle to break 90 and potentially things could be a fair bit worse than that, so a four-round score would look pretty grim.

Frankie Borrelli’s four-round score: +89

Joey Cold Cuts

Gawd. It’s hard to imagine Cutsy and his snap hooks even getting to the end of the 18th, and it’s equally hard to imagine him dealing well with the pressure that would come from playing in front of millions. The aggressive sideways movement in Joey’s ball flight would make it difficult to stay out of the pine trees, and it’s easy to imagine him having multiple double-figure scores potentially each round. Triple-figure rounds would be very much in play, as would some highly entertaining blow-ups.

Joey Cold Cuts’ four-round score: +125

Bobby Fairways

Bobby and Joey are at a reasonably similar level, though Bobby does seemingly have a slightly worse handicap than his left-handed partner-in-crime. Bob’s not a big hitter, which would hurt, but at his level, scoring would more be a matter of staying out of trouble, and his misses are probably a little less dramatic than those of Joey. Despite the small difference in handicap, I can see Bobby taking it up to Cold Cuts at Augusta.

Bobby Fairways’ four-round score: +134

Trent Ryan

We’re getting right to the arse-end of things as far as YouTube Golfers’ handicaps go now. Trent, a mid-teens handicapper, has been steadily going about trying – and generally failing – to break 85 in the aptly named Break 85 series on. That doesn’t bode particularly well for his chance at the Masters. What does a round of roughly 90 at a standard course translate to off the tips at Augusta? Well into the triple figures one would imagine, leading to a very large four-round score.

Trent Ryan’s four-round score: +171

This is a prime example of why higher handicap golfers say their score as a total number of strokes, rather than relative to par. Admittedly some of these scores look ridiculous, they’re not as bad as they seem – Rick Shiels’ +48 could be a couple of low 80s and a couple of high 80s, while Joey Cold Cuts is just shooting a little over 100 on a very difficult course from tees that he would never touch in real life. But just to emphasise the gap even further, take a look at the below scoreboard, which includes the bottom five players to make the cut from this weekend, and our guys.

I’m not one to subscribe to the almost mythical aura of difficulty which seems to surround Augusta – if you listened to some of the comments throughout the week you’d be forgiven that the 91 chosen ones competing this week are the only people on Planet Earth capable of breaking 150 at the place. But clearly, it’s a very difficult course. Add the length which comes with playing off the tips, and the +18 which had Davis Ryan sitting in dead last doesn’t look quite so bad.