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Does Rick Shiels Move The Needle?

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Thrillbilly Jim

Thrillbilly Jim

No Diddy! No Doubt!
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Rick Shiels is the king of YouTube golf. He has produced content for more than a decade. Shiels has over 3 million subscribers over two different channels, with 2000+ videos.

My question is does he move the needle? Does he influence the average golf consumer? Does he influence you? If not, does any YouTube golf influencer have an affect on your purchases? GoodGood? BDS? Barstool?

Case in point, he released a video about the new Wilson Staff Model CB irons. He says he’s gonna put these in his bag. Will this lead to more sales for Wilson? Does it get you interested in that brand? Should Wilson market the fact he is gaming their equipment? Thoughts?

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Yes he does. It’d be ignorant to think he has those numbers for no reason. I don’t watch much of his stuff for club reviews but the views speak for theself.
 
Not for me, I'd arguably say he has got worse in terms of both content and actual playing ability over time, add in to the mix the podcast is variable quality and has atrocious ad insertion I'm really starting to go off him and the brand. But overall people watch and listen to him so quite possibly some new users from it still.

When he first started it was instruction and club / equipment reviews, which people seemed to love. Over time it has turned into a break XX with Guy usually and a guest, where he usually plays terribly and does not break XX. He has some great guests on and the 10 shot challenges have been interesting and entertaining most of the time.

But overall, no, I would no longer really consider anything he is reviewing as something for me to look into buying, but I will temper that with, if I am looking at buying clubs anyway, I'm getting fit, not relying on some youtube video telling me how great they found them regardless of who it is.
 
People bring up Rick and his club reviews to me often. Way more often than I would expect from my friend groups or the community here. He has reach. And surely influences some of all that.
 
He does. Yes.
 
Shiels bores me to death, I find him unwatchable. I don't watch any of the YouTube content creators/"influencers" with any regularity, but I find him one of the hardest to watch.
 
He does have some reach for people... but its also possible to predict how he is going to feel about a product based the first minute or two. A lot of his subscriber list seem to come from an advertising company and dare I say... bots. Reviews I don't care for... I do find his Break 75 series interesting and will watch that .
 
He probably does, with that number of followers I would imagine there should be some level of influence on things.

Do I watch him? No. It has been years to be honest. I just don't find his content entertaining for what I want, and find him terribly boring tbh.
 
None of the ones you mentioned influence what I purchase outside of clothing really. I'm definitely not counting on Barstool or GoodGood for club reviews or ideas of what might go in my bag.
 
OldandStiff said:
None of the ones you mentioned influence what I purchase outside of clothing really. I'm definitely not counting on Barstool or GoodGood for club reviews or ideas of what might go in my bag.
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What about the average golf consumer?
 
He pushed me in the direction of a set of irons years ago. I didn't buy them because of him, but I did test them because he had them ranked the top irons of that year. That was also at a time when most of his videos were testing and not as many clickbait topics.
 
For the average golf person sure. Companies place stock in influencers for a reason.
 
Thrillbilly Jim said:
What about the average golf consumer?
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Some do, absolutely. Like I said strangers ask me if I saw his review on something way more than I personally would expect. And they have the "he says the ___ isn't any better than the ___", " he says ___ are the best ____, and similar statements all ready to go. So what he says is in their heads, influencing.
 
Yes absolutely. Especially across the pond.
 
Thrillbilly Jim said:
What about the average golf consumer?
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And I’m talking specifically for the average Golf consumer not us lunatics who are on a message board posting about Golf stuff 24 seven
 
165K views in 3 days? Yes I would imagine some of those folks are going to take a look at whatever club he is reviewing
 
Not really anymore for me. I used to put more stock in his reviews when it was his focus. I could look at his reviews of clubs I gamed or hit and figure out roughly where it would be for me and if I should look at them. I liked his reviews with Rob Potter more as our skill levels were closer than Rick’s.
 
I do not watch any golf related content on YouTube with the exception of some course flyovers for my upcoming golf trip.

I can say, however, that Rick is the one name I have heard come up the most in conversation with other golfers, including guys in my own group. So yes, he must have some influence in the golf realm, even for the average consumer.
 
He probably does influence purchasing decisions of his followers. I don’t buy clubs based off of what folks on Instagram or YouTube say.

I buy clubs based off of what y’all say on here. So thanks y’all for being a bad influence 🤣
 
I watch quite a lot of Rick's videos and either watch or listen to his podcast. Haven't watched much of his sim studio review content - and I wouldn't say he influences me directly.

I'm more likely to watch for entertainment than reviews per se. His Tommy Fleetwood interview and sessions over the new year were great, I'll watch a bit of break XX and the 10 shot series but I have to say I'm moving more towards Peter Finch generally for what I used to watch Rick for and then Frazer and Mikey at Club Champion on reviews, Average Golfer for cinematic course play and whilst his opinion was great until he started signing up with manufacturers - now I'm less sure on that.

I'll graze on BDS, Fat Perez, very rarely Good Good, Mia B can be good especially some of her BTS at the Aramco series, Golf Mates is good for travel options I'm considering. But I won't watch everything that comes out of those.

I also love a bit of Stacked Golf - it's my guilty pleasure.

Back to the topic - it's clear he is successful, he's working hard and he must meet the needs of a large demographic - but I don't necessarily think the community here is the centre of that demographic.
 
Never heard of him. I can barely keep up with THP, much less anything else.
 
Not my needle but it has to influence some people. If this guy really has 3 million people who watch him it would be weird to think he wouldn’t have some reach.
 
It would be odd to think he doesn't move the needle with all those followers. I enjoy his channel, I have watched a bunch of his reviews.
 
I watch some of his stuff here and there but doesn't really move the needle for me but with that many subscribers he is moving it for some.
 
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