As YouTube golfers have grown in both stature and skill over the past several years, fans have become increasingly fascinated with how the platform’s best Joes stack up to golf’s elite pros. Chief among those crossover candidates is Good Good Golf star Brad Dalke, who, it was announced on Wednesday, will make his official PGA Tour debut at the Good Good Championship this fall.
Dalke is already more decorated than 95 percent of golfers on earth. He won the 2015 Junior PGA Championship and was runner-up at the 2016 U.S. Amateur, which led to him playing in the Masters and U.S. Open in 2017. That same year he helped Oklahoma win the NCAA team title. More recently, he took home the $1 million grand prize at last year’s Internet Invitational. Needless to say, Dalke has dipped his toe into some of the most exclusive pools in golf, but with the announcement that he will tee it up alongside 119 PGA Tour pros this November, he’s now ready to take the full plunge.
Before the news broke this week, we caught up with Dalke, who was in middle of filming Golf Channel’s ‘Big Break’ revival, to discuss what his first full PGA Tour start means to him.
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Golf Digest: First of all, congratulations, Brad. You’re going to play on the PGA Tour. What would your younger self be thinking right now?
Brad Dalke: I think my younger self would honestly be just super happy for how I’m living now, and for what this has all turned into. I think as a kid, I always thought I’d be playing on the PGA Tour a lot more than I have since I graduated college. But honestly, I’m just so happy in life. There was a time where I really wasn’t happy in life and or with golf, so I’m just super thankful to have this opportunity. And I just think my younger self would be very happy with where I am right now and my mindset on everything.
GD: You’ve played in plenty of pressure-packed situations throughout your career, but do you feel this will be the biggest test of your nerves yet?
BD: I’ve gotten to play in a lot of very cool events—at the Masters as an amateur, making the National Championship-winning putt. Last year at the Internet Invitational was unbelievable. So, I have gotten used to these high-pressure situations. I leaned on that a lot, especially the Internet Invitational, but I think this will be nerve-wracking.
I haven’t played a true competitive event in almost three years at this point. I think there will be a lot of nerves, but I think it’s one of those things where once you get through the first couple of holes, you kind of get back into it. I think most importantly, I just want to have fun and, luckily, I have a very good backup plan if things don’t go well. I think that will take a lot of pressure off and will just give me a lot of freedom throughout the whole process.
GD: Do you feel any added pressure to perform as “the face of YouTube golf” to a PGA Tour audience that may be unfamiliar with the platform?
BD: I definitely wouldn’t say I’m the face of YouTube golf, but there are a lot of people that want to see me perform in tournament golf and see how I do. But honestly, I think that’s unnecessary pressure, and I’m going to do my best to not worry about that. We love the YouTube audience. I’m so grateful for them, but there are a lot of people that you just can’t please no matter what you do. I think a lot of people out there will just be happy to see me competing and really rooting for me to do well, and I think playing for them is a huge thing. I hope they’re just going to be happy that I’m putting myself out there and getting myself into a PGA Tour tournament.
GD: How does your game feel right now? Do you have any summer plans to start getting into tournament shape?
BD: My game right now does not feel quite ready yet. So far this year, it’s been a little more up and down than last year. Some weeks I’m playing really well. Some weeks I’m a little off, but we’re really close. I know what I’m working on is the right stuff, and I’m not very far off. Any given day I can go shoot a really good number. It’s just a matter of making it a little bit more consistent, like last year. But we’re getting there, and I’m going to play some mini-tour events and stuff like that throughout the summer to lead up to all this. That way I can feel like I’m ready and in a competitive mindset because playing tournament golf is much different than playing golf on YouTube or for fun.
GD: Any thoughts on who will caddie for you?
BD: Right now my plan is for my caddie to be Blake Mullen, who’s also a part of Good Good. He caddied for me in the Creator Classic that I won last year at East Lake. That was the first time he caddied for me, and he’s the perfect personality for me. He’s super chill, super fun to be around. I don’t like a caddie that over-steps or that I almost feel pressure from when I’m playing in front of them. And Blake is just super chill. I know he’s going to act the same whether I’m making four birdies in a row or four bogeys in a row and that’s what I want in a caddie. He’s just a great dude. I’m excited to have him on the bag.
Tracy Wilcox
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GD: If you could be paired with one current tour pro, who would it be?
BD: I think Scottie (Scheffler) would be a crazy, cool one. Me and Scottie go pretty far back playing junior golf tournaments since we were like 6 or 7 years old. We’ll see if we can get him into this tournament and get him playing down there in Austin. It’s close to University of Texas, so hopefully he might want to go down there for a little tournament in November. But I think whoever it is, I think it’s just going to be fun. Whatever my group is, we’re going to have some big crowds, and it’s going to be a blast, but if it was one guy—obviously, we don’t know if he’s going to play or not—I’d say it’d be Scottie.
GD: Do you have an overall goal at the Good Good Championship? What would allow you to walk away feeling satisfied?
BD: Honestly, I think my overall goal at Barton Creek and for the Good Good Championship is just to have fun with it. It sounds so cliché and it sounds almost like parental advice, but that’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this whole YouTube process. I genuinely play better golf when I’m having fun. It makes the game great when I’m having fun, regardless of how I play.
I think for a long time, I put so much pressure on myself, and I really hated golf for a few years. YouTube’s really helped bring the joy back into golf for me. Regardless of whether I play good or bad, there will be a lot of golfers out there wishing they could have this opportunity that I’m getting, so I’m just trying to have a good time with it. If I go play great, that’s freaking awesome. If I play bad, it’s golf. It’s literally one of the hardest sports in the world, so all I can do is just go out there, have fun and do my absolute best and see where that puts me.
The PGA Tour’s inaugural Good Good Championship will be held Nov. 12-15, 2026, at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
