There’s no shortage of salivating golf videos these days. You can find swing tips galore on every platform. Shots of beautiful courses in perfect lighting flood our feeds, and golf is the favorite hobby of pop culture icons around the world (who are happy to share why with us).
Thankfully, many of you chose to watch golf videos from GOLF.com in 2022. Out of hundreds of uploads, these are the top five most-watched videos we published this year. They also happen to be some of our favorite features.
Let’s check them out one more time.
5. How to U.S. Open-ize a golf course: A day with The Country Club’s grounds crew
From a grounds perspective, the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club was one of the USGA’s biggest successes in years. Matthew Fitzpatrick won at six under par, a score that reflected a challenging but fair championship test.
Two weeks before the world’s best competed at Brookline, we visited with The Country Club’s head of grounds, Dave Johnson, and his dedicated team. Getting a course ready for a U.S. Open is not an overnight accomplishment. Johnson explained how years of planning and months of hard work made it all possible.
We learned how each bunker is meticulously prepared, and how the rolling and watering of greens directly impacts what the USGA reads on their Stimpmeter. Every golfer should know the hard work that goes into preparing a great course. We’ve made that process easier to understand in less than seven minutes.
4. Steph Curry, Patrick Mahomes and more celebrities compete in a long-drive competition
More now than ever, the world’s best athletes are getting into golf during their primes. Every summer, NFL and NBA stars compete with actors and entertainers at the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe.
This year, Nick Jonas, Aaron Rodgers, Charles Barkley, Tony Romo, Travis Kelce, Larry Fitzgerald, Pat McAfee and more took on the likes of Steph Curry and Patrick Mahomes at the long-drive competition. For all the personalities on this list, surprisingly, the competition’s winner went quietly about his business.
You can watch the six-minute video below, hosted by GOLF’s Subpar co-host Drew Stoltz. (And watch until the end for the final scoreboard!)
Bonus content! For 20 minutes of great moments and some wild swings, watch the extended cut. And for some one-on-one time in Tahoe with golf-obsessed Buffalo Bills star QB Josh Allen, click here.
3. How to build a golf ball: the story of the Callaway ball plant in Chicopee, Mass.
Did you even think about how much technology, time and effort was packed into the golf ball you just lost in the woods? Maybe you thought about it when sticking a wedge to three feet or outdriving your playing partners.
For the team working the factory floor in Western Massachusetts, every Chrome Soft golf ball matters. We got to see the process from rubber mixing to packaging and met some of the great people who make each ball possible in our tour of the Callaway golf ball plant.
For an in-depth look at the high-tech machines and full assembly line process of making a golf ball, watch by signing up now for InsideGOLF. Dylan Dethier, who grew up near the Chicopee area, takes you through everything we saw at the ball plant in the video below.
2. Every hole at Augusta National, explained by a different Masters champion
Who better to teach the intricacies of playing the most famous golf course in America than the champions who have made their names there?
Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Nick Faldo, Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer and Bubba Watson are among the men who’ve won the Masters more than once. These great players (and some brilliant minds in golf architecture) all walk us through what makes an individual hole at Augusta so special.
We also hear underdog winners relive their famous moments: Larry Mize’s chip-in on 11, Mark O’Meara’s 60-foot birdie on 4, and Zach Johnson’s chip-in on 8 are memories that define what it means to win the green jacket.
Each explanation is narrated by GOLF editor James Colgan. You can learn more about each hole by clicking here or watch the video on all 18 below.
1. Mark Wahlberg vs. Abraham Ancer at Wahlberg’s insane backyard golf facility
Actor, artist, producer and avid golfer Mark Wahlberg graced the cover of GOLF Magazine’s opening issue of 2022. The star certainly isn’t as good at golf as he is as a performer, but he’s got a backyard setup that every golfer dreams about.
Wahlberg dishes on why he doesn’t love golf movies and explains why he plays as a lefty — even though he isn’t one in anything else. He spends time trash talking with Flecha Azul Tequila co-founders Abraham Ancer and Aron Marquez while competing in a closest to the pin challenge. You can read the GOLF Magazine cover story on Wahlberg and Ancer here, written by senior writer Josh Sens, who also peppers the pair with questions as they hit in the video below.
