Public Golf Course TOO EASY for a TOUR Pro? 

We’re about to run it back with James! PART 2 Coming Soon - Subscribe!

Things I appreciated about this video: James’s approach to the game (checking the wind, strategy on every shot/putt, “stick to the process don’t jump to conclusions” @12:10) Things I REALLY appreciated about this video: Golfcity showing the content we all want to see, James not once complaining about the conditions or pace of play and being an overall gentleman during the entire round Thing I REALLY did not appreciate: someone found his 8 iron and didn’t turn it in. Cmon fellow golfers, we’re better than that!

James is the best, played a pro-am with him at the Wichita Open. He’s one of the nicest guys around.

what a nice dude. Extremely humble and you can tell he absolutely loves what he does. Watched this entire vid through it was fantastic

James - thank you for taking the time to do this! I love your attitude on the misses, focus on the prep/action vs. result. Now I’m follow and root for you the rest of your career! Cheers!

This was one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf I have watched in a long time.

Did my research on him and it turns out his dad performed surgery on both my right and left knees. And I gotta be honest but I thought I was a good athlete but this guy takes the cake. Definitely going to be rooting for him if I ever see him on TV playing in a tournament. And I've played Spook Rock many times and this is just not fair. Only if we could all hit the ball 340 off the tee. Great job James and good luck on tour!!

This is exactly the content I want to see. I really want to see folks at courses i play.

What always strikes me the most is the Sound of a Good Swing!!! The “click” at contact is so Crisp, Beautiful 😊

Great Vid! No matter what Tee's you play from, it's the mindset and the approach for each green. A lot of Hackers like to play from the Tips and then complain about everything. Yet here James proves it's still challenging from even from the different Tee boxes. I like how he explains what he normally would do and how if he crushes it, it could go in the woods. Even if he is in the woods....he jst plays the shot. One thing I learned.....his "duck Walk" to the hole. It looked goofy, but wow, he was confirming the break on the green. It was a joy to watch how (with his skill level) how he can attack each hole. To control the fade/draw, the power, club selection, jst all aspects. It makes it fun for hackers like us and how we can work on different aspects of our own game. FUN!

Great video fellas! Awesome to hear the thought process from a Pro and what they are thinking for each shot. Things amatures never think about - but should!

This is great content. Getting to see insight like this from a pro golfer is really cool. Love all th explanations and hearing the thought process. Great work boys

Great Video, top shelf walking us through the process of each shot and hole

7:06 the dew line from a previous ball lines up perfectly with your line!! satisfying

Great video and James seems like a great guy. Will definitely be rooting for him going forward. I loved seeing a pro dealing with the conditions I usually deal with and thrilled when I recognized the course as one I've played multiple times in the past!

Great video guys. Nice to see a lovely humble pro playing great around a public course and giving such great insight into his thought pattern with every shot. I've also left a club out on a course, so it happens to us all! Sometimes in a way it may be more difficult around the greens for him than what he's used to, as the quality on a public course isn't going to match what he's used to on a course set up immaculately for a pro tournament Five under shot with ease. I bet we'd all love to do that. Well done and best wishes for the future.

Fantastic vid!! Love your channel and just your overall attitude toward golf. One of the best on YT. 👏

Great to see a video with a tour pro playing a “normal” common man course!! the muni’s and standard public courses generally have more playing surface challenges than the perfect tournament condition courses, it adds an element of uncertainty, for sure.

James is a pretty chill guy. Always fun to watch...

Great video. First time watcher. One subtle video editing thing I reeaallyy loved was on hole 7 at around 13:00 of this video you guys continued the audio of golf cart conversation while overlaying James finishing the hole. Thought that was a clever way to capture the importance of the conversation but also continuing on with the content. Liked and subscribed. Looking forward to more of your content in my feed.

Craziest part is it looked like he played super sloppy and still shot 5 under!! The rest of us hacks play like that and we are 19 over, easy. It's just not fair how good these guys are.

Thank you guys and good luck in your career James. A pleasure to watch!

I love hearing the strategy behind his shots. It also shows how consistent professional courses are compared to many of the public golf course I play in my videos.

Loved this video. Would love to see more videos like this

Interesting round to see at my second home course where we all shoot in the 80’s. He didn’t drive it particularly well, but his length off the white tees meant he’s pitching to every green. It’s a bit like us playing off the reds. Would have liked to see him play from the tips, which are still 500 yards shorter than a Tour course. If he had striped his drives he might have shot 62 or 63, since he parred all four par 5’s

It's nuts that James is practicing for Q-School and is this good. Like, mind boggling just how good pro golfers are. His second shot on hole 1 I would've hit four trees and ended up closer to the tee box than the green.

Excellent video! Good luck to this dude on tour!

Really enjoyed hearing the thought process going into each shot

Most pros I've seen are very humble. I think the game does that. What a game. What a pro.

Awesome video!! I guessed that he would shoot -5!! Though he easily could have gone lower. I bet if he didn't have his driver, he would go lower playing from the white tees. I mean, it was pretty evident playing aggressive off the tee didn't;t help much. Where as, he could have easily placed him self on every par 4 with an 80-120 yards in approach. Where hole outs from that distance aren't far from at his level. Anyhow it was great to hear his thought process for every shot. Thanks for posting

Great golfer, even better character. I hadn't personally heard of James before watching this but he has all my support!

Did he get his 8 iron back?

This is great for the insights alone from James.

Cool video, no point of bunkers they are not in play. Love to see some more of these at other Municipal courses.

im new to golf and i loved this video. thanks

Man, what a great video!!!!! James was fantastic. On another day he is -9/-10 easily. Superb to watch.

Awesome vid. A real insight to a pros mind. I kept thinking that this guy is a tool the way he takes about his approach, but then I remember he is a professional. Impressive.

so watching in 2024... very likeable fellow, career earnings at $111,000 yet goes out and shoots -5 making it look easy at that. Goes to show everyone how good tour players are. Great video.

James Nicholas is the man. Really rock with this dude

Love this!!! My home course! I would not move back to the blues until I shot par from the whites! I was wondering when this was coming out! Great video! That drive on 18!!! Holy Cow!

LOL Makes first birdie at hole 3 - "Finally"!

What a video! He smashed it. Have you seen the yoing saudi pro Amah Dragmah? His swing is so similar!

Getting that bogey first hole really gave me hope.

Awesome content and concept, wish I could see a pro cane my local courses.

You guys are so lucky to know someone like him.

"I'm not thinking of anything", proceeds to tell what he's thinking about. 😂

This was really nice to watch

Excellent golf! I am pumped up right now! Yelling at the phone screen and punching holes in my drywall. LETS GO!!!!!

I planned on skipping around, but I watched every second. I learned so much from the commentary

I loved the concept here. It was fun to watch James shoot -5. He putted well and hit some gorgeous drives. I thought he had good course management as well. I look forward to Part 2.

spook rock is my home track too. cool to see him tear it up

Brilliant video 👍

It’s nice to see a pro roughing it like the rest of up on bumpy greens = reality, and add a 15 minute wait time on the tee box. Good luck on the 2024 season!

Congrats on 100 thousand subscribers!

Amazing player, love the journey!

Cool to see Spook Rock on RU-vid! I shot my lifetime PB there many years ago.

6:48 cleaning club with gloves is funny😂😂😂

total confidence, but humble confidence. "i'm gonna do this, but if not, we'll deal with it". proceeds to do what he's trying to do, most of the time.

He sounds like Michael Cera to me. Great casual 5 under though... I mean... He left at least 5 or so out there and didn't really look like he was even remotely worried at any point. This just goes to show that on a super average or maybe even below average day, the level that you have to be on to compete against world-class opposition. I will probably never have a 5 under round. So cool to watch; also great to hear him explain his thought process and evaluation of trouble situations on every shot. Great content.

The fact that he hit his first drive into the woods made me feel better for 57 seconds. Then it was on the middle of the green in 2 and if I was lucky enough to be on that fairway after my first drive, I would almost definitely not been on the green in 2. :D Loved hearing his process on each shot.

Another great video guys! I saw you at Cabot Farms.......

Wish there were more videos of this style with pros walking you through verbally what they are thinking during the entire round…shot by shot. Learn a lot of how they think and their course management

Could have easily been 8 under. The info you get from walking with pros while they play is almost overwhelming. They are surgeons. When in trouble, they see and can hit though "windows" us amaetures don't see let alone can hit. I keep saying I appreciate you guys and the work you do. It was GREAT to watch James Nicholas play. I will check out the podcast and will cheer him on too. Have to, he's a Golficity homie, one of us.

What this video showcased is how difficult golf is to your recreational golfers. So many variables come into play. Course familiarity is a big one. The maintenance of the course itself (greens, fairways, rough, fringe, bunkers etc when compared to tour level courses). Makes me feel much better knowing breaking 95 is a big achievement.

Your boy working the camera is an absolute savage. Getting a shot of the 8 iron in the grass and not saying a word for the content. W

Cart path only... cut to the drone shot on #7 with the group ahead driving through the fairway lol

Great Job editing that was enjoyable 18 to watcg

Most people have no idea. Anytime a. Pro level golfer plays my local club, they go so low, even from the tips on a tough course. I’ve seen a guy shoot -9 and it should’ve been -11. He shot it pretty easily. They really take advantage of par 5s so it’s like they’re playing par 67s or 68s on most courses. He was getting home in 2 with irons for the most part and hitting them inside 10 to 20 ft and make a ton of putts. An elite player like Spieth or scheffler shoots low 60s every round at the local club that he’s familiar with.

Would love to do something like this with you guys !

Oh man on a day with a bit better luck, he'd killlll that course! Would love to see him play this again with a bit more course knowledge

This just proves that crappy public courses can actually be more difficult than say a country club. Nothing is manicured well, crab grass, dirt lies, greens are crappy, a million trees overhanging and blocking greens. Hard to play good golf when everything is different every hole

My primary courses are a couple of very nice munis with greens the speed of this course. I was stoked that the women's tour would be playing there & wondered if I could compete with them if I could have played with them by at least making the cut at 4 under. Meg Mallon went & shot a 10 under 60 with rough so bad there are times when you knew exactly where the ball would be & you couldn't find it. Brutal. Also played with a visiting retired senior tour player & his buddies got him a crappy set of graphite irons but a decent driver. He didn't birdie any par 5's plus left a bunch out there & shot a 6 under 64. Followed Annika for 3 rounds on the other muni course for an LPGA event & she missed a ton of 6 to 12 footers & she shot 24 under. Ridiculous different world.

great video!

What a class act he is!

I wish James all the best in his quest to play the PGA Tour. He's an all-around athlete. He was recruited to play football at Yale. He was also the 6th highest career scoring in HS hockey in New York state history. He eventually stopped playing football to only play on Yale's golf team where he was all Ivy League multiple times.

Getting a 5 hole 1 with a lost club.... this made me feel a lot better becasue i do this exact same thing!.... rip to my gap wedge

Spook!!!! This is my home course, I learned how to play here. Took lessons with Chris Cohen who is one of the head guys at Spook Rock. Keep up the great content !

Had my best and worst round on the same day. When I was playing as a professional we were in Florida on a 7200 yard track. I had 9 birdies, 2 eagles and finished with a 73. Two weeks later in Vegas I started a round five over after five holes and finished with a 67. Remember, it's not how you start, it's how you finish. I've had dozens of rounds like this and there's a lesson from them, "Never give up on yourself"!

I’ve always found Spook Rock challenging. It’s on the upper edge of my comfortable distance and there’s tons of trees. I love this video so much because he’s like yawning while he dominates the course.

Those greens and what your use to playing on are totally opposite. I played professional in the 90s and I can tell you your games just gets much better on tour level golf courses. I played alot of public golf courses and I found it my game was not at the level of play of playing on tour . Greens were slower and did not break correctly. Fairways were fluffy or not cut tight. Hard to spin the ball. This video is really good for people to see that way they can understand that sometimes or alot times your putts a missing are not always your fault.

So you can’t have slope/wind on during tournaments that allow distance measuring devices, but you can use a compass?

wouldd love to see red shot tracers (or any color) on those bright skies

Sit...sit....sit-sit-sit-sit-sit-sit-sit-sit-sit-sit

Love how he talks about the bumps in the greens im so used to them i dont notice anymore but imagine if i got to play perfect greens how many more putts id make

Love Spook Rock golf course, 1st hole James proceeds to take a line I wouldn't dare dream of. Just once, I want to know what that feels like

A friend plays on the Asian Tour, and has had starts on the DP and US Tours. When we played at my club we squeezed 14 holes in. He was 11 under. This course was only 6,400 yards and he tore it apart.

There are definitely disadvantages on the Munis, and closer tees are not necessarily a help. I don't hit it far at all, but all of my best rounds are from the back tees, mainly because there's less trouble off the tee. I'm sure a pro would destroy them if they get used to them, but coming straight from their world into ours is no picnic.

These tour pros are so good because even with a bad/slow start they know a good stretch is coming. They stay focused and even on a not so great day shoot mid 60's Pretty amazing.

Great video great player

-5 on public course with white tees is probably like +8 or+9 handicap...pretty awesome

Great content! I woulda given him a practice round before the round that counts (filming both rounds!) good and the bad shots lol

Awesome dude.

I am a scratch golfer myself. Enjoyed watching him play. Would like to have seen a tougher course. A lot of open areas under the trees which gave him good shots. Like to see pros show how scrambling makes the game and not always the big bombs. Great video.

Hole 1 2nd shot, what club was that? Amazing shot btw.

I remember watching pros complain about conditions being unfair because the course is not perfect. Sand bunkers, greens, fairways, tight fairways......even calling a greeb a postage stamp when we have seen smaller greens than that near water. Always said....we play on "harder" courses than they do because of conditions.

He a great golfer but I saw a set of tees behind he could play made it longer

The thing about a lot of public course is the condition of the fairways and greens. I have played courses that being in the fairway ends up being on hard bare ground

Gotta say…as a 7 handicap this video definitely changes my personal expectations if a tour pro is only shooting -5 at a muni course while playing from the whites….guess I should be happy with my 85

I’m not going to name names, but I’ve played a few rounds with a PGA tour pro who is a friend of a friend. Private club up in northern IN just playing a chill round and the man shot a 61. They’re just built different. 😂

I’m now a fan of this young dude!!!!!