If you’re a fan of online golf influencers, chances are you’ve heard of Chaz Bowker, also known as “Chazzy Golf.”
Bowker, who is 4-foot4 and plays regularly in adaptive golf tournaments, participated in last year’s viral Internet Invitational — a made-for-YouTube tournament that pitted 48 golf personalities against each other for a million dollar prize, and where every moment was filmed and later released in six parts that spanned 16 hours and spawned millions of views — and gained a legion of new fans with his clutch play.
On this week’s episode of Subpar, Bowker told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz the story of how he went from working as a chef in a high-end restaurant to becoming an internet golf star.
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Bowker said his golf life began when he was a child, hitting shots with a sawed-off club. When he was in middle school, Bowker realized his size didn’t hinder his game, and he could compete with — and beat — “normal-size” players. Bowker made his varsity golf team as a freshman, and then went to a culinary arts school in Italy after graduating from high school.
After his time in Italy, Bowker worked as a chef for 12 years, playing golf all the while. But it wasn’t until he connected with trick-shot artist and YouTube personality Josh Kelley that his career path really took a turn.
“[Kelley] went on my Instagram Live and said come out and play Atlantic City Country Club,” Bowker explained. “Went out and played, and it was just like a hit. Like we’ve known each other for three, four years and it’s been history since.”
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At the time of his first round with Kelley, Bowker said he had about only 4,000 followers on Instagram, but he quickly realized that life as an online personality could be possible and decided to give it a go.
“I was already playing the adaptive tour, and I went up to my chef,” Bowker said. “I said, Chef, I don’t think I can cook anymore. He goes, why? I go, I’m gonna go play golf. He goes, I’ve been waiting for you to say that because I, I believe in you. And he just said, if you ever need another job, whatever, golf doesn’t work out, come right back and put your apron on.”
Based on his success since then, it doesn’t appear that Bowker will be returning to restaurant work anytime soon. He now has more than 168,000 followers on Instagram and 30,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel.
To hear more from Bowker, including the details of his Internet Invitational experience, check out the full episode of Subpar below.