Brad Dalke probably won’t want to watch the video from that round, unless he’s in the doomscrolling mood.
Dalke, the popular YouTuber who was given a sponsor’s exemption into the Rocket Classic and is making his first PGA Tour tournament since turning pro in 2019, had a disastrous opening around at Detroit Golf Club.
Dalke shot an 11-over 81, beating just one player — Alejandro Tosti, who shot 82. Barring a round of historic proportions on Friday, Dalke will miss the cut. But he wasn’t throwing in the towel Thursday.
“That round was nightmare fuel my goodness,” Dalke wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday night. “Goes without saying I played very very poorly… but everything that could’ve gone wrong seemed to go wrong.
“Nothing I can do now except go play some more golf tomorrow.”
Dalke, 28, made seven bogeys, a double-bogey and a triple-bogey in the first round of the Rocket Classic, with just one birdie, on a day when the leader, Peter Malnati, opened with a 9-under 61. That’s a 20-stroke gap.
Dalke’s round unraveled quickly. Starting on the back nine, he bogeyed two of the first three holes, and then it got worse at the par-5 14th.
He hooked his tee shot way left, a lost ball. He hit three from the tee, and the second drive went well right, into the fescue grass. All he could do was hack it 60 yards back into the fairway. From there, 232 yards out, he hit his shot left of the green, into more fescue. He hacked it out from there and onto the green, some 44 feet from the hole. From there, he two-putted for a triple-bogey eight.
Three holes later, he made double-bogey at the long, par-4 17th hole. He was 6 over on the three holes that saw the biggest changes in the Detroit Golf Club renovation, 14, 17 and the par-4 seventh (bogey).
Dalke’s sponsor’s exemption has been a hot topic in golf circles — he also got one into the new Good Good Championship in Texas in November. His peers in the YouTube golf space voiced their support for Dalke on Thursday.
“Regardless of what @DalkeKong3 shoots he’s still an insanely good golfer,” the Bryan Brothers, Wesley and George, wrote on X on Thursday. “One bad round doesn’t define someone and won’t change our minds on how good he is!”
Dalke responded: “Thank you fellas. Tough day out there and it’s a lonely feeling playing golf like that. Appreciate you guys. Time for a strong finish tomorrow.”
Dalke, who has more than 400,000 subscribers on YouTube, is a former star at the University of Oklahoma and he finished runner-up at the 2016 U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township. He made his professional debut on the DP World Tour earlier this month, tying for 30th in a tournament in Germany.
Dalke was one of two YouTubers extended sponsor’s exemption by tournament director Mark Hollis, who was trying to bring some buzz (and more funs) back to the Rocket. The other one, Australia’s Ryan Ruffels, part of Jason Day’s “The Lads” YouTube team, opened with a par-72.
The University of Alabama’s William Jennings, given a sponsor’s exemption for winning the Folds of Honor Collegiate last fall at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, opened with a 3-under 67. And Detroiter Joe Hooks, given the fourth sponsor’s exemption after winning the John Shippen Invitational in 2025, shot a 6-over 76.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: YouTubers have Brad Dalke’s back after 81: ‘Still insanely good’
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tony Paul, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
