Inside the unlikely rise of Bob Does Sports: How a doorman became a golf star

Robby Berger had been a quick riser.

He’d began working in a single day shifts on the entrance desk of the 4 Seasons Beverly Hills, however in only a couple years he’d climbed the ladder, reaching the esteemed title of Visitor Companies Supervisor. All of the sudden, Berger discovered himself with 50 stories as he quarterbacked the comings and goings of Los Angeles’ wealthy and well-known.

However it was quickly after that one thing humorous occurred.

“Somebody got here as much as me and requested for an image,” he remembers. “And I bear in mind the staff seeing that and so they have been so confused — and I used to be confused as properly, as a result of it was so weird to me.

“After which it saved occurring.”

Berger liked the 4 Seasons. He was a individuals individual, in spite of everything. Preferred speaking to individuals. Preferred watching individuals. Preferred determining what made them snicker. However whenever you work in Visitor Companies on the 4 Seasons, there’s a sure expectation that you just’ll be buttoned up, skilled; mildly and pleasantly forgettable.

“It’s probably not speculated to be about you,” Berger says.

And that grew to become the second that Berger determined to alter his life endlessly.

“WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU TELL PEOPLE THAT YOU DO?“

That was the query I’d been desperate to ask Berger. I confirmed up proper on time to our interview however he arrived early, grinning from beneath the invoice of a white rope hat with HAVE A DAY printed on the entrance.

When he was on the 4 Seasons he was a resort man with an Instagram account on the facet. His on-line persona showcased one man’s musings on the world, riffing on all the pieces from hangovers to breakfast sandwiches, sports activities bets and extra. Nowadays? The 4 Seasons is within the rearview however the Instagram account has grown into a contemporary media behemoth — a community of pages, manufacturers and revenue streams. As soon as upon a time, Robby Berger’s account deal with was BrilliantlyDumb; now his manufacturers embody Bobby Fairways, Bob Does Sports activities and Breezy Golf. Berger’s participating, affable presence is on the heart of a large, spinning content material wheel that commonly attracts thousands and thousands of viewers.

So what does he do?

“Dylan, your guess is best than mine,” he says.

Let’s get particular. Within the years because the 4 Seasons, Berger has turn out to be unlikely {golfing} royalty. The 30-year-old grew up in New Jersey, the place he was a superb athlete (he’d go on to pitch in school) and an avid sports activities fan. He reluctantly admits that golf was not on the heart of these youthful pursuits. The extent to which he adopted the game was “simply kinda figuring out what was occurring with Tiger.”

“Again then, golf wasn’t actually the cool factor to do,” he remembers. “As soon as I began doing it, after all I fell in love with it. However it’s insane what’s occurred to golf the previous few years.”

It’s insane what’s occurred to Berger’s golf, particularly. Three years in the past he was a brand new California resident who’d barely performed golf in any respect.

A yr after that greater than two million individuals watched a YouTube video through which he promised his pal Joey Chilly Cuts (one other Jersey transplant) a spherical at Torrey Pines and took him as an alternative to “the worst golf course in America.”

A couple of months after that, two million extra watched Bobby and Joey end 18 Fireball pictures in 9 holes.

A couple of months after that two million extra watched the now-expanded Bob Does Sports activities troupe play an 18-hole golf match towards Max Homa.

And some months after that greater than one million noticed them tackle three NFL quarterbacks, headlined by Josh Allen. A 3rd on-screen member of the crew had joined by then, a man who goes by Fats Perez, finishing a lovable trio.

As Berger may say: Not a nasty couple of years for the younger man. Not dangerous in any respect.

As for the way he describes what he does? He doesn’t flip his nostril on the time period “influencer,” however he prefers to say he has a golf present. That invitations too many complicated questions from his dad and mom’ mates in Florida, although, so in these settings he simply says he works for a media firm and hopes for no follow-ups.

For the ink spilled (and subcommittee conferences held) below the guise of rising the sport, in some ways Berger has turn out to be the face of the fashionable golfer. He tried golf throughout Covid, fell for it exhausting and now has turn out to be a phenomenal reminder of almost all the pieces that’s good concerning the sport. The central themes of his movies might also be thought of the central themes of the game: that golf’s a journey, that it’s about who quite than the place, that an gratifying spherical is extra depending on persona than rating, that frustration’s effective so long as enjoyable’s in there, too. He’s not astonishingly good — “I used to be a catastrophe once I began and nonetheless am, actually,” he says — however he positive looks as if an astonishingly good hold.

From a content material perspective, he’s a reminder that you just don’t should be among the many greatest on the planet to generate profits in your sport. Golf is a straightforward platform to showcase competitors, persona and celeb. It’s the proper canvas for hijinks, too. Scottie Scheffler’s superpower is his golf sport. Berger’s superpower is that he’s humorous in an endearing approach; it’s exhausting to think about somebody who wouldn’t like him.

The result’s that his accounts have turn out to be one of many final corners of the web unmoored by cynicism. After he revealed a video with Keegan Bradley, Bradley known as him in shock.

“He was like, ‘There’s no dangerous feedback in there,’” Berger remembers. “He couldn’t imagine it.”

THE BURGEONING BUSINESS OF BOB DOES SPORTS has matched the rise of its central star.

We’re chatting as a result of he’s simply launched a partnership with 5 Iron Golf, a kind of indoor Topgolf. A 5 Iron location in New York Metropolis now has a room devoted to Breezy Golf promising a “sports activities bar and lounge expertise,” combining Berger’s love of golf along with his love of a rooster caesar wrap. That is simply the newest enterprise for Berger, who I ask to tick by his income sources. He eagerly obliges.

All of it begins with Cameo. These requests peak throughout fantasy soccer season, he says. However they’re a big moneymaker based mostly on sheer quantity. Berger fees $95 per video (extra if it’s final minute) and cranks by 20-30 per day. Even with Cameo taking its 25 % reduce, properly, you do the maths.

“After we’re on a Bob Does Sports activities journey the fellows make enjoyable of me as a result of they simply hear me in my room the complete time simply shouting individuals out, birthdays, no matter,” he says. “It drives them nuts, however they get it.”

He ticks by the others. There’s Breezy’s attire model, which incorporates the HAVE A DAY hat he’s carrying. They’ve Breezy tournaments now, too, although these are extra for enjoyable and brand-building than they’re straight income performs. There’s the YouTube channel, which racks up views by the thousands and thousands. There’s a podcast. And there are model sponsors, like SeatGeek (a latest YouTube sponsor) and Callaway (which signed the crew to an gear deal in January). Berger has labored for years with Doing Issues Media, which he says helps assist all of it, and there’s more and more extra to assist. Berger didn’t cite actual greenback figures, however it’s secure to say issues are going properly at Bob Does Sports activities HQ.

“You simply can’t say it’s work,” he says. “We’re having a lot enjoyable with it that it’s cool that we are able to simply do it full-time. However it’s fairly insane, man.”

THERE’S A DIFFERENT WAY this all might have gone. Again when Berger was working on the 4 Seasons, a fun-loving Visitor Companies supervisor with a surging Instagram following, he acquired a compelling message on Instagram: it was Dave Portnoy, head honcho at Barstool Sports activities, coming with a job supply.

Working for Barstool had all the time been Berger’s dream. However now that he was confronted with the truth of the supply — a wage of roughly $65,000 to relocate to New York — he balked. That may imply splitting a spot with a number of roommates. It might imply shifting throughout the nation. It might imply deserting the chums and assist he’d already constructed up in L.A.

He stated no.

In doing so he was inserting a guess on his personal future. Closing that door narrowed his focus and clarified what he already knew: it was time to go all in. He’s been full throttle ever since. Generally he’ll be on the street for a month at a time. Generally two.

“However it doesn’t actually ever put on on me as a result of it’s simply a lot enjoyable,” he says. There are taxing moments, after all — he cites a scorching canine problem that took him out for a pair days because of some hearty brioche buns. But when he ever spends greater than a day away from the work he begins to really feel himself getting antsy.

“Since we began Bob Does Sports activities, individuals depend on it now,” he says. “It’s a part of their week, a part of their day, a part of their routine. I don’t take that evenly, being a part of individuals’s day.”

The enterprise of Bob Does Sports activities is Bob himself. It’s Robby Berger. It’s commoditized likability. The man promoting HAVE A DAY hats very genuinely would love you to have a day. That’s the enterprise.

And enterprise is nice.

Dylan Dethier

Golf.com Editor

Dylan Dethier is a senior author for GOLF Journal/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams Faculty, the place he majored in English, and he’s the creator of 18 in Americawhich particulars the yr he spent as an 18-year-old residing from his automobile and enjoying a spherical of golf in each state.