English YouTube star Peter Finch is an excellent golfer, playing off around scratch as he entertains his 663,000 subscribers via all manner of brilliant videos. But even he knows that the gap between someone as good as him and a regular PGA Tour player can be quite significant.
Ahead of Scottie Scheffler's crowning moment at East Lake last week via a stunning score of 30-under (including a 10-under starting score), Finch was one of 16 golf-content creators who took part in the PGA Tour's inaugural Creator Classic before the Tour Championship.
The concept involved players taking on the back nine at East Lake, with the 18th left as the playoff hole for the top-four. Finch missed out on featuring down 18 by just a shot after sitting at level-par through eight holes.
A handful of days later, Scheffler and co. were picking the revamped golf course apart thanks to their world-class skill and mentality.
Speaking exclusively to Golf Monthly weeks before his trip to Atlanta on interview series Monthly Meets, Finch explained that while he is occasionally capable of producing the odd stunning golf shot, it is consistency and psychology that really sets the best apart.
Finch missed out on a PGA Tour start at the Myrtle Beach Classic earlier in the season when shooting one-over in The Q At Myrtle Beach - a 16-for-one-place qualifying event which was won by Matt Atkins, a Korn Ferry Tour regular in 2024.
He said: "From a ball-striking standpoint, myself and Matt [Atkins - Korn Ferry Tour regular] strike it quite similar, really. I'm not a terrible ball-striker, I hit it OK.
"The biggest difference is - first of all - consistency and then, really, the mental game is huge. These guys, they're not scared to go low. I get to two or three-under and I start crapping my pants, I go "oh no, what am I gonna do? I've never been here before!"
"So the number of times I've gone deep under par is quite low compared to some of those guys because they're a lot more used to it than I am."
In terms of how the data between a PGA Tour and scratch golfer compares, there are some extreme differences across the board. Off the tee, for example, a PGA Tour golfer is likely to be around 40 yards further down the fairway than a scratch player.
Meanwhile, although pros do not have an official handicap, they are likely to be circa five strokes ahead of someone who has a WHS Index of 0.0.
And as quickly as it came.. it’s over!An incredible few days on our whistle stop tour of ATL!! Playing @eastlakegc so close to the @TOURChamp makes me all the more excited to see how the players get on this week! How do you think my back 9 (8!) stacks up against the pros?? pic.twitter.com/DC8kLdoxJBAugust 30, 2024
Finch believes he would be something like 10 strokes away from a PGA Tour player in any standard round, with the best-case scenario still representing a five-stroke differential.
He continued: "From a personal standpoint, me to a PGA Tour player, it'd probably be like comparing me to a 10-handicapper, say. I would say that, in an average round with a good PGA Tour player, I'd be 10 shots off them.
"If they had a bad round, I'd be five shots. If I had a good round, I'd be five shots, but if they had a good round and I had a bad round, it'd be like 20 shots. It's that kind of difference.
"Over the course of one round, that's fine. If we played the same golf over the course of a tournament, obviously I'm then going to be like 16 shots off them by the end. That's the difference we're talking about."
And while playing high-quality golf on some of the world's best courses is among Finch's catalogue of content on his YouTube channel, videos regarding swing tips and strategy advice also feature.
The Golf Monthly Top 50 coach knows that his content will only continue to be engaged with if people trust that he can execute the shots he teaches.
Finch said: "With the videos that I do, the idea is that I will try and improve. I will find ways to try and get better. This year, I've been playing fairly consistently, but it's always been around one-over, level. I'm playing like a very good scratch golfer at the moment."
