MANORS sign Jay Bark
We checked in with Jay Bark, the most recent addition to the MANORS team, who has recently taken the internet by storm with his flawless self taught golf swing. From his recently discovered passion for the game, to his accidental stumble into the world of viral golf content, we're eager to find out more about the Australian swing guru.
When did your golf journey begin?
So I started golf back in 2020 because it was the only thing open during COVID at the time.
Before that, I might have been to the range maybe once in my life as a kid. And I remember hating it because it hurt my hands. And I think back now and it's kind of funny and frustrating. If only I just kept on going since then. But here we are.
When I started back, I pretty much got instantly hooked. The thing that got me hooked wasn't the game of golf. It might sound a little vein, but it was the aesthetics of it. I remember seeing this guy with the most beautiful swing hitting the perfect drives.
They were just going so unfathomably far for me at the time. And I just remember thinking like, man, I need to have that majestically smooth, powerful kind of swing. That's what got me hooked.
You grew to over 100k followers incredibly quickly, what do you put that down to?
The story of building my own swing seemed to captivate people. Obviously golf got really popular during COVID, but it's expensive: lessons are expensive, gear is more expensive. And when people saw my swing transformation, I think it kind of gave a bunch of people some hope: if he’s done that in a short-ish amount of time, then I can do it too. I think that's pretty cool.
I guess in a way, maybe my journey has come full circle: maybe now I'm that guy on that range. Maybe people watching my content are getting motivated by my it just like that guy on the range four years did to me.
What made you start posting on Instagram?
When I first started posting my swings, I didn’t think anyone would be interested. I used to post on my personal account but then I realised that maybe my friends and family don't actually want to see that. So that's when I started the new account.
On my phone, I had so many swings that were just sort of cluttered that I was like, maybe if I start my own sort of page, I can have a little uncluttered journal where I can see how my swing is transforming. And that's just how it sort of started. I never thought my swing was worth sharing with the world, but they ended up liking it, which is pretty cool. Definitely didn't expect it to get so good.
Where do you see your page going in the future?
So the goal with the channel moving forward is, I guess I want to start getting into longer form content. For me the goal has always been to get to scratch without any lessons. And I want to start a bit of a series in YouTube where I can bring people along to join me in last leg of that journey. Maybe a Break 75 Series or Break 72 Series eventually, and then round out my short term journey of getting to scratch.
What was it specifically that got you hooked on golf?
So golf in my life, I am generally someone that I guess gets a lot of joy and happiness from seeing myself improve at something. I guess it really helps if there's a way that you can measure that improvement. And I think golf is really perfect because there's sort of two ways. There's the whole aesthetic thing where it's like you can see how your swing sort of improves over time, which is what I've really enjoyed so far. And then the second part which is sort of, getting lower scores, which is the journey I'm on now.
And because with golf there's no such thing as perfect. You're just on this constant journey of improvement and it's never ending. There's no such thing as mastering golf. And it just means that there's an endless supply of potential happiness that it can bring.
Also, golf is so therapeutic, right? I think a lot of us can agree that feeling of being out on the course walking down really nicely maintained fairways, pull out your nice 7 iron and you just put this perfect shank into the woods, nothing more therapeutic than that.
How does golf in Australia compare to everywhere else?
So I haven't had the chance to play too much golf in other countries beside Australia, but from the little experience I've had and the all the YouTube videos I've watched, I think golf in Australia is generally quite laid back. It's very chill. The people in Australia really like to sink beers when they play golf.
My favourite golf course in Australia would have to be Monavo Golf Course, which is where I'm playing at the moment. It's a 100% bias because I honestly haven't played many courses, but this course is my local home course. A semi public course. It's really close to where I live and anything where I don't have to drive too far is a win in my book. Once I get to scratch here, my plan is to start exploring and trying more courses.
Golf just brings me a lot of happiness and I just want to play more and get better and share my journey with other people so they can also enjoy this game that we all love. So if some of you are out there also thinking about trying to get to scratch with zero lessons, my advice would be don't do it because it's so painful. Getting a lesson doesn't hurt. I've just come so far and I'm so close to scratch that I just have to see it through to the end now.
What is going to be the final key to get you down to scratch?
I'm still trying to improve my lag putting, it's probably the weakest part of my game in where I lose most of my shots. Sometimes I feel more comfortable chipping over putting, and its not great either. So that really says something.