Throughout the TOUR Championship, a team of student correspondents from Drew Charter School are providing their perspectives from the tournament. This piece is written by Amian Smart-Browne, a senior at Drew Charter School.
From the moment I heard about Michael Collins, there were nothing but positive things people had to say about him. His charming personality and charisma brings a new flare to reporting golf, he is very often told from people. They tell him “I don’t even like golf but I like watching you talk about it,” which he expressed as the best compliment ever given.
Although Michael’s career is surrounded by golf and golfers, that’s not exactly how he started. Prior to golfing, he was a comedian, which explains his outspoken confident personality. He was introduced to golf by a fellow comedian that informed him golfing was what everyone in the entertainment industry was doing with their free time, so he learned the sport and became a caddy. He used this to his advantage and ended up landing stand-up jobs in the areas where he would play.
“Robert Gamez one week called me and said my caddy quit, I’m not having fun on the golf course. Come caddy for me for a week so I can remember to just play and have fun,” says Collins.
That’s where his golf career started. His inevitable switch from caddying to reporting golf was surprisingly given by way of Twitter. His platform gives him a great leg up to influence people of all ages to do what they love no matter what you have. He took something that wasn’t there and made it into something, which is an unbelievable accomplishment that makes him stand out from others.
He told me that one of his greatest accomplishments throughout his ongoing career is being able to interact with athletes not necessarily associated with golf and being able to show a connection. For example, his interaction with Steph Curry and having the opportunity to show the crossover of him playing golf and how other sports are connected to one.
“The interaction that I was able to show between Steph on the courts and Steph with the players, I think that was a huge crossover that I was really proud of.”
With 66.1K followers on Twitter, he is one of golf fans’ favorite sources and is still having fun covering the game he loves.
