At its core, golf is a solitary game. You and your club battling against your own state of mind to overcome the challenges that the course has laid out in front of you. There may be dew on the grass that will impact your spin, a gentle morning fog rolling over the course impeding your line of sight down the fairway, or a breeze coming off the lake that will change how you approach the green. It’s down to you and you alone to interpret what lies ahead, make a decision, and commit to a shot. You alone are responsible for what happens as you play this game of golf.
Yet hardly anyone relates to this game in a solitary manner.
The game, at an amateur level at least, is typically played in foursomes. You’re rarely a member at a course; instead, you belong to a club. The core of the game may be about the individual, but the heart of the game is about community. That’s what Nick, Josh, and Brandon from 3 From the Tee Golf have understood from the beginning.
Originally, the three met in 2015 while working at the Muskoka Woods summer camp, where they connected in different ways at different times. More importantly, though, all three of the boys met the women who would become their wives while working at Muskoka Woods. Their wives were good friends, and after their time was done working at the summer camp, Nick, Josh, and Brandon became closer through that connection more than anything.
As with many people, Nick took up golf through the pandemic in 2020, and the boys started playing together in 2021. As they played more, they decided to document it. “At that time, we just wanted to take photos and maybe do course reviews,” says Brandon. “We didn’t have the traditional golf membership, so we wanted to see if we could put things out there to help people as they decide where to spend their $100 on the weekend. Golf has become more expensive, so we wanted to help people understand what they’re getting when they sign up for their tee time.”
From there, 3 From the Tee established themselves as a reputable consumer guide for Canadian golfers, and it didn’t take long for courses to see the value in the trust they had built with the social media community. Subsequently, they were invited to a golf summit being hosted by Golf North towards the end of 2024, where they were invited to speak about how social media can provide a benefit to golf courses.
Then came 2025, talks of the 51st State, and a swell of Canadian pride that had never been more publicly fierce. This is when Golf North launched their Tee the North campaign.
“We've always been passionate about [Canadian golf], and Tee The North gives us an outlet to do that,” says Ty Esteireiro, Digital Media Coordinator for Golf North. “It's not about celebrating any one specific Canadian golf company or brand, but more so about uplifting and showcasing the amazing golf community that is Canadian golf.”
And there could be no group better than 3 From the Tee Golf to lead that charge, which is what Esteireiro would quickly learn while working with the group: “It was really their content and their willingness to promote Canadian golf that made the connection feel natural. Didn't take long to realize we picked a good group to work with!”
Tee the North has now hosted three events in tandem with 3 From the Tee Golf, one each of the last two years at The Club at Bond Head — famously a Golf North property. Yet they also sponsored a multi-day event at Black Bear Ridge last fall, which is not one of the 42 golf courses that Golf North owns across Canada. A testament to their word that their goal is to uplift a community, not a company or brand.
These events have played host to Canadian golf content creators of varying levels. Attended by well-known names such as @golfnjokes, who has just passed 160,000 followers on Instagram alone, the events are also attended by smaller names, such as Kellie and Ben, aka @golfing_kind, a married couple out of Barrie, Ontario. Their following on Instagram may only amount to a little over 2,000 people, but they’re exactly the type of people Brandon, Nick, and Josh are looking to reach.
In Brandon’s own words, “as much as we hope to maximize our reach through these events, the focus really is building true community and friendship for both ourselves and others.” Building that “true community” is definitely the driving force for 3 From the Tee Golf as they expand their reach beyond the Tee the North events. This year alone, they’ve already hosted multi-day events in British Columbia and Florida, and will be in P.E.I. this week for another event.
Yet Brandon is also completely understanding of who he, Nick, and Josh are: “We want to involve this community as much as we can, but we realize we are not the best content creators that we know. So let’s just involve everybody, because we can do a lot more with everyone involved than just by trying to sell ourselves. So the thought with Victoria was let’s bring a great group of people and a great group of creators, so that pitch to Golf Vancouver Island is a lot greater than the three of us just playing a single tee time out there.”
The tourism space is what makes the most sense for 3 From the Tee right now as far as a business model is concerned. They can both strengthen and grow the community they’ve built among Canadian golf creators while simultaneously providing huge marketing benefit to tourism boards and golf courses across Canada.
From a business standpoint, it sounds fantastic, and potentially profitable, yet these three guys haven’t made a dime. They’re in it for the experience and to honestly build a community of like-minded individuals. Every bit of profit that could have been made has instead been invested into hosting the events that benefit the community they’re building, or it has been donated to golf-focused charities like Youth on Course.
If you’re unfamiliar with Youth on Course, it’s a program run by Golf Canada that helps subsidize the cost of green fees for youth golfers. Participating courses will offer tee times for $5 or less to any Youth on Course member who is joined by an adult. This is all done to get more children playing golf and learning the social, mental, and physical skills that go along with the game. Subsidizing the green fees is purely driven by donations, and 3 From the Tee is determined to help that cause.
They’ve set a goal this year of raising $6,000 for the cause. It sounds like a random number, but it’s tied into Youth on Course’s 100 Hole Hike. A one-day challenge that brings together supporters to play 100 holes of golf in one day. The goal is to raise $100,000 in order to subsidize over 10,000 rounds of golf through Youth on Course. The $6,000 is the threshold to attend the event at their premier location: Cabot Cape Breton.
Once that donation threshold is met, who will attend the event? Naturally, it won’t be Brandon, Nick, or Josh. “We figured with everything we’ve done around this golf community, that we should involve the community. We will select one of our donors to go out and represent us at Cabot Cape Breton. We’re well on our way and hopefully we’ll hit our target by mid-summer.”
If you are willing and able to donate to the cause, you can do so here. Who knows, it could be you who wins a trip to Cabot!
At the end of the day, Brandon, Nick, and Josh are just three friends who enjoy golf and the community that comes with it. To this point, they have raised thousands of dollars for charity, developed a social media platform that provides tangible marketing benefits to golf courses, and brought together a community of golfers from all across Canada.
Remarkably, they’ve done all of that without ever having a plan to do so, and Brandon is the first to admit that they don’t have a plan for what the future holds. “I think we just want to keep doing cool golf stuff, whatever that looks like. I don’t think we ever thought that we would host tournaments or golf trips, but here we are.”
One thing is for certain: as 3 From the Tee continues to grow, the community that they build across Canadian golf will be in good hands.
XO Go Low,
The Golf Addict has worked in the golf industry in a number of roles. Starting on the turf team he has since worked in pro shops and now as a Master Club Fitter in Ontario. When it comes to writing, his bylines have appeared in over a dozen publications. On the playing side he's put in 6 serious seasons spread out over the last 30 years, he hopes to break Par once more before it's all said and done, but is happier studying and building the equipment than focusing on his own game.
0 comments