Golf Saved His Life. Now He’s Saving You Strokes

As Adam Fine sat on a Vancouver hospital bed in the spring of 2018, he was distracted.

Bundled alongside the typical emotions of gratitude and relief in his post-surgery haze was an inescapable pull—the need to hit the golf course.

Fine had just undergone a lifesaving liver transplant, one of the most invasive operations modern medicine has to offer. However, despite the foot-and-a-half stretch of stitches in his right side and a new lease on life, all the Canadian could think about was teeing it up as quickly as possible.

Soon after being discharged, Fine leveraged this bubbling passion for the game to craft a new career in the world of YouTube golf. Through humble beginnings, his “Not A Scratch Golfer” channel would grow to reach more than 65,000 subscribers and hundreds of thousands of views, all through a unique mix of relatable yet educational self-effacement. 

Most interestingly, Fine accomplished it all primarily because of what he was not. He did not dazzle audiences with a picture-perfect swing nor did he inspire envy by firing impressively low numbers.

Instead, he built a career on the decidedly average nature of his golf game. 

However, this was all yet to come. Despite his current rise, Fine never expected to make his living through content creation. He certainly was not always terminally golf-obsessed.

How Fine’s life was saved by golf

His journey to the game was stretched over a number of years and thousands more miles. Growing up in Vancouver, he spent far more time negotiating ski slopes than the undulations of greens at his local pitch-and-putt. 

“Golf was not on my radar at all,” Fine says. “I always just thought it was too hard, too long and too boring.”

Blissfully free of the game, Fine attended the University of British Columbia and took up a career in tech industry sales straight out of school.

However, throughout his college career he had begun to notice some alarming, inexplicable health concerns. He was constantly fatigued, regardless of how many hours he slept. Fine found he had no appetite and struggled to hold down food. Perhaps most alarmingly, he began to feel a constant, pervasive itch, like gnats were always gnawing at his skin. Those around Fine witnessed him become gaunt and jaundiced, the weight and life behind his features vanishing.

He was slowly withering away before their eyes.

“It was just a really slow, insidious process where all the symptoms sort of got worse and worse,” Fine explains. “They didn’t really have a firm diagnosis for me.”

Finally, after visiting a revolving carousel of specialists and with his health rapidly declining, he was given an accurate and alarming diagnosis: Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), an extremely rare liver disease with no known cure.

The prognosis was more akin to an ultimatum: he either must receive an organ transplant from a compatible donor or he would die.

It was in the shadow of this bleak news that Fine first found golf. With his illness progressing, he was searching for some sort of physical activity he could still perform despite his growing symptoms. At the encouragement of his then-girlfriend, he ventured out for a twilight round at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, costing a mere $30. That small sum would change his life forever.

“Being on the golf course all of a sudden just hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn’t feel sick anymore.”

Fine discovered a safe haven from the health issues that plagued him for most of his life. As if by magic, his time on the golf course was free from the fatigue and itchiness that seemed inescapable anywhere else. The mental demands of the game essentially made it impossible for him to focus on his symptoms. That first experimental round turned into a second, then a third, then countless more. Fine had been bitten by the golf bug and he played constantly until his disease physically prevented him from swinging a club.

However, Fine’s years of fighting with PSC were not in vain. Against all odds, a liver donor was located that matched his size and blood type. Soon he was on his way to Vancouver for a transplant.

“My entire medical team was very surprised that I was alive by the time I was carted into the surgery room.”

The operation was a success and Fine was floored at how quickly he began to improve. He instantly felt lighter, more energized and genuinely healthy for perhaps the first time in his life. His recovery was brief, with his discharge coming just 10 days after the surgery. To make it even sweeter, he was about to receive the best prescription he could ever ask for. 

“(The hospital’s) one instruction was they wanted me doing as much light movement as possible. I said, ‘Is golf good?’”

With more energy and a professional recommendation to play the game he had fallen in love with, Fine decided to take some time away from the hustle and bustle of his sales career to simply enjoy being alive. Naturally, golf became a huge component of his new life.

The YouTube channel about an everyday golfer

Fine threw himself into the sport, racking up an astonishing 260 rounds in the first year of his hiatus. It was during this period that the seeds of “Not A Scratch Golfer” were planted.

While he would be the first to critique his swing, Fine developed a knack for the mental side of golf. He learned to extract every ounce of scoring potential from his limited ability through sharp course management skills and a nifty short game rather than stressing impeccable mechanics. His upper single-digit handicap was more of a mask—Fine’s golf IQ is far higher.

As he played more rounds, Fine observed how the majority of golfers were too fixated on perfecting their swing, seriously neglecting the mental skills required to effectively use those improved mechanics.

At the same time, he had begun to take an interest in the world of YouTube golf. In particular, a channel by the name of “Golf Sidekick” captured his attention with their simple and personal course vlogs.

“(The content] just seemed very genuine to me. It’s just a guy playing golf, talking through his shots.”

After watching a tutorial about how Sidekick’s videos were produced, Fine decided to try his hand at content creation. With nothing to lose, he grabbed a tripod and his iPhone and headed to the course.

With no expectations besides having a good time, Fine filmed and posted his very first video in March 2021 to the brand-new “Not A Scratch Golfer” YouTube channel. It was a simple course vlog, made in the model of his favorite creator. However, what initially began as an entertaining side project quickly snowballed into something more. Fine got an unexpected boost when Sidekick reposted Fine’s video to his own community, who provided some encouraging feedback.

With more eyes on his page, Fine pressed forward.

“At this point I didn’t think I was starting a YouTube channel. I just thought, ‘Cool, people like this. I’m going to make some more.’”

The art of scoring

And make more he did. Fine began to churn out three to four videos each month and very quickly found a burgeoning audience who resonated with the message he had to share.

“I wanted to show novice golfers that there are ways to improve at this game without becoming hyper-focused on your golf swing. What appears to be bad golf can actually grind into good scores.”

Fine accomplishes this through a remarkably simple, yet astoundingly uncommon, method—he shows everything on camera. Every shot, every thought, every ensuing consequence—all the ubiquitous elements that define the game for the average player but are so often missing from archetypal golf content.

Fine’s narration runs the viewer through exactly what he was thinking over the ball, providing some key lessons in how to strategize around a given course. The videos are real; it’s simple golf by design. They provide a refreshing window into the unexceptional which is in stark contrast to more polished YouTube golf videos featuring quick transitions and gorgeous swings.

“The point of this channel isn’t to flex. It’s to show what golf looks like.”

This guiding principle has paid dividends over the years. He’s amassed a significant following on the platform with his view totals well into the hundreds of thousands. His success has allowed him to commit to YouTube full-time and it’s turned out to be a dream. He splits his time between Vancouver and California, traveling from course to course, filming new videos.

It’s a sweet life, made all the sweeter by Fine’s triumph in his nearly fatal, years-long health battle.

Ultimately, Fine’s approach to both content and golf is informed by a key piece of advice given to him by a friend early in his career. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the message he has trumpeted for more than 200 videos and counting.

“Just go out there and do it. You can’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”

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