Grace Charis has quickly become one of the biggest golf influencers in recent years, raking up over three million followers on Instagram and TikTok separately. So, how did the 22-year-old get involved in golf, which led her to competing in her first Ladies European Tour (LET) event and starting her own golf brand, Dialed Golf?
Her golf journey only began a few years ago when she picked up the sport during the COVID-19 pandemic as her collegiate rowing career came to a sudden end. At that time, Charis knew she “needed a sport” to fulfill her athletic drive. Her best friend was a golfer and introduced the sport to her then, and she admittedly knew next to nothing about golf. It was an instant infatuation for her.
Around the same time, Charis started posting on social media more and growing a following. She wanted to find a “niche” and discovered quickly that her golf posts did numbers. So, Charis began posting more consistently about golf, which made her more interested in the sport.
“I would post golf stuff, and it did well, so I was like ‘O.K., I’ll post more golf stuff,’” Charis says in a recent conversation with Sports Illustrated. “It went along with my journey of getting into the game of golf and getting deeper into the content ideas and learning that.”
Over the past few years, though, Charis almost wishes she could separate the two lives—her social media life and her golf life—a bit more so she could focus on improving her golf game.
“It’s hard to do both social media and [pursue a career in] golf,” Charis says. “Part of me just wants to play golf and the other part of me, like making content, you have to go into it with a different mindset. You can’t really do both at the same time. I have a weird medium where it kind of works out now and I’m able to kind of do both, but it took me a long time to get here.”
She is grateful that her career in social media inspired her to get more involved in golf. Charis started out just hitting balls on the driving range or playing a few holes here and there, and that quickly turned into her wanting to play a full round and work on shooting a lower score each time. She was bitten by the golf bug.
“Over time, [shooting a viral golf video is] not as fulfilling to me as shooting a low round or grinding to beat a score or something, so I love games and stuff,” Charis says. “Golf finally became a game of trying to shoot low or beat the person you’re playing with.”
From knowing virtually nothing about golf to becoming somewhat of a golf influencer over just a few years, Charis grew her brand even more by launching a golf apparel company in April. Dialed Golf is a style that Charis herself wanted to see more of on the golf course, so she took matters into her own hands.
“I wanted to be able to wear something that represented who I am on the course,” Charis says. “Dialed is supposed to be where personality meets performance—representing the growth, where you don’t have to come from [a golf background]. I’m not a golf person, but chasing your dreams and trying to push yourself to learn more about yourself and your abilities—that’s what Dialed is to me.”
Charis made her LET debut last week at the Tenerife Women’s Open in Spain. While most professional golfers sport brand patches on their polos, Charis was able to represent her own golf brand.
Charis finished at the bottom of the leaderboard with a 26-over finishing score during her first tournament as an amateur. That’s not a total surprise as Charis is just starting out her professional career. The experience itself was a great way for Charis to grow her game and learn from some of the best women’s golfers in the world.
“Being out there competing with them, I can see where I need to grow my game, or I need to do this. It narrows down what I need to work on to get to that level,” Charis says.
Competing in tournaments is something Charis hopes to continue to do looking towards the future. So, don’t be surprised if you continue to see Charis pop up on your golf social media.
“Shooting low scores and playing in tournaments is a challenge, so for me it’s fun to work towards and I’ve found a lot of self growth in that. I like that process a lot, right now at least.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Who Is Grace Charis? Meet the Influencer Turned LET Golf Amateur.