Fort Worth, Texas Resident Jarrell English Wins Third Annual Golf is Great Video Contest

Jarrell English, a Fort Worth, Texas resident, had unknowingly been working on his winning entry for Myrtle Beach’s third annual Golf is Great video contest for two years.

English had long been jotting down lyrics to a possible rap song built around golf. The lyrics came to him freestyling on the way to the gym, driving in the car or sometimes while listening to music at night, and he’d occasionally write them down.

But he never did anything with the rhymes, until he heard Paige Spiranac touting the Golf is Great video contest on Instagram.

Sensing an opportunity to win a contest that was captured by a former Canadian Football League player last year, English, who played collegiate basketball at Texas Lutheran University, set his lyrics to music and entered the Golf is Great contest.

The 29-year-old English, formerly a high school teacher and basketball coach, now a private basketball skills coach, advanced to the finals, so he knew he had a chance to win but the call was shocking nonetheless.

“When the phone rang, I thought it was my wife and I was going to tell her I won to play joke,” English said. “I saw [the call was from Myrtle Beach] and I found out. I was ecstatic, almost in disbelief.”

As part of the prize, English will receive $10,000 and a golf trip for four to Myrtle Beach, S.C., the game’s most popular destination.

Seven years ago, English, who was still in college, realized his dreams of playing professional basketball were a longshot, and he needed another sport to immerse himself in. As fate would have it, a driving range opened a couple miles from campus and a couple teammates introduced him to the game.

Over the next two years, if English wasn’t on the basketball court, he was likely at the driving range, hitting balls with his wife. He was hooked and his passion for the game hasn’t relented

The contest has led to other opportunities. English, a long-time member at the PGA Tour Superstore in Fort Worth, mentioned his entry into the Golf is Great contest to an employee at the store. The acquaintance mentioned English’s song to a manager at the PGA Tour Superstore, and he was soon making a song for the golf megastore.

English also started an Instagram account Rory_Blaklroygolf that has quickly earned nearly 1,000 followers, and the one person he thanked was his wife for spending $200 to make the video.