Asked to consider his favourite golf courses in New Zealand, Mac Boucher responds almost instantaneously.
“Jack’s Point [in Queenstown] is my favourite course in the world, I’d say. Out of everywhere I’ve ever travelled, Jack’s Point’s my little happy place,” the Canadian tells the Herald.
“It’s on the water, it’s got the mountains, when the sunset’s going down, the nighttime there, there’s really nothing else like it, I’d say. It’s just a unique layout and a unique piece of land.”
It’s high praise from someone who has played as much golf as Boucher, who is among the leading personalities in the booming world of golfing social media and has visited courses across the globe.
Boucher’s approach helps him stand out in the realm of social media, with his ability to sling the ball largely speaking for itself as he has built a following on Instagram of 652,000 and counting.
But while the control he has over the golf ball is an impressive talent, he says it’s not something he does just for the cameras.
“I mean, it’s kind of how I’ve always played. Like, even when I played professionally, it’s just how I play golf. Obviously, there’s certain shots that I like pushing boundaries on it, but nothing I really do is for the camera. It’s all how I did before I was videoing everything I do now. So nothing’s really changed. It’s just something that I’ve always done.
“I felt like it’d be unique in the space and something that I can kind of set myself apart with, because it’s not like it’s relying on a personality or something like that to gain a bit of a following. It’s more just a skillset that is unique to myself, I find, so definitely it’s nice to have in the pocket for sure.”
New Zealand holds a special place for Boucher, who worked as a teaching professional at Millbrook for a few years before the Covid-19 pandemic set in and spurred a move back to Canada. For the past few years, he has been a frequent visitor to the country and a participant in the annual Mānuka Phuel Chasing the Fox end-of-year event at Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club.
Boucher will again return for the 2025 edition, teaming up with Kiwi LIV golf star Ben Campbell as they try to best PGA Tour star Ryan Fox and a yet-to-be-named teammate.
“Foxy, he’s one of the nicest dudes in the pro golf scene. He’s just a normal dude, which I really appreciate. Every time I’ve had any type of interaction with him at DP World Tour events or PGA Tour events, he’s always just been such a good guy. So it’s definitely cool to go spend time with him because he is just such a solid guy to shoot the s*** with.”
Boucher was recently one of 48 golfers to compete in Barstool Sports Internet Invitational, which is being broadcast across six episodes on YouTube. The three episodes released so far have combined for more than 11 million views.
In the first episode Luke Kwon, who grew up in New Zealand, was painted as the villain after sleeping through his alarm, missing his tee time, being handed a four-hole penalty and subsequently drawing the ire of the internet.
Boucher jumped to Kwon’s defence, and says such fallout comes with the space they work in.
“I think the internet is just, people are always looking for controversy, looking for things to get clicks and engagement and I almost put it as far as saying it’s like engagement farming in the sense that it’s like really dabbling into something to make it a bigger deal to get clicks, because clicks create revenue and that’s just how these companies operate,” Boucher says.
“So I think a lot of the time, being a decent person kind of gets lost in that and for me it’s something that I felt like I had to stick up for, a guy who’s been really good to me and I see all this abuse he’s getting without people actually being there and seeing it first-hand, how it actually kind of played out.
“So I felt like no other guy that was there was speaking up, so I’m like, you know what, I’m just going to come to his defence a little bit because he doesn’t deserve this type of abuse, really.”
Returning for Chasing the Fox in on December 12 will be just one of Boucher’s stops in New Zealand: together with Luke Leesburg and Peter Scrimgeour, he will be filming a new series where they spend a couple of weeks travelling the country to see what Kiwi golf courses have to offer.
“I think just the variety,” Boucher said of what he enjoys most about playing New Zealand courses. “[You] have a little bit of everything with the mountain courses down in the South Island, and you have the ocean courses up in the North Island with like Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs. I would say the variety is my big thing that I love about it. It’s endless, really.”
Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club, December 12, 5pm. Tickets are on sale now.
Confirmed teams
Team Campbell: Ben Campbell and Mac Boucher.
Team Media: Dai Henwood, Jeremy Wells and Bryce Casey.
Team NZ Warriors: Shaun Johnson, Wayde Egan and Chanel Harris-Tavita.
Team Voke: Nick Voke and Taco Golf.
Fox and Friend: Ryan Fox and TBC.
TVNZ1 and TVNZ+ will be broadcasting the event from 7pm-9pm.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.