This 32-year-old banking executive and excellent golfer (2,2 index) is a hit today on the Internet thanks to his videos of trick shots in the most unlikely places. Whether on a course, a parking lot or in a hotel room, Arnaud Sérié plays alien shots. Interview.

@Town hall of Saint-Mandé.

In just two years, you have become one of the most followed amateur golfers on social networks (80 followers) thanks to your incredible trick-shot videos. How did you get this idea?

I travel very regularly to the United States for my content creator activity, I am even a member of a golf course in Florida. I made friends there, including other golf content creators like Colin McCarthy and Joshua Kelley, who are followed by hundreds of thousands of people on the Internet. The first time I played with them, they started telling me at the start of the 2: " We ne don't play the next hole until you get the ball on the green from under the bridge… ” With them, you had to putt through a cart or make an approach over the cart. I thought it was awesome and started posting my own videos, which started to be more and more successful, especially as Colin and Joshua relayed them.

@arnaudseriegolf

♬ original sound - Arnaud Serie

Was the success immediate?

It was very fast anyway. My notoriety exploded with the first confinement last year. Footjoy, one of my partners, took over my videos, which also appeared on TV in the USA. In France, the Federation created the # Golf at home with my videos, which were even relayed by the Ministry of Sports. There was a snowball effect. But I don't see myself as an influencer, I don't monetize my videos. I'm just trying to be an ambassador for golf, to give another image of this magnificent sport, which can also be very fun.

https://www.tiktok.com/@arnaudseriegolf/video/6875220367099661569?is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v1&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6903492370542986758

How did you find out about golf?

I must have been 19-20 years old. With my childhood friend, Benoît Hamel, we went fishing in the Bay of Somme. But hey, when you fish, there's a lot of waiting. So Benoît, who was a golfer and always had a ball in his pocket, started digging a hole and told me to try to put the ball in the hole by going over obstacles and using the shovel like club. We played like this for hours and it made me want to discover golf for real. In the process, I went to register for the Amiens golf course, where I took a course with Marc Dolisie. It really was a new world for me. My family didn't play golf, I was just coming out of the army and I was more focused on bodybuilding and combat sports, krav-maga, etc. Before starting, I was still full of prejudices about the elitist character of this sport, that's also why I try to show through my videos its fun, playful side.

@arnaudseriegolf

TRICKSHOTS #golf #trickshot #TIKTOK

♬ How You Like That - BLACKPINK

 

You travel a lot on your videos. How do you find the time to combine golf with your profession?

Golf is about 20% of my time. I make my videos during the weekends or I take time off when necessary. I am often asked by resorts or routes to publish my videos. I also write for Golf Digest Ireland, I have a blog on my website ...

@arnaudseriegolf

crazy couple #foryourpage #couplegoals #fyp #golf #trickshot

♬ original sound - Arnaud Serie

You were a sergeant in the army at 5e Versailles engineering regiment and work today as head of the innovation mission at LCL. There is a real contrast between the rigid, austere image that the army or a bank can convey and the originality of your golf videos, their playful side ...

My work at LCL also consists of showing imagination, finding somewhat innovative solutions to support our clients. The contrast is not that great in fact.

And in the army, how was your sense of innovation expressed?

No, there was none (Laughter).

How many trick shots have you posted and which ones have been the most successful?

I must have done more than a hundred in the last two years since I post one video per week. The one that made me know a lot is when I juggle and then put the ball in the cup that my friend Inès holds in her hand as she leaves the kitchen. One of the most seen is when I blindly hit a hybrid shot, sitting on a TopGolf machine at a driving range in Orlando, or when I make a double contact on the same driving range.

I guess it takes you a long time to pull off some trick shots ...

It depends. I realize that the ones who took me the most time were not necessarily the ones who had the most success. In general, I rarely exceed an hour to achieve this. For example, the trick-shot where I put the ball in a swinging ring, I had a big stroke of luck and got it on the third try *. I wanted to try again and couldn't do it once in an hour.

Why would you want to try again if you have succeeded?

If I get there too quickly I tend to think it's too easy and the trick-shot might not be that good. There's also my video at the Orlando driving range, when I'm sitting down. I managed to do it on the first try. I wanted to start over because it seemed too simple to me and I exploded my thigh by hitting myself with the club (Laughter).

https://www.tiktok.com/@arnaudseriegolf/video/6823396395626581254?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

The trick-shot where you send the ball into the cup your partner is holding as she leaves the kitchen, don't tell us you got it right the first time ...

No. We tried for half an hour, without success. Inès kept coming in and out of the kitchen and after a while she got a little fed up (Laughter). We took a break to eat and then tried again. It took us another quarter of an hour to put the ball in the cup.

@arnaudseriegolf

Couple goals 👫 #foyoupage #foyou #trickshot #golf #challenge #tiktok #golfswing #golfbabe #couplegoals

♬ original sound - Arnaud Serie

What is the part between talent and hard work in what you do?

There is arguably a bit of both, but there is also a third element that is just as important: luck.

Is there a trick-shot you've never been able to do?

I wanted to chip from my room located at 4e floor of the Hotel Barrière in Deauville, to put the ball in the hole at 18. I tried for 4 hours, without success. I was typing blind through the window and the green was 70-80 yards away. The bullet didn't go far though.

@arnaudseriegolf

Chipping from the room 🛌 #golf #trickshot

♬ original sound - Arnaud Serie

Some of your trick shots take place in hotel rooms. Haven't you ever broken anything?

There is the video from last September where I am in a room at Puente Romano in Marbella. The video stops just before I touch the bed because when I jumped on it… the bed collapsed! The feet to support it are folded, I took everything on the face. I erased the end of the video to preserve my phone's memory and I regret it, it was fun after all.

@arnaudseriegolf

The Tornado Trickshot 🌪 #Golf #HotelRoom #Jump

♬ Lalala – Y2K & bbno$

Have you ever pulled off a difficult trick-shot and found that the video had not been recorded?

Unfortunately, yes. I once tried to steal a bullet from a bottle when there was barely room for it to fit. Even trying by hand, a few inches from the target, I couldn't, that is to say. I made crisps for at least 4 hours, at a rate of 4 or 5 tries per minute, before I got it right. I was very happy and there, I realized that my phone had no more battery and had turned off. This is maybe the worst feeling I had in my life, I wanted to break everything (rIRES). Besides now, I tend to get paranoid and check all the time if my phone is still on.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNSAmKiiE4l/

Do you have more ideas for trick shots for the coming months?

I am in contact with the city of Paris to create videos around the monuments. It would be great to be able to play golf in the Louvre for example. I am also in contact with the châteaux of Chantilly and Vaux-le-Vicomte. The next step is to play golf while promoting our sport and French heritage.

And making a video with a golf star, is it possible?

I would like. One day, I was playing on the Jupiter Hills course in Florida and I hit my ball a little too hard, which hit the feet of the two players who were in front of me. The next hole, I approached them to apologize. One of the players was Justin Thomas! The guy was super nice, we exchanged a few words and he even offered to do the last six holes with them. As I am a Titleist ambassador like him, I do not despair that we can do something together one day.

@arnaudseriegolf

Mini golf #golf #trickshot

♬ original sound - Arnaud Serie

With your new notoriety, are you sometimes recognized on the golf courses?

This has happened to me several times in the United States, where I am very followed. Once an 8 year old kid came to me on a course and I gave him a ball. Last year at the PGA Show in Orlando, where I was the ambassador, a kid even asked me to sign an autograph on his cap. I was almost as embarrassed as he was. There is even a lady who contacted me to send her an autographed glove and thus give her husband a present, who apparently likes my videos very much.

@arnaudseriegolf

showing-off #golf #challenge #trickshot #tiktok #foyou #foyoupage #golfswing

♬ original sound - Arnaud Serie

Besides trick shots, do you have any other golf-related projects?

On the Internet, I will participate as a speaker on a golf program for the magazine Forbes. They recently dedicated an article to me which apparently had a lot of success on their site. I would also like to launch on TV an entertainment program related to golf, a very fun game like "Holey Moley", which airs on ABC in the United States. It would be a great promotional tool for golf in France if a TV channel broadcast such a program.

 

Interview by Franck Crudo

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