The secret’s out.

After weeks of teasing, the name is finally official — Golf Yourself Happy — and in this episode, Kris explains exactly what that means… and what it doesn’t.

Kris also introduces The Happy Hackers Club — a free community for recreational golfers who love the game but don’t always love how it makes them feel.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

1. Why Golf Yourself Happy exists
2. The philosophy behind “happy first, handicap later”
3. What the Happy Hackers Club actually is
4. What it definitely isn’t (no tips overload, no comparison culture)
5. Why “hacker” isn’t an insult — it’s a badge of belonging
6. How this community will work (and why it will always be free)

🚪 Big Announcement — Doors Open April 1st

The Happy Hackers Club officially launches on:

👉 Wednesday, 1st April 2026

In the next episode, we’ll explain exactly how to join and walk you through everything inside the community.

So if this episode resonated with you…

📅 Make sure you come back on April 1st.

You don’t need to be exceptional to deserve enjoyment.

You just need to show up.

Happy first. Handicap later.

Hello and welcome to Golf Yourself. Happy? Yeah. It's official. The cat is out the bag. The word is quite literally out. I've been teasing it for weeks. And here we are, folks. Golf yourself happy. That is who we are, what we are. And no more secrecy, no more cryptic references. This podcast, this project, this entire thing is called Golf Yourself Happy.

And today's episode is a very important one because I want to explain to you, first of all what this is, what golf yourself happy is, what it is not, and also what it means to be a happy hacker. Without any further ado, let's tee off and dive straight. You.

So if you've been listening for a while now, you've probably.

Since it's been fairly obvious, to be honest. Um, I wouldn't even say I've been cryptic. I've been, uh, pretty open about something's been coming, and I've been building something behind the scenes. Not just a podcast, not just a content engine, something bigger than that. Golf itself. Happy isn't just the name of this podcast going forward, it's ultimately the philosophy that sits behind everything that I'm doing.

The idea that golf should complement and add value to your life, rather than it draining you, that enjoyment ultimately shouldn't be conditional on performance, and that you and I, as ordinary, everyday recreational golfers, deserve a space in the game too. And one of the ways that that philosophy is going to come to life is through a community that I'm calling the Happy Hackers Club.

So today, like I say, I want to explain what that community is, what it is not, and why even exists in the first place.

So what is this community really? At its core, it's somewhere you don't have to perform. You don't have to prove how good you are. You don't have to push your scores unless you really want to. You don't have to pretend you're improving. You don't have to hide frustration or embarrassment. In fact, if anything, I would really love it if you showed up and did share openly about those things.

You can be a golfer in the Happy Hackers Club. Having a fundamentally human experience. And you see most golf spaces or communities in my experience, prioritise performance. Happy Hackers Club, on the other hand, prioritises experience. If you had a great round. Amazing. I'd love you to share and talk about that in the community.

If you had a terrible round though, and you're sat in the car afterwards wondering why you even bothered playing in the first place, you can share that too. And I'd really love if you did. If you walked nine holes with a friend and didn't care about the score during that round. That definitely counts as a win.

Those are stories we really want to hear about as well. Within this club, within this community, there will be places to vent in their places to celebrate wins, places to talk about the mental side of the game, places also to find new playing partners if that's what you want to do. And that certainly is an aspect that I'm particularly excited to see how it pans out in the community.

There will even be places to talk about life outside of golf, because let's face it, folks, golf is not the be all and end all. It is not our whole identity. And crucially, in this community, nobody will try and fix you or give you unsolicited advice. That is something that I believe is going to be really important and a core value in principle.

Now, it's equally important that I tell you what this community is not.

I am in quite a number of online golf communities, and I find that most of them fall into a few very predictable categories. There is the swing fixed group, for example, where everybody is suddenly a coach and is trying to cure your hook or your slice for you. You've got the gear group where everyone's nerding out about drivers and shafts.

You've got a competitive group where scores and handicaps become status markers, ultimately. And you know those spaces. I'm not knocking them. They serve people who really want those things. And there's a there's definitely a place for them in the golf world, but they don't serve the majority of us because, you see, most golfers are not trying to optimise every aspect of their game.

They're trying to enjoy a Saturday morning without feeling crappy about themselves afterwards. So happy hackers club then in summary, is not a tips group. It's not gear obsessed. It's not a performance at all costs or competition is everything type of group. It's not about comparing handicaps. We don't even need to mention our handicaps.

Unless you really, really want to openly share that it's not a place for us to show off or grandstand each other. It ultimately is a space for golfers to just be honest about how the game really feels.

If you've played golf for long enough, you I'm absolutely sure it will have come across the word hacker. You may have been called it yourself. You might have even called yourself a hacker or a bandit or something similar to that hacker. Let's face it is usually said as an insult in the golf world. But I have realised something and that is that most golfers are average ultimately.

And you know, I chunk chips, I three putt on the regular. I lose balls in the rough when I'm otherwise convinced I've creamed it up the middle in the fairway. And then a bird swooped down, or it's been lost in the rough and I can't find it or something. But that's not failure. That is normal golf. And so instead of rejecting this label of hacker, I am the I'm looking to reclaim it.

Happy hacker is not an insult. It is a badge of belonging in the Happy Hackers club. It means you love golf even when you're not amazing at it. You're struggling with it, but you love it. It's all about showing up. It's all about enjoyment, not being dependent on your score. And I am really confident and have conviction that those of you who embrace this identity are going to be the ones who are having the most fun in golf.

The 1st of April, when the doors open officially to the Happy Hackers Club, I will be telling more as to how you can join it. A couple of things to be aware of. At this point. The club is going to be hosted for free in WhatsApp. Okay, so that is going to be, I believe, nice and easy and accessible using a free platform which is very familiar to most of you watching or listening to this.

And the Happy Hackers club will be free forever down the line. There will be optional things for people who want to go deeper with guides, coaching, tools, resources, those sorts of things, and paid memberships if you want that. But none of that is the prerequisite or a requirement to belong or have this happy hacker identity.

You can be part of the community forever without spending a single penny. And that is a core thing that I wanted to bake into. Goal for yourself. Happy from day one. A lot of my values are about accessibility and inclusivity, and I feel that this is a demonstration of that. So there will always be that free access to the Happy Hackers Club.

Happy? It's got a nice ring to it, I think. And if what I've talked about today has resonated with you deeply or on some level or another, I'd love to have you there. So come back 1st of April. Let's reconnect. Until then, take care of folks and remember happy first handicap later.