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Garrett Clark’s College Golf & the Decision to Leave
Kansas City Kansas Community College, an NCAA eligibility complication, and the $60,000 summer that ended his college career.
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Why Did Garrett Clark Leave College?
Clark left Kansas City Kansas Community College after his freshman year when he hit a financial target his father set for him. According to his own account, his father challenged him to earn $60,000 from content over the summer of 2019 as proof that YouTube could be a sustainable business. Clark reached the target, and his father agreed leaving college for content made sense.
Playing for Kansas City Kansas Community College
Clark played golf for Kansas City Kansas Community College as a freshman during the 2018–19 season, per the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference’s official roster. He kept filming and uploading throughout — reportedly publishing 90 videos in 90 days at one point, while also attending school, traveling, and playing college golf.
The channel didn’t take off immediately. Clark has said he once considered quitting YouTube after making only $12 in a day, and discussed possibly needing a conventional job to afford college. A friend, Stephen Castaneda, reportedly talked him into giving it two more weeks and offered to help film. Clark also brought in childhood friend Matt Scharff. According to Clark, the channel then grew from roughly 30,000 to 170,000 subscribers within three months.
An NCAA Eligibility Complication
Clark’s early audience affected his college options before modern name, image, and likeness rules existed. As his channel grew to roughly 30,000 followers, the NCAA reportedly contacted his father, and the family was told his online activity could jeopardize his eligibility under the rules in place at the time. Clark has said he hadn’t made sponsorship money from the channel at that point. The same online work that complicated his path through conventional college golf ultimately became his career instead.
The $60,000 Test
Clark didn’t leave college simply because his channel showed promise. At the end of his freshman year, having earned roughly $5,000 from content up to that point, his father set a concrete bar: reach $60,000 by the end of that summer, or stay in school. Clark reportedly hit the target, and his father agreed that leaving college for YouTube made financial sense.
That summer is also when GM Golf’s format really took shape — matches against friends, golf challenges, trick shots, cheap-club challenges, and collaborations with other creators, including a memorable video where Clark played an entire thrift-store golf setup, purchased for $3.81, to four-over for nine holes.