It’s a gloriously sunny day at the Dedham Country and Polo Club just outside of Boston and the golf course is quiet. Apart from Hally Leadbetter and Tom Holland, there doesn’t appear to be anybody around.
They are playing a three-hole match for a YouTube video, but the atmosphere is far from competitive, and Spider-Man himself is discussing everything from being on the set of a Hollywood blockbuster to his new non-alcoholic beer.
Holland is a good golfer. He often attends tournaments and has a handicap that most amateur players would die for. But, in a moment of uncertainty on the second tee, he asks Leadbetter for advice.
That’s because she’s more than just a TV host. Leadbetter has one of the most famous surnames in golf. The daughter of legendary swing coach David and former LPGA player Kelly, she has been around golf as long as she can remember.
So when Holland asks her which club to hit off the tee, with a water hazard lurking in the distance, he knows he can trust her response. That knowledge didn’t make it easier to play on camera at first though.
‘I remember the first one I did with Reggie Bush (the Super Bowl champion), I thought I was going to throw up. I was so, so nervous,’ Leadbetter, whose husband Billy is also a golf fanatic, tells Daily Mail at the PGA Championship in North Carolina.
Hally Leadbetter on the red carpet before the ESPYs in Los Angeles on Wednesday night
Leadbetter challenged Spider-Man star Tom Holland to a three-hole match for Golf Digest
‘We’ve done it with everybody from DJ Khaled to Nick Saban so I just really try to relish the opportunity to play with these people and take a step back and be like, “Wow. If it wasn’t for golf, I would have no business having this conversation with Tom Holland.”
‘They are so passionate about golf. When I played with Tom he kept asking me questions. I was like, “Stop asking me. I’ve only got three holes. I need to ask you questions.”
‘Tom took me by surprise with just how personable he was and how he wanted to learn. He was asking me about my game and what shot I would hit and how much do I practice.’
When asked to name a dream playing partner, Leadbetter chooses Jason Bateman. She also namechecks Caitlin Clark and Saquon Barkley, two of America’s most recognizable athletes who are becoming obsessed with golf.
Leadbetter’s growing stature earned her a place at this year’s famed celebrity golf tournament, the American Century Championship. After three rounds in Lake Tahoe she finished 20th in the field of 90, beating the likes of Travis and Jason Kelce, Charles Barkley and Jerry Rice.
But, while golf is in her family’s blood, a career in the sport was not where Leadbetter thought life would take her as a teenager. She admits she ‘hated’ it growing up and a score of 136 in her first junior tournament in England did nothing to stir an interest.
As her father put it, Leadbetter ‘picked the one sport more expensive than golf’ in horse riding but she could only resist for so long before intrigue got the better of her.
‘Ultimately, when I was 13 or 14 and growing up with two brothers who are both very good golfers, I was sitting around the dinner table asking them “how’d you play? What did you shoot?” And I was like “Okay, I’ve got to give this a go”. So that’s when I started getting into it.
Leadbetter’s dad, David (second left), is a legendary coach and her mom, Kelly (second right), is a former LPGA player. She’s pictured with her husband, Billy (third right), and older brothers Andy (left) and James (right)
Leadbetter hated golf growing up, despite her parents and brothers’ love for the game
‘My older brother is eight years older than me so by the time I was taking it on, he was already at college playing. My little brother and I would go back and forth quite a bit, and he’s a very, very good player, so I think that helped me get better quickly.
‘I am probably the only exception when I say parents shouldn’t teach their kids but growing up I wouldn’t want to listen to my dad. Towards the end of high school, you know how it is as a teenage girl, I was like, ‘Shut up. You don’t know anything.’
‘Then, when I was at college and mature enough, I could separate in my head that this is my dad and this is my coach, and when we’re at the course he’s my coach and when we’re at home he’s dad. I feel so lucky because I saw some people that had parents who never touched a club, and they would just ask insane questions.
‘My parents got it and were just so very kind and supportive. They never got angry at me but if I played poorly, they told me what they thought.’
Leadbetter studied broadcast journalism and played golf at the University of Arkansas before transferring to Rollins College, a liberal arts school in Florida. There wasn’t a similar degree there, so instead she got up at 5am every morning to host her own college radio show before team practice.
She would invite fellow student athletes onto the show and interview them, sewing the seeds for the career she has forged for herself today. Leadbetter is happy to admit she ‘always liked attention’ as a child.
As a broadcaster, Ledbetter has paired her extensive knowledge and warm, energetic personality to become a prominent figure in the game. She hosted Mornings at the Masters from Augusta National earlier this year and had her own show at the PGA Championship, too.
She has a strong relationship with Amanda Balionis, the face of CBS’ golf coverage, who told her to harness the insight she’s gained from growing up around golf.
Leadbetter hosted Mornings at the Masters and had her own show at the PGA Championship
Leadbetter speaking to Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau at recent tournaments
‘I talk to her (Balionis) about this a lot because she’s such a fantastic interviewer and she tells me that she really likes to lean into more of the emotional side,’ Leadbetter says. ‘She’s such an incredible storyteller and has these incredible relationships with players.
‘But she’s like “Hallie, use your golf knowledge. You know what questions to ask about strategy, swing changes, their experiences on the course because you’re a player and you’ve been around players.” So I just really try to lean into that.
‘Amanda has been a huge mentor. I first met her at Royal Liverpool (July 2023) when I was holding an umbrella over her head in the rain and I thought it was the best day of my life. We found out that her parents, at that time, lived about 15 minutes from my parents in Sarasota and so she invited me over for a Christmas party. She came to my wedding. We’re very, very close.’
It is a consequence of social media that some of the most high profile women in golf are influencers, whose content centers around braless pictures and slow-motion swings in raunchy outfits.
Leadbetter works tirelessly to make the sport more accessible and interesting for younger fans, especially women, and applauds female golf influencers for taking advantage of the interest.
She continues: ‘I have done a lot of thought about this. I think when I was younger I was maybe a bit salty because I was like “Well, why does someone need to sexualize themselves to have a large audience?”
‘But the reality is, and I think I get this a lot from having worked at Golf Digest and running their social channels, I could see the numbers, right? I try to not frame things as good or bad anymore, but just what is performing? You can’t fault these women for seeing a lane and running with it.
‘It doesn’t make them bad for doing that. Now, if you’re a collegiate golfer and have aspirations of hosting a Golf Channel show one day, would I recommend that you start posting videos swinging in a bikini? Maybe not, you know.
Leadbetter moved to LA five years ago and recently launched a creative production company
‘So I think it’s a case of: what are your goals? How do you want to be perceived?
‘There’s no right or wrong way to do this. You just have to make sure that it feels authentic to you and do whatever you’re comfortable with.’
While golf is one of Leadbetter’s biggest passions, creating content is another.
She is the co-founder of Better Content Co.; a creative production company she launched alongside veteran Hollywood producer and director Andrew Wantuck.
Even with professional golf’s relentless schedule, she remains extremely involved in the company’s day-to-day operations, shaping original content across the sports, entertainment, comedy, and lifestyle spaces.
‘I moved out to LA five years ago because I was always really interested in the entertainment space,’ she explains. ‘I feel like, in another life, maybe I would have liked to have been like an actor or something.
‘But I always say I love golf like I love my parents. I don’t know life without it. It’s given me literally everything. It is my lens through which I see the world. But I love entertainment like I love my husband. You know, it’s just different.
‘So to be able to pair those two things together is the ultimate dream. We have realized that there are a lot of brands that need help in the golf space to really get to this new wave of golfers, which is a ton of different demographics and a huge group of them are women.
She still loves playing golf regularly and competes in amateur tournaments when she can
‘We have built out this really great team of writers, comedians, directors and cinematographers in LA and they happen to all love golf, so when they’re not working on their big movies, they’ll come and shoot this commercial or comedy sketch.
‘It’s been really fun. We’re working on a couple TV shows right now, working with a couple of brands on their commercials. We’re only a couple months in, but it’s been really great to see the response.’
Hally once revealed that when Billy asked her dad if he could propose to her, David said yes but only if he fixed his takeaway.
‘I came downstairs during Christmas and they’re in the kitchen working on the top of his backswing,’ she said. ‘They’re the perfect combo of father-in-law, son-in-law – because they are both golf sickos.’
With her knowledge of the sport plus her drive and personality in front of and behind the camera, some might say Hally is the perfect combo for golf’s future.
