Hip Dad Open 2026 Recap
After a three year hiatus, the Hip Dad Open is back, and it's bigger than ever. Last Sunday we dusted off the old Twitch account and streamed six hours straight of Mario Golf.
If you're new around here you might be wondering what Mario Golf has to do with a radio station and blog built around music. Fair question. But we've always leaned into dad core too, and there's nothing more dad vibes than golf. Mario Golf turns out to be the perfect game to stream, and a lot of the Hip Dad community are already strong advocates for it.
Streaming these events is genuinely a blast, especially when a lot of people show up to participate. This year we had six players in the bracket, and the setup got an upgrade too. I beefed up the stream with some epic new sound effects that made the whole broadcast hit different.
The bracket ran the way it always has. Round of 6 matches were 9 holes at Bonny Greens, quarterfinals were 9-hole matches with a coin flip deciding who picked the course or their character first, and things stepped up to full 18-hole matches for the semifinals at All Star Summit and Blustery Basin before the final at Bowser Highlands. Special clubs were fair game, but special shots were banned across the board, no exceptions. A few of the guys also threw five bucks into a hole-in-one pot, with the most aces over the tournament taking the cash.
One of the highlights was the semifinal matchup between Matt and Perry. Perry put together a record-breaking round of -16 at Blustery Basin, widely regarded as one of the hardest courses in the game, and rode that momentum into the final.
The final came down to Perry versus Reid at Bowser Highlands. It was a close one from start to finish, but Reid pulled ahead down the stretch to take the title.
Huge thanks to everyone who tuned in and everyone who competed. The Hip Dad Open is officially back, and we're already looking forward to the next one. below you can watch a clip of the stream but there should also be a link to the full Twitch stream. Hope to see you next year!
Perry with his historic -16 score card on Blustery Basin
