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DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | Three years ago the European Tour’s content team made an amusing short film of a starstruck 9-year-old boy interviewing some of Europe’s top pro golfers. It was a social media sensation, attracting millions of hits on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and bringing the tour considerable praise.
Last Friday, the tour released a follow-up video in which "Little Billy," whose real name is Billy Jenkins (above), returns to the DP World Tour Championship attempting to resurrect his failing career as an interrogator. All he needs is one more big interview. Can he get it?
WATCH
The answer would seem to be no as one by one the players who worked with him in 2016 turn against the now 12-year-old interviewer. Scott Crockett, the European Tour's director of communications, does a star turn in storming out of a car and dismissing Billy’s comeback attempt. Rory McIlroy rejects Billy’s pleas, Thomas Bjørn is rude to him, Ian Poulter physically turns him upside down and throws him out of a room, Tommy Fleetwood asks for a fee, and Danny Willett will not acknowledge Billy’s presence in a press conference. And so it goes on. Is this the end for Little Billy?
The film is funny and perfectly demonstrates a characteristic that Europeans have of being able to poke fun at themselves. It rapidly acquired a following similar to that of the first film, which had received 8 million hits at the latest count. Within 12 hours of first being broadcast on social media, the second Little Billy video had received 1.2 million hits on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram TV, YouTube, LinkedIn and EuropeanTour.com and that total was rising by the minute.
Staff and Wire Reports