Episodes

The COVID-19 induced golf boom of 2020 was one of the weird silver linings in a year unlike any other. Participation rates, numbers of rounds, and memberships sold were up across the board in places where golf was deemed a relatively safe form of recreation. For the purposes of this discussion, it paused many municipalities' slow assault against public golf courses, as revenues once thought gone forever again filled city coffers. Unfortunately, this era of good feelings sentiment doesn't extend ...

We welcome golf course architect Brian Ross in Episode 20, the first of a small series of episodes focused on one of my favorite and most special places in golf, StoneCrest Golf Course in Floyd County, Kentucky. A couple of hours southeast of Lexington, high on the mountain ridge above the city of Prestonsburg lay one of the most unique golf courses in the world. Constructed as part of a mountaintop removal reclamation site, StoneCrest offers a championship golf course in a remote part of Appala...

Welcome to Episode 19, an audio essay about golf friends and The Brotherhood of the Bogey. Thoughts on a page that I spoke into the microphone, essentially. A private message from a listener regarding an Americans in Scotland episode sends me down a path of introspection of who I play golf with, why, and what the next evolution looks like. I digress into a brief synopsis of why a recent swing change is the real deal and why I really mean it this time, I promise.

It’s Round Two of The Americans in Pinehurst Roundtable, and in this episode we visit one of my very favorite golf courses in the world, Mid Pines Golf Club, and it’s worthy brother across the street, the Pine Needles Golf Course. I’m a sucker for a period piece, and Mid Pines has the vibe of vintage cool practically oozing up through its firm, sandy turf and sandy, native grass waste areas. And it’s a perfect walking course, to boot. Gentle slopes that lead to some of the most subtle yet captiv...

What starts as a grill room debate with one of my best friends about Tobacco Road Golf Club evolved into a deep dive into blind shots on the golf course. At issue are the merits and differences between blind tee shots versus blind approach shots. To help settle the point, I tap friends and experts from a broad cross-section of the golf world to talk with me about blind shots.

Welcome to our new Americans in Pinehurst series. Familiar voices from a new setting, as Fred, Matt, and I provide tales, laughs, and analysis on our experiences in the Sandhills region of North Carolina. This week we discuss how we began our 2020 Golf Trip at the Pinehurst Resort, playing Pinehurst #1, The Cradle, and the Thistle Dhu putting course. Links: Pinehurst No. 1 The Cradle Thistle Dhu Putting Course

Welcome to episode 15. I chat with one of the best people I’ve met in the golf industry, John Kim, of U.S. Kids Golf. He’s a true golf tragic if there ever was one, but has been blessed to see some of the best things in golf up close and personal. We discuss U.S. Kids…

Welcome to Short Game Session #10. This week I riff on our recent Buddies’ Trip to the Sandhills of North Carolina, winner’s guilt, and letting go of the reins. The Pinehurst-Southern Pines-Sanford area of North Carolina has such incredible golf courses and experiences. It’s my Scotland that I can reach without getting on an airplane,…

Welcome to Episode 8 - The Americans in Scotland Round table, Round Two. In this episode, we recount our day at Carnoustie and a day at Elie. It’s a virtual roundtable conversation with my Scottish Golf Trip companions remembering our journey getting to and from Carnoustie, golf on the world’s hardest links course, and the wonderful experience on and off of the course there. We also recount our day at Golf House Club at Elie, and what was probably our most joyful rounds of golf in Scotland, plus...

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Blind Shots Podcast. This episode is a fun discussion with Tyler Van Hoose, who is the general manager of the Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, just south of Lexington in central Kentucky. Keene Trace Golf Club, among other accolades, is the host club of the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship. It’s a conversation with Tyler about the status and business of golf right now, through the lens of an uncommon model of a contemporary golf club. Running a non-eq...

Welcome to another episode in our Scottish Golf Experiences series! This episode is a companion piece to my essay Afternoons were for Match Play, which you can find over on the blog at OneBeardedGolfer.com. This interview with my friend and competitor, Matt Chaney, delves further in depth into what made our random afternoon matches at golf courses half way around the world so special. It's not a shot-by-shot recounting of our shots. It's both of us grasping for an explanation for why those few h...

A pop-up version of the Blind Shots Podcast, this mini-episode is the “after” of a before and after collection of podcasts about an overdue golf lesson. It’s a little different from the standard interview format, more in the style of a rant or audio confessional, that I hope you will like. This will be the…

A pop-up version of the Blind Shots Podcast, the “before” of a before and after collection of podcasts about an overdue golf lesson. This is something a little different that I hope you will like. This podcast is a brief monologue about my fears, worries, and expectations the night before my first golf lesson in…