Episodes

This is the final Americans in Pinehurst Roundtable, this time with friend of the podcast John Mark Kennedy, wherein we delve into that most special of Sandhills' courses, Tobacco Road. I’m often asked by folks that haven’t made the pilgrimage to Sanford, North Carolina, what makes the course so special, and I invariable struggle to come up with a satisfactory response. On a piece of land with a complicated history, from tobacco patch to mining and sand extraction, it now looks and feels like it...

Welcome to another episode in my series of discussions about Public Golf in America, this time through our local scene here in Central Kentucky, Justin Mullinnax, PGA. After serving as the head golf professional at Kearney Hill Golf Course and Gay Brewer Jr. Course at Picadome, Justin is now charged with overseeing Lexington’s golf leagues, adult clinics, and championship tournament schedules, basically to be the engagement manager for Lexington golf, for beginners and serious players. While the...

Today, Fred and I recap what made our recent Winter Golf Getaway to Chattanooga, Tennessee so special and fun. We lament a canceled event at Sweetens Cove, the mother of all Plan B’s, and also do a brief deep dive on what makes Black Creek Club a very special place. Black Creek Club is the…

A front nine of thoughts to close out the winter off-season and move towards the active spring golf window, a monologue riff on what we've been up to at the Blind Shots Podcast and what we're looking forward to. Topics include a recent golf trip that was ruined, then miraculously salvaged, all within a half of an hour, what I learned by being a golf trip participant instead of being in charge, and why I'm hopeful that golf can actually get "smaller."

In Episode 26, Scott Laffin and I bounce around ideas golf and golf course businesses.He has carved out a non-traditional role for himself in golf course design and construction through is firm, Feature Golf Consulting, as the guy behind the guy. A professional landscape architect by training, he’s enjoyed backdoor access and hands-on experience to some of the most exciting projects of the last decade, including the original Sand Valley Course in Wisconsin, and the newly announced Lido Course re...

Today’s episode is another in my series of discussions about Public Golf in America. This version is a special treat, as I have a wide-ranging discussion with one of the smartest, most intriguingly credentialed people working in golf, Mike McCartin, co-founder of the National Links Trust. With a bachelor’s degree in economics from that esteemed school in Durham, North Carolina, and a masters of landscape architecture from Georgia, experience as a working golf course designer and builder with Ren...

It’s Round Three of The Americans in Pinehurst Roundtable, with our friends, Matt and Fred. In this episode we contrast two courses that I strain to find nominal similarities, but in reality, couldn’t be much more different. I’m talking about Donald Ross’s Southern Pines Golf Club, and Rees’ Jones New Course at Talamore, both in Southern Pines, NC. Talking about these two courses with Fred and Matt bring back plenty of great memories, and some deeper thoughts about golf trips and the Sandhills. ...

Welcome to the second episode of The StoneCrest Series, an in-depth look a very special golf course in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Brad Reynolds is the course's superintendent and general manager, so there's few people who could know StoneCrest better. We talk everything from collapsing greens to amazing scenery to community assets and municipal course operations. It's such a treat to get insights about the golf industry and a specific golf course from someone who lives it everyday. I may...

Welcome to Episode 22! To start the new year, I bring you the voice of someone new to the game. Many of you are lifers or golf tragics, like me. I find chatting or playing a round of golf with someone that has just been newly bitten by the golf bug to be a wonderfully nostalgic exercise that helps realign perspective and priorities more toward where they deserve to be, in golf (and life). Golf is supposed to be a game, remember? She has caught the golf bug something awful and this was my chance ...