Episodes

Nearly one year after embarking on our Bandon Dunes adventure, Fred, Matt, and Dave reconvene one final time to tie the bow on our experiences on the Oregon coast. We discuss the highs and lows, what we loved and what we didn’t, and what we’d do differently on our next adventure out west. Matt also…

Golf course architect Brian Ross rejoins the show to discuss how Park Mammoth GC continues to evolve two years after its grand re-opening. With a new, permanent clubhouse under construction, a new short named “The Boneyard” that Brian is designer just announced, and the announcement of a new putting course to come, it’s an exciting…

In this conversation, I sat down with filmmaker Hagen O'Neil of Palmer Pictures to discuss the background and process of making his wonderful documentary film about the course, "From Red Clay to Fairways." Using the color personalities that form The Fields leadership team, Hagen brings the course's Phoenix-like rise to the screen, while exploring the principles of community and public golf writ large, as the divide between luxury and every day golf experiences continues to widen.

This is the Sheep Ranch episode. Perched against the coast on the bluff just north of the Pacific Dunes and Old Mac golf courses, the Sheep Ranch struck me as a bit different than the rest. A much ballyhood Coore Crenshaw masterpiece, it’s more familiar to other experiences than I felt on the rest of the Bandon Courses. Sure, it’s in a unique, almost magical setting, but it was flatter, with fewer visual disruptions. It felt like a core golf course, with long sightlines largely unbroken in most ...

Friend of the Show, Chris Boysel, PGA, returns to talk about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we think we’re going in golf in central Kentucky, and to an extent, in golf writ large. Chris oversees Tournament Operations and Player Development for Play Golf Lexington, the omnibus organization responsible for municipal golf in…

This is the Bandon Dunes episode, the one about the original course at the Bandon Dunes Resort, the one that started it all. This is where it began for Oregon as a golf destination, for the Keiser family golf empire, for golf architect David McKlay Kidd, for fun overtaking difficulty as the chief goal of…

Ethan Fisher, PGA, returns to the podcast to discuss his article over on OneBeardedGolfer.com revisiting the life and demise of the shooting star of Kentucky golf at the start of the 21st century, Old Silo Golf Course in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. It’s a fascinating, cautionary tale from the collapse of the most recent golf boom…

Matt, Fred, and I reconvene at the Americans in Scotland round table to discuss whether golf trips truly need a “trophy course” to anchor a buddies golf trip. It’s big-picture discussion based on the small details we’ve accumulated in a decade or so of golf trip experience.

Today, I welcome back to the show author, journalist, and all-around good guy Hal Phillips. He is the author of Generation Zero: Founding Father, Hidden Histories, and the Making of Soccer in America. He weaves together the threads of the various growth, regression, and re-birth cycles that culminated in USA soccer arriving upon the world stage in earnest at the 1990 World Cup. We happen to be living through a tumultuous time in men's professional golf, and I wondered if Hal might recognize any ...

Golf course architect Nathan Crace ASGCA of Watermark Golf stops by to talk me through the USGA and R&A decision to "roll back" the golf ball in the coming years. Nathan is smart enough to make it make sense, even to someone like me.