Listen Now

It’s Round Four of The Americans in Pinehurst Roundtable, with erstwhile friends, Matt and Fred. In this episode we discuss a bit of a Sandhills Unicorn: a relatively new golf course, by Pinehurst area standards. I mean, of course, the Dormie Club, the 2010 Coore + Crenshaw masterwork located just 10 minutes from the heart…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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’…

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…

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…

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…

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…

This is Short Game Session 11 – A monologue of thoughts on a wild Club Championship week that included playing for keeps with a 5-wood, a great old course, and bad nerves before a driver fitting. Come for the golf talk, stay for the amateur physics lessons. Links for the show: The results of the…

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…

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 14. It’s our Fifth and Final Round of The Americans in Scotland Roundtable,  Just as melancholy set in as our Scottish Golf Adventure came to a close, so sets in a bit of sadness that this is the last edition of the audio journal of my travels around Scotland with Fred and…

Welcome to episode 13 of the Blind Shots Podcast. This is a conversation with J. Drew Rogers, ASGCA, a golf course architect that has helped produce and refine some of the best courses in Kentucky. Ours isn’t a discussion of architectural merit or strategies, but rather a talk about the business of being a golf…

This is episode 12.  It’s Round Four of The Americans in Scotland Roundtable. And emotionally, this is the big one.  It’s a conversation about the Old Course with my Scottish Golf Trip companions, Fred and Matt Chaney. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to describe the Old Course experience.…

This episode is a conversation with my Scottish Golf Trip companions discussing our round at St. Andrew’s Castle Course on a beautiful Scottish morning.  We also recount our favorite moments of food and cheer around the town of St. Andrews. I loved the Castle Course. It was challenging, yet rewarding, and very different from every…

A post-script on my one-man spirit of golf marathon to and thru the Sand Hills of North Carolina. I briefly recap what I was looking for, what I found, and what it means to me to have completed my personal golf crusade to my favorite American golf course, Mid Pines and Tobacco Road. I walked…