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…