For more than two decades, Michael Bamberger, a Golf Magazine writer, has brought an unconventional and often quirky sensibility to his coverage of Tiger Woods. Bamberger discusses The Second Life of Tiger Woods, his look at the 15-time major winner's resurgence after a long downward spiral in his career. In the second segment, Sameer Pandya, a literary and cultural studies professor at UC Santa Barbara, talks about his maiden novel, Members Only, which is about race and privilege at a predominantly white tennis club. Both these writers are brilliant at bringing sports and the game of golf into focus in a deeply thoughtful, historical and intellectual way that is sure to engage and challenge fans of this podcast. 

Loud, outspoken and a sometimes outlandish dresser, the 36-year-old San Jose native and three-time LPGA Tour winner is not your typical reserved Tour player. Whether it’s about Black Lives Matter or LGBT or Covid-19 protocols, she isn’t afraid to speak her mind. With Bo and Farrell, Christina is funny, honest and grateful about her life in golf.

With stints at Newsday, the New York Times and Sports Illustrated, where he covered the NFL and the PGA Tour, Damon Hack is one of the most respected sportswriters in America. At the Golf Channel since 2012, the Los Angeles native and father of triplet boys has responded to the current social unrest with a weekly segment on the Morning Drive that places golf at the center of the conversation about race in America. 

When Sean Foley speaks it's a window into the mind of a man equally at home with both The Golfing Machine and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The 46-year-old Canadian native has been an instructor to some of the best players in the world, including Tiger Woods and Justin Rose. Often waxing eloquent in the lyrical cadences of some of his favorite rappers and civil rights heroes, Foley is destined to use his stature to make an impact on the world larger than the game. With Bo and Farrell, he is at his best — at once explaining the evolution of his teaching methods and then expounding on the nature of race in America.

In 2005, Jason Gore was a sectional qualifier in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst and nearly won the championship. Now 15-years later, he works for the USGA as the Player Liaison, where he has the task of providing a player's perspective on course setup at this year's championship at Winged Foot. With Bo and Farrell, Gore talks about that magical week at Pinehurst, his new job, his playing days and the rough at Winged Foot. Gore's colleagues at the USGA, Steven Schloss and Charlie Howe, join the episode to offer their unique perspectives on the U.S. Open. As the Chief People Officer, Schloss is the man tasked with leading a 125-year-old organization to greater diversity and inclusion during a time marked by racial strife. Howe, the Championship Director, speaks with gratitude of the bonds he forms every two years at a U.S. Open site and the challenges of holding a tournament during a pandemic. 

No matter your political bent it’s easy to concede that Donald Trump has been an unusual president. In this latest episode of Both Sides of the Ball, Bo and Farrell have a wide-ranging conversation with Rick Reilly, the 11-time Sportswriter of the Year award winner and author of Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, to try to gain more insight into Trump the golfer and man. Reilly tells one funny story after another from his book about Trump cheating to win on the golf course. Bo and Farrell also share their own Trump stories in this unfiltered conversation with one of the best-known sportswriters in America.

Bo and Farrell visit with old friends, Tim O’Neal and Alan Bratton. O’Neal, a 48-year-old journeyman pro golfer who has seen everything in 25 years of his pursuit to reach the PGA Tour, shares the story of how he let his best chance of making the tour slip away at the 2000 Q-School. Bratton, the Oklahoma State men’s golf coach, talks about some of his young players now on tour, following a legend as the coach at his Alma Mater and what a young Bo Van Pelt was like when they were teammates at OSU.

Bo and Farrell react to the response of professional sports to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. While the NFL, the NBA and WNBA, Major League Baseball and the NHL engaged the moment with boycotts and statements of player solidarity around addressing social justice issues and police brutality, PGA Tour players at the BMW Championship mostly said very little and continued business as usual. The PGA Tour did issue a press release but it wasn't enough for Farrell, who is disappointed that the golfers didn't act en masse as many of the other athletes had in other sports. Bo offers reasons why his colleagues didn't say more and is hopeful that the PGA Tour's legacy of charity will carry over into social justice issues. Both Bo and Farrell agree that the game's past response to the social justice and civil rights issues have already bore perhaps the greatest fruit of the game to this generation: Tiger Woods. 

In episode No.2 of Both Sides of the Ball, Bo and Farrell have wide-ranging conversations with Jeff Champ, the father of rising PGA Tour star, Cameron Champ, and Michael Collins, an ESPN golf personality. Bo and Farrell learn what the Champ’s are doing through their foundation to grow the game and help underserved youth. A former comedian and caddie, Collins serves up a hefty dose of funny stories of his escapades as a tour caddie, as well as some perspective on the decline of the black caddie.

In this premiere episode of Both Sides of the Ball, co-hosts and long-time friends Bo Van Pelt and Farrell Evans explain how the social unrest in America during the Pandemic led them to start this podcast that will use the game of golf as a platform to ask deeper questions about our society and culture. The show's first two guests, both PGA Professionals, Mark Wood and Earl Cooper, demonstrate the breadth of the show's reach. Wood, who has been Bo's teacher for 20 years, brings a seasoned insider's perspective to equipment technology, instruction, and the PGA Tour over the last 40 years, while Cooper, an African-American millennial, is charged to shake the foundation of the game to make it a more accessible place for all people. "Silence is not ok, Cooper says. "We need to vocalize where we stand on (racial injustice and equity).