LINKS Golf Podcast

Digital Editor Al Lunsford was one of the lucky winners of the annual media lottery to play a round at Augusta National the day after the final round of the 2024 Masters Tournament.

On a special edition of the LINKS Golf Podcast, Al chats with co-host Joe Passov, a past media lottery winner, and details the week leading up to his round, the experience of playing the course, and what he learned along the way.

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Hughes Norton and George Peper, authors of RAINMAKER: Superagent Hughes Norton and the Money-Grab Explosion of Golf from Tiger to LIV and Beyond, join the LINKS Golf Podcast to chat about the book, dealing with golf’s biggest power players, and the state of today’s game.

Norton was once one of the most powerful men in golf. During his tenure as head of the golf division of Mark McCormack’s International Management Group (IMG), he was the lead agent for six world-number-one-ranked players, including both Greg Norman and Tiger Woods.

Before Tiger ever struck a ball as a professional, Norton did deals with Nike and Titleist that brought him more than $60 million, a then-unprecedented sum for a professional athlete. Less than two years later—and for reasons never explained—Tiger fired Norton. McCormack then did the same, giving him a multi-million-dollar parachute tied to a 10-year non-compete clause and a gag order.

Now, for the first time, Norton is talking—about his clients, his boss, and his role in fostering the era of unbridled greed that now threatens to destroy professional golf.

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The hosts recap the 2024 LINKS Invitational at Pebble Beach and discuss why the world-class resort is one of the best. The second half of the episode features an interview with golf architect and author Richard Mandell about building great courses on a budget, living in Pinehurst, his latest book, and more.

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Golf course architect Bill Bergin joins the LINKS Golf Podcast to talk about his design of the Highlands Course at McLemore (pictured), and the new course he is building for the Georgia resort/community with Rees Jones called The Keep. The hosts also chat with Bergin about finishing 14th in the 1984 Open Championship, the similarities between Augusta National and the Old Course at St. Andrews, traveling around the country in a van, and more.

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On this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast the hosts chat with Hayes Holderness, who is set to complete his pursuit of playing all the courses on the World Top 100 list this year. Holderness discusses the most challenging courses to get on, wild travel moments, the close-knit group of golfers that share the common goal, and more.

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Co-hosts Joe Passov and Al Lunsford look into multiple eras of golf course architecture and choose a few of the designers who deserve greater acclaim in this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast.

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Inventive golf course architect Forrest Richardson discusses some of his most out-of-the-box course ideas—20-hole courses, par-two holes, twin 9-hole routings, and more—on this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast. The hosts chat with Richardson about his past presidency at the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA), his choice for the game’s most underrated course architect, being the parent of a Hollywood actor, and more.

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LINKS Editor George Peper is back to break down our latest issue in this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast. Topics discussed include changes in the magazine in 2024, George’s column on the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the next group of course architects to step up to the A-List, and more.

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The hosts report on one of the country's newest golf destinations, Cabot Citrus Farms in Florida, on this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast. Digital Editor Al Lunsford gives his early impressions after visiting Cabot Citrus Farms in January, while co-host Joe Passov gives background on the former courses that occupied the property.

Al also interviews Kyle Franz (architect of the Karoo course at Cabot Citrus Farms) and Cabot CEO Ben Cowan-Dewar.

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After attending the golf industry’s annual trade show in Orlando, hosts Joe Passov and Al Lunsford discuss the items that piqued their interest in this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast.

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