Sandbagger Sessions

Cole and Stefan are back — running on minimal sleep and maximum good vibes after Cole's bachelor party weekend at Wooden Sticks Golf Club in Uxbridge, Ontario. Four rounds in three days, hail, rain, snow, and a surprise appearance from their buddy James Duthie of TSN. Then it's straight into tour news, LIV Golf chaos, fantasy picks, and the main event — a full breakdown of exactly what it takes to break 90 and break 80, from a PGA of Canada golf professional.

Whether you've been chasing that milestone for years or just want to shave strokes this season, this is the most practical golf improvement episode Sandbagger Sessions has ever done.

📍 Timestamps

• 00:00 – Bachelor party recap: 4 rounds in 3 days at Wooden Sticks, James Duthie makes an appearance, and middle-aged men asking for chapstick and massage guns
• 04:00 – Tour news: Cam Young goes back-to-back, Stefan's fantasy picks sweep the weekend (Cam Young + Nelly Korda), and the embarrassing attendance at Doral
• 06:30 – LPGA pay gap: Cam Young wins $3.6M, Nelly Korda wins $375K — the boys react
• 08:30 – LIV Golf is (basically) dead: PIF pulling funding, anonymous owners calling investment "completely not viable"
• 13:30 – Truist Championship picks
• 18:00 – Main topic begins: Stefan breaks down what it actually takes to break 90 and break 80 (22 episodes in and we finally did this)
• 20:00 – Breaking 90: The real theme is disaster avoidance — work your game from the green backward, stop trying to flush it
• 27:00 – The three-putt stat that separates 90-shooters from 95-shooters, and why speed beats line every time from 30 feet
• 31:00 – Play the right tees, give yourself a shot at the feeling of going low, and why Bryson's "breaking 50" series is actually genius practice
• 34:00 – The driver trap: at 236-yard average carry, the guy trying to break 90 needs to stop OB'ing it, not hitting it further
• 45:00 – Transitioning to breaking 80: why it's less different than you think, and the one thing Stefan would tell every 15-handicap today
• 1:00:00 – Breaking 80 off the tee: pick ONE shot shape and never deviate. Dustin Johnson hits zero draws. Michael Kim draws everything. Both win on tour.
• 1:02:00 – The speed training hack: end every range session with 30 max-effort swings — you're not trying to swing 110 on the course, you're raising your floor
• 1:05:00 – Final summary: "Make better decisions" — from two guys who made terrible ones all weekend

🏌️ Key Takeaways for Golfers: Breaking 90 and breaking 80 aren't about ball-striking — they're about decision-making, disaster avoidance, and ego management. Stefan and Cole break down the stats, the mental game, and the specific habits that will actually move the needle on your scorecard.

Subscribe for weekly episodes covering PGA Tour news, LIV Golf drama, fantasy picks, and real golf improvement content.

#Golf #BreakingPar #GolfTips #SandbaggerSessions #LIVGolf #PGATour #GolfPodcast #HowToBreak90 #HowToBreak80 #GolfImprovement

Stefan has a confession. Justin Rose made a questionable decision. And we settle the debate: what ACTUALLY makes a great golf trip?

Episode 21 is packed — we recap the Zurich Classic, Nelly Korda's dominant Chevron win, dig into the new Full Swing season, break down the Ryder Cup captain situation in the US, and talk about the hottest amateur in golf right now. Then we go deep on what separates a legendary golf trip from a forgettable one — and the 8 types of guys every great group needs.

Oh, and Stefan picked up a free electric push cart off someone's driveway. He has thoughts. So do we.

Stefan has a confession, and he's getting ahead of it before the rumours spiral: he picked up a free Motocaddy off someone's driveway and he might be an electric push cart guy now. Cole is not taking it well.

From there, we get into a full week of golf — the Fitzpatrick brothers pull off one of the cooler wins of the season at the Zurich Classic, but we debate whether a team event should really be handing out PGA Tour cards. Nelly Korda wins her 3rd major at the Chevron Championship and looks absolutely unbeatable through 72 holes. Justin Rose decides to put McLaren golf clubs in his bag two weeks before the PGA Championship, and Stefan delivers a swift double bogey on that decision.

On the Ryder Cup front, Jim Furyk has been named US captain for Adare Manor — and we don't love it. We also talk about Jackson Koiven, who according to DataGolf is now the greatest amateur since 2010, and who Stefan believes will be on the Ryder Cup team next year. Big call. We break down the new season of Full Swing, dig into the Alan Shipnuck Rory McIlroy book, and Stefan makes a compelling case that Bryson DeChambeau would be a cult leader if he wasn't good at golf.

Then we get into the main event: what actually makes a great golf trip? Stefan runs through his top 5 factors (accommodations, meals, location, planning, and the group itself), Cole challenges the order, and we land on a full breakdown of the 8 personas you need in your golf trip group — the planner, the down-for-anything guy, the hidden gems guy, the games guy, the life of the party, the connector, the photo/video guy, and the overpacker. Plus the three types that will ruin a trip: the moody one, the person who can't sit in silence, and the FaceTime guy.

Cole's bachelor party is this weekend at Wooden Sticks in Uxbridge. Scotland is coming. Episode 22 might include some field footage. Subscribe so you don't miss it.

Will LIV golf live? The biggest story in professional golf right now and possibly the biggest story in a number of years - and the man who broke it first is back with us. Ryan French (Monday Q Info) returns to Sandbagger Sessions to walk us through exactly how he broke the bombshell story that PIF is pulling its funding from LIV Golf, what it means for the future of the tour, and where professional golf goes from here.

Ryan takes us behind the scenes: one unexpected phone call, 50+ calls to sources inside and outside of LIV, and a long conversation with his business partner before hitting send on a tweet that ended up with him on CNN, the Golf Channel and much more. He explains why he doesn't regret it - and why he was never doing it for the clicks.

We also break down the weekend in golf, Hannah Green's ridiculous stretch of form, and make our Zurich Classic picks for a field so thin that Smiley Kaufman could have gotten in.

Timestamps

• 0:00 – Welcome to Episode 20
• 1:03 – LIV bombshell teaser + Ryan French is back
• 2:54 – Weekend recap: Matt Fitzpatrick wins in a playoff over Scottie Scheffler
• 3:52 – Hannah Green is winning at an 80% rate in her last 5 starts
• 5:10 – Zurich Classic field breakdown
• 9:08 – Fantasy picks for the Zurich Classic
• 11:35 – Ryan French joins: how tired is the man who broke golf's biggest story?
• 13:43 – The timeline: one phone call turned into 8-10 hours of digging
• 17:26 – What is PIF, who is MBS, and how does LIV's funding actually work?
• 24:51 – What happened after the tweet dropped; and why the silence spoke volumes
• 28:02 – Scott O'Neill's response, the deleted interview, and the PR disaster
• 31:11 – The unnamed sources debate: Ryan pushes back
• 36:56 – Vendors unpaid, players on edge - "hour by hour" inside LIV
• 39:09 – The course correction: PGA Tour layoffs, purses coming down, and what golf actually is as a sport
• 46:00 – Why has LIV been so divisive? Ryan gives his honest take
• 47:10 – Ryan's prediction: what does the next 6 months look like for LIV?
• 57:18 – Cole & Stefan react + their own predictions for player movement

A big thanks to our guest, Ryan French, for coming on and being so generous with his time. Make sure you follow Monday Q Info: @caseofthegolf1 on Twitter/X

Sandbagger Sessions is a golf podcast hosted by Cole Atkinson and Stefan Thedorf, a PGA of Canada golf professional. New episodes every week.

#LIVGolf #RyanFrench #MondayQInfo #PIF #GolfNews #SandbaggerSessions #PGATour #GolfPodcast #LIVGolfDead #MattFitzpatrick #ZurichClassic

Rory McIlroy just went back-to-back at Augusta National — and we have THOUGHTS. On Episode 19, Cole and Stefan break down every angle of the 2026 Masters: the legendary finish, the CBS broadcast disaster, Sergio Garcia's embarrassing meltdown, LIV Golf's continued major problem, and whether Rory McIlroy is now a top-10 player of all time.

Plus, we debate the Sunday pin placements, rank our favourite shots of the week (Cam Young's chip on 8 is filthy), and break down the caddying masterclass from Harry Diamond on hole 12 that helped win Rory the tournament. We also preview the RBC Heritage and make our picks.

⛳ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 – Intro: Stefan takes the season-long money race lead
2:02 – Masters recap begins: Birdie, Par, or Bogey for the 2026 Masters overall?
5:59 – Augusta's identity crisis: Kevin Hart, Jason Kelce & celebrities at the Par-3 Contest — is Augusta losing its mystique?
7:25 – CBS broadcast gets a TRIPLE BOGEY: bung shot tracers, missing critical moments on 18, and Ian Baker-Finch's replacement Colt Knost trying too hard?
14:18 – Course setup debate: were the Sunday pins too easy? The hole 16 pillow fight argument
18:52 – The ugly: Par fives playing too soft on Sunday — could Augusta have been tougher?
24:39 – Sergio Garcia smashes his driver into the tee deck on hole 2 and gets an official warning — Cole is DONE with Sergio
31:00 – Was Rory's Augusta practice advantage unfair? Stephen A. Smith says yes. Michael Kim and Kevin Kisner say no. We weigh in.
33:17 – Haotong Li appreciation post — and his catastrophic 10 on hole 13
36:00 – Is Jordan Spieth back? Stefan says yes (and bets $50 at 5-to-1 odds that he wins in 2026). Cole disagrees strongly.
39:00 – LIV Golf at the Masters: only Tyrrell Hatton showed up. Where was Jon Rahm? Where was Bryson?
41:00 – Bryson DeChambeau's one-length irons exposed at Augusta (again)
44:00 – Justin Rose: the "thespian" of Augusta.
46:00 – Alex Norén clutches a 50-foot putt to make the cut on Friday. Absolute gamer.
48:23 – Favourite shots of the week: Cam Young's chip on 8, Jordan Spieth from behind a bush on 10, and more
49:33 – Scottie Scheffler breakdown: his par fives cost him the green jacket — and the personal context behind a tough week
57:43 – Shot of the tournament nominees + alternate universe scenarios (Justin Rose's eagle putt, Scotty's putt on 17)
1:00:37 – Rory's tee shot on 12 on Sunday: the caddy masterclass from Harry Diamond that changed everything
1:05:00 – Full Rory McIlroy back-to-back breakdown: how did he do it and what does it mean?
1:06:35 – Is Rory the greatest European golfer of all time? Is he top 10 all time? The resume speaks for itself.
1:09:00 – How many majors does Rory McIlroy end his career with? Over or under 9.5?
1:19:27 – RBC Heritage preview: Harbor Town, shot-shapers paradise, and the boys picks. Bonus: Ryan Gerard sleeper pick.
1:24:00 – Episode 20 preview + Zurich Classic team picks incoming

📌 About the Podcast
Two golf obsessives — one of them a PGA of Canada professional — break down everything happening in the golf world. We bring the knowledge, the hot takes, the debates, and enough comedy to make the commute fly by. New episodes every week.
Subscribe so you don't miss Episode 20 🔔

#Masters2026 #RoryMcIlroy #Masters #PGATour #GolfPodcast #RBCHeritage #ScottieScheffler #SerioGarcia #LIVGolf #AugustaNational #GolfNews #GolfHighlights #BackToBack #HarryDiamond #BrysonDeChambeau #JustinRose

It's Masters week and the boys are LOCKED IN.

Cole and Stefan break down everything heading into the 2026 Masters at Augusta National — then go head-to-head in a snake draft of the best Masters tournaments from 2005 to 2025. Tiger's chip-in on 16. Spieth's quadruple bogey meltdown on 12. Bubba's impossible hook shot. Phil's 6-iron from the pine straw while his wife battled cancer. Rory finally completing the Grand Slam. We rank them, debate them, and fight over who gets to claim the best moments in Masters history.

Before the draft, we recap the Valero Texas Open, break down our Masters picks and betting vibes for the week, debate the best Champions Dinner menus (Hideki's Japanese spread vs. Mike Weir's elk and boar), share our dream "things that would be sick if they happened" at Augusta, and figure out how Stefan is going to watch the final round while at his wife's birthday dinner.

🏌️ IN THIS EPISODE:

0:00 – Welcome back + James Duthie episode recap

2:48 – Valero Texas Open breakdown + JJ Spaun's comeback

10:00 – Masters picks: our betting cards for the week

20:00 – Stefan's "Vibes List" — 5 players to watch

30:00 – Champions Dinner menus ranked + the $1,800 bottle of wine debate

36:00 – "Things that would be sick" — dream Masters moments

46:00 – THE SNAKE DRAFT: Best Masters 2005–2025. Who has the better picks?

1:15:00 – Masters Sunday routines + how to watch

1:19:00 – Masters vs. The Open: which major is king?

🎙️ Sandbagger Sessions is a golf podcast hosted by Cole and Stefan (PGA of Canada Golf professional) out of Kingston, Ontario. New episodes weekly.

🔔 Like, subscribe, and drop a comment with YOUR top 5 Masters of the last 20 years.

#Masters #Masters2026 #TheMasters #AugustaNational #MastersWeek #GolfPodcast #MastersTournament #TigerWoods #RoryMcIlroy #JordanSpieth #PhilMickelson #BubbaWatson #ScottieScheffler #GolfDraft #SnakeDraft #MastersHistory #AmenCorner #GreenJacket #GolfContent #SandbaggerSessions #PGATour #GolfCanada #KingstonOntario #MastersPicks #GolfBetting #MastersDraft #BestMasters #GolfTikTok #GolfYouTube

🎙️ TSN's James Duthie Joins Sandbagger Sessions | Playing Augusta National, Covering The Masters, The Gretzky Question & More

TSN's James Duthie - one of Canada's most iconic sports broadcasters - sits down with Sandbagger Sessions for an incredible conversation about his deep love of the game of golf. This one is special.

James opens up about his origin story in golf. Sneaking onto Pine View Municipal before dawn as a kid, never paying a dime, and falling in love with the game on those early morning rounds with his late best friend Mark Ward. From there, he takes us inside decades of covering the Masters for TSN, including what Augusta National is really like behind the scenes, what it's like watching the tournament without a cell phone in 2026, and how TSN ended up sandwiched between ESPN and Golf Channel next to the driving range.

James shares the full story of winning the Augusta National media lottery and playing the course, showing up with dusty clubs, one golf ball, and an early morning Walmart run for Top Flite Hot XLs after discovering he only had one ball in his bag.

The conversation dives deep into Rory McIlroy's 2025 Masters win - what James calls "the greatest sports movie of all time" - and the raw emotion on the media sets when Rory finally sank that putt.

We also get into: his thoughts on this year's Masters contenders, why he thinks Canadian golf fans might be the most passionate in the world, his top five courses, the Joe Mayo bunker technique that's changing his life, and a hilarious New Zealand travel story involving a TSN colleague.

James also takes us behind the scenes of his Wayne Gretzky interview at the Milano Cortina Olympics: the question that divided Canada. He walks through exactly how he prepared the question, why he gave Gretzky a heads-up beforehand, and how he handled the backlash from both sides (including one very apologetic drunk DM).

Whether you're a Masters die-hard, a Canadian golf sicko, or you just want to hear one of the best storytellers in Canadian media talk about the game he loves, this is the episode.

Also this week on Sandbagger Sessions:

• Tiger Woods — his latest DUI arrest, what it means for the Masters, and why we think it's time for Tiger to step away and get help
• Gary Woodland's incredible comeback win and his courageous battle with a brain lesion, PTSD, and fear — the feel-good story of the year
• Stefan reads an official statement after getting destroyed in the picks competition (written by Cole, obviously)
• A "statement from Prime Minister Mark Carney" regarding Cole's citizenship status and his lack of support for Taylor Pendrith
• Alex Fitzpatrick wins on the DP World Tour — Matt's brother gets his first win
• Lydia Ko fires a 60 on the LPGA Tour and nobody noticed (a bogey for LPGA social media)
• Valero Texas Open picks
• Masters bet stakes revealed

📲 Follow us: @sandbaggersessions 🎧 New episodes weekly 👍 Like & Subscribe if you enjoyed the episode — we're building something here and every sub matters.

#Masters #TheMasters #AugustaNational #JamesDuthie #TSN #Golf #GolfPodcast #PGATour #RoryMcIlroy #TigerWoods #GaryWoodland #CanadianGolf #SandbaggerSessions #MastersWeek #GolfContent

Should you buy drinks after a hole-in-one? Can you wear a hat in the clubhouse? Should dress codes still exist in modern golf? Cole and Stefan go deep on the unwritten rules of golf — debating which traditions deserve to stay and which ones need to go.

But first: the guys break down Chasing Sunday, the PGA Tour's behind-the-scenes documentary from The Players Championship — released just 48 hours after the final putt dropped. Stefan calls it 10x better than Full Swing. Cole gives it a par. They dig into what they actually learned about Akshay Bhatia and his caddy Joe Griner's relationship, why Brooks Koepka doesn't carry a yardage book (and why that's actually kind of insane), Rickie Fowler being way quieter than expected on the course, and what a "PGA Red Zone" would look like.

Then: Valspar recap featuring Matt Fitzpatrick's win, a Sungjae Im Sunday collapse, and the incredible story of Will Wilcox — a former PGA Tour player who lost everything to drugs, lived in a trailer in Alabama, and is now caddying for one of the tour's biggest grinders. Stefan gives Cole a well-deserved bogey for back-to-back miss cuts with his fantasy picks, while Cole somehow continues to lead by $1.6 million in the season long race.

Plus: Cole and Stefan both land on their picks for the Houston Open and make a bet with consequences if Taylor Pendrith beats Aldrich Potgieter.

In this episode:

- Chasing Sunday full review — is it better than Full Swing?
- Brooks Koepka doesn't use a yardage book — caddy genius or insanity?
- Golf's unwritten rules: dress codes, logos from courses you haven't played, hat etiquette, walking through putting lines, and more
- Valspar recap + the Will Wilcox redemption story
- Fantasy picks for the Texas Children's Houston Open
- TGL season finale disappointment
- Masters buildup begins

Subscribe and hit the bell to catch the Masters preview episodes coming up — including a special guest next week.

#Golf #PGATour #ChasingSunday #GolfPodcast #UnwrittenRules #SandбaggerSessions #ThePlayers #Valspar #MattFitzpatrick #BrooksKoepka #Masters2025 #GolfTwitter

Cameron Young wins The Players Championship in dramatic fashion as overnight leader Ludvig Åberg collapses down the stretch — and we break down every moment of one of the wildest final rounds in recent memory.

Then we get into the big one: PGA Tour Commissioner Brian Rolapp's strategic press conference and the six major themes that could reshape professional golf as we know it. Two-tier competition, relegation systems, playoff overhauls, and a season opener that actually means something — we cover it all and give you our honest take on whether this is real change or just noise.

Plus our weekly Birdie/Par/Bogey breakdown, tournament picks for the Valspar Championship, and the season long fantasy battle continues.

In this episode:
- Cam Young's stunning Players Championship win and that 375-yard drive on 18
- Ludvig Åberg's back-nine collapse — Rory 2011 Masters parallels?
- PGA Tour two-tier system explained: what it means for the game's biggest names
- Relegation in professional golf — good idea or disaster?
- Match play playoffs and a win-or-go-home postseason format
- Why the PGA Tour needs its own Cooper Flagg storytelling moment
- Valspar Championship picks

Episode 14 is here, and it's a big one.

Cole and Stefan break down everything you need to know heading into Players week at TPC Sawgrass, fresh off a wild Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Before getting into the Players, the boys react to one of the most entertaining Sundays of the PGA Tour season so far. The Berger vs Bhatia duel at Bay Hill had swing after swing momentum shift, and Cole and Stefan break down some key course management moments that tell you a lot about how the best players in the world think. There's also a deeper conversation about putter length rules, the anchoring debate, and what the pros are actually doing out there.

Then it's all Players, all the time:

The fifth major debate gets a full Canadian verdict, the island green at 17 gets the deep dive treatment (including a legendary 1985 tournament story you have to hear to believe), and the boys share some wild stats about what the hole actually does to amateur golfers. There's also a Player Championship history trivia segment that will test even the most hardcore golf fans.

On the competitive side, Stefan and Cole make their picks for the week, and let's just say one of them goes full analytics mode while the other is riding pure vibes. A Scotty vs Rory side bet also gets locked in, with some spicy handicapping on the line.

Other topics include the PGA Tour's shrinking field and what it actually means for field strength, what to expect from Brian Rollap's upcoming press conference, the fate of the creator classic, and some genuine debate on whether the PGA Championship is doing its job as the unofficial "fifth major."

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Today's episode is dedicated to Jim Barber. Jim was a stalwart and legend of the golfing community here in Kingston, Ontario. The brain and founder behind the Landings Golf Course and Teaching Centre, Jim dedicated his life to making golf more fun and accessible for people of all ages in the Kingston area. Our thoughts go out to all of the Barber family after the sad news of Jim's passing this week. We will miss you Jim, thank you for everything.

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Subscribe, leave a review, and we'll see you next week for Episode 15 and the full Players recap.

#ThePlayers #TPCSawgrass #PGATour #GolfPodcast #SandbaggerSessions #GolfCanada

Golf has plenty of great stories… but some of the strangest and darkest ones happen off the scorecard. In this special “Dark Episode” of Sandbagger Sessions, we dive into the weird, creepy, and sometimes downright criminal stories connected to golf courses around the world.

From unsolved crimes and haunted golf courses to golfers doing truly bizarre things, we each bring a list of the most unusual and unsettling stories we could find in the world of golf. Some are historical mysteries, some involve real crimes on the course, and some are just the kind of strange golf folklore you wouldn’t believe unless you heard it.

In this episode we talk about:

• A haunted golf course built on thousands of graves in San Francisco
• A chilling murder–suicide connected to a meeting on a golf course
• A man who assaulted people with golf clubs during a dispute on a course
• The bizarre story of a fake Titleist rep scamming golfers with nonexistent clubs
• A strange mini-golf statue theft at 4am
• And more dark, weird, and unbelievable golf stories

If you love golf history, bizarre sports stories, and the strange side of the game, this might be the darkest golf episode you’ll ever hear.

⛳ New episodes of Sandbagger Sessions every week.