In the latest edition of our Superintendent Series, Andy Johnson meets up with Eric Richardson (@erichturf), Director of Grounds at Essex County Club, at the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) Conference and Trade Show in San Diego, California. Along with architect Bruce Hepner, Eric has worked to return Essex County to its Donald Ross roots. He has overseen projects such as enlarging greens, changing mowing lines, reshaping bunkers, giving the course a minimalist look and feel, and maintaining ideal playing conditions on the property's unique terrain. Andy and Eric also discover they have a similar disdain for ball washers.

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Superintendent Series: Eric Richardson of Essex County Club

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Angela Moser sits down in person with Garrett to share the story of how Pinehurst's latest course, the Tom Doak-designed No. 10, was built. As lead associate on the project, Angela was in charge of getting the course ready for play in under a year. From the moment she found out she was getting the job to playing the first rounds on the course, she discusses the most difficult parts of the project, how the role of lead associate differs from shaper, and the holes she thinks will be the most talked about.

All Things Pinehurst No. 10 with Architect Angela Moser

Four  months into the 2024 pro golf season, Andy and Joseph sit down to discuss the professional golfers whose stocks have gone up and down the most so far this year. First, though, they talk about what they are IN and OUT on this week, including reflections from a visit to Bandon Dunes and a bizarre ruling on the DP World Tour. Then they go through the golfers whose stocks have risen and fallen the most in 2024 and how the best players in the world stack up today. The episode closes with Recommendations.

Biggest Stock Movers of the 2024 Pro Golf Season

George Bryan IV is a professional golfer and YouTube star who, along with his brother Wesley (a PGA Tour winner), operates the popular Bryan Bros YouTube channel. In the midst of his preparation for the PGA Tour's Myrtle Beach Classic, which he will play in next week on a sponsor exemption, George joined Garrett for a wide-ranging conversation about his parallel careers in pro golf and content creation, his evolving mental approach on the course, his relationship with his brother, the rise of YouTube golf, and his and Wesley's plans to run a club in Columbia, South Carolina.

George Bryan on YouTube Fame and Tour Dreams

Andy and Garrett convene for their first golf architecture mailbag in a while, tackling questions about new courses they're excited to see in the next couple of years, which current tour pros might make good architects, how The Lido bucks convention, the holes at Yale that they're most eager to see restored, and the cultural forces that are shaping golf course design right now. As usual, they open the episode with In and Out, and they wrap it up with Recommendations.
Note: The Scottie Scheffler interview that Garrett refers to in this episode was conducted by Friend of the Program Sean Martin for PGA Tour dot com. Read that piece here.

Golf Architecture Mailbag: Exciting New Courses, the Yale Restoration, and the State of the Industry

Designed by Brian Schneider and Blake Conant, Old Barnwell near Aiken, South Carolina, is one of the best-reviewed and most buzzed-about new golf courses of the past several years. In this episode, Garrett sits down with Old Barnwell's founder Nick Schreiber to delve into the nuts and bolts of how the course came to be. They talk about Nick's early years as a caddie, his vision for a "mission-focused" private club, how he found the property, why he hired Schneider and Conant, and his plans for Old Barnwell's second and third courses. They also discuss the broader state of the golf course industry—specifically, whether the current surge in construction might prove to be a bubble.

Superintendent Series: Eric Richardson of Essex County Club

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