The Fried Egg Golf Podcast

This midweek Masters episode starts with Garrett offering some solo thoughts on the pre-tournament press conferences at Augusta National (0:34). He touches on ANGC chairman Fred Ridley's announcement of a partnership with a local muni as well as Ridley's diplomatic but telling comments on the USGA and R&A's efforts to roll back the golf ball in elite competitions. Also assessed are Dustin Johnson's and Jon Rahm's reactions to the newly lengthened 13th hole. Garrett then brings on golf historian Bob Crosby (@otey71) to explore an alternative take on the history of Augusta National's course design (14:49). Bob takes Garrett through the origins and evolution of the third, eighth, seventh, and 10th holes at the Masters venue and offers a compelling interpretation of why they changed—or, in the case of the third hole, didn't change—and what it all meant.

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Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion and current CBS lead analyst, joins host Andy to provide a preview of the upcoming 2023 Masters. Immelman brings fresh insights from his recent weekend spent at Augusta National, including an in-depth analysis of the changes made to the 13th hole and their impact on this year's tournament. Other topics discussed include Rory's pursuit of the Grand Slam, Scottie Scheffler's suitability for Augusta National, and how the preparation of LIV players will affect their performance in this year's first major championship.

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Garrett and Meg Adkins (@megadkins_TFE) launch this Tuesday show by sharing their favorite memories from the erstwhile WGC-Dell Match Play. They then dig into the current state of the LPGA Tour, offering takeaways from this past week's Drive On Championship; thoughts on the players who are currently top tier (and almost top tier); criticisms of the awkward, momentum-free start to the LPGA schedule; and analysis of the quiet power struggle between the LPGA Tour, the Ladies European Tour, and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. For the next segment, Garrett brings on Anne Walker, head coach of the stellar Stanford women's golf team, to talk about the NCAA season so far and get some inside info on the three Stanford players who will participate in this week's Augusta National Women's Amateur: Brooke Seay, Megha Ganne, and the dominant Rose Zhang. Garrett and Meg then wrap up by discussing the golf storylines they're tracking this week.

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Andy opens the episode by running through his favorites for the 2023 Masters. He is then joined by golf architect Jaeger Kovich for a wide-ranging conversation. They talk about how Jaeger builds greens, the challenges of running his own firm, how he does master plans and presentations for clubs, and his thoughts about the potential impact of the Model Local Rule ball. They wrap up with Jaeger doing a power ranking of the different golf regions of Scotland and England.

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NOTE: If you initially hear last week's episode with Brendan Porath and Sean Martin, delete that episode and re-download. We made an uploading mistake. Sorry about that!

At the top of our Tuesday show, Joseph LaMagna (@JosephLaMagna) calms Garrett's fears about the state of Jordan Spieth's game. They then talk about the PGA Tour's WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, which will no longer exist after this year (4:59). They review Austin Country Club, the excellent venue for the tournament, and run through the various (frustrating) reasons that the Match Play fizzled out. For the next segment, Garrett brings on Dean Snell, the founder of Snell Golf as well as one of the engineering minds behind the Titleist Professional and ProV1 golf balls, to discuss the governing bodies' new Model Local Rule from an equipment-industry perspective (29:45). Dean is, to say the least, not pro-rollback. Finally, Joseph and Garrett give their storylines to track in the golf world this week (1:09:52).

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On Tuesday, the USGA and R&A announced a Model Local Rule (MLR) that, if adopted, would reduce the flight of the golf ball in high-level tournaments. This is a historic move that deserves the mega-pod treatment. To kick things off, Andy and Garrett discuss the basics of the MLR and why the governing bodies have gone this route in tackling the distance issue (4:03). Then Andy brings on a series of guests: golf architect Tom Doak to explore the impact that the MLR might have on golf course design (30:04), former PGA Tour pro Roberto Castro to talk about the change from a player's perspective (48:34), and analytics whiz Joseph LaMagna to explore the effects that rollback could have on course management and strategy at the elite competitive level (1:09:23).

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Our Tuesday show covers a variety of topics related to the past week's Players Championship. First, Garrett talks with Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) about whether Scottie Scheffler's win should count as 0.5 of a major (0:35). Then Garrett brings in the PGA Tour's Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) to discuss Scheffler's mindset and approach to the game (8:05). Garrett and Sean touch on, among other things, the relationship between scrambling and faith. After that, Brendan rejoins the pod to chat with Garrett about the discontent that some rank-and-file players feel about the PGA Tour's new designated event model (33:21), and they close with two golf storylines to track in the coming week (56:55).

NOTE: We recorded this podcast on Monday morning, before the USGA and R&A announced their plan to limit distance at the elite levels of the game by rolling back the golf ball. We will cover that subject in depth on our Thursday episode this week.

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Over the past week, the PGA Tour has released details about the structure of its new "designated event model." To sort it all out, Andy sits down with former tour player Joe Ogilvie (@ogilviej). Joe talks about his time on the Tour's player advisory council and policy board, the past 18 months in golf, his thoughts on the Tour's proposed changes, and what he would do if he were commissioner.

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It's Players week! Shane Bacon (@shanebacon) joins Andy to preview the action at TPC Sawgrass. They discuss how designated events will affect the 2023 Players and future tournaments, the Tour's response to LIV defectors (including last year's Players champion Cameron Smith), which players might have a breakout week, and the uniqueness of the Stadium Course's design. Shane and Andy wrap up by giving their picks to win.

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LIV Golf is getting some brutal-sounding ratings on the CW, the PGA Tour's TV partners are changing things up, and golf broadcasting has become a hot topic lately. To break it all down, Garrett talks with Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter), an assistant managing editor at Sports Business Journal. Josh is also, as will become apparent in this episode, a golf nut. He and Garrett discuss LIV's disappointing debut performance on the CW, what golf ratings can and can't tell us, and how the breakaway league's business prospects look in year two. In the second half of the episode, they dig into the attempts by CBS and NBC to freshen up PGA Tour telecasts and the potential effects of the new designated-event structure on the Tour's bottom line.

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