The Thing About Golf Podcast

The notion of the career amateur is long gone but among the last of that crop was today’s guest, two-time British Amateur champion Peter McEvoy. 

One of the best of his generation, McEvoy was a stalwart of UK amateur golf for decades from a successful amateur playing career through to captaining two winning Walker Cup teams. Over that time, he has collected his fair share of wisdom about the game in all aspects and he shares some of that with host John Huggan in this fascinating episode of The Thing About Golf.

There's almost no end to golf instruction and it’s a world that can quickly overwhelm players at almost any level. 

Enter Dr Karl Morris and co-author Gary Nicol and their ‘Lost Art’ series of books. 

As you’ll hear in this in-depth chat with Karl Morris – a sports psychologist who has helped some of the world's best players win major championships – there is an awful lot involved in playing good golf and focussing solely on technique isn’t always the best way to do it. 

If you do nothing more than take on board some of Karl’s ideas in this interview your golf will improve. But if you really listen, you’ll find nuggets of wisdom that offer rewards well beyond just improving your score.

He’s been one of the game’s great storytellers for more than 30 years and while he retired last year the work of Guys Yocom will endure for generations to come.

He is best known for his iconic My Shot column but Yocom has a resume far beyond his magazine work.

A natural story teller with a flair for fun, Yocom sits down with long time friend and former colleague John Huggan for a lengthy chat and to ponder life’s most important question: What is The Thing About Golf?

When you think of the world’s golf hot spots it would be fair to say Iceland doesn’t spring immediately to mind. 

But not only is the Nordic country golf mad (the game is second only to football in participation) but it is home to some of the world’s most interesting courses. 

Icelandic course architect Edwin Roald is one of the industry’s most thoughtful and eloquent speakers and in this wide-ranging chat with host Rod Morri, he introduces us to golf in Iceland as well as offering thought provoking takes on topics as broad as golf as a vehicle for carbon capture as well as social harmony.

To read some of Roald’s articles and view some of the his design work, visit https://www.eureka.golf/

John Huggan describes Neil Coles as the best golfer Americans have never heard of. 
An aversion to flying meant one of the United Kingdom’s best players had limited exposure in the US but that takes nothing away from his remarkable resume. 
Coles played in eight Ryder Cups between 1961 and 1977 and is credited with 50 professional victories in a playing career spanning more than 40 years. 
Huggan sat down with Coles recently at his home near Wentworth in London. They had an engaging chat about all things golf, from his start in the game to staring down the Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus, in the Ryder Cup.

Like so many in golf Christian Hamilton originally dreamt of being a Tour player, but there are a whole army of golfers with a disability that should be thankful that career path never panned out. 
Now the Programs and Inclusion Senior Manager at Golf Australia, Hamilton sees his role as ensuring the future of the golf population in Australia reflects the actual population of the nation more accurately. 
It’s a task that has a long way to go but is one that would be much further behind if not for Hamilton and his approach to changing the face of the game.

For a generation of golf fans Roger Maltbie is known only as a TV commentator but the NBC stalwart is so much more than that. The winner of the inaugural Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in 1976, Maltbie was also a legitimate contender at more than one major and is a five-time PGA Tour winner. Known among his peers as one of the game's more colourful characters, this lengthy chat with host John Huggan shows Maltbie to be not only a shrewd analyst of the game but a warm and engaging story teller.

He's coached some of the best players in the world to some of the game's biggest titles but to sit and talk to Ian Triggs you'd never know it. In a world where being a high-profile coach can be a lucrative business, Triggs is as happy working with Brookwater's double digit handicap members as he is mentoring rising stars like Elvis Smylie. In this enlightening chat with host Rod Morri, Triggs reveals how the search for answers to what derailed his own promising playing career led him to be one of the most sought after coaches of his generation.

Peter Alliss might have had golf’s most recognisable voice but it’s almost a dead heat with Scotland’s Renton Laidlaw. 
In a career spanning more than 50 years there is barely a medium he hasn’t contributed to, from books and newspapers to magazines and TV. 
Renton, as he is simply known to so many, sat down with The Thing About Golf’s John Huggan to reflect on a lifetime in the game unlike few have ever experienced.

Who would have thought that a summer spent in the UK visiting family would prove the start of a journey that ended in Australia's first Masters green jacket? 
Phil Scott, father of former World No.1 Adam, chats with The Thing About Golf host Rod Morri about his accidental start in the game to Adam's surreal 2013 Masters victory and almost every facet of the golf industry in between. 
From club building and design to course construction and management, there isn't much Phil Scott hasn't touched in golf and he reflects on it all in Episode 46.