The Thing About Golf Podcast

We like to complain about them but those who commentate golf on TV create the soundtrack of the game’s history. 

Gary Koch, the 2023 Payne Stewart Award recipient, will likely be best remembered for his iconic ’better than most’ line at the 2001 Players’ Championship. But there is much more to his story than that shot, or even his more than 30-year TV career. 

A standout amateur and six-time PGA Tour winner, Koch sits down for a chat with John Huggan to reflect on a life intertwined with the game and some of its greatest players.

Professional golf can be a roller coaster but even by those standards England’s Oliver Wilson has been on an epic journey. 
From leading amateur to successful professional to twice losing his game almost completely, the affable 43-year-old has seen and done just about everything golf has to offer. In this episode, Wilson sits down with John Huggan for a fascinating chat about life, golf and everything in between.

Search ‘Ryder Cup’ on the internet and it won’t take long before you find an image of Sam Torrance, arms raised to the sky after holing the winning putt at The Belfry at the 1985 matches. 

The Scot is the son of one of the game’s greatest coaches. Bob, but also a pivotal figure in both the Ryder Cup as we know it today and the European Tour. 

On the eve of the 44th matches between Europe and the United States, Torrance sits down for a fascinating conversation with The Thing About Golf host John Huggan, to talk all things Ryder Cup as he reflects on a career spanning more than 40 years.

Some names are synonymous with the Ryder Cup and on the European side Bernard Gallacher is one. 

Eight times a player and three times a Captain, Gallacher oversaw a time of great change in the matches from before European players became part of the team to the height of hostilities at Kiawah Island in 1991. 

His chat here with The Thing About Golf host John Huggan is as compelling as you would expect and the understated Gallacher reveals more than one story that has never been told before.

There are few more thoughtful or interesting voices in the game than Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.

In this wide-ranging chat with The Thing About Golf host, John Huggan, the 2010 U.S Open champion talks Ryder Cup, Pebble Beach, the move to LIV and why he doesn't think he deserves a voice on the DP World Tour. 

Agree with him or not there is one thing guaranteed with McDowell: you’ll be entertained (and he’ll make you think).

It's been just over five years since Australian golf lost one of its most popular players in Jarrod Lyle.
On episode 100 of The Thing About Golf podcast, host Rod Morri catches up with Jarrod’s wife, Briony, to talk about how the couple met, the realities of living on the road, Jarrod’s legacy and what life is like as a non-golfer in a golfer’s world.

Her voice is familiar to golf fans the world over but there is much more to Dottie Pepper than what we see in the televised golf coverage. 

A world class player, major champion, and passionate advocate for all forms of the game, Pepper is an intelligent, articulate speaker and thinker about the game. 

These attributes are on full display in this broad ranging discussion with The Thing About Golf host John Huggan, which covers everything from the Solheim Cup to the possibilities of Saudi Arabia increasing its involvement in the women’s game.

One of golf’s greatest assets, especially when compared to other sports, is the range of people who can enjoy it.

Age, gender and even disability can all be accounted for in golf and in that last category one of the best in the world is recent inaugural G4D Open winner Brendan Lawlor.

The Irishman captured the title at Woburn in May and in this wide ranging chat with Rod Morri delves into the fascinating — and frankly underrated world — of disability golf.

It's not often you get an insider’s perspective on one of the game’s most important championships but that’s exactly what David Begg, former press officer for The Open Championship, gives us in this lengthy chat with John Huggan.

From Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino to Greg Norman and Nick Faldo, Begg had a front row seat for some of golf’s most memorable moments.

Rare is the person who swings from indifference, or even dislike of the game, to becoming a committed and passionate golfer but that has been the journey for our guest Dr Hannah Brown.

An accomplished and highly regarded scientist, Hannah found the game later in life and brings a perspective that we in golf rarely get to hear.

From what makes the game so addictive to the things we do that look so silly to the outside world, Hannah has some fascinating takes on what golf gets right — and wrong.