Blind Shots Podcast

Welcome back to the Blind Shots Podcast. I'm excited to be back in the studio and truly jazzed about some of the forthcoming episodes for Season Four. Today, co-hosts Matt & Fred sit in to talk about Buddies' Golf Trips. We frame the discussion within our decade of experience together to try to isolate what…

This episode is the second half of my conversation with Matthew McCrady, the Director of Operations at Man O' War Golf in Lexington, Kentucky. We pick up where we left off, discussing the present and future states of merchandising and golf equipment for golfers and meander towards how Matthew sees the dynamic between grass roots junior golf on public courses and exposure to more aspirational courses as children grow into the game.

This episode is the first half of my conversation with Matthew McCrady, the Director of Operations at my home practice and fitting facility, Man O' War Golf in Lexington, Kentucky. We talk all around and thru the state of the golf business, as I try to touch on what makes this stand alone practice facility so special.

Buckle up, folks, because we're going around the world today with Mandarin Media's Hal Phillips. We talk global golf course design, American soccer revolution, and Chinese political economy. Seriously.

Jason Straka & I talk about Kenwood Country Club, the course renovation, and the LPGA tournament, as well as his passion for sustainability in golf course design and maintenance, and the insular nature of a lot of golf-centric conversations.

On today's episode, we class up the joint a bit by welcoming author, writer, golfer, and native Kentuckian gone rogue, Michael Croley. Michael grew up in Corbin, Kentucky, but now lives in the Columbus, OH area, shaping the minds of tomorrow as an Assistant Professor of English and Journalism at Denison University, developing his own creative writing portfolio, and working the golf journalism beat for more than a handful of publications.

Today's episode is one where you and I get to listen to my friend entertain us with some stories, and make us think with a few others. Matthew Wharton is one of my most cherished friends in golf; smart, funny, curious, serious, and kind. We talk golf courses, golf industry, golf shots, and golf's future,…

Winter has arrived in earnest, as the chaos of the holiday season subsides, so this week the podcast takes a look at some of the bests and worsts of golf in 2021. We also cast an eye forward to 2022, previewing a few things that we're already getting excited about. The off-season, or winter in…

In this installment of The Americans in Pinehurst Series, Matt, Fred and I discuss the new Southern Pines Golf Club experience.  In the hands of a new ownership group, which also owns nearby Pine Needles and Mid Pines golf course resorts, Southern Pines has undergone a significant renovation and restoration effort from noted architect Kyle…

This episode is about fun. Finding fun, having fun, being fun. It's about being serious but not taking ourselves too seriously. It's about golf that's fun, without any of the other stuff that gets in the way. I speak with Brad Woodger, operator of The Royal & Ancient Chappaquiddick Links, located on Chappaquiddick Island. “Royal…

Today's episode puts a spotlight on the turf side of the golf course industry. My guest is Brian Laurent. His journey in golf has taken him from collegiate golfer to running multiple Ohio sections of the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America, before launching his newest venture, the Superintendent Network. He is also the caretaker…

In this third and final installment of The Americans in Wisconsin Roundtable, we discuss the experience of playing the Links Course at Lawsonia. Nestled above Green Lake, the Links at Lawsonia simultaneously reminds me of several great Midwestern courses I've played and looks unlike anywhere I've seen before. From the hands and minds of the…

This is the second part of my conversation with my friend, Head Golf Professional at Kearney Hill Golf Links, Chris Boysel, PGA. We talk about keeping golf fun, the practical effect of distance in golf, and why the rest of us are so important.

Today's episode presents the first half of my conversation with Chris Boysel, who is the Head PGA Professional at Kearney Hill Golf Links here in Lexington. He is one of those golf pros blessed with natural enthusiasm for golf and the gift of gab. He and I could literally sit down and talk golf all…

My special guest for this episode is Chicago's Kris McEwen. He's a man of many parts, with his Venn Diagram covering several sides of golf through his growing multi-media empire. We talk golf courses, media, travel, Chicagoland, and more. Links to Kris's various works are listed below. Enjoy! Driving Range Heroes where you can find…

This episode presents the story that I've been wanting to tell you for more than a year and a half. It's a little bit of the story of the once and future Park Mammoth Golf Course in Park City, Kentucky. And to help me tell it's story, we're speaking again with friend of the podcast,…

In this second installment of The Americans in Wisconsin Roundtable with friends of the show, Matt and Fred, we pickup where we left off in Episode 2, moving from the discussion of the Sand Valley Course to this week's insights on The Sandbox Short Course, the Mammoth Dunes Course, and the luxury the resort experience…

Jim and I discuss out-of-the way golf adventures, old-school caddies, unsung heroes of construction, and of course, his excellent new book, The Secret Home of Golf: The Authorized History of King-Collins Golf and the Creation of Sweetens Cove. Plus if you stick around to the end of the interview, Jim profiles his 10 favorite Blind…

Erstwhile friends of the show Fred & Matt join me to discuss the annual summer Guys' Golf Trip. This 2021 version found us at Sand Valley Golf Resort. In this first edition of the Americans in Wisconsin mini-series, we discuss the gem that this the Coore + Crenshaw designed Sand Valley Course, caddies, walking golf,…

To start Season 3 of the podcast, I provide a brief glimpse of the golf courses worth playing depending on where you may be visiting or passing through Kentucky. I get asked a lot about where to play when someone plans a visit to Kentucky, either for work or leisure. This episode is the bullet…

This is the final Americans in Pinehurst Roundtable, this time with friend of the podcast John Mark Kennedy, wherein we delve into that most special of Sandhills’ courses, Tobacco Road. I’m often asked by folks that haven’t made the pilgrimage to Sanford, North Carolina, what makes the course so special, and I invariable struggle to…

Welcome to another episode in my series of discussions about Public Golf in America, this time through our local scene here in Central Kentucky, Justin Mullannix, PGA. After serving as the head golf professional at Kearney Hill Golf Course and Gay Brewer Jr. Course at Picadome, Justin is now charged with overseeing Lexington’s golf leagues,…

Today, Fred and I recap what made our recent Winter Golf Getaway to Chattanooga, Tennessee so special and fun. We lament a canceled event at Sweetens Cove, the mother of all Plan B’s, and also do a brief deep dive on what makes Black Creek Club a very special place. Black Creek Club is the…

A front nine of thoughts to close out the winter off-season and move towards the active spring golf window, a monologue riff on what we’ve been up to at the Blind Shots Podcast and what we’re looking forward to. Topics include a recent golf trip that was ruined, then miraculously salvaged, all within a half…

It’s Round Four of The Americans in Pinehurst Roundtable, with erstwhile friends, Matt and Fred. In this episode we discuss a bit of a Sandhills Unicorn: a relatively new golf course, by Pinehurst area standards. I mean, of course, the Dormie Club, the 2010 Coore + Crenshaw masterwork located just 10 minutes from the heart…

In Episode 26, Scott Laffin and I bounce around ideas golf and golf course businesses.He has carved out a non-traditional role for himself in golf course design and construction through is firm, Feature Golf Consulting, as the guy behind the guy. A professional landscape architect by training, he’s enjoyed backdoor access and hands-on experience to…

Today’s episode is another in my series of discussions about Public Golf in America. This version is a special treat, as I have a wide-ranging discussion with one of the smartest, most intriguingly credentialed people working in golf, Mike McCartin, co-founder of the National Links Trust. With a bachelor’s degree in economics from that esteemed…

It’s Round Three of The Americans in Pinehurst Roundtable, with our friends, Matt and Fred. In this episode we contrast two courses that I strain to find nominal similarities, but in reality, couldn’t be much more different. I’m talking about Donald Ross’s Southern Pines Golf Club, and Rees’ Jones New Course at Talamore, both in…

Welcome to the second episode of The StoneCrest Series, an in-depth look a very special golf course in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Brad Reynolds is the course’s superintendent and general manager, so there’s few people who could know StoneCrest better. We talk everything from collapsing greens to amazing scenery to community assets and municipal…

Welcome to Episode 22! To start the new year, I bring you the voice of someone new to the game. Many of you are lifers or golf tragics, like me. I find chatting or playing a round of golf with someone that has just been newly bitten by the golf bug to be a wonderfully…

The COVID-19 induced golf boom of 2020 was one of the weird silver linings in a year unlike any other. Participation rates, numbers of rounds, and memberships sold were up across the board in places where golf was deemed a relatively safe form of recreation. For the purposes of this discussion, it paused many municipalities’…

We welcome golf course architect Brian Ross in Episode 20, the first of a small series of episodes focused on one of my favorite and most special places in golf, StoneCrest Golf Course in Floyd County, Kentucky. A couple of hours southeast of Lexington, high on the mountain ridge above the city of Prestonsburg lay…

Welcome to Episode 19, an audio essay about golf friends and The Brotherhood of the Bogey. Thoughts on a page that I spoke into the microphone, essentially. A private message from a listener regarding an Americans in Scotland episode sends me down a path of introspection of who I play golf with, why, and what…

It’s Round Two of The Americans in Pinehurst Roundtable, and in this episode we visit one of my very favorite golf courses in the world, Mid Pines Golf Club, and it’s worthy brother across the street, the Pine Needles Golf Course. I’m a sucker for a period piece, and Mid Pines has the vibe of…

What starts as a grill room debate with one of my best friends about Tobacco Road Golf Club evolved into a deep dive into blind shots on the golf course. At issue are the merits and differences between blind tee shots versus blind approach shots. To help settle the point, I tap friends and experts…

This is Short Game Session 11 – A monologue of thoughts on a wild Club Championship week that included playing for keeps with a 5-wood, a great old course, and bad nerves before a driver fitting. Come for the golf talk, stay for the amateur physics lessons. Links for the show: The results of the…

Welcome to our new Americans in Pinehurst series. Familiar voices from a new setting, as Fred, Matt, and I provide tales, laughs, and analysis on our experiences in the Sandhills region of North Carolina. This week we discuss how we began our 2020 Golf Trip at the Pinehurst Resort, playing Pinehurst #1, The Cradle, and…

Welcome to episode 15. I chat with one of the best people I’ve met in the golf industry, John Kim, of U.S. Kids Golf. He’s a true golf tragic if there ever was one, but has been blessed to see some of the best things in golf up close and personal. We discuss U.S. Kids…

Welcome to Short Game Session #10. This week I riff on our recent Buddies’ Trip to the Sandhills of North Carolina, winner’s guilt, and letting go of the reins. The Pinehurst-Southern Pines-Sanford area of North Carolina has such incredible golf courses and experiences. It’s my Scotland that I can reach without getting on an airplane,…

Welcome to Episode 14. It’s our Fifth and Final Round of The Americans in Scotland Roundtable,  Just as melancholy set in as our Scottish Golf Adventure came to a close, so sets in a bit of sadness that this is the last edition of the audio journal of my travels around Scotland with Fred and…

Welcome to episode 13 of the Blind Shots Podcast. This is a conversation with J. Drew Rogers, ASGCA, a golf course architect that has helped produce and refine some of the best courses in Kentucky. Ours isn’t a discussion of architectural merit or strategies, but rather a talk about the business of being a golf…

This is episode 12.  It’s Round Four of The Americans in Scotland Roundtable. And emotionally, this is the big one.  It’s a conversation about the Old Course with my Scottish Golf Trip companions, Fred and Matt Chaney. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to describe the Old Course experience.…

This episode is a conversation with my Scottish Golf Trip companions discussing our round at St. Andrew’s Castle Course on a beautiful Scottish morning.  We also recount our favorite moments of food and cheer around the town of St. Andrews. I loved the Castle Course. It was challenging, yet rewarding, and very different from every…

A post-script on my one-man spirit of golf marathon to and thru the Sand Hills of North Carolina. I briefly recap what I was looking for, what I found, and what it means to me to have completed my personal golf crusade to my favorite American golf course, Mid Pines and Tobacco Road. I walked…

The Blind Shot Podcast’s first remote episode!  A brief update from the North Carolina Sand Hills after day one of the Sanity Break. The golf course at Mid Pines Golf Club is everything that I remembered, everything that I had hoped it would be. After walking 36 holes in one afternoon, I am sneaking up…

Self care. Refresher. Getaway. Mini-Vacation.Sanity Break. Whatever you want to call it, I’m escaping into a combination of things I’ve always wanted to do: play virtually unlimited golf on the summer solstice in a place that I love very much. I don’t know who needs to hear this episode, except that everyone should know that…

This is episode 10, a conversation with Ru Macdonald: a Scot, a golfer, an employee of the European Tour, a golf social media influencer, and the owner and proprietor of the Scottish Golf Podcast, which is one of the original podcasts within in the golf podcasting space.  It’s a conversation about his origins, his passion,…

My friend Rod Morri always laments that the best of conversations occur and the best stories are told “off-air,” once the recordings are finished. He’s right. So today, with Short Game Session #6, I’m bringing you one of my favorite golf trip stories, ripped from the outtakes of one of our regular podcast recording sessions.…

Welcome to Episode 9 – This is a conversation with Ethan Fisher of Golf House Kentucky on his experience in the PGA Management Program at Eastern Kentucky University. We discuss this academic program, one specifically designed to prepare students for a career in golf, but why it doesn’t restrict a candidate to jobs only in…

Welcome to Episode 8 – The Americans in Scotland Round table, Round Two. In this episode, we recount our day at Carnoustie and a day at Elie. It’s a virtual roundtable conversation with my Scottish Golf Trip companions remembering our journey getting to and from Carnoustie, golf on the world’s hardest links course, and the…

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Blind Shots Podcast. This episode is a fun discussion with Tyler Van Hoose, who is the general manager of the Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, just south of Lexington in central Kentucky. Keene Trace Golf Club, among other accolades, is the host club of the PGA Tour’s…