The Year of Scottie and Garrett Goes to Australia

Thirty-four-year-old Andrew Putnam is a pro's pro. He has quietly put together an impressive career on the PGA Tour, winning once (at the 2018 Barracuda) and establishing himself as one of the best putters in the game. He joins Andy to discuss what it's like to be a tour pro living in the Pacific Northwest, what he thinks of the new designated-event series, why he plays with no swing coach, and what it takes to be a great on the greens.

21 Helmi 20231h 4min

The much-anticipated Netflix docuseries on professional golf has arrived. Full Swing debuted yesterday with eight episodes on the 2022 PGA Tour (and LIV) season. For some honest reactions to the show, Garrett calls up Megan Schuster (@megschuster), who covers golf and Formula 1 for The Ringer. Garrett and Megan start off by talking about what made Drive to Survive, Netflix's F1 series, so effective and popular. They then delve into Full Swing, discussing its strengths, most and least appealing characters, funniest random moments, and various shortcomings. For more on Full Swing, check out The Fried Egg's new podcast Full Swing Thoughts, in which Andy Johnson, Brendan Porath, and Joseph LaMagna break down the series episode by episode. Search for it wherever you get podcasts, or: Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify

16 Helmi 202355min

LIV Golf, the upstart golf tour backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, will start its second season next week in Mexico. It's been an odd, somewhat rough offseason for Greg Norman's organization, with executives fleeing and no big-name player signings. To get a sense for what's going on in LIV-land, Garrett sits down with Adam Woodard (@AdamWoodard), who covers the league for Golfweek. Garrett and Adam talk about LIV's major successes and failures in 2022, its seeming loss of momentum in the past few months, and its prospects for 2023. They also discuss Adam's approach to and feelings about doing traditional, neutral-voiced reporting about a sports league associated with real-world ills.

14 Helmi 20231h 8min

This week's Waste Management Phoenix Open is the PGA Tour's first full-field "designated event." The designated-event series, created in response to LIV Golf's attempts to lure the world's top male players with guaranteed paydays, will transform the Tour's structure in ways that are hard to predict. After discussing the Phoenix Open and its better-than-you-might-think venue, Andy and Garrett explain why they're excited about designated events, both as a product and as a catalyst for change on the PGA Tour. In the second half of the episode, they address some of their lingering questions about the series, and Andy lays out a pitch for each event's field size and qualification criteria.

10 Helmi 20231h 13min

Thad Layton has worked for Arnold Palmer Design since he graduated from college 23 years ago, and today he is the Senior Golf Course Architect and Vice President at the company. He joins Andy to talk about working with Arnold Palmer and building golf courses all over the world, including getting his first lead-design gig on a project in Kazakhstan. In recent years, Thad has done a lot of compelling work under the APDC umbrella, and he tells Andy about guiding the company into a new era. Before getting to his conversation with Thad (5:45), Andy shares some thoughts about the play stoppages at last weekend's Pebble Beach Pro-Am and how America's obsession with fast greens is partly to blame.

7 Helmi 20231h 14min

Lately Garrett has been wondering how recent technological advances, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, may change golf architecture in the coming decades. So he called up Peter Flory (@nle_golf), whose digital modeling was a key component of the Lido project in Wisconsin. Peter tells Garrett how he researched the history of the C.B. Macdonald-designed Lido Golf Club and which technological methods he used to help architect Tom Doak re-create the course in Wisconsin. Peter and Garrett then discuss the various effects that advances in digital and AI rendering may have on golf course design as a business and an artform.

3 Helmi 20231h 6min

You asked, we answered. Andy and Garrett tackle a variety of golf architecture-related questions from listeners, including ones about the impact a potential equipment rollback will have on championship courses, which practices in modern golf course design are most objectionable, Robert Trent Jones II's pot-stirring Golf Magazine interview, why the Covid boom has not translated into widespread muni renovations, whether great architecture is becoming elitist and unaffordable, and more.

31 Tammi 20231h

After a two-year layoff to recover from shoulder surgery, Zac Blair is back on the PGA Tour this season. He's also back on the podcast, chatting with Andy about his return to professional golf. They also discuss the final stages of his Tree Farm project in South Carolina and the different contributions that he, Tom Doak, and Kye Goalby brought to the design and construction process. Finally, they turn their attention to the future, touching on potential golf developments Zac wants to be involved in and a golf trip that he'd like to take.

27 Tammi 20231h 8min