A Ryder Cup Draft with Shane Bacon
Shane Bacon joins Andy to draft their own Ryder Cup teams: Team Egg vs. Team Bacon. They do a schoolyard pick, drawing from the pool of American and European pros who will compete in the Ryder Cup later this month, ranking them 1-24, and offering insights and critiques on individual players. Banter ensues.
14 Sep 20231h 16min
Golf Architecture Mailbag Redux and How to Do a Low-Cost Muni Renovation
First, Andy and Garrett cover some mailbag questions they didn't get to in last Friday's pod. They try to decide whether upcoming Ryder Cup venue Marco Simone is "good," list some of their favorite fairways in golf, and discuss the importance of tee-box design. In the back half of the episode, Garrett is joined by Will Benson (40:52), the facility manager and golf superintendent at Laurelwood, a nine-hole municipal course in Eugene, Oregon. Over the past several years, Will has carried out significant design upgrades at Laurelwood, and he tells Garrett about how he made these projects happen efficiently and cheaply.
12 Sep 20231h 19min
Golf Architecture Mailbag: Most Exciting New Courses, The Lido, and More
Mailbag time! Andy and Garrett address a bunch of golf architecture-related questions from listeners. Among the topics covered: this year's most exciting new-build golf courses, the best courses Andy and Garrett saw for the first time recently, the virtues of the Lido, whether more "Harbour Town-style" courses should be built, why Pete Dye is not "VERY overrated," and whether template holes are lazy and uncreative. Also, Garrett gets a headache trying to answer the following question: If you could play one architect's body of work for the rest of your golfing life, whom would you choose and why?
8 Sep 20231h 13min
Sizing Up the U.S. Ryder Cup Team
Zach Johnson made his six captain's picks on Tuesday, so the U.S. Ryder Cup team is now complete. In this episode, Andy and Fried Egg Golf contributor Joseph LaMagna (@JosephLaMagna) discuss the merits of the ZJ's selections, evaluate Team USA in detail, and give some preliminary takes on the European squad.
1 Sep 20231h
Takeaways from the 2023 PGA Tour Season with Kyle Porter
The 2023 PGA Tour season is in the books, so Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) joins Garrett to discuss a few big-picture takeaways from the past year's action. First, though, they touch on Viktor Hovland's dominance in the last two legs of the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the hugely promising arc of his career so far. After running through their season-long takeaways, Kyle and Garrett briefly chat about Zach Johnson's upcoming captain's picks for the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
28 Aug 20231h 9min
Bringing the Lido to Life with Superintendent Jimmy Humston
Jimmy Humston is the golf course superintendent at the recently opened Lido in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. He joins Andy for a discussion of what it's like to live in Nekoosa, how he got introduced to Sand Valley, and the various jobs he's held around the resort. Jimmy and Andy dig deep into the story of building the Lido, a reproduction of C.B. Macdonald's famous course on Long Island. They talk about the construction process, the challenges of re-creating a lost design in a different locale, the secrets behind growing grass on the Lido's bold features, and Jimmy's plans for the course's future aesthetic.
24 Aug 202352min
The Lowdown on Waverley Country Club with Superintendent Brian Koffler
Host of this week's 2023 U.S. Senior Women's Open, Waverley Country Club is a Golden Age Chandler Egan design, restored in 2012 by Gil Hanse, and—in Garrett's opinion—the best golf course in Portland, Oregon. Garrett sits down with superintendent Brian Koffler to talk about Waverley's history, architecture, best holes, and agronomy. They also discuss the challenges of maintaining turf in the Pacific Northwest and the striking array of top-10 clubs Brian interned at early in his career.
22 Aug 202353min
PGA Tour Life with Michael Kim and Building a Lighted Par-3 Course with Grass Clippings
To lead off this episode, Andy sits down with PGA Tour winner Michael Kim (@Mike_kim714) to chat about a variety of topics. They discuss the courses Michael played in the Bay Area while attending UC Berkley, his strong play this season, and his newly vocal presence on Twitter. They also debate the USGA and R&A's proposed Model Local Rule for a reduced-flight competition ball (Andy is for it; Michael, like most PGA Tour members, is against it). For the back half of the episode (1:05:44), Andy brings on Jimmy and Jake Hoselton of the company Grass Clippings (@GrassClippingsc). Jimmy and Jake talk about how they founded Grass Clippings to shed more light on the turf industry, and the company's plans to develop an accessible, lighted par-3 course designed by Jackson Kahn.
17 Aug 20231h 53min
