We are releasing a new format docupod series tomorrow which will take a deep dive into golf in the Netherlands. This snippet was too good to leave out so I have included here as sneak peak of my recent chat with Mike Clayton...sage advice as to why you should consider a golf trip to the Netherlands, Belgium & France. I hope you enjoy tomorrows release. Special Guest: Mike Clayton.

Jeff Mingay joins us from Nova Scotia for a varied discussion on the life and times of Arthur Vernon Macan (1882-1964). Macan was born in Ireland but is better known in his adopted homeland of Canada. An accomplished amateur golfer, AV was a qualified lawyer who became a prolific golf course architect throughout the Pacific Northwest of Canada and the USA. We explore Macan's back story, his influences and notable courses which include the original iteration of The California Club in San...

With the Open Championship quickly approaching Joe McDonnell, member of RLGC for over 30 years, joins us to explore the seemigly ever changing faces of Hoylake. Many thanks to Joe for his time and expertise.... this should whet your appetite in advance of the 151st staging of golfs' original and greatest major. Links mentioned in the episode Richard Latham's golf history books The Updated version of Scott MacPherson's Evolution of the Old Course Joe McDonnell's Time Machine Please...

Richard Pennell makes a long overdue return to the pod, I am honoured that he decided to favour F&F as the medium to announce the imminent publication of his new book - Grass Routes - a collection of some of his @pitchmarks pieces. [Grass Routes Website](pitchmarks.bigcartel.com) Richard has launched a new [website](pitchmarks.bigcartel.com) to launch his book, the first edition has a limited run and will undoubtedly be a collectors item in the years to come. Through the medium of...

Firstly, please excuse the somewhat spotty audio - there were gremlins in the system which were beyond my control - must do better Mr. Zoom...grrrrr. Jasper Miners from Evalu18 is back by popular demand - to say that the Evalu18 story has picked up pace of late would be somewhat of an undersell. Jasper shares the recently announced news that Evalu18, in association with Renaissance Golf Design, have been appointed to prepare a masterplan to restore both courses at St Georges Hill Golf Club...

Ally McIntosh joins us on this episode to take a dive into the golf course design career of Eddie Hackett. A name synonymous with golf course design in Ireland from the mid 1960's until his death in 1996. Over the course of his career, Hackett would hold many roles within the golf space - apprentice, golf club maker, teacher and head professional - he even owned a tobacconist in the 1950's before he was reincarnated as a course designer through the auspices of an invitation from Bill...

In November 2019 The Royal Dublin Golf Club appointed the design firm Clayton DeVries & Pont to undertake a bunker study in an effort to reconnect with their Harry Colt design heritage. Since the Colt revisions in 1920 Royal Dublin has been revised, lengthened, toughened and tinkered with by some of the great and good - including Eddie Hackett and Dr. Martin Hawtree. CDP initially developed a proposal for member consideration revisiting Colt's original design principles while...

Rod Morri is a multi award winning Australian golf journo, serial podcast presenter and head honcho at Sydney Podcast Studios. Over the course of the episode we take a look behind the scenes of his fascination with Golf Course Architecture and how that origin story that can be traced to a holiday to Ireland and the UK in the late 1990's. We highlight some of the individuals that Rod podcasts with.... characters such as Mike Clayton and Adrian Logue.....why Geoff Shackleford hasn't...

Graeme Beatt joins us today from Royal Portrush to chat about his career journey so far throughout Scotland, Australia and Ireland. We also take a sneak peak behind the job of works that went into preparing Royal Portrush to host the 148th Open Championshps, we also look forward to the scheduled 2025 return to the Causeway Coast. Many thanks for tuning in, we hope you enjoy our chat! MacKenzie & Ebert resources mentioned during the episode: Major redevelopment (2014 onwards) M&E...

Neil Crafter is a golf course designer, historian and author who is based in Adelaide South Australia. Neil is a second generation golf course architect, following in the footsteps of his father Brian. Neil has long been influenced and interested by Alister MacKenzie's career and has been centrally involved in the documentation of the MacKenzie Chronology for the Alister MacKenzie Society. Today we take a look at Dr Mac's life as a golf course architect, his influences and collaborators, a...

Andrew Thomson joins us for a chat about his dad Peter from the early days in Melbourne, to the influence of Von Nida. A playing career that encompassed 98 professional career wins around the world including 5 Open Championships - three of which were won in succession. Peter was also a dab hand at writing on golf, broadcasting and course desiging. We also take a look at a very special, final journey that Andrew made on Peter's behalf in July 2022. Many thanks to Andrew for his time, we...

Professor Paul Rouse from University College Dublin joins us on this episode to trace the origin story of Irish golf. Commentators often erroneously pair the games' development in Ireland to that of Scotland - in this episode we explore how its' development in Ireland has more commonalities with the development trajectory in England than that exhibited in Bonnie Scotland. From Elias de Butts documented efforts in 1762 on common land in Bray, Co. Wicklow, to the Scottish/Military...

Matt Mollica is Co-host of the Australian Golf Passport Podcast and co-founder of the Rollback Alliance. In this episode we explore various topics including the aforementioned new podcast, some advice for inbound golf travellers to Australia, Sydney v Adelaide, the golfing rise of Tasmania, the distance debate/the evolution of technology and a brief L1V focussed soliloquoy which doesn't disappoint. Links to the Fried Egg episodes on the evolution of the golf ball can be found...

Adrian Logue is a self confessed golf tragic who co-hosts the Good Good Golf Podcast with Rod Morri. Adrian has managed to facilitate a career in golf using computer programming and development as his professional vehicle, an unusual combination for sure, however, Adrian is not your usual software developer! In this episode we explore a little on the World Handicapping System thanks to a few questions from one of my fourball playing partners, Adrian's theory on 'eyes up golf', podcasting,...

In this episode we are joined by golf journalist and consultant Adam Lawrence. Despite attending the same school as Dr Alistair MacKenzie, Adam is currently writing a biograpahy on Harry Shapland Colt, the father of modern golf course architecture. We explore Colt's early golfing days at Cambridge and his early influences, R&A membership and the formation of the Oxford & Cambridge Golf Society. We then take a look at some of Colts' designs at Rye, Sunningdale, St. Andrews, Swinley...

It took a while to track him down, however, Mike Cocking from OCM Golf in Melbourne joins me on this episode to take a magical mystery tour through his design back catalogue including RACV Healesville, St Andrews Beach, Victoria, Peninsula Kingswood, Sandy Links and Shady Oaks. I also manage to prise some exciting news from him on a number of new Australian and US projects. Links to the excuisite Harris Kalinka course renderings, mentioned in the pod, can be found below [Medinah...

Nick Edmund is the founder of Global Golf 4 Cancer, a genuinely global campaign with a mission to inspire the golfing community to ‘fly the flag’ and support cancer fighters worldwide. The goal is to fly the Global Golf 4 Cancer flag on the 4th hole of 400 high profile courses around the world. Since launching the campaign with a 2000km jaunt along the Wild Atlantic Way in 2017, Edmund has continued his walks and awareness raising visits through Scotland, Northern Ireland, a Camino de...

‘With his beautiful use of language, Proctor has Bernard Darwin’s gift of bringing a moment to life. Delightful and insightful, capturing the very spirit of the age. The Long Golden Afternoon is an instant classic’ - Roger McStravick - Author & Historian Stephen Proctor joins us today to chat about his second book, a followup to Monarch of the Green and the golfing feats of Young Tommy Morris. The Long Golden Afternoon tells the story of the transformative generation of golf that...

George Waters is originally from Long Island, NY - his first tentative steps into the business of golf were at St. George's Country Club on Long Island where he worked on the greens team during summer breaks. George would go on to work on the maintenance teams at Royal Dornoch, Merion and The California Club. While studying an economics undergraduate degree, George contacted Tom Doak of Renaissance Golf Design who urged him, over an number of years, to travel as widely as possible, gain...

The Pure Golf 2010 story begins with an end of hockey season trip to Cape Kidnappers, it is here that Michael Goldstein and his mate Jamie Patton cook up a whopper of an Overseas Experience scheme - 'how about we play golf every day for a year and travel around the world while we're at it'. It seemed like a pipedream initially, however, as these two trainee solicitors scratched away at the initial kernel of an idea they received some positive reinforcement from clubs in New Zealand and...

Sandy Jamieson has been a PGA professional for more than 30 years, over the course of his career he has coached both elite amateurs through the auspices of the Victorian Institute of Sport and has travelled the world tending to the coaching requirements of players such as Robert Allenby, Jarrod Lyle and major winner Y.E. Yang. Family life would intervene and Sandy was ultimately drawn back to his hometown of Melbourne, where he took up the head professional position at Commenwealth Golf...

Jasper Miners from Evalu18.com joins us on this episode to conduct a whistle stop tour through the first golden age of golf course architecture - how this period and its' protagonists transformed the penal Victorian school of architecture that characterised the first inland courses. How this movement was catapulted towards something much more strategic though the intercession of John Low and Stuart Patton in their course revisions at Woking GC. We look at a few of Jasper's favourite golden...

Roger McStravick is a man from Northern Ireland who has been based in St Andrews for over twenty years, he has, so far, won the USGA Herbert Warren Wind Book Award on two occasions, for books focussed on Old Tom Morris and the St.Andrews Road War in 1879 (a war that involved a title dispute regarding potential encroachment onto the fabled turf of the old course). I cannot think of many other people that know as much about St Andrews, Allan Robertson, Hugh Lyon Playfair, The Open...

Richard Pennell is a man of many talents – some of you may know him by his twitter alter ego @pitchmarks which has taken the golf world by storm recently. If you haven’t read any of his masterful pieces please follow the link in the show notes to take a peek, I am pretty certain that it will lead to clicking the subscribe button. Richard is originally a qualified greenkeeper who turned to the dark side in becoming an Assistant Managing Secretary, then progressing to Managing Secretary at...

In this episode we are joined by Rosapenna Golf Resort's Director of Golf Frank Casey Junior, Clyde Johnson from Cunnin Golf Design and Ally McIntosh our regular architecture contributor. Frank Casey has been steeped in Irish golf ever since his mother and father bought the Rosapenna Golf Resort in the early 1980's. An accomplished golfer in his own right, Frank has led the Golf Operations team at Rosapenna since 2005. He has travelled far and wide and brought many of those experiences back...