If you know ball, have a teenage daughter or have seen a commercial in the last six months, then Jason Kelce needs no introduction. He’s currently one of the most famous people on Earth, and arguably one the most likable. But there’s a lot more than meets the eye with the 13-year NFL veteran and media personality. Behind the shirtless dancing, beer-chugging and howling laughter is a serious, thoughtful and creative version of Jason Kelce who plays multiple instruments, feels like an underdog,...

You likely know longtime Hollywood actor Ed Burns for his turn as Richard Reiben in Saving Private Ryan. Since breaking through with his independent 1995 film The Brothers McMullen, Burns has found success both in front of and behind the camera. But after falling hard for golf during the pandemic, Burns has started to see the world, and his creative outlets, through the lens of the game. In this episode, recorded live from Sullivan County GC, Ed takes host Tom Coyne through the genesis and...

You’ve likely never heard of Warren Stephens—or his magnificent and critically acclaimed Arkansas golf retreat—and that’s by design. Recently, host Tom Coyne accepted a rare invite from Stephens to The Alotian Club, perhaps the quietest club ever to crack America’s top 100. The golf is eye-popping, with 18 rollercoaster holes slashed through the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, but the family behind it is where the real stories lie. You’ll meet Stephens, club founder and chairman of one of...

 In 1989, IMG agent Hughes Norton showed up at Earl Woods’ front door. Tiger was 12—but Norton could see the future. He would go on to become Tiger’s first agent, inking the future legend to record-setting deals with Nike and Titleist before he hit one ball as a pro. But, as you’ll hear in Norton’s new sit-down with host Tom Coyne, all that fame and fortune came at a heavy price. In this interview, Norton pulls back the curtain to reveal the soaring highs and stomach-churning lows from his...

During college in 1979, Tommy Hyland ran across a basic blackjack strategy book. Nearly a half century later, he is the kingpin of the world’s longest-lasting and most successful professional blackjack team, and one of the seven original members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Hyland’s gaming isn’t limited to the table, however—he is a longtime competitive amateur golfer within the Philadelphia section, and has qualified for five USGA championships. Hyland brings host Tom Coyne on a wild ride...

Jon Sherman has developed a career, and a +2 handicap index, out of teaching boring golf. As the strategic mind behind Practical Golf, Sherman has parlayed his common-sense lessons into a series of bestselling books and PGA Tour coaching gigs. We recently sat down with him for a BTS member-exclusive video series designed to elevate our members’ on-course decision making. But as Bobby Jones noted, golf and tournament golf are two very different things. In this new interview, host Casey Bannon...

Northern Ireland was a different place when Scotsman Kevan Whitson took the Royal County Down head professional job in 1992. The country was still enmeshed in the Troubles, golf travel hadn’t yet boomed, and the club saw 1,500 visitor rounds a year. But Old Tom’s layout at this low-key members’ club strung along the Irish Sea has always been world-class, and RCD now rightfully claims its place as perhaps the greatest links in the world, as well as a fixture on every golfer’s bucket list. Host...

If you know, you know: It’s Poosh! If that’s gibberish to you, pop in those earbuds and meet Micah Pueschel, frontman of reggae band Iration, published contributor in TGJ No. 29 and humble golf nerd well aware of the “insane” run he’s on. Before helping to lead Iration from a college bar band to a world-touring festival headliner, Pueschel grew up at a now-defunct nine-hole muni near his home on the Big Island of Hawaii. As he tells host Tom Coyne from the Iration tour bus outside Columbus,...

Last week, TGJ became one of the first media outlets to visit ⁠TGL's performance lab⁠ (which is different from the SoFi Center where competition will be held) in West Palm Beach, FL and preview the first of roughly 30 new digital golf holes designed specifically for league competition starting in January 2025. Managing Editor Travis Hill sat down with golf course architect Beau Welling, one of three designers behind the development of what Tiger and Rory are hoping will become an entirely new...

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by Titleist  George Solich, the youngest of five brothers from a lower-middle class family in Colorado Springs, grew up a caddie. A few decades later he has become a business titan, having developed and sold three successful companies in the energy sector. And to hear him tell it, everything leads...

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by Titleist  Garrett Hilbert is one of the six founding members of Dude Perfect—a group of college friends that have parlayed dorm-room trick shots into a content empire that includes 60 million YouTube subscribers.  In this conversation with host Tom Coyne, Hilbert delves into the origins of Dude...

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by Titleist  As half of the team behind legendary far-flung layouts like Cabot St. Lucia, Te Arai in New Zealand and Tasmania’s Barnbougle Lost Farm, Bill Coore has spent his career crisscrossing the globe. He’s built epic golf at every stop—but not even Coore can conceive of 18 holes at the...

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by Titleist  An 11-year career in the NFL might be one of the least interesting things Dhani Jones has ever done. From a near-death experience while fishing in India to hunting dwarf alligators in the night in Gabon to trying different sports around the world on his TV series Dhani Tackles The...

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by Titleist  Remember Edoardo Molinari? 2005 US Am winner, Ryder Cupper, and brother of Francesco? Well, he qualified into this week’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst and recently added a few new titles to his resume: Chief Data Strategist for Arccos and 2025 Ryder Cup Vice Captain for Team Europe. Having...

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ The New York Times calls Billy Collins America’s most popular living poet. The Golfer’s Journal calls him a fine golfer as well, and a lover of all things Irish. When it comes to his poetry, Collins says, “I have one reader in mind, someone who is in the room with me, and who I’m talking to, and I want to make sure I don’t talk...

Watch the latest TGJ Film here. Save 20% on Club Glove by becoming a member. Though at first glance it may read as a third-line act at Lollapalooza, golf architecture diehards know the Cavemen as the unsung heroes who have helped Jim Wagner, along with his partner Gil Hanse, rise to their position as one of the finest design-build firms in the game. Wagner joins fellow Philly native Tom Coyne to offer an inside look at his firm’s process, and the collection of globe-trotting,...

Read the written version of this episode here⁠.  50 years ago, Trevino, Nicklaus, and Richard Nixon (???) got tangled up at Tanglewood Park Golf Course in North Carolina during a PGA Championship that has since been lost to history. In this episode, eminent golf writer Jim Moriarty refreshes our memory of an all-time major that everyone, including its protagonists, can’t seem to remember. The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please...

The Golfer's Journal and this podcast are made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here: ⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ Watch a new TGJ Film about Cabot Citrus Farms here. The Golfer’s Journal Podcast is presented by Titleist. At 12 years old, Ben Cowan-Dewar built a golf hole on his family’s farm east of Toronto. By the time he graduated college, he owned a golf tour operator running trips in 20 countries. At 24, he set out...

This is part five of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters. Part 5: As its founders begin to decline, the mythology around The Masters only grows stronger The Masters is paused and Augusta National is forced to become self-sufficient in the wake of World War II. In the 1970s, the club must endure the passing of Bobby Jones and...

This is part four of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters. Part 4: The evolution of the Masters broadcast  In the mid-1950s, the Masters innovates by partnering with CBS to broadcast the tournament on national television. As is the case with everything at Augusta, chairman Clifford Roberts has his fingerprints all over it as...

This is part three of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters. Part 3: The Augusta National Invitational Tournament is formed By 1934, Augusta National is struggling to attract new members and raise the necessary funds to execute the club’s vision. With this in mind, the first annual Augusta National Invitational Tournament is...

This is part two of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters. Part 2: A deep dive into the design and strategy of Augusta National’s routing Thanks to his renowned designs at Cypress Point and Pasatiempo, Dr. Alister MacKenzie is hired to build Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts a golf course in Augusta, Georgia. The spectacular...

This is part one of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters. Part 1: Clifford Roberts’ rise to power at Augusta National Until he met Bobby Jones, Clifford Roberts was a former traveling suit salesman and modest investor who was still grappling with the tragic loss of his mother. Part 1 tells the remarkable story of his unlikely...

In the mid-1990s, Augusta National approached author David Owen about a book project to preserve the legacy of its founder Clifford Roberts. Owen agreed, under one condition: During his reporting he could play the course as much as he liked. The club allowed it, and Owen’s book, The Making of the Masters, has since become one of the definitive histories of the tournament. It chronicles the beginnings, inner-workings and evolutions of Augusta National and The Masters, bringing to light a...