The PGA Tour has announced a groundbreaking merger with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia in what is one of the biggest stories in professional golf history! The tour, LIV Golf, and the DP World Tour will run as one entity, but how will this work? The move represents a significant U-turn from PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan, so Matt Chivers and Steve Carroll discuss the CEO’s future and if some players’ lack of trust could lead to his downfall. In the second half of the podcast,...

Double DP World Tour winner Jordan Smith joins the latest episode of The Slam to chat about the exciting steps he’s made in his career so far! From shooting 30-under to win the Portugal Masters to finishing in the top 10 on his PGA Championship debut, Smith chats to NCG about what the future could hold when it comes to the PGA Tour and the Ryder Cup. The Englishman also chats to Matt Chivers about the DP World Tour’s position in the current professional golf climate, and looks back on...

We’re counting down the weeks to the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool and as the excitement builds for the From the Clubhouse team of Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll, they’ve bagged a special guest for this week’s episode.  They’re joined by Hoylake’s Links Manager, James Bledge, to look ahead to the year’s final major and talk about his stellar career in greenkeeping. You will not want to miss the story of what happened on James’ first day as a greenkeeper, and he’s got plenty of anecdotes and...

DP World Tour winner and Yorkshireman Dan Bradbury chats to NCG about his stellar career so far on the latest episode of The Slam podcast! Bradbury broke through on Tour in South Africa in November, winning the Joburg Open on just his third start. Matt Chivers chats to Dan about this as well as his weekend with Rory McIlroy at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, his exciting college golf career, his aspirations to play in the Ryder Cup, and which LIV Golf players he’s spoken to since the rebel...

What’s the weather forecast? The course is closed, any idea when it will be open? Can I return these year-old shoes? We’re all guilty of bombarding our hard-working club pro with some pretty ridiculous queries and, on the From the Clubhouse, we reveal some of the stranger requests. Tom Irwin has basically been ringing around every pro he knows and asking them to tell us, anonymously of course, about the daftest questions they’ve been asked by members. He’s also been listening in to...

Brooks Koepka returned to his brilliant best at the PGA Championship, overcoming Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler to win his fifth major title at Oak Hill! Matt Chivers and Tom Irwin dissect what took place in New York last week, with Koepka’s typically formidable performance at the centre of discussion. The team looks back on a magical week for PGA professional Michael Block and another solid but disappointing week for Rory McIlroy at a major tournament. Matt and Tom talk about Oak...

White belts? Iron headcovers? These things are a given. But what else do you really fear and despise on the golf course and what would you want to banish from your club forever? In this week’s episode of From the Clubhouse, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll get into their pet hates and argue for their inclusion in club golf’s Room 101. But this is a tough school, as only with unanimous agreement will their selections gain entry. What will we put in there? Will scabby range balls make the cut?...

Golfers always have high expectations from their game, but is this holding you back from performing your best?   We've teamed up with Shot Scope to take a deep dive into club golfers' statistics and see where you can make the biggest gains to improve your golf this season. 

It’s major week and in this episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway, with discussing who we think will lift that famous Wanamaker Trophy at Oak Hill on Sunday. Can you believe it’s been more than 100 years since and Englishman won the PGA Championship? Well we’ve got a couple of names we fancy to end that drought - but there’s a couple of solid Americans they will need to stave off first. Elsewhere, there was an emotional victory on the PGA Tour,...

We just love nattering about competitions! On this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll meander once again around match play golf and debate the optimal number of events in a club’s calendar. Tom recounts a head-to-head that left a participant in tears, grills Steve after reading he’d had an eventful refereeing weekend that involved a fair number of DQs, and then takes him to task when he reveals he’s not playing in competitions -...

It’s been a dramatic week on tour, with several European legends resigning  from the DP World Tour and effectively ending their Ryder Cup careers, so there’s plenty for Alex Perry and Matt Chivers to get into in this episode of The Slam - a National Club Golfer podcast, in association with Callaway. The pair go in hard on the main protagonists - namely Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, and Richard Bland - but the reality is so much more damaging for Europe’s hopes of regaining the...

We all do our utmost to uphold the laws of the game but there are some rules we just can’t seem to get our heads around. On this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll get their heads into the book and name their top three rules that all golfers break. What will come out on top? Is it dropping from a penalty area, arguing about provisionals, or taking more than three minutes to search for a ball that tops our hit list?  Tom also...

In this week’s episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcast, Alex Perry tells co-host Matt Chivers that questionable scheduling has seen the core of Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team skip the Italian Open. Elsewhere, LIV Golf’s Phil Mickelson has been heavily involved in the criticism of the Official World Golf Rankings again this week - though he perhaps has an ulterior motive - while Rory McIlroy’s back in action and we want answers. There’s all this and a whole lot more to enjoy over...

Should golf be all about fun and frolics or is there still a part to play for the traditional golf club with its historic values? On this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll discuss whether the sport is evolving in the face of a new desire to provide entertainment above all else. Tom is talking from California, where he visited Goat Hill Park - a trendy, celebrity-backed, municipal course which has captured the imagination for...

In this week’s episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway, Alex Perry and Matt Chivers discuss the raucous LIV Golf event in Adelaide and why the PGA Tour should be taking notes. Elsewhere, is the LPGA in the best shape ever? The first women’s major of 2023 would certainly point that way. And how about that bizarre rules incident on the Korn Ferry Tour? Is golf shooting itself in the foot again? Let’s dive in...

Is a bacon roll a crucial part of your golfing day? Do you still enjoy getting together for a post-round feast? And is the key to a player’s heart really through their stomach? On this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll are discussing the culinary options we have as members and visitors at golf clubs. The pair go through their best experiences of golf club catering, talk about some of the challenges facing clubs - including a...

Playoffs are an annoying way to end a golf tournament, aren’t they? After 72 holes of stroke play, the stars don’t want to go out there and play more. So in this episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway, Alex Perry and Matt Chivers have some sensible and some not-so sensible ideas to fix it.  We also tackle Patrick Cantlay and slow play, Rory McIlroy’s controversial WD from the RBC Heritage, the PGA Tour’s most underrated superstar, and the caddie...

Do you put on a Seve-style game face when you tee it up in the knockout or do you find match play such a fuss you don’t even bother to enter? In this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll go on a deep dive into club match play competitions. Tom gets his medals out from successful forays into person-to-person combat and dissects the delights of this peculiar format - from arranging games to on-course small talk. Steve reveals...

In the latest episode of The Slam - a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway - Alex Perry joins Matt Chivers from Georgia as he discusses a truly unforgettable week at The Masters, as well as the drama from the final round. Jon Rahm secured his second major title in an emotional fashion, on what would’ve been Seve Ballesteros’ 66th birthday. Alex and Matt break down the significance of Rahm’s victory, as well as the return to major contention of Brooks Koepka. How...

What a time to be alive! The Masters is on TV, Augusta National is looking as superb as ever, and by Monday morning we’ll be itching to get the clubs out of the garage and attack the fairways at our own course. And, yet, following the wettest March in the UK for decades, what we’re going to experience probably couldn’t be further away from those superbly manicured fairways and perfect greens in Georgia. It’s been a challenging time for greenkeeping teams trying to get a course ready for the...

On this episode of The Slam - a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway - Alex Perry and Matt Chivers are joined by NCG’s resident tipster, Oddschecker’s Tom Jacobs, to break down the contenders as we head into what we’re calling ”the most open Masters ever”. There will be a number of LIV Golf players teeing up at Augusta. Can one of them get over the line? And what would that mean for LIV - and golf - as a whole? The trio also assess the chances of the Big Three - Rory...

Have you paid your golf club membership subscription yet? For lots of us, deadline day is approaching very fast and it might be a last gasp decision whether to dig deep and stump up. In this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll consider the value of golf club membership. Is it better value for money to be a member of a golf club, pay up front, and get the benefits of exclusive use, or is pay as you play in a green fee model the...

On this episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcasts in association with Callaway, Alex Perry and Matt Chivers discuss the WGC-Match Play and, in particular, its absence from next season’s schedule, the nonsense that is the third-place playoff, and the Golf Channel’s controversial graphic that had social media alight. They are also joined by Ryder Cup obsessive Rob Giannotti, of Blue on the Board, to discuss everything to do with the European team. So should captain Luke Donald be...

We don’t want you to think of us as one-trick-ponies but it’s another podcast and another week talking about the World Handicap System. That’s because Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll took the From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, on the road and visited Woodhall Spa, the headquarters of England Golf, to speak to James Luke, the governing body’s Head of Handicapping and Course Rating. We get stuck into course rating, PCC, interoperability, and much more besides -...