In this week’s episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway, Alex Perry and Matt Chivers discuss the ridiculous finish at the Valspar Championship, where Jordan Spieth was clearly just keeping his form for the upcoming Masters and Grand Slam pursuit at the PGA Championship, while golf’s nicest man Tommy Fleetwood was also in the mix for a first win on the US circuit. Not so nice, though, was Matt Wallace, who came under fire after being caught in a...

’Golf is doing well and we don’t want to undermine this’. So said the R&A and USGA as they unveiled a proposal to unleash a new competition golf ball on elite events - but steered well clear of anything that could affect the recreational game. Should club golfers feel left out as governing bodies seek comment on their plans to reduce hitting distances at the highest level? On this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll break down what they think of the Model...

The USGA and R&A are proposing a significant roll back in golf ball distance for elite competition. This change would mean bifurcation in golf, with different rules for professionals compared to club golfers.  Tom Irwin, Hannah Holden and Jack Backhouse discuss the proposed rule changes, why changes are being made and if the governing bodies are doing the right thing.

In a special Players Championship edition of The Slam - a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway - Alex Perry and Hannah Holden sit by the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass watching players take on the famous island green while discussing their week in Florida. Then, later, usual co-host Matt Chivers joins to discuss Scottie Scheffler’s incredible win, his Grand Slam hopes, the PGA Tour’s newest star, and the player who blew almost $1,000,000 in an hour. Enjoy!

Medal, Stableford, fourball. It’s a holy trinity for golfers and makes up the vast majority of what we play at our clubs. But Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll like to spread their wings a bit wider and, in this episode of the From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, they get stuck into their favourite golf formats. Tom expounds on his love of foursomes, while Steve asks if some golfers are too inflexible about what they’ll play on a weekend. He also tries to bamboozle...

It’s Players week and the NCG team are in place at TPC Sawgrass. But the biggest talking point ahead of the PGA Tour’s flagship event? LIV Golf, of course.  In this episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway, Alex Perry and Matt Chivers break down the big debate about last year’s champion Cameron Smith, and how Rory McIlroy is concerned about more than just Greg Norman’s breakaway league.  Don’t worry, we’ll talk about The Players too, and we’ve even...

Does club golf for you revolve around turning up and chucking balls in the air, or are we now hooked on the concept of booked tee times?  Covid considerably changed the landscape of how some of us play our golf and in this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll consider what’s on offer at clubs and whether the humble roll up has passed its sell-by date. Tom and Steve explain how mixing with lots of different players was pivotal in...

50% of TaylorMade golf balls sold are no longer plain white, so is visual technology the biggest change in golf ball design in recent years?  NCG’s Hannah Holden, Tom Irwin and Jack Backhouse discuss the evolution of the golf ball and how TaylorMade are changing the game with their eye-catching golf ball designs.  They also catch up with TaylorMade golf ball designer Mike Fox to take a deep dive into all things golf balls, including understanding compression, the role of dimples, and how...

If you blinked, you missed it, but it’s one down, 14 to go as LIV Golf’s season opener in Mayakoba flashed by without incident. In this episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway Golf, Alex Perry and Matt Chivers discuss the reasons why LIV Golf - whether it lasts five years or 50, will never replace what we have with the existing PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LPGA and LET.  Speaking of which, there were some seriously good storylines to get stuck into this...

Just mentioning the words ”independent golfer” is enough to send some of your clubs into a sweat. But England Golf’s iGolf scheme now boasts some 30,000 subscribers and the initial fury that greeted the plan to give players who were not members of a golf club an official handicap has all but subsided. Have golf clubs, though, really got to grips with nomadic players and the benefits they can bring? In this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Steve...

The Slam - a National Club Golfer podcast in association with Callaway Golf - is back for 2023!  Alex Perry is joined by a brand new co-host, Matt Chivers, and the pair discuss Jon Rahm’s remarkable form, Lydia Ko’s return to the top, and have their say on that ”prank” by Tiger Woods at the Genesis Invitational. Elsewhere, LIV Golf is back and one of its stars is already thinking about coming back to the PGA Tour, while others are upset that their Ryder Cup dreams are being crushed. Alex...

We’re obsessed with pace of play. Find a corner of the clubhouse and someone will probably be unhappy about how long today’s round has taken. Yes, the time it takes to play the game is often a fractious point of debate. But what can we do about it? In this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll talk about the various issues they encounter on the course and examine the R&A’s Pace of Play Manual, which offers a whole host of...

On this week’s All the Gear, a podcast from National Club Golfer, Tom Irwin, Jack Backhouse and Hannah Holden, delve into what it was like to visit and play TPC Sawgrass, how the course has changed and why it is such a good venue for The Players. They also take a deep dive into their week at the PGA Show. Was demo day as good as it sounds, how did Kyle Berkshire help increase their club head speed and what was the latest and greatest new golf technology on display? 

Did you know if your ball lies on the green, and is no more than five feet from the hole, there is a Rule of Handicapping that allows you to pick it up and add a stroke to your score? In this week’s From the Clubhouse podcast, in association with TaylorMade Golf, Steve Carroll and Tom Irwin delve deeper into the concept of ’most likely score’, which can be used when a hole is started but a player does not hole out. They consider how it’s employed in match play and fourball formats, Tom...

What is it about golf rules that get us so hot under the collar? Tree-gate, as it’s now being called, divided opinion among commentators and spectators as Patrick Reed’s every movement was analysed and criticised at the Dubai Desert Classic. Steve Carroll, who has passed the R&A’s top rules exam, is joined by Tom Irwin and the pair break down events in the palm tree during the third round of the DP World Tour event. Steve thinks he might have found something in how a ball is identified...

Don’t we all love a good rankings list? Whether it’s ticking off where we’ve been, where we want to go to, or just getting flustered about where our favourite course might be placed, course rankings start discussion. NCG Top 100s considers itself the home of golf course rankings and the knowledgeable team of panellists have just completed their work on Scotland’s Top 100. In a special episode of the NCG Top 100s podcast, Steve Carroll is joined by panel chairman Dan Murphy to chat about the...

England Golf’s new pilot Championship Entry policy, which could potentially deny access into some competitions for players with too many general play scores in their handicap records, has catapulted the controversial World Handicap System back into the headlines. But has the governing body’s actions, which are designed to ensure integrity and a high standard of entrants, exposed a deeper issue within WHS? On this week’s From the Clubhouse, a podcast from National Club Golfer, Tom Irwin and...

What is happening with pricing at our best golf courses? Is a true bucket list experience increasingly becoming out of reach for the average club golfer? As we peer ahead into 2023 and start looking at booking our summer trips, it’s clear that it’s becoming ever more expensive to tick off a layout that appears in the various Top 100 lists, such as NCG Top 100s. On this week’s From the Clubhouse, a podcast from National Club Golfer, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll delve into visitor green fee...

On this episode of All the Gear, a National Club Golfer podcast, Hannah Holden, Jack Backhouse and Tom Irwin discuss everything from the new technology in the Stealth 2 range, how they perform, and what is COR and Inverted Cone Technology. Tomo Bystedt Senior Director of Product Creation at TaylorMade also joins the trio to chat about the changes they have made in the new drivers. 

We all love getting our hands on new golf clubs but what goes on behind the scenes to bring them to market? Tom Irwin, Jack Backhouse and Hannah Holden speculate about how they would design a new driver. They also chat to Evan Gibbs, Director of R&D for Woods at Callaway to find out how they go about creating new golf clubs. 

It’s January, which in our world means one thing and one thing only: new golf equipment. This year it is Callaway making the plunge first, unveiling an expansive range of new products, all under the new Callaway Paradym family name. On this episode of All the Gear, a National Club Golfer podcast, Hannah Holden, Jack Backhouse and Tom Irwin discuss everything from the new technology in the range, how they perform, and why they chose the name Paradym. Evan Gibbs from the Callaway Research...

It’s that time of year again when new product releases are coming left, right, and centre. While lots of golfers are excited about the possibility of new golf clubs, we increasingly see more and more complaints that technology can’t possibly be changing so quickly. So can our clubs - in particular, drivers - actually keep getting better? Hannah Holden, Jack Backhouse, and Tom Irwin discuss, and the All the Gear team are joined by Dave Neville, senior director of brand and product management...

Hannah Holden and the NCG Review team discuss the upcoming equipment launch season, their colossal attempt to test 80 new clubs in time for January and if brands should bring out new equipment every year.

What is it about a golf club that draws us in? Is it the easy access to tee times, the shared sense of community, or the opportunity to get into competitive action? On this week’s From the Clubhouse, a podcast from National Club Golfer, Steve Carroll and Tom Irwin take a detailed look at why so many of us pay out considerable sums of money each year to be part of a club. Steve, who has recently moved clubs, gets onto the couch and talks about some of the teething issues he has had settling...

Put a microphone in front of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and they are happy to talk. Both have conducted explosive interviews in the past few days and that’s where Alex Perry and George Cooper start with this week’s episode of The Slam, a National Club Golfer podcast. Did McIlroy go too far with him comments? One of our co-hosts certainly thinks so. Elsewhere, the pair argue over the players guaranteed to make the Ryder Cup and those on the fringes, while George picks his World Cup XI of...