Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.   My guest on this episode is Richard Pennell,  the passionate author behind Stymied; a blog about Richard’s love affair with the beguiling mistress that is golf.  In this episode we discuss Richard’s journey in life and the golf industry,  starting with his first golf teacher and mentor and finishing with his current sabbatical away from the golf industry, but still passionately in love with the game and...

Welcome to the first episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.   My guest on this episode is Robin Down, author of Golf in the Wild and its sequel, Golf in the Wild,  Going Home.  Both books are about golf and life, on some of the most beautiful and wild courses in England and Scotland.  In this episode we discuss Robin’s first book, including its many diversions, Robin reads a few passages along the way.   I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did and that...

Welcome to the first episode of Series 5 of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.   My guest on this episode is Maulana Dotch, the first African American female Class A PGA professional in Texas, and the second in the United States, after the legendary Renee Powell.  Maulana is also the first African American female GM at a golf club or course in the United States and is well on her way to becoming a living legend in her own right. She is passionate, resilient and always...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  This episode is Part 2 of my discussion with Ian Renshaw, a world renowned academic, expert adviser, coach and mentor in the area of skill acquisition in sport in general, and golf in particular.  In this episode we discuss the book Ian co-authored with Peter Arnott and Graeme Macdowell called A Constraints Led Approach to Golf Coaching as well as his course and book in the making with Peter Arnott, called,...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest for the next two episodes is Ian Renshaw, a world renowned academic, expert adviser, coach and mentor in the area of skill acquisition in sport in general, and golf in particular.  We following Ian’s journey from growing up as a multi-sport athlete in Northern England, to his many years at university culminating in his PHD and his current academic position, as well as  his many coaching and...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest this week, and back by popular demand is performance practice coach Jayne Storey.  Before listening to this episode I would encourage you to listen to episodes 23 and 24 with Jayne from last year if you haven’t done so already.  Jayne is a performance practice coach whose deep understanding is based on over thirty years practising and teaching formal meditation as well as several Chinese martial arts...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.   My guest this week is Jim Gales, MBE.  Jim is a three time Open champion, Canadian Open champion and founder and chair of Scottish Disability Golf & Curling. He is also an international curler; some would say he is a curling mercenary.  Like Jim’s mother, Jim is blind.  We follow Jim’s journey as an only child losing his parents at a relatively young age, to taking up golf and curling, and developing...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.   In celebration of Black History Month in North America, my guest on this episode is Charles Sifford Jr., the eldest son of the legendary Charlie Sifford, the first black PGA tour player who paved the way for many including Tiger Woods, who described Charlie as the Grandpa he never had. All Charlie ever wanted to do was to play the game he loved against the best players in the world but he had to courageously...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.   In this episode we shine a light on Canadian golf course architect Christine Fraser whose unique experience, vision and voice is filling a gap in the golf industry that has been neglected for far too long.  Christine grew up on a public family owned golf course in Eastern Ontario, Canada,  and was a Division 1 collegiate golfer in the United States.  She went on to do a masters degree  in Landscape...

Happy New Year Listeners and welcome back to The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  We start Series 3 by shining a light on the founder of the AFRIYEA Golf Academy in Uganda.  His name is Isaiah Mwesige and he is one of the most impressive young men I have had the pleasure of meeting.  He is humble, unselfish and resilient and above all has a passion to change the lives of others and their communities through the AFRIYEA Golf Academy.  The Academy does this with a truly...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest this week, the last episode of 2021, is Rajen Sewgolum, the son of “Papwa”, the greatest South African golfer of all time, who you’ve most likely never heard of as he was a person of colour whose livelihood was cruelly taken away from him by the apartheid state.  During this week when we lost Lee Elder, and at a time when countless professional golfers are quite happy to get into bed with serial...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest today is the engaging, entertaining, thoughtful, always optimistic, Emma Ballard, the Editor of Women & Golf, a popular 30 year old magazine that went digital during the pandemic.  We follow Emma’s journey from her early sporting life as a child, her first golf lessons at Wentworth, to her path in the sport and golf industry leading up to her current role at Women & Golf which started just...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest today is the inspirational and resilient Amir Malik, the founder of the  The Muslim Golf Association (or MGA for short) is the worlds first dedicated golfing platform that caters for the modern, professional, Muslim male & female golfer.  We follow Amir’s journey in life and golf, from the early death of both of his parents when he was a teenager, to having to grow up quickly and pay the rent, to...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest today is Lauren Cupp.    Lauren coaches both the men’s and women’s golf teams at Hamilton College, one of the oldest and most prestigious liberal arts colleges in the United States.  She is an educator, mentor and leader, mother of three young children and an elite amateur golfer.  She also happens to be the most impressive speedgolfer in the world, period.  She is the reigning world record holder,...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest today is Mike Romatowski.  Mike is a multi-certified personal trainer, golf fitness expert, and post-rehab exercise specialist. He is the creator of the revolutionary Mach 3 Golf Speed training System. Mach 3 is a year-round speed training protocol that has produced an average gain in clubhead speed of 11.5 miles per hour. The tools used in Mach 3 are dynamic and unique, allowing golfers to...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest today is Susie Meyers.  Susie is a former collegiate all-American and LPGA tour player who has competed in five majors.  She also happens to be one of the top golf coaches in America and is the author of Golf from Point A.  Like the other golf coaches we have had the honour of having on this podcast, Susie takes a learning approach to her coaching.  If you want to improve in golf and in life, you...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  We are continuing on the speedgolf theme this week with Scott Dawley from Houston, Texas.  Scott is an athlete, entrepreneur, pioneer and coach and the founder of Speedgolf USA.  But at his heart, Scott is a speedgolfer.  We follow his up and down journey from golf phenom in Highschool, to mini-tour golfer to entrepreneur and husband and father.  We finish up with Jamie’s speedgolf exploits; winning the US...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  My guest today is Aimi Bullock.  Aimi is a world beating disability golfer and Director of Golf Development at EDGA,  a not-for-profit, volunteer organisation, that promotes golf for players with a disability at every level and aims to encourage golf to be fully inclusive. We follow Aimi’s journey from active multi-sport athlete with her own thriving accounting practice, to dabbling in golf, a sport she...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  Luke Willett, recently crowned the British Speedgolf champion, also joins me this week as a guest host.  Our guest this week is Jamie Reid from New Zealand; Jamie is a PE teacher by day and world number one speedgolfer the rest of the time.  Jamie joined us from New Zealand and as you would expect has been staying close to home throughout the pandemic.  We follow Jamie’s speedgolf journey from the beginning...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  Our guest this week is Jayne Storey.   This is the second part of the interview.  Jayne is a performance practice coach whose deep understanding is based on over thirty years practising and teaching formal meditation as well as several Chinese martial arts including Tai Chi.  This discussion requires all of your attention, which is why I have broken it up into two bite sized episodes.  But it is potentially...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald.  Our guest this week and next week is Jayne Storey. Jayne is a performance practice coach whose deep understanding is based on over thirty years practising and teaching formal meditation as well as several Chinese martial arts including Tai Chi.  This discussion requires all of your attention, which is why I have broken it up into two bite sized episodes.  But it is potentially life changing for your game.  ...

Welcome to this episode of the Wild Golf Podcast.  I’m your host Michael McDonald. My guest this week is Michael Hebron, probably the most decorated golf coach in America, and in my view, one of the top two (the other knows who he is!).   When I say that, I am of course defining "coach"  as someone who creates an environment that enables the student to learn the game of golf.  I am not defining it as an ego driven technical swing coach on the PGA tour. We discuss Michael’s journey from...

Welcome to our first episode of Season 2 of The Wild Golf Podcast.  I am your host Michael McDonald and our guest this week is Chloe Garner, the reigning world long drive champion.  Chloe is a former collegiate golfer who stopped playing after college and started competing and coaching  cross-fit.  She stumbled onto Long Drive watching a profile on youtube of a male cross-fit athlete competing at Long Drive.  That’s where the journey began; she then found the best Long Drive coach in Bobby...

Welcome to this episode of The Wild Golf Podcast; our 20th and last episode of our first Series.   Our guest this week is Karl Morris, the pioneer of golf performance coaching in Europe, who has worked with major winners like Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke.  He is an educator with his Mindfactor courses, is the co-author with Gary Nicol of two best selling golf books, The Lost Art of Playing Golf and The Lost Art of Putting, and in his spare time hosts The Brainbooster...