50 Things That Changed Golf

After recapping and analyzing every episode of the new Netflix golf series, Full Swing, it was time to bring our questions to the man who put it all together. In this bonus episode, Chad Mumm, the show’s executive producer, discusses who he envisioned as a target audience, how he locked in on different subjects, and why the show opted against a traditional chronological format. Mumm also reveals h...

The final episode of Netflix’s new golf series, Full Swing, and of our limited-run podcast recapping the show, is all about the star power of Rory McIlroy. As hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers discuss, the producers were right to focus the entire last episode on the four-time major champion given the prominent role he played in golf in 2022, as well as his willingness to share parts of...

As the Netflix series on golf, Full Swing, approaches the end, our podcast recapping the show can’t help but judge the seventh episode through the prism of missed opportunities. Were rookies Sahith Theegala and Mito Pereira compelling enough to carry an entire show? Was either one of the biggest storylines of 2022? Although there were elements of the seventh episode—Theegala’s father being one, Pe...

After a triumphant run of episodes in the new Netflix golf series, Full Swing, our podcast recapping the show was more critical of a sixth installment focusing on Tony Finau and Collin Morikawa. As hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers say, there is much to like about the Tony Finau portion, which captures Finau’s compelling and unique backstory, and provides new insight into the balance h...

The fifth installment of our limited-run podcast series recapping Full Swing, the new Netflix show, tackles the Matt Fitzpatrick and Dustin Johnson episode. Hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers note that just like with Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler in Episode 2, the show’s producers opted to emphasize a contrast. Here it was between the overachieving Fitzpatrick and the naturally gi...

Hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers haven’t agreed on everything about Netflix’s new golf show, Full Swing, but they agree that the show’s fourth episode on journeyman Joel Dahmen was the best yet. In our limited-run podcast series recapping every episode, we explain why Dahmen’s incredible journey through professional golf and his relatable demeanor made for compelling television. Among...

The next installment of our limited-run podcast series recapping Netflix’s Full Swing reflects on the value of personality, and how the show’s third episode featuring Ian Poulter stood apart from the previous two for that reason. Whereas earlier episodes had bigger names in Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers argue that devoting an entire epis...

In the second installment of our limited-run podcast series on Netflix’s Full Swing, hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers discuss a much-improved second episode that focuses on Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler. We discuss the portrayal of Koepka as a one-time dominant force now in the throes of a prolonged slump; how it contrasts to Scheffler, an amiable up-and-coming star who catapult...

Welcome one and all to the world premiere of the new Golf Digest podcast "Full Swing Thoughts." As you might gather from the title, we're here to talk about all things 'Full Swing,' the new Netflix documentary looking at the year 2022 in professional golf. We start today with the JT and Jordan episode, and Golf Digest stalwarts Sam, Alex, and Shane go deep on what they loved, what they didn't love...

Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman and Alex Myers will be your guides through the upcoming Netflix show "Full Swing." The trio will discuss what the show gets right, what feels a bit off and everything in between. With each episode, we'll have a podcast to break down everything you just saw, and there may be a special guest to wrap it all up. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for...

For the first time in the sport’s history, the defining moments of the professional golf season took place somewhere other than on a golf course. The ongoing battle between the PGA Tour and the fledgling LIV Golf circuit instead took place in private backchannels, on social media, and even in the legal sphere. But as much oxygen as it took up in 2022, it was hardly the only event that mattered to...

An 18-hole experiment with our 11-handicap editor and PGA Tour veteran Joel Dahmen began with a simple question: How much easier would golf be if a tour player hit all your drives for you? In this week's Local Knowledge, Sam Weinman takes you behind the scenes of a memorable round in which he and Dahmen teed off for one another and then played their own balls from there. You can also read the stor...

What are NFTs? And what could they possibly have to do with golf? Our Shane Ryan didn’t really understand them at first, and he certainly didn’t know what they had to do with a game played on grass. But as Ryan discovered, NFTs are making inroads into the golf world, some quite modest, others rather dramatic. In this episode, he explains NFTs basics for novices, and what it all might mean for golf...

Even as golf has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years, a number of golf courses are undone by challenging economics and mismanagement. Many of those courses close outright, while others fight to stay alive in the face of considerable headwinds. In this episode, Alex Myers talks with Golf Digest's Keely Levins and Joel Beall and others about a handful of golf courses that got creative...

Every time elite professional golfers are asked to come together in a team format, it comes with the awkward adjustment of needing to think about more than themselves. What’s often overlooked is how much golf requires an inordinate amount of self-interest. From how golfers practice, to the time they spend away from home, to even their choice to pursue an individual over a team sport, Shane Ryan ex...

There is no worse tag in golf than that of a cheater. In a game that prides itself on honor and self-policing, the players who betray that trust even once struggle to restore their reputation. In the aftermath of an incident in a qualifier tournament, Alex Myers looks at the particulars of the case, but also the wider world of cheating in golf—how often it happens, why it happens, and why it's so...

For most golfers out there, the scores we shoot have little tangible significance. We maintain a handicap, maybe play for a few bucks, but otherwise, no one really cares but us. And yet for many golfers, the difference between 80 and 79 is a landmark milestone. On this week’s episode, Sam Weinman and Shane Ryan discuss their respective quests to break 80. They consult with pros, sports psychologis...

In the 1930’s and 1940’s, when women’s amateur golf was the premiere women’s golf circuit, some players became stars. One was Marion Miley, who won just about every major amateur event available to her. But her career came to a tragic end in the middle of the night in the Lexington Country Club apartments where she lived with her mother. In the decades that followed, Marion’s story has been forgot...

The golf world has been awash with news about the threat LIV Golf poses to the traditional framework of the professional game. In far shorter supply is clarity about where this all might be headed. In this episode, Dan Rapaport explores the origins of the PGA Tour-LIV rivalry as well as the turbulent present to help understand how the situation could resolve, and why it might not anytime soon. Hos...

Can a 40-year-old golfer really overhaul his golf game in just 12 weeks? That's what we set out to learn. This spring, Golf Digest's Alex Myers embarked on an intense program overseen by experts to address every element of his sagging game—from his swing, to his body, to his mind—to see what type of change was possible. In this episode of Local Knowledge, Myers describes the process, the staggerin...

To understand why St. Andrews' Old Course is not just the "Home of Golf," but also the most significant golf ​course in the world, it's important to understand just how much of the game's history has run through this unique seaside layout. From the course's deceptive complexity to its seminal moments, Dan Rapaport outlines everything that makes the Old Course so vital to the game's identity, and w...

Golf's major championships are when the stakes are highest, and how the best players in the game are measured. But the downside of putting so much emphasis on four weeks a year is it risks undermining the rest of the golf calendar. In this episode, Alex Myers examines how the men's major championships evolved to become the mega-events they are today, and the unexpected challenges that dynamic pres...

No tournament in golf appeals to the dreamer more than the U.S. Open, where a qualifying process puts journeymen, club pros and even schoolteachers just three rounds away from a spot in the field next to the game’s elite. On the eve of the U.S. Open at The Country Club outside Boston, Dan Rapaport examines the U.S. Open qualifying process, explains why it remains one of golf’s most intriguing oppo...

When Title IX was enacted in 1972, it was hard to imagine its influence could still be felt in golf a half-century later. But the landmark legislation not only ushered in a new wave of women golfers, those golfers went on to raise golfers of their own. On the eve of the U.S. Women's Open, Keely Levins examines what the golf landscape was like for women before Title IX, and the myriad ways it's bee...

Golf is technically an individual sport, but increasingly, top-level players rely on a broad assortment of supporting characters to achieve optimal performance. From caddies and coaches to trainers, chefs, mind coaches and data analysts, Dan Rapaport takes an inside look at the various figures in a tour pro’s orbit to understand what they do, how they help, and how they all coexist on the same tea...