Weekday Golf

Actor, director, producer, and filmmaker Colin Hanks came to golf relatively late — and now he’s making up for lost time. We met Colin on the golf course a few months ago, and his passion for the game stood out immediately. He joins us to talk about how he got hooked on the game, why The Olympic Club is his favorite course, and what he’s learned from getting comfortable being bad at something agai...

Lou Stagner is one of golf’s best-known voices in data, using data from millions of shots to challenge conventional wisdom about everything from putting and driving to course management and practice. We talk with Lou about all this and more: golf myths busted by the data, strokes gained, what happens when the “right” statistical answer doesn’t fit the golfer, what Lou’s learned from working with e...

Jacob Goode joins us to talk about his unconventional climb to elite amateur golf — from not being recruited out of high school and arriving at the University of Washington without a spot on the golf team, to winning the California State Amateur and playing the U.S. Amateur at his home club, Olympic. We discuss his determination to prove he belonged, the coaches who helped accelerate his improveme...

We catch up on our own golf games after a busy summer, starting with a hard-fought win in our latest Armageddon match. That leads to a bigger question: why does our best golf sometimes show up out of nowhere — and why can it be so hard to reproduce? We also weigh in on the summer debate over how to define a “good golfer,” and share some early impressions of renowned architect Jim Urbina after spen...

This week, we’re joined by Congressional Country Club member Ernest Baynard, whose friendship with Preston helped build lasting relationships between Congressional and the Olympic Club. Ernest takes us inside Congressional: the golf, the history, the traditions, the characters, and what a perfect day at the club looks like. We also learn about the genesis of the Ryder Cup-style match that he and P...

We've always believed that the friendships in golf are a huge part of what makes the game special. This week, we're joined by our friends Malia Lyle and Jojo Wallace, who met through golf more than a decade ago—and have been close friends ever since. From "golf dating" and an 11-year handwritten ledger of their golf bets, to trips around the world and the crazy characters they&#3...

We originally wanted to make this a "Best Golf Books" draft, but realized we hadn't actually read everything on our bookshelf. So, instead we share the golf books and movies we enjoyed the most and have changed the way we see the game, from The Match and Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect to Caddyshack, The Greatest Game Ever Played, and more. If you're looking for your next golf read...

To us, stories are a huge part of the soul of the game—and every golf club has stories that never make it past the locker room. This week, we're joined by the anonymous creator behind Country Club Confidential (we'll call him "Scott"), the newsletter dedicated to telling the unbelievable, hilarious, and unforgettable stories that golfers swap over drinks—but rarely share publicly...

What does it take to create one of the world's great golf experiences? Troy Flanagan, Director of Golf Maintenance at The Olympic Club, has spent decades preparing courses for U.S. Opens, PGA Championships, and the Ryder Cup. But as you'll hear, his work isn't really about grass—it's about giving every golfer four hours to forget about everything else. We talk with Troy about why c...

Most golfers know the Rules of Golf exist. Not many know all of them. Even fewer agree with all of them. In this episode, we talk about the rules we love, hate, and question. From fairway divots and tree roots to the "house rules" that become part of every golf group, this is a conversation about how golfers actually experience the game. Whether you're a rules official or someone who...

Golf fans see the tournaments. They rarely see what everyday life on a Division I golf team is actually like. This week, we sit down with William Ma (Harvard) and Matthew Lin (Yale) to talk about the friendships, competition, and team culture that define college golf. We explore their path to college, their most effective practice routines, what they've learned from playing alongside some of t...

Major championships and Ryder Cups don't just happen—they're built. Brandon Haney helps lead the team that transforms a golf course into one of the biggest sporting events in the world. We go behind the scenes of what it takes to host golf's biggest events, from building a temporary city around a golf course and designing a better spectator experience to managing unexpected crises (lik...

In a previous episode, we learned about Golf Digest's course rating framework. We joked that we should become golf's official "Hang Raters," because we remember golf for much more than the actual course. Which brings us to this episode, where we build the Weekday Golf Experience Rating—our attempt to answer a different question: After you play a round of golf, what do you really...

After our conversation with Joe Kwok, Oliver kept the mics rolling. Joe stayed to answer a series of questions about club fitting—from the biggest mistakes golfers make during a fitting, to premium shafts, loft and lie adjustments, grip size, Japanese craftsmanship, tour vans, and more. If you enjoyed our main conversation with Joe, this bonus episode offers an even deeper look into the craft of c...

Golfers love to obsess over their equipment. And for many, club fitting is about finding the perfect clubs. For Joe Kwok, it's about eliminating doubt. Joe is one of the country's most respected independent club fitters. With 30+ years of working with everyone from beginners to elite players, he's learned that great fitting is more about understanding the golfer than it is about specs...

In this listener mailbag episode, Oliver and Preston answer questions about slow play, the friend who backs off a shot to tell a story, where your bag actually belongs around the green, Oliver’s infamous crusty glove, what’s really in our golf bags, bad behavior in a foursome, the biggest on-course meltdowns we’ve witnessed, what makes a round “good,” how to help someone fall in love with golf, an...

We're excited to be joined by Joe Skovron (aka "Skov"), who has spent nearly two decades as one of the most respected caddies on the PGA Tour, including 13 years with Rickie Fowler and now in his third season with Ludvig Åberg. We've been fortunate to spend a few rounds with Skov over the years, and that familiarity made for a candid conversation. We didn't talk about specifi...

A few weeks ago, we recorded Part 1 of the Los Cab Cup before the event actually began. At that point, all we had were expectations, optimism, and a lot of questions about what would happen when 90 golfers descended on a ranch in Arizona. Now we're back with the aftermath. Joined once again by our friend Scott Walker from the The Edge Podcast, we look back on what worked, what surprised us, an...

A few episodes back, Jason Soucy told us that hosting a major championship means building a temporary city. After spending several days inside the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club, Preston realized he wasn’t exaggerating. We go behind the scenes of a modern major championship — from 60,000-square-foot merch tents and massive hospitality compounds to volunteer operations, transportation logi...

For years, golf course rankings have tried to answer a deceptively simple question: what makes a golf course great? We intuitively believe that our overall golf experience includes, but extends beyond pure course design. But we were curious to learn how the official ratings worked. This week, we sit down with Golf Digest course rating panelist David Rawlinson to explore that question from every an...

Dr. Rick Sessinghaus has spent decades coaching golfers at the highest level of the game, including working with Collin Morikawa since childhood. Instead of approaching this conversation like a traditional interview, we decided to use ourselves — and our own golf games — as the case study. We talk with Rick about focus, confidence, expectations, frustration, slow play, performance under pressure,...

Two years ago, a golf trip to Wickenburg, Arizona brought together 44 guys for a long weekend of golf, games, and stories. This year, it became something much bigger. For Part 1, we teamed up with our friend Scott Walker, co-host of The Edge podcast, and recorded live from Rancho de Los Caballeros just before the 2026 Los Cab Cup began: 90 golfers, 22 teams, and three and a half days in the Arizon...

This week we sit down with Jason Soucy, Championship Director for the 2028 PGA Championship at the Olympic Club, for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to stage one of the biggest events in golf. Jason takes us inside the enormous scale of a major championship — from building a “startup” years in advance for what is ultimately one week of golf, to coordinating thousands of workers, city age...

There’s a moment for a lot of serious golfers where the path changes. You’ve spent years competing, improving, chasing something—and then, at some point, you realize it’s probably not going to be your profession. But that doesn’t mean you stop. This week, we talk with Marissa Mar, a Stanford golfer and elite amateur, about what happens after that decision. We get into the difference between loving...

Golf friendships are real—but they’re different. We talk about what makes them unique: the time you spend together, the “hang,” and how the shared love of the game can lead to legitimate friendships without needing to get into deeper life stuff. We also get into how these friendships form, why some people find a crew and others don’t, and whether playing well matters more than we want it to. At th...