Australian Golf Passport

Not a nervous single nudged to mid on as we near the century– the 99th episode of AGP podcast is a great chat with CharlieMercer – one of New Zealand’s finest, and host of The Yardage Book Podcast. Charlie recently visited Australia and played some of our best courses. We talk about his views on golf in Australia and New Zealand. The similarities and differences, the good and not so good points, a...

Back to the mailbag to answer listener questions. Almost two hours' worth, ranging from travel advice, hot takes, favourites and some wild hypotheticals. Shoutout to Bryson, you're probably fine company on the golf course but we're just not that fussed to find out. Our Podcast is published with support from Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the...

Part 2 of our recap of our recent trip to King Island focuses on Ocean Dunes. OD was our first round of the trip and made an enormous impression. We go chapter and verse on 1-18, answer some listener questions about the course and there's inevitable comparisons to Cape Wickham. But first, a chat about last week's news that the Aussie Open for both men and women will be headed to a new cour...

AGP finally touched down on King Island, with a group of mates in tow, all very excited to see the golf on offer. This episode will be the first of a couple devoted to King Island, and one where we principally discuss the course at Cape Wickham. The turf, location, the 18th green, the wind, sets of 3s and 5s, favourite holes – all of it. The inevitable comparisons are made with Ocean Dunes, as wel...

A fair bit happening in Aussie golf this week, so Matt and Scott caught up for a quick trip through recent announcements and happenings: Rory is returning to the Aussie Open with the green jacket still in his possession. The Aussie PGA is headed to The Lakes and Bryson could be the drawcard (?!). LIV might be collapsing, but the North Adelaide redevelopment is all systems go with construction begi...

We invited Clayts on to help us profile St Andrews Beach, so naturally the episode opens with a discussion about 1970s house prices, closes with a brilliant Clayts monologue about molded grip trainer clubs and namechecks at least 20 Aussie courses along the journey! Early in the life of this pod, we recorded an episode with Clayts where we discussed a bundle of Mornington Peninsula courses. We tho...

One of Matt’s aims for 2026 was realised last week when he finally locked eyes on Cathedral Golf Club. We start the episode with a wide-ranging preliminary chat touching on a range of topics. The cost of public golf in the Hunter Valley, Church pew bunkers at Curlewis, the recent series of Womens Australian events (including the Australian Open and WPGA) and Hannah’s triumphs, Sam McClure’s articl...

The Women’s Australian Open is being held at Kooyonga this week, and is co-sanctioned by the LET. The field is strong and hopefully we see a return of the buzz created by year on year staging of the Women’s Australian Open as a stand alone event in late summer in Adelaide. We take a look at the field and briefly discuss the weeks of lead-in women’s golf in Australia.  We then speak with Zoee Dolli...

A long overdue catch-up with friend of the pod Lukas Michel, who has spent the past three years building his career in golf design while also keeping his hand in competitive amateur golf. From helping to build 7 Mile Beach to working on a couple of course's in people's backyards, and testing his construction skills at Royal Perth, Lukas has had plenty to keep him busy. And in between all t...

We both walked the new Royal Sydney course last year and were high on the incredible Gil Hanse renovation, but did Scott's thoughts change after two rounds there during January? We put this podcast together with thanks to Matt Burns and his staff at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The latest Australian Golf Passpor...

We are joined by stats guru Assoc Prof Dr Davis McCarthy for this episode as we do a post-mortem on the inaugural Australian Golf Passport rankings. We debrief on the process of releasing our own rankings list and tackle almost two hours of listener questions on the rankings, the panel and the process of crunching the numbers. Davis chats about the statistical process behind the final positions, a...

We get the New Year going with a bang, reviewing the 2025 goals, handing out the now annual Australian Golf Passport awards, and setting some goals for 2026. With a nod to the guys at NoLayingUp, the annual goals episode has become a regular for us, and we hope it motivates you all to set your sights on some achievements and personal development for the coming 12 months.   As mentioned in this epi...

We finally arrive at the crescendo of our inaugural Australian Top 50 Golf Course rankings. After pulling up stumps during the late night recording of the previous episode, we resume the count at number 11 and work steadily to number 1.  Scott’s recording on the road on summer holidays, hot spotting the laptop from his phone, and the audio is somehow better than Matt’s (who hosted). The Top 10 is...

We (slowly) approach the pointy end of the inaugural Australian Golf Passport Top 50 Australian Golf Course Rankings, with the intention of working from #25 all the way to #1. HOWEVA, things stretched on as they sometimes do, and we got to #12 before deciding to call an end to the day’s play. We work through a bracket of excellent Australian golf courses, looking at their strengths, weaknesses, ev...

An episode we’ve looked forward to recording for all of 2025. We unveil the back half of our inaugural Australian Golf Passport Top 50 Australian Golf Course Rankings. After having assembled a panel, and collating ballots we’ve had a genius crunch the numbers (s/o Dr Davis McCarthy!) in order to bring you what we feel is a statistically valid and reliable, objective snapshot of the nation’s best c...

A wide-ranging discussion with one of the best guys and keenest minds in golf travel and architecture this episode – one of Edinburgh’s favourite sons, Simon Holt. Simon’s seen all there is to see in world golf. We discuss architecture, rankings, modern green fees, Australian golf and a ton more. This is one of those episodes that feels like you're sitting on the clubhouse verandah with your m...

A quick catch-up for Scott and Matt after a week that saw the men's Australian Open reborn at Royal Melbourne. Rory, the course, the set-up, a superb supporting cast of players & a remarkable 72nd hole all came together to breathe life back into the tournament and show it the way forward. Shoutout to Angus & Grace Go Golfing and Seed Golf for their continued support and thank you to BM...

A long time in the making – we’ve been busting to record this episode after visiting a week ago. Australian Golf Passport hit 7 Mile Beach last week – and the course did not disappoint. A glorious layout full of high calibre holes, fantastic green complexes and so much fun, engaging, thrilling golf. We break it all down and digest the experience. We look forwardto hearing all your stories after vi...

A mixed bag of interesting topics this week: Footage of the fully-grassed course at The Cliffs at Kangaroo Island emerged recently and warranted discussion. New World Top 100 rankings from Golf Magazine are imminent and the Aussie candidates come in for attention. Some argy bargy surrounding Cheltenham Golf Club's new lease is in the news, so we briefly discuss that. The Aussie Summer of Golf is u...

Motivated by Scott’s personal journey with his swing and fitness through 2025, we sit down for a great chat with Tom de Jersey. Tom is a Sydney based TPI certified physiotherapist. He talks with us about strength, range, training for golf, physical limitations to the golf swing, and how best to negotiate them. Apart from his clinical work, Tom co-hosts the Greens & Gains podcast with Lee Hunt....

Listener questions episodes have always been among our most popular, and we're back with 30 questions from our audience: ranging from the green fees at new destination courses to protecting classic architecture, cheap ways to improve country courses, Mt Lawley's WA Open close-up all the way to some guilty pleasures, favourite holes and the greatest shots we've ever hit. There's bee...

A real treat to speak with one of the world’s greatest golf course architects – Tom Doak. After starting in the golf architecture world with Pete & Alice Dye, Tom founded Renaissance Golf Design decades ago and has travelled the world building some of the finest courses in the game. We speak with Tom about his experiences in Australia including Barnbougle, St Andrew’s Beach, consulting at Roya...

After an eventful week of golf twitter exchanges about tea tree and the sandbelt we have a timely interview to lead off this episode. Kate Torgersen from Environmental Golf Solutions joins us to talk about her career in golf. Starting with her time in turf management, then the switch to flora. We talk about her experiences, the people and courses she’s worked with, as well as the under-appreciated...

Two of the heavyweights of world golf are the stars for this episode – Royal Melbourne West and Tara Iti. Scott recently returned from a quick hit and run trip to Tara Iti and played both courses at Te Arai as well. The rounds at Tara Iti had him thinking it might even surpass the famed West course at RM as the Southern Hemisphere’s best.   We discuss the genesis of the course at Mangawhai – inclu...

The week before last afforded the chance for Scott, Matt and Dean from Seed to share a game on a sunny and breezy Saturday afternoon at Royal Queensland. Before and after the game several RQ members proudly hosted a tour of the land east of the Gateway Bridge, describing the imminent development of new holes, and plans for refinement of the existing course. Paul and JM discuss all this and more wi...