Larry The Golf Guy

Anne Walker, the Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women’s Golf at Stanford, has had a remarkable record in her 11 years at Stanford, with two NCAA Team championships in 2015 & 2022 (and reaching the semi-finals an amazing 6 times), three straight NCAA individual champions the past three years, 39 full field victories and 28 All-Americans (including at least one first team All-American in each o...

Mark Hissey has had quite an interesting journey, from growing up in an impoverished area of Wales to attending Harvard on scholarship and working in finance for 15 years, to then pivoting to golf by leading the charge to build and open Sebonack Golf Club (where he had a front row seat watching Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak work together to design Sebonack) and most recently serving as Senior VP for...

With 2023 rapidly coming to a close, we catch up with our friend Brady Riggs about the seismic events in golf over the past week re the ball rollback and Jon Rahm going to LIV. We also review the results in the Ryder and Solheim Cups, discuss the leading players this past year on both the PGA and LPGA Tours, and contemplate what is ahead on both Tours for 2024.

John Bodenhamer is on the senior leadership team at the USGA and oversees all aspects of the USGA's 15 championships, five international competitions, domestic and international qualifying and future site selection. We talk with John about his journey in the game, from a stellar junior career growing up in the Northwest to his college career at BYU, his stint on the Senate Judiciary Committee Staf...

We talk with Kevin Hammer about growing up in South Florida and being immersed in the game at a young age, his success as a junior golfer (being a first-team AJGA All American in 1989) and playing at the University of Florida, and his continued participation in various state and national amateur tournaments as he pursued his business career at Merrill Lynch. Over the past 15 years Kevin has given...

Stewart Hagestad has compiled one of the great amateur records in golf over the past 10 years, winning 3 US Mid-Amateurs and being on 4 consecutive winning Walker Cup teams for the US, as well as playing in 4 US Opens and 2 Masters (with another US Open and Masters on the docket for 2024 by virtue of his 2023 US Mid-Amateur victory). We talk with Stew about his decision not to turn pro, how he has...

Doug Ferguson has been the AP national golf writer for 25+ years and has received many awards for his work, including the 2019 PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in journalism. We talk with Doug about Tiger, Phil and others as he watched their careers from his front row seat vantage point in covering the PGA Tour over the past quarter century. We also get Doug's thoughts on how the internet and social...

We talk with Jay Karen, long-time CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association, about the mission of the NGCOA and his thoughts on various issues impacting his members and golf generally, including the impact of third party tee time providers, the role of non-green grass operators such as Top Golf, and how to grow the game.

We talk with Emilia Migliaccio who is currently a commentator for NBC Sports/Golf Channel. Emilia has had a stellar junior career (3-time Rolex Junior All-American), collegiate career at Wake Forest (4-time All-American, 2023 NCAA Team Champions) and amateur career generally (2022 Women's North & South Amateur champion, 2021 Augusta National Women's Amateur runner-up, gold medalist at 2019 Pan Ame...

We talk with Emily Palmer, Chief Member Services Officer of the USGA. Emily was a Division I golfer at Northern Arizona University and then started her career at the SCGA in various roles before joining the USGA. We discuss her role in overseeing the relationship between the USGA and the Allied Golf Associations (AGA's), as well as the overall mission of the USGA (which is viewed through the lens...

We talk to Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs about the upcoming Ryder and Solheim Cups, including the make-up of the teams, expectations for various players and fearless predictions for which teams will prevail.

We talk to Seth Waugh about his journey from the world of finance to CEO of the PGA of America. We discuss his involvement with the PGA Tour in creating the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston while he was CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, his involvement with the PGA of America as a member of the Board of Directors, and his becoming CEO of the PGA of America in September 2018. It has been an active...

We talk with Rhett Evans, long-time CEO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, about the mission and vision of the GCSAA and the various roles and functions that it plays on a variety of issues in serving its more than 19,000 members.

We talk with our reigning US Women's Open Champion Allisen Corpuz about taking up the game at age 4, her tremendous success as a junior in Hawaii and as a collegiate player at USC, and her two years on the LPGA Tour, culminating in her US Open victory earlier this summer at Pebble Beach.

We talk with long-time Golf Magazine writer Josh Sens about how he got started writing in the golf space and the many interesting characters he has met along the way and the places he has been (which included competing in the North Korean Open). We also touch on a number of current topics, including the LIV-PGA Tour saga, Phil Mickelson and the latest revelations from the Billy Walters book, the d...

We talk with Nathan Grube, the long-time tournament director at The Travelers Championship, about his journey from growing up in San Diego to trying to walk on to the team at Auburn to getting the tournament director position for a PGA tour event at a remarkably young age (and moving to Connecticut from Alabama with his wife and young family). The Travelers Championship has garnered a number of aw...

Dr. Alison Curdt is one of the most notable teachers in Southern California. She is a dual PGA and LPGA Master Professional, a member of the SCPGA Teaching Hall of Fame and a former LPGA National Teacher of the Year, among other awards. We talk with her about her career as a teacher, her approach to students, her playing career and her thoughts on today's LPGA.

Darren Davis is a nationally recognized golf course superintendent at Olde Florida Golf Club and a former President of the Golf Course Superintendent Association of America. We talk with Darren about his experiences as a superintendent and his views on some of the golf course maintenance issues facing the game.

Dean Knuth was the longstanding Senior Director of Handicapping, GHIN and Green Section Administration at the USGA, and was the prime developer of the USGA's obstacle-based course rating system as well as the slope rating system (hence his nickname "The Pope of Slope"). We talk with Dean about all of his accomplishments at the USGA, as well as his life in golf beyond the USGA.

Tom Wildenhaus is the longstanding Director of Golf (and more) at Olde Florida Golf Club and 2021 PGA Golf Professional of the Year. We talk with Tom about his life in golf, not only at Olde Florida but also in the PGA at both the sectional level in South Florida and the national level.

We preview the upcoming US Open at LACC with Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs.  We also discuss the seismic events of last week regarding LIV and the PGA Tour, as well as the stunning pro debut of Rose Zhang.

Club Benchmarking has revolutionized the private club business by providing data-centric products and services which allow clubs to have the requisite facts to guide their decision-making process.  We talk with Ray Cronin, founder and former CEO, and Jim Butler, present CEO, about how Club Benchmarking came about, the value it provides to clubs, the mistakes they commonly see clubs make, and the t...

For our 60th episode, we speak with best-selling author Michael Bamberger about his journey in golf, his experiences as a caddie for a brief time and as a writer at Sports Illustrated for 20+ years, his two most recent superb books and his thoughts on where the game stands today with LIV and the PGA Tour.

In conjunction with the return of the US Open to LA after 75 years, LACC, the USGA and the SCGA have undertaken a collaborative project to restore the Maggie Hathaway Golf Course in South LA and support the SCGA Junior Golf Foundation's programming. We talk with two folks who are involved in this project -- Akbar Chisti, founder of Seamus Golf, and Kevin Gigax, executive director of the SCGA Junio...

We talk to Jim about his long and distinguished career in the golf industry, starting with a 17-year stint with Marriott, followed by 10 years with Kohler and 4 years with Troon, before becoming the GM at Riviera Country Club in 2021. We also discuss his leadership positions at the PGA of America, which culminated in Jim becoming the 42nd President of the PGA of America in 2020.