The Fried Egg Golf Podcast

The Official World Golf Ranking has unexpectedly become a lightning rod for debate this year because of its decisions to overhaul its formula and turn down the upstart LIV Golf league's request for immediate membership. To sort through this mess, Garrett sits down with Joseph LaMagna ( @JosephLaMagna ), co-founder of Optimal Approach Golf  and author of the Finding the Edge newsletter. Joseph and...

Garrett welcomes author Bob Cullen to the podcast to help explain the mysterious ways in which golf can transform a beginner into an addict overnight. Bob examined the subject in his book Why Golf? , which was published over 20 years ago and happens to be one of Garrett's favorite books on the game. Bob also talks about how his experience as a golfer has changed for him over the years and what he...

The Fried Egg is launching a membership! It's called Club TFE . Starting on January 2, 2023, members will have access to exclusive content, along with a variety of other perks. In this episode, Andy and Garrett dive into the details of what Club TFE will offer. They also chat about the history of The Fried Egg and how they think the company fits into the current media landscape. To learn more abou...

If you're a regular listener to The Fried Egg, chances are you've spent a fair amount of time thinking about golf course architecture. But have you ever looked at clubhouses—and other kinds of vertical structures often found on golf courses—and thought about how they're designed? Garrett has been curious about this subject for a while, and that's why he got in touch with Alex Warr ( @alex_warr on...

Nick Sherburne, founder of Club Champion, brings decades of experience as a club maker and fitter to the podcast as he and Andy put together sets of their favorite clubs from the 80s, 90s, and early aughts. If the mention of names like Orlimar, Adams, Zebra, and Sonartec give you pangs of nostalgia, you'll enjoy Nick and Andy's lively Black Friday discussion of some of the best (Scotty Cameron Ter...

In today's edition of the Yolk with Doak, Tom and Andy begin by reminiscing about their visits to Scotland earlier this year. A discussion of restorations, including Tom's own work at the Lido, takes up the middle part of the episode, and they finish with Tom answering listener questions about balancing client demands, handling criticism, choosing his favorite bunkers, and more. See omnystudio.com...

The Yolk with Doak is back! After a busy few months of travel for both Andy and Tom, they had a lot to catch up on. They start by talking about the revival of High Pointe, the first course Tom designed. He shares details about the routing, timeline, and whether he'll once again be the one shaping the greens. Next, some updates on the other ongoing projects, including Sedge Valley, Punta Brava in M...

In his new book The Science of Golf , golf broadcaster Will Haskett ( @willhaskett ) delves into the scientific revolution that golf has experienced over the past quarter century. The book breaks down everything from launch-monitor technology and strokes-gained analytics to neuroscience and agronomy. Will joins Garrett to describe the enormous impact science has had on golf in the 21st century and...

You can now add "children's book author" to Shane Bacon's ( @shanebacon ) lengthy résumé. The TV personality and host of the Get a Grip podcast just released his first book, "The Golfer's Zoo." He talks with Garrett about why he wanted to write golf book geared toward kids, the ways that becoming a parent changes one's relationship with the game, and the nature of the "golf guilt" that many moms a...

Only days after LIV's first-year finale in Miami, the high-stakes game of player recruitment for the Saudi-backed league's second season has ratcheted. Building on a recent piece by Andy in The Fried Egg Newsletter, Andy and Garrett discuss the top remaining players on the PGA Tour and their value in the tussle between the Tour and LIV. Andy and Garrett also reflect on the Tour's battlefield strat...

Brendan Parkhurst, superintendent at Cape Arundel Golf Club in Kennebunkport, Maine, joins Andy as the latest guest in our Superintendent Series. Brendan has been at Cape Arundel for over 20 years and has helped guide the Walter Travis-designed course through its restoration. The special care needed for Cape Arundel's dramatic greens, how a tidal river flood impacts the grass, and the pros and con...

Golf course architecture is experiencing its biggest boom in almost 20 years. With demand for new courses and restoration/renovation work ramping up, the industry is at an important juncture. Andy and Garrett each share three things they hope and/or expect to see from golf course design in the near future. They explore possibilities for less suitable land, shorter courses, and experimental shaping...

Zach Helfand’s main job is editing The New Yorker ’s “Talk of the Town” section, but for the past few months he has been working on a feature story about the battle between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. That article appears in this week’s print edition of the magazine and was published online under the title “ Will the Saudis and Donald Trump Save Golf—or Wreck It? ” Zach ( @zhelfand ) tells Garrett...

Ian Gilley is the co-founder and president of Sugarloaf Social Club, which is a golf society, a popular Instagram account , a merchandising operation, and now a part-owner of a golf course. Ian and Andy start by chatting about searching for hidden gems in Kansas and Nebraska and creating golf logos that stand the test of time. They then delve into why and how Ian and business partner David Cronhei...

PGA Frisco is one of the most important golf-development projects of the past two decades. It consists of two 18-hole golf courses, lighted par-3 and putting courses, an ambitious hotel and retail enterprise, and a new "home" for the PGA of America. In the next 12 years, Frisco will host six PGA majors: two PGA Championships, two Senior PGAs, and two Women's PGAs. Andy visited the complex recently...

Sandy Reid ( @SandyReidGK ), the Director of Greenkeeping at St. Andrews Links, is today's guest for our Superintendent Series. Sandy has one of the busiest jobs in the turf industry: he oversees all seven courses at St. Andrews. This year was busier than ever for him, with the 150th Open and the Dunhill Links both taking place at the Old Course. Sandy shares how he and his team managed the infras...

Andy and Garrett are back with another mailbag episode recorded in the midst of their trip through Massachusetts, Maine, and Upstate New York. This one is focused on all of your golf course architecture questions. Well, maybe not *all* of them, but Andy and Garrett do tackle some serious subjects, including which architect has done the most damage to golf course architecture. They also make time f...

From the living room of an A-frame house in Massachusetts, three members of the Fried Egg team—Andy, Garrett, and Will—reach into the mailbag and answer a batch of your questions. The boys cover a variety of Presidents Cup-related topics: surprises and disappointments from this past week’s event at Quail Hollow, venues they’d like to see in the future, whether they’re annoyed with Justin Thomas’s...

Team golf is back this week with the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow. To celebrate, Garrett and Andy take a walk down memory lane and examine the history of the event. From the split between the PGA of America and what would become the PGA Tour to the failure of other team competitions, the series of events that led to the Presidents Cup's creation is a fascinating study. The second half of the epi...

Anticipation for men's major championship golf this year was sky-high. Tiger was returning to the Masters, the PGA Championship had been moved to Gil Hanse-restored Southern Hills, the U.S. Open was visiting the Country Club for the first time since 1988, and St. Andrews was hosting the 150th edition of the Open. To the delight of golf fans everywhere, the tournaments lived up to the hype. Andy Jo...

During the Covid-19 pandemic, recreational golf saw a major uptick. Rounds went up and equipment sales boomed. Have those boom times continued in 2022? Or has there been a regression to the mean? To take the temperature of the golf industry as a whole, Garrett speaks with Greg Nathan, the Chief Business Officer of the National Golf Foundation . Garrett and Greg discuss the nature of golf's "Covid...

At this past week's BMW PGA Championship, multiple players who have signed with LIV Golf aired their grievances about the direction of the DP World Tour, formerly know as the European Tour. Ian Poulter, Sergio García, and other Euro vets feel that the proud, historic tour has become a mere "feeder tour," and that DPWT CEO Keith Pelley's negotiation of a "strategic alliance" with the PGA Tour is si...

Denny McCarthy ( @_dennymccarthy ) just had his most successful year ever on the PGA Tour, highlighted by a T-7 finish at the U.S. Open. He joins Andy Johnson to talk about his outlook for next season, getting hot just in time for the U.S. Open, and the recent work he put in to up his game. He also shares his thoughts on LIV Golf and the sweeping changes the PGA Tour introduced last week. Lastly,...

In the second of two episodes recapping his first visit to Scotland, Andy Johnson gives Garrett Morrison his thoughts on two legendary courses—North Berwick Golf Club and the Old Course at St. Andrews—and two lesser-known gems in the East Lothian region, Dunbar Golf Club and Kilspindie Golf Club. They discuss the brilliance of North Berwick's hole designs, the uniqueness of the Old Course's terrai...

Earlier this month, Andy Johnson and Joseph LaMagna ( @JosephLaMagna ) talked through the changes they'd like to see the PGA Tour make in order to compete with LIV Golf. After this week's onslaught of news and announcements about real alterations that the Tour will make to its structure, Andy welcomes Joseph back to break it all down. They discuss PIP, LIV, TMRW, and probably a few other acronyms;...