The Fried Egg Golf Podcast

CBS lead golf analyst Trevor Immelman joins Andy to preview this week's Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy. The two discuss the big storylines heading into the Ryder Cup, including top-tier European players, the depth of the U.S. team, Justin Thomas's prospects, and Team USA's predictable pairings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode focuses on the APGA Tour, which seeks to bring greater diversity to golf by helping African Americans and other minorities to gain access to careers in the game. First, Andy speaks with APGA founder Ken Bentley about how he started the tour, what his original goals were, and what the tour has become. They also touch on some stories of APGA players. For the second half of the episode,...

Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, outside of Rome, Italy, is this year's Ryder Cup host. In preparation for this rather high-profile gig, Marco Simone underwent a redesign by European Golf Design, in cooperation with Tom Fazio II. European Golf Design's lead architect for this project was Dave Sampson, and in this episode, Dave joins Garrett for a deep dive into the course. Dave talks about the...

Shane Bacon joins Andy to draft their own Ryder Cup teams: Team Egg vs. Team Bacon. They do a schoolyard pick, drawing from the pool of American and European pros who will compete in the Ryder Cup later this month, ranking them 1-24, and offering insights and critiques on individual players. Banter ensues. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First, Andy and Garrett cover some mailbag questions they didn't get to in last Friday's pod. They try to decide whether upcoming Ryder Cup venue Marco Simone is "good," list some of their favorite fairways in golf, and discuss the importance of tee-box design. In the back half of the episode, Garrett is joined by Will Benson (40:52), the facility manager and golf superintendent at Laurelwood, a n...

Mailbag time! Andy and Garrett address a bunch of golf architecture-related questions from listeners. Among the topics covered: this year's most exciting new-build golf courses, the best courses Andy and Garrett saw for the first time recently, the virtues of the Lido, whether more "Harbour Town-style" courses should be built, why Pete Dye is not "VERY overrated," and whether template holes are la...

Zach Johnson made his six captain's picks on Tuesday, so the U.S. Ryder Cup team is now complete. In this episode, Andy and Fried Egg Golf contributor Joseph LaMagna ( @JosephLaMagna ) discuss the merits of the ZJ's selections, evaluate Team USA in detail, and give some preliminary takes on the European squad. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2023 PGA Tour season is in the books, so Kyle Porter ( @KylePorterCBS ) joins Garrett to discuss a few big-picture takeaways from the past year's action. First, though, they touch on Viktor Hovland's dominance in the last two legs of the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the hugely promising arc of his career so far. After running through their season-long takeaways, Kyle and Garrett briefly chat about Z...

Jimmy Humston is the golf course superintendent at the recently opened Lido in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. He joins Andy for a discussion of what it's like to live in Nekoosa, how he got introduced to Sand Valley, and the various jobs he's held around the resort. Jimmy and Andy dig deep into the story of building the Lido, a reproduction of C.B. Macdonald's famous course on Long Island. They talk about th...

Host of this week's 2023 U.S. Senior Women's Open, Waverley Country Club is a Golden Age Chandler Egan design, restored in 2012 by Gil Hanse, and—in Garrett's opinion—the best golf course in Portland, Oregon. Garrett sits down with superintendent Brian Koffler to talk about Waverley's history, architecture, best holes, and agronomy. They also discuss the challenges of maintaining turf in the Pacif...

To lead off this episode, Andy sits down with PGA Tour winner Michael Kim ( @Mike_kim714 ) to chat about a variety of topics. They discuss the courses Michael played in the Bay Area while attending UC Berkley, his strong play this season, and his newly vocal presence on Twitter. They also debate the USGA and R&A's proposed Model Local Rule for a reduced-flight competition ball (Andy is for it;...

Yesterday marked the end of the official "comment period" for the USGA and R&A's proposed Model Local Rule regarding a reduced-flight golf ball for elite competition. That's right, ya missed it. But the PGA Tour and the PGA of America submitted their comments on time, and they're opposed. Why have these organizations aligned against the governing bodies? How have certain equipment companies pu...

Garrett sits down with Richie Ramsay ( @RamsayGolf )—2006 U.S. Amateur champion, four-time winner on the DP World Tour, and golf-architecture aficionado—to discuss a variety of topics. They start with a debrief of Richie's recent trip to Minnesota, where he saw courses like Interlachen, White Bear Yacht Club, Edina, and of course Hazeltine, the site of his U.S. Amateur triumph and subject of an up...

For the first interview in this episode, Andy is joined by Shaun Smith ( @GorseNod ), superintendent at Sullivan County Golf Club, a public nine-holer in upstate New York now operated by author Tom Coyne. Shaun discusses the ups and downs of his life and career, what he's done so far at Sullivan County, and what his hopes are for the future. In the second half of the episode, Andy brings on golf a...

The idea of par dominates our thinking about golf. It's how we judge a player's performance. It's how we assess the difficulty of a golf course. It's how we categorize holes and courses. It shapes our perception of the game in way's that we don't even notice; it's the water we swim in. And yet for most of golf history, the idea of par did not exist. Today's guest is Stephen Proctor ( @SProctorGolf...

Andy Johnson and Joseph LaMagna discuss who their top 10 players in golf are now that the major championships are over. The two chat about players such as Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele rank as well as the breakout campaign of Viktor Hovland. They also talk about the recent NBA announcement of the NBA Cup, an in-season tournament that adds significance to regular season games and the parallel...

The final men's major of the year just wrapped up at Royal Liverpool, and we're back to dig into the most important stories from the 2023 Open Championship. First, Garrett speaks with Sean Martin ( @PGATOURSmartin ) of PGA Tour dot com about the skill set, personality, and career arc of the new Champion Golfer of the Year, Brian Harman. Then Garrett brings on Joseph LaMagna ( @JosephLaMagna ) to s...

With the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool fast approaching, Garrett is joined by Joe McDonnell ( @joemmcdonne11 ), the Head of Imagery at the golf architecture firm Clayton, DeVries & Pont as well as a longtime Hoylake member. After a quick intro from Garrett addressing the controversy over the "internal" out-of-bounds lines on the championship third and 18th holes, Joe gives a guided...

Kyle Porter of CBS Sports ( @KylePorterCBS ) joins Andy Johnson to preview the 2023 Open Championship. The two discuss Rory, Scottie Scheffler, and Rickie Fowler, among other favorites, and they break down they're looking for from the course and the tournament. Also, Kyle is really excited about the prospects of Padraig Harrington on the Ryder Cup team. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

With the Open at Royal Liverpool approaching, Andy brings on Jasper Miners of Evalu18 (7:24) to ring in this year's brief links season. First they chat about some non-links hidden gems around London, then Jasper breaks down the history of Royal Liverpool and describes the differences between the original course and today's version. Andy and Jasper also discuss the new 17th hole and how the course...

After a week on site at Pebble Beach for the U.S. Women's Open, Andy joins Garrett to talk about how the course challenged the players, where the setup fell short, and what, more generally, championship golf venues should strive to accomplish in the 21st century. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andy is joined by Fried Egg contributor Joseph LaMagna ( @JosephLaMagna ) for a chat about happenings in professional golf. First, they give some thoughts on the U.S. Women's Open at Pebble Beach: how the course should play for the women's field compared to the usual Pro-Am and U.S. Open fields; how courses could and should be set up to challenge and identify the best women golfers; to what extent...

Garrett and fellow Fried Egg team member Brendan Porath devote this episode to golf in the Monterey, California, area. First, they discuss some storylines they're tracking going into this week's U.S. Women's Open, held for the first time in the tournament's history at Pebble Beach Golf Links. They touch on some aspects of Pebble Beach that they're looking forward to seeing the women's field tackle...

Andy opens this pod with some reflections on the recent news that TPC River Highlands is looking at making course changes after a low-scoring Travelers Championship. He thinks that many people involved are ignoring the real problem, which is the equipment. Andy then brings on Shane Bacon (13:10) to talk about Shane's excellent performance at "The Ike," a big amateur tournament put on by the Metrop...

Garrett and Meg kick off this Tuesday show with some thoughts on the Women's PGA Championship: the background and playing style of Ruoning Yin, the 20-year-old champion; the continued excellence of Rose Zhang; and the continued failures of the networks to air women's major championships in a suitable fashion. Garrett then checks in with Ben Coley ( @BenColeyGolf ) of Sporting Life about the state...