The NCG Golf Podcast

Oh Erik, what have you done to us?! On the latest episode of The Slam Podcast - in association with Callaway - Matt Coles and Matt Chivers discuss Erik van Rooyen's emotional victory at the World Wide Technology Championship. He pledged his second PGA Tour win to his best friend Jon Trasamar who is suffering from cancer. The team also discusses Adam Long's mind-boggling achievement at El Cardonal,...

The Slam Podcast - in association with Callaway - is back for another episode! Two of NCG's finest, Matt Coles and Matt Chivers, dive into another busy week of news both on and off the golf course. On the course in Qatar, we saw heartbreak and ecstasy as stars of the DP World Tour battled to keep their playing cards for the next season. On the LPGA Tour, Celine Boutier won AGAIN in Malaysia, but n...

If the PGA Tour is the Premier League, does that make the DP World Tour the ‘Championship’? Or is it even worse than that? In this episode of the From the Clubhouse podcast, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll unpick the bones of the DP World Tour’s offer of membership to players who have failed to keep their PGA Tour cards. Is it, as some are claiming, confirmation of the status of European golf as a fee...

Well, that was quite a week. In this episode of The Slam podcast, Steve Carroll and Matt Coles look back on Lexi Thompson’s participation in the Shriners Children’s Open and ask whether more women should tee it up in PGA Tour events. They also consider the Official World Golf Rankings’ decision to reject LIV Golf's application to become an eligible tour. Was it the right thing for the sport? Does...

The most important person in the golf club, or a tradition that belongs in golf's history bin? In this episode of the From the Clubhouse podcast, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll consider the role of the PGA professional, what they mean to us, and whether they still have a place in a game that's being pushed to modernise.  You might not be surprised to learn the duo are very appreciative of the work th...

The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship finished on Monday after only 54 holes due to such poor weather in Scotland! Matt Coles and Matt Chivers sing the praises of the greens staff at Carnoustie, but question if wins over reduced formats should count on the record. Also in the latest episode of The Slam - in association with Callaway - the team argue the case for more tournaments to be played using...

The Ryder Cup is back in European hands but the fallout from events at Marco Simone are still rumbling on – particularly with regards to ‘hatgate’ and Joe LaCava’s antics on the 18th green. Tom Irwin, as always joined by Steve Carroll, looks back at that story and considers whether it would have been handled any differently if it was a player at the centre, and not a caddie. At club level, we have...

The Ryder Cup is back in European hands! What a weekend that was in Rome and, in this week’s The Slam, Steve Carroll is joined by Matt Chivers (from the Eternal City no less!) to break down the 16.5-11.5 victory over the USA. We assess all the big talking points from Marco Simone, whether that’s hauling skipper Zach Johnson over the coals, debating crowd behaviour, or pinpointing just why the Euro...

In the latest edition of The Slam Podcast - in association with Callaway - Matt Coles and Matt Chivers are joined by award-winning journalist and author Richard Gillis. Richard wrote The Captain Myth: The Ryder Cup and Sport’s Great Leadership Delusion, published in 2016, which re-thinks the role of the Ryder Cup captain and how important they actually are. With an array of interviews with an abun...

Tom Irwin’s got a bee in his bonnet. It’s match play time – with the Solheim Cup on our screens and the Ryder Cup following hotly on its heels. But Tom’s struggling to get into the spirit of person-to-person combat. He’s got a problem with it and spends a chunk of this week’s episode getting stuck into the biennial Europe vs USA battles as well as outlining some of his issues with match play at cl...

We have reached Solheim Cup week! On the latest episode of The Slam - in association with Callaway - Matt Chivers and Matt Coles look ahead to the match between Europe and America at Finca Cortesin. The team considered who would be the star performers on each side, with both Suzann Pettersen and Stacy Lewis having an abundance of experience and freshness at their disposal. Who will Charley Hull be...

What is a golfer? Is it just a golf club member? Or can someone who has only ever struck a shot on an Adventure Golf course call themselves a player? Golf for All, a huge research project commissioned by the PGA in partnership with IPSOS , claims that “golf is not what you thought it was”. It reveals that 22.4 million people (some 40 per cent of adults in the UK and Ireland) are interested in the...

There might've been no PGA Tour at the weekend, but the DP World Tour delivered with a tight finish at the Horizon Irish Open. Vincent Norrman won once again, so Matt Chivers and Matt Coles discuss the sudden rise in Scandinavian golf and how so many superstars in the sport are emerging from this part of the world. In the latest episode of The Slam Podcast - in association with Callaway - the Matt...

Enjoyed the summer break? Our From the Clubhouse team are back and they’ve got plenty to get stuck into. Listeners will remember that Steve Carroll pledged to submit a score for handicap from every round he played until the end of October. Three and a half months in, he gives Tom Irwin an update on how that’s going and how it’s affected his golf. The duo then consider the remarkable comments from...

The 2023 European Ryder Cup side is complete, but has Luke Donald chosen the right players for his team? In another special episode of The Slam Podcast - in association with Callaway - Matt Chivers and Matt Coles discuss the six selections that the European captain made for his Ryder Cup team. Swedish starlet Ludvig Aberg has been included in most of the talk surrounding these captain’s picks for...

The 2023 American Ryder Cup side is complete, but has Zach Johnson made the right Captain's picks? In a special episode of The Slam Podcast - in association with Callaway - Matt Chivers and Matt Coles discuss the six selections that joined the US side for the matches in Italy earlier today. Justin Thomas was picked after some golf fans doubted if he'd be chosen, so how important is it for the two-...

As we near the end of the 2023 PGA Tour season, Matt Chivers and Matt Coles look ahead to the 2024 season in the latest episode of The Slam - in association with Callaway. There will be eight Signature Events and an even larger prize for the FedEx Cup winner, but for how long can the PGA Tour continue to increase its purses? The tour is supposedly nearing a deal with the Public Investment Fund, so...

A record-breaking 61 to win the BMW Championship? On the latest episode of The Slam, in association with Callaway Golf, Matt Coles and Steve Carroll discuss Viktor Hovland’s incredible final round at Olympia Fields, as he moves up to No.2 on the FedEx Cup standings. The team also talk about the Tour Championship and the unique format, which sees players given a head-start due to their performances...

How much do you know about how your golf course was put together? Do you sail round your club course just hitting shots with abandon, or do you find yourselves wondering why each hole plays the way it does. There has been a surge of interest in golf course architecture among average players – whether that’s poring over ranking lists or discovering the secrets of design so we can understand our own...

Justin Thomas? Bryson DeChambeau? Lucas Glover?! Every week, a new player appears in the thoughts of Zach Johnson, so Matt Chivers and Matt Coles discuss another impressive display from Lucas Glover at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and his desire to be on the US Ryder Cup team. On the latest episode of The Slam, in association with Callaway, Matt Coles also reveals which players he would take to...

You think it's always been this way - but you've been living a lie. On this week's From the Clubhouse podcast, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll explore the origin of 18 hole golf, why it's a completely random number, and whether we should think again as modern life - and family demands - impinge on our leisure time. Do we need to take 9-hole golf more seriously, and should we offer a more varied compet...

Thirteen birdies and a leap that would make Phil Mickelson proud. Bryson DeChambeau’s stunning 58 at the Greenbrier was genuinely historic – so few have managed the feat – but his maiden LIV Golf victory has got minds whirring at NCG Towers. On this week’s The Slam podcast, Matt Coles and Steve Carroll, stepping in for Matt Chivers, look back at Bryson’s win and ask the question: Should he go to t...

With its pizza oven, street food, a colourful driving range, and 9-hole course, Golf It! is being described as the sport’s new approach – an accessible and inclusive way to get into golf. The facility, which is based at the former Lethamhill Golf Course in Glasgow, boasts a range of introductory golf formats and Steve Carroll went along to see it ahead of its launch. He takes Tom Irwin through the...

Celine Boutier was fantastic at the Evian Championship, becoming the first Frenchwoman to win this major title on home turf. But this didn't come without some slow-play rules controversy involving Carlota Ciganda, and Angel Yin's ball being picked up by a young spectator! NCG's Matt Chivers and Matt Coles take a look back at the action from France, as well as a brutal week in Wales where Alex Cejk...

Did you feel sorry for the stars flailing around in Hoylake's bunkers at The Open? No, the From the Clubhouse team of Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll didn't either.  For a brief period on Thursday, the sand was truly a hazard again in professional golf. For those of us at our clubs, used to hacking about and struggling to get out, it was magical. Then the R&A changed the way they were raked, the p...