The Thing About Golf Podcast

About the only people in golf who attract more criticism than the players are those who commentate on the game on TV. But not Judy Rankin. The 26-time LPGA Tour winner and former Solheim Cup Captain is universally regarded as one of the best to ever pick up a microphone and in this broad ranging chat with John Huggan she covers everything from her beginnings in the game to the future of the LPGA T...

Jim Furyk occupies an unusual place in the professional game. Without the profile and attention of the likes of Tiger or Phil or Rory, he more than comfortably held his own in that company for the best part of 20 years. A Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup stalwart, Furyk has some fascinating insights into the game and the people who play it as you will hear in this compelling chat with John Huggan.

Lots of professional golfers like fast cars but none can quite match PGA Tour of Australasia Legends Tour player Tomas Mezera. Mezera spent most of his life as a professional car racer including winning Australia’s prestigious Bathurst 1000 in 1988. But at 50, his career took a different turn when he signed up for — and succeeded — at the Legends Tour Q-School. Mezera's is a remarkable story...

Winner of the 2006 US Open, Geoff Ogilvy is known as one of professional golf’s best interview subjects and in this wide ranging chat with John Huggan he shows why. From growing up in Melbourne where being a caddie at Royal Melbourne gave him access to the course to playing and winning on the biggest stages in world golf alongside the likes of Tiger Woods and Seve Ballesteros, Ogilvy has done it a...

Among the most unique perspectives in professional golf is that of the on course reporter. Unlike the rest of the commentary team or the viewers on TV, those who walk with the players get to see everything, not just what the director chooses. For many years in Australia that voice belonged to Chanel 7’s Pat Welsh, a Brisbane sports TV icon and one of the industry’s most likeable characters. Welsh...

Peter Dawson has been as influential an administrator of the game as anyone in history. Appointed Secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1999 it was Dawson who oversaw the creation of The R&A in 2004 to take care of the club’s commercial operations, including The Open, through one of its biggest growth periods. Among the highlights of his tenure were announcing Tiger Woo...

It’s a long way from Wales to Augusta National and the Ryder Cup captaincy but it’s been quite the loaf journey for 1991 Maters champion Ian Woosnam. In a special Masters week edition of The Thing About Golf the former World No.1 sits down with John Huggan to reflect on his career. From starting in the shadow of fellow Masters winner Sandy Lyle to eventually going all the way to the very top echel...

It’s been 25 years since Mark O’Meara slipped on the green jacket after a tense final round battle with Fred Couples and David Duval. In this sit down chat for a Masters week special of The Thing About Golf with John Huggan the two time major winner (and Australian Masters champion) reflects not only on that week and but a rich, full life in golf. He touches on Augusta, Tiger and so much more.

Charlie Earp is an Australian golf icon. He’s best known for his work with Greg Norman and Wayne Grady early in their careers but his influence on the game reaches far wider than just the professional ranks. The Head Professional at Royal Queensland for 45 years, Earp was also a dedicated PGA administrator and has worked with countless club members along the way. He is of an era and generation we...

Playing professional golf is a dream for millions but not everyone who has the skill to pursue it ends up enjoying it. Elaine Farquharson-Black is just such a player. In the latest episode of The Thing About Golf podcast, the two time Curtis Cup captain and standout Scottish amateur talks to fellow Scot John Huggan about her life in – and out of – golf.

There are few in golf whose contribution to the game could be compared to that of Sir Michael Bonallack.  Unquestionably one of Britain’s greatest amateur players he has also been a long-time administrator of the game serving as both Secretary of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and later Captain of the R&A. As a player, he enjoyed great success but few years were as glorious as...

Christine Fraser is one of only a few women in the golf course design business but the Canadian native is one of the most eloquent speakers and broad thinkers about what golf course design can and should be. While understanding the importance of how golf holes are laid out, Christine has a unique ability to consider design through a much broader prism than simply the shape of golf holes. She’s an...

Like many TV analysts it’s easy to forget Sky Sports’ Ewen Murray was a player long before he ever sat behind a microphone. In this wide-ranging interview with The Thing About Golf host, John Huggan, he looks back on his playing career on the European Tour, the putting yips, how he got into television, his fallout with Tiger Woods and what he thinks of the current LIV Golf controversy.  It’s a bro...

The name Thomson is synonymous with golf, not only in Australia but globally. Five times Open Champion Peter is, of course, one of the game’s greats but ask his wife Mary and she’ll tell you that you never would have known it.  The Peter Thomson the public saw, listened to and read his words was the same Peter Thomson Mary saw at home and the couple enjoyed more than 50 years of marriage, which re...

The voice will be familiar but there is much more to Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner than most golf fans would ever guess.  From humble beginnings growing up on a family-owned driving range and miniature golf course in a tough part of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Lerner fell in love with the game. A by-product of his time working the range, is a single figure handicap and a couple of club championship trop...

A golfer can only beat the field assembled on any given week under whatever conditions are present at the time and that’s exactly what Stephen Allan did at the 2002 Australian Open at Victoria Golf Club.  Allan joins The Thing About Golf host Rod Morri to look back on what was not only one of the most controversial tournaments in recent memory but also the highlight of the Victorian’s lengthy care...

Can golf be more than just a game? 100 percent yes, according to our guest on Episode 79 of The Thing About Golf .  Tony Blackburn is the founder of Golf in Society UK, an organisation whose goal is to help – through golf – those afflicted by dementia, Parkinson’s Disease and other chronic illnesses. Tony joins host Rod Morri for a fascinating and powerful discussion on the therapeutic power of th...

From an early age Nicolas Colsaerts knew he was good. Not in a cocky way, just an acknowledgement he could do things with a golf ball others couldn’t. But Colsaerts is also well aware there is much more to life than golf and his thoughts on both the game and topics beyond make for fascinating listening in this chat with The Thing About Golf host, John Huggan.

Jackie Newton and Kathie Shearer have been staunch friends since the early 1970’s when they met and married two of Australia’s finest golfers, Jack Newton and Bob Shearer. Earlier this year both lost their golfing icon husbands, Bob in January and Jack in April.  In this episode, The Thing About Golf host Rod Morri sits down with Kathie and Jackie to get an insight into what life was like with two...

Women and caddies – two perspectives we don’t hear enough of in golf media and both bundled up in one interview.  The Thing About Golf's John Huggan sits down with lifelong friend, mixed foursomes partner, former European Tour caddie and now one of the first women members at Scotland's Muirfield, Lindsey Garden.  Lindsey caddied for Wayne Riley in his memorable 1991 Australian Open win a...

Golf is a lot of different things to a lot of different people but for Uganda’s Isiaih Mwisege it is a calling. Isiaih found golf in 2003 through caddying and has since made it his life’s work to introduce as many Ugandan children as possible to the sport. The AFRIEYA Golf Academy provides opportunities not only in golf but also education and thanks to the dedication (and money) put up by Isaiah,...

If not for a knee injury sustained playing Gaelic football as a teenager, Paul McGinley’s life may have turned out very different. That injury saw the Irishman turn to golf and he went on to become a European Tour stalwart, hole a Ryder Cup winning putt and later Captain the Europeans to victory over the Americans. But McGinley has much more to offer the game beyond his fine playing credentials. ...

For 77 of his 88 years on the planet Alex Mercer’s life has been dominated by golf. A good player in his own right before a back injury early in his career, Mercer turned to coaching and having worked with the likes of David Graham, Steve Elkington, Brendan Jones and Michael Campbell (among others) successful doesn't begin to describe his career. His deep love of the game, keen mind and gift...

Eddie Pepperell is a two-time European Tour winner and owner of some of the game’s most unusual swing drills.  But he’s also one of golf’s most interesting thinkers on matters both golf and more broadly. He has opinions on topics as diverse as world economics and market forces to how LIV Golf fits in Saudi Arabia’s bigger geopolitical strategy. He touches on all of it in this fascinating chat with...

Jose Maria Olazabal was one of the best of his generation – a dual Masters winner with one of the most admired short games in history.  But it is for his legendary pairing with Seve Ballesteros at multiple Ryder Cups — and his own heroics as captain in the 2012 ‘Miracle at Medinah’ —that he will be best remembered. John Huggan caught up with Olazabal during The Open Championship at St. Andrews for...