The Tie Podcast

Regionals, the final right of passage regardless of who you are. Whether we are talking about a team that has 9 wins on the year or a team that barely snuck into the top 75, everyone has to go to one of the 6 regional sites and finish in the top 5 if they want to make a trip to the national championship. Brentley Romine is here with us a one of the top voices and knowledge bases in the college gol...

Jackson Van Paris is a junior on the Vanderbilt Men's Golf Team and has been enjoying a ton of success in the last year. Climbing into the top 15 of the amateur ranks haas been a product of a win at the 2023 Sunnehanna Amateur, a top 10 in a PGA Tour event, and a lot of great golf along the way. While this may look like a huge shift, JVP has been getting the better the whole way through, a lot...

Most of us have one or both of the 2 key problems when it comes to practice: finding time to practice, and knowing how to use that time when we do find it. While we unfortunately cannot be of assistance in opening up time in your schedule to hit the range, short game area, or putting green, we can give you a boost when it comes to putting that precious time to its best use. Tune in to find out how...

Golf, like anything has a lifecycle to it. You learn the game, you spend a long long time honing the game, and as an extension of that, you hopefully play the game for life. While you wouldn't play the same set of clubs your entire golfing life, you probably won't stick to the same course either. There are certain "beginner friendly" courses that may be particularly good for lear...

The Masters got us all fired up for major season, so naturally we are priming you for the next one up, The PGA in 4 weeks. Valhalla golf club has a storied championship history and although it is not the most interesting golf course out there, you can't deny the quality of champions it has produced. In today's episode, you can expect: - Talk about the golf course and what sort of players i...

Mike Koprowski and Kyle Franz have been working together on a project just outside of Columbia, South Carolina inspired by Pinehurst No. 2 and Old Town Club. Just a few weeks ago we heard from Kyle on the podcast, who shared his thoughts on his recent design work at Cabot Citrus Farms (FL), Luling (TX), and Broomsedge. Now also for the second time, we get an update from Mike on all that has transp...

What. A. Week. From the players, the weather, the typical culture of The Masters, and the golf course, it was as good of a Masters Tournament as I can recall. Getting to spend some time on the ground, we are here to report on what we saw both in person and on TV. In today's episode, you can expect: - Talk about the golf course and how great it was this week. - The good, the bad, and the ugly f...

Neal Shipley is back to discuss The Masters! After a run all the way to finals of last summer's US Amateur, Neal joined Henry for a discussion on that week and a very early precursor to the week that we are now in. In today's conversation, Neal and Henry discuss: - Neal's off season and how he prepared for The Masters. - A few specific holes and shots Neal has given extra attention to....

It's Masters week! Truly the best week of the year in so many ways and of course we are doing another #mudballmonday on The Masters. Today we're breaking down some of our scenarios that we think are possible yet not super likely that we think would make this week even better than it already trusts to be! The Main things you can expect today are: - Some of the things we are most excited for...

Kyle Franz has been doing great renovation and restoration work for a number of years now and, as he describes it in today's conversation, feels like he is just now getting his "big break" on exciting original works. Although it wasn't original, his reworking of Cabot Citrus Farms (formerly World Woods) feels like our first chance to see what Kyle's true original work will lo...

Two of the great parts of The Masters are the inclusion of the Amateurs as well as past champions in the field. It gives the field texture, half of which being new excitement and half of which being a consistency of players we have seen for years, whether they have any chance of playing well or not. Today we discuss how the old heads stack up against the young guys not playing for a check and who...

If you were playing competitive golf at my age, you knew who Rachel Heck was. She made it look easy- always has. Despite wrestling mind, body, and soul the last few years, she came back a few weeks ago ready to play. Her freshman season accolades alone fill up a page, and her appearances for professional and team events only brightened the lights. We forget that the people playing at the highest l...

Round 2 of our MBM pre Masters series! This time we're talking about who CAN as well as who CAN'T win The Masters this year. A lot to think through these days on who our real hitters are as we get to these majors given all the complexity in the golf world. The majors have been made that much more special by the fact that we only get to see the game's best players together a handful of...

Mike McGraw has spent his entire life as a teacher, mentor, and coach. Starting out in Edmond, OK as a high school teacher and golf coach at the age of 25, moving on to be the assistant at Oklahoma State for a number of years, spending 8 years as the head of the Cowboys, and now as the head at Baylor.  Coach McGraw, as you'll learn in this episode, has as much passion for coaching as anyone I...

We both really enjoyed season 2 of Full Swing so we decided we would enjoy doing a conversation on why in particular we enjoyed season 2. In this conversation we talk about: - Players we really enjoyed in the season as well as ones we didn't. - Who they are leaving out that could in future episodes. - ZJ, Cantlay, Cam Young, JT, Keegan, and the whole Ryder Cup mess. We think this show has rea...

Cabot Citrus Farms! It's really good. And it's fun. And not just the Karoo course, but the whole place. Today, in a solo episode based on his article that can be read at our website link below, Henry breaks down his thoughts on Cabot Citrus and what he thought about it as well as what a course like it and Kyle Franz's architecture means to the game. We also checked out Mike Nuzzo&ap...

Conditions matter, let's be honest. We all enjoy playing a very well conditioned golf course but the importance of conditioning goes far beyond the enjoyment of "aesthetics." Conditions affect the way a golf course plays and how we can and should go about trying to navigate it as golfers. Further, the way different parts of the country and world are conditioned at their best and in...

 Derek Duncan is the head of gold digest's rankings system as well as editor for all of golf digest's architecture publication. He has been in the game of golf architecture from a work and passion standpoint for a very long time and has a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion for the space. As you'll learn from this conversation, Derek is as passionate about the history of th...

5 weeks out! Hard to believe we're already this close to The Masters! That said, it feels like we need a major more than ever. Golf is in a weird spot and to gain clarity on why we all love this game and how great it can be at its best, what better way to right the ship than with the best week of the year? To start to get the engines firing for what always trusts to be an awesome week of the...

This was originally a writing piece that released on Wednesday, if you want to see that with full photo, head to the link below at our website. Also, this will release on our YouTube page if you want to watch and listen in on that, so for that one, also go to the link below to check out our YouTube. My 3 main points on Crystal Downs were as follows: - Modern green speeds have somewhat belittled th...

Jeff Marsh has been en fuego for the entirety of 2023 as I've seen it - but with all great stories, there's a lot more to it. Publishing his first periodic photo journal, "Golf is Art", it was a treat to hear stories that will appear in the book firsthand. Jeff has an unusually deep understanding of the game from a photographers lens having caddied on the PGA TOUR for Ryan Moor...

Pinehurst No. 2 Augusta National Merion Three of our favorite 6 hole stretches in the game and the ultimate tournament test if we were to put them together. In today's episode we cover: - What makes a good 6 hole stretch. - Why is the specific stretch of the course it falls in important? - What could potentially be better about each of these stretches? Today we are joined by our associate, Tr...

Isaiah made the 2019 US Walker Cup Team as the capstone of a highly successful amateur career before falling into the wilderness of pro golf created by the pandemic. Those who didn't have status were significantly set back from a traditional career arc, especially for the class of player Isaiah is in. After enduring an up and down 3.5 years, Isaiah won on the Korn Ferry Tour 2 weeks ago in Pa...

The bag man. An important part of the game's past, present, and future. Whether we're talking competitive golf, casual golf, or really any part of the game, caddies have there place. That said, it's interesting to consider how caddy culture differs in different parts of the country or world. It's easy to think that the way you or I have experienced caddies is the only way they...

For the second time, Henry and TC are here to talk about how many majors a certain set of players REALLY have. Today's selections will be Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, and Nick Faldo. Today's episode will break down: - What is the actual value we place on each of these players' major tallies? - Why do we value certain major wins higher than others? - Who is the biggest o...