The Skillest Podcast

What happens when a coach builds such a strong brand that Hollywood calls? This week Baden and Clappy sit down with Nathan Leonhardt. He founded Tour Development Academy in Vancouver, won PGA BC Teacher of the Year, was one of Skillest's original top coaches, and is now the full-time golf consultant on Apple TV's Stick , starring Owen Wilson. A back injury ended Nathan's playing car...

Steve Astle joins Baden and Clappy for an unscripted, end-of-season riff on where golf coaching is headed. Steve is one of the most influential figures in the industry, and his influence is especially pronounced in how coaches build and scale their businesses online, not just his track record coaching in person. He's the founder of Golf Coaching Business, has been working with Skillest for ni...

Ryan Hager, Director of Instruction at Plainfield Country Club in New Jersey, joins the show to talk about his path into coaching, his time training under Jim McLean, and what it's really like teaching at one of the Northeast's elite private clubs. Ryan shares the story of his mentor Wes Mensing, whose sudden death shaped his decision to go into instruction, and breaks down what makes Mc...

Alex Buckner didn't fall in love with coaching, he fell in love with winning. In this episode, the tour coach behind Marco Penge's breakout three win 2025 season opens up about reverse engineering an entire career: from a failed playing career and three jobs just to fund tournament entries, to becoming an "OG" Skillest power user documenting thousands of in person lessons, to r...

Jerome Theunis was a golf pro himself — a Challenge Tour player who represented Belgium in the World Cup — before he became one of the most sought-after (and quietly under-the-radar) coaches in the game. It started with his roommate on tour, a young Nico Colsaerts, who got sick of finding golf technique books in the bathroom and Sharpie diagrams on the hotel TV. "I think you're pure psyc...

What actually separates the coaches building thriving online businesses from everyone else? In this episode of the Skillest Pod, Baden Schaff sits down with Mark Govier and Alex Clapp to unpack what great modern coaching really looks like — and why simply being a great instructor is no longer enough. They dig into how Mark and Alex structure long-term player development, create clear roadmaps for...

The coaching industry is changing faster than ever. In this episode, the Skilly boys dive into what modern coaching really looks like in 2026—and why the coaches who thrive over the next decade won't simply teach more lessons. They'll build better systems, stronger relationships, and businesses that extend far beyond the lesson tee. We discuss:  Why the traditional "one lesson every...

Sean Foley has coached some of the biggest names in golf, but this conversation goes far beyond the golf swing. Sean joins Baden Schaff and Alex Clapp for one of the deepest discussions we've ever had on coaching, performance and what it really takes to help people improve. They dive into Sean's work with Tom Kim, Lydia Ko and the next generation of elite players, why he's more conv...

Clappy is back from his first major as a coach, and it was a good one. He breaks down how Royal Birkdale played at The Open — pins tucked on the edge of every green, morning waves getting the calm before the afternoon storm, and how firm-and-fast conditions rewarded players like Ryan Fox and Lucas Herbert who grew up on similar ground back home. He also shares what it was like coaching Tom Sloman...

Six DP World Tour wins. One of the most respected short games the sport's ever produced. This week we sit down with Brett Rumford — the Perth kid who was too small to reach par fours in two, so he built a short game that carried him around the world instead. Brett takes us back to chipping for six hours a day at Collier Park, caddying for tour pros as a teenager, and the day TrackMan showed u...

Baden and Clappy are back after a flat-out couple of weeks. Baden unboxes his first new set of irons in six years (thanks to Tommy Bailey at Avoda) and gets real about lie angle, and finally ditching his "Ben Hogan delusion." Clappy previews his upcoming Titleist shoe fitting and force-plate session in search of extra ground-reaction speed. Then the pair dig into the US Open: the Wyndham...

When Mark Govier and Alex Clapp are on, it's officially the Skilly Pod — and this one's a banger. Mark joins us fresh from caddying at the Women's US Open at Riviera with his player Pauline Del Rosario (Philippines represent 🇵🇭), giving us the inside scoop on that brutal Kikuyu rough, Charley Hull's refreshingly chaotic pace of play, and what it's like watching Nelly and G...

Chris Trott spent 20 years fitting golf clubs for the best players on the planet — from Dustin Johnson to Brooks Koepka to Tiger Woods. Now he's running the Trot Shop, a tour-style fitting trailer in San Diego, and what he's seeing from everyday golfers is blowing his mind. In this episode, Trottie pulls no punches on why most club fitting is broken, why shorter shafts outperform what OE...

The crew is deep into summer golf season — and this week there's plenty to talk about. First up, the Women's US Open heads to Riviera Country Club, and the guys make the case for why Riv might actually suit the women's game better than the men's. The iconic par-4 10th gets its due, and Coach Clappy shares why he'll be there in person — supporting his student Davina Zand as...

Drew Steckel has coached Kevin Na, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak, and Chesson Hadley — and he did it all before turning 24. He's not rebuilding swings from scratch. He's unlocking what's already there. In this episode, Baden sits down with one of the most in-demand coaches on tour to talk about what it actually takes to revive a career at the highest level, why working inside the ropes ch...

In this episode, we sit down with one of golf instruction’s most recognisable voices to unpack how a former snowboarder from Vermont became one of the most diversified coaches in the game. Keith gets brutally honest about the mental rewiring it took to stop filling his calendar with back-to-back lessons and start thinking like a business owner — and the friend/mentor who helped him see it. We get...

Baden and Clappy kick off with a deep dive into the oddities of international timekeeping — Mother's Day, Father's Day, and why Adelaide is somehow half an hour ahead of Brisbane in summer — before getting into the golf that matters. Chris Wood's win on the Hotel Planner Challenge Tour gets the treatment it deserves: a former Ryder Cup player who bottomed out, rebuilt on the Mina To...

What happens when one of golf’s smartest media minds sits down with two golf-obsessed coaching nerds? You get a conversation that goes everywhere — tour players, TPI, coaching methods, golf media, LIV, mobility, practice, AI, and the future of instruction. This week on the Skillest Podcast, Baden and Alex Clapp are joined by Luke Kerr-Dineen from Golf Digest — one of the most influential voices in...

Why do great golf coaches disagree on so many things? And more importantly… does it actually matter? In this episode, Baden and Alex unpack the reality of modern golf coaching — where data is everywhere, opinions are stronger than ever, and there’s still no single “right way” to swing a club. You’ll learn:  Why disagreement in coaching is actually a strength   How different swing styles can all pr...

This week on the Skilly Pod, Baden and Clappy sit down with Mark Govier — Welsh Dragon, high performance coach at Altus Golf, and one of the most engaged coaches on the Skillest platform. Mark's coaching journey spans 30 years, from running his own academy in Wales to being recruited by Cam McCormick to join the Altus setup in Dallas, where he works with elite juniors, college players, and to...

Baden and Clappy are back to unpack a massive week in golf. They kick off at Harbour Town — a course that makes the case that great design, not a rolled-back ball, is how you defend par. From there it's a proper debate on the USGA's bifurcation plan: is it pointless engineering theatre, or the future of the pro game? The boys get into why slower swingers barely notice the change, the soc...

The Masters is done for another year — and Rory McIlroy made it look frighteningly comfortable. Baden and Clappy break down how a man who ranked second-last in driving accuracy for the weekend somehow won by three, why Augusta may be more forgiving than it used to be, and whether any of the chasing pack ever really had a chance. Then the conversation turns to a topic that lit up the coaching world...

Augusta National is the greatest stage in golf, and this week it's centre stage. Baden and Alex (Clappy) kick off Masters Week with an unfiltered preview — debating why the Masters beats every other major (no phones, perfect contrast, Amen Corner), picking their contenders for the Green Jacket, and revisiting Tiger's single most iconic moment on that course. They also touch on what it ac...

What do you get when a pain-riddled amateur golfer goes down every rabbit hole imaginable — coaching, biomechanics, club grinding, and manufacturing — and ends up accidentally building one of the most disruptive equipment brands in the game? You get Tom Bailey and Avoda Golf. Tom joined us for a wide-ranging conversation about how a bench grinder, a brother with an e-commerce background, and a fru...

The comeback continues. In Episode 2 of The Skillest Pod, Baden Schaff and Alex Clapp dive into everything happening in golf right now — from Tiger’s latest situation to the rapid rise of launch monitors, VR golf, and what the future of coaching actually looks like. They cover:  The reality behind Tiger’s latest headlines   Why launch monitors are about to be everywhere   VR golf, wearables, and t...