You’ve likely never heard of Warren Stephens—or his magnificent and critically acclaimed Arkansas golf retreat—and that’s by design. Recently, host Tom Coyne accepted a rare invite from Stephens to The Alotian Club, perhaps the quietest club ever to crack America’s top 100. The golf is eye-popping, with 18 rollercoaster holes slashed through the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, but the family behind it is where the real stories lie. You’ll meet Stephens, club founder and chairman of one of the nation’s largest privately held investment banks. You’ll hear tales from his father Jackson, a former chairman of Augusta National who presided over perhaps the most successful IPO in American history. And you’ll learn how the family is giving back to the game with the Stephens Cup, a collegiate tournament hitting a few small, out-of-the-way locations like Shoreacres, PGA Frisco and, yes, the Alotian Club. The Golfer's Journal and this podcast are made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here: https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT The Golfer’s Journal Podcast is presented by Titleist. 

 In 1989, IMG agent Hughes Norton showed up at Earl Woods’ front door. Tiger was 12—but Norton could see the future. He would go on to become Tiger’s first agent, inking the future legend to record-setting deals with Nike and Titleist before he hit one ball as a pro. But, as you’ll hear in Norton’s new sit-down with host Tom Coyne, all that fame and fortune came at a heavy price. In this interview, Norton pulls back the curtain to reveal the soaring highs and stomach-churning lows from his 35+ years as one of golf’s premier agents. Fleshing out tales from his new memoir, Rainmaker, Norton offers blow-by-blow accounts of previously unseen Tiger moments, sheds new light on Greg Norman’s decades-long grudges, offers an inside look at the birth of IMG and reflects on how history may just judge Arnold Palmer as the game’s true moral compass. The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Titleist ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

During college in 1979, Tommy Hyland ran across a basic blackjack strategy book. Nearly a half century later, he is the kingpin of the world’s longest-lasting and most successful professional blackjack team, and one of the seven original members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Hyland’s gaming isn’t limited to the table, however—he is a longtime competitive amateur golfer within the Philadelphia section, and has qualified for five USGA championships. Hyland brings host Tom Coyne on a wild ride through his 50-plus years in gambling, including the highs (cleaning Vegas out during a 1982 prizefight) and lows (losing six figures in one night—without visiting a casino). Plus, Hyland elucidates the parallels between professional gambling and amateur golf, details his unlikely Lucas Glover US Open windfall, and duels Coyne in a live hand of blackjack, which was only going to end one way. The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by⁠⁠⁠⁠  @titleist ⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

Jon Sherman has developed a career, and a +2 handicap index, out of teaching boring golf. As the strategic mind behind Practical Golf, Sherman has parlayed his common-sense lessons into a series of bestselling books and PGA Tour coaching gigs. We recently sat down with him for a BTS member-exclusive video series designed to elevate our members’ on-course decision making. But as Bobby Jones noted, golf and tournament golf are two very different things. In this new interview, host Casey Bannon chats with Sherman about his new book, The Foundations of Winning Golf, which focuses on the fundamentals of succeeding under pressure. The two spent time discussing strategies for leaning into tournament nerves, the value of putting your game on display and the alternative ways that Mackenzie Hughes defines success, among other insights. Tune in and start racking up Ws. Watch Jon Sherman's six-part master class: https://glfrsj.nl/PBG The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by⁠⁠⁠  @titleist ⁠⁠⁠ 

Northern Ireland was a different place when Scotsman Kevan Whitson took the Royal County Down head professional job in 1992. The country was still enmeshed in the Troubles, golf travel hadn’t yet boomed, and the club saw 1,500 visitor rounds a year. But Old Tom’s layout at this low-key members’ club strung along the Irish Sea has always been world-class, and RCD now rightfully claims its place as perhaps the greatest links in the world, as well as a fixture on every golfer’s bucket list. Host Tom Coyne sat down with Whitson to walk through the changes he’s overseen in his 30 years at the club, the balancing act between providing an elite visitor experience and serving the club’s membership, and his memories of hosting everyone from Jack and Arnie to Rory and Rickie. Plus, Whitson offers a few points of advice for anyone gearing up to take on the 2024 Irish Open host venue, and lays out how Royal County Down may just be golf’s answer to Emily Post, with every hole teaching players to mind their manners. The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by⁠⁠  @titleist ⁠⁠ 

If you know, you know: It’s Poosh! If that’s gibberish to you, pop in those earbuds and meet Micah Pueschel, frontman of reggae band Iration, published contributor in TGJ No. 29 and humble golf nerd well aware of the “insane” run he’s on. Before helping to lead Iration from a college bar band to a world-touring festival headliner, Pueschel grew up at a now-defunct nine-hole muni near his home on the Big Island of Hawaii. As he tells host Tom Coyne from the Iration tour bus outside Columbus, golf took a back seat for many years, but safe to say that the bug is back in a big way. Pueschel expands on his abiding love for Soule Park and its unpretentious SoCal character, runs down his eye-popping list of courses played this year, and opens up about his experiences with “the most nerve-wracking thing in the world.” Hint: it’s not playing shows.  The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by⁠  @titleist ⁠ 

Last week, TGJ became one of the first media outlets to visit ⁠TGL's performance lab⁠ (which is different from the SoFi Center where competition will be held) in West Palm Beach, FL and preview the first of roughly 30 new digital golf holes designed specifically for league competition starting in January 2025. Managing Editor Travis Hill sat down with golf course architect Beau Welling, one of three designers behind the development of what Tiger and Rory are hoping will become an entirely new style of golf.  So how were the courses designed? ⁠How does one play a hole?⁠ Will they play out of real fairway grass? How does this spinning green work? And will Tiger and Rory's ambitious new venture actually catch on? All these questions and more are answered on TGJ Podcast 169.  The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by  @titleist  

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by Titleist  George Solich, the youngest of five brothers from a lower-middle class family in Colorado Springs, grew up a caddie. A few decades later he has become a business titan, having developed and sold three successful companies in the energy sector. And to hear him tell it, everything leads back to golf. Today, Solich is the President and Chairman of Castle Pines Golf Club outside Denver, and on the eve of the PGA Tour’s return to this epic Jack Nicklaus design for the BMW Championship, host Tom Coyne sits down with Solich to learn how and why he brought pro golf back to Castle Pines after a lengthy absence. They also discuss the pivotal role that golf and caddying has played in Solich’s life—from his first loops at 13, to becoming an Evans Scholar, to giving back through his Solich Caddie and Leadership Program and the Western Golf Association. Solich’s story is a case study in the life-shaping power of the game, and one any golf fan will appreciate

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by Titleist  Garrett Hilbert is one of the six founding members of Dude Perfect—a group of college friends that have parlayed dorm-room trick shots into a content empire that includes 60 million YouTube subscribers.  In this conversation with host Tom Coyne, Hilbert delves into the origins of Dude Perfect, how they’ve managed to build a massive audience around a demographic of 5-15 year olds, and how they've used it to introduce the next generation to golf. They also discuss how new content ideas come about, like Rory McIlroy’s world-record for most 300 yard drives and the longest putt ever made with a hot dog.   And then there’s Augusta National video heard around the golf world in which Dude Perfect and Bryson DeChambeau kicked soccer balls and threw footballs down Amen Corner. Hilbert peels back the curtain to reveal how that video got approved, the criticism they received from the golf world and why they felt it was important for kids to see it.  There’s no sport that Dude Perfect hasn’t touched, but it’s clear from this episode that golf plays a special role in Hilbert’s life. Here are the receipts to prove it.

The Golfer's Journal is made possible by reader support. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a member here:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://glfrsj.nl/MembershipsYT⁠⁠⁠⁠ TGJ Podcast is presented by Titleist  As half of the team behind legendary far-flung layouts like Cabot St. Lucia, Te Arai in New Zealand and Tasmania’s Barnbougle Lost Farm, Bill Coore has spent his career crisscrossing the globe. He’s built epic golf at every stop—but not even Coore can conceive of 18 holes at the South Pole. Earlier this year, host Tom Coyne sat down with Coore at Bandon’s 25th anniversary celebration to discuss not just his builds in Bandon, but his recent travels to Antarctica and Patagonia. Whales and sea lions make an appearance, as does a plane with a steel-plated underbelly (and a custom penguin paint job) capable of negotiating gravel runways. Seeing this alien continent through the eyes of a seasoned traveler is illuminating—and frightening, as Coore details in his harrowing experience of nearly being blown clean off a mountain in the Patagonian wilderness. If you’re wondering what golf architects do in their spare time, tune in.