The Golfer's Journal Podcast

If you’re open to it, the game can provide some life-changing surprises. So it is with Mike Madden and host Tom Coyne. Madden, son of legendary NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden, and Coyne never knew each other before they teed off. Now, Madden is passing him secret turducken recipes and they’re talking about a trip to play in Ireland. This conversation retraces the steps of their round at Philly Cricket, Madden’s preservation of Muhammed Ali’s legacy, and his small role in the video game bearing his father’s famous face. But really, it’s a story about how our game can turn strangers into fast friends. And one absolutely incredible bus.

 It’s been a hell of a ride. In the early 1950s, he was watching declassified rocket explosions filmed by his father. During the 1960s, in the shadow of Riviera, he learned the game from Willie Hunter by flying 4-irons into the Pacific. In 1964 he helped produce some of the first music videos, and by 1966 he was part of the revolutionary Bones Brigade that introduced skateboarding to Europe. Over the decades his love for golf took him from Pacific Grove to Carne and just about everywhere in between. In 2020, he wrote about it all in TGJ No. 13 and joined host Tom Coyne to explain his movie-script life. This is Jim Fitzpatrick. 

Fresh off his byline in TGJ No. 13, Golfer’s Journal Contributor Chris Solomon returns to the show to talk about the inspiration behind “Infinite Loop,” the brotherhood behind the traveling carry bag that’s now been around the world twice, how to properly pitch a TGJ story, and the fear that comes when putting pen to paper. 

This week on TGJ Digital we released “Now What?” — a new feature where contributing writer Will Bardwell asks a variety of golf industry members the big question: After golf’s biggest summer in decades, what will, and should, once-struggling golf courses do with their unexpected revenue? Assistant Editor Casey Bannon connects with Bardwell to go beyond the reporting of the piece, and further the conversation on what's next for golf.

With Aronimink Golf Club set to host the KPMG Ladies PGA Championship, Tom Coyne and Casey Bannon pay the Donald Ross blue-chipper a visit in search of the real stories behind two of golf’s most under-appreciated characters: John Shippen and John McDermott. As it quickly becomes apparent, you can’t talk about America’s first Black golf professional and caddie-turned-U.S. Open-champion without the ‘Mink. 

The USGA Museum has been closed to the public for months. But that didn’t stop TGJ Senior Writer and podcast host Tom Coyne from finagling an all-access tour in preparation for the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Alongside Museum Director Hilary Cronhim, he finds Mickey Wright’s jewelry, the original sheet music to Winged Foot’s fight song (because every course should have a fight song),  the most clutch putter of all time, and a vault holding some of golf’s most valuable artifacts. 

“I’ve always said that if other architects would stay out of Virginia, then I’d stay out of their states too.” After a late introduction to the golf design game, Lester George has made good on his promise to dominate the Dominion state. His in-state roster now consists of top-100 projects like Kinloch, the quietly explosive Langley Air Force Base, and the mindbender at Ballyhack. And that’s where he crashes our 2020 Broken Tee 2-Man to discuss how the military shaped his eye for topography, his affinity for surfing despite never hopping on a board, unloading his car collection and an upcoming Seth Raynor project. 

Charles Lindsay describes himself as “a conceptual artist-adventurer, whose work synthesizes ideas about technology, time, eco-systems, and semiotics.” And he believes playing a ton of golf falls into that description. Lindsay joins host Tom Coyne for a wide-ranging discussion on golf’s relationship with hunting, the search for extraterrestrials, becoming unlikely playing partners with John Updike and how he created the book of hilarious golf images that are featured in TGJ No. 12.   

Ken Wang has a degree in economics from MIT, is the brother of fashion designer Vera Wang, and, most important to us, is the founder/owner of the Pete Dye-designed Pound Ridge Golf Club in New York. He joins Tom Coyne to discuss his fervent belief in public courses, how Dye got what he wanted in the design, the democratization of the game, and how Vera plays “Bill Clinton golf.”

COVID, cheating, distance debates, course closures and a lack of diversity—golf’s recent news cycle has been gloomy. But it’s not all bad out there. Host Tom Coyne called some folks from around the golf world who have some good news to share. He went beyond the headlines and found the Navajo Nation’s booming dirt course; a staggering drop in suicide rates thanks to the Veterans Golfer’s Association; a little guy’s big time 15-footer; a 50-day Pinehurst trip, and a heartwarming update on Ireland’s Carne Golf Links. Five reminders of why we love this game.