The Fried Egg Golf Podcast

Aaron McMaster, the Superintendent at Orchard Lake Country Club, joins Andy to talk turf. They discuss the ins and outs of making agronomic changes to a golf course before diving into the story of Orchard Lake’s renovation by Keith Foster.

Last week, the National Park Service announced that it would begin negotiations with National Links Trust to operate three municipal golf courses in Washington, D.C. A non-profit founded by Michael McCartin and Will Smith, NLT has partnered with architects Tom Doak, Gil Hanse, and Beau Welling in hopes of renovating the East Potomac, Rock Creek Park, and Langston golf properties. Andy speaks with Mike and Will about this exciting development in a story that The Fried Egg has been tracking since last year. Among other topics, they discuss the RFP process, the NLT’s visions for the courses, the importance of compelling municipal golf architecture, and the role that D.C. golf facilities can play as community gathering spots and agents for social change.

In the latest edition of the Yolk with Doak, Tom discusses the principles behind his Confidential Guide series, the value of randomness in design, and a unique new project of his near Napa Valley.

In this edition of our audio introduction to golf course design, Garrett speaks with architect Andy Staples (@buildsmartrgolf) about collaboration on construction projects. They discuss how Andy works with owners, contractors, and shapers; what “design-build” means and how people often misunderstand it; and whether architects get too much credit. For more on these topics, check out the post for this episode on The Fried Egg website.

Steve Cook, the Director of Grounds at Medinah Country Club, joins the podcast. Andy and Steve talk about his long career, including his time in France and his experience prepping courses for major championships. They also discuss Steve’s management style, which has helped produce a number of up-and-coming leaders in the turf industry today.

John Bodenhamer, the USGA's Senior Managing Director of Championships, joins Andy Johnson on the podcast. The two talk about John's golf background and his time on some of the great early 80s BYU teams before diving into championship setup. The discussion finishes with a conversation about 2020's USGA championships and how they will go about filling the fields without qualifying.  

As an appetizer for the upcoming Tiger-Phil (plus Manning and Brady) match, Andy and Garrett speak with golf historian Stephen Proctor about the history of challenge matches. They discuss the importance of rowdy, big-money matches to early golf culture in Scotland, the eventual ascendancy of stroke play as the dominant competitive format, and the ways that today's televised matches might recapture some of the magic of the past. Stephen is the author of Monarch of the Green, a biography of Young Tom Morris.

2019 and '21 Walker Cup captain Nathaniel Crosby joins the podcast to talk about last week’s match at Seminole, his days on the European Tour, and next year's Walker Cup.

This episode of the Yolk with Doak features the final part of the conversation Andy and Tom had this past January in Traverse City, Michigan. They discuss a variety of topics, including the challenges of building on linskland, Mike Strantz, Woking Golf Club, stymies, and how golf might mesh with environmentalism.

On Sunday, May 17, four of the best golfers in the world will take on one of the best courses in the world. Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, and Matthew Wolff are set to play in TaylorMade Driving Relief, a televised charity skins match at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida. The rarely publicized Seminole is known as one of Donald Ross's most subtle and brilliant designs. To understand the course better, Andy talks to architect Bill Coore, who along with Ben Crenshaw restored Seminole in 2017, and PGA Tour pro Zac Blair, who has played the course several times in the annual Seminole Pro-Member.