For Rich Shilling, keeping Philadelphia’s best muni in pristine condition is equal parts science, art and…honey. Maintaining Jeffersonville Golf Club—a Donald Ross gem that hosts more than 60,000 rounds a year—is no small task. In this episode, he joins host Tom Coyne from the Turf Care Center to talk about the craft of keeping a high-volume public course in country club condition: managing people, navigating wild weather patterns and sometimes sleeping at the course. He also explains how his on...
Aug 20, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 193
Buddy Marucci’s résumé speaks for itself: played in 59 USGA championships, two Walker Cup captaincies, two Walker Cup appearances and a legendary duel with Tiger Woods in the final of the 1995 U.S. Amateur at 43 years old. And the stories he shares on this episode with host Tom Coyne reveal even more. Marucci takes us inside that unforgettable match with Tiger, shares lessons learned from playing alongside Arnold Palmer at the Masters and reflects on his status as a lifelong amateur in a game in...
Jul 30, 2025•56 min•Ep. 191
As the 2025 Open Championship returns to Royal Portrush, we sit down with someone who knows the land, the game and the moment better than most. Justin Parsons—coach to the likes of Brian Harman, Harris English and Louis Oosthuizen—grew up just down the coast in County Down, learning the game on windswept turf and nine-hole loops near oyster farms. In this wide-ranging conversation with host Casey Bannon, Parsons reflects on Northern Ireland’s rich golf culture, how pros adapt to links conditions...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 191
Paul Azinger has never been afraid to speak his mind or take a big swing. So when a friend asked him to consult in building a golf course on 1,100 acres of Florida ranchland, Zinger saddled up. The result? Miakka Golf Club: a bold take on the modern game shaped by three million cubic yards of sand and the same bravado that won Azinger a Ryder Cup. In this episode, he joins host Casey Bannon to unpack Miakka’s Australian-style bunkers and why it's using trees as the last line of defense against t...
Jun 26, 2025•56 min•Ep. 190
Nobody knows Oakmont like Bob Ford. From living off the 18th green to becoming the last club pro to qualify for a U.S. Open at his home course, Ford has been part of American championship golf for more than five decades—and now serves as the tournament’s starter. On this episode of the TGJ Podcast, he joins Tom Coyne to preview the 2025 U.S. Open and reflect on a career that stretches from furrowed bunkers in the ’70s to the first tee in 2025. Ford shares stories of tanking to avoid breaking Arn...
Jun 05, 2025•50 min•Ep. 189
He didn’t set out to become one of the most recognizable caddies on the PGA Tour, but Geno Bonnalie isn’t hiding from the spotlight. He joins host Tom Coyne to share the behind-the-scenes realities of life on the bag, including his raw reaction to Joel Dahmen’s heartbreaker in Punta Cana. Bonnalie then gets into his surprising stardom and how far he and Dahmen have come since dinners at Waffle House. He also details the pranks he plays on his friend, the need for work-life balance and why cartwh...
May 21, 2025•51 min•Ep. 188
Rory McIlroy contains multitudes: child prodigy, global superstar, outspoken critic, Ryder Cup anchor, Grand Slam winner. In his upcoming biography Rory Land , Pulitzer-nominated author Timothy Gay tries to make sense of them all. In this episode, he joins host Tom Coyne to unpack McIlroy’s career: the youthful dominance, the swing admired by Tiger Woods, the decade-long major drought and the emotional weight of being golf’s unofficial spokesman during its most divisive era. Gay shares what he l...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 187
Nearly 30 years ago, Tom Pashley mailed a box of grass seed and sand to the Pinehurst resort in the hopes of landing an internship. Today, he sits in the president’s office at the cradle of American golf. His mission is to steer one of golf’s most storied properties into an ambitious future—without losing sight of its roots. On this episode, Pashley sits down with host Casey Bannon at The Cradle during a Broken Tee Society Tour stop to talk about the making of Pinehurst No. 10, how No. 2 will ke...
Apr 29, 2025•46 min•Ep. 186
Today, we’re not chasing great. We’re chasing all-time, pantheon, tell-your-grandkids-about-it great. But how do you decide who belongs in that rare air? In this episode, author and golf writer Michael Arkush joins Tom Coyne to unpack The Golf 100 , his bold new book ranking the game’s greatest players. From icons like Jack and Tiger to overlooked names like John Ball and Joyce Wethered, Arkush details the scoring system he created and the questions he wrestled with—like how to compare Old Tom M...
Apr 17, 2025•1 hr 2 min
This is part five of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters . Part 5: As its founders begin to decline, the mythology around The Masters only grows stronger The Masters is paused and Augusta National is forced to become self-sufficient in the wake of World War II. In the 1970s, the club must endure the passing of Bobby Jones and the sh...
Apr 05, 2025•1 hr 16 min
This is part four of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters . Part 4: The evolution of the Masters broadcast In the mid-1950s, the Masters innovates by partnering with CBS to broadcast the tournament on national television. As is the case with everything at Augusta, chairman Clifford Roberts has his fingerprints all over it as he works...
Apr 05, 2025•55 min
This is part three of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters . Part 3: The Augusta National Invitational Tournament is formed By 1934, Augusta National is struggling to attract new members and raise the necessary funds to execute the club’s vision. With this in mind, the first annual Augusta National Invitational Tournament is held, an...
Apr 05, 2025•50 min
This is part two of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters . Part 2: A deep dive into the design and strategy of Augusta National’s routing Thanks to his renowned designs at Cypress Point and Pasatiempo, Dr. Alister MacKenzie is hired to build Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts a golf course in Augusta, Georgia. The spectacular success o...
Apr 05, 2025•1 hr 6 min
This is part one of a five-part TGJ Podcast series which chronicles the origin, evolution and inner-workings of The Masters. The series is voiced by David Owen and based on his best-selling book, The Making of the Masters . Part 1: Clifford Roberts’ rise to power at Augusta National Until he met Bobby Jones, Clifford Roberts was a former traveling suit salesman and modest investor who was still grappling with the tragic loss of his mother. Part 1 tells the remarkable story of his unlikely rise t...
Apr 05, 2025•36 min
In the mid-1990s, Augusta National approached author David Owen about a book project to preserve the legacy of its founder Clifford Roberts. Owen agreed, under one condition: During his reporting he could play the course as much as he liked. The club allowed it, and Owen’s book, The Making of the Masters , has since become one of the definitive histories of the tournament. It chronicles the beginnings, inner-workings and evolutions of Augusta National and The Masters, bringing to light a number ...
Apr 05, 2025•5 min
The reason you struggle with bad habits or anxiety doesn't stem from a lack of willpower—it's likely because you aren't hacking your brain properly. From daily routines to anxious tendencies, many of our behaviors seem beyond our control, but psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Judson Brewer has the answers for finding more agency in our minds. Brewer, the Director of Research and Innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and author of The Hunger Habit , The Craving Mind and Unwinding ...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr
Willy Wilcox had the ball-striking to compete on the PGA Tour, but behind every 300-yard drive was a painful secret—a crippling addiction that caused his career and life to spiral. For years, he turned to painkillers while on the course to combat severe performance anxiety, playing tournament rounds under the weight of Percocet and heroin. In a raw conversation with host Tom Coyne, Wilcox opens up about how the highs of cashing checks on Tour were overshadowed by the dark lows that led him to re...
Mar 20, 2025•52 min•Ep. 184
Not all polos are created equal, and neither are the brands behind them. On the latest TGJ Podcast, Tom Coyne visits Holderness & Bourne HQ in New York to sit down with co-founders Alex Holderness and John Bourne—two Yale grads who traded Wall Street for the Garment District with no prior fashion experience and a relentless drive to make the perfect polo. Alex and John share their advice for turning an idea into a physical product, navigating the golf industry, working with your friends and ...
Mar 12, 2025•55 min
He left a promising junior golf career to chase the rockstar dream, and it came true. Cam Avery has played bass for Tame Impala for the last decade while also producing solo records and playing alongside big-time acts like Arctic Monkeys. Now Avery is back playing competitive golf and documenting his journey along the way. He joins Mind Game to discuss the grind of the music business, not being able to read sheet music, the Venn diagram of life and golf, and whether or not he'd still WD from tha...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 30 min
Enough about LIV and distance rules and slow play. It’s time for golf’s real burning questions: Why did Happy Gilmore qualify for the Tour after winning an 18-hole local in Waterbury? How did Roy McAvoy backspin a 3-wood off the green into the water? And is Caddyshack really the greatest golf movie of all time? We sit down with author Kyle Bandujo to discuss his book Movies with Balls , in which he and artist Rick Bryson apply true-life sports analysis to fictional sports stories, ranking the be...
Feb 27, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Steven Pressfield spent 20 years writing and pitching books to publishers without success. His breakthrough came in 1995 with The Legend of Bagger Vance . Five years later, he released The War of Art , a bestseller that introduced the concept of resistance—a mysterious force that hinders us from doing our work and realizing our potential. Whether exploring the greatest golf match that never happened, the nature of creativity, the path to professionalism, or the resilience of the human spirit, Pr...
Feb 16, 2025•58 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Mary Kate Morrissey is seeing green. You might think playing Elphaba in the stage production of Wicked seven times a week would leave little time for golf, but Mary Kate (or MK to her friends) is more golf mad than most Broadway leads. Whether it be weekly indoor lessons or trips to warmer golf locales, golf has cast a real-life spell over the most famous witch in town. In this conversation with fellow Philadelphian Tom Coyne, MK discusses how her Mom pulled her into the game, how she manages a ...
Feb 06, 2025•54 min
Twenty years ago, Nick Kokonas had one of the best meals of his life. Instead of giving compliments to the chef, he offered to open a restaurant with him—something Kokonas had no experience in. That restaurant became Alinea, a paradigm-shifting dining experience that would win three Michelin stars and best restaurant in America in its first year. Since then, Kokonas has opened another Michelin-star restaurant, created an app that revolutionized dining reservations, self-published several books, ...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr 37 min
It’s not often you hear a 44-year-old major champion say that this will be their best year ever, but Adam Scott has always done things his own way. In a candid and insightful conversation with host Tom Coyne, the man with the perfect golf swing reveals that he gave up chasing perfection a long time ago. He also tells some classic stories, like how he used to be “intimidated” by Butch Harmon, the LPGA player he tries to emulate when his swing gets out of sync, and what Steve Williams told him jus...
Jan 22, 2025•56 min
Whether it’s Kobe, Michael or Tiger, it always comes back to the fundamentals. That is according to J.A. Adande, the Director of Sports Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. In this episode of Mind Game, Adande is joined by his former student Casey Bannon to discuss Adande's remarkable 30-year media career and what he’s learned from covering the greats along the way. What drove Kobe? How was Kobe d...
Jan 16, 2025•1 hr 24 min
For the past six years, members of The Golfer’s Journal—known as the Broken Tee Society—have traveled the world to play world-class golf together. More than just a series of events, the Tour has become a cornerstone of our community, fostering lasting friendships and unforgettable experiences on some of the most iconic courses in the world. Yesterday, TGJ Editor Tom Coyne and Brand Manager Casey Bannon unveiled the 2025 schedule in front of a live audience of over 500 members in our private Disc...
Jan 09, 2025•58 min
Recently, TGJ Editor Tom Coyne was joined by longtime friend (and Sullivan County GC co-owner) Bill Murray for an epic Southeast road trip. The pair started in Charleston, SC, made their way to Old Barnwell in Aiken, then cruised down for two days at Ohoopee Match Club in Georgia. Of course, when one of the finest deadpan comic actors of all time is in the passenger seat, you tend to make a few pit stops. All the world’s a stage, and local gas stations and a Piggly Wiggly become settings for Bil...
Dec 22, 2024•1 hr 58 min
The body is not a machine, nor a temple. It is an infinitely complex and unique system, and according to Dr. Ralph Esposito, Chief Science & Nutrition Officer at AG1, it’s one we know less about than we think. Dr. Ralph is a naturopathic physician and gut health expert, and he joins host Casey Bannon to discuss the science behind whole-body wellness. Rather than broad-spectrum advice, Dr. Ralph offers approachable insights into how your body works. This information-rich chat touches on the s...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 34 min•Season 2Ep. 3
It’s a feat that needs no introduction. As we approach the 25th anniversary of Tiger Woods’ four-major run from the 2000 US Open through the 2001 Masters, a new book from former Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine editor Kevin Cook unearths never-before-seen nuggets from this historic stretch. Cook joins host Tom Coyne to discuss The Tiger Slam , Cook’s moment-by-moment chronicle that features interviews with Stevie Williams, Mark O’Meara, Butch Harmon and many others. They relive the indelible...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 5 min
On Christmas Day in 2018, American endurance athlete Colin O’Brady woke up in a tent, by himself, in the middle of Antarctica. He hadn’t seen another human being in 50 days. He hitched up his sled, fell into a flow state bordering on hallucination, and walked 77 miles without stopping to become the first person to cross Antarctica on foot and unassisted. Since achieving this feat, O’Brady has set 11 world records, completed the Explorers Grand Slam, written several books and unlocked the secrets...
Nov 26, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Season 2Ep. 2
