Local Knowledge
459 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★ - 148 ratingsThe best golf stories have multiple layers to them. In each episode, Local Knowledge dives deep into a subject golfers want to know about, whether it’s about the game they play, the competition at the highest level, or the surprising ways golf factors into larger conversations throughout society. Hosts Alex Myers, Keely Levins, Shane Ryan and Sam Weinman weave together original interviews, Golf Digest reporting, and additional elements to tell the type of compelling stories that have been a Golf Digest staple for decades.
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Episodes
De Vicenzo's Masters gaffe, and who was really to blame
April 16, 2024 12:00 - 48 minutes - 44.4 MBWhen Roberto De Vicenzo signed an incorrect scorecard to lose the 1968 Masters, it represented not just his failure, but the failure of several individuals and institutions, including Augusta National itself. This is the story of what really happened that day on the course, and why De Vicenzo is only partly to blame for the greatest blunder in the history of major championship golf.
Cliff and Frank: A Bizarre Augusta Story
April 02, 2024 12:00 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MBWhat happens when two men who are each forces of nature, in their own way, clash at the most prestigious championship in American golf? When one is rich and handsome and headstrong, but the other is the lord of Augusta National? When Cliff Roberts, the chairman of Augusta, and Frank Stranahan, the playboy son of a millionaire, collided at the Masters in 1948, it was inevitable that something wild would happen. And something did—a controversy that shed a light on two of the strangest American...
The OWGR: Past, Present, and Rocky Future
March 19, 2024 12:00 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MBThe Official World Golf Ranking has never enjoyed the prominence it has today, but it's not the good kind of prominence. With some of the world's best players no longer receiving points since they're with LIV, the OWGR is under fire, and even LIV-neutral observers think it might be dying. But what is the OWGR? How does it work? How did it come about historically? This week on Local Knowledge, we go deep on the system that is reeling, and might need a eulogy before long.
The Iron Will of Pete Dye
March 05, 2024 13:00 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBIf you only knew the late Pete Dye as a funny and somewhat crotchety old man, and if you only know a little about his life's work, from Sawgrass to Whistling Straits, you might not have the sense of his hard edge—how he pursued his creative visions with zealous focus, and how we would say what he needed to say and do what he needed to do to see that vision to fulfillment. With his wife Alice, he forged one of the greatest design careers ever, and his sheer genius led the way at every turn.
The Lasting Anger of Charlie Sifford
February 19, 2024 13:00 - 43 minutes - 39.9 MBIf there's a Jackie Robinson of golf, the title goes to Charlie Sifford, the first black man to be a full member of the PGA Tour. Every part of his journey was difficult, from the obstacles that kept him from competing with the best players in the world until he was almost 40, to the virulent racial hatred he faced once he got there. But unlike some of his fellow athletic pioneers, Sifford never softened, even in his later years as the world tried to make it right by showering him with award...
Anthony Kim's enduring mystery
February 05, 2024 13:00 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MBIt has been almost 12 full years since Anthony Kim last hit a shot on the PGA Tour, and in that time, he managed to almost disappear completely. But the legend around him has grown in his absence, and now, as he's on the precipice of possibly playing once again, we look at the life and career of one of the most intriguing golfers since Tiger Woods. Who was he, where did he come from, and what happened when it was all over? Is the mystery something that can ever be explained, and can our fasc...
How Andy Gardiner got left behind while his big idea became LIV Golf
January 22, 2024 13:00 - 42 minutes - 39 MBThe idea that is currently splitting professional golf in half was born around 2010, scribbled in a feverish bout of inspiration on yellow legal pads. The author was Andy Gardiner, a corporate finance lawyer, and ideas weren't his only strong suit. Over the next decade and more, Gardiner used his connections high in the worlds of golf and business to forget a relentless and occasionally brilliant campaign to bring his idea to reality. It was called the Premier Golf League, and depending on w...
Ghosts of Southern Hills: The Murder of Roger Wheeler
January 08, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MBIn May of 1981, in the parking lot of Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a man named Johnny Martorano killed his 19th victim. His target was the millionaire businessman Roger Wheeler, owner of a company called Telex that employed 5,000 people in Tulsa alone. Wheeler had been successful his whole life, but when he delved into a mob-connected business, he didn't realize in time that the men he became involved with were more dangerous than the average business rival. A network of c...
The Mystery of Montague: The best golfer who refused to play
November 17, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 62.3 MBThe saga of John Montague is one that simultaneously feels like pure fantasy but is also purely American. In 1932, Montague appeared in Beverly Hills seemingly out of nowhere, and through his jaw-dropping golf game, became friends with the biggest stars in the world. Word of his exploits spread far and wide, and when Grantland Rice wrote about him in a national column, the mystery deepened. Why, if he was so good, wouldn't he play in any tournaments? As that mystery unraveled, so too did the...
The Accusation: Tom Watson and Gary Player at the '83 Skins Game
October 30, 2023 12:53 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBThe word "cheat" is golf's one-syllable powder keg, and whenever it appears, fireworks follow. That was the case at the first-ever Skins Game, in Arizona in 1983, when Tom Watson pulled Gary Player aside along with a rules official to privately accuse him of breaking the rules at a critical moment in the event. A reporter was close enough to listen in, and when the story ran, two of the sport's foremost figures were embroiled in controversy. This is the story of two strong personalities, imp...
Golf Court: Should Luke Donald be Ryder Cup captain again?
October 20, 2023 15:29 - 43 minutes - 40.1 MBIt's time for the first-ever session of Golf Court! The honorable Shane P. Ryan is presiding as Barrister Luke Kerr-Dineen and Joel Beall, attorney-at-law, argue about whether Luke Donald should get a second try at Ryder Cup captain, and whether the DP World Tour should lose its right to choose Ryder Cup venues. Plus, golf course bathrooms: Do we need them? Golf Court is now in session.
Ryder Cup Radicals: Vik-tory in Rome!
October 03, 2023 14:11 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBAfter a long week in Rome, a happy Luke consoles a sleepy Joel and a sad Shane for an instant take episode following Europe’s 16.5 to 11.5 victory to win the 2023 Ryder up the early-week proceedings at Marco Simone. The Ryder Cup Radicals break down the European Team’s heroics, the Home Team Dominance problem, and all the drama around ‘Hat Gate’. Subscribe to Local Knowledge and the Golf Digest channels wherever you listen to your podcasts!
Ryder Cup Radicals: The Witching Hour in Rome
September 27, 2023 17:13 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBThe time has come, ladies and gentlemen, to put our hearts on our sleeves and shout our final thoughts into the Roman ether. Today, Luke, Joel, and Shane recap the juiciest news from the week in Rome, give the dish on how to live in the eternal city and make our final predictions for the Ryder Cup. The time has almost come, tensions are at a peak, and as the band Europe once said, this is the final countdown.
Ryder Cup Radicals: Last Licks Before Italia
September 19, 2023 14:23 - 52 minutes - 47.8 MBWe've been talking about it so long that we almost can't believe it's happening: The Ryder Cup is imminent. Before we pack our bags and head to Rome, though, there are a couple last orders of business. All 12 Europeans teed it up at their flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, and two Americans—most notably Justin Thomas—played at the Fortinet Championship on the PGA Tour. Together, the Radicals analyze how those tournaments went, and what it might say about the team and the captain's pic...
Ryder Cup Radicals: Euro Trip
September 12, 2023 18:03 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MBJamie Kennedy joins the Sambuca Boys this week to talk all things European Ryder Cup. Jamie talks about his experience working with the DP World Tour and the European Ryder Cup team, what some of the European players are saying following a trip to Rome, and if Europe’s Ryder Cup chemistry is as strong as it's been portrayed. The group also touches on the discussion of course set-up following the release of photos and videos of Marco Simone’s rough, ending with a talk on the merit of the “und...
Ryder Cup Radicals: A Swedish surprise highlights Team Europe’s picks
September 05, 2023 12:11 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBThe Sambuca Boys discuss the European Ryder Cup team’s six captain’s picks, highlighted by Ludvig Aberg and Nicolai Hojgaard. Shane Ryan issues a mea culpa on Aberg after the fledgling superstar (Aberg, not Ryan) wins the Omega European Masters to earn a spot on the European team. The boys talk about snubs, which pick could come back to haunt European captain Luke Donald, and how the team sizes up to the Americans. Subscribe to the Ryder Cup Radicals on the Golf Digest Local Knowledge feed.
Ryder Cup Radicals: Johnson Makes His Picks! Johnson Makes His Picks!
August 29, 2023 16:41 - 43 minutes - 39.7 MBIn a sea of speculation and analysis, we are pleased to report today that something actually happened: Zach Johnson made his captain's picks, and Team USA is now fully formed. Here at Radicals Headquarters, we are not necessarily surprised at the six picks who round out the squad, but we have some thoughts. Incendiary, revolutionary thoughts. Plus, Luke and Shane engage in partisan squabbles as we discuss the value of a rah-rah captain, and Joel tries to survive a Phoenix hotel room with dir...
Ryder Cup Radicals: Our last guess at the US captain's picks
August 28, 2023 00:35 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBThe Tour Championship is over, Zach Johnson makes his picks Tuesday, and Shane and Luke are on the scene to take their last crack at handicapping the U.S. team. Is it all coming down to Burns vs. Young? Did Keegan and Glover lose their mojo at the last moment? And what of JT? Plus, we Czech in on Europe, and a seemingly convoluted captain's pick situation that might have just become simpler than we think. Get it while it's hotter than Hotlanta.
Ryder Cup Radicals: The lowdown from Chi-Town
August 22, 2023 19:20 - 1 hour - 57 MBThe boys are back, and their important job of handicapping the Ryder Cup bubble is now more critical than ever as we approach D-Day. The U.S. automatic picks are set, but there’s so much drama in the race for captain’s picks that only the brightest minds can sort the data, and over in Europe, the situation is even more tenuous as the last four picks remain very much for grabs. On a good week for both Zach Johnson and Luke Donald, and a wild one for their picks, we’re here to set you up for t...
Rise of the Euros, 1983: When Tony Jacklin and Seve Ballesteros transformed the Ryder Cup
August 21, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 99.8 MBThe job facing Tony Jacklin, the unlikely captain who took the reins of the European team as Ryder Cup captain in 1983, was a massive one: He had to bring an end to decades of American dominance. The situation on the ground was dire, and to put it plainly, he was inheriting a mess. Since the Cup began in 1927, Americans had won 20 times, lost three, and tied once. Even the addition of Team Europe in 1979, designed to level the playing field, hadn't stopped the U.S. from delivering two straig...
Ryder Cup Radicals: Embracing the Mayhem-phis
August 15, 2023 19:34 - 1 hour - 60 MBIf you wanted a worse title pun than last week, in the words of Memphis Music Hall of Famer Roy Orbison, "baby, you got it." The PGA Tour playoffs are officially underway, and Digest's three foremost Ryder Cup obsessives are back to talk about what went down in Bluff City. Is Lucas Glover bludgeoning his way onto the team one win at a time? Has JT's stock gone down as he watches from the sidelines? Did the Euros have as bad a week as it looked from the outside, and is there any clarity on th...
Ryder Cup Radicals: You Wyndham, You Lose Some
August 10, 2023 15:42 - 51 minutes - 47.3 MBWe're on the verge of the playoffs, but even with the DP World Tour in a two-week break, we had some red-hot action at the Wyndham, where the Tour regular-season finale saw at least seven hopefuls from both teams teeing it up. We're here to talk JT's surge, Bryson's 58, and where they (and everyone else) sit as the bubble watch heats up. Plus, let's gild the lily: Each of the lads chimes in on what they'd change about the Ryder Cup if they had absolute power. (And they should!)
The Gleneagles Massacre: Paul McGinley Schools Tom Watson at the 2014 Ryder Cup
August 07, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 90.9 MBOn paper, it might look like nothing special—another European win on home soil in the Ryder Cup. But drill down, and you'll see something revelatory in Gleneagles. This was the Ryder Cup that took decades of American strategic weakness and decades of European guile and blew them out to epic proportions. It's no coincidence that the end of this Ryder Cup saw Phil Mickelson publicly challenge Tom Watson; this was the week that forced the U.S. to face all its own shortcomings, and that process ...
Ryder Cup Radicals: Which team looks better after the Open? Plus Head-to-Head Player Analysis
July 27, 2023 14:34 - 1 hour - 67.6 MBThe Sambuca Boys are back after conducting some on-site field reporting at Royal Liverpool. Harman's in, the Euros are rising (Shane's risk of becoming Luke-Pilled is currently "very serious"), and we're here to see where each team stands after the last major of the year. As July changes to August, Ryder Cup momentum becomes real, and the lads are here to guide you through the start of the endgame.
The Weirdest Major Ever Played: St. Andrews, 1876
July 24, 2023 13:07 - 51 minutes - 47 MBLess than a year after the death of his best friend Young Tom Morris, Davie Strath came to St Andrews hoping to win his first-ever Open Championship. He'd come close before, but while Strath was considered one of the three best golfers of his generation, and had been a sort of pioneer in giving up everything for a career in the very new field of professional golf, there was also something dogging his reputation: A tendency to choke in the big moment. That tendency would rise again, but that'...
The Tragic Brilliance of Young Tom Morris
July 10, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 60.2 MBThe fate that has befallen Young Tom Morris, the greatest golfing talent of the 20th century, is to be known, but only in outline. His singular talent is measured today by lines on a Wikipedia entry, or the ancient scrawling of a name on the claret jug, and if anything, his star has dimmed with the passing years. But when he died on Christmas Day in 1875, just 24 years old, he left the world of golf utterly transformed by a career that ranks with the most spectacular of all time. Young Tom M...
Ryder Cup Radicals: The LIV Conundrum, Sambuca, and Other Serious Matters
July 03, 2023 19:56 - 1 hour - 70 MBOn the first-ever Ryder Cup Radicals, Shane, Joel, and Luke jump into the deep end with a discussion of the LIV Golf imbalance—the US can have LIVers in the Ryder Cup, Europe cannot—and whether Zach Johnson has an obligation to level the playing field by leaving them out. Then it's on to discussions of the new closed circuit US Captaincy Conglomerate, LLC, Europe's key revival of the Hero Cup, and important Italian-centric concepts like Sambuca, Burratta, and the beauty of the word "Madon!" ...
The Sandbag that Changed Golf: Deepdale, 1955
June 26, 2023 12:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBThe concepts of honor and integrity in golf are inseparable from the inevitability of cheating. The former are prominent because the latter is so easy—when self-policing is the best hope for fair play, you better have a code of honor to work as a secondary enforcement. In 1955, at Deepdale Country Club on Long Island, that code seemed to fail when two unknown sandbaggers won a tournament and took home thousands of dollars thanks to an associated Calcutta auction. In fact, the code had not fa...
Fear and loathing at Winged Foot '74: The USGA's response to Johnny Miller
June 12, 2023 12:00 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBWhen Johnny Miller shot his famous 63 in the final round at Oakmont in 1973, it instantly became one of the most staggering achievements in the history of major championship golf. For the USGA, it was also something else: an insult. Oakmont was supposed to be one of the toughest courses in the world, and the U.S. Open was supposed to be the toughest test in professional golf. What Miller did undermined that identity, and when the Open came to Winged Foot one year later, the one certainty was...
The six women who played on the PGA Tour
May 30, 2023 12:00 - 35 minutes - 33 MBThis May marks the 20th anniversary of Annika Sorenstam playing the Bank of America Colonial at Colonial Country Club, where she became the first woman in more than 50 years to play with the men on the PGA Tour. That week was highly anticipated, stressful, and loaded with controversy as more than 300 reporters, hundreds of photographers, and thousands of fans flocked to Texas to see her play. The reactions to her inclusion ranged from supportive to hostile, and though she handled herself adm...
The Basque Heritage of Jon Rahm: A Story that Goes Back Millennia
May 15, 2023 12:00 - 48 minutes - 45 MBA key component of Jon Rahm's identity, and one that's not often discussed in English-speaking media, is his Basque heritage. The Basque people represent the oldest surviving ethnic group in all of Europe; they pre-date the Indo-Europeans who swept through the rest of the continent, and whose descendants live there today. Euskal Herria, the Basque homeland, is a region the size of New Hampshire in southern France and northern Spain, and the people have their own language and culture that hav...
The Reckoning at Shoal Creek: When golf's race problem came out of the shadows
May 01, 2023 12:00 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBIn 1990, the PGA Championship was set to be played at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club near Birmingham, Alabama. The course had hosted the tournament six years earlier, but this time, thanks to an incendiary comment from the club's founder, the golf world couldn't ignore an inconvenient fact: Shoal Creek wouldn't admit any black members. Nor could the PGA paint it as an isolated problem, or even a southern problem—all across America, private golf clubs were excluding minorities, and many of...
Seve Ballesteros: The Legend and the Reality
April 17, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 59.4 MBThere was never a moment when Seve Ballesteros wasn't scrambling, when he wasn't recovering, when he wasn't looking for the outrageous miracle. That's how he lived, and that was always going to be how he played golf. We look at the mysteries of the Spanish golf legend, and his entire unbelievable story.
The Collapse: Greg Norman, 1996, and the final round that lives on
April 03, 2023 12:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MBIt's one of the most infamous moments in golf: Greg Norman taking a six-shot lead into the final round at Augusta National, only to live out every golfer's nightmare as he shot 78 and lost to Nick Faldo. Today, 27 years later, as Norman has emerged as the face of LIV Golf's threat to the game's world order, that memory feels as fresh as ever. On this episode of Local Knowledge, we dive deep to explore why it happened, what might have prevented it, and what we can learn from Norman's fate on ...
Ronald Reagan, a loaded gun, and the forgotten hostage crisis at Augusta National
March 20, 2023 12:00 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBOn an October day in 1983, Charlie Harris drove his blue Dodge pickup through gate three at Augusta National. His goal? To talk to Ronald Reagan, who at that moment was playing the 16th hole on his first-ever trip to the storied course. What happened over the next two hours is one of the strangest chapters in Augusta history ... and despite the high stakes, it disappeared almost immediately from the news. This is the story of a desperate man, a hostage crisis, and a president trying to defus...
The 1983 Rebellion: The PGA Tour's original crisis
March 06, 2023 13:00 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBIn 1983, under the leadership of Deane Beman, the PGA Tour faced the first great challenge to its existence. The leading players of the time, from Jack Nicklaus to Arnold Palmer to Tom Watson, weren't happy with the direction of the Tour, and felt that the new marketing arm was adding money to its own coffers while depleting theirs. Rebellion was in the air, and when they came after the man they called the "czar," Beman would not go lightly. He mobilized his nascent power structure to save h...
Full Swing Wrap: An interview with Executive Producer Chad Mumm
February 21, 2023 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MBAfter recapping and analyzing every episode of the new Netflix golf series, Full Swing, it was time to bring our questions to the man who put it all together. In this bonus episode, Chad Mumm, the show’s executive producer, discusses who he envisioned as a target audience, how he locked in on different subjects, and why the show opted against a traditional chronological format. Mumm also reveals his favorite moments, and at least one gem of a scene that ended up on the cutting room floor.
Full Swing Thoughts Ep. 8: And then there was Rory
February 15, 2023 08:30 - 55 minutes - 51.2 MBThe final episode of Netflix’s new golf series, Full Swing, and of our limited-run podcast recapping the show, is all about the star power of Rory McIlroy. As hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers discuss, the producers were right to focus the entire last episode on the four-time major champion given the prominent role he played in golf in 2022, as well as his willingness to share parts of himself audiences had never seen before. We discuss some of the bright spots of an eventful fi...
Full Swing Thoughts Ep. 7: Mito Pereira and Sahith Theegala suffer the rookie blues
February 15, 2023 08:25 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBAs the Netflix series on golf, Full Swing, approaches the end, our podcast recapping the show can’t help but judge the seventh episode through the prism of missed opportunities. Were rookies Sahith Theegala and Mito Pereira compelling enough to carry an entire show? Was either one of the biggest storylines of 2022? Although there were elements of the seventh episode—Theegala’s father being one, Pereira’s all-time collapse at the PGA being another—hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers...
Full Swing Thoughts Ep. 6: Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa, and the dreaded contrast
February 15, 2023 08:20 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MBAfter a triumphant run of episodes in the new Netflix golf series, Full Swing, our podcast recapping the show was more critical of a sixth installment focusing on Tony Finau and Collin Morikawa. As hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers say, there is much to like about the Tony Finau portion, which captures Finau’s compelling and unique backstory, and provides new insight into the balance he strikes between his career and his large family. Where we struggled was with the depiction of ...
Full Swing Thoughts Ep. 5: The ballad of Fitzy and DJ
February 15, 2023 08:15 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MBThe fifth installment of our limited-run podcast series recapping Full Swing, the new Netflix show, tackles the Matt Fitzpatrick and Dustin Johnson episode. Hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers note that just like with Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler in Episode 2, the show’s producers opted to emphasize a contrast. Here it was between the overachieving Fitzpatrick and the naturally gifted Johnson, with a little bit of LIV Golf tension mixed in as well. While neither personality ...
Full Swing Thoughts Ep. 4: Joel Dahmen shines in the best episode yet
February 15, 2023 08:10 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBHosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers haven’t agreed on everything about Netflix’s new golf show, Full Swing, but they agree that the show’s fourth episode on journeyman Joel Dahmen was the best yet. In our limited-run podcast series recapping every episode, we explain why Dahmen’s incredible journey through professional golf and his relatable demeanor made for compelling television. Among the favorite parts discussed in detail: Dahmen relaying the crushing loss of his mother to canc...
Full Swing Thoughts Ep. 3: The Ian Poulter conundrum
February 15, 2023 08:05 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MBThe next installment of our limited-run podcast series recapping Netflix’s Full Swing reflects on the value of personality, and how the show’s third episode featuring Ian Poulter stood apart from the previous two for that reason. Whereas earlier episodes had bigger names in Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers argue that devoting an entire episode to the charismatic Poulter was a smart decision. We break down Poulter’s struggle to remain ...
Full Swing Thoughts Ep. 2: The spring of Scottie, the fall of Brooks
February 15, 2023 08:00 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBIn the second installment of our limited-run podcast series on Netflix’s Full Swing, hosts Shane Ryan, Sam Weinman, and Alex Myers discuss a much-improved second episode that focuses on Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler. We discuss the portrayal of Koepka as a one-time dominant force now in the throes of a prolonged slump; how it contrasts to Scheffler, an amiable up-and-coming star who catapulted up the world ranking last year and won his first major at the Masters; and how the filmmakers...
Full Swing Thoughts Ep. 1: Jordan, Justin, and the curse of friendship
February 13, 2023 16:05 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MBWelcome one and all to the world premiere of the new Golf Digest podcast "Full Swing Thoughts." As you might gather from the title, we're here to talk about all things 'Full Swing,' the new Netflix documentary looking at the year 2022 in professional golf. We start today with the JT and Jordan episode, and Golf Digest stalwarts Sam, Alex, and Shane go deep on what they loved, what they didn't love, and what made them laugh as the series kicks off. Was this a successful start? Could 'Full Swi...
Introducing: Full Swing Thoughts
February 13, 2023 15:05 - 1 minute - 1.33 MBShane Ryan, Sam Weinman and Alex Myers will be your guides through the upcoming Netflix show "Full Swing." The trio will discuss what the show gets right, what feels a bit off and everything in between. With each episode, we'll have a podcast to break down everything you just saw, and there may be a special guest to wrap it all up.
An “ominous” year in golf: Making sense of a wild 2022
December 12, 2022 13:00 - 34 minutes - 32 MBFor the first time in the sport’s history, the defining moments of the professional golf season took place somewhere other than on a golf course. The ongoing battle between the PGA Tour and the fledgling LIV Golf circuit instead took place in private backchannels, on social media, and even in the legal sphere. But as much oxygen as it took up in 2022, it was hardly the only event that mattered to golfers and golf fans. In this year-end episode of Local Knowledge, Keely Levins, Alex Myers, Sh...
This is what happens when a tour player hits all your drives for you
November 15, 2022 15:00 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MBAn 18-hole experiment with our 11-handicap editor and PGA Tour veteran Joel Dahmen began with a simple question: How much easier would golf be if a tour player hit all your drives for you? In this week's Local Knowledge, Sam Weinman takes you behind the scenes of a memorable round in which he and Dahmen teed off for one another and then played their own balls from there. You can also read the story and watch the video on the round here.
A golf idiot's guide to how NFTs could change the game
November 01, 2022 12:00 - 40 minutes - 37.7 MBWhat are NFTs? And what could they possibly have to do with golf? Our Shane Ryan didn’t really understand them at first, and he certainly didn’t know what they had to do with a game played on grass. But as Ryan discovered, NFTs are making inroads into the golf world, some quite modest, others rather dramatic. In this episode, he explains NFTs basics for novices, and what it all might mean for golf.
Golf courses that refused to die
October 17, 2022 12:00 - 28 minutes - 26 MBEven as golf has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years, a number of golf courses are undone by challenging economics and mismanagement. Many of those courses close outright, while others fight to stay alive in the face of considerable headwinds. In this episode, Alex Myers talks with Golf Digest's Keely Levins and Joel Beall and others about a handful of golf courses that got creative in their efforts to remain afloat, those that still met their unfortunate demise, and why so man...