Blind Shots Podcast Blind Shots Podcast – One Bearded Golfer

Nearly one year after embarking on our Bandon Dunes adventure, Fred, Matt, and Dave reconvene one final time to tie the bow on our experiences on the Oregon coast. We discuss the highs and lows, what we loved and what we didn’t, and what we’d do differently on our next adventure out west. Matt also gets in a few kind words about his experience and the course at Bandon Crossing, which he played solo before the rest of the game arrived.

I’m taking my family to the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon this month. To prepare for our adventure, I called on long-time friend of the podcast and unofficial Scotland correspondent Kieran Clark to talk about what we can expect to experience, as well as the current state of Scottish golf. Kieran is a St. Andrews-based writer for, and Social & Community Editor of, Golfshake, the leading digital golf platform in the UK. He’s generous with his time and quick with his wit, which makes him one of my favorite golf conversationalists.

The boys finally get around to discussing Bandon Trails, which Matt and I were absolutely smitten with, from start to finish. A masterwork of routing and shaping from Coore Crenshaw set inland among the still-wooded dunes and logging trails, the course is almost the perfect mix of difficulty, beauty, and diversity for golf.

Golf course architect Brian Ross rejoins the show to discuss how Park Mammoth GC continues to evolve two years after its grand re-opening. With a new, permanent clubhouse under construction, a new short named “The Boneyard” that Brian is designer just announced, and the announcement of a new putting course to come, it’s an exciting time for Kentucky’s new favorite public course.







We also discuss larger trends Brian sees across the golf design industry, why he’s a frequent collaborator on projects, and what’s next.







Brian Ross Golf Design: https://www.rossgolfarchitects.com/







Park Mammoth Golf Club: https://parkmammothgolfclub.com/









8th green, circa 2000







PMGC 8th green today







Such a cool hole

The Fields Golf Club in LaGrange, Georgia, is one of those special places with which I felt an instant connection, a feeling that grew stronger with each step on my first walk around the course. It’s a special place with a remarkable story derived from some of the ideas and principles that best capture what’s right in public golf.







In this conversation, I sat down with filmmaker Hagen O’Neil of Palmer Pictures (https://www.youtube.com/@PalmerPictures) to discuss the background and process of making his wonderful documentary film about the course, “From Red Clay to Fairways.” Using the color personalities that form The Fields leadership team, Hagen brings the course’s Phoenix-like rise to the screen, while exploring the principles of community and public golf writ large, as the divide between luxury and every day golf experiences continues to widen.







The film is embedded below for your convenience. Watch it. You’ll laugh, you’ll think, and you might even want to visit. Then give my conversation with Hagen a listen.



















My two trips to LaGrange have been marvelous for largely personal reasons. There are likely small cities like it dotted all across the country, which makes me wonder if they all could their own version of The Fields. Golfers of all stripes would be better for it if they could, as “Red Clay to Fairways” makes abundantly clear.







Three words of thanks. First, thank you to Hagen for an incredible afternoon of laughs and conversation, with a little golf worked in. Second, thanks to Ashley Young and Ace at The Fields for their enthusiasm and hospitality. And finally to Thomas Dunne of McKellar Magazine for both supporting Hagen’s vision for the film, and for continuing to connect the McKellar launch party events to such wonderful golf experiences.







If you love great golf storytelling, head over to the McKellar website and check out their boxed set of past issues. Timeless golf stories don’t have an expiration date. You can thank me later.







The Fields Golf Club: http://www.thefieldsgolfclub.com/







From Red Clays to Fairways https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOd-WPDD6PY







McKellar Magazine website: https://www.mckellarmagazine.com/

This is the Sheep Ranch episode, the fifth of our Americans in Oregon series highlighting and detailing Matt, Fred, and my trip to Bandon Dunes last summer. The Sheep Ranch, an instant Coore + Crenshaw hit with the golfing public, provides a more relaxed experience than it’s bolder neighbors just down the majestic coast line. The heritage of the site is well respected by the wonderful “core course” feel created by the course’s long sight lines and kinder, gentler dunescape mounding.