The Waggle Golf Journal Pod

AJ MacVie
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

Essays, thoughts, and curiosities. ajmacvie.substack.com

  1. May 20

    The Waggle Pod: Ep. #34- Golf Architect Brian Ross and Jon Cone of NorthPoint Golf.

    Please welcome architect Brian Ross to the podcast today. After working as a design associate for firms in Austin, Texas, and Pinehurst, North Carolina, he established his own full-service firm, Ross Golf Design, LLC, in 2019, with offices in Austin and Roanoke. Ross is known for his hands-on, detail-oriented approach and has completed several notable projects recently. This list includes his highly regarded work at Park Mammoth, Kentucky- considered to be one of the best courses in that state, and the very impressive restoration and expansion of the Great Dunes Course at Jekyll Island, Georgia. (with Jeff Stein). It was great to have Brian on, and I think you will enjoy this conversation. Jon Cone, of the Northpoint Golf Club, also joins us to share his thoughts on his recent trip to Park Mammoth, fielding an ambush question on the National Links Trust, and about his own wanderings and recent content. Jon is a return guest to The Waggle Pod and a friend of the program. His very good review of Park Mammoth and all his other content can be found on his website here. Thanks to Jon for making the time to come on. Get full access to The Waggle Golf Journal at ajmacvie.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 46m

  2. Apr 6

    The Waggle Pod: Ep. #33- Stephen Proctor

    Happy Master’s Week, everyone. We are very pleased to welcome author Stephen Proctor to the podcast today. You will know Stephen from his days at The Baltimore Sun and San Francisco Chronicle, and as the author of his popular books, Monarch of the Green (his biography of ‘Young’ Tom Morris Jr.) and A Long, Golden Afternoon (the rise of golf from 1900-1920). His new book, Matchless- Joyce Weathered, Glenna Collett, and the Rise of Women’s Golf, focuses on the pioneering achievements of these two women during the Golden Age of golf in the early part of the last century. Stephen recently won the USGA’s 2026 Herbert Warren Wind Award Book of the Year award for Matchless, and it was a little bit surreal to be able to chat with him about his writing, hickory golf, and, of course, Scotland. With the Augusta National Women's Amateur this past weekend, I thought it all tied together nicely. Hope you enjoy. If you were interested in purchasing these books, consider ordering from The Auld Grey Toun Bookshop in St. Andrews and support good local bookshops whenever you can! Get full access to The Waggle Golf Journal at ajmacvie.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 23m

  3. Mar 27

    The Waggle Pod: Ep. #32- Mike Croley

    It is a huge honor to welcome today’s guest, writer Mike Croley, to the podcast. Mike is a creative writing professor at Dennison University in Ohio and has been widely published across the world of golf. You will have read his award-winning work in Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Golf Digest, The New York Times, and Golf Magazine, among other outlets. He is the author of a very good collection of short stories, called Any Other Place (2019), and has an essay in the current issue of The Golfers Journal. Mike has also started a film/ media production company called O.A. Creative and runs a Substack account called “Life on Par” . He has appeared on a variety of golf podcasts and first popped onto my radar with his spectacular profile on Tom Doak in the Virginia Quarterly Review. In short, Mike is a hustler. We had a fun conversation about writing, golf, and the reasons we do both. When I started The Waggle, people like Mike Croley were the ones I wanted to talk to, and it is very cool to watch some of this come full circle for me. Please enjoy and give him follows across all fronts. I would like to thank him for his generosity with his time and for his willingness to help me and this project out a little bit. I feel so lucky to have met the people I have on this journey, and conversations like this sustain and inspire me. Please enjoy. Get full access to The Waggle Golf Journal at ajmacvie.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 45m

  4. Mar 13

    The Waggle Pod: Ep. #31- Don Placek of Renaissance Golf Design

    It is a huge honor to welcome Don Placek to the podcast this week. Those familiar with the golf architecture world will know Don as a lead associate for Tom Doak and as one of the four principals at Renaissance Golf Design. He has been responsible, in part, for creating many of the most influential courses in golf over the last twenty-five years, and the list continues to grow. Don is also a noted artist and mapmaker, and his inspired renderings of these places have become symbolic of the creativity and ingenuity for which Renaissance is known. This was my Chris Farley/ Paul McCartney (“Remember when you were with the Beatles; that was awesome”) moment on this podcast, and I really just wanted him to tell me stories about each and every course that Renaissance and Tom Doak built over the years. We touched on all of those things, but I was mostly interested in talking to Don about acts of creativity, inspiration, and his thoughts on the evolution of our understanding of the game. I was incredibly humbled and honored that he was willing to come on the podcast and have an in-depth conversation about these ideas. I can’t thank him enough. Don Placek. Wow. He was also kind enough to send me a couple of renderings of his famous drawings/maps to post with this pod. Below are two special places that I have been in golf, and it was surreal to get these in an email. Get full access to The Waggle Golf Journal at ajmacvie.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 29m

  5. Feb 19

    The Waggle Pod: Ep. #30- w/ Sean Melia of Bay State Golf

    Sean Melia of Bay State Golf joins the podcast today to talk about his life in golf, writing about the game, and his quest to play every golf course in the state of Massachusetts. Sean is one of the leading voices in the New England golf scene, and it was great to sit down and have a fun conversation about some of his adventures. You can find his work and links for all of his many projects here: Bay State Golf . I wrote a new piece for The Waggle Golf Journal this week. I can’t believe how many people have checked it out already. If you missed it, it’s called “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once,” and you can find it at the link below. Do me a favor and smash that subscribe button, then send the link to one of your buddies who might enjoy it. Thanks to everyone for the support and for reading! The travel bags are getting pulled out as we speak, and we will be on the road next week (hopefully). Quick little mission. Talk to you all then! Get full access to The Waggle Golf Journal at ajmacvie.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 20m

  6. Jan 21

    The Waggle Pod: Ep. #29 w/ Jordan Jackson of Dog Tracks and Cow Pastures (Part II)

    My friend, Jordan Jackson, returns for Part II of our conversation. As we mentioned in Part I (Ep. #28- which you should listen to first), Jordan is the creator of Dog Tracks and Cow Pastures and is currently the leading Canadian golf authority living in Utrecht. I made up that last part, but Jordan certainly is a wealth of knowledge and information about golf architecture, and this was a really fun conversation. Thanks to Jordan, once again, for coming on the podcast. Find his work at Dog Tracks and Cow Pastures and on Instagram under the same name. Check out the store here: The Waggle Golf Journal . We have so many beanies; take a look and help out our small shop. See you next week. Get full access to The Waggle Golf Journal at ajmacvie.substack.com/subscribe

    55 min

  7. Jan 12

    The Waggle Pod: Ep. #28- w/ Jordan Jackson of Dog Tracks and Cow Pastures (Part I)

    Please welcome Jordan Jackson of Dog Tracks and Cow Pastures to the first podcast of 2026. Jordan is a serious, well-researched voice in the golf architecture world, and I will be paying close attention to his work going forward. These conversations are the best, and I always walk away thinking about aspects of golf course design and the game in a different way. In Part I, Jordan and I discuss his background in the game, Canadian golf, Stanley Thompson, and the world’s largest log cabin. among several other topics. Jordan recently launched an interesting biweekly newsletter called “Boundary Lines,” which you can sign up for by following his Instagram. This was a delightful conversation, and I am sure that we will try to have Jordan on again in 2026 for another chat, and hopefully, we will get a round in together soon. Thank you! Part II will drop next week. Dog Tracks and Cow Pastures can be found by clicking here. Get full access to The Waggle Golf Journal at ajmacvie.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 2m

  8. 12/31/2025

    The Waggle: An End of Year Thank You

    We won’t forget 2025 for a variety of reasons: the golf, the places, and the experiences were all life-changing. But looking back, it’s the people that I will remember the most. Thank you to those who read, listened, watched, and sent a word of encouragement over the past year; you helped keep this thing afloat. Thanks to the growing number of paid subscribers; a version of me in the past would have a hard time believing that this is actually happening. I sincerely appreciate your support. Thank you to all the podcast guests for coming on and chatting while I figured out how to become a host- I have enjoyed it more than I thought I might, and you guys were the main reason why. New England is an unbelievable golf community, and we saw a lot of it this year. It’s a special place, and I feel lucky to be here, and there is a lot more to explore. Critical thanks to everyone who took care of me on the road this year- in a variety of climes and place; it means more than you know. I can’t believe the stuff we have planned for 2026, and it feels bananas that I get to be involved in some of this stuff. Special thanks to Robbie Wilson in Kintyre, Mike Norcia at Forewind Golf, Tim Alpaugh at Claret Dreamer, and world-famous golf architect Jeff Stein for the unbelievable support over the year. Thanks for helping me get going. To “The Patron of the Arts”- you know what you did. Thank you. And to C, thanks for reminding me how to get home. Get full access to The Waggle Golf Journal at ajmacvie.substack.com/subscribe

    3 min
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