Blind Shots Podcast
From OneBeardedGolfer.com, a podcast that discusses what we love and hate about the game, sport, and business of golf. Frequent topics include golf travel, amateur, competitive, and public golf experiences, golf architecture, and the spirit of the game.
Episodes
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…
Mark as Played
In this conversation, I sat down with filmmaker Hagen O'Neil of Palmer Pictures 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 a...
Mark as Played
March 26, 2024 • 70 mins
This is the Sheep Ranch episode. Perched against the coast on the bluff just north of the Pacific Dunes and Old Mac golf courses, the Sheep Ranch struck me as a bit different than the rest. A much ballyhood Coore Crenshaw masterpiece, it’s more familiar to other experiences than I felt on the rest of the Bandon Courses. Sure, it’s in a unique, almost magical setting, but it was flatter, with fewer visual disruptions. It felt like a...
Mark as Played
March 19, 2024 • 58 mins
The Kentucky State Park System is celebrating its 100th birthday in 2024. This episode is the first of a new series wherein I'll profile Kentucky's state park golf courses from time to time. To kick off this new endeavor, I was honored to sit down recently with the Commissioner of the Kentucky State Park System, Mr. Russ Meyer. We talk the breadth, mission, and funding of Kentucky's state park courses, as well as highlighting some ...
Mark as Played
March 11, 2024 • 55 mins
This is the Pacific Dunes episode, our fourth of this season’s “Americans in Oregon Series.” A golf course of almost unanimous acclaim, it’s the golf course that brought architect Tom Doak into the larger golfing public’s consciousness, that showed people how spectacular coastal golf in America can be, and what natural, minimalist golf architecture can…
Mark as Played
March 4, 2024 • 64 mins
Friend of the Show, Chris Boysel, PGA, returns to talk about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we think we’re going in golf in central Kentucky, and to an extent, in golf writ large. Chris oversees Tournament Operations and Player Development for Play Golf Lexington, the omnibus organization responsible for municipal golf in…
Mark as Played
February 3, 2024 • 57 mins
This is the Bandon Dunes episode, the one about the original course at the Bandon Dunes Resort, the one that started it all. This is where it began for Oregon as a golf destination, for the Keiser family golf empire, for golf architect David McKlay Kidd, for fun overtaking difficulty as the chief goal of…
Mark as Played
January 27, 2024 • 85 mins
Ethan Fisher, PGA, returns to the podcast to discuss his article over on OneBeardedGolfer.com revisiting the life and demise of the shooting star of Kentucky golf at the start of the 21st century, Old Silo Golf Course in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. It’s a fascinating, cautionary tale from the collapse of the most recent golf boom…
Mark as Played
January 20, 2024 • 59 mins
Our 2nd installment of the Americans in Oregon, discussing our experience on the Old MacDonald course, and the awe and wonderment of realizing the scale of the Bandon Dunes operation. Plus, a heretical idea so crazy I’d could only get away with it because it’s on the Internet.
Mark as Played
January 15, 2024 • 85 mins
In this first installment of the “Americans in Oregon” series, we set the scene at Bandon Dunes through our impressions of the Punch Bowl putting course, the 13-hole Bandon Preserve short course, and an examination of the resort’s vibe through our lodging and accommodations experiences.
Mark as Played
January 6, 2024 • 44 mins
Matt, Fred, and I reconvene at the Americans in Scotland round table to discuss whether golf trips truly need a “trophy course” to anchor a buddies golf trip. It’s big-picture discussion based on the small details we’ve accumulated in a decade or so of golf trip experience.
Mark as Played
December 30, 2023 • 85 mins
We happen to be living through a tumultuous time in men's professional golf, and I wondered if Hal might recognize any familiar story lines from his lived experience and research for the book. He did, and there are all worth ruminating upon further.
Mark as Played
December 23, 2023 • 73 mins
I’m honored to welcome Nathan Crace, ASGCA to the podcast to talk through and help me understand the much ballyhooed USGA decision to “roll back the golf ball.” Watermark Golf – http://watermarkgolf.com/nathan/ Moonbay Media – http://www.moonbaymedia.com/ Nathan Crace, ASGCA – https://asgca.org/architect/ncrace/
Mark as Played
February 3, 2023 • 54 mins
I speak with Lie + Loft founder Luke Davis about his journey to and within golf. Golf art and golf imagery has come a long way in the past decade or two. Once the exclusive province of the coffee table books, luxury travel publications, and the architecture issues of the mainstream golf publications, artistic depictions of golf’s playing fields have been devolved to the people in the digital age.
Mark as Played
January 20, 2023 • 14 mins
On the ninth night of Christmas, I struggle with the fact that I am what is holding back my putting.
Mark as Played
January 6, 2023 • 13 mins
I contemplate how my local golf club professionals fulfill a role that I formerly found in my barber, my bartender, or my colleagues. Talker. Friend. Listener. Confidant. Fellow traveler. They are the fabric that binds me to my golf community, and the tie that binds that larger community together. And I'm better for knowing them.
Mark as Played
January 5, 2023 • 20 mins
Thoughts on the social and social media silo that I've landed in focused on golf swing speed and hitting the ball farther.
Mark as Played
January 3, 2023 • 13 mins
A playing partner, especially a randomly assigned one, can make or break a round of golf.
Mark as Played
December 30, 2022 • 17 mins
A rumination and three cheers for that collection of golf courses that are truly familiar, old haunts that are comfortable to play, no matter how long it's been since it was last played.
Mark as Played
December 30, 2022 • 13 mins
On the fourth night of Christmas, I ponder my golf present and future after a fourth month forced layoff from the game.
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.