The Fried Egg Golf Podcast

Yolk with Doak 34: Saudi Golf Issues, Cabot Highlands, and Listener Questions

In the latest installment of the Yolk with Doak, golf architect Tom Doak covers a wide range of topics with Andy Johnson. First, they spend some time examining Saudi Arabia's role in golf outside of the LIV tour, namely the kingdom's massive investment in golf course construction. Tom also provides updates on his current activities, which include the recently announced second course at Cabot Highlands, formerly known as Castle Stuart. Finally, Tom and Andy run through listener questions about the playability trend in design, changes to Tom's early projects, and the delicate balance that's required when imitating another architect's work. Look for part two of this conversation, which will focus on St. Andrews, this coming Friday.

Superintendent Series: Pete Wendt of Congressional Country Club

With the KPMG Women's PGA Championship underway, Andy Johnson welcomes Pete Wendt (@PeteWendtCCC) to the latest edition of our Superintendent Series. Pete is the Director of Golf Courses and Grounds at Congressional Country Club, which is hosting the third women's major of the year this week. The Blue Course will be showing off its new look after an extensive renovation by Andrew Green that was completed last year. Pete talks about how Green's vision became reality and which aspects of the course he's most excited to see in action at the Women's PGA. Pete and Andy also cover other topics, ranging from Pete's schedule this week to how technology might be able to ease the industry's labor shortage.

The Superintendent Series is brought to you by the Toro Company.

Takeaways from the 2022 U.S. Open

The 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline was an instant classic. It had all the key ingredients: a great course, a tough setup, a variety of big names in contention, a dramatic final-round duel, and a champion who sealed victory with an extraordinary shot on the 72nd hole. To discuss all of this and more, Garrett Morrison talks with four guests. First up is Nick Hardy (@NickHardy8), an up-and-coming tour pro who, at one point on Sunday afternoon, found himself two shots off the lead. Garrett then touches base with Paolo Uggetti (@PaoloUggetti), a staff writer at ESPN.com; Ryan Barath (@RDSBarath), a senior equipment editor at Golf.com; and Bradley Klein (@BradleySKlein), a journalist and golf architecture historian.

Where Did Country Clubs Come From?

The late 1800s saw the invention of an important institution: the American country club. This week’s U.S. Open venue, The Country Club in Brookline, was the first—or at least one of the first. By the beginning of the 20th century, most major cities east of Chicago had several golf-focused clubs. What were the reasons for this proliferation? And what can we learn from the origins of country-club life in America? To get some answers, Garrett Morrison talks to Richard J. (“Pete”) Moss, a retired history professor and the author of the excellent Golf and the American Country Club.

Five Things About the 2022 U.S. Open with Tron Carter

It's U.S. Open week! To give a preview of the action, Andy Johnson sits down with Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) and runs through five things they'll be watching for at The Country Club in Brookline. They touch on the virtues of the host city, the challenges of the course, the players who might be best prepared to take on TCC's small greens and heavy rough, the potential activities of Team Reed, and the long shadow cast by the insurgent LIV league.

The Fried Egg and No Laying Up have team members on site in Boston this week, so there will be plenty of #content to consume. For some visuals of the course, check out our preview video as well as NLU's.

Fried Egg Stories: How to Slay a Monster (The Open Doctor and His Monster, Part 3)

This episode concludes our series “The Open Doctor and His Monster,” which chronicles the origins, rise, and end of the Robert Trent Jones era in golf. Today, we tell the story of the movement that challenged Jones’s ideas and revived the reputations of Donald Ross and other golf architects of the “Golden Age.” Ultimately, this movement led to a battle of ideas at Oakland Hills Country Club, where Jones had initially established his reputation as the “Open Doctor” in 1950. Our guests in this episode are Richard Howting, Bradley Klein (@BradleySKlein), Gil Hanse, and Robert Trent Jones Jr.

Further reading:

• Bradley Klein, Discovering Donald Ross
• Geoffrey Cornish and Ron Whitten, The Golf Course

Fried Egg Stories: Ben Hogan vs. the Monster (The Open Doctor and His Monster, Part 2)

In this second installment of our documentary series “The Open Doctor and His Monster,” we focus on the 1951 U.S. Open, in which Ben Hogan did battle with Robert Trent Jones’s modern architecture at Oakland Hills Country Club. Our guests in this episode are Ed Gruver (@EdGruver), Richard Howting, James Hansen, Robert Trent Jones Jr., and Bradley Klein (@BradleySKlein).

Further reading:

Ed Gruver, Bringing the Monster to Its Knees: Ben Hogan, Oakland Hills, and the 1951 U.S. Open

Richard Howting, “Defining Moment: The 1951 U.S. Open”

Bradley Klein, “Forever in Tweed, Amen: Herbert Warren Wind’s contributions to golf know no word count” in The Golfer’s Journal No. 13

Fried Egg Stories: How to Make a Monster (The Open Doctor and His Monster, Part 1)

Today, we kick off a three-part documentary series called “The Open Doctor and His Monster,” in which we chronicle the Robert Trent Jones era in golf: its origins in Rochester, New York; its breakthrough moment at Oakland Hills Country Club; and its recent fall from favor. In this first installment, we tell the story of how Robert Trent Jones rose from a blue-collar background to the status of “Open Doctor”—and how, in the process, he came up with ideas that would dominate golf course design for decades.

Our guests in this episode are Robert Trent Jones Jr., James Hansen, Richard Howting, and Bradley Klein (@BradleySKlein). 

Further reading:

• James Hansen, A Difficult Par: Robert Trent Jones Sr. and the Making of Modern Golf
• Bradley Klein, Discovering Donald Ross: The Architect and His Golf Courses

Chatting Pine Needles and U.S. Women’s Open with Kyle Franz

Golf architect Kyle Franz (@KyleFranzGolf) returns to the podcast to share his wealth of knowledge of Pine Needles, the site of the ongoing 2022 U.S. Women's Open. Kyle carried out a restoration of the Donald Ross course in 2017 and is on the grounds at Pine Needles this week. He chats with Andy Johnson about holes to watch for and what he learned from following Ingrid Lindblad and Annika Sörenstam during Thursday's first round. On the back half of the episode, Kyle provides an update on the busy summer he has ahead of him, which will include projects at Lookout Mountain and Cabot Citrus Farms.

A Preview of The Country Club (ft. Gil Hanse)

With the U.S. Open a little over two weeks away, we are well into the "from many, one" process. The 2022 edition will be held at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, for the first time since 1988.* Andy Johnson and Garrett Morrison talk about the deep history of professional golf at the course, the maze that is the championship routing, and the USGA’s planned setup. Gil Hanse stops by (26:45) to share insights from more than a decade of working at The Country Club, then Andy and Garrett wrap up with some holes to keep an eye on and a few critiques of the course’s weaknesses.

* A number of times in this pod, we mistakenly refer to the 1988 U.S. Open as the 1989 U.S. Open. TFE regrets the error.