Fittingly, we recorded our shortest episode ever to explain why the next ones will be much longer!

Eight years in, The Bag Drop is biting off something new: fewer releases, deeper research, and three- to five-hour episodes on a single golf club’s history, strategy, and story. Matt and the Professor explain why the most fascinating untold stories in golf live at the club level, the question they brought home from Northern Ireland together at twenty and haven't shaken since, and the five rules they have set to do it faithfully. (PS. The weekly interviews and conversations are not going anywhere!)

The conversation dives into:

• Why the untold stories in golf live at the club level, and why studying a golf club is really a way of studying people
• A trip around Northern Ireland at twenty, the question "why is this the way it is here?", and the Professor on why one round as a guest never tells you how a club actually works
• The Professor's numbers on the quiet comeback of long-form, and what hours of conversation can do that a two-minute clip can't
• Admiration for Acquired, and a five-hour episode that finally made the model make sense, and permission to go that deep
• Five rules for the new series!

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Links & Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH
🎧 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/633c8703-5880-4522-bd6d-5967b45fc777/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [email protected]

Chapters

00:00 Welcome: one of us is practicing, one of us refuses

01:29 Beating balls, and taking the doubt out with Golf Blueprint

02:45 The four-ball partnership is off

03:41 Matt's real golf strength: recruiting

05:00 Professor's facts: long form is quietly coming back

08:01 A return to conversation after a decade of the algorithm

09:05 Ad read: Titleist GTS, unboxed at night and gamed by morning

10:40 The Professor is a seven-wood guy now

11:21 Fixing the top of the bag with a four wood and seven wood combo

12:41 A short episode about going long

14:07 Eight years of The Bag Drop, starting at the Merit Club

16:33 Three years of the Professor, and curiosity on steroids

18:32 The decision: fewer shows, deeper research, three to five hours

20:23 Why clubs: study a club, study the history of people

22:56 Northern Ireland, and why one round as a guest explains nothing

25:01 Not the historians, and why that is the advantage

27:26 Acquired, Costco, and learning through a narrative

28:18 Smart Brevity, and what short form can't do

30:16 A decade of hearing "there's a past here you don't know"

32:40 The rules: no AI list of facts, no embellishment, the pursuit of truth

34:24 Time to get to work

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community, and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

Nineteen million Americans have tried golf since 2020. About one in four of them stayed.

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Matthew Reagan, PGA (co-founder and general manager of Operation 36) to talk about why golf keeps losing the beginners it works so hard to attract — and what changed the day he stopped teaching the swing first and started people 25 yards from the hole.

The conversation dives into:

• The year-four gut punch: a junior program running at 95% retention that still lost forty golfers, and the single thing the kids who stayed all had in common
• A year of three-hour nine-hole rounds, a drive to Pinehurst, and the flip that turned into Operation 36 — start at 25 yards, shoot 36, back up
• Why the environment around a beginner matters more than the technical ability of the coach, and what that says about how golf picks its heroes
• The women who told him they had always wanted to play but had never been given permission to start that close to the green
• Opening the app to everyone in 2027 — couch to course, course to coach — and what an app should refuse to pretend it can replace

Connect with our guests

⛳ Matthew Reagan, PGA — co-founder and general manager, Operation 36 — 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-reagan-op36/

📱 Operation 36 — https://operation36.golf — how it works: https://operation36.golf/how-it-works/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/op36golf — 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/operation_36/ — 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/operation-36-golf — 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/op36golf/

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Links & Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH
🎧 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/633c8703-5880-4522-bd6d-5967b45fc777/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf

🎧 Web: https://thebagdrop.fm/

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [email protected]

Chapters

00:00 Cold open: the moment Operation 36 got its name

00:52 Welcome, and a fall morning in Athens

01:20 Ten kids under eight: not rested, but refreshed

03:35 Unplugging, the Slack away message, and the phone-off experiment

06:45 New York, Mumford and Sons, and whether you could live there

08:37 Today's guest: Matthew Reagan and Operation 36

10:10 What Op36 did to Athens Country Club

11:19 Scotland as the barometer: beginners go straight to the course

12:00 Professor's teaching: sampling versus early specialization

15:13 Ad read: Titleist AIM Enhanced and seeing the ball go in

17:18 Matthew joins The Bag Drop

18:16 Sixteen, upstate New York, and a course you could play for free

20:25 Campbell, Ryan Dailey, and deciding to coach

21:46 What actually turned him into a golfer, and it was not technique

25:28 Gamification, variability, and why golf hooks you

28:58 Three juniors at Keith Hills, and a program that grew to eighty

30:01 Ten levels, bag tags, and making a three-footer fun for an hour

32:19 Year four: forty golfers do not come back

33:59 North Carolina Long Term Athlete Development LLC

34:43 The one thing the kids who stayed had in common

36:09 A year of three-hour nine-hole rounds

38:08 The drive to Pinehurst, and the flip that became Operation 36

40:08 Teaching calculus to a seventh grader

42:01 Narrative, and the data nobody else in golf has

44:16 One in four: this is not a junior golf story anymore

45:42 Bootstrapping, licensing, and taking the junior out of the brand

49:15 Shrinking the variables until clarity becomes motivation

51:06 Competence, relatedness, autonomy

52:40 The women who never had permission to start close

55:33 The cultural headwind: America starts on the range

57:05 Aligning a club top to bottom, and Op36 at St Andrews

1:02:41 The ego of the young coach, and a $400-a-month membership

1:05:25 A gymnastics gym on every corner, and not a golf program

1:08:55 What a club needs before this works

1:12:23 If a recession comes, which programs survive

1:15:46 Opening the app in 2027: couch to course, course to coach

1:18:22 Golf Genius, and learning to run an engineering team

1:24:56 One thing you can do to make somebody's first nine better

1:31:07 Close: reviews, Titleist AIM Enhanced, and thanks

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop<...

Jim Hartsell will tell you the best golf course in the world is 4,800 yards and a par 66. He is not being cute about it. He would like you to come after him.

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Jim Hartsell — architect, three-time Bag Drop guest, and author of A Round of Scottish Courses — for a conversation about what thirty years of returning to the same small Scottish clubs teaches you about why golf places matter, and what a golfer owes a place once he starts telling everyone about it.

The conversation dives into:

• Why Dunaverty — 4,800 yards, par 66 — is his answer to "best course in the world," and why he thinks the question is usually asked wrong
• What choosing eighteen favorites instead of eighteen best freed him to write — and how a chapter actually gets built, including the sheepdog trials that unlocked a lost course on Arran
• The night the Old Course put a flag on the 18th green made from a drawing his nine-year-old son had left on his laptop
• The green-fee trap: why North Berwick and Brora keep going up, and why tour operators refuse to take a £30 course seriously
• Whether writing about Dunaverty, Askernish and Isle of Harris is quietly changing them — and what the members themselves say about that
• Three rules for being a good guest at a Scottish club, including the one about tipping too much

Connect with our guests

📚 Jim Hartsell — https://jhartsellgolf.com — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/JimHHartsell](https://x.com/JimHHartsell) | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimhartsell/

📕 A Round of Scottish Courses (Back Nine Press) — https://back9press.com/products/a-round-of-scottish-courses

🎧 The Duffer's Literary Companion (Jim & Stephen Proctor) — https://tdlcpodcast.podbean.com

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Links & Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH
🎧 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/633c8703-5880-4522-bd6d-5967b45fc777/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [email protected]

Chapters

00:00 Cold open: the anticipation is half the fun

00:41 Welcome, and the Professor's new office

02:16 A love letter to the game: who your club introduces you to

03:01 Caddie School for Soldiers and thirty days at the Home of Golf

04:31 Jim Hartsell, third appearance, third book

06:34 Professor's teaching: quiet eye and gaze duration

11:29 Ad read: Titleist T-Series and the three Ds

13:52 Three books, one thread

15:09 The course gets you in the room; a person carries the story

16:32 The high school English teacher who started all this

19:31 Calling Rob Collins with a crazy idea

23:29 Fifty interviews, an outline, and meeting Jim Sitar

26:40 The books that made him: Wind, Bamberger, Morton, MacVicar

31:18 When Revelation Comes, and the notebook that read like a book

35:25 Patric Dickinson's eighteen best, and Jim's eighteen favorite

38:53 Dunaverty is the best course in the world: 4,800 yards, par 66

42:07 Soup, clubhouses, and the whole lived experience

45:40 Sheepdog trials, and when history earns its place in a chapter

49:56 What do you have against the Scottish east coast?

51:44 Frankfurt, a lost day, and a morning inside the R&A

54:33 Dark hours on the Old with a persimmon driver

56:52 The flag on the eighteenth green

1:00:35 Why the most famous place in golf did not have to do that

1:02:21 Does writing about these places change them?

1:06:40 North Berwick, Brora, and being too cheap to be taken seriously

1:07:46 Would the veneer wear off if you moved there?

1:12:14 Three rules for being a good guest (and don't over-tip)

1:14:41 Calendars, course guides, and Jordan's junior program

1:19:27 Close: subscribe, review, and the Titleist T-Series

What happens when a guy with a Wall Street background decides he’d rather make putters than climb the corporate ladder? For Al Vikmanis, the answer has been a winding path through Arccos, data analytics, custom putter design, metal 3D printing, ferrules, and whatever comes next. The common thread is a willingness to follow the rabbit hole wherever it leads, and a belief that the journey itself is the point.

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Al Vikmanis, Founder of 3DP Design to talk about the science and craft behind modern golf equipment, from why MOI matters in a putter to how sound actually becomes feel, why 3D printing opens up design possibilities traditional manufacturing can't, and why a ferrule can become a surprisingly personal piece of golf gear. Along the way, he gets candid about leaving Wall Street, embracing work that feels meaningful, learning from spectacular failures, and building a career around curiosity rather than a five-year plan.

The conversation dives into:

• Al's early days at Arccos, helping turn enormous amounts of shot data into something golfers could actually use
• MOI explained without the engineering degree, including why more forgiveness isn't automatically better for every golfer
• How sound becomes feel in a putter, and why putting with headphones on might be costing you more than you realize
• The unlikely path from smuggling putters into a Wall Street office to teaching himself CAD and eventually 3D printing golf clubs
• Why custom ferrules have become a form of personal expression, more like putting stickers on a skateboard than simply changing the cosmetics of a golf club
• The failures behind Al's work, including a collection of enormous 3D-printed mallets that looked like the Starship Enterprise and sounded like tuning forks

Connect with our guests

Al Vikmanis —  💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/al-vikmanis-3755671/
🌍 Website: https://3dp-design.com/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3dp_design/

👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083121141361#

Follow The Bag Drop

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebagdrop
 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/thebagdropgolf
 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBagDropGolf

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Support our Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

Chapters

00:40 - Welcome to The Bag Drop
11:08 - Al Vikmanis joins the show
12:12 - From Arccos data to custom putter design
18:51 - What Al learned from working at an early-stage startup
21:03 - Leaving Wall Street and finding meaningful work
24:21 - MOI explained
30:33 - Why sound is feel
34:11 - How Al got into making putters
37:44 - Why custom 3D-printed equipment doesn't scale
41:20 - How metal 3D printing actually works
43:32 - Where 3D printing fits into the future of golf equipment
47:20 - The early failures of 3D-printed putters
51:08 - Learning from bad ideas
54:09 - How Al and Patrick Boyd started working together
56:52 - Why golfers love custom ferrules
59:24 - Ball markers, divot tools, and personal expression
1:02:21 - The creative side of Al Vikmanis
1:10:53 - What's in Al's golf bag
1:18:12 - What comes next for golf equipment
1:20:12 - “The journey is the point”

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

What does a piece of land owe the people around it once the golf stops paying for itself?

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Blake Conant (golf course architect; co-designer of Old Barnwell and the Gilroy) to talk about the second course he is building in the dirt right now — and the master's thesis he wrote a decade earlier arguing that some golf courses should stop being golf courses.

The conversation dives into:

• Why a painting degree and three months running equipment with Tom Doak at Dismal River turned out to be the right education for golf architecture
• Building the Gilroy next door to a course everybody already loves, and the Snoop Dogg rule Blake uses to keep from chasing it
• The 90-acre parcel Nick Schreiber bought so the routing would work, and why Blake says architects are simply greedy
• A kids course with a tunnel and a ramp, built on Brian Schneider's premise that kids do not actually want to putt
• The 2013 thesis on bankrupt courses: what Blake got right about supply, what he missed about demand, and why the courses that closed were the wrong ones
• The arithmetic that decides whether affordable public golf gets built at all — roughly ten dollars of green fee for every million spent

Connect with our guest

🎨 Blake Conant — https://www.dundeegolf.com/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/Dundee_Golf — | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dundeegolf/ | 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-conant-90566a37/

⛳️ Old Barnwell — https://oldbarnwell.com

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Links & Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH

🎧 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/633c8703-5880-4522-bd6d-5967b45fc777/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [email protected]

Chapters

00:00 "Make sure your first one is your worst one"

00:49 Welcome, and kudos to the R&A for actually enforcing the rules

04:19 Who Blake Conant is, and how the Professor found him

07:45 Teaching of the week: "Build a Course Today" and the overbuild

09:30 Titleist Vokey SM11

11:11 Conant, Conant, or Conan the Barbarian

12:18 House paint, big canvases, and actually selling art

14:44 Art school to landscape architecture to Dismal River

17:42 The doubts he probably should have had

19:20 Following Old Barnwell: the Snoop Dogg rule

20:53 Was a second course always the plan?

23:12 Nick Schreiber, and hiring people you then leave alone

27:19 The kids course: they don't actually want to putt

29:56 Tunnels, ramps, and a train that isn't there yet

30:37 Who the Gilroy is for, and greens that sit on the ground

33:11 Still testing the good player, just differently

34:41 Buying the purple parcel

37:09 Buy the land before anybody knows you're building

38:59 The 2013 thesis on bankrupt golf courses

41:58 What are we measuring: social, environmental, economic

47:39 The wrong courses closed

48:58 Repurposing, HOAs, and grand ideas that don't pencil

51:05 Should a new project pass the test before opening day?

52:49 Golf as a Trojan horse: programming, foundation, community

55:45 Aiken's building boom and a healthy kind of competition

59:38 The public course he'd like to build without donors

1:03:49 Wrap and thanks

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

Can a golf facility be fun, affordable, and welcoming for the local community while maintaining an elite course and golf experience that attracts committed golfers from around the globe? 

Brian Conley knows it can; he sees it every day, and he believes it starts long before any of them hit their first tee shot.

As the General Manager of The Park in West Palm Beach, Brian has helped build one of the most celebrated public golf experiences in the country. But this conversation goes well beyond architecture or rankings. It's about creating a place where people feel welcome, where every decision serves a mission, and where golf becomes a vehicle for community rather than exclusivity.

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Brian Conley (GM at The Park) to discuss why "fun" became the north star for The Park, what public golf can learn from private clubs (and vice versa), how to think about pricing without compromising accessibility, why walking matters, and whether this model can realistically spread to more cities.

If you've ever wondered why certain golf courses become gathering places while others remain just another tee sheet, this one's for you.

The conversation dives into:

• Why every successful golf project needs a clear "why"
• The philosophy behind The Park's "Open Golf" approach
• Stripping away unnecessary traditions without losing what makes golf special
• The balance between accessibility, sustainability, and premium public golf
• Building community through programming, leagues, events, and local ownership
• Why walking-first golf creates a better experience for players and operators
• Lessons learned from Bobby Jones Golf Course and bringing those ideas to West Palm Beach
• Whether The Park is a one-of-one or a blueprint for the future of public golf

The Park
https://theparkwestpalm.com

Follow The Bag Drop

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebagdrop
 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/thebagdropgolf
 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBagDropGolf

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Support our Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

Chapters

00:00 The why comes first
01:07 Back in love with golf: swing video, flow state
09:00 Professor's time fact: plants can tell time
11:25 Partner break — Titleist AIM golf balls
13:13 Brian Conley joins the show
15:11 The only non-negotiable: fun
16:31 Stripping out the norms — what "open golf" actually means
19:19 Coming up in golf, and learning to be different
22:42 Why golf is so afraid to test and fail
24:26 Pricing without apology: the Mercedes problem
27:50 Protecting the locals in a transient, premium market
34:42 The recruitment: a 20-minute tour, a January phone call
39:20 Does the model travel? Scale vs. replicability
46:16 Sustainability, philanthropy, and funding The Path
50:41 A 50-year city lease — and a new event teaser
52:17 Mission over profit, and living outside the box
56:20 Walking-first in the heat: caddies, loops, and the data
1:03:35 The Professor's cart confession
1:06:16 Serving every kind of golfer at once: culture and people
1:07:03 The kid in the tank top and the Augusta member
1:13:16 The fake version: how to spot an imposter
1:17:59 What keeps him up: culture and getting the word out on The Path
1:20:49 The parrot: the story behind the logo

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions, and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is in the business of belonging, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

A country that loves a drink almost never drinks on the golf course. That's not temperance — that's the whole story.

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Scott Warren (New South Wales Golf Club member and co-host of the Australian Golf Passport podcast) to explore what Americans get right and badly wrong about Australian golf — and why the difference comes down to a single word: competition.

The conversation dives into:

• Golf as a sport, not a pastime: comps 5-6 days a week, markers, no gimmes, and why nobody's drinking on the course
• Mixed-gender golf that works at the club level — and Scott's critique of the co-ed Australian Open
• Stableford done properly, technology, and the case for a rollback so a ball bounces again
• What Australian golf actually costs, from Barnbougle to top-tier club fees, vs. the US
• The fight to save civic golf in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (North Adelaide, Moore Park)
• Under-credited architects Alex Russell and Mike Clayton, and Greg Norman's cultural weight
• Junior golf, the eroded pathway to the pro ranks, and the next five years of the Australian Open and LIV Adelaide
• A Bluey tangent worth staying for: Bandit, and the Custard connection

Connect with our guests

🇦🇺 Australian Golf Passport podcast — https://australiangolfpassport.com/
🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/ausgolfpassport
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/australiangolfpassport/

Follow The Bag Drop

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebagdrop
 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/thebagdropgolf
 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBagDropGolf

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Support our Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com
 

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: coffee, eating on golf trips, and why men host podcasts

08:22 Partner break: Titleist, New Club fittings, and finally putting the seven wood in the bag

10:02 Scott Warren joins: what Americans actually get right about Australian golf

11:48 The depth question: the 35-40 courses we romanticize vs. the ~450 that exist

13:41 Golf is a sport, not a pastime: why Australians don't drink on the course

16:43 A day at the club: comps 5-6 days a week, markers, no gimmes

19:59 Mixed-gender golf: why it works at the club and why the co-ed Australian Open didn't

28:28 Scale, technology and the case for a rollback; a persimmon what-if

29:38 Stableford done right — and Scott's issue with the American version

34:20 Playing from the wrong fairway: Tiger at Firestone, Greg Norman over the oak

38:20 Norman's cultural weight; Aaron Baddeley and the ones who nearly made it

44:15 Junior golf, pennant, and the pathway to the pro ranks that's eroded

53:36 The next five years of Australian pro golf: LIV Adelaide, the Open, the money

1:01:28 Civic golf under fire: North Adelaide, Moore Park, and who these fights really hit

1:07:31 What an Australian club membership actually costs vs. the US

1:15:39 Bluey, Bandit, and the Custard connection

1:19:09 Getting in: waitlists, proposers, and the quiet power of a members' list

1:23:24 The origin of the Australian Golf Passport, and golf media that won't just say everything's great

1:33:17 Under-credited architects: Alex Russell and Mike Clayton vs. the McKenzie romance

1:39:25 Barnbougle, King Island and Seven Mile: destination golf that's still affordable

1:43:01 Spiders, snakes, and selling the family on Australia

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

For fifteen years, Dave Zinkand's name never made it onto the scorecard. He was the guy in the field for Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw — Bandon Trails, Bandon Preserve, WeKoPa— learning to be an editor of his own work. Now the decisions land on his desk, and his name is the one members attach to the outcome. In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, Dave Zinkand of Zinkand Golf Design joins host Matt Considine and co-host Dr. Kevin Moore (aka "The Professor") to talk about what actually changes when you step to the front of the room — and why the entire craft might come down to a single word a stranger handed him at Port Marnock: angles.

The conversation dives into:

• Restoration vs. renovation, and the "sympathetic renovation" middle ground — including Old Elm, where Harry Colt designed a course he never saw, Donald Ross took liberties in his absence, and Dave's team finally built Colt's torn-edge bunkers for the first time, a century later.
• Reversible golf at Medinah Country Club: a nine-hole, par-31 course routed through a floodplain with two double greens — and the rare owner (Bill Cosgrove) who greenlit the fun idea first, before the "serious" work. 
• Saddle & Cycle Club: three acres of golf inside a Chicago social club, and the case for sub-three-hour experiences as the missing rung on the ladder that brings people into the game.
• Naturalized bunkering, native areas, and the honest maintenance math behind the rugged look — plus why a great superintendent's buy-in matters as much as the drawing.

Connect with our guest

Dave Zinkand — Zinkand Golf Design: https://zinkandgolfdesign.com/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zinkandgolfdesign/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-zinkand-a689a64/

Follow The Bag Drop

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebagdrop
🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/thebagdropgolf
📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBagDropGolf

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Support our Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

Chapters

02:14 Introducing Dave Zinkand 
04:38 The Professor's fact of the day: the octopus
07:35 Partner break — Titleist GTS drivers and MOI
09:02 From the field for Coore & Crenshaw to your own name on the door
13:40 Editing your own work, and being open to your team's ideas
15:11 Strategy and playability: the one word is "angles"
18:59 The Dreer Award — Hoylake, Rye, and learning the links
22:41 Firm vs. soft: designing angles for wet Ohio Junes
27:03 The superintendent relationship and earning buy-in
30:13 Rugged, naturalized bunkering and the maintenance trade-offs
35:37 Restoration vs. renovation, and "sympathetic renovation"
40:20 Old Elm: Harry Colt's intent, Ross's liberties, and bunkers built at last
44:17 Saddle & Cycle: three acres of golf in the city
49:50 Short courses, the "ladder of learning," and sub-three-hour golf
54:37 Reversible golf and the Medina par-31
1:05:02 What's different when you route a course to play both ways
1:08:28 The best reversible not named the Old Course: Doak's Loop
1:12:36 One habit that travels everywhere — and the Irishman's word: balance

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

Everyone tells you golf is an individual game. Zach Healy and Jack Larkin Jr. are quietly proving how much better it gets when it isn't.

The two former University of Georgia golfers — roommates for all five years, four-ball partners ever since — join Matt and The Professor to talk about the format that's given them a second golf life: USGA Four-Ball. They've made a habit of tearing up the amateur scene, and this year they finished T2 in stroke play and came a single shot shy of the championship's single-round record with a 63.

What the conversation dives into:

• Why the best four-ball teams aren't the perfect ones — and how one early bogey stopped mattering
• The 63 in the Arizona desert: six birdies in the first eight holes, cocktails in hand, trading who could one-up the other
• The unglamorous re-navigation back into competitive golf after college, and why you have to be willing to shoot 80 in a qualifier to get sharp again
• Getting smarter as you get older: swapping a 15-year putter for a "spaceship," and checking the ego at the door
• Gamesmanship inside the ropes — walking fast, talking a lot, and where the line actually is
• Jack Larkin Sr., the family blueprint for playing high-level golf at 65, and who wins when three Larkins tee it up

Connect with our guests

Zach Healy — 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/z_jhealy | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-healy/

Jack Larkin —  📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlarkin_uga | 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-larkin-b738a4126/

Follow The Bag Drop

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebagdrop
🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/thebagdropgolf
📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBagDropGolf

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Support our Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

Chapters:
00:00 One season, one complaint — doormen, summer, and the Midwest golf report
05:30 Meet Zach & Jack: how the Professor first crossed paths with the Georgia team
06:08 The Professor's teach: which clubs have hosted the U.S. Amateur most
09:16 Partner spotlight: Titleist, the GTS, and matching your ball
10:41 How do you actually qualify for the USGA Four-Ball?
12:35 Why the best teams aren't perfect
13:31 Steady Eddie vs. the EKG machine: how partners complement each other
17:00 The 63: six birdies in eight holes and a run at the record
19:45 Birdie juice — transfusions, screwdrivers, and desert superstitions
22:49 How they met, and five years as roommates
25:19 Walking into UGA and realizing you're not the best guy anymore
30:32 What makes a great teammate
34:29 Zach's shot at pro golf, and the pay-phone moment he hung it up
39:44 Jack the working man, and the hard road back to competitive golf
45:00 Getting smarter with age: efficiency, ego, and the spaceship putter
52:24 Jack Larkin Sr. and the family blueprint for golf longevity
56:08 Course selection, home-site traps, and football-weekend regrets
1:01:00 Match play, momentum, and a two-down-with-two-to-go comeback
1:04:30 Gamesmanship: walk fast, talk a lot, never cross the line
1:09:00 Why team golf makes the whole thing more fun

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

What does it actually take to write someone else's story in their own voice?

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with New Club Chicago's 2026 captain (and reigning club champ) Zander Nethercutt to trace an unlikely path: a 2017 essay about the Apple Store, a Facebook message six years later, and three years of near-daily phone calls that turned into Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius — the book he ghostwrote with Apple Store founder Ron Johnson. It's a conversation about writing as thinking, the discipline of changing your mind, and why the best clubs (and the best stores) are built around people, not product.

The conversation dives into:

• What a rainy monthly medal at Oak Brook tells you everything about a club: consistency, ritual, and showing up for guys you actually care about
• How Zander beat Ron Johnson in their first round together — and why that round became a book
• The decision to stop writing about Ron and start writing as Ron, and the dinner-party question that flipped the whole project
• Ron's first memory — and the unconditional love that shaped a career
• The green-vs-blue text myth, and why Zander now thinks his viral take got Apple exactly wrong
• Launch, deepen, restore: how the Apple Store was designed from the customer backward, and what golf retail could steal from it

Connect with our guest

Zander Nethercutt
📖 Amazon Book Pre-order: https://bit.ly/4esvV8Q

💼 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zander-nethercutt-0583b683/
📝 Substack: https://substack.com/@zander/notes
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zandercutt/|

Follow The Bag Drop

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebagdrop
 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/thebagdropgolf
 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBagDropGolf

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Support our Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Additional Links:
✍️ Zander's 2017 Essay "The Luxury Network": https://zandercutt.com/2017/11/15/the-luxury-network/
📖 Preorder "Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius": https://bit.ly/4esvV8Q

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

03:11 The Role of Competition in Golf

05:50 Understanding the Role of a Club Captain

08:32 Xander's Journey to Becoming a Writer

11:18 The Impact of Writing on Personal Growth

14:05 The Story Behind 'Shop Different' Book

17:08 Lessons Learned from Ron Johnson

19:47 The Personal Journey of Xander Nethercutt

34:45 The Call to Retail: A Personal Journey

38:48 The Shift: From Writer to Ghostwriter

42:55 Revisiting Perspectives: Apple as a Luxury Brand

47:26 The Evolution of Apple: From Humble Beginnings to Iconic Stores

51:09 The Pressure of Leadership: Balancing Speed and Strategy

56:43 The Role of Action: How Doing Shapes Thinking

01:01:27 The Power of Kindness in Leadership

01:04:59 Cutting Stories: The Art of Editing and Its Impact

01:09:37 Lessons from High Performers

01:16:08 Self-Actualization through Golf

01:21:17 Redefining the Golf Experience

01:27:29 Finding Passion in Golf

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

Every golfer has stood over a putt and guessed. Erik Belgum learned to ask one question instead: where does the water go?

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Erik Belgum —  a design associate with Billy Fuller and Tom Kite, and right now he's elbow-deep in the dirt at Otter Creek in Columbus, Indiana — a Robert Trent Jones original being reimagined into cradle-to-grave golf. He walks Matt and the Professor through the parts of course design nobody romanticizes: the AutoCAD, the budgets, the order of operations, and the moment a green gets approved before it's actually ready.

The conversation dives into:

• How a kid pulling a cobwebbed pull cart in Iowa City ended up self-taught at Atlanta's Bobby Jones muni — on a $300 junior pass, with a five-questions-a-day limit from the pro shop
• The church pew that changed his life: ending up in a congregation with two working golf architects, Bob Cupp and Billy Fuller
• The real story of the Billy Bunker — how a highway shoulder, a McDonald's playground, and Dow Chemical turned into the industry standard
• The Cayman ball: the McGregor experiment Jack Nicklaus commissioned to make 5,000 yards play like 7,000, and the 13 dozen Erik inherited from his mentor
• Why constraint breeds creativity — bunkerless greens at Setting Down Creek, and slope as strategy at Otter Creek

Connect with our guest

💼 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-belgum-2a587874/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billyfullergolfdesign/

Follow The Bag Drop

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebagdrop
 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/thebagdropgolf
 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBagDropGolf

Listen to The Bag Drop

🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH

🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/

Join the NewClub community

🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub

Support our Partners

🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf

🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com

🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

Chapters

00:00  Cold open: back to loving chipping

00:35  Bermuda vs. bent — reading lies and no margin for error

05:48  Setting up the episode: who Erik is and why now

06:14  Fact of the week: reading before bed and the science of winding down

11:05  Partner: Titleist GTS — what the Professor got fit into

12:24  Erik joins; Otter Creek, Columbus, and the J. Irwin Miller / Cummins story

16:08  Cradle-to-grave golf: the Romp, the Pup, and the championship Otter

19:26  The unromantic side of design: AutoCAD, budgets, order of operations

21:37  Origin story: his dad, Iowa City, and a cobwebbed pull cart

24:24  A $300 junior pass and learning the game at Bobby Jones

25:50  Cart kid, the starter's nightmare tee, and "five questions a day"

26:50  The church mentors: Bob Cupp and Billy Fuller

30:34  Choosing landscape architecture; UGA, fall of 2007

33:00  His own game today: letting go of score, old equipment

35:14  What is a Cayman ball?

43:00  Inheriting 13 dozen Cayman balls from Bob Cupp

40:30  Billy Fuller's agronomy pedigree and his years at Augusta National

46:45  How the Billy Bunker was actually invented

51:38  Lessons learned: the green he approved too soon

56:42  Where does the water go — infrastructure as strategy

59:31  Setting Down Creek and how constraint breeds creativity

01:02:24  Favorite courses: Cuscawilla, Old Barnwell, North Berwick, Sunningdale

01:07:57  What success at Otter Creek looks like in a year

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.