Now You’re Talking

It was April 2020, and Matt Ginella had spent seven years collecting and producing golf travel content for the Golf Channel.

But that spring, the world ground to a halt in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ginella, for years a print journalist before moving to television, was at his heart a storyteller and found himself with oodles of time and a vault of interesting tales from pursuing the sport around the globe.

To that point, he’d been reluctant to jump on the podcast bandwagon. Here a podcast, there a podcast, everywhere one of these new-fangled instruments to deliver what was essentially radio content.

But a new venture he conceived with fellow journalist Alan Shipnuck called “The Fire Pit Collective” was the perfect venue for Ginella to begin generating hour-long conversations with the fascinating people he knew in the game. “The Fire Pit Podcast” was born.

“One might say I had an epiphany,” Ginella says. “The world was grounded. We were quarantined. Yet people were still interested in a quality narrative. It was the perfect launchpad, an outlet for my passion for telling stories. Over the years, I’d had access to incredibly interesting and inspiring people. We always left some of the best stuff on the cutting room floor. We turned that upside down, put those out in podcast form.

Caption: Fire Pit Collective Podcast

We are hyper focused on the best story, the type of story told in a fire pit atmosphere after a full day of golf. Pour a drink and sit by the fire. We’re letting people stretch, letting them go and giving them time to tell their best stories.”The result five years later is a library of nearly 200 podcasts encompassing personalities, travel, equipment, the greats of the games and major championships.

One of the most entertaining shows was a two-parter from August 2022 telling in intricate color and detail of the “Manning Brothers Buddies Trip,” where Eli, Peyton and Cooper Manning travel to Scotland with buddies like Eric Church, Jim Nantz and Taylor Zarzour, navigating the golf courses, bars and cemetery walls next to the Old Course in hilarious detail. It took 14 interviews and eight hours of tape to get the story down pat.

“For this old soul, to have buddies on the ultimate buddy trip allows you to experience it vicariously, by connecting me live via Facetime worlds apart, to have me there live and in person, is a very nice gift,” Nantz says. “A gift of friendship. Golf does that to you.”

Indeed, it does. Golf has always been revered for its rich literary heritage, and now the spoken word through the podcast has a significant place at the table.

The CVB partnered with The Fire Pit Collective on a five-video “Journey to Pinehurst” series that can be enjoyed here.

The podcast format has been around for about 20 years, the “pod” coming from the Apple iPod that was introduced in the early 2000s. Podcasts are best described as “on-demand radio” — audio content like you would find on the radio, but available in episodes that listeners can stream from the internet and listen to anytime, anywhere on venues like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. In time, video was introduced and now podcasts are streamed on YouTube and other social media. There are some 600 golf podcasts on Spotify.

January marked the third year of launching the Pinehurst, Southern Pines Aberdeen Area Convention & Visitors Bureau’s “Paradise in the Pines” podcast. The podcasts are hosted by CEO Phil Werz, run about 30 minutes in length and are typically posted every other Tuesday. The theme for the podcast is to share conversations with the people who make the Sandhills the “Home of American Golf,” with guests having a direct tie to the Sandhills whether it be for golf, business or other interests. Among guests have been Mike Hicks, the caddie for the late Payne Stewart; Angela Moser, the lead designer on Tom Doak’s staff for Pinehurst No. 10; and Jamie Ledford, president of Pinehurst-based Golf Pride Grips.

“Video and social media content is one of the most important things we do as a destination marketing organization,” Werz says. “The podcast was simply another way to produce content and via a popular mechanism with the podcast.”

Werz’ background in television news gives him the interview skills and production knowledge to lead the effort. The CVB has built a permanent studio in its Southern Pines office and invested in a second set of podcast equipment it could use remotely for special events like the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. Visit North Carolina, the state tourism promotion agency, has praised the CVB content marketing efforts and often uses it as a case study for how to produce content.

“I’m not sure I thought we’d still be doing this for three years,” Werz says. “But, given the exposure and popularity of it, we will continue to do it as long as we feel it provides a valuable way, among many, to marketing our globally-recognized destination.”

Chris Finn launched a golf fitness and rehabilitation practice named Par 4 Success in Durham in 2013, and the company has grown substantially over a dozen years into a bigger headquarters facilities in the Research Triangle Park. He launched a podcast in July 2023 called “The Golf Fitness Bomb Squad” and installed production capabilities in a new company headquarters. Since then, he has consistently produced an average of two podcasts a week. One of them features a guest, someone from the golf equipment, instruction, fitness or other disciplines, and the second is a shorter subject addressing topics such as off-season conditioning, injury rehab or improving mobility.

“No one in the fitness or rehab space was doing anything research and science based,” Finn says. “We talk to top instructors, equipment guys, fitness experts and bring it back to golf fitness. We’ve had PGA Tour and LPGA pros, long-drive champions. Fitness is the underlying thread. We take a casual approach to introducing people to the fitness world in an un-intimating way. We meet them where they’re at instead of talking over their heads.”

As CEO, one of Finn’s weekly jobs is producing the podcast and lining up guests. His 100th episode included wide-ranging topics such as gaining speed after injury, how to alleviate back pain and how to use transfer training to improved length off the tee.

“There’s an industry stat that says most podcasts don’t get past 10 episodes,” he says. “People don’t realize how much time and commitment it takes. We’re at nearly 150. It’s interesting and fun and we get a lot of downloads of the show notes. The podcast generates no revenue. We never planned it that way. But it’s definitely a good branding play.”

The “No Laying Up Podcast” will hit its 1,000th episode in 2025 in more than a decade of production. What started as a group text among college friends in 2014 has grown into one of the most popular podcasts in the game as it strives to provide fresh, funny and informative conversation on all things golf. In early February, the No Laying Up gang was at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, this just weeks after a deep dive on “The Lost Decade of Rory in the Majors.” It generates significant content on the professional tours, but also ventures into topics such as gaining speed with Dr. Sasho McKenzie, co-founder of The Stack System. And they have gotten good access to top- level guests like Tommy Fleetwood, Jim Furyk and Mike Whan.

Fried Egg Golf was created by Andy Johnson in 2015 out of frustration of what he felt was little of interest in written golf media and set out to generate his own newsletter. He found an audience and in time it evolved into The Fried Egg, which has a decided bent toward golf architecture. Often on “The Fried Egg Podcast,” he and co- host Garrett Morrison delve into intricate detail on the design, personality and playability of the world’s top courses. You’ll learn of courses you’ve never heard of, but want to immediately put on a buddies trip.

“The Golfer’s Journal” was launched in 2018 as a hefty print book being released quarterly. Its motto is “Golf in its purest form,” and the magazine and accompanying podcast are not interested in the newest driver or golf ball design or swing technique. They find the most interesting people, venues and stories to write and talk about. Author Tom Coyne hosts many of the podcasts along with editor Travis Hill.

Caption: Fried Egg Golf Podcast

Wide ranging subjects have included a multi-podcast history of the Masters and Augusta National; interviewing Bill Coore at his golf design travels and a personal trip to Antarctica; and how Padraig Harrington is one of the most interesting people in golf.

Authors Stephen Proctor and Jim Hartsell explore the literary side to golf in “The Duffer’s Literary Companion.” Through nearly two dozen episodes over two years, the hosts pick a notable author and book — from Dan Jenkins to Pat-Ward Thomas to Bernard Darwin — and conduct a leisurely discussion on why the book adds to their love of the sport.

If hearing a delightful Scottish brogue adds to your enjoyment of golf, certainly check out “The 1457 Podcast,” a production of “Scotland Where Golf Began,” an industry-led Scottish tourism promotion initiative. The best holes in Scotland? The best courses? The best itineraries? They’re all discussed by the hosts and leave listeners with a hankering to order up a plate of haggis and set off for the Auld Grey Toon.

There are podcasts for all interests and tastes.

If you want humor and levity, check out “Get a Grip with Shane Bacon.” He calls his production “the municipal course of golf podcasts” and takes a light-hearted approached to the game.

Caption: Get a Grip Podcast

“Golf Smarter with Fred Greene & Friends” focuses on developing your golf IQ and your mental skills.

If you want game improvement, one of the most popular podcasts is “Me and My Golf,” produced in Great Britian by hosts Piers Ward and Andy Proudman. They are Scottish PGA pros who started a YouTube channel in 2011 that featured them doing swing drills wearing matching kilts. Their YouTube channel had nearly 1 million followers at the end of 2024.

As with Sandhills area golf courses, there are plenty of options “on the air” for golf junkies to get their fix.

Lee Pace is a freelance golf writer who has written about Sandhills area golf for four decades and is the author of club histories about Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, Mid Pines, Pine Needles and Forest Creek.

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