Of the more than five million podcasts (!) that exist, a tiny sliver of them focus on golf—everything from pro golf to instruction to travel adventures to entertaining conversation about personal growth in the game.
And of those couple hundred or so golf podcasts that exist in any meaningful form, only a tiny sliver of those are worth your time.
When you find one or two (or more) that satisfy certain golf cravings, it can be a game-changer. Podcasts are popular for a reason: you can listen anywhere, for any amount of time, while doing any number of activities. I’ve spent more than a few road trips taking in multiple golf podcasts.
They can be incredibly engaging if you find the right ones. And it’s a good time to start getting into podcasts as the golf season starts to wind down.
If you are more interested on the video side, check out our top 20 YouTube golf channels.
Here are 10 golf podcasts that are worth investing time in if you are so inclined.
10. On The Mark
We tend to think of modern instruction as video-only content but there is some serious wisdom to glean from an audio-only show like On The Mark.
Hosted by CBS commentator Mark Immelman (brother of Masters champ Trevor Immelman), each episode (typically one per week) features an interview with an instructor, coach, player or another figure who can help your game.
The episodes—and there are more than 700—are hour-long discussions about how to get better. There is a certain focus and energy to this show that I really enjoy. A lot of modern golf instruction has devolved into an avalanche of Band-Aid fixes and tricks that work momentarily. This podcast is more philosophical in nature, taking a detailed look into how golfers can reasonably implement changes.
You will find PGA Tour players on this show but you will also find a doctor talking about hypnosis. It’s a wide-ranging podcast about what makes us all tick.
9. The Par Train
There are more than 300 episodes of The Par Train, a podcast dedicated solely to the mental game.
This is catnip for golf nerds who like talking about swing thoughts, course management and keeping a healthy perspective on the game. The whole point of the pod is to help golfers enjoy the game rather than fighting it, which we all struggle with at some juncture.
Some of the guests are instructors or mental coaches but the discussion always circles back to average golfers talking through what they are feeling on the course.
8. Hack It Out
I have four instruction/game-improvement podcasts on here. Hack It Out is the most unusual of the four.
The main hosts—Mark Crossfield, Greg Chalmers and Lou Stagner—are all coming at the game for wildly different perspectives, which I think makes for an intriguing discussion. Crossfield is a longtime coach with an enduring presence on YouTube. Chalmers is a former PGA Tour player. Stagner is a stats wiz who can break down strategy on a granular level.
That really makes each episode interesting because you never know which direction it will go. There are very technical episodes, like talking about how much your hips should turn, but there are also episodes about whether golf shoes make a difference.
7. GOLF’s Subpar
I’m a big fan of Colt Knost, the on-course CBS reporter who has become one of the bigger personalities in the game. In this pod, Knost pairs with friend Drew Stoltz—a solid mid-am player—chopping it up about a variety of topics.
This is a true “sitting at the bar with your buddies” kind of feel. Knost and Stoltz usually have a guest join them for the weekly show and I appreciate that they routinely stretch outside the golf space. Recent guests include NFL quarterback Matt Ryan, former NBA player Chandler Parsons, Fox News anchor Bret Baier and ESPN commentator Stanford Steve. There is a lot of golf talk in those episodes but it’s also wide-ranging well beyond the game.
I have to admit this pod tends to fade out of my rotation. There are a lot of guests I don’t care about that much, it can get a little repetitive and there are too many ads. Whether I listen depends a lot on my mood, if that makes sense. It’s very “golf talk radio,” which isn’t for everyone.
6. The Sweet Spot
I have The Sweet Spot as my top instruction-based golf podcast.
Hosts Adam Young and Jon Sherman focus more on the mental side of the game, making the content surprisingly digestible. Golf instruction podcasts often fall into the trap of being overly technical but Young and Sherman find an appropriate middle ground to make each episode not just entertaining but informative.
There is a lot of course management/stat talk but you will also get actionable, realistic plans for game improvement.
I’ve heard from multiple friends who said that listening to The Sweet Spot revitalized their enthusiasm for the game. If you are stuck in a rut mentally, I highly recommend trying it out. It’s only one pod per week and you can pick it up for any episode, so it’s an easy entry.
5. The Golfer’s Journal
Fitting in line with its high-quality magazine product, The Golfer’s Journal podcast is a golf purist’s delight.
It starts with host Tom Coyne, my favorite author in the game. His books (“A Course Called Ireland” is among my top golf reads ever) have so much soul and compassion. That comes through on the podcast. Coyne is genuinely curious about all aspects of the game—especially the beauty of the little details that lure us all into this crazy sport.
The Golfer’s Journal pod weaves between topics like travel, architecture, major championship history and interviews with influential personalities. There have been 168 episodes as of this writing and the vast majority of them are evergreen. Routinely, there are deep-dive episodes on topics you would never expect. One of my favorite episodes is about golf dreams. Coyne talks to an expert in dream analysis, breaking down the potential deeper meaning of what our brain processes at night.
There is not a strict cadence for when episodes drop—every time one shows up in my feed, I’m grateful. The production quality is superb and the whole vibe reminds me of NPR for golfers.
4. The Fried Egg
Smart, witty and insightful, The Fried Egg podcast is a great choice if you want to be a more informed golf fan.
Andy Johnson (who is also featured in the No. 1 podcast on this list), Garrett Morrison, Joseph LaMagna and a slew of other contributors take measured, passionate looks at professional golf, architecture and trends within the larger game. I’m particularly enamored of the Tom Doak series (“Yolk With Doak”) where the architect goes into painstaking detail about what it takes to build a great course.
While a lot of discussion revolves around what is happening in men’s professional golf—it’s a must-listen around the majors—I think the podcast is at its best when going off the beaten path. It meshes new-age sensibility with a deep appreciation for history and all the niches of the game we love.
3. Chasing Scratch
The show tagline (“Two friends. One goal. Unlimited optimism.”) pretty much sums up the Chasing Scratch podcast.
The premise is that two guys in their mid-30s—fathers who have wives, jobs and responsibilities—are finally going to work on their “shaky 11-handicaps” until reaching scratch. Hosts Eli Strait and Mike Honcho are on an impossible mission to become great at golf.
Chasing Scratch, which started in 2018, is a pod that needs to be listened to in chronological order. There are seven seasons (and almost 200 episodes) as of this writing so there is plenty to dig into if you dare. Stick with it because the pod gets better over time.
The production value isn’t always as good as others on this list but that fits the vibe of two guys joking about their ridiculous (and seemingly never-ending) pursuit of a scratch handicap. Strait and Honcho are self-deprecating but take their journey seriously enough for the podcast to be a real page-turner.
If you embrace the struggle of getting better at golf, this podcast is for you.
2. No Laying Up
Having started a decade ago, NLU was the first golf podcast to successfully enter the wider sports consciousness. It’s consistently ranked among the top podcasts in all of sports, let alone golf.
The idea of the podcast is pretty straightforward: informed fans talking about all aspects of the game in an informal, humorous way. Most of the topics revolve around pro golf—including one-on-one interviews with players and other people involved at the highest level—but they also delve into travel, architecture and other niche areas.
I will say there can be a barrier to entry for NLU. It is brimming with inside jokes and “bits” that take time to understand. For someone like me who has been listening for about six years now, that adds to the experience—I feel like I know all the characters. But if you are an occasional listener or a newbie, I can see how it’s tough to get fully engaged with certain episodes.
It also has skewed negative and overly serious at times during the past few years as the golf world has been split. The seriousness of a well-versed discussion holds a lot of value but there are diminishing returns as it can feel like some of the opinions are being repeated or harped on too much.
Overall, I would still say they’ve done a strong job of keeping things fresh and interesting. That is hard to do when you have been putting out two episodes per week for so many years.
NLU’s Trapdraw podcast might be even more entertaining but it’s not a golf podcast. The Trapdraw tackles airport reviews, baseball/football discussion, deep dives into documentaries, chop sessions where random world events are “monitored” and a lot more.
1. The Shotgun Start
The Shotgun Start, hosted by The Fried Egg’s Andy Johnson and Brendan Porath, is the kind of pure comedy where you end up in hysterical laughter.
The SGS lives for strange situations, like when Matt Kuchar inexplicably decided to stop playing due to darkness at the Wyndham Championship. And if there aren’t any strange things going on, the SGS will make their own by having throwbacks, pulling weird memories together or offering random golf advice.
I think what makes this show work so well is that it cleverly toggles back and forth between highly knowledgable discourse and a total lampooning of golf’s more ridiculous moments and characters. It has the levity to make it an easy listen—but with informed hosts and guests.
Add in a cadence where there are three shows per week, often going over an hour per episode, and you have a podcast golf fans build into their routines. You can pick it up or put it down at any point.
What other golf podcasts do you listen to? Let me know below in the comments.
Top Photo Caption: Chris Solomon of No Laying Up is a prominent character on his podcast. (GETTY IMAGES/Keyur Khamar)
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