The Thing About Golf Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

For most, golf is a passion, but for many others, it’s also a business. The golf industry is both large and diverse, ranging from tour professionals and media companies to travel and retail equipment sales. 

So how does the game stack up in the world of sports business and what are the similarities — and differences — to other sports? Sports business expert and journalist Richard Gillis has a duel interest in golf, both as a lifelong player and having covered the game professionally. 

His takes on LIV, the media environment, the long-term viability of TV as a financial support and much more are intelligent and thought provoking — whether you are in the golf business or not.

Rarely has a player sported the green jacket with such style than our latest guest and one of golf’s greatest assets, Trevor Immelman.

However, there is more to the 2008 Masters champion than a pretty golf swing. 

The 2022 International Presidents Cup captain sits down with John Huggan to talk about his beginnings in the game, his thoughts on the Presidents Cup, the LIV/PGA Tour negotiations, where TV commentators get it wrong and much more. 

Immelman is one of the game’s best ambassadors and after listening to this chat, you’ll gain an insight into why.

He is known as one of the nicest people in golf, but he might also be one of the most thoughtful. Ian Baker-Finch, 1991 Open champion, sat down with John Huggan at Augusta National this week to talk the Masters, his career in both golf and television and his thoughts on the modern state of the game. 

There's often an adversarial nature to the relationship between golfers and administrators which is why it's rare to find a successful player who makes the transition to the other side.
One shining example is Women's Professional Golf Association Tour (WPGA) CEO Karen Lunn – a 10-time Ladies European Tour winner, who now has the responsibility of steering the women's professional game in Australia into a very uncertain future. 
Never one to shy away from controversy, Lunn talks about modern equipment and its impact on the game to the lack of 'mongrel' in some of the game's younger players. 
After a lifetime in golf Lunn has collected plenty of nuggets of wisdom and she shares many of them during the course of this interview with host Rod Morri.

It's almost impossible to find anybody in Australian golf with a bad word to say about veteran touring professional Greg Chalmers. And, after this lengthy and expansive chat with host Rod Morri, we hope you'll understand why.

He might not have the profile or resume of Ernie Els or Gary Player but Dale Hayes' contribution to golf in South Africa is not diminished because of that. Despite an extraordinarily promising playing career being cut short by the international response to Apartheid, Hayes has continued to be an integral figure in golf in his homeland. His voice will be instantly recognisable to many thanks to his TV commentary work but his story will be a revelation to a new generation of golfers.

It's a long way from Warrnambool to the dizzying heights of the PGA Tour and for Marc Leishman, the son of a bricklayer, the two worlds could barely be further apart. Perhaps it is this grounded upbringing that has seen Leishman maintain an everyman attitude to life and the game, right down to his obsession with mowing his own lawn. The five-time PGA Tour winner is an intriguing character, one who always looks calm on the outside regardless of the circumstances. But don't be fooled because as he reveals in this interview, there lurks beneath a fiery competitor. From wife Audrey's near death experience from Sepsis in 2015 to his close call at that year's Open Championship at the home of golf, Leishman maintains the perspective of a man who knows three putting is far from the top of the list of things that are important. In a wide-ranging chat Leishman reveals plenty about his journey so far as well as his plans for the future including why Leishman Lager is a big part of his retirement plans.

He's an Australian Open champion, a World Cup winner and a dominant force on the European Senior Tour but to talk to him you wouldn't know any of that because at his core, Peter Fowler is simply a good bloke who happens to be good at golf. Talent, as Mathew Goggin once famously said, is merely the entry fee in professional golf and after that it comes down to hard work, self-belief, dogged determination and - yes - a little bit of luck. In Fowler's case we can add one more characteristic to the list... it's a less common one in professional golf or indeed any elite pursuit but the enduring impression one gets from him is humility. As always on the Thing About Golf our chat is a lengthy and wide ranging one but there is much wisdom to be gained by listening to the man affectionately known as 'Chook'.

Karrie Webb is a self-confessed golf nerd but unlike the rest of us she also happens to be one of the best golfers in the history of the game. Yet, seven majors and a Hall of Fame career are in some way just the beginning for Karrie because as remarkable as it is to consider, in her own mind, the most important part of her golfing life is really just getting started. You'll hear how in this exclusive chat with host Rod Morri.

Too much Trackman, not enough working the ball, Tiger to maybe get to 18 majors before the end of the year... Scott Hend has opinions and he's not afraid to share them! In a wide ranging chat, the popular Australian talks everything from golf in Asia versus America to continuing to travel the world to tee up at the age of 46. He's refreshing, he's honest, he's entertaining and he happens to still be one hell of a player so settle in and enjoy some time with Scott Hend.