Advertise on podcast: We're Talking Golf

As part of an ongoing series featuring equipment and training, we introduce you to CTRL Golf (Control Golf) and their Swing Master.  It is a new training aid designed to help golfers improve their swing using some innovative and proprietary technology.    In this  Episode,  we are joined by Nick Bockenfeld, a PGA member, and Ryan Johnson a professional player, as they discuss the Swing Master, how it improves a golf swing, and how to incorporate it into a regular practice session.

The Solheim Cup is the single most important Cup competition in women's golf.  In this biennial competition, the United States women have competed against the best women from Europe since 1990.  The US hold a 10 - 7 advantage over their European counterparts, but the European team are the defending champions and will have "home field" advantage as the 2023 event will be hosted at Finca Cortesina Golf Club near Malaga, Spain.    Stacy Lewis will captain the 2023 US Women's Team against Team Europe being captained by Suzann Petersen, the perennial nemesis of the American team.  Always an engaging and thoughtful person, Stacy discusses her preparations for the 2023 competition, her assistant captains, and her goals for the team, including of course, winning the Solheim Cup back for the United States.   With the completion of the Chevron Championship at the Dinah Shore course at Mission Hills, it marked the end of an era as the venerated event moves to the greater Houston area for 2023.  As a past champion of the event and a leading figure in women's golf, Stacy shares her experience of playing at Mission Hills, what the event meant for the development of women's professional golf, and her thoughts on how the LPGA tour has evolved since her rookie year in 2009.  Stacy is a former World No.1, she has won 13 times on tour, including 2-major championships.  She won the Vare Trophy twice, in 2013 and 2014,  The Vare trophy is awarded to the player with the season's lowest scoring average.  She also won the Rolex Player of the Year award twice in 2012 and 2014, while also winning the LPGA Money Title in 2014.  

Susan Strange, Mandy Snedeker, Ellie Day, Jan Jacobsen -- these are just some of the women that author Janet Thompson interviews for her new book -- The Golfer's Wife.    In this episode, we discuss Janet's new book, her experience with interviewing the women married to professional players, and Golf's impact on their lives.  Janet also shares her experience as the wife of a recreational golfer, her love-hate relationship with the sport, and how it became such an important part of her life.   In her book, she weaves through these topics with the goal of sharing a tale of personal experience with the enlightenment of insight into what it means to share a spouse with life as a professional golfer. You won/t want to miss this episode with Janet Thompson.

Success was all that Gabriella Then knew as a junior player.  She was a member of the winning Junior Solheim Cup team, she won numerous AJGA events, and she was recruited to USC when she was 14 years of age.  After a successful career at the University of Southern California, Gabby (as her friends know her), turned professional, playing for 2 seasons on the Epson Tour (formerly the Symetra Tour).  But when she recorded a bogey on her 72nd hole, at the LPGA's Stage-1, of Q-School, she missed advancing to the next stage.    Confronted with the emotional turmoil of having seen her dream evaporate, Gabby walked away from the sport in 2019.   She even took another job outside of golf -- such was her disappointment and desire to consider a life outside of professional golf.   Then came Covid, and she had no choice but to stay away from the sport as golf courses closed, and contemporary life came to a halt.  By 2021, Gabby was reassessing her life, her choices, and of course, golf.    It was then that she rediscovered her passion and love for the sport and with it, the resolve to commit to professional golf.  She "went all-in", nearly draining all of her savings to fund a year of tournament golf on the minor tours.    She lived life knowing that she had put everything on the line -- her emotional and mental efforts, her ambitions, and her money.  In this Episode, Gabby Then chats with us about her darkest days in professional golf and how she eventually found her way back to the sport and how life's lessons prepared her to better deal with adversity.  Her 2021 season culminated with her winning the Ladies European Tour's Q-School and an automatic "card" for the 2022 Season.

As we kick off a new Golf Season for 2022, change is afoot in Europe.  The European Tour rebrands itself the DP World Tour, increasing prize money across the board for its players.  The Ladies European Tour (LET) is fresh off of a thrilling Solheim Cup performance and appears to be in the ascendancy from years previous.    Joining us is our special guest Richard Kaufman, the SkySports golf commentator covering both the DP World Tour and the LET.   In this episode, we discuss the increasing money that is coming into Golf, and particularly the men's game from Saudi Arabia.  Potential Ryder Cup captains are also a topic for discussion as Richard runs down his list of potential candidates for Captain of the European team, including Luke Donald, Paul Lawrie, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood and others.   On the women's side, we look at the abundance of young talented players coming through the ranks in European golf with players such as Pia Babnik, Chiara Noja, and Lily May Humphries among others.   There are some compelling story lines from other players such as Becky Brewerton and Julia Engstrom as they look to rebound from injuries to recapture their form and their status on the LET. 

In our first episode of the new golf season, we are joined by Dr. Jim Afremow, a renowned sports psychologist.    Drawing on his extensive experience working with professional athletes and teams,  Jim shares an inside look into mental performance and what successful athletes do in preparation for their success.    We also discuss working with junior players, teaching them the skills for success whether it be in golf, sports in general, or more importantly, in life.   "The younger you are the more of a sponge you are . . . So if a parent is acting calm, confident, playful, having fun in the sport, its more likely we pick up on that." It is a great episode for parents, golf coaches and aspiring elite players to learn from one of the leading sports psychologists on developing the mental skills for success.   Of course, in the last segment Jim shares some tips and ideas on what the recreational golfer can do to prepare themselves for the upcoming Spring season -- how to practice more effectively, to prepare for your round of golf, and how to shake off the bad shots and prepare for the next one.

After a glittering career at USC and in her Rookie year of professional golf, Annie Park graduated to the LPGA looking to build on her success.    She won  4 - times in her freshman year, including the NCAA Div I Individual Championship while leading her USC Trojans to the NCAA National Title,.  In her first year as a professional, she won 3-times on the Symetra Tour, earning Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year all while finishing the year as the top player.  That's when adversity struck -- Annie was eventually diagnosed with a form of thyroid cancer, leading to the removal of her thyroid gland and a lifelong regimen of medication.  If that wasn't enough to contend with, then, it was a persistent and nagging back injury that nearly sidelined her career before it even really started. With her characteristic understatement, stoicism, and grace,  Annie Park shares her story on how she went from NCAA Division 1 star to nearly quitting golf entirely.   A timely intervention from her sister and another friend helped her reassess her life on the course and off.  Faced with having lost her card on tour, Annie had to "Monday qualify" for LPGA events, eventually resulting in her first LPGA win (2018 ShopRite LPGA Classic) and representing her country at the Solheim Cup (2019 Gleneagles).   Join us in this episode as we explore Annie's career in golf and the lifelong lessons that she has drawn from the sport.      

As part of our continuing series focusing on golf around the world, and women's professional golf in particular, this episode looks at the Emergence of Thailand as a rising golf powerhouse.   Joining us in this episode are special guests, Pajaree Anannarukarn and Pinyada Kuvanun. They chat with us about their year in golf, some of the challenges and accomplishments of this past year, and they discuss their experiences in growing up in Thailand learning to play golf and how their individual paths to the world of professional golf.  Pajaree currently plays on the LPGA, the world's premier tour for women's golf.  She is a recent winner of the 2021 ISPS Handa Invitational event - a mixed event with men and women competing on the same course at the same time.  The event is hosted by Niall Horan, of One Direction (boy's band) in his native Northern Ireland.   At the time of recording Pajaree is ranked No. 71 in the Rolex World Rankings. Pinyada is a recent graduate from the University of Toledo with a degree in International Business.  Competing in Division 1 of the NCAA, Pinyada led her team to the MAC Conference Championships, where she had a personal best of 3rd place.  She also won twice at the collegiate level and finished 3rd at the Lady Buckeyes Invitational.  She currently competes on the Thai LPGA and competed recently at Stage 2 of Q-School, earning privileges for the Symetra Tour in 2022.

2021 US Women's Open Champion Yuka Saso and fellow LPGA professional, Bianca Pagdanganan join us to discuss their year in golf, the experience of winning the US Women's Open, and representing their home country of the Philippines at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and meeting the PGA players at the Olympics - including Rory McIlroy.   They also take some time to share their thoughts with us on how golf is growing in the Philippines and some of the things that could help grow the sport even more. Yuka Saso takes us through her final round at the Olympic Club as she struggled to overcome a rough start before eventually finishing strong with birdies on the par 5 - 16th and 17th holes to finish in a tie with Nasa Hataoka.  After 3 - Playoff holes, Yuka Saso emerged victorious and the Philippines had its first ever major golf champion.   In a lighter moment, Yuka shares with us what was going through her mind as she was finishing the 72nd hole with a birdie putt to win. Bianca shares her experiences on her year, discussing some of the high points and some of the challenges that she experienced.  She also shares with us what her strategy will be as she prepares to attend the Q-Series at the end of the Season.   You won't want to miss this episode as the two players show a much more relaxed side of themselves now that they are off the course.  

Luiza Altmann is the highest ranked player in Brazil and is currently a member of the Ladies European Tour (the LET).   While there have been other women from Brazil playing professional golf, Luiza is something of a "trailblazer" having also played a season in Asia on the KLPGA (Korea).   While football or soccer, is the sport most closely associated with Brazil,  Golf is growing, partly due to the 2016 Olympic Games hosted in Rio de Janeiro , and partly as the country continues to grow economically. In this episode, Luiza shares her experience of discovering golf in a country where football or futebol (soccer) is the national passion, and how she grew up to be Brazil's top ranked professional player.  She shares with us how the sport is growing in Brazil, particularly among juniors, while also sharing her experience of playing professionally on the Ladies European Tour.    

As Golf in the Olympics becomes a more regular occurrence, the growth of the game is bound to grow and expand from its traditional base of support to many other nations across the globe as their athletes vie for the much coveted Olympic medal. In Today's episode, we focus on the Netherlands and the growth and development of the sport through the emergence of more modern coaching and training techniques and methods.  We visit with Liesbeth Pauwels, an internationally recognized golf & fitness specialist who works with elite athletes in the Netherlands and elsewhere.  We also have two of the Netherlands emerging talents -- Anne-Sterre den Dunnen and Noa van Beek as they share their experiences in the world of competitive junior and amateur golf.   If you have a child, grandchild or someone that you know from the golf course that might be interested in seeing how far that they can travel in Golf, then this is an episode that they simply need to listen to.  Anne and Noa discuss how they came into competitive golf, their practice and training regime, and what to expect as an elite junior and amateur.  They also discuss their long friendship together - both competitors and as young women forging paths in the world of Gold and Academics. 

It's U.S. Women's Open Week and the 76th Edition of the Championship is hosted by the Olympic Club in San Francisco  This historic venue has hosted several memorable USGA championships over the years, including the 1955 US Open, where Ben Hogan lost in a playoff to an unsung player - Jack Fleck.   The ultimate irony for Mr. Hogan was Jack Fleck was one of the very first players on the PGA to play with the newly developed "Ben Hogan Signature series Golf Clubs".    The venue was also host to the 1966 US Open, where the new King of Golf, Arnold Palmer, lost in a playoff to Billy Casper, despite having a 6-stroke lead going into the Final Round.  Palmer's inability to close the event led to a Monday 18-hole playoff, and the unofficial decline of Palmer as the King of the hill.  This year marks the very first time that the Women's Championship will be hosted at this historic club and like its Men's counterparts, promises to be equally exciting as the best players in Women's Golf tackle the famed course.  Small, elevated and undulating greens with its sloping and cambered fairways and traditional "US Open rough" will challenge the shotmaking abilities of these talented pro's.   Our special guest, Aimee Cho, is probably best known for her incredibly popular YouTube golf instruction channel -- Golf with Aimee, where she provides simple, fun and effective lessons and tips.   Aimee Cho is also a former professional player on  the LPGA's Symetra Tour joins us to review and analyze this year's championship.  Fresh off of her appearance on CBS LA as a guest analyst for the PGA Championship at the Ocean Course (Kiawah), Aimee is eager to talk about the most challenging event in women's golf and to share her special perspective on how the Lake Course at Olympic will play for the women. We review favourites like Inbee Park, Brooke Henderson, Lydia Ko, Nelly Korda and Patty Tavatanakit  among a handful of other contenders.   So listen in or download the episode today.