The post Broadcaster says this Phil Mickelson interview changed his career appeared first on Golf.

The post Broadcaster says this Phil Mickelson interview changed his career appeared first on Golf.

Golf Channel’s Steve Sands is covering his 23rd Masters this week. Of course, every chance you get to step foot on property at Augusta National is special — but no one ever forgets their first time.

For Sands, that came back in 2004. Still with the Golf Channel at the time, he was on-site conducting player interviews prior to their rounds all week. And, thanks to his relationship with Phil Mickelson, he was able to snag time with him each day prior to his round.

Heading into the final round, Mickelson found himself tied atop the leaderboard with Chris DiMarco. And when he arrived at Augusta prior to his round, Sands asked once again if he’d be willing to do an interview with Golf Channel.

“I give him the puppy dog eyes and ask, ‘Wanna do it again?'” Sands says. “He goes, ‘Ah man, you know it’s Sunday, I gotta focus.’ I say, ‘No problem.'”

A few moments later, though, Mickelson came back out of the clubhouse.

“He goes, ‘You guys ready to do it now?'” Sands says. “He said, ‘I’m superstitious. I’ve played well the first three days. We’ve done it three days in a row. There’s no way I couldn’t do it.'”

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As most golf fans will recall, that Sunday was a career-changing day for Mickelson. Later that afternoon, he birdied the 18th hole to capture the green jacket and break his major drought.

The day was a career-changer for Sands, too.

“I’m telling you, I got invited back by the Golf Channel and allowed to come back by Augusta National, I think, because we got Phil, we put him in a nice light, and he went out and won his first ever major championship,” Sands says. “I truly do it owe it to Mickelson for saying yes all four days and then going on to win.”

Check out the entire episode of Subpar below.

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The post Steve Sands’ first meeting with Jim Nantz is one only he remembers appeared first on Golf.

The post Steve Sands’ first meeting with Jim Nantz is one only he remembers appeared first on Golf.

Steve Sands has been a staple of the golf broadcasting world for a long time. But before Steve Sands became a mainstay at Golf Channel, he was a college student with a dream of making it big in broadcasting and working with one of his “heroes,” Jim Nantz.

Sands joined the latest episode of GOLF’s Subpar podcast and recalled a story of the first time he met Nantz as a college student. It’s a story that only one of them remembers. After sneaking into the 1990 Final Four in Denver with his friends, Sands spotted Nantz preparing to broadcast the premier event in college basketball.

“I leaned over the rope and I go, ‘Mr. Nantz! Mr. Nantz!’ He gave me one of these [head knod] and goes, ‘What’s up kid?’ And i said, ‘I’m going to work with you one day!’ It was the only thing I could think of to say. And he said, ‘That’s great kid, keep me posted.'”

Eleven years later, Sands was just starting out at Golf Channel and was covering the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links. Nantz arrived to cover the tournament for CBS on the weekend, and Sands brought up their first meeting back at the 1990 Final Four. It was a meeting that, understandably, wasn’t burned into Nantz’s memory.

“I walk up to him and I go, ‘Mr. Nantz.’ And he goes, ‘Steve Sands.’ I go, ‘How do you know?’ He goes, ‘You’re on the Golf Channel. I love the Golf Channel. You’re new.’ And I said, ‘You know, we met 11 years ago at the Final Four at McNichols Arena.’ He almost pretended to remember. It was just enough to make me feel good that he kind of remembered. He was like grinding over it. He faked it a little bit. Jim Nantz has always been one of my heroes.”

To hear more from Sands, check out the entire episode below.

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The post Clayton Keller won an Olympic gold medal. But he also has a golf ‘claim to fame’ appeared first on Golf.

The post Clayton Keller won an Olympic gold medal. But he also has a golf ‘claim to fame’ appeared first on Golf.

Clayton Keller just came home with a gold medal as part of the first U.S. Olympic hockey team to take the top Olympic prize since 1980. But that’s not his only athletic achievement that he likes to boast about.

The Utah Mammoth forward has the golf bug. He’s a big fantasy golf player and can get his ball around better than most. Keller used to play in Phoenix as a member of the Coyotes before their move to Utah, and he’s no stranger to teeing it up with Subpar co-host Colt Knost.

In fact, Keller beat Knost straight up on one occasion.

“Oh yeah, I did one time,” Keller said on the latest episode of GOLF’s Subpar, when asked if he’d ever beat Knost. “That’s my claim to fame. Straight up.”

“Cool. I beat Tiger once,” Knost jokingly fired back. “I do think you shot like 68 and I shot 69. That was just devastating.”

Keller played in four games for Team USA in Milan. While the post-gold celebration was memorable, it was the phone call telling him he made the team that sticks in his mind.

“Yeah, unbelievable feeling,” Keller said. “I had obviously gone through a lot this year. My dad passed away. Just a lot of emotions. A lot of thinking of all the people that sacrificed for me to make that team. Just super thankful to be on that team.”

After beating Canada to win the gold medal, Team USA flew back to New York, but the flight was diverted to Miami due to weather. It was there that the gold medal celebration took off, and Pat McAfee picked up the tab.

“Just an unbelievable time,” Keller said of the celebration. “We took like a quick parade around Miami and there was actually a lot of people there supporting us. Even at our hotel, there were a lot of people chanting ‘USA!’ It was just such a cool experience. I didn’t know what to expect, but it exceeded all expectations.

“Mr. McAfee picked up the bill. That was a tidy bill. Probably the best night out I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

To hear more from Keller on the Gold Medal game, his fantasy golf addiction and more, check out the full episode below.

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The post Should TPC Sawgrass host a Ryder Cup? | Subpar podcast appeared first on Golf.

The post Should TPC Sawgrass host a Ryder Cup? | Subpar podcast appeared first on Golf.

In terms of down-the-stretch drama, there are few courses that pack a closing punch like Players Championship host TPC Sawgrass.

The Stadium course’s final three holes — the par-5 16th, with water in play seemingly everywhere; the famous island green par-3 17th, where water is literally everywhere; and the par-4 18th, which features water on the entire left side of the hole — are tailor-made for a nail-biting finish, making the course a perfect venue for one of golf’s other marquee events: the Ryder Cup.

Could TPC Sawgrass ever host the biennial showdown between the U.S. and Europe? On the surface, it doesn’t seem likely, with the PGA of America running the Ryder Cup and the PGA Tour owning TPC Sawgrass. But that didn’t stop Subpar hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz from contemplating what if on this week’s episode.

“Imagine a Ryder Cup at TPC Sawgrass coming down the stretch,” Knost mused. “I mean, like we did this past year, this whole thing is locked up and you’re standing on 17 tee. You got the ball.”

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“I know it’s PGA Tour and PGA of America. Figure it out, for the fans,” Stoltz said.

“I think everyone would just love that so much,” Knost agreed.

“Year after year, with a few exceptions, it’s an unbelievable leaderboard,” Stoltz added. “Best players in the world. It gets you the best players and the best drama.”

Knost also sang the praises of Sawgrass’ course design.

“It’s just such a genius design by Pete Dye,” he said. “He makes the players think so much, and he makes them look at something that they know is trouble. And then make them bail out, and it turns out the bailout is normally worse than the trouble.

“When you get their heads spinning out there like TPC Sawgrass does,” he continued. “That’s when we see these guys really get tested.”

For more from Knost and Stoltz, including the tournament they think should open the PGA Tour season, check out the full episode below.

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The post Where should the new PGA Tour season begin? | Subpar podcast appeared first on Golf.

The post Where should the new PGA Tour season begin? | Subpar podcast appeared first on Golf.

Last week at the PGA Tour headquarters, new Tour CEO Brian Rolapp unveiled six themes for where the league is headed. One of them was a splashy start date on the West Coast, a way for the Tour to get fans excited and kick-start the year in a big way.

“We want to open big with a marquee event at an iconic venue in the west, among other things,” Rolapp said, “allowing us to finish on network television in primetime on the East Coast.”

How might that look? It’ll likely be in late January or early February, and we already know the Tour’s time in Hawaii is probably limited. That leaves a couple of current tournaments as the likely options: the Farmers at Torrey Pines in San Diego, the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, or the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula. The Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles could also be an option.

We might not get an answer soon — and the Tour might still be figuring it out as well — but you could make a case for most of these spots, just as GOLF’s Subpar duo thinks their local event, the WM Phoenix Open, would be the ideal kickoff.

“In my opinion this would go the week before the Super Bowl, in between the conference championships and Super Bowl, there’s that dead week,” said Subpar co-host Colt Knost, on the latest Subpar episode. “This is the week, let’s get the PGA Tour started, get everybody excited and then we take a week off for the Super Bowl — because there is no reason to go against that — and then we get going.

“Their goal long-term is to own the summer,” he continued. “They want golf to be must-see TV throughout the summer, going up against baseball, obviously some basketball. That is their big goal. But I love that we are going to open big.”

Co-host Drew Stoltz, who is also a member of the Thunderbirds, the organization that runs the WM Phoenix Open, agreed.

“I mean, what’s bigger?” he said. “There are some great venues, some great golf courses out west, but if you are going to make a big splash to open the season what would make more sense than that? I don’t have any insider information, not saying it’s a done deal, but if this is the way you are going, we will start basically when football ends, we will call it, even if it’s the week before the Super Bowl, this is the biggest you got.”

For more on the latest Subpar episode, where they break down Cam Young’s Players win and talk more about Rolapp’s six themes, you can listen here or watch on YouTube below.

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The post The wild country club stories you need to hear to believe appeared first on Golf.

The post The wild country club stories you need to hear to believe appeared first on Golf.

If you’ve ever wondered where you can find out the details of the juiciest and most scandalous happenings at golf clubs around the country, turns out, there’s a newsletter for that.

On this week’s episode of Subpar, hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz welcomed the man behind “Country Club Confidential” — a weekly newsletter “where all the dirty laundry gets aired” — as their guest. To protect the man’s identity, he was given the pseudonym “Scott” for the interview.

It’s been 18 months since Scott released the first edition of Country Club Confidential, and any worries he once had about gathering enough content for each newsletter have now been assuaged.

“The club I belong to, I think we’ve already done six of them out of the last year-and-a-half,” Scott said. “If that club has six, there’s thousands across the country and the world. There’s plenty out there.”

So far, Scott hasn’t had to chase down content — most of it comes to him. What kind of stories is he telling? Scott gave a rundown of some of the newsletter’s most outrageous tales, which include the following:

-A con man who managed to pose as a prospective member and scam $20,000 from a club

-The players who managed to get out at Cypress Point as guests of a dead man — for two years

-A man who was creating phantom GHIN postings for another player

… And so many more!

To hear a selection of these stories and plenty of others from Scott, check out the full episode of Subpar below.

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The post Why Sleepy Hollow is this MLB All-Star’s dream course to play appeared first on Golf.

The post Why Sleepy Hollow is this MLB All-Star’s dream course to play appeared first on Golf.

Athletics All-Star outfield Brent Rooker has the golf bug.

The 31-year-old plays whenever he can. He tees it up on off days on the road and finds time during spring training whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Rooker is no different than the rest of the golf-obsessed. He has his favorite course and the course that tops his “have-to-play” list.

For Rooker, who was the guest on the latest episode of Subpar, his favorite sits just outside of Chattanooga, on the otherside of the Tennessee-Georgia border.

“Favorite course I’ve ever played is Lookout Mountain Country Club in Chattanooga,” Rooker told co-hosts Drew Stoltz and Colt Knost. “I love that course. I’ve played it four or five times. It’s my favorite.”

Lookout Mountain Club is a 6,613-yard course that was designed by Seth Raynor & Charles Banks in 1927 and touched up by Tyler Rae in 2023. GOLF ranked it as the No. 5 course in Georgia for the 2024-2025 year.

As for Rooker’s top desired course to tee it up, it’s not Augusta National, The Old Course or Pine Valley, although those are surely on his list. But it is a Top 100 course — one that PGA Tour star Cameron Young is awfully familiar with.

“I think the one that I want to play, I want to play Sleepy Hollow in New York,” Rooker said. “That’s the one I see pictures of, and the one specific par 3 (No. 16) with the thumbprint, I want to play that hole really bad.”

Young honed his game at Sleepy Hollow, where his dad, David, is the course’s long-time pro. Naturally, Knost suggested Rooker try to get in touch with Young to see if he can help check Sleepy Hollow off his golf bucket list.

To hear more from Rooker, check out the entire episode here or in the YouTube video below.

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The post How much golf can MLB players squeeze into spring training? appeared first on Golf.

The post How much golf can MLB players squeeze into spring training? appeared first on Golf.

When Oakland Athletics DH Brent Rooker starts the MLB spring training season in Scottsdale, Ariz., the 31-year-old two-time All-Star can look forward to competition both on the field and off.

As the Subpar guest this week, Rooker told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz that he was just coming off a sweet round of 75 — but still got blitzed by his teammate, second baseman Jeff McNeil, who posted a 68.

“I was 3 under through five,” Rooker said, noting that he has never fired a round under par before. “I got nervous early.”

Just how often do MLB players have the chance to play golf during spring training? According to Rooker, quite a bit! He explained the details of how it all works.

“The goal normally is like between 45 and 50 at-bats,” he said of his spring training schedule. “I think there’s like 30 games, so that’s probably 18 or 19 games to get those 45 to 50 at-bats somewhere around there.

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“Once you’re established and you kind of know your role and you know what you need and you know your routine and what you need to be prepared for the season, it kind of dictates itself a little bit better,” Rooker continued. “Once you’re kind of set and established, you know what you’re doing, it’s just kind of all about getting prepared for the season.”

Rooker said that the A’s organization doesn’t require game attendance during spring training when a player isn’t scheduled to play, and even if you do have to attend, you can leave after the fifth inning, which opens up ample afternoon time for a round.

“I’ve played five times since being out here, so not daily, every other day so far, probably, which, I mean, I hope to keep that pace up,” Rooker said. “Obviously, I’m by myself right now, my wife and kids come out sporadically in spring training, so when they’re here, no golf unfortunately. But when they’re not here, I try to take advantage of whatever afternoons I can.”

For more from Rooker, including his favorite course and his favorite PGA pro to follow, check out the full episode below.

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The post ‘I’m trying to break 80’: A rock star on playing Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I’m trying to break 80’: A rock star on playing Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

For musician Pat Monahan, good things have come in threes.

As the frontman for the pop-rock band Train, Monahan is a three-time Grammy winner. And as a longtime golf junkie, he has played Augusta National Golf Club three times.

In a recent episode of GOLF’s Subpar podcast, Monahan swapped stories with co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz about what it’s like to walk those famous Georgia grounds, and how his expectations on that stage differ from those of his day job.

On tour with Train, expectations run sky-high. At Augusta, Monahan keeps them grounded.

His best score in three visits? A 79.

“Breaking 80 is my goal,” Monahan said. “You guys want to break par. I want to break 80.”

Stoltz wondered whether that milestone came comfortably or with late drama. 

“What did you do on 17 and 18?” Stoltz asked. “Did you make double, double and barely do it or did you kinda cruise in?”

Monahan didn’t hesitate.

“I’m definitely a barely-do-it kind of guy,” he said. “If I have a round that looks like I’m going to come in at 75, it will be a 79.”

The exchange led to a familiar golfing truth: the mind can be a player’s toughest opponent. “It’s amazing how powerful that brain is,” Knost noted. Monahan agreed. It’s a lesson that was reinforced during his recent appearance at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where pressing too hard to perform alongside his pro only made things worse.

Deep down he knew that playing partners on a golf course are different than a concert crowd: nobody cares how you perform as long as you keep up the pace.

Monahan will soon get another chance to test that mindset. A fourth trip to Augusta is on his calendar this month, and he’s preparing the only way a self-aware golfer can: by taking a lesson to work on a few things.

“Like everything,” he said. You can check out the entire episode here.

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The post ‘I’ll be there tomorrow’: How 1 star musician met Tiger Woods appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I’ll be there tomorrow’: How 1 star musician met Tiger Woods appeared first on Golf.

Few people get a chance to meet Tiger Woods; even fewer get him for one-on-one lessons. Although being a famous musician certainly helps.

Train frontman Pat Monahan was the guest on this week’s Subpar podcast, where he discussed meeting Tiger Woods, playing Augusta National, his band’s upcoming tour and more. He’s met Woods a few times over the years, although the first came several years ago when Woods needed a last-minute fill-in to headline his annual Tiger Jam fundraiser.

Woods’ management team called Monahan to see if Train would be interested in playing after one act was a late cancellation.

“I was like, ‘I’m good, I have been working too hard,'” Monahan said on the podcast. “And they were like, ‘Tiger will give you an hour-long lesson.’ I was like, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow.'”

During their lesson, Monahan learned why Woods grew tired of pro-ams (six-hour rounds), and Tiger even shared an odd story that led him to conclude, “I think this is the last one.” Most of all, Monahan just appreciated that Woods seemed like a normal person.

“He is one of my favorite guys,” Monahan said. “He’s like one of us. He handles himself so professionally but when you can get him in a small group he’s just a dude. I just wanted to hit a couple good shots and I did and he was like, ‘Whoa, Pat can get through a shot.’ He made it fun more than stressful. It wasn’t a round of golf, it was just me at the range with him. There was no pressure to make par or anything.”

Although if there’s one thing the world knows about Woods, it’s that he doesn’t let people into his inner circle easily.

“I was like, ‘Man, I want to be best friends,'” Monahan said. “And he’s like, ‘I’m good.'” [Laughs]

You can listen to the complete interview with Monahan here or watch it on YouTube below.

The post ‘I’ll be there tomorrow’: How 1 star musician met Tiger Woods appeared first on Golf.