The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf

Fittingly, we recorded our shortest episode ever to explain why the next ones will be much longer! Eight years in, The Bag Drop is biting off something new: fewer releases, deeper research, and three- to five-hour episodes on a single golf club’s history, strategy, and story. Matt and the Professor explain why the most fascinating untold stories in golf live at the club level, the question they brought home from Northern Ireland together at twenty and haven't shaken since, and the five rules they have set to do it faithfully. (PS. The weekly interviews and conversations are not going anywhere!) The conversation dives into: Why the untold stories in golf live at the club level, and why studying a golf club is really a way of studying people A trip around Northern Ireland at twenty, the question "why is this the way it is here?", and the Professor on why one round as a guest never tells you how a club actually works The Professor's numbers on the quiet comeback of long-form, and what hours of conversation can do that a two-minute clip can't Admiration for Acquired, and a five-hour episode that finally made the model make sense, and permission to go that deep Five rules for the new series! Join the NewClub community 🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub Links & Partners 🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf 🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com 🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com Listen to The Bag Drop 🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH 🎧 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/633c8703-5880-4522-bd6d-5967b45fc777/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf 🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/ Connect with Matt & The Professor 🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/ 📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/ 🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [email protected] Chapters 00:00 Welcome: one of us is practicing, one of us refuses 01:29 Beating balls, and taking the doubt out with Golf Blueprint 02:45 The four-ball partnership is off 03:41 Matt's real golf strength: recruiting 05:00 Professor's facts: long form is quietly coming back 08:01 A return to conversation after a decade of the algorithm 09:05 Ad read: Titleist GTS, unboxed at night and gamed by morning 10:40 The Professor is a seven-wood guy now 11:21 Fixing the top of the bag with a four wood and seven wood combo 12:41 A short episode about going long 14:07 Eight years of The Bag Drop, starting at the Merit Club 16:33 Three years of the Professor, and curiosity on steroids 18:32 The decision: fewer shows, deeper research, three to five hours 20:23 Why clubs: study a club, study the history of people 22:56 Northern Ireland, and why one round as a guest explains nothing 25:01 Not the historians, and why that is the advantage 27:26 Acquired, Costco, and learning through a narrative 28:18 Smart Brevity, and what short form can't do 30:16 A decade of hearing "there's a past here you don't know" 32:40 The rules: no AI list of facts, no embellishment, the pursuit of truth 34:24 Time to get to work What is NewClub? Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is making the game more meaningful for those who love it. What is The Bag Drop? The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community, and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

Nineteen million Americans have tried golf since 2020. About one in four of them stayed. In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Matthew Reagan, PGA (co-founder and general manager of Operation 36) to talk about why golf keeps losing the beginners it works so hard to attract — and what changed the day he stopped teaching the swing first and started people 25 yards from the hole. The conversation dives into: The year-four gut punch: a junior program running at 95% retention that still lost forty golfers, and the single thing the kids who stayed all had in common A year of three-hour nine-hole rounds, a drive to Pinehurst, and the flip that turned into Operation 36 — start at 25 yards, shoot 36, back up Why the environment around a beginner matters more than the technical ability of the coach, and what that says about how golf picks its heroes The women who told him they had always wanted to play but had never been given permission to start that close to the green Opening the app to everyone in 2027 — couch to course, course to coach — and what an app should refuse to pretend it can replace Connect with our guests ⛳ Matthew Reagan, PGA — co-founder and general manager, Operation 36 — 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-reagan-op36/ 📱 Operation 36 — https://operation36.golf — how it works: https://operation36.golf/how-it-works/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/op36golf — 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/operation_36/ — 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/operation-36-golf — 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/op36golf/ Join the NewClub community 🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub Links & Partners 🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf 🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com 🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com Listen to The Bag Drop 🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH 🎧 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/633c8703-5880-4522-bd6d-5967b45fc777/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf 🎧 Web: https://thebagdrop.fm/ Connect with Matt & The Professor 🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/ 📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/ 🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [email protected] Chapters 00:00 Cold open: the moment Operation 36 got its name 00:52 Welcome, and a fall morning in Athens 01:20 Ten kids under eight: not rested, but refreshed 03:35 Unplugging, the Slack away message, and the phone-off experiment 06:45 New York, Mumford and Sons, and whether you could live there 08:37 Today's guest: Matthew Reagan and Operation 36 10:10 What Op36 did to Athens Country Club 11:19 Scotland as the barometer: beginners go straight to the course 12:00 Professor's teaching: sampling versus early specialization 15:13 Ad read: Titleist AIM Enhanced and seeing the ball go in 17:18 Matthew joins The Bag Drop 18:16 Sixteen, upstate New York, and a course you could play for free 20:25 Campbell, Ryan Dailey, and deciding to coach 21:46 What actually turned him into a golfer, and it was not technique 25:28 Gamification, variability, and why golf hooks you 28:58 Three juniors at Keith Hills, and a program that grew to eighty 30:01 Ten levels, bag tags, and making a three-footer fun for an hour 32:19 Year four: forty golfers do not come back 33:59 North Carolina Long Term Athlete Development LLC 34:43 The one thing the kids who stayed had in common 36:09 A year of three-hour nine-hole rounds 38:08 The drive to Pinehurst, and the flip that became Operation 36 40:08 Teaching calculus to a seventh grader 42:01 Narrative, and the data nobody else in golf has 44:16 One in four: this is not a junior golf story anymore 45:42 Bootstrapping, licensing, and taking the junior out of the brand 49:15 Shrinking the variables until clarity becomes motivation 51:06 Competence, relatedness, autonomy 52:40 The women who never had permission to start close 55:33 The cultural headwind: America starts on the range 57:05 Aligning a club top to bottom, and Op36 at St Andrews 1:02:41 The ego of the young coach, and a $400-a-month membership 1:05:25 A gymnastics gym on every corner, and not a golf program 1:08:55 What a club needs before this works 1:12:23 If a recession comes, which programs survive 1:15:46 Opening the app in 2027: couch to course, course to coach 1:18:22 Golf Genius, and learning to run an engineering team 1:24:56 One thing you can do to make somebody's first nine better 1:31:07 Close: reviews, Titleist AIM Enhanced, and thanks What is NewClub? Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it. What is The Bag Drop? The Bag Drop<...

Jim Hartsell will tell you the best golf course in the world is 4,800 yards and a par 66. He is not being cute about it. He would like you to come after him. In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Jim Hartsell — architect, three-time Bag Drop guest, and author of A Round of Scottish Courses — for a conversation about what thirty years of returning to the same small Scottish clubs teaches you about why golf places matter, and what a golfer owes a place once he starts telling everyone about it. The conversation dives into: Why Dunaverty — 4,800 yards, par 66 — is his answer to "best course in the world," and why he thinks the question is usually asked wrong What choosing eighteen favorites instead of eighteen best freed him to write — and how a chapter actually gets built, including the sheepdog trials that unlocked a lost course on Arran The night the Old Course put a flag on the 18th green made from a drawing his nine-year-old son had left on his laptop The green-fee trap: why North Berwick and Brora keep going up, and why tour operators refuse to take a £30 course seriously Whether writing about Dunaverty, Askernish and Isle of Harris is quietly changing them — and what the members themselves say about that Three rules for being a good guest at a Scottish club, including the one about tipping too much Connect with our guests 📚 Jim Hartsell — https://jhartsellgolf.com — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/JimHHartsell](https://x.com/JimHHartsell) | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimhartsell/ 📕 A Round of Scottish Courses (Back Nine Press) — https://back9press.com/products/a-round-of-scottish-courses 🎧 The Duffer's Literary Companion (Jim & Stephen Proctor) — https://tdlcpodcast.podbean.com Join the NewClub community 🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub Links & Partners 🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf 🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com 🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com Listen to The Bag Drop 🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH 🎧 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/633c8703-5880-4522-bd6d-5967b45fc777/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf Connect with Matt & The Professor 🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/ 📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/ 🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [email protected] Chapters 00:00 Cold open: the anticipation is half the fun 00:41 Welcome, and the Professor's new office 02:16 A love letter to the game: who your club introduces you to 03:01 Caddie School for Soldiers and thirty days at the Home of Golf 04:31 Jim Hartsell, third appearance, third book 06:34 Professor's teaching: quiet eye and gaze duration 11:29 Ad read: Titleist T-Series and the three Ds 13:52 Three books, one thread 15:09 The course gets you in the room; a person carries the story 16:32 The high school English teacher who started all this 19:31 Calling Rob Collins with a crazy idea 23:29 Fifty interviews, an outline, and meeting Jim Sitar 26:40 The books that made him: Wind, Bamberger, Morton, MacVicar 31:18 When Revelation Comes, and the notebook that read like a book 35:25 Patric Dickinson's eighteen best, and Jim's eighteen favorite 38:53 Dunaverty is the best course in the world: 4,800 yards, par 66 42:07 Soup, clubhouses, and the whole lived experience 45:40 Sheepdog trials, and when history earns its place in a chapter 49:56 What do you have against the Scottish east coast? 51:44 Frankfurt, a lost day, and a morning inside the R&A 54:33 Dark hours on the Old with a persimmon driver 56:52 The flag on the eighteenth green 1:00:35 Why the most famous place in golf did not have to do that 1:02:21 Does writing about these places change them? 1:06:40 North Berwick, Brora, and being too cheap to be taken seriously 1:07:46 Would the veneer wear off if you moved there? 1:12:14 Three rules for being a good guest (and don't over-tip) 1:14:41 Calendars, course guides, and Jordan's junior program 1:19:27 Close: subscribe, review, and the Titleist T-Series

What happens when a guy with a Wall Street background decides he’d rather make putters than climb the corporate ladder? For Al Vikmanis, the answer has been a winding path through Arccos, data analytics, custom putter design, metal 3D printing, ferrules, and whatever comes next. The common thread is a willingness to follow the rabbit hole wherever it leads, and a belief that the journey itself is the point. In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Al Vikmanis, Founder of 3DP Design to talk about the science and craft behind modern golf equipment, from why MOI matters in a putter to how sound actually becomes feel, why 3D printing opens up design possibilities traditional manufacturing can't, and why a ferrule can become a surprisingly personal piece of golf gear. Along the way, he gets candid about leaving Wall Street, embracing work that feels meaningful, learning from spectacular failures, and building a career around curiosity rather than a five-year plan. The conversation dives into: Al's early days at Arccos, helping turn enormous amounts of shot data into something golfers could actually use MOI explained without the engineering degree, including why more forgiveness isn't automatically better for every golfer How sound becomes feel in a putter, and why putting with headphones on might be costing you more than you realize The unlikely path from smuggling putters into a Wall Street office to teaching himself CAD and eventually 3D printing golf clubs Why custom ferrules have become a form of personal expression, more like putting stickers on a skateboard than simply changing the cosmetics of a golf club The failures behind Al's work, including a collection of enormous 3D-printed mallets that looked like the Starship Enterprise and sounded like tuning forks Connect with our guests Al Vikmanis — 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/al-vikmanis-3755671/ 🌍 Website: https://3dp-design.com/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3dp_design/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083121141361# Follow The Bag Drop 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebagdrop 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/thebagdropgolf 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBagDropGolf Listen to The Bag Drop 🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH 🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/ Join the NewClub community 🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub Support our Partners 🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf 🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com 🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com Connect with Matt & The Professor 🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/ 📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/ Chapters 00:40 - Welcome to The Bag Drop 11:08 - Al Vikmanis joins the show 12:12 - From Arccos data to custom putter design 18:51 - What Al learned from working at an early-stage startup 21:03 - Leaving Wall Street and finding meaningful work 24:21 - MOI explained 30:33 - Why sound is feel 34:11 - How Al got into making putters 37:44 - Why custom 3D-printed equipment doesn't scale 41:20 - How metal 3D printing actually works 43:32 - Where 3D printing fits into the future of golf equipment 47:20 - The early failures of 3D-printed putters 51:08 - Learning from bad ideas 54:09 - How Al and Patrick Boyd started working together 56:52 - Why golfers love custom ferrules 59:24 - Ball markers, divot tools, and personal expression 1:02:21 - The creative side of Al Vikmanis 1:10:53 - What's in Al's golf bag 1:18:12 - What comes next for golf equipment 1:20:12 - “The journey is the point” What is The Bag Drop? The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf. What is NewClub? Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

What does a piece of land owe the people around it once the golf stops paying for itself? In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Blake Conant (golf course architect; co-designer of Old Barnwell and the Gilroy) to talk about the second course he is building in the dirt right now — and the master's thesis he wrote a decade earlier arguing that some golf courses should stop being golf courses. The conversation dives into: Why a painting degree and three months running equipment with Tom Doak at Dismal River turned out to be the right education for golf architecture Building the Gilroy next door to a course everybody already loves, and the Snoop Dogg rule Blake uses to keep from chasing it The 90-acre parcel Nick Schreiber bought so the routing would work, and why Blake says architects are simply greedy A kids course with a tunnel and a ramp, built on Brian Schneider's premise that kids do not actually want to putt The 2013 thesis on bankrupt courses: what Blake got right about supply, what he missed about demand, and why the courses that closed were the wrong ones The arithmetic that decides whether affordable public golf gets built at all — roughly ten dollars of green fee for every million spent Connect with our guest 🎨 Blake Conant — https://www.dundeegolf.com/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/Dundee_Golf — | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dundeegolf/ | 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-conant-90566a37/ ⛳️ Old Barnwell — https://oldbarnwell.com Join the NewClub community 🌍 Website: https://www.newclub.golf 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newclubgolf/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/newclubgolf 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newclubgolf 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newclub Links & Partners 🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf 🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com 🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com Listen to The Bag Drop 🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH 🎧 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/633c8703-5880-4522-bd6d-5967b45fc777/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf 🎧 Transistor: https://thebagdrop.transistor.fm/ Connect with Matt & The Professor 🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/ 📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/ 🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [email protected] Chapters 00:00 "Make sure your first one is your worst one" 00:49 Welcome, and kudos to the R&A for actually enforcing the rules 04:19 Who Blake Conant is, and how the Professor found him 07:45 Teaching of the week: "Build a Course Today" and the overbuild 09:30 Titleist Vokey SM11 11:11 Conant, Conant, or Conan the Barbarian 12:18 House paint, big canvases, and actually selling art 14:44 Art school to landscape architecture to Dismal River 17:42 The doubts he probably should have had 19:20 Following Old Barnwell: the Snoop Dogg rule 20:53 Was a second course always the plan? 23:12 Nick Schreiber, and hiring people you then leave alone 27:19 The kids course: they don't actually want to putt 29:56 Tunnels, ramps, and a train that isn't there yet 30:37 Who the Gilroy is for, and greens that sit on the ground 33:11 Still testing the good player, just differently 34:41 Buying the purple parcel 37:09 Buy the land before anybody knows you're building 38:59 The 2013 thesis on bankrupt golf courses 41:58 What are we measuring: social, environmental, economic 47:39 The wrong courses closed 48:58 Repurposing, HOAs, and grand ideas that don't pencil 51:05 Should a new project pass the test before opening day? 52:49 Golf as a Trojan horse: programming, foundation, community 55:45 Aiken's building boom and a healthy kind of competition 59:38 The public course he'd like to build without donors 1:03:49 Wrap and thanks What is NewClub? Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it. What is The Bag Drop? The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.