There are more than five million podcasts in existence, which is a staggering number when you stop to think about it. Yet only a small fraction cover everything from professional tours and instruction to golf travel, course architecture, and the endless pursuit of becoming a better player.
Narrow that group down further to the golf podcasts genuinely worth spending an hour with, and the list gets considerably shorter.
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That is what makes finding a good one so satisfying. Podcasts fit golf fans particularly well because they can follow you almost anywhere. They work during a commute, a workout, a long drive, or an afternoon at home. And as the golf season begins winding down in many places, they offer another way to stay connected to the game.
Here are 10 golf podcasts worth putting into your rotation.
10. On The Mark
Modern golf instruction tends to be dominated by video, but On The Mark proves you can learn plenty without watching someone demonstrate a swing.
The podcast is hosted by CBS commentator Mark Immelman, brother of Masters champion Trevor Immelman. Typically releasing one episode per week, Immelman interviews instructors, coaches, players, and other guests who can offer useful insight into improving at golf.
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With more than 700 episodes, the archive is enormous. Episodes generally run around an hour and, importantly, don’t rely on an endless stream of quick swing fixes.
Instead, On The Mark frequently gets into the deeper process of improvement: how golfers learn, how they make changes, and how they can approach the game differently. Guests range from PGA Tour players and prominent instructors to specialists discussing subjects such as hypnosis.
Golf instruction viewed through a much wider lens.
9. The Par Train
With more than 300 episodes, The Par Train has carved out a particularly specific territory: the mental game.
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That means swing thoughts, course management, expectations, confidence, and the difficult task of maintaining a reasonable perspective while golf does everything possible to destroy it.
Guests include instructors and mental coaches, but the conversation regularly comes back to problems familiar to ordinary golfers. What are you thinking about over the ball? Why does one bad hole suddenly become four? How do you stop fighting the game and start enjoying it again?
For golfers fascinated by what happens between the ears, there is plenty here.
8. Hack It Out
Of the instruction and game-improvement podcasts on this list, Hack It Out may have the most unusual formula.
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That largely comes from its three primary hosts: Mark Crossfield, Greg Chalmers, and Lou Stagner.
Crossfield is a longtime golf coach with an extensive YouTube presence. Chalmers brings the perspective of a former PGA Tour player. Stagner approaches golf through statistics and detailed strategic analysis.
Those backgrounds can send an episode in almost any direction. One discussion might get highly technical about hip rotation. Another might examine whether golf shoes actually affect performance.
The contrasting perspectives are the attraction. Instead of everyone approaching a subject from essentially the same place, the hosts can arrive at very different answers.
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7. GOLF’s Subpar
CBS on-course reporter Colt Knost has developed into one of golf’s more recognizable personalities, and Subpar gives him room to operate outside the constraints of a tournament broadcast.
Knost hosts alongside Drew Stoltz, a strong mid-amateur player and longtime friend. The result feels like two golf buddies sitting around, talking about whatever comes up.
A guest usually joins them for the weekly show, and those guests frequently come from outside golf. NFL quarterback Matt Ryan, former NBA player Chandler Parsons, Fox News anchor Bret Baier, and ESPN personality Stanford Steve have all appeared.
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Golf remains at the center of the conversation, but the discussions can wander considerably.
That formula will not work equally well for everyone. The podcast can get repetitive, the ads can be frustrating, and your interest may depend heavily on the week’s guest. It is the closest show on this list to traditional golf talk radio.
When the combination works, however, it can be tremendously entertaining.
6. The Sweet Spot
For pure golf instruction, The Sweet Spot earns the highest spot on this list.
Hosts Adam Young and Jon Sherman manage to discuss improvement without drowning listeners in technical swing terminology. They cover plenty of statistics and course management, but the emphasis is generally on practical changes golfers can actually implement.
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The mental side of golf also receives considerable attention.
That balance makes the show unusually accessible. Golf instruction can quickly become exhausting when every discussion turns into positions, angles, and mechanical checkpoints. Young and Sherman largely avoid that trap.
The result is a podcast that can change how someone approaches the game without requiring them to rebuild their swing every Tuesday morning.
For golfers who feel stuck or frustrated, The Sweet Spot is particularly worth trying. Episodes stand alone, so you don’t need to start from the beginning.
5. The Golfer’s Journal
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The Golfer’s Journal podcast carries much of the same sensibility as the publication behind it.
Host Tom Coyne, author of books including A Course Called Ireland, brings genuine curiosity to subjects that might otherwise receive little attention. The podcast moves between golf travel, architecture, major championship history, and conversations with influential people around the game.
Its archive includes more than 160 episodes, and much of it remains relevant long after publication.
Some of the best installments venture into unexpected territory. One memorable episode examines golf dreams, with Coyne speaking to a dream-analysis expert about what golfers’ brains may be processing while they sleep.
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No rigid release schedule makes each new episode feel somewhat unexpected.
The production is excellent, the discussions are patient, and the closest shorthand description might be NPR for golfers.
4. The Fried Egg
The Fried Egg is built for golf fans who want to understand more of what they are watching and playing.
Andy Johnson, Garrett Morrison, Joseph LaMagna, and other contributors cover professional golf, course architecture, and developments throughout the game. The discussions are detailed without losing their sense of humor.
One standout is the “Yolk With Doak” series featuring golf architect Tom Doak. Those conversations dig deeply into how courses are conceived, built, and evaluated, offering an unusually detailed look at architecture.
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Professional men’s golf takes up a significant portion of the podcast, particularly around major championships. But some of its strongest episodes occur when the hosts wander into less obvious corners of golf.
The podcast shows considerable respect for the game’s history without treating golf like something that belongs in a museum.
3. Chasing Scratch
“Two friends. One goal. Unlimited optimism.”
That tagline tells you almost everything necessary about Chasing Scratch.
Hosts Eli Strait and Mike Shade began as two golfers in their mid-30s with shaky 11-handicaps and an ambitious objective: somehow become scratch golfers while also dealing with jobs, wives, children, and ordinary adult responsibilities.
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The podcast began in 2018 and has developed into something closer to a long-running series than a traditional weekly golf show. Unlike most podcasts on this list, Chasing Scratch should be heard chronologically.
Seven seasons and nearly 200 episodes make for a lot to work through, but patience pays off. The show becomes better as the journey develops.
Production isn’t always as polished as some bigger podcasts, but that becomes part of its charm. Strait and Shade understand the absurdity of their mission and are willing to make themselves the punchline, but they also care enough about reaching scratch to make the pursuit compelling.
Anyone who has devoted unreasonable amounts of time and energy to shaving a few strokes off a handicap will recognize the obsession immediately.
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2. No Laying Up
No Laying Up helped demonstrate that a golf podcast could reach well beyond golf’s traditional media boundaries.
After roughly a decade of production, NLU has become one of the sport’s most established podcasts. The basic premise remains simple: knowledgeable golf fans discussing the game informally, often with plenty of humor.
Professional golf dominates much of the coverage, including interviews with players and other figures around the highest levels of the sport. But NLU also spends substantial time on travel, architecture and golf’s more obscure corners.
There is one complication for newcomers.
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Years of recurring jokes, characters and bits have created a substantial amount of internal language. Longtime listeners understand it instinctively. Someone arriving for the first time may occasionally feel like they walked into a conversation that started six years ago.
The tone has also become more serious at times as professional golf has gone through a turbulent period. Detailed analysis has value, although repeated debates can occasionally wear thin.
Still, producing multiple episodes every week for years without becoming completely predictable is difficult, and NLU continues finding ways to keep the format interesting.
Its TrapDraw podcast may be even more entertaining, although calling that a golf podcast would be generous. Airport reviews, baseball, football, documentaries, and discussions of random world events routinely take over.
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1. The Shotgun Start
Then there is The Shotgun Start.
Hosted by The Fried Egg’s Andy Johnson and Brendan Porath, the show sits at a strange, highly entertaining intersection of serious golf knowledge and complete absurdity.
When something weird happens in professional golf, Johnson and Porath are usually at their best. Matt Kuchar deciding to stop playing because of darkness at the Wyndham Championship, for example, is exactly the sort of peculiar episode the show can turn into comedy.
And when golf doesn’t provide enough weirdness on its own, the hosts are perfectly capable of digging through old tournaments, forgotten players, strange memories and miscellaneous golf advice to manufacture some.
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The key is that the comedy sits alongside legitimate knowledge.
Johnson and Porath can move from an informed discussion about professional golf into mercilessly dissecting one of the game’s ridiculous moments without the transition feeling forced. The show understands golf well enough to know precisely what deserves serious treatment and what deserves to be laughed at.
There is also plenty of it. The Shotgun Start generally releases three episodes per week, often running longer than an hour.
That frequency makes it easy for the podcast to become part of a golf fan’s routine. There is no elaborate chronology to understand and no requirement to hear every episode. Pick it up when something interesting happens, skip a few when life gets busy, then come back.
For a sport capable of taking itself painfully seriously, The Shotgun Start knows exactly when not to.
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