Golf Badgers

Welcome back Badgers! It's been a long time since our Christmas special, but we're back! With BTME on the horizon, Bledge and I will be taking our microphones down and recording a bunch of episodes - so hopefully plenty to come. We hope you enjoy this chat with Lee Strutt. Bledge worked for Lee when he was a young greenkeeper. Lee's one of the most experienced guys out there, working in a broad range of roles over his years in the industry. It's a little longer than usual, but we got into the weeds

Merry Christmas, Badgers! We hope everyone's had a great Christmas. Between the snow storms in the UK, some technical issues and a big dose of man flu for Bledge, we've been a little quiet recently. Well we're back with a bang for our Christmas special, and were delighted that Zac Blair and Kye Goalby joined the pod to discuss (amongst other things) The Tree Farm. Enjoy the rest of this weird spell between Christmas and New Years where every day feels like a Sunday, and we'll be back in the New

Welcome back Badgers. This week we're joined by a few special guests. First, Sean McClean the 'new' Course Manager at Royal Birkdale Golf Club. Birkdale is one of the most famous links courses in the world, and both Bledge and I were looking forward to speaking to Sean and asking his opinions, ideas and plans for this great Open venue. We also talk about his career to date, including 13 years at Princes with guest of episode 2, Rob McGuirk. Sean was also asked a couple of questions by Fletcher and

This week Bledge and I were joined by Ryan Noades of The Addington. Ryan's family have owned this exceptional heathland course for a while now, and it is currently going through a multi-year restoration process with my firm of CDP. We talk about Ryan's life, when he realised The Addington was special, how far it had fallen and the work ongoing to bring it back. It's a truly special place and Ryan's knowledge of architecture is matched by his enthusiasm for the project. We hope you enjoy episode 5

Welcome back Badgers. For a change of pace, Mr Bledge is interviewing me (Sam Cooper) on my transition into the golfing industry, thoughts on architecture and the culmination of my 2 year road trip around the coastline of Great Britain. We hope you enjoy and, as ever, please feel free to tell us how we're doing on our respective social media accounts. Thanks for listening! Sam

Welcome back to the Podcast, Badgers. I'm on the road this week, and I've left Bledge back in Hoylake. I popped into Ganton Golf Club to play their esteemed 'inland links' (more on that later) and meet Course Manager, Simon Olver. As you'll hear, Simon is another intelligent, passionate and ambitious course manager. I asked him about his career to date and plans for the historic course at Ganton. I hope you enjoy the conversation and as ever, don't forget to get in touch with me on Instagram or

Badgers, welcome back to the podcast. This week, we're in conversation with our great friend Rob McGuirk. Rob's family have owned the famed links of Princes for a good while now, and recently acquired Chart Hills Golf Club. We have a wide ranging chat about his career, particular interests within the game, the evolution of Princes and their work at Chart Hills. We wanted to provide a slightly different perspective on the industry, so were delighted Rob was able to provide the owner and GM's

Golf Badgers (ɡɒlf bæʤə) - noun: A group of golfers obsessed with the game. Episode 1 is a chat between the hosts. Sam Cooper is a golf architect with Clayton, DeVries & Pont whilst James Bledge is Links Manager at Royal Liverpool Golf Club (Hoylake). With 9 months to go until the 151st Open Championship returns to Hoylake, Bledge tells us about his career to date and gives his feelings on how preparations are going. We hope you enjoy our ramblings!