The Round Golf Podcast: Recent Episodes
Richard Kaufman/IMG Audio
The Round is a podcast series where golf commentator Richard Kaufman interviews golfers from around the world. The Round is where it begins, with each interview starting with the round that defines the player's career, chosen by the golfer themselves. Players from the world's major tours tell some wonderful stories, of the individual journey that took them to their significant moment, who helped them along the way and what happened afterwards.
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Marcus Buckland, Becky Brewerton and Matt Adams react to a riveting Final Day of the Solheim Cup 2019 at Gleneagles in Scotland, where Europe regained the trophy. Hear from match-winner Suzann Pettersen as well as victorious captain Catriona Matthew.
Marcus Buckland, Beth Allen and Paul Eales react to day two of the Solheim Cup 2019 at Gleneagles in Scotland. Hear from some of the stars of the day, ahead of a dramatic finale on Sunday.
Gigi Salmon, Fanny Sunesson and Matt Adams react to day one of the Solheim Cup 2019 at Gleneagles in Scotland. Hear from the key protagonists on a dramatic day which sees Europe take a slender advantage into Saturday’s action.
Marcus Buckland, Matt Adams and Fanny Sunesson bring you the latest from Solheim Cup 2019 at Gleneagles in Scotland, as Catriona Matthew and Juli Inkster reveal their foursomes pairings for the opening session on Friday morning. Hear from both captains as we build-up to the most anticipated event in women’s golf.
The last in the series of the Round Golf Podcast and a great way to bring it to a conclusion, with a golfer who has a fascinating story. When you go through the career of Mel Reid you realise that for a player still only in her early thirties, she has gone through a lifetime of experiences.
This interview reveals what she made of the Clive Woodward experiment and the high expectations she felt on turning pro. She speaks candidly about the car crash that so affected her life, and why she is only just coming to terms with losing her mother in such tragic circumstances. Reid gives her thoughts on what it means to play in the Solheim Cup and why missing out will hurt. There’s her opinions on where golf stands with regards to gender equality in sport. And why now was the time she decided to take the leap to live in the United States and to come out publicly and say she was gay.
And the culmination of all that change led to the round, this summer, where she achieved her best finish in a major championship... so far. Because if the last decade of Mel’s life and career are anything to go by, there is plenty still to come.
What are the chances of a golfer who grew up in India winning one of the European Tour’s most prestigious events at the home of golf on a links course? Jeev Milkha Singh has been a ground-breaking golfer for India, and arguably his country’s most successful.
The son of sporting internationals, Jeev tells the story of how his father overcame tragedy in the Indian partition to become one of the country's most famous athletes. And how his father, known as the Flying Sikh, paved the way for his own achievements The first Indian to make the worlds top 50, conquering the Asian Tour and Japan, and then going on to make his mark in Europe and the USA. There’s the uncle whose generosity set him on his way and how that influenced him to lend a helping hand to some of his peers. He gives his thoughts his own swing, tells us who his golfing idol is and why he still harbours following in his father’s footsteps as an Olympian.
Winning a major championship is a huge achievement for any golfer. Doing so just 11 weeks after giving birth to her second child makes Catriona Matthew's accomplishment of claiming the Women's British Open extraordinary.
Throw in the fact it was just her second tournament back and in the previous one she and husband Graeme had to flee a hotel fire, this is a tale of defying the odds.
A decade on from her greatest triumph as a player, Matthew is now about to embark on her highest profile role, as Solheim Cup captain. The Scot looks back at her best moments in taking on Team USA, from the early Solheim snub to the winning putts.
From a family of scholars, Jazz Janewattanond calls himself the weird one. They, no doubt, call him the talented one. This is a player, who at the time of release, is the number one player on both the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour and is pushing for a spot on the President’s Cup team.
He may be in his early twenties but having turned pro just before his 15th birthday, the Thai has gone though some amazing experiences. There’s a glimpse into Thai culture, as Jazz goes into detail of his spell in a monastery and how it helped lift him from his most difficult period as a golfer.
Having made his mark in his first major in the USA, Jazz reveals some of the different ways he has heard his name, why meeting coach Pete Cowen has been so important in his rise up the world rankings and there’s the message he has for the President’s Cup captain Ernie Els.
Not forgetting the Round at the start of the year, where he took on two Ryder Cup stars in Singapore and walked away with the trophy.
Ryan Fox was destined to be a professional athlete. It was just a case of which sport. This episode shows how Ryan benefited and was literally hurt by being the son of New Zealand's World Cup winning rugby union legend Grant Fox. Ryan reveals how the hits he took saw him turning to other sports and how, for a while, he looked as if he might follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former New Zealand test cricketer Merv Wallace.
Late by modern standards, Ryan Fox turned to golf. He admits how early in his professional career he thought he was done with the game. But how with the help of his father, he turned it around and is now flourishing. We begin at the start of 2019 with four weeks that proved momentous in so many ways. His first European Tour win and marriage to Annike.
Much had been expected of Oliver Fisher when he made it onto the European Tour as an 18-year-old. An amazing amateur record meant Oli was mentioned in the same breath as some of Britain's best players of the 1980s and 90s, like Sandy Lyle and Nick Faldo. This interview with Oli Fisher explores how he has managed those expectations and dealt with some of the high and low points in his career. But it centres on a day in September 2018, when Fisher achieved what no other player had managed before on the European Tour. After 46 years, close to half a million rounds and twelve previous scores of 60, Oli became the first player to shoot a European Tour round of 59.
After a glittering amateur career, Cristie Kerr was America’s next big hope on turning pro. But it took years, a battle with her father and a transformation in image before Kerr began to fulfil her talent.
This is a story of her major triumphs, her rise to world number one. From playing in a boys’ team to shrugging off her domineering dad.
Teased and bullied in her younger days, Kerr has long shown the fighting spirit we now see so often when putting on the team colours for USA.
Kerr talks of her relationship with the Solheim Cup, her hopes to be captain and how she has been inspired alongside Lexi Thompson.
From why she walks in her putts to becoming a sommelier, this podcast celebrates the career of one of America’s best modern-day female golfers.
Nicolas Colsaerts doesn’t live by the book. Barely eighteen, he was not ready for the realities of life as a European Tour pro, so his abundant talent took a back seat in favour of a rock and roll lifestyle. But when he came back to the sport, the Belgian was a man on a mission!
This is the first episode in the series to focus on the opening day of a golf event, as Colsaerts - the first from his country to play in the Ryder Cup and the only rookie on the team - became a record breaker in Europe's ‘Miracle at Medinah’. It is a week he will cherish for the rest of his life.
The amazing story of English golfer - and now Sky Sports broadcaster - John E. Morgan, who went from the Europro Tour to the PGA Tour in a matter of months. The American dream took a turn for the worse with an epileptic seizure, but John had already gone close to becoming the first golfer to win a PGA Tour event with blue hair! His anecdotes come thick and fast; the schoolteacher who picked on him, the international career cut short by a night out and a chance meeting while a buggy boy in Spain.
If his son Zach had been born on his due date, Danny Willett would have been at home watching the 2016 Masters on TV. Instead, he became just the second Englishman to put on the famous Green Jacket. As well as giving an incredible insight into a remarkable Masters Sunday, Danny discusses religion and his childhood as a vicar’s son, his time at university in the USA and being world number one amateur. Willett opens up about how difficult he found dealing with being a major champion, his slump in form and the nightmare that was the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.
This is the story of perhaps the greatest Australian golfer of all time.
Karrie Webb is a 7-time major champion with over 50 pro titles, but she didn't often open up to the media or the public during that distinguished career.
We hear how meeting her idol Greg Norman fuelled Webb’s distrust of the press, while also leading her down the path of helping future stars.
She talks about her relationship with Annika Sörenstam and why she didn't want to fuel a rivalry.
Webb describes the pain of missing out at the Rio Olympics, reveals why she didn't always enjoy her victories and chooses the image that she wants us to remember her career by – an image of a moment from The Round...
Davis Love III has achieved much as an individual golfer, but it's his association with a team event, the Ryder Cup, that has shaped his career. The future captain takes us back to 1993, when he was a rookie player amongst his heroes, holing a trophy-winning putt for Team USA on European soil – the last man to do so. Davis talks about his father's tragic death and the influence he still has on his game. Love also explains why he thinks he has underachieved, reveals the PGA Tour records he still wants to break and gives his thoughts on some of the young stars of the modern era.
A conversation to celebrate the landmark 50th birthday of Michael Campbell, about the New Zealander’s roller coaster career.
His Maori upbringing, fortune-telling grandmother and being too embarrassed to admit that he played golf. His emergence on the world stage at the 1995 Open at St Andrews and wanting to quit within a few years. His rise up again, culminating in his major championship victory at Pinehurst, seeing off Tiger Woods. Being in the celebrity spotlight, coping with his game’s subsequent decline, retirement and now, a return to seniors golf.
The inspirational story of the daughter of Mexican immigrants. How Lizette Salas turned golf lessons bartered by her father into a career as a LPGA Tour champion and Solheim Cup star.
Salas tells us why golf kept her out of trouble and what it meant to be the first from her family to go to university. Why days and nights in her dad’s truck taught her so much, why she considers Nancy Lopez an inspiration and why she would like to meet President Donald Trump with her parents.
And The Round that Salas chooses, epitomises her battling qualities.
A journey through the life of one of the greatest golfers of all time, Gary Player. The nine-time major champion on why he wished himself dead as an 8-year-old boy, how adversity made him into a champion and why he believes his success was a divine gift. The physical and verbal abuse he endured for being the highest profile South African sportsman in the era of apartheid and his relationship with Nelson Mandela. His fears for the sport, covering topics from appearance fees to slow play. His relationships with Hogan, Seve, Palmer and Nicklaus, why he thinks he could have helped Rory McIlroy win the Masters and not forgetting the rounds that shaped his career.
The European Ryder Cup captain opens up the new series with the round that got away, but set the blueprint for his future Major success.
Harrington reveals what it feels like to be in the zone, the relationships that were key to his success and what being Ryder Cup captain will mean to him and his family.
Daniel Chopra had been a successful golfer, winning in Europe and on the Asian Tour, but it was thanks to a special round at the 2003 PGA Tour Qualifying School that he fulfilled his dream of playing in the USA.
Daniel’s journey is well travelled. He tells us why a Swede grew up as a child in India, and which golfer financially bailed him out and set him on his path to success. There's the nickname on the European Tour that really hurt, and the magic moments with the late Arnold Palmer. Chopra takes us through the golden six month spell on the PGA Tour that saw him knocking on the door of the European Ryder Cup team and why it all went wrong.
In this series of The Round, we’ve heard many incredible stories but nothing on the course can match the drama of Richard Boxall’s tale. Boxy, as he’s known, is now a very successful commentator on Sky Sports but once upon a time he was winning on the European Tour.
But his career came tumbling down, quite literally, at the 1991 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Richard Boxall takes us through the career that took him to the infamous leg break while in contention at a major championship, how the incident turned his world upside down, crippled him financially and effectively ended his career, and how the end of his golf career led to his journey to the commentary box.
Of all the stories in the first series of my “The Round” podcast, the one that involves Marc Cayeux is definitely the most incredible, the most harrowing and probably the most inspiring.
Marc Cayeux is a pro golfer from Zimbabwe. But that description is an injustice.
He is a winner of 11 pro tournaments but this podcast isn't about that. This is about a man who has taken himself from death's door to remain a competitive sportsman, via tens of operations and numerous weeks in hospital. A golfer who has overcome extreme adversity, with an incredible spirit and attitude. And even his “round” playing alongside a certain Tiger Woods, has an unusual amount of twists and turns that you wouldn’t expect.
How do you go from sitting in your hotel room, close to tears about the state of your golf game, to winning the biggest tournament of your career? American player Anthony Kang takes us on the journey of an incredible week at the start of 2009, which took him from a fairly successful Asian Tour player to a European Tour champion.
Golf is a business for Anthony Kang, where every shot is calculated by the dollar, a golfer whose parents never saw him hit a shot in his pro career. This podcast, more than any other in Series One, takes the listener into the mind-set of the most critical 18 holes in a player's career.
SSP Chawrasia literally grew up on a golf course, by the ninth hole in the staff headquarters at Royal Calcutta Golf Club. This is the story of the son of a greenkeeper who proved that anything is possible, from humble beginnings to the riches of international golf.
Leaving school at 14 and turning pro with borrowed clubs, SSP tells us how his mother gambled the family savings to keep the dream alive and how that dream became a reality by winning four times on the European Tour, the last of which came by conquering a course deemed India's toughest.
For a golfer in his twenties still, Matt Southgate has experienced a lot.
From life threatening testicular cancer and a hospital bed, to months later being carried off the course with a European Tour card in hand. The tears and cheers in Ireland, the leaf that denied him a spot on the PGA Tour and why this year's Open Championship at Carnoustie will be extra special.
But first, the Round and how he nearly gave it all up before turning pro.
The term legend is easily brandished but not for the subject of this week’s podcast, Dame Laura Davies…
This is a journey with one of golf’s greats; from the early competitive instincts of childhood golf matches against her brother, to bursting onto the scene on the Ladies European Tour and the round itself – her major breakthrough at the US Open.
Hear what it takes to keep winning, her priceless reaction to crying at one that got away, and among the questions posed, why did she hit driver without teeing it up? Why was she watching television while winning an event? And, would she now take up the Solheim Cup captaincy?
Scott Hend has had a lifetime of travels. As a young lad, he moved from town to town with his father working in the air force. This is the journey of a highly talented golfer who refused to crumble after being rejected by one of Australia's best known coaches, when he was just a teenager.
A golfer who made it onto the PGA Tour, only to suffer from injury, health issues and a renowned temper. But a player who was determined to make it, becoming the first Australian to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit and winning his first European Tour title at the age of 41 at the Hong Kong Open.
South African Dale Hayes was the the original golf teen prodigy. A winner in his first ever Sunshine Tour and European events, the youngest champion in Europe.
Ten year later though, Hayes had effectively turned his back on the professional game. Dale takes us through that journey which saw him crowned as a European Tour number one, his struggles on and off the course on the PGA Tour and how South African politics affected him.
He also takes us back to 1976 for the round that saw him go head to head with one of South Africa's greatest ever players.
In April 2016, Andrew "Beef" Johnston arrived at the iconic Valderrama for the Spanish Open and was hitting it so bad, he thought he might shoot 80.
Beef takes us through "The Round" that ends with his maiden European tour title and him "getting hammered" at his celebratory party.
He also takes us though the events that devastated him as a 17 year old, how it all went crazy at the 2016 Open, what he hopes to do for Jamaican golf and how he came close to a completely different career path.