The Fried Egg Golf Podcast · The Fried Egg

Emptying the Mailbag: Latest Top 100 Rankings, Favorite Clubs, & TGL Season 2

·1 hr 18 min·5 clips

PJ Clark will never replace his old Callaway Warbird 3-wood.

1. The Fried Egg Golf Podcast uses a Thanksgiving-week mailbag to cover golf architecture, equipment, tournament setup, and listener questions. 2. Andy Johnson hosts the show, PJ Clark joins as a rotating co-host, and their different takes matter because the episode jumps between rankings, clubs, and tour logistics. 3. The episode asks what a general golf mailbag can reveal about top-100 lists, favorite clubs, and the PGA Tour calendar. 4. Johnson opens with a critique of Golf.com and Golf Digest lists, saying they reward high-end private, resort, and destination courses. 5. He compares golf rankings to restaurant guides like Infatuation and the Michelin Guide to show why affordable golf rarely appears on these lists. 6. Johnson says Bethpage Black is the only affordable American course he sees on the list, and he ties that to championship history. 7. He also says Golf.com’s panel is smaller than Golf Digest’s panel, which helps explain why Childress Hall can debut at 73. 8. Childress Hall is described as a new destination private club in the Texas Panhandle, with a Tom Doak course and a Gil Hanse course on the property. 9. Johnson explains that the site sits on the Red River and that windblown sand has built the dunes over time. 10. He says Childress Hall feels remote enough that you fly into Amarillo, drive two hours through West Texas, and pass numerous speed traps. 11. Johnson says Oak Hill East at 60 in the world left him underwhelmed, and he does not understand its high ranking. 12. He also says Nine Bridges in South Korea looks overranked to him based on Google Earth, photos, and PGA Tour coverage. 13. Bandon Dunes comes up as another course Johnson calls overrated, especially when it ranks ahead of Old Macdonald. 14. PJ Clark names an old Callaway Warbird 3-wood as his favorite club and says he refuses to replace it. 15. Johnson replies with his own love for the SonarTech SSo3 3-wood and traces the appeal of older fairway woods like the V Steel and Steelhead. 16. The alignment-line question leads Johnson to estimate that removing lines from golf balls could shorten rounds by at least 15 to 20 minutes. 17. The PGA Championship and U.S. Open discussion focuses on climate, venue size, and why the PGA needs large spaces for fans and infrastructure. 18. Johnson and Clark frame match play as mentally exhausting and argue that it would change how major championships reward consistency. 19. Golf fans who follow architecture lists, equipment nostalgia, and tournament setup will get the most from this episode. 20. List-focused rankings skeptics, or listeners wanting a single long-form story, may skip it.

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