The Good-Good Golf Podcast · TalkinGolf Productions

Ep 161: The Always interesting Meghan Maclaren

·1 hr 19 min·4 clips

Rod Murray returns to the driver's seat after missing the previous week. The opening stretch is mostly catch-up, with the Solheim and Ryder Cup still fresh enough to be worth a few more comments. Adrian comes in as co-host number one and a very tired traveller. He talks through a rough run of flights, airports, Airbnbs, and work commitments. The Ryder Cup comes up again through his day on site. He says the hospitality was the best he has ever seen, with a joke about not knowing whether it was the corporate area that later burnt down. From there, the discussion widens into LIV and what it has changed. The panel lands on the idea that the biggest shift may be cultural rather than structural. They focus on the fact that the players are now effectively required to show up. That makes the old language about independence sound a bit thin. Brooks Koepka is used as a test case for whether anyone really wanted every stop on that circuit. Phil Mickelson comes up too, as an example of a player whose appearance in places like Australia would once have been unlikely. The conversation keeps circling back to the tension between money, freedom, and obligation. The tone is dry, but the point is serious. There is also some back-and-forth about how little complaint has come publicly from those players. The suggestion is that the contract does the talking. The panel then talks about how hard the current stretch of the schedule is. It is especially rough for players who did not spend their late season grinding on the PGA Tour. That leads into a broader practical view of why the timing matters. The end of the year used to be a different sort of window for chasing starts, money, and security. McLaren's presence gives the episode a more grounded, player-facing edge. The chat feels less theoretical once she joins and more focused on what the year looks like from her side. Later, the episode checks in on her results and recent progress. The hosts stay encouraging without losing the easy, teasing rhythm that runs through the whole show. McLaren says she has been turning things around and that better results seem to be coming. The room treats that as something worth noticing, not just a polite compliment. Her immediate plans are laid out plainly. She is looking at Q-School again, with LPGA maybe depending on how the rest of the year unfolds. The final stretch covers the four LAT events left: India, Saudi Arabia, and two tournaments in Spain. The hosts make the obvious joke that those venues are convenient for one another. It lands in the same dry way as the rest of the episode. The episode ends with the usual thanks and farewell. It leaves on the sense of a show that likes golf talk best when it is practical, blunt, and only half-polished.

As heard by us

A loose, informed golf chat that makes travel, tours, and politics worth hearing.

This episode keeps a loose, informed pace, with Ryder Cup and Solheim recovery, a travel-worn co-host, and Megan McLaren calling in from England to hash it out.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for golf chat that feels like people who just lived the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup are still unpacking it.

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