Going Long on the Great Clubs

Fittingly, we recorded our shortest episode ever to explain why the next ones will be much longer!

Eight years in, The Bag Drop is biting off something new: fewer releases, deeper research, and three- to five-hour episodes on a single golf club’s history, strategy, and story. Matt and the Professor explain why the most fascinating untold stories in golf live at the club level, the question they brought home from Northern Ireland together at twenty and haven't shaken since, and the five rules they have set to do it faithfully. (PS. The weekly interviews and conversations are not going anywhere!)

The conversation dives into:

• Why the untold stories in golf live at the club level, and why studying a golf club is really a way of studying people
• A trip around Northern Ireland at twenty, the question "why is this the way it is here?", and the Professor on why one round as a guest never tells you how a club actually works
• The Professor's numbers on the quiet comeback of long-form, and what hours of conversation can do that a two-minute clip can't
• Admiration for Acquired, and a five-hour episode that finally made the model make sense, and permission to go that deep
• Five rules for the new series!

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Links & Partners

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Connect with Matt & The Professor

🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/

📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/

🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: [e-mail]

Chapters

00:00 Welcome: one of us is practicing, one of us refuses

01:29 Beating balls, and taking the doubt out with Golf Blueprint

02:45 The four-ball partnership is off

03:41 Matt's real golf strength: recruiting

05:00 Professor's facts: long form is quietly coming back

08:01 A return to conversation after a decade of the algorithm

09:05 Ad read: Titleist GTS, unboxed at night and gamed by morning

10:40 The Professor is a seven-wood guy now

11:21 Fixing the top of the bag with a four wood and seven wood combo

12:41 A short episode about going long

14:07 Eight years of The Bag Drop, starting at the Merit Club

16:33 Three years of the Professor, and curiosity on steroids

18:32 The decision: fewer shows, deeper research, three to five hours

20:23 Why clubs: study a club, study the history of people

22:56 Northern Ireland, and why one round as a guest explains nothing

25:01 Not the historians, and why that is the advantage

27:26 Acquired, Costco, and learning through a narrative

28:18 Smart Brevity, and what short form can't do

30:16 A decade of hearing "there's a past here you don't know"

32:40 The rules: no AI list of facts, no embellishment, the pursuit of truth

34:24 Time to get to work

What is NewClub?

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

What is The Bag Drop?

The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community, and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

Creators and Guests

Host

Matt Considine

Founder of NewClub and our resident feel player. Matt’s junior golf career led him to the University of Akron where he met our co-host. During his junior year, Matt Studied abroad in Ireland and discovered golf societies. Subsequent trips to Scotland fed his passion for the history, ideals, and culture of accessible, affordable, and sustainable golf, a concept he would later bring to the U.S. with NewClub. Known for his interviewing style, quick wit, and compelling storytelling, Matt brings thoughtful, reflective conversations to The Bag Drop. His professional journey before NewClub included multiple leadership positions in growth-stage startups, where he managed teams responsible for more than $250 million in revenue. Matt actively gives back to the game as a Board Member of the First Tee of Akron and past chair of the Evans Scholar Foundation. Proudly based in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, Matt finds inspiration in family life with his wife, their three children, and their golf dog, Gypsy.

Host

The Professor

NewClub's Chief Ambassador and every golf sicko's favorite educator. Kevin is a thoughtful and deeply curious host. His studied, constructivist approach adds intellectual enrichment and balance to the show. As a professor of Math Education at the University of Georgia, Kevin's background in applied mathematics and cognitive psychology uniquely informs his insights on golf strategy and performance. Originally from Ohio, Kevin was a Division I collegiate golfer at the University of Akron, where his passion for understanding mathematical thinking began. After earning his doctorate from Arizona State University, he combined his analytical expertise with his love for golf by co-founding Golf Blueprint, an organization aimed at helping golfers optimize their games through data-driven strategies. Kevin enjoys balancing deep philosophical discussions with simple pleasures, such as indulging his sweet tooth, cheering on college football, and spending relaxed evenings with his friends, his wife, and their beloved dog, Nole.

What is The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf?

Deeply researched audio documentaries that tell the definitive stories behind golf's greatest clubs + weekly conversations with the characters and communities shaping golf today.

Matt Prof Wide (00:02.872)
Welcome to the Bag Drop Untold Stories in Golf. I'm your host, Matt Kotsanin, here with my cohost, the professor. Good morning, professor, how are you?

The Professor (00:13.102)
Good morning, sir. Doing well. It's amazing what a little bit of golf practice will do for the game. I think I'm back in the practice mode for the first time, and I don't know, it feels like five years or so.

Matt Prof Wide (00:22.507)
I am happy to hear that. You enjoy your practice, don't you?

The Professor (00:27.18)
I do when I'm actually being intentional with it getting after it, which again, I've not done for a while. It's kind of interesting how you find the center of the face after you've actually been working on it for a little bit.

Matt Prof Wide (00:38.516)
I have gone the opposite direction. refuse to practice this season. Actually, I'm going to practice putting as we've, my personal saga continues. It's getting good. It's getting better, I should say. So I will practice putting, but I refuse to practice anything else. I think I'm getting better without it. Just getting out there, good couple stretches and letting it fly off the first tee. That's my approach. What's working for you though on the practice sessions?

The Professor (01:06.508)
Honestly, I like beating balls. just do. I always have been just reps, swings, swings, swings. So that's what I've been kind of doing. Just beating balls, working on a couple different shot shapes, just trying to feel different shots. Yeah, and that's, I can get on the back of our range and just put, you know, Spotify on with either a podcast or a playlist and I can let two hours pass like nothing.

Matt Prof Wide (01:29.946)
You're digging it out of the dirt. There is something, the rhythms, the cadence, the methodical beating of balls, it can be therapeutic, can be meditational, right? The thing that causes me some stress or creates some doubt is like, when I start doing that and I don't know if what I'm grooving is the right stuff.

I will occasionally mid-practice, I just go, oh, I don't know, this might not be the thing I need right now, which is why we haven't talked about our friends at Golf Blueprint in a while, but that's true. Like I've always gotten much more out of my practice because of Golf Blueprint, because it removes that. And for me, at least, it makes intention on specific things that can relate to the course. Like it gamifies it for me.

The Professor (02:20.716)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Matt Prof Wide (02:22.81)
I know I'm trying to hit specific shots and not just a feel per se. It depends on the card, I guess. But anyways, that helps remove stress from my practice sessions, which are not existent anyway, so I don't have to worry about it.

The Professor (02:36.782)
Yeah, you've got some competing interests in your life. So understandable that you're not getting out there for the same two hour block that I often get out there for right now.

Matt Prof Wide (02:45.752)
Well, even though and we'll break the news It saddens me to say the professor and I will not be teaming up as four ball partners this year I think we've seen each other a lot more on this podcast this season. So maybe that has to do with it Maybe we're just like, you know what? We fixed it. We're spending more time together We got to we got in person recently We don't need the four ball as the excuse for that. But did you find a partner? Are you suited up ready to rock with somebody down south?

The Professor (03:12.3)
I think me and banks on the wait list down here. So we'll be, we'll be sitting there on the wait list to see if we get in that Georgia site fills up and no time. It was, I think it was filled up in 30 minutes or so. And I was busy teaching that morning or doing something. So I wasn't able to get on there until later. So we'll see. We'll see if we actually get in or not. That's fine. We're building up. We might get back at the tournament golf next year and then me and you will team it up next year and actually have a, have a chance versus the version of me that joined you this year. There was, there was never a chance of us getting out.

Matt Prof Wide (03:41.85)
I, there's many weaknesses and strengths to everyone's golf game. think mine has become recruiting. I'm a great recruiter because obviously I badgered you into partnering up last year, but this year, loyal listener to this podcast, new club member, awesome dude and hell of a player, Kent Monis agreed to play with me. Kent Monis is going to team up. I'm so pumped about that.

And on top of all those things, he's also phenomenal at the admin. We are not on the wait list. We were first to register. We got it. I can't remember if I was on him or he was on me, or maybe it was both, but those fill up fast. So I'm excited to team up with another friend.

The Professor (04:25.678)
I like your chances. mean, I guess I'm secretly hoping you don't make it so that way you team up with me the following year. know, it's all seriousness. would not, all seriousness, I would not be surprised if you two get through. I think you two compliment each other very well with the style of the games played. And of course he has a pretty good gear in there too when he gets it going and he's in the right mindset, he can golf his ball.

Matt Prof Wide (04:33.572)
That's right.

Matt Prof Wide (04:48.334)
I like being around thinkers apparently. I don't always, but you guys are both very intellectual players who think their way around a golf course. Any facts for us this week, Professor?

The Professor (04:50.295)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (04:54.83)
you

The Professor (05:00.974)
I do have some facts for us this week. I did a little deep dive on some stuff relevant to our short podcast today. And I was doing some just look at, know, news sourcing and long form versus short form work and sort of where we're at and where, you know, where the metrics are at in terms of the research on people's consumption. I'll just kind of bang through a couple here. You know, as of recently, about, you know, 90 % of adults get their news online.

Most users, though, spend less than five minutes per month on the top 25 news sites put together, so they're getting news sort of from everywhere. And that lends, of course, the question of what is the style or nature of the news that they're getting. Of course, put aside negativity drives engagement. Headlines, if you include negative words in it, like the quick click-through rate for every negative word increases by like 2.5%. So we're gonna put that aside in just a negative positivity aspect. But obviously, you know, we have this huge discussion around short form content.

We have in the last couple years seen a little bit of a gravitation back towards long form content in YouTube about 2023 short term versus long term or short form versus long form content was about equal about 50 % breakdown as As recently as last year 80 % YouTube viewing is in long form Yeah, so we're seeing that in terms of video

Long form posts and articles see more sharing, about 47 % more than the short form counterparts. What else have we got? In 2026, Nielsen found that readers retained 31 % more information from long form articles compared to short summaries, which was an increase from previous years. So also the readers are becoming again, more adept in reading long form aspects, especially if the long form does have subheadings, bullet points and data visualizations.

Brand trust, consumers or brands that put out long form content get a 50%, 7 % more likely to trust from their consumers. And they're doing that, which again is increasing year over year right now. Now with all that said, short form videos receive 94 % more comments. And so we think about the engagement metrics that a lot of the...

The Professor (07:19.5)
the companies in the Instagrams of the world and then the agencies are pushing look engagement, engagement, engagement. We do see some more comments in terms of the short form, significantly more comments on the short forms, hence more engagement metrics, but actually intellectual engagement on long form has been increasing over the last three or four years across the different news platforms, article platforms, blog platforms, Instagram, Facebook, so LinkedIn included in lot of this data as well.

Matt Prof Wide (07:20.666)
Mmm.

The Professor (07:47.695)
So we're seeing a little bit of a swing back towards long form content becoming a more consumed and also contributing consumption to learning that's occurring.

Matt Prof Wide (08:01.54)
Boy, boy, is that a timely one. Thanks for looking those up. We're gonna get to our topic today that has a lot to do with short form, long form content, where we spend our time, golf and out of it, right? I actually see it too as a lot of those stats, know, our attention has been feasted on from the algos for a decade now and it's kind of like a return to conversation in a way.

Sometimes it's not always, you're a listener to podcasts, great example, right? But I think there is this desire to not just get the snippet or the, we're realizing that the short snippets, it's maybe less fulfilling as a consumer of content. And I think that is kind of one of the parts that takes us to it. before we get to our show,

I want to talk to you, Professor, about the all new GTS medals from Titleist. Have yours arrived?

The Professor (09:05.902)
Oof.

Mine have arrived. I, you know, I was up in Ohio. The box, of course, I get that delivery the day after I leave for Ohio. So the box, I'm just like, Claire, please move them inside. Sits at home, sits at home. Tell what, I got back late on a night driving 12 hours throughout the day with the dog. Get back. It's, know, I'm ready to go to bed, but the box is sitting there. And I, of course, unboxed them that night and then gamed them that next morning because I just, couldn't resist. I was very, very excited for.

for that delivery.

Matt Prof Wide (09:40.378)
Mine are not here just yet, but I cannot wait. The GTS during my fitting, it was definitely a new gear that I've tapped into and cannot recommend enough. It's time, right? You can step away from the doubt. You can get yourself into a new driver this year with the GTS series from Titleist. The product team at Titleist has been working on this for a decade plus. GT was a extension into where they are, but S takes it a step further and it's a unique.

combination of the speed they've been after with the forgiveness and it's definitely through my fitting process freed me up to find a little bit more speed, a little bit more forgiveness and tap into a new gear. So I'm gonna be flying past the professor again. He caught up with me thanks to GTV. Now I feel like we got things going in the right direction again and you can too with a new, a bolder version.

of the GTS family of metal woods from Titleist. Alright, Professor.

The Professor (10:40.878)
I tell you what, I want to make one comment about the fairway woods. The redesign on them is phenomenal. The flatter sole on the three wood just gave me so much more control with my spin numbers. And then I'm a seven wood guy now. I never thought I would say it. I'm a seven wood guy. I was playing yesterday and I had this like two 35 shot that had to get up over a tree. Just it's a badly designed hole. They have a tree that essentially took noses out in the middle of the fairway and you just got to go over it. And I was like with the

my old hybrid or my driving iron, no chance, man. And I just peered to seven wood, just landed it on a dime, five feet from the hole, stuck right there, just beautiful.

Matt Prof Wide (11:21.842)
I was having this conversation with a fellow new club member yesterday on the GTS medals and can't agree more. I ended up with a seven wood forward combo and it was gapping and my descent angle is like 110 on both. It is so nice to see, but here's the catch and why a title is certified fitting matters so much is I would have just stuck with the same, you know, GTS.

The Professor (11:32.398)
oooo

The Professor (11:36.962)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Prof Wide (11:48.602)
in both of them, right? It's more comparable to the four that I got fit into for the driver. But here's the thing, Professor, there are different tools for different skill set. And what happened was the seven wood is in the GTS3 series, but I wanted to get a little bit more shape-age and a little bit more height. And I ended up with the GT2 in my four wood. And so that combo, I can still kind of shape that four wood where needed.

and then I still get that low spin high launching seven wood in that combo. I never thought I would fix this top of the bag gapping and I really feel like I did, man. It is so cool to see what they've continued to innovate with there at Titleist. All right, let's get on to the show.

The Professor (12:28.301)
Yeah.

Matt Prof Wide (12:41.946)
All right, so today is a shorter one, which is ironic because what we wanted to talk to each other about and also our friends and listeners of those podcasts is the long form content that the backdrop is going to be diving into, delving into here for the 2026 season. The weekly episodes, our conversations that the professor and I have.

We might miss a week or two, but they're gonna keep going like we're gonna keep rolling with that but we're biting off a whole new concept that Frankly professor I was trying to think back today as we were gonna chat I think it aligns with just before you joined the show So we're talking like three four years of us noodling on this extension of the backdrop this new concept I mean, that's a long time to think about something before actually giving it a try and and

The Professor (13:29.005)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Prof Wide (13:38.956)
I hope we were well thought out. I think it's a new adventure for sure.

The Professor (13:43.503)
I think it was something we've always been very invested in and interested in. It was truly one of those, do we have the time and can we actually execute this at a level that we're comfortable with? This is something we're very passionate about. And finally, finally we said, yes, I don't know if we'll live to regret that. I'm still a little tired, but maybe we'll live to regret it.

Matt Prof Wide (14:07.918)
Well, yeah, we'll see once we do our first recording. So let's talk about what we're talking about. So the backdrop has been eight years running and it started with just myself as this outlet of curiosity. I was starting New Club, founded it for very personal and deep reasons. I saw this void, kept meeting self-proclaimed golfers, not playing much golf.

and in my past history of being able to go overseas, I spent a year there in college and seeing golf societies, it really fueled my motivation to start a new club as a community and a club without a course. And so that kind of led to lot of conversations with people inside the realm of golf. And I kept finding interesting people that were hitting my orbit, and I just wanted to pick their brains and talk to them and frankly just learn.

learning became this constant for me ever since starting New Club. And the first ever podcast recording was a guy named Don Peeper at the Merit Club. He's a legend. Some call him the Don. He's a Mount Prospect native and legendary head pro in the Illinois PGA section. But that conversation was really just an outlet for my curiosity, a creative side project that someday I'd hope would support New Club, which it certainly has.

didn't really think I'd be doing it for eight years. And so I did that though for whatever it was, five, I guess, four and a half. And the professor was a frequent guest and we've talked about you coming onto this show and being a real integral part of it before. So I won't go into all the detail on that, but really the piece of you joining as co-host and us continuing not only these interviews with

Remarkable people interesting people that were you know our tagline untold stories in golf. They weren't the mainstream folks You know these weren't interviews with Rory or Your your top professional players or your celebrity architects these were guys and gals that when we were under the mainstream and so you really have always been just a good friend and a thought partner and all this stuff and I think and so does our audience and all the data would support

The Professor (16:22.582)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Prof Wide (16:33.304)
Like once you stepped on the show, professor, our conversations just went to another level of frankly intelligence and and putting that curiosity on steroids. And so we've been doing that for, can you believe, three years?

The Professor (16:46.51)
It kind of blows my mind that, when I was reflecting on that this past week, that it's been three years since I came on the show, yeah, you know, I've always, to be truthful, it's always been an excuse to jump on and talk with you. I think I've been honest about that on this show. Like, just to have that weekly schedule, ideally, where we can get on. You know, I think thinking and asking questions is best played when you're doing that with someone that you vibe with, right? And you kind of always have been amused in that way of that.

come from sort of different avenues in the golf and we operate in different ways within the golf world and that creates for great conversation. And so yeah, just the, you know, what I've always appreciated about this podcast too, from when you're doing on your own and what we've tried to do is, is telling those untold stories. Cause I've always found that as a way to like dive in and to learn something about someone or something that hasn't been uncovered yet. And for me that's.

probably why I became a professor. That is what gets me out of bed every day is to just, if that's an experience with a person, if that's a new golf course, if that's just sitting down at a club to experience it and observe what's going on, or if that's doing an interview with a golf course architect, now I get to bug them with questions that they probably don't want to answer in the sense of just too many questions. It's been great coming on this podcast and having another vehicle to really formalize that sort of diving into things and then doing it along with you.

I mean, the number of episodes we jump off of at the end and continue our conversation for 30 minutes because of all the cool, exciting, new things we've learned or just thoughts that are in the mind, I have always loved doing. So it's been a really quick three years for that reason.

Matt Prof Wide (18:32.067)
Yeah, and so I'll get to kind of the decision that we made here and we can talk about it for a bit. It was deliberate. It was the pursuit of that knowledge, the conversation around it, the things that we were kind of learning together along with our audience and sometimes the guests, right? It really coalines with that four year period was...

Well, what it is, we're making the deliberate strategic shift that rather than high volume, high frequency cadence of our podcasts, which again, the weeklies aren't going to go away, but we're going to be putting a lot of our time and effort into moving towards a model that does fewer shows, deeply researched and in the long form episode structure.

And when we say long form, you know, we don't know exactly how it will pan out But I know for certain the whole you know goal of an hour and we end up with an hour and 15 as we mostly do every week This is not going to be that this is not going to be that this is going to be likely three to five hour podcasts on a single subject and and the subject Excuse me for us is golf But specifically professor, what have you and I?

The Professor (19:43.886)
every week.

Matt Prof Wide (20:02.882)
Even since we were kids, since we were 20 years old and we were traveling overseas, what specifically in golf have we kind of geeked out on more than others?

The Professor (20:10.874)
I think I won't let you take this one. This has always been your podcast, your baby to begin with. What gets us going? I'm gonna kick it to you, pull the curtain back and I'll add some color.

Matt Prof Wide (20:19.758)
Well, I-

Matt Prof Wide (20:23.704)
Yeah, this will be no surprise to anybody that knows me, but when you think about the golf world and how things have evolved and how things have changed, and I've become a student of this in a deep way and, you know, called myself an amateur bozo historian trying to, I bugged a lot of early historians that are actually good at it. We've had a number of them on this podcast and part of that is I still believe

both the outsized impact on the game and the untold stories that exist the most are at the club level. These organizations and these clubs, these people, these communities that convene around the game. They convene at particular courses, some that have a story and history of their own, but they convene usually for deeper reasons.

there's context to, like by studying golf clubs, you can really study the history of people, the sociology of people. And I think that is what, you know, we noticed when we were 20 years old, traveling around Northern Ireland together and asking each other, like, why is this the way it is here? Like, that's different. You how did that, how did we end up with this totally different kind of framework in

The Professor (21:32.718)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Prof Wide (21:52.822)
Ohio in the clubs that we were a part of and I just think that is is an area that gets Terribly underserved for a variety of reasons in the world of golf But we're gonna dig in we're gonna Specifically focus on those clubs courses those communities that have had an outsized impact on the game of golf and you know our episodes are gonna be in depth like

The Professor (21:53.838)
Mm, that was you.

Matt Prof Wide (22:22.732)
really in depth and this is where I know you're going to excel professor because by trade you are a researcher. They're going to be in depth. They're going to investigate the history, the culture, the businesses, the people, the characters, the whole overall experience of specific golf clubs and their memberships and the legacies they've left behind. that's decisions we've made. That's where we're going with the podcast this year. have our first couple selected.

And now it's all about doing the work and telling the story.

The Professor (22:56.14)
Yeah, you bring up that trip to Ireland that has been certainly, I've had to take my top five golf moments ever in terms of impact on me. That's there. as you mentioned, the question we walked away with was like, wow, that was different. And we weren't quite sure in what ways it was different and certainly why it was different. And I think one of the biggest mistakes, for me, this is another opportunity to learn. So think one of the biggest mistakes that we make as golfers is

We go into a club as a guest, we spend a day there, we play it, and we walk away thinking we understand it, right? Like, this experience, and now you try to take it to your home club and all that. And I think that is one of the worst things you can possibly do because you're not, that's not a phenomenological experience you're having. That's just you on a trip that it's, you know, everybody goes to Scotland, comes back, that's the best place in the world. And they, you know, completely, and Josh Ralston's great at articulating this, don't see any of the undercurrent that exists within Scotland golf and the issues that are on the line there.

You know, and so since that Ireland trip, I've really loved just going to, certainly going to clubs to play their course, but just to sit there and observe, right? Just sit there for hours and watch how members interact with members, how members interact with staff, how guests, how they experience things, right? Looking for something more than just like, okay, what are they doing to me and what am I getting here? Like, what is actually the experience going on at this club and what do they do well and what are the things they're doing intentionally and maybe what are the things they're doing unintentionally?

And then this for me was just another step to learn more. Like, okay, and observations I've had from other clubs that the things they're doing now, well, what contributes to that? How do they end up in that way? And like you said, who are the people that actually made it that way? Because ultimately that is who is responsible. There's no the club that's responsible for things. It's just the people and the players that are there throughout the years and the decisions they make, the actions they take that actually results in all of that stuff.

So an opportunity to just dive deeper into that to understand what makes clubs clubs and specific clubs have specific personalities is just quite exciting.

Matt Prof Wide (25:01.138)
When we've you know, I've talked about this over the years I always felt like a phony a fraud like who am I to be the guy to ask that question and try to get those answers and there's so many more intelligent historians and people that have have frankly experienced those places in a deeper way have been a part of those circles that would have those answers but then it dawned on me that that's not The advantage is that I'm actually not that guy and that you aren't either

that we're truly just two guys that love the game of golf in the pursuit of knowledge and hopefully some wisdom that comes from it, explaining why things are the way they are. I think a huge inspiration in this and it all aligns and we got to shout out many of our listeners, our fans of this podcast as well, Acquired, has done this in business in the way that they are the most in-depth, researched.

business podcast in the podcast sphere, it definitely was an eye opener for you and I of, it's okay to go that deep. It's okay to not have to follow the traditional podcast structure because they respect their audience that's willing to invest that time. And so to do that justice, they put in a tremendous amount of time on their research and you

crafting a narrative and putting together a workflow that makes this possible so that it's enjoyable for their listeners. And you learn, and you learn something, you take something out of it. So it's really just everyone kind of coming along together in that pursuit of the deepest parts of golf that make us obsess over, make us love this game. Like some of it was truly intentional from...

the clubs and these organizers and these leaders of those clubs, some of it was unintentional as we've already started to realize through this show. So I got to give that shout out to acquired because I don't know when I first sent you an episode, professor. I know you got absolutely hooked and I knew that you would. I knew 1000 % that you would because this is how you like to learn. for me, it was a Costco episode four years ago that I just listened to and I

The Professor (27:01.89)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Prof Wide (27:26.668)
ended up getting, I was already a huge Costco fan. I worked for a guy that tried to explain their business model to me in detail back in 2012. And I was a punk kid not trying to listen to my authority, my superior, he became a Costco member there. until Ben and David did their version of that, four hour podcast on the history and strategy of Costco.

Did I ever understand why that all worked? What it was that they were actually doing, the people that were involved? I was hooked to that podcast, but really that way of learning, that method of there's a narrative here, there's a story, but within that, there's just so many lessons that you can take away.

The Professor (28:18.444)
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there too, in terms of what, if we think about this short-form versus long-form content, I'm reading a book right now called Smart Brevity, which is a great read and all about how to say points quickly and concisely. But it's all about short form. And there's a purpose for that if you're just trying to get facts across the table, right? And so I think of the long-form format and what acquired is a perfect example of this. Like, why do I listen to it where I have...

nothing involved in business at all, right? I'm not a business person at all. I'm not involved in businesses, like golf businesses, I guess, but like they're all just passion projects for me. I'm not doing it necessarily because the business side of it's because, this is interesting and I can help people out. But that long form just inspires. It just inspires thought. It inspires learning, right? When you're listening to the acquired podcasts, there's so many times when you hear these stories and what the people did and how they did it and what they accomplished.

It's inspirational and you're like, within my own work, I can take that approach. I can take that passion, that passionate approach. I can implement that mindset. And my hope is through doing this with clubs, it's the same sort of idea and telling their story, right? To inspire other people out there that these long form content avenues just put thoughts out there to get people thinking about things and possibly taking action based on those thoughts.

that isn't replicated in short form content. It can't be, because short form content is just more factual quick hits. Where yeah, we're going to probably blabber along a little bit and maybe only 15 % of that in the audience in that two minutes found something, but it might've been something that inspires someone else. And within the hours of content that's there, there's going to hopefully be plenty of inspirational aspects or thought stimulating aspects that we're able to get into with the way these clubs evolved and the people.

relative to the decisions that they took.

Matt Prof Wide (30:16.265)
It has me excited. I'll end with this, because we don't want to belabor that we're special in any regard to this. We just are trying to serve ourselves truthfully and our listeners truthfully. And that truly comes from a deep place. me, I'll just add before I get to the last piece to this that I think we want to share with our listening audiences, for me it is...

a decade of hearing a lot from clubs and course partners on what I do for my day job, which is new club, and being the founder of that, that that's not the way it works. you know, here's what we're doing and there's a past here that you don't know. And it's like, okay, I respect that. Well, I want to know that past. And I want to learn about all the different aspects of why things are the way they are, whether it is history, both good and bad.

right, and cons, or it's specific strategies that make clubs clubs that make golf golf in certain regions, in certain communities, in certain places. And so that evolution is fascinating to me. It's a deep, deep motivation to do so. it also, I hope, helps serve myself in a new club in that we're going to make that as good as it.

can possibly be and maybe learn about some pitfalls that past clubs have had to learn from or just really great things that are consistent across the most revered, the most lauded, the best, most enjoyable experiences of a membership. And so we did lay out a couple of rules and I just wanted to share those. Professor, I don't know if you've revisited our rules sheet, but we were gonna go down this path and we wanted to, again, do it faithfully.

The professor and I said one, we both have to be genuinely excited to deep dive into whoever the club or the community is. Number two, the effort has to be there. There is no shortcut going down this route. There are occasions, there's our occasions on this podcast where we have always shown up and just press record. That is no longer the case with these. So Half-assed is out the door.

The Professor (32:25.996)
Hence my being tired comment.

The Professor (32:33.294)
Not the case here.

Matt Prof Wide (32:40.506)
And number three, we can't just recite facts. This is not going to be an AI-generated list of things. We want to tell the real story. And there is going to be a cohesive narrative to what we do. Number four, our final product has to be something that we ourselves like and are listening to and are recommending to friends. If it's not, we've got to scrap it.

And then number five, we always, always, always have to be in the pursuit of truth. We can't embellish anything. We're not going to state things that are up for debate as the fact. This is about trust and finding the true story of the game of golf, the true story of the clubs that had this oversized impact on the game. And that for us is really at the heart of doing it faithfully, doing it well.

And that's whether we agree with it or not, but that also is if the clubs like it or not. And we need to tell the closest version of truth and that story as we possibly can because that's really like a responsibility we both agreed on. So that's our five rules for long-form, in-depth podcast, the backdrop coming at you soon. Well, we can't commit to the specific date, but it'll be this summer. You're gonna have a bunch of the weekly

Episodes as well. We're not taking those away at all I still got to see my guy the professor even if you won't be my four ball part of this year I still got to see him weekly, but you can expect a couple of these long forms in your feed this year

The Professor (34:24.002)
Well, think it's time to get to work.

Matt Prof Wide (34:26.222)
Let's get to work. I got stuff I got to go read. Thanks to our partners at Titleist for supporting this show. They're going to have a hand in our new long form format as well. Check out the all new GTS drivers available now. Go to Titleist.com and you can find a certified fitter near you. Professor, friends, everyone, thanks for listening. We'll catch you on the next one.