Firm & Fast Golf Podcast - Episodes 17 - 19
Introducing chats with a GCA nut, a sports history nut and the son of a 5 time Open Championship winner
Episode 17 - Matt Mollica from the Australian Golf Passport Podcast
www.firmandfastgolfpodcast.fireside.fm/17
Matthew Mollica is a suburban Melbourne podiatrist by day, golf course architecture nut by night - he has recently joined forces with Scott Warren to launch a new Australian golf podcast called The Australian Golf Passport Podcast.
Matt joins us for a chat about the new podcast and an exposition of some of Australia’s must visit locations for inbound golfers. Why the golf ball should be rolled back for professionals and elite amateur golfers and how playing hickory golf reinforces this conclusion…. and finally a soliloquy on L1V.
Episode 18 - Professor Paul Rouse from University College Dublin
The challenge for all sports is to remain relevant in a changing social context…..the biggest and most prosperous sport in Ireland in the early 1800’s was cock fighting, by the 1850’s cock fighting was gone due to changing social mores……so there is no guarantee of a future for any sport, if you doubt that look at the Colosseum in Rome, it was once a thriving sporting place, nobody could ever see the end of it…….there are no guarantees
www.firmandfastgolfpodcast.fireside.fm/18
I had been chasing Professor Paul Rouse for some time to schedule our chat about the development of the game of golf in Ireland. He had slightly bigger fish to fry throughout most of 2022 as he was on a Fulbright Scholarship to New York University.
The stars aligned in November and we spent a very enjoyable hour looking back at the history of the development of the game of golf in Ireland and how it’s trajectory mirrored more closely the developmental form of English golf rather than that of Scotland.
This is the shortest episode thus far…..truth be told, Paul told me that he only had 50 minutes…. he was enjoying himself so much that he gave us an extra 20 minutes….
We look at how empire and Ireland’s subsequent independence influenced the very make up of golf club memberships over time leading to significant democratisation in participation over the past 50 years since the first public and municipal courses were developed.
Paul’s grasp of historical detail and his ability to contextualise the history of the game of golf in Ireland is fascinating, thus far this is my equal favourite episode (episode 2 with Mike Clayton being the other one), I hope you enjoy/enjoyed the chat!
Episode 19 - The Melbourne Tiger - Peter Thomson AO, CBE
Norman von Nida on Peter Thomson:
‘By temperament and design, Thomson seemed pressure-proof. His grip was light, his manner at address brisk and his motion through the ball graceful and devoid of much physical effort. He was a reliable and occasionally brilliant putter. There were no frills, so virtually nothing could go wrong.’
www.firmandfastgolfpodcast.fireside.fm/19
At the suggestion of Mike Clayton I purchased a book entitled A Life in Golf, which is a collaboration between Steve Perkins and Peter Thomson - the book is an updated and revised version of the 2005 publication called Lessons I Have Learned. The book is currently out of print, however, if you can get your hands on it it is well worth reading.
A Life in Golf led me towards reading more about Thommo’s career and ultimately to recording a recent conversation with his son Andrew. Over the course of our conversation we took a look at:
Early influences - the members of Victoria Golf Club and Norman von Nida
Thommo’s Open Record - notwithstanding his 5 wins, the rest of it isn’t bad either!
The details of a very special pilgrimage that Andrew completed in the UK in July 2022.
Peter’s role in developing the Japanese and Asian Tours
A ripping story about Mr Onishi, the Dunlop DDH and Peter’s success on the US Seniors Tour in 1985/86
Just a quick postscript - Thomson, surprisingly, never wrote an autobiography, however, Peter Mitchell the Australian writer and broadcaster wrote an unoffical biography entiltled The Complete Golfer - the book was originally published some 30 years ago and has been out of print for many years. Please find a link below to the author’s website, where you can download a .pdf version of the biography:
https://petermitchellmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Complete-Golfer-compressed.pdf
Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to all!
Many thanks for listening and reading throughout 2022.
Shane