Articles by Matthew Rudy

November 13th, 2024

The New Kids of NIL

The press conference at the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic in May looked like any of the hundreds the tour conducts over a long season. A composed player in a Callaway hat gave polished answers at the podium, even tossing in a chestnut about no tournament really starting until the back nine on Sunday. However, Read more…

July 23rd, 2024

2024 Olympic Preview: For Their Country

The remarkable stories of five golfers who beat the odds to become Olympians

July 3rd, 2024

New Dallas Maverick Klay Thompson should totally buy this golf ranch to be his new compound

Basketball star and noted golf enthusiast Klay Thompson just left the Golden State Warriors for a new contract with the Dallas Mavericks. Now that the four-time NBA champion (and part-owner of the TGL’s San Francisco franchise) is in the market for a new home, perhaps he should consider this $5.85 million compound half an hour Read more…

June 19th, 2024

If you procrastinated about making plans to attend the Open Championship, your window is still open – barely

If seeing the throngs of fans at Pinehurst for the US Open motivated you to catch the last glimpse of men’s major-championship golf this year, you still have some options to book travel to Scotland for the Open Championship at Royal Troon. However, options are dwindling, especially if you’re going to try to take the train into Glasgow.

June 12th, 2024

If you can’t get on Fishers Island, this Connecticut home might be the next best thing

Fishers Island Club is extremely private—so private that having $35 million is not enough on its own to get you in. But if you do have the means, you can create your own little piece of island heaven in the Northeast. This 7.65-acre island off the coast of Branford, Conn., is up for sale. For Read more…

June 9th, 2024

Is the USGA going to set up Pinehurst extra hard because of low scores in recent majors?

Fifty years after “The Massacre at Winged Foot” and on the eve of this year’s US Open at Pinehurst No.2, almost everything has changed – including the USGA’s philosophy surrounding a course’s playing characteristics.

June 6th, 2024

How a golf pro built a hot new indoor golf club in a New Jersey strip mall

Aaron Asedo doesn’t exactly have the standard golf pro training. Yes, he was a college golfer, but he also developed his artistic chops at the renowned Savannah College of Art and Design at the same time—and developed a line of custom furniture after he finished school. When Asedo started thinking about how to grow his Read more…

June 1st, 2024

How a sunglasses startup created golf shades that don’t skimp on style

The first entry in the entrepreneur’s handbook would probably say to find a popular, painful problem to solve. That’s how simple it was for Stephen Lease, who grew up around golf. His father was a greenskeeper at a Colorado public course. About 10 years ago, as a newly addicted distance runner, Lease was looking for Read more…

May 29th, 2024

This Rolls-Royce-themed golf cart for sale makes the walk-versus-ride decision easy

We already told you about the custom cart culture in The Villages. Here’s your chance to join the party no matter where you live. Popular YouTube car reviewer Doug DeMuro has listed a highly modified 1986 Elmco cart on his CarsAndBids auction site, and it’s something you have to see to believe. Why head to Read more…

May 22nd, 2024

This abandoned Greg Norman-designed course can be yours, but you’d better bring a mower

Designed as a part of a luxury condo and villa development, it struggled financially since its inception in 2006 and finally shut down in 2018. Now, the ghostly remnants of the 6,300-metre (6,900-yard) course and the 109 hectares (269 acres) it occupies are up for sale.

May 17th, 2024

PGA Championship 2024: Low club pro lucked into practice round with two stars and it settled his nerves

LOUISVILLE — The moment didn’t look too big for club pro Jeremy Wells, who shot a smooth 69 on Thursday in the first round of the PGA Championship tto pace the 21 non-touring professionals at Valhalla. And Wells credited the “stress-free” round—which included 15 greens in regulation and two near-hole-outs from the fairway—to being on Read more…

May 17th, 2024

How does this PGA rookie figure out a game plan on a new course? With a little help from his friends

LOUISVILLE — You might remember Andy Ogletree from his win at the 2019 U.S. Amateur or his performance as low amateur at the 2020 Masters, but his major championship portfolio has been in stasis since then. He’s making his first appearance in one of the big four in more than three years thanks to a Read more…

May 16th, 2024

How powerful are PGA Tour players relative to athletes in other leagues? Very.

It’s no shock that powerful, Type-A athletes like Tiger Woods want more control over the tour on which they play. That’s been coming in the form of more player representation on the PGA Tour Board—which gives commissioner Jay Monahan his marching orders on the organization’s strategy. But fellow player Lucas Glover enunciated one of the Read more…

May 15th, 2024

Super-rare Mickelson memorabilia auction could be a good indicator of LIV’s popularity

With all the secrecy (and burner social-media accounts) surrounding the ongoing PGA Tour-LIV mating ritual, it’s hard to get a real barometer on where things stand when it comes to the golf-consuming public. One real-world representation of that mythical “heat index?” A genuine piece of hyper-rare golf history up for auction this week. The Golf Read more…

May 8th, 2024

Check out some of the wild (and heartwarming) golf stuff getting crowdfunded right now

Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe are the Wild West of moonshot product ideas and crusading causes. Everyone from would-be golf entrepreneurs with a dream to aspiring tour professionals use the sites to try to keep the lights on and the dream alive. After England’s Lottie Woad won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, members Read more…

May 1st, 2024

The perfect location for a Scottish golf hideaway just came up for sale

If you have the means and the interest to build the ultimate Scottish golf Shangri La, the ideal property might have just come on the market.

April 27th, 2024

A Ladies European Tour pro reveals one week’s expenses, illustrating just how hard it is to make a living

Hannah Gregg laid out her expenses for the week at the recent Women’s New South Wales Open, and they painted a striking picture of how hard it is to make a living for the vast majority of professional players – male or female.

April 27th, 2024

How a Phoenix-area course capitalized on a unique location to keep play going into the night

In most of the country, golf courses fight an unrelenting battle against weather and daylight. How do you get enough rounds in to generate the revenue required to keep the doors open? One Phoenix-area operation is trying to change those terms of engagement with a modern marketing plan, banks of stadium lights and a whole Read more…

April 24th, 2024

The unlikely story of a man who quit his job to make leather headcovers and succeeded

Golf Digest’s ongoing “Lucky Break” series chronicles the key moments that have launched golf businesses to success. For boutique custom-headcover maker Bluetross, Golf Digest turned out to be the lucky break. In late 2023, we were planning the cover image for the latest iteration of the Hot List equipment guide. The call was made to Read more…

April 16th, 2024

Warhol’s Jack Nicklaus painting goes for seven figures in lucrative weekend for golf auctions

Masters champion Scottie Scheffler wasn’t the only one to have a lucrative weekend.

April 13th, 2024

Masters 2024: This Augusta badge from the first tournament in 1934 (signed by Bobby Jones) is up for auction

Even if you’re trying to get into super-exclusive Berckmans Place or Map and Flag hospitality venues in Augusta this weekend, that won’t be close to the most expensive Masters ticket you can buy in the next few days. The Golf Auction is offering what is considered to be the absolute apex of collectible tickets—a Masters Read more…

April 12th, 2024

Masters 2024: Right place, right time—how small, emerging brands can catch lightning at the Masters

The connection isn’t quite the same as NASCAR’s “win on Sunday sell on Monday” relationship with car manufacturers like Ford and Chevrolet, but some golf brands have struck lightning at the Masters thanks to a bit of fortuitous product placement. That famous picture of Jack Nicklaus rolling in his putt on 17 at the 1986 Read more…