What does a piece of land owe the people around it once the golf stops paying for itself?
In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Blake Conant (golf course architect; co-designer of Old Barnwell and the Gilroy) to talk about the second course he is building in the dirt right now — and the master's thesis he wrote a decade earlier arguing that some golf courses should stop being golf courses.
The conversation dives into:
- Why a painting degree and three months running equipment with Tom Doak at Dismal River turned out to be the right education for golf architecture
- Building the Gilroy next door to a course everybody already loves, and the Snoop Dogg rule Blake uses to keep from chasing it
- The 90-acre parcel Nick Schreiber bought so the routing would work, and why Blake says architects are simply greedy
- A kids course with a tunnel and a ramp, built on Brian Schneider's premise that kids do not actually want to putt
- The 2013 thesis on bankrupt courses: what Blake got right about supply, what he missed about demand, and why the courses that closed were the wrong ones
- The arithmetic that decides whether affordable public golf gets built at all — roughly ten dollars of green fee for every million spent
Connect with our guest
🎨 Blake Conant — https://www.dundeegolf.com/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/Dundee_Golf — | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dundeegolf/ | 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-conant-90566a37/
⛳️ Old Barnwell — https://oldbarnwell.com
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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: thebagdrop@newclub.golf
Chapters
00:00 "Make sure your first one is your worst one"
00:49 Welcome, and kudos to the R&A for actually enforcing the rules
04:19 Who Blake Conant is, and how the Professor found him
07:45 Teaching of the week: "Build a Course Today" and the overbuild
09:30 Titleist Vokey SM11
11:11 Conant, Conant, or Conan the Barbarian
12:18 House paint, big canvases, and actually selling art
14:44 Art school to landscape architecture to Dismal River
17:42 The doubts he probably should have had
19:20 Following Old Barnwell: the Snoop Dogg rule
20:53 Was a second course always the plan?
23:12 Nick Schreiber, and hiring people you then leave alone
27:19 The kids course: they don't actually want to putt
29:56 Tunnels, ramps, and a train that isn't there yet
30:37 Who the Gilroy is for, and greens that sit on the ground
33:11 Still testing the good player, just differently
34:41 Buying the purple parcel
37:09 Buy the land before anybody knows you're building
38:59 The 2013 thesis on bankrupt golf courses
41:58 What are we measuring: social, environmental, economic
47:39 The wrong courses closed
48:58 Repurposing, HOAs, and grand ideas that don't pencil
51:05 Should a new project pass the test before opening day?
52:49 Golf as a Trojan horse: programming, foundation, community
55:45 Aiken's building boom and a healthy kind of competition
59:38 The public course he'd like to build without donors
1:03:49 Wrap and thanks
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 revolutionizing golf membership, 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.
