Matt McCarty, Episode 4: Opening Drive of the 2025 PGA Tour Season

Shane Bacon and Matt McCarty are back with the first Get a Grip episode of the new year! Shane has Matt recap his week at The Sentry, the PGA Tour's first tournament of the 2025 season. Matt shares his impressions of the Plantation Course at Kapalua and stories from his first week playing in a Signature Event on the PGA Tour. The two also discuss how Matt will fill out his schedule for the rest of the season, including Matt's first thoughts about this week's Sony Open.

On this episode, Shane Bacon is once again joined by Matt McCarty as the two wrap up the FedEx Fall on the PGA Tour. Shane and Matt discuss Matt's missed cut at the season-ending RSM Classic and his grouping with Luke Clanton and Ludvig Åberg before reflecting on the fall swing as a whole. Matt grades his initial performance on the PGA Tour which included his first win at the Black Desert Championship but also some struggles in other events. Matt details his takeaways from playing alongside a top player like Åberg at the RSM and shares his plans for improvement over the next few weeks before playing in the Sentry to start the 2025 season.

Shane Bacon and Matt McCarty are back to recap last week's Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas and look ahead a bit at Matt's 2025 schedule on the PGA Tour. To start this episode, Shane and Matt discuss their love for different golf courses as Matt is back in Chicago to play at Medinah this week. They touch on Matt's time in Las Vegas and how he and his friends celebrated coming off his first career win at the Black Desert Championship. From there, Shane asks Matt about growing up playing junior golf in Arizona and what led him to his college golf career at Santa Clara. Matt then shares some details on what the rest of his FedEx Fall will look like as he begins plotting a 2025 schedule that currently includes three majors and a number of PGA Tour Signature Events.

In this new season of Get a Grip, Shane Bacon is joined by PGA Tour winner and the No. 1 player on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour points list Matt McCarty. Matt won his first PGA Tour event last week at the Black Desert Championship in just his third career start. In this season premiere episode, Shane and Matt discuss Matt's week in Utah leading up to his win, his work with a mental skills coach and how he feels that helps him, and his three-win 2024 season on the Korn Ferry Tour. Matt expresses his excitement for playing in the 2025 Masters, Sentry, Waste Management and more tournaments he is now in the field for following his victory. The two end the episode by previewing this week's Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas and Matt's plans for the rest of the FedEx Fall as he works to play in the 2025 Signature Events.

Shane Bacon and Andrew Putnam return to the feed to discuss Andrew's first trip to St. Andrews after his T-25 finish at the Dunhill Links last week. The two discuss what's so special about the town of St. Andrews, the challenges of links golf at this time of year, and how players navigate the layout of the Dunhill Links across three different courses. Andrew shares how he prepared for such a unique tournament, and the two highlight the pro-am aspect of the Dunhill as well. After wrapping up on Scotland golf, Shane and Andrew discuss the Korn Ferry Tour following the season-ending championship. Andrew reminisces about being part of the 2014 class of KFT grads following the PGA Tour's 10-year look back at that group. They discuss the differences between the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour, and how players often find more camaraderie on the KFT before graduating to the big tour. To wrap things up, Andrew shares some insight into the new Evergreen Golf Club facility in Tacoma, Washington.

Shane Bacon and Andrew Putnam are back to break down Andrew's 2024 FedEx Cup season following the Wyndham Championship. The episode begins with the pair reminiscing about golf trips of the past and what courses they've recently crossed off bucket lists before diving into Andrew's early offseason plans. Shane and Andrew discuss Andrew's missed cut at the Wyndham and 73rd place finish in the FedEx Cup standings. They talk about finding silver linings in negative things, such as getting some time off to catch up on life after missing the playoffs this season. The two then preview the upcoming FedEx Fall and why Andrew believes the fall run of events suits his game well, with stops in Napa, Japan and Mississippi that Andrew is looking forward to. This episode wraps with a discussion of underrated events across both the Korn Ferry and PGA Tours, as Shane and Andrew shoutout the Boise KFT event, the Valero Texas Open, and more!

Shane Bacon and Andrew Putnam return as the PGA Tour's regular season wraps up with this week's Wyndham Championship. To start, the two break down Andrew's performance at the 3M Open ahead of the Olympics. Andrew discusses his walk-and-talk interview with the CBS broadcast on Saturday and what he thinks he found on Sunday that allowed him to rebound to close out that tournament. After that, Shane and Andrew turn to the current FedEx Cup standings, as Andrew sits ranked 73rd in the race for the Top 70. The two talk through Andrew's mindset going into this week at the Wyndham, changes in his preparation with a new caddie on the bag and what goals he is looking to accomplish during one final playoff push. To close out this episode, Shane and Andrew share observations about the current crop of college graduates and young players on the Korn Ferry Tour and how these players seem to be better prepared for the PGA Tour than in years past.

Shane Bacon and Andrew Putnam are back to recap last week's Barracuda Championship and look ahead to the rest of the PGA Tour season. The two start by talking through Xander Schauffele's win at the Open Championship before moving to Andrew's top-25 finish in Tahoe. Shane and Andrew hit on the pros of having a stableford scoring event on tour and how that can impact how players attack holes. After breaking down why the Barracuda is Andrew's favorite week on the calendar, the conversation shifts to Andrew's push towards this year's FedEx Cup Playoffs as the regular season hits the final stretch. This episode wraps with some questions from Andrew about Shane's broadcasting career and the golf content industry.

Shane Bacon is joined by a Scotland-based Andrew Putnam as the PGA Tour season heads overseas for the Scottish Open this weekend! Shane and Andrew discuss the John Deere Classic before getting into Andrew's time in Scotland thus far, his round at North Berwick and how players are excited for the next two weeks of links golf. The conversation then touches on the difficulties of traveling and being alone while on Tour before wrapping up with a look ahead at the Scottish Open.

Shane and Andrew are back to break down a thrilling U.S. Open played last week at Pinehurst No. 2. The two dive into the duel between Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau and offer thoughts on how the course played before welcoming on the winning caddie, Greg Bodine. Greg, Shane and Andrew discuss Bryson's equipment changes on Sunday, his bunker shot to set up the winning putt and go behind-the-scenes of the week from the winner's perspective.