Former LSU and South Alabama golf coach Greg Jones explains why every hole is a par three, why wedges win tournaments, and tells stories about Floyd Horgan, a silver watch that never arrived, and walking with Jack Nicklaus.

Greg Jones grew up as a cart boy at Skyline Country Club in Mobile, played college and pro golf, and went on to win five Sun Belt titles at South Alabama before rebuilding the LSU program. After a stint as a State Farm agent, he returned to teaching and is now director of instruction at Steelwood Country Club in Loxley, Alabama.

In this conversation, Greg shares:
- His cart boy days and first job beating the rough at 13
- Floyd Horgan, the old school coach who shaped his game, and the story of the silver watch
- Playing a college round with Alabama football in his headphones
- Winning a playoff on his 21st birthday, the day Jack Nicklaus won the Masters, then walking with Jack at Pinehurst
- Coaching LSU and what the sideline looks like in Tiger Stadium
- His three part swing: pivot, elevate, hinge
- Why rhythm is the glue of the golf swing
- The "every hole is a par three" offense, the 50 to 120 yard golden opportunity zone, and why par fives are not worth the risk

Find Greg: Finish First Golf with Coach Greg Jones on YouTube, gregjonesgolf.com, and Steelwood Country Club in Loxley, Alabama.

Every golfer has a story worth preserving. Thanks for letting us help preserve yours.

Huntsville golf coach Craig Bocking of The Ledges explains how Tyler Watts uses the ground to hit a 355 drive at 140 pounds, how force plates and 3D motion capture shape his lessons, and why he tells players to have fun.

Craig Bocking coaches golfers from his studio at The Ledges in Huntsville, Alabama, using force plates, TrackMan and 3D motion capture to work with everyone from weekend golfers to college and professional players. He joins Chris Lemley and Gregg Dewalt to talk golf instruction, how the body is designed to move, and what he has learned from more than 25 years of coaching.

We get into how he works with Tyler Watts, who pushes nearly 200 percent of his body weight through his lead leg alone, and how that helps a 140 pound player hit a 355 drive. Craig also explains why rotation only works when the lateral move comes first, how he took Gabi Nicastro from 190 yards in the air to 250, and why he wants players in the studio when they are hitting it well, not just when something is wrong.

In this episode:
- How Craig went from the pro shop to teaching, and why he would have refunded his first lessons
- How force plates, TrackMan and GEARS 3D motion capture change what a coach can see
- Using AI and the TPI screen to see how a player is designed to move
- Tyler Watts and ground reaction forces
- The shared habits of elite junior, college and pro players
- Why Craig coaches players on the course, not just in the bay
- Why golf instruction on YouTube often fails players who cannot physically make the move
- Why he tells his players to go have fun, not go win

Guest: Craig Bocking, PGA Master Professional, The Ledges, Huntsville, Alabama
https://www.pga.com/coach/craigbocking

Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome to The Cart Barn
00:11 From the pro shop to the teaching side
02:09 The first lessons he would refund
04:28 Technology then and now
05:54 How Craig uses AI in coaching
07:53 TPI, Dr. Greg Rose and Swing Catalyst force plates
10:29 Tyler Watts and ground reaction forces
14:44 Who Craig coaches now
18:38 What elite players have in common
20:17 Gabi Nicastro and the lateral move
22:27 What a lesson with Craig looks like
27:45 25 years of coaching
29:40 Why come in when you are hitting it well
32:15 Tyler's Sunday 63
35:31 How to get on Craig's schedule
37:03 Technology is not the same as technical
39:34 The Ledges facility and putting academy
41:41 Hogan's Five Fundamentals
42:39 Last time he played 18 holes
43:45 Why not just use YouTube instruction
45:27 Information overload and playing with fun
50:30 Wrap up

The Cart Barn is a weekly storytelling podcast about golf in Alabama: the people, places, companies, courses and history behind the game. New episodes every Wednesday at https://cartbarnpodcast.com

Jerry West spent a week taking lessons from Jimmy Ballard at Pine Harbor in Pell City. When he got back to the LA Country Club, 23 of his next 24 rounds were in the 60s. The 24th was a 59 that set the course record.

In Part 2, Jimmy picks up right where we left off. Curtis Strange showed up with a back so bad he had to sit down after five shots. Jimmy put his swing side by side with Ben Hogan's and told him the rebuild would take five years, because that's how long it took Hogan. It did, and it was followed by a run that included back to back U.S. Opens. Jimmy also warned a young Jerry Pate that his swing would tear up his shoulder. Pate didn't want to hear it while he was winning everything, but after the surgeries he called Jimmy for help.

Along the way there's a dinner with Joe DiMaggio that ended with the best compliment of Jimmy's career. There's Arthur Ashe breaking 100 once golf was explained to him in tennis terms, and Peter Jacobsen skipping back surgery after one adjustment on the range. Coach Bryant tells Jimmy that fundamentals were all he ever taught. And Jimmy doesn't hold back on where he thinks today's speed chasing swings are headed for players' backs.

If you missed Part 1, go back and start there.

Every golfer has a story worth preserving. Thanks for letting us help preserve yours.

Long before he became one of the most influential golf instructors of the last 50 years, Jimmy Ballard was a teenager in Birmingham who'd quit playing golf entirely. A chance round with Lee Mackey (the man who shot 64 at the 1950 US Open) got him back on the course, and got him introduced to Sam Byrd, the man who'd define the rest of his life.

Byrd played outfield for the Yankees alongside Babe Ruth, and the two were genuinely best friends. Babe was best man at Byrd's wedding. And the single move Babe taught Byrd about hitting a baseball, keeping your arms connected to your body instead of swinging with your arms alone, became the foundation Ballard built an entire coaching career on. It's the same principle he later used to help rebuild Curtis Strange's swing from the ground up, patterned directly off the changes Ben Hogan made to his own game.

In Part 1, Jimmy takes us from his father getting him into golf at age five, through working Sam Byrd's driving range for free, to why a 40 pound video camera John Brody gave him in 1979 proved that none of his students actually did what they thought they did.

Part 2 picks up right where this one leaves off, out Wednesday.

Every golfer has a story worth preserving. Thanks for letting us help preserve yours.

Zoe Walker went from a reluctant cheerleader who wanted nothing to do with golf, to a preferred walk on for the University of Georgia women's golf team, to a professional golfer competing on the Women's All Pro Tour and Annika Tour, all while building Zalea's Golf Co, a women's golf headcover brand that started with a bag of fabric from Hobby Lobby and her grandmother's sewing machine.

In this episode, Zoe talks about growing up in Palm Desert, California surrounded by golf she had no interest in until watching Bubba Watson win the Masters changed her mind, the cold email campaign that eventually landed her a spot on Georgia's roster, closing the distance gap against a freshman class of top international recruits, and why she left a commercial real estate career to chase professional golf. She also breaks down how Zalea's Golf Co grew from custom head covers made in her dorm room into a brand carried by more than fifty wholesale accounts, including Bay Hill, and what she's building toward with Q school this September in Daytona.

Topics covered: junior golf development, walking on to SEC golf, mini tour and Annika Tour golf, Q school prep, women's golf headcovers, building a golf brand from scratch, and balancing professional golf with running a business.

Find Zalea's Golf Co at zaleasgolf.com and on Instagram @ZaleasGolf.

Every golfer has a story worth preserving. Thanks for letting us help preserve yours.

Two years ago, Stewart Cink was our very first guest. Now he's back to celebrate The Cart Barn's anniversary, talk grandkids, his six win season, and the phone notes that are running his golf game.

Full description / show notes

Two years ago, Stewart Cink sat down for the very first episode of The Cart Barn Podcast. Now he's back to help us celebrate our second birthday, and he brought a lot to talk about.

The 2001 U.S. Open champion and six time winner on the PGA Tour Champions this season opens up about becoming a full time grandpa between tournaments, the actual notes app on his phone he's used since winning at Safeway in 2020 to track swing feels, ball position, and even Bible verses, and the detailed par 3 strategy he built with caddie Chris Jones to become one of the best on tour at the shortest holes. He also breaks down the two wayward tee shots that almost cost him win number 18, why hybrids replaced his long irons, and what it's really like sharing a fairway with Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, and Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Plus, in our rapid fire round, Stewart names his favorite course to play for fun (a hidden Harry Colt gem in Chicago), his favorite golf course architects working today, and the golden age designer he thinks doesn't get enough credit.

What's inside this episode:
0:00 Welcome back to our inaugural guest for the 2 year anniversary
1:02 Life since the Regions Tradition, and full time grandparenting on the road
5:38 Family update: his dad's recovery from a broken ankle
8:35 The notes app he's kept since his 2020 Safeway win, and why it works
14:18 Bible verses, caddie Chris Jones, and the par 3 system built to win stats
20:39 Ball position, alignment sticks, and fixing what you can't feel
24:19 The physics behind more distance: launch angle over spin
27:06 How he almost blew win number 18 on a 100 yard wide fairway
31:37 Marveling at Jimenez, Langer, and Couples still winning in their 60s
35:06 Why hybrids replaced his long irons
42:35 The rest of his 2026 schedule and why he skips certain events
50:25 Rapid fire: favorite course, favorite modern and golden age designers, and his go to Bible verse

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On this week's episode of The Cart Barn, Chris Lemley and Gregg Dewalt are joined by returning guest Matt Terry, the new head men's golf coach at the University of North Alabama after nine seasons at Louisiana Tech. Terry, a Moulton, Alabama native who met his wife on the UNA campus, talks coming home to Florence, why he left Louisiana Tech to take over one of UNA's flagship athletic programs, and how the transfer portal and new nine man roster limits are reshaping college golf recruiting.

He also breaks down his young roster of four freshmen and four sophomores, three of whom followed him from Louisiana Tech, and previews a fall schedule that opens in Myrtle Beach before stops in Chicago, Kentucky, and Tulsa.

On this week's episode of The Cart Barn, Chris Lemley and Gregg Dewalt are joined by Samford University senior and reigning Alabama Women's Amateur champion Gabi Nicastro, fresh off a semifinal run at the 2026 U.S. Women's Amateur. The Huntsville, Alabama native talks entering the national tournament as the 44th seed and ranked 380th in the world, beating four higher seeded golfers to reach the final four, and falling to top seeded Anna Iwanaga after playing in a field alongside nationally ranked names like Asterisk Talley and Scarlett Schremmer. Gabi also talks her path from softball to golf, working with swing coach Craig Bachand, her What's In The Bag rundown, and the school record 10 under 62 that gave her her first collegiate win at Samford.