The Fried Egg Golf Podcast · The Fried Egg

2026 Players Championship Preview & Fried Egg Stories: Making TPC Sawgrass

·1 hr 55 min

Andy opens with a joke about missing greens and finding the dreaded fried egg lie. That bit of comic misery sets the tone for a preview that treats golf as both obsession and inconvenience. The Players becomes the doorway into championship season, even as Andy says plainly that he does not count it as a major. Sean Martin joins for the preview, bringing the easy familiarity of a longtime regular guest and the perspective of someone who knows the event well. The tournament is also his hometown event, which gives the discussion a small personal edge. The episode lands right after Bay Hill and with the Masters quickly approaching, so the calendar pressure is hard to miss. Spring feels like it is arriving all at once. The conversation does not stay locked on predictions. It keeps widening into what the event means and what the tournament asks of players and viewers. That is where the show sounds most itself. It likes to move from a specific week to a broader question about golf design, golf habits, and the shape of the sport. Sean and Andy also drift into a more reflective conversation about how golf changes when it becomes work. They note the familiar, slightly depressing truth that some players seem to do it because they are paid to do it, not because they still love every part of it. The point is not delivered like a verdict. It comes out through casual talk and side anecdotes. One story involves a tour player seeing a golf course from a car window and wanting to stop and play it. Another player in the car reacts with disbelief, which makes the difference between golf as vocation and golf as hobby feel very clear. Sean then turns the lens on himself and admits that work has taken some of the recreational golf out of his life. He says he loves what he does, but he does not play nearly as much for himself anymore. That is said without self pity. It lands as one of those adult tradeoffs that quietly reshape a life. The episode is better for that honesty. A stories segment brings the architecture side back into view. That part keeps the episode anchored in the details of how famous golf places come to be. The show moves the way it usually does, from a loose prompt to a story, then to a larger point about the game. It is conversational without feeling loose. It is informed without sounding formal. It leaves room for banter, but the banter always returns to golf. By the end, the Players feels less like a single tournament preview than a way of thinking about the sport itself. It is about the week, the players, and the odd fact that golf can still feel personal even at this level. The episode makes space for all of that without trying to over polish it.

As heard by us

A Players preview that gets more interesting when it wanders into golf's day-to-day reality.

This Players preview starts as a picks segment and then drifts into a better conversation about why golf feels bigger this week. Andy Johnson and Sean Martin are clear about where they land on the event's major-status debate, and Sean Martin's familiar presence keeps the talk…

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Why you'd press play

You want a chatty Players preview with Sean Martin and Andy Johnson.

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