(Ricki C. here: We originally ran this blog by Lizard McGee of Earwig back in May, 2020, the week the second season of ABC-TV’s Holey Moley debuted, because back then we didn’t know which episode of the show would feature Lizard. We’re re-running it today because that episode is finally here: Lizard appears this Thursday, July 30th. Part Two of the blog - which we’ve been saving up - will appear this Wednesday, July 29th, as an added reminder for everybody to watch.

I’m really glad Lizard penned the blogs back in May. I completely missed the first season of Holey Moley last year, and it turns out it is the PERFECT show for a Pandemic Summer: Joe Tessitore & Rob Riggle (one of my favorite people from the old Daily Show) are hilarious on the commentary, the miniature golf holes on the show seem to have been designed by a troupe of 12-year old boys on acid, and it’s a treat for my lovely wife Debbie & I to watch on Thursdays.

You can keep your Ozark’s, your Hamilton’s, your Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s; give me mini-golfers getting their asses knocked in the water.)

Columbus, Ohio Indie rocker, Lizard McGee (of the band Earwig), is making his network TV premier this Thursday, July 30th, at 8 pm on ABC’s Holey Moley, a golf-themed game show where players compete for a grand prize of $250,000.00. McGee is accustomed to the pressures of live performance from his time spent on-stage with Earwig, but admits that the extreme mini-golf competition, produced by NBA all-star Stephen Curry and hosted by Joe Tessitore and comedian Rob Riggle, was stepping a bit outside of his comfort zone. “Holey Moley replaces the very popular obstacle course game-show Wipeout," says McGee. “It’s mini-golf but you also have to contend with water-cannons, flame-throwers, a giant windmill, sumo wrestlers and all sorts of wacky challenges while you’re putting. I took some really hard hits but I enjoyed it.”

Holy Moley features several pro and semi-pro golfers as well as Instagram influencers and other celebrities competing in a series of head-to-head, sudden-death matchups on a supersized miniature golf obstacle course. Many of the players have a mainstream golfing pedigree, but there are a few players that occupy the fringes of golf normalcy. That’s where McGee says he fit in. “I pitched myself to the show’s producers as a ‘Rock Star’, I play in an underground band but I’m also a really good golfer.”

Lizard McGee will be a featured player in this upcoming season. McGee wore a vintage David Bowie inspired costume and came up with his own alter-ego, including stage make-up.

PART 1: HOLEY MOLEY and a HEART SHAPED BRUISE - by Lizard McGee

Believe it or not, there are some cool Rock Stars that play golf. Alice Cooper and Mike Mills (of REM) both come to mind. I’m sure there are more. But for my money, golf has always seemed like an “establishment” sport. Let’s just say that I don’t belong to the local country club. Though I’ve never played golf on a regular golf course, I’ve become a golfing rock and roller too. It’s not something that I expected to happen.

When I’m not busy playing rock music with Earwig, I like to play golf in my yard. I live in a remote location deep in the woods of Southern Ohio. Just for kicks, I decided to put a nine hole golf course on my property so that my best friend The O.M.G. and I could have some fun competing on the weekends. Thirteen years ago we decided to start a renegade underground yard-golf tournament that we named The Silver Baby Cup. We invited folks from all over to come camp at my place and spend a 3-day weekend playing music and having a golf tournament. The way it works is that if you win the tournament, you get a trophy, a cool jacket, more glory than you can stomach and… you have to build your own course and then host the party the next year! That’s how SBC was born. SBC has become a big, awesome part of my life. 

After last year’s SBC event my buddy Rich (previous Earwig bassist who now lives in NYC) told me about Holey Moley. Holy Moley is an Extreme Mini Golf Challenge competition/reality show. He had watched it and loved it. He said that he thought that I’d be a perfect contestant and that I should apply to be on the show. I‘d never seen it, but it sounded cool so I went online, filled out the form and forgot about it. Turns out that the show is a massively popular hit on ABC. The producers got back in touch with me about a week later and wanted to arrange a Skype interview. I found out that the show had thousands of applicants with huge open casting calls in LA and online. After all was said and done, I’m amazed that I even got picked to be on the show. Many of the players on the show are serious golf competitors with years of skill development. Luckily for me, Holey Moley throws that out the window with the wacky mini-golf hazards and there is a lot of luck involved. I’m legally not allowed to say who won, but I am very happy with how I performed. It was a fantastic experience and I’d do it again in a heart beat.

Holy Moley is filmed at a big ranch just outside of Los Angeles. Security on the set is tight. They keep all of the golfers secluded in a big tent on the far side of the property, away from the action. To keep everything fair, you’re not allowed to watch any of the other players navigate the challenges. The show is not as scripted as I imagined it would be. There are cameras everywhere and whatever happens, good or bad, you can be sure that they caught it on tape. There’s a great moment where I meet my first competitor. We had been hanging out in the tent all day and bonded over our love of cats (You should know, I have lots of cats!). We had no idea we’d be playing against each other and they caught us on camera exactly when we found out. Everything you will see on the show is very in-the-moment and all of the big reveals are completely legit. Once, right after playing a challenge, I was ushered around a corner and the show’s correspondent Jeannie Mai surprised me with a live interview. Just moments earlier, I had been struggling not to drown in my water-logged David Bowie-Life On Mars suit and was trying to catch my breath. Suddenly I had a camera and a microphone thrust in my face. I can’t remember exactly what I said or if it was even intelligible. The production of the show is a Herculean effort with hundreds of people working behind the scenes to make it all happen. The killer techs and the show’s crew were some of the coolest people I got to meet. It’s all filmed at night. Sometimes things don’t go as planned and there are delays. The first time you see me on the show it is 5:30 am and I had been on set for 15 hours before getting to actually play golf. The next time you see me on the show it’s one full week later. I loved the experience of being on Holey Moley. It was a great challenge and I came home with some fantastic bruises including a big black and blue one on my chest, right next to my heart. Which brings me to the song… Heart Shaped Bruise.

The Müligans are a guitar and drums, raw rock duo. Trapper Haskins plays guitar, I play drums and we both sing. Trapper is from Nashville. We met through the crazy underground golf tournament (Silver Baby Cup) and became friends right away. Trapper and I are both previous SBC champions. When you bring home the trophy, you have to build your own course and host the party the next year. One year, Trapper and I decided to start a band to play the party to entertain everyone. Since then the Müligans have performed at SBC three times. Those are the only times we’ve played, each with almost zero rehearsal. We just show up and play. We take popular songs and re-write them with golf lyrics. For instance “The One I Love” by R.E.M. turns into “(This One Goes Out To) The Shot I Missed.” “Born In The U.S.A.” by Springsteen becomes “Golf In The State Of Maine.” Trapper is an amazing songwriter and singer in his own right and he just released a phenomenal record called “Blood In The Honey.” I highly recommend you seek it out. Earwig also has a new record in the works. But with the current pandemic, it could take us a while to complete it. 

A couple of years back at the SBC golf tournament, my wife Michelle got hit with a golf ball by a friend. She took it like a champ, but the ball left a bruise in the shape of a heart. It was a pretty sweet bruise, to tell the truth. Trapper had the idea that we should write an original song about SBC and playing golf with our friends to perform at the next year’s tournament. That’s how “Heart Shaped Bruise” was born. We played the song for the first time last fall. After being on Holey Moley, now I think of this song in a whole new light. I made some new friends on Holey Moley and I do miss it thrill of the experience and competition. For me, Heart Shaped Bruise applies to Holey Moley now too. Especially since I got nailed pretty hard on the show and came home with a big black and blue bruise on my chest! You’ll have to watch the show to see what I mean. This new song is about golf and more. I feel like it captures my experience with Holey Moley and SBC.

The Müligans are releasing our first single - Heart Shaped Bruise. Check out the promo clip below. You can download the song for free on May 19th via Bandcamp (link below).

 Here’s a promo video for Heart Shaped Bruise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwMbYFcfnjk

You can download the new song HEART SHAPED BRUISE for free here…..

https://lizardmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/heart-shaped-bruise