Jenni Falconer: Golf, Travel And Series 3 Of Routes Podcast

As Jenni Falconer’s podcast Routes returns for a third series, the Smooth Radio host and lifelong golfer talks about squeezing in a round wherever she travels, and why the game keeps pulling her back.

Jenni Falconer has spent nearly three decades in British broadcasting, but ask her what she packs first for a work trip and the answer is her golf shoes.

“Wherever I travel, I try to squeeze in a round,” says Falconer, an avid golfer. It is a habit that fits neatly with the show she is best known for beyond the breakfast sofa: Routes, the LNER-backed travel podcast she has hosted since its launch, which returned for Series 3 this month.

A Third Series of Routes

Where Routes asks its guests to reflect on the journeys that shaped them, for Falconer golf has become one of hers, a constant she picks up in a new city or a familiar course whenever the schedule allows.

Series 3 brings together GP and TV doctor Dr Amir Khan, Olympic gold medallist Victoria Pendleton, food critic Jay Rayner, Race Across the World winner Alfie Watts and broadcaster Hilary Whitehall, with more guests still to be announced.

“Routes is such a joy to be part of because every conversation is completely different,” Falconer says. “Travel connects us all in some way, but the stories behind it are what make it so fascinating. This series has an incredible line-up of guests and some really special moments, I can’t wait for people to hear it.”

Turnberry, and a Growing Scottish List

Falconer has played her way around plenty of golf’s best-known settings already. “I’ve been so lucky to play some brilliant courses through this job and just through travelling generally, Sardinia, Spain, South Africa, Portugal and loads around the UK,” she says. “But the standout for me was the Ailsa course at Turnberry. Genuinely one of the best rounds of my life. It’s given me a proper list of Scottish courses I want to work through now, the links courses up there are just a dream to play and I’m desperate to play more.”

That love of links golf has not yet stretched to the most famous course of all. “St Andrews, without question,” she says of her golfing bucket list. “Given how much I love Scottish links golf, it feels mad I haven’t played the Old Course yet, that’s very much on the list.”

Given the choice, though, she knows exactly what she is drawn to. “I’m a sucker for golf in the sun. Playing in the Med, where you can rely on good weather most of the year, is hard to beat. There’s something about golf and warmth together that just feels like a win.”

Jenni Falconer on a golf course — Jenni Falconer is best known for breakfast radio and her hit podcast Routes, but she’s also a dedicated golfer

What Golf Gives Her That Running Doesn’t

Where running slots into any spare half hour, golf demands more of her, and she is honest about the trade-off. “It’s time-consuming, and unlike running, the weather can just take it off the table entirely if the course closes. Running I can do in almost anything, golf needs the conditions to cooperate.”

In summer she tries to play once a week, nine holes if a full round will not fit. “Running is the thing I control completely, it fits round me, any time, any weather, no one else needed. Golf is the opposite, it asks for a proper chunk of your day and depends on other people and the elements lining up. But that’s part of the appeal. It’s social in a way running isn’t, and there’s a patience to it. You can have a shocking front nine and still turn it round, which is a different kind of mental game to training for a marathon.”

Beyond the Fairway

Golf is only one thread in a packed year for Falconer. In 2025 she completed her tenth London Marathon and published her first book, Runner’s High. She co-founded women’s health brand Kollo Health in 2020, whose latest product, MenoSupport, speaks directly to conversations around menopause and women’s health. Between the marathons, the podcast and a broadcasting career now closing in on thirty years, she has also been open about what it takes to hold all of it together while raising a family.

It is that mix of ambition and honesty that makes her an easy fit for a golf audience. She is not a tour pro trading on a low handicap, she is someone who treats the game the way most of her listeners do: as something to protect time for, wherever life and work happen to take her next.