Fore Play - Debrief: Wisconsin Golf Trip

Episode Date: July 11, 2019

From Erin Hills to Sand Valley to Whistling Straits and beyond, we breakdown our entire 4th of July week golf trip through Wisconsin. Riggs and Lurch rented a 12-person passenger van and toured through Wisconsin with 6 other buddies, and returned to talk about it. Kettle Loops, Sandboxes, Spotted Cows, Fescue Rescues and MUCH more!!!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Big show, we go through our entire Wisconsin golf trip, how we booked it, all that good stuff. Well, when you book tea times, you should be using Supreme Golf. They are the best. They are our guys. SupremeGoff.com slash bars stool. They're also giving away the ultimate Pinehurst experience to one lucky winner.

That prize includes four-night stay at the Carolina Hotel for two, four rounds of golf, including one at Pinehurst number two. U.S. Open Track, shout out to our close personal friend, the USDA, and a bunch of other stuff. Again, that is the ultimate Pinehurst experience. They also have the cradle there, which we talk about in the show, just because we love Little Part 3 courses. Head to Supreme Golf.com slash bar stool. Download the Spring Golf app in your store. Now we're going to talk some Wisconsin. Let's do this.

We are back. We've got an incredibly interesting show. It is myself. We have Lurch and then we have our buddy Pete. Pete, say what's up? Hey, guys. How are you? First time doing a podcast.

Kind of an awkward intro there. Pete, I love it. So Pete's one of our good buddies, lives in the city. Was it Wisconsin with us? This whole show is going to be a breakdown of the Wisconsin trip. I imagine everybody followed along, whether it's on Foreplay Instagram, mine, Lurge, P. Insta got a couple shoutouts out there. We were all over the goddamn place.

We did Aaron Hills. We did Sand Valley. We did the Kohler problem. We drove all over the place kind of covered as much as we could in like a five-day spans. We're going to go through that entire thing. We are going to break it down, golf travel. People love that shit. What was Wisconsin like?

What did you love? How do you rank the courses? How was the hospitality? Where should we stay? All those questions. We're going to go through it in great detail. We got pages and pages of notes. The guys that couldn't make the podcast are currently frantically texting notes.

Like, you got to say this. You got to say that. We got a crafty lefty that's putting in late. Last minute notes right now. Late submissions. I did a poll. I put out a poll from the group. There were eight of us of rank all your courses.

Give me, you know, you have the most fun moment of the trip. So there's a lot of stuff to go through. Before we get to that, a little bit of housekeeping, go to our YouTube page. Okay. I was, when I get bored, I just scroll through our YouTube page alone, shit that I've seen before. You type in four plate golf, look it up. We got videos coming out the ass, man. We got the whole video podcast of David Faradie, who was in the office earlier.

We've put out the Brooks Kebka. we've put out 18 holes that I played with Bubba Watson. We put out all 18 holes of us playing Bethpage Black. That puppy's got like 100 something thousand views. So go check out our YouTube page. We're trying to get our subscriber numbers up. That's how you can help us. That's how you can support us.

Those fucking subscribers turn into money and then we can do more cool shit and put more videos up there. So on YouTube, brand new thing. We're all over it. We just kind of adopted it recently. You're going to love it. Brand new thing. Brand new. I mean, it's awesome if you haven't.

You know, there's a lot of funny videos on there too. So you can have a good time scrolling through YouTube before you do that. subscribe to our damn page and merch go to store. Dot barstoolsports.com. We got new shit coming out all the time. I got a couple things, a couple samples that came in today. We're going to be putting even more stuff out in the next couple months.

We might have some shoes, some custom shoes that are apparently supposed to arrive and be available come August. That's right, Barstool Golf shoes. We've got towels, the little white ones that we're going to put on now, that you drape over your clothes if you want to look like you're really good player. They're sick. They're sick. They brought one home the other day.

And it is absolutely beautiful. Oh, it's gorgeous. That's a good one. Those two things that I just teased are not available yet, but they will be. And if you want to know what's available, you go to store. Dot barstoolsports.com. All right. Wisconsin, we were there from what, July 3rd, I think, basically July 3rd through

through, no, today's the 10th. I can't be right. I think we'd get the dates right. The 7th is when we left. It was basically 4th of July. You know, we were there 4th of July week, five days that we did. I like to, when I book a golf trip, people ask all the time, where do you start? I always like to start with one spot.

What's like the one place that you're going to build your trip around? Wisconsin's very different in that, you know, you get a bunch of kind of hot spots that are within a few hours driving of each other. And so my main one was Sand Valley, actually. And that's going to be quite interesting because when we go through it, you're going to look at the rankings and all that. My main thing was I got to get to San Valley. And the reason I wanted to get San Valley is because it's a Mike Kaiser property. He built Bandon Dunes. He built Cabot.

The whole idea of kind of sand-based golf where there's not chandeliers and like water fountain. It's kind of like hardcore golf. That's the main focus. That's what people are coming here for. Remote, remote destinations. Bandon, like I said, Cabot up in fucking Nova Scotia where we went last year. And San Valley was there next one. They had a par three course, a couple new courses, Core Crenshaw, David McLeague Kid.

So it was on my radar. I got to get there. Then from there it was, well, if you're going to go to, you know, if you're going to go to San Valley, you've got to do whistling straits. You've got to do a couple other of the Kohler courses. Then from there it was like, well, should we play Aaron Hills? They had the U.S. Open. We originally weren't going to. We actually were not going to play Aaron Hills.

Which is shocking. Which is shocking. That is just a crazy thing to think about now. But again, to get to the origins of the trip, that's pretty much where it came from. We knew we'd have about five days off. I started hitting a couple buddies up. Trent Frankie already had Fourth of July plan, so they were out. Lurch was in.

PD and a couple other guys started to formulate the group, guys that love golf. People pretty much said yes, right fucking away, as you can imagine. And so we started to build it out just to get to like real bare logistics. We flew into Chicago because it was like two or three hundred dollars cheaper. Flew in and out of Chicago. Like I said, I think we were all able to get round trips two or three months out for like 200 and something bucks. Which is fantastic. You can fly into Milwaukee.

You can fly into Madison. It was just more expensive. So our original plan was flying to Chicago Tuesday night. All the boys sink up. We'll have a couple beers where we rented a 12-person passenger van. We're going to rip up up through Wisconsin. It was like you're back on, you know, any of us played team sports. It was perfect.

Same thing. Exactly. You just pile it in. You go to the next destination. You're all smiles. You're like, this is going to be awesome. Can't wait for some competition. You're kind of like regrouping for the last one.

But the best is all the boys are together and there's no better way. And it couldn't work out better in terms of the, the van. So we just rented. We just went up, just Googled it, just fucking rented a 12-person passenger van, picked that puppy up at O'Hara. We stayed the night in Chicago Tuesday. A couple people had some flight issues, but by Wednesday morning, we were ready to rock. A couple. A couple is a little bit of an understatement. Riggs and I fly to Chicago. We're roommates in New York City, and we're pretty much the only guys that get to Chicago at the right time. Other guys filed in, but it was amazing because Riggsie and I were

literally in Chicago having a dinner between the two of us like we often do on a regular night. We did. But, you know, I was the third person there and it was 3.30 in the morning. Yeah, you guys legit. Yeah, you guys got there. Got hosed. You guys got there like 3.30 in the morning. You had to pick up the van. That was tough.

That was a tough break to kick off the trip. But I will say, do you guys credit you got like an hour and a half of sleep? We all popped up. A couple guys decided to come in Wednesday morning at like 6.30 a.m. They were like landed with their bags by 7.15. We scooped them up in the van. One other guy had gotten totally fucked at work. and had to fly into, I believe, Milwaukee.

Yep. And we were going to be, you know, we couldn't quite sink up and driving through Milwaukee, so he's going to have to meet us at Aaron Hills, which, by the way, we added Aaron Hills last minute because they reached out and a bunch of people reached out. And basically it was anarchy. They demanded it, there was like a revolt. They were like, we demand if you go to Wisconsin, you got to play Aaron Hills. We're going to play Lesonia Links. Lesonia Links, God bless their hearts, man.

And we're going to get more details to them. God bless their hearts. They were so recommended. it's the best deal it's a fantastic golf course it's public it doesn't cost that much to play you got to play it i was like that's common man golf to a tea will be there i move my tea times up i move my tea times back we we kept telling him we're going to do this that eventually we're like we'll push aaron hill we'll push lusonia links back first stop because logistics and basically uh geography it just makes sense to go to wisconsin loop yep wisco lute baby rolling aaron hills takes us about what two and a half

three hours from yeah i think that's fair oh hair it's traffic eat you They should take, like, a little over two. It was probably closer to three. You got eight guys. It's just kind of a shit joke. Probably took us a little closer to three. We get to Aaron Hills a little bit after, I think, 10 in the morning, somewhere around there. You're driving through nothing.

It's cornfields. It is nothing that you're driving to. Gas stations. Gas stations. It's pretty much like that. Shout out Keyzie, man. We got that fucking guy forgot about Keys. This guy, oh, my favorite DM of the whole week was, hey, man, I own a gas station.

There's mobile right outside of Milwaukee. You got a Firework station outside You got to be there It's a must stop I got an address For a mobile gas station We saw 9 million on the way

Stop to this specific one Keys ended up Couldn't even meet us Couldn't give us Didn't give us a care package or anything But we went to his gas station Beautiful spot Yeah nice spot

Loaded up there Loaded up We got a bunch of the spotted cows Which are quite delicious Farmhouse ale You can only get it in Wisconsin Delicious beer Load it up

A couple Trulies We get to Aaron Hills And you can first see Aaron Hills From like half a mile away and you can see the structures. They're facilities, the huge barns, the clubhouse. It all sits atop the highest point in the property.

And right away, all the boy, it's like we're in fucking Jurassic Park. Everybody's looking out of the left side of the van like, ooh. Great point. But even before that, there was no sign like 10 miles out. Very minimal. Because you were my co-pilot as I was driving. We're like, I think we're getting close. I think we're getting close.

Don't really know. It says it's up here two miles. I don't see anything. And there's like a wooden sign, I think, at the entrance. that's just understated. So understated. It looks like a mailbox. Yep.

And that speaks to, he was a true gentleman, whoever greeted to this, which is one of the nicest guys, put us on a great path right there. Yeah, the guy, the gatekeeper. Yep.

He gives you, okay, what's your crew? You give him the name. No problem. Come on in. And then it's a pretty, you know, it's like maybe a half mile drive or somewhere,

a quarter mile drive. Once you're actually inside the gate, you kind of wind up this little hill. You start to get closer. The gigantic buildings, like kind of take full shape. And you realize, like, man, I'm pulling into a scene right here.

It's very well organized, the most well-organized experience that we had the entire trip. That was pretty much unanimous. You pull right up to the bag drop. When you pull up to the bag drop, all of your caddies. The general manager basically, they're right there. Now, we obviously are us. So they were media, right? Like, they know they're getting exposure.

You always have to factor that in. They want us to be there. They take care of us in a lot of different ways. Each place is a little bit different, but they take care of us when we're there. However, the sense that I got from a lot of the messages that I got from people was like, Aaron Hills is the best golf experience I've ever had, is what a lot of people sit. Pete? I mean, I was the Aaron Hills guy for most of the trip.

It was the, we were excited after a long flight, long drive. You're playing a U.S. Open course. That's not something you get to do every day. And just the excitement level. it seemed genuine. I know that they were excited that we were coming, but I think they would have been excited

if we were no buddies, if it was me and my buddies without the barstool. Yeah, they had that kind of present, that kind of like feel, just the way they kicked off. Their job was to make you have a great day,

and I think they would have done that for anyone. Yes, 100%. And again, going through all the notes and the messages and submissions that we got, that's the vibe that everyone gets that plays there. Is, man, they treat you like you're kind of like they're lucky to have you there.

You know, from the minute you kind of arrive, They take care of you. Hey, guys, what would you like to do? You're looking for a quick drink. You're looking to go right to the range. Do you want to run up to the pro shop real quick? Parking lots over there.

I think they parked the car for us. They're legit. They asked to, but we had a bunch of stuff. We came in a 12-man van. They tried to. They were trying to do everything they could besides like swing the golf club for us. Yeah, it was great. Roll right up to the pro shop.

A plus logo. So naturally you got to do some damage at the pro shop. We got Fescue rescues right out of the gate, which Feskew rescue is a, Basically their version, Wisconsin version of the transfusion, if you will. I mean, it's very different, but it's kind of that golf course drink. Jameson, ginger beer, and lemonade. We must have drank. Jake's all jacked up about that.

Mr. Jake's fired up. We drank those all day there and all day at Whistling Straits. It was just Vescue Rescues. You got a cocktail on your hand. You check in. You stroll outside to the back deck. And you can just, you immediately are exposed to this huge vista. there's a massive putting green beneath you

there's kind of all these cottages and barns over on the left you don't really know what each facility is but you just know they all look kind of have that feel like they've been there for 100 years but also their state of the art you know and then behind it is this expansive and kind of perfectly manicured golf course among kind of like golden reddish fescue

and you don't know like what the holes are right? you just see fairway green, fescue, and it kind of right away, it's a very enticing, like, mystery of like, what am I looking at? Yeah, what's out there. What's out there? Holy shit. We're about to experience this. We had a cocktail.

We arrived. Then you walk down this little hill over to the range. And before you get on the range, you walk over this little ledge. All your caddies are standing by your bag. And at that point, I mean, that was one of the highlights of the trip. Totally. I mean, I will say the rolling hills protect the property and the visuals, too. they keep something that like it's waiting to be revealed each time.

Like when we're sitting on the clubhouse deck there, have it and drink, I'm sure we'll get into it a bunch, but our guy, Steve, was pretty much pointing out the whole property to us. And you, like, saw spots. And, like, you saw, oh, that's the first tea. And it kind of goes out over there. But then you lost sight of it. Then you might see the green.

It speaks to the same way when you first walk past. So we went down, dropped our bags off by the caddy barn, did the whole thing. They asked to park the van. But it's right in that area that you walk down past to get to the driving range. And so we walked down. We walk over this hill, then we see all of our caddies, people get warmed up, all fired up, just getting ready for the day. And then the driving range and the practice facilities are state of the art. They're absolutely stunning, absolutely gorgeous.

And right from that moment, like all the boys, you know, were seven of us. We're about to get into how the last guy get there and speak to the hospitality of Aaron Hills and the invitation. But seven us are all excited, unpack the van, ready for this unbelievable Wisco golf loop. And it was like no better way to get started than on that first. presentation here we go whisko golf this is what it's all about and everybody in their mind is like i'm gonna shoot even part of that i can't wait yeah i i are my buddy dug who he could he meant he had to miss his flight the night before he couldn't get there in time flew right to milwaukee and i told i hit up aaron hill's like hey just so you guys know we might have a guy that's a couple

minutes late maybe he might have to miss a hole or two is there any way you guys can like drive them out to us they're like we'll go pick them up like what do you mean you go pick him up i know what's his name what's his flight number we'll just pick him up like all right whether you're at the playing around with the guys or on the PGA tour, do not be unprepared for messy situations on the course. Pack some dude wipes and dude shower wipes. Now, they got a bunch of good stuff, okay? Over at dude wipes.

My favorite is the face wipes. They got these little dude face wipe things. After a round of golf, when you don't have time to shower, you just throw these little, you pull this thing out of the packet that make it so perfectly a little design. You just give it a little pinch, pull that thing out of there, wipe your face with it. You feel perfect.

You feel refreshed. All that sunscreen, all the other crap that you put on your face. You don't want that seeping into your pores. It's just, it's not right. So before you go sit down at the 19th hole, you grab these little face wipes, you wipe your face, it's got all the right stuff in it, boom, you're ready to rock. They've also got the dude, the actual, like, legit dude wipes, which I keep in my bag, because I have had to shit on the golf course.

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But if you go to dudeproducts.com today, you're going to get 20% off with promos code rigs 20. Dudeproducts.com today, 20% off promo code rigs 20. Sure enough, we go through everything we just described. We're on the range. We're getting loose. Our caddies have a bunch of excitement. We walk over to the first tee. We're about 10 minutes before the first tea time.

Sure enough, here comes Doug. Just strutting across the green. Perfect. Gitty. Oh, he's so giddy. He's got his caddies right with him. He strolls right over. and the first tee they've got

their first tee little hut. It's got everything, right? It's got all little tools you need from T's to scorecards to divot, fix it, all that stuff, ballmark fixers, and then they've got a bar right there too. So you can load up right before you go out.

The first T sits below and sort of exposed to a lot of the different facilities. So you kind of feel like, like, man, are people like watching me from afar? Like, what's going on here? First hole is this dog leg, kind of slight dog leg left, par five.

massive par five with Feske you up the right and right out of the gate, you're off. You know, in terms of the golf course, it was something that I, like, part of the reason we originally weren't going to play it was because a couple of people had told me, you know, it's a bear, it's a battle, it's a little expensive, and I would just skip it if I were you. And again, like, and we're going to get into kind of trip logistics and how, you know, how do you do it do you take a day off one day? Is it too much? What's too much?

All that stuff. but the original thinking was just like fine we'll just skip aaron hills we're going to do the lusonia thing we can ride in carts there that'll be a good way to get into it i love the golf course i mean i thought the golf course was spectacular i thought it was challenging but the fairways are wide so if you're driving it decently at all you're in play on every hole the other thing was the fescue there it was punishing but you found every single golf ball i think that's the number one thing it's huge yeah i mean i i i was under the impression that I was going to be searching for balls all day. You know, I got a two with a red dot on it. We're looking for 20 minutes and I'm dropping, you know, chipping for three, you know, whatever the case may be. And A, the caddies were spot on.

They knew exactly where your miss was and where to look. But then we got out there, we would have found those balls on our own. Yes. I don't, as a group, we might have lost four golf balls all day. Yeah. Which is shocking to me. And I was insane. I mean, I shot 91 as a.

six handicap there and didn't lose a ball the whole day. You know, just didn't lose a golf ball. And that is fun, right? Like, I missed every fucking fairway. I couldn't hit the fairways to save my life and you'd get up there and right away there'd be a towel on your ball. You know, your looper had your ball. You had a swing at it. It might not be great, but like

you're fine. You're in play. You're able to take another swing. Towards the back nine, I mean, once it got into like, late afternoon, I legitimately kept thinking of my head that it reminded me of Shinnecock. I mean, it was like this reddish, type fescue with this expansive property where you could kind of overlook everything.

And it gave me Shinnecock vibes. I know some people listen to it might like make them puke. Oh, it's new. This I don't give a fuck if it's new. I don't care if it's been there for 10 years or if it's been there for 150 years. It had that same kind of look. And the course was super fun. I mean, the ninth hole that par three were crazy green and bunkers everywhere.

Tough one. It was a tough one. One of my all-time tweets. I don't have a big following. but I tweeted out a picture of my boy Pete over here trying to get out of a little greenside bunker. And I think that's got about 10 or 11,000 views. So well done, Pete. It took you about three minutes and eight shots to get out, but you did it.

I will say the third shot was out of the bunker was an excellent golf shot. I don't think people can probably tell how difficult that was. That was impressive. Give it out a look. That was impressive. Yeah, the rate job was only more so. But well done. You got out.

And look, you can get in some brutal, brutal spots at Aaron Hills. That's what it is. It's a U.S. Open golf course. But I think play responsible T's, and if you don't catch it on like a ridiculous windy day, which we did not. I mean, there was win, but it wasn't crazy. It's very playable.

I mean, I think if you hit the ball, well, it's super playable. You always find your ball, like we said. As long as you don't do anything crazy, even if you hit in the Feske, you can hack a wedge out up just short of the green chip on and have a part button pretty much every hole. That's what I thought I loved about the course, too,

because off the T, you like, you pretty much, once you're on the T-box, you can see what you're going to get into on this hole. So if you hit good shots, as Keppka would say, like you're going to be fine shape. As long as you get Fairways and Greens, you're in great shape. But if you miss it and you're in a bunker, yeah, you're going to have a bad lie.

You can get into the fescue, as Pete talked about. And Riggs is, you know, if you get in the fescue, it's thin, though. It's like, it's penalizing. There's no way you can get, like, an unbelievable iron shine on. Exactly. You're kind of punching it out, but it's not, like, healthy thick where it sits at the bottom of it and it's just lost.

Like, it's in there. It's going to be a tough shot out. You can get it out. It's very fair. I just love the course. I can't say enough about it. I thought it was actually perfect. Shout out to my guy, Ben, who was my caddy out there?

Who, man, he spent some time in that fescue. I can't tell you how much time. It can't be worse than Viggie's caddy. No. Oh, yeah. I was talking to Viggy before we came on here. And he said, give a shout out to Sof. She called him out for hitting 11.

He was talking about how often he had been in the fescue over the course of the day. And so from the background goes, you've been in it 11 times. on like the 16 pole. So she had been counting how many times he hit in the fescue. And at one point told him if you hit it in there again, you're going in by yourself. Which was awesome. Shout out to Sof. Shout out to my guy, Tim.

Both, we had a great group that day. Yeah, the caddies there were unbelievable. We had the Tim's, Sophia, and then my boy Hanky-Panky. Started out as Alex on the third hole. You know, my buddy's calling me Lurch or other nicknames that I have. And I was like, Alex, you have any other names? but like, you know, nicknames besides Alex? And he's like, yeah, my friend's call me Hanky.

So I was like, all right, well, I'm going to change that a little bit. And I started playing well on the front. So I started calling him Hanky-Panky, and I'll tell you what, they're all beauties out there. Oh, they're great. So we finish up. We got to grab a quick snack. And then they do. How about that tavern, though?

Oh, that was great. Yep. I did not expect that. No, kind of a dark little tavern that sits out, what, like just left of the first tea? I think that's where they're room. Their room's in there. Gotcha. Are you talking about after the 18?

Yes, after the 18. One quick story, though, before we finish the 18, was, so they're all unbelievable people there. Steve, Derek, the crew, the caddies, everybody that consumes Aaron Hills as lovely people. But shout out to my boy, Hanky Panky, because we're walking up like the 12th or 13th hole. I forget.

We're all loose having a bunch of rescue fescus. Fescue, yes. Yeah, you know, sometimes I mess those up. Thank you, I appreciate it. No, you're welcome. Language is about understanding. We're all right. I understood what you meant.

So anyways, we're walking up, you know, again, I'm wrong, but it could be the 12th, 13, 14th hole, and I look at my, like, we're out of beers in our little bag. And I look at my boy Hanky-Panky, I'm like, is there anything we can do? And he's like, yeah, like, we can fill those up for you, no problem. He's like, let me just call my guy. Calls Derek.

Derek's down there in, like, a split second in a golf cart, grabs the bag for me, rips back up, goes and fills it up with, like, 20 beers, and we've got plenty of beers and finished the round. And, you know, it's just, like, made that golf experience just a thousand times better. And another little story I forgot during that first. First 18 and everybody remembers we're going to play Aaron Hills.

We're going to drive another hour and a half or two hours. We're going to play Lesonia links. We're going to finish the drive and go up to San Valley for the night. Well, I'm looking at my email right now, which I pulled up Wednesday, July 3rd at 2.15 p.m. Timely email from our guy, Steve, at Aaron Hills. It just says, so I know you're headed to Lusonia. If you would like to stay the night, we could put you guys up in Waterville, one of our best cottages or two if you need it. Just throwing it out there and includes the link.

Now, at this point. That's so good. I'm at Aaron Hills. It's a perfect, perfect afternoon. First leg of the trip, I'm out there with seven of my great buddies. We're having a bunch of fescue rescue, some spotted cows. Suns kind of, you start to see it starting to set. I mean, it takes several hours.

It's summertime. It's going to be a long day, but, you know, it's suns just gorgeous in the sky. And I'm sitting there thinking, do I really want to get back in that fucking van and drive for a couple more hours and squeeze in, you know, Lasonia Links? Or could we just post up in those gorgeous fucking cottages I'm looking at up there? This bore the name Cuxonia Links because Aaron Hills just straight up cucked Lysonia Lings. By her dear friend Chainsaw. Yep. Our good old buddy chainsaw just started going Cucsonia Links got cucked.

And they did. And again, I apologize because Lasonia was nothing but they moved T-Times around. I kept asking them to. Like, no problem. Come by with you can. If you can, I've got a bunch of photos. The place looks amazing. Next trip, it's a must-play for me.

It's a must-play. Any of you going, go by Lesonia links. But at this point, again, in the state that we were in, I said to the group, hey, I just got this email. What do you guys think about just staying the night here at Aaron Hills? Everybody done, done, done, done. Let's do it. So we did. We said.

Before you go, I think you may know this now, but at the time, when we arrived, Steve's goal that whole time was to get us to spend the night. And so we were in the locker room pre-round. And he's, I'm talking to Steve. I love Steve. Yep. And he's like, let's, I'm happy to go play nine with you guys afterwards, happy to have you for dinner. We've got these cottages that we'd love the boys to stay in. And I was about to say, like, I'm going to stay and I'll like Uber, you know, I'll figure it out.

I'll get to San Valley somehow. Like the boys can go. I'll stay with you, Steve. I'll be with you, Steve. And, you know, he did exactly what he was set out to do, which was to get the boys to spend the night. He played his car. He's a pro's pro. He knows exactly what his role.

is there and he kills he's unbelievable he played his cards perfectly now the more you look at it and research it you know and i look up erin hills and they're you know a huge part of their draw is their cottages and their facilities and all of that when you go to their site i mean the most highest value that you get is their stay in play you can pay for a round of golf stay the night and then they give you like another round the next day basically like two for one rounds and it's an amazing amazing experience so that is a huge goal of theirs and it makes a lot of sense because we did do that. We decided to stay. They have a bunch of really cool

shit if you stay for overnight guests. One of them is the kettle loop, which what we did was we did. We hit that tavern like they said. We grabbed a bunch more drinks. The kettle loop, and I'm going to describe as they described it on their website. In 2018, we introduced the kettle loop, a collection of five holes carved from the existing

18, designed specifically for overnight guests who don't quite have the time for nine or 18 holes before sunset or just want some more fun time on the course after the round. Ketaloup provides a fun, late afternoon golf option through the use of two new teas and little used teas on the other three holes. The loop presents a different look for each hole than what the golfer sees during their full round. Kettle loop will evolve each year as we explore adding teas and or greens.

So what we did was we were like, fuck it, let's do a two-man scramble because we were having a big rider cup type tournament all week. We're going to do two-man scramble with caddy celebrity shots on each hole. So if you and your partner hit a shit shot, each hole you get to go, all right, caddies, you bowl. are in. They each come in and hit a shot on that hole. We grabbed a bunch of drinks and did that. That only takes, you know, an hour and a half, something like that. And that's kind of how we finished up the night. That is, I believe it's just if you're an overnight guest, you're the only ones that can do the kettle of it's 45 bucks and you just swing out there and have that much fun. Yep. And the holes are different. So it's not like the T-boxes are the same.

You get to play a little bit of a different course and it's quick. And I think that speaks to everything that Aaron's doing because they're not only, obviously, this U.S. Open Championship of golf course. They now have this kettle loop, which is sweet because it's like, you know, it's more than a pitching putt, obviously, but it's just like a fun, kind of casual end of the, you know, wrap-up day. And they also now just put in this unbelievable putting course, which you alluded to in the beginning that also has lights, and it's like, it's incredible.

Yeah, I'll get to the putting course. The kettle loop has the first hole is 472 yards it plays as a par four and a half. The second hole is 233 yards it plays as a par 3 and a half. The third hole is 4.76 and plays as a 4.5. Fourth hole 153 par 3. And then the fifth hole is a 237 yard par 3 and a half. So it's like, you know, it's just this fun, different kinds of shots. The angles, different angles, so totally.

There were a couple times we didn't recognize the holes just because we were coming at it from a different spot. You know, you're hitting, it's a part three. When you usually play it, it's a par five from the kettle. So you're coming at it from different spots, different angles. It was great. What I just noticed, too, is when you were pulling off the distances, they also handicap it. So if you're looking to get some bets going on, they also handicap the Kettle Loop, which not every course does. So the kettle loop is great.

Another little addition of you side to stay in the night, overnight, all that stuff. And then, like that, Lurch was just saying the putting course, 63,000 square foot putting course, co-designed by Dana Fry, who was one of the three original architects of Aaron Hills and his partner, Jason Straca. They've got these amazing lights. I mean, this thing sits down below the clubhouse, so it's in a central, central. spot. It's got crazy undulations. It's going to be open August 1st, and they've got what they call a low profile night lights used for night putting. First time, these lights have been used on a golf course. They're also used at MLB Stadium. So they are like these very understated, but

effective, awesome lights that are out there. So again, if you stay in play, you can be out there put and you can do the kettle loop. Like it's just, they've built something that is super, super fun. They're also having the 22 USGA midam and 1920 or 2020 that is. And the 2025 U.S. Women's Open is coming back to Aaron Hills. I imagine that they'll have another U.S. Open. 2017 Brooks Kevka won the U.S. Open there. So amazing spot, Aaron Hills. How about dinner?

Then we did dinner after. That dinner was maybe the best time of the trip in some people's eyes. I think that that dinner may have been the single highlight of the trip. So they gave us menus and then the waiter. Glenn, does Glenn sound right? Let's call him Glenn. I think it's Glenn. It's definitely not Glenn, but we're going to call him.

Let's go to Glenn, yep. He goes, do you guys want to order or do you want me to just bring you family-style dishes? And Glenn did not stop bringing family-style dishes for the next hour and a half. Dude, that mac and cheese was unbelievable. Mixed so well with that steak, you just kind of glop it all over your plate and just eat it with a spoon. It was delicious. Yeah, that dinner was special. It was delicious.

We sat up in this, you know, the highest room that they have up there. There's a nice bar right there. We were ordering bottles of wine. They're bringing us drinks. He said the minute, the split second that he said, or do you want me to just bring you out family style? We all just handed in the menu. We don't want to make any decisions.

And that was the first night of the trip where we were all there together. We had golf to talk about that it already happened. We were kind of breaking down the course. What did you think? That was when Aaron Hill's Pete was born. and he just went on about there will never be a better. I could stay here for the next five days. I don't need to go anywhere.

We could just do Aaron Hills forever. And that was kind of the vibe that we all had. It was spectacular. Awesome dinner, great way. And anybody out there, you know, you understand the first night of a trip. You've still got four more days. You've got pretty much the whole thing in front of you get to sit there and just be excited and get into the trip. I want to cry thinking about it because we're not there right now.

Do you talk about the caddy barn? Oh, I totally missed the caddy barn. We keep going up and then we have to come way back. won't let you guys miss anything. I got it all written down. This is my spot. He's always been organized. You should talk, Ben, talk about the caddy barn because that was your spot. That was your spot. I mean, it's a great place. So it's where you pull up. It's where all the caddies hang out. But if you're staying, I think they open it up to the public now. You can go have a few beers in the caddy barn. There's a ping pong table. There's a shuffleboard table.

There's a TV couches. It's just like an unbole. And the caddies themselves are hanging out with us. Exactly. Yeah. It's awesome. So actually, you know, we mixed it up, played a few games of ping pong. I took my boy Hanky Panky, who was talking a little nonsense on the course that he was going to take me in ping pong. I've heard that claim before. You're a ridiculous ping pong player. Well, I mean, I'm just telling you. Like, Hanky, you know, now we know. No, I know.

I'm telling the crowd that you are a ridiculous ping pong. It's my game. I'm pretty good. I can either play Reddy or Lefty. Lefty, I'm a little worse. But anyways, I played after I took on Hanky Panky, the other caddy Tim. Fantastic guy. Was he your catty?

Tim. One of the Timmy Tempo. Yeah, not Timmy Tempo. No, no. Timmy tempo wasn't your catty. Yeah, yeah, Big Tim, who was the, he's the perennial kind of, like, house champion there at the Caddy Barn. I took him for his well, so I'm the, I kind of, I'm the number one champion. You were a force to be wrecked with him.

Yeah, I was. I was swinging well that day. Oh, man, you were limber moving around and having drinks. A couple booze. I think you caused them to leave. Yeah, you did. The caddies went home because of you. Well, there was things to do.

It was a great time, though. You're ripping. It's like a truly special spot. I mean, the whole place, but I think that's, I think my favorite thing about what Aaron Hills is doing on the aggregate is moving from just like what people think about it is maybe like a course that you know doesn't have like insane beautiful vistas to this course that is not only this unbelievable remarkable golf course with beautiful views but also this cool like stay hang out have drinks totally relax enjoy great golf and there's more to do than just the golf like there's it's it's it's a truly remarkable

so the caddy bar is another uh option if you are an overnight guess you got to be an overnight guest you can stay in the caddy barn uh so again they really are trying to promote people staying overnight. If you would like to book at Aaron Hills, email reservations at Aaronhills.com. That's the best thing you can do. Just email reservations at Aaronhills.com. Tell them we sent you because it just makes us look good and that's great. We like to show that we're influential

that we have a lot of listeners. I'm sure you're pretty jacked up after the review that we gave. You should be. It is a as high a recommend as I can give. It is just a must stop. If you go to Wisco, you do the Wiscoe loop, you just have to hit Aaron Hills. You can't not play it. reservations at aaronhills.com figure out how student loans work

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You know, we're all pretty toast, pass out, wake up, as nice of a wake up as you can have. I mean, you're just, you're elevated again. You kind of have that same view over the entire thing. And then it's hop in the van time, which turned out to be quite the scene every time because you got eight guys, you got a bunch of luggage. I had been there for like, I had been in Chicago for like five days beforehand, so I had an insane amount of luggage.

But you got golf bags, you got golf travel bags, you got guys with their clothes bags, computers, backpacks, load it all up. Also going to fill the cooler. We just kept the cooler filled the whole time. A couple guys on the way up were like, I'll do a cow like 30 minutes into the trip. Give me a cow right on the way up. We buzz up to San Valley. I think that was another two and a half hour trip, something along those lines.

Again, it always, I would give you advice to, if you're with a crew like that, always factor in another like 30 minutes on each drive because a McDonald's trip that would take three people or four people. Five minutes takes like 40 when you. have eight because it's just packing the van unpacking the van everything just takes a little bit longer and everybody's a little hungover you're you have your luggage and you're also kind of luggage allocate for more time than you think sand valley again mike kaiser property he's got all of the right values in terms of what he's trying to create with golf there's the sand valley course

which opened in 2017 it's a corksha there's the mammoth dunes course which opened last year 2018 david mclec kid we had on this show i believe in like february ish david mcclay kid we had on the show he's awesome scottish guy who designed band and dune as well he's the fucking man and then the sandbox which is a 17 hole part three course that were designed by core Crenshaw that opened last year 2018 as well first course we saw was sand valley uh the first kind of takeaway right away from sand valley was that it was just not as organized not quite as on the ball with hospitality we kind of rolled in and like didn't really know exactly where we were going uh we didn't like the sand valley teas kind of 10 minutes away they're

got to shuddy over there is there like a range over there who were to we have cadd it was just kind of like there's no steve they don't have steve right and erin hills has a steve they have like guys on staff people folks on staff who just make it so the minute you arrive they almost like they're putting you through a fucking car wash you know you don't have to do anything you have to think they just take care of you and sand valley there's a ton of awesome positives that we're going to get to but right away it was very clear all of us were just kind of like i'm just a little disorganized and confused like where are we going what's happening and it's a really new place i mean so the cottages aren't quite done yet so

it's not surprising that they haven't had it all figured out yet. But that was kind of our biggest takeaway in terms of off the course stuff. But the courses, I mean, it's a sand-based property, which seems weird in the middle of Wisconsin, but it played that way. I mean, it was firm. You had to hit, like, bump and runs and stuff around greens. You couldn't be, like, hitting flop shots and stuff because there's no rough. It's all sand and basically turfy, fescue fairway, and then greens.

And that's pretty much the whole thing. Corr-Krenshaw, you know, I have, I'm hit or miss with Core Crenshaw. There's some of their courses are some of my favorite courses I've ever played. And then also, Benny, I mean, when you and I went to a stream song last year, I think all of us are the least favorite course of the three was the Core Crenshaw course. I believe there's another core Crenshaw. Oh, my least favorite when I went to Bandon was Bandon Trails, which is their core Crenshaw course. Yet my favorite course I've ever played is Catholic, which is a core Crenshaw course.

So, you know, I'm a little bit hit or miss with them. I liked the course a lot. I really did. I thought San Val was a really cool golf course. I think for on that property, it was by far the third best, considering. By far. Miles away. I think it was also for me visually off the tee.

It was like tough just kind of, you know, coming from Aaron, you could really kind of see where you're going. If you hit in good spots, you're rewarded. But I just couldn't sit in on a visual. And so I would like another crack at that course. I think I might appreciate it more if I took a second crack at it. But yeah, after one crack and playing the other two. it's by far and away my third. Yep, I agree.

And, you know, I think that third hole was that par three where you, it was almost kind of a Redan with that huge slope on the right side. Like, that was a really cool hole followed by that uphill par five. Like that was cool. That's the best hole, I think. Yeah, I thought that was probably the best hole. I thought the finisher 18 was maybe the second best hole on the property. Another uphill par five. That really long part three before it.

Like those holes were awesome. So there's some really, really good holes. I just didn't think it was, um, I just didn't think it was. I thought it was very, very clearly the third best course. I did get some data from the boys, which I'm going to leak in here and there. I'm going to leak the data into the show. So I asked everyone, and I'll kind of run through it. Actually, I first wanted to go through the handicaps.

Everybody understands what we were dealing with. We had a six, a seven, a nine, a ten, a thirteen, another 13. No, an 11, a 13, a 14, and a 16, basically. So, I mean, we had, we were basically specifically. spread out as spread out as you could be from six to 16. Eight guys. So we're kind of all in that same little window. The data I'm going to give is that Aaron Hills, which we already covered,

I asked everyone to rank all the courses, and the only criteria I gave is rank them by must play. And the reason I did that was like it's a Wisconsin loop. You have choices of where to go when you decide to do the Wisconsin. Which ones do you have to play, rank those one through six? Aaron Hills got either a two or a one from everyone in the group except for one person. And it basically came in at 1.8 out of six, you know, low one being the lowest you can be. San Valley came in at a 5.125. I'm surprised it wasn't lower.

And I don't think that says as much about San Valley. I think it speaks to the other courses that we played. It's the only course that we played that I didn't think had like a distinguishing feature story to tell about it characteristic. It was just a good golf course and nothing more in my eyes. If I was playing it on a Saturday in New York City, great. I'm pumped about it. As part of this trip when you're playing U.S. Open Rider Cup courses, just good golf course. 100% agree.

And again, like you said, if that was that course were 30 minutes outside of New York, I'd try to play. it thing every fucking weekend. It would be so awesome. But when you're doing this trip, you know, it got, it was ranked. Again, this is one through, this is one through six. It got ranked fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth, sixth, third, sixth, sixth, sixth. So, reveal the third? I know why. It's third because the individual played the best round of the weekend. Correct. Okay. Our boy Steve. That was his, our boy, uh, Steve. I'm sorry. So my guy I'm getting my data mixed up. Yeah, so

Chainsaw ranked at third. That was his lowest ranked. By a mile. Correct. And that's actually, you know, that is a factor. Like when you play well somewhere, you like that course more. Totally.

I agree. That's just what it is. That's how it works. And that's what happened at Sand Valley. And I imagine that was a big factor for our guy, chainsaw. But again, very cool course, very good course. If you're going to do the whole San Valley, you know,

trip, you have to play. it, don't get me wrong. But there's other stuff at San Valley that we're going to talk about that I think is better. Yeah, without question. We played mammoth dunes in the afternoon. We got rained out. I mean, we played seven holes. I was having the round of my life what I thought, the round of my life.

And then we got rained out with a torrential downpour. I was 100 through 7. We get rained out the most amount of rain I've ever seen come down in about 15 minutes, get absolutely soaked. We got picked up in a fleet of pickup trucks. Yeah, we did. about three miles away. I would argue that a rescue, almost a rescue for how much rain came down. It was a rescue operation.

I mean, it was a search and rescue. We were out on the, we finished seven holes. We're on the 8th T. They start to blow the horn. And the caddies like, we got to get into shelter. There's a little kind of like rain shelter, thunderstorm shelter place. We stand there for five minutes all of a sudden this fleet of like you said, pickup trucks arrive. They're like, get in, get in.

We're like, what is happening here? We didn't realize either. We were on the furthest possible place away from the- It would have been fired. Yeah, it was amazing. It was a 15 or 20 minute drive back. Like we had walked, I don't know, several miles from the clubhouse to literally the outskirts of the golf course. And thank God they came because there was a lot of rain.

Oh, it rained so hard. So then we kind of went back to the clubhouse. We were thinking like, will we get back out? Who knows? I want it to do so bad. I know. You were playing. Ben was 100 through seven holes.

So you were firing. Luckily, you know, we drink. We get ourselves a meal. We go back to the Eagles now. which, if you're going to stay at Sand Valley, Eagles Nest is about half the price of one of the cottages. It is a mile away, maybe. Yeah, we pretty much turned it into the caddy barn.

They've got tons of games in there. We pretty much just turned it into a caddy barn where there was like a shuffleboard, baggo. Another ping pong table was teaching some of those caddies how to play ping pong. And they rolled it out at the nest for us. They had bottles of wine. Remember that? Delicious bottles of wine. Snacks for you.

Oh, yeah. Plenty of snacks. Yeah, you big snack guy. Love a little bit of food. Lots of beer. Your big body. Oh, yeah. Gotta feed it.

Got to fuel it. That house was ready for an army. It's perfect. I mean, it's built for a buddy's trip. I mean, like you said, they have the garage. They just turned into a caddy bar. I mean, that's what it had. It had darts.

It had a ping pong table. It had everything. So we ripped it up there that night. We invited the caddies over. We had a great time. We were all been drinking since early in the morning. So we were hammering. I don't think I made it past like 20 minutes at that little party that we threw.

Woke back up the next day. Go back out to Mammoth Dunes again. And this is the David McLeodkid Kidd course. It's been voted like best new course. I think it got voted last year by a bunch of legitimate publications. It's considered a lot of people I heard like, man, you guys, you're probably going to have some people in your group that that's going to be the most fun course they've ever played. And right away, it makes sense why. The first T is the biggest fairway I have ever seen.

And I missed it by, oh, no, I hit it. I topped it into the fairway. My partner, Doug went right. He missed the fairway right. There's a huge hill up on the right. I mean. The caddy was like, are you kidding? Like his shoulders rolled in.

He was like, come on, right out of the gate. It might have been the biggest fairway I've ever seen. 150 to 200 yards wide. It was massive. You could hit a cut into it. You could hit a big sweeping draw into it. No problem. You'd have like a short iron in.

And right out of there, you know, you kind of get the field, huge greens, huge fairways. You can play like 30 yards right of a lot of the greens. It'll take a hill. It'll take a slope and kind of funnel in towards the hole. Lurch again plays lights out. Yeah, going into that round, I was like, oh, man, I was like frustrated. I was like, there's no way, you know, I'm in 8, 7, there's no way that I'll be 1 under again through 7. And I was like, I just, you know, again, we're not going to talk about it.

Nobody wants to hear about your golf score, but here I am to talk about it even though I might not talk about it. So I go, just fucking talk about it. What are you doing? So I go birdie, birdie, then I go boogie, bogey, and then I rip off three straight birdie. So after 7, I'm actually 3 under, absolutely buzzing. shot the round of my life played even par shot a 73 um yeah i mean i can't rank mammoth higher because it was like you know i'm wearing the shirt right now the place is fantastic it's a very scoreable golf course um i forget who told you that you know one of your buddies is going to have their career low it's

totally true um and when you're on a buddy's golf trip playing a net new course like the setup and the feel of that course is so unbelievably fun that it's going to happen fairways are wide you get to rip it out there and then you're going to have a short to you know mid-iron in um and because of the way the greens are set up um you know it's almost like just a massive toilet bowl in a sense in some areas you do have to good good shots but you get to hit your ball in there and then which is so much fun just to get to see it roll and kind of linger close to the hole which you know obviously gets you just fired up and you're asking your buddies where it is you know is it close is it close who's got first eyes on it um so it's just an unbelievable time and obviously i have an unbelievable time

Yeah, there's a lot of the greens where you could hit it maybe five or ten feet deep and be like, catch it, catch it, like, come on. And you'd see it start to pick up speed, start to pick up speed, and then trundle back towards the hole. So it's kind of a lot of that stuff, which is super fun, like you said. It's way more fun than just seeing your ball land on a soft spot and just stay there, right? It's kind of like, where's that going to end up? Is that close? And it's pretty much like that for an entire round.

Now, I also say, like, we played a combination of the tips and one in, and it was like $6,700. hundred yards 68 so it's pretty it's got some uh it's not like a super short course it's just that the fairways are very inviting so you hit better t shots because you're you're comfortable you just rip your driver um and lurch credit to you shot your career low even par 73 yep shout out to my caddy gregg great guy just great mind great monster for the game really appreciated him he was great i had tyler who was a really really good caddy too uh out at mammoth um the boston boys viny and Arshan, great hang with that. Yes.

It's great to see them. We have a couple Boston guys that we knew were on the bag for a few guys in our crew. But it was. It was just a, it was a super fun. It was this fun of an 18-hole, like, legit championship course, whatever you want to call it, that I've ever played. You said that before we played it. And I was like, there's no way. Like, I don't know where he's getting that from.

I don't know how we're going to get there. And I don't even think I felt that way after the front nine. I was like, this is Sand Valley 2.0. And then by the end of it, I had totally changed. my tune. It was great for the group camarader. I think one thing we can talk about at the end was, you know, this is a long trip, a lot of golf, not a lot of sleeping, a lot of drinking. You forget how much the, you know, you need some positive vibes. And that's exactly what Mammoth got us. The boys played well. They shot low scores. I don't think anyone in our group, maybe a 90,

and 91 might have been the highest. And at the midway point of the trip, getting some good scores and some good feelings going was crucial. Yeah, I think Chainsaw had bounced out of his 80 to a 91. one for the for the course either yeah it's a very good point because like you said like there's a there's a million it it's impossible to hit the to hit the brake pedal right like it's just there's so much fun being had the whole time there's awesome golf courses on like the second tea there's say hey you want to transfuse you want to all right i'll do one next thing you know you've had like 10 and then it's catty barn and then it's this and then it's oh shit we're up at six we had to drive three hours you're not saying no to any of it no and when you can stand on a tea and it's 200 yards wide

and then you rip a second shot and it catches a bowl and rolls towards the hole and you get that for four and a half hours straight. It's just nice. Perfect midway course. Yes. Perfect. And so that course, again, I thought that was up there about as fun. So one of the categories that I did to go back to the data, Rigsie Data, was, you know, which course did you find to be the most fun? Or like what was the most fun?

Yeah, that's what I asked. What was the most fun course? I got sandbox, mammoth, sandbox, whistling sandbox, sandbox, sandbox, sandbox. sandbox, mammoth, kettle loop. So Mammoth was about the answer for half the guys and was right in the mix. And then in terms of course rating, Mammoth came in at a 3.6.

So it was a little bit, you know, past, obviously. Like it was between three and four. And the next thing, the reason for that, right, I agree. The reason for that is because what we're going to get to next. Whether you are moving to a new place having a baby or just Marie condoing your life, you're probably looking to free up space. Always.

I don't know what Marie condoing is. No idea. Are you familiar with that term? I am not. You know what I am familiar with moving to a new place? Because we did that. Oh, yeah. And folks might recall that we move to a place

where the dryer takes five hours and 15 minutes. It comes out like a jigsaw puzzle. It seems that the other night. I legit, I looked at large his pants. And I said, you better put that on the right temperature. Those will come out looking like a jigsaw puzzle. And it's true. That's because we moved.

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Enter promo code four at checkout. Which was the sandbox, which one of the other categories that I asked was, you know, if you could go back to one moment from the entire trip, what would it be? Sandbox. And the most common answer was the sandbox. And that is the 13 or the 17-hole par three course. most of the holes were kind of like 80 to 100 yards. Some were 45 yards.

Some were 110. One, I think, stretched to like 150, 145. But out of 17 holes, you know, pretty much everyone you could play with a 60-degree wedge and a putter. And that's what we did. It rolled out there. We did a three clubs. You can only take three clubs. Pretty much everyone brought like a pitching wedge, some sort of either 60 or 56 and a putter.

And on the first tee, they have a canoe full of beer. They give you a little carry bag. That's a little Sunday bag that you put your three clubs in and it's got like one small little pocket if you want to take an extra ball. We all went barefoot after the first hole. We just took our shoes off, put them in those little bags. Played as an eightsome. Played as eight.

We ended up doing like a two three, two three, two three, two three format where you needed two balls from the team of four. Then you needed three. Then you needed two. And it was as much just pure, enjoyable, casual, fun on a golf course as I think I've ever had. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right.

I mean, I think that's where the property totally gets it to because if you're talking about like the unorganized start, where we go, where's the range, where's the first tee, when we showed up to that 17 hole, the sandbox, like, they had everything on the screws. They knew exactly like what you wanted, like what your mindset was, where you were going to go, like the setup of the course because they have like two shovels, one for a putter course, one for actually like a pitch and putt course. Yeah, their teas were shovels. Yeah.

It was just a shovel. It was that. That scene was absolutely perfect. And, yeah, if that's the moment, I'd go back with all my boys just standing there in barefoot with a beer in your hand, lining up. Everybody's, like, balancing on one foot, like a four-footer for your team. Like, it was just too much fun. I think the thing, we'd nailed it. The three clubs is a great way to do it.

I think that's really fun to just, you know, and there was a couple holes where if some of us, we had a pitching wedge, like that was hard to get home on, and you might have to play the hole a little differently. Right. And then getting a group of eight, two teams of four, playing against each other. with everyone hanging out. Like that was just awesome. So often in golf you're missing what's going on in the other group. Yep.

And there we got everything, you know, you knew the put you had to make to have to win, you know, everything that was going on, you were very aware of. And we probably had six groups play through us, you know? Oh, yeah. One guy just skipped us and made an ace on his next shot. Yep. That's true. Yeah, that was wild.

Skipped us, made an ace, and then brought us all around to beers. Yep. And then just waved and was like, I think he's from New Zealand. Yeah. So it was like his ninth hole in one. It's like, what? But it was, it is, and it's, you know, it sounds like a pitch and putt, but it's really not because it's designed by core crinshaw. I mean, right?

Like the greens and the bunkering and all that are state of the art, except it's 45 yards or it's 82 yards. And it's kind of, you could put it up there if you want. You could bump it up there. You can try to fly a 60 and spin it. Like, you could really hit any different shot that you wanted. And my number one image that I have in my head from the trip, from the entire trip is the eight of the boys. all with a drink in their hand with their little satchel, just kind of standing around the green.

Barefoot, like feeling the grass in your toes and like chirping guys as they're putting. And it was just as much fun as you've had. And we had guys like without a 60 degree wedge like in the green side bunker. Like what are you going to do there, but like you got to flop it up there. You just don't have it. And then, I mean, the ninth or the tenth hole there is the toilet bowl one. The whirlpool. I think that's nine because right after nine when we played,

we just let like six groups play through. We just had as many beers as possible and then had chainsaw run back and fill up the cooler. So nine has to be maybe a 30-yard hole. Yeah. And there's straight downhill. The T-box is like among like two or three different kind of cabins and like lodging. Yeah, we had a little, we had a little crowd watch. So there's a crowd.

You're a little bit elevated and then you just put some down this hill and you got to get it into this whirlpool. And it just kind of goes around in a circle and either hits the hole or it ends up five or six feet behind it. So there's a lot of exciting moments there. but the sandbox is really, it came in as most people's, like, purely most fun part. And even on this list, I mean, we played six different golf courses in the sandbox, which is, again, with a lot of the holes are like 50 yards. The sandbox came in with pretty much the exact same rating as Mammothunes, about a 3.8.

So a little closer to the fourth course ranked overall, but in that three to four range, and that's, you know, on a list with Aaron Hills and Whistling Straits, which are two major championships. ship courses. I thought day two really saved it. The mammoth and the par three, the sandbox, to me, I wasn't feeling San Valley after day one. And after that second day, that might have been the most fun day of the trip.

Yeah, I think it probably was. I mean, you were feeling, you were not feeling it so much that you actually said, I will put the boys all back up in the van, and I will drive everyone back to Aaron Hills. Drive it, pay for tea times. Petey was ready to just pull the rip court out and go right back to Aaron Hills after that experience. I got part of that for sure. I mean, like, it was, it was a letdown for sure, like that first day. It did feel a little bit like disorganized. We didn't really know where to go. The course just wasn't the same. The experience wasn't the same. But that round, like, yeah,

it ranked as a 3.8 in terms of the course. But it was also the most obviously clearly rated the most fun, too, just to go back and like be with your boys, especially if you have a foursome, maybe it doesn't get ranked as highly in terms of most fun. But when you, when you can have it eight or maybe a 12 sum, and you get everybody. because they're totally okay with you doing whatever. That's where it just skyrockets for me and everybody's together, hitting some fun, crafty shots. The greens are diabolical.

So if you hit it in a good spot, you've got a real good chance of hauling out. But if you hit in a bad spot, you're going to have just a crazy wild put that you might have never had before. So, yeah, it just was too much fun. Yeah, it's true. And, I mean, as, like, air quotes, easy as, like, you might want to call it. And a few people submitted it as the easiest course,

because that was one of my questions as well. I mean, there were some shots. I mean, we watch people from 60 yards that hit decent shots that missed the green. 100%. And we're in horrific spots. And it was like, that's going to be a double if he's lucky on a little part three course. So there were some bad spots. There was the one hole that it's like maybe the sixth hole or so where it looked like this big inviting green.

And we had guys where I got maybe it slopes a little bit left to right. And we had the first two guys landed it like 10 feet left of the pit and ended up 50 feet right of it. We were chirping salsa. He's his seven handicapped. He might have played the front nine at maybe. nine over. He might have bogeied every hole on the front. He's like, yeah, it's not the easiest of courses, but it's a ton of fun. Why you got to call out my boys also like that?

Because he had a tough run. But he regrouped, but he had a tough run. He did. He had a big regroup. We were, I mean, we were doing four on four like we said. And we were four down through nine and ended up all square, I think, on 16T. True. So things got heated out there. The other thing, we also went back and played it again after playing it from whatever the, you know, T's were with just putters. Yep. That was another They have a putter course there as well. So they've got the chipping course, but then there's a just putter course, and we lapped that again, which was very fun. Yeah, they put a different tee out that's just putter and there's nothing between you and the green. You can putt it.

It might be longer or shorter on some spots. It might be a harder putt. But you could just do putters, and we did that. We again had a few people end up in bunkers. And when you're in there with the putter, we have people trying to hit backwards lefty putter shots, chips out of the bunker. A couple good ones, a couple really ugly ones. And that was the sandbox. It was incredibly fun.

Anybody out there that's listening that's involved in other golf resorts build something like the sandbox. Totally. I know Cabot's doing it. Bannon has one. The Bandon Preserve. I think it's 13 holes. That one overlooks the water. It's the same kind of vibe.

Stream song's got one. I mean, Stream song's got a little six hole one. That's super fun. And again, I know Cabot's building one that's just going up above the cliff's course, which that's going to be spectacular. And Pinehurst has the cradle now. I've never been to Pinehurst, but any golf resort, if you add something like that, there were so many people out there doing exactly what we were doing with a couple beers in their hand.

It was just a great way to finish golf. Like if you're not ready for a full 18 or even nine, you know, to walk 400-yard holes or whatever, it's just a perfect cap on the day. You have a cocktail. You keep it easy, sunsetting. I just don't think there's much better of any way to close up a day than exactly that. Why does men's health call the Peloton bike the best cardio machine on the planet? Well, let's break it down.

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Their main, you know, most famous one is Whistling Straits. Of course, hosted three PGA championships. Most recently, Jason Day won there. I believe that was 2015. Is that right? Yes. I think Jason Day won. He was 20 under par, which is one of the most stunning numbers in the history of numbers.

Especially after you play it. It doesn't even make sense from where they play to get through a 20 under after four days is preposterous. They're having the 2020 Ryder Cup. That's next year for those of you counting. So whistling is as iconic, you know, as it really gets, especially with our, our friend PJ of America. First thing we did was we did a little bit of shooting. The boys did some skeet shooting.

Oh, crazy Abe. Oh, yeah, Uncle Abe. Abe. Abe was one of the cockiest motherfuckers ever met my entire life. Probably the cockiest person. You know who likes Abe? Who's him? Abe.

He does. Abe likes Abe a lot. He was great. He instructed us well. He made sure everybody was safe, but we went. You know, everybody's got shotguns. Clay pigeons, they come out, pull, you shoot at them. some guys are good some weren't i was terrible i've always been a bad and i said before it's one of

the uh probably the single disappointment that i ever delivered to my father was that i'm a horrible skate shooter he just i think he really looks down on me for that i don't think i hit one the whole fucking day and at the end we were just doing rapid fire where they came out everywhere like you could just close your eyes and shoot you'd probably hit one missed everyone well lurch was taking credit for every hit on the course i will say abe was pumping my tires too he was shocked at the amount of clay pigeons i was hitting at the end i was on fire i could I couldn't miss. Early on, not so good.

Actually, I started out hot. I think I went one for two, the first two times. And then I was missing a lot of clay pigeons. But on the close, I was unbelievable. Now, I believe that you think that. I believe that you were hitting them. And I was. Let's get Abe in the room.

No, I know you guys do. But the thing about me is I know I hit them. Now, I did have one call out where Dougie. He probably hit that one, not me. So, you know, I've come clear on that. I've come clear a couple days ago. I told Dougie that before we left. but on the close I was unbelievable to the point where Abe was standing right behind me whispering nice shot so you know what take it for what it is now you can believe me or not you can hold it and say yes I believe you or no I don't take it either way to hit more shots than you actually hit well I mean did you hit any yeah I was actually pretty good I was a self admitted not a shooter and I think I held my own I agree I think you definitely held drone I think you guys

were almost identical. That was my totally neutral observation. I would agree with that. You're wrong. Also, we had a great moment where chainsaw again to bring him up. He thought he's already all set up. And he goes, pull.

And Abe goes, no. That was amazing. He just was like, nope. We're not going to pull yet. Absolutely. Your form, you're set up. There's just no way.

Safety still might have been on. There's just no way he was going to pull. So that was sort of our first introduction. The little hut there too was awesome. It's so cool. Even if you don't shoot, that's almost worth a lunch if you got the time. I think that place is called like River Wildlife. I think that's what it was.

And it's all part of the Kohler property, the Kohler man, all that stuff. And so that was our first style. It was kind of our introduction to Kohler. Then we drive the 10, 15 minutes over to whistling straights right away. Try to cool the heart rate down after just ripping guns during those games. Adrenaline was pumping. I was like, all right, I just got to hit this straight. Maybe I'll a little four footer.

Settle the heartbeat down. Let's try to play good goal. We all just shot like 100. barrels from the shotguns and then now we're like let's go play fucking golf let's go everybody was pumping so roll over to whistling you know right away when you pull up to the clubhouse it's this it's this epic looking clubhouse you know what's behind it we've been all been looking at drone footage and pictures and all that they kind of roll out the red carpet you stroll in great logo first of all unbelievable the best logo the trip really good logo I thought after having seen all the logos in person

and two. I think Aaron Hills was one, whistling two, but a very, very good logo. I love the Aaron Hills. I love, again,

Aaron Hills, I just think keeps it so understated. It's such a simple little logo, but I love the Kohler one, or the Whistling Straits one, too, thought it was great. But you roll in. I mean,

they got the locker room up top. We had, they had name plates out for us, which everybody got to kind of take off and take home, which was really, really cool. We knew we were going to do

the shower afterwards. So kind of like knowing the whole round, like we're going to have a little shower time with the guys afterwards. was cool but pretty quickly you know we we had a 2 pm. tea time which you know you're you're going to get that kind of sunset which is great and we all stroll over to that first team it was a little windy at the time but we didn't really know what was coming and we knew i mean we all went in knowing right like whistling's probably going to be the hardest course we play there's water everywhere there's

bunkers everywhere pete die they've hosted a bunch of major championships it's just going to be tough we're going to enjoy it enjoy the stroll and all that i'm telling you man and and and it was It's probably the single most spectacular in like every definition of the word golf course I've ever played. It just kind of hits every senses of your vision of like there's bunkers, there's fairways, there's hidden bunkers, there's fucking water, there's wind, there's like, it's just a lot of shit going on. Totally agree. But that golf course, the wind picked up, I don't know that I've ever played in stronger wind than that in my life. And so you're playing a course that's a major championship venue. It's crazy intimidating because of Pete Dye and he always fucks with your head.

There's bunkers everywhere, and if you miss a little bit right or a little bit left on a lot of the holes, you're just in Lake Michigan. And we got our absolute dicks kicked in by whistling. Just our dicks kicked in. Every person on this list with the exception of one, with the exception of two, called whistling the hardest course. One person said Aaron Hills, but that person also played one of their best rounds at whistling. And then another person said Black Wolf, which Black Wolf was the course that we'd play the next morning when all of us were just dead and wanted to go home. So we'll get to that part. whistling it was it was deceiving bunkering and visuals because it just makes you uncomfortable

one of the coolest things my caddy taught me was on all these holes when you get to the green look backwards and you almost can't see any bunkers on the hole and that's kind of the way the design works is there's so much more room out there than it feels like there is off the tea but man you've got a bunch of like infinity greens where you all it looks like the greens are melting into the water whistling was it was rated number one it was ranked number one by everyone in the group except for lurch and for chainsaw but the other six people all ranked at number one so it came in you know pretty much the clear number one choice and for a reason it was it was just absolutely spectacular i think you have to there's a couple caveats you got to give it i think to truly

you know kind of assess it properly i think the first thing just the walk is is spectacular. So it's nine holes basically on the water and nine holes off the water. But even the nine holes that are off the water are built up high enough where on every single hole you're looking out, I guess it's the lake. I think of it as the ocean. I know me too. It's the lake and it's just stunning.

So I think like the beauty of that walk was just impossible to beat. And then just like the history there. Like, you know, the shots, the, the rider cup, that is going to be an amazing venue for the Ryder Cup. So that excitement, I was very pumped to be playing the holes, knowing exactly how tough some of the shots, because I think we played two T's in. Is that son right? Yes, we played it from what, 66? On every hole, we walked back to where the tips were. And it was impossible. Like, we could not have hit any good shots from back there. And those guys are going to play it, and it's going to be no big deal. And it's just, I was thinking about that. Yeah, Pete Dye and the design

there, I mean, because everything there is man-made. So, like, the way it's built, it's amazing that you can see the water from everywhere on the course. Because it's truly stunning. Like, some of the par threes are, like, tucked, like, in the cliff almost. Like, you walk down to them, then you walk back up to the next par four. Yeah, visually on the eyes, I was impressed more so than any other place I've ever been. Because, as Riggs said, like, the spectacle of, like, the sand, the water, just the unbelievable bunkering. The dunes?

Yeah. There's all these rolling dunes. Yeah. And you're just like, what the fuck? Like, oh, my God. Where am I? Like, this is so, so impressive. Yeah, and that course is true.

It's, I hope the wins up when the rider comes there because the win for us made that place just about impossible on somewhere. Our boy Chainsaw hits a high ball. He was in my group. And he was, he didn't learn until after the round that if you hit a high ball, it, like, blows back to your feet. So. Yeah, he just never learned.

Yeah, I'll give you a good example. I mean, I went 5139, you know. And that is. That is probably shocking to a lot of people. Really good 39. It was, and it was that the last five or six holes were downwind. And I mean, I hit the ball way better on the back nine. The fact that I only, I think I bogeied the first three holes in the back nine,

and then had a couple good birdie looks, made a birdie, and then bogeyed 18 to shoot a 39 on the back. And it was a case of like those, there's like a 10-hole stretch or 12-hole stretch in the middle of that round where we played it into the wind. And it was just as beat up on the golf course that I've ever been. in. I was defeated. I think I said to my caddy, like, this isn't even fun at one point. I was just in the Fescue hitting, like, my fucking fifth shot on a part four.

Like, how are we going to make double here? We can't. And I made, like, three triples in the front. But even after I would make the trip walk to the next team and be like, man, this is amazing. And I think the main takeaway is, like, if you just went and walked that place, like you said, and didn't hit a single golf shot, I still think it would probably be ranked number one for almost everybody on the trip. And we had a shout out to our guy Viggy, whose submission for this was his way of ranking whistling.

He said, whistling number one only once, though. The place beats you up, would have rather went there for five hours without clubs and just walk the course. I think that's pretty spot on. Yeah. My brother, we were talking about it afterwards, and he's played there a couple times. He said the number one thing to do there is don't keep score. Yes. Try to hit a lot of good shots.

Try to make your pars, make your birdie. Like, remember a couple good holes. And do not do the math at the end to see what you actually shot. Just hit some shots. Enjoy the view. Enjoy the walk. Yeah. That's pretty spot on.

I think that's absolutely, absolutely spot on. Shout out to Zach, who was my caddy, who was a big stool. And he had been talking to me like months beforehand about like, I'd love to be on your bag. And he had a battle on his hands on that front nine to like keep me positive and keep me into it. Because he's like, man, you know, we're out at Whistling Straits. And I just like, dude. And Lurchin, I was like, I'd been playing some really good golf like that week prior. And I was, and I was like, I'm going to go out and play whistling.

I'm going to post a good score. It was fun. And it was almost relieving because after I made like three triples on the front, it became, it freed me up. And that like, I don't give a fuck what I shoot. Like, who cares? And at that point, it was just as enjoyable of a walk of a last 12 holes or whatever it was as I've ever experienced, despite the fact that you're getting your teeth kicked in. And all the caddies said that.

They're like, you know, we see this all the time. And this really is a brutally difficult golf course. If it weren't this spectacular and all that, we could see why people would be like, I'm going to skip it. But again, I put that pull out and I said, what's rank every course that we played, one through six must play. And whistling was number one. So I think that pretty much.

We probably didn't help ourselves with the format that day. We played one V1 Rider Cup single style. And I think that might have been a mistake. It would have been helpful to have a partner, you know, kick up your ball when you're in the sand. I think I would not play 1V1 against your buddy on that day. I think a better format would have driven as well. There wasn't many competitive holes where you had to make a four-footer to win the hole. It was just your buddy's out of play.

Like, oh, no, I just have to like two putt from three feet. I mean, we had, that's a very good point. On the seventh hole, which I believe is the John Daly hole, the part three, where he threw his clubbing in the water. That hole was straight into, maybe even a little bit off the left. The water's all down the right. It was 192 flag. and the entire fucking what feels like the ocean, but Lake Michigan is like five feet to the right of you.

It had to be a 40 or 50 mile an hour wind straight into the face. From 192. I hit three wood, and I'm not a long hitter, but I hit three. We did it. Our caddies are like it's at least a 230 shot. And I know, Lurch, I believe you were the only one to par it in the whole group, and you hit what, your 230 club, 225. I hit my hybrid and I absolutely gassed it right at the stick.

and it finished probably 15, 20 feet short on the green kind of fringer first cut there and two butter. But that poll was just about impossible. Our entire group hit it in the water and then we all just agreed to do it. A group drop up there in the rough, maybe 50 yards short of the green and we're like, we'll just play it from here. Yeah, it was amazing. Leaving the T-box, my caddy just pulls out my putter. And then the other two caddies and the other three players just were spraying across the golf course looking for golf balls, just miles away from the green. Yep, but I think that kind of summed it up.

And then, but it was, you know, on the downwind holes, it was fun. Like the hardest hole in the course, I had driver pitching wedge in, too, because it was straight downwind. I think it's like that fourth hole, third hole, fourth hole. Oh, yeah. I just ripped a driver down the middle. I had pitching wedge in that hole, you know, so it down. And then another hole, I mean, I ripped the driver and I had, you know, it's only like 405 par four. I hit a great driver and I had like a full three iron, maybe three wood in.

It was like, if you're playing downwind in the wind. Totally. We had an amazing scene at the turn. Unbelievable. It was one of maybe the most outrageous thing I've ever. been part of at Barstville Sports or in my life, which, and you guys were in the group in front of us, but, you know, an employee from whistling comes up to us after we finish the eighth hole and says, hey, Riggs, I got to ask you a quick question here. I was like, yeah, what's going on? He says,

so we had a junior tournament out here this morning, and a bunch of them are fans, and they caught wind that you guys were playing. So there's been a gathering up by it. The night green. And I said, what do you mean? there's been a gathering. So he said, well, there's a, there's a very large gathering at the ninth green that would like to say hi to you. Would you like us to reroute you? I said, oh, no, no, no. Rout us right fucking two.

I didn't really know that it was going to be this outrageous. And again, you went through first lurch. But when I finished out on nine, I think I made triple. And, you know, there's a pretty good walk from nine to ten T. It's probably a little, you know, four or five minute walk. And you walk by the clubhouse. And as I approached, there's probably 20, 25 kids. young, like, high school kids all, and a bunch of them all have their parents there as well.

And they just started clapping as I walked up. It was insane. Like a standing ovation. It was insane. Walking up, everybody's got their phones out. They're taking pictures, shaking hands. It was ridiculous. And we chatted with them for five minutes.

They're all super nice. They were awesome. We signed a bunch of things. Ask about Lurch's signature. They're making fun of Lurch. They handed me. One guy had like a sadizer for the boy's head cover. And on the white party, he goes, look at what fucking Lurch sign.

Then I looked. And it was just an all caps. letters it just said lurch so the guy comes up we're in the group in front he does the same thing he's like do you want me to reroute i was like no like there's four guys that can't break 90 we're not rerouting anywhere just sent it's right there and um so anyways we do the whole thing we're having a great time good laugh parents for like taking pictures and um the kids like can you sign my glove and i was just looked at him and was like kind of like brain dead i was like are you serious so then in my head i was like well i'm not signing my name like how do i keep this you know lurchy

and so I literally just signed Lurch in all capitals and then I put a smiley face in the in the U to like have like kind of a you know a big head in there and the kid like whispers to his friend he was like oh man my friends are going to like think I sign this thing and then lo and behold like his two buddies came up with a flag and then a Saturdays for the boy's head cover something I signed those things the exact same way it was just a wild experience and then walking to 10T my buddy chainsaw like took a picture from the background so you see the kids the parents and then

chainsaw was back there taking a photo and he was like smiling the whole time and i just looked at him i was like this is a wild world wild world we got a bunch of videos and pictures i hit those guys up after and say can you send me all the videos and stuff you have and it's it's wildly funny that that happened but then that we rolled to the to the tent team at that point we had had a couple fescue rescues we had drinks everyone had abandoned their scorecard and been like i don't care because like you said we're having singles matches. They started to tighten up. So it was like, you just got to win your match. And we cruised the back nine, which again, that was that two and a half hours, two hours, whatever it was was as enjoyable of a walk and just soaking up like everything majestic that golf can be.

You know, where you're like playing a game, you're on the water. A great design had gone into it that it made it super interesting and kind of compelling. We saw some good shots. So, boy, Doug went back to back birdies on impossible holes. I mean, one of them, was, and Lurt, you almost got a hole in one here. We witnessed that. But that was 1.35, I think it was, into the wind, to that back right pin. And if you missed two feet right of the pin, it's just in the, in the fucking ocean or Lake Michigan, that back right pin. And it was playing, I think we played it like 175.

Yeah, that's what I played. I played it. I played it like a heavy eight iron over Lake Michigan that had to come way back in. And it was an amazing shot because, as Rigsdy, you said, like, I've never played in a win like that. played up with granite that had big wins, but nothing is like consistent as that. It was like 30, 35 all day long. And it just took me so long to figure that out too because driving, obviously, you got to account for more drift than you do like a small little wedge and you're trying

to figure out and like do like, you know, price and de Chambot like calculations in terms of where this is going to land. And on that hole, you edit, in order to get something on the green, because the green's absolutely insane, looks like it's a quarter from where you're standing. You've got to take on so much of Lake Michigan and let it drift back, probably 20 to 25 yards back in play. And I hit one that literally rolled by the cup. I had nine feet made par, sick putter. But it was just wildly challenging.

It speaks to the whole day. Yeah, I hit six iron there. It was 175 that's about my, and I hit the ball way higher than you do. You and both Doug hit way more penetrating shots. So I get killed into the wind and I'm sick downwind because my ball just stays up in the sky forever. But, yeah, you guys both hit great shots. This might have been the best shot of the trip. It had to be.

I mean, that was the best. My chipping on two mammoth, maybe, that went in from. This one was better. I shot even part of that day. I don't know if I told it, but again. That one was better. Doug's shot was so majestic. I mean, it was just he flushed it.

He just ripped it right out of it, landed and finished, I think, probably four inches, maybe from the hole on an impossible shot. And then he birded the next hole. So Dougie, who, again, I think is like an 11 handicap. He posted a 40. I think he ended up bogey in, like, the 18th hole to shoot a 40 on the back. And that, in that weather. So for him, you know, he obviously said that was the most fun part of the trip for him. Well deserved because he played lights out.

And then again, on the back nine, I mean, coming home, 16, or 15, 16, 17, 18. We did our video on 17, so we're not going to reveal all the information about that. We did our Riggsverse videos on 17, which, again, it's just right in the water. And then, I mean, 18 might be the most beautiful hole in the courses, not even on the water outside of the T-shot. You're going back inland, the clubhouse. It's like this huge kind of valley that they built with a little river running through it. The green is just backdropped by the clubhouse. It's the DJ hole, right?

And they got rid of that bunker. I guess they kind of clean the area. Oh, is it really? So I guess what the caddies were saying is that it was all spectators in the tournament. So if you look at it when you play by yourself or with the group these days, you'd easily see that it's a bunker. But all the pedestrians had been walking in that area all weekend. So it was all matted down. And it just looked like dirt.

It was very hard to distinguish the dirt from the bunker. And I guess that's, you know, that's what happened. We all know the rest. We all know the rest. But it was that whole, and again, like nine, too, nine, which comes right into the clubhouse. I thought those two with the clubhouse as the backdrop and all the mounding and all the dunes and all that Pete Dye had done were just spectacular. And when you finish, you kind of think like, man, I'd love to do that walk again. But thank God I'm done with the fucking golf.

Yeah. Because it just beats you up. We went to the American club afterwards. We did the horse and plow, which is kind of in the basement there. We did this little beer dinner. I think we had a guy who thought we were big-time beer connoisseurs. And I got to tell you, he hooked us hookline and sinker for the first couple. He was pairing these beers with like the salad and then pairing this beer with this appetizer.

And we were like, man, we're all in. This guy's nailing it. He's right. And then it got to a point where he brought out a 10% beer. I don't know that any of us even Yeah, it started to get too much on the outlier It was just a little too funky for like the meal and everything like that I just I was like all right, I'm done

That was supposed to be like a nice long sit down dinner Go through the whole thing And we showed up at about 10 o'clock Yes so we had been enjoying the bar upstairs Quite a lot And I think we're Steve our guy Steve right Was that the bartender? I want to say Austin Austin

Yeah Austin was a barter There was the Michael was the guy who showed us around a lot of whistling, but then Austin, who was the bartender up at the club and the bar up top at whistling is amazing. So we had the fireplace going, we're hanging. No one really wanted to leave, to be honest. We went to the clubhouse, the Champions Clubhouse, which was very cool.

They showed us around there. So we got to a 7.30 dinner at 10 o'clock. And, you know, I think the boys were just hungry more than anything. And Peter really wanted to go through his pairings, his how he did this, how he did that. And I think we were just really hungry. Yeah, we might have botched that because when we showed up because he had like this long-winded meal. He was ready to present. We just wanted the biggest burger in the house with wings and just dress up the table.

Yeah. Because it was a sweet little scene. We had our own table. He was trying to make it really nice. And he did make it really nice. But that 10% of it was a lot of push. And good energy when we went in. That place was packed.

There were a ton of people there. Yeah, I would go by the horse and plow if you can. I mean, we were at the point. We had one guy was eating salad with his hands out of a bowl. So, I mean, we were. and that kind of gets to one of the main sort of discussions that you have afterwards which is like, you know,

how do you really stretch everything out in the perfect manner without dropping things that you really want to do? You know, and it's everything takes a little bit longer than you think we wanted to, like the whistling clubhouse is so sick that we wanted to do a beer at that bar. I think Austin put an Instagram up that I called it like the greatest golf bar in the world.

There's awesome. And it was awesome. You overlooked like the 18th hole and you could see the water in the distance. It had an old school vibe to it, a sick bar. There were a couple people with small tables. Fireplace. Fireplace.

And we had a couple guys just sitting by the fire, like, reminiscing on their lives. And it was like, we would have had to speed that up. Then we wanted to shower because they got state of the yard. I mean, it's colders. They got like state of the art, like, shower and all that. So we wanted to do like a shower with the boys and have like a cool little, like, where we're like yelling across shower stalls talking about this hole and that hole and doing shower beers and stuff. So we wanted to get all that in.

We ended up coming way late and app. and probably a little too drunk to the horse and plow thing. So it kind of becomes like, how do you do it? But that was super cool too and a bunch of fun. And the guy that was helping us out there was awesome. We just probably were not in the correct mindset to be there. Although we did enjoy about the first half of it a ton. Totally.

It was probably a little loose. Then we went back, we crashed, and we got up. We played Black Wolf run the river course the next morning. This one really didn't get a fair shake. I'm just going to say that right out of the gate. Course was amazing. It was very much different. different than all the other courses.

There's literally a river that runs through the whole thing. So it was kind of this lower, you know, greener course with a few different elevation changes where you had to kind of shape and keep it away from the water. But like you could always hear the river kind of running and they had this huge, I think it's the biggest flagpole in America that was kind of always as the backdrop. And it was just a really cool different course. We had been through what felt like a war at that point. Yeah.

I mean, you're walking links courses. Your legs are just dead. like you just can't put one foot in front of the other. Thank God that we had carts that day. But yeah, I will say, like, if there's one replay course, it'd be that one because it just didn't get a fair shake with everybody's like mindset, attitude, absolutely beat up, had to get up early for this round so we could fit it in before our flight that night. You got a little bit of the Sunday scaries creeping in.

You're like, holy hell, I've been away for a while. Now we're back to work doing the whole spiel. So that's one that didn't get a fair shake because that course is absolutely awesome. Like, it's, I mean, if you think about hole after hole of the layout, Very challenging course. Like if you missed the fairways left or right, if you're in really thick, thick, fescue, pretty much unfindable ball. If you do find it, it's a, you know, a 56 or 52 hacking out of there.

But that course had some absolutely stunning holes that I wish I had a better energy to play because I was just zonked. Yeah, that course would be worth it going out there, you know, and making the trek up and playing it, you know, and making a whole day out of it and doing like an hour-long range session and be like, all right, I'm going to really go challenge myself and play this golf course and you'd write home about it, you'd tell your friends about it, and we legit woke up.

We didn't have enough time to go to the range. We slept in too long. We were so hungover. We had a two and a half or three hour drive to the airport afterwards to fly home back to real life after Fourth of July week. And here we were. Like most of us were kind of like just get me the fuck off this golf course, which is a shame, but it just didn't really get a fair shake.

Yeah, I mean, that's a lot. I mean, the boys pack it in. I mean, it's definitely not a vacation. It's a golf trip that we talked about. We try to get in everything that we possibly can. And that speaks to like, even when we left Aaron, we woke up 5.30 or something like that to pack up the car and leave by six so we could make our... After drinking to one of the morning. Exactly.

Make our 830 tea time. So when we get there, like, you know, we get up, you know, we think we have 20 minutes and that's a ton of time. But you really don't when you have to unpack the van, get ready. You know, you want to fit in the range. There's just no possible way. And so we try to pack in as much as we possibly can. But that, you know, Black Wolf is certainly one where, you know, you go to 2 a.m., three a.m., having drinks every night. You wake up at 6, 7 to play around to golf.

and you keep battling, battling, battling. That one felt the brunt course of boys with low energy. Give me a six, dude. Like, whatever, man. I'm dead. There was a lot of that. Just like, give me a double. Give me another ball.

Like, I'll just go chip and put on the green. Like, it was just, we're trying to get through this. And so, again, it didn't get a fair shake. And to hilariously to, like, speak to, you know, the whole Kohler experience, that whistling was clearly number one on my little data sheet from all the boys. And Black Wolf Run Rivercourse was clearly. closest to six. It got a 5.25 when you added up all the numbers, it was six by over half the group or exactly half the group. The only guy that ranked it the highest, the guy that did rank at the highest,

number three, was Steve who shot the, basically, he won low net there and played well there, right? Which again, that's another theme where like you do, you are biased towards how well you played there. It dramatically changes your experience. Of course, that's okay. That's pretty universal thought. We saw that with Chainsaw earlier. We're like, oh, his favorite course was in the one way. Right. And so then it comes to, you know, when you finish, we had like a two and a half, three hour drive to O'Hare. We figured our shit. Everybody went home and now we're kind of regrouped a couple days later to do this podcast. But when you look back on it, you start to think like, okay, what do we do perfectly and what would you do differently? One of the questions that I asked

everybody in the group was if you could drop one course and substitute it for like a day of sleeping in or just really do whatever you want for those four or five hours what would it be i said sand valley ben said sand valley pete said sand valley but with a uh black wolf river in parentheses yeah i my only thing i i think you have to have that sunday round because you were saying it's how do you get this all right how do you maximize if you don't have black wolf on the calendar sunday i don't think your saturday nights is fun because people are maybe trying to sneak out of there people are like, I'm going to go back to Chicago. I'm going to do this.

I think having that round on Sunday, you know Sunday is going to be tough, but it made Saturday night awesome. And so I wouldn't necessarily swap it out because I think it preserved the trip to as long as it possibly could. We knew Sunday was going to be a tough day. Yeah, I mean, I think in my heart of hearts, I wouldn't sub anything out. I wish we had more time. But, like, you know, I'm there to play these world class golf courses.

I mean, they're all absolutely spectacular. The Swiss go loop is a must play. It's a must travel too. The courses are absolutely studying, but I think, like, you know, if I'm there, I want to play as much golf as possible. I'll just grind through it and I'll be tired on a Monday. Like, I'd rather be tired on a Monday than not tired on a Monday and like, oh, you know, weekend was easy. Like, I want to do as much stuff as possible. Sure.

So I don't think sub any anything out. But, yeah, I mean, as you said, like if I was going to sub out one, it'd probably be that Sun Valley trip. Sand Valley. Sand Valley. San Valley trip? I was just talking one course. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Sorry. I misspoke there a couple times. Okay. So what I was going to say was like, you know, we, did do at sand valley we built in like the first day we were going to play 36 holes in the second day we're playing 35 holes which like the first day you're playing both 18 whole courses the next day you're doing 18 in the morning at mammoth and then you're doing the part three course in the afternoon what i would probably do is that first day just take out the morning round you know so you do you know

you do sand valley sand valley you take that out maybe you do mammoth the afternoon then you do sand valley the next morning and and and sandbox in the afternoon that way that morning which would been Thursday for us, you know, you, you track out there, you get there, and you sleep in until whenever the hell you want. 10-11, you go do a big lunch or brunch with the boys, and then you tee off like two in the afternoon. And then the following day, you know, you're not as beat up from the day before. You kind of get a little decent night's sleep.

You wake up, you play mammoth, you know, mammoth or sand valley, and then you play sandbox, you know. I think a good rule of thumb on that trip is if any time you're driving between the courses and you're doing that, you know, two to three-hour drive that we did seemingly every day or every other day, you don't want to play 36. So trying to think that we could get Aaron Hills and Lassonian after driving from Chicago is probably unrealistic. Trying to think that we could get in Sand Valley and Mammoth after driving from Aaron

to San Valley is probably unrealistic. I think we nailed it at whistling when we took the morning to do the drive. We weren't rushed. We slept in a little bit. And we got there and we were refreshed for the whistling round. I think if you ever have to drive three hours, it's probably not a 36 hold. I think you're right. I think that's exactly what it is, or if you're going to do it, like, make it a par three course afternoon.

Totally. You know, and to kind of speak to what you were saying earlier about, like, you've got to do that Sunday around. Like, if you were at a place that had a sandbox or a part three course, like that Sunday morning. Yeah. Because, like, nobody else would be out there. Everybody plays in the afternoon. If you went and did a spin around with the crew as, like, a final send-off and you had some fun little game, that would be really cool. But I do think, I think it was kind of a miss.

And I don't know, like, because geographically, I don't know that we could have done. it differently, like that Black Wolf run river course Sunday morning just wasn't right, just wasn't perfect. You know, it was like it beat us up. Everybody lost a million balls. A lot of guys just wanted to go home. Nobody really gave a shit about what they shot. And so that was kind of looking back, like, how could we have done that differently?

That might have been the toughest course we played, though. I know. Like, in terms of if you spread it, it's a lost ball. Exactly. Like, that might be the toughest one. So it's like, you know, it's so hard. Like, if we finish with Mammoth, you know, it's pretty easy. Like, you know, you don't lose balls.

Agreed with that. The way I'm saying. Well, what if you, this is something I'm just wondering. I'm not even sure it's the answer. Because when we originally planned this, I was thinking we should play whistling straits on Sunday as like the cap off of the trip. And I'm wondering, and I don't think the answer is yes, but I'm wondering if you switch Black Wolf and whistling, if you're so excited for whistling that you kind of get up on adrenaline because it's whistling straits as opposed to Black Wolf, which is really cool. But it's like, there's just not the excitement that there was at a whistling. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know what the answer is. I think it's a good question because it's also tough. Like when you're with a crew like that, that first Wednesday night, we went hard at dinner, right? And then the last Saturday night, you're going to go hard. Yep. Because it's like, it's the last time I don't have to work tomorrow. I'm with this whole crew. I want to really make it enjoyable and memorable.

And those two nights in between, you can kind of like a lot of guys crashed early and it wasn't that big of a deal. Whereas I don't, like, if you're playing whistling the next day, you know, that dinner becomes. a little bit, maybe less like, all right, I kind of want to save myself because I'm playing whistling the next day. So I don't know the right answer to that. The bottom line is like you always are going to end up with this struggle of I want to max everything out and I want to have as much fun as possible. I don't want to miss any courses.

Like even we had to, you know, we miss Cuxonia links because of like we just couldn't squeeze it in. And there's a bunch of other places that we miss. Everyone was saying you've got to play the bowl. You got to play. There's the Irish course and the Meadow Valleys or whatever it is, both at Cole or they're supposed to be awesome. And like we had to miss all those.

And still we're talking about. we had to drop a course. So it's hard to squeeze it all. Yeah, it really is. I'm a proponent of just slamming as much golf in there. Like as, you know,

tough as a grind of a round as Black Wolf was, I still think it was worth playing. Like, I'd still want to do that. I still wouldn't take out Sand Valley. You know, if we bumped it to the afternoon round, we got that weather.

So then, like, now it's a whole day that's, like, wasted. I think you just try to play as much golf as you can. And then, like, yeah, maybe if we saw that there was a ton of weather coming in, we skip that and have a big brunch hangout rather than forcing in those seven holes.

But, yeah, I mean, it's a golf trip. Whisco Golf is absolutely stunning. And I absolutely encourage anybody to get out there. Agreed. I think that's right. I think that pretty much kind of puts a bow on the whole thing. To go through, again, the rankings, Whistling Straits, was ranked number one when you add all of our guys up.

Aaron Hills came in at number two. Mammothunes came in at three, very, very closely followed by the sandbox, which was then followed by San Valle. and Black Wolf were on the river course, which kind of tied for the last spot, which, again, Black Wolf, I mean, they've hosted a couple women's majors, a couple of U.S. Open lady winner. Yeah, behind us. Yeah, absolutely. So it's right. It's a legit golf course.

Oh, yeah. We're probably, you know, we're definitely. We just underplayed it because our energy, like, because we were so bad. The course was still absolutely perfect, but we were losers that day. Mike Eddy Dalton looked at me. He was like, you guys even want to be here? I was like, absolutely. But this is a grind.

It was. It was such a grime. But yeah, again, that kind of puts a bow on it. We're going to post a bunch of pictures. Lurch of myself and a couple of other guys got in the mix of a bunch of we did Riggs versus videos on every course. So every single course that we just listed, we did some videos and that's going to include some other stuff from those, not just the holes that we chose, drone footage, some other cool little tidbits and whatnot. And we'll put stuff on social, the promos. So if you really want to see what these things look like, you know, you can go through. And then on the foreplay social, on Lurch's own social.

PDNs does put some stuff up. I've put a bunch of stuff up so you can go out there and find, you know, kind of visuals of what we're looking for or what we're talking about. But it was really, really cool. Wisconsin Golf Loop. I think that's, you know, that's about as well as you can do it the first time. And hopefully we gave you some good information. I think that's all I go.

It's a great trip. All-time trip. World-class trip. World-class golf. Yeah, go out to Wiscoe and check it out for yourself because the courses are stunning. The people are awesome. They welcome you with open arms. The beers are delicious.

Go get it. Hit it hard. Hit it hard. Hit it hard. Well done. Fantastic.