No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 113: Australia Golf Trip

Episode Date: January 11, 2018

After a week down under playing some of the best golf courses Australia has to offer, we’re here to talk about our experiences at St. Andrews Beach, Kingston Heath, Victoria, Barnbougle Dunes, Lost Farm, Metropolitan,... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 113: Australia Golf Trip appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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fees, avoid the hassle of, you know, lugging your clubs through the airport. They will be at the golf course waiting for you when you do travel. Again, luggageforward.com slash no laying up and before we get started, I'm actually gonna make Tron do a little bit of work. Now that I'm full-time, it's always making me read ads. So here it goes. Travis Matthew Apparel is prepared to take you south of the border with their new Madano Beach collection. You'll find Polos, Jackets, hats, and more. Each one inspired by the beaches and lifestyle of Baja California. I'm trying to wear all of them right now. With fresh colors and designs, say Adios to normal and Ola to Madano Beach.

Visit www.travismathy.com to shop today. Let's go! theu.com to shop today. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast episode two of the year episode two of the Kill House We're struggling with guests so far this year. It's the same guys. We got nothing. It's Tron and DJ. Sorry guys. Hey, sorry That's alright. This is overdue We did want a debrief on our trip to Australia. We're trying to time this up a bit with the timing of when some of our video content is going to come out. So we're a bit late on this one. I know the travel pods are not for

everyone, but hopefully everyone tuning into this will enjoy hearing about our trip. But it's been a month. It's been a while. I honestly, I've been more than a month. Yeah, I'm going to struggle to, this is going to be good. It's going to really be the true lasting memories of Australia, because that's really the only things that are left, I think, at this point. It is the things that really stuck with you

after this long. What, tell us a story about how this trip came together? I mean, you tell us a story about how this trip came together. I'm the host. I tell I dictate what's going on You're the one that tried it came together. You tell a story. I just said made it came together So Sally or so Zach was playing in the Australian open. Zach Blair. Zach Blair. CB Rayner man the big cacah and D.B. Shout out to ZeeVee. Rainer man. The big caca. And so he had been down there once prior and then Sally was going down to Australia with his family.

Australian New Zealand, I believe, for family vacation over the holidays. So Sally and Zach kind of made plans. Does your family listen to the podcast by the way? I don't think they do. They don't really give me feedback. They subscribe, but don't listen. That's all we need, as long as they click.

Don't say that. No, listen, listen. Yeah, so they kind of came together, his account, and saw that we're talking about it, and said, hey, if anybody wants to tag along, we're like, shit. We'll talk. Yeah, let's try to make this into something.

So to DJ and I talked, and then then voted to Neil. And Neil was like, shit, I'll go. So we all ended up going to Australia. And I think we mentioned on the last podcast as well. But I mean, we've been talking about this idea of doing a travel series for a long time and trying to find some, you know, kind of different locales to go to. So that, you know, I think a lot of the travel stuff ends up looking pretty similar and I just I haven't seen very much From Australia so I think that was another big selling point was just let's go see what this is all about and bring some cameras and Hopefully capture it so

All that stuff is currently in the edit bay. We found some deep in the process We found some mercenaries to help us with some edits and You know should be coming soon. About 200 gigs worth of footage. A little shitload of footage. It's a lot. Yeah. What were your guys like main reasons

for wanting to go all the way to Australia to play? Man, it's a good question. I think Australia has just always been on my personal bucket list just for... It's just exotic. It's just exotic. That's the word I was trying to think of the right word to use. And it is.

I mean, it's just, it's so far away. It's so, it seems so accessible, but also there's just, you don't hear that many people, you know, having gone there, especially now for golf trips. And so I don't know, it's just, it was kind of this like big beacon out in the horizon that I've always kind of wanted to do and this seemed like the perfect chance to do it.

So that was the big one for me. It was just, let's just cross something off the list. Because it's not like we went, I mean, solid was down there for what seemed like three months. Like three years. But I mean, we went down, we flew, we left on Friday after Thanksgiving and Neil and I flew from Atlanta and then met Sali and DJ Flan and from their respective locales from Jacksonville and Columbus and out at LAX and then we took off Friday and got there Sunday. So we lost. It's so weird. Like a whole day. It was an entire day out the way there. And then we took off Friday and got there Sunday. So we lost. It's so weird, like a whole day.

It was an entire day out the way there. It just doesn't exist. And but then we flew back on Friday. So it's not like we were there for all that long. And there was a long way to go for some golf, but man, was it worth it? It was so much golf. I'm sure we'll get into this, but I mean,

it was, it was a lot in a short period of time. It was so much. It was the only way we could make it work. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, of course, if we could have drawn if we could have planned it better and you know, we could have made a dream trip. It was a dream trip, but we could have spread it out over more days and next time I was spread it out over a month. Yeah. Got around it over a month. Yeah, we didn't get to play all the courses we wanted to. We did get to play a lot of really amazing golf courses, but obviously we didn't get to Cape Wickham. We didn't get to King Island at all, and there's other courses, the national, and a lot of other places we would have loved

to have seen, but felt pretty great about the itinerary we set out, shout out to ZB for kind of helping orchestrate a lot of it. We played in order we went to Kingston Heath, Victoria, Barn Bougold, Lost Farm, Metropolitan, and then role Melbourne West and East. So. And St. Andrews Beach. And St. Andrews Beach. I always forget about that. I always forget about the dokeetah.

That wasn't planned. We landed on that Sunday. That might have been in the top three courses that we played. I think I did. I really could have. I loved it. I loved it. Massive fan.

We landed on that Sunday. We were kind of jet lag, but not really. Got some coffee. We were like, the sun came out. We were like, what should we do? So we called up St. Andrews Beach. And lag, but not really. Got some coffee and we're like, the sun came out, we're like, what should we do? So we called up St. Andrew's Beach and we got some long blacks. Got some long blacks. We got steep in the Melbourne coffee scene

and it energized us and we're like, we got a nice evening, we're in Australia, we might as well do something. So it is about an hour drive from the San Belt area. So everything else we just named aside from Barnaboo and Lost Farm is within a 15-minute drive of each other. So, like, we got an Airbnb, we set up shop, and we didn't really leave that area from that point.

It's not how, I mean, I can't think of really another place in the world that's like that. I'm sure there are, and, you know, people who are more well-traveled than me, well, I'm sure we'll be able to name some, but I'm sure they will. I'm sure we'll be able to name some, but... Oh, I'm sure they will, I'm sure that. I mean, yeah, it was just everything was... It all kind of felt... It was weird, it all kind of felt like it was on the same plot of land just because it was all so close, but all of them felt so distinct at the same time.

It was really cool to just see a place like that. You know, a lot of it felt like you were, you're basically in kind of suburban Melbourne. I mean, it's not flashy or all that interesting around there. It's a lot of street malls and kind of normal stuff and all of a sudden. It was like being in Dublin, Ohio, like a suburb of New York or a suburb of LA. But yeah, you turn off, you know turn off these kind of main thoroughfares and there's world-class golf course they pull into. It was really cool how unique,

but closely bunched, they were, I guess, is the way to say it. And everybody had their own distinct opinion of which ones were worth playing, which ones were their favorites. It wasn't like there was no consensus really as far as I mean I think there was a consensus on role Melbourne being kind of best of the bunch but even then you know people like there's a kind of a Kingston Heathrow Melbourne thing or nobody can quite agree on their list

which is yeah which is fantastic. Yeah totally. And I really I enjoyed going going back to emails that we had gotten before we left and gone back to see what people had said about it and seen rankings and What how could you rank that last but then when we tried to rank all our courses? Like putting a picking a course that we played and putting it last like was a sickening process I think I put Victoria last and I went back and got to the second time for second time loved it I love that golf course. How could I possibly rank that last? Yeah, it's not fair. It's all relative

Yeah, so All right, let's talk about I love that golf course. How could I possibly rank that last? Yeah. It's not fair. It's all relative. It's all relative. Yeah. So all right, let's talk about St. Andrew's Beach, first of all. It's top billing on this podcast. Completely private, public golf course, which is an exception, I guess, aside from Tasmania courses there, but was originally a Tom Doke design originally planned, was a private course. The economic crisis came,

and I think the course was even abandoned at one point. There were supposed to be two courses. It was supposed to be two. Clayton's group was supposed to do the second course, and it never came to fruition. And it was abandoned at one point. We went out there and we were like the only people and aside from the kangaroos.

It was hard to get out there to begin with. We were calling the guy, it was very evident that the guy in the golf shop didn't want us to come out. We were so jacked up to go play. We had nothing to do. We're sitting in this like little pizza place in St. Kilda and and drinking some coffees and some beers and some pizzas and we're like let's just go play now. Like we want to play golf. Little did we know five days later we'd be like oh my god, it's a play more golf. Me also. I mean it was very clear that if we would have just went and sat and watched TV somewhere we all would have crashed and yeah been jet lagged the rest of the trip and it was

a disaster like we would have we would have had to stay up and so yeah we're trying to go play St Andrew's Beach called this guy a couple times and it was very like yeah no yeah no no because they were busy there's a car park yeah there's a car park that locks and like, oh, cool, can we park someone else and walk? No, yeah, no. Unfortunately not. And so that was like, it sounds like a stoner

from Jacksonville, Jacksonville Street. But yeah, it was, you know, so I tried calling and then Solid Tried calling to kind of mix up the voices to see if we got a different reaction. We did it, it was the same. So we're kind of like, we're just gonna go anyways, let's do it and cruise out there, got nine holes. I forget the guy's name, but two is credit. Couldn't have been nicer once we arrived,

more welcoming and pumped to have us. But yeah, went out and played nine holes. That was great. It was a perfect way to start the trip. We saw some kangaroos or wallabies. We're not really sure. We're not really sure. It's some joys, which is which.

But yeah, there were some roots. Marseupials. No one else was there. They don't know that. I think they were kangaroos. Those were the biggest, I think we saw some wallabies elsewhere. At Barnboogel. At Barnboogel.

These were bigger. I think the flies were bigger than they can't grow. The flies were... The flies were... An issue. They're an issue. They're an issue. Legitimately the only bad thing I can say about golf and the sand belt was the flies.

I think Aussies are just kind of programmed to be able to handle it, but it was mental. It's a challenge. They don't bite you or anything. They literally just there to be a complete nuisance. It's a challenge. They don't bite you or anything. They literally just they're they're just there to Be a complete nuisance complete nut or nuisance. Yeah, and you can't really put like spray on to defend yourself from them No, they don't care about you don't want the wind to blow because the wind that blows is out of the desert Like the wind started blowing one day and they're like now you don't want that wind to blow man That's and it was like 105

Yeah, we'll get to that with the massacred metro. I don't know if we can get there. But yeah, so the injuries beach was great. I felt like you just hit all kinds of different shots. It was. Ah, the first two or three or four holes were probably some of the best we played on the trip. And the second hole was the short par four.

And the bunkers were like, they were already there and Doked just, Doked's crew just took like a bulldozer and just scraped one of the edges off and it was, cool there's a bunker. It was an eight foot deep bunker. Yeah and it was, it was wild like the land movement and stuff was so much different than anything else we saw and that makes sense because it was out away from the sandbelt and kind of far off on the Mornington Peninsula. The peninsula. The peninsula. The peninsula. And we got out there and yeah it was just, it was wild. That was a really cool way to start. For me, it was obvious, it's obvious DOK is super proud of that place too. I remember, I posted like an Instagram

from it or something when we got back, like three weeks after we got back. And Dope was like, I don't know if he follows me, I must have tagged him in the post or something. And he was like the first person that commented on it. And he wrote up this whole little story about like, oh my god, I love that place so much. We could have built that place in six weeks if we didn't have to lay irrigation down. That was the only thing that slowed us down.

The land was all done. We just had to put flags. It was awesome. It's really cool if somebody's going down there. It's just a cool place to... Like that one part four, was it four or five? Is that like the... Little shoot.

Number three, I think it was. Yeah, right off the bat. Oh, that was sick. It was like a hunchball thing and a shoot there. And then you had a kangaroo's outside. We saw kangaroos on a fourth hole of the tree. We're freaking out. I think it's a pretty no- I didn't see kangaroos anywhere else down the Great Ocean road,

anywhere in Australia. I mean, we saw- I mean, it makes sense on the other sandbelt courses because it's like you're in the middle of the city. But yeah, that one was pretty far out there. Which we got more than nine holes in there We actually might have driven out there We got out there a bit too quickly when one might say Luckily the Australian police department rain to sit on that They agreed they agreed not till after the fact though. Yeah, let us have our fun first shout out to

Neil Yeah, no, Neil we were we were specifically warned about the speed limits. And less than an hour into the trip, we got our first speed ticket. So, he brisk. Yeah. I think we thought we were playing House Money, too, because we were all spooked about the blue goo that they put on your shoes and your clothes. Yeah, so somebody lay out that hole.

Yeah, so that's that story. Some Australians who will remain nameless. Maddie. Here in Jacksonville said, oh man, make sure you bring new shoes because they will just wreck your stuff at customs and immigration down there because they're so paranoid about parasites and other varieties of grass.

And if you've been around livestock and that sort of thing, they're so paranoid about that stuff coming into the country. They just dip it all in this sanitization kind of blue goo. And like, it was so, like, I didn't bring my nice golf shoes. We all spent hours cleaning our spikes and cleaning the grooves of our clubs and all this stuff to try to avoid this.

And we got to customs. And Neil was think like kind of he was like begging I think he was pretty amped about it like he thought it would be good content for the content if if his shit got dumped in the in the blue goo and so he checked his box I'm like a customs carbon land I've been stomping around with the cattle and you should definitely check my shoes out and we got to the customs guy He was kind of like right You know, but you haven't like you've been good right like you haven't like touch anything He's like, well, I don't know. He's like, yeah, but you haven't like touch anything, right?

He's like no, so yeah, okay cool you guys are good to go and so yeah, so anyways Yeah, I think we got felt like we got away with one. We were maybe above the law playing with house money Yeah, and you know got flags for speeding to get right away. Too fast, too furious. Australia edition. All right, so after that, we, after that we tried Vegemite. That was before we even met up with Zach and Dan. And Guido, slash thunder, slash.

New Guida Dan. What do you think of Vegemite? First of all, what is Vegemite? I literally have no idea. It's like a yeast extract or something. It's like somebody described it. It's like the version of people. There are so many stuff they dunk your shoes in at the airport basically.

I don't know, it's like if you have to try. If you go to Australia, you have to try it. Yeah, Australia is the most important thing. I mean, we kind of tried it so you you don't have to. But it's true. It didn't go well. I don't know. I was describing it to somebody. It's like if your toothpaste was made out of soy sauce,

it's kind of how I felt. And it's like, it just keeps it oily. It's oily, but it's also gritty, but it's also, it's crazy. You know what, it was like really bad congealed fruit snacks mixed with tar and molasses. Good stuff, though. Really, really a genius.

I don't think it helps if the crackers or cookies or whatever we put it on were not good. We try to get some gross land. Well, we wanted to taste the vegetables. We don't want to taste the crackers. Little do we know. We didn't know. Anyway, it's a vegetable. So, pout in the Airbnbegemite. We don't want to taste the crackers. Little did we know. We didn't know. Anyway, so.

Pound in the Airbnb and then we are off 7.30 the next morning at Kingston Heath. Before we get going on the remaining courses, what reminds you guys that the new Mac Daddy four wedges from Callaway, they are setting a new standard in wedge performance featuring Callaway's new and proprietary groove and groove technology for shots stopping

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Shout out to Simon Dick, who is a member there, who helped us arrange a lot of our trip and was kind enough to host us and into two groups. And he also introduced us to the party panther. The legend that is the party panther. You guys got to play with him that first day. A little bit naughty figure. What a throwout.

So he shows up on the first tee. He's got one of the better moustaches I've seen in a long time. And I think seven clubs in his bag. Yeah. He explained playing with seven clubs that, which makes a ton of sense after you think about it. He's like, you know, I think you have to be a certain caliber of playing.

In football, that's true. Yeah, it's not, yeah. He's like in golf, you know, there are decision-aers and there are action-aers. And more often than not, your decision-aers are gonna be much more prevalent than your action-aers. And so what I do is I cut my club numbers in half to stop myself from making decision-airs and just force myself to avoid the action-airs and it totally helps my game.

It's got like 23, isn't it? Like it's like a savant. He's studying like landscape architecture. He's studying landscape architecture but is also an electronic DJ. And he's on a walk- about right now, isn't he? Yeah, he's making music for our tourist sauce season, but he said he's got a walk about western Oz for three weeks, so he's going to have to get back to it. This guy was on another level.

He's on another plane. Another plane of existence and kind of just reality. Yeah, and he's, yeah, I mean, landscape architecture student slash DJ is just not someone you run into very often. Could not have been more thankful to run into. And he was, I mean, new, he was a great tour guide. That was kind of a theme of the entire trip as the people we played with were fantastic tour guides of the courses that we played at Tellinus.

Yeah, over here down the left side here, it was course bushes until, or like gum trees up until five years ago and then they realized that there are all these bunkers that McKenzie put in. There's that Kingston Heath at the par 5, 14 I think? Or no, no, like 12, 12. Yeah, down the hand.

Down the mountain. He said, yeah, it was all the oh got to forget the name of the the name of the it looks like gorse, but it's a little taller I forget what it's called but It was all that up the left hand side of this this par five and the superintendent just for whatever reason went on a walk in there just to kind of see what he could find and And it just for whatever reason went on a walk in there, just to kind of see what he could find. And yeah, eventually found like he kind of tripped and fell into all these deep pits, which turned out to be original McKenzie bunkers.

And so they burned all that stuff out. And now it's like this badass bunkering up the left hand side that was, you know, making sure that it plays as intended. The craziest part too is McKenzie was only in Melbourne for like two months two months. 54 days. He did.

He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did.

He did. He did. The craziest part too is Mackenzie was only in Melbourne for like two months. Like two months. 54 days. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. right and there's the effect that he had on that one. The density of it. Yeah, and like there's a lot of, a lot of uninspiring designs across Australia

and the fact that his visit there, first of all just the logistics of putting that together kind of in the 1920s blows my mind. Like he probably say over a steamship. Yeah, and was all communicated by letter, like hey I'm coming to visit you guys. So he came to Kingston Heath and walked the layout and said he had no recommendations aside from, he changed the 15th hole

from like this kind of blind-ish part four into what is now probably the best hole at Kingston Heath, this part three. But aside from that, he had no recommendations to make other than the bunkering. And I think his bunkering, the fee that he charged for them to lay out the bunkering was like 10 times what they paid the actual course designer or something like that.

Well that was the other thing, the courses were routed by basically the superintendant. Yeah, it was the su-tars. Yeah, it was a... I don't know, that stuff is so crazy to me that these relatively unheralded people go out and just knock out of the park, these incredible golf courses that just stand the test of time. It's not only like they're relevant in their region, they're relevant from a historical perspective too.

So they're world-class, then the world-class now, and it's crazy, yeah, I mean, it's like kind of amateurs that are just predisposed to having a really freaking awesome skill. And it's a great piece of property, it's pretty flat. But there's this like subtle land movement and there's kind of these two or three sand mounds that kind of run through the entirety of the property

that everything's kind of built around. What's your one word, describe Kingston Heath in one word? I'd say nuanced. It's telling the follow. I was gonna say subtle, which is pretty similar. But it's not one word, but some of all parts kind of is the way I would describe it.

It's not gonna wow you in pictures. It's all the intensive. There you go. Like it's not gonna like wow you in pictures. Like, there you go. There you go, thank you. So when the course was laid out, I think I read that it was originally a par 82 and it was like 6,500 yards, which in the 1920s was insane.

And the irony of it now is like that it's like too short. Like, Mackenzie said it was not even par. Yeah. Mackenzie said it was too long, but the superintendent disagreed and they never shortened it. And now the irony is they run out of space to put T-boxes in a lot of places. If we're going with multiple word descriptions, I would say it's a grower, not a shower. Yeah. I agree. Well, that's the thing. And I think Guido Dan was good at pointing out a lot of this stuff

Guido Dan was a buddy of CB's catted forum at the Australian Open and Join this for the trip but It's in a mile Hence Thunder Dan was also a nuclear day. Got a lot of nicknames not on a week Yeah, but he was really good at pointing out a lot of stuff that I probably would have breeze past just like a lot of the nuances in In a lot of the green I probably would have breathed past just like a lot of the nuances in a lot of the green complexes where you know, a 90% of other golf

courses, something would have been dead flat. These people either found or manufactured, you know, these little rises and just these little subtle one foot runoffs that just completely change, you know, if you miss something a yard short of the green it just completely changes They have purpose. They all have purpose. They're not by accident Yeah, and like the and I talked with Clayton about especially when you're playing the ground game so much right playing so firm and fast It's just awesome like the level at which like the Metropolitan book that they had like a

Prick made a book a proposed change is the level of detail within that book like blue My I mean I knew golf course architecture was a lot more complicated than what I understood. Like, reading that, like, this little fairway mound that they're talking about that didn't even come into play, but like the purpose of it, I was like, what? I just didn't understand that level. But so we were unfortunately not lucky enough to get Kingston Heath in the proper condition. It wasn't poor condition, but like, we'd just come after our rainstorm, and it was soft. Like it was not the way the course is intended for.

You couldn't play it short and then run it off. Correct, yeah. We were landing balls on green, spending it, which again, it was amazing. Greens were pure though. They were amazing. I thought they were the best greens we played of the trip, just how smooth they were and everything.

That's not a slight on any other courses. Well, the last thing I want to mention about Kingston Heath was the membership. That was my favorite, just an aspirational vibe at that place, was you could tell, and I was talking to the party panther about it a little bit. I wish we could give him more details on the party panther, but I mean he prefers to remain anonymous. First of all, give him a member that's named the party panther. Yeah, but that's what he said. That's the fact. And he was 23 and he was just remain anonymous. First of all, we have a member that's named the party pay. Yeah, but that's what he said.

That's the fact. And who's 23 and who's just a student? And he explained, they do a good job of making it affordable for young members, but they're also super selective on who those young members are. And it's not an exclusionary thing. It's just making sure that you're... It's an anti-dush bagger. It is. And's just making sure that you're there's it's an anti-douche bagger

It is and it's yeah It's making sure that there's no pretension and there's no Stuffiness and everybody that we met at Kingston Heath was just awesome That was that was the place to stuck with me the most where I felt man I would love to a tiger woods the tiger woods Yeah, the animals club sandwich in the clubhouse, which apparently they changed the name. If I remember right, it used to be called the Tiger Woods Club sandwich.

And then they changed it back. And they changed it back after his indiscretion. But anyways, let's move on to Victoria. I was where we played in the afternoon. Well, I wanted the only about Kingston, I think, a critique I had, I guess you could say, was like, I came in with just kind of really, really high expectations with it being like

a top 20 rated course in the world. And it's like such an, it's kind of an unfair critique. Cause again, when I went back and looked at how many really good holes and how we voted, we made a composite list of the best, like best number one, best number two. Like from the trip, and best number one, best number two. From the trip, and we came up with like five holes

from Kingston Heath, but while I was playing it, I just didn't feel like I was playing like a top 20 course in the world. It's just, I don't know why I felt that. It's like not a, not that fair of a criticism because I don't have any critiques of it, but it didn't feel like that crazy. Maybe it could be a tribute to the conditioning. I think that speaks to the subt critiques of it, but it didn't feel like that crazy. And maybe it could be attributed to the conditioning.

I think that speaks to the subtlety of it. I don't know how you guys feel, but that's what I would take away from that feeling is, that felt to me like a place where if you played it a hundred times, on the hundredth time, you would notice something you'd never noticed before. And it just, you just keep getting deeper and deeper into it. Yeah, it's not gonna blow you away with wow factor,

but like something you'd you appreciate more over time. I thought the 14, 15, 16, those holes, after we played those, there was a few par threes on the front too that was like, man, this is saying. So I think I liked Kingston Eat more than most, Thunder Dan did as well. And it seemed like it kind of grew in stature. And then you played it again. Yeah.

It was even softer at the second time, unfortunately. But like, again, I think- That was after the 100-year storm. Yeah, that was pretty brutal. But when we were leaving, they were all the news reports and everything were saying, I forget. Breaking news! Yeah, forget what they're saying.

They're like, this is meteorologists are calling this a 10 out of 10 on the recklessness scale. This storm that's coming, everybody needs to batten down the hatches. And we're like, shit, I hope are. We thought it was only American media that really put the hype out. I hope our flight doesn't get canceled. And we like took off and we got Wi-Fi on the plane.

Or maybe when we landed, you know, 29 hours later. Texan solid, hey, man, everything okay, do you survive? Oh yeah, I went out and played golf and everything. It rained for like 45 minutes. All right, let's move on from there to Victoria. So we were kind of debating whether or not we were actually going to go out and play Victoria because they sanded the greens the day we actually played it. I think I could speak for the group to say we were pretty thrilled that we did go out and play it.

Yeah, hesitation. After the first hole is sweet. It's like this kind of a novelty, but it's a short part four, 275, 280. It's 238 yards. We argue about this. Essentially a long part three that looks like a par four kind of Yeah, small green and gnarly front bunker. It has like a little fairway car down to the left and downhill and downwind 238 yards like it's fascinating hole. It's the perfect hole for us to argue about why part doesn't matter

Yeah, we had some good debates. So then he played out like all right, this is cool. And then I don't know two three four I just felt like I was playing this same hole over and over, if it's just this stock part four with fairy-bunkers and kind of straight away. To me, I really didn't, it didn't click with me at Victoria until we got to 10. And then 10 was just, like, from 10 on,

it was like, all right, this place is sweet. There's not a week haul in that back nine. Like, there's really not. The back nine was kind of mind blowing actually and that whole stretch, I mean, I thought 17 was. 17 is the part five is kind of one of the week, it is definitely the weakest hole. But the only hole that out there that I didn't love

on that back nine. Like 14 was one of the best holes we played on the whole trip. Part three. No, the part 15. Or 15. Part four, yeah holes we played on the whole trip. Part three. Oh, the part 15. Part 15, part four. Yeah. We played so many good driving.

I mean, 14 was sick too. Yeah. Oh, god. But like Victoria had more land movement than Kingston. It did. Especially in the back nine. It felt like you were, yeah, I mean, that was about you and San Francisco. It felt like the same Francisco.

Yeah, exactly what I was going to say. It was, I don't know. Maybe it was because of the, I don't know. Maybe it was because of the I don't know Maybe it was so different than Kingston Heath I thought there's big-ass cypress We played every one day that Multi-ter it was for sure it felt like I don't know it was my least favorite that we played the sun came out It was it got kind of hot and stuff It was it got kind of hot and stuff

I'm with you DJ it was probably my least favorite but I would it was one of the best courses I played this year Last year totally agree. I'm trying to think of what made it my least favorite or what you know What I kind of left What left me whatever feeling like it was lacking? I guess it was probably the even it was probably the first you know numbers two through Five two three and five are like almost the same. Yeah, it was just kind of blonde It was I think we were kind of low energy jabbing it. That's probably true I mean try not to let that dictate you know how what you think about it But I think a lot of it too was the other courses even though they were in the middle of

In the middle of you too was the other courses, even though they were in the middle of, in the middle of the suburbs basically, it never felt like it either because of the way it was landscaped or the way it was routed or whatever. This one I think, it just kind of ran next to the road a lot. And if you hit one right, you can hit it in the tire shop, no, speaking from experience, like literally the tire shop. Yeah, and it was just kind of like, no speaking from experience. Like literally the tire shop. Yeah, and it was just kind of like,

I don't know, this just doesn't. Well, and the guys we played with were awesome. But I think the overall welcome at the club was a little stuffy, a little lacking. Yeah, yeah, and that seemed, and I wouldn't say that unless it was more or less kind of the stereotype of the club. Well, the guy we played with,

around the area, works at Kingston Heat. Well, the guy we played with. Oh, round the area. We worked at Kingston Heat. Yeah. Yeah, he was great. And the guy you guys played at Billy also seemed like an awesome guy. Oh, he's the best. But yeah, it was almost like, and trying to know you're coming from the hospitality world

soon to leave the hospitality world. But it was kind of like every question we had, you know, they were trying to think of a reason to say no is kind of the way I felt. I hope that, you know, it doesn't feel unfair. I don't think the questions we were asking were super difficult to accommodate. It was always like, oh, you guys are going out everywhere else we went. It was like, you're a member for a day kind of thing and not that you're going to, you know, act like this is your own club

But you just they kind of extended that warm welcome to you and I don't know for whatever reason it was a little bit It was like yeah, can we take our beers out of the putting green and put afterwards and they're like Yeah, it was just it just seemed like a lot of I don't know It just wasn't my wasn't my vibe So talk about the the putting the putting for me So that was awesome. That's one of the most things we saw there's so many like so again I got to I got to play it twice which this I enjoyed it even more the second time But kind of got I think that first day I thought it was not too tough But it was tough the wind was up and it was just that fairways are not wide there, and it was a very demanding whole course off the tee.

The second time the winds were down a bit, and I could kind of respect the nuance more off the tee, and there were some really, some bunkers came into play that weren't in play the first time, and I just really had an appreciation for kind of the way that I was deciding between clubs on every shot, which I thought, in some, some courses on that we played on this trip, it was kind of pretty easy to reach for a driver and not think about. But then, yeah, you play this unbelievable back nine, you finish with this, like, par four and a half that comes over the hill, and it's like a seven iron

into this par five and, like, massive green. It's awesome, great finishing hole. And then you put the surfaces, again, a lot of these courses, they just kind of roll, fairway rolls right into the green. It's kind of indistinguishable. And then you can essentially put on the fairway. Well, you go off to the side of the green and you put from the 18th green essentially

to the putting green, like up a hill. It's probably 45 yards or so. Like you have to crush a putt. But you just put it up onto the putting green and then get it in any hole that you want in as few strokes as possible. And whoever takes the most strokes has to buy the beers. It was awesome.

It was a great way to wrap a 19th hole, kind of way to wrap up and then you go up and have beers on the patio and everything. So, playing with, I love playing with Billy. Like, he's up pro and like a very competitive player and to get to play with somebody that plays at that level on a course that he knows and in a style, the stingers that this guy was hitting, at one point he and Iron, that clipped the grass in front of the tee and it went like 290.

He just, it's like Sergio, Sergio, it was team awesome. It was team awesome. And he just had these shots, and he could just hood a driver and just roll it over and just ran forever. That was just kind of cool to watch somebody that grew up playing the style of golf and see it like, all right, this is how you play this shot. I don't have a lot of those shots. So that was, that was really cool.

But what's, uh, what's the one where description and Vick? Oh, I'm gonna prepare for this if you're gonna ask. Well, that's the point. Yeah, I mean, something for me too is I played awful. Yeah. A shot in the seven is a Kingston Heath and I didn't even sniff breaking nine No, I didn't make a burning the entire trip after Kingston. We had a we had a patch Zach brought a bunch of patches like military patches that he was giving out basically like boy scout patches if you

Accomplished certain things and one was, if you got over an eight or higher, you got the patch, you got the eight patch, and Trot unfortunately earned the eight patch twice at the end of the game. I don't remember correctly. Double, I had two TC channels on the same hole. Ha, ha, ha. Well, help me, help me, I don't know how to put in one word,

but I felt like that was one of the courses that had one of the highest shot values, like from, help me, I don't know how to put in one word, but I felt like that was one of the courses that had one of the highest shot values, from T-degree, like the most emphasis on your ball striking. So, yeah. I don't know how to put that in one word, but that's my, demanding. There you go. There, I thought it was demanding.

I would say it was tempestuous. Wow. Yeah. I'm gonna act like I know what that means. I love it. No, man, that's fun. It's got a little bit of attitude to it. It's a little bit You know a little bit stormy a little bit frothy. I

Mean I thought it was Overrot Little yeah, it was a little too much. It was a little pitchy dog. There's a little pitchy for me. All right It was a little pitchy dog. There's a little pitchy for me. All right. All right. And Zach the entire day was like, dude, he's just fucking sick. Oh, this is sick. Oh my god.

You like this is this might be the best course. I'm like, Granny, he says that everywhere you play ever. But I think like I think during the round, we were like, man, like DJ and I were just kind of looking each other and we're like, man, like, yeah, we don't really see it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, usually with him. I don't know, I just wasn't feeling it. All right, so here's what I want to be conscious of.

I think it's got its own day. Like, we would have a different feeling. I really do think. Maybe I'm naive and how much that was affecting my review. I don't think so, but maybe. But yeah, I want to be cognizant here of what you said. I'm curious, let's go through from now on, and when you liked something, we should talk about what you shot.

And when you didn't like something, we should talk about what you shot. That's true. It's a very good point. Well, I mean, for the rest of the trip, I played like shit. So, like, and I liked other stuff in the rest of the trip. Okay, well, that's good. That's very big of you. Next day was probably the day that we had circled the most. We had arranged to take a little plane from... Very little plane.

Like the size of this kitchen table that we're... From Morabin Airport in Melbourne, sorry. That's gonna fly us to Tasmania to play Barn Bougal Doons and Lost Farm. Tasmania about an hour and a half flight from Melbourne. Which is about an hour longer than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, I thought it was like a... I think you just got shook when the distress call went out

and we're like, all right. On the comms. Well, as we show up, it's, you know, it's good. So kind of adding up costs on how this is going to work We give their fly commercial from Melbourne airport to Tasmania rent two cars essentially to get drive 90 minutes and get to the golf course Adding up those costs versus what it costs per person to just rent a plane It was going to cost us like 75 to a hundred dollars more something to rent the plane plus time was of the essence

Oh, and it's it's it's it's yeah Irreplaceable times we were like let's let's rent a plane and we did it and I'm there I'm there phone private before like that was that was pretty wild. It's it's not as glamorous as probably you see on like Well, yeah, I would say it wasn't a net jet charter. I would say charter instead of private It's true very big distinction. Yes. Yes, that's that's a good difference. We booked it for 6 a.m. because it was like a 1965 like there was duct paper. Yeah. So yeah, so we show up at at the airport. We won't say the name of the airline because I think they gave us some money back but the the pilot was

extraordinarily late. So we're just sitting there. Not his fault. Yeah. Like they didn't confirm our booking. We had paid. They had charged us. But their system was kind of getting changed over or something.

And our booking was not there. But we're like, all right. If they charged us, then you know. They know we're coming. Right. So we're waiting for about two and a half hours on the runway. Just Neil and I are playing it's packy sack. It's a crisis.

We can laugh about it now, but I was kind of freaking out. Solid was stressed. Solid was stressed. I was kind of in charge of this leg of the trip. Yeah, but you know it worked out fine. And so we ended up getting a pilot, Nick the stick, shows up, great guy. Meanwhile Zach's like, alright, we're going to go back and we're going to play Victoria again.

Exactly. So we take off and what's Nick think of golf? Yeah, we ask Nick, we get started. You know, it's six of hard core golf fans flying to this super remote golf resort. Like Nick, you know, you like golf? No, actually quite dislike golf. I got it. All right. like Nick, you know, you like golf? No, actually quite dislike golf. I got it.

All right. Good Nick, work at St. Andrew's Beach as well. He worked the pro-shop. He did, yeah. He kind of moonlit as a charter pilot. That's why it was late, I think. He couldn't speed getting there. So we showed up and we're taking off.

And we need, it's like an eight person plane, I guess. And so we need someone to sit in kind of like the co-pilot seat, I guess. Which by the way, there's only one pilot. So like if he has a heart attack, like we're done. Just toast, toast. So, cause I'm sitting in the co-pilot seat and we're cruising and I got the headset,

I'm dialed into the comm. I've seen like Air Force one or? Yeah, exactly a decision. And so I'm like, you know, A, like when was this plane built? This seems like very, very old. He's like, oh, this one's probably mid 70s. And I'm like, oh God, he's like, no, they're very well maintained. I'm like, okay, all right, well that's cool. Which actually talking to some people apparently that's totally,

totally normal. Yeah. So we're cruising and there's a bunch of chatter in the headset and he goes, you know, you hear what these people are talking about in the headset, like yeah, I don't know what any of that means. It's like, oh yeah, someone just sent out an emergency signal. He's like, don't worry, it doesn't affect us. Oh my god.

I like that. Well meanwhile, we're over the bass straight, which is probably a hundred miles of open water. The roaring forties, I guess they call it, it's this very wild, wacky weather area. Couldn't have had a better day. It was 75 degrees in some time. So we landed, we landed on the dirt runway. You fly over in between the two courses. Like this is like kind of river that separates

the lost farm property from barnbubble dunes. And I think they take you in on that route like to kind of tease you. Like it was such a cool sick, like low view of the golf course of the property. You get your first side of it, just carved into the dunes like that. And then you just like bank left and land

on a dirt runway Right next to the golf course that that part of the of the trip was a thrill like that was just awesome Like it was that whole yeah to get that view of it and then you just you travel kind of to Get unique golf experiences and to take like a plane with your buddies and have it be super late and show up and Go to this remote island that you know was probably as far from home as any of us had ever been like that was that was the highlight of it. We were in Tasmania. Yeah, we said that probably at least I said it probably five times.

We landed on like you and Neil. Like every step we take we're taking steps on Tasmania. Yeah, can you believe that? But it looked like the, I mean you get out there and like it kind of looks like the Caribbean and kind of looks like Vietnam and kind of looks yeah Scotland and certain areas it's bizarre. Yeah. Just gorgeous place.

So we landed and we were walking down the first fairway 32 minutes after the wheels of the plane touchdowns like you put your clubs like in the wings. That's a balance. Yeah, like sometimes they'll move a bag from like, oh, this needs to go on the other side of the plane because we're on bow. There's clubs in the nose of the plane. There's clubs like in the back,

just like in the seat next to you. And you just like somebody from the club is there to pick you up and they take you right in and just like you send you off and you go. And it's like, they did a good job of getting this out in front of a big group of Japanese tourists. Yes, that were, yes, there was quite a bit of it.

They're like, yeah, we're gonna see you guys off. I'll credit to the, those guys behind us were on our tail. I know, they were flying. Kinda felt bad. Yeah, don't stereotype. So yeah, so apparently- I didn't stereotype. No, no, not you, just people in general.

Yeah, you people. Apparently they get about 40 days a year in Tasmania like the day we got like I was looking at the summer in the forecast like after we left there was like a 47 degree like high day. I was kind of disappointed. Our weather was so good. It was amazing. All right, well to that end, so the wind was probably 10 15 miles an hour Augustine yet one thing. Yeah Imagine playing that place with anything more barbougal dunes That is the first course we played was the dough course

Imagine playing that in the wind there were a couple shots where we just got Boned by like You know difficult difficult shots difficult carries, all kinds of different things. And I can't imagine playing that place. You go through a dozen balls playing that place in anything more than that. So after I was, of all the courses,

I was probably most looking forward to playing bar and boobledons. Same. Because I was just like, I'm like, all right, this is gonna be sick. And then like by the end of it, I was just like, oh my god, Janela's right. Like, docks insane.

He's a sadist. Like, you know, just the greens and my other, you know, but then on the flip side, like I probably knew the least about lost farm. And that was, I think lost farm was probably my second favorite course of the trip. Yeah, same I feel the exact same way it was there were so many shots on barnmogledoons that I mean you and I played together. We were talking about it throughout and it was I mean it was like there are so many shots that

Make you like never want to play golf again like you hit the shot. You're like this is impossible There's zero chance that I can pull this off. And whether that's because you left yourself in the wrong, it was not a good weather day. Yeah, and whether that's because you left yourself in the wrong spot, you know, sometimes that's true, sometimes it's not, but, but then there were also so many shots like the, was it 13, the sit well game?

Yeah. Where you, I could have stood on that tee and hit a thousand balls. Or number four that, like there's like, like one of the craziest short par fours I've ever played in my entire life. So I was kind of like the Rodani-ish. Yeah.

And then number 12 was that short four on the back. Yeah, I mean, there were so many shots. Par five was great. There were so, like my, just emotional, it was an emotional roller coaster going through there, which I guess is a compliment. But there was like number eight we played was the super long par four. That was just...

You hit a sock. I hit a perfect drive. Yeah, I didn't want to talk about that at all. But that whole I walked off the green and I was like, this is this is the worst person I've ever played in my life. What? On number eight. Just that one hole isolated. That's a killer. And then they had I'd play number 10,

and I was like, this is the best course I've ever played. But in the middle of that, if we talk about the sandwich, was they had it at the time? Oh God, so good. The cucumbers they had, they were fantastic. So we, me, I was playing with ZB and Dan in the group ahead of you guys, and like every time we look back,

you guys look like you were like on the Oregon Trail. Like you guys, I'm like walking down an alternate fairway. I'm looking for first of all They're like you'll have typhoon fever you play you play everything lateral just cuz you don't go I was dropped. They call it yeah, cuz you get fucking killed by snakes if you go into the so I'm like I know I know that name. I'm spooked going in on on number three. I'm walking down like an alternate fairway. And then, like I come, like solid is trying to get these drone shot. You had guaranteed victory over Neil this day by the way.

And you started out, you'd like, triple the first three holes or something. Oh, yeah, I was out of my mind. And then I end up, so I'm like walking down the adjacent fairway and I walk up to number four, but I'm looking for my ball like over in the dins and I'm like spooked about snakes and then all of a sudden there's these two, I guess they were wallabies because we were in Tasmanian and I just like I was like, I was like, I was like, I just, I was popped out of the breath. Yeah, I thought my life flash before my eyes

And Neil had been doing this like there's this kangaroo sanctuary Instagram account and Neil had been doing this impression of Roger like one of the Alpha, he's like this is my beautiful more Roger and he's like Roger used to be our alpha and Roger just flexes Yeah, when you're the alpha kangaroo, you just flex all day, every day. And they're just these, you know, testosterone, and your latin' Yeah. So, you know, that's like flashing in my head and everything.

So. Yeah, so that's how our experience is. Yeah, I'm so glad about you. That's what I say. We were like, two holes ahead of you guys at one point. I was like, just trying to get you guys on videos. Like wave and you guys just like just gave the most half ass wave. You were searching for balls the whole time.

In the group, we had a very different impression of the course. I thought, I actually didn't play very well, but kind of thought it was almost too easy. I didn't feel like I was hitting it very well and I was like, wow. I didn't have that impression. Eight foot putt for bird. How do I have a putt for birdie here? Yeah, it was weird.

ZB shot like 66. Maybe it was just kind of like, we walked out so he bogeyed the last, right? To shoot 66. It's like, what's the, uh, so what's the course record out here? Did I got a 65? He's like, oh, shit.

Yeah. Um, maybe it's just, yeah, I don't know, maybe just kind of pacing next to him helped make it seem easier or whatnot. But, uh, I don't know, I thought you guys, and we'll get into the loss farm. I think everyone was kind of quick to, quick to say

loss farm was like by far and away better than dunes. But I think maybe that kind of came with, I think I like dunes a lot more than most of the group did. But I thought there were so many, John, you made a fair point. You said like, it felt like some of the slopes, like they just weren't shaved quite enough to like affect. Yeah, the greens, your ball to get down to pins and stuff.

Like if there was a punch ball or if there was a redan, or like on the sit well green, you want to play, you know, or chipping, you want to play your shot up a slope and really use the slopes. And you couldn't, because your ball wouldn't come away on the slope. And it was fescue grass. So it was kind of, you know, especially when it's summer

down there, like they can't really shave it down because it'll just die. So I think that was kind of... It has to be such a fine line for them to walk though, because not only just kind of agronomically when trying to get it that fast and teetering on the edge, but also just pace a play and stuff. I mean, it's resort golf.

It is, yeah, it's like a... And so that kind of brings me to another point, which is just something that kind of clicked with both of those courses. They're both so, they're so about position and so about kind of, your second time around would be so much easier than your first, which is almost kind of backwards

a little bit in that, you know, it's kind of this bucket list, resort course that you're gonna play like one time. Well, I don't know how I feel about that. It's kind of weird that, you know, it's kind of this bucket list resort course that you're going to play like one time. Well, I don't know how I feel about that. It's kind of weird that... Apparently, we did it wrong. Apparently people go for it and like nobody plays it once. Yeah.

You always go and play more than once. We were kind of on a tighter schedule, but in hindsight, yeah, we did squeeze in some extra holes that lost farm and stuff and like, kind of do... Yeah, absolutely. Some of us did. Yeah, some of us did. But I don't know. I thought there was, you know, four or five, like really great halls out there,

the fourth and the seventh and the fourth, like seventh was like the hardest short part of three I've ever played. Yeah, so talk, all right, so describe that whole for someone who's never seen it. It's like 120 yards dead into the wind and it wasn't the strongest wind, but it was in, I hit my 150 club, like it was in.

It's doaks take on postage stamp with like this crowned green. It was, I think it played like 130, 125, 130 yards. I hit like a knock down six iron or seven iron came up short. I was in like, I was in like position A. You put on quote, no way. Yeah, I was like choked down to the metal and then made a six from the place to be quote unquote.

I mean, the two bunkers that are left of the green are the worst bunkers to hit in, probably in golf. Like they're so deep and it's just like beach sand. Like you can't even get your ball. You can barely find my ball. I picked up after six shots. I disagree that that was the worst bunker. Because we'll get to metropolitan that oh

That was my other complaint about the course was the bonkers. Oh my god It was like the Sahara desert. Yeah, it was some we're not yeah, I don't know It's kind of a weird philosophical. I'm cool with bunkers being peanut or super penal and hard and like it should be a penalty He didn't bunker. It's a hazard, but like there was no skill involved hard and like it should be a penalty. You hit it in a bunker, it's a hazard. But like there was no skill involved in getting it out. You just had to. There's two random. It was like hitting it into a children's sandbox.

Like you lost a ball, you almost lost a ball in one of them. So, there's so much sand. Yeah, it's weird. Can we talk about how? Number seven, by the way, I thought I made it. Okay, I was like that's an ace. And I made it seven. Okay.

Can we talk about how we finished our round and went into the clubhouse and this Tuesday afternoon now, and we watched Monday night football. That was sweet. How great was the accommodation? It was like Raider's chiefs. Yeah. Like it was,

and I think you made the point, did you said this place is Mike Mike Kaiser has Mike Kaiser written all over and he was like involved in the building of this course and in in some kind of undisclosed financial capacity but it's like you know we kind of talked about when we talk about stream song like the vibe of like the hotel and things weren't really our tempo like it's just not what you need it for a golf just there's just there's some ancillary stuff that's and they do a group business and meetings and all that so they need that there but like it's just not what you need it for a golf course. There's just, there's some ancillary stuff that's, and they do a group business and meetings and all that,

so they need that there, but like, this was just pure golf. Like in the vein of band-in. And that's what anybody who's been to band-in knows exactly what we're talking about in that, there's just absolutely no, there's no, like excess, or no, no, pretension, or anything, it's just purely like, what do you want?

You want a cold beer and like a comfortable chair? Here you go. That's it. And you just don't ever want anything more. The rooms were like that, you know, and I think, you know, Kaiser or someone has talked about that kind of at length too, where it's like, you know, what do you need? You need a comfy bed and, you know, a place to get dressed. That's about it. You're not going to spend time in your room. You're going to be on the goffin.

The shower with decennial water pressure. Yeah exactly. And the way the rooms were set up they were double, there are two beds in it but like kind of had the, they were offset. Yeah and like the shape of the room was kind of like a, I don't know how you describe it but you felt like two different rooms. You're in the same room. And there's villas, there's kind of these cool villas over by over at farmable dunes and they're probably what

90-second drive apart Yeah, dunes and lost farm, but like lost farms kind of the main Compound and they've got the restaurant up on the hill that sweet we'll get to that But then like just the sports bar and they've got like pizza and yeah simple menu It's like ridiculous pizza cold beer and then they've got like pizza. It's a simple menu. It's like one pizza. Ridiculous pizza, cold beer, and then they've got like a sports ball. Yeah, you could bet on horses and shit. No, I'm horse.

You can go on gray hounds, you can bet on probably anything. It was just, that was perfect. Like we, you know, it's well documented now that we got our ass kicked of barbecue loons in the morning. And that, you could have had a better spot to just go and kind of, you know, kick your feet up, so to speak. At lunch, you just melt into a chair and have some cold beers and just relax.

It was perfect. And we talked about kind of the remote destination that this place is. There's people there. It was definitely not dead, but their T-sheet is never gonna be full. You are kind of in the middle of nowhere. So we went out for an afternoon tea time and lost farm.

Can we play a six-am? What was the dude's name in the... Roscoe, Roscoe. Shout out to Roscoe. Yeah, I got the... The pro. Yeah, he lives on site. It's worked there since it opened.

Just awesome guy. I believe he's the director of golf there. Yeah. And so we got a caddy and. Shout out to Bill. Bill. Not the wild Bill. Maybe not technically the best caddy I've ever had,

but I don't know if I've ever been born. You're a good companion. Yeah. Yeah. Great companion. So quick. Well, we'll get into Lost Farm. But go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, Lost Farm. It's time. Well, first of all, what's the one word on barn bogeyons? Mine's going to be conflicting, I think. I would say close. Like, it's close to being really, really, really good. I think it's really good, but it's like close to being really, really, really good. I think it's really good, but it's like close to being absolutely stellar. Like, if you put, like, not, if I compared, like, Barn Bougal Doons

to Tar-80, both Dote Courses, both kind of in similar settings, like, Tar-80s, like, is Barn Bougal Doons, but everything is a little bit better. Yeah. I'd say volatile. Volatile. That's a good one. Okay. Uh, Lost farm, Lost farm might, I don't know, it might have been my favorite of the trip that we played. I mean, Ro Melburn the more I think about it,

the more I like it, and the more it kind of dawned on me, just how good it was. But Lost farm was one where you look at it and immediately are just blown away. You would say it's a shower. It is. It is a big time shower.

But there's substance too. I mean, it was like every hole out I mean, not every hole, but For sure the first six and then you know a pretty good size handful of holes on the back nine were just phenomenal and let you guys speak to those a little bit more, but Yeah, I absolutely I thought Zach was gonna have a stroke. He almost thought he was. Yeah There was one of them many times where he declared something being the best is ever seen his life I believe it was the best six whole six whole stretch. He's ever seen his life every hole number one was the best I've ever seen so he's not number two

comparing the two like loss farms by more defined by being wider I didn't think Barnabas was narrow by any means, but it is wide at the last part. It is clear, like core crenshaugh, intentionally designed like a super wide fairway. You're not going to be looking for your golf ball. And there's a bunch of... Just core. Just core. Just core. It starts with like a par four and a half and then like a par...

It's like 330, 340 yard par four and then like a 260 yard par four and a half, and then a par, there's like 330, 340 yard par four, and then like a 260 yard par four. It starts kind of, it's some really interesting holes, and then you play this little tiny par three, and it is like a thrilling stretch. I think the combination of us playing as a six-some, all together, not having really expectations for the course, like contributed to this euphoric of like.

When we got to 40, you go up this rise and you see this amazing view. I was met a whole and one on that whole whole, like it was in a sort of like 110 yards maybe, 120 yards. Chipped in for birdie and no one saw it or believed. Allegedly, yeah. But like, all these modern courses that are built

in these scenes, I do such a great job of giving you a few walks that you really remember. Like if you, you feel yourself rise after this third green and you're like, okay, this is gonna be sick. What am I about to see? And that's what I thought BarMagotans did a bad job of. I never, I think Zach pointed this out because I don't usually notice things like this,

but like the walk just wasn't good. It wasn't routed well to walk. I'm sure there are a million reasons why that's the case. There were some gaps. There were some weird long walks he had to take and weird like crazy steep hills he had to climb. And last part of him just felt, I mean, it felt more cohesive for me. I kind of challenged Zach on that. He was making the points like, well, I'll be walking back towards his tea.

I don't know. To me, I get to get some more fired up than walking back. Yeah, that's a point, but He was making the points like, well, are we walking back towards this T as, to me, I get to get more fired up than walking back. Yeah, that's a point, but I felt like, I was like, I, I, I, I, I, and maybe I'm just kind of giving dope more of the benefit of the doubt, but I'm like, he's probably in his mind, I'm gonna use the best parts of the land

for the best possible golf holes. That means you walk a little bit longer, like I don't think people learn a huge hurry out here, you know what I mean? So I do think, you know, barbecue will do, this is probably the better overall piece of land, just because there was more, there was some more movement to it. But like that little stretch, because it's kind of a lot,

like the river by sex, the two. And then, I mean, I, that's seen in forest gump when like forest gets to Vietnam, any of the enemies like in the shitter or whatever, but you see like the helicopters going over like the rice pad he's like in the shitter or whatever But you see like the helicopters going over like the rice paddies like that's kind of what it looked like the view from loss Fallen like out over the owners cattle ranch and out to the mountains and the distance like and the rivers kind of right there Like I almost thought you know felt like we were you know In Vietnam, you know, it's a bit of a con where comes crazy I think that was another...

And that's like number three, four, five, six, like that little piece of the property out there. I keep bouncing back and forth on my take here, I think. But that was another point that maybe Zach made was... Barnabas with dunes when you look back and think about it, it doesn't stand out, but it also, comprehensively, I mean, there were not many, if any bad holes on it, maybe number eight, notwithstanding.

But it didn't have to be a bad hole. It didn't, but it was... It had like a just this weird mound of rough right in the middle of the fairway and then... But when you look at like lost farm, I felt like there were a couple of the highs were way higher and the lows were lower. Well, that's why I say barn-wiggle dunes

had a much better piece of property. Yeah, yeah. It didn't have to use. Like, I feel like the composite course between the two would be, you have to take a boat between the river, but I mean, that would be lit. Yeah. I thought, beginning of loss farm, insane, end of loss farm, insane too.

Like some of those stretch, like 12, 13, 14 there, 14s like this, drivable four, going right at the ocean from an elevated T, like you see the ocean in the background and like crazy. The short fours we played on this trip were just out of this world. I thought the par fives we played were awesome too, for the most part. I mean, I thought the par-fives were a bit underwhelmed just in general. Yeah, I felt like the par-fives were, I thought the par-fives at Barmewill doons were fantastic. Yeah. But overall, but like overall on the trip I thought the par-three

was, we didn't play a whole lot of long par-three, it was all, you know, six, seven, eight irons. I didn't make a whole lot of birdies either. No, was all six, seven, eight, nine, eight, eight. We didn't make a whole lot of birdies either. No, and they were tough, man. They were ballbusters. It was like great examples of just don't need a part three to be super long to be tough or challenging or interesting. The whole trip, I mean, it was kind of like,

we joked about by the end of Melbourne. I'm sick of looking at these beautiful part threes. Everyone is sick. The best, I mean, for me, the highlight of the entire trip was standing when we got to number 5T. Yeah. So number five at Lost Farm is, it's probably 440?

Don't ask Bill. Yeah. You get to that in a second. Kind of this harsh dog leg to the right, but around this giant, just kind of a... Like a hundred foot mountain. Yeah, just like a singular mountain. It was like a lot of mounting, which is just one giant dude and the whole all wraps around it.

And then the river goes to the right. And you're standing on the tee and we're all looking at it. We're like, oh cool, this looks kind of a semi blind tee shot. Like this is pretty cool. And we're looking over and we're kind of scanning to the right. And all of a sudden you can see the way that they built it was, they were using this intentional kind of notch, this little vacancy

that gets notched out of the dune, and you can just see a peak of the flag that you're going for, and Zack saw that, and I, like we pointed it out to him, we're like, oh, you can see the flag over there, and Zack, oh my God, this is the best hole I've ever seen in my life. He had a seizure at that point. He did, and I mean, he was laying on the ground Oh my God, this is the best hole I've ever seen in my life.

He had a seizure at that point. He did. I mean, he was laying on the ground in the fetal position. That was the whole where Bill really kind of showed weakness in that we had five balls kind of on the same line. Well, Bill said he'd never carry this. So he had five balls on the same line. He's like, oh, all those are out.

Those are all dead. You guys are going to retain. We're like, oh, all those are out. Those are all dead. You guys are gonna retain. We're like, I'm gonna just drop up there. It's fine And we got out and all five of them were in the fairway bills like we're like bill what the hell man? He's like, yeah Guys, I'm gonna love it with you. I've never had anybody play the tips before I love you work here eight years Yeah, he's like, yeah, so I'm kind of I'm kind of flying behind here a little bit guys I think it was already at this point Yeah, he's like, yeah, so I'm kind of I'm kind of flying bond here a little bit guys. I Think it was already at this point We had agreed that we were gonna wait we had an eight o'clock flight the next morning We agree we were gonna wake up early and come play more golf last farm like it was we're having just in way too much fun

That was what so what was a number eight was the par five right well Bill said first of all Bill said that He told us this story about Adam Scott having played it. Yeah. And it was like a 380 yard carry to get to the green. I guess it was downhill. Yeah, it was like downhill downwind. Yeah. It's like a 400 and 40 yard par four. But if you cut across the river, I guess Adam Scott got it on the green. Yeah.

It was like incomprehensible. Yeah, picture that. And so we're playing and Zach is kind of floundering a little bit. Not the start. He was trying to set the court. He was like, all right, I let this course record get away from me. If I'm a little doons, I think the course record was 65 or 66 again. And so yeah, he was trying was trying to he was not you know

having the start he wanted and he goes bill, you know, we got it. We got to get going man like what's the next birdie hole and we're this is like we're walking off seven green. I mean what's what's the next birdie hole? It's all the next one. Par five. You could definitely make birdie. You should definitely be able to get there in three. No problem. I feel I don't know if you've caddyed for a lot of tour players before you there, but. And I mean, we know Zach is Mr. what, T-197 driving distance.

But actually, he stopped using T's midway through. Well, this is no T Tuesday. Yeah, I was no T Tuesday. And he was pumping it. I mean, I've never seen him hit it farther. He hit it it at bar muggled. All right. What's the one word? Me it's just you for it Building really was what I was gonna say lugged everything about it every shot was fun. It's more memorable Yeah, I'm gonna say sensual. Yeah

Sure, that's sensory overload that's 14 that I feel feel like we had so much emphasis on those first six holes that we kind of a lot, 14 and 15 were incredible. Well, can we talk about the fact that it was 20 holes? Oh, that's right. I never got about that. So there's two, there's like 14 A and 18. And 18 A, there's 13 A, 18 A. 18 A.

And they're both kind of shortage part threes. I thought 13 A was fantastic. So cool. I was you know, it was this great land movement and cool green, gnarly falloffs on on on every side. I think the light helped too. Like it was late in the day. And then 18 A I was less less enthralled with. We were done. We were pretty. That was 30 or 80s. We were pretty excited by that. But yeah, it was, so the story, correct me from wrong, we sat down with Richard Sattler's, the owner of the resort,

and he was kind of explaining it. And he was talking about, you know, when Bill Cors do the routing, he's kind of like, you know, hair, basically like, it's up to you, you know, we can, we got 20 holes out here, you know, let's, let's pick the best 18. I forget if it was Kaiser or who it was that finally convinced some, like, dude, just build all 20.

Like, who cares? This place has no rules. So they did. And yeah, you can play them if you want. You can skip them if you want. You do whatever. Well, that was kind of a theme too, of just showing off courses.

I mean, half the courses we played had 19. Yeah. Yeah. Holes, Metro, and things like that. They did a theme too of just showing golf courses. I mean, half the courses we played had 19. Yeah, yeah. Holes, Metro, and Kingston Heath just had there. They did a great job of kind of having basically like an alternate hole. So whenever they needed to do maintenance, whenever they needed to shut a hole down, it was always a good goal, the alternate holes in play.

But you don't feel short-changed. No, no, alternate holes. And all the alternate holes were awesome. Like I'd be kind of pissed if the alternate hole wasn't like part of the game. Well, they don't include number 10, the short part three, which was like maybe my favorite home, like off course. They don't include that when they play tournaments there.

Which seems like a huge miss. It was like so cool. But I don't know. So they're a good part three, so I should've known something we don't. Let's get to the massacre at Metro, should we? Well, real quick, we was awesome. We got to sit with Richard,

like you said, and have some beers in there, and just kind of, we had a reservation for the restaurant. So the restaurant that overlooks like the 15th hall. So you should give some background on this, dude. Like, because a lot of people, you know, you don't typically build a golf resort unless you know something about golf, that is not the case with Richard.

We did talk about it some on the last podcast with Michael Clayton now. That's great. Because Clayton was kind of built in, kind of involved in the design of this course, and the finding of this land, and this guy Greg Ramsey had seen this land, and basically had to work to convince a lot of people that they should build a world-class golf course there. And it was kind of like, this was around the time that, you know, Bannon had just started and then been successful.

It wasn't, there weren't four courses at Bannon, and the kind of the resort that, you know, Bannon had just started and then been successful. It wasn't, there weren't four courses at Bannon and the kind of the resort that it is now, but it wasn't really until Mike Kaiser got involved that helped bring this project together and kind of essentially say something along the lines of, don't worry about the financing, we'll make it work, people will come to this and partnered in, again, in some capacity with the course. But this was Richard Sattler, who was a potato farmer, didn't know dick about golf. He didn't know a single thing. Jordan raised him on the land basically in Tasmania.

And I asked him, could you have ever pictured 20 years ago that this would be a world-class golfer? He's like, no, I didn't know what golf was. I mean, he didn't say that, but I had never played golf before. New nothing about it was completely hands- off in the design, which is kind of like a dream for somebody like Doke and Core. And Bill Corde, like, come in and are able to do kind of whatever they want.

They don't have to answer to the owner about, you know, specifics that they want, about par 72, or this has to be like this. And yeah, and it was kind of cool to just sit and talk with him. And we had a reservation for that restaurant, and we were way late, and he's just like, you know, I know some people, they're like, you're fine. I also think we shouldn't,

I think it's unfair to just characterize him as a potato farmer and a cattle farmer, even though that's like what he is, but like he's, I felt like he was an exceptionally sharp. Oh yeah. And we're talking, what's his hotel history too? Yeah, like he owned a hotel in Hobart down in kind of the capital Tasmania And then it's just just

Because I think the For right or wrong the stereotype of Tasmania within Australia is kind of like that of You know, maybe Kentucky or like sorry, so I like West Virginia You know kind of like Apple it's like the backwoods like Apple atcha They're like oh yeah, like you like, what's Virginia? Hey. You know, kind of like Apple, it's like the backwoods, like Apple atcha, they're like, oh yeah, like, you're going to a test. Yeah, man, three heads down there. And it was all like mining and lumber and stuff down there. And, you know, and actually, like, you know, the people

or, you know, the people were fantastic that we met. Like, I want to go back to Tasmania and just, see the island and just spend five or six days exploring. But that's what you talk to a lot of the people that either worked on the project or whatever and you could tell that they all kind of said the same thing. Richard likes to, when it's convenient for him, he likes to kind of lead into the like, oh, Shucks, I'm a potato farmer. I don't know any better.

But he's, yeah, this is like a rude, really business guy who knows exactly what he's doing. Yeah, he was, you'll he's like this right guy, a rude, really business guy who knows exactly what he's doing. Yeah, he was, you'll see him in the video. Yeah, he'll see him in the video. Yeah, the restaurant too, it sits up on this crazy, like the top of this dune and people just watch you play. Was that 15? Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, and the way the sun hits it and everything, like you're looking out over the ocean and then 15 and the sun says, it's insane. It's just like formulaic. Like what they do with the views in these places, like, I don't know, it just looks like this is exactly how it's meant to be. Yeah.

And so yeah, we loved it so much. We went out and played six more holes in the next morning at 5.30 and then we slept less than four hours, I think. And, well, you guys slept up. Yeah, I was low team. And then Richard put us in the van and we slept less than four hours I think and um you guys slept well yeah trance slept eight I was low team and then Richard put us in the van and we drove down to the air strip when we took off back to the mainland Stake stayed overnight yeah despite quite disliking golf stayed overnight and uh yeah flew us back landed uh back in Melbourne 95 degrees

um windless after back to back 36 whole days, and we went back napped for a little bit, I think rest a little bit, and then went to Metro for the afternoon. And I think, yeah, I think you named it, the Massacred Metro. Metro was a struggle. I loved it, let me say that upfront.

I thought the golf course was so cool. For all the fast and firm that we wanted, it didn't get, we got it to the extreme. And this was, I take pride in having played like absolute ass at Metro. It's still walking away being like, that's a great golf course. Yeah, that was so fun.

But yeah, it was a combination of the heat. Number one, it was like for sure 100 degrees by the time we were playing heat. Sticky, the greens were so basically. So also I have to give a shout out to the hospitality that we got. Ben Jarvis. Ben Jarvis was like,

couldn't have been a better host just a complete pro and making sure we felt welcome. We had everything we needed. He just, it awesome. The lunch was great. Everything was awesome. Seeing in the clubhouse. Yeah. And so he was awesome. The launch was great. Everything was awesome. Seen in the clubhouse. Yeah.

And so he was telling us a story. So Zach has a lot of, you know, these classic kind of golden age golf courses that are down there. The people who are members of those clubs take a ton of pride in the history and obviously gravitate towards people who do the same, you know, Zach being a big one of them. And so Zach's got a lot of fans down at the sand belt that are following the buck club and following him on tour and all that stuff.

And so they knew that he was coming and the super at Metro came out and kind of kind of was smiling a little bit and he's like, hey, yeah, you know, we're, we probably should have punched in sand at the greens about, you know, three days ago, but we knew you were coming out, so we just left him. And not only didn't just leave him, they didn't just leave him. So we got out there and they're like, you know, we're getting ready to tee off. And like, yeah, the greens are probably rolling. They're rolling about 14. Like, you guys are going to have a good time. And we got done. And we're like, oh my god, that's going to be awesome. And so we get, you know, we get done with the first

hole. And this one of the assistant supers is out there. He's like, yeah, no, we actually just went and measured him again. And we measured two greens. One was rolling at 15 and a half. One was rolling at 16 and a half. And normally I would have said, oh, there, you guys are full of shit.

No, definitely. You set your putter on the ground and it slid. It was the closest thing to putting on a wood tile floor. It was like a thing to putting on like a wood tile floor. It was like a basketball court. Metro, I feel like if your games diled in, that would be like one of the most amazingly fun challenges ever. I have no idea how a 15 handy cat plays that golf course that I couldn't. You either get you either get better or you quit.

I don't know. I didn't have that impression of it. The bunkers are shaved into the green. So the pictures, you know, a lot of the pictures you see of golf courses in Australia where the bunkers are just cut right into the greens. Like Metro does this to the extreme. And the bunkers are all very so cool.

It's such a cool effect. The bunkers are all very different surfaces in that's by design from what I understand. But like some of them are so thin that you can't get away at Gen. And so, Tron had quite the first hole. And a good drive. Well, let's be clear about a couple of things.

Tron's by his own admission, not the greatest poker player. No, that's the best part of my game here. Yeah. I guess I'm confusing that with kind of your chipping. My chipping, yeah. Two different things, dude. confusing that with kind of your chipping. My chipping. Yeah, two different things, dude. Well, so, but they're not that different. You're just get so steep with your chips and stubby with your chips and you try. That's why I'm a good bunker player. You can't do that when there's no sand in the

greets. Well, so, so, and then Zach's like, oh, you got too much bounce on your wedge. So anyway, I'm like, I just dumped one in the, in the, I was pin high, green side bunker on the left, on the first hole, and I end up making a nine. Part four. Shout out to the eight pad. And I felt like, you know, I, I feel like I'm pretty late. I'm gonna count every stroke on this day. Like that first bunker is in, like you, you, you caught it, you couldn't, you couldn't

get, I couldn't get the clue on the wall. So you give that shot to like a 15, 20 handicap, where I'm like, I don't know if they ever get it on the green. But I think they get more use to it over there. Yeah, like, look, I'm not a great player by any means, but I hit it in the same bunkers, and I think I just maybe play a different bunker style than you guys or something, but like,

I didn't, I hit it in a ton of bunkers, and I didn't thin any of them. Like I just play. That was really the only thing. No, no, no, I played pretty well because I just think that we hit different kinds of shots. I just played- That was really the only- No, no, no, I played pretty well. Because I just think that we hit different kinds of shots.

I think you- That was the only- But that was the only- I think you just- Bunker on that course where I felt like was totally- Oh, I was in somewhere. I couldn't get a club under it. Yeah.

But like, and B, I should have- Even if I hit the perfect shot out of that bunker, the greens were so fast and firm that it wasn't going to stop. It was going to roll into the other one. Well, I should have played it like 90 degrees to the right, to the front of the green and out the fairway basically. So that's what I was going to say is your biggest complaint, you know, like, or your biggest fear for, you know,

15, 20, 25 handicap, was it, you know, just strictly around the greens? Yeah, and just the bunker. I mean, the bunkering is the most difficult bunkering I've ever seen, which is a fun, I accept that. That's the defense of the course, because it was a relatively flat side.

And you know, when you have the greens running that fast, it makes it that much more difficult. If you're at a position, you can't stop balls. So I thought like, I at least need to be able to get a wedge underneath some of these shots to be able to get this on the green. I get, I'm not good enough, I'm like a three-hany cap. I'm not good enough to avoid all of these bunkers. Like I was doing everything in my power, but there's nowhere to hide. There's not like a safe part of the green to hit the ball.

Like there's no, there's no like, there's not real options. It's like you got a thread with like a six-iron. Well yeah, and you had to, in some cases the greens were so firm fast You had to land it on the front of the green and a narrow And a narrow little throat there to get it you know To get it to stop on the green or you know, and so you're landing it in a narrow spot, too So we got we played with in our group we played with su suo plays on the LPGA tour She's she hadn't been playing a lot of golf golf and I was really curious to watch her play the course

and she didn't have a great day out there and I was like, man, this is just places it incredibly hard. And then I talked to ZB and Lucas who were in the group in front of us and we were like, what'd you guys shoot and ZB's like, I shot even. And Lucas, the member there was like, yeah, I shot one under.

What? Lucas had the best hands of anybody I've ever seen my entire life. I shot, I don't know man, Ben Carson's got some good hands. He had Lucas had the best hands of anybody I've ever seen my entire life. I shot a band car since he had good hands. He had Lucas had gifted hands. Yeah. Yeah. It was incredible. I mean, that was that was that was that was kind of like all right. It was so different than anything. It was. I enjoyed that reason. I thought it was so far. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed it. And I think we were kind of like, well, we want fast and firm. And then we got it. We're like, oh, that's that's a different level.

Again, it was it was a hundred. Yeah, we're coming off like three hours of sleep and you know, 36 walking and all that stuff and Neil, I think wore the white shirt again. So he was just getting beaten up by the fly. Yeah, that was especially bad fly. It was it was brutal. It had the hot wind coming out of the desert. Yeah. Cool. especially bad fly. It was brutal. They had the hot win coming out of the desert.

Yeah. Cool. But then, so the last, so they're either doing a big restoration or renovation or whatever you want to call it, but they had their book of it in the clubhouse. That was so cool. And it was the most detailed thing I've ever seen. I think the 10th hole, whether or not making a ton of changes, or the first hole, or they're not making a ton of changes, they had like six pages devoted

to the first hole. And this is a massive book. It's probably two feet wide by a foot tall, and you know, very well produced, but like basically just charting every piece of vegetation on the course, every little swell. Yeah, it was, it was so comprehensive, but I was like, oh, like, man, like, they're doing all this stuff the first hole. And I'm like, actually, we're barely touching the first hole. Like, here's like, you know, 14, we're doing stuff to this hole. But I got the closing stretch out there was sick too. Like, like, 14, 15, and then just, it had an agust of vibe to it, 16, 17, 18, just the way that the green, like it felt a little bit different, those last few holes, they weren't quite as enclosed by bunkers. And there was the one, like, I don't,

it was kind of polarizing within our group, but 17 it had that tree kind of in the middle of the fairway, which normally I'm like whatever, but I don't know. I thought it was a good design feature to kind of add some strategy to the T-shot. And then 18 was a great finishing home, I thought. Yeah. We were ready to take a nap after that. Oh, you guys went out and got dinner. I went home and went to sleep.

Parmas. Yeah, we got Parmas with the party paying party. Panther. So yeah, I mean, I enjoyed the golf course. When we voted on kind of best holes, we didn't have any holes from Metro make our top 18, which again, wasn't necessarily representative of what we thought of the golf course. And that's another one that I don't mean I mean, I just thought the highs were the highs were lower and the lows were higher. It was consistent.

Yeah, high floor. Yeah, it was just, I can't believe it. And I think it got, it got really disliked out there. I thought they were all cool. It got, it got screwed over a little bit just too, because I think most of the best holes out there were like the most spectacular holes. It's number four is not as good as the other number four. Yeah, yeah.

Where like 16 was that, was that short par four? The first one Yeah, yeah. Where like 16 was that short par four? The original four, yeah. Yeah, with this crazy fairway bunkers and you could play it 10 times and make every score for two to 12, you know? I drove it next to the green in May 7. Like, exactly. Yeah, there you go.

But like, I thought that was an awesome hole, but then 16 from say Kingston was, yeah, a little bit superior to that. So. All right, we're ready to last day. And Metro, shout out to Metro, they're having the World Cup. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And this year, so that'll be really cool to see.

See those best players, if they have any trouble with it. Sure they'll be all right. That's all. Saving the best for the last, Roel Melbourne. I think what you alluded to earlier was, you come in with this really high expectation forward. You kind of talk to other people,

they're like, you know, it's not my favorite course out there. So my expectation is actually coming into it, we're lower, we're tempered a bit. I thought that was like, you know, enough people had said certain things about it that, you know, after playing it, I'm like, that was pretty overly critical because this place and I think ZB made the point of all the best things from all the other courses like combined into one place and executed the best of any course we played.

It was a formula on track. I mean, it was in the my my distinct Preconceptor of it was all right. It's gonna be stuffy and like it's got the royal moniker and all that and I Didn't I didn't get the whiff of that. I thought it was a great club It was you know, they showed us up to like I've got a whole wing in the clubhouse. That's historian Unbelievable host, but yeah, yeah, yeah Terry Thornton, I think, is lasting. It was like, they, they, the,

kind of the embracing of the understanding of being a member, like a very special place and having guests come and play it. And like, it's like a responsibility. Yeah, like they, they own that and like, made sure we had the best possible time. Like, playing with Momma, it was like, the history he knew, like, behind every hole, he's like an encyclopedia for every single hole.

And it was funny, somebody was like, so, you know, there's only about three courses right in Australia that have like the Royal Moniker, and he's like, no, there's 12, it's Royal blah, blah, blah, blah, he knows it off the top of his head. So like, do that for 18 holes, it was just 36 holes. And then Terry, I mean, Terry is an air traffic controller. I think I talked, I think I asked him probably 300 questions about Malaysian Airlines flight and all that stuff. They cover 12% of the world as Far as like Australia air traffic control. Yeah, yeah, tell them the world. I mean they cover up Antarctica and like wow

That's the the earth's surface shout out Terry. Yeah huge Wow, that's the the earth's surface. Shout out Terry. Yeah, huge. So Roe Melbourne, people know this from TV, like in the Presidents Cup, they play what's called the composite course, which is 18 holes that are kind of all on one side of the property and one paddock.

One paddock, the main paddock. But there's two courses there, the East and the West, and they've taken, I think, about 12 courses from 12 holes from the West, six from the East, and when you see it in competition, it West, six from the East, and when you see it in competition, it's different. The East course kind of you cross some roads to play holes on different parts of the property, and they are two very distinct golf courses, but we played West first.

And the composites kind of a organic evolving thing, too. It's changed over the years, and dependent upon the event and depending upon what the governing body wants to do With that event and what the logistics and the staging area needs to be as well So the kind of main takeaway was just that you know It was like I said the best of a lot of places, but just on a much bigger scale like the fairways were wide and like you You just felt so comfortable out there. It was challenging, but it what didn't feel like It didn't feel like a death march, even remotely. No, not at all.

Again, it was weird. It was kind of felt subtle, but it also felt in your hands. And grand, yeah. And it was hard to, the scale thing was a big one that ZB was good at pointing out. Because again, I'm a very kind of every man in the terms of noticing a lot of that stuff. And it's one of those places where you look at it

and you're like, wow, this feels different and I can't really describe why. And you just didn't have, number one is a perfect example. I can picture it perfectly because it just looked like it went forever. And it felt like you were on this massive piece of property. When really, again, you're in kind of the center of suburban Melbourne.

Right. And it just had that kind of classic, you know, northeastern United States kind of scale to it. And it was just in all the details were right. Yeah. So like they took out, I guess, in the drought a few years ago, they took out all the kind of collar in the front of the greens and put in Fescue so that it like you can run it up to play it as it was intended

Not really no matter what the conditions if it's wet or you know, it's kind of it's a little bit more consistent But I mean like 17 like the green side on 17 at But I mean, like 17, like the green side on 17 at the West course. Like that was, like, Mollocko was like, yeah, this is probably one of the best green sites in the world. And then I don't look at that. And I was like, oh, it's one of the reason I get very angry.

Yeah, this is because it's this massive, it's like this massive slope. And it just, it's like that green was meant to be on that slope. And it looks like it's meant to, for on that slope and it looks like it's meant to for whatever this means It looks like it's meant to host crowds and host tournaments and there's just there's places to put people where But a lot of the other places, you know kind of make the best use of their land, but but not not the same

But it's like there's places to put people, but it's not wasted space. Yeah, for sure. It's not like, it doesn't feel like extra space. It's still accretive to the whole product. You know? I mean, just the holes that kind of stuck out, the first six holes again, we're just, and just kind of, and Malika having him help point out, notice this ridge, just kind of ridge

that defines the property and watch how they designed the holes around this ridge and not taking the ridge necessarily straight on and making all these really interesting holes come from you know just this kind of one land feature and like the green site like on the sixth hole like I didn't even know about that hole really. I mean I knew about a lot of the first five holes in the par five par three fifth I was like a hole that I was really looking forward to playing. And when we saw six for the first time, like, Tron started dancing in the fairway.

We walked up and saw the sixth green. And I don't know. Five was crazy. Yeah, and it was just, the green speeds were like not Metro fast, but like the fastest we played of anywhere else, but Metro. The bunkers were cut into the greens, but it wasn't as severe as it was at Metro. And like the turf was just absolutely perfect to compress balls against and the greens rolled so true.

It just, it was like as good of a walk as you could possibly imagine. And we got to play all 36. And I don't know, it was awesome. And Zach was what, like, 500 through four. Like that. So the one thing awesome. Zach was what, like, 500 through four. Like that. So the one thing, the point I was kind of like, it's definitely a place that has been kind of,

that technology has affected greatly. I mean, the par five's are like, I mean, driver not that. Number two, yeah. Yeah, I mean, they're par four and a half. Like, they're just, they're not fully full length holes. And it's kind of, I mean, the only, they're going back there for the president's cup in 19,

but like, it's gonna be a match play course. Like they, which part never really matters, but they're not, it's not gonna be hosting necessarily like PGA tour. But it's also, I think they've also had, they've had the benefit of having pretty decent size piece of land to where they've had some room to stretch it in the right spots.

What's your one word for Rome over? Grand. My vote. This is highlighted. We did it. We did it. We did one word for Metro. Oh, that's right.

Well, while I'm thinking about it, my, my for Melbourne was just classy. It was just, just classy in every respect. I would say mine would be probably master class. Yeah, just the details were there. It was like dining at an unpretentious Michelin starred restaurant. Right. Which is very rare.

Most of them are very pretentious. Totally. And then there were those guys getting just shit-faced in the club house, like online. There were like a five-course lunch. So they have like the, what was it? It was the wet's in the dry. The wet's in the dry.

Yeah, you kind of stop for lunch between rounds or after round or whatever. There's kind of the one room where it's like, okay, get your food and get in, get out. And it's the dry's. And then the wets was just okay cool We're gonna have six bottles of wine for lunch Flight

Yeah, and then just just ready to hang in there just the history on the walls and everything was Crazy and then we played hickories in the afternoon That was that was just so ZB I never played Hickory's never seen Hickory's never done anything like that. And like ZB's excitement level and he's like he's back to his he's 1983 pro-tratch golf balls with Hickory clubs and he's like I just want to break 80. Pro-tratch 100. Yeah. He shot one over par with Hickory clubs from the back to his own role Melvernees that gives it was sick. But it gave East's like, that was one of the more rewarding rounds of golf I've ever played. I was going to leave.

I was exhausted. Like, I thought I was going to have a heat stroke. And like, I mean, I just, I've never gained that much from appreciation for, especially playing par 5s and Longish par 3s for the strategy of golf course when you really have to plot out all right I can only fly this thing 215 yards or 230 yards and kind of plotting your way Around there. It's it would be like it would be like flying across the Atlantic Ocean and trying to figure out all right I have I have this island over here to my right that I can bail out at if I need to. You know, it was kind of like that mentality.

But, yeah, I think I was better without all the technology. It was decision-ares and action-ares. Yeah, well, it kind of... It's sharpened your decision-ares, maybe. Sharpened the decision-ares and then the action-arras you can just easily play Oh, I'm playing here. That's true, I guess. Neil and I had bounced at this point. We had you know we were done but we also needed more stuff for the travel series So we were at at the skate park

Checking out the skate the local skate parks and coffee shops No, really Some good content. No, it was cool to kind of and that's really some good content. No, it was cool to kind of, you guys get to be giving commentary and stuff as you go along, play in the hickories and kind of the things you were thinking about and the things that you changed.

I had a few shots with it and it was like, when you connect with one, that thing goes, man. It goes further than you would expect. And I think ZB was expecting to be hampered a lot more than he actually was by the equipment, but it's the mishits that really get you. And you feel like you're going to break the clock. I think it helped too.

And I mean, Malika had, they were nice hickories. They were like, top of the line. You know, like, it was like an original, but butter was an original calamity Jane, Bobby Jones. Like, it was, it was good stuff. You know, and then, but yeah, just like the strategy of like, all right, like, do I want the nibble or the, or the jigger or the mash, you know, it was cool. But yeah, and then we sat and had a beer afterwards.

And I thought on the east course, too, like there was, it wasn't necessarily as, um, it wasn't necessarily like, it's stout, but I thought some of the green sites on the East course were just as good, even on that other paddock, but like even going across the street, you felt much, the course felt much different over there, even being a couple hundred yards away from the main course, just it was like the soil almost felt different right there. Yeah, there was, I mean, it was cool to watch ZB

to like point out, all right, Doked did this green, right? Like he could just like look at it and be like, yeah, this is this is a dope. That was I open. Yeah, and Malk is, yep, that's right. Yeah, it was pretty wild. Take that how you will. Anything we're missing. This is the, that's the end of the trip right there. I mean, acting like that was sure. That was the golf. That was the golf. Like, well, we'll see all the ancillary stuff Well video too, but what's I mean what's the the lasting kind of one sentence? Well, first of all, what was your one word description of metropolitan?

Demanding what's like a fancier word for Exhausting you're the vocab guy What's like a fancier word for exhausting? You're the vocab guy. If anything, this podcast is highlighting my elementary. My word was bad. I'd say this one I thought was good. Mine was surgical. Yeah, that's a better word.

Here's a great video of you describing, walking off 18 and describing how surgical Metro was, where Neil is just like passed out, laying down on the ground in the background. That's sums up how we felt. Lasting impression from the trip, the experience, golf in Australia, was it what you expected? Better, worse? My expectations were pretty limited. I mean, I went in pretty blank slate or kind of ignorant, I guess, is probably a better way to say it.

I just hadn't researched probably as much as I should have or could have. And I almost think that makes it more rewarding to me. Yeah, and so that's what I was going to say is I walked away just, I mean, I felt like it was, I felt like we played, you know, the best courses, you know, the country or at least the area had to offer and I didn't feel like it was pretentious. I didn't feel like it was all that, you know, exclusionary. I didn't feel like it was, it just felt very, it was as much fun as you could have in pretty much every respect.

I mean, I thought the club atmosphere was just so dialed in. And frankly, like what we're missing in a lot of places over here, I thought. Yeah, I'll just to piggyback off that, I think it was a reflection of golf culture. Yeah. Like the conversations that you heard in the clubhouse, you know, either before or after you're around,

just when you're eating lunch was like, you know, like guys talking about strategies. Guys can, yeah, like they're, you know, or they play different games. Like they don't always play stroke play or even match play. Like they'll play stable for, they'll play, there's so much competition and camaraderie about it.

It felt so much more like the UK. Yeah, it was like the UK with good weather. Yeah. And then, um, and then also just from the perspective too of like, you go to these clubs after, you know, like if you get done late in the day, like there's not a bunch of dudes getting shit-based in the clubhouse. It's like about the golf. People go home, yeah, people get out.

Yeah, so we finished up in Metro, like we were the only ones there, and it was bumpin' when we teed off, but like, you know, same thing at like, Role-Mobber. It was about the golf, and it was a golf club, not a country club or a social club. So.

I was just kind of blown away just with the proximity I know we've talked about it, but it's like that there's so much world-class golf in such a tight area that it's such a golf culture. And like, we, and I was, when I was back there with my dad, we went from the course to a restaurant and the guy was like, oh, coming straight up from the course, where were you boys tonight and like knew all about it? And just kind of like that open nature of the culture and everything.

And we were just kind of so spoiled with the courses we played and the people we played with, the whole experiences were just kind of perfect. But just knowing that these places are available to be played by anyone. I mean, yeah, you can call them up, it's pricey, but you could pay a guest fee and you can play it, Royal Mubber, and you can't do that at Shinnikikakels. You can't do that at a lot of really great places

in the U.S. and I've always loved that culture about the U.K. and I love that too about Australia. So I mean it was definitely a bucket list once in a lifetime kind of hopefully we get to go back. I'm sure I want to go back for the... There's a president's cup. For the woke up and then for the president's cup. Yeah. And you know just I think too like I'm fairly confident we could go back to Melbourne, play an entirely new set of courses.

And, you know, we're probably playing a little bit more of the second tier, but like Peninsula Kingswood, like it sounds like they did some awesome stuff. Go play the national. Like there's, there's- Dokes redoing the RER. Yeah, several other courses that, like,

we could fill out a week playing those two and Play you know play all 18 down at St Andrew's Beach and all that like it there was there was quality and then there was some depth and Quantity that we that we couldn't even scratch the surface on yeah We wrap it at that keep on keeping this one nice and tight and concise so we'll be back down for the World Cup. When is that December? To me, for us. We'll be back for the President's Cup, but let me see.

So all right, thanks. Anyone that lasted almost hour and 40 minutes of this, but keep your eyes peeled. We have a lot more stuff coming from this trip, and they're going to try to bring it to you visually through our way of telling a story. Well, I'm pretty excited about it. Not going to be excited about it.

Thanks for tuning in and we'll be back soon. Crack on. It's going to be the right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about it? That is better than most. I thought it was better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different.