No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 155: Scotland Trip, Part I

Episode Date: July 25, 2018

We spent 8 days in Scotland playing some of the most fun golf courses in the world in amazingly firm conditions, and we’re here to break down our trip. We crammed a lot of golf... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 155: Scotland Trip, Part I appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. This is going to be our debrief of our eight-day jump through Scotland. We partnered with Visit Scotland to put together what is ultimately going to be season two of our tourist sauce series. I know I touched on that a bit in the last podcast. Let's talk about the agenda. The trip coming together, kind of the trip overall is a whole we're going to break it down

course by course. We played 12 courses over the course of about eight days, I believe. We rocked them. We rocked them. It's going to be a lot of falling over each individual golf course because I don't think there's a single thing we would change about our itinerary. We put a lot of research into sketching this out. And Business Scotland was incredible at making it happen. So first I want to turn it over to the two guys, Big Randy and Tron, who had not been to Scotland before. I want to hear kind of your overarching view and your takeaway from spending a week playing golf in Scotland. It ruined golf for me.

House out. I do not want to play golf in the United States anymore. Period point of life. It's over. It's over. We surpassed it. We lost it. It's gone. What made it so great? I think we caught, and it was probably a little bit more this year than maybe other years that we could have gone where the turf conditions were just so insanely good. It's been kind of a drought.

It's been pretty hot over there. The turf conditions were exceptionally firm and just burned out. And it was everything that you would ever want to hit a golf ball off of. And by kind of, it's like maybe their biggest route in the last like 30 years. It's amazing.

Pictures, so I love how it shows up in pictures and video to some people. It might look like a dog track on some of these courses, but like you said, it couldn't be more fun both to hit balls off that turf and to just watch them roll out. And I mean, the courses over there aren't that long to begin with and they played so unbelievably short. We're recording this right before the Open Championship, so people are going, we're posting this after. So you're going to have already seen the open and see how it plays. But man, it was, it was, I've been in Scotland a few times, but never seen it like this

and it was without a doubt the best golf experience I think I've ever had. Randy? Oh gosh. So I want to preface this by saying like there's no way I can probably accurately or fully capture and convey my feelings and emotions, but I'll try here in this 30 to 45 second window. I think for me, the biggest thing, you know, Scotland, you always have like this mental image of what Scotland is, right? This was my first trip.

And that can be different for everybody, obviously. I think for me, you know, like when I love golf the most, it's being out on a course, it's the serenity, it's, you know, feeling like I'm actually golfing and moving the ball, how I imagine and how I want to. And I just, the mental image of Scotland for me has always been like, you know, just an idealic walk in these old villages with sea scapes. And what I was, you know, we captured that more than once, you know, it just, that feeling of kind of this image and this feeling that you always had for a place like Scotland to,

and this feeling that you always had for a place like Scotland to be able to have that come to fruition and to actually live that over the course of multiple rounds is just you know it's as good as it gets in the game of golf for me. Did you have been to Scotland before but not in this realm? How did this experience differ from your first and what you're overall take away? It differed because we almost fell over because of how much golf we played. I think I've ever quite hit it that hard, but it differed. I think you touched on it, but the conditions are something that I don't know how you can,

you just physically can't replicate it over here. There's a lot of reasons, the grass types and the weather and all of that stuff, you know, it's one thing to play that grass over there that just basically goes dormant. You know, if you try to get a course over here to play like that, everything would just die and turn to dirt and it would be horrible. But to have that opportunity to play it like that is something that, you know, I think Trance that it just kind of ruins you because you just, you realize that that's how golf is supposed to be played. It's not, you know, there was no shots, literally zero shots that we played where it was, okay, it's 150 yards

to a center pin, so just hit, you know, your 150 club and try to hit it as close as you can and it was on the air. Yeah, I mean, we got to the point where, I don't really know what sparked it, I guess we'll probably playing at Cullen. We'll get into this. But we're Tron and Randy and I just ended up taking half the clubs out of our bag for the last three or four rounds because you get to this point where you can hit a seven-iron either 100 yards or 200 yards based on the conditions. And it just gets to this point where it's it's literally more fun to just and more engaging and it just keeps you more present to

Just want to you know shape shots and knock stuff down and try to you know run stuff out and and all those different things And I don't I think that's only possible in a place like Scotland. Yeah for me the half set was kind of a necessity because I was starting to get super super overwhelmed by necessity because I was starting to get super, super overwhelmed by all the decision-making and all like there's no point in having all those clubs. Just, you know, like it's more efficient to just be, all right, I have to hit this shot with this club, bottom line. Yeah. Yeah, I think DJ, you know, as you were saying that, it's just this onslaught of creativity,

the chance for creativity that I think, you know, not having played over there. It's just, it's so stark that a lot of times you just don't feel that same sense of freedom and choices and different ways to play shots and even think about shots trying to your point. Yeah, it kind of, it ruins it. I mean, I'm sure we'll all have fun, you know, playing stateside here again, but eventually maybe, I don't know. I mean, it's just this, yeah, it's, it's just this freedom to, to play, to, to, to be creative. And I think it makes, at least for me, I think it makes me play better also because I think when I'm playing over here, I just black out for three or four whole stretches where I'm kind of like, you know, there's just nothing all that interesting

about, you know, trying to drive it to the center of the fairway and then trying to hit it to the center of the green. And, you know, it's so much different when you're trying to decide, hey, yeah, do I want to play driver or three iron? Do I need to, how far is this going to roll out? Can I stay short of that bunker? Can I get over that bunker? You know, all that stuff is just, it just keeps you so much more locked in and it kind of lets

you not, you know, fuck yourself up by falling asleep and hitting in terrible spots, which is what I am a huge fan of doing over here. The mental exercise combined with the physical act of it is what makes it so interesting. And it's not only, it's not just pick driver out of your bag and slam it down there. You might not want to leave yourself a 60 yard shot because you might have to put it from 60 yards to get it close to the hole, trying to nip wedges off it. Which we did.

Yeah, or you know it. So even some par 5s, I found myself laying back off the tee to make sure I had a full shot in. And since instead of trying to hit drivers into tight little corridors or tough angles like it was all right. This ball is going to run out to what a driver distance would be back in the States anyways. Be disciplined, hit a three iron off the tee. You can still get there.

It's not that big of a deal if you have to hit a long iron in and that part of playing golf is in a big takeaway for me too was some of the shorter courses we played like kill spending. We're going in the whole I10 right hereary here, but Kill Spindy and Cullen, how, you know, you read the Yard of John a Card, even Crayl, too, I think is under 6,000 yards, you read the Yard of John a Card and think this is gonna be a birdie fest.

It's time to attack and go low. And I think I shot my highest, my three highest scores on the three shortest courses. The way the work doesn't mean easy. Not at all over there, but I was amazed at how I didn't feel like I was hitting wedges all the time on that court I felt like that was actually a better test of long irons than normal golf courses typically are so There's a lot to take away from this one. I saw a good quote

But right before we jumped out here from friend of the pod Michael Clayton who was talking about kernu See this week and and his quote was which probably would have summed up all of this rambling that we just did much faster But so it's not that green is bad week and his quote was, which probably would have summed up all of this rambling that we just did much faster. But it's not that green is bad, but a reverence for it is not necessarily good. Nor is the excess use of water in order to achieve it. I think that sums up everything. I mean, it's not, you know, like the, like the, the place in the states should be doing anything differently.

Right. It's more that people should be open-minded enough to know that, you know, that's not the only way that it can be done. And I think that's what, you know, the open the Open Week is the biggest reminder of that every year. So here we are again. Well, and it's funny just to talk to all the pros. Hopefully that played out in the Open Championship that hasn't happened yet, that you guys have already watched.

All the pros and the GMs you go in, you ask, how's the summer going? I just light up. Like, oh, this has been the best summer ever. I mean, everyone just loves playing in those kind of conditions and whatnot. But enough about that. we also were really fortunate. We got very almost no wind. I think the relatives, the relatively speed track. We're actually going somewhat disappointed.

I know. I'll wait through the trip. We were like, all right, we're kind of ready for this. The ramp up a little bit. Kill Spindy was actually pretty windy. But so real quick, our full itinerary, and I think whenever people are planning a trip to Scotland, people ask for advice. My first thing I always say is don't overextend yourself, don't try to drive too big a distance

is. We tested the limits of that, usually, in talking with Rue McDonald, who's a friend of the podcast as well, he runs the Scottish golf podcast, and is like the guy you want to talk to about planning a golf trip to Scotland, He'll advise you to say maximum of two regions for a trip. There's basically five main regions in Scotland where you'd want to play. There's Aresher, which is way out west.

We did not get to make it out there. And then there is the Highlands. There is the Aberdeen area, Aberdeenshire. And then there's Fife, which is where you'll find St Andrews, and then along about as far south, East as most people will go, is East Lothian, which is where you'll find St. Andrews and then along about as far south east as most people will go is East Lothian, which is where we started our trip and we made our way up through five through Aberdeenshire and up to the Highlands. We actually touched four regions in an eight day span, but we wanted to kind of, the goal was not to play every golf course

in Scotland, we tried, but we wanted to kind of sample a few in each region and document it along the way. So we started in East Lothian, we played, we got off the plane and rolled directly to kill Spindy, and we also played nine holes with Hickory clubs at Muscleboro that afternoon, then we went and played North Barric the next day, made our way to five, played the old course, we played Crayle and Ely up the coast and through Aberen and through Aberdeen played Cruden Bay and Cullen and then Castle Stewart and Nairn up in the Highlands and then Brawra and Dornak to wrap it up also in the Highlands.

So we start from the top. Sure. Kill Spindy. Again, as mentioned, this was when we, I never played this one before. We roll up to it and it was a 5200 yard golf course We talked a couple members in the parking lot. They're like well you better get your scoring in here before you get moving because this is the easy one I didn't find that golf course easy 200 playing about 6800

But I mean, yeah, it was a lot of like short drive-able par fours But I didn't find them easy. I think maybe I birdied one of them, and you get yourself in trouble very quickly. But that was our introduction into how fast and firm it was going to be and how, I guess for your guys first round of golf in Scotland, what was your takeaway from Kills Bendie? Well, I'd just like to say, the first hole is a par three, little innocuous, kind of 150 yard par three, which in and of itself is pretty cool. And I hit a terrible seven iron like short and right, and then I chipped in for birdie.

And so it was a great, it was a cracking start to my week. You came birdie all 207 unless you buried the first one. And by the way, Randy hadn't touched a golf glove in about since banding, right? Yeah, since banding. Yeah I a little pinch nervous you in my neck that kind of really flared up so yeah this was first time touching club get out there make birdie. So beginning of the trip Randy's like I don't know if I'm gonna be able to play more than three rounds maybe right. You estimated you played three rounds how many rounds did you play? I ended up playing what do we we play? 207 holes? Yeah. There were 12 rounds. I think I missed out on 27 holes.

Yeah. So you liked it. It was okay for you. Well, and you know, being by the seaside, it had some medicinal benefits, I think. You're like one of those people from like the 1920s, whenever they get just kind of rare sicknesses, they just, their doctors, they go to the sea. Go to the sea? Yeah, that's what my physical therapist said. She's just go to the sea. It'll be fine. Besides, I should just quit then and been, you know, under par for my career and got under par.

But, no, I mean, the first thing, I obviously would struck me most about kill Spindy, one, the quirkiness starting with the par three, but then, you know, you're just the the views right you just you're out on the sea I know it's like yeah, that's links golf, but it just you know it's To see it for the first time. Yeah, it was just especially it was Well now like that was a cool piece of land too because you go in was across Where they're having the sky to show up and you see you can You could see all the hospitality tents and everything going on across this little

cove. In the first five or six holes, it could spin there, right along the water and your plan to an infinity green on four or five, you can see Edinburgh on the background. It's just crazy good. And then it kind of, we thought I was going to lose some steam as it went inland after I think eight or nine goes inland. And if anything, it kept my attention even more. There was just some exceptionally interesting part fours and part threes.

And then I thought the 17th hole, you know, goes up this, this hill. And it almost looks like a little mini mountain range up there. There's this wall that runs through it. Walls were a theme. I believe it was. I believe it was Hadrian's wall. Yeah. Yeah. You guys kept saying that. That's yet to be confirmed. Yeah. You know what killed Spaniard? My name a little bit was What's the what's the little public course? It's right next to the country club Brookline. Oh, Potter and Mato You know what I mean? You got all these like big-ass just world-class places around it And then you go check this place out and it's it's like a cheaper. It was like a mix really quirky knockoff

Kind of Pacific Grove. Yeah, like mixed together. Well, and that's what we want to, we're going to talk about each individual course, and you're going to walk away, and we're all going to have rave things to say about each one. But we're going to do our best to kind of put the courses in different classes, right? So I would, you guys open this up for debate, but Kill Spindy to me is not necessarily the type of course, it's definitely not the course you base a trip around, right? I mean, we, we, we touched on some of the biggest name courses, and there's a reason why

people line up to play these courses and book them way in advance and base trips around them. Kill Spindy though, definitely fits the class of a course you need to fit in your itinerary or the type of course you need to fit in to get a variety of experiences and to see what quote unquote normal golf is like in Scotland. Yeah, I think the context. Yeah, exactly. I think there's a couple of different trips you can take Scotland and you can either do the big, I'm looking to just check boxes and tell people that I played these courses and tags baby bag tags. You can be bag tag berry if you want. That's fine. And look, there's

nothing wrong with that. If you get one trip to go over there and you want to do a big, then that's fine. And if that's your goal, then Kill Spin Dees probably not on the list. But if you do want to get a more, you know, kind of wholesale look at what golf is actually like for people who live there, then Kill Spin Dees is a huge must. I mean, it was so, so, so fun. Like the day that we played, there was a junior event going off right behind us. And I think it was basically us and about those kids were so much better than the 80 kids out there behind us and it was crazy like out it was just it was like all right like you hear all this stuff about grow the game

here and it was all those kids were just absolutely golfing their ball and that's that kind of course is the perfect place for a kid to learn the game of golf and for us to like learn how to play a different style golf also but they there's nothing overgrown about it. There's no length issues for any of those kids, and you learn how to...all the short part fours had such awesome strategic elements to it, right? I mean, there's maybe three pop bunkers right in front of a 290 yard hole. You're like, all right, well, what's my strategy here? Do I lay back and try to hit a full wedge in? Or do I try to avoid these bunkers? But I have really no control to ball

once it hits the ground. Well, I think that's an interesting point, because I think a lot of times people talk about strategy with golf holes and stuff. And the average player is such a shitty player. You know that the strategy almost never actually comes into play, because you're just hanging out for dear life trying to hit the fairway.

So when you're playing a shorter course like this, that stuff is actually relevant to so many more players, which I think is what you're saying, you know, the juniors. I'm like pointing up by itself. But you just described me. You described me. A whole like 17 and 18, where these two backed back, incredibly short fours. And you have the wind obviously going the same direction direction, like one of them's gonna play into, one of them's gonna play, you know, downwind.

And it's just that if you're playing that place every day, it would be such an exercise in thinking your way around. Kind of restrained. Yeah, and it's just, it's really, really cool. Yeah. Like in 18, the, it's this downhill, I guess it's a par four, I mean, who cares? It was like two 30, yeah, it's like 240 or 240.

And there's this awesome porch on the back of the clubhouse and everybody's just sitting there having a pint. And that was the perfect, like in my mind, that was the perfect finishing hole. Well, and that's what I was going to say, that one of the things I was most looking forward to are the finishing holes where the out of bounds that the property kind of butts right up against a clubhouse, the town, the what-have-you

and Kill Spindy was a great little introduction in that. There's essentially off the back of the green and to the right of the green is, it's staked out of bounds, but it's the porch, it's people sitting there having a beer. It's just a cool little intimate feel for a finisher that you just don't really get in the States. And so that would be a recurring theme in one of my favorite aspects of our trip. I also, kind of talking about where to place this course

in your trip, it was the best course, I think, to get off the plane and go play. It's an easy walk. It's, you know, again, it's relatively flat ground right there by the sea. Is it the Firth of Firth? Or no, no, no, no. I'm trying to think of the body water.

Yeah, so does he. You can get him down. You rocked it, buddy. Listen, we rocked it. And so I think, you know, if you were kind of making it in a tinerary with Kill Spindy in mind, it's the ideal place to play off the plane, or it's kind of a great late afternoon,

maybe second round of the day, where it's a bit more casual, you're just not gonna get beat up playing out there. We're basically just trying to stave off JetLight and keep ourselves busy and have some fun on the process. But I think the biggest theme that it kind of plants in your head is just because you can hit a shot doesn't mean you should.

Yeah. So like if you, you know, let's say it's a 290 yard par four that just because you can reach the green. And I know I'm saying this on a no laying up podcast, but it doesn't. It's different there. Doesn't mean that you should be hitting this. Maybe it's corpus has been suspended for today. But it's also to the to the overall point though and talking about not overextending yourself for different regions.

The point is like there's just little there's so much good golf in each region that you don't need to go to all the corners of Scotland to play great courses because there's very good courses right next door that allow you to get more of a depth of what of what the experiences like. And we actually at one point try to say which two courses are the most similar that we played and kind of had a hard time coming up with that. And still I forget kind of where we concluded on that. There's there each course kind of is different truly different in its own way. Yeah, for sure. And we could have played I mean we could have played Golan. We could have played Dunbar. We could have played Winterfield. Like there's a lot of hard time getting on Golan. They have three questions. Oh that's right. That's true. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. So as you might expect Neil was a bit upset that he wasn't able to join us on this leg of the rowguarins I picked up from Calaway last

month, and O. My. Lanta, am I compressing the golf ball? I asked for a set of clubs that were forgiving for someone who only gets out once every couple weeks as a huge right miss and can't be ranger-rich out there on the pro-amp circuit like Sully. They recommended the new rogues paired with some extra stiff 130 gram shafts to slow down my tempo and keep things a little more consistent. The results speak for themselves and let me be clear. I took all the money off the NLU boys up at Bandon. I'm getting an extra 10-12 yards on each club. And yes, Airmail and Greens was certainly an issue early in the trip, but I made some in-game adjustments, and you know what?

My team and I are pleased with the results. Nippers, scooters, stingers. I'm not hitting any of those shots, but there's no doubt the Rogue Irons have been a game changer for a mid-handicap or like myself, by keeping my high, lazy, and if I may, majestic fade much more consistent. If you're looking for a set of irons that are forgiving and just plain feel good when you hit them, check out CallawayGolf.com to build your custom set today. Make sure you tell them I sent you and you know what? They'll probably just ask, who's that shwoldo?

All right, it's moving on from Kill Spindy. We squeezed nine holes in at Muscleboro, the old links at Muscleboro, which is the old old links. So each course in Scotland, it's funny how you'll see different rankings in the, the artich books and on their website about where they date in history and each of them kind of define it a little bit differently. There's, you know, Fraserboro claims to be the seventh oldest club in history and each of them kind of define it a little bit differently. There's you know Fraser Burrow claims to be the seventh oldest club in Scotland and Muscle Burrow is the oldest course in the world on which

golf is still played. Right. Yeah, there was a big we had maybe the most delightful chat of the trip inside the the brushop at Muscle Burrow who got kind of like a impromptu history lesson and they're telling us all about, you know, Mary Queen of Scots allegedly playing here in 1567 and all of this stuff that's going on and the way that they put it was, look golf was probably played on places that, you know, before it was played here, but those places are, have not been golf courses in centuries.

We lost it. This is the oldest operating course. And Musuburo, again, if you're looking to, I played here and I did this, if bag tag Barry's not going to Muscleboro, this struck me so much more like going to a museum or something. Back tag Barry's up at Glen Eagles or something for sure. Yeah, Locklemon.

But that struck me so much more like going to a history museum or something than playing golf, which was awesome, I thought. Which if you do go there, yeah, you got to seek out the history, you got to talk to people. I think that's, again, kind of a theme throughout the trip is, you know, folks are so, they want to share the course history with you. They want to give you their experience and really kind of give you a sense of where you are. And so, yeah, going, I mean, do you want to talk about kind of the history there with the open championship? Should probably mention this course plays in and out of a racetrack. Guys, the first tee shot.

A horse track. The first tee shot is over the racetrack. Over the rail. Yeah, it's over the rail. Yeah. It's a mile and a quarter. I think similar, just same as Churchill Downs. You should have had a bit of a, you were not playing that right.

You should have had a bit of a walk or a track. He was wandering the paddock. Yeah. I was, I wanted to like run a laper. He was wandering the paddock. Yeah. I wanted to run a lap, but I was way too tired for that. So yeah, basically it was like a seven-hole golf course originally, the late 1830s, I think, and then by 1870, they'd added two more to make it a full nine, which was wild because you had St Andrews was originally like 22 holes or 20 holes or something pressed to it. I think was 12

And so you had the open championship was moving around between these three different course. No, no, no Oh, it was just that presswick well at first But that first but that they want to tell this well, they'd have these these championships that move around It would be like presswick, you know, you're gonna play it four times and then the old course You're gonna play it three times and what just to make you know this number and yeah so so what was the deal was young top Morris wanted at muscle world three times you want it press week three years ago so the open championship was at press week that's where it was and they played it there in a previous way yeah These are my people. He was the official score. Randy was a line cookin' him. This is for him. So it was just a press week.

That was where the Open Champion Chippewa was for like 10 years. Young Tom Morris won it three times in a row. And so as tradition, if you won something three times in a row, you got to keep the trophy. Which we should institute as well. Yeah. three times in a row, you got to keep the trophy. Which we should institute as well. Yeah, so he wins it, it's third time in a row, presswik and he keeps the trophy. Well, all of a sudden they don't have a trophy then to give out the next year, because, you know, Tom's got it.

And I guess for whatever reason, presswik didn't want to pony up the money to pay for the new trophy all by themselves. So that's when, which it was like 12 pounds, he said, right? It was like 24 pounds, something like that. And so that's why St Andrews, Musselboro, and Presswick then went in together to buy the new trophy.

And as part of that, then it became a road to where the open championship would rotate between those three courses. But there were a couple of years where they didn't even have the tournament. But the very first year, while they were trying to figure this all out, they just didn't have it because presswig didn't buy the neutrophie. So there just wasn't an open championship.

So then like after not having it for a year, that's kind of when the consortium came together and the road had began. Look, bottom line, you just go to Muscleboro. Go talk to some people about that. Yeah, you know what that's about. Well, and I thought Mrs. Foreman's pub off the fourth hole, kind of, which is now closed, which is RIP. You know, there was some history there. I think Old Tom and Willie Park were in a match and Old Tom like walked off the course to get a point. Well, yeah, because

there was this huge rivalry between the two clubs and old time would hit shit and basically people be stomping on his ball and just yelling when he's swinging and all this stuff and he just got so fed up that he just went in the bar and was like yeah I'm not playing anymore yeah and then uh it was like Monti at Wingsford and then Willie Park went and finished the loop and came in and was like kind of like like what? What, what? I'm done. Score's out there. And yeah, so they had to, eventually had to cancel the loop.

I found it fascinating too. The edge of the property used to be right on the water. And now, you know, kind of standing on the first tee or at the clubhouse, like you can't see the water. Yeah, there was a big coal plant. Yeah, and they would just dump the slurry, all the rocks and stuff. Yeah, and it just built up this land. So now it's really not on the water. Now it's like a nature for water. Yeah. So for historical importance here,

they were actually playing for the challenge belt until, until young Tom won it three years in a row. The final one at 1870, he shot 47,51-51 to win by 12 and to win the winner's share of six pounds. We kicked the shit out of him. We're the Hickory Clubs, right? We rocked him. We rocked him. So yeah, that is our recommendation if you're going to go to Muscleboro, play with Hickory

Clubs. For sure. The course is interesting as a museum, but it was way more interesting. It was in good shape. Yeah. Oh, I thought it was really fun. It was really, really fun with the Hickory. I don't know why you'd go there and play with full-size clubs and do the whole thing. Oh, God. Yeah. But with Hickory's, it was phenomenal. You can rent them

on site and you can do the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's worth, I think it's worth checking out. It was, give you balls. Like the only way I guess you can put it is that we had been traveling for whatever, 20 some hours. We had already walked 18. And still we were like, all right, this is incredibly fun. We were all pretty up for it. Slap out. Yeah, it was great. It kept us engaged.

Well, then we went. So afterwards, we went and tried to go to the clubhouse. Yeah, and if you do stop, go in the clubhouse. They also have one of the world's oldest golf clubs, which is you know Obviously different than golf course. So that was a big that was a big theme of the trip was just clubs everywhere golf clubs Apart from golf courses, right? So I think you're probably best at explaining What you had ready no, I'm almost gonna liken it to like the the finance world

where it's like, like these mortgage-backed securities or credit default swap that, you know, you can essentially, you have a book, no, hear me out, you know, instead of just one course having one club, you can have like four, five, six, seven, eight clubs around one course. It's like the derivatives market, right?

Like, you know, one underlying instrument can spawn, you know, like three, four, five, six, however many other derivative financial instruments. Are you worried about a golf club? That's not what you're asking about, is it? No, I think it's sweet. I think it's, I think it's awesome. So, so the most of the I have like three clubs right and so the old so the oldest club the most world golf club that's right kind of next to the first green I think

Yeah, just this incredibly old building and I got to go in there once a couple years ago and have beers with the guys and they're just it is the anti-snooty golf club. I mean it's a bunch of kind of blue collar guys that belong to this club and they go in and just drink beer and shoot the shit and watch golf on TV. And I mean, it is like the most welcoming place you can go. And so if you're there, I'm sure that they would love to have you in for a beer.

That was one of the biggest disappointments having heard you talk about the club that we went over there knocked on the door. Nobody was in, so we weren't able to meet anybody or actually get in the club. But yeah definitely. It was a Sunday evening. Yeah, we moved along from Muscleboro and bat on the jet lag checked in. We stayed at the ducks in which I think we would all classify as pretty much a must-stake if you're in the area. It had that place, fucks. It was awesome.

It was, the room, the whole house is modest. It's not like a royal hotel of any kind, but it's exactly what you're looking for when you are on a golf trip. You spend next to no time in your room, but the pub they had there was maybe, there's like imagining a golf, a current golf museum pub that you would want to spend time in. And the food was great and the owner there, Malcolm, has invented all these putting games around the bar, including a game where you put off of a bar stool

onto the carpet into a seesaw and have to get the ball to balance in the seesaw. And if you get it in there with an eight attempts, you get to put your name up on the wall. It's all, it's all eventually succeeded, which is good because if he hadn't, I was gonna say Malcolm was like a crooked carnival. Yeah, it was running some crooked carnival games

that were impossible, but it's all approved that they were possible. I would still be in the... We'll have video eventually in the travel series. So it'll be much easier to kind of see, but I thought the pub was like again You know, you just picture like a like a pub in Scotland kind of centered around golf and that's what the ducks and what so I get just Got it just checked every box for me mentally

And it was good location too with Driving to all the golf courses that we were it was really close I think there's a way up the next day and the food was Full Scottish breakfast there was among the best we had on the some players. And then you wake up the next day and the food was full Scottish breakfast there. It was among the best we had on the whole trip. Yeah, yeah. Would you guys think of Haggis? Reluctantly?

A lot. I really liked it. It's good. Yeah, it's good. It's not Veggie Mike. It's not. Yeah, Veggie Mike was kind of the big food food mystery of season one. Veggie Mike was gonna be.

It was a good experience. Season two. Yeah, I was in by the end of it. I was a little unsure of it, but yeah, eventually once I let my inhibitions go, it was great. I just didn't want to think about it too much. Randy, can you explain what Haggis is? It's essentially everything from a sheep's stomach

kind of ground up and mixed with oats and spices. And then they bake it presumably in a different sheep's stomach. And that's it. I think I have some. I'm getting hungry for lunch now. I thought it was good as a toasty. I thought that was the best presentation of it. Little cheese on some toasted bread.

At least for me, that's how I enjoyed it the most. So reluctantly, we only spent one night in the ducks in and our next stop, kind of our purpose for going to East Lothian was we wanted to play North Barric. That is the I mean there's other gems obviously Murafield is located in East Lothian and Gullin there hosting the Oston the Scottish Open's okay there there's an endless array of courses but North Barric was the one that one we are able to have access to and you can't really get on Murafield and again all these courses that we played and like how it

works in the UK none of them are private. They're all clubs, but you can call up and book as a visitor and play them. North Barric DJ and I, we had played before, and it's, I think DJ, walking to the first tee, you would not so sheepishly declared it that it's your favorite golf course in the world. Yeah, and I don't know how much that's changed,

you know, now adding a bunch more to my context, but I don't know that you can get a better back-knife, and then you find a North Barric. I mean, every single shot is interesting and fun and exciting, and different than pretty much anything you've seen anywhere in the world, but yeah, I love it. It's phenomenal. And I think it's almost, it's kind of the course that over the last, I don't know, probably 20 years or whatever, was kind of, you of, to quote Tron, maybe so underrated

that it is now overrated. I think it kind of was this like sleeping giant for so long for so many people that the word has gotten out so much that now it's kind of overrun with tourists a little bit. We heard some stories about people, you know, kind of members leaving and people getting a little bit upset at all the tourist play

It's that I think that's that's based on everything we talked to there was that's kind of a micro cause of screws The whole town. Yeah, it's it's on the it's like a 30 minute train ride from downtown Edinburgh And there's there's just countless people moving in and it's kind of like their version of the hamptons Right. Yeah, um, you know, so I think every like the schools are really good there and countless people moving in and it's kind of like their version of the hamptons. Right, yeah. You know, so I think every, like the schools are really good there and the populations just exploded in North Barrett, the town. But the, I mean the course has so many similar characteristics to like, San Andreas.

Yeah. You know, you just, you start and you're playing basically, you you tee it off in this big field essentially right next to, it's kind of like the town square. Then you're working your way out, nine out, and basically nine back. Shared fairway between one and 18, 18 kind of coming back towards the clubhouse drivable hole with a big swale in front of it, the similarities. I'm a road down the right hand side. Yeah.

And then yeah, after that first hole, you kind of turned left, whereas of course, you turned right and go out. But let's talk about the concept behind. I really enjoy this. I don't even think I've ever noticed it before this trip. And the first hole kind of being an ease in hole and the idea of finishing with a rather easy hole

and how that's been protected at a lot of these courses and that driving ranges aren't really a thing And and I know that you know some courses have installed them to kind of a piece the American visitors and whatnot Which is a disgrace we hit zero range balls in this trip They just say we're the best tourist ever my favorite ranges are the just the hitting base Yeah, yeah, see at some clubs where it's just like a net and in a cage and you know if you want to go Hit balls into a net to warm up, here you go.

It's almost patronizing. Yeah. It's like, oh yeah, you need a range. Yeah, here you go. This is, we installed this just for you. This we're talking about it. I don't think I've hit a range ball in at least nine months. Yeah.

No, I love it. I don't know if I've hit a range ball in two years. The spy is going to the range. And so it's solid. Do your point, like the kind of The ease in is, I love it. Yeah, and it's fun to have an easy finishing hole too that you look forward to playing. I can get one back here as we finish. Golf doesn't always have to be hard. It's hard enough as it is. St. Andrews definitely follows that easy first hole and easy finishing hole. North Barracks the same

way. Killspindee was the same way. I'll forget some here. But I love the courses that kind of give you that ease in and ease out. Usually the 17th hole is pretty tough and then they bring you something pretty easy coming in. But North Barrack, I think, Tron, to your point, like North Barrack reminds me so much of St. Andrews. It's just like slightly scaled down and probably a little less touristy. Probably like St. Andrews was 50 years ago. Yeah, yeah. Just it's kind of eerie. Yeah, exactly. They're probably fighting the same issues. St. Andrews, you know, they're just 40, 50 years behind, kind of same issues. The town of St. Andrews has dealt with as well.

I will say we got the course in the opposite of the prevailing wind. I think I definitely enjoyed the course more. The first time when it's into the wind on the way out and downwind on the way back, the part of what makes that back nine so interesting is the helping wind that comes in with you and the lot more decision making comes into some of the shots like on 14 and deciding what bunkers you want to carry. And like the pit hole is like a, it's a breeze. The 13th hole, which you've probably seen pictures of where you play into the fairway

and then you pitch over a wall into the green. It's one of the best holes probably in all of golf and into the wind. It's like kind of a beast, like kind of a hard difficult hole. But Tron, what was your, what was your main takeaway from North Park? I thought the green, just some of the green complexes were absolutely banana land. And then my big takeaway was actually, so Ricky Fowler was out there.

He played a few holes, or figures behind us, and came up and had a beer with us. Or had a beer with Salian DJ, I should say. And he backed Randy down. Yeah, Randy put his tail between his legs and when he hit out on the balcony. So for those of you unaware, Randy has been one of Ricky's most frequent

and outspoken critics. He's labeled him late-stage capitalism, an empty suit, among other things, and Randy clamped up pretty hard once he saw Ricky was around. First of all, I don't even wanna dignify, you know, these baseless lies and accusations. A couple of facts to set straight. One, playing two groups ahead of Ricky. I made a nice three on 18 and I think Ricky under my watch fly

Got super nervous and made a four so barely like a 15 footer for yeah, I had it hitting two in the shots left He was really focused nonetheless It was clear. They For like a clean 67. Yeah, it was clear he was also shook the next day when he went and took the first round lead at the scholarship. Well, so anyway, I was out on the balcony, joined the view, the lovely seaside air,

as per my doctor's recommendations. And you know, I was waiting for him. He knew where to find me, right? He was the second one into the clubhouse and he never made it out to the balcony. I had a lovely conversation with this caddy. Tron, you were out there. I thought we had a delightful time.

Well, I think the honest was on Ricky, if he wanted to say something to me, he knew where to find me. Yeah, I think that's fair. For sure. Yeah, yeah, definitely. For sure, of it. Well, what'd you guys think of the golf course? I know this was one that basically, you know, we had probably over hyped going in a little bit.

But I'm curious how it stood up to that. I thought the redan was kind of a disgrace. Just to be clear, we're talking about the original redan upon which all others are based. It wasn't very redan-y. Yeah, I'm kind of what Tronna is. Well, it was playing straight into the wind, you know. Right. I thought the next green 16 gate, that green was one of the coolest greens we played.

It's like a putt-putt-putt-greater. Yeah, it's like it's safe. I mean, in that back nine has so much nuance to it. 14's crazy good. 13's crazy good. There was so many good holes out there. I think I played a couple from the beach. That's the most refreshing thing about Scottish golf. You can go down to the beach and play it.

Well, Doc stole my ball. I would do that and take a drop. But really played volleyball with some passer-biers on the beach. Yeah, and there. Yeah, we'll get there. I thought seven, the Eli burn hole was very interesting, especially in the conditions again, kind of downwind. It's, you know, 350 yard part four, but the, you know, it's kind of, I don't know, 70 yards, kind of to the top, and then 70 yards kind of downhill to this burn protecting the green.

And they had the flag like weighing the front, essentially, you know, not many paces pass the burn. So it was like, okay, you can hit driver, but if you really like, I don't think you couldn't hit driver. Like you would have hit it into the burn. Yeah, like six, I had six. Yeah, so it's like, how far do you lay back to get a full number into the green?

No, I laid back to get a full number into the green, and then I chunked one. Looked back and happened. It went in the burn. And then I tried to play it out of the burn, but it turns out there was rocks. Yeah, that was it. In the burn.

You'd like to have that one over. But it was like a 350 yard hole that's all out in front of you. And I was really happy hitting my approach shot to about 40 feet long. And then just trying to two-foot apart. We were walking off that one and we're kind of like, all right, sweet. So this is a great example of a hole that you just physically, you can't hit it within 20 feet. Yeah, I don't know how you get it close to that side.

I was asking Ricky. Who? I was asking Ricky. I was asking Ricky after the round. What'd you hit on 70s? Like, I hit it to the top of the hill, and then it just kind of hit a wedge that kind of took the slope and trickled down, it hit like three feet, mid-burdy. I was like, oh, sick, man.

All right, that's cool. But it's regard. Into the wind that holds like driver nine iron, probably at least, and not that difficult, but that's that's the beauty It's probably a weirdly an easier hole into the one. Oh definitely would be that's the yeah downwind doesn't necessarily make a whole easier on these golf courses And that's that's what's so interesting to get a course in different wins is to see How you have to design a hole to be able to handle win from all four directions? It can't be unplayable from any one of the directions

And that's why when the wind is down at these golf courses, they're getable. They're extremely getable because they're not, you're not, we didn't get any 470 yard par fours because if you get a 30 mile now a Gale Force win into you, that holds like a par five and a half and they just, that's just not how they design golf holds out there. So I thought quickly, I thought number nine was one of the better par 5s that we played at Scotland. I think so. It's minimum top two of the best par 5s. And that's kind of a theme from the trip was that the par 5s on these old classic courses just aren't just they're not like what we would consider strong par 5s with modern technology. They were designed. I think my understanding

is par 5s used to be the most challenging holes back with the old equipment where you know, you're not it's not get there in two It's all right now. You got a three good Red and needle with your second shot. Yeah Yeah, I'll agree with that. I think 18 was one of my favorite finishing holes as well You know, there's there's there's OB like you're playing directly back into the town. It's basically like St. Andrews, but without Without really the slope there and the back right. And no burn.

No burn, but you know, and it's great. Like the clubhouse is right there behind. And then there's other clubhouses kind of scattered amongst there. And then there's a parking lot all the way down the right side or a parking area. It's really cool. What's funny is you walked off to that finish

and you just you turning your like six man 16 17 18 was all world I was like yeah, it is man But I would I would 13 4 to 14 That six whole stretch is at the two people could walk off that that that stretch and name two different three whole stretches That were their favorite out of that six is is pretty amazing. So I Thought the front line was way more interesting this time around the two Yeah, the downwind on the front made those holes a lot more a lot more playable and interesting and that was probably one of the stronger wins

We got actually was at North Barrett. Right. So I think North Barrett if I that's that's among my Favorites for if I could play it again like I think it'd be a grower. Yeah, yeah, I mean I liked it a lot the first time around But I think I would only like it more and more and more. Yeah. I think that's the course I walked off like wanting to play immediately again. Yeah, which is interesting because there's so many holes out there that if somebody tried to build them today, they would get shot. They would get, they would be murdered. Yeah, if they tried to build any of those holes. Moving on from North Barric, we took the, made the drive up about two hours to St. Andrews. We spent three nights in the town of St. Andrews.

We stayed at the David Russell apartments there. There's basically like a dorm in some way. You're a university of St. Andrews, yeah. That's the David O'Rourke. I wouldn't change anything about that. I think that's kind of a cool way to take in the town. We went to the Dunvegan that night of course. The famed hotel slash bar there just about maybe 300 yards from the 18th green which has just artifacts and pictures.

The pictures of basically anybody who's ever played the old course that is famous is photographed there with with Sheena the old owner of the of the bar. It's now under under new management but, the old owner of the bar. It's now under new management, but they still kept all of the relics. Yeah, it looked exactly the same. Yeah, it's the exact same experience. It's just not her behind the bar there anymore,

but great place for burgers and beers and food and it is just the, you can't go to St. Andrews and not go in the Dunveeg. And you meet people from all over the world in there. And actually, you meet people from all over the world and there, and actually you meet people from all over the United States, really, in the air for the most part. But it is a staple of that town and for good reason. I think a tripped St Andrews, every time I go there,

I end up playing more golf than I probably should. And I should just spend more time hanging in pubs like that or places like that. So it was a very shoot of a Gavin sentence. Every time I cover it gets harder You pull in San and you and we parked right next to the 18th green and Tromba just kind of see it and you're like oh My god, it's real. Yeah, yeah, I can park right next to the 18th green

Real, yeah, yeah, I can park right next to the 18th green. Like it's and so yeah, our plan. So I know we on last year's podcast, we detail kind of ways to get on the old course, but quickly go over it. It is the hardest tea time obviously to get, but it's also a course that you can get on if you're dedicated to it. You can book a tea time well in advance, usually through a like a travel planner in some way, or you can do advanced bookings, I think, right around now for 2019, if you want to, if you want to base your trip around it,

and have a set T-Time at the old course, you can do that. You can also go online and enter the ballot two days in advance. I am personally over four entering the ballot. I've never won it, but you can enter to sign up between two, three, and four people, I think, to be awarded a tee time. I don't know how many tee times they keep. We were visiting at one of the busier times of the year, the week before the open, so I'm not that surprised that we didn't win the ballot, especially entering as a forceum, but those are the two ways to play in advance to get a tee time. Granted, the people I got paired with eventually, they entered the ballot twice in one week and

won both times. Yeah, so it does happen. It definitely happened. The system hates, the system hates me, I guess. But the third way, which is the way that we chose and the way I've been three for three in playing the old course is go to the old pavilion there right next to the first tee lining up. We lined up around 315, 320. I think it's when we got there. A.M.. We had a little scare Randy. Randy overslept a little. We thought we lost Randy. We wanted to make it by 3. We were lucky enough to course to cross pass timing wise with Push Daddy from Lead Singer for Myration. He was there, he beat us there, he was 7th in line, he got there at 3, 7th in line,

we were 8, 9, 10, 11 in line to, they opened these doors at six at the old pavilion and they will show you what T times they have available. And you can kind of choose what, when you want to go. And we, you know, the, the four, the five of us, we're again, seven through 11 in line. We all were team off, like 12, 10, 12, 20, 12, 40 and 12 Paired up with different people, we all got separated. I was fortunate enough to get to play with Push Daddy. He was in real name as Micah. Mr. Push.

Mr. Push. But, and yeah, so we all kind of had a different old course experience. We didn't all get to play it together, but we all got to play within an hour of each other and enjoy pretty much the best walking golf. I'm in search of an experience that is better than the old course, but for the two that just had played it for the first time, I wanna hear what your big takeaway was from the old course.

It was, I had really, really, really high expectations, and after maybe the drive on the second hole, I was like, all right, cool, this is gonna surpass all of those expectations, I get it and yeah, I mean, I just, you know, if you don't like the old course, you can get the hell out. Period point blank. Which we did a couple of those people in the bars

and stuff heard, you know, yeah, look, I went and played the old course, you know, it's kind of something you have to do. It's not my favorite, you know, I thought that was just okay. But I've never played a course where after every like normally after you play a course you're like, oh man, I want to go play that course again. After every single hole, I didn't even want to go play the next hole. I just wanted to go play that hole over and over and over again and keep unlocking the secrets to it. To DJ's

point though, like I people that say that, I can understand that. I honestly can. I mean, it's not visually, it is a bit funky, and it's not something that's just gonna blow you away visually. Honestly, probably my first time playing it, a lot of the nuance was for sure lost on me. I was expecting it to just blow me away visually,

and it didn't. Until I started to kind of start to figure out, honestly, it was the caddy that I had when I played it last year. His name is Brett Murray. I stayed in touch with him after the round because he was such an awesome caddy in pointing out all the different options you have off the tee and the strategies that he was lining me up for. And he's like, all right, yeah, you're 156 here.

We won a 112 shot. And I was like, what? He's like, it's going to hit that swell and it's going to run out and be 15 feet short and it would. And so I say in touch to them, I was like, all? I think it's gonna hit that swell and it's gonna run out and be 15 feet short and it would and so I, say in touch to them I was like, all right, that you are catacareing for me again this time around and again, he just would blow my mind with like, all right, 16th hole, we're gonna play this one like the pros play.

We're playing down three fairway right now because of where the pin is and blah, blah, blah, we're gonna take the OB out of play and just the amount of ways you can play these golf holes in the slopes you gotta play around. I just, I can't imagine a more fun, strategic golf course to play. The options are legitimately endless. And I think because of that, it turns into this just like crazy hectic war zone. Yeah.

Just balls are flying all over. You're hitting in a group, some groups are hitting the you. Four groups on the same bottle land. Which sounds crazy and stupid, but when you're doing it, you're hitting in a group to groups are hitting the you groups on the same yeah I'll land which sounds crazy. It's stupid, but when you're doing it like oh, come is the best glorious mad. Yes, it is glorious bad It's like the 7th and 11th holes cross and you might have two groups on two or three groups on each hole Plus the caddies there might be like 35 people on the on this on these the same piece of the property at the same time And it's awesome. It's just bad.

Tron and I actually got to be crossed as he was playing 11, and I was playing 7, and I told him to crack on. And yeah, I mean, it was, it's the greatest. I, I, I, forever enthralled by that golf course, and don't think it's everyone. You can totally figure out and totally know every in and out of, but like, I want to continue to play it. And the, the students that get get to live there for a summer

and play it 30, 35 times, that might be the golf dream for me. Yeah, go ahead. You guys nailed it with just kind of the madness. I almost liken it to trying to play golf in the middle of a busy airport. Like imagine like terminal B at O'Hare, and like everybody's just playing golf,

going different directions. And you just like what is going on out here? And then you get to 18 and there's tourists like running up on the bridge to take pictures. And it is just kind of like a glorious mass of humanity. When we got to 18, there was this, I think they're a Korean family. You know, this guy, run, just no regard for us.

Like the golf hole runs out on the bridge, stands there, he's got his foot up like, you know, Alex, Alex, the end of the crate, just conquered the golf course. And you know, we get up to him, we think he's gonna get out of the way. He's like, hey, can I borrow your golf club? Like I forgot my golf club. Like oh yeah, like you were gonna bring it for this. And he borrowed my playing partner's golf company,

he stands over his club over his shoulder and I mean it was just, I don't know, it's just, it's, it's fast. Yeah, it's fast. You guys take the photo too, like you was playing the whole, yeah exactly. It's just, it's just a complete madness, it's the best. So I think I actually enjoyed, like I was paired up with a father and two his two sons. I kind of liked like no offense that you got. We played a lot of golf together. Yeah. It was fun to get out and like go play with some other people. Yeah. So yeah.

So so I was with this this family from Mexico and one of the sons, you know, he showed up, I think, to the, to the, you know, Pavilion at 3.30 a.m. and he was wearing like a full on Gucci, like, tracks suit. Yeah, tracksuit. And I was like, man, and then, and I'm getting par with him. And one of them, they're like, you two look like you guys have a lot to talk about. So on the first, on the first hole, he, hole, he shanks one, he hasels one across the Himalayas putting green. Which again, it's just a massive humanity. There's hundreds of people out there putting.

And the catty goes over and like apologize to everybody. And people are just screwing about. And then on 18, he basically puzzles like a three-wood or a driver off of one of the hotels, one of the buildings down the right. It just sweet if it was a three-wood, like he was trying to play really sensibly. And then it's like almost hits a couple walking their dog.

And it was madness, it was awesome. It's the best. The whole thing, I don't know if this is a good comparison because I'm not a huge fan of visiting DC, or maybe I've just never been there at the right time, but it just feels like going to a capital city of golf. And it's just, there's tourists everywhere, but still you're kind of like, man, this is really cool to see.

This is, I don't know if that makes sense or not, but then the Dundee, and I think, is kind of like the man, this is really cool to see. This is, you know, I don't know if that makes sense or not, but then the Dundvig and I think is kind of like the, there's no novel. The actual capital building, yeah. This code, you just like see everybody there. And it's just that first t-shot is nerve-wracking. Like that's one of the more nerve-wracking shots in. I was weak for us.

I was weirdly less nervous than I thought I would be, but I was still nervous. Could you pure it off that first? Because I like, Huzzle skanked this hybrid that didn't get higher than a foot off the ground. See, I did the opposite. I hit like a just a mega-queef monster. It actually played close to the hazard.

Yeah. It was kind of the dragon queen. Quickly, my favorite anecdote that happened to me at the old course was I was playing 17 and just hit a beautiful drive. It's a big cut around the hotel. It's in the middle of the fairway. The pins kind of on the right side, so you're not really dealing with the bunker there.

I hit again, you know, a common theme, just a terrible approach shot. And actually, like it's right, and it catches the road, and it bounces up over the wall out of bounds. So I play out the hole, and I play out 18, and I'm sitting behind 18, waiting for you guys to come in, and just minding my own business. And this older gentleman walking a dog, you know, just comes up to me. He sits down and after about 10, 20 seconds,

he's like, he just kind of out of the side of his mouth goes, what happened with that second shot on 17? And I just started laughing. And I blamed it on my caddy who was phenomenal. Caddy Danny, it definitely wasn't his fault, but we just got to talking for about 10 minutes. He's a local. But just that guy had been walking, saw me hit on 17, walked into town. Obviously saw me sitting on 18 and would say that to him. It's just like that's kind of the same Andrews. That's the old core.

You were getting some shouts from the Jager into 17s there, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, so I After I hit it OB I dropped and played you know an Irish draw. No, no, this was a real drop Yeah, proper drop and so I hit up greenside I Was standing over my putt, which was for five I guess. But these guys thought I was putting for birdie and they go, hey stretch. They're American. I'm like, I know they're talking to me. Yeah, what's up.

He's like, you know if you make birdie on the roadhole, nobody's gonna believe you back home. And I go, well, this is actually for five. They go, well, okay, all the same. Geez. Yeah. And I ended up two this is actually for five. I go, well, okay, all the same. Cheers. Yeah. And I ended up two puttin' for six. But just the, you know, you just are constantly

just interacting with people on and off the course. It's just, it's like, intimate, it's wild. It's a public park. Yeah. You walk around the golf course. You don't have to have a tea time to go out and walk the golf course if you want to. And Sundays, they are closed entirely. And as people, you pick Nick in the 18th fairway if you want to.

I mean, it's got to the best. It was the most engaged, probably the best ground I played on the whole trip, but it was the most engaged I've ever been in. Round of golf. Yeah, you shot 76, first go around. With two doubles, right? Yeah. First go around the old course. Allegedly.

None of us were there in the air. No one do a test. You got the Gucci sweat fans, they're only with it. The road haul is legitimately the coolest haul I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. You can't even concept it. Yeah.

If you get executed if you built that course up. I kind of agree with that. It's the best. We finished around. I was the last one to finish in rainy. I came down and you guys were at the j and we all met up the Jigger and for beers And I don't know if you guys could tell but like we just when we got there the smiles on your guys faces when we got there You guys were having some beers with some you played with some Aussie podcast listeners

I think yeah, who are they were there for two months? Like work we're kind of going on the people are like oh you guys played a lot of golf I'm like oh listen to all the golf we're playing. And I asked these guys and they're like, yeah, we're over here. We're getting a pretty big trip. We're over here about two months. And actually we saw him the next day at Craig Braille. And we're hitting a town there for a way.

We're in the town of our fairway. Yeah, they were great. So yeah, had some beers that jigger in. That's kind of the 24 hour span had the St. Andrews experience. I think we would have loved to have spent more time there and gotten out to the new course and gotten out to the Eden course. I know it should play the end.

Yeah. I'd love to play Jubilee. Yeah, I mean, you could go just like surely you could go just to St. Andrews for five, six days and it's only play golf there. Under the St. Andrews. No problem six days and it's only play golf there. Under the San Andrews. The homologues.

You can go to the, oh gosh. We should do a whole separate podcast about this. The ladies putting club. Tell us about it. Do we even want to go there? Well, so that's, there's a lot to unpack. We'll try to do it really quick. So you guys woke up the next day and went and played

Crayl. For the travel series, Randy and I thought it would be beneficial for us to go get into town and see what we could scare up. We ended up mostly just hanging out at the St. Andrews Ladies' Pudding Club for, you know, maybe, I don't know, two hours. And the quick history that we learned from our guy Kevin in the manager of the... The new manager of the... The new manager of the homolias. The homolios, which was the first thing he had formed.

It's not actually pronounced him a laez, it's pronounced the homolios. And was basically that this wild putting green that all these tourists, you know, and a lot of people listening are probably very familiar with, is actually owned by the St. Andrews Ladies Pudding Club, which was formed as kind of a thing for all of the wise Society isn't it putting club. Okay. You're thinking of the Jacksville Beach putting society which is forthcoming more to come on that in a future episode But the land that so this club was started by basically the wives of The RNA members back in the day, you know 150 years ago Yeah, all the RNA members were men and so the wives kind of needed something to do.

They liked golf as well. So they started this putting, putting club and they let the public go out there and basically play for nothing. I mean, it's like two pounds or something. A pound for seniors and kids. Yeah, I think three pounds for adults. But whenever they want to have challenges like putting comp comps as they call it metals metals they close it down and Kevin has to go kick everybody off and explain what's going on and they all get dressed up and they come in and they have T

And then they have these one-on-one putting matches and Randy and I were watching this for a long time because all of these women who are Kind of probably north of 60 65 I would say. Some as old as 90, they were saying. Yeah. Just have, they have just dead weight from like 40 feet. 50 feet. Over like 40 humps around a band.

And they all knock it like inside three feet almost every time. And then they all have the gift inside three feet and so it's just this Crazy wild interesting thing and Anyways, it blew my mind and it made me think like man if there was a putting society in Jacksonville Beach I would one night a week. You just go have putting matches with guys and drink beers and some guys and gals I really under the radar kind of bitchy and Well, I think there's some internal. Yeah, I think any gossip. Yeah, it seemed you got all that at two hours Yeah, we were talking to one of the members and she was kind of filling us in on source familiar with the situation

Yeah, so some of the politics yeah, there was a disqualification that somebody was wrinkled about from a previous metal They they they have like a hundred. don't know, that might be. They have heaps of medals though. Yeah, that was a different cup of contest and competitions. How many comps all these clubs have? So we caught them on a... Explain medals, yeah, let's do that.

Well, sorry, go ahead. After half a year. Well, I mean, basically the medals are they have all these competitions that where they essentially play for a medal, basically the medals are, they have all these competitions that were they essentially play for a medal, not just club championships. They have to. One or two a week.

Yeah. They're just like, oh yeah, big competition. And there's all these historical medals. But you get a three club medal. You get to have a match play. You get a stableford medal. And then they have cups, which as the gentleman at Crayall explained, the transition from metals, which were kind of based in military, law and military tradition, because a lot of

the club uniforms were like military. Thank you for your service. You have surprised certain club companies haven't instituted metals for their sponsors. But, and then they transitioned to cups, which was basically to promote the social feeling amongst them. So the cups would, you know, you would drink out of the cup at, so like the Claret jug, that's, you were, like, it's not only respectful to drink out of it, it's like you're, like, legally required to drink out of it. That's why you're like legally required to drink out of it.

That's why it was a disgrace when Zach Johnson ate corn on the cob out of the claret jug. You're supposed to drink out of it. Sorry to interrupt you, but can continue where you're going with the metal. Well, yeah. So the ladies play for all these different metals and caught them on a Wednesday match play, 18-hole match play metal. Good matches coming down. We saw a couple go to extra holes.

Yeah. Don't spoil it for the content Yeah, look you're right. Yeah Any concessions well, so because of the yips right? Yeah, and so the last thing I'll say kind of about the whole You know clubs and and that kind of thing is I was thinking about just personally and how much More golf it would make me want to play If I belong to something like that. Because right now, you know, fortunate to have you guys living in the same town and, you know, always kind of pulling to go play golf or to go do something. But I'm sure a lot of people listening to this don't have before this trip.

I don't think I'm going to be pulling it. Well, yeah, right. Right. But, you know, put with us, I want you. Thinking about it, a lot of people listening to this probably have that situation where it's like, you know, they're serious golfers, but they don't have a ton of golfing friends or whatever. And having like a putting, not a putting society,

but having like a golf club like this, where you constantly had 50 people pulling at you, like, hey, come play the three club. Hey, come do this, hey, come do this, hey, come do this. God, think about how much more golf that would make you want to play, rather than, hey, maybe we can find like a 752T time, it's gonna be like 60 bucks. Like, you want to play a four ball.

Yeah, do you want to play or not play? It's so easy to be like, no, not really. I'm good. But just the whole structure of it is so much different. It's just so much more conducive. It's actually playing golf. And that's what's genius about the kind of derivative nature of these clubs where you can have multiple clubs

around the same course. So you can have just different, you know, social feelings in different clubs. Like one can skew younger and more social and like the new club at San Andrews is, is a lot of college students, a lot of college that caddy over at Kings Barnes. As opposed to obviously the RNA,

where you have to wear a sport coat to walk in. Yeah, and yeah, that's what you just don't get here, right? Right. So yeah, regarding five in St. Andrews as well, I mean, again, we agree we could spend five, six days just playing around there. So people are familiar with Kings Barnes

and obviously with Cardinus T, the open leading up, up that was not we're not able to access that course. And we you know I played Kings Barnes a couple times it's a fantastic course. We didn't get to go there on this trip. Obviously it's one we'd love to fit in. We wanted to get a little bit off a little bit off the beaten path. I know that these are not hidden gems or secrets of golf courses. But while those these guys were galvancing around with the ladies on the putting green, Tron and I went and checked out Crayl, which is one of the oldest, and I don't remember

how they defined it there, but one of the oldest clubs in the world as well. The Crayl Golfing Society. The Crayl Golfing Society, this place is stretched out on just an incredible piece of land. And of course, I'd love to play with hickories, I think, actually, sometime. But Tron, what was your reaction to to our John to round

Karel that morning? It was it was hard. It was the hardest courses we've played. I thought it was harder than yeah It was just really raw and far 69 5700 of course and It was probably the most dangerous golf course But and not not really in a bad way. It was almost kind of an invigorating way. Similar to San Angeles, there's so many groups traversing. It's just a really compact piece of property.

There's holes crossing over. There's teas that are right behind greens where you're hitting it directly back over that green. But I mean, the use of the land is just spectacular. The opening stretch, the first six, seven, eight holes. And then there's kind of this back paddock as well. There's a big cave in the middle of it that, like a constant teen. Yeah, like a thousand year old bummers or whatever were found on this cave. You know who lives in that cave though.

The Bogeyman. And then they've got a championship course there as well designed by Gill Hans. The Crosshead course. Yeah, so it was an eminently enjoyable walk, but yeah, man, I got beat up a little bit out there. Gill, you know what else Gill Hans did. So we were talking with one of the pros of the clubhouse and I've been talking about asking about the Gill Hance

course. Neither of us had played that one. And this guy from the doors was like, Gill Hance, he did wing foot. Where were members? That's what I love about golf. I guess it's kind of like connecting with people, you know? Yeah, kind of a picture like a record scratch moment.

Or like the music sauce. I was like, turns and looks at the guy. And I was like, oh god, you are that, you are that New Yorker, right? But no, that that stretch, the first five holes there along the water. I enjoyed Crayl more this time around than I did the first time. I mean, again, the conditions play into that. Some really interesting fun holes out there and kind of fits into that kill spindy category of, look, we're not telling you to base a trip around,

going to Crayl, but if you're looking for some kind of variety, this is the exact course you said. Yeah, yeah, you, again, that clubhouse experience with all the drawings and all the metals and all the things they have in there was spectacular, awesome, awesome views and some really, really fun golf holes. Some golf holes are a bit lacking out there, but I mean, it is kind of more in the relic

category, and it's definitely so far from a modern course. It's not stretched out for any kind of championship, the whole, the new course that they built there in the early 2000s kind of gets overshadowed as well by Kings Barnes, which was. Now it was actually Hans's first first design. First solid design, I guess he was good friends with the professional at the club at that time and they asked him to do it. And he incorporated, there's a wall out there, Hadrian's Wall.

And most people don't know that. I think it crosses the wall four or five times. But yeah, it was such a, there were so many awkward shots on that course that it was, it was not a comfortable course to play, but in a good way. It challenged you and stretched your kind of limits a little bit. Good condition too. It was a really good condition. And the first hole is like a little driveable for again, eases you in.

It's got a house next to it. I don't remember exactly what that house is. It's a lifeboat. So there's a big lighthouse that was is. It's a lifeboat. So there's a big lighthouse that was designed by, it's basically the template lighthouse. For all lighthouse is designed for the next 100 years. The original redan lighthouse.

Yeah, it was designed by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Oh, sure. And it's like 14 miles off the coast. And basically there's this group of rocks out there and they were getting shipwrecks all the time. So they built this lifeboat house out there on the first hole and then everybody would just throw the light boats in there, go get all the shipwrecks.

So after our little, and we pushed out of game play with this as well at Crayl, we had good time there. We suspended our game. We had a game, a week-long game going, which I think we could officially call it, are we going to call it tilt? Sure, it's a second tilt. I wanted to call it stack-and-tilt, but apparently that name's been taken. So we talked about it a bit on the band and podcast. We modified it a little bit for this version. I think it's kind of our final version. So, this version. I think it's kind of our final version. So eight points for an eagle, four points for a birdie, two points for a par, zero for a bogey, and minus, now it's minus four for a double bogey. We've had minus two, we decided

you need a harsher penalty. These are all net scores. All net scores. If you make a net birdie, your next toll, you go on tilt. Your next toll is worth two times as many points. If you make another net birdie, your next hole is worth two times as many points if you make another net birdie your next hole is worth three times as many points or you know if you just make an eagle flat out you surpass two x and you go straight to three x so you can get on tilt and get hot but then if you throw it back with like when you're on three x and you make double you lose 12 points and you're right back to the field so came down to the final hole of the entire match 207 holes or whatever no spoilers though no spoilers you got a tune into the series to see to see who the winner of that was But we suspended that for that and then we the four of us got back together for an afternoon round at Ely

Which is another a course that is in I I Prefer Ely over Crayl. I think I don't know if you feel the same way Tron I prefer Ely over just about any course I think, I don't know if you feel the same way, Tron. I prefer Ely over just about any course I've ever played. But again, it is, so yeah, let's hear about your guys experience with Ely first. I want to hear from the man across the table from me about what he was told at the approach up when he went to check in. Right, so after Galavanting around with the ladies

in the morning, I thought it would be good. Yeah, real quick, though. We also went around town, St. Andrews, the town. And then there's a couple of things I love in life. One is seeing college campuses. And two is exploring new towns. And so I would be happy going to St. Andrews and not golfing for a couple of days.

Just going around town, different pubs, restaurants, and the sights. So we had a lovely, I think we undersold how lovely of a day we had. It was great, yeah. Lovely is the word to say. And so we popped back into the David O'Rustle apartments and I was like, you know, if we get

in some unseasonably warm weather, I'm gonna pop some shorts on, showed up to Ealy. They were not a fan of seeing my calves, apparently, and I had kind of normal... Mr. Steely Girl rolling up. That's what I'm worried about. That normal just kind of ankle socks on that was not within the guidelines of club policy. They're like, we just, you know, we regret to inform you that you're gonna need to purchase some knee high Link socks luckily for me they had some available for purchase Which I think were like rate for options. Yeah, there was like a

Like a Kansas City Royals blue like the George Brett option. there was like a all black, all black, yeah, I don't know that would be kind of like a shoeless Joe Jackson. Kind of look. Is that a Jaguar's teal? There was like an electric teal, and then there was like a radioactive yellow. And a red, right?

Yeah, which seemed kind of a little more regal than what I would. And picture, these aren't like, MIG calf socks, these are like for like soccer picture, these aren't like, mid-caf socks. These are like for like, soccer players, you know? Yeah, yeah. Like the big soccer socks that kind of cover your shin guards and come all the way up to like, your knee.

Yeah, so luckily, you know, the honor of the Game of Golf was preserved because I was able to purchase some bright yellow socks, which I think kind of was able to construe from, you know, really five, six fairways away, just how much I respect the game. You were a disgrace and they put you in your place. Yeah, you're right. And this is all happening in this little- Things were happening great. Little pro shop next to the first tee, a little starter's hut, and there's a giant periscope. Like you're in submarine.

Yeah, which was cool. And it's like, so it's a blind first shot over this hill um yeah and it was you know the pariscope I was gonna see if the group ahead is cleared and one one more thing about the socks that I thought was cool while while I may respectfully disagree with the policy uh I did think it was objectively very funny that the socks that they had available for purchase were just the brightest Gross Socks Yeah, so I thought that was pretty funny and I give them props. It was also only enforced for men

Right. Yeah, that's that's certainly true. It was a very sexist That's certainly what I think I think a lot's been made of you know, I think think that's kind of a misconception about Scotland. There's still a couple of holdouts, namely, me or feel, they don't have women members, but as evidenced by the ladies' pudding society and this sexist policy, Ewe, you know. Winter minutes, Colin, going to catch your breath. Yeah, no, no, no, that's a very question we've we've swung too far to the other end of the pendulum. We I think we got maybe the the night these summer night in Scotland. The course was almost entirely to ourselves. This was the World Cup, the England

Croatia match was the was the night we were out there. We were informed in the clubhouse about this pub that's located just off the 4th tee and just off the 17th green called the 19th hole. And somewhat of a tradition that you just after three holes or after 17 holes you roll into this pub and have a beer. We took that opportunity. Yeah, it was great. We were caught a little of the Wimbledon. Yeah, caught some of history. And had a pint before hitting back out to the course and had it to ourselves. But I think you guys, I mean, I really enjoyed Ely,

but you guys seemed to be completely blown away by this. So it's 16 par fours and two par threes. Yeah. Which any other time I'd say that's an absolute disgrace. I love par threes and I love par fives. But there was so much variety and the conditioning was just insane. And the run-up areas and the greens, I think the biggest, one of the biggest takeaways from the entire trip for me was how much of a freaking savage James Brayt is. It was. Just possibly the baddest ombre on the planet.

Yeah, cosine. Listen, listen, Yili is my spiritual center. It's my home. What do you mean by that? It was, I've never, I just, and this is where it's like my limited vocabulary is, I just can't possibly do justice to the feelings of content, just being content out on a golf course.

It has all the aspects that I want. It's eminently playable. It's ground game options, creativity to galore. You got the beautiful little town of Ely budding up against, you know, kind of one side of the property, really. Well, you kind of play through a corridor, yeah, of the town.

And then you get out by the water. There's just a huge, wonderful cliff out by the 13th green that you played towards Probably my favorite spot in all of Scotland Like the stretch from 10 10 11 12 13 was But it was just that it was a well-mank late afternoon early evening golden light We had the course to ourselves We were all playing fairly well. It just it can't get better than that We're out on the fifth or sixth green and we hear a cheer from

Mile away and England it scored. Yeah the World Cup game was going on so we had Entire golf course to ourselves You have you know you got Hadrian's wall and play off the back of three, which is like this criminally underrated downhill, par three, like eight kind of coming up with that little dirt road kind of buttressed up against the front left of the green. For a course with 16 par fours, I've never played a course with more variety.

Forget all about that. You don't. It's not even it. It's not even a consideration. Like 10 is a short four where it's like up and up up this hill and then down. 10 was I hit driver driver. I just like chipped a little driver down the hill. I convinced DJ who was like further down the hill to hit his chip shop back up the hill to try to get a run. I still believe that was the right

play to DJ. Yeah, it wasn't. But it was that firm and fast. Yeah. Yeah. Like I convinced it would play 40 yards back up hill to get the slope to run it down to the green. Listen, I'd rather make five that way than make a memorable four. Yeah. I don't remember what you guys made on that home, but I remember why I made five. And the views, the views across the Firth of Fourth, you got some wind farms in the background on the hills. That was more DJ and Randy's.

Oh yeah, a lot of renewal. A lot of renewal. There was an oil rig out in the middle. That was more my vibe. And Sean had a drill baby drill shirt out. But you can see across to Barric and all that across the way. I think probably 10, 11, 12, 13. You said 13 had buck club vibes to it.

Oh yeah. 13 was good. Dog leg left around the water there. Yeah and the green was kind of redan-danny. Yeah, plateau, redan-ish style green. It was disgusting. It was disgusting. You were you were disgusted. I think by about 14 you just kind of laid down. Yeah I just couldn't handle it. It's as good as it gets for me. So one thing, Randy, I think Randy, you took a push cart almost every round? Yeah. For a trolley I should say.

I took a caddy at the old course and then I walked a few with my dogs at which we'll get into. Your canines. Yeah. But the trolley situation. The trolley situation, trolley situation you gotta give They're they're available everywhere, which is great. I think that's the most important But they're not they're not the best trolleys by and large

Castle Stewart the newest course over there that we played the the most recently built course had the best trolleys and then Dornak had good trawlies as well, but there were some bad trawlies too. If Yili didn't have the best trawly, they're trying to get you to do it. They have like electric ones there too. I think they're trying to get you to up, they're trying to up sell you to the factory. Yeah, I'm not trying to get into an electric one. You don't want to run away in a car situation. So Yili was a, so I'd played Yili before in in very different conditions and it was this, I mean, like the whole rest of the trip, this was, the conditions just contributed so much to the experience.

And that's the way the course is designed to be played, meant to be played, and with that, those conditions, it was fantastic experience, so much fun all the way from T to Green. And kind of fits that mold in the course that is not one of the top knowns. I mean a lot of people that have traveled to Scotland have played there and are aware of this course but it's definitely one that needs to be on your radar if you want to get out of St. Andrews to play and if you want to, you know, want some variety is compared to Kings Barnes and the Castle Course and Karnusti and any of the other courses there. Ely is Ely and Kral are the ones that, and we've been getting to play London Links which we've heard

great things about, Pushtetia, great things to say about. That's one that, and we think it's played London Links, which we've heard great things about, Pushtedi, I agree, things to say about. That's one that we need to get back to at some point. London Links 11. The new course is fantastic. It's one of my favorite courses in Scotland. I think of the ones that we played, I think, you know, if bag tag berries looking to get out for one round amongst the people,

I think it's probably Ely, right? Yeah, yeah. That's the best suggestion. Are you got to? Yeah. I don't know. Ely was probably the most, one of the most probably two or three most enjoyable rounds of golf I've ever played.

I completely agree with you. All right, that is a lot for just the first half of this trip. We're going to cap part one right here. And we're going to get into Cruden Bay, Colin, Castle Stewart, Dornec, Brawra, in part two, and kind of do a wrap-up at the end of that. So thanks tune in and stay tuned for part two. That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most.

Better than most.