No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 156: Scotland Trip, Part II

Episode Date: July 27, 2018

In Part II of our Scotland recap, we talk about our experiences at Cruden Bay, Cullen, Castle Stuart, Nairn, Brora, and Royal Dornoch. We also go into our favorite courses of the trip, the best... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 156: Scotland Trip, Part II appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alright, listen up. This will only take a second. Just kidding, it'll take about 60 seconds. Neil here, aka the Merch-Sar, to talk about the rogue irons 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 Rick out out there on the pro amp circuit like solly. They recommended the new rogues paired with some extra stiff 130g 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 bandin. I'm getting an extra 10 to 12 yards on each club. And yes, Air Maiden 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-handicabber 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 chaldeau? That is better than most. That is better than most. All right, welcome back to part two of our Scotland Wrap Up podcast.

If you missed part one, we talked about our experiences at kill spendy musselboro north barric the old course cradle and ealy and in this episode we're gonna talk about cruden bay cullin castle steward naren braw and dorenec so uh... wrapping up from uh... from st. Andrews we had different legs we we talked a bit about in the previous uh... episode about our game tilt that we've been playing all week. We had different phases of the game. We had the East Lothian stage. That was like the sprinter jersey from the Tour de France.

East Lothian stage, I believe your boy was the champion of that one. Tron took... Actually, yeah, we shouldn't do spoilers on the status. That's true. So... The race tightened. The race tightened. The dashed adornic got a bit tight as we got pretty horny for Dornie there at the end of it.

But we moved up the road. We woke up early and gone on the road early to go up to Cruden Bay, which is just north of Aberdeen. About two and a half hours probably I think think it was from San Andrew somewhere around there. Had a very moody day, some moody skies a bit of rain. We were greeted there by less the general manager there is great. Gentle soul. Very gentle soul. And I love it. When you have a tea time there, they give you a little, I believe it's a nip of whiskey.

Whiskey with no e. We got e we got this cold for that one and We decided that on the first t. We're gonna for every birdie we made we were gonna do a toast You're gonna do toast for birdie, which I think is the most birdie we actually made it's right birdie's in today We're all on empty stomachs So I want to hear from you guys I got to play I was fortunate to get to play crew in bay a couple times last year And it really stuck out to me and it ranks very highly on my list of courses that played in Scotland But you guys first go around Crunbae. What were your initial reactions? Crunbae was the course I was actually most looking for to playing just based on the pictures. I had seen of it It stood out to me. All right. I guess my you know my preconception

The pictures were so stunning, I guess, is the word that I associate with Crunen Bay. The scale and the vastness and growing nature of the property, really. And the dunes, and it's almost set, I think DJ, you said this feels more like a corset in Ireland than it does in my school. Yeah, it's just like a moon scape at parts, you know, it's just it's it almost feels like the closest US comparison is you know It almost feels like stream song and in parts, you know You got kind of the wild like unpredictable dudes rather than everywhere else in in

Ever since gotten you get kind of like the long rolling Ever since Scotland you get kind of like the long rolling Do you know yeah, it just feels a little more organized or a little more subtle and and this is just it's kind of crazy It's dark and it's just yeah that green at 14 is just kind of it's like how is that? possible yeah I think we had used a comparison when we went out to band in earlier this year kind of of Pacific dunes Or at least I used it, kind of just being this like knockout stunner. And I think that's what Krumbe was to me.

Yeah. Just the views and the visuals and the sightlines, it's just, whoa, like, it almost overdoes the senses a little bit. Starting from about that third hole, three through nine is just an absolute tour de force. Like it is a crazy variety, great part, three's, drivable fours, some like a blind crazy part five, really long part four, the fifth hole up from the team from on top of the

dunes, and then the seventh hole you tee up with pretty much an iron, and then you go up through the dune, up a hill, to this little green that's tucked between two dunes, and then go seventh hole you tee up with pretty much an iron and then you go up through the dune up a hill to this little green that's tucked between two dunes and then go climb up to the top of the ninth tee which is the ninth tee was voted the best view in Scotland which is a like a three minute walk up to this box but you're rewarded with a view down to the 14th green which is the punch bowl green you get to see the 15th green which is the totally blind part three that the only time you get to see the greenth green, which is the totally blind part three, the only time you get to see the green, it's from the top of that. Crude and Bay is my jam, and we'll do kind of, I don't want to do too much of a ranking, but just below all course in Dornet, Crude and Bay sits right there for me.

Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, it was certainly hard. It's just the most stunning one that you've seen. It's hard to paint the picture, Verde. And not as good a word Smith as I need to be. And it's hard to match up a lot of the courses that we played. I think not even necessarily the architecture, but just the shot values or the strategy of playing.

The course takes the forefront. The visuals are kind of stay the same throughout because the land is so flat that You know, I think we all kind of set it at some point during the trip that you get you basically get kind of numb to The fact that you're playing all of this golf right next to the ocean and it's you basically can see the ocean every hole and Crew and Bay was the one that it just kept upping the aney throughout with the views. The views almost probably take away from what I thought were some really great golf holes. I'll be the dissenting voice here.

I didn't really care for Crude and Bay all that much. I thought the views were great, obviously. The way the burn snakes across the fairway and everything on 13, like there were some great features to it. And maybe part of it was I felt the conditioning was a little bit uneven, where it was in great shape, but I felt like the greens were just totally overwatered

to where you couldn't really, you know, you would run the ball up, but then it would just kind of stop there. And like there, the 15th hole is this kind of coffin, is that 14 or 15? 14th, the whole thing. 14th, like this coffin punch bowl thing, that's like one of the coolest holes

that we played on the entire trip, but it didn't play properly, because you couldn't, like you couldn't land it short, it would just stop and like you had to basically fly it all the way to where your intended target was. So I wanted to like Cruden Bay more than I did I think. Yeah, I like all that. I didn't think the architecture matched up with the piece of land.

Yeah, I certainly can understand that. I think when I think of golf courses and how I kind of rank them. I tend to favor courses that are more, that I would like to play every day, in which tend to be maybe easier walks, little smaller pieces of property. And I think Crun Bay is more of a course that I'd like to play once a quarter. It's almost like the really nice, expensive sports car

you keep in the garage and you might take it out on a nice weekend for a little drive. So I certainly understand where you're coming from. For me it's not the course I would want to play every day, but man it is, I'm very glad we got out there and it certainly didn't disappoint for playing at that one time. I think it's all, this is all keeping in perspective too. What I rather play Cruden Bay than just about any other course in the state of Florida, absolutely. It's all relative.

I think your comment is more related to the conditioning too. They had mentioned they had watered the greens especially for the competition that they have this coming week. The greens and run-up areas were playing softer. were related to the conditioning too. And they had mentioned they had watered the greens, especially for the competition that they have, this coming week and they had, the greens and run-up areas were playing softer. But I think it also, your commentary, it's fair, but it speaks to just how fortunate we were to get the conditions at so many other places.

And I felt like there were more weak holes out there than some of the other holes. That's some of the other courses as well. I think the finishing stretch was, left a lot to be desired. Like 17, 18, I don't know, you were to say probably the weakest, That's somebody other courses. I think the finishing stretch was left a lot to be desired like 17 18 I don't know Yeah, to say probably the weakest like the Viking burial ground or whatever was cool on 17 right?

You know, yeah, I don't know I guess I think I disagree. I definitely Yeah, yeah, I don't even claim that I'm right I might which my I hear which is saying that's that's cool Yeah, I don't know I think that gosh I think there were just like some really thrilling Shots in there start, you know, like you said starting with number three that downhill part four was Incredible. I mean like you this this bombs away Drive will like blind driveable part four basically

Megabind is raining ahead a bit of a confusing confusing polish here the bombs away, like blind, drivable par4 basically. Mega blind is Randy, and ahead of a confusing ball shoot. Who was who? Number four, the par3 was great. Number five, the long par4 was great. Six, the kid ended up hitting it out of the blind. Par5 burned there a little bit. I don't know, I just, and then you get those back-to-back par3s

on the backside that were crazy. Eight, the drivable part four, another drivable part four that was phenomenal. Nine down the hill. I drive four, you mean like 250 years. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. I don't, I typically, of the four of us probably have a harder time remembering a lot of the holes once we get done playing them. And I, gosh, I I mean I can sit here and rattle off all of them in Cruden Bay I just thought it was so fun usually the criticism of Cruden Bay comes at the number of blind shots and the extreme nature of the blind shots And they do a good job of kind of explaining it in the yardage book and when they talk then you know Talking to less and the starter and whatnot preparing you for it and understanding that when these court this course was built for it and understanding that when these court this course was built, it was not built with bulldozers and the use of the dunes was

kind of old Tom Morris and Tom Simpson were the designers of the course in that they were using that as their hazards and their architectural feature of it and that was common and courses built in this time period was that you had a lot of blind shots and you just see I love like I love that element of of it. I thought I was prepared based on everything that less said, everything that you had said that, I was going to dislike 15 and 16, and those were two of my favorite holes out there. But I guess my criticism would just be, it felt a little bit more, the course and the layout, not the club,

the course and the layout felt more impersonal. Like it wasn't as warm and fuzzy, it wasn't, it's just big. It's just a huge scale. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's just personal preference. And that's how, that was the point I was trying to make.

It's especially playing it the round after Ealy, which I think is on the other side of the spectrum, where it's kind of intimate and, yeah, it has some scale. I don't know. Gosh, I'm having a tough time putting this into words. But yeah, it has some scale. I don't know, gosh, I'm having a tough time putting this into words, but yeah, it's just big. I like things a little bit more intimate, I guess. I just think it's interesting you guys hated it.

That's interesting to me. Yeah, I would rank it in my probably bottom, the bottom half of the courses that we played. And probably the top 20 courses you've ever played ever played I would be thrilled if I could play Yeah, any and all criticisms have to be that through the lens of legitimately you have to inherently there has to be a bottom half of the courses that you played and it's I've fine

I definitely have no problem with that and I think it is totally a personal preference thing the first time I played some of these blind holes, I had trouble with them. And I still, the sixth hole bothers me a little bit. I just can't visually picture that one. But the 15th I've grown to actually love the blind part three around the dune is, it's nutty. It's absolutely nutty, but it's actually really cool.

So yeah, I'm in, I'll totally in on Cruden Bay. But I think the day really turned when we went from Cruden Bay up to Cullen, which was of course that. Shit the drive up to Cullen was fantastic. You got through BAMF, you got through kind of all these towns and is it more a... Murray is hardly local pronounce of it. It's spelled more like a more a eel. And yeah, you're kind of, you know, you're up on kind of this northern Firth there

and Fraser Burrows over there as well. And but yeah, the drive up was just like, all right, we're going to a little bit more remote or a Scotland here. And yeah. So we're trying as best as we can to kind of talk about the different classes of courses that we've played and, you know, are there any similarities?

There is nothing like Cullen that any of us I think have ever seen in our lives. And it's a 4,000 yard, par 63 golf course that legitimately it's old time Morris, correct? And it is like he, I don't know every single course he designed but I would say the boldest He's ever designed is like all right. Here's a big huge mungus rock Let's have you play over this for this part three in no like they're rock their rock features and formations Like these red rocks that look like they're like they wouldn't be out of place in Colorado. Yeah Arizona And it's the it's the shortest true links course in the world. Is it?

OK. So it's got all the characteristics of a true links. But again, you walk off and you don't think I just played a 4,000-yard course. Like I just hit how many three-hirens? No, it's a lot. I mean, it's a par of 63, but it's just because there's a lot of par threes.

All the holes are full length. There's like 232- 4-yard part three. Yeah, exactly. That was, I mean, that was like, that was a paradigm shifter for me. That was the course that I walked around with the biggest smile on my face. I mean, it was just, every shot was so incredibly fun.

And we put it with George, who's the kind of the GM, slash greenskeeper, slash just kind of local Two-time club champ. So had kind of a Like a Ben Crenshaw type of club championship run You know one one when he was younger and then kind of a fluker one later So George is from Colin originally. It's it's this old fishing town of about a thousand people Up on the coast and all the fishing is kind of consolidated into another port now. And there's an old railway that runs through and everything. And

they had badass aqueducts. Yeah, going through town. And so it's this sleepy old kind of resort town now. And so George lives down in Aberdeen and drives up three times a week and he's kind of the head. He's like the head of the Greens Committee. They maybe have 100, 150 members. And it's basically a labor of love for him. They have two guys to take out the golf course and he comes up and he's retired now. He's got two kids and basically goes out and mows the fairways and keeps this place running. And just his passion for the game,

I think he thought we were messing with him at first. Yeah, we kept saying how much we liked the golf holes. And he was like very skeptical. And like, oh, God, are these guys like, I just guys making fun of me. I was like, no, this is phenomenal. That was one of the more invigorated, that was possibly the most invigorating round

I've ever played. Yeah, I mean, it was just every shot, like you get, you play phenomenal. Yeah, that was one of the more invigorated, that was possibly the most invigorating round I've ever played. Yeah, I mean, it was just every shot, like you get, you play the first hole, which is kind of whatever, it's just, you know, the greens are kind of shitty. Well, I was just gonna say before you even start describing the holes, just get rid of every preconceived notion you have about a golf course about any following

any normal routing or about the length holes, the holes should be or holes should criss cross or anything like that. Imagine just a field full of teas and greens and a few hazards here and there, and just what you would imagine to be a really random route through all of these holes. That's like what this place is like. With gigantic rocks, and then like four holes up on this awesome cliff. The second hole goes up this sheer like clip face. There's like 130 yards.

Picture the most uphill shot you've ever had. You had a 15 foot tall flag like pin up there. It feels like you hit it onto the beach and you have to hit it back up onto the golf hole basically is like the second hole. So this is first of all. We played with abbreviated bags. We should probably mention that.

Yeah, we played six clubs. The mindset was, hey, let's grab six clubs. It's, you know, 4500 yards. Certainly no need to haul our whole background. So we're kind of going in with a casual kind of mindset. Yeah, and that club is harder than you think, too, which we learned. Yeah, I would say that this is the ultimate Spot that that bag tag Barry is gonna be skipping which is where the glaring Our glaring differences will show up the most I think this is if you're going to Scotland to just you know Check the boxes and just try to you know really Play the who's who of golf courses. You're probably gonna skip colon and that would be

play the who's who of golf courses you're probably going to skip Colin and that would be a gravity because it is first of all it's it's kind of right perfectly halfway between Crude and Bay and Royal Dornick basically is that right and there was a phenomenal looking hotel perched right up on the cliff that I would love to camp out for a while the dolphin in I believe I can't remember what it was called But it overlooks the golf course and overlooks the ocean But it is the Absolute perfect place to stop on your way between those two and it I mean I just don't know how you can have much more fun playing

It's just got it was so good the course is I George was saying that it gets maybe 10,000 rounds a year, which maybe a couple of thousand from visitors. It's really not a whole lot of people stop there. And it's the kind of course where there's not going to be, it's not going to exist in five or ten years unless they get a little bit more traction going through there. And I'm legit, man, if we can get people going through there and give them a little bit more resources, like if they touch that place up a little bit, it could be, and that's part of it.

It's charm is it's a little bit rough around the edges. But at the same time, if George had the resources to bring it up to a certain level on the greens and stuff, it could be. Yeah. And that's what providing some context, like it's not a ton of great nuance to the green contours or amazing bunkers to play around. It is just like legitimately some of the most screwy-ly fun golf shots. Like legit like we got up to the top and I asked George there's like a green that sits at this at this rock in this like little rock swell around these huge cliffs. I was like George is that I'll be

about to play over like rocks to get to that green he's like oh yeah that's like the signature and you hit this shot I mean it couldn't be more blind but you're playing over this I don't even know how to describe this rock to this this green you have no visual on it all and it's awesome it's so much fun yeah if you want to go and just hit wild- zany shots and you don't be able to say that you shot in the 60s and You know just have a really good time like you it's probably one of the best Half-dustin courses. Yeah, like you could go out there with you go out there and be like I almost want to do an NLU event out there and just go out there and and play 100 holes and everybody like the winner of each hole just makes up the next hole.

Yeah. Yeah. Ready, you had a goal of breaking 80, you succeeded. Rocked him, baby. Yeah. Big ego boost. I think Tron and DJ, I think the T-shot on the ninth, part three was like among your favorite shots on the whole trip.

Yeah, it was what was probably like a 220 yard Part three and you're playing kind of downhill straight back to the ocean Wind was coming off the ocean a bit and so the whole thing kind of banks Banks hard left to right and so trying to you know we're playing with our six clubs I forget you had like a hybrid. I think I had a three iron. And you just, you can't fly it there. So you're basically just saying, I'm gonna try to punch run a three iron up this bank and just kind of hope it runs out.

And both of them did. I mean, it's just, it's just so fun. So fun. And then we get into the club. So first of all, we did a composite course of all the courses. Like, overall of our favorite holes. You know, the first, our favorite first hole, our favorite second hole, that colon had two holes,

which is crazy. Yeah. But then we go into the clubhouse afterwards. It's a really cool clubhouse. It doesn't look like much on the outside and you get in there and it's, you know, all this old wood and Georgia's wife was in there. And we're asking her if she plays at all. Not really anymore. Turns

out she's won the club championship there's 17 times. Yeah, I think 18, not to shorter one. And including a run of 11 out of 12 years in 8 in a row, I believe. Yeah, just just ignorant stat. Mrs. Finley, I think broker run. It was tragically. Yeah. I think she was having a kid that year, though, right? That's right. They have a pool table right there when you walk in. There's just some locals hanging out, having a drink.

It's right on the beach. Like if there's one entity in golf that I want to support and get it to thrive, it would be Kohl and Golf Club. Yeah, it was phenomenal. I'm so pumped. That's already my favorite episode of the travel series. Yeah. It's going to be a really good one.

And again, I'm not sure we could have caught it under better conditions, just with the light and the weather and everything. But that was one, too, that even if you had 30-mile an hour wins, the course is so short that make it more fun. Yeah, you're not just getting beat up, it's so wide open that if we were playing Crun Bay or Cast Stewart or one of those on a day that people just get eviscerated by the wind and rain and stuff, that probably wouldn't be very fun. Playing Collin in horrible conditions probably

would only make it maybe not better, but it would still be a good time. And that's sunset. Oh, we. Oh, we. Oh, we. Oh, we. Oh, all right.

And then we hopped in the car. We put the top down in the convertible. And drove over to, was like 15 minute drive over to Anstruthr. Yeah. Oh, no. We forgot about Anstruthr. No, that was after Ealy. We went to Anstruther. Yeah, that's right. Yeah We had some Chippy. Yeah, it's been a wee chippy down there in Anstruther. Okay. Yeah My bad. That's great. Just the best fish and chips in the UK

According to them. It was phenomenal. Which was good. Certainly the best that we have. Oh, yeah, we drove to Elgin We're going to Elgin to and we said it this place St St. Michael's guest house which that was the night we went to the wild Indian restaurant. It was a spice tandoori. Yeah, which was in an old cathedral, like a giant cathedral and it was an Indian restaurant. And we asked him what it was prior and there really it was a nightclub. Originally, originally, originally it was a nightclub. I got originally I don't think it was a nightclub. I was like fishing for the story, like how'd you guys get this from the church? Like, what was that for?

Like, he's like, oh, I don't know, that was a nightclub before this. But yeah, basically driving west along the Firth of Murray, and we're driving, and we're driving past all these scotch distilleries, and you can see the mountains of the Highlands and the distance. And I mean, it's light till 11, 11, 30 at night too. passed all these scotch distilleries and you can see the mountains of the Highlands and the distance. I mean it's light till 11, 11, 30 at night too. So that was one of the more enjoyable drives that I've never had. Yeah we crashed there in Elgin and then we woke up next morning and

went out to Castle Stewart. So same Michael's guesthouse was thought was one by the way. We were only there for like six hours. Probably my biggest regret is not being able to stay for breakfast. Yeah we said to be on the road too early. Yeah. And then we went up to Castle Stewart, which is the only course designed in this century that we played on this trip. And it was a 2009, I believe, Gil Hans design. There.

Gil Hans did wing foot. He did wing foot. We're we're members. It is a four minute drive from the Inverness Airport. There are planes taking off the entire time. Actually, like a shuttle service, they'll shuttle you from that airport to the golf course. And it was a course that I think playing

so many old classic courses on this trip that it stands out and being very different from that and being a newer course. I think that you guys go into it at all with any preconceived notions or expectations that maybe you wouldn't like it. I wanted to hate the place. I wanted to go in and this place stinks it's a disgrace and I ended up in it. I'm not being one of my favorite courses the whole trip. What made it so great? I mean obviously first of all the land is just second to none I mean, first of all, the land is just second to none. I mean, some of the best land. And the way that Hans used it, and just such a light touch,

I think there was so much nuance, and so many subtle, little features that, especially around the greens, some of the mounting and the grass bonkers, and these little lips. And really, I mean, that, you know, the second hole, the third hole, and then the back nine was just, the back nine was probably one of the better nine holes stretches we played on the entire trip. So, but yeah, I mean, that place was, you know, and it didn't hurt that played with eight

clubs and... Yeah, we kept the half bag, kept it going after the invigorating round at Colin, which wound up in, I think, probably my I think probably my best round that I played, I think, was with that first round of the half bag at Castle Stewart. I just got, I feel like I'm sounding like a bit of a broken record here, but I mean, I just loved it. It is so good. I think I've been reading from the book of Gill for a short while.

DJ Slot-A-Wall. DJ Slot-A-Wall. But gosh, like, look, try to argue with any of that stuff out there. Like you said, the light touch is what sticks out to me. I mean, the whole thing is just, it's so subtle, but you can, it's so subtle, but if you look deeper at what he's doing, it's so good. There's so much, it's so playable. It's so subtle, but if you look deeper at what he's doing, it's just, it's so good. There's so much, it's so playable. It's so playable for sure.

It's just almost kind of, not that it tricks you into feeling like it's harder than it is, but kind of, if that makes sense. It's welcoming. The greens are receptive, welcoming, not that they're not firm, but that you can use some slopes to get to them and they're big complexes. So Mark Parsonin is the developer of Castle Stewart, as well, was the developer of Kingsborne. So Kyle Phillips did Kingsborne,

so I think in 2002 was a roaring success. So Parsonin saw this land. I don't know the true sequence there, but engaged hands to design this course. And they have a formula, and it works. Like it is a golf course that is a great blend of kind of more American style and is kind of designed for an American tourist

to go play there as well as traditional Scottish layout and links play how the ground plays. And you know, the third hole that drive before is just it's a world-class hole. It's so cool is how it sits back there against the Firth and the fourth you turn is how it sits back there against the, against the Firth and the Firth. You turn around and hit right back at Castle Stewart,

which is of course named after. And it's just a modern marvel, I think it's fair to say. And I enjoyed it even more this time around than I did the first. And I think that it's, it holds up really well in comparison to Kings Barnes. And I'd love to see Kings Barnes in these conditions. But to me, walking off that one, I was like,

okay, I think I may put Castle Stewart ahead of Kings Barnes in five. A lot of it, especially like 10 and 11, when you make the turn, you play that, you know, that really cool part four against the water, and then the short three, the short three, you know, right along the water too. I think a lot of that reminded me,

and people get triggered when this course comes up for whatever reason, but a lot of that reminded me of people get triggered when this course comes up for whatever reason But a lot of that reminded me of like whistling straights I thought but it just not as manufactured and obviously a little more natural feeling than that But again, it was like Cruden I thought Cruden Bay and Castle Stewart were probably the most similar For me, you know, go back to your your question from the beginning of the the first podcast I just every shot out there was phenomenal I think that that was the one, you know bag-tank berries your question for the beginning of the first podcast. I just every shot out there was phenomenal. I think that that was the one, you know,

bag-tank berries definitely playing Castle Stewart and for definitely should. For good reasons. So yeah, I think it's probably pricier. It's, you know, it's more, it's higher on that end of the spectrum. It's a little bit more of a luxury kind of feel, certainly coming after Colin as well.

But I mean, if you're looking to go over and the money, it's worth it. Yeah, right. luxury kind of feel, certainly coming after Colin as well. But I mean, if you're looking to go over, no less than the money, it's worth it. Yeah, like it didn't feel snooty or anything like that. It felt like you were, I mean, it felt like being at a place like Band-in. Yeah, no. And they do have, it is a price or place.

I think it's around 190 pounds a play, but they have a 36-hole deal. Basically, your second round is something like 60 or 70 pounds. So for two rounds, you get around 260 pounds of our member right, which is a, which is I think a very fair deal considering the piece of land and all that. And the par-fives were among the best we played. I think it, yeah, that being the modern course, it definitely had the best par-fives of any course we played. And again, we talk about mixing variety into planning out an itinerary and variety in

some of the true oldest courses in the world and also the new ones. Like there's a reason why these new ones are successful, why they keep building them. There's going to be, we're going to talk a little bit about that. There's going to be a new one built up near Dornock here as well soon. And there's a reason they keep building them because these guys keep knocking out of the park. And again, I was concerned going into it as to what you guys might think of it and what

I would think of it the second to go around and I enjoyed it even more again. The short for is worth the same. That third, the 14th hole there is. There are in 14. One of my favorite golf holes, honestly. It is like a- 16. Should be it.

I'm not an architecture expert, but like that is like a perfect example, like a centerline bunker, it's a short hole and if you want to go right to that bunker, there's more space but you are going to be protected by mounds that guard the flag, whereas if you play to the tighter part of the left side of the fairway you'll have the angle into the green. If you go along with the wedge, it's like the steepest slope behind that green and it's a place you're going to make bogies from. It is just some so many great little elements like that, and a hole that looks, may look to the eye like a very simple hole, but there's just layer upon layers to it.

The views are crazy. Oh, god. You see, inverness in the background and the the Cassech Bridge and the highlands on the other side of the bridge, it's really cool. That course got me extra amped up to see Pyners number four. Yeah, also. After going around there and the early stages and kind of seeing. It's weird how the land sort of felt similar. I mean, it couldn't be more, more different landscapes, but the movement on the

land felt, felt pretty similar and just, I don't know, it was really good. I'm ready. Randy, what'd you think of Castle Stewart? Yeah, it was good. I, I, I think I was probably the one I was least looking forward to for a lot of same reason. It's drawn, but it, it's just really nice. I mean, tremendous shot value. I think you definitely, like you guys said, you definitely know it's a new course, right?

Like you're not trying to trick you. Yeah, yeah. At no time you think it like goes an old links course. No, it's a new course, But yeah, exceedingly fair, very playable. I think like you said that that fourth hole kind of going hidden back to Castle Stewart through like a narrow corridor was one of my favorite views on the trip. You play your ass off. What about it? Yeah, it didn't hurt. I think I went out in 47. I was, God, I was so tired. Found something and shot 36 coming in even par.

And with a juteumble, he should have been like a 34. I missed a couple of like three foot buds. Couple of ladies put a club swipes coming in. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, certainly that doesn't hurt my impression, but I've never played Whistling straight, but I think I Like that can like it just feels like that type of plate like it feels like you're almost on like Michigan And I think you're you're in that you know the whatever the cove is there that that it sits on you know

So you're not getting like the rolling ocean waves like you get in a lot of the other courses. It's just very, and granted there was not much wind when we played it, but it just, it feels very still and kind of serene. It's just, the clubhouse was cool too. Clubhouse was awesome. Just like, three food. Yeah. Just looked like it.

A lot of, that's the cool thing and you kind of mentioned is that, you know, a lot of these, I had not been to Kings Branch, but, so I don't know how it kind of handles that. But a lot of these newer courses, you can either go one of two ways, you can either try to make it kind of ultra modern and ultra, you know, kind of, you make it feel like it's new or you can try to manufacture it into making it feel like it's much older than it is and try to trick people, and I don't think it does either It kind of knows it's place and it doesn't try to do too much and I just I think that's really cool Moving on we went down the road about 20 minutes or so back to Nairn Nairn golf club there

Which is a little bit east of of Castle Stewart there in the east of Nverness back to more of the traditional club old old golf course I think 1887 or so, is the what's on our pin flag here. And a course that I got I got this for to play last year and was had a great experience out there and was more blown away by the archive room afterwards, which we'll get to. But we're big again back to that class of course, a very flat course that sits by the sea side and is again very different than a lot of the other courses that we play I don't know what the best comparison is to Naren, but what was your guys take away from our afternoon at Naren?

It's This is a weird one for me Walking off the course I felt like it's it's obviously a great course. It's just, it's exactly what a Link's test should be. I think the bunkering and the strategy is subtly among the most interesting. I don't think I hit the ball well enough to really get that full experience. Like, I can think I want to, oh, I want to do this, but it's like, yeah. The execution's probably going to be something else entirely. It's the course though, since I've been back where it's like, it's just keeps growing

on me. I think it's right there with Ealy and North Barric and like if I could play a course every day, it'd be Nair and North Barric and Ealy, one of those three. Just a very straightforward, links golf experience. And that's what I think walking off of it, I almost felt like it was a little too straightforward. You know, I just, I, I, we, it hurts a lot of really, really, really good stuff going in and I was kind of, not disappointed, that, that stuff, I'm not the right word, but just, it doesn't wow. Yeah, it was, it felt a little underwhelming walking off.

Yeah. But then, like you're saying, Randy, I mean, I think, like I've kind of thought about that one more and more and more and more as since we've been home than a lot of the others. And it's, I'm kind of like, how, man, you know, that hole was really cool and that was, I'd like to play that again. I'd like to, like, and so I could for sure see it in that, that everyday course category. And I've, yeah, it's weird how much I've liked it a lot more since I've left than when I find it. And let alone the clubhouse, which I think we'll get to here in just a couple seconds.

I mean, that, for the clubhouse and the vibe alone I mean it's it's kind of worth being your everyday course Thought it was really scoreable. I mean I didn't play all that well, but I thought as a As far as the other layouts that we played I thought it was the course you could probably go the lowest on Yeah, I think it was just all in front of you. Yeah, it was just very. Yeah, it was very clear what this bunker and yeah, which I think coming off of you know, Crude and Bane, Castle Stewart and and Colin and you know all these places where we had all these blind shots and we had all this different stuff. You know, that is probably what made it feel a little underwhelming. Whereas if it was the first course we played, I'd probably want to say, oh, wow, that's Link's golf. I'm in. This was what a delight.

Right. I think that probably my own fault. Biggest takeaway for me was how rumpled and just bumpy the fairways were in a good way. I mean, there was so much natural little variations in them that to the point where it was so dry, but you could see where the water collected at the bottom of each of these little, these sprinkler heads. It was really cool.

Probably the coolest halfway house I've ever seen. Which was closed, I couldn't believe it. It was, what was about, it was like the maybe six PM on a Friday, what are we, I think? Yeah, yeah. So I, that was the one place I wanted to have a pint. Yeah, it was a pint. It's a barn with kind of like the grass roof.

Yeah, it was just, I got that roof on one. Really, really cool. Yeah. There were a couple holes that weren't, you know, they were probably my least favorite of the trip. Same for me. Yeah, Sally, talk about your round a little bit. We didn't get into a lot of like, you know, blow by blow, what we shot, but I would say it's kind of

worth getting into. Sally's round a little bit here. Well, I had gotten hot and I was, I had a five foot birdie putt on the eleth hole to go to five under par, and I flipped it. And got to the 13th tee, still sitting at four under par. I eagled the 15th hole, and I shot two over par, total for the day. See? It was the worst collapse that I've ever had. I made three doubles coming in,

I hit Bogie the other two holes. And I don't, it was a great to go. Oh, I'm terrified to go. Well, absolutely terrified. But I love Nairn in that what you mentioned about the bunkering. There's so many bunkers out there that it's like, God, that is the exact place I would love to bail out. And the way they structure the fairway bunkers, it's like, all right, all right, you gotta, if you wanna get past these two bunkers, all right, you're gonna need more club to do that. So that puts three one in play,

and that's gonna bring in this long left bunker if you pull one, but if you go down the right side of that, then you're gonna be safe, but that's also the worst angle at the hole. And like that fifth hole there is a little dog leg to the left, and it's got a bunker that protects the left side of it and the closer you play to that bunker the much better angle you have into that green.

It is just like a master class and just execute the shot. Just hit the shot, pick the right club and execute the shot that you need and it might be five iron off a tee. I think I hit three iron on the par five on the front because I didn't want to try to hit a Driver into that shape of a fairway because it runs out into the long rough and it just is the most it was a exhilarating shot by shot golf course to me to To position yourself and to avoid the traps and you can score if you do that And I think that's what makes it really fun

I don't think it's the most challenging, but like if you don't execute shots out there It will reject you and it's it Half the day I dominated it, and the other half it kicked my ass. And that's... You can see why it'd be such a good club course in that regard, because if you have a plus one going up against a 15, you can handicap it really well so that those two can have a really fun match against each other. There's not a lot of shots at the 15 just doesn't have a prayer of hitting or whatever you know. It's yeah the more I think about it the more I get it.

I tripled one. It's like I don't think I hit a bad shot. There's like a blackout triple. What just happened? Like I guess that's a one for a seven. It was one of the few courses where we didn't like they didn't have a like a hole location Sheat and it was one course where there was so much deception and so much You know like beat so much messing with your depth perception that you had to like I had no idea what my artis were Indy a lot of those. I thought the book otherwise.

Had we had a pen sheet in addition to the course book? That was one of the better yardage books. Yeah, it was a fantastic yardage book. But yeah, probably the course I'd most, maybe one or two, ranked one or two as far as the course I'd most want to be a member at. Because the hang afterwards was crazy. Out of this world.

We had such good, I mean, we played just four of us. We didn't necessarily have hosts, but the Sean Burgess assistant pro there in Sharpie, they're gonna be heavily featured here in our video and they showed us around the archive. Shout out Finley too. Finley as well, yeah, he's a really good, talented young player there.

Scott goat in training, I think. Yeah. Got to hang it, of course, in the archive room. We're not gonna, I broke it down the podcast last year. We have a bunch of video from it. It's just they, they preserve the history of that club amazingly well. And it is one of the coolest hangs. And I said it last year, my goal in some ways to record a podcast from that room.

I think we kind of missed the opportunity because that was a really good one. But we didn't want to lug podcast equipment over there. But that is kind of the club. And I think Bacon, Bacon, I talked about joining there, and I think they said he just did just join. And we had set our boy Wyatt up to go play over there, and he, the day ended with him joining and becoming an overseas member at Nairn

because he fell in love with that place so much. So it is kind of the place it is weird, like hard to describe. Like the golf course itself does not blow you away, but there's something about the five of that place that Does stick with you like Randy and DJ what you guys are saying is the more you thought about the more you really enjoyed that day I kind of walked off a little bit on underwhelmed by the course and the more I thought about it the more It's one of the few courses like I really I want to I want another crack out because I like I want to go out there and play Around when I'm fresh and go out and see what kind of score I can shoot.

Yeah, at this point of the trip, we are starting to get wound down a little bit. Old Tom, but with James Brade, heavily influenced as well. Yeah, I thought the float, like starting on 14, the downhill part three, that really messed with your mind, DJ. I thought there were some really underrated holes there down the stretch. I thought 14 are some really underrated holes there down the stretch. I thought 14 was excellent. 15, a little short for. And then 16, the road hole, I thought was really good with the burn there and the bumpering

kind of 75, 80 yards short, or I guess a little closer to the green. But really made you think about that approach shot and what you wanted to do. Yeah, gosh, I keep talking about it and thinking about it, it just keeps getting better for me. Aaron Fox, I'll say it. I'm in on there in big time. All right, wrapping up that day, we then drove up about an hour to Dornick. We stayed at the Royal Golf Hotel there in Dornak, which couldn't be closer to the first tee. I think also couldn't be better.

Could be better. It was the best place. I think it's my favorite hotel I've ever stayed in. It was ever, anyway. We checked in, and I think we checked in like 11.30 at night, and coming off like an hour drive, you know, played 36 holes, tired, but like, gosh, how good does a beer sound right now? An assillatiate check and like, hey, how is the bar closed?

How later are they serving over there? She's like, yeah, you know, they just kind of serve until the last person isn't standing anymore. So we went over there, the kind of the night shift guy happily served us four beers and you know like no sense of like you're putting me out by you know making me stay later anything. It was just we were able to go have a proper pint. It's like okay this is gonna be nice. Be here wise. We talk about tenants with a lime cordial. Shout Simon. Yeah, Simon hold it North Barrett turned you guys on to the tenants with the lime cordial Yeah, the fancy boy tenant

So a lot of cordial is like a squad like a plant line. Yeah, it's like a carbonated lime soda That you just add to the beardic just kind of cut a little bit of the Taste and just makes it super refreshing in the summer, but it, tenets was the go-to, but it also played well in carling. Sure. So the hotel itself, I mean, it's really, really nice, but nothing like over the top about it. It's got still that same kind of Scottish quaintness

to it and it's- Best bathrooms. Yeah, feels more like a house than it does like a hotel still and beautiful little breakfast. And the best service was the best dinner slash, like I think they called it the conservatory. That room I could I could spend my remaining days in that room just like living in there. That is the place to stay. I think in Dornick we would all agree.

Woke up and made the drive up about 20, 25 minutes to Brawra which which is, you know, it's cool to kind of talk to those guys up there and hear from them that they are having a great summer that they've getting a lot of visitors up there. It's kind of past the point of being the hidden gym, I think, too, and a lot of people know about it. And I don't think it's getting overrun. It's definitely not to the North Barric status yet. I wouldn't say.

But it's about, I mean, aside from, you know, the courses that are, you know, the North Coast 500, which is it's going to be a whole different topic that we cover. It's usually about as far North as most people go to play golf. It's far North as I've been to play. So I know there's other courses north of there, but it kind of feels a bit like the edge of the earth up there. And it's just a wild, wild golf course where sheep and cattle roam free and there's wool in the fairways and The tradition is on the 18th hole you two your ball up on wool by the 18th hole, which we definitely invented that tradition Yeah, you mean we invented it Well the greens are all protected by

Little electric fences. Well, there was some debate on whether they were actually electric fences until you guys We didn't think so at first But there there's definitely a chart It's like it's like it and shocked yeah It's a lot. It's not like it and shock is getting shot another James break course Go 6200 yards But played a lot longer. Yeah, they were the best screens I thought we played on the target. We got luck.

They were the fastest, truest greens we played. We got luck. It was Club Championship week. I think the post was just pristine. Based on what... Which I think the Club Championship went out in a two ball, like the group ahead of us. Yeah, it makes it, if they quickly left us behind.

Based on everything, Sally had said, and just everything I'd read about it, I was just thinking, all right, this place is going to be raw and rugged and like kind of unkept and I was blown away at how kind of how well maintained it was and yeah. I was definitely thinking it would be scruffy. Yeah, I think it's up there for my top, you know, like it was a wild ass piece of land, but it was actually a really easy walk. Yeah. Which, that's like the best of both worlds. Yeah, I don't know if I was just tired. I thought it was kind of a hard walk, especially coming in.

Yeah, yeah. They've stepped their game up when it comes to conditioning. That course was in much better shape this go-around than it was last year. I mean, obviously much more brown and kind of the ideal way they want to play it. The greens were infinitely better than I remember it from a year ago. But yeah, it's a really, I just have trouble on that course with my sight lines off the tee. It's a little bit unnatural with sight lines off the tee. There's not distinctive. Well, they had a great, that would, this goes for every course that you're going to play over there spend, you know, $5 and buy a yardage book for all of these places

because they had these great, well they had these great, yeah, we'll get there in a minute. They had these great photos in there with kind of like here's your sight line because otherwise without that I would have been completely not those pro there did it himself. Yeah, he was phenomenal too. Yeah, I think from everything I heard in red

and whatever had kind of this reputation of almost, I kind of worried it was gonna be almost like gimmicky with like oh, you know This is the place with the sheep and it was there was absolutely no gimmick about it It was just a fantastic off course. It's a big boy golf movement in the fairways and like just the the Mounding everything was the best I've ever seen in my entire life. Yeah. It's comparable. It reminded me a lot of macrohanish too. Like it, I thought macrohanish was better conditioned last year when, then, Brawara when I played it, but this, the conditioning matched up a lot with what I experienced at macrohanish. And it's, it's so much fun.

It really is. I was a little disappointed there was no plaque on the 14th hole to commemorate history, alleged history. A alleged history. The mega, seeing how blind that part four is, and now hearing about your hole in one of the parts four. There's nothing to be proud of. Look, it's disgusting.

You know, no, I don't know. And then the fact, so we get up to the hole, and then Sally hits five iron. I hit three iron off of it. Complete disgrace. Well, there were other factors in play. We tried to let a couple groups go through, and then Sally hits five iron off of it. I hit three iron off of it. Complete disgrace. Well, there were other factors in play. We tried to let a couple of groups go through,

thinking that we'd let this one group go through and then we could throw the drone up. We were going to hold it by up. Turns out it was all stacked up with two balls, so we ended up waiting there for quite a while. Things started moving very quickly. After that, we tried to shoot Hornor way back in, and it was into the way.

And there was a group up on the green. There was no reason to try to blast paper. So three takeaways for me, the 18th hole, probably the worst 18th hole we've played. It's not great. Which did an impossible part three. Yeah, it was that wind. Straight up hill.

And then, but shout out to Malcolm, the merch in that shop, you wouldn't think it'd be great. Like that was, I was really disappointed in the merch some of the other shops, but this one, you wouldn't think that this course, that far north that doesn't do as many rounds would have, like, I was looking for a good vest and they had choices galore.

Yeah, they have many vesting options. Yeah, yeah, fully vested. Shout out to the listeners as well. I think it was, I think a pretty rewarding for us to hear from Malcolm there that you know they always asked the visitors how do you hear about us what not and then he said that number of people that had mentioned that they had heard about the course through our podcast was. That was a really kind of gratifying feeling for us. So appreciate everyone kind of same same old stock in a cruden Bay and then the get the our hosted Crale actually called soli out for for his he was like yeah I quite enjoyed your review but I didn't I didn't I didn't quite like your conclusion that it was it was the course that you would you would most skip on your on your

next trip you got to put him you got a rank of in some kind of order. I went back and read it, I stand by it. And yeah, I just said like if it's not a must play course, I think that's a fair conclusion to reach. But yeah, it's weird to see that people are actually reading the stuff and they're listening. So, but no, it's, it brought, obviously, a little to special place in my heart. And it was really cool to get back there and see it and see

how much the, honestly, it felt like a different place in the year before. How much, how great a condition it was in and how busy it was out there too. I mean, I felt it felt like we were the only ones out there when we played a year ago and definitely felt different this time around. So wrapping up, final round going back into town in a Dornuck. We had a 4-10 PM tea time on Saturday afternoon and had a I think it's pretty safe to call it just overall a spiritual experience I mean I the spirituality was helped largely in part by the artichoke I thought the book of

yardage is that fair to say it's it's the craziest yardage book I think I've come across and I mean that like I was kind of out at first, and now I'm like way in on it. Well why don't you tell us about it. So here's just a quick sampling. Like on the, the sixth, which hole is it? No, that's not a good one. The seventh hole called peer, which it says like approach.

And so I like, I thought every hole was called approach But I realized it's just the page showing the approach shot that took me a little while to figure out But they have these little write-ups and about each hole and so this is the write-up for the seventh At Royal Dornick says a wide and straight fairway greets you yet this hole is stroke index two Sometimes it's when life appears straightforward that we find ourselves surprised by troubles. Who is it you turn to at such times? Now turn around and look behind you.

Be stunned by the view. It's just like these little, you know, existential kind of whole previews, but really like, they ask you some pretty big questions about life. And it's like, yeah, man, like, who cares about yardage? Like I need to be thinking about like, what makes me happy in life? I just was completely in on the whole vibe of the Royal Dornick yardage book, book of yardage. You know what makes me happy in life?

Royal Dornick. Yeah, it is. I said this when we were playing, I think it's about as close to a perfect golf course as you can get. I think Old Course has a special kind of, in its own, a class of its own of being just this incredible, unique experience and fantastic,

but just in the class below it, I think I put Royal Dornick in a class well above any of the other courses that we played on the trip. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think it was, you guys said this kind of about our, I guess, I think Zach said this one when we were in Australia, that, you know, Blair, Zach Blair, thank you.

All of the, all of the courses in Australia kind of, they all did something really good like Kingston Heath had great routing, and so it had great bunkers, and Bob at Royal Melbourne was the course that kind of all, you know, where all the parts met, and it just did all of those things. Exceptionally well.

I think that was the Scottish version of this. Everything that we saw had great aspects to it, and we've mentioned a lot of them, but Royal Dornick just did literally everything, probably better than anyone else. I mean, it was just God who was so impeccably good. I don't know what you would improve. So our friend Wes, hardened, Dr. Wes.

Worldwide Wes. Greenville, the kind of the Godfather, along with GH of Wolfhammer. He is the club champion at Royal Dornick this year. He holds the club championship on both sides of the Atlantic. It's a rare double. He said before the round, he said, hey, if you guys can hit the green on all four of the par three, that's pretty remarkable. And actually Randy had it going. The pressure just got to. Yeah. I hit the first two and then I had a bit of a catastrophe.

We will get to that. Yeah, there's video of that. But the course itself, I think we got kind of a variety of different conditions throughout the day or throughout the afternoon to where, you know, at the end, we had probably 25, 30-month-hour wins straight into us at the end, but where we had sunshine. Like, we had wind at the beginning, we had sunshine in the middle. A little bit of rain. A little bit of rain, and it was great. Like, it was

everything that, you know, you kind of expect when you play Scottish golf. But, just the variety of holes out there, and there was was it was probably the most complete golf course ever played even above Roll Melbourne West conditioning to like that that turf hitting off that turf I think was maybe the best I remember Feeling wise compressing a ball off any kind of turf And it is a lot of right to left holes which kind of what fits my eye? I enjoy that but I think that's probably like the actual only criticism I can have of the golf course. Doesn't have a long par three. It does not have a long par three. Number two certainly could.

Yeah, that's the way it is doing. Yeah. Yeah. And they're actually they're they're renovated. They're they're blowing up the seventh hole. They they're moving the green They pick they laser the green and pick them and moving it closer to the cliff edge and designing a whole new seventh hole that is going to sit perched up above this awesome stretch of holes that sits by the seaside, which is redesigning the eighth hole, which is this crazy hole where you hit off from a top shelf and hit down into this other fairway. It's going to make foot driver back and play on that hole. So the renovations do it actually look amazing. And we got a chance to peek at those.

But man, that golf course just in some way speaks to me. And I think just wrapping up the trip that way, coming home, there's no one else on that course. There was absolutely, we didn't see anybody else playing for the last five or six holes. And there's bagpipes playing in the distance. And our match was coming down to the final few holes and it was just, that was like one of the legitimately,

I'd say at minimum, top five golf experiences that I've had was coming down the stretch of that golf course. It's, yeah, it's so cheesy, but it's like the intersection of mind, body, and like this spiritual, the book of your artich, feeling. Yeah, with the bag like this spiritual book of yardage feeling. Yeah, with the bagpipes and kind of having the course ourselves and the weather, you know, going back to our, like that's that's what I felt at Ealy and again a little bit at Dornick, but it's just those experiences

which I'm glad we finished there. Yeah, because I don't think playing another course after that one. I don't think playing another course after that one, I don't think anything would have measured up. No. There was a guy on Twitter who said, you know, he was kind of dogging it. And I was like, dude, like that's like the worst, the worst take you could possibly have.

Like the course is nearly faultless. It really is, honestly. Luckily, it is life. You kind of nuked him. I did nuked him. I did nuked him. I think he was just asking for some more information. It was like a skip bailiff. I'm gonna hit him with it.

No, I think he said what, curious what you liked about it so much. He was like really courteous. He just terminated with extreme prejudice. We need to make it. Come at the time. I had or something. Come at the trauma, you best not miss.

It was a irresponsible take. So at the tron. You best not miss. It was a irresponsible take. So yeah, that was it for me. I was fine being done with playing golf after that. It was about as intense and enjoyable of an eight day stretch as you could possibly have. We got so much footage to comb through. It was from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. Working, if you can call this work, working every single day,

but that is the most I've ever enjoyed Scotland from a condition standpoint, from a company standpoint. It was fun to do last year, but it wasn't the same without having the crew there. So that was, man, that was it. I mean, I'm kind of good just detaching from golf here for a little bit. What did the book of Yardich have to say about 18th?

The home pole. Yeah, thank you for bringing that to my attention. Allow me for a reading from the book of yardage. So as you prepare to tee off, think of the number of people in the last 400 years who have stood where you are. Regardless of your round, be grateful for the energy to play and for the company and the scenery. Take a deep breath, swing slow and true and give thanks for the exercise to play, for the company and the scenery. Take a deep breath, swing slow and true and give thanks for the exercise of body, mind and spirit. It's like, guys, that's it.

That's it. It's secret to life. You guys can knock it, but I'm gonna go ahead and knock the book of Yardage. It didn't have a hole on a Yardage. Well, and I think that's the point is like, dude, let go of that stuff, man. The yardage is a construct. You need more spirit, more spiritual.

Trust your eyes. Yeah. All right. You want to lead us through, dude? Yeah, I've got a couple categories that I think we should knock out just for, for, you know, closure purposes. Let's start with favorite hole. We played 12 rounds. What's the favorite hole? Jeez. And it's ridiculous. All of these are ridiculous.

It's an impossible question. Yeah. I didn't want to say it. I think Tron and I may say the same one. 17th-year-old course, it is the bat. It really is the best. It's the most interesting. There's so many elements to it.

And it's the most memorable hole. It's my favorite hole. Randy? My favorite was number 13 at Ealy. It's kind of a part four out to you're along the ocean, the ocean on your left. You're playing out to this huge cliff. The green kind of sits at the base of it. The green's a little redanny where you can kind of throw it to the right and it'll catch a bank and kind of funnel down to the whole I just thought The shot value of the approach I loved but then the scenery on top of that was it was my favorite. It was my favorite I would say probably I'll go ahead track. Okay, I think, 17 was one of my favorites, 10 through 13 and Ely, but since you've

already taken 17, I'll say six at Dornock. Yeah, that part three is just so cool. Like if you miss the green by a hair to the right, you're rolling like 35 yards down a hill that you're basically dead down there. And it's got a sweet kicker of a bank up to the left. It's actually not that hard of a hole. We had, terrifyingly, we had four net birdies, three birdies in a three for two for Randy

on the hole. That was a little disconcerning teach. I'm thinking about a hole that if you had to just sit and play it all day, what would you get the least board of or you had had the most whatever the most different options to play it and? I would say 13 at North Barrack is probably my pretty much my favorite hole in all of golf I would say I mean just you got the wall running in front of the green and you can take off as much as you want on the approach shot It depends where the pin is it's a different. I mean the whole thing is just it's so good. You're a barrack barrack first kind of guy Oh huge barrack first guy. Yeah, I would keep trying to hit shots

I think if I was playing there all day that you could where you get to a point where you could try to put it through the gaps in the wall Or something I think I think there's just like I don't know how you can have more fun than then playing that whole and plus It breaks every rule. Yeah of golf, which is fun. I think All right, least favorite hole. There's one be a popular one, but I'm gonna say the second hole with Cullen. That's a disgrace. That is scummy. You say that. It is, it is far. You can just sit here and say that. That's great. For players of our skill level, it's no issue, but it is like, for players of our skill level, it's no issue, but it is like, can you read people through what it is?

It's 112 yards straight up a mount up probably like 40 feet. Like imagine, yeah, let me actually looking up at like, oh, easy for it. Yeah, I've never seen a more uphill hole. I think if you're like a 20 handicap, you just flat out can't hit that shot. I think I think it laid it into the hill. And that's part of the reason why George's wife and one of the club champions should come in the shot.

She's like one of the distance. Yeah. That's, I mean, the whole course is, like I, we were talking about earlier, just the scruest, most fun. So it works in the context of that golf course. And it breaks all kinds of rules. And it follows no, no really method in any way.

So in that context it works, but if we're looking at a whole by whole basis, that's the whole, it's like that, that whole is absurd. That whole is absolutely absurd. The one that frustrated me the most was the fifth at Crude & Bay, the blind, that's the sixth, the par five, the par five. Oh, I'm sorry. They look similar in the yard, the whole distance, the par five. Oh, I'm sorry. They look similar in the yard, the whole yard. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the six hole with the blind approach into this par five.

It's just like so hard to get far enough and up this dune to see where you're supposed to be. Like, it was just hard. Typical millennial take right there. It's just too hard. Yeah. But I think in the running for me was the 18th of Rora. And I think the seventh at Royal Dornak

is it's a good hole probably, but it just kind of sticks out from the rest of it. Yeah, it's kind of whatever. Yeah, you're casting a bit of a wide net there. I think number two at Royal Dornick is not by any stretch, like the worst hole that we played. But I could see that being the one where I just wanted to quit the most.

It's probably the hardest hole that we played. I think if you, and I was the only one that really missed in a bad spot, I think. But you could be ping-ponging there for quite a while Yeah, I was gonna say same 18 at 18 at brawren Tom Watson calls this the hardest hardest shot in golf is the second shot Yeah, yeah, exactly boy made a comfy three there very sweet you got off to a great start there three three Yeah, and then

I was the other one I was gonna say I thought 18 at crude. Yeah, that then what was the other one I was gonna say? I thought 18 it could. Yeah, that's a weak hole. I don't disagree there. There was an uphill hole at Nairn. The 13th. 13th hole kind of stung. It's just out of place. Yeah, that one. All right, what was the underdog course of the trip for you? I mean true underdog for sure, Colin. Yeah. Yeah. I would say Colin too.

I thought you'd say Ealy for sure. Well, biggest, like biggest surprise. Is it really an underdog? I mean, yeah. Well, I was surprised you liked it as much as you did. I mean, I liked it too, but that was like world changing for you guys. That's the course that is the most different

from my first experience there to my second one. So in that regard, it would probably be the biggest surprise there would be Ealy, definitely. What was yours? I was also Ealy, and I mean, Colin was such a surprise because I knew nothing about it other than it was. I thought it was going to be... I thought it was just going to be a kind of a joke, easy, short course, but it was not the case really at all. I show it over a part of there, it's not easy even remotely. What is the course you'd wanna play every day?

Give me a chance. Ealy. I'm gonna say the old course. Yeah? Just because it's so, yeah, I mean, you could just, you could play it every day and it's like a puzzle. It's, I mean, I don't think it's like from a,

I guess from a comfort level and like it's, it's not a great club to play. So that's, that's kind of the one. It's the course that would be most different day to day. Yeah. With the most different ways to play and you would probably never stop learning. But like, I think Dornick, just because you could, some of those greens are so big and so, you know, so sloped and like there's probably 20 to 25 different whole locations on some of those greens to where you could you could play the course for three weeks straight and have a different wind and different and different whole locations and feel like

you're playing a brand new course every day. So for me, I think Dornex probably, like it's the course I had the least ability to place. Like I just didn't I didn't know a whole whole lot about it before we went and I didn't know what the defining character is. Six really were other than there was just a really good course. So I think for me, probably the underdog course is... The underdog course and the course I most want to play every day would probably be Dornick. I think it's North Barrick for me.

I think it's the biggest intersection of club you know, club and fun and challenge and interest and everything. I mean, I think it's just I could play there every day, never get bored. From a golf course standpoint, I'm with Tron on Dornick, I think. I mean, if you could play the old course every day where, and it wasn't just to mayhem every single day, I'll put it in. But it would be. But it would be. But it would be.

It's not, yeah. But yeah, Dornick does get a lot of traffic up there. There's a lot of golf van buses that unload there and whatnot. But that's the golf course I think I would enjoy playing the most day to day. I think that kind of leads in to the next question. The best course. I mean, and there's a big difference, I think, between best course and best experience. The best golf course is the old course.

It's also the best experience, I think, so, but that's my answer. That's the different ways that you can play it and all of the options with just the shared fairways and all of the different wins that it's played in, legitimately, it's like, route your way to the hole in any way you want, and you could legitimately, you could hit six iron off a tier, you could hit driver on some of them and play the hole in the same monostrokes. And it's, it's the absolute best. Randy, best course, best experience. It's probably the old course, but as somebody who's only played it once now,

I am going to fall into the camp where like I certainly liked it. I would love to play it again, but I'm going to go elsewhere for my answer. I think the best course was just royal dork neck straight up, um, just from a pure course wise. Uh, best experience, obviously, Ealy for me. Um, but I also want to shout out Nairn. Like Nairn might be the answer, uh, for, for best course. And that's it. Not only could you have a different answer, the more times you would do the same route,

you might, even after playing them once, you might say something different tomorrow. Yeah, you know what, actually, today, I would probably prefer to play this course, but try on what's your answer. For golf course, like best course, period point blank is, I'm gonna say the old course, just, I mean, like, the back nine, like, basically, once you get to 12,

it's just really 11, really, it's like, crazy good hole, and then from there on, I thought I was gonna have an aneurysm at the whole time. And then knowing that you can play it backwards to all sorts of stuff. Yeah, I mean, that was like birding not to my own horn because it's not a hard hole but like birdie, birdie.

However, getting up and down on 17 for par and then birding 18 like that's probably like top five moments of my life. Yeah, that's amazing. Best experience was I'm gonna, I think in this was just unique to this trip. It was, was, was, was easily for me. That was just a magical evening.

I think best course and best experience for me is, I agree with you guys on the old course. Obviously, I, I get all the reasons why it's so good and it is so good and I absolutely love it. But I'm going to say best course, best experience were both dorknick for me. I thought, I mean, it just completely blew my doors off, how good it was. I didn't know much about it going in and it just completely overwhelmed me. How every shot was phenomenal. And I think honestly, of course,

where I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time was Colin. It was absolutely tremendous. Colin was everything that's right about golf. Yeah, for sure. And that was like, if you didn't like that or you didn't feel that way, then I think we have a different impression

of what golf is. Which is fine. The best way I can describe Colin is is you know like the joy little kids get when they go pup hunting. Yes, like that's the joy I think we felt playing Colin. Like it's kind of on that same scale. Yeah, I agree. I think that I probably would have said experience for Dornick as well, but just like grinding down the stretch of the competition. Like it's five par fours in a row down the stretch and just like just getting the shit beat out of you. It was like being in a heavyweight bout and then the win kicked up.

And the sky just looked different than any sky I've ever seen before. I don't know what it was. A weird blend of cloudy, moody and sunny and it was, oh god, Vorenex the best. Last thing is highlight of the trip. The bagpipes coming up the final stretch at Dornick with a core star self. I've already said that but that was like that was my ultimate conclusion to the trip and could be fine if that was my last round of golf ever. Like that was the best. I mean, I had a couple top five moments in my life, but those don't even compare to Randy getting back down by Ricky.

That's so... Ricky was the true alpha, Randy. Such a bad take. I Think hot that scummy for you to say highlight for me might be making the full-time switch to the half bag I think I don't know how many shooting our best rounds Yeah, I don't have any reason to go back after after that. That was that was a big reason matter of how many clothes we played. Yeah The personal highlight for me, I think, was just how well I played on the back nine at Castle Stewart, that was fun. The larger kind of larger best experience or the highlight, I guess, was that the question

the highlight of the trip? Can I do two things? One was just seeing the town of St. Andrews, just that initial drive in and then getting to walk around and explored a little bit But then the second Non-Golf highlight was The 19th hole at Eley just popping in their mid-round just this quaint little pub For ladies working in there. Oh Yeah, for just a great pint. I really like you didn't want to leave.

You didn't want to. No, no. Yeah. I'm building was on world cup was coming on soon. Guys, I'm moving to Ealy. I don't know if now's the right time to tell you. We also we didn't talk about this. We got to check out the cool link site.

The new Mike Kaiser core Crenshaw course that's going in about less than 15 minutes north of Dornak. Pretty much the most ideal site. You can good draw out for a golf course. It looks like there's actually one sitting there already. I kind of thought they'd already done a little bit of work on it, but that's just the natural site. That was really cool, and that's pretty much, we went toward around Edinburgh for a day.

Not Edinburgh, a day. Not Edinburgh, it was awesome. Possibly. If you can't tell from kind of how we're talking about this and again I know, Edinburgh was like the best. If you can't tell and again I know we mentioned the visit Scotland helped arrange this trip so maybe if it sounds like we're getting paid to say this, we're trust me we're not. Go to Scotland.

Like, it is. It's much more attainable than it seems. Like, especially if you're on the East Coast, I mean, it's not all that different than getting to LA or something like that. I mean, it's, it's the actual best. It's the best. No, I mean, I think, like, I was looking,

I think Norwegian flies out of like, Providence and some, and maybe for Auderdale or somewhere else to like, it's like 450 or 500 bucks round trip into Edinburgh. Like just get to one of those locals and then you can fly direct and then from there like I don't think I've been it was probably the most relaxing experience in my life. Yeah yeah. And the people I think that's that's kind of the theme that sticks out the most for me. The whole trip is the people were just so warm,

but like they don't bullshit you either. What was the biggest misconception about Scotland? The food. The food was good. Yeah, I don't think we had a bad meal. Yeah, I mean, between the breakfast and it, they have a really good steak and great, like, I access to great fish.

I mean, right off, you're all along the coast there. The produce is unbelievable. Yeah, I was blown away by the food. I'm kind of a food snob and, you know, I was expecting to just be, you know, kind of, that was not going to be an element of the trip. And then going to Edinburgh, like there was so many good restaurants there, like I want to go back to, I want to go back with my wife and Freddie and just, you know, not even play golf.

I just want to go hang out, too. Weather is not nearly as bad as I say. I mean, we got really lucky, obviously, but I've been up four times. It's been like truly unplayable one time, I think. I mean, the weather is not near that bad. And hospitality is just next level. It's the best possible golf experience you can have. And yeah, I can't recommend it high enough.

So with that, that's about as long of a recap as we can make. But did we want to do the composite? Oh my gosh. It's going to be another. Do you have it on your phone? I do. All right, let's just win through it for the die hard. People can roast it on tomorrow.

We don't have to go through each of this. We made a composite course the best first hall, best second ball ball from the whole trip. A lot of internal debate. We have a lot of... There were some side room deals. Yeah, some partnerships formed. Here it is.

Hole number one. We co-cate Mitch over here. Do it with all kinds of concessions and stuff. Hole number one, again, the best first hole was the old course. Number two, Dornick. Number three, Castle Stewart. Four, Kill Spindy. Five, Dornick.

Six, Dornick. Seven, Collin. Eight, Cruden Bay. Nine, North Barric. Ely was number 10. The old course, 11. 12 was Collin. 13, North Barric.

14 was a North Barric Dornex, that's a disgrace. 15 was Cruden Bay, 16 Old Course, 17 Old Course, 18 Old Course. Sure there's plenty to do to debate in there, we're not gonna do that any longer, we're gonna wrap this right here. Thank you for tuning in, if you if you tune in for this long, if you ever have questions, shoot us an email about planning a Scotland trip and obviously we have so much more to come on this front from a video standpoint. We got at some point, upload all this footage and whatnot.

It's gonna be kind of a, it's gonna be mayhem. So we got a lot of good stuff from it. You know what? Listen to 2020, yeah. To the people who like complain about the, you know, if you don't listen to travel pods, just don't listen to them. Might be too late to talk to those people.

But B, it's not like we're going to Maracco or like somewhere, we're going to freaking, the home of golf here. This is where it's at. This is pretty discerning about the trips that we take. Yeah, exactly. So on that note, wrap it up at that. Thank you for lasting this long and we'll be back with regularly scheduled programming here shortly. Cheers! Cheers!

Get a right club! Be the right club today! Yes! That is better than most! How about in? That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most.