No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 22: Scotland Golf Trip

Episode Date: August 6, 2015

This podcast is a bit of a change of pace from the normal podcast. I just got back from a five day golf trip through eastern Scotland, and we just had to talk about it.... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 22: Scotland Golf Trip 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. That is better than most. Better than most! Alright ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast It's been a while, been away for a while and this episode is gonna be a little different than the rest of the episodes We're not gonna be talking to PJ Tore Golf We're not gonna be talking about Troy Merritt's thrilling victory at the

Quick and Loans Invitational. National, I don't even know what it was. Didn't even watch it. Yeah. We just got back for, I'm joined by two of my buddies, Scott Bishop and Chris Tumer, and we just got back from a five-day eight-round golf extravaganza in Scotland. And as promised, we are going to debrief from it. Try to give some tips on how to do Scotland based on our experience, talk about the courses, and talk about our experience, which spoiler alert, it was the best vacation I think I've ever been on, easily the best golf trip. And we pretty much had the time of our lives. We're probably going to sound like Gidey schoolgirls talking about Scotland. But it really was that great. We're going to try not to give whole-by-whole updates on, you know,

flight at six irons under the wind, and because we know that no one really cares that much about hearing about other people's rounds of golf, but we're going to talk about how to get on the old course, how we got on, the other courses in the area and how to do a trip through Scotland. I mean, first of all, we got in too early. That was the first issue. Scott got in a day earlier before I did, and we weren't supposed to play golf for two more days. So we sat around Edinburgh just like checking, I guess I should back up and say, get on the old course. We can get to process. It's a process. You can't really get to get t-times way, way, way in advance

or you are basically left to entering the 48 hour ballot system. So you basically fill out four names. You have to have handicap information and official handicap to do it. And you enter in and you hope that you are selected. And if you are not, you are, you're at a lock basically. So we got in early and we entered the ballot and we were basically just refreshing the ballot every 30 minutes or so seeing if we got in, wandering around Scotland way too excited to play. So instead we weren't planning on arriving and playing until Friday. We, three

of our, three of the four of us were in town. Our buddy, Lafe, who was not here, rest in peace. He moved on to France yet. We were just too giddy. We drove into town and we said, why don't you tell the story of how we got Nu got, how we talked to the guy at the old course and then got onto the new course. So we ended up picking up the car rental early, picking our buddy, lay off from the airport and headed up to St Andrews a day earlier, half day earlier. So just have some conversations with the starters at the old course, see what their advice was. Let them recognize our faces. Yeah, absolutely. Get familiar with the starters at the old course, see what their advice was. Let them recognize our faces. Yeah, absolutely.

Get familiar with the lay it all in. So we got there immediately, went straight to the old course starter, changed into some golf close, carried our clubs over there. And we talked to the guy, he said, there was 28 people in line at 6am in the morning to get queued up to play the old course. So our chances were not looking very strong for Thursday. No, so yeah, you can you can queue up they open the pavilion there at 6 a.m. and you can line up as early as you want and you don't know how many people are gonna show up and they basically

work to get you off if you're on this waiting list, you know, as they get through the list. So yeah, there are 28 people there before even six. So they said, look, how long are you here? We said we're here for four more days. Here's what you should do. You should come here super early tomorrow morning, Friday morning, line up, queue up, get on the list because, I'm gonna tell you what,

yeah, just the key part of the story. Basically, while this is all going on, I was flying from Hawaii to join them for this trip. And while I would stop at different places on the layovers, I was getting updates of the text message as to how this process was going. And before Chris had told me that they were going to go try and get on the old course. And of course, I was very jealous. And I said, hey, go ahead and try it.

Go to what you got to do. Not before you guilted us. Yeah, you guys guilted. I was a little bit of guilt. I was a little. I said hey, go ahead and try it go to what you got before you guilt it Yeah, you guys have a little bit of guilt I gave it a little bit of guilt, but you know there was no way I was gonna stop them from getting on to trying to get under the Old Course, so I mean I was can't say that I was too disappointed when I turned on my phone and London and it said that you guys just played the new course. Yeah But so yeah, we the guy said, yeah, show up Friday morning, blah, blah, blah, blah. But we had a 910 tea time at Kings Barnes, which we'll talk about Kings Barnes

in a minute. But the most expensive of all the courses and we had prepaid for it, which is important to the story eventually. I promise. So he says, show up in the morning, get your name on the list, go play Kings Barnes, comes back and you'll come back and you will be at the top of the list to get off and so we yeah first priority They they were confident they could get us out. It wouldn't be as a force and we had given up on a chance of getting us getting off as a force Because at this point, oh, we didn't quite know yet But we ended the ballot also for Saturday and Monday and did not win so we'd given up on playing the old courses of force So we get off maybe one at a time. Hopefully that we would each get off two and two at least we would know, know somebody that we were playing with. But

so we wake up Friday morning, show up 4.30 a.m. Sun is not risen yet, in jeans and sweatshirts because our t-times not until 9.10 Kingsmars we just want to get on the list. We're not playing the old course right now. So we're completely unprepared, unshoured, everything. Open up the doors, and this point we should note that the Scottish people working at St Andrews are the nicest and friendly as possible people. Most are accommodating people. Go out of their way to make sure that your experience on their facilities is just top notch. They sit there and like work with you. Like, alright, what do you have scheduled? What this is what you should do blah blah blah Yeah, so we after we they gave us the advice on Thursday We were like well is there any other courses here where we could potentially play and he says walk on down to the new course

Talk to the starter there. We talked to the starter and we said, you know, we're a threesome We don't have any teetimes until tomorrow There are any chances that we can get off on the new course today and the starter gets really hesitant He's like I don't know. I mean, maybe in like half an hour, we're like, okay, that's perfect. He was like genuinely upset that we would have to wait a half an hour.

And we're like, that's more than fine. We'll go play that. So yeah, then Friday morning there were open doors open We tell them the story like hey, yeah, we're just getting on the list We're not gonna be back till this afternoon. We're gonna go play Kings Barnes and the guy says well You're not gonna believe what just happened But there is a for some just has canceled and there's an opening at 6.30 He tells us this at 603 jeans hoodie

Yeah sweatshirts not thing no club nothing completely unprepared and he says you need to be back here at 620 ready to go so we're like first of all thing and what do we do do we go for it like we have this teatime of King's Barnes we have no idea if we can move it back it costs I think King's Barnes cost like maybe 225 pounds which is maybe three hundred fifty USD So we're like what we have no idea what to do. It was actually pretty quick decision We're going for it. We had no brain. There's no no brainer

We're staying in the dorms near kind of near the roadhole, but not that close to the class We took off in a full-on sprint Michael Johnson 400 meter dash off in a full on sprint. Michael Johnson 400 meter dashed. That's hard to list. Circuit 1996. We sprint past the Caddy barn. Everyone's looking at us like we're insane. Laughing. Laughing at us. The Caddies that we were inevitably going to have. We didn't know this. They see us run down. Laughing at us. We sprint to the car and this is my first time ever driving on the left side of the road, steering well on the right side. I wasn't that familiar with it yet. We are speeding around the corners of

St. Andrews. St. Andrews. St. Andrews. St. Andrews. Going way too fast on these curves and we've squeezed to a stop, sprint into the hotel. I just threw on the first set of clothes I could have. There was no scripting involved. You had to make sure you script before you go out. Yeah. Because things can change at the drop of a hat. And I dropped it. I'm ahead of time. And ice printed the car.

I'm like, all right, I'm each guys down there. Bala, blah. Scott comes down the stairs. Chris comes down the stairs. We're ready. All right. Where is life? What is taking life so long?

617. Conor is it. It gets to 617, Conor is a 617. We have to be there in three minutes. We're like, we may just leave. We have to leave him. I think we have to leave him. The choice was made to leave in two minutes. He comes sprinting out of the hotel, exhausts out of breath,

falls on his back. So it was the club that it says, I got lost. He got lost trying to make his way out of the hotel and was like running into fire exits Yeah And like with big signs that say a alarm will sound and he's like, you know what? It might be worth it We screech up to the to the first tea and these guys jumped out of the car I went and parked the car and we actually ended up team up at 640 was a little 10 minute buffer 10

10 minute time to really just get it in your head that the grandstands are still up at the old course And you're about to play the most famous golf course in the world Yeah, and luckily for us We didn't have like time to really get nervous and except when you're over the first Yeah, we go over the ball the first Yeah, the old course exactly so jittery. Yeah, we weren't positive We get to play the old course and we definitely didn't think we'd be off as a force him Here we are the first official round of our force him. We were playing the old course and

It's really hard to put into words. I don't know. It sounds do she I think to say like until you experience it It's hard to describe what it's like to to play golf in Scotland a and to play the old course I mean, I mean up hundreds of thousands of people have done it. We're not that unique, but the whole experience of getting the process of getting on and just being in the town. Like this course just sits in this town and there's galleries watching almost at all times. Even at six o'clock, there was some people watching, walking the dogs. Yeah, absolutely. And we enjoyed one of the most, yeah, one of the best rounds of golf we've ever played.

Absolutely. Chris rolled off the plane from Hawaii, shot a 77 on the old course. We had great caddies. Had a little problem with, I mean, it's such a different style of golf. And you don't really realize it. Right. And the biggest thing that I'd say if you were going to go over there is just be mindful of your pace of play. Oh, it's such a different style of golf and you don't really realize it. Right, and the biggest thing that I'd say if you're gonna go over there is just be mindful of your pace of play.

Oh, that's good. Because not only it will probably touch on more a little bit on the other rounds, but that's a huge thing in Scotland is they are very, very particular about making sure you keep up the pace of play. They want 18 holes of golf walking to be played in three hours and 48 minutes. Pretty much, yeah.

So, I mean, I know that in the States, a lot of people don't play that quickly in carts. No, absolutely. So with a free so. They hear your American accent. I think they just like, they, they, they, they first want all Americans over there. Everyone we met was American for the most part.

And they hear the American accent and they're like, all right, but you haven't even teed off yet. They just hear your American accent. Can we pick up the pace? Yeah, and they do it in the, the nicest way possible. Nice to come, pick up off of you and they say, hey, Jensen, now you're having a great time today, but I'm gonna need you guys to pick up the pace a little bit. But, you know, enjoy yourself.

The most important way is to enjoy your round. Enjoy your round. We'll get on this later, but we were told to pick up the pace after two holes at Karnu's team. That was Karnage. So yeah, we, not too many great stories, I don't think, from the first go around. Just the 18 or the whole 18, the pot. Oh wow. I tweeted the video.

Tumor, Tumor, he's about to put for birdie on 18 and he says, you're gonna want a video this. Might be some tourist ass. And I basically made the gallery clap form. They were just, they watched the pot go in and I turned to them and asked them basically for a reaction just for the video. So hopefully you guys got chance to see that. Yeah, it was tweeted and it was it was the probably the most saucy moment of the trip. But the back up a little bit we didn't I know I got some couple questions about this, but we did not use an agency for this event.

We booked everything manually. And we went cheap on where we stayed. We stayed at Agnes Black at her hall, which is a dorm right pretty close to the road hall. And it was tight, sleeping quarters. I thought we got two twin beds. We had two doubles. It didn't matter.

It did everything that you needed though. It was nice and very clean. They have a complimentary breakfast in the morning. Yeah, they give you Made servicern the day. Yeah, no, it worked fine. Just small people. You're not in the room that much Yeah, you should not be in the day Much in the morning. Yeah, no, yeah It was you don't need to go and stay at the old course hotel. You don't need to stay at a big fancy hotel Everything's so close. We were like a nine minute walk from the doneviggin and right short walk to the course. It was it was it worked out. I if we were to redo the trip, I would stay probably in the exact same place. Right. Maybe get twin

beds. But I would say the one of the ways to peak that round on the first day at the old course was I would suggest going over to the jigger after you play. Yeah. Have it and definitely enjoying a drink there. Yeah. The bar right off the 17th hole the road hole Yeah, we and it's kind of great outdoor seating area to it's definitely in play for You the little draw cut off the tee that doesn't cut back You might be a little bit of trouble. It's definitely in play, but it's awesome pub and then right in the fairway on 17 that we went We went after the round and just reminisced on everything that just happened. Still couldn't believe that it just happened and we had another 18.

Yeah. And backing up, you fly into Edinburgh to get the St. Andrews only option. I think 100% you have to rent a car. We rented a car. And drove, like I said, it's weird driving on the other side of the road for an American, but after your first time doing it, you kind of get used to it. It's very similar to the old course because they tell you, before you tee off, stay left. Stay left. Stay left. Stay left because all the trouble is to the right and you have to do the same thing when you drive

on the other side of the road. When in doubt, just go left. That's what they said. Just go left. But you need a car to get around to the other courses in the area because there's great courses at St. Andrews, but there's others within a 15-minute drive also that we're going to get to eventually because after we play the old course, hit up the jigger in for lunch, which was awesome, and then we go back in shower. We went back and got ready for you. Good, so we didn't have a morning routine. And then got in the car and went to King's Barnes,

which was, I had heard so much about it. And it's a track. It somehow exceeded the hype. Amazingly beautiful. It was an absolutely. See views on every hole. Incredible, incredible round. Great, great caddies too.

I mean, they treat you well. They're round great great caddies to I mean yeah, I treat you well I love they That they're famous for their caddies there and I mean I don't know we were also we also talked about how we don't really remember Much of the round of Kingsborne's yeah, oh no sleep every the whole day was just like a huge bumble like I don't really How to know how to describe it, but not only the views amazing the golf course itself is very lush It's a very green course. It's very lush. It's very green. It's very green course.

It's not as like what we call Scott it. Well, let's us experts. Well, you can make the ball stick a little bit over there. It's not the same as St. Andrews, the old course we had. I had some issues with the turf. Any wedges inside 100 yards of the grass was so hard in some places that my club is either bouncing off the ground and I was blading it or I was just like laying the

sod over it and I was hitting a lot of terrible shots. So you quickly learn why our people are putting from literally 60 yards away. Right. Yeah, you want to use your imagination out there. I mean, you see it on TV all the time, but until you see it in person, and the way the ball comes off, the different terrain, I mean, it's just not the same as just hitting normal chip and pit shots.

I agree with Sally about the turf though. I mean, it's just, it's part of the challenge though. It's like, you really is so many different ways to play a 350 yard hole. Right, right. If you just like bomb the driver, you may be screwed. If you even need a good one. I know it's like there's, you really have so many different ways to play a 350 yard hole. Right, right. If you just like bomb a driver, you may be screwed. If you even need a good one. I know it's not to you from 10 to 10.

Yeah, I mean, I drive a lot just to, just to, just to experience it. You definitely learn as you, the rounds went on. Like I, definitely are first four rounds from me. Personally, were my worst rounds. The second four, you can definitely see the learning progress and how to hit those shots and what you need to play. The creativity in each of the shots.

Yeah, Scott somehow in a four-day span increased his T-length to about three-tenths. Somehow adding 30 yards in a four-day span out of nowhere. You just, you play it a little bit and you realize why everyone talks about getting the ball out of the air Like you want to get the ball on the ground and rolling because you can't stop it once You just you can't land a lot of shots all the way onto the green and some of the fair Like if you had a good drive

Well struck drive and lands in the fairway and stays in the fairway the whole time You probably get an extra 40 yards rather than just landing in the rough. Like it runs out. And it wasn't that firm, I didn't feel like. No, I know, I could have been playing a little forever for sure. But I mean, this is our all our first time's playing this style golf, and we were pretty obsessed with it. I mean, it's challenging, but it's just so different.

And like the weeds or the heather was not that punishing. I mean, you could hit it in there and hit it out for the most part. Yeah, not the old court. Not. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It also produced the NFL is a little more punishing. You also gain a perspective as to how good the guys are on

tool that they're able to play the American style golf and come over a couple days later and shoot 1400 part of when the cleric Joe. I mean, I would accept, since say that most amateurs should not expect to put the same numbers that they put up in the States in Scotland. And don't let that detract from your experience in there. No, you can't stand on the team worry about what you're shooting. You just have to look around it like it honestly was some of the most fun golf I've ever played. Like it's just, it's, I mean, I hit at car news see I tripled the second hole, hit a a wedge out of bounds so it's got we both it wedges out of bounds 30 yard We're literally just laughing about it on the next tee like it's I don't know how he's got this is so much fun The term just became grinding. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we just became grinding because that's all you really trying to do

Yeah, be in the moment joy it soak it in. Yeah, it's not but it's it's not like it's impossible. It's not intimidating No, no, no, no, it's just a it's a it in. Yeah, it's not but it's it's not like it's impossible. It's not intimidating. No, no, no, it's just It's a good time. Yeah, oh my god. It's a good time but Yeah, we capped that very first day with With drinking some scotch at the done vegan so we had pretty much the best possible St. Andrew's day. You could have yeah But it's some sleep that night. No, we did not we did. We said that old course was so much fun that let's do it again So we got up cute up 4.30 in the morning did the same thing. We were greeted by 10 10 college kids that

We're lined up and camped out State overnight. State overnight. I don't I'm I'm max. I remember his name Yeah, they're from Ferris State really nice kids. Shout out to Ferris State Bulldogs. Yeah. Shout out to them. We so we just chatted up with them for a good hour and a half or so until and they they got right off immediately. We got on the list and they they put two of us out at one 10, two of us out at one at one 50. The starter comes over to I think Scott and I he's looking at his list and he's just chocolate He looks and he's like you guys just be wearing some lucky pants Are going out again. It's key. Yeah, yeah

Can't the start at the old course another guy helped us. I don't remember his name But they were that so on top of that we had a two 48 t-time at the new course that afternoon and we got on the list for the old course for the afternoon So we ran over to the new course again said any, any chance you can move our tea time up to this morning. Yeah, sure. Once you go off at 656. Boom. You're off on the new course again. 656. Played 18 holes were done by 11. Went in had some beer, had some lunch, and then made our way back to the old course for the afternoon tea time, which is a little different than team off at 640. Absolutely.

A lot more people around. A lot more people around. A lot more people watching. Big gallery and the heart was definitely pounding for me the second time around. We, Chris and I decided to play the back teas that time around. We played the one-ups the first time around.

And we were ready for a challenge. And Chris gets up to the tee, hits a not very pure little smother hook. Yeah, like a little baby draw that's turned into a baby and baby hook, but still a pretty good shape. In the fairway. Yeah, I mean, you can't, I'd say it's still literally a football field to hit it to.

Well, that's what I'm getting to here. It is, I step up to the tee after Chris hits this ugly hook after I just watched This and like and I was battling a wayward right spray the entire week like a push cut the dreaded push cut I get up a lot of people watching and There's there's a cart path that runs across the the first and 18th fairway and people just walk across it with out even No, I think it's golfing. Yeah, like you literally people be have headphones in and just be power walking. Or running.

Yeah, not paying attention to anything going on. So as I'm on the team, like it's not really in play, like you can hit it over it over them. It's definitely should not be in play if we're playing the team. Yeah, it should have. Definitely not. Yeah. And somebody's going across the fairway, but I don't think anything of it,

because there's constantly just people going across. And as I get to the top of my back swing, the starter yell, when Scottish people yell for, they do it with all of their might. Conviction. All conviction. Yeah, absolutely. All of their might.

He screams at, as loud as he can, yells for at the people in the fairway. And I proceeded to go full Ian Baker Finch, snap hooked it onto the road across the 18th fairway. I don't mean to, the starter did not know I was in my swing, I don't mean to pick on him. It was all forgiven, but it was a pretty embarrassing moment to have missed the widest fairway in the world. We got around the old course again that afternoon. We didn't take caddies out the second time. We kind of knew the way to land. Didn't take caddies out. Probably should have.

Yeah because what happened to us out there was part of the experience. So we're playing around in Chris and Simon are pretty tight going around around water two shots away. Get up to the famous Rillin Hole number 17. Well, we got to talk about the weather. Let's talk about the weather. Oh, yes. We'll be to that.

Yeah. We saw in the forecast there was going to be some rain. We thought that we need some. Yeah, we need to experience it. Yeah, you need to be James that Scotland weather. But what the caddies told us was a little different than what we were expecting to receive They said it was it was the worst Rainstorm on the course that they've had this season and it was I've I've been rained on on the golf course before

I'm it was nothing I've never seen anything like this the rain Yeah, it came out of the sideways number sideways. Number nine, we were teen off. It started to drizzle a little bit. And then we started walking on the fairway. It started to just, you know, pit or pattern a little bit more. And then by the time we reached agreed on nine, it was unplayable conditions.

But people just kept going. You didn't have enough time to get your rain gear out that you were already drenched. And my, open up my umbrella. I soaked and uh... my open up my umbrella I'm walking up nine open up my umbrella at about a hundred yards out about the ninety four yard marked my umbrella was unusable just destroyed full of like a cheap tent uh... but some of my rain clothes on yeah I was already soaked there's no there's no point I lost the title is mitten in the mail and I haveelists if anyone's out there listening.

He was more upset. He paid, I don't know what we paid 25 bucks for. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And we're playing this, you know, spending all this money playing all these golf courses. His day was a ruin. Yeah, yeah. He's sprinting across. So like, at this point of the course, all the holes intersect basically. He's sprinting across several groups, just looking for this mitten. Almost took a ball to the face. There it is.

So you guys were on nine when the hardest weather hit. We were late and I were on seven, and we just see a ping-on bralla, just four holes over, just flying through there. The caddies were laughing. That's awesome. That's amazing. I mean, you couldn't even grip the club.

Couldn't hit shots. I hit a five iron Indie number 10 from 130, peered it and came up a clean 100 feet short. I mean, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was the wind got up. It was insane. And the Haydn. The Haydn there. Five whole, two holes later. I think it was raining through at three number 12. Perfectly sunny. The either. The either. The either.

The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either.

The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either.

The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either.

The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. The either. Definitely part of the experience. But so again, perfect weather now would come up on the road hole. Tumor's got a decent solid round going on. Yeah, I think I would have probably part in for about 81, 82-ish and nothing spectacular, no frills, nothing and just the road. The ghosts of the road hole grabbed me and said, hey, come join us. And they find a sense of the word tumor gut ejected you know And Hit a pretty bad drive then hit a pretty weren't a worse iron shot into the hole have a wedge up into the green I was like, okay worst case scenario here. We'll make a six get out of here, you know

Parking on the 18 pretty easy finishing hole and Hit a terrible wedge on the head there left, pretty easy, finishing hole. And hit a terrible wedge out of the head there, left of the bunkers. So now I'm like, uh, what are we going to do here? And like, like, like, so I talked about earlier, the lies around the greens are very tight. So I'm like, I'm looking at the bunker, I'm looking at the green, and then I'm looking at the road hole, like looking at the road behind it. And I had nothing to do but try to hit a flop. And I was like, it's a bad idea. It was in between the shot, nipped it right into the bunker.

And that's where the whole road was seen. Lying for into the road. Into the whole bunker. Presuted to take four shots to exit the bunker. And I picture it like every single one of them. And meanwhile, Sali has the GoPro out. And he's in the bunker as well in two and I hit after my debacle in there at four shots to get out. I'm lying eight on the

green so I was like hey tombs I'll get this GoPro shot one quick. I was like yeah dude I got you man. I got you. So we go there not to mention so I had to spectacular shot out of the bunker there on 17. So I will give him that. I wish I could have done that on one of my shots. So, missed about a nine and a half footer for a nine, tapped in for a crowd pleasing 10. Still gave the, there wasn't a pause.

Yeah, there's people watching, the jigger in. Yeah, there's a lot, that's the other part of the course, but there's a lot of people around. And the guy in the other groups behind us saw this happening. Well, good. Nothing to that. Yeah, so essentially there's about 30 people watching this and like I'm sure they've seen something like this happen before but I mean it was, it was embarrassing.

I mean, it was, but I did attempt in for a 10 on 17 and then I just Proudfully strode up to the tee on 18 and took the tee So yes, I am one of the ghosts of the road hole But I mean it's a story a lot of rest of my life I mean that that whole is absolutely no joke, though, there's zero places to miss anywhere on that whole. Five is a great number on that. If you can make five on that whole and get out of there, that's a great number.

It's so hard. Like, I mean, you guys know the whole. The T-Shot is blind, and then that approach into that green, there's nowhere to miss. You miss right, it's off the road, and it's going to be. That road hole bunker's tiny. I hit it at both days, both times. And just, it's a great, I don't know.

It's still a great hole, I loved it. Great. It's still really challenging. But so yeah, Scott and Leifer in the group 40 minutes behind us and they had a guy that was t- Yeah, so we're playing with two guys from Fresno, California. Great guys, they're enjoying the round, but we also had a gallery with us. We had a 15 person following those guys.

Those guys had a 15 people following them up until that rain storm, and then they all disappeared. But then they all did come back and join us on the 17th Roadhole. So we had a great group of people walking in, solid and two where we came out to see them. We finished and came back out to 17 and we so we go around a patella like tombs to four shots together, the road hole bunker. And one of the dudes that was out following them around is like, yeah, I was in the jigger in. I saw the whole thing.

Why isn't he just hitting out sideways? Literally, I was trying to hit out sideways. Oh, man, it was a total ejection. Yeah, total ejection. It was definitely a great way to finish an already pretty mediocre round. Yeah. Shout out to Lafe, though. Yeah, Lafe.

Lafe shot. Lafe the 7-Handy cap. Shot of 79 at the old course. Easily the best round of his life. He's shot lower than 79, but to do it the old course. Yeah, it was pretty impressive. He came in one over on the back I think when the back is way harder than I Wait for one over on the back he was we're both draining a few pots that round We it was actually great great to some of life and I just saw playing the course

We've stroled up to seeing those guys and they were like like giddy school girls They were they just laughing like how much fun they were both posting numbers. I put in a good number for me, 86, the old course. That day, I was really enjoyable. You're probably best around the trip. Yeah, for sure. That's such a good, I mean, it's just hard to put in perspective. Yeah. You're not, like, that's such a good number.

It's not a hard course, but it is, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's just, it's, it it is, it is. It's just taxi. It is. People say, like, if you, it takes like 10 times to play St. Andrews to really understand. I understand people saying that now, because your instinct is to be like, wow, this is just wide open fairway. Why don't I just bomb driver here? And then you end up between 60 yards out, but there's a bunker between you and the pin.

And you have no shot. And so, yeah, the whole no-bang-up thing doesn't play that well there because there are benefits to hitting three iron and then actually having a shot into the green versus having to put around a bunker. It's a lot of, we talked about the second day, it's a lot of expectation management. Oh yeah. Hitting the green and giving yourself a spare shot to two put is the name of the game out there. Yeah. So and I think, okay, so to play the old course, again,

none of this was, this sounds like a commercial for Scalengolf, none of this is sponsored for the record. I had nothing we got was for free by any means. No, it was not. No. So it costs 170 pounds to play the old course, which is like 250 US dollars. I think 260 US dollars.

It's not even like worth considering. It's like, you can And if you're going to play it for the first time play it with Caddy. So take the whole experience they'll they'll tell you where to head. Caddy's cost was 50 pounds plus gratuting and they they said typical tips are between 20 and 25 pounds. I think we gave them between 25 and 30 because yeah big short big shots. Yeah. big shots. Well, pretty money. Big shots. We saved some lives with those extra $5. Yeah, exactly. So it's not cheap by any stretch of the means,

but like, if you can listen to us talking about it, it's worth it. Well, it's just so worth it. And we're only halfway through our trip at this point. I mean, we've played four rounds. Kings Barnes, I think I said, was 2255 pounds which was like 360 USD or something like that. Plus the Cady fees, same Cady fees. That ain't cheap but if you go to St. Andrews you gotta play Kings Barnes. Yeah, it's too close not to use that. It's unreal.

It's a great golf course. So then Sunday morning we wake up, we had tea time early morning for Jubilee, afternoon tea time for Crale. So I don't want to talk much about the new course, it's not a time to say about it other than like it's not that unique but it's just like pure Scotland golf. Yeah, great track. It's fun golf. It's like if you go to San Andreas you should play around at the new course. You should play Jubilee. It tells you just more fun. Like we were talking about before, is that you're so nervous for so many shots

on the old course because you're actually there. And then they go play on the new course of Jubilee. You're just so, it's like, it's just, you have a fun. You're just having fun. You're hitting shots, different shots that you wouldn't hit on the back. It's a great warm up too.

Yeah, it's a great warm up for playing the old course because it's like, you learn a little bit about that that Playing off that kind of terrain and the bumping shots and like I felt more than American golf like there's way more areas You can't miss you can't go right on certain. Well, you just can't do it like just right if some of the greens are like gorse So you have to play the left side of the green hope the wind takes it, etc Jubilee I everyone says Jubilee is really really tough. I didn't find it. No, It's more different than a new course. We played one up T's. We didn't play the tips. I mean, but it, it, it, people made it sound like it wasn't a fun experience, Jubilee. I did not experience it at all. I had a great time at Jubilee. Great golf course as well. I think

they're more similar than they are different. Those two courses. I knew in Jubilee. Yeah. That's what I said. I said, it's like it's hard for me to differentiate between the two. Like there's some holes that blur together. Both worth playing. Yeah, absolutely. That was out. Then we bitch off. Go ahead and tell that story.

So I was putting together a pretty solid round in Jubilee. Oh yeah. For me solid round. Get to 18. Second shot into 18. Right into a bunker, green side bunker. Similar to a tumor story earlier,

took me forward to get out, posted a solid nine. Thankfully I kept it under 90, right at an 89, but I was probably way too soon after that happened. I named it Bishop's bunker. Because, like, he went in off the green yet, and I'd already named the bunker up to it. It was brutal. The bunkering out there, it's so unique.

There's not that many of them. No. There's really not, but it's true, and they're not very big. No, that's what makes them hard. The balls do run out so much that they funnel into the bunkers, but they are true hazards. Like, yeah.

You go in a bunker in the US, you're just like, okay, I mean, just hit normal bunker shut out. It's like, you go out of your way to avoid bunkers in certain spots. When you get in, you just gotta take your medicine. Roll the tussle. Yeah, it's robotuss. It's high on all PMs.

Take it, take it. Like, don't try and get cute. Don't be a hero. Thank you, because you're not. Yeah. It's your body hero. We changed pace that afternoon. I think a tip from Jeff Shackleford actually about the

Balcomi course at Crayl, which was way different than what I was expecting. So we showed up there. I didn't know much about it. So I knew it was by the sea, heard good things about it, and it was it was very different. I look at the scorecard. It's a par 69 5800 yard. Everyone's just licking their 60 70 get a ball. Yeah, we're gonna post the lowest numbers of the shrimp and we all got ejected. I mean the wind blew and the first few holes are all downwind. We were like this is awesome. We drove it over number one. Number two is a 500 yard downwind, par five. Like we had no problems reaching for the most part. I had a legend.

Yeah, it's a flight of legend. Yeah, a flight of legend. Yeah, of course. And those first few holes are just so beautiful along the water and then you turn back in and it just got, I had four balls, it would be on the front nine, oh no. Yeah.

And, but it was, it was a really fun, it's, people say it's quirky, I agree, it's, it's a little quirky, it's very different, very old course. Yeah, absolutely. Let's say seventh oldest course. Seventh oldest course in the, in the world, they say. A cool history though, like, inside their clubhouse. Yeah.

Some of the pictures they have up, of the tournaments they've had, running for, you know, 50, 60, 100 years. Yeah, and like, it's like, no cell phones in the clubhouse, hats off, they have a sign for that. It's very old school vibe there. And, but yeah, a lot of like weird, like all 300 yard par fours, but again,

not just like, not easy. Yeah, yeah. That way was not easy. It's definitely blowing hard that day, too. But there's two par threes in the back nine that we had to hit three woods in too, as well. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And so it's very different course, but beautiful views great change of pace great afternoon round

It was it wasn't my favorite course of the trip, but I mean I've and you should play it You have a chance you have a chance and like maybe I can off day. No, yeah, I would say it's definitely Somewhere you should go. It's not like you got to go out of your way, but it's I would recommend playing it It's just it's very good. They have a championship course there too. We saw it. It looked way different. It's not. It's away from the water. I don't know really much else about it. Other than it looked more difficult than the Baco. But it was unique. Yeah. And then we came to last day. We had a 150 t time for car news team. We debated getting up super early and queuing up one more time

for the old course, but there was just no chance of like the four of us all getting out. We had to be out before 8 a.m. to make our T-time for car news team. We were kind of tired at this point and everything we, you know, we met so many people throughout the trip and we, everyone's, you know, talking about car news team and they're like, oh, car nasty. It's impossible. It's so hard. Even though the townspeople that were there, shops are talking about it. It's impossible. It's so hard. Even though the townspeople that were

those stops are talking about it. Everyone's like, it's so hard. And then we learn that St. Andrews and Carnusity don't really like each other. It's kind of like a rivalry. I don't know how to describe it. Exactly. It's 45 minutes away.

It's a furthest one away. And I wasn't high expectations for it. I just thought it's gonna be really hard. Same, I didn't think, I honestly didn't think I was gonna enjoy it that way. I thought it was gonna be like, it just aggrined the whole time, and get in there and like.

It does help we had perfect weather. 72 degrees sunny. Wind was howling. Oh yeah, howling. So we got up to the first tee and it went poor very poorly from me I Ejected for you. I went OB left and the first two holes took us probably 40 45 minutes to play Lost the ball Yeah, OB on two on two on the first two

I just popped high numbers I'm in the first two holes. I was in the ball, I just popped high numbers. I was still able to put up high numbers with the same ball. And we were like, oh my God, this is gonna be absolute carnage. I was thinking, I used to be about a four and I was thinking that I was gonna battle to break 100, I had the carnage.

We're playing one-ups, we're not even playing the tips. And we got out there, we settled down, the wind direct, the direction shifted, we were much better, but I might be alone in saying this, but it was my most fun round. It's probably because I played the best round I had the whole trip, but it was the most fun golf course. I think we played out there. Incredible golf course. Absolutely.

The course was just beautiful, amazing. It was very fun. So wonderful. Yeah, it was different. It's much different than St.res in the sense of like, kind of what we were talking about with Kings Bar and of like very lush. Yeah. And like, that's the kind of golf course it is.

It really kind of gives you. You could put your shots off of it. Yeah. You can see the makeup of the hole before when you're going off the tee out of the more than when you're at San Andres. So you can have a little bit more of a plan when you're when you're teen offs. And we had just had to be in the fairway car news. Yeah.

Punishing off the rough was like so punishing. Rest in peace, life. Yeah, like one fairway at car news to you. I mean, he was missing, like missing fairways right of the next fairway. Yeah. Sorry, he won't ever listen to this. We can tell.

It's tough round for life. It was tough round for life. He enjoyed it. He stayed positive the whole time. He did. much respect for that awesome caddy awesome caddy Shout to Ian who who saw my collapse. I was so I tripled the second hole and I'm standing into I'm standing in the 15th hole with a wedge into my green at 4 over still played the best 10 11 holes in my the entire trip and 4 over still played the best 10 11 holes in my the entire trip and

Just ejected played the last four and six over it's supposed to be the hardest stretch of holes in golf But we had a favorable wind there was we had three of the four holes downwind. Yeah 17 or 18 are no joke like 18 was not that bad for us. We've been downwind 17 is a beast of 240 230 part, 240 part three. We had a downwind, so it was like a plate 200 for us. When my dad played a few years ago, he hit driver eight iron in two hours.

That's a mark. 17, you go back into the, we went back into the wind. One of the hardest holes in the ball ever played. You gotta hit this, I almost fell in fairway with it. I had a fairway wood off the tee, another fairway wood, and I had a fairway wood, and I had a layup with a six iron, because I was so far back,

and they just didn't have the club in my bed. I don't have that shot with that. I was like, 230 out in the rough. Did not have a shot. I think I hit five iron hybrid. Yeah, I'm not yet in five iron off the tee hit five iron hybrid. Yeah, five iron off the tee. Five iron off the tee and the hybrid from the Island of Fairway. But I don't really know how to describe it other than like, there were so many shots that

are a little bit blind, but like, you can see how you need to play. And the caddies help you so much. They're like, all right, the wind's coming right to the left here. You cannot miss left. Aim at this tree. Just get the ball working towards the hole. If you end up right to the hole, you're much. They're like, all right, the winds coming right to left here. You cannot miss left. Aim at this tree. Just get the ball working towards the hole. If you end up right to the hole, you're fine. Which those kind of shots, like when the caddy like walks you through it and explains to you how to hit the shot. And I don't know. It was the coolest style of golf I've ever played. It was great. And they helped you. Like they are caddies

made that round. Yeah. They're fantastic. I use when I don't hit dry rough a tee, I usually reach for three iron. And just hit three iron usually, and he's like, no, you want to hit six iron here. And I'm like, what? Like, wow, I do that. He's like, trust me, hit six iron. Full shot in. Yeah, hit six iron, and it runs out to two-thirty off the tee. And I have a full, like a perfect sandwich.

Yeah. If you hit three iron there, you would have ran into the burn. And like, the burn's two-forty- the burns 245 I don't even think about it. You don't even yeah you wouldn't even like think about it but I mean it was it's a great test it rewarded good shots it was not unfair and it was the difficulty did not and have it the experience it increased it I think. So and that was baby I don't remember what we paid for that. Maybe 180 pounds or so. No, no.

The new course and the Jubilee course were 75 pounds each. Crayo was 80 pounds. So it's not, I mean, it's not cheap, but it's not terrible. No. The exchange rate's pretty tough right now. The pounds are always expensive, but, I mean, Totally worth it. Yeah, we commented a few times long the way about

that's not having any money left, but it was all worth it. Yeah, we come in a few times long the way about that's not having any money left But it was all worth it. It was all that fun and take some time to the last day we were there We took some time off of golf in the morning and just walked around the town really and saw some of the shops and just talks to people Yeah, people are so nice and they're willing to talk to you They want to hear where you're from and yeah, where you're playing Like what you're doing like definitely take time to where you're from and where you're playing. Yeah, what you're doing. Definitely take time to ingest that as well.

Yeah, shout out to Rue McDonald as well. Sorry, I shouldn't have waited 43 minutes to say that. But from the Scottish golf podcast, you gave me a lot of advice on how to get on the old course. He helped me get in contact with people at St Andrews. And I was like, I've never met the guy. And he was genuinely interested in whether or not I got out and was like ecstatic when we got out twice

So shout out to you. Yeah, it really is it really is like the starters will work with you to get what you want And they really will like you you can't show up to the old course and I don't mean this literally, but you can't show up without getting off like they're gonna find a way to get you off They're gonna work with you to get we'll do everything they can can. They will do everything they can if you got to be there early. Yeah, you got to be there early. You just got to buy the bullet and show up early. And that part was even fun. I mean, meet people in line and just like, hanging out.

And we, I mean, we got so lucky though with weather. We had great weather except for that one incident on the old course. I mean, we barely even had to bust out the rain gear. A lot of sunshine. A minute and so. We got, we went full tour sauce minutes as soon as we got the chance. Got the wind though.

I mean, yeah, you gotta wear long sleeves and pants the whole time. It's not, it's not beach weather. But I mean, it was, I don't know, it's an amazing experience. You're still thinking about it, still talking about it a few days later. And if you have the chance, feel free to shoot in questions, anything about where to stay, what not. I mean, the town is so small. We did it on the cheap, like we said, for

the dorms, or where we stayed, I would do at least try to save money at some point in the trip. If we were, like, there's nothing I would change about our trip. Now, there's not a course we played that I'd be like, you know, I could skip it, the order or anything that's, it couldn't have worked out much better. I agree. So, I mean, I don't know much about the agencies and like, you know, booking,

we met a couple guys, you know, they had like two week trips we had to do and they did it through someone, they were there probably like 18 a day. We crammed a lot of golf in a short and period of time. If we were to do it again, I would maybe wanna do more days spread the golf out a little bit more but it wasn't that interesting. Yeah. But yeah man, sorry if we've just been just rambling on about the experiences you don't

really care about but I think we had a deep brief from it and yeah it was it was the greatest greatest golf experience we've ever had. Yeah absolutely. Hands down. Hands down. So yeah like I said said, assuming some questions, if you have any questions about St. Andrew's Scotland Golf, anything, thanks to anyone that listened this long. Hopefully this was inspired at least somebody to go do this trip or it helped you pass 45 minutes each time. Thanks everybody, tune'll be joining next time. Be the right club, be the right club today! That is better than most. How about him?

That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? Oh! Expect anything different?