No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 245: Ireland Trip, Part II

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

Part II of our Ireland Trip includes Tralee, Carne, County Sligo (Rosses Point), and Enniscrone. We make our way north and play Arnold Palmer's gem, then head much further north to get off the beaten track and tack advantage of some tremendous treks across Sligo. The dunes in this leg of the trip were some of the biggest we've ever seen, and the day we got at Carne was truly memorable. Thanks to everyone for tuning in, stay tuned for Season 4 of Tourist Sauce, coming soon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah! That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No-Lang-Up Podcast. This is part two of our Ireland Golf trip debrief. If you are in the car and driving and just clicking on your most recent episode, if you missed part one, I would recommend you go back to that. We are going to flow right into the back half of our trip. This episode is going to contain truly,

carn, county sligo and in a scrone. And in part one, we kind of debrief on and kind of detail on why we took the trip. What what our highlights were of Irish golf and then I think in this, in this back half, we are just going to talk about these final five courses and then wrap it up at that. Thank you everyone for tuning in and stay tuned, Taurus, Saw Season 4 coming soon. I'm not willing to share the date on it just yet. Hopefully it's before the end of this month. We have a lot to do in the meantime, but I promise it is coming soon.

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All right, four more courses to go. Next up on our list was Trolley. Tron, why don't you break down Trolley for us. I love Trolley. I was quite taken by everybody had kind of shit on the front nine, said, oh, it's the best back nine God designed the back nine You know our Palmer design the front. Yes, your Palmer Mr. Palmer did a great job Shout-out Randy there. I know that's important that we use the proper nomenclature

we played a lot of historic courses on this trip and Truly does not fit that bill and it was. And it's not a new course either. It was built kind of in the dark ages. 1984. So despite that, it turned out really well. Despite the Orwellian vibes there. Yeah, tough year there, huh? But yeah, I mean, really the first,

like the first hole, first hole was good, second hole was this dog leg right, par five that just absolutely, like I loved it. I thought it was one of the better par five as we put the whole trip. When you say dog leg right, like dog leg around an ocean,

like it was sick and you could use the slopes along the left to let the ball run out down the right. There were walls along, like there were cool walls along all the all the greens Infrastructure infrastructure, which you know you guys know I love that they're built a big sea wall down there down by the Die by the water Shout out clouds. Yeah, I don't think that was because it looks cool. No That was keep keep to water and stand up the green well

I think the actually the bogeyman asked for it Because his house is off of number three. Yeah, right, right. The lives right in the little tower. Yeah, the little castle. Apparently, I think they do some Irish lads do some nefarious things in that castle. The lads. Really? Yeah.

I thought six was a gray hole. Of course it is. Yeah, I thought that was really just chop. And I thought six was probably the least interesting hole. But I happened to hoop one from 187. Oop. No, you made up that I said oop. He said I happened to hoop one from 187. Oop. No, you made up that I said oop. He said oop.

He tried to hoop it. Oop. Does that distance keep getting longer, the further away from the trip we get? I thought it was like 147 originally, now it's 187. No, it's not. It was a six iron for sure. What's that?

Like 147. Six iron. Thank you. Yeah, one hoppin' in that. I think that's my longest hole out. Thank you. Yeah, one hoppin' in that. I think that's my longest hole out of all time. There you go. Number eight on the front line as well.

Number eight was fantastic. Kind of a dog leg left moderately. Like, everybody thinks a capole is off the tee. So you would think, everything's a capole as a hole that just bends around the water. Everything is a capole. Yeah. But, you know, notole is like a hole that just bends around the water. Everything is a cable. Yeah, but you know, not really a K-Pole, but just kind of the characteristics of a lot that you've seen that off the tee and then into the green. You could basically hit anything from a six-hired off the tee to a driver and try to get it

up close to the green. There's so much risk trying to hit driver that because it gets so skinny up there and everything runs. The way things run down the left, like that was one of my favorite t-shirts I hit. I think I hit four iron. I can't remember what you hit trying to know we played together. I can't remember if you hit driver. I think I hit three wood. Three wood, yeah. And you had kind of, I don't know if the wind was going that way or what, but it had kind of blown it up on the hill and had like a tough angle all of a sudden downhill, running away from you. Just a really cool place, whereas if you laid back,

it was almost got easier, depending like because of where that pin was. So I could see that changing completely from day to day, which is always a cool thing. And if you take on the water, like you get to a more level spot in the fairway, you can get around that mound that protects the front right. I think, so like when you get there,

you go out the clubhouse and like you left is the front nine. And it's like clearly the less dramatic landscape and to the right are huge dunes, which was like what we saw a lot on this trip. But so immediately people are just drawn to the dunes and think like the back nine. And the back nine is great, but it leads people to shit on the front nine

and we walked away from that like, like after through nine holes, like you guys that hadn't seen it before, we're like, wait, that was the bad side? Like what the hell? And I'm not saying that the front nine was better by any stretch, I mean, back now it was clearly superior, but yeah, everybody like versus expectations.

It was, it was certainly punched well above its weight. And then you get to the back and it's like, oh shit, this is sweet. For somebody who did like pretty much a lot of shitty golf in the United States, to have nailed the course in Ireland and have Irish people respected. I mean, I would imagine natural instinct when a new course comes up, American designer that like guard would be up and you know, want to shit on it. But everyone there just talked about how brilliant it was.

Well, they had a, the club there had a course on another piece of land, correct? Mm-hmm. And then they built this and then just because they had kind of outgrown that other one. There's a lot, there's more to story that I don't know. So it's something like that. So as far as the actual club goes, it seemed like it was, I had a tough time kind of figuring out what the vibe was. Was it a visitor's club? Was it a local club? It just felt like it was kind of in the what the vibe was. Was it a visitor's club?

Was it a local club? It just felt like it was kind of in the in between. It's definitely visitors. It's a that's a hot spot for people to go. I mean, it's there's a lot of bus parking there. They do a lot of business at that place. And they should. I mean, it's definitely a well worth stop.

And it's close to like, like if you're going to a ballet body and there's absolutely no reason not to go to Trilly, I mean, it's you'd be missing out. In Waterville. Yeah, I mean, that's close to like, like, if you're going to belly button and there's absolutely no reason not to go to Trilly, I mean, it's, you'd be missing out. And waterville. Yeah. I mean, that whole hot bet. We kind of jumped around between belly bunion and Trilly. How, how close are they? They're about maybe 45 minutes driving.

I think we went down. Yeah, I can't even tell. I'm excited about that. On a map, they're, they look really close, but it's like, you got to come inland and then go back outward. But it's, I mean, those two should be a package deal. Like, my dad and I played them on the same day, one day. I mean, in like October when there wasn't that much daylight, they were that close.

I'd also like to call out the Mr. Palmer statue. I thought, most of these courses have like a statue of, you know, Valley Bunnings got Tom Watson, and thought his statue was- Mr. Watson. Was really, really fitting of Arnold just to just alpha power Stan Paul. Yeah, like looking over his creation, it was, it spoke to me. What's the best statue in golf?

Well, I mean, I'd put that one up there. It's gotta be the paint Stewart one, right? Pineapple? That's gonna be tough to beat, that's gonna be. But I agree, I think that palmer one, I would put, I thought it could punch with anybody. We won't pass the... There was a Trump one at Dunebag.

No. We won't pass the Bill Clinton statue. Yeah, where was that? That was in... I think it was in Ballybony. That is in Ballybony, yeah. Yeah, but it's in the town. Yeah.

That's right, that's right. Yeah, that was strange. And there's the even visited. Where was the goat statue in that town where they, like, oh gosh, I can't remember the goat celebration. The name of the town where they would have that weird goat celebration that, they would beat up the goat.

There was some conflicting reports of what they would do to the goat. Do you know why that is? Well, I think we should talk about the back nine. Yeah, probably. I was gonna say, yeah, ready to move up. So 10, 10, you kinda go down the hill towards the dunes. Tron glossed it, Aiman's corner, I believe, EA, MOF.

Yes. Or maybe that was coin that they glossed it that. That was Tron, that was TC the younger. Uh, yeah, 10 11 12 was was pretty spectacular. 11 13 was the best. That's the whole thing I said. I, well corners only three holes started calling it Mr. Palmer Schwarz. Just yeah, just the maybe the girthiest part five at the time.

She says. Listen, for sure. We can take that off. I'm glad you used Mr. Paulman. I'm glad you said Mr. Paulman. For sure. It was 12, the one that goes down the hill to like the green that kind of, yeah. Let's do him one at a time here, right?

I mean, 10 was, I thought 10 was spectacular. Just a stout part for such a like beefy part for, especially after you're kind of, somebody got ejected. I got ejected I think I was like even on the front and then just got nuked I think I went like triple I think I have what Russell West broke to the next the next two we're playing pretty good golf So I think I think I work yeah exactly yeah just a beefy lengthy part for that

Death bunker on the left hand side, but then the further right you go, the more you're playing to an uphill green that kind of runs away from you as well. That was death bunker on the right too. Death bunker on the right. And then 11 was the par five right? Yeah, straight up the hill. Dead straight, par five.

But it, God, the day we played it, it felt like it was playing 800 yards up the hill. Probably not the most interesting hole, but unique. I don't think I've played very many parts. And visually intimidating. It was like a hat, which I, I like, I think those kinds of holes are good. It was like the winter X games played up the, you expected sway to be up at the top of the,

at the top of the half pipe up there. You did. You guys didn't feel that way? Huh? You know what, when I'm in Ireland, I'm not expecting sweat. I don't know. It was like a half fight. We just tried to convey. He was there the week before. So he's one of the people that tweets, God, just missed you guys. I actually shanked one on 11. My third shot that went backwards. That was, that was amazing. That was, that was like 70 yards and you shanked it so bad, I think you're like, and then hit the,

like, the shank hit the wind. Yeah. I went back like, it went down the hill. It went back like, 120. And then 12 was the par four down the hill, right? 12 and 13. That's a task. Is like, maybe my, it's like, four, five and six at LeHench

are like, we're a set. And then 12, 13 at, truly, we, where like maybe my favorite two-hole stretch on the whole trip. I mean, it's awesome, par four down to this. It's like an almost like a peninsula island green where you have this hero carry over this enormous dip and like it's built on top of the dune basically, I think. And it's like, if you had a good drive,

it's only like a little wedge in, but like if you missed that green like short or left, you are is gone. And it keeps cutting away to down the left. So the more you go to pin down the left, the more you're taking on. It should be a driver flip wedge. I snap hooked my T-shirt so I had three wood into that green, which is a tough. That's tough. That's a tough ask. Yeah. And then 13, just a hero carry again over a huge cavern. I don't know what, it's probably like, I don't know how to measure this,

but it's 70, 80 foot drop down to the bottom of the cavern that you have to carry. I think that's what's so cool about the Irish dunes compared to the Scottish dunes as well, is that you get such dramatic drop offs. It looks like it was all built with a big excavator and it's not. The dunes are just so much more inconsistent

or whatever you want to say, there's so much more rugged and arbitrary. You get those huge depressions and huge mounds, and we'll talk about that at Karn and stuff too, I'm sure. That's where he's kind of harkening back to a little bit of what we talked about at Dunbegg. It just didn't feel like a lot of that stuff was used in the way it was used in a place like, truly, you know, where it takes a lot of vision to be able to see, like,

okay, here's, you know, here's an unusable piece of land, but what if we worked around it and used the dunes, like, to an advantage rather than... Shut up, God! Well, I was gonna say God. I was gonna say God was the design. Right, so he had a plan for the thing all along. Well, 13 was, that's probably their signature hole. Yeah, you could debate it. There's a four more on the back. Another one visually where, because of that like 80-foot drop,

it's almost like playing to a shell. Like, it's just this flat green. Green is, it's very inviting if you can clear all this. And there's a bit of a backstop behind it. Yeah, exactly. So you're like, I just got to hit a solid wedge here or nine iron, whatever one. It can remind me that just a more extreme version of the mass hole. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Similar, you know, flat flatish green, yeah. Dune behind, but similar chasm in front. Just a dramatic effect though, of having the dune as the backdrop behind the green,

and also the cavern that you're trying to carry, like the double, I love a good shot, like to a green set underneath the dune, I think that's all good. It was also slightly uphill too, right? Yeah, yeah. Which kind of, like even just being- Just messes with your eye,

and you know, two or three, four feet above. You can't really see the green as well, and yeah, just that little variable messes with you. Two with your eye and ball play. Two with three, four feet above. You can't really see the green as well. And yeah, just that little variable messes with you so much. I think it really, this is a weird segue, but it really reminded me when the dunes get really wild and shapely like that, it reminds me of like what it looks like at Stream Song, which is why just talking to a couple people there,

it's like if they're going to add a fourth course there, I would be shocked if it's not like an Irish style links like that because that's what it it feels like you you very rarely ever see anything even close to that in America and that seems like the one place that it could kind of be replicated a little bit over here. We'll see if the cat can replicate that. We'll see yeah that rumor is. Shout out to the phosphate mine. Shout out to the Mosaic group in the phosphate mine.

So then 14 was, it doesn't really stick out in my mind. No, that was pretty sweet. Actually, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too, I'm not too,

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And then after you get around 13's backstop, dude, the ocean kind of reveals itself. Well, so I felt like with the two fairways, it was kind of obvious which one to go at. The other one was just kind of. Well, it could be the pain where the pin is. It might be different. If it's back right, you may want to go to the left. This split fairway wasn't the best part. I thought the kick out and the other one was just kind of... Well, it could be the pain in where the pin is, it might be different. I don't even know if it's back right, you may want to go to the left, but not.

This split fairway wasn't best part. I thought the kicker in the approach shot of that green was awesome. It was a good green. Yeah. And then... And then 15. Driveable, 15th hole. Like set a green again, just kind of surround it.

It's a risky drive because if you miss the green, you're probably in the dunes somewhere and that might be losing golf. That was not a green light special. No. And then 16 par green light special. No. And then 16 part three, it's cool. One kind of minor, minor issue I had with the greens was all the part threes were just like a perfect oval green. Like there was wasn't a ton of intrigue

in the shape of the green. And I thought 16 is a really cool setting. And then the green just kind of like a perfect little oval. This is, you know, God's got a suggestion box. I thought 16 is a really cool setting and then the green just kind of like a perfect little oval. You can, you know, God's got a suggestion box. I'll put that in with my tie on Sundays. That's kind of for the whole back nine, maybe not all of it, but it did feel like the intrigue

or the focus was the actual hole and the dunes and like the crazy drop-offs. And then it was like once you made it to the green it was like pretty were, the focus was the actual hole and the dunes and like the crazy drop-offs. And then it was like once you made it to the green, it was like pretty flat, you know, for the most part. Compared to other places we played. Which is fun. Randy, what do you think? I agree with you guys.

I don't have much that. 1718. Newer. 17 uphill, like dog legging to the right, par 4. It's only like 330, 350 yards, something within that, depending what T play. And it's super, I mean, a pretty much blind approach shot. It's kind of an awkward T shot. And then you go up another over like a huge dip in this super elevated green, which is

like one of the more, one of the more picture s-calls you get at the top of that one. And you can see basically it's the highest point on the property. You can see everything. And then 18, par five, just coming right up the hill. Takes you home. Yeah, I mean, I could sit and talk. We just did talk about everything

in the hole in the back nine. It really is a genius back nine. And then four or five, good, really good standout holes on that front nine, too. I like this course. This was one that I was kind of most nervous to come back to, but kind of like, yeah, this one might disappoint a little bit, and this exceeded my first experience there by big time.

Like, the more I've kind of seen a lot of other golf courses and learned about course design and links and stuff, I was even more impressed at the second time around. Well, in fact, one of the guys who worked on Trilly, Harrison Minchews, the same guy who just redid our home course, Jack Speach. There's a lot of similar features. A lot of similar topography.

Same dude. We didn't talk about 18. What do you want to talk about 18? We did not talk about 18. I just said it's part five of the hill, taking us home. Oh, well, I think we. What would you like to add? Did I thought that was probably the weakest hole in the back

nine? Probably. Yeah, so nine and eighteen, but shouldn't get off Scott free. I feel like you see a lot of that with 18th-ones courses like this way. You got to get back to the clubhouse. Yeah, they're turning to connectors.

Nine and eighteen both had like a minefield of fairway bunkers. Nine was way better. They were kind of having a soulful. Yeah, because that was one of the things that was missing a little bit with Irish things golf versus Scottish was the fairway bunkers. There wasn't as much strategy or placement off the tee.

There's just not as much width in a lot of places as you see in Scotland. Yeah, so it's not as easy to put, you know, some really cool center line bunkers or cross bunkers or whatever, because you just don't have as much place to hit it Also a lot of these courses were built More recent

Weird era. Yeah. Yeah I definitely I think about that a lot. It was kind of like it was way not way too often But like we were able to reach for driver with pretty much no fear in it for most of the time Which is like Scotland. You're like well, if I had driver here I'm gonna run out into that bunker, which is the most, I think, the most fun part of Scotland golf. It's like trying to think about, like knowing the run out, having to predict

Fort is it gonna run out? Forty yards, 60 yards and all that. Yeah, all these, I don't know if it's intentional or just kind of the way it worked out, but a lot of these courses feel a lot more, you know, group travel friendly than some of the Scottish Scottish type courses. I mean it feels like you're hopping on a bus and going from one to the next to the next and they're all different

But there's a lot of common threads. All right, let's get to our next one This one might take us a while to get through. Carne DJ. Why don't you take us there? Yeah First of all, I'll say this is probably the most unlike anything that we played on this trip and maybe the most unlike anywhere I've ever been. It was completely rugged, even though it opened for play in 1992 was the first year that the first nine opened. It was an Eddie Hackett design, I believe is last. And we drove like four hours. We drove way out of the way to get there. And it's in the middle of nowhere.

I mean, it's not on the way to anything. Bell Mullet. Bell Mullet way up. It's kind of north of where we were. It's kind of still in the middle of the country, but way north of where we were. And the roads are not the most connecting out there. Mike, the driver was, he was locked in that day.

He was much less chatty because the roads were a little a little windier, a little little smaller. Well, there could be trees down. There could be trees down. We need to leave an hour early. But we got there and probably the, I mean, definitely the best hospitality that we got. And I think I don't say that because everybody

is fluffing the NLU boys. I'm saying that because you go there and there's just not a lot of people there. And the people who are there are the people who, you know, run the place and are so happy to see people who have gone out of their way to make the trip. And they will make it a very personal, very warm, awesome experience. And I think we definitely got that in spade. So just kind of logistics history here. It took a long time, like a lot of these courses,

it took a long time for them to buy up all the land up there in Belmulla. And this sounds like a joke, but talking to some people up there, to put it in context, some of the farmers and stuff they're talking about, trying to buy this land in the late 80s and stuff and trying to piece all this stuff together. And back then some of the farmers are talking about how,

like, no, you can't put a golf course there because the leprechauns live there. Like, you can't develop that land because that's like their home. And that's like- Everybody's in leprechauns live there. Like you can't develop that land because that's like their home. And that's like leprechauns. Yeah. And so obviously that's not indicative of the entire area, but like running into those types of folks and stuff.

It's like that's what we're talking about. We're off the grid up here. And so it took a long time for them to finally piece together all this land. They knew how good it was for a golf course. The street signs switch over to Galic. Yeah. You get over.

Exactly. That was the most feeling like we were in. You know, when you're in Ireland, you obviously feel like you're in another country, but it's pretty comfortable for Americans to be over there. And that was the most like, like I said, that was the most we felt like we were away from home. So you get up there and Eddie Hackett, they brought in who's kind of a legend and Irish,

Irish golf design. I don't know how you, we were kind of comparing him to like James Brade of Scotland probably. Well James Brade was very, way more prolific. Yeah, but kind of doesn't get the, yeah, just underrated. Exactly, yeah, it doesn't get it. Exactly, yeah. And so Eddie Hackett came in, built nine at a time. First nine, opened in 92, second nine, opened in 93. And it is just the most rugged, pure golf experience that you can ask for.

I was shocked when we played a few holes. And I was like, wait, this was built in 92. I thought it was built in the 1892. Exactly, for sure. was built in 92. I thought it was built in the 1896. Exactly, for sure. It feels so old. And it just, I don't know, man, they nailed. If you love pure golf, I mean, I wouldn't go there because the comfort stations were great or anything like that.

But if you want to go there because you love the soul of golf, I mean, this is put it at the tippy top of your list. It was another course where I felt like everybody built up the back nine so much. I thought the front nine held its own. It's a little bit flatter over there, four, five, six, but there's some really cool greens and another Bogeyman complex. Off of, I believe it was seven, the par three. bogeyman complex. Off of, I believe it was seven, the par three.

Bogeyman has a summer house on the right, down in this cave. The thing I'll remember about the first hole specifically is we didn't know where to hit it. Because there's three nines. And they all kind of are the first, the teas for all of them are really close and it's always like a shared tea box for the Killmore 9, which we'll get to. Yeah. And like I was ready. I was like, I got guys, I've been here before. Like we're going on

that fairway. And it was the wrong fairway. Well, even like Mr. Ireland himself, Tom Coin, like, didn't, yeah, he, he would have had us going the wrong way. It was cool to be there with coin because, you know, place like this that's so far out of the way, it's really hard for them to break through, you know, plays like this that's so far out of the way. It's really hard for them to break through, you know, on, you have all this American golf travel and most of the people who are coming over, they know that they're supposed to play,

you know, old head and truely and waterville and Ballet Bunyan and all these courses, it's really hard to convince people. Like, no, no, no, you should drive four hours out of the way to go up and play this place in the middle of nowhere that's super rugged and the greens are really slow. And it's the opposite of everything you've played. Which, to me, sounds like a perk. Like, that's...

I'm gonna protest a little bit when everybody says it's so far out of the way. And I know it's all relative over there. And the same thing in Scotland, and we're like, oh man, like, Dornick and Brawra or Colin or Crunbe those are so far out of the way. And it's like, we're used to driving those distances. And I know it's different in Ireland when the roads are small,

but especially if you have a driver or a shuttle or whatever. A, I thought it was approachable Mb. It's like, I thought we'll get to NSC on Sligo, but I thought those were 45 minutes to an hour down the road. And you could add those courses in and have probably, I thought those were, I mean those were 45 minutes to an hour down the road. Right. You could add those courses in and have probably like, to me, I'd go back, I'd go back there in the heart for sure. The point being, I think it's like the mistake I made when I went with my dad like three,

three years ago is we played all those courses in the Southwest and like my buddies, one of my Irish buddies like you have to play car and it's the greatest golf course in the world. And I was like okay, we're going and we drove four hours there to play it and then four hours to double and to go home. Right. And our reaction was like, okay, like that was cool. I don't think I would have done that again. If I was to do an itinerary, it would be, let's stay in that area, stay, relax and enjoy

it and you're not rushing out and then also play the other courses in that area. That's what I'm saying. Like there's critical mass up there to where you can do, like it's like going up to, I like the Highlands as a good person. The Highlands, yeah, totally. But I was gonna say about it kind of being out of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere, whatever.

It was cool to be there with coin because before his book came out, really it hadn't gotten a ton of press and we were asking them like, you know, where do, how do people hear about you? And and they're like, it's literally it's Tom Coins book. Like that's that's why people come. He called his favorite course in all of Ireland. Yeah, and so it's really cool to be there with him and see how much he loves it and I think that

shines through a ton and hopefully that shines through on the episode a lot as well. I will say too, for context, Tom said outside of the very first time he played Carn, the weather that we got that day, the best he had seen. He said sometimes it can be, you know, spitting rain sideways, which it can be that anywhere in the British Isles, but we caught it on like a absolutely gorgeous day, which was cool. Yeah, you combined that with the ruggedness. So I I felt like it was more hiking. Yeah.

With kind of golf in between. It felt like an activity more than it felt like golf. Yeah, and really, I'm very attracted to that. I I've never been to old head, but what I've started to think about is you kind of have two options once you're coming from the Southwest. You can go, and if you relate to California, it'd be like going to old-heads, like going to Sonoma, or Napa, you know, the wine trip, it's going to be like first class all the way, and this going to car and it's like going to Big Sur. Like, do you think it's camping? You know, that's what you're into,

which is what I'm into, more sorry TC, not, I don't have the refined palette that you do, but I'm gonna Santa Barbara. Yeah, but I'm thinking, I wanna be the fun, so. I wanna, you know, it's kind of the glamping or camping, you know, we're going hiking, waterfalls, like it's, you're out there, man.

It's great. Feels like I'm in the Esselin Institute. For sure. This could be up in the Lasca. They do like naked, you're out there man. It's great. Feels like onto the Esselin Institute. For sure. This could be up in the lost code. They do like naked. I will say it's about a lot more than golf up there. Totally. I think that's a really well said way to put it

because golf, when it runs together, is when there's nothing really differentiating one course from the next. And I completely agree. Like that was, it just didn't, it felt like so much more than golf, which I know sounds cheesy or whatever, but I'll make it worse. I walked off the course and I was agree, that just felt so much more than golf, which I know sounds cheesy or whatever, but it did. I'll make it worse.

I walked off that course and I was struggling to describe it. I think I said, I've never felt more connected with the earth than I did during that round, because it's like my favorite game in the world is golf. That was one of the coolest topographies to do it on. I hate, hate, hate. This course was more found than designed, but this is the course that fits that description better than any

other course I've ever played I think. But if you lead like the the hiking aspect to it or the cross-country part of it, if you lean into that like if you go into it knowing like I've got I've got my bag on my back like we're we're grinding out here you know what I mean? Like, I was having some serious hiking along the rangers. I was like, I was like, hitting over into moon craters. But then at some point I was like, this is awesome. It's the sea of tranquility. No one else is seeing this.

And like this is real. You know, I was like, I felt like I was seen a part of the golf course at No One. I think when you adopt that mindset, and I know you can't do it every time because you can't. That's the thing. You got to get ready for that. That's where I think Randy's point is,

a good one on the weather and conditions and all that stuff because that's a big step towards feeling this way. But when you do feel that way, like all of a sudden there are no unfair golf holes in the world, there are no unfair shots. All of a sudden it's just like, ah, hey, you know what, this is the challenge. Like that's what it looks like.

Yeah, it's the rubber green. You gotta just do it. When they say like they didn't move Earth, like they didn't move Earth. And some of the fairways look like, ah, hey, you know what, this is the challenge. That's what it looks like. Yeah, it's the rough of the green. You gotta just do it. When they say they didn't move earth, like they didn't move earth. And some of the fairways look like, this is kind of dumb, but weirdly, kind of doesn't come into play because the slopes are so dramatic.

It just rolls all the way to the bottom. Like they didn't have the money to move earth. Yeah, and they make like, there's like like 20 bunkers on the whole course or something like that, because that was the most expensive part. But I think it's important, and hopefully, basically for any course we ever talk about is kind of setting the

expectation, like understanding the expectation. Because the first time I went, I read a John Garity, a long-time sports illustrator writer, made this video and wrote a ton of stories about how it's his favorite golf course in the world. And every year grew up there, right? Are you at family there? I have family there. And he goes there for a year, or if I'm sorry, he goes there for a week and plays the course just on repeat.

He goes every year. His favorite golf course in the world. And he spoke about it in a way that just made me think like, I'm about to experience this true hidden gems. And I went, and I don't want to say I was disappointed, but I went and had this expectation for it, and it just kind of fell flat. So going the second time, my expectations were more leveled and I saw, I think, what he saw in that it was just brilliant.

And so, and another person telling me, this is the greatest golf course in the world, you gotta go see it, that I had built it up too much in my head and didn't appreciate it for what it was. Understanding what it is, it kind of leads you to, I think, the experience that we had, which was like, this place fox. My expectation was that it was going to be like the conditioning was going to be a lot

shittier. It was in really, really good shape. The greens were smooth. I was blown away by that element of it too. And I think, I mean, links courses get a pass, a natural pass anyways. I know this is obvious, but they get a natural pass for slower, shaggy or greens, just because the greens are so wild. And carn is like the perfect example of that.

Yeah, it's windy and the slopes are out of control, so it's like, yeah, if you wanna turn them up to 14, then you're gonna have six hour rounds out there. So they also get a pass, because like that's the, they, not in Ireland, but like in the British house, they invented golf. Like that was golf. We're the ones that made the greens really fast.

Like, it's a good point. Can we talk about the back nine? Because that was like teeing off on 10. And it's just, it's like, it's like big mountain snowboarding. You know, where you're like in the back bowls at Vale or like, you know, like off-piece at, you know, shaman-y or something like that. And you're just, trust me, I'm trying to go on.

I'm just shaman-y. Dude, you haven't even been to shaman-y. I know, that's what I'm saying. It's wild. It's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, Hell is skiing in, you know. You haven't done that either. You've seen British Columbia.

I know, that's what I'm saying, man. It's like, I watched the... I watched the job you want. I watched the know, that's what I'm saying, man. It's like I watched for the job you want. I watched for YouTube, man. I watched these videos, man. Candid, though, Vex, and Travis Rice and those guys. Travis Rice is a bunch. But yeah, like 10, it was like, oh my God, this is,

was this part-fragadant specifically, yeah. This is part five and you're going, again, all right, which fairway do I go down here? And then it just kind of makes this S-turn and you can go at it, but you gotta be, I mean, it's 50 yards wide the fairway, but you gotta be, it's kind of a blind shot and you're trying to figure out just where to get it up and it's like this cavern or this big canyon.

And yeah, that hole and then, well, I mean, well, even on 10, so 10, you're hitting your either second or third shot into this, like big ass, it feels like a Roman like cramping or something, you know? It's like this massive back wall where this dune is built. And again, it's another perfect example

of like the dune was there and they found the perfect place for the green rather than, you know, trying to move a bunch of stuff and manufacture something. And allegedly, people were saying that the first hole at dune bag, which I think we all, you know, thought was pretty good, was kind of modeled after this, this part five, it's really similar, they feel really similar. but then once you see the one at Duneback first, you're like, oh, wow, that's a cool hole in good usage of this Dune and cool framing and everything.

And then once you see the, the car in one that it's modeled after, it's almost like when you buy a car or something and you're like, you know, I feel like I don't really need like the top of the line thing like this is just like totally fine for me. This totally fits my needs and then you like rent a car that's way nicer or whatever and you're like, I don't know it could do that. This is way better. Like I didn't want to admit it, but this is way better. That's how I felt about

about that whole. That's number 10. Number 10 at current. Yeah, so I also want to call out the sea of tranquility, basically blow out, dune on the left. Everybody. The fuzz punk. Everybody hit it right, and I was the only guy over there, and I like crest this. He took the pad bless travel. It's like this 10 foot rise up, and you're thinking,

like, you know, you have no idea. You can't see over it. And I get to the top, and it was just like, I look down. I'm telling you, it was like 200 feet. And it was and it was like so far down that you it looked like it's a 10 or 11. This is 10. Okay. Like down the left. And I was just looking around like no one else has seen this. Yeah, I didn't hit it. I didn't see. I missed it. It was awesome. No one else is capable of hitting it. Well, and then I went down there. Like I went all the way down and I found the ball.

And I had to hit like, me a blade down. I did a lob wedge and I barely, barely took a donkey ride down to the bottom. It was nice to see me. Once you came up to the, actually like in, actually the Heather was really tough at, at carn, but in some of the dunes, you could see the ball. It'd be like 500 feet down, like away from you.

And you'd be like, well, there are a lot of false alarms where it was actually a snail. That's true, too. Yeah, that was frustrating for me specifically. Which, so anybody that says, oh man, these snails are endangered, like, they didn't seem that endangered. There were millions of them. They didn't seem that endangered out there. But but like I don't know a feature like that that

nobody's even really gonna see but it's they just that was what that proves to me like that was what the land was like that's what it's like yeah it's just not even touched that it just speaks to just how bad asked the land is even more than like how cool the golf courses which I think gets us back to you get back to the national park. Exactly. I'm hiking. I'm like, oh, what a what a feature that is.

Yeah, exactly. Well, we talked a lot about big dunes on this podcast. This is the biggest and the oldest and the grandest and there's so many of them and you would think you get numb to it by the end of it, but it just kind of escalates and escalates and escalates and you do the 11th hole, which is like just dog leg right par four around. I can't estimate heights somewhere between 70 and a thousand feet foot height, dude. I guess the biggest dude I've ever seen on the golf course. Coin, coin literally accidentally allegedly hit it on the tippy top of that. So did John

11. I had this great photo of him that I'll share when the episode goes out just to show like the scale of this thing of him standing up there hitting down. Yeah, 70 feet or whatever down to this. It's the coolest hero whole to you can play a really sensible shot up the left or you can cut off the dune and then the winds coming off the right and you right. And then the next hole was beautiful. Absolutely fantastic. It's almost like a mini reverse version of 11, right? Yeah.

Or it kind of curls around to the left around a smaller dune and uses the dune in the same cool way but feels completely different. And it calls for a different shot. I really like 13 straight away, par five, kind of uphill out to the water. Yeah. A lot of cows over the right. Yeah, like cows, like pastures on the right.

And, you know, with the wind, like, you just got to hit like really, really solid, straight golf shots. Yeah. And it just feels like it goes on forever. 14th to par three. Yep. Par three down by the water. Par three, which was just felt,

we're the, I don't know, almost like Australia or something. Like just kind of weird, 14th to par three. Yeah, par three down by the water, which was just felt We're the I don't know almost like Australia or something like just kind of weird weird dunes and bunkers and just felt different It felt like it fit with the rest of the course, but also felt completely unique Well, the vibe changes out by the back corner of the property because you get close to the water and it's flatter and it feels It feels a little bit more like kind of how dukes felt with the and it feels a little bit more like kind of how dukes felt with the some more pastoral. Yeah, exactly. Less dramatic with the dunes, but then you're heading back into them. I love the feeling of being on the edge of things and that like it belt and belt in Ireland. That like 14th hole feels like kind of the edge of the world. Yes, a little bit. Totally. And then the 16th hole, 15th

hole is a tremendous part for 16th. You're perched up atop this dune. Like I can't wait for this episode, because when you guys see the footage, like the drone footage of these guys teeing off on 16 and the dune that they're standing on, you can't put it into perspective. 16 might be an example of like, is it a great part three?

Like no, probably not. It's just like a dead circle. So I'm sure there's not much going on, but is it completely dramatic and incredibly fun to play? I 17 was so hard. So hard. 17 is the guarantee. For charity, John Gerdy will come out and play the 17th hole 18 times and just try to par it. It's like a long, that was really difficult.

A pill par four dogling to the 18. 18 was difficult. Yeah. There's all this land movement in to the back. So it was 18. 18 was difficult. Yeah. There was all this land movement in the fairway. You getting bad lies. Land movement might be an understanding. Yeah, it's like a 100 foot drop from the top of the fairway.

But I felt like for most of the course though, out there, like the difficult aspects of our walks are in between holes. And if you missed the fairway, obviously. But like the fairway is itself, I felt like we're pretty flat. Like I wasn't getting a ton of, you know, there was some like big, like one side of the fairway, obviously. But like the fairways itself, I felt like we're pretty flat. Like I wasn't getting a ton of, you know, there was some like big, like one side of the fair would be up here, but it would be.

Slopes are so dramatic that the ball rolls out. It doesn't give you a ton of like uneven lines. That's what I mean. I didn't feel like I was hitting with the ball below my feet a ton if I was in the fairway. So that note on the ruggedness. So when my dad and I played there several years ago, the pathways between the holes were not what they currently are and

It was exhausting and like it was weird because I kind of was obsessed with the pathways at Valley Bunyan and and Waterville and some of the ones we had in between holes. It was beautiful grass walkways and it seemed like a Weird thing to come up but when we got to Karn and we're walking through the like doon scapes Up and down the hill or something push carts like it was walking through the like doon scapes, pushing it down the hill, push carts. Like it was truly exhausting. But now, on a lot of them, they have like this turf in between some of the holes.

And Coin looks at it, he points out. He goes, look at that turf right there. It's a beautiful green turf. Look see that white stripe there? I think there's random white stripes. He's like, they got that from a local soccer field. It's like a community project, that golf course almost. And they got the turf probably donated from. Yeah, we'll take that soccer field. It's like a community project that golf players almost, and they got the turf probably donated from the soccer field.

And it's just don't want to throw them that away. Yeah, we'll take it. And so that eliminated one of the issues with the golf course, and it's just kind of like patching it together. And that's what like, when you, it's weird to say, and I don't think this is unique to just us or the access we get. And we all kind of walked away saying,

it feels really great to go to a place where your presence matters. And I mean that, for every paying guest, it's gonna get that kind of treatment. They do like 6,500 rounds a year maybe. And for them, the difference between 4,000 and 6,500 is the difference in staying open and alive. So it's like a place that I wanna encourage people, C500 is like the difference in staying open and away in the life.

So it's like a place that I want to encourage people, couldn't encourage harder. That's what we need to get to. What Coins said that on the way up there, I thought that was interesting too. It's like it matters if you show up here. Yeah, it's no different than going to a really good, like Trilly is a really, really awesome restaurant

that's packed every night. And it should be because it's great. But isn't it way more fun to go to some hidden gem that nobody knows about that, you know, could close its doors if the right people don't find out about it or whatever? Like, it's, yeah, it feels good to do that kind of stuff. I want to go back 18 was one of the best coolest finishing holes I've ever played. It was really. It's either the layups, it's a par five, you either lay up to 150 yards and have a basically flat angle over this giant dip or go for the green and carry all this stuff and risk being, you know, in a milk carton to shout out the X games again. It felt like the, what's the event that Sean Palmer

I was used to win with a snowboarding, where they like hit the rollers. No, Sean Palmer. No, Sean Palmer. No, Sean Palmer. Yeah, he was like the goat way back in the day. You know what I'm talking about, where they race down the hill.

Border X. Border X. Yes, that's what that whole felt like. It was like you start up here and it's like, you know, like rollers and then it banks and then rollers again and then everyone's racing into the finish. Anyway. That's a lot of description.

That's a lot of description. Well, the best part was, you know, like we go in, we get some Guinness at lunch with Fiona and Jerry McGuire and Jerry's to be down. Jerry starts the on has to show him the money. We down in Dublin. He worked on Dublin and then he had vacationed up there and ended up just moving up there and he's now the president of the club and Fiona's the general manager and they're going through their budgets and their finances and everything and saying, like, yeah, if we

get another 100 rounds here, we can do this. It makes it very, very real. Yeah, so if we get this, exactly. If we get another 100 rounds here, we can do this. It makes it very, very real. Yeah. So if we get this, you know, exactly. If we get another 100 rounds, like we can hire somebody, we can hire another greenskeeper. And like, this is going to improve by it this much. And we can get another mower or we can get whatever it's awesome. And I think so they had talked about, like, they kept talking about the Kilmore 9. Oh, God.

And they had let it go fallow for... Last year, the huge drought. Yeah, they just couldn't water it, and they couldn't, and so, you know, we kind of keep hearing about it and everybody's like, man, that 9-up, there's really wild, like, it's gimmicky, like, I don't think, you know, you're probably like some of the holes, but like, yeah, it's just too wild. It was the original, like, for the original course they designed, it was deemed the part of the property that was too dramatic to put golf on.

Unusable. Unusable. And like, the back nine, the analogy accepted. The back nine is already insane. And then you look at that and you're like, oh, there's more dramatic stuff. And so, and Coen hadn't played it yet. Either so he built it since he had been there.

Which is cool, because he had written, famously written, this book about playing every links in Ireland. And this was, I knew when it opened in 2013 Ireland. This was a new one that opened in 2013. And this was the only one he hadn't played. He was like, he was giddy about it. He's like, I can't believe I get to play. There's a new one I've never played. You guys realize how cool this is?

There was the perfect, the way I kind of think of it is, all right, here's our 18 holes. Like, front nine's tame-ish. Like, there's some zelstromatics, back nine's pretty exciting. If you liked that, all right, we got nine more.-ish, but there's some zelts, dramatic's, back nine's pretty exciting. If you liked that, all right, we got nine more. Now, don't judge us off this other nine, but we got the craziest shit you're ever gonna see. You might get lost between holes.

You might, the holes, some of them don't make any sense. You're gonna play a par five with a second shot over maybe the second biggest dude on the entire property. And you're gonna go have fun and you're gonna love it. And it's like golf on acid. It felt like looking at an artist after an artist dies and they go through their basement. Whoa, what the fuck was he thinking about this one? No wonder he never released this. So it was my favorite. Way out there. Favorite nine. But we played Scotch ForSums, which I think was very helpful there,

because it was a fun math problem to solve with somebody else. It was. So the way Scotch ForSums works, if we haven't explained it, is you have two man teams, both players T-Off, you take the best drive, and then play all-chop from there. And it was, so there was what, eight of us out there? Seven of us. seven of us, top play zone ball. That's right. Seven of us out there and playing team game on what

I would say is easily the wildest golf holes I've ever seen in my life, probably will ever see in my life. And so yeah, like you said, it's just feels like every single shot felt like holy shit. Neal, Neil, what are we doing here? And where we can't be here, we have to be here, we can't do this. And when you play, I would for sure recommend playing a different format or a more comfortable format because if you're playing your own ball,

you're gonna go shoot 55. Well, if that's your 27th hole, or your third nine of the day, that's the only, because it is a rugged walk. It's like, don't go keep score out there. Yeah, exactly. It's just go have fun. I do want. That's the only thing. Because it is a rugged walk. It's like, don't go keep score out. Yeah, exactly. It's just go have fun. I do want to shout out the big guy for, I think, on the back nine.

Randy or God? Randy. And God, shout out. I think you shot one over that round. No, it was probably a few more strokes, but I played really well. I mean, you were ballin' out. No, I think you, because you birdied. I remember really well. I mean, you were ballin' out. No, I think you, because you birdied, I remember we came off that 18th and you were like,

man, I just shot like 37 or 38. Yeah, you golfed it. There's a best, I've seen, on that trip it was the best I saw you play. It could be the best I've ever seen you play. Yeah. Well, I want to recognize that. I want to go back and do a little composite course there, because I think they've, they can weave that kill more, because some of the best holes in the entire property are on that kill more or not and they can weave those in and

It would be Masked that would be one of the most of a play the back is the front and the kill more is the back. I think the only the only hole worth really that kind of like breaking down is I forget what number it was, but the par five. The Mad Max hole. The Mad Max hole was picture, just because I'm not sure, if whatever, sometimes things don't translate to video or whatever, but it was basically the clon, like a really long version of,

really long, really big version of the clon, like is that fair to say? At LeHage. At LeHage. And, yeah, you have to drive it in between, again, really long, really big version of the Klondike, is that fair to say? Which is a whole whole thing. And, yeah, you have to drive it in between, again, like every day, like the dunes are just getting bigger and bigger, so you gotta drive it between the biggest dunes in the world,

and then all of a sudden you're like, you're looking at it, you're like, okay, where are we supposed to go? Because all I'm seeing around me is a 70 foot dune in every direction. And you eventually start to piece together like, okay, I think I have to go directly over this one. Or I gotta play it out to the left, or.

The killmore's an adventure. It's like an adventure book. Like you pick a page, you know. I don't know where this is gonna be. But after you hit it over that dune, there's a big reveal with the ocean again. Yeah, in the pastoral lens that we talked about earlier. All right, we're gonna go get two more to go here.

County Sligo, Randy, why don't you take us there? Yeah, Sligo. It was the first nine holes relayed out in 1894. It extended 18 holes in 1906, but then it really got put on the map, so to say, in 1927, when Harry Colt came in for a big redesign of it, it's obviously in County SlaGo, the course is Ross's point,

which I asked Tom Coyne about, Mr. Ireland, and I was like, hey, Tom, why do they, do people call it Ross's point, do they call it County SlaGo, you know, do people call it Ross's point? Do they call it County Sligo? Like, why do they call it Ross's point? And he told me in like the most deadpan, like serious manner. He was like, yeah, David Schwimmer came over in like the late 90s and just like loved the course. And everybody around town like kept like seeing him and it created this big buzz

Tell me this and it like and then it like clicked to me. I'm like Damn dude like you can't like you can't mess with me like I'm like I'm like hanging on everywhere. Yeah, I'm like. Oh my gosh. This is so in like really? They're like Tom come on So anyway county slide just kidding, it was Rick Ross. Ross is funny. Yeah. The word that comes to my mind is just stately. Like it was such a just premium and proper golf course, I thought, I loved it.

Is there anything that happened there that made you think it was stately and primitive? Well, yeah, and I'll let you guys, you know what happened on the first t-box is something that you know I know we'll never forget we've spent a lot of this podcast saying like this isn't about the access we get If we're saying that this would be true of anybody blah blah This might be different. Yeah, I don't think yeah, we show up and they're like hey, we've You know, we've, you know, we've got, we're going to serenade you a little bit on the, on the first T as you, as you boys T off. I don't even know golf courses had men's choirs. Well, yes, I don't know.

I think it might be like one of the only courses with a men's choir in their membership. And so these, I don't know, 25 to 30 guys ranging from our age to 80 years old. They're in their blazers, a couple guys playing instruments. And they line up on the first T-box. They got friends and family there watching them sing. And they sing one traditional song of theirs, I believe. And then they sing... I don't know if they hit ours first.

They hit us with the shock value first. They wrote a song for No Lang Up, which was... That's a life thing. It was called No Neh Never Lay Up. I think, right? I had it in my head for the... No, I still have it. We're gonna do it to you right now.

We're gonna play the audio and get it stuck in your head. Hey, let's play a whole never know home. I've made a forecourt for many a year. I spent all my money up with ski and beer. But now I'm back up to high up in scores I've never been made in a up-no-war and it's the whole day now No way up, no they are, no never no more. And I got to the 7th, where I used to lay up.

I was right down the middle, I was by deep fucked up. I was about to play, but it's sailor degree. From that day to this, the most ever been seen And it's no later. No later, no later, no more. Would I play the piano? So that was the scene on the first tee, which is absolutely incredible. In the first tee, just to try to paint a picture, you can kind of see the town.

I thought it was gorgeous. You have this little picturesque Irish town, Yates Country, the famous Irish poet, and he was the rock out there that he would, yeah, I can't remember the note of the rock. Bill Ben Bulben. Yeah. And yeah, it's just this panoramic 360 degree view of what I think of like just gorgeous Ireland.

And so yeah, that sends us off the first tee. I didn't tee off in that group immediately after the serenade. I tee off first. So I wanted to ask you guys, were you nervous? I got to think, there's a few things in my life. I regret when you look back on them.

That might be one of the list. I had a left miss there. I almost hit a car. And it was not good. I would be clear clear that's the inward part of the course. That's not where the parking lot is. Yeah. Well, there's a road. It's a, you know, road goes through the the fairway and this car like right as I'm taking the club back comes comes from the left. No, they never know my just got really, really quick and yeah, just I wish I had

that t-shirt back. I played after Neil and that's how I was freed up. That was pretty sure as far away. Yeah, but that moment of the first tee was like, again, this isn't integral to anybody else's experience, but it was so surreal to be like, and I know that it's like it's great for them, it's on video, it's great publicity for the club and things like that. And that's why they did it. But it was also just had this charm to it. These guys on a Tuesday, they're getting ready

to go to work probably. It's like 7.50 in the morning. Very cold. Extremely cold. They get up in the morning, they put their blazers on and sing to a bunch of American lads that come over to play their club. But the pride that they have in their club,

it's not a, to kind of almost take back what I just said, it's not a marketing thing. It's like they are there to show us their club and show it off and have us, make us have a great experience. Yeah. Some of them came out and walked a few holes with us later and like wanted to hear more about us and stuff. And it was just, it had, it just oozed charm. It was awesome.

I think all of us have probably been to places where the locals are, all of us have probably been to places that are completely dependent on tourism, where the locals are so resentful of tourists and just like dependent on them but hate seeing them and this was completely the opposite. This was like, hey, we really need you guys and we really, really appreciate that you're here and we're happy to hear your story and all that stuff.

So I was actually the one course we played on the back half of the trip where I didn't felt like I didn't feel like there was any sort of they needed us from a visit or racist because of the edible, I guess, of all the clubs that was seen done really good financially standing. Yeah. And it was I was kind of fascinated by Ross's point or the town, like the town of Sligo down the road there. Where it seemed like there was a university in there

and there was some good, there was a lot going on there. It was a cool place. This was the one point in our trip that we were a bit rushed. It was near the end too. It sucked. We didn't really get to enjoy Sligo. We were off to Anastcrown later that evening. But, man, that golf course had some standout,

standout golf holes. I had the sixth hole. There's a little short part for it. I had a little like a moat feature around the green. It was just like a little gully that really affected the way you play the hole. I was the most... A dry moat.

A dry moat is like one of the most, I still think about it because I've never seen that anywhere else. And the guy- Five was one of the most subtle cool- So the one with the burn up the right side. That's the long part five. The short part five.

The short part five. The short part five. The short part five. I think there was a- No four. What was the one with the little kicker on the left? That was six. Six, one side five.

Oh, okay. And the seven was the one with the big- The big burn. Yeah, okay. Sorry. That was six, six. Oh, that was six. Oh, okay. And seven was the one with the big burn. The big burn. Yeah, okay. Sorry. That's quite all right. Three, that downhill dog like left, par five was incredible.

I mean, that was, it was just, I think I said this when we were there, it felt like Nairn to me. Just had a Nairn five, two. I felt so Scottish. Yeah. Of all the courses we played, it didn't have the wild ass students.

It was way more rolling. You could see the villages and say, other than they're going up the hill on one and two, it was pretty much flat. Yeah, exactly. The whole way. But they did an awesome job of making it interesting. And then one and then 16, I think the Part 5 or Part 4 that goes up to 17. 17, yeah.

That was a tough hole. That was. Yeah. So I kind of have problems with like I know it was flat, but I thought there was so much more interesting stuff going on with the greens than it there. Yeah, I think that's the trade-off Right, it's like if the golf courses flat the greens are usually wild and I think those are the best greens we played It was such a hand from like the way they roll if you know quicker Less less links. It was such a handsome, classy, like, proper golf course.

And this is the one that sticks out. And of course, ratings are, are, are what they are, but at least with endokes confidential guide, like the one that's stand stood out, seven, eight, seven, seven, were the four ratings that went to them. And that's extremely high praise from Tom Dough. But it, this doesn't, it, it's more, it's subtle.

It's quiet. It's, it's not, it's not big and, uh, bold in any way. It's just kind of a nice calm soothing touch. Yeah, and it's one that you know. If we were lucky enough to be members of any of the places and play there every day like I think that would be at the top of my list. You know like. For sure. Malib onion is phenomenal. It's a bucket list item but like what I want to go get punched in the mouth there every day. I don't think so. But there it is. Yeah, it's the amount of tourists that go through that. Yeah, exactly. This one just had a more club kind of feeling.

The only other thing worth mentioning on on a slaga before we move on is probably the West of Ireland championship that they have every year, which they have a really cool history. All these courses have have cool club histories and cool kind of club rooms and stuff. And they have the West of Ireland, this Amateur golf tournament there every year. And so we've got the whole list of winners. And it's awesome to just see all the people who have won on that golf course before.

Everyone from Rory to Rory's Cady. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to tell you diamond. Yeah. And also our guy Ken Carney, who's also a great player in his own right. A great player in his own right.

I thought the part, the part three's there were really exceptional. Yeah. They're like four. The one down the, down the hill with the burn and back. Mm-hmm. Was that 12 or 13? Yeah, yeah, par 13. I think it was 13.

Massive green. Yeah. That's going to be a heavily featured on the hit. 13. Yeah. I thought the par five's were good. I thought you were going to say the par five. 12, that, that par-five was, there's only three of them, I believe, but they're all.

The one wonky hole was 17, where you got to try it down. Really hard hole. And then the fairway runs out. And then you got to hit this long shot straight up the hill. Yeah, it's like a three wood. If you hit it up the hill. I thought 18 was probably on my list of favorite finishers for the trip to it's blind tee shot over this massive ridge and then you're playing your approach kind of straight down overlooking the town,

looking kind of like the bay that's there and but with a wedge with a wedge and which is nice way to finish. Yeah, it's not a yeah, three wood into the only cool thing to we literally finished like minutes before a torrential downpour so we affected our experience later that afternoon. Yeah, but we we got some really really good weather. All right, last course of the trip in a scrone, Randy. Yeah, so in a scrone, let I mentioned it, this was our only 36 whole day and And I think by the end of it, we were a little warned. By the end of it, I was like, okay, this is it. This is the last round. I'm kind of ready to be done.

Yeah, it wasn't the easiest of walks. It made for, it was a tough day. I think there are some diverse opinions on Instagram, not necessarily like bad opinions, but it was, you know, founded in 1918, so rather old by Irish standards, another Eddie Hackett design. To me, it's like a tale of two nines. I think the front nine is relatively flat. There are some really good holes, and we can get into them. But then you make the turn, and in the back nine, you get really wild, doonscapes, and in a lot more funky holes.

To me, it kind of felt like the back nine was almost like a car in light, like a diet car in almost at least some of the holes, the less cocaine. Yeah, substitute the cocaine with neutral sweet or aspartane. It was car zero. But those were some of the most dramatic dunes there. That we played. There's like a weird kind of people, like some people were tweeting this,

oh, NSCRO has got bigger dunes than Karn, or Kono Karn, and it's like, guys, let's not fight over this place. They're both good. They're both good. So yeah, I know, I don't know if you wanna break down a few of the holes, I mean. I think kind of my,

this is my first time seeing NSCrone. I was surprised that I, going into the day, I would have thought I would have been more impressed with NSCrone than Slido. I thought maybe it's just kind of after, like you said, it's diet-carn, after seeing car, and like that kind of style of wild and in the dunes, I wasn't maybe not ready for that. And we've talked about this some kind of over here, too. It's like, how well can you separate how you played with the golf course?

Let me say conditions were tough for a edition. Yeah, it was when we really got, we got hit with some wind and rain. Hard golf course. Yeah, and I just didn't have nearly the same fun that I did at something like Carn. The front nine was, it's like old farmland, dude. So you see the dunes, like, God, I want to go play in there, but we're out here. And you can tell they've messed with the routing over the years, like they've switched the routing up

to where you literally don't know which way to go. On, like after some of the greens. But I did, you know, it did start to pick up steam on the back nine a little bit. I thought the, what was that? Like the downhill par four. 12 where it had the motion sensor. Oh 13. Yeah, that was sick.

That was phenomenal. Well, I was cool. I was even gonna say I enjoyed the two par fours, nine and 10 along the beach. Yeah, I thought that was both of them, was that why? Why was he gonna say your boy kind of played well at the industry too? But, no, I just thought it was kind of a cool setting.

I don't know. Those holes stick out to me. But then, yeah, some really wild holes. The one nitpick I have is, like, without none of us had seen it before. I guess Koyne had been there, but he helped some. But the yardage book. Yeah. For how blind and kind of crazy a couple of the shots are on the back nine, 12, 13, 14,

I thought the yardage book could be a little better detailed to help you out because 12 didn't line us up properly. Yeah, yeah. You lost it. Yeah, the angle that it showed in the book wasn't quite Yeah, the angle that it played at Um, it was hard to hit shots in that part of the property too and like from the group behind there's somebody yelling phone

Well, no Always going going it was a dog like right. It was a complete dog like left So I hit this massive cut I'm like oh that's gets golden we had to have like a three-minute conversation about it before before Neil hit the ball I was like yeah dude it's you know here's what the hole does and you're gonna be what you're gonna want to go right at that Doon I think you've been talking to somebody else and I don't think so pal and then I was So, pal. And then he stood up and mentally fried. And he just, like, yeah, like you said, it snapped hard to the left. Like, you know, it looks almost like a degree job. It's likely a gun right.

And Neil just starts it at this dude that I'm talking about. And I think he's going to hit a draw and he hits a massive cut. And he's like, oh, that's perfect. That's the dead. You're not going to find that. And so then the whole goes out. What are you talking about? But I think for NSGROAN for me, it was, if you took Sligo and you took,

and you took Karn and you put him together. It was kind of like, it was kind of like, right in the middle. So for, when you look back, you're like, well, I'd probably rather play Karn, and I'd probably rather play Sligo. You know what I mean? It kind of had like a little bit of both.

Like front nine felt like sligo. The back nine felt more like the dramatic carn vibe. Some of the two takeaways I had were the finishing stretch. It was really good. It was really good. Yeah, I'm glad you said that. 16, 16, 17, 18 was like whoa. That was 16, 17 specifically.

Yeah, I thought where the hospitality was great to like you tell like cool town and club cool cool club house dining room grill rooms that pre pro Neil and I went to the NSCron pitch and putt right before to where they they had an old seven I think I think an old 737 or yeah, they were just no plane out there. It was kind of like a big boy pup pup course shot off the Randy But and then also so we had a birdie game going. Yeah, that made a lot of we can't it's gonna be Yeah, no, we're not gonna spoil it, but that's gonna make it was it was a dramatic finish

It was a tremendous like that was that's one I would Kind of encourage people to take up. It's a weird game We've never done it before but we didn't have a real good like running, you know kind of encourage people to take up. It's a weird game we've never done it before, but we didn't have a real good like running, kind of you versus me game going on, but we basically all pitched in however money dollars as a beginning of the week. And whoever makes the last birdie the trip,

no, it was for every birdie that was made. Oh, that's right. That's everyone pitched in a Euro. Yeah, so we ended up with, I don't know how in the 90s or something birdies made on the trip. And then the person that makes the last one gets the whole pot. Plus five for Eagles. I think we were up over, we were up over 500 Euro. Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, it takes the whole pot, which is pretty suspenseful way to do it. So kind of winner take all sweeps as a sweepstakes.

I just want to mention two things. This was our final golf round of the trip. And so I was begging our bus driver Mike to like one caddy for me, which he wasn't going to do, but then coming like riding the cart with me, which obviously didn't want to do that either. But he did come out. He didn't take carts, but take for him to take a card. For him to take a card. Yeah, yeah. But he did come out to the 18th green when the birdie game was kind of culminating.

And I did give him to hit a shot with one of my clubs. Congratulations. Yeah. Shout out Mike. God, Mike's the man. I think for me, NSG was, again, it's hard to measure the fatigue, in fact, or at the end of it and whatnot. But it's just the

one that didn't quite capture me. It just didn't have the charm fully engaged with that golf courses I was, some of the previous ones on the track. We also birdied our group birdied. Three out of the four of us birdied and Randy had like a eight foot birdie putt too. So it was kind of like, oh shit, maybe we're going to close this trip out. Right. And then just get it. We did not. Punch in the face.

It was a little funky, I mean, but like, Karin is also funky, and I really enjoyed it. I don't know why it's different from you. After, so we finished that round, and I was like, man, I'm so ready to not play golf tomorrow. And then I didn't play golf the next day, and the day after that, I was like, man, I wish I was playing golf again.

Like, if we had to You're 36 old days if we had taken a day off. Yeah, or had played that the next day on its own I think it would have been different. It'd be a great course to play with a local that It'd be we met up with the Philippe Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can tell you family friend of the friend of the pod from originally from France now lives in Dublin But yeah, you never know you never know who you're gonna run into out of these places so I was you say he was in the slender man yeah I think every we've said this a hundred

times that every every fan interaction we've had out there I think it's been a positive one so shut up for you to major driver demons he was telling me about he came to first boy play this is a par five. He had six iron off. It's dude But they know I got out to he ripped one on 18 But he said the mental miss he's like the problem with the mental miss like he didn't really apply to the driver Like I can't like mentally miss a driver That's it's tough. I was like listen. That's a tough scene. I was like, listen, that's a tough scene. All right, we got to wrap this up quickly.

Want to mention one thing. We were supposed to play nine holes at Mulranny. We regrettably missed this. That was another day we just tried to cram too much. And our third nine at Carn started way later than we thought, and we just weren't able to make it. It's a nine hole course from 1896. It's kind of like, it was supposed to be like our brawler

or culling on this trip. They got greens that are protected by wire fences keeping the sheep off them. And it was like, maybe the course that was most important to the course that we visit and we didn't. Like, we felt horrible about it. It just did not work with our itinerary. We had just barely overbooked ourselves.

So we painfully regret it. The pictures look awesome and it looked like the exact vibe of a chill evening, nine holes that we were looking for. And if you're ever on that route, we do suggest you check it out. Send us some pictures because we want to see them. We missed out on it and we're going to try to make that place happen sometime in the future. And that's Mulranny. So please do get a chance to check that out. Also want to give a shout to the where we stayed. We didn't really break down much on the itinerary front. I can run through that pretty quickly. We stayed at Trump International Golf Links at Dunebag

and then for our Round at Lahinch we stayed overnight at the Spanish Point House. Which is a light full. 10 out of 10. Yes. Oh my gosh. That was a nice day. Absolutely delightful. You'll see some of the I'm depending on how the editing process goes. You'll see some of these obviously in the tourist saw season. Next we stayed at a dare manor when we when we visited there. That was probably 10 out of 10. So that was very nice. 15 out of 10. Really nice. That was like real like real world big city. I didn't know strap. Boys. I didn't know what to do. Yeah, I didn't know you could have a place like that.

Uh, we at Valley Bunny, we stayed overnight at the Cliff House hotel. Shout to them because it was still standing after that storm roll. Oh my gosh. 80 mile an hour. Storm Hannah. I love the restaurant. Great. I was going to say I love the bar in there.

Yeah, they had to put two by four something. Yeah, the wind is blowing out with the wind. They came in the Brook lodge in Kalarning. That was awesome. is blowing out with the wind that came in. The Brook Lodge and Kalarni, that was awesome. I was really impressed with Kalarni. Kalarni was great. We didn't have a lot of, you know, in Scotland, you have a lot of these kind of like walkable villages and stuff.

We didn't have a ton of that in Ireland, but in Kalarni, that was perfect. Brook Lodge was a great place to set up. It's just set up shop and if you could make some driving day trips to places, you can come back to Kalarni and go to go to Rides in the evening and just absolutely tie one on. Readies and then the ice cream place. And the ice cream place.

Yeah. Yeah, Brooklage very centrally located. Four minute walk to all that. Yeah, it was a herfrey spot. In Belmollet, we stayed at the Broadhaven Bay Hotel. There's not a lot of options out there. There is, again, out there, but that was a nice day. The grand national hotel in Belina or Balina

Balina We're corrected many times by Mike That was a good jumping off point for our rounds at Innisfree in Sligo. So it was really pretty pretty hotel to that Really cool. Obviously piano and just yeah, a lot of cool stuff. Nice dinner. They also have nice restaurant. A formal dancing party like going on like did you peek your head in there? Yeah, it was pretty cool. They're there like like legit, contillion dancing. Really? Yeah. From there it was a two-hour drive to Shannon and our trip was over.

So I think that's successfully about three hours worth of Ireland pod. So hopefully this helps if you're looking to plan a trip to Ireland, if you have any questions, don't reach out to us because we already went through everything we know. And that's just kidding. Shout out quick to our guy, Mike, the driver. He drives for J.O. Callahan and Sons, the real MVP. And if you do, and if you engage J.O. Calhannon Sun Services, request Mike, you absolutely

will not be disappointed. And bring some rods to your CD. Bring some rods to your CD. The bus was a highlight. That was very nice. That was awesome. And then shout out again, if you're looking for someone to help you play in your trip to Ireland, experience Ireland golf, we couldn't have had a better experience with that.

Thank you to Tom Kennedy for organizing all this and everyone that played a part in hosting us along the way and it's fun to reminisce on this because this was a extremely memorable trip. We're getting better at planning these things. We didn't ever do it until like the very end. We are and I think the reason that we're getting better at planning these is because we're outsourcing some of the planning. Yes, that's probably true.

And that's where, you know, it's easy to, it's a lot of work to schedule one of these. If you want to do it by yourself, it's very possible to do so. But something like Experience Ireland really takes the guesswork out of it and just make sure you're going to have, it's a once in a lifetime trip for a lot of people, right? So it's like, you know, spending a little more money to have a group organize it for you, just I think ensures that it's it's gonna be a grand slam. We gave him a pretty specific list of courses that we wanted to play, and he figured out a way to make it happen and make sure that we weren't overdoing it.

Like he was the reason we didn't overdo it. We could have got ourselves in trouble quickly. We're quickly before we wrap, if you had to play one round of golf tomorrow, what would you, one of the courses we played, what would you, what course would you choose? Weather dependent, whether it's good, I play the Killmore 9. If the weather's bad, I play LeHinch. I think I'd say the exact same thing. I think maybe just because I just talked to it was one of the ones I was supposed to talk about,

I would love to go walk county Sligo I'm between those three. I think Lehnche Slig like Lehnche Sligo and Karna. I'm gonna go Sligo that place was Place spoke to me. I'm gonna go Lehnche I think we're probably Maybe a little clouded by our experience of belly bunion being the hardest conditions we could have had for it Like if we got a nice sunny day there that of course is absolutely amazing maybe a little clouded by our experience at Balibonium being the hardest conditions we could have had for it. Like if we got a nice sunny day,

that of course is absolutely amazing. I think we may think differently, but Le Hinch is the one that stuck out to me the most on this one. Carn is close second, but Carn is very weather dependent, I think too, as well. So good answers. All right, let's leave it at that.

Thank you everyone. All right, that's a wrap on that, and stay tuned for Toursau season four coming this fall. Cheers. Crap on. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most.