No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 253: Heathland Golf in England

Episode Date: October 11, 2019

In Part II of his England debrief, Soly breaks down the Heathland courses he played on his trip to England (Holinwell, Walton Heath, Sunningdale, Berkshire, and St. George's Hill). He talks about his newfound appreciation for heathland golf, what makes each of these courses special, some of the best holes, the English golf vibe, and a lot more. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions and feedback on the trip.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast, Sully here with part two of my debrief of the England Golf trip I made with my dad last month. If you happen to have missed part one, I cover the links courses that we played on the trip in the northwest part of the country that included Formby ladies hillside west Lancashire Formby south port and ainsdale royal rhythm and royal

burkdale. Also if you happen to have missed that episode we're going to follow the same format in this one. It is a solo podcast about my golf trip to England and to some of you that is for some reason appealing and interesting but to those of you that it's not if that's not what you tune to a podcast for that is totally understandable. I kindly recommend that you check out some of our other episodes or crack on to your other favorite podcasts, but that's what this one's going to entail. I know there were at least a fair amount of British people that had requested that I do a podcast on this and figured that it would be a good thing to cover, a good thing to have in our archives and a good thing to, it's evergreen. You can kind of listen to this one whenever

you want to or if you're planning a trip or have been here and It's you know I have to have to questions we get about these podcasts are about people planning trips and the other half are you know We I went here. I played here. I'd love to hear what you thought of it and yeah I can't I can't believe this boondoggle that we have convinced people that to listen to what our vacations are like But here we are and it was a really, really special leg of the trip. I've played a ton of links golf in my life in the last five years or so, but have not played that much heathland golf. I got a taste of it at the end of the super long trip that I did in the summer of 2017

before I moved home before I started doing no-ling up full-time. I was pretty beaten down at that point, just in being on the road for about 40 days. I didn't fully appreciate it. I'd swung by Sunningdale, the old and the new Walton Heath field course and St. George's Hill there in London my last three days. And I was kind of ready to get home at that point and knowing I probably didn't fully appreciate it as much as I did this time around because I walked away thinking, Heathlyn golf might be my favorite of all

them. Even as much as I've, you know, raved about links golf and spot cast for years and years, Heathlyn just has a different, different taste to it, a different, I don't know, just a different aura around it. It's more settling feeling, I think, and then playing a links course. I'm going to talk some of that. Talk about some of that here over the next, probably less than an hour. But again, it's had to seem my dad and I spent 10 days in England playing golf. It's a country that I feel like I've just started to scratch

the surface on experiencing the best courses the country has to offer. It's just an endless, endless array. And this little leg of it is what really helped and covered that a couple courses. Actually, it was really the barc sure that really made me think like, whoa, okay, this is the course that I kind of had only heard about a little bit, didn't really know anything about.

And this is the level of golf that we're talking about, man. You could post up in one location and London for a month and not run out of golf courses at the play. So one thing I've always done, and I do this for golf courses and for just places in general. Let's say like I see somebody's Instagram post of some place that I'm like, well, where is that? I would love to love to see that.

I just go take, go find it on my Google Maps and I just star it. I just put a star there and I think, hey, if I'm ever, you know, in this area of the world, wherever it might be, I mean, I've got stars and really, really random places in parts of the world I've never been within 3,000 miles of probably, but I just said, hey, if I'm ever here, I would love to go see this. And I do that a lot with golf courses. So I'll go look at Top List or look at people's pictures

or hear about a place and get a recommendation from somebody that says, hey, if you ever in this area play this course, and even if I don't have plans to be there, just star it. Just put a star on there. And again, it kind of looks silly. My Google Maps probably looks like I've been absolutely everywhere, but mostly it's just places that I want to go. And I'm far, far, far from having this wishlist complete.

But whenever I'm in a certain region or making a certain drive, and I see a star that's like somewhat within earshot, sometimes I'm able to make it up there, or tack on a day to a trip and visit there. And there's maybe no better example than this than in 2017 on that trip. Between the Scottish Open and the UK British Open presented by her majesty.

I was in a rental car with Chad Coleman from Callaway from Western Scotland, we were at the Scottish Open. And we were driving down to Northwest England to go to Berkdale for the Jordan Speed Invitation Hall. And I see the the star on the map near the England and Scotland border clicked on it. I'm like, what the hell is this course? It's called Siloth on Solway. It's in the Northwest tip of England.

It's near right near the border. I could when I put that on there, I couldn't have imagined why I would ever be in that part of Scotland or England. And we told you how I was like, look, I got this kind of course along the way. It's a four-hour drive down there. What if we detoured and played, you know, it's maybe about halfway. I kind of lied to him. It was way more out of the way than than I had insinuated. I hope you did a little detour and played here this afternoon. I just remember rolling up to that course. It's a day that he and I

still talk about. It's this remote little golf course, like a true, true hidden gem of yesterday year, just crazy blind shots and awesome routing by the sea and crazy wind up there. And it was one of my most fun golfing memories. We rolled up to it and chaps, it's like, is this place perfect? Like we just had the amazing summer evening. And if I had never started that course on a map,

I would have never thought to visit there just as we passed by. So I encourage you to do this anywhere in the US, the UK, and even if you have no plans to be anywhere, just star some place that you'd like to see golf or non-golf. And see, if you're ever in that area, to see if you can make it happen, if you're in a couple hours of earshot, it might be worth it.

So the reason I'm emphasizing this now is that the first Heathlin course we played on this trip was one of those places, which is hauling well. It's also known as NOTS Golf Club. We'll get to that in a second, but first, I want to talk a bit about what Heathlin Golf actually is. I think I was kind of struggling with what this concept was until I started putting some notes together for and doing a little research on what actually technically defines it. So this is from BBC Nature. This is a little bit boring, but I promise it's gonna, I'm gonna try it at least my best to help bring this all

together. Heathlands are lowland areas dominated by colorful Heather, Gorse, and Bracken. Much like Moreland, the soils are acidic and nutrient poor, but unlike the waterlogged mores, heaths have light and sandy soils. So that's a key there. Also continuing on, lowland heat occurs mainly in northwest Europe

with about 20% of the world's total coverage found in the warmer parts of southern England. That's gonna bring us to the area of Surrey. I don't technically know where Surrey begins and ends. I'm probably, I'm sure I'll probably get a few messages on that, but I'm just gonna consider that whole golfing area to the southwest of London to be Surrey.

I think I'm pretty safe in that, but for the purposes of podcast, let's just call that Surrey. That's where the majority of this trip was spent between my dad and I. And so Heathlyn Golf, it basically is a cross between links golf and Parklyn Golf. It's got all of the characteristics of links without the constant of being right on the sea. And, you know, there's still conditions to deal with. It's still windy on these courses, but in my experience, it's just a little less frequent

and a little less extreme. It's the same soil type, but by definition, it's not like a links course because it doesn't technically link the land in the C. So basically, it's an inland links course. I know people get very particular about the definition of a links. It's most definitely not technically a links, but it plays exactly like one.

So, I hope that makes sense. But these courses are also really, really different than links course. They have way more undulation, land movement to them. There's often significant elevation change from shot to shot and hold a hole, especially the top courses, like Sunningdale and St. George's Hill. And it just kind of winds through terrain, through trees, might be even through houses. It's, when I say just kind of winds through terrain through trees might be even through houses. It's when I say that it's at least the courses I've played were not necessarily

through freshly built housing development through old neighborhoods and these golf courses were not built to sell houses on kind of typically typical of what we see in the United States. So they have been just filled filled to the absolute brim with charm. And it just feels like the most proper golf. Again, I absolutely love when the golf ball is rolling, when you're playing in the wind, when you got all kinds of things to factor, you hit an iron's off tease, you're hitting three woods from 175 yards and stuff like that. It's got all of those elements. But with even though there's a little bit more, it's a little warmer and just a little quieter, you know, the wind's not blowing in your ear the whole time.

And it just kind of has this whole, it's just class. It's really, really class. And this is why it kind of really resonated with me. The Heather itself is different than like what we in the States typically call Heather. I mean, I do this too. I tend to call any long grass. Any long grass that kind of borders a fairway Heather,

but actual Heather is different. It's kind of this thorny, gorsy plant. It's not really even, I don't think it's like technically even grass. And the ball just kind of, it's like a Christmas wreath basically, like a, usually they, they maintain it in Moa and keep it about maybe a foot high off the ground. But the ball really nestles in it and you can't do much more than hack a wedge out of it. It's, it's beautiful as it frames the holes in the summer. It's got like a purple tint to it, but it's just is not fun at all to play out of. The main exercise of a lot of these courses

is avoiding the header, because it really is a true one shot penalty. Maybe once or twice the whole trip I hit it in there and had like the ball sitting up on it was able to put like a six iron on it, but the rest of the time it's like, all right, let's get this back and play. I should not have been here.

I probably should have taken less club off the team and more accurate, et cetera. So that is the exercise. It is fun, but I think that's a really challenging part for high handicapers, I think, just because they're gonna obviously hit more wayward drives. And I hit plenty and plenty of balls into it. So I don't even wanna say it was a downside

for just high handicapers, because to me, it does inhibit things a little bit, depending on how it's maintained too. I mean, usually you can find your ball in it if you keep a close eye on it, but it sucks. It is not fun to play out of, and it is a really, really strong punishment, but a lot of the fairways, a lot of these places are wide, especially with the turf playing as firm as it does. It's really necessary to have wide fairways.

So if you look at a map of Great Golf Course in England, they're really spread apart. I mean, it's just, you know, I kind of look at the list and think, I love it not because many of these off, but then you look in like that one's a three hour drive, that one's four hours to the Southwest, et cetera. But the Surrey area, just Southwest of London, is just peppered with crates. And I'm hesitant to name courses in the area because I'm not going to leave some out. But Swinley Forest, Sunningdale, both Old and New, Walton Heath, both Old and New, St. George's Hill, the Barkshire Woking, Warpleston, no chance I'm saying that properly. West Hill, Chobbum, Queenwood, Wentworth, Henkley Common, not all of those courses are necessarily equal and some are better

than others, but there's a very, very real depth to great golf in this area And you know that's something we've talked about when it comes to Scotland people always ask the differences between Scotland England and Ireland I I've always said Scotland and England have incredible incredible depth and that second tier of golf courses the ones that you know Aren't the first ones you list off are so so so good you can park yourself in one place for you know in Scotland and On this trip alone, we played, I played 12 golf courses at the same two different hotels. That's how little we had to move because of just how many great places you can go. And how much more that allows you to enjoy your trip when you're not driving from place to place. Ireland just has a little bit more driving

between them. As you're seeing in the current tourist sausage and that's airing on our YouTube channel, we had to hire a driver for that one just to kind of get us from place to place that help the experience a ton. And that is part of the experience, but England is just so, so easy to do on your own. The roads are wide. I've gotten used to use enough to driving on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car. It's easy to get around and it's all very approachable and none of it's intimidating.

Driving around Western Ireland is a bit intimidating with how tight the roads are and things like that. But infrastructure is obviously incredible in England and the motorways are great. What are the carriageways? Is that what you guys call them over there? Dual carriageways? I don't know. I still got to work on my British lingo. But it's just a cornucopia of amazing golf and it is amazing. But it also gives me a bit of anxiety. It's like golf anxiety. That's a be very relative of that term. It's like going to a restaurant and like you see

eight different things on the menu that you want to order, but you can only order one. So like you better make damn sure you choose right and it's your, you know, no matter what you order, you're kind of looking around at other people on the table and being like, oh man, that looks good too. That looks good too. So it's kind of overwhelming.

So if you do plan a trip to this area, make sure you budget a lot of time to get to all the courses you want to because it would be way too easy to schedule three days, just by the top three. And then you're kind of missing out. I've done this before exact thing before. You're kind of missing out on a whole slew of golf courses that I don't even want to call them second tier because they're just so much, so much fun to play. A quick break before we get to the golf courses, say, here for an update from our friends, a Callaway, the number one iron brand in golf for the past four straight years and counting. They continue to bring the smoke. We know that the Apex

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pod. The first course on the list I mentioned is Holland Well Golf Club, also known as NOTS. It's just north of Nottingham, northeast of Derby, just south of Mansfield. And it's one of those coursestingham, northeast of Derby, just south of Mansfield. And this is one of those courses I had started on my map. And when I saw our driving route from Manchester to London for the second half of the trip, I knew this was a perfect place for a detour.

It was listed as one of Dokes' gourmet choices in his confidential guide to golf courses, which is kind of like the Bible I use on guiding myself around the UK and Ireland. It was off the beaten track enough that I felt like I was getting a bit of a sense of adventure and I didn't know what to expect. I had read a little two-page blurb on it but had no real visualization of it and no idea what to expect.

And it turns out, ho and well, Loki got one of the best entrances in golf. And again, we're a couple hours outside of London, so we're not in the Surrey area yet when I'm talking about this place. But we've got a long road that leads up to this majestic old clubhouse. And all of it's really set back from the main road. You have no idea any of this was there unless you were seeking it out. You drive right along the downhill, part four, 18th. It finishes right in front of the clubhouse.

And if you're looking for any imagery to go with this description head to our YouTube channel for a crash course video I did on this place. It's got an awesome purple, beautiful, Heather framing the fairways. Just awesome vibe. Right off the bat, just an awesome, awesome vibe. I was a bit sheepish on our arrival. I was just, I demiled the club and asked to play.

We paid full green fee all the fair and everything. I like to play with a member when I can or I like to take somebody up on an invite. And I know a lot of the links courses are used to visitors and they're really, really good with hospitality. They know how to greet you and you automatically feel like you belong. But this far inland and this far from London, I didn't really have any sense as what their visitor traffic was. And I felt like I was actually walking into a private club and just felt a little uneasy

at the very beginning but that was quickly eliminated. I checked in at the golf shop and a member stopped me and heard the accent and asked what brought me here. The smile on his face and showed me all around, told me all the information I needed and I did it all with the smile on his face. So that was the hospitality, all the hospitality I needed from there on out was perfect. I felt very welcome there and I'm not going to call this a hidden gem. I'm sure the people of England are very, very familiar with this place, but I had never,

you know, talked to anyone that had been there before. So it felt off the beaten trail for me and gave you a little bit of that sense of adventure, which I which I really like and I didn't see a whole lot of other visitors there, which it adds to the alert of, you know, playing some golf in a foreign country. So golf course itself laid out by Willie Park Jr. in 1901. It's got these first three holes. They almost look out of place. They're on this one side of the road.

And then they are the first three holes. And the other 15 sitting on an entirely separate piece of property across the road. I thought the first three were going to be pretty weak. The first is very much just an OK hole. But then the second is one of about six or seven holes that I'm still, I left thinking about, man, I made like a little composite list that I'm not ready to share yet of the best holes of the trip or the best, you know, best fourth

hole, best fifth hole, and I had a shocking amount of holes from Holland well, but the holes here are just so very distinct. Even today, I'm going to say a lot of praising things about sounding Dale and St. George's Hill. But if you ask that off top of my head, what's the 15th hole at St. George's Hill? I couldn't tell you. I could list off every single hole of the back nine of Holland well. They're that distinct and that unique. So I promise I won't do that here. But the second hole dog legs to the left and this green that just sits well below this like almost like a rock quarry dig. This huge rock formations behind

it and to the left, but it's really not that close to the green. It's just set back against these long broad slopes and just a really cool setting for the green site, really thrilling approach into that green. That hole is heavily emphasized on YouTube video around the 115 mark if you're so inclined to check that out. It's kind of help with some energy behind it, but I enjoyed the third and fourth holes, a short par five and a long par four, and the rest of the front nine, it's solid. I wouldn't say it's spectacular,

but like I said, when you get to the back, it just hits really hard. The 11th is a tremendous short, little snaking par five up the hill between these two ridges, to an elevated green and a really cool green sight. And that's kind of the feature hole of the manager, Martin, that we talked to there, said it was his favorite hole.

I mean, some of the people I've talked to afterwards, David Cannon actually showed up, the photographer. He said the 11th was his favorite hole too. So the 12th is a long par four, blind tee shot, and a fairway banking to the left, and it ends with a punch bowl green. And then you got the 13th is probably the most picture S-coil. It's a downhill, long par three, with all kinds of Heather on the hills. left and it ends with a punch bowl green. And then you got the 13th is probably the most picture S call.

It's a downhill, long part three with all kinds of Heather on the hills. It's probably the most photogenic hole. Really highlights the land movement. And that's the biggest takeaway I have from this place is what makes it special. Again, maybe it's just like all the days we spent playing Lynx Golf leading up to it.

But the fact that these heat lung courses have so much more land movement and elevation change it What's really really differentiates them from the links courses? Just adds a whole another cool element to the challenge and just adds so much depth to it You know, and that's probably the reason why I'm able to stand here and you know sit here and and list back the holes Because they just you can see them so much better from the T with the elevation changes and they're so well defined So the 15th was my favorite. I think it's the third time at this course that I said that at Hall and Well, that it was

one of my favorites along with two and 11, but it's tough to decide between them all again a long par four, massive land movement in the fairway. And you want to be down the right side. You can have an angle to this huge like, I don't know if it's a column dunes. I know it's a sandy soil, but I don't know if it's technically dunes under there. It's just these big grass hills that protects the left side. It sits at the bottom of this amphitheater and you can't really use it to kick your ball onto the green, but it's all long grass.

But it's a proper, just proper ass par four. Sixteenth is a cool short par four dog like into the right. I know I'm getting boring with the details here, but they are really this distinct in my mind. I don't want to gloss over any of these holes too. 17th, short par five, bending to the left with a massive, undulating punch bowl type green, and then 18 down the hill to just the stunning clubhouse.

Like my head was just spinning, walking off that green after that finish. I kind of had to pick and choose which rounds I was gonna actually film and make videos on. I'm really glad I picked this one because this one just resonated with me. And again, maybe just because it was a kickoff to such a great kind of weekend of Heath Lungolf. As I mentioned, we ran into Getty Photographer David Cannon.

He was taking some pictures for Links magazine and he was telling me stories of playing amateur events there in the 70s and we just had a great chat in the clubhouse afterwards. And the affinity he had for the place really kind of drove it home to me that I was really lucky to be there on that day. My dad really loved the course which helped me enjoy it as well. I mean just seeing the smile on his face and it was just a special day. I know I think this place is totally worth a detour. I know Woodhall Spa is close. I didn't regrettably didn't get to make it there but if you're looking for more of a reason to head to this area and maybe stay overnight, there's always that, but this, I couldn't recommend this place high enough,

I'm dying to get back there. And if we do end up doing a Heathland Tourist saw, some going to insist that this place is near the top of the list, green fees, they're great. They're range from 110 pounds to 130 pounds in the summer and decreasing some in the off season, which is pretty reasonable, especially compared to the rest of the courses that we're going to talk about The healing courses here on this trip

Next stop was near London so we made the drive into London Kind of stayed in the woking area Made it after that night after playing at Holland. Well first course up was Walton Heath It's got a funny story. I ran into a nice gentleman when my fiance and I were in Amsterdam in the lobby of a hotel. I was actually in the wrong hotel. Was not supposed to be in that hotel. And he's like, hey, what are you doing here? And I thought it was maybe somebody that I knew from Amsterdam

when I lived there. And I didn't really know what to say to him. I was like, I don't know, man, I'm in the wrong hotel. I'm sorry. And he's like, no, I recognize you from no laying up. Like, what are you doing here? And I was like, oh, actually, we're on a vacation blah, blah, blah. He's like, Yeah, I live in England.

I played a club called Walden Heath. I was like, Yeah, I mean, yeah, I've heard of Walden Heath. But he's like, if you're ever over, I'd love to host something. You're not going to believe this, but I'm coming next month with my dad. And we haven't really lined up much golf yet, to be honest, I was kind of late putting this whole trip together. And he's like, let's do it. Let's, that's great.

It was pretty serendipitous moment, but it turns out he wasn't able to play while we were there, but he set us up at the club, you know, in a range for like a tour for us. And my dad and I went out and had just another fantastic day. Walten Heath, the old course there, there's two courses, which is a relative term because the old and the new, the old open in 1903 and the new in 1907. I'll get to some of that here in a second. They hosted the British Masters in 2018, Eddie Pepperel won their in traumatic fashion. It's got a really different landscape than the rest of the Heathland courses we played.

Again, we're back in this southwest of London area, the Surrey area that's kind of this mecca of golf that I mentioned at the top of the show. So the clubhouse kind of sits opposite of this busy road and from the main part of the course. The old course, it's kind of weird. It has one hole, a long part of three that sits on that side of the road. Then you cross over and there's 35 holes on the other side.

There's the 17 remaining ones on the old course and all 18 on the new course. Actually, when they have the British masters there, they skip that first hole and play the second hole as number one. I think they play from the third tee to the fourth green. Actually for one of the holes and then they add two holes from the new course to make a composite routing, if you will. It's kind of quirky that first hole. It's almost like a warm up hole. It's a bit bizarre, but it's kind of that's that weird quirk you're looking for from an old golf club. I embrace it and I've been on record now that I'm actually, I actually really enjoy starting with a part three.

I think a lot of people are afraid to hit an iron off the first year that are kind of don't want to feel like they needed more of a warm up before that. But I view that as a warm up. I think that's a great way to kind of get into your round. So Walton Heath, steeped in history, Winston Churchill, regularly played here. King Edward the eighth was the first captain. And again, as I mentioned the term, old and new courses are very relative. They're both from the early 1900s. The old was all we played on this

trip. I actually never played the new course. It was designed by Herbert Fowler. James Braid was one of the first professionals here. They have pictures all over the clubhouse of all the royal people that have played here over the years. And it's a very highly ranked course, how they regarded it's a tenth ranked course in England. It. It might, might, might be slightly overrated. If you ask me, honestly, that's not a knock on the golf course in any way. It just doesn't have the topography of some of the other Heathland courses I mentioned

and that's kind of where, personally, for me, that's what sets like, Sunday day on St. George's Hill to a different level. I don't know if I can say that most people would disagree with me on that, but I know this place is really, really held and high regarded by a lot of people. Sunday day on St. George's Hill to a different level. I don't know if I can say that most people would disagree with me on that, but I know this place is really, really held and high regard by a lot of people.

This is not a backhand compliment in any way. Golf course is fantastic. I just would, you know, if I'm separating really, really, really good from great, is the fact that it's just kind of, it's basically one big field full of golf holes and they're great golf holes. And I don't, it's kind of that is the nitpickiest and nitpickiest

Comments I guess I could make but I kind of when I get to a certain point of you know kind of ranking these courses I want you to understand where I'm coming from on that the start is fantastic once you could that first hole There's a really really great stretch of golf holes It actually feels like the more at the beginning of the round once you cross the busy road And start with the second. The second is where you drive, the long part four, you drive into this gully and hit back up with this walking path

and a forest framing the left side. And the fairly really narrows there near the gully and you gotta decide how much you wanna take off. The Heather is immediately introduced on both sides but plenty wide fairways. Thirds a great little dribble, part four, huge bunker in front, protecting the right half. Turf was playing really firm and the wind's going out on this part for us. So you could get there with a driving iron basically, which

proved to be a very effective weapon in London, shout out to the Callaway Epic Forged foreiron that they've been to a two iron for me for some reason. I still don't understand why, but it's a great club. And then you have the fourth. Fourth is a 460 yard par four. I think I hit five iron off the tee. It was downwind and there's Heather framing both sides of the fairway. And we've already talked about how you have to have to have to avoid that stuff.

And then there's a center line bunker about 260 yards out. So driver over it with the downwind was very possible, but I looked at it, I don't know how to stop it once it goes over the bunker. and it kind of bends to the right past the bunker. Anything more than that five iron, I think it was going to be able to reach the bunker because of how firm it was playing. An important thing to remember about what I've tried to learn about playing downwind holds

on firm turf is that it's okay to hit a crazy kind of mid-iron off the tee and leave yourself a longer second because the wind is going to be helping you on your second shot as well. So on this occasion, I think I left myself 2.15 in, which on a par 4, I would be doing all that I can to avoid having 2.15 in, but I was like the first cut of rough and I had 8 iron in from there and you can land it, you know, well short of the green. It's going to bounce up. It's going to roll forward and made it onto the front of the green. It took me a long, long, long time to have that much discipline playing that style of golf. So it was super rewarding. That whole is one that sticks out to me just because it was very memorable to have executed that, you know, to not bite off more than I can chew.

And the courses that make you think like that are my absolute favorite. So fifth, another cool shortish par four, at least it was playing short, really good land movement that comes down the hill to the left and to a really cool green. Some of the holes that end up kind of past this near the turn have been redone as a freeway was built near the edge of the land. And around this part the course loses a bit of steam, but it finishes really strong. The 11th is a great par three and then three par fives and four holes. I think it's 13, 14 and 16. Each one very different from the one before. The 17th is a really cool part. Three going back out a little bit and then 18 coming back. Finishing right near the hedge row there across from the busy road. Awesome. Great 19th hole.

A patio to have a beer look out at the huge and perfect putting green. 18 full holes on this putting green. Probably one of the best putting reads I've ever seen that would make me want to practice putting just out there on that perfect surface right in the shadow that clubhouse. Place just has it's got soul it's got character again my only knock on it was strictly in comparison to the landscape of the other clubs that we'll talk about soon for my personal taste it is secondary to Sunday and saying George is Hill for that reason, but it is a wonderful, wonderful place.

I'd love to visit again. From the looks of things, my next trip to London is gonna have to include some new places, because this is where it just gets out of control and there's literally not enough time in the day to play them all. The green fees for a visitor range from 90 to 215 pounds in the peak season, but you can play both courses

for 285 pounds. That seems well worth it, if you ask me. Prices dip between 95 and 125 pounds in the non peak season. I've not played the news, so I don't want to speak too far out of turn, I guess, on this one, but I think there is a distinctive difference between the old and the new as far as ratings go. I know we're going to get to the Sunday the out here in a second. There is a bit of a debate out there as to which one's better, the older the new, which one do you prefer? Almost, I don't want to say overwhelmingly, but most people do prefer the old over the new at Walden Heath.

Again, I haven't played the new, so I don't want to speak any more of that, but I would imagine it's definitely worth it. It's the same piece of land. It's got really cool golf holes from what I've peaked over at, but again, from what I've gathered, it's just not, doesn't quite hold up to the old course. But next up is Sonny Dale. It is the crown jewel of golf in London, in Surrey, however you want to define it. Played here a couple years ago with Farron Keenan, a former top amateur player he played

at the University of Texas. It's won all kind of tournaments around England, some of the courses I went to, I saw his name up on the wall. A couple years ago, we played both the old and the new. And all happened so fast. I don't think I was able to fully Appreciate sending the out for what it was it was literally the last day of a 38 or 39 day trip We had to jump around and play some holes out of order. It was just a lot I couldn't distinguish between the two courses this time around we played 18 holes at the old course and again

Like I said, there's a decent debate as to which is superior. Top players, a better player is usually probably prefer the new course. It's just a little longer, a little tighter, a little bit more challenging. But at Sunnydale, everyone says, and I agree, you can't miss either course. Like you have to play them both.

And I know we didn't get to on this trip. But the old is just kind of like, it's like playing in a little bit of a time capsule. It's not long. They've stretched out some, but they seem totally content to be like, hey, here it is. It's not crazy difficult. Enjoy your day. This is a wonderful golf course. Willie Park Jr. designed the old course. Harry Colt did the new. Another insane, just one, two punch. It's pretty much seen as the gold

standard of Heathland courses, and it's very easy to understand why everywhere we went, it seems like it's the club that everyone else mentioned. You know, you go to this course and they're talking about sounding down. Go to this course, they're talking about sounding down. We had a kind of similar experience in Melbourne around every other golf courses compared themselves to Royal Melbourne. Hey, here's what we had that Royal Melbourne doesn't. Here's the bubble, bubble, but Royal Melbourne here. That's how it kind of was with sounding down. I don't want to call it a complex, but everyone, it's the tip of everyone's tongue there in the area, you know, comparing themselves to Sunnydale. Well, you've got this in Sunnydale, doesn't blah, blah, blah. But and I think there's a reason for that. It's, it is highly ranked. I think it, top 100

courses ranks, the old course as the second best course in England and the new as the fourth. So that's literally probably as good of a 36 whole day as you could have in England and the new as the fourth. So that's literally probably as good of a 36 whole day as you could have in England. The old is also the 28th ranked course in the world per top 100 courses.com. So just it's just on a different level. It feels grand and it's just a nearly perfect venue for golf.

Some highlight holes to me. The second long par four follows a short par five opener. Basically there's two par four and a half to start. You got a drive over par four third. And then the par four is from five to seven or especially good. The seventh is totally blind tee shot over a big hill, but like most blind shots, the landing area, generous wide runs downhill and the second shot, especially dramatic back up to back up the hill to a wonderful green site.

The ninth, I really enjoy the ninth, not just because I birdied it, but is a 265 yard par four, just a great, great little hole again. It's not difficult. It's a par three and a half at most, but it's challenging. There's two bunkers in front of the green you need to avoid. And depending where the pin is, it might even be smart to lay it up short of the bunkers and sit back pretty far from the actual green. Because the bunkers are not really green side, they are the kind of

stopped like a 230 shot. If you bomb it over them, you might run over the green, so you kind of kind of thread them. It's really cool. On their website, they've got a Shell's Wonderful Water Golf where Greg Norman and Nick Fowdo played it. I watch Fowdo just make a mess of it. Just hit it in one of the bunkers and then played his bunker shot over the green and there's

a ton of different ways to play it. That's what this shot over the green and there's a ton of different ways to play it. And that's what this course does so well. There's a lot of variety. There's some meaty meaty part fours. The tenth is one of them, magnificent downhill part four. Coming back up to the green to one of the coolest halfway houses in golf.

Both the old and the new courses cross over there. And the sausage sandwich in there is legendary. It's one of those things that you go to a pretty famous course, people love to ask, hey, did you have the so-and-so food there? It seems to be the main takeaway people have, but it's got a couple of messages like, hey, how was the sausage sandwich at the turn?

Sometimes I feel like the food items can be over-hyped, but it really was that good. The 11th, another gem of a short par four. Just the course just weaves through these tremendous and classic houses and ends coming back up the hill to the storied clubhouse with a big clock in front. It's just awesome. I don't have much more to expand on the course other than it just blends so well with the

landscape and the trees and it just feels like this is just how golf is supposed to be. It doesn't beat you up and you're just anxious to head out for more. I guess that's probably why there's 36 holes. It's another great hang in the clubhouse, great patio place. I could easily, easily play every day. A ton of variety, like I mentioned, and it's just a special place. I'd love to go back there. Farron was great company as well and made us all feel really welcome and a really cool

fun membership there. It seems to be we hung with some of the members there on the clubhouse afterward. The price for visitors it is 230 pounds for each of the courses or 360 to play them both on the same day. That's how I would do it if I was you because both courses are worth it and you get a pretty pretty hefty discount there. It's basically half off or almost exactly half off your second round of the day. Almost. I'm not very good at math. That's it for Sunningdale moving on. I've heard of this next place before. I'd always read it wrong. It is spelled how Americans would say Berkshire, but it's actually pronounced Barkshire. I had to, I wasn't sure we were actually talking about the same course when, I was talking about with Jeff Harris when we were up in the northwest part. And I was like,

Barkshire, is it the same as Berkshire? Yeah, the red and the blue. Yeah, okay, okay, okay. The Brits one out on this one. It's pronounced bark sure. And I talked a lot about expectations of golf courses in the previous episode, how it, how much it helped to have zero of them. And coming into the bark sure, I had absolutely zero. I'd never even seen a picture of it until T. K. Calley, a pro here in the United States. He was over there for European tour, Q school. He had posted one from the day before. And there's two courses there, the red and the blue, and gentlemen on Instagram was nice enough to reach out,

set me up to play with the club captain there on a Saturday morning, which was a really, really cool experience. You could see the passion he had for the place. And one of the highlights is Ralph the Bat, six par five, six par four, six par threes. Only a handful of courses have ever played that have that format.

It is decidedly more fun to have that many R5s to go after and that many more guaranteed approach shots, you know, meaning R3s. Like if you're not driving it well, it's nice to be able to put an iron on a tee and it's still hit approach shots. That said, R3s there were extremely demanding. R5s, they're not really long on the card

and you look at them and they jump out at 487, 485, like oh, this is getable, but they really do play as Part 5's. It wasn't just like whale on driver and hit seven iron in there and sometimes you needed less than driver off the tee to stay out of trouble and run out and I found myself hitting three woods at a lot of the Part 5's and I did not play them very well. I did not think I probably would adjust my strategy on them a little bit, but it wasn't just like, you know, driver seven, iron driver eight, iron's into par five. It was a proper challenge and they really,

all of them but one of them really felt like a par five. And about six holes into it, I'm like, I was realizing like this course, this place reminds me of somewhere, somewhere in the States, I can't think of it. Fairways are really wide, they're immaculately maintained. They had this kind of unique bend to them that you

didn't want to just pound driver because of where they bent and the runouts because it was playing firm just like it was on the rest of the Heathland courses. But if you had anything too hot, it's going to roll into this gnarly Heather. But you can't pound it. You have to be precise, even if it is wide. And around the sixth hole, it hit me. It's like, this is Pioneers number two. I'm sure you guys have heard me rave as my favorite course to play in the US. So it was no surprise that I was smitten by the barc sure. Herbert Fowler design on the red,

which I played is the 22nd best ranked course per top 100 golf courses. It's just a serene place. I mean, the trees frame the course really well, but they're all set back, comfortably far back from the line of play. They're not in the way. And for such like a golf rich area, I think a club needs something unique that makes your course stand out. And the arrangement of holes

between the six fives and threes, it did that for me. It's a tremendous variety. That sixth hole was a really cool dog leg to the right. Part four. It's only about 360. So even with a long iron off the tee, I had to cut off some of the dog leg and it plays up to this upside down bowl green. Again, similar to pine hers, but not just not nearly as dramatic. I mean, it's not, I'm overstating its similarity. It's more from the tee shots,

the way the tee shots played, the greens are not necessarily upside down bowls like they are at pine hers, but the tee shots are the way they ran into the Heather, it's kind of similar the way the fairways run into the wiregrass and the waste areas out there. Number 10, especially awesome. Part three, big hero, Carrie, it took me pretty big five iron to reach the back of that

green over this big ravine that you got to carry. My driving iron just got to work out on this course. It was the club I needed on some of the shorter fours off the tee, even some of the part threes and trying to hit into the part fives. And the scoring opportunities are abundant. And I just, I walked off with just a big smile on my face and I I hope it doesn't make it sound gimmicky just you know the setup with the six par five's and six threes. It's really not. I mean it's rated up there as far as the Walton's and the Sunningdale's but honestly like if it came down to

it and I had to split 10 rounds between the Walton Old Course and the Barkshire. I would do six4 in favor of the Barkshire. Just because the variety I mentioned, it's just the setting it's play, the dramatic landscape, that all really resonated with me. It gives you the scoring opportunities and this is the place that hit me as far as the depth of golf in this part of the world. I know, again, like I said at the top, Scotland's got it, but England just has it in spades. I really do recommend it.

I'd have a hard time slotting it necessarily above or below any courses in particular, just because that's personal taste. But I have a hard time seeing how somebody doesn't have a ton of fun at the barc sure. It's kind of a catch all word for a golf course. And I hate using it because what does it mean to have fun on a golf course,

but it just felt like I was out there having more fun than I was playing golf. I have no idea if that makes sense, but again, walked off the big smile on my face. Definitely recommend it. We will definitely be back if we do, whenever we do make it over for a tourist sauce, price range between 155 and 205 pounds,

depending on the day of the week. So it's not a cheap ticket. It's not a you're not paying a secondary price and it's not a secondary golf course. So this is the one that really made me be like, okay, well, shit, now I got to see woking. Now I got to see this one. I know somebody mentioned this one and I kind of dismissed it, but that was my mistake. I should not be really dismissing any of the courses in this area. If this is the one that isn't at the top of people's, you know, the first few courses that they list off, this one's not usually one of them. And this is how good it is than, then yeah, there's nothing that shouldn't be uncovered in this part of the world. Last one, last round of

the trip, and it went out with an absolute bang. I want to put a disclaimer on everything I'm about to say about St. George's Hill and that we got 70 degree weather, perfect sun as it's setting my favorite time of the day to play golf. I was invited on Instagram by a couple of gentlemen to come out and play two guys in the late 20s. They're about as good a company as you can have on the golf course. That definitely added to the experience, the weather added to the experience. I played well.

So I just walked off with the highest, highest, highest possible opinion of St. George's Hill. I had seen it once before, but I'm willing to say it. And again, despite all the disclaimer, it's my favorite of all the courses I played in Surrey. If I had 10 rounds between Sunnydale Old and St. George's Hill, I would split them five and five, but if I had 11, I would go St. George's Hill six and Sunnydale five. They don't get it much closer against probably an overreaction to the night we had, but what a hell of a walk.

It just punches, man. I loved it. The clubhouse is like a fortified castle. It just sits dominantly at the top of the hill, overlooking the whole course. There's three nines there, but the red and the blue nines are the main course. The red is the front and the blue is the back.

For this, the purpose of this episode, when I list a whole number, we're gonna call the blue the back nine. The green is kind of an added third nine, it's a little less than 3,000 yards, and I've played a few of the holes a couple years ago, but it's not really part of the main routing. So the front nine hits just extremely hard

from the beginning. First hole set right under the big clubhouse. And you tee off down a big hill. The landing area is actually headed back up the hill. Farerways wide and the green just sits in this great little place on top of the hill. And you know you're just in for kind of a grand experience there. The second long downhill part four takes two big hits to get to a really severely sloped green really difficult hole. And you got a long downhill, par three third,

again, another just picturesque golf hole. And then the highlight of the front, 272 yard par four, it's a brief little respite. From a really challenging start, three bunkers in front of the green against downhill, your boy happened to make a two on that one, so that was the highlight of my day to say the least. That four-hole stretch is just phenomenal.

And I'm not going to do all every hole, but those holes are really that good. It's the most dramatic setting of any of the courses. The bunker edges really rise up out of the fairways. And the fairways are really wide at times. Greens are big. And of course, there's the Heather that surrounds the fairways. But eighth, awesome part three over a big ravine.

And then the ninth goes back uphill dramatically to the club. I was actually played to the wrong green. I actually only played the 18th green on that one. But so make sure if you do go there, make sure you play to the right green. The 10th is one of the wildest holes we played on the trip. Long par four, it's way downhill. You actually got to look at a mirror behind you on the t box to see if the fairway is cleared.

On this day, we had a little helping win and you couldn't really hit driver because the fairway really narrows up there. And it's a wild blind second shot around kind of this big mound to a dramatically shaped green. There's a big run up area, short left of the green. So you can use that to get chase your ball back to the hole and you look back at this hole and you're like, whoa, I don't think I've seen anything like this before. It's awesome. I still think about that hole a lot.

And when you say St. George's Hill, I think of the 10th hole. And the 11th is this great little part three danger all over and it's kind of got this big elevated green. If you go long, it just goes way, way, way down a hill. Another blind tee shot on the short 12th, dramatic downhill, part three, I think that's the 14th hole. I'm telling just bangs and bangs and bangs

and looking back and describing it. I'm amazed how many of the holes actually play downhill. Usually you know, you kind of get the downhill part out of the way quick and a lot of a course can feel uphill, but the uphill climbs are just subtle enough, you know, aside from the 9th and 18th are pretty severely uphill, but the rest of them and just have this subtle kind of build

back up, 17th hole is really, really cool too. So this is the course, maybe I suggest you to go look at pictures at the most. You've got a great website. A lot of these courses have surprisingly really good websites. So St. George's Hill, highest recommendation possible if you're in the area.

Second time there, and it somehow got even better the second time around. Again, weather and how I played definitely had something to do with it, but it was, oh, it's awesome. That was the best way to end the trip in that I couldn't got much better. And the bad part is I walked off that just wanting to play more and more golf despite playing 36 holes that day.

The prices are not listed on the website. Only course here that doesn't have the prices listed at least I couldn't find it. I'd imagine they're in the high 100s to low 200s range, probably commiserate with Sunningdaledale Walton Heath It's every bit the quality of those golf courses. So and that's it I didn't get to play Swinley Forest, which is maybe in my top five courses in the world that I'm dying to play I'm somewhat bummed. I was somewhat bummed at the time But man, I don't know what I would have subbed out because I had such an enjoyable time at all of these courses

I love this leg of the trip so much. I thought that first seven couldn't get any better than that, but Heathlyn Golf somehow topped it. It's just this perfect blend of links in Parkland makes me really wish that there was more sandy soil like this in parts of the U.S. also really makes me wish that I spent a summer at some point in my life living in Southwest England and just bounced around playing these golf courses because it doesn't get any better than this. So thanks to everyone for tuning in. Thanks to everybody to help make the trip happen for all the people that reached out. And really it just blows my mind every time I go to England, how many English listeners

and followers we have. So people were really, for some reason, psyched to hear what I thought of the golf courses. And if you're one of those people that tuned in, really appreciate that. And everyone that always reaches out with recommendations and suggestions, it's, and I'll be making fun of, itinerary guy that slides in, critiquing our itineraries a lot, but it really is appreciated.

And helps us learn about these places. We definitely are not know-it-alls. We are learning course by course and step by step. But, so English golf fans, anywhere out there, or just English golfers, I have such an appreciation for the game in your country and the way you guys do it and the kindness everyone showed along the way It doesn't have the same marketing push as Scotland and Ireland does but English golf is just as tremendous

It really is and I'll say you guys are freaking spoiled man. You guys have no idea how good you have it playing all those golf courses on a weekly basis that you get to play and there's a lot more that we haven't uncovered yet and we know that I just we just got to find the time to get over there so thanks again everybody for tuning in back to your regularly scheduled programming here shortly and hopefully back to anyone sooner rather than later cheers Cheers. Get the right club, right? Be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about him?

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