No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 73: England Golf Trip, Part I

Episode Date: March 27, 2017

Golfbreaks.com reached out to us and invited us to play some of the best courses that the Northwest corner of England has to offer. It’s hard to come up with words for the trip that... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 73: England Golf Trip, Part I appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've pretty much always played the same type of ball my entire life, but I recently made a change that a lot of other people are making. I put the Calloway Chrome softball in my bag, I played with it all week in England. The adjustment period was way shorter than I was expecting and I'm completely sold. We're here to tell you about the trip. Let's go. Get the right club, be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most.

How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Recording this live from Blackpool, England in the conservatory. Conservatory? How do we say it? Conservatory. Conservatory here at James Summerside's home from golf breaks. Tron, we just wrapped up a four day six round golf extravaganza, if you will.

The hashtag NOUK, what is your immediate reaction? Oh boy! Oh boy! We got a lot of new British sayings now. This trip really took the piss out of me. My feet hurt quite badly. Now this was the trip of a lifetime for me. Far and away, the best best golf trip I've ever been on.

And I think the overriding theme for me was I think we lucked out with the weather. Oh my god. We got the greatest weather in the history of English golf. And it's late March. Like it's not. Yeah, I told people I was going to Liverpool. And they're like, you're going to England to play golf and wait in March. You're crazy. And yeah, I mean, it was it was high fifties every day and sunny and it was we couldn't have asked for better. We missed part of the links experience a little bit, but it was also the most enjoyable way to enjoy these

courses. Perfect sunlight. The pictures turned out incredible. So we played. We got in Thursday. Tron arrived Thursday from Florida. I flew in from Amsterdam. We got picked up in London. First of all, we want to say that of course this trip was sponsored by golf breaks. But we think and we're not going to we're not going to go through and break down shot by shot from every round, but we want this to be informative to you guys. If you ever are planning a trip to the UK or to England, I know for me, in talking with James as we're planning this, he just mentioned how it is,

England doesn't come to the top of someone's mind when thinking about going overseas to play golf. Even it doesn't for me, and I would consider myself quite an avid traveler and golfer. It's not on the tip of somebody's tongue, and I think the point was to highlight some of this. I don't know. For me, it ranks absolutely right up there with Scotland and Ireland. Well, one of the things for me was, you know, I've watched, we played three open-road

of courses, and then we played another course where they've hosted multiple rider cups and two other very well-regarded courses. And you always think of each one in their own, you know, kind of siloed. You don't really put them in the context of, like Burkdale and Liverpool and Lithum are all within 45 minutes, early, kind of an hour of each other on the coast and they were setting these kind of quaint, you know, quaint settings.

And it was just, it was fascinating to see how they mesh with the community and Really just how how well like they're not just these kind of pie in the sky You know mansions or you know estates that are closed off the public. I mean live them today. We had yeah It's all accessible And I've talked about this to an in Ireland podcast about how the golf over here is just a more Accessible style than a private course would be our club would be in the US had that conception of Scotland and Ireland It seems stuff not so much with England like you know, you think of the open road of course as in England even as being

You know more yeah stuffier and more about the pomp and circumstance when really that wasn't, that wasn't at all the vibe. If anything, you know, I think this was kind of the best of a world. Every member that we ran into at any point was, you know, obviously we stick out like a sore thumb that's not being members there. We're younger than I'd say the membership anywhere and you know it's greeted with a smile say welcome to the club say you know ask where we're from what we're what else we're playing and I don't know for me before I came

here if you told me the distance between Royal St. George's and Royal Liverpool I wouldn't I would have no idea yeah I would I yeah is that an hour apart are they seven hours apart see I didn't realize I wouldn't have no idea. Yeah. I would. I, yeah. Is that an hour part? Are they seven hours apart? See, I didn't realize that there were all of these courses in such a short distance. Ireland was tough to go along the coast and play all these different courses. We had a couple drives that were about an hour and James felt bad that it was like an hour. Yeah, we're from the city. It's an hour long drive. We could sit in traffic for an hour and a half going from, you know, two courses that are 15, you know, maybe 15 miles away from each other in the States. So, yeah, I mean, I guess without further ado.

Yeah, so Tron, Pactis, Trudge, you know, you can check in. Well, first of all, shout out to my wife. Yeah, seriously. Like a unicorn wife I think. Two months old baby at home. Yeah, he's two months in two days from now. So yeah, he's Freddie is still young. We're done in Florida with Alex's family right now.

Kind of hiding from the rest of the Boston winter slash early spring, but um, but yeah, I kind of floated the idea to her. After Solid Night, it had pretty few discussed it, and I was expecting serious blowback, just possibly getting vaporized. And was like yeah absolutely they're paying for it cool do you have plans on how you're gonna make because this might be good advice for listeners do you have plans on how you're gonna make it up to her uh oh first of all i'm probably not planning on for the next because i played i played collusive pines like a couple days prior and then I'd been at Bay Hill all, you know, like seven or eight days ago, I was at Bay Hill.

So it's been kind of a golf stretch for me. So it's time, Alex is gonna get, well, and then we go into Masters too, which is like, I don't know, I still forgot how I'm gonna make it up, so it's gonna be enough gonna be an uphill battle. So we picked her on up at Heathrow. We got in the car.

Just rolling out of the car, you just got off a red eye. Obviously I had an early flight. We had great sunshine again. The bell-free for a Ryder Cup fan like me was really cool to play to see in person because there's so much Ryder Cup history there. It is a totally different style of course than the rest of them that we played. I thought it was a great, I don't want to call it a warm up on the way out there.

It was more of American style course, resort style course. The 10th hole there was, it was like the perfect no-lying up hole. I loved it. Yeah, oh, ten was fantastic. Yeah, especially like I think the biggest drawback for us was just It's so early in the season over here and the course doesn't drain all that well. Yeah, it's kind of low You know, and it's more much more of a dark soil versus everything towards the coast so that was I

Think it had rained pretty hard the day prior. They got all the rain out of their system right before we got here. Well, it was funny, so you look at the 10-day forecast, and it's raining six of the seven days right after we leave, and it goes down back to my head. This was the high forties. I think I said something about the weather,

once an hour for this internship. This was the high 40s. I think I said something about the weather every once in a hour for this internship. Yeah, you know, literally every member everybody we ran into there like they're like, yeah, it's always like this like with kind of a wink and a nod and and you could tell there were because we played most of the courses for their winner setups. Yeah. And so, you know, a couple t-boxes weren't open here and there, but for the most part, like we were blowing away, it just... The conditions of the courses. I mean, yeah, the Belfort wasn't in perfect shape, but, I mean, it's March in the UK. I was, I wasn't expecting courses to be as good as shape as they were at all. And we packed all this rain gear. I know. I mean, I've played in Ireland in the piss, as they would call it.

And it's a good, like obviously it's part of the experience. But you do need to be absolutely prepared for it. If you're not, if you don't have rain gear, if you don't have rain pants, you're just you're going to be completely soaked. So you do have to be prepared for it. We were, thankfully, but thankfully didn't need it. But I was really

impressed with kind of the atmosphere at the Belphrey. It's a huge clubhouse, really nice loud, kind of loud style chairs, really new chairs for the huge big screen. Not a projector screen, but four TVs combined to one big screen TV. We finished, and this is your first time playing golf. It's getting dark here and sitting down And my coverage was just starting back in the US the time zone change benefits. Spectacular. When we sit down and What do we see when we sat down?

We saw like like three things happened right in a row that were just kind of Outrageous. It was like K Cooture did something and then... You couldn't get, you couldn't open your Twitter page fast enough. Oh, and then Tongshai Jai-D was, he was up like, you know, five, he was five up on somebody through like nine holes, it was insane. And maybe he is coming back through that door.

Yeah, it's my boy. But yeah, I mean, it was like great, great bar, great setting. Oh, how do people in there? And there weren't, there's nobody out on the golf course. And there's a lot of people, I mean, there's a big hotel there in conference center there. Kind of how I would put it would be when you, it's kind of like the, the difference between putting a lobster straight into boiling water. And then, you know, and you're gonna like that hurts them versus you start boiling the water like you put them in room temperature water and then you start boiling the water then like gradually like they don't

they don't feel anything that was kind of it was kind of a good easement yeah we need to play play some golf, get the sticks out. But yeah, the course played longer shit. Oh, there were some 240 yard par threes. Or it was playing about 240 into the wind. It was windy. It was really windy.

So it felt kind of like there was a bit of a winter round out there, which it was I mean like 18 Honestly 18 from That was a One of the most visually intimidating drives I've ever had to cut off as much as you want from the water. It goes left real capy And then you hit back up towards the clubhouse to a multiple tier green huge green I think I had about 150 foot putt on that hole.

You had a couple. You had a couple. Was it a four putter? I think we're going to go. I think we're going to talk about it. No, but it was, yeah. I had a four putt. I think I was trying to three putt that hole when I failed.

The putter was not working for me. Yeah I don't I don't think we if we're gonna start throwing shade at people's putting strokes is yours was Little a little twitchy for me dog. Oh, it was everything Like I think I went through the Seven stages of grief with my we didn't play great on this trip There wasn't a lot of good golf, but when you do this, when you go over. There were some short bursts. There was. Yeah, it's a moment. But when you come out, you can't, you can't like let it bother you for one second. You can't, you know, if you hit a

bad shot, throw your club a little bit, maybe we had a couple club throws, but then you get over it and just realize where you're playing golf. And yeah, one thing to get upset if you're playing a normal route. We can round with your buddies and not playing well. But we're almost kind of liberating, not. I mean, I played well, I think both of us played well enough. We didn't embarrass ourselves, but. Yeah, pretty much just, I think you shot pretty well today, but high 70s, low 80s for the most part.

You can't expect to roll out of the car and shoot your handicap for here. But like even then, I don't know. I just didn't feel like grinding my ass on either. No, not at all. No, it's about experiencing the golf course more than it's posting a score. But yeah, we hung out at the bell

for he got in the car and we drove to Liverpool about an hour from there. I left, no, much feel some that. No, I thought it was further. I was like 90 minutes. I lost track of the time. It was long enough for me to realize that I left my jeans, my coat,

and my shoes, and the locker at the Belferi. I still need to call them. Do you even travel, bro? I don't. Apparently. Staying downtown Liverpool. Should we stay in downtown Liverpool for two nights?

That was fantastic. It was nice. Heywood House, so tell me. Yeah, so I never really My dad's always come over to To Manchester. He's always had a convention in Manchester every year and he loves it like he loves coming over here and He's always kind of told me about that. I'm never really completely understood it. I don't even been to London a couple times and yeah, I mean the people up here up this neck of the woods are just could not be more welcoming and

friendly and like authentic. There's no pretense whatsoever. Like it was the opposite of any posh British, stodgy British mystery. Yeah, yeah, your ways from London. So it's not the biggest tourist central location. You stick out a little bit, your American accent sticks out a little bit more around here than it would say in London. We made it up there, and I think we crashed. We did.

We crashed, and we had a 730 T time at Westlanks. So yeah, the six courses we played, the Belfree, Westlankisher, Royal Burkdale, Royal Liverpool, Wallasee, and Royal Lithome. A quick break to talk to you guys a bit about the Calloway Epic drivers that both Tron and I had in the bag. Tron is playing the sub-zero driver. I'm playing the Epic. We bought yardage books from all the courses as you're trying to do everything you can to avoid bunkers out there.

We found ourselves checking the yardages on bunkers that had never been in play at any other phase of our lives, seeing that ball roll out on these fairways when you pipe a drive. It doesn't fix a broken swing. There were plenty of port T shots hit, but it was the most forgiving driver that both Tron and I have ever hit.

A healed shot can cut right down the fairway, 290 yards if you get the right rollout. I've never hit a driver that's been that forgiving. If you need more info, head to calabagolf.com. We had a 730 T-Time at West Lancashire. I think for me, it was the course. I did very little research before this trip. It was mostly put together by James and the guys at Golf Breaks. There's weren't a lot of pictures of it online. I had no expectations for it. It wasn't super highly ranked.

I think it's somewhere in the top 50. I am of course in England. For not doing a research. I'm just because you're going with no expectations. You can make your own first impression. And you really don't, you know, you don't build anything up, nor do you, you know, kind of put a value judgment on the thing prior. I was blown away by Westlinks like that. So, obviously, the best opening stretches I've ever played. We had a perfect morning, when was down,

course was built in 1873. And I'm so impressed with courses that age really well and that don't have to have T-boxes that are clearly just on different parts of the property that aren't designed as part of the original hole. Obviously, all courses that were built and from that time have been linked in at some point, but everything just flowed so nice.

So you show up, and again, you think like a private club in England, it's like a tiny little clubhouse that's just simple. Kind of like a just an ugly modern clubhouse. But you go in there and it's exactly like, so tell the story about your club, like, or the club back home. Yeah, a club that I used to work at. They had a pretty big clubhouse.

It was built in the 70s though. And the membership wasn't doing very well. And I just, I heard people talking about the general manager and some other members talking about how they needed a new clubhouse for the golf course. And to me, as a means to like, like, like, you know, energize the membership and make it a more appealing place to play. To me, and I, to you, I'm sure the golf, the guys that are there for the golf, like, I would love a small of a cost as possible for a clubhouse.

That was the other thing. Like all these places we were like, yeah, how much does it, you know, like what's the, what's the membership fees and, you know, kind of the upfront dues and I was like, we were floored. We were so upset. What do we find? Focus is truly on the golf. Yeah, that's the point. That's the point. And it's like, your costs are going to paying the superintendant in the ground screw and the pro. Like that's first and foremost, and then everything else comes second. Which was so refreshing. And it's just so simple.

And it's a couple of times we were just because we're playing so much golf in so many different places. We're a few minutes late, or running a little bit behind. We call the pro shop. And that's no places. We're a few minutes late, or running a little bit behind, so we call the pro shop. Hey, that's no problem. We'll get you moved around. I feel like it's just a totally different way

of handling things. So we show up at West Langston. They have this, the doors that open to the clubhouse and this kind of walkway with, it's kind of just this green carpet. It's not like asteroids, right? Yeah, but it's meant for people to walk through with spikes. Yeah. You can put your clubs in there. I can imagine taking your clubs into a clubhouse in the US. It would never happen. And these club, these clubs are so old. They've

so much history, so many pictures on the walls and, you know, old lockers. And I just love that vibe. And yeah, I was blown away by West Langs that the course was beautiful great link style the wind we caught the wind down the front nine so you open up like I mean basically the first hole goes out and it pretty much puts you like right on the coat like almost on the coast like yeah second hole as a great second hole is called Shore. It's unbelievable. It's a, it's like a 500 yard par five, two bunkers like dead down the middle of the fairway, the kind of more visually intimidating than anything. And then it's flat.

So yeah. There's a little elevated tee box on that hole, but it's flat and it just, that light in the morning that hits these courses, it just highlights the difference between the fairway and the rough and the terrain. I don't know how to describe the how the terrain rolls. It's so visually and aesthetically pleasing. I don't know. It's even if you're hitting bad shots, it's so much fun to just walk in between the dunes

of some of these holes. And then, I mean, I saw West Lanks probably had the courses we played on Friday, Westlinks and Burkdale probably had eight of the strongest part three's I've ever played. And I don't think on any of them we hit more than say, maybe five or six higher. Not even that much. Some of them were short, seven hours usually. They were all just like, I was like fair, but man, like they were well-bunkered and the greens were just, just visually arrested. Like they were, it was fantastic.

Yeah, so like the third hole was, was awesome. Uh, fourth hole was, I mean, like that, that stretch of like four, five, and like three, four, five, six. I mean, it was unbelievable. We were laughing. We couldn't get through the front. And then there's this train, like the, the, the metro, like the Liverpool metro basically, like runs aside the course. And like in the states, if, if a public transit thing ran right next to the course, you'd be like, oh, this is trashy. Yeah. And like, it was so well done and so it blended in,

so seamlessly to the course where it was like, you like added the character and the ambiance of it. Because you, one of the holes you have to aim kind of at it and hit a little draw. I did spray a little train wave sauce at, I think that's 12 hole. That was one of my favorite holes. But a lot of the courses that are built in this time period are built near train tracks

because that's how people got to golf courses back in the day for the most part. So, you know, we ran into it. We saw train tracks again at Liffom and I think somewhere else I don't even remember off the top of my head. But kind of, like you said, it's kind of a cool charming aspect of it. But we had to try to play rather quick around Westlinks. And the pace of play in, again, in England, is like this in Ireland, like this in Scotland, is just different over here. You're not playing, we're a three ball. You should not play in over four hours on a course like that.

And we didn't. I think, but yeah, I think if I could basically like a template for basically making golf approachable for Americans, like this would be the perfect course where it's just walking club, you know, no pretense or anything like that, but really solid, but like, my other big adjustment was the green speeds.

Like just, I was overreading everything all week, so I think, and that was almost trickier than playing, you know, I came off of playing a couple of places down in Florida that were stamping it like legitimately 14 or 15, and you literally just touched the ball and get a start on line. And I had to make a full putting stroke here and I was basically like it's hard I think it's hard for Americans to get through their head like when they have a flat putt or you have to hit it inside the hole you always want to like you're like oh there has to be something in this when like a lot of the time there just wasn't

it was all about you know you hitting you hitting the shot versus you trying to figure out the shot. Basically. So that was that was a big adjustment for me. But I think my other big takeaway from from from West Lennox was just the 18th hole. Like that was probably one of toughest driving holes I've ever played. Like I would put that up with I would put that up with 18 at Sawgrass. Back up into the wind wasn't it? Like that taught, like yeah, yeah. There's like a trench lake down the right,

super narrow fairway, and probably two of the most well placed bunkers. Do you love the well placed bunkers? Well, yeah, I mean, now for all of you. It's everything in golf, everyone, like, style golf. But it's just like these courses have truly stood to test the time. And, I's, but it's just like these courses have truly stood the test of time. And I mean, the air is kind of, you ride the ocean to the air is a little bit heavier, the ball doesn't fly quite as far. Yeah, it's, you know, if you're even remotely into the wind,

you have to swallow so much pride, almost always taking two, sometimes two clubs too much. And I think it was, it was definitely, probably played a little bit different for us too because a lot of these courses usually play firm and fast and for the most part they were pretty firm the ones we played on the coast but still early season and you know not not quite not quite dried out completely yet so the rough was down almost everywhere we played to which was yeah that was yeah ball hunting out to which was yeah, that was yeah Ball hunting out there would be yeah pretty tough, but yeah, so like Westlinks. That was a perfect Perfect intro just a but just a great route. There was no wasted space

There was maybe class one or two hole there's one hole that I really that I didn't care for the one We yeah, there was one that we played back at the train Yeah, the dog one that we played back at the train. The dog leg right on the back. It was kind of like, you know, it was a little gimmicky, but other than, like it was probably 14 or 15, really exceptional holes. Probably one of the, I mean, I would place it among one of the most enjoyable golf courses

I've ever played. Yeah, and that's kind of the point. I mean, you guys have heard of Royal Burkdale. You've heard of Royal Liverpool. You've heard of Royal Latham. I had never heard of West Lanks before this trip. And for, I don't know, this was, I don't want to, I'm not going to rank the golf courses that were fused

to rank them, but it's, if I didn't know that the other three were open-rode courses, I would have no problem taking this very interchangeable as one of the best ones. Similar shape to Liverpool. A lot of people I know suggested a lot of other courses, Hillside, Fornby, where the top is. It was kind of funny. It was almost like... All right, tenor, where you're playing. And then... Here's where... All right, let me pick out the courses where you're not playing

It was like and make you feel happy It was like it was like yeah, I'm moving to Manhattan. Oh, man Like you should really look for an apartment in Brooklyn like there's this really up and coming near with their breath It was it was kind of like that so I was like here hillside form beat We're kind of the two yeah, you know people were like oh you're not playing those Make sure you take it. Yeah, well. We kind of had a book that like James James you know You gotta put that put this together and we play with he was like keep put a rabbit out of his hat like getting getting all this scheduled and getting all this fit in

You know, yeah, it's incredible and that's it's that's I mean, that's what we want to also talk to you guys about. We're going to bring James in here at the end as well. But I know planning trips like this can be really intimidating. I've done it on my own. I've done the, I've done the route of, you know, obviously paying my own way and, you know, scheduling your own flights, your own hotels, making your own tea times.

And it's a lot, a lot of work. A lot of people don't know that there's opportunities or you know, companies that will, for the same cost that it's going to already cost you. You can tell them what courses you want to play. They can even help you book your flights if you want. And they can take care of so much of the logistics that goes into it. Kind of like as much as little as you want. Yeah. They'll book the, they'll book the golf in the lodging and the transportation for you. That's the biggest thing. So we didn't need, like, there was not a, there was not care in the world. Our only focus was playing golf.

Yeah. But like, the fact that like West Lancaster or Walsley, which we played this morning, like those, those two, we would have never found those on our own. Probably not. And that was kind of like a true value proposition from there. Yeah, so. Yeah, because even if you're going to go over and play all the royal courses, you should play

some of these other ones as well. It's so cool to see how, I don't want to say normal clubs work, but just like a club in another country works. I wouldn't classify that as a normal course. Those, it was, man. No, that was, that was, yeah, that was a unbelievable day.

Like that would be, I would, I would say that would, I like that better than any golf, like I'm from Atlanta. I like that better than any golf course in Atlanta. Even East Lake and Peachtree included. Yeah. I'd put it up there with, I would rather play West Lang's

than Atlanta at a club. Yeah. It's such a fun style of golf. It's, and you're not, again, you can't fly a high eight iron in and stick it right next to the flag. But it's not quite Scotland either. No. Well, it's a typical time of year.

You have to land it, you know, 20 yard short and then run it off. Like, it was kind of a good mix, at a different time of year. You have to land it, you know, 20 yard short and then run it off. Like it was kind of a good mix, at least this time of year of those two days. How much fun did you have putting from off the green? Oh, there were putts from 80 yards. So that video that scratched TV, that like that was, I was singing that in my head

the entire week. You need to put it like I Mean like solid today. He convinced me I was like it was either like put it and try to like like basically funnel it between these two bunkers and then use like this slope of the bunch of Trivicle force of this one bunker. I can't believe you fell for that.

I totally mishit it. It just didn't execute the shot at all. But the fact that that was even remotely possible was refreshing. You can't flop it off the turf on the fairway. It's so much fun to put it from everywhere. It becomes so easy, I think. Oh, I loved it. Yeah. Takes a lot of guesswork out of it. So, all right, from Westlanks, we

sped over to Royal Burkdale, the site of the Open Championship this year. This one was the hardest t-time to get. We were the first guests to play there for the entire year. We met up with Alex Perry from National Club Golfour here in the UK. Had a good four ball, had a little rider cup match that we almost aims them. I think we won seven and six. But they did, they really did teach, so British people don't know what a press is. We had to teach them what a press was. Or a nasol.

Or a nasol. Yeah. And we did talk them into pressing us. They did, they did take us at the end with some presses, I think. Limited the damage a little bit, but Burkdale. We tried to explain air hammers and it was too much. An auto press. It was, they had enough trouble with press. Westlanks and Burkdale's up there with the top two maybe top three golf day I've ever had. Yeah, so I would classify I think Westlanks was the most fun. Yeah, I had on of course I think Burkedale is probably the best piece of the land. Yeah, we play it was

Kind of easy into it on the first first couple of holes You kind of go like down from the clubhouse, kind of a gradual little slope, and then a good part three, back there, good short four, like coming back out. And but some of the, some of the T-boxes at Berkdale, this was probably much more true there than anywhere else

we played where their championship T-boxes like we played you know one up we played it all the way back there but they had winter teams set up so they were sent to 6300 yards for us that was as far back as it went and that that played I mean it's 7400 from the tips like there were some T-boxes that were over a hundred yards back from the next closest one it's just totally different golf course. It's an, that's why I love playing courses that are tournament courses and giving you that extra appreciation for what those guys do.

Because even, there was a par five on the front number six that played as a par five, it was par five for us. There's 480 yards. They're going to play as a par four at the open. They've always played it as a par four. I don't even know how you get there. They're playing to the wind. I don't know how you get to that hole in 2. I mean, somebody's put the 18th as well. It's like 450. It played into the wind for us. It was driver 3 wood for me. I don't know how those guys get there with anything less than a 4 iron,

but they do. Man, you so much respect to those, to where those guys play from, because it's just a completely different game. So one takeaway for me, you walk into every, every clubhouse you walked into, the first thing we saw in the pro shop, was the sketchers. Displaced.

Sketchers are huge here. Like whoever the sketchers rep is in England is doing his or her job. He is making some commission at least getting them into the shop. I don't know how this commission works. Yeah, and they were excellent. Burped down in the clubhouse is iconic. Almost like a cruise ship kind of looking thing. It's cool.

All white. It's pretty sick. I like to go, yeah. Think about the clubhouse like at Congressional and think of like the exact opposite of that. And that's what you get with any, any, any, well the Liverpool clubhouse we'll get to. That was probably my favorite I think.

But yeah, Berkdale's is a white clubhouse, cool little bar room there. And I just love walking the hallways at all these places. We didn't talk about the bell-free all the pictures and rider cup stuff at the bell-free. You can spend. We'll post some of the like yeah I think we took a lot of pictures. Yeah we have a lot of pictures we're gonna be sharing so. But yeah like at Burkdale the strongest thing for me was some of the part 3s were just exceptional. Like number 7 was awesome. I love Link's part 3s were just exceptional. Like number 7 was awesome.

Let's see. I love Link's part 3s, because it's almost always just about where they put the bunkers and the slopes. Yeah, I mean, Burkdale was just such a spectacular piece of land. We probably had more undulation and the greens than any other courses we played.

So we got some good drone shots from above Berkdale. But yeah, I mean there's just some man-sized holes out there. I think for my big takeaway, my prediction for the openness to your was spieth and Sergio are going to share the title. I'm just going to say, spieth is going to win share the title. I'm just gonna say, spieth is gonna win it. That course is so, so spethy. Like, you can't, it's not, you can't let your guard down and you can't totally overpower it.

You can't like cut corners. You gotta be disciplined and patient. Blink's golf in general, of course, like this, you have to, you can't, you can't fly corners and hit into the fairway at the wrong angle because it's running. Yeah, you have to shape the ball within the way the fairway is shaped. And that's where I think you really like speed there. I'm still taking Kepp go, but I'm think because I'm locked into that. So yeah, I mean, 10, 10 was a phenomenal whole 11 was as well.

I mean, just a long par fours, and then you got just done dirty on one of the par threes. What did I do? I don't want it. So a couple of bunkers are grounded or repair. Oh God. So yeah, so what I again love about a lot of these part 3s, I think it was only I think I hit nine iron or wedge on this part 3 again The Tartes were kind of up the good the pin is on the far right and Every pin we played a bird. They all was

Talked yeah, they're talks and some day pins and you know you have to play to the safe part of the green And if you bite off more than we lost about a minute of audio right here bear with us. Yeah, I think another whole to highlight at Berkdale was 13. Placed 4.99 for the pros. I think we played it at like 4.3440. How do you get there at 4.99? That was into the win too for us wasn't it? Yeah, I think I think the prevailing win that's going in the direction. We kind of had a

we had a win coming out of the east to the most part. But this this is why I think guys talk about the win so much on the broadcast when the wind is different than the prevailing win And we had that at Liffon the whole like the hard holes like a 450 our par four is usually designed to play downwind When it's into the wind it's borderline not reachable. We played a three shot par four today. Yeah, let them like it And so that's it I was gonna such fingers as a three shot par five But there is such a thing as a three shot par-four. It's number three of Royal Edom. So I just have a lot more appreciation

for why they talk about winning so much on these courses. Because yeah, if it flips directions and plays opposite of how the course is designed, it's harder. It's definitely harder because the downwind holes are usually, you know, 380 yard holes that a downwind doesn't, they're designed to be into the wind, but a downwind doesn't really even help you that much.

Yeah, honestly, with them from like, to seven, or sorry, Berkdale from like the seventh hole onto the end was spectacular. 14 was another great part three, and then there's two par-fives, 15 and 17, down the stretch, and both of them, like one of them kind of reminded me of the country club at Brookline, the other

one was just like, he basically goaded you in to go in for it, and like everybody in our group, I think all of us made double. We all just, I think they played that as a par four to 17. Since so many. Yeah. And no bars irrelevant, I know. But again, some of these holes don't feel like you can get there and two and again, we weren't playing all of them. And then 18 is just such a good finish.

It is a great finishing. I'll come right back to the club house. Yeah, that's going to love it. I repotted from like 15. It was bad. You got on it too, didn't you? I got on it. Repotted par.

That was a par five for it. Yeah, that's 18, 18's the par four, 17's the par four. 18's the par four, it was technically a par four, or a par five for us. Yeah. It's like 470 uphill. And yeah, that was such a cool closing stretch. And then we go out to the patio out back afterwards.

I had some beers man in the sun like the members were out there. I think they said it was the first day of the year they were actually set outside and drank beers. And there's a park right next door. Well I mean first of all I had like so I asked to go with the soup of the day is and he's like it's stilton and broccoli and still like blue cheese and like hell yeah like it was such good soup and then I had a smoked salmon and cucumber sandwich which was just I'm like shit and it was like six pounds it was it was it was like I don't know I love playing golf and then sitting around the table grabbing a beer and talking about it. Yeah, and they had six different beers on tap in the clubhouse and you know all of it really just it was just the whole experience was top-knock.

Oh God. And then there's all these people walking their dogs. Yeah, right outside the golf course. And there was like horses walking around on the beach. It was nuts. Oh God. Yeah, that was nuts. Oh God, yeah. That was like the perfect, perfect day of golf. But anything else in Berkdale, we missed. Not really.

We went, we went, yeah, Berkdale was exceptional. I would say, again, Berkdale was the best piece of land that we played in the toughest, I think the toughest test of golf that we played. Yeah, I was just playing a little bit. I was just playing a little bit of back in. I'd like to play it further back. the toughest test of golf that we played. I was just playing a little further back. I'd like to play it further back. I played probably my best round at Berkdale.

I ejected on 17, but I think I'd 77 at Berkdale. I was happy with that. I'll take that away. I did not have 77 at Berkdale. All right, headed down to Liverpool that night. We were pretty wiped. We walked 26 kilometers to Liverpool that night. We were pretty wiped. We walked, I don't know, about 26 kilometers or something that day, went out, got some dinner.

We didn't have a tea time until two o'clock at Liverpool the next day. So we got, we hadn't had to piss up a little bit, or went on the piss. Well, fittingly enough, I mean, when you're in Liverpool, you have to go to a Brazilian pizza restaurant. No, I mean, we got a recommendation from one of the bouncers that like this barbire hotel. We think that's what we got because James had to translate for us because the guy that

wasn't really English what he was speaking. But James understood it. Yeah. Or it's not English what we're speaking, you guys. But yeah, actually it was fantastic little pizza place and we talked about our... Really modern bar. I pictured it being more like small pubs, but it was like you were modern. You were drinking pacificos on...

Yes, we were drinking pizza. Pizza from a Brazilian place drinking Mexican beers in England. Yeah. It was a cultural experience. But actually in Liverpool, very walkable, kind of reminded me of Portland Maine or this whole area, kind of reminded me of Boston and New England. I mean, I know that sounds cheesy because New England and England. But like, I don't know, it was just, it was a little bit leisure and a little bit. It was just a good mix of, of people and of, you know, kind of just the vibe up here. It was a little bit more laid back. But yeah, yeah, we went out and tied one on, went to

a few places. Then we woke up, slept in a little bit. Michael. Michael Jones, and he, honestly, the hospitality that we experienced at that club, everybody was fantastic the whole trip, but that club went above and beyond the mirror. That was a problem. I think it helped that that was, we had one day dedicated to World Lever Play.

Which I'm glad we did. We did. Most, I mean, our days where we played 36, we were a bit rushed and then our day with the Belfry, we were obviously, that was a travel day. This was our day to take it all in. We showed up early, walked the clubhouse memorabilia. It was awesome.

I mean, they got tons of, I mean, Rory and Tyker of one there. So there's the memorabilia there is awesome. Berkdale probably had the best, we didn't go on the one that lit them today, because we got done too late, but Berkdale probably had the best memorabilia, but the clubhouse was a bit, a bit small, like just as far as the, kind of just the usable space in it,

whereas Liverpool just had the best clubhouse vibe and the best bar and like bar room in the back. And it sits right next to the putting rings. You can watch people put right there. You can see right out to the first hole and it's a very it's a wide open property for the most part. You can see so much of the course even from from thehouse. Yeah, that was the big takeaway for me when we first walked in was just how flat it was and how expansive it was. You can see, I mean, you're probably, you're probably like a thousand yards away, maybe even more from the beach and from kind of the estuary, the de-estuary. But then you see kind of the estuary, the de-estuary. But then you see like there's snow capped peaks over in Wales, like across the estuary that are probably 40-50 miles away.

I think you could see. I mean the setting was just absolutely dependant. And then the big wild and field where the course is and then there's row houses along the road that frames it and it just, oh, it's beautiful scenery and again it starts really flat the course and we even talked about the course yet for Liverpool. It starts flat. Well first, yeah, first of all, we had, I don't know if you know though. First of all, we go in, got coffee, they bring us like a full coffee service on their China, you know, on the Royal Liverpool China, great pro shop, all that. I mean,

so I think for us, Royal Liverpool was the best full experience. Yeah, so like Burntel was the best piece of land, but Liverpool was the best experience. Yeah, I think it was the most fun, I think, layout. So Liverpool, yeah, the first hole is very divisive in controversial. I don't know if you know this though, but it played as the third hole during the open championship. We were reminded of that, I think, at every stop of the way that they did some re-routing. It makes perfect sense to the re-routing that they did for the open after seeing it.

But a lot of criticism, I was even critical of it in 14. They have in-course out of bounds. The first hole goes around. Like right on the dog leg. It's a dog leg right and the range kind of cuts in a little bit. But there's a little, not even like a stone wall, like a little just raised up ground. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I actually thought it it seems gimmicky, but it plays well. Kind of added a sense of like it would have just been another hole without it. Yeah, pretty, pretty flat wide opening hole. And then it not being like you had to think about the shot and it really made you strategize on that. I think the criticism of it, and the starter mentioned this as well, and the novelty of it, maybe nobody's not the right word, but the fact that's your first shot, you got to

think about that OB is cool. And when they play it for the open, it's the third hole. So it kind of makes it a little, just kind of, I don't know, a misplaced, I would say. But yeah, it's fair. It's not like, you can carry the corner first of all and get over the OB and it's not like super narrow to the left. Like you have plenty of room to miss to the left.

But that was the first thing. I mean, some people, most of the people that responded on Twitter, they were like, I don't like, Rory was like, that's, you know, obviously his favorite course in the open road, but most people talked about number one in a very derisive manner. And I was like, man, that was actually one of those cool. I really liked the whole.

You were near, I think at one point, near tears at this goal, at this experience. I loved it. I thought it was, I mean, second hole, like, let me get through here. I mean, just kind of, I feel like people kind of like this course. It was flat.

Like, I get that it's a flat piece of land, but I almost liked it. Like, the course was out there in front of you. You, it was so fair, but in, like, that you knew what you had to do. It was just a matter of like like it's just tough to do it It's that whereas like birthday. I was more like there was more The holes were more on their own. Yeah, where is the

Liverpool as what I would love in a Link's course the flowing Grass where the holes aren't really you know separated off from each other, but just kind of roll right into each other and Yeah, I mean, the, I think some of the holes... We did have to play a couple winter teas that were... I have a one part three, I mean, that was... That was, it did make it a lot harder, but, um, we met, met one of the members Matthew was a Twitter follower of ours came out and played a few holes with us hit Probably one of the best shots we saw of the whole trip got on 16 and two And then He picked up a five footer for birdie. It was a bit

A little bit twitchy for me. He gave himself a five footer for birdie But no, it was it, that was a impressive shot. The Perot came out and played. Yeah. Michael came out and played a few holes with us, which was, but yeah, it's, so really, it's pretty flat, but just, like inherently interesting holes. And then you get out, it wasn't that flat once you got out there. Well, and then you get out to like six or seven, and really, and really eight, I mean, eights were like eights the par five and it's pretty healing. It got cool and like behind eight, you almost I almost felt like I was out in San Francisco. Like they have these cool trees and you're right, you're kind

of right next to the ocean at that point or the the deestuary and it was that stretch was spectacular. 9, 10, 11 I think it was. They call it their Aiman Corner. That was all phenomenal. Great sea views and again so many people out there walking. We saw horses that people out there riding horses on the beach. that people out there riding horses on the beach. Just something else. Not even with like a really cool punch bowl green. Yeah, and then yeah, 10 was a really, really cool par four. People that, they, they're gonna love and was a fantastic par three.

Oh, that was one of my favorite homes. That was probably top three favorite homes of the trip. People, anyone that's sliding this course in the least is off, completely off from a fan playing perspective or whatnot. Maybe it's not the best open championship course. I don't personally see that. It doesn't translate on TV either. Probably not.

Because it gets, I think, part of the charm of the place is it's so expansive and it's such a vast piece of property and when you put those grandstands in there and all the hospitality and all corporate stuff it gets chopped up and you lose part of the element of that rolling yeah it just feels big when you're out there you feel like you're you're in this you're all alone in this vast space and kind of it's like other world animals but you can't tell I like this course. You were you were blown away by this course and I get I I loved it as well. So 16 was the one they played it as 18

during during the okay. Don't know if you know that. Yeah and and supposedly Sam Saunders is Plomer's grandson. To be confirmed. That was a really fun hole too. But yeah, I mean, 16 from where Rory hit that five iron in there. I don't understand. So 16, you actually go back, you kind of go across

the range as well. You can cut off some of the range there too. And there's there's the pros that didn't do it from where they put it. There's out of bounds kind of on the right. On the right. But yeah, but they had to on the second shot. Yeah, they had to cover the OB on the second shot. I don't get how you had a five iron from 240 where he did. And we had that downwind as well. Yeah. I don't I really don't understand it. Yeah. So 16 and then it was interesting to me 17 and 18. So 17's got this really long narrow green.

So that played as number two and one, number one. 17 plays one. 17 plays one, 18 is two, and then number one and play is three. So that one had a new green. Like 17 and 18 are new greens, and they've kind of rerouted everything. And 17 was like, I really liked the green.

It had these giant kind of grass mounds. It kind of reminded me of like one of the more well-done, like modern American course, like a core and crensha, or like, particularly like sweetens cove in Tennessee. Like, it just just it reminded me of The best elements of what we like about you know some of these new American courses But yeah, so I mean I thought they did a great job on those holes. I would say the only thing like it's just This was the kind of course or the kind of Piece of land that was just begging for a few more template holes. Yeah for me like if it had a great beer it's or if it had you know a really

really cool redan hole or something like that like it was it was kind of like a Chicago golf club kind of piece of property very flat but you know just super well done I think from the tips, it's shaving ship, it was 73, it's 73 hundred, we played it from probably 6,500. Probably, yeah. It's even a little longer than that, yeah. We played that one. But it didn't like length wasn't,

length wasn't really the determining factor. No, not a ton of wind out there. And it seemed like it got longer as the course went on too. Like the last last the back nine I believe was much When it says they're both the exact same distance, but I think I think the back nine was was more More challenging from a length perspective And then yeah, and then Michael the pro came out played

Played a best ball with our alternate and also in a shot with us, and he was fantastic. He came in, bought some beers in the clubhouse, and uh... It's also worth noting that they let us play on Saturday, which is a big deal. Like a nice Saturday, the year so far. Yeah, Saturdays are member days at these clubs. And no, they were having their...

Had their AGM. Yeah, they're annual general meeting. Which so like all the members were in town. Like honestly, that would be a course where like... Like I would place that among... Where I would want to be a member out of everywhere I've played. That's far in my life. It was just that cool, of course, and that chill of a membership to where we flew our drone

after the round. And they were like, yes, you just want to keep on looping around and keep playing. Yeah, I felt like I was holding up the group behind us when we were flying the drone around. They came over to see what it was like on the screen And then they talked to us in the clubhouse. Yeah, they they couldn't have been oh So everyone was gathering for the meeting while we were sitting in there having drinks and it was just I don't know You get it's like seeing behind the curtain of a of it, you know a private place and you yeah We didn't feel out of place. We didn't like nobody a people came up to us They're all there

Blazers, you know ties and all that and Yeah, we didn't feel out of place. We didn't almost two hours worth of conversation between Troy and I as well. We brought James in to kind of help recap the trip as well. Could not post a two hour podcast. So stay tuned for part two, which should be coming soon. Thank you for tuning in. I'm going to 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.