No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 759: Asia-Pacific Amateur Recap

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

Soly and Ben bring you the weekly recap pod from down under where Aussie Jasper Stubbs wins the Asia-Pacific Amateur at Royal Melbourne's famed composite course. We start with our observations from the week and experiencing firm and fast sandbelt golf at one of the best courses in the world before breaking down the action from the 2023 tournament (14:00) culminating in Stubbs winning in a playoff and securing invites to the 2024 Masters, the 2024 Open Championship and the 2024 Amateur Championship. We also reflect on the purpose of the tournament (29:00) and some of the interesting stories and competitors we met during the week from all over this part of the globe including countries with little to no championship golf tradition. We close with Ben's impressions as a first-time visitor, of Melbourne's golf culture and sandbelt courses (42:30), our upcoming match on the composite course at Royal Melbourne, and (55:00) the need for more top-level professional golf in Australia. 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. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Equate guests on the note laying out podcast or is this the first time you've actually been on the podcast? I think I've totaled like you know seven maybe eight minutes on the I know you podcast so so far so It's great to be here for those that are not familiar with our video network and whatnot Ben works on that side of the house. He has been on this trip down here with me to the Asia Pacific Amateur at Role Melbourne before we get so much to talk about coming off this week

But we of course need to talk about coming off this week, but we of course need to remind you this episode is brought to you by title. It's the number one ball in golf at every level of competitive golf, especially when the games biggest titles are on the line. More players choose to tee up a pro v one or pro v one x golf ball than any other golf ball. Then we saw a lot, a lot, a lot of title. It's equipment from woods and irons all the way down to the golf ball, then we saw a lot, a lot, a lot of titleist equipment from woods and irons all the way down to the golf ball. It's been a lot of time on first

tease, a lot of people show in the, I got the whole vibe of like, yeah, I'm a four, I'm a one, whatever I'm playing, but it was almost all titleist golf balls. And really, the main theme there being there's just no way you can play your best golf unless you are playing the right golf ball. This golf course, it demanded that you knew exactly what your ball was going to do when it hit the green. I got a quick story I got to tell on that is we got to play a little bit of golf done here in the sand belt and we went over to Sandy Links across the street from Roam Albert and it's Ben's first time playing any kind of sand belt golf.

And I watched you reach for wedge a couple times times, like go for the big high shot. And I was like, young buck, that's not the shot, man. Like you need to hit a little runner here. But with the golf ball you play, the equipment, you were able to hold it up on top of some of these grids. I was stunned by that. It was just to say, oh, man, yeah, this guy's got, this guy's got, it control of his golf ball.

Yeah, it's extremely challenging, the golf down here. And to your point, the woods, I'd never seen that many titleless woods in one place. All the best amateurs come into this tournament where, uh, we're playing titleless woods. And, uh, of course, the golf ball, we knew that already. We knew that. We knew that. Head over to titleless.com to start the process and find out which golf ball is best for your game. Listen, the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship has not been a topic we've covered in the past. I'm sure we've mentioned the winners. I'm sure we've mentioned what's on the line that comes from this tournament, but have to admit I've not

not been the most informed on this. It hasn't necessarily peaked my interest. I've I've been I've as far as I can remember going back, I've been, we've been quick to praise Augusta National RNA and the USGA as it relates to the Latin American Championship. For both the initiatives that have come with this tournament of, hey, here is a huge tournament we're gonna put up in this part of the world and what we are going to reward you with is astronomical. It's enormous.

It is huge. They've invested a huge amount of money, time, effort into an event that at the end of it, the winner is going to go to the Masters and to the Open Championship. That's about the extent of what I knew about it going into. Is that about similar for you? Yeah, honestly, I did not know that. I didn't even know that there was an Open Ben in the line. I just knew that it was one of the few ways to get into the Masters if you're not been in the line, I just knew that it was one of the few ways to get into the masters if you're not, you know, in the top echelon of the game. So that's really all I knew about it. I didn't know the level of courses that they went

to for this. Well, they never haven't necessarily. And I want to get to that, right? That's a big reason why we probably ended up here was the event was held this year on the composite course at Royal Melbourne, which I'm I've been thinking about it all week. And I think I'm ready to declare it is the best golf course in the world. I'm pretty, pretty sure it is for like, I should say for this exact level of competition, still probably a little short for the highest level of professional golf. The old course is still my favorite course, but it's short and kind of silly for professional

golf. But this is like the greatest possible test I could have ever imagined watching people play golf on. So that's to say, like, I feel like it took an elevated step this year taking this championship to this golf course, to this golf community and to this golf atmosphere in Melbourne. We can talk a little bit about what the whole golf

atmosphere is like down here and how much that has been ready to run through a wall. But we got a chance to have some conversations with Martin Slambers this week, with Fred really this week. And I made that point specifically to both of them to say, hey, venues matter. We got a nudge to come down here, kind of an invite to come down here. We got teed up really well. I tried to go to maybe one tournament a year that is a little off the beaten path from

what we would usually go to. Last year we went to the BMW Ladies Championship in Korea. Wanted to learn a bit more about golf in Korea. And this one just lined up perfectly to say, we'll get into kind of the second aspect of this championship, which kind of blew us away as well. Wanted to learn more about what this was because I sure as heck learned a lot, and I have a feeling people listening to this. If you're listening to a fall golf podcast about a amateur

championship on the other side of the world for most of our listeners, I'm guessing you're kind of into it as well. Yeah, well, I think they definitely should be. The level of golf that we saw was wide. It was a very unique tournament in that who was actually playing had some of the best players in the world and some that are very much on the come up. But it was reinvigorating. I mean, it really brought that sense of nerves to the game. You could see it on the first tee and was just very exciting to see these individuals with

such a big carrot at the end. Go chase it on an incredible golf course. Like you said, with the distance element, it seemed to fit the scale of what was happening out there, extremely, extremely well. We'll get into the people of Melbourne and how great and gracious they were to have this event. But yeah, it's something I'm really, really happy to have seen. So we have been shooting a lot of content this week. We're going to have a video that I think we originally thought was going to be about

12 minutes. It might be a little longer now that we have dove into it and got to meet so many people. That was kind of the main reason we made the trip down here was to kind of try to cover the championship in our way. We're really excited about that. That's going to take a little while, but we were kind of just foaming at the mouth and buzzing a little bit to talk about the experience. And I, again, I don't know.

I've never been to a tournament where I've enjoyed the, like, walking the grounds of the tournament and the course as much as this one. I mean, it's pretty lax atmosphere. They try to keep you off the fairways for following the groups, but tickets were free for anyone. You can roll up and pretty much see whatever you wanted. And the climate here, it's spring as sprung here in Melbourne

and the sun being out. And one of the firmest golf courses have ever seen. Of course, of course, we reminded multiple times. It can get much firmer than this. You know, I'm so excited. I'm sure they slowed it down a little bit for the championship. We heard all that, but I played this golf course a lot in video games as a kid and I never pictured like traveling to it. And just like you and I spent so much time on the five west was just the tournament 11th hold this week just watching golf shots come in watching

kids trying to figure out how you land the ball in the front half of the screen without coming up short having the ball roll 50 yards back not landing it too far into the green having it bound in the middle go all the way over the green and having impossible up and down it was that exercise on repeat for 72 holes. It was taxing. It was nobody finished under par in this championship. We are going to get a chance to play the composite course today. We are not going to finish under par in our championship today. I can't. It's just not going to happen. It's just extremely, extremely difficult without being long with with it is, you know, I feel like we try to hammer home that our love of width and angles and all this stuff.

It just doesn't come to life very often, but it did on this golf course this week. Yeah, 100%. It's completely changed my perspective on what good golf is. It is super, super wide out there, but also it's not at all. If you really start to look at, you know,

how do you attack these pins? You know, we've all heard the maybe 30 feet is a great shot. Sometimes here, like keeping it on the green is a great shot with wedge, with wedge. Yes, absolutely. And we saw, you know, Samson here on his ninth hole, right? Little flip wedge and ball trickles off the back very, very easily.

And it's, he had to make an absolutely outstanding, uh, next couple shots to, to leave with a par on a whole that some kids were driving, which was, uh, I say kids. There's people of all ages out there, but, uh, it felt like a lot of, you know, up and coming amateurs that we were watching at the, uh, at the top of the board. So it really, really opened my eyes into what golf is and the strategic element of how golf is played. It really, really changed my perspective and I'd love to dive in even deeper on, you know, the game of golf and how it, it's much more than execution and this place really, really amplified that to the nth degree. And this is always the part where I struggle with my words,

despite it being my job to explain one, how, why I get so much joy out of watching. I mean, this is not Lynx Golf, this is Sandbelt Golf, but it's the same aspects of it in terms of just the firmness and what it does to your mind. And walking up to five West, which is tournament 11 this week and what, during the practice round and watching guys try to hit that green

with the wind off the left. It just hit me a little bit to say like, all right, most like PGA tour golf is saying like, hey, execute this shot right here to the middle of the green. Like you can shape it. You can fade it if you want. You can draw it if you want. You know, just just execute this shot. And this was asking, can you hit a draw? You have to draw this ball up against a left to right wind, a strong left to right wind because the green is so firm. If you have this moving left to right when it lands, it will not hold and will end up in the right bunker.

So how can you hit this shot that is high enough to not get destroyed by the wind, low enough, you know, that it, or sorry, low enough that doesn't get destroyed by the wind, high enough that it doesn't just run through the back of the green. asks extremely specific question of can you execute this shot and then when you flip over the next hole it might be the complete opposite shot it that's where you get to it being a complete test and that's where we go back to like maybe we haven't even begun to fully understand the genius of Tigers 2019 presidents cup singles match round

like just watching him play to the right side of Six West fairway to be able to attack the left pin and the like the people of Melbourne still talking about how he played that. That's just man, after a year of golf, like breaking my heart on repeat, I just feel so rejuvenated after this week. And I mean, listen, maybe I'm phobic at the mouth as well because we get to play the cops. Of course today I'm so excited, but I don't know.

That was just peak peak golf to me. Yeah, 100% and I think that that tiger element in the president's cup, I mean, we heard that since Tuesday, people talking about, you know, specific holes and specific shots that they're always going to remember. And, you know, to your point, I think, you know, you and I specific shots that they're always gonna remember. And, you know, to your point, I think, you know, you and I in America, we're decent golfers. I feel entirely inadequate to go out there

and try and play that golf course and specifically try to shoot any sort of number. It's just not gonna happen. It's extremely, extremely obvious in some instances of like what shots required with specific holes that are tucked on corners of greens and things like that and ridges that you have to fight, wins that are whipping across and you know that artist's first mechanic that KVV always likes to

talk about. This one felt like if you were a mechanic and hitting the same shot on repeat, the column work how a method, you would really struggle out there to be able to shoot any sort of score. I'm sure he'd be able to figure it out, but would have to be playing extremely boldly, which it's going to, going to slap you on the wrist if you tried to do that. So yeah, it's a totally different game. It truly, truly is. It is such a blast to watch like 360 yard holes

kind of melt these guys minds a little bit and watch the varying strategies of 360 yard holes again, most like Pro Golf, a shortage four or a drive before by the end of the week, the style of playing it gets pretty homogenized, like unless you're a total bunter, I can almost everyone's going for it. Hit it near the green, figure it out from there. There's just no, none of the short-forged,

is there an element of a hit it? Let's hit it near there and just figure it out. Like we'll get it up and down from there. You have to position yourself. We're talking to a guy who was a member there who when he plays three West, which was nine for the tournament, which was the first hole for the president's cup.

We could talk a little bit about that. I know it's all confusing, but he hits driver down there to like 50 yards and he just puts it up to the middle of the green. Just puts it through a gully up there, but just to say, let me get a board this whole, and that's how I play this whole versus trying to figure out how to land a wedge and hold it and spin it

and all of the aspects that go into it. But again, just like when the turf's not firm, none of this stuff matters. It just, it doesn't matter. And that's where, I don't know, I'm so excited to tackle this. We should probably mention the results of the tournament. Again, usually when we go to a tournament

that the results lead about 90% of what we talk about, but I think it's probably gonna be about 10% to 90% flipped of the kind of off course and other elements of this tournament. But Jasper Stubbs from Australia, won the tournament in a thrilling playoff. Samson, going back, those Samson Zhang

from China who attends the University of California, he shot a Amateur Course Record, Amateur Composite Course Record, 65, 600 par on Saturday. On a day when four players broke par, the second best round was 200 par. Samson's ang shot six under par to take a four shot lead or five shot lead into the final round. Four shot lead.

Oh, no. Yes. Four shot lead. It opened up to five at some point on Sunday. But he took an enormously going into that day. Just absolutely flawless round of golf. He had to seven under at one point. We watched some of that round in the clubhouse

where some guys that had already finished. And man, when he was rolling in putsth, there was just like audible, whoa, groans coming from players in the field. You and I watched a lot of golf this week. I saw almost no made putts, but it was so hard. And this guy went out and broke the composite course record. They put it up on the wall.

It was a pretty ridiculous moment. But man, as we as we said, as we heard from Colt Dose walk in the 72nd hall of the tournament, pressure is a bitch. And it really looked like it got to him. But it just it looked like the hardest possible golf course to hold a 54 hole lead on. And he was unable to do so yesterday. Yeah, you you got to follow him for what, nine, 10 holes. It's at the scene like, what were you seeing?

You were sharing with me that saw some sweat beating off the brow, maybe a little too much sunscreen being applied. I guess what were you seeing out there from? Well, he just, again, I'm obsessed with this aspect of like everyone we interviewed in the early part of the week, I asked like, all right, it's Tuesday, all right, it's Wednesday. Are you thinking about the fact there's a master's bid on the line? And like most of them are pretty much like, yeah, you know, like it's pretty hard to ignore. Like you go to the first tee and the master's trophy was sitting there and a replica of

the Claret jug was sitting there along with the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship trophy. Like the signage around all the T-boxes says Masters and RNA. Like, if you think for one second you can forget about what comes, you know, I know this, I don't want to diminish the accomplishment of winning the championship, but like those are just enormous, enormous things for a golfer. And Jasper Stubbs talked about it when he talked about the putt that he hit on the first hole of the playoff of like, yeah, that was the dream of like the putt to get in the masters. And it's impossible to ignore, possible to probably get to sleep on that 54-hull lead. He played a fine nine front nine. And I kind of thought he had it.

But then flip over, flipping over to the back nine, it just became really, really nervy. He, he got to some of the hardest holes in the golf course. He pulled one into the bunker on the tournament 11th, which is five west, the famous part three, made Bogey. Flipped over to six west, which is 12 tournament. Again, one of the best golf holes in the world went over that green, could not get up and down. Made Bogey again made a great birdie on 13,

which is one west, a short four. And then he hit I think one good shot in the final six holes. He was lucky to two put the the the 14th hole. He three putted the 15th hole. He had a great shot into 16, but missed the birdie putt and then just had a collapse on the 17th hole had iron in on the par five. All he had to do was not hit it in the cross bunkers that come up short of that green. He missed short right, pitched out of the bunker from 50 yards to 40 feet and three potted it. And all of a sudden he was tied, hit it in the green side bunker on the 72nd hole.

Got to had a great up and down to get into a three man playoff. You were up following the group up ahead with Jasper Stubbs and and when you ding who ended up in the three man playoff. And then from there they went back to the tee. It was a buzz, man. It was a scene getting an Aussie in the playoff, obviously in Australia, with a lot of Australian fans there,

and all of golf Australia team members up there watching it was a buzz. And what was the length of putt that Jasper pulled in on the first playoff hold, 25 feet, 30 feet? Yeah, but that doesn't tell the story. I mean, he swung thisoff hold 25 feet, 30 feet. Yeah. But that doesn't tell the story. I mean, he swung this thing out seven, eight feet left of it. And it was a trickily scary one down the hill.

And it was, it was dead center. I mean, it came in at like nine o'clock. Like it was, it was very, very challenging putt. And he kept saying, I've been liking the look of those puts. I don't know how you liked the look of a putt every seven feet. Nobody made these all week, nobody. It was that was the first birdie on 18 all day. Seriously? Yes.

Oh my God, I did not know that. That was the first birdie on 18 all day, which is remarkable. And what's even more remarkable is when you ding, did it right back on top of them to force the second playoff hole. If you want to see these clips, they're on the Asia Pacific A bitBitter, I'm sure website, but on their Twitter feed, I retweeted the two puts on there because there's a great TV

angle as well for Deng's father when he was, was cating for him, is kind of in the foreground of the shot when he makes it. He goes nuts when he poured that in. I mean, it was, again, after 72 holes of watching, dude, just miss, miss. The whole tournament was a, like, just reaching, like, clawing as best you could to stay at par, to make parts. I don't recall watching one single 15 footer roll in the entire week.

And to watch those two back-to-back was just amazing. Zang was unfortunately eliminated there. We have a lot, a lot, a lot of footage of Zang, just kind of going through the ringer of that back nine and just camera. We're not the only camera in his face like TV cameras are right in his face after every hole after every putt because it looked like he was the story and I'm sure it was probably a pretty heartbreaking night for him. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I was with the group ahead of Samson. And I would say it was pretty opposite

to what you were experiencing. Stubs and Ding were, they were flushing it. And they were very much trying to gain a shot or to come in. It was very interesting to see when he's very calm collected, it doesn't really. That pace of play, God. Yes.

It was what's one Twitter user referred to him as. We couldn't get in position to film his shot on the first playoff hole, because he hit it so fast. I know. Yeah. You know, it was the exact opposite of his dad. He was very cool, and his dad was living and dying with every piece of content. I love that.

I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that.

I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that.

I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that.

I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I was like, one of these Aussies is going to do something. Like they are, they are centering the ball. And it maxed Charles was the other one in the group, I believe, and he made a good run out of it as well. He did. He did. He made a really nice birdie on 15. He finished one shot out of the playoff. Yeah. And just, uh, just was unable to get up and down on on 17 to, to make it a four man playoff. But, um, yeah, I guess, you know, set the set the scene for the, uh for the fans out there. I thought it was, you know, quite impressive. How many ended up coming out and definitely added to the nerve factor coming up 18. Oh, yeah, I mean, it was, I mean, it was a decent crowd there around 18, an incredible scene. The, uh, so for those that aren't familiar with composite courses,

I'm not going to go into my whole spiel on it. But Royal Melbourne has made up of the West course and the East course, and there are, oh, I get all this right, I've been working hard on this. There's 14 West holes on the main paddock, which sits all, you don't have to cross a road until you get to the, after the 12 hole in the West course,

you cross over, play 13 through 16 on the West. And you come back onto the main paddock for the final two. So there's 14 that sit on the main one. And there's seven East holes that sit on this main paddock. So for tournaments and competitions and for spectators and all that, they try to keep all the competition on the main paddock. They do keep all the competition on the main paddock

in what is called the composite course. So they 18th hole on the east course plays as the 18th hole traditionally the final hole of the composite course. Now for the president's cup, they move that up to the 16th hole so they could get more players to play that hole, which is an incredible hall. It reminded me so much of the 18th hall at LACC. And it reminded me also of what could have been with that tournament in terms of, I mean, it's a dog leg left, huge wide fairway. Windom Clarks teach all the windom Clarks t-shirts would find the 18th fairway at Roel Melbourne East as well. But when you get the

wind and when you get the firmness of the greens and you have the bunkers encroaching on the green, And when you get the firmness of the greens and you have the bunkers encroaching on the green, it is genuinely one of the hardest approach shots into a green. You can imagine that doesn't have water, doesn't have much slope to it really. There's no drama with it other than to say like, it is firm. Can you shape a shot in the right way and fit it somewhere on this green and fit it at pins and the shots that we saw in the playoff from Stubbs and Ding. Like you said, no one birdied the whole all day. Then when they had to, when somebody had to go at the pin,

both those guys got it over the bunker at that pin and Zhang was unable to get it close and they rolled in these two dramatic puts and did it. And Dang went for it again. And the second playoff hole ended up in the bunker, couldn't get it up and down after a. Really sick bunker shot that he somehow stopped short of the pin. He was doing that all day.

It was crazy. Like, as we know, the Aussie bunkers are very, very, you know, knife-sege to the green. I mean, he's landing these eight inches onto the green in order for it to stop. It was truly impressive. He did that on 14 as well and got it up to, you know, two, three inches, which, you know, I'm looking at it. I'm like, God if he keeps us on the green it would be a standing shot

Yeah, it was extremely impressive and they were scary looking from the fairway both of those shots Yeah, I'm in the first playoff hole in the second one when Dane made contact It's like oh god that good. That's not that's not good at all It was sick though I mean why I first of all I did not think the play was at the pin in that first playoff hole. Yeah. Both of those balls were flying at it. I'm like, oh, no, like you guys are about to get bit. And they land and you hear the roars, like the roar of just, oh, like there was no roars out there for most of the week,

because there just wasn't many birdies being made. But to hear that roar was just again, it's, it's, I don't know how much this translated to TV. I don't know how much listeners care about all this stuff. We're just giving you our genuine reaction to attending a really, really fun tournament in person. And then yeah, just seeing somebody's life change from winning it and Zang, getting so close to having his life change. Another kind of cool story about this bow gin,

who was the runner up and he finished third in the last two of these He has had his share of heartbreak in this championship had it won last year and gave it away lost it with a water ball He was out following. He's also from China, Samson Zegas from China He was out following Sam sent him like rooting him on and basically giving him advice in between holes and telling him you got this We got some cool clips and interviews with him just going through that final stretch. But that was just something of note to say,

like I'm sure those two had a conversation last night of like, yeah, we both have been so painfully close to having this achievement and just didn't work out. But yeah, one thing that I saw that gonna stick for me or stick with me for a very, very long time, I happened to be gosh 10 feet away from Deng after it had been wrapped up by Stubbs. You know, he had, he did the, you know, Torsox move of marking the six.

Just to make sure he could have the last one. He sat there and watched absolutely intently as Team Australia came out and doused it stubs with champagne and he's celebrating having a good time, having the best time. And he just watched. And it very much reminded me of that, you know, it's Super Bowl, that Buffalo Bill's player that watched as, you know, his team lost to go to the Super Bowl. And I don't know, it just, it really, it actually like really mellowed my mood out. It was extremely lonely at the moment when Stubbs was having an experience that was far from it. And he

just, he just did there and watched and didn't, didn't have anything on his face. He wasn't, you know, tearing up or anything like that. He just, it's, he just felt really, it felt really lonely. It felt like a very tough experience. And, and, you know, everyone was cheering him on. Everybody wanted him to do well.

I thought the Aussie fans were, you know, yeah, of course they wanted their guy to win, but extremely respectful and cheered for his good shots and were really excited for him as well. And all of a sudden it just completely got ripped away from him. It was just an interesting experience. It's tough to put into words what it felt like, but yeah, I was excited. I, you know, smiled when Stubbs had it wrapped up. It was fun to watch the Ozzy roll out. And then all of a sudden it just hit me like a ton of bricks.

Like somebody is feeling the exact opposite of Stubbs right now. And, you know, he, I just happened to be close enough where it, I could feel his pain for sure. I want to talk a bit about the second aspect of this tournament that I think kind of resonated with all of us. But before we do that, we got to give a shout out. There was, we got a couple, couple, we had a lot of great interactions with a lot of local people, big golf fans down here. I got a couple shout outs to the subtle dog logo.

Like you can, somebody literally came up to me and said, you can't go anywhere without seeing that subtle dog logo. You know I'm talking about rowback. There's only one way to describe rowback that is best fit, best feel. It's summers kicking off down here, down in Melbourne or getting close to. But it is the perfect time to load up on the best gear that we own.

They have fantastic polos. They got USA themes. They got classic solids and stripes. They got all kinds of incredible stuff. They're four-way stretch, moisture wicking fabric. They will get you through a warm summer day. They're great to wear to the office. If you're taking a more casual look to the office,

the performance hoodies were really clutched this week. We did not get much heat down here. They are the stretchiest softest hoodies in golf. You want to be comfortable and relaxed on the course than wear a rowback hoodie. I am wearing them pretty close to every single day. I'm recycling the orange one today. Don't tell anyone about that. The performance

QZips are a game changer. Nothing beats rock and a QZip for an early round of golf. Like I said, we cannot go anywhere without spying the subtle dog logo or the two striped ridge on the back. You can use code NLU at rowback.com for a generous 20% off your first order through the end of this week. That's spelled R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com, 20% off polo's, Q-Zips, hoodies and more with code and L-U. Yeah, we had a spider-mean gift, but the back-end. That's right. That's right.

That's right. Same shoe, same rowback hoodie. Yeah, we both have the same foot-joice shoes on, and he was wearing the blue, and I don't know how you would describe the rowback, but literally we're wearing almost the same exact outfit. So I would say a big reason why we also made this trip was we were talking with some of the tournament organizers

beforehand and they were kind of, you know, describing what is the aspects of this tournament. And I was a little, I don't know, I would say a little embarrassed that I didn't kind of know all this going into it. But was just done to hear. I think the original plan was 41 countries, but it eventually ended up with people from 37 countries were represented in this championship.

And it, what's the proper way to say this, I guess, I was amazed at the commitment level to of this championship at providing opportunities for golfers from less established golf countries to have truly the golf week of their lives, whether they play one of these, whether they play, we've talked to somebody who's played 10 of these, people from countries, honestly, I weren't sure

weren't countries, were countries. I did not know, I have to admit, I did not know the Cook Islands were considered a country. They have a population of 15,000 people. They have one at nine whole golf course. We got to meet William Howard and Christopher Williamson from the Cook Islands. Again they have just a nine whole golf course. We walked a couple of holes with them in the practice round. Christopher said he was having trouble like a little bit of trouble in his mind of taking divots off the fairways at Roa Melbourne because he said that's what our greens look like back in the

Cook Islands. And it again, RNA and Augusta National, the interview we do with Martin Slumber is it will be in the video as well. He says, look, we have, we believe we have an obligation through our financial resources to provide opportunities to people from countries like butan, Brunei, Nepal, Pakistan. I mean, I can keep, like, oh, man, we can keep going of all these places that have, you know, some of these countries don't even have 10 golf courses, but they fly people, they fly these kids and adults to this tournament. They put them up in these hotels. The food is incredible.

We saw, I would say we saw 70 plus percent of the field that missed the cut out there at the tournament on Saturday and Sunday, putting on the putting green, playing putting games like at all the gals and the events at night. The level of investment in this event, it just left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling of saying, like, yeah, they wanted, they,

they part of the reason, like, they probably invited us to this tournament is to help get this message out. And, but at the same time, this is the 14th edition of this championship. They, the organizers truly seem dead set on here is the level of investment we're willing to make in developing golf in these countries. They have these academies now set up in all these countries. And I just walked away with the feeling of, like, all right, hey, it might be 50 years before we see the first or the next great golfer

from Vietnam or Malaysia or Pakistan or, but coming from, I come from a country where golf has been very, very, very well established for over 100 years. And there's a lineage from Bobby Jones to, you know, Byron Nelson to Jack Nicholas to Arnold Palmer to Watson to Tiger Woods to like the guys from today that is had a chance to grow on itself and to see like, you know, a lot of these guys from these countries don't have like countrymen to look up to that have had success on the world stage. And they don't have competitive environments that are developed in their home countries to like develop

their skills. So now they come to this event, see what Jasper Stubbs is games like see what Samson Zang's game game is like and see what Royal Melbourne is like as a test and go home and say like, all right, I now I need to take my game to the next level. Competition breeds, excellence. And I, we just met so many, like, cool dudes from a lot of these places this week that left me with a feeling of like, hey, they might shoot big scores this year. But there's a ton of great stories that of guys that have shot 92 90 and missed cuts at this event and two years later come back and shot 200 par and made the cut. And now I'm intrigued. There's

like 10 guys whose careers I'm intrigued to follow and follow up on in this championship of future years. I don't know. I'm rambling, but like I got a genuine like, you know, again, back to like golf breaking my heart a lot. There was a lot to take away from this that made me, you know, made me feel encouraged about golf in the future. Yeah.

Absolutely. And I think Martin in that interview we had with him also mentioned that he wants the individuals when they step up to the first tee to feel like this is something they've never felt before, that this experience is significant. And he thinks that that's, you know, one of the only ways that you're going to get individuals ready. And I guess reading through the the tea leaves excited about potentially feeling that again for these individuals which I thought was was interesting and I would have to agree you know given the the circumstance and like you said with the trophies out there. maybe not, well, time will tell to what level. It is working in the moment, but we followed Ryan Ong for quite a while. He's from Singapore.

This was his second ACC, and he did make the cut last year, and talking with him. It seemed like that was a huge accomplishment. Last year, he ended up mid 40s in the field. This year came out and got a top 20. After spotting the field 11 shots in round one he shot an 82 and round one. He followed it with 71-72-70 in some of the most difficult conditions I've ever watched

people play golf in. And we got a lot of this on camera, we followed him around a lot, had the biggest smile on his face the whole time. He loved the camera when he walked off agreed after a birdie. He absolutely loved it. I mean, it's a tremendous accomplishment. I mean, it's remarkable. I do not know another golfer from Singapore, like to that point, like, you know,

it's, I don't know enough about what golf development programs are like in Singapore, but like that speaks to the foundation has been laid there for him to become a competitive golfer in some way and I would have to imagine at least some of it traces traces back to this championship. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, he seemed extremely, you know, happy with with how he he showed out. He wanted to get a top 15, which I think is given the field a massive, massive accomplishment and he came really, really darn close. It was just very, very interesting to see and hear him talk about how he cannot wait to get back.

How he's just absolutely chomping at the bit to keep competing, keep playing in tournaments. So next year he can he can give it a run. He also was out following that final group. You know, just talked about learning opportunities as well, just seeing these other individuals play and how their game stacks up and how it's just such a good not only good tests for their game, but then develop and see what it's going to take to maybe play division one golf or maybe be able to turn pro one day. So yeah, it was, it's great to see. And it's, it's fun to, fun to follow some of these individuals. I think, you know, Ryan's might be my favorite golfer

now. So I can't wait to continue to follow him as he progresses. And I wish them all, all the best moving forward. My favorite golfer might be a gentleman from Nepal. His name is Subash Tamal. Subash Tamal. I hope I'm saying his name right, but last year he became the first golfer representing the country of Nepal to make the cut at the Asia Pacific Amateur. And again, I hope I have all the details of this story, right? But as I understand it, I don't pretend to know everything about the Nepal Gulf Association. In fact, I believe this is the only thing I know about the Nepal Gulf Association, but they've financially supported him and his family, like as he's progressed through golf.

And I, again, I don't know where they, where the Nepal Gulf Association gets their funding, but I, again, I imagine it traces back something through Asia Pacific Golf Federation, the RNA, and probably this championship in some capacity, but the NGA raised money to build Sue Bash and his family a house in their village. His parents make bricks from mud in their village and he dropped out of school to help them make mud bricks to earn enough money to support the

family. And he eventually was sent to live with his aunt in the capital city. That's where he became a spotter at the local golf course before picking up the game. And he ended up missing the cup by one shot this week from what we saw of it. Absolute stripe show. Off the tee. And, you know, we spent some time talking with Joy, who kind of helped serve kind of as his translator. Joy's from India.

He's a golf media member. And we, you know, he talked to us about, I mean, he can see the green he's got the game, but like, he's just never seen anything like the greens at Role Melbourne. And in his defense, I don't know if I've ever seen anything like the greens at Role Melbourne, I don't know how you practice on that, or I don't know how you prepare for that.

But to, you know, a year after making the cut last year to missing the cut by one, I was pulling for this guy harder than anyone else in the field. He was an absolute delight to talk to. He just not speak English. We translated everything through joy, but we had a great interview with him to just,

he reflected on all the people in his life that have contributed to helping him achieve the dream of competing at Roel Melbourne. I don't know, man, it's just like, I met so many people this week from countries that I've never met them. And it all is through the game of golf, right? And it just speaks to somebody, a lot of people

had to put a lot of time and effort into standing up a championship like this. And to see all that come together in one place and all the guys from the different golf associations and they're matching suits and all the things that, you can just tell, the individual programs from these countries are like propping up these adults and kids competing these championships.

It was just great. Another guy, Azzon from Oman, he competed in this championship at Real Melbourne in 2014 when his son was one year old, one year old. He had his 10 year old son on the bag for part of the championship. I don't know if he carried for him in the actual tournament, but during the practice rounds,

his 10-year-old son was pushing the card around. He was falling him around with every shot. Was he pushing the card around or was the cart pushing? It might have been the other way. He might have just been drifting with the waves as well. But I don't know, stuff like that. He was a thrill to talk to as well. He says that I think the sixth golf course in Oman

is in construction right now. There's only five golf courses right now in Oman, but he was so proud to be there representing his country and to be competing in that championship. Again, a lot of these guys are not competing for the master's bid or not competing for the RNA and the open championship bid, but that doesn't mean that their performance, their own individual championships were probably

whatever their own individual goals were set. And that part was just legitimately, it was great. It was awesome. Yeah, and it's tough to really wrap my head around exactly what this is. And I'm sure with our conversation so far, you can kind of understand that this championship is both a championship at the elite level to really propel an individual to become one of the best in the game. But it's also a development.

Yeah. 100% as well. It's not 120 of the best players in the world. No, they're proud of that, honestly. Right. It's an interesting to try and wrap your head around exactly what it is and how it works and where it's positioned in the world of amateur golf. But at the end of the day, I think it's extremely important and I'm really glad it exists. There is just simply like there's not a barrier to entry financially

or like where you come from in this tournament, right? There's opportunity. That was a big thing with Martin too. I don't think they're expecting a huge payoff from, you know, the first golfer from Brunei to compete in the event Suckier-Ley who we met. I don't think that they're expecting him to win the bid, win the tournament and move on, but like, hey, maybe five, 10, 50 years down the road, there's going to be some kind of golf development in Brunei. And I don't know. Again, that stuff just kept, kept resonating.

On Men Gwyn from Vietnam, I think he's 16 years old. If I remember right, he finished in the top 10. We had a blast talking with him in the earlier part of the week as well. And I want to give a shout out to our guy, Marcus Lim, who is from Malaysia. He goes to Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. He also finished in the top 10.

We spent a little time with him in the early part of the week. But can we talk a little bit about golf in Australia? Yeah. Anything else you want to get off your chest about the tournament? No, I think that's a wrap, but I would like to talk about some sand belt golf. The last I'll say about is the golf was available on ESPN2 and ESPN Plus this past week. I think it was limited commercial. If I, as I understand, I didn't get to watch it on TV, but I understand.

In the US, it was probably eight minutes of commercials per hour compared to 18 of PGA tour golf I hope people got a chance to tune in or set your DVRs it's I kept reminding people to set their DVRs just because you're gonna see a style of golf that I don't know when we're gonna see it again for the next time and it you know whether or not you care about who wins the championship or what it's just it First as we talk about golf courses and set up and all that like this is it Hopefully if you got it saved in your DVR if you ever confused about what we're talking about this is it and They from what I could tell the ESPN crew and all that did such a great job of covering the event and giving it kind of the gravitas that it deserves so

man, I might need to come live in Melbourne for a little while. Like, this is the only place I've ever been. It's like my dream. Like, everyone wants to talk about their own golf rounds. Nobody anywhere I go ask me about my golf rounds more than Melbourne. Like, they're, hey, you play in the golf, where you play it? Where you play it? How'd you like Sandy?

How'd you like Willowitz? Like, people are so amped. It takes so much pride in their golf here for good reason. We'll talk a lot about all of that, but I've never met a, seen a more vibrant golf community than the Melbourne sand belt. Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. It's, they're proud of their own individual golf course, but I think they're more proud about where Melbourne is in the world of golf.

And they want you to go see all of it. I want you to experience all of it. I think they're very aware of how challenging the golf is as well. And they pride in that too. They take pride in that, absolutely, which I still am trying to wrap my head around, just how difficult it is.

But yeah, they come out and they wanna watch really, really good golf. I mean, so many people taking time off work to walk around, you know, royal and see what's going on. And it's just a very, very different culture. And I got to give a lot of props to the actual golf course, Royal Melbourne, to what they did.

I think we discussed and heard from some people that it's in their constitution to provide a place for top level amateur golf to grow and thrive. And that's just extremely different to what I know of as golf in the United States. I feel like it's always some level of excuse and it might be a little

rough to say, but it feels like an excuse to, you know, from the members, I don't want to give up my golf course or you know, we don't want the damage that's associated with hosting internament. And every single one of the individuals that we talk to, that's a member at Royal, we're so, so proud to be hosting this tournament and that's a member at Royal, we're so, so proud to be hosting this tournament and seemed like they would prefer it this way to having a week of perfect golf conditions to play for themselves. I think that that just really, really stuck with me. Well, there's something to also a course in a club that when a tournament doesn't stress, it doesn't stress the limits of what they're capable of. Everything felt so turnkey.

Like the food operate, again, I know people don't care about this, but like the food operations, the maintenance, their ability to maintain a golf course and be in total control of the golf course and not let it slip away from them and not get too soft at any point, like getting people in and out of the property,

you know, getting people spots to view from and good vantage points and, you know, getting people across the street to the practice range. Like, all of it was completely seamless, absolutely seamless with volunteers and everything. And it just, you know, you, that comes from experience of hosting, you know, hosting events and just giving people access to the club. I don't know. Everything just flowed so, so impressively. And yeah, man, I'm super appreciative of all the, you know,

the Royal members and the non-Royal members that were out there just like super keen to hear about our experience on the same balance, the pride they take. And all their golf, we went across the street to Sandy Golf Links, which is formally known, I think, as San Dringham Golf Club. It is an 18-hole golf course that is completely open to the pub. They do 72,000 rounds a year. I hope I get all the phrasing and the understanding of this right, but it is wrote. There's a same maintenance staff as Real Melbourne. They have the same mix on their

greens, which is I believe a proprietary mix that the only places in the world you can play what's called Sutton's mix on the greens is Royal Melbourne and Sandy Golf Links. One of them is a exclusive private club. One is, couldn't be more open to the public. If you have, I believe, $60, which is like $40 US dollars and you want a sandbout experience, you can show up at Sandy Golf Links and play the golf course. It's been redone by Mike Cocking in his design team into a par 65 with seven par three's 11 par fours.

They they lost a couple of holes due to the the big practice facility they built there. But man, at no point are you thinking like, I just need a par five right now. Like you just we play it's a full length golf course, full big boy golf shots, really difficult par three. It's a challenging golf course for low handicaps. It is very approachable and playable for higher handicaps.

And it did not exist like this when I was here six years ago. I remember driving past it and not thinking anything of that property. And now I was showing some people some photos of real Melbourne. And I was just swiping through my phone and I said, hey, stop me when we get to the photos of Sandy Golf Links. And the people I was showing never stopped me because the golf course looks the exact same.

It's not the exact same. I don't want to give a false billy, but it is incredible what they've done. And what the sandbelt experience you can have for $40 US dollars across the street from Royal Melbourne. Yeah, and when we were talking to the GM, I assume facetiously said, if you par all of the, all the par threes, you can play golf here free year for free. And so that sounds like a nice challenge. Let's go ahead and get after that. Well, we got to our

first part three and it was over. Not just as simple as that. So yeah, it's again, challenging golf. They take a lot of pride in it, it being challenging as well, even at that municipal level, but extremely approachable. We saw individuals out there with their kids on the Himalayas style putting green. It was really, really interesting to be on the putting green and directly across the street seeing the sign of the entrance of Royal Melbourne. It's hard to describe how close this is. Even when you get on the west course, you leave the main paddock and play four holes overall on this side of the road. We took the drone

up too. I'm quite familiar with this and I was struggling to find which holes of the Royal Melbourne holes and which holes of the same, uh, sandy coffling holes. Like they sit on the same property, same exact, like not same exact firmness and bounciness, but like some people say the greens at Sandy are harder than the ones at Royal Melbourne and they're newer and they play a little firmer, but like it is the same turf. It's a unique, uh, the unique nature of the sand belt provides these playing conditions that are the most fun in the world to play. And it's just they're really proud of what they've done over there and they really should be because they've you know the maintenance staff refers to it as

Royal Melbourne North like the North course and the just copying over those maintenance practices gives you know again the everyday public a chance to place a golf course that's really, really special. It's just really cool. Yeah, so we got out there and, you know, of course, of course, Solid and I are having to place some competition amongst ourselves for nothing but pride. Good match to start.

Good match, you clipped me on the 18th hole. I hit a little skull, something or another. The dad back is a little bit of an issue. It's going to act up at times. You got me at Sandy Golf Lings. We also got a chance to play 18 holes at the Woodlands. We wanted to get to a place I hadn't played before and try to get a little off the beaten path.

An underrated golf course on the San Belt was about 15 minutes away from Royal Melbourne. Had a fantastic experience there. I had been five up at the turn. You got it all the way down to one down, but I clipped you two and one there. So we're tied on our matches as we get ready to play the composite course. We'll get to that in a little bit. But, greatly enjoyed. Willins had two of the coolest golf holes. I've played on the sandball. Yeah, third and fourth holes. The third is this cool little short par four dog legs to the right with.

You could hit driver, you could hit five iron off of it. I would play it differently than I the fourth holes, the third, this cool little short par four dog legs to the right with, you could hit driver, you could hit five iron off of it, I would play it differently than I played it. Of course, as soon as you see it, perched up green really, really kind of these small, cool, angular greens on this course. And then the fourth was this 240 par four with one of the coolest green sites I've ever seen. I would struggle to describe it.

It kind of reminds me of like the 14th green at Bannon Trails, if you've ever been of this weird perched up small green that seems really hard to get aboard with all of these cool, it's kind of narrow in the front and then widens in the back, all of these spots around, I don't know where you're supposed to leave it. It's so severe, the upslope going into that green that if you're not coming straight into it

it's going to bank your ball left or bank your ball right and it's going to be really really hard to get aboard and you can make the guy we played with said he's made a two and an eight on back to back days on that hole and I believe that in the heartbeat. Yeah yeah absolutely. It was hard man Woodlands was hard yeah really really tough golf course. Boggeys are somewhat easy, right? You can kind of chop it up to the edge of the greens and you know, find a way to to to putt after getting a board, but getting to ball close is just impossible. It's so, so hard. I don't know how people make birdies out here.

Did you, did you, I made one birdie. Did you make a birdie? I made two birdies. That's right. It's a, it really, you got to make a plot from a distance or kind of flugiously end up with one really close to the hole. I wouldn't say luck involved with it. A lot comes from consistently hitting the proper shot and at some point it's going to

end up getting really close to the hole. You made the great birdie on four getting up and down up that slope, which we did capture on camera, thankfully. Yeah, that was a prayer. Yeah, absolutely. It's kind of a joke. But if you can't tell, we're just, we're kind of buzzing off of the week down here.

I wish we could spend a whole another week down here. Didn't get over to Tanya the other, we didn't get over to Vic. We may sneak over to Kingston and play the new part three course this evening, and not sure yet, but we got to talk about the match. The match, everyone's talking about it around town. We sure were.

We were letting everyone know. This is not your fault at all. You haven't said anything about this, but kind of flippantly in our Slack channel, KVV referred to Ben as being the best golfer at NLU. Pretty like Lauset Fair too. Yeah, of course. Yeah, Ben's the best. You are theLU. Pretty like Lauset Fair too. Yeah, of course. Of course, yeah, Ben's the best. You are the lowest handicap by almost three shots now

at this point, but you know, I kind of, you know, and I took that personally a little bit. I feel like I've held that crown for quite some time. You've passed me on the handicap front, but I feel like you got to take it from me on the golf course, right? Yeah, and you did nothing wrong here. This is directed to KVV and I appreciate that.

You were caught in the crosshairs here. I appreciate that. I think I've been pretty upfront that every time it's mattered, you've beaten me last year at the NIT. I had a what, three shot lead. And you leapfrog me on the last day when it mattered the most. I feel like I have not done what I need to do to have this, you know, very fake, very, very, very, very not real crown.

Anyways, I feel like we found ourselves here and I'm ready to compete. Let's do it. But I'm willing to say, of course, if you beat me today on the composite course at Roam Elburn, it's all yours. You can, you can have the crown. Now, once you have a child and you have a three-month-old, and your back starts acting up from lifting a baby in and out of the crib, we can talk, we can revisit it. We can come right back to this, but look,

I might not be at full strength these days, but that is the current representation of what my golf game is. I can't just hold the crown and not defend it and play for it. So I'm greatly looking forward to this. We're going to film it. We're going to keep the results kind of holstered here for some time until we, we, uh, nobody, I don't know if people are actually, it's kind of fun.

I think it's kind of fun. This could be a seminal moment. I could either school the kid or the kid could, uh, could school the vet here. This is your second, I mean, you played Sandy Lanks and you played, uh, the Woodlands, but this will be your third sand belt experience. You don't have a ton of experience on it. I've got some, but it's six years old,

but I'm, I'm fascinated to see how this works out. Yeah, I'm concerned for the content. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's know that this style of golf is, you can roast us all you want, but this style of golf is going to be extremely, extremely difficult. Yeah, we're looking at the forecast right now with gusts up to 30. And oh my god, I didn't know that. Yeah, it's already, it's already described as Furb and Fas the golf course already is. That's incredible. Yeah.

So I think that there's going to be some holes that are going to be one with bird or with bogey for sure. Oh for sure. Double bogey potentially. I mean it's going to be interesting, but I'll be curious to see how we feel about, you know, Royal being played from an actual play perspective. Because I think as good as it was from a stroke play perspective, it's as we saw in the president's cup, it might even be better. And that's to kind of get into the little bit of this more at the top of the show as well. But Jeff Shackleford had a great bit in his newsletter just about, again, flipping back over to the pro side of golf, I've lost so much hope for how all of that has been managed that like I kind of somebody says, hey, there should be a major at Real Melbourne. I'm like, all right. Like of course there should, man, but like it's fucking complicated. It's really difficult.

And I don't think that's ever gonna happen. But he laid a pretty compelling case for in the years where there's a Olympics for having a February major be that the PGA championship or whatever at Real Melbourne. And it, like the light bulb has kind of gone off for me, like look, it takes the PGA of America, their championship to go want to go abroad to do that. The if you the this what he laid out was all right, we already have the farmers insurance open on the PGA tour that ends on a Saturday now because of AFC and NFC championships.

That ends on a Saturday. You fly everyone that night on a chartered plane from the farmers to Melbourne. You land on Monday, which is a start of tournament week, and you play a major championship in February between championship weekend and the NFL and the Super Bowl. Somebody convinced me that's not an incredible idea. Like, the Australian government put up, I believe, $18 million US to bring the president's cut back in 2028. Like, there is government funding available for this.

I don't know if they need to up the... I don't know what they need to do to get people down here. Maybe it needs to come in an era where the golf ball is rolled back to play a stroke play event at Royal Melbourne. Ironically, the PGA of America does not seem to be keen to support the rollback initiatives of the RNA in the USGA. So it's complicated there. But man, the golf world needs more top level golf

on the sand belt. We've known that. I've been dismissive of that in the past because of how spoiled and ruined the game of golf is when you can roll over next door and play for $20 million. Like how much do you have to put up to get people to travel all the way to Australia when you know their earnings in this event are taxed at 49%. And it's just complicated. It is. But man, seeing the top level golf in person here, it just does break my heart that we don't see this proper test happen frequently enough.

Yeah, I mean, I would say that, you know, I think there's this, maybe I'm making this up in my own head, but this feeling that the Australians are upset or frustrated that the world of golf doesn't get here. No, they definitely are. And it's deserved. It is. I just don't know where to place that blame, you know. it's deserved is I don't still know where to place that blame. Right, right. I don't know where to play city there, but you know, I was getting the sense of they're kind of to the point of accepting of what they get. And I think that's, you know, pretty unfair based on what we saw. I mean, I think a major out here in the middle of summer

if it really is firmer than that. I mean, I think Randy would have an absolute... Yes. And be a pig and shit out. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how this course gets firmer than it has been, but everyone has told us that it actually would. It is just, it is the best test of golf, man.

It really, really is. And maybe look, maybe the top level pros, maybe the Zander Shoffley's, maybe all of them would make it look sillier. Just with their ability to spend the ball how far they can drive it, and maybe it, what I appreciate about Roam Elburn is, you can't just hit driver everywhere and go find it

because you have to take the proper line at the proper distance and have the proper rollout, right? You can't just bomb a drive up near the green at 10 West because if you end up in the wrong spot, you cannot get it up and down on 18 West, which is a tournament. You can't just bomb driver over the corner because everything can be a way from you.

It's firm, it might roll out of bounds. You just have to hit the right shot off the tee and actually position yourself because the holes just don't play straight. Like you can't just bomb drive and hit a wedge in. Like you have to, it's complicated. It's a complicated way of playing the game. And I don't know, maybe it doesn't hold up.

I would roll back golf ball just a little bit on Roe Melbourne would just make all the sense in the world to me, it really, really would. I don't know, he made, again, it greeted in Jeff Shackford's newsletter, and it makes a really, really compelling case that it could and should happen. Yeah, and the viewing, I think, would be phenomenal.

That was my one big takeaway about the composite routing was any hole is just one hole away from the center of the maze, which was wild. I found myself neat, I was going out to shoot some photos for one of the mornings, something I greatly enjoy. There was so fun just walking around the golf course. It was, and I was like, ah, should I go over to five west?

It's a little far away. It's like, oh no, no, no, it's one whole away. So yeah, I'll go over there. It is, you could, yeah, if you stand on like the one East T or seven west T, like you're just, yeah, I'll go over there. It is, it's just, you could, yeah, if you stand on like the one East T or three, seven West T, like you're just, yeah, you're not far away from anything and just, you can just look at the golf holes and have a great time. I mean, you hear the, like the birds sound different, a little different to us down here and it just sounds exotic and it's just a special, special place if you can't tell.

I'm quite smitten, but anything else from the Asia Pacific game? I want to give a shout out to Ross Flanagan. He's a golf content maker down here of many different persuasions. He helped us out this week was a tremendous, tremendous help. And that will shine through in our content. Eventually, when we get to editing,

this Ben's got a lot of work to do on that front. And just shout out to all the Australian golfers down here that I've supported our content and came up and said, hi, I truly don't think I've ever felt the love anywhere in any one single location stronger than I do here in Melbourne. So we greatly, greatly appreciate it. Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.

Around the rest of the golf world, which I got to admit, we've struggled to keep up with a little bit this week. But it was actually kind of close to our time zone. But Selene Boudier beat Ate Tittacune in a nine-hole playoff at the Maybank Rose Zang had a 54-hole lead and was unable to convert it. Didn't get to watch any of that as we were out doing a lot of other stuff as noted, but nine-hole playoff sounds like it would be very enjoyable to watch. I'm heart broken for Rose.

She's already got a victory. It would have been nice to get a second victory in her first five months, but sounds like that was a hell of a tournament. Yeah. I always kind of watched this specific LPGA tournament at home, just because it's good, good time zone viewing. It seems like there's always some sort of weather that's interrupting it. And it sounds like there are a couple holes into the playoff and ended up being suspended.

I picked the clips back up, but I woke up with like nine whole playoff. Like holy shit. I hope people got to watch that. Sammy Valamaki, one, I hope I'm saying that right, one the, I've just now realized I don't know if I've ever said that name out loud. I've seen it in a million times, but he won the commercial bank, Cotter Masters in a playoff over Jorge Campio. And I think that's kind of it for the week. I mean, I haven't really kept up that well with golf news around the world. I know the news came out that endeavor is out as a potential investor for the PGA tour.

It sound like their bid was pretty not serious. I, again, I'm kind of taking just a little break from all that stuff. I have no idea what's happening at all in that part of the golf world. I'm fine to just find out whenever they tell us whatever they decide what they're going to do. So we're going to keep... We're going to start going over around to other places and trying to find some other interesting golf stories. So I think that's about it for the week, man. I appreciate everyone that clicked on an episode about a golf

tournament that you probably just didn't care a whole lot about prior to this week. I hope we help that elevate that at least a little bit. I again, credit to the RNA and the masters and the age-specific golf federation for bringing this event to Real Melbourne and to the Real Melbourne members that, again, like I don't we've not attended these events when they've been in Thailand and China and I don't know if I'll go to the one next year in Japan but it speaks to

the problem when you bring a golf course to a proper venue how much it helps elevate it and bring it it just helps the golf world get introduced to it that much and it seems like that message has really resonated with the organizers. And some of the rumors for future courses, this event, seem to be very interesting as well. So I hope it continues to go to some bangers because it's only going to further elevate an event that again is on the up and up. So yeah, absolutely. And I got to pat myself on the back. I did not crash the car.

First time driving on the wrong side of the road, wrong side of the beach. You were hugging that left side a little bit. I was riding past your seat and making me a little nervous, but you did not crash it. No dings in the car. And all right, I think we got to stretch. I got to stretch the back.

I got to find an activation here. And it's time to go have a once in a lifetime opportunity to play the composite course at Roam Elburn and we greatly appreciate that opportunity. We thank everyone for listening and for saying hello this week and I hope we I'm looking forward to figuring out how to beat the jet lag coming home but great great great great trip down here and thanks to all the help make it happen. Give it a big blow up. Be the right club today. Yes! Yes!

Be the right club! That is... Better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Better than most.