No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 823: Tourist Sauce Season 9 - Australia Preview

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

The ninth installment of Tourist Sauce premieres Wednesday night on our YouTube channel as we return to Australia where the first season of our travel series was filmed. Our itinerary for our return down under: New South Wales: 34:00 Bonnie Doon 43:00 Royal Adelaide: 53:45 St Andrews Beach 1:17:30 Lonsdale Links 1:30:45 Penn Kingswood 1:38:00 Cape Wickham 1:58:00 Ocean Dunes 2:23:10 Royal Melbourne 2:35:40 Kingston Heath 3:01:45 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

the right club today. Better than most. Better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no laying up podcast. Solly here. We are going to recap our trip down under to Australia season nine of Taurus sauce. If you are listening to this is either coming out very, very, very, very soon, or it is already out. We got the whole squad here ready to debrief DJ pie. Hello, pie man. Hello guys. I'm going to be saying Melbourne. I'm not, I'm not getting into it.

I'm not doing hell. Yes. I was thinking about it. If a British person came here and was saying Milwaukee, I wouldn't be like making fun of them. I just, I'm going to be saying Melbourne. So just fucking deal with that. It's not no bin. No bun Melbourne. Yeah, that's the way we're going to do it. You could argue it's Melbourne. This is this is rivaling Gary player.

Excuse me, Mr. Player. How are you? God, he's jingoist. You got me excited. Dej, I was I was on the fence and now I'm all in. All right. There's some footage of Randy. I discussing this in a big dubs parking lot.

I think some somewhere in the footage. So listen, a lot, a lot of discussions about this topic. So I'll take it away. I'm sorry. We're skipping introductions now. All right. If you don't know who we are now at this point, it's too late.

It's too late. We got the whole crew. Neil, Cody is here as well. Randy is here. We are going to talk about a lot of things, but first thing you know what we gotta talk about because even down under, could not go anywhere without- Seeing that subtle Dingo logo everywhere.

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R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com 20% off bottoms, Q-zips, hoodies and more with Code NLU. Get ready for the golf season with Roeback. Got it. Sally, quick shout out for the gym shorts. Yes, I got some of those. I've been wearing them. It's all I wear now. I wear those and the paint, the pants, the five pocket paint.

There might be too many things to shout out. Yeah, it's crazy. TC's been wearing eight times a week at least. All right. So if you're not familiar, Taurus Sauce is the name of our travel series that we do. Used to be annually. Now it's kind of stretching out to every 18 months, listening to some life stuff starting to get in the way for a lot of us here.

But our goal is to, well, you know, we've talked a lot about what this series actually is, but if I was to sum it up as briefly as possible, we go travel the world and check out cool golf destinations and try to capture what golf culture and golf courses and culture in general is like in different parts of the world. And this season we went to Australia, which if you are a long time listener

and watcher of our content, you will know that that was also the first place we went in season one back when we were really just figuring things out and shooting it on cell phones. So TC, I'm going to throw it to you. You are the, the, the, the tourist sauce artist, if you will take us to why Australia and why again? Yeah, we wanted to go back and do it right. I think the first time we were doing it on cell phones, we were doing it, you know, kind of by the seat of our pants. We didn't know what we were doing. We were almost looking for an excuse to

go down to Australia with Zach Blair and Dan Horner. And we dreamed up this series. We convinced BMW to sponsor it. And here we are nine seasons later and we figured, Hey, let's do these courses justice. We also, last time we went to went down to Barnaboo, but most of it was centered in Melbourne. So this time we wanted to say, all right, Adelaide, Sydney, King Island. There's some other places in Australia that we wanted to get to. We got to those places. We did not get to Perth. We did not get to Newcastle, Naruma. There's all sorts of places that I'd like to go back and get to. Next time, a lot of the Brisbaneites. You got to do your line. You want to go there, but not even play golf.

I just want to go there and not even play. That's the thing. I don't think we need to play golf in Queensland. There's no good golf up there. We looked at, Cody and I, we're trying to convince everybody that we were going to South America on the way down there. People were tracking our flights, all sorts of stuff like that. There's all sorts of destinations on the list. We were a little bit hemmed in. We wanted

to do something Q4 or Q1. So that meant Southern hemisphere. And then I think there's also the consideration too of, hey, there's some trips that we want to do that maybe aren't necessarily Taurusas. That could be smaller groups or, you know, Taurasas, we're traveling with there's seven, eight, nine of us at different points. So it's definitely a little challenging to get the logistics dialed to some places. So I think Australia was, it was a full circle moment. And I feel like we wanted to do right by Australians. In my opinion, it's probably the most golf centric culture in the world outside of Scotland. That cover it.

I think so. No, when we were first making the first season, we were really weird. It's kind of silly to look back on but we were trying to get videos under 10 minutes so we could fit them on Twitter. We did not think that you know, people would sit and watch like 30 to 60 minute videos on YouTube about golf, which listen, that culture has evolved some over the years. We've learned a lot about that and we've learned a little bit more about storytelling and it just felt like we only got to a few of the courses and we didn't really even document

them the way they properly, you know, should be properly documented. We upgraded some cameras. I think the visuals from this season, from upcoming season are going to be the best we've ever had. And it was just, I don't know, we captured the joy of Australian golf spread out over a longer period of time than we did on that short jaunt as well. But also, one person, you know, there are two people here,

we're not a part of that first trip down to Australia. Randy, I'm gonna start to you. You missed out famously on season one. Have you been itching to get back down to Australia? And what's your overall reaction to what we just did? Yeah, definitely have been wanting to get to Australia for sure. So this was a tremendous, tremendous opportunity

to do just that. I mean, it was awesome. I go into a place for two weeks. I'm like, I can share my experience. I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush, but from my experience, what I really loved were a few things. You guys know I love visiting big cities, new cities. And so got several of those on this trip. I would say Sydney, Melbourne being highlights. We can get into those cities as you guys wish, but loved, loved, loved walking around and exploring the sites both on the golf courses and away from the golf courses, TC I see you're wearing your AO Australian open hat.

We got to stop by the tennis tournament, which we can get into, which was just a fabulous experience. I think broadly speaking though, and we talked about it on the trip, I was just amazed the hospitality that we were shown everywhere. We had a number of awesome Sherpas, people to guide us again, both on and off the course. But just every interaction with every Australian period could not have been nicer, more engaging. I think people we met were so eager and interested to share their views and experiences and also learn about ours.

It was a wonderful experience. There was one thing that you guys had said after your first trip that I was very curious about. I remember you guys talking about for how long of a travel it is from the United States to get to Australia. You know, you're on 12, 13, 14 hour flights. There's this, it's a bit weird kind of getting off the plane and being in an English-speaking country and a lot of familiarity to, you know, some American cities. And that does exist. And that's a little bit of a weird feeling. But there

is, there is obviously a ton of unique Australian culture. And it certainly doesn't feel like any other big American city. And so it definitely felt like I was going to a new part of the world, you kind of feel like you're away from it all down And so it definitely felt like I was going to a new part of the world. You kind of feel like you're away from it all down there. I loved it. And of course we went in the middle of summer in the Southern hemisphere. And so we got wonderful weather.

The temperatures are up in the seventies and eighties. It wasn't the nightmare kind of heat waves that you guys had gotten on your first trip. That was another thing where I was a little scared of like, Oh God, is it going to be, you know, 95 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the trip. And it wasn't it. It honestly, it couldn't have been nicer temperature wise. Uh, we didn't encounter many flies. And so some of the fears that I had were, did not bear out, did get rather uncomfortably close to a snake. We can talk about that on King Island.

That was certainly, um, something that spooked me a little bit, but I would say overall it was, it was a wonderful trip, kind of like going to Scandinavia. It's, it's weird. I, I tried not to do too much advanced research. I didn't want to have like too many preconceived notions in my head I guess and so I try to go in a little bit blind. But if you guys want to break down you know the cities I know we're gonna start in Sydney so maybe that's a good jumping off point or Cody sorry we can

get your would love to get your thoughts too but just a wonderful trip. Yeah thanks Big. I think I've had the opportunity to go to Perth a couple of times and it's a completely different world. It's not Sydney. It's definitely not Melbourne where we were at. It for sure wasn't Adelaide, which I think stuck out by itself from the cities that we were able to see. But Perth was kind of like a Western town and it kind of, you know, for a long time, I always thought it was weird that country music is such a big thing and popular in Australia.

Well, when you go to Perth, you understand why because that's like their Wild West. That's not the trip that we took this time. It was awesome. I think one of the biggest things that stuck with me from cities that we were at were how active everyone was. Everybody was in a great mood. They were up early. Everybody's going on walks.

They're enjoying their public parks and their city space. And we probably won't get into it, but the debates going on with like about green spaces in the city right now, trying to close down a little, take half or nine holes away from that one park and turn it in to more walking space. It was, it's just kind of fascinating. Let's just address that real quick. More park in Sydney. That's a disgrace. What they're doing seems like they have a lot of parks. Yeah. And like not a lot of like lower level.

Yeah. Yeah. They, the, the, on the lower end of public access golf courses, I think that they're, they need to keep the golf course. And I know that the golfing community in Sydney is fighting desperately for that and they don't need additional green space. But people were fit. People were very, very happy and hospitable everywhere we went. And also, like, they're just really damn cool, man. Like, the Aussies are the coolest. And that's something that like, it doesn't matter where you go anywhere else in the world. Like it was just overwhelmingly amount of like,

this coolness just ooze from everybody. And they weren't like over the top about it at all. It's just like, they're just super happy and live in their normal lives. It was awesome to experience. It's a high functioning society. Neil calls them the world's friends. Yeah. It's just a high functioning society. They're not overly cool to the point where they're lazy or don't give a shit about things. They're just nice,

genuine, kind people, highly educated, socially really well adjusted and just so welcoming everywhere. That's from on the golf course to off the golf course to people we encountered on bridges, stumbling, drunkenly out of bottomless branches and things like that. It was just, God, it was just really, really, really fun. Yeah, I have called them world's friends and this trip reaffirmed it. It's not only in their home country, but when you meet an Australian abroad,

they can become part of the crew pretty quick and you don't even realize it. I can't even hanging around with, you know, I was at Oktoberfest one time, this Australian guy starts hanging out with us like three days. We're like, Oh, cool. Yeah. I mean, he's part of the squad now, you know, until we leave, he's in. So it's great. One thing that going back, I didn't honestly never thought I would go back, number one. So it was awesome to get a second crack at

a few of these courses and just the environment itself, you start to notice little things like Randy, I was like, oh, yeah, it kind of feels like Southern California. But then once you go back, you start to realize it looks like Southern California, but it doesn't really feel like Southern California. So I would make that distinction. And two, like for me, from a golf standpoint, the first trip, I mean, I'm just trying to like stay upright, you know, it was a five day trip. I'm not very good at golf. I was thinking, I was like, I probably wasn't in the fairway much because I don't

remember like the six hole at Royal Melbourne West. I didn't remember. It's like I came to this, you know, it's a dogleg right. I came up and I was like, how do I not remember this hole? This is unbelievable looking like what is wrong with me? You were only like having a having a second crack at it was really, I felt very blessed to see all these places again. You were only maybe what four or five, six months removed from playing golf with a belt tucked into a towel tucked into your belt. Right. So I mean, that's, that kind of explains a little bit of where

that was the thing. It's like a, you know, you, I had a little bit more of a mindset to, to appreciate some of the golf and, and just, I think I got a little turned around as far as in Melbourne specifically, you know, the peninsula is like, the first trip that I pride myself on my sense of direction, I was very discombobulated on where and how close these courses were to each other. And when you look at it, there's what five top 100 courses and you can take the rankings for what they are. But I would say there's probably 10 to 12 just world-class golf courses in a 10-mile radius, right there, Sandringham, like down that Eastern Peninsula. And I just seeing that again and starting to like put the map together, it's just, I think, probably the most dense world-class golf in the world.

And so definitely worth the second trip. And I think that we'll see that in the content. I think, Neil, you said something on the trip that has stuck with me that I've been thinking about nonstop. And I think it was kind of a, it seemed like a flippant remark. And I think what you said was some variation of like, basically like this might be the best golf in the world. And I was like, ah, come on.

Like, what are you talking about? And then you start digging into it and you're like, no, the variety of courses, you feel like you're in Ireland, you feel like you're in Scotland, you feel like you're in Long Island, you feel like you're in California, you feel like you're in all of these different places, all within, you know, a very, very small radius, the weather, the playing conditions, the people, all like, I thought about it for like 10 minutes after you said it. I was like, fuck, man, you might right. This might be as good as it gets. It's really hard to almost believe that considering how much you've seen about Scotland, Ireland, golf in the United

States, all of these things. But Tron, I know you've been on this block forever that it doesn't quite get the do that it should down in Australia. I was really glad to to, you know, have a second crack of, of kind of reinforcing a lot of that stuff. Yeah. This was my third trip down. I like, I went down last March as well on the backend of a New Zealand trip. And I think the thing that sets it apart for me is the Australians are enthusiasts, whether it's cricket or rugby or coffee or tennis, or like even like they're tied in with like local politics, right?

It's like if the law doesn't work, then let's change it, right? Let's not argue about it. Let's be productive. And the golf culture in Australia is one that they're, like you said, Randy, they're super hospitable. They're also competitive. They play matches. They're enthusiasts about the golf course. The golf courses are ever evolving and organic. They're also competitive. They play matches. I love that. They're enthusiasts about the golf course. The golf courses are ever evolving and organic. They're not, you know, it's not like, hey, the golf course has always been like this, so we can't change it. But I think that's one of the reasons why this trip was so much fun to plan.

Because A, it was going back somewhere that we'd been prior, but also the people there, they want to show, like they want to put their best foot forward. And whether it was Ross Flanagan who helped us out tremendously, Mike Caridi, Ben Jarvis, Ben Jarvis, Green Ellis, I call it, from Elm and Simon Dick, Cameron down it at Ocean Dunes. There mean, you know, there's like the party panther, Terry and yeah, Terry, Malika, all the guys. Yeah, all the guys up in Sydney, like, you know, it's such a rich golf culture to where, you know, like everybody know, like you're,

you truly feel like you have a bond with someone showing up and playing golf. And I don't always feel that here in the States. I was gonna just, just on a personal note, it was really like rewarding. And like, it made me it made me feel very good. Like, these are relationships that kind of developed on the first trip. And then a guy like Scott Warren, he's on our message board. And to meet him in person, it's just

like, it's truly like what people say, you know, Ness members say when they meet at an event in real life, like, oh, picking up, like, I've never met you, but I kind of know you. And to have kind of like the relationships develop over six, seven years and then get to go and hang out with these people and how helpful and hospitable they are,

it's just really rewarding. So that's just more of a personal note. And indeed, one thing I want to back up on the the to the point that you were referring to the best golf in the world, what I think sets it apart from a place like Ireland is, I love playing golf in Ireland, but it's going to be the same type of golf, you know, outside of a dare manner, it's it's world class. And it's the tip top of that kind of golf. But

it's that kind of golf. Whereas here, I felt like the diversity is what sets itself apart in such a, you know, confined or or dense area. And I just don't, I can't really think of another place where you can do that on, you know, within a city limits, basically. Well, and with just within, also within the country in terms of rolling terrain in Sydney is kind of what define New South Wales where we played and just the city as a whole. Whereas the Melbourne Sand Belt is like a truly unique plot of land of sand based soil that is unique to that part of

the world. You cannot pick up what they have there and do that in Florida or in Texas or in California. They have random neighborhoods. It's insane. I'm like, you can do a flyover and see Royal Melbourne East, Royal Melbourne West, Sandy the Golf Links, which is a public golf course, Par 65, right across the street from Royal Melbourne. And you also see Victoria Golf Club and Cheltenham Golf Club all within one same block. And unless somebody points it out,

it's kind of hard to pick out where one course begins and where one course ends, right? And the volume really is insane. I'd never heard of Woodlands Golf Club before Ben and I went down for the Asian Pacific Amateur last October. We ended up playing there had never really even heard of it. And it's like the 25th ranked golf course in, in Melbourne or something like that. And it's just like an awesome Melbourne Sand Belt golf course. Right. It's just like, it's kind of like that has that Scotland level of volume of, I don't care what the 70th ranked golf courses in Scotland.

It's going to be really fun to play. The same goes for especially the sand belt. Like I don't, I don't really even care that much about the design. The playing conditions are that good that it's going to be really fun. And like, what really sets it apart for me is how much you mentioned them being enthusiasts, like they know, the Australians know they have something special in their part of the world.

And they are thrilled that people from outside of their world travel there to go experience it, right? When we were there for Asia Pacific, every single like follower of ours that we met at the tournament was like, hey, it wasn't asking about the tournament. They're like, hey, where are you playing? Where are you playing? Where are you playing? I mean, I

must've had 15 people ask me where I'm playing on this trip because they want you to experience this and they're so welcoming to international guests. I know for actual people in Australia, it can be a little difficult to get on some of these courses, but if you're an international listener, which you know, I think 96% chance that you are, you know, you can access these places, pay a greens fee and play all these places, which is really important for a tourist season as well. That's the thing too. I mean, it's, it's really tough to like, it's more the easy to plan a trip like this because you almost can't go wrong, but it's tough as well because you

want to play the best stuff and showcase the full variety of things. So there's, there's courses like we didn't play Victoria this time. Victoria's- You see, I spent two weeks in Melbourne in the last six months and didn't play Victoria and it's still driving me nuts. And I play- Yeah, and you know, like they're redoing

what Commonwealth right now, the Renaissance guys are, or Yere Yere, I still haven't stepped foot there. That's a world-class golf course. Even in Adelaide too, like Cuyonga, Glenelg, Grange. There's two courses at the Grange. They've Adelaide, yeah. Yeah. There's just so much stuff that you could take another five trips and still be knocking off new courses every time that add to your understanding of Australian golf and keep kind of adding to the spectrum of that as well. So like, you know, we could talk about just the planning of this trip for three hours.

But I think I think overall, like, it was actually going down, I think the like, you know, we always want to try to get things started off a little slow. We go on these trips of like, Hey, let's let's film the first episode over two or three days, right? Everybody's going to be jet lagged, especially this one. We're like, all right. Like we, we took off on Sunday morning from, or at least, at least Sally and I did from Jack's, uh, we met Cody in Houston and DJ in Houston, Neil and Randy and Kevin, one of our other shooters flew through LAX as well. It was funny. We got on the plane, Solly, Cody and DJ and I, and Solly's got a crying baby right behind him. Add in, you all got upgraded to first class and I did not. And I had a crying baby You all got upgraded to first class and I did not. And I had a crying baby, a row behind me for 14 hours.

17 hours. 17 hours, yeah. That's, you know, that should make you think about next time you talk badly about United Airlines. But anyway, you land. Get them out for Sally. I can spoil it to the ending. I'll talk bad when we try to get to our final destination.

And they of course didn't get us there. 0 for 3 United is on getting me to our destinations on Taurus sauce. 0 for 3. That's a tough, bad thing. I can say as far as I think there is a direct quantus out of Dallas, so that you could have took that you chose not to. Exactly. I thought we were on the TC plane. The only thing I can do. Not all of us were.

Sydney to landing in Sydney, the customs there or the immigration there where they make you go through the, they dog walk you through the duty free shop. Oh, I got, dude, I had the worst travel. I got absolutely bodied by security there. They dipped my shoes in the blue gunk or whatever, whatever it was.

And I, Neil just lied. He was like, yeah, I got new. No, I didn't. I actually didn't. I just said to him like, hey, he's like, you have golf. What do you say? You have golf shoes in there.

I was like, yeah. Yeah, they're like, all right, go talk to this person. I was like, hey, here. And they were like, go back and talk to that person. I was like, he said I could go. And they were like, all right, cool. So I was like, please do not dunk the TC's in the blue gunk. You can't, you can't do that.

You can't do that. Always ask for forgiveness. People. We had, uh, we had what we had 17 checked bags between seven of us. Every single one. We're not traveling quite as light as we used to. Uh, and then we stayed in Bondi beach. Uh, I can say the scenery, both the flora

and the fauna was exceptional. Can I phrase that in a different way? If I would say if you are a young male in search of a life experience, you could do a lot worse than landing in Bondi. If you're not sure where to go next in your life and you just want an experience, uh, you could do a lot worse than landing in Bondi, uh, that, that if you know, if you're not sure where to go next in your life and you just want to want an experience, I would find, find your way to bond that maybe for a year or two and, uh, see how, see how it shakes out. Yeah.

So we stayed at this. It was kind of like a real world house. Very influencer friendly place. Yeah. Which I think that's, that's kind of the rub on Bondi. Um, and some of those are like, like Coogee beach down the road would look, looked even cooler, but Bondi is what 25, 30 minutes outside of Sydney. Sydney was so much more hilly and like we kept trying to compare it to different stuff.

Like it was like if Seattle and Vancouver and like LA and like Miami had a baby and it's like, no, maybe it's just Sydney. Maybe it's just Sydney. Yeah. We should be comparing other things to this. Exactly. So we met up with our friend Matthew from Angus and Grace, Anthony Salterri, Scott Warren, and we played Bondi Beach and Diggers Club, which a

delightful little nine hole course right on the cliffs there, right? Like right in Bondi Beach. And what a fun course. They got the big the big sewage tower there that you have to hit over. Was that six or seven? Par four? Yeah, I mean, very scruffy. But I mean, it's like a town, a town square in a way right on the cliffs, great views of the ocean, the beach. Like Neil had a great walk around it. So yeah, picked up every angle. I will say though, I feel like more of these nine hole type of places or short courses if they existed in cities, I think golf would would be in a really good spot for the next generation. Randy, I know they're not your favorite because we're not you know, we're not playing super real golf

out there. But it was you know, a group of us influencers out there doing our thing. There's a family behind us. There's a guy playing alone with headphones on. It might be the only golf course in the world that has a karate dojo underneath the clubhouse. So I'm gonna call that out, which is awesome. But it just felt like a really good like community place for people of all ages and just go out and play golf and have fun and treat the course properly, which was a great, similar to the Doolin Pitch and Putt

and other ways we've kicked off Taurus Soss, it was the great similar to the Doolan Pitch and Putt and other ways we've kicked off Taurus sauce. It was the perfect start to the trip. Doolan Pitch and Putt, but like in the city, like surrounded by houses and like taking up some prime real estate, but like, here's your green space. It's a par three course with one par four, like, well, to put that out there too of like, it's not taking up a lot of space. This is a functional use of like a short course, small parkish area that can serve the community and not take up that much space and

doesn't need to be bulldozed for houses. Like that's what is a shining example of it. It was like if you took the Doolan pigeon putt and you like built 100 foot cliff in Santa Monica and like dropped it on top of there. It was like, Oh, yeah, just like overlook the beach and all the best real estate in the country. And it's like $16 to come out and play. It's just a true like feat of, man, I don't know who rigged this system,

but like this place shouldn't exist in modern times. This is wild that this is a real place. I kept thinking about, TC mentioned our guy, Matt, owner and proprietor of Angus and Grace Go Golfing, a little golf shop in Sandringham. The thing that was so cool about it was one of the quotes he had about people of Sydney were asking, Sydney versus Melbourne and what are the comps?

And he's like, yeah, I don't know. Sydney people are just a little more tanned over here. I thought that was the perfect way to just cut through it and say, yeah, everybody's just, nobody's stressed about anything. Everybody's just kind of out here to, you know, look cool and be cool and just generally have a good time. That sums it up. Let me ask you guys a question. Do you guys, have you learned what a digger is yet? Yeah, it's a veteran. Yeah, we're in the presence of one. Thank you. So it's an Australian infantry soldier used to be called diggers. That's

where the term Kiwi also comes from. It's what a New Zealand infantry soldier used to be called was Kiwi. And then American, we used to be called the doughboys. So shout out to the doughboys, the Kiwis and the diggers out there. And before we move on, I also want to give a quick shout out to what they call the RSLs in Australia, the Returned and Services League. We went to an awesome bar. It's like their VFW. Primo property.

Again, I think that's the main selling point of all these things is like they're sitting on millions and millions of dollars worth of real estate. And it's just they're veterans of foreign war. They call it the RSL. Like I said, returned in services league. Awesome bar, had an incredible little spread. You can get some food there too, but awesome to see another country giving back

because the VFWs that I go to around here, like down some alleys and kind of sketchy. Different vibe, different energy. Well, the other thing I'd shout out and look forward to seeing footage of is lawn bowling. And went to a lawn bowling club again, right on the ocean overlooking the cliffs. What a great way to spend our first jet lagged afternoon to basically stay up from that 7 a.m. landing, play some easy golf, and then go do some lawn bowling and have a few beers. It was a kind of a might be the

best day one in Toursauce history. That's my new favorite sport. That was trying to break the the jet lag kneeler that the squad assembled and went on a run with you. I know we talk about goals on the trap draw, but you saw them live out here. We got a little bit of footy from it to probably ran past one of the most famous pools in the world, the Bondi Icebergs Pool where waves are splashing over it and everything like that. And a lot of tan folks down there. So shout out to Bondi. But I think we made it so, yeah, Bondi. It was an easy assimilation to gear up for New South Wales. Yeah, so I can kick off New South Wales.

I loved it. Just real quick before we do get going on that, Neil, I'll just give people a rundown of the golf courses we played and what we're going to get to. Obviously, we started at Bondi Golf and Diggers Club. But New South Wales, we all played. A few of us went over and played Bonnie Dune on the next day. Then we made our way to Adelaide and played Royal Adelaide.

We made our way back to St. Andrews or back to Melbourne from there. We split up. Some of us went to Lonsdale, some of us went to St. Andrews Beach. We met back to play Peninsula Kingswood, the north course there. Then we took a plane down to King Island and played Cape Wickham and Ocean Dunes. Came back and wrapped up the trip at Royal Melbourne East, Royal Melbourne West and Kingston Heath. So those are the courses that are featured throughout this trip and what we're going to talk about through the remainder of today's episode. Also dropped in for nine holes at Port Sea. I want to shout those guys out. And a couple holes at the King Island. Muni. Yeah. And played the furrows, the short course at Kingston Heath as well.

But those are the, these are the main courses that'll be featured in season nine of tour. So the first one up, I would be remiss if I didn't say Randy, you and I might be the best tag team the long bowlers. Yeah. Nobody beat us. Neil and I were exhausted from beating the shit out of solid for an hour. That was, that was not my fault. I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, Nobody beat us. T.C. Neil and I were exhausted from beating the shit out of Sully for an hour and a half. You guys had to come back.

That was not my fault. I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but my partner was admitting that he was weighing me down there. We are proud to, of course, announce that season nine of Taurus Sauce is again presented by a longtime partner of ours, Precision Pro Golf. You guys know about the variety of no laying up designs

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Once again, code NLU to get $20 off precision pro golf.com. We thank them for bringing season nine of Taurus sauce to life back to the pot. All right. South Wales, right? So of course, I've heard a lot about like, you know, first trip down, oh, you guys aren't gonna make it to NSW not going to New South Wales You're not making it to like Dallas while you're there. Yeah, man. Come on. So it was good to get another crack here. I want to shout out the Australian golf passport podcast hosted by Scott Warren and Scott. I'm

going to be a little bit of a little bit of a Yeah. What the hell, man? Come on. So it was good to get another crack here. I want to shout out the Australian Golf Passport podcast hosted by Scott Warren and Matt Malika, who you will see in Taurus Sauce Season 9 as Sherpas. But I listened to this on the flight down just as a little primer on the history and stuff. So it opened. It's one of the good doctor, Alistair McKenzie's worldwide gems.

He laid it out in 1926. With McKenzie, it's like laid it out might've been like, hey guys, people are hitting the ball here. Why don't you put a bunker there? So there's probably varying degrees of McKenzie stuff, but he definitely had laid some hands on this course and spent some time. The course overlooks Botany Bay, which is where Captain Cook first sailed into the Ozzie coast. I love the history, 1770s, big things happening on the

coastline. So I think that's what jumps out about New South Wales is just like the views and the land movement. So DJ and I came off the course, one exhausted, which is the kind of golf I like to play, or at least get one or two of those courses on a trip like that, where it's like you're hiking and you're kind of playing golf in between. And it's hard to have a bad day out there when you crest the hill on a whole like number five,

and you just see like an infinity fairway into the Southern Ocean. I was the, you know, southern ocean. I was like, Oh yeah, I guess New Zealand's just like way out that way. So I, you know, I had a fantastic day out there kind of got beat up when the wind starts blowing windy day to windy hard walk jet lag, you know, rain may might be bearing down on us. But I really enjoyed the course. I think there are a couple things I want to call out is it's it's funky. There's some you know, there's some stuff and this is what I love about like Mackenzie or some of these golden age courses is like some of these holes if you built them today,

the architect would probably not get another job. But because they were built with like steam shovels and donkeys and plows, it's like, Oh my god, look at that green or you know, like, are you kidding me? We're playing over this massive hill like it just has a lot of charm. And that's, you know, like that's, that's what you get when you're around for, you know, close to a hundred years. Couple holes I'd call out that we can talk about. And before I pass it around to you guys, number three, crazy dogleg left blind tee shot, hard to comprehend how far left you really do have to hit it off the tee. I enjoyed

the hole. I think it's a bit of a lightning rod. We'll talk about that. Probably here shortly. 90 degree dogleg. It's sick. It's sweet. But awesome green that sits up, you know, up high. Number five, number six are probably the signature holes, the ones you've probably seen pictures of five is a par five that plays way up this hill. And if you carry the hill, it runs out for like 150 200 yards straight down just like a ski slope with the green

sitting at the bottom. And the you know, the ocean just framing this epic shot. So if you don't carry the hill, it's a fun shot from the top of the hill, probably 225 230 from up there playing like 180. Like that's how far down it is. It's it's like hard to emphasize how far downhill this is and how it's you could if you play it downwind, it is not a par five like you will have maybe lob wedge in. And if it's into the wind, like you it's worked to get there in three because you

can't clear the hill on the opening tee shot. It's wild. Yeah, and then six is kind of the you know, postcard par three play out from a like kind of an island or rock formation back, you know, into the mainland. But I want to call out a couple of other holes. I think number eight was a really interesting par five that I that I liked it was inland. And then I think the stretch of 12 1314 was my favorite part of this course. It weaves you on the back nine back out towards the ocean. So 12 is an inland par

five that I thought was very challenging with it with a skinny, very interesting, difficult green. And then 13 and 14 were both par fours. 13 was just like a really good looking par four dogleg left that reminded me a lot of number six at La Hinch weirdly weirdly, with when you kind of come around the corner and see the ocean, you get another peek at the ocean. And then 14 is wild. It's like, I would say it's a Cape hole and it goes into doing stupid stuff. And it's got this big mound. And so you almost have a split fairway. And what you should

do is just put it in the, in the pocket, you know, in the fairway, but you know, you're trying to, trying to send one, you know, you hear the Cindy Boys anthem in your headphones, and you try to try to fire it up to the green winds, winds whip in just a lot going on on that hole. And it's in that kind of kicks off, I think a very challenging stretch from 15 through 18 of just like, tough par fours 17 is a really hard par three and then 18 I thought was a pretty difficult par five. But overall, I think New South Wales has the history, it has the coastline,

it has for me the challenge of a Mackenzie in a like, it tricks you like I kept thinking the greens were a lot faster than they were. It kind of gets you into some, some, like, man, how do they make double there? How do they make bogey? It's just, it kind of puts you in a trance a little bit. I think it sounds like they're going to redo it here in the next year. And maybe some of the green sites, I know Sally, you talked about it afterwards, the greens, there's not a lot of rhythm to to the, you know, the greens and you

can tell that it's been touched by many, many hands since the good doctor was on site. There's probably some stuff they could do to improve the course, but it's definitely like, I remember pretty much every hole, which I think is usually a good sign for me, especially if it's the first round of a trip. Like if you asked me from our first season, if I couldn't tell you anything from St. Andrews Beach, which we'll get to shortly. Maybe that's a me problem, but I thought that it had some iconic holes and I liked it. I think there's so much potential there and they are getting ready to do a big renovation, which will kind of like I said some of my feedback

was just the lack of continuity in the greens. I mean, literally it's been like these three greens were done by this person, these three greens were done by this person and it once you that's pointed out you're kind of like, Oh, yeah, that is, you know, you kind of do feel a little bit of that to say, I think for as windy of a site as it is and how difficult the golf course is, they can expand those greens, soften some of them and kind of conceptualize them in a more cohesive manner that would

really, really, really, really elevate this place. We're talking about one of the world's great golf courses, but like adding kind of some connectivity of all those will take it to an entirely different level. And I know shutting down the golf course for a long time is not something a lot of them are looking forward to. But I would imagine the product on, on the back end of that is going to be something that's more cohesive and it's, it's got that much potential that it's definitely worth worth taking that next step.

I think I was surprised at how much I liked some of the inland holes. Like I really liked 10 or like three, four, like some of those holes are just, you know, like I was expecting to be wowed by all the stuff along the coast and I was, but I think the other takeaway was just, man, what a bitch of a walk. Like, I feel like we got, I feel like we went through a 15 round heavyweight bout and what's that hole, the par four with the two, like you kind of hit it between the saddle. 15.

15. Oh my God. 15. 15. Oh my God. My team was a very tough hole. I was like over a 10 handicap playing out there. I'd be like, I would quit the game. I have so much respect for the people that play out of that club because it's a huge walking club as are pretty much all golf clubs in Australia. And I mean, a bunch of old guys

just going out and getting the shit kicked out of them every day out there. It's impressive. It's a super special site. That's a big takeaway. So we saw it like flying out of Sydney on our way to Adelaide. And you just were like, whoa, man, like that is an outrageous spot. And it's like a protected environment that kind of encroaches on a lot of the holes that you can't really widen it a little bit. They could use a lot more width out there, I think, but with protected environments around and how serious the Australians take that. I can't imagine building it either, like just, you know, building that back in the day. And then yeah, like it, I mean, it sits what in a state park or a, you know, state or provincial park or whatever. So Ventra Park or whatever. So moving on from New South Wales, a few of us played Bonnie dune, kind of a local club more in the city there of Sydney right near the lakes and the Australian. I

think it was myself DJ and Neil played out there for a few days. This is a Bonnie dune golf club that goes way back to the 1800s. But they've been playing golf on this site since 1947. It's this really cool. I don't know what I was expecting. I was expecting something more, more quaint and tight than this. Like it's a, it's a, I don't want to say a big boy golf course, but it's a full size golf course. That's not, it's quirky in all the right ways. Um, you play a lot,

most of the holes on this one main paddock, then you cross over the street and play holes three through seven and OCCM, uh, renovated the golf course over a span of eight years from like 2011 to 2019 and kind of did it in piecemeal. And I never saw it beforehand, but you can almost point out exactly what they did. Like I, they've connected a lot of the fairways, like especially holes three through seven, kind of all that play on the same paddock. You can tell how they probably used to be tree lined and they took out all the trees

and connected a lot of those fairways. Yet it felt like to me a great use of all that land to say like, all right, on three, if you bail way yet. It felt like to me a great use of all that land to say like, all right, on three, if you bail way left, you're gonna have a totally blind shot up to the screen. You're gonna be in four fairway, but you're gonna be totally blind coming up to the screen. So it was my favorite way of being challenged, which is like, dude, you don't have to worry about

like losing a golf ball off most of these T's. You're gonna find it. You gotta figure out a way into these greens that, it's not like you can just hit it anywhere and not have consequence. Awesome short drivable fours, short non drivable fours that had a ton of strategy strategy to them. First five holes are really tough. And then everyone said like, as soon as you get past

the first five holes, like you can get out and run like you can make a ton of birdies, there's reachable fives. I can think of at least three drivable fours in there. but it was just a delightful, delightful round. I was, I was kind of blown away by we had absolute monsoon monsoon the night before, which is documented in some of our footage. Maybe we won't spoil some of that, but it was like it never rained on the golf course the next day. And that's not, again, we're not in the Melbourne sand belt yet. Like the Melbourne sand belt is super unique for how well it drains and how well

it's, it's rain resistant. But this place, I mean, all the sand capping and stuff that they've done and the soil base was like, it truly was like the rain did not happen in the fairways. And that was a shocker for how much rain we actually got. I thought we might get rained out. It rained that much the night before. Awesome walk, awesome company out there as well. Playing with Anthony and Tim and just having a great day out there with those guys made a, made a huge difference too. But having, I don't know, there were some, some different pieces of that place that felt like different golf courses to me. A lot of that stretch,

what was it? So like two, three, four or three, four or five that all kind of played on that one big paddock that almost felt like LACC or something. Like you felt like you were in the middle of the city and you had a couple of these like big big tall, I don't know if they were apartment buildings or office buildings or what, but just kind of like in a cool way, almost framing the golf course. And then you'd come around the corner and you'd have a big view back to Sydney proper, the other direction. It was just a really interesting place, especially on the heels of New South Wales, which, you know, you mentioned the site at New South Wales. That shot at number five, we almost yada yada'd it. You could make a pretty compelling case. That's one

of the most dramatic looking shots in anywhere in golf. If you're getting a photo taken, that's the spot is hitting down that hill. I think once you have that credit in the bank at New South Wales, it kind of like excuses a lot of the other like, okay, now I've just had my head bashed in many, many times with a hammer after that. But Bonnie Dune on the heels of that was like the total opposite and just a place you could, you know, the old cliche place you could kind of walk around every day and have a really good time learning those holes. I'm super keen to see what Mackenzie and Ebert do at New South Wales, but also just because I think there's definitely a lot of linksy stuff there that you can draw out.

I think also like Gil's about to redo Royal Sydney. We missed him by a day or two when we were down there. There's a little course called Willara next to that. But otherwise there's all these, like Sydney's kind of got a bad rap for golf at large for being such a big city. It's a little bit... It's just not a lot of great, great golf courses. A lot of stuff that was built back in the 60s, 70s, 80s. There's a few Nicholas courses, stuff like that, that just doesn't really draw out. It was like when Australia was trying to imitate America or catch up with America. And it's like, no, be the best version of yourself and that sort

of thing. Well, it just seems like really severe land too, right? I'm sure the whole city is not like that, but you could feel it driving around in all the different ways the roads were laid out and how complicated it is just to get from one place to the other. I mean, I'm sure there's a through line on what it's like trying to lay out 18 great golf holes as well. And especially when you look at the rest of the country and you see that it is such a walking culture, it is such a like kind of not beat you up but like gentle flow from one hole to the next type of place. I mean, a lot of these golf courses are like they're just pretty severe pieces of land. So a place like Bonnie Dune kind of uses

that and makes for good variety where there's some really dramatic ups and downs, but then it uses, you know, kind of the low spots in the right way too. But I'm sure that's probably pretty hard to find throughout that city. What I was so impressed by there was despite all this dripping of trees out that we talked about, it still, it didn't, you know, if you kept your eyes down, you forgot that you were in a city because they frame it so well with trees around the edges of the property and they have these preservation areas

within the holes as well that keep your views unobstructed and, but like you still have like some natural nature areas within it, it doesn't feel like manmade and you know, overly constructed. I thought, yeah, I would say the word that comes to mind is like thoughtful. I thought if it just felt like somebody really put a lot of time and energy into a, a redesign, like a lot of care. And then I w I do want to call it. I think it's number 14. What was that par five on the back? That was 14. Yeah. Okay. That was, I think it might've been the hardest hole in the trip.

You had OB right. You had lost ball left. It was like a million yards long into the wind and just like bunkers. I mean, it was just like on that tee box. It's like, Oh, I'm going to be in my pocket here pretty soon. And sure enough, I was, I just was like, I walked out that I was like, that was really hard. Like no way we're reaching it with that wind. So just want to give a shout out to that. Also throughout the course of this podcast and the series, if

we mess up any whole numbers, Australians, you got to own this, right? They almost all have a buy hole, a 19th hole that they will rotate in and take one hole out of play to do construction on for a variety of reasons. So if that happened almost everywhere we went, so there is going to be a bit of sometimes a wet hole was that because we, that was the 14th hole, but we played that as our 13th hole. I think when we did play it,

which inserted a buy hole later on and whatnot. So Cody and Cody and, and Randy and I rode around on the ferry with, with our friend, Evan Priest, and just kind of saw the city a little bit, grabbed five or six spots of coffee. It was, yeah, I want to say, I should have said this in my opening thoughts on Australia, but I thought the ferry experience encapsulated a lot of what I really loved about Australia. It was such a seamless entry onto the

ferry, literally did not require going up to a booth and buying a ticket you simply Presented a credit card at a little turnstile Accepted the credit card you walked in you got on the boat I mean we're walking on three minutes before it leaves. There's no like safety big instructional Thing that the crew has to go through it It just is like, hey guys, just use your head. We're on a ferry, we're in the middle of a harbor, don't do anything stupid. And then when we got to our destination,

we sailed around the famous Opera House, which was awesome. Got to see the big bridge, you know, infrastructure TC out the ass. It was such a pretty day. And at the end of the ferry, you just walk off, you present that same credit card, you go through the turnstile, and it just registers your ferry trip like that. And it's like, I feel like the more places we go around the world, the more it just hammers home the efficiency and fluidity in certain things with which other societies have gotten to and it's like, damn, I wish we had more of that back home in the state.

Now, Randy, that is funny because you kind of juxtapose it with how much liability there is involved with playing golf in Austria. True. True. They take boundary lines and property lines very, very seriously. And you know, you are responsible for your golf ball causing damage to persons or property. Yeah. So, no, but yeah, I think we, you know, it's tough to kind of do a city like Sydney justice in two or three days. So, you know, hopefully it feels representative of, you know, both the culture and the golf as well.

I'm glad you guys saw Bonnie Doon. It was important to get to multiple places beyond New South Wales as well. We really wanted to go up to Newcastle, about an hour and a half, two hours north. But it just wasn't going to happen. We had to get onward to Adelaide. T.C., one thing that'll stick out for me from that afternoon, post ferry and everything, we popped into the four pines brewing company. We ordered lunch after having a couple of beers and it set off this,

this debate that I did not realize I was stumbling into. And that is the parmi versus Parma debate, which I guess is, uh, just, uh, encapsulates all of Australia. They debate it fiercely and it bombarded my DMs for the entirety of the rest of the trip. And I still have people hitting me up now and being like, hey, when you guys are going through editing, make sure you call it a Parma or a Parmy. They're dead set on this. And I would say we should try for Kate and say Parma.

Right. Well, and yeah, and then, you know, we talked about the rugby stuff up there. It's a big rugby union, rugby league thing up there versus you got Ozzy rules football down, down in Victoria and elsewhere. So they love their NFL though. We saw that too.

Every bar had massive, you know, previews for Superbow Bowl parties and everything else. Everybody wanted to talk NBA. They're ball knowers. Australia loving sport and it does not matter what it is. They're diehards for whatever they're, whatever they're interested in. Worth noting, we didn't really film at Bonnie Doon. So you were going to see much more than drone footage and a couple of cell phone clips in the actual travel series on that one. From there, we headed straight to, showered up, headed straight to the airport

and took the first of our inter-Australia flights over to Royal Adelaide. Randy, why don't you take us to Adelaide? Yeah, shout out. First time flying Virgin Australia. The aforementioned checking of 17 bags was quite a process at the airport, but smooth flight over to Adelaide. Quick trip in and out. I think we were there 24 hours, maybe not quite. Stayed at the Intercontinental, but well, well worth the trip out to Adelaide

to get to play Royal Adelaide Golf Club. The club itself goes all the way back to 1892, the golf course when Dr. McKenzie came down to Australia in 1926. He will get into this, but Royal Melbourne kind of farmed him out to some other places, one of those being Royal Adelaide. And so the course was designed and subsequently built around Dr. McKenzie's 1926 visit. It's hosted numerous Aussie opens both on the men's side and on the women's side. I will say a bit of a shame, the Royal Adelaide, it's not big enough to

host men's tournaments anymore. And with the Australian Open kind of being a joint event now between the men and the women. The women can't come back to Royal Adelaide as long as that's the case but I felt like it is a perfect golf course to contest you know big-time women's events but we shall see in the future. To the golf course itself, it checks so many boxes of what I absolutely love in a golf course. It sits on a tight little paddock property in this neighborhood just outside the city center of Adelaide.

It has a train running literally through the golf course and it's a train that runs frequently, talking to our hosts that day. It is in play a little bit. They've had some golf carts get hit. I assume it's maybe some lackadaisical American tourists that are just leaving their buggies all over the place. Thankfully, I don't think anybody has been personally struck or there haven't been any deaths in a long time. But but

you have to very much make sure when you're crossing the tracks when when you're looking to find your ball when you're playing certain shots that that the train is not approaching. One of our sherpas that day Terry, Terry says he likes to take the train and every now and again to play golf. It doesn't stop right at the club, but you can either get off right before the club or right after the club, and then it's just a little walk. The clubhouse facility, I thought, was totally functional without being like ostentatious even a little bit. It was just a nice clubhouse restaurant, some open air atriums. I thought

the design was pretty cool there. To the golf course itself, it was I found it to be extremely playable and challenging in all the ways I like a golf course to be challenging. And that's to say it's it's not going to make you hit a bunch of, you know, force carries off the tees. There aren't a ton of like water hazards or places where you're going to be looking for a golf ball or losing golf balls. It's all kind of just out there in front of you.

And the magic of it is in the design and the green complexes and the bunkering. I just thought it's, I think to a man all of us I mean I'll get your opinions here in just a second it's a golf course all of us could play every single day which is probably the highest compliment you can give to any golf course in my opinion. And so with that said I had three it's always funny I tried to in the moment I tried to star holes that I really enjoyed and so looking back on my scorecard at Royal Adelaide, I had three stars. The first of course, I think this is universal. The

third is a short par four. It's one of the best short fours anywhere. I think 260 meters, so not even a 300 yard par four. But it really, from the very first shot on the tee box, it forces you to make a decision. And the decision is, am I aggressive? Do I take driver or three wood? And am I trying to hit this small little sliver of green that I can't see? It's blind from the tee. But it's surrounded on the right by this grassy kind of hill with deep rough.

Could be a bit tricky if you miss right. And then on the left, there's some bunkering around the green. And then you get off and there's some pine and waste area up by the green. Or if you don't want to try to get super aggressive, you take an iron. And then it's just a matter of, hey, I can pretty much hit any iron I want. It's just a matter of what kind of shot do you want in for your second and what kind of distance. And so I, you know, of course guys, I, I think I hit an elegant five iron off the

tee, found the fairway, hit a little wedge up there to eight, 10 feet, made my birdie, no big deal. But it just is just is the type of short par four template that there's nothing like tricky about it. There's nothing. This template could be replicated everywhere in the world. There's nothing unique to that landscape, right? It's just to just clarify this though, like, the green is a small little

sliver that's kind of angled a little bit right like the front right is closer to you than the front left it's kind of angled from front right to back left. And there's this burn that's built up like a big mound that's built up like kind of on this flat terrain that protects 80 to 90% of the green like from the middle part of it. And it's really really thick rough just a unique feature that I can't like off the top of my head think of a feature like this anywhere.

There's not thick rough on this course, but there's this one berm right in front of the screen with all this thick rough and it dictates everything. Absolutely everything. I don't lay up ever on 290 yard par fours. And like that's one where I just tried to hit like a driving iron as close to the green as I could. That was the wrong play.

That was 100% the wrong play because it's not a hole where you can just hit it up there and figure it out. You have to actually decide what your strategy is going to be. And that is the best kind of test you can possibly imagine. Like that was one of my favorite golf holes I've ever played. It reminded me a ton of maybe not literally, but like the feeling of it was a lot like a lot of what you see out at the University of Michigan golf course, which to your point is kind of like, okay, you know,

Ann Arbor, Michigan and Adelaide, Australia, those are pretty far away from each other. You know, there must be a, there must be a through line here of, of what's making this possible at both places. And it's just great design by one guy. Yeah. I think that, that whole wasn't even, I think initially on the routing.

And then basically McKenzie came in and was like, oh yeah, like this is the spot right here. And there's so, yeah, like we play with Tim, Tim Jordan, the club captain. He was like a wealth of knowledge about stuff. And what a club that has such a great sense of itself. It's not trying to be anything that it's not. It's it's I think Adelaide is an interesting city in and of itself

as well, where there's a it's it's kind of a sleepy quiet town. Somewhat like this. It feels feels a little bit like a western town where you got kind of these wide streets. It's surrounded by parks like the amount of green space that they have. Go look at the aerial of Adelaide. They're along the river. It's like, it like my brain almost can't compute it. They've got the big rugby ground there. We're going to try to go to the rugby game after we played, but Australia beat the shit out of the West Indies. Cricket match. They beat the shit out of the West Indies so bad that it was over like two and a half

days into a five day match. Can I push back on Adelaide being sleepy? That was a hopping millennial down the road. That spot. That spot, the rub is everybody basically says it's like there's more churches in Adelaide than just about anywhere else in the world. It's a very conservative religious town, at least historically speaking. So we were standing right there by Peel Street and the train station and everything as well. But going back to the golf course, like, yeah, like Randi, to your point, like there's nowhere

that I'd rather, like there in Kingston Heath, like I'd love to just sit out on that porch and have a beer and watch the train go by and watch people come in. What an easily walkable golf course. There's some bad Peter Thompson bunkers out there that they're, I think they're working on taking out, you know, that are kind of elevated above grade. But Randy, I'm stoked to hear the other two holes you have starred as well. Yeah, so the next one, it was not the 11th hole that we played because they had they're doing some work, but it's it's typically the 11th hole. It's a par four. It's about 380 90 yards depending on what T's you're playing. And interestingly,

I think this is I'm interestingly, I think this is, I'm curious because I think this is probably what Royal Adelaide would consider their signature hole, even more so than number three. Kind of left untouched, at least the green site as Alastair McKenzie designed it. But the crux of the hole is essentially, it makes you, it forces you to make another decision on the T where it's it's a like I said it's about 380 yard par 4 but the fairway runs out at about oh let's call it I don't know 270 yards and so for Solly, Neil, TC for the long hitters amongst us, I think it probably took driver out of your hand, you guys can tell me.

And not only that, but you kind of have to fit it on the right side protecting the fairway or a line of pine trees. And then on the left, there's one pretty deep bunker that you just have to be conscious of. And the fairway kind of runs downhill and so anything coming in hot is just going to run through the fairway into a waste area. And then the green site is just a really pretty classic Alastair Mackenzie green site. The green is framed by a couple of bunkers and it's just I think in the footage that

you'll see on Toursauce it's very pretty. I played the hole. It seems almost like a quarry or a... They call it a crater hole. A sand pit. Yeah. Yeah. I took a little less off the tee thinking, I really want to find this fairway. I did miss right and I had some tree trouble, but still I had like a super long second shot

in and so I made the hole a bit more difficult than I needed to. But I'm curious, did you guys just, were you able to hit driver up there? I was playing a little into the wind so you guys may have. I think I hit three wood and had, I had eight or nine iron in, but it's just one of those, one of those shots you got to crest this hill. So if you, if you get to the top of the hill, you know, you're, you're kind of in the go zone, and you just have this, what's one of those shots, you cannot wait to hit it. And after you've right, you know, you finish out on 18, you're like, I want to go back to 11

and hit that shot again. It's just really the setting. It's, I guess the beauty of it's just in the simplicity. But it's just like, man, this is just really pretty and stimulating. Like, let me try to just stuff one here. You know, it's like, it's like, you feel like a little kid, you know, it feels like that shot, you know, 15 it at Augusta, you know, when you kind of just get the you're like, Oh, God, I want to hit that shot so bad again. I never I haven't hit the shot of the Augusta. But that's how I'd feel if I if I

had. Yeah, go to a Golden Ocala sometime. I'll take you out there. What a thrill for me. And then the last hole I want to shout out real quick is the 14th hole. And mainly because of the approach shot, it's a longer par four, I think it plays maybe 420, 430 yards. Not a ton of strategy off the tee. I will say we played the white tees.

The blue tees on this hole is one of the couple around Royal Adelaide where you would hit like back across the train track, which I thought was pretty cool. That was not the case for us as we were playing a tee up. But the second shot, assuming you find the fairway, you're left with this second shot to kind of a small slender green that's elevated, right? The fairway runs out and there's this swale and then kind of coming back up the hill sits this little green site. It's protected on the right and the left. I think there are like three total bunkers up there. And there are a couple of great pine trees that frame the shot. And so it's, you know, being in Australia, it's kind of like hitting a shot between

the, the rugby goalposts, you know, these, these big, tall, skinny pines to this elevated green that's small and protected by bunkers. I thought it was just a really great visual and also a very hard shot. I ended up making triple. I hit a great second shot that just caught the right bunker and then I played ping pong a little bit. But I thought the shot value and the aesthetics of that approach shot on 14, that was the other thing I had marked on my scorecard. So those are the three holes that really stood out to me. But you guys please tell me any others that

that grabbed your attention. So much short grass around that hole 14. I think the what was the par three? After that was it 1616. So difficult. Awesome. Awesome. Like devilish devilish hole there. I just, I loved this place so much. I think the only, the only one that kind of stuck out, 18th not the strongest finisher, but 17 didn't really match the rest of the golf course. We, now granted we played the by hole 17th.

So really our 16th, but normal 17th. Kind of, I think there was some work done to that one that was to bring it back to the original McKenzie vision that doesn't necessarily match up with the current state of the golf course. Yeah. I just call out, I wanted to immediately go back out and play again. It was very engaging and stimulating golf, but didn't wear you out. But the hang was so good on the patio, uh, at lunch that it like, that's the only thing that could have stopped us from, from going back out. So all time day at Royal Adelaide.

That's what, uh, our, our friends in Sydney had kind of prepared for us, you know, prepared us for that one. We're asking them like what, what to expect Royal Adelaide. They're like, man, it's a, like, it's got the Royal distinction and you know, you might think that means it's very full of itself and it was, it's going to be totally the opposite. And that was very, very true in that they were so like priority. Number one, at least it felt that way for us. Priority number one felt like I can't wait to like host people at this club.

Can't wait to show this place off to your point earlier, Sean, just like a really gracious, humble, sure of itself place. It was, it was awesome. Loved it. I freaking love this place as well. I'm trying to come up with a comp and really struggling. It's it's a remarkably flat piece of land. Like it's not a dramatic landscape, especially when you take the drone up and just see like, for miles and miles and miles, how flat that landscape is and how many houses there are around it that all that to say like the contouring that's really close to you and the land movement

there is in the golf course is so brilliant. It's so subtle and it just, I really like golf experiences that are like that. I tend to, sometimes some of the dramatics of a New South Wales don't resonate with me as much as a flat course with obstacles right here in your way and contours that really are going to dictate what is a good shot and what isn't. Royal Adelaide had that like to a 10 out of 10. It was just there's so many shots I'm thinking of that are just like, man, this is really flat, but God is this thought provoking. The very first tee shot you hit is, you know, right at these bunkers in the distance

as a dog legs to the left. And it's just immediately like, all right, well, if I'm taking driver, I got to take it over these mounds on the left. And is it going to stop in time or do I take an iron that goes short of these bunkers and that mental exercise is what I'm looking for out of golf. And it, well, I'd like gave you that on almost every hole. I think the par five or like some of the par fives remind me of some of the par fives at Royal Melbourne East. There's just some dynamic second shots in there where your cross bunkers are great.

The greens at an angle totally depends on where the pin is. It's everything I want out of a golf course. It's like if Kingston Heath, Royal Melbourne East and something like Royal Lytham had a baby. It's sick. So there's not a lot of golf courses that we get to go to that, you know, I don't play at these places. This is at the very, very top of the list where I'm like, damn,

Cody said that to me. I was like, I was like, what do you think this place? God, dude, I just really want to play. I was like, I think there's I think this is this course is going to pop the most visually because it has that dark red sand that frames everything. The bunkers are that same color. When we talk about that whatever hole that was, Neil, that you're describing, it's framed so beautifully between the trees,

between the contrasting colors. It makes me think a lot of like, man, that's the same dirt that we have in like Georgia and lower Alabama. And like, why are we bringing in this whitewash, you know, bleach sand everywhere when you, you can see like, this is the potential for a comp. I know you guys aren't going to get this Neil is going to be the only ones that, that this resonates with, but a very flat property that takes the best features of that property with extremely well done and well thought out architecture

and it's Austin Golf Club. And there's just not a lot happening there, but the green complexes, the bunkering, everything is just like a 10 out of 10. And we joked a lot about it, but all time porch there that Canon that they have that they use to signal in the new club captain was so damn cool. And Royal Adelaide, they got their

moniker in 1923 from Randy's great uncle King George the fifth, who was most famously known for saying golf always makes me so damned angry. And I didn't get that feeling at all around Adelaide. It was just a delight. I want to go back there. And it's like every everybody that we talked to that's like, Oh my god, you guys went to Royal Adelaide. Like, what did you think? Because everybody just wants to go back there. It takes a lot. You know, we were I mean, just getting all the

bags checked and everything we were doing from Sydney to go to Adelaide to play one golf course to get back on on a plane, to go to Melbourne. It was just stressful dropping cars off all that. I turned to Neil and I was like, damn roll Adelaide. It better be sick, man. It better be really good. And it was worth it. It was a hundred percent worth it. I had a feeling it would be, but it was, that was the hardest thing to squeeze into this trip. And I'm so glad we did it. This was the stretch of the trip that I was most worried about. I tried to kind of prepare everybody. I'm like, hey, listen, like, you know, Cody and I are kind of talking to everybody like, hey, listen, everything, like, it's going to be go, go, go,

go, go from, you know, by the time we get on the ground there until we get into Melbourne and all that. But I think also just like there's three or four wine regions around Adelaide. It's near the beach. Like, like what a, I mean, Louie who we sat and had lunch with afterwards. He's a kind of a, you know, bone broth, wine maker. The master of all. Muso too. Yeah, just generally, generally just like a cool guy, you know, like that's his occupation. Yeah, I'm just kind of cool. Generally I's his occupation. I'm just kind of cool generally. I've scratched golf, I make wine, I'm a singer-songwriter, I have a bone broth wellness company.

Which that kind of represented Adelaide in general to me of like, yeah, this place is kind of whatever you want it to be. Dying to go back to Adelaide and the airport was great. We had a great meal that night before everybody except for Randy did, I guess. Randy hates sharing. Dishes. The food was fantastic. I said, I think my worst nightmare is sitting down with seven hungry boys and being like, all right guys, well, we're, we're going to share some, some plates.

And it's like, Oh God, am I going to get to eat enough? Like how much do I take off of each place just so stressful so I voice that delicious yes it feels good to get that off my chest and these Americans got McFlurries on the way home typically that sort of yeah you know they do the golf great yeah McFlurry's a disgrace ice cream scene in general was just really lacking. Which could be in line with everybody being just really fit and active. That's true. Yeah. So we took off that night, we went to the airport, didn't get to go to the cricket

test match. Shame on the West Indies. And we flew off to Melbourne again on Virgin Australia. We are excited to announce that No Lying Up is sponsored by Fandool. We had a great opening week with them last week for the first major of the year. Fun preview video, fun content, seeping through in a lot of ways, making some picks, doing things a little differently than we've done in the past. But we're very excited about all this, excited about all the offerings that they do have. And whether you're playing golf or betting on it, there's nothing worse than first tee jitters. With Fandl, you can crush your first bet of the day

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HOPE is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org, or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPENY, or text HOPENY in New York. Back to the pod. That brings us there and we split off from there. Randy, DJ and Neil went to St. Andrews Beach and then TC and I went to Lonsdale links down the Bellarine Peninsula. We kind of split off to kind of cover a little bit of the Mornington Peninsula which which is where you'll find St. Andrew's beach and then all the way around. What's the Bay there? What's

the, uh, I can't remember what the Bay is called, but it's just kind of the, you know, north of the bass straight there where the, I think Port Arthur, Port Arthur or port. I can look that up. But anyways, we split off to two different parts. Uh, TZ and I took the ferry over, uh, to go play Lonsdale links, but let's go to St. Andrews Beach first. DJ, why don't you take us there? So real quick, DJ, just so thinking about St. Andrews Beach was our first course last time we went down, kind of a throw in add on. And we thought about, all right, should we play the national? There's like three or four courses at

the national at the Gunamata, the Muna, the old, all those. You've got the dunes down there. You've got Flinders, you got all these different courses, but we wanted a callback and we felt like we got St. Andrew's Beach on a cloudy day. Everybody was jet lagged and I wanted Randy to see some kangaroos. This was the place where we figured, we'd see some kangaroos. You know what? Fly the banner, my man.

We saw them. We saw them. We saw them. They're out there. I also, yeah, there's a lot of, you know, there's an embarrassment of riches of golf courses to try to go to as we've covered, but I think St. Andrew's beach was worth highlighting for a number of reasons that we'll get into. Like you said, it's going to sound familiar. You saw nine holes of it in our first ever episode of Tour of Sauce where everybody's

doing the stupid kangaroo flexes and all of that stuff. So a little tinge of nostalgia going back there and kind of seeing that place again with Neil and then Randy and Cody seeing it for the first time was really fun. This is of course the first mainland Australia design of Thomas Doak, uh, open in 2004, uh, after he'd already done barn boogle dunes. Uh, I think something that really kind of sums up the place. Uh, this is from Dokes little red book of golf course architecture. He says, my goal is to have as many holes as possible where we don't change the contouring of the fairway and rough on most courses. That's between 12 and 15 holes that they're able to accomplish that.

At St. Andrew's Beach it was 16 or 17 and I think you really feel that out there in that it is just sitting on the land. It is, you know, let's find the green sites and let's kind of leave everything else alone and that's really what stuck out to me is just the terrain of this place. Neil, it's one of our backpacking type of courses. You chose to walk it, which is a decision we can unpack during the Tour of Soss episode. Does it pay off for me later on? Does that hard work early in the trip? Does that pay off late in the season? Yeah. A captivating concept that you can see for yourself how that plays out. Just a really interesting piece of land in two ways.

One, just interesting in topography to up and down and over hills and dunes. And you feel like you're near the ocean, but you're also protected in these dunes. It's just a really, really interesting up and down kind of journey. But then also interesting in that, Neil, we were kind of discussing this is there's not a ton of defining features in that, Neil, we were kind of discussing this is it's, there's not a ton of like defining features in that you kind of end up leaving. And I don't want to say the holes all run together because they all do independently like going through the hole by hole today.

I'm like, I remember that hole. I remember that hole. I remember that hole. I remember that hole. But when you get off the golf course, it kind of feels like one experience rather than, than 18 individual holes. And that's no sense of direction. Yeah, it's no landmarks. It's almost feels like you're playing golf inside like a volcano crater. It

just feels like there's a rim around you everywhere. Like you're always banking off of something. And so the routing really turned me around both the first time we played it and the second time. Like, it's just like, each hole when you stand on the tee, you're like, Whoa, this is, this looks like a, there's a lot going on here, but there's no, there's no railroad track. There's no, I don't know, central point to, to kind of, you know? Yeah, exactly.

And I think as I was like trying to think about what to say about it, it kind of illustrated a lot of what I ended up feeling on this trip, which I just felt overwhelmed by a lot of the golf in a way that I haven't really felt on one of these trips before. I think some of that is because the floor of all of these golf holes is so high that ordinarily you have a couple holes that really pop and you get to your beer afterwards and it's like, I can't wait to talk about number three at Royal Adelaide, I can't wait to talk about number three. I at Royal Adelaide, I can't wait to talk about number 11. I can't wait to talk about all these things. And when the floor on like all 18 holes is so high,

it's almost like you have this little 15 minute window to try to like process it. And then you're just onto the next one. And then the next one's also really, really great. And you're trying to process that. And then the next one's really, really great. And I really felt that on St. Andrew's beach. And I really felt it on the two golf courses at King Island where I're trying to process that. And then the next one's really, really great. And I really felt that on St. Andrew's beach. And I really felt it on the two golf courses at King Island, where I'm trying to think back on like what the certain hole by holes were. And I almost had a hard time in a way that I hadn't really had before. And I think some of that is just because like it's a kind of

a cop out, but like, yeah, all 18 holes are like really freaking good, man. There's just a lot of interesting stuff to try to wrap your head around in a very short time playing it one time. And so where I'm going with all of that is I think when you see a golf course like this from Tom Doak or Gil Hans or Corrin Crenshaw or some of these like big name modern architects, they're usually at golf courses that are really like once in a lifetime bucket list resorts or their private clubs or their places that like you're really lucky to hit them once, twice, three times, four times, five times, like in your entire life to go see these places. And St. Andrews Beach is, it's a pretty residential area. It is, you know, I think with the conversion,

$68 American to go play. And so you end up walking off this golf course and you're like, God, I need to see that place like 10 more times to actually understand. I know it's there. Randy, I was kind of joking. It's almost like the Oppenheimer, like, do you hear the music scene where it's like, yeah, I know stuff's going on. It's just going to take me a long time to process it. And what's awesome about St.

Andrew's beach is that people actually have the chance to do that. Like you could go out there once a month and go try to like, get your arms around that place, because I think that's what it would take. Randy, Neil, I don't know if you guys felt the same way. I'll echo pretty much everything you said. I, I think what really stands out to the most to me is I feel like I have a great sense of San Andrews Beach in its totality, but struggling to break down like, well, remember that fifth hole? What exactly does that do? I'm like, I'd have to like really look it up. In a lot of ways, I was trying to think of a comparison that I've played and I know it can be a silly game, but it feels a lot like just in that it's public, it's felt a little bit out of the way from Melbourne. I wouldn't say like scruffy, but it's just got that public,

it's not like rural Adelaide, it's not like rural Melbourne, it's not like Peninsula Kingswood. In that way, it kind of reminded me of like Rustic Canyon a little bit outside LA. Another place where I'm like, I know like the totality of that and the feel of that golf course, but I would really have to like drill down and remind myself of some of the individual holes. But with all that said, a fantastic experience.

Got to get up close and personal, not too close with some kangaroos, which was a big thrill. We got to see Neil trudge up and down the hills. And honestly, well, I don't know if we want to spoil it, Neil hit one of the best shots I've ever seen in my life on number 10. So it was just so, it was a wonderful afternoon. I really, really enjoyed it and was happy to get down there. I think just a tremendous variety of different holes too in that you kind of feel like you're on your back foot at all times because you can never quite get something going. There's there's a lot of like number ones that kind of sets the tone well where it's you can see like the the highs and lows of it. The entire golf course is super, super, super wide. You can hit it anywhere off the tee, but it's the perfect definition of, you know, if you're on the wrong side, like you're, you're not making par

probably like you're, you're going to be scrambling for, for bogey, let alone Bernie is like not don't even think about it. And number one's kind of this wide open par five hit it anywhere. But then also the green is like tucked and almost hidden and blind. It's just a really cool, cool dynamic. I think number 13, I think I read was maybe the longest par four in Australia. And it plays to that weird punch bowl green. That's like the size of my desk. And it's just, is constantly like, every time you feel like you're about to get some momentum, it, you just, you know, he kicks you back down the slide.

It's a lot of goke encouragement. I mean, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's just, it's constantly like every time you feel like you're about to get some momentum, it, you just, you know, he kicks you back down the slide. It's a lot of dope encouraging you like, Oh, you should just do slopes. And then the slopes don't work the way you thought they would. It's like, oops, sorry. I forgot to tell you, there's a little, there's a little collection area back here,

though. Some sneaky fine print from dope classic. It's, it's a challenge. It's really challenging. I think that's my thought. He's going to email you. He's got, I feel like jokes on a lot of fine print from Doke Classic. It's a challenge, it's really challenging. I think that's my- Watch out, Nilly's gonna email you. They might.

I feel like Doke's had a lot of fine print with his mounding of like, no, check this out, use this, use this, ah ha ha. And that's what I think is my overall takeaway is like when you only get one crack at a golf course like that, you end up leaving kind of like unfulfilled and like, man, I don't know what that was. And I didn't quite, I couldn't quite get my arms around it and I'd played bad and I would do this differently and blah, blah, blah. But like, man, I wish St. Andrew's beach was, was 15 minutes from my house because

I would play there once a month and like try to figure it out. And so that I can't think of a bigger, a bigger compliment than that. I mean, I have to assume that's what he's, that's what he's going for. Right. Well, and another compliment to it is Mike Clayton lives like down the road, essentially from like one of the world's great, like golf course architect critique golf nuts there is he says he goes out there and plays all the time. Like the dude that like, kind of model my mental approach towards understanding golf courses after like wants to go play that one all the time and try to like unlock it like that. I think that's super cool.

Professional golfer like, like truly one of the great golf sickos of our time. And I just found that interesting. The importance of playing the correct tease to would have been very easy. I think looking at the scorecard seeing the white tees were 5600 meters, the blue tees just over 6000 meters. I think a lot of places DJ and Neil we've been like, ah we should play the blues like 6600 yards. But man, like just over 6100 yards from the whites which we did end up playing thankfully, that was more than enough golf course and a total

test for the three of us on that day. Weird, weird routing only two par fives on the course for par threes coming through and quite a few of those par fours are reachable. You know how we talk about like modern day architects and there's like these lineages and if you look at like the Pete die side of it versus like the Fosio side of it and like you'll find you'll find a doke in there and you'll find all the other, you know, Bobby Weed and everybody else has kind of come down the the Fosio side.

And if you look over this reminded me so much of a Strands design and it's one of those things these where you talk about like being able to go play it all the time. much of a strands design. And it's one of those things these where you talk about like being able to go play it all the time. It was so much of like Tobacco Road and Bulls Bay and Royal New Kent where it's like, you know, for me a guy who played Tobacco Road a lot like people show up there for the first or second time and there's so much pushed up stuff and you're

like, oh my goodness, it's overwhelming to the senses. But really there's just one shot that he wants you to hit. And Tobacco Road is like one of the easiest scoring courses you can possibly find once you figure it out. And I think St. Andrew's Beach is asking a lot of those exact same questions. It would be- But doing it naturally, instead of making stuff up.

Exactly. It would be one of those places, Neil, you always say this about Pacific Dunes, but like, if you went out there and you careered it at St. Andrew's beach, like that might be the ultimate feeling. Yeah. You feel great. Damn job. Well done. Both just from a, you know, physical standpoint too. If you were walking, you would certainly feel that way. Dej, the mind games that he plays on 14, that drivable, it's like a dogleg right, but you're up on that like plateau drivable par four and you're like, oh, I

totally got this. Totally got this. And then just from a slight elevation change, the next hole 15 being like this is the same length. Yeah, right. You don't even realize it's like 100 yards further and you're like, what the hell just happened, man? Like this is not even close and a great finish to 16 that that like hero par three straight down the hill. You guys I I'm bummed you guys missed the back nine, Sally and Tron.

And we only saw the front nine last time. Back nine was really cool. A lot of really fun stuff going on. I'm going back down. I'm going to go back down. Yeah, it's gotta go twice. He's gotta go back and not even play. And then also go back and play. Take us to Lonsdale links. Oh my gosh. I really wanted Sally to see this place because I think it affirms a lot of

what we say about distance isn't the answer necessarily. I think thoughtful design is. This place is, it was built back in like 1920. Vern Morcom, the greenkeeper who was one of Mackenzie's kind of protege. He and his brother, his brother, Mick was the green keeper at Royal Melbourne, but Vern was at Kingston Heath and Vern founded it and basically did the initial design. They bought some land, they sold some land over the years. And in the late 2010s, they ended up buying like basically selling some land near the clubhouse, and then buying some farmland and kind of doing a swap there and funded the club here moving forward. So they brought in OCM, not OCCM at this point, just OCM Clayton had

dropped out. And it's from the tips. For listeners, that's Ogilvy, cocking and Mead. Jeff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead. That's right. Yeah. And you know, Mike Cocking is like, we'll talk about him quite a bit with Peninsula Kingswood.

Here's a move along. But they basically were charged with, hey, re re-imagine this place, figure out how to make it sustainable for the future. And it feels like one of those places, we wanted to showcase some truly public golf around Melbourne. And I think this place definitely fits that bill. There's barwood heads down the road that's extremely private and wouldn't be out of place on like the Northwest English coast. And then there's 13th beach down the road as well. That's, that's a, you

know, great golf course. They've had plenty of pro tournaments there. You got Port Ferry through four hours down the road. The other way we thought about going there, but we said, you know what? Lonsdale links, like let's dig in on this place because it's, it's like template holes that they did in some spots. There's some non-template holes as well, or there's some original stuff. But you start off, it's 5,500 meters from the tips, it's a par 70, and at no point, Solly, correct me if you feel differently,

but at no point do you feel like, oh man, this place is short, or this place is gimmicky, or this place is contrived, or it's not challenging me. It was so much fun. And literally all you do go to the website, Lonsdale links dot com. And just like look at it like a look at a couple of images. You're like, I guarantee your instinct is going to be like, oh, I want to play that. Like, that's actually what we did when we were like planning this trip

was I looked at that one and I told DC, I was like, I really want to play this. He's like, I know I did. I mean, you didn't have to say that. I know you're going to really like this place, uh, like reachable ish, uh, uh, you know, like a really good drivable four on the front, like a par five that again, we had played downwind that I think I hit two iron nine iron into, but like, then you turn right, right back around and play like into the 25 mile an hour wind and you know,

a 350 yard hole becomes really, really difficult. I love that exchange that happens throughout the course of a round. And I mean, the templates are fantastic. And it's just man like, there aren't a lot of very accessible places in the world with this kind of architecture design. I mean, you know, there's a reverse radian thumbprint short, I think all combined into one. At one point, there was a drivable road hole, which was incredible. There's the the Alps hole, the 11th hole,

the par five was just like one of the coolest part. Well, no, the Alps is the first hole punch balls, 11 punch ball par five with these two awesome mounds in the front was the 11th hole was like the one I was like, Oh, I got to go play this course with squared off greens and beer. It's and all these awesome contouring that there is not one single style of golfer that would not enjoy this style of play. It's good for high handicappers. Good for low handicappers. Uh, TC and I got to, we got entered into a comp, a competition day there at the club.

And we got to, got to compete, but hitting cups and, and, and doing all that, which was so much fun. Uh, I really loved this day. It this day. It was a long drive down the, you know, the morning to Peninsula, took in a ferry across. We're birthing soon. We birthed and then we went over and drove over to, took the car on the ferry, of course, and did the whole thing. It was just a delightful, delightful day. Yeah.

It's solid. There was like the, you know, a couple of the par fives are like the par fives are super dynamic. They're, they're angled fairways kind of off the tee where you feel like you got to cut something off and it kind of tricks you depth perceptions and issue all day. Neil, like number four is this hole that wouldn't be out of place at the creek. Uh, that, that short par four they have at the creek there. Uh, they've got an Eden hole, the Levin number nine is cool. And then yeah, so like you said, the punch bowl is awesome. And then the long

hole, I'll shout out the shot that you hit into that. I was hoping you'd say that. I didn't want to bring it up. One of the best shots I've ever seen you hit before. I can't wait to see that on video. Sam fires number 15. Like that's, that's an original hole and it's, you can play close to the hazard. There's a lake that you have it's, you can play close to the hazard. There's a lake that you have to clear and you can play close to the hazard or you can bang one up the right and kind of play for distance or angle. It's brilliant. The drivable road hole, maybe the most fun concept ever anywhere. It's OB long left, big road hole bunker there in the middle. And then 17 and 18,

like 17's not crazy long, but it's just really, really tricky green. And you can't tell where the pin is. And then 18's got the Oakmont church pew bunkers. It's a weird clubhouse. They built like this ultra modern clubhouse. Really nice. Like really nice.

Yeah. Remind me of Korea. Great yardage book. Like they did all the design stuff, right? Like the marketing materials and everything, great website, all that. But it's truly, I think Jeff Ogilvie, I don't know if his parents or his grandparents lived down there. So he played a bunch down there growing up as well.

And you can tell there was a personal connection and they really put a lot of care and consideration into every element of that golf course. And there's parts that wouldn't fill out of place in, you know, the Texas Hill country. And then there's parts that you feel like you're very near the coast. And it was very, very windy, but super playable. And like, I immediately want to go back. I'm like, how did I get beat up by that golf course so much? That 5,500 meter golf course.

And then we went and got got some pies at the meat pies. Yeah, what pins something in pins, pins and pies. Yeah, that I think was voted best best pies in Australia. Couple years running. We met the boys over at port sea. That port sea we played with of will and John and guy named Rod and Clayton met us over there for an interview and played like 11 guys. I think we were playing an all shot thing.

We're talking about a nice setting. I mean, that club was first class with the clubhouse and the views. Felt like a bit more of a vacation destination. That's basically their Hamptons down there. There's Sorrento, there's Portsea down there. It's a really ferocious bunkering out there. There's all sorts of crazy, crazy land movement. I would love to go back and play that golf course.

It just come off of their big tournament invit of, you know, big tournament invitational as well. So it was kind of turned up to a million too. So, well, great day. All right. Let's, let's take it to peninsula Kingswood. We played the North course. There are two courses at peninsula Kingswood. I believe TC had a, had a great, uh, four forward description. Cocking is the future, uh, was his description after our round here and I was I was blown away by this place. I think Mike cocking redesigned it recently. I think it's from what I gathered, it's the mashup of two separate clubs. And one of the clubs sold their basically the land and for development and

then they merged with, you know, to create Peninsula Kingswood and then they poured that, you know, to create Peninsula Kingswood and then they poured that, you know, money from the sale of the land into redesigning. I think both golf courses, but specifically the North course, this is like, I think, as far as I mean, just, I just want to talk about the the like, amenities, like the modern, if you're trying to build a modern golf club, like country club, this is like the one of the best I've ever seen. It is striking when you drive in it is

like managed pert like excellent just amenities, they had lawn bowling pool tennis, like unbelievable driving range and just the way that they take care of this grass and the conditioning was like some of the best I've ever seen. And putting greens have ever seen by I lost count of how many putting greens and chippie greens that were beautiful clubhouse. And it just feels like it's perfect for like high level

golf competition to host events to host amateur events to just like, I don't know, groove kids to become awesome golfers. Like if you played out there as a kid, and you grow up there, like, it's just hard not to, like, probably fall in love with golf and be be a good golfer. And I thought the course was like a modern, it was thoughtful, it was difficult, it felt like a championship track. And, you know, the weather was perfect. And it was our first kind of taste of like, wow, the

turf down here is different. We were talking about it on the course. I think it's the best grass I've ever played on. I want to be specific about why it's a very it's a custom strand. Do you see? Or no, excuse me, custom strain of golf, specifically the green. Specifically the greens. Specifically the greens. It is called is named pure distinction. And it was a offshoot of Augusta's bent grass, like I kind of like some almost weed that they don't want that was cultivated and created the

greens under your feet. And they look like pool tables. They look firm. They feel firm. They look firm, they feel firm, they sound firm. But then I've never seen the ball react where there were like five, six shots hit by all different, you know, different ones of us with different, you know, swing speeds and everything that would two hop and then zip back five feet. Right. So you get the firmness, but you also get the reactivity, you know, on your approach shots and the greens were lightning. As far as putting goes, they had the bunkers, you know, cut into the green. So you get a little taste of that, that

look, that sand belt look, which makes a lot of the green sites look just really like appealing. So the look of this place was just first class, I'd say I'd call out a few holes, memorable holes for me. Number eight, a reachable par four, which I really, really liked a fun hole. And then number, number five, I think is par five, another Mad Max big dog leg left and then the city comes into view. I thought that was a really fun, fun hole if you can get get a ball moving right to

left very frustrating hole if you don't. And then I think the 11s greensight was like probably the most striking to me with awesome bunkering. Again, bunkers cut in, greens cut right into the bunkers and kind of sits flat, but just the light for us is starting to get good at this hour. And then 12 will be a bit of a lightning rod, which was a very difficult hole 13 has awesome short for

with great bunkering from T to green. And I thought very strategic, you had to be very thoughtful about where to put your, you know, put your driver or your tee shot, you could hit anything from seven iron to driver there, a lot going on. And then just want to call it 18. I you come around the corner dogleg left, you come up the hill and I had a you know gap wedge into this amphitheater green with this beautiful clubhouse on the right. And it just feels like a place where a high level golf tournament

should end with a you know, crowd of people in an amphitheater, you know, watching some high level stud, you know, do something crazy. Potentially the best member guest, just 18th. For sure. In the world, you know, just like it, just an intimidatingly cool place all the way around. If you come in and you hit that shot in front of those people in front of that clubhouse, you know, you gotta, you gotta earn your trophy there. And, uh, yeah, I guess the guess the, it kicked off another thing that I thought was very unique that we experienced the next,

you know, the last three, four days of the trip is that nobody seems to play golf in the afternoon in Australia. And I just, in summertime, this was probably a Thursday, Wednesday or Thursday afternoon, the place would be jammed. It'd be people trying to squeeze in nine holes, you know, in the U S and, and it's just like, yeah, we just, yeah, we don't really do that here. So, I mean, lucky us, I felt like we got world class golf courses all to ourselves in the

mega light. And this, you know, shot into the 18th hole was like my first taste of that. And that's something I'll remember about the whole trip. But this, this course specifically, for a very long time. That was a Monday, to be That was a Monday to be clear. A Monday, sorry, you know, lose track of time down under. In Australia, but in America, it would have been Sunday. So I was way off, but anyway, anybody please jump in.

I didn't know what to expect with this place. I mean, it has been just kind of described as, you know, it's a very modern place. A lot of the sand belt golf that you know, exists there and that I've played is a lot more classic. It's old golf courses kind of fit into quaint little properties and features are, you know, subtle and all this and this is bigger, bolder, more contoured, more elevation change, bigger clubhouse, bigger everything just more distinct

coloring of everything and just a little more man, a little bit more manufactured. I think I thought it would feel more manufactured than it does. I think I was a bit turned off in the first few holes like the third and fifth holes. The par fives were not my favorite holes, just kind of kind of tight, kind of weird holes that just didn't really fit my fancy. And so I was just a teeny bit soured on it.

And then as soon as we were done, I was undoing the back nine and going hole by hole. I was like, whoa, this place slaps, man. That first hole was great. That second hole was an awesome par three. Four was really good, now that I think about it. Six, that uphill par four was sweet. Seven, that par three, that was really,. Now that I think about it, splash six, that uphill par four was sweet. Seven, that par three, that was really, really cool. Eight, the drivable four, man, that was awesome.

And you just keep going, keep going. That little lowish part of the property from 11 through 13 was just fantastic. The 17th hole at par five was awesome. I freaking love this place. I want to play the South course. I want to go back and play the North again. And again, I could go back and hang at PK and not even play golf TC. I could go lawn

bowling. I could do all kinds of things there. Great hang. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome experience. I would love to be a member of PK. I think it's a little bit complicated in that it's, it's, you know, does it set the best example maybe for other clubs to follow it? Like they had this blank check to, you know, the conditioning is very, it's striking. It's like everything's kind of redlining the engine. It's a little bit complicated, right? Of like every hole is kind of trying to be a 10 and it's trying to be eye candy. But I think it does have the substance there. There's I think

cocking pulled it off, right? And the South course is really good, too. It's a little bit more of a grower, probably not as much of a shower, but you know, and some, some cool artful stuff with like a burn and all that. But played it twice now. And I think I liked it more the second time around knowing where I was going. All the greens have so many different little wings coming off of them. And there's so like, you could play it seven days in a row and they could set it up radically different each day. You're almost playing a different golf course. It doesn't have necessarily the personality of some of the other, you know, sand belt courses. It's not really sand. It's like sand belt adjacent. It's farther south down the

peninsula down in Frankston. And, you know, it's kind of like, I would equate it to like, just this spectacular condo, like, you know, high rise penthouse condo. It was like, it's as you're describing it, I'm like, yeah, it's like a sports car. It's like, it's like an unbelievably high end sports car. The reason I liked it on this trip so much is like, do I need all that? No, I go play Bondi every, every day, you know, or something scruffy. But it speaks to what I loved about

the trip of the diversity of golf, right? Like it isn't, it doesn't have the history and tradition and maybe not the charm of, you know, the other places that we're going to play. It's not trying to. But it's not trying to. Yeah, exactly. And I and the other thing I just want to, I forgot to say, the reason I brought up cocking first is because he to. Exactly. And the other thing I just want to, I forgot to say, the reason I brought up cocking first is because he grew up there. And so I think it's a really cool storyline to see a guy that grew up learning the game, loving the game at this club, and then

he gets the chance to redesign it. And I can, I could feel like the, I don't know, the pride and the care and the love. He was out there for a few holes with us. And I think that's a really cool story here too. And the execution of the green complexes is what stuck with me a lot. I likened it to some courses in the Northeast, like in the Philadelphia area, like old school, like rolling green, kind of really firm surfaces with huge contours and how that plays into certain shots and how like when you, I think back to the seventh hole is par three and that there's, you know, the bunker that's built up into the green and on the backside of that is the slope that goes away from it.

So if you get really close to that bunker and hit the slope, it will bring your ball right down to the hole with your tee shot. But if you miss it into that bunker, now you are toast and you cannot stop a ball out of that bunker going away from those slopes. So, so many layers to these approach shots where you ended up in these death bunkers, you're just like, dude, I should totally not be here. This is 100% my fault and now I'm toast. I just love the balance of that.

And it felt like, I don't know how to describe it, but kind of almost felt like at times you're standing on the green and it's so firm, you're like, I'm kind of like leaning over. The slope is so big right here. I'm struggling to like anchor myself into this mound right here. And it's so, like the spots you had to aim some of the putts were like 90 degrees away from the hole because of how dramatic the slopes were, but it worked and it was not silly golf. Like all of that worked in a really, really impressive fashion. Yeah, it's extremely thoughtful.

I think there's some holes, like some of the holes that aren't even necessarily the most spectacular. Versailles, like what's, what is it? Is it 10 with that green that kind of goes away from you long part for the so tripped out on that hole, like thinking that that pin was like sitting up on, it looked like it was on a dinner table shelf right there. And you got up and you had 50 feet in front of you. I was like, God, that's, that's awesome. Yeah. And there's, it's, it's, I think cocking very, Neil, like, like you said, he was sitting there dreaming this stuff up since the time he was a, you know, a kid and then becomes

an architect and then gets a chance to do all this stuff. And so the substance is there and everything's super thoughtful. It's just a matter of as the golfer, there's so much to look at and there's so much drawing your eye and it's almost sensory overload a little bit, especially on your first time out there. And I mean, cocking is going to be a name for, you know, you know, core golfers are definitely very familiar with him, but between his Medina restoration or I should say renovation, because that's just a full-scale renovation and Ogilvie and Ashley Mead as

well, but like the Fall Line Club that he's doing south of Atlanta, there's going to be a Heathland style course and a Sand Belt style course there. This guy is legitimately like a genius. He's like the, he's on a track similar to a Bill Core, Tom Doak, Gil Hance kind of thing. So prepare to hear a lot more about Mike Coching over the next 20 to 30 years. Two quick comments, mid handicap check-in, uncomfortable course.

I thought the bunkering is such that you just, God, it's got a way of just being a magnet for golf balls for me At least you just have to not only start the ball on good lines, but but the finish lines have to be precise It's it's a good kind of gate check for are you actually playing good golf or not? I play bogey golf So not not as not as good at golf as maybe I was thinking. Some wonderful vistas that aforementioned shorter par 5, number 5. You can see downtown Melbourne from the tee box. I love stuff like that.

And then finally, number 12. It's a sick hole. It's decidedly a bad fairway and I won't hear otherwise. There's really no way to keep the ball in the fairway off the tee, which is sick. But it's bad. And then, you know, like, it's a, would it be convex or concave? Convex, like just peek in the middle of the fairway, running balls, either left or right into the rough. And then

you got to hit uphill into a green with, you know, runoffs on the like death on the left and behind and a tough bunker front right. And it just looks like a you're trying to, you know, landed on a teacup saucer up there because you're hitting seven or eight iron out of the rough. It's it's awesome. I mean, it's it's awesome. But yeah, it's like probably too hard. I'd like to see if I wonder what JT would think of that rough. It's, it's awesome. I mean, it's, it's awesome, but yeah, it's like, probably too hard. I'd like to see if J, I wonder what JT would think of that hole.

Like 13. I don't know how you're supposed to play 13. Do you lay up? Do you go for it? I think you lay up, but you have to be really thinking about it. It's not just like hit four iron. It's like, okay, I got to, I'm going to thread a five iron in, in over the, in between these two bunkers because there's bunkers you have to carry and then there's the whole kind of dog legs gradually to the left. So you run out of fairway if you're on the wrong line. I like that kind of short four.

Tanner Iskra I think it's one of the best member courses in the world, right? If you have unlimited spins to just unlock this place and figure it out and get different looks every day and know where you can miss and you know, like it's like Randy, I bet if we gave you five rounds around there, you figure out, hey, here's my off ramp if I'm not playing well or here.

For sure. Or you would quit. Yeah. No, it just, it's like fairways, greens, but it just requires a level of precision that every now and again, you know, you play a course and for me, it's like, oh, I just don't possess that precision really day to day. And it's it's a fun

challenge. But yeah, I would love like more cracks at it. It would definitely be a course I would I would play often. There's spots that feel like you're at splash world almost a little bit. So I'll also ask if you have 11 practice greens, do you really have one? That's a good fair question. It's not an accurate count. That's my estimation based on just driving by them. There's a lot incredible complex Neil year. I wish if I was going on like guys, we're going to go on a golf camp. We're going to set up a six day golf camp.

We have a peninsula. King would had agreed to host us in those beautiful little, uh, chalet cabin things they have down there. We could work on our short game pitching and chipping down there whenever we want a phenomenal driving range. And we would be just be like the best place in the world. It's just the facilities are outrageously good. It'd be like going to space camp. For sure. DJ, I can't remember if it was you or TC, but you made

like kind of the sports car reference and not to spoil anything, but in our group, the one that I was filming saw you had the opportunity to kind of, you know, pull your, your mini van up against a young sports car and see how they compare it out of the block. So again, without spoiling anything, how is it with that, with Jasper out there? We got to play with Jasper Stubbs,

who is the Asia Pacific amateur champion this past year at Royal Melbourne. We'll be playing in the Masters. We'll actually just play to the Masters if you're listening to this now, but yeah, they kept, uh, the guys kept like instigating me, like trying, I was playing pretty well coming into the trip and they kept like trying to, trying to humble me. So they, they, they pinned me up against Louie, the, the runner up club champ at Royal Adelaide. Uh, and I don't want to spoil anything that happens

with that, but they were also like, all right, why don't you just play, uh, like this dude is probably about the term professional. Why don't you play him straight up on his home course? So I got to play Jasper straight up at PK North and watch what it's like for he got to play the one up tease too, which I'm sure he was delighted about and got got thrown to the wolves a little bit for that, but it was very fun to watch, play the course through his eyes or watch him play the course and watch what execution look like on some of these shots make it all look quite possible because it can be really visually intimidating. So

Randy's point and just like when you have somebody next to you just striping it's like, ah, okay, guess I just gotta do that. But he was great. We great. It's a supermodel. Of course, is a supermodel with some personality though, right? Like once you get to know where like it's not you know, there's stuff below the surface there. More than a pretty face. So next stop was Cape Wickham.

We woke up, this was Tuesday morning and we flew down to King Island. We went to Moorabbin Airport next, right there next to Kingston Heath. Hopped on a great, great little plane. Emphasis on little. I think that was one of the things. This was a little switch.

This was not, this was not cool. No, no, no, no, no. For weeks leading up, no, for weeks leading up, Randy kept being like, hey, it's not the same plane, right? Like, no, no, no. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. No, I'm pretty sure it's different. No, no, this is a bigger jet.

No, I said it was scheduled for air service. This will be like long we took up to low for this. Cody literally said this is a jet. We, I said it was like why we took up to low foot. Cody literally said this is a jet. We're taking a jet. There is what Cody told us. Yeah. Did you know that we were not actually fighting a jet? Cody, two engines. Of course. Of course I did. That thing was where we're flying and down. No issues. And I don't.

Listen, when you think of like little planes, I think people think of like, you know, three little seats in the back. This is a big, you know, school bus. Yeah. Plenty of room big. Wow. Anyway. King Island Airlines. We could take that off. Our pilot was awesome.

He brings us in, does a loop of the lighthouse. So we get to see that before we even land. We land, there's cows and fucking wallabies everywhere on King Island. Can I just say on the flight real quick TC, again, the kind of same plane we took down to Barnabugle, man, is that flight a lot different when you're 37 now and have a wife and kid at home

versus the first time around when it was just me. It was like, ah, we're probably fine. This time around I was like, oh my God, I don't know how I feel about this. So I wasn't stressed as stressed as Randy was, but, uh, yeah, I mean, was I thinking about, of course, two engines. Thank you. I was proud of myself.

And they do it. What? There's two. I know they do it a lot. It basically goes back and forth twice a day. Right? So, uh, scheduled air service on King Island Airways. So we land, we get the, Airways. So, we land, we get the trucks and, you know, one of them's a stick shift or they're both stick shifts

and we drive up to Cape Wycombe, which is on the far, far, far north side of the island. No president circle on King Island. You know, pick another car. It's like, now we got six cars, man. You're getting... Yeah. So, we've got six cars, man. You're getting there. So Mike Caridi, our friend, he works for the company that owns the dairy on King Island and kind of, you know, those the ins and outs of the island. Not a lot of, there's many more cows than there are people down on King Island. We drive all the way up to Cape Wycombe. Gorgeous drive, by the way. I mean, you feel like you're in the African savanna during some parts and

you pull in, it's, you know, it's this temporary structure up there and you are on the edge of the earth. It's, you know, you feel like this thing's melting into the ocean, which we'll get to the 18th hole, it kind of is. You see this massive, massive lighthouse. I think it's, if not the tallest, one of the tallest lighthouses in the Southern hemisphere that kind of stands watch over this really treacherous coastline that looks out over the Bass Strait and it's disappointment Cove and all sorts of shipwrecks and disappointment bay, all sorts of shipwrecks and everything out there. So I think to really to start out,

we had an atypical wind that day. So the wind typically comes off the west, southwest. It was coming out of the northeast for us. So it played very opposite to how the course was designed to be played. It's been ranked in the top 100 in the world for a long time, really since it opened and it's since dropped out here in the last iteration of the rankings. Ryan Morissette said it was quote, too windy, which, you know, I would say Cabot, Cabot St. Lucia just got into the top 100.

It's not even open yet, which I don't know how that works. Is Cabot St. Lucia not crazy windy as well? Wind is a fundamental part of golf. We had an atypical wind, so probably it was an extremely windy day and we had an atypical wind and I still greatly enjoyed the golf course. Didn't feel like it was unplayable or there were a couple holes I didn't really care for, which we'll get into. But I don't know, I have trouble with that windy site criteria, I guess.

So it gets off to a really, really cool start. Number one, two, three, like, you know, one is this really cool par four, shorter par four. And then two, kind of a varying angle. And then just quick on one, like this is like a comm this is like sheep ranch. I mean, you are up on this cliff edge, uh, kind of going away kind of north, you know, kind of going Northwest away from the clubhouse and this, this one little Cove with this kind of like the 16th green abandoned dunes on that opening green, just sitting way out on this, this cliff edge, you know, kind of like a,th green abandoned dunes on

that opening green just sitting way out on this this cliff and bluff and you're introduced immediately to like this. The greens are a little bit furry just because like you're on an extreme site like a really extreme site with a ton of wind and you can't you know you can't grow it up or you know get them too quick or balls won't stay on the greens to this and you're like there's no just nowhere to hide from the elements. Like it is just so exposed out there and the wind just absolutely whips on this cape, but just such as fricking strong, especially

the images that you'll see from like later in the day when we were like done eating and stuff, like of the sun hitting that first hole, like it is, it's a banger opener, those first several. that first hole. It's a banger opener, those first several. Important context too on the wind just before we get into these two golf courses is what also exacerbates the wind is that if you miss the fairway, you're in this marum grass that's filled with the most poisonous snakes on planet Earth. And so it's not quite like Scotland or Ireland where it's like, oh, just fucking hit it anywhere and you'll find it and just hit it back to the fairway. It is kind of a like every hole is basically OB on the right and the left. It's very wide though. It is very, it is very, very wide.

It's extremely playable. I felt like it was wider than... Far fewer golf balls than I brought with me. But it's just, you know, try and it's important context that you are thinking about that on each hole. A lot of those left just for safety. And that's why we, again, for this end ocean dudes, we say, take the carts because they have the venom kits in the carts people. What is the venom kit? It's not an anti-venom at all. It's just a little tourniquet in there. So, uh, you know, it doesn't follow up your vessels and get to your heart. It's a note with the scorecard. If you get bit by a

snake, lay down, just lay down, call us. And it's like, well, what are you gonna do when I call you? Oh, it's over. Yeah, right. Snake fight. Hey, you're right. I don't know if there's much. Yeah, I mean, we saw a snake on the first hole left of the fairway on the first hole and was like, Oh, okay, cool. Like, like I was, I hit one on the very edge of the long grass and I'm fucking terrified to go hit my balls. Like there's just snake holes everywhere enough to be like, dude, I can't imagine building

this golf course. I mean, Mike DeVries, Darius Oliver, and apparently it's bird eggs. It's a bird nesting area. But when I was out there, it's like, cause I'm not seeing a lot of little critters other than wallabies. I don't think these these Eastern Browns are taking down wallabies, but maybe they are, you know, a lot of feathers flying around, though. Yeah, whatever those burrowing birds out there, their holes all over the place are just munching on eggs.

I thought I've seen big one and two are really cool. I thought three was spectacular. Part three kind of razor's edge green there. One and two are really cool. I thought three was spectacular par three. Kind of razor's edge green there. Four was a beast. Randy, you had a snake encounter there on four. Same thing. I think we took dangerous animal relief there, right? For sure. Offline, my ball ended up in some long rough and you know you're going in very nervous, haven't seen that snake

on the first hole and I see the ball and then curled up not what Cody not three yards away from where my ball is it's just this snake just curled up right there and it's like man screw this I I don't need this guys. Just yeah, just just tough start to around a golf. Honestly, it's worth emphasizing when we like when we're talking about the wind. This was like the windiest we've ever seen at a Torasos day aside from the belly bunion like bonus holes that we played. I mean it was like close to unplayable like another 10 miles an hour. I don't know if we could have played golf on this day.

Direction. It's like what a year. Yeah. Is what it's like, oh, you got that wind like, oh, man, that's just not really. And they were saying this was a strong wind even for Cape Wickham. It's like this was an atypical wind. Like it'd be one thing if this was the wind like, you know like every day up there and it's not. So I think some of these holes I'd love to see, like five, driveable downwind,

but I would love to have seen it into the wind, right? Or six cool par five, like great double fairway. I think like nine, that's one of the craziest holes I've ever seen anywhere like on planet earth. I still haven't quite wrapped my head around that. There's like these three catchment bunkers up the right, par five. And then, you know, you just hit one out there kind of blind and then you lay up, you lay

up down the left because like, I couldn't hold a wedge into the screen, much less trying to get one down there long is dead short is dead. Uh, I don't know. I struggled a little bit with that hole. Just it's like this Mad Max fury road, you know, kind of dumping off into different catchment basins down the hill. Yes. And then he lives on the edge and it's reactionary. I think that DeVries is fearless sometimes and that can get him into a little bit of trouble.

But I appreciate what he's trying to do. And he's going down swinging on some of these holes. It's spectacular. The highs are really high on this course and the lows are really low. I think I mean, like I thought nine is just not a good golf hole. Like I don't I don't know what you do. How I felt about 16 the par five. The finish will get to the finish. Yeah.

So yeah, so it's a win though. Yeah. Flip the win on nine. Now it would be a completely different story. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, but still. And I thought the same thing about 10 too, because 10 was short four downwind. He's reacting to some pretty provocative stuff. And I could just kind of imagine Mike being like, oh, this is fucking sick. Huh?

Like, this is awesome. Like, he's kind of a jock. I would like you never seen anything like this before, have you? Which is what I love that attitude. It's like, yeah, I'm kind of a jock. He's probably like, you never seen anything like this before, have you? No, which is, which I love that attitude. It's like, yeah, I'm trying to build something different here, guys. Sorry. It doesn't work for you. You know, and then, you know, great part of three along the water, 11 there. Wait, let's pause on 10. Let's pause on 10 for a second.

This is one of the, this is one of the most memorable holes of the trip, which is, I think it was about 340 yards from where we were playing it. Dead downwind down a ski slope. Neil, Neil drove with a 60 feet down. Yeah, you truly just bumped something over the hill and it's gonna roll all the way down on like, right with a six iron. Six are 340 yards. I have five iron. We were so excited. Like watch you guys play it. We look up and I look up and I see TC has driver. No, he went back to the bag. He had an iron and he went back to

the bag and grab driver. I was like, must see what it's like to watch me play. I was worried it wasn't gonna get all the way down there. It was like 70 yards over the green. It was it was that window that far downhill that that that hole was a high like was a way, a hole that really matched the playability of it really matched the terrain and was so fun. Yeah. I thought like that stretch 10, 11 was, was a great, great little par three kind of over the Cove there. 12 is a cool short for similar hole. Like, like there is at ocean

dunes as well. There's a really similar hole there. And then like, like 13 was really cool. I thought 13 like went went back, went back around like kind of back towards the clubhouse. And then I thought 14 was reminiscent of everything that we played DeVries wise in Michigan. Like some of those awful, long, broad slopes around some of the greens and those bunkers, those McKenzie bunkers benched into the hill. It reminds me of something you'd see at Kingsley Club or Crystal Downs or Pilgrim's Run or Gray Walls. It just swings around this massive bank. The depth perception

is tough to get. That was such a dynamic hole. And then I think 15, 15 I think we would have like, it's this par five, the fairway up by the green is canted so hard right to left, it's extremely difficult. Like you have to use the fairway and the slope. And the wind that we had was blowing straight down the slope. So I think that made it extra difficult and the hole didn't make as much sense. And I think this is one that we replayed this hole with the normal wind that they have out of the left side. I think that hole would have been a lot more dynamic.

What do you guys think? I think so. I still don't love the way the fairway cants, but I mean, I got to trust that it works a lot better because it definitely didn't work downwind. And then, you know, flip it around and 16 is like, we say it was like, I same feeling I had up at Cabot Cliffs on 17 at Cabot Cliffs of like, over the roller coaster hole over the hill with the ocean on the right. And, you

know, I don't know what I don't still don't know what club because we watched you guys hit I don't know what, I don't still don't know what club, because we watched you guys hit. I don't know what club you can hold in the fairway that doesn't leak into the rough or just into the ocean. You know, that whole had had me legitimately pissed off. Like, I don't know if that was good with any wind. No, I hate six. I hate 16 and 17 at Cabot Cliffs. And I hated this hole. Cause I hit the exact shot with a draw up towards that bunker, like almost went in that bunker up at the top of the hill and still rolled all the way down to the right on the fairway.

And it just, it didn't make any sense whatsoever. I thought it was like, that was one of the worst holes we played on the whole trip. Honestly, like I really enjoyed Cape Wickham. The highs are that high, like I said, but it gives you like the most again, combined with the wind, we got the most sour finish like 15 through 18 were 17 was a fine par three, like kind of didn't hate didn't love, but like 15, 16 and 18 were just kind of like almost all ball and pocket holes. And it just, it just felt like, and I I have no idea on the history, but you're

playing back out on the separate part of the property. 14 is on this, in this part of the property too. And 14 is sweet. But once you go away from that, you're going out towards this lighthouse and then back along the coast for like these photograph holes like that are right on the coast, right on the water. Beautiful play really great on a flyover and some of the least playable golf holes I can ever remember playing. And I just wonder if like, dude, was that the best place to like bring this golf course home maybe for photos and for recruitment, but to play it stunk like it did. It was a bad, bad

finish. That's where I struggled too, because all the people that I'd talked to that played it were like, oh, man, like that finishes electric. It's, you know, it's so scenic. It's just spectacular. And I'm thinking kind of after we left that stretch, like 10, 11, 12, 13, I'm like, man, like why didn't you just stay over there?

Why did we work so hard to get over to this part of the property? Like, you know, or just build a separate golf course over there. You got plenty of land up here. I think 18 with the right wind has a, has a chance of being a good hole. You're, if you're playing into the wind, you're, you're, how much can you bite off? You're not worried about

running out into that left rough and left bunkers. So a carry though, it's probably a big carry for into the wind. So describe it. It plays along this like beach part. It's kind of like the most scenic part and the most scenic holes, but plays like low below the clubhouse and it's like a bluff up to the left of it. And it is like, you're playing almost sideways from the tee into this fairway. It's a really angled fairway.

And it just becomes this like, it would still be really, really hard into the wind too. Like dead downwind, there's no way to stop it from going through the fairway. And dead into the wind, it becomes like, dude, a mega forced carry. Like, I mean, I'm talking like a 220 carry into the wind to the front left. Like part of this fairway is a massive carry. And I really did not care for 18 and did not

picture like, Hey, a different wind would make this a better hole because it just, it just, again, it's beautiful photograph, but just not a, a not not not how I like to hit golf shots not fun. Because you can't get the ball to stop. If I said you take away it's in hole number 18 is no longer 18 is actually hole number five. Would that change your views of it as a whole? Maybe.

Great question. I just struggled. I struggled to review this golf course because like I really liked it. And I thought the routing was super artful. Like I said, like with with how they laid it out with such an extreme piece of land and not having crazy green tea walks like it was very walkable for for how crazy the piece of land was. But like, I just feel like I need to play this place like five times to have an informed opinion on it. And that's not like really feasible because it's on King Island. It's like one of the most remote courses in the world. Which is probably why they're like,

hey, we have this coastline here. We have to maximize them. There needs to be golf holes down there. When really they could shift them like 100 yards to the left for their appeal and still have that same view and have like better ground that would not be as severe as it is. I'd also say, I mean, it's a hard walk too, which I think impacts. I think it impacts. We took carts at Ocean Dunes and everybody

seemed to have a, you know, more laid back time out there. I bet there's probably some truth to that with Cape Wickham. I'm glad we walked it. I mean, but just having the wind in your ears for four plus hours and, you know, kind of walking a lot of times like walking uphill into the wind, it just, it wears you out. So I think that being the 18th hole, it's just, that was a hard hole, how you slice it. So Cody, I do think that's a good question. I think there's something there. It is a tough's just, that was a hard hole. How you slice it. So Cody, I do think that's a good question. I, I think there's something there. It is a tough one to finish on though, to it, it'd be a hard one to score on for sure.

It kind of reminded me of 18 at dune bag a little bit where it's like, it's fallen into the ocean a little bit. They're having erosion problems. You know, it's, I like the idea of finishing up next to the ocean, but I don't know if it works functionally. You're exactly right. You do want to see the course in a more fit. It is a very windy site. We got the upper 10th percentile probably or 90th percentile, however you want to say it, probably wind on that day. It is a very windy site. That's, that's how we saw it, right? I guess we can only react to how we saw it and you can kind of,

kind of try to picture how it would work in a different wind, but it had that big of an effect on the finish, especially at the same time. Like I was grinning ear to ear, probably through the first 14 holes with this exception of number nine. Yeah. And I think the par threes, par threes are bangers. I thought 17 was like kind of a do or die shot, but you know, you can leave it short and you're not bone short left, but like,

you know, number three or number three is sick. Number 11 is sick. Like it's, there's some, you know, seven's a great par three. Like it's one of the better collections of par threes I've played. Like I'm, I'm dying to go back and play this place. Like instead of being beat up and all that, like I want to go back and play it. And I know that wasn't the consensus. So I liked it. This golf course was built and I liked it.

Like I liked the fact that it exists. I'm worried about it in the future, both with the, with the erosion, it seems like the ownership situation. I don't know if the Vietnamese own it and they're situation, I don't know if the Vietnamese own it and they're not, I don't know if they're investing in it or whatever, but it feels like Ocean Dunes has always been like struggling for resources and everything and now Cape Wickham seems to be kind of you know faltering a little bit and Ocean Dunes, they're planning on building cabins and building you know building stuff and kind of investing in it. And so like, listen, like golf on King Island is sweet. And I hope that it continues to rise up because a little

nine hole course on the, on the Island sick too. Oh my gosh. We played a few holes out on the, on the Muni and it like, holy shit was that place. Cool. I mean, just kind of honesty box kind of that whole, that whole deal and it's nine holes, but it, you can play different tee boxes to different tee you know different to the greens to get 18 holes in and whatnot and we just kind of had a little playoff thing out there for only three or four holes but like holy shit awesome land moving incredible green sites you crest this hill after the second hole and play this third hole down to this great looks like 12 abandoned like with elevation change like up against this, the ocean,

like you're on the edge of the world again. And it's one of the coolest sites for golf. I mean, I think I walked up to that 13. I think I looked at the camera and just said, are you fucking kidding me? Like, is this for real? Like, is this place for real right now? And there was nobody out there. We played like some mega cross country holes that you could make out there. It's totally blind shots.

And we had so much fun with that. That place was awesome. We're going to get to Dej and Ocean Dunes here in a second, but I think the biggest thing on these two golf courses, including like the little mutiny that Sully had just got done talking about is the differences in ownerships and like what that actually means. And we talk about like, why doesn't Ocean Dunes kind of get the love that Cape Wickham does? That's 100% just reflective of a marketing budget. And the lack of resources that Ocean Dunes has been able to put out there and to get people in.

Because if you're going to King Island, you better be playing bowl. Because if you're just going for Cape Wickham, you're missing like 60% more enjoyment that you can have playing this game over at Ocean Dudes. And I think that's like the biggest, the scary part about this because there truly is like, you know, everything going on down south that they're looking at their tourism industry potentially getting extremely pinched here. All right, Salih and Neil, I'll ask you guys this. Would you rather go to King Island or Barnboogle? I would rather go to King Island. And I think Barnboogle and Lost Farm are great golf

courses. But I think they are modeled on a lot of the resorts that we could find here in the United States. And the experience is gonna be similar in that you're gonna be eating onsite, you're gonna be staying onsite. I thought this was a really good change up for two independent golf courses that you're gonna play kind of in tandem, but our accommodations is like the best Airbnb

I've ever seen. And just the feeling of being like in a true, like, I don't know, a real place, I guess, for lack of a better term, and not like a golf theme park, is something that I'm really drawn to. So maybe not as convenient, and there's gonna be a lot more planning

that goes into it with the flight there and renting a car and things like that. So it's probably not for everyone, but I would say I would go back to King Island before I went back to barn boogle. I, I agree with everything that Neil said, I worry on all these scenarios, I almost always answered the more recent one that I've been to, like, would you rather, it's always the

recency bias. So barb oogle and lost farm, I think over time, we've, we've tended to like downplay somehow on this. I've those plays were awesome. I had such a great time on that, that leg of the trip. If I was with a group of guys, and we could stay in that Airbnb again, which we should talk about as well, like, it was a more of an adventure. And it was like a feeling of like, yeah, the golf courses to yourself thing was really valuable and really a fun part. But

honestly, it'd be five and five right now if I had to split them. They both have very different offerings. And I don't know, I've really loved Lost Farm and Barn Boogal. We were freaking out walking off Lost Farm. I just want to remember that part. And I'm more of the golf course kind of sicko. That weighs heavier on my experience. So like 5149, I'd probably say Barnboogle. And we haven't seen Seven Mile Beach down there yet. So who knows what's to come and there's gonna be more courses down there. But what I felt like on King Island,

it felt very much, it was an adventure. But also it's like an adventure that like, when you get to wherever your destination is, that you have like the friendliest like mom and dad there to be like, thank you so much for coming. And I think we talk it like we'll talk about Cameron Jones, the head pro at Ocean Dunes and like him and his whole family moving down there and his daughter's moving down and setting up a coffee truck in in

town and then being like that, the outsiders that truly are immersing themselves into that local system and creating like this economy to make sure everything's going. Karidi and the dairy, and it's not just the dairy, it's like some of the best cheese you've ever had in your life. Loring 40s blues. You know, it's all this stuff that like, I think that what would suck is if we sit here 10 years from now and they're like, yeah, you know, it's all this stuff that like, I think the, what would suck is if we sit here 10 years from now and they're like, yeah, you know that ocean dunes closed down. Like what, how did that happen? Yeah. I would say out of the, I mean, DJ, I was asking the guys like how, how they would split up, you know,

would you rather go back to barn boogle or, you know, King Island? I, I'm firmly King Island. I think it's everything I want out of a golf trip, like adventure and feeling like you're on the edge of the earth. We sit at this place called the Bass Lodge and it was, it was just, you know, I remember when I saw that I was like, Oh yeah, we're staying there. Cause because a lot of people stay at the, at the pub in town in Curry, there's a great little bakery there and there's the IGA and all that but you know, sitting

in that sauna with you guys and just out in that hot tub was pretty cool. I mean, it's a describe it. It's there's there's, you know, electric lines running from the main road specifically for this house that's on the coast like it and you can rent it. It's not that crazy expensive to rent it. And if you are taking a guy's trip to King Island, you should stay there like it is is so many beds. It's awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Place that was very additive to the, to the entire experience.

So, and wallabies walking straight up to our campfire and all, and all that. And, and yeah, I'm team King Island. I love having the town there. I love having, you know, just everything we, we experienced. I got, I got nothing else to add. Sign me up TC. Let me know when we're going. One of the girls working in the coffee shop said I was the first American she'd met. I was like, I didn't get a chance to follow that up like, sure. I was like, huh, you're a cowboy. I was like, huh, that's that. You know, that's pretty cool.

If that's true, that's, that's pretty cool, man. So after Cape Wicom, we went down to Ocean Dunes, which TC, you know, you's pretty cool. If that's true, that's pretty cool, man. So after Cape Wickham, we went down to Ocean Dunes, which TC, you know, you kind of said this coming in. This is the kind of the little step brother of Cape Wickham and kind of the lesser known of the two big gems on King Island. Opened a year after Cape Wickham in 2016 all laid out and done by the homie Graham Grant who used to be he was a long time supervisor Club supervisor at Kingston Heath before finally getting into more like course design I think the big thing I mean we get into some of the specifics but macro takeaways for me on ocean dunes is number one You really really really need a second

course like this in order to make the whole thing viable. You know, Cape Wickham is awesome. And I can sit here and say until I'm blue in the face, like it's, it's worth seeing. But man, does that decision just become a lot easier when there's two of them to go hop on the little plane and, and go see, right? And Ocean Dunes is every bit as worth seeing as Cape Wickham in my mind. So I- Way undersold, just like emphasize this. This place was, people were just kinda like,

yeah, yeah, that's fine, it's fine. Oh my God, this place was way, way, way undersold. Well, we had talked to some people, like we talked to Jamie Kennedy, or from formerly the European tour, now of Discovery and Golf Digest. He was very much like, man, I don't know how this place doesn't get more acclaimed. Talk to a few other people and they all said the same thing. I think some of it's because you

kind of have to ride. So I think some of it, but I went back to prepare for this. I went back and looked in the confidential guide because Cabe Wickham's in the gourmet choice, like joke, shouts it out. And I was thinking, all right, you know, ocean dunes, they're gonna shoot all over it. Ocean dunes is like sevens and eights as far as the ratings go. And if anything, I think it's like neck and neck. If you're not familiar with the confidential guide, sevens and eights is really, really high. Right? Like that's, it's not a 70th. It's not a D plus.

7 out of 10. And Cape Wickham's a top 100 golf course in the world. And I think if Cape Wickham's top 100 golf course in the world, then Ocean Dunes is too. I would agree. And I think I almost will go back to some of the stuff I was saying at St. Andrew's Beach about having a hard time processing it in such a short time, where you kind of get

out there. Number one is it sets the tone, again, for what the whole day is going to be. You've got that big giant bunker on the corner, just kind of laughing at you and, you know, daring you to take it on and messing with your eye and giving you this great view and giving you strategy. And you're like trying to wrap your head around like, okay, there's like 15 different things that I'm thinking about right now. And I just need to focus on trying to get this ball in the fairway. You come around the corner,

sensory overload just ramps up even more. When you start to like see that peak downhill at the ocean and all kinds of awesome bunkering and just, you know, your, your brain's kind of on fire, trying to figure it out. And by the time you, you know, you're still kind of trying to process. Number one, you get to number two, which is a short four, which again, now your brain's on fire again, trying to figure that one out. Number three has got a lot going on. Number four is probably the most famous hole at, now your brain's on fire again, trying to figure that one out. Number three has got a lot

going on. Number four is probably the most famous hole at Ocean Dunes, the par three over the water. And again, you kind of just get into like, 1234567. You're like, God, is this place like, I can't even catch my breath. Is this like as good as I think it is? And it's one of those places that, you know, again, it's easy to say this, you know, I know people don't have unlimited time in their schedule, but like, you could go take a four day trip on King Island and you got to play each of these like multiple times in order to really get it.

And I feel like, God, I had such a great time out there and I loved truly like every hole out at Ocean Dunes. And I almost felt like sheepish about not being able to see it twice because it's so far out there and it is such a journey to get there from where we're coming from, that like it just almost feels like, I don't wanna say it feels like a waste, but like it just feels like so,

it just really begs you to like come back and see it again. And I think that I love this part of the trip. I love it when golf takes me somewhere that I wouldn't otherwise go. This is the definition of that. And if you're, if you're into a trip with, with friends or family where you're basically going to have the golf course to yourself. Oh my God. And you can stay in like the ultimate Airbnb and you can eat good meats and cheeses and, and crayfish and spend two,

three days like bouncing back and forth between these two courses, uh, and get great coffee in this tiny little town. Like King Island is for you, my friend. It feels like a hack. It feels like you, you're, you know, you discovered this loophole that like every other golfer should, should know about. Well, especially with, you know, we were thinking about it, like, there's a lot of golf stuff, doing a lot of stuff in Tasmania on the East Coast, Tasmania. So there's probably a concern like, oh, King Island's going to get skipped over. But for a certain type of golf trip, I think you can play these two courses for you can play them for a week and I don't think you'd get sick of it.

And I just think the experience of having a place to yourself is so unique in like today's golf landscape, like a you know, top golf courses in the world that it's going to be you and maybe two or three other groups out there. It's it's just it's awesome, man. And and the hospitality of both courses was was fantastic. So this is big, bright lights, you mentioned it, but like, ride a golf cart on this course. I don't don't be here I think that's where some of the reviews came from of like it's a horrible walk long long distances between holes Like it's a dramatic piece of land that I truly think this course is meant to be played via golf cart

Which again very stark difference to like the closing courses We're gonna talk about here and Melbourne and whatnot Like this is a different variety to say like ride and I think that's a part of the reason why we came off this golf course just beaming. One not beat up by the same wind that we were at Cape Wickham the day before and two like, right into the car. It's windy, but it's not the same extent as it is up on the Northern Cape, which I'll say I think I kept waiting for it to. Yeah, like I'm sure

it got hurt in the ratings by just being, you know, mostly riding. But I think I kept waiting for it to, yeah, like I'm sure it got hurt in the ratings by just being, you know, mostly riding. But I think I kept waiting for it to be, to run out of gas when it went away from the coast. And I didn't feel like it did at all. Some of my favorite holes out there were, you know, the ones inland a little bit. And that's always kind of been the knock that I've read. Like I, like I, the entire time we were playing it, I was scratching my head of like, how

is this place what's the catch not more notable and like, why aren't people raving about this place and saying, like, you know, like, it's not a B side, it's they're both, they're both fucking spectacular. The only thing I would say I thought 17 was good. 18 is a little bit of a letdown. But yeah, you know, just to be fair, like that's if you were going to say

like an inland hole, that it kind of leaves you on an anti-climactic note. That's the only hole through the ocean from 18. Yeah. So that would be fair criticism. And you could argue that's important. People walk off a course that that's a lot of times that frames your perspective or your memories of like 18 feels like it could have been anywhere. 18 feels like you're the pushback. I guess I would have is like, it feels like you're at the blackjack table for four hours and you're just up like $9,000 and then you lose the last hand. It's like, you know what? That's fine. It's time for me to go. Let's call this thing off. It's time for me to get out of here. That what a day. Because yeah, 18 I'm not going to remember too fondly, but you

know, there's so much credit in the bank by that point. Well, I think if I can just real quick, like the it hits so hard in the start, like one dramatic Mad Max hole, I think you would describe it Neil, like part banking par five to the ocean, play two along the ocean, threes along the ocean, four right along the ocean, five, and then you start to come inland. And like the inland holes when you come in are still really, really, really good.

You get back out to the ocean to start, like to start the back nine, 10, 11, and then 12 is a fine hole. And then 13 is an awesome, awesome short par four with this infinity greensight, like way up on this bluff. Again, is like looking out on the ocean, but you're away from it now. And that hole was so fun to play. And then you go right to another hole that goes back downhill to this like punch bowl, a little par three from this elevated

site with the wind whipping. And again, you have these awesome ocean views from a distance. And you're just like, dude, this does not, it does not stop. It does not let up. And somehow that 13, 14 part, like it crescendoed all the way up into that part. I was just kind of amazed by that. Well, 13 and 14 are awesome. And then I thought 15 and 16 were both bangers too. I mean, you've got that double green on 15 and 12 share a green and then 16 is freaking cool.

Like the whole thing, like par fives are spectacular. I loved it. And Cameron, the guy that kind of runs the place, what a legend. I wanted to just sit there on the picnic tables and drink beers with him for the next week afterwards. I think I always kind of try to look for like a three hole stretch of like, what was my favorite three hole stretch? I think the coolest part is that you could truly, you guys, the five of you could pick any three hole stretch. I have no idea what you would pick. I wrote down 12, 13, 14, just because I mean, you kind of breeze past 12.

Even that is like, it's a cool kind of like Himalayas type par five. And it's like, yeah, that almost like, on a lot of golf courses, that would be the best hole on the golf course. And we, it doesn't even sniff kind of sniff one of the top ones on this recap, which kind of speaks to the whole place. But some of the inland holes had the scale and look of Karn.

Yeah. And it's one of the few courses I can say that about and feel like that's a fair take. I'd also say just a note, if you're looking for a place to ride out the apocalypse, King Island is also the place for you. We got wallabies everywhere, a lot of food sources. It's just a very unique place. God, it was awesome. It just blows me away that Cape Wickham,

on top100golf.com, Cape Wickham's ranked number four in Australia, Ocean, it was awesome. It just blows me away that like Cape Wickham on top 100golf.com, Cape Wickham's ranked number four in Australia. Ocean Dunes is 15. No, yeah. And I don't know. It doesn't make sense. You know, yeah, they both, it just feels like, and that's not a slide on Cape Wickham. I think it's a compliment to both of them.

What? They're both. Now with a little bit of distance between it, what's your guys' 10 round split between the two? Because I think I'm holding firmly at five five. I would love to go back. Would love to play both. Yeah. Just simple. I'm with you. Controversial take. Just don't even want to waste brain power. Just ping pong me back and forth. I'm six, four ocean dunes, but maybe I, the only reason I would do more was I would love to see Wickham in a different wind than what we got. That would be more opportunities to see it in a different

wind would be my vote. I think I said seven three before now I'm probably seven three. Well, I was seven three Cape Wickham prior just because I was given a lot of credit for I thought it was really magical the way that it was routed like where on that extreme piece of land to not have crazy walks between holes and like, you know, I did think six like 16 left a really bad taste in my mouth on Cape Wickham, but I'm still gonna say like six for Cape Wickham, I'm gonna give it a slight edge.

And like shout out to Ocean Dunes too, the bent greens on that, like there, those greens were so pure. Yeah. Yeah. They were. Cameron's a legend. One of the coolest 19 holes too. I want to shout that out.

Overlooking shots over the little cliff there. Randy, what's your split? Oh, I'm still very much Ocean Dunes. I think seven, three or very much ocean dunes. I think 7'3 or 8'2 ocean dunes. I will say, solid to your point, would like to get back to Cape Wickham in a different wind that would probably influence things. So I'll say 7'3 ocean dunes. I just found that the conditioning, the enjoyability was way higher for me at ocean dunes. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that that stretch even from, from like, like the par threes were dynamic, even the inland ones, eight as a par three. Um, nine was a great par five. 10 was, you know, super cool par three over the water again.

And then 11 was just this, this spectacular short four that is begging you to go with the green and the smart plays just lay one up, you know, up the right and kind of, you know, work your way up towards it. It's, it was so dynamic and yeah, I don't think I've ever seen two holes like 13 and 14, much less back to back. All right. So after Ocean Dunes and our wonderful stay at the aforementioned Airbnb on King Island, it was it was time to return back to the mainland. Another harrowing flight across the choppy waters in our small plane. No, it was it was a smooth flight back to Melbourne and I I would say the two courses,

one facility that I was most looking forward to on this trip, that being Royal Melbourne, first look at it for me. And our first day, and I'm glad our first day was on the East course. And so just to set up the East course briefly, it is the sister course to the West course. I believe seven solid check me seven of its holes are used in the composite for the President's Cup and the

other big events held at Royal Melbourne. Is that correct? Six holes. You're very, very close. Okay, so six holes. The East course is kind of spread. It's interesting. It touches three different paddocks. And I'm not sure if we've talked about how much Australians love to use the word paddock, just meaning kind of different areas. Anyway, you can get caught up here. It's technically four paddocks, Randy, just to learn this. Yeah. The main paddock, the middle paddock, the outer paddock and the back paddock. So yes. Andrew, Andrew Kirby's going to come out.

Curb. Curb. We didn't see at Melbourne. I was really disappointed. I thought we might run into you, but anyway, the East was designed by Alex Russell. Of course, he was one of Dr. McKenzie's top deputies in Australia, did a lot of the building of the West course and then built the East course. This was 1932. Yeah a few things. Wonderful golf course as expected right? Not breaking any news. The conditioning, the firmness, the strategy required to plot yourself around the East course is superb. As it compares to the West course I found it interesting that the West course, I found it interesting that the East course, the bunkering isn't quite as deep, it's not quite as dramatic

as some of the bunkering on the West course. I think the fairways are a little bit more pinched, it's just a bit tighter. My feeling was playing the East course, it's much more of a, especially for approach shots, it's much more of a through-the-air golf course, that the bunkers do a really good job of protecting green sites and in a lot of instances there's not room to really roll a ball up onto the green necessarily which I thought on the west course we'll get into that there's much more of that opportunity present. So in a lot of ways, it kind of reminded me this is going to be weird, but but bear with me like, it felt a little

bit like Pinehurst number three, if it was just stretched out to 6600 6700 yards in that very difficult undulating green complexes, very difficult bunkering, very much a second shot golf course. I think it was interesting, you know, the Sherpas we were playing with. I think the East course plays more difficult. I think it's probably two to three shots more difficult than the West course, and that bared out in the way I played them. As far as individual holes, I mean, gosh,

we could talk about truly you could talk about all 18 for different reasons. I thought the 10, 11, 12 hole stretch that that three hole stretch there was one that I wanted to call attention to. Number 10 being par five. Eleven is the one that just kind of blew my mind. I would love to try to play that hole a few more times. It's, it's a short par four. The day we played it, the pin was like really front of the green.

And it's just one of the more difficult holes for kind of being like nothing off the tee, right? It's, it's this generous, you know, hey, hit it left down the fairway kind of anywhere you want. But man, good luck on your approach shot. And I thought especially to that front pin, just the precision that was required. It's the Joe Pesci hole. It's like you walk into the room, you don't know you're dead yet until you've already walked like you've already teed off and like you

walk in and then you're like, oh my god, I'm dead here. I got the the the tarps are laid out like I'm dead. That's exactly right. It's just just a very, very difficult but like short and not really tricked up but just like that wasn't even a short joke either. By the way. That was a, that was just a, well, I'd say overall though, in juxtaposing East and West is the green. I felt the greens were a lot more difficult just from a approach standpoint on the East. I felt like a lot of

man, if I had a 25 footer, I was like, I did pretty well here. I didn't see a lot of spots to land the ball. And then right off the bat on West, it feels like the greens are bigger. You almost have a better view of them. You got it like, oh, okay, there's a lot of stuff I can do here. So just smaller and more precise, smaller greens, more precise approaches, it made me a lot more stressful on the East course. Which is such a weird thing, right?

Because you feel like you have all these famous places that have two world-class golf courses and there's always one that is like, the championship golf course and there's always one that's kind of like, oh, that's like the kind of quirky fun. The members course. Members course.

And I think I had always had, I didn't play RM East last time we were there. Neil, we were getting that now famous haircut. And so I think in my head, I always was like, oh, it's probably like one of these others. Like I think of like Detroit Golf Club when we were there and going out for the kind of afternoon knock. Like, oh, that's probably what the East course is like

because the West is so famous and that very much was not the case, which is awesome. Yeah, the other two holes, I thought both part threes on the back were really good. 13, just kind of a short little wedge par three to a very pretty green site with bunkering. And then 16, a little bit longer, but I was reading on the Royal Melbourne website, Ben Crenshaw called the par three 16th, like one of the prettiest part threes he'd ever seen. Everything you think about with sand belt, you know, I know this is an Alex Russell, but it still feels very Mackenzie, obviously heavy influence on, on Russell and what he

was doing here. So wanted to call the way that bunker cuts into the green on 16 is, is one of the coolest things I've seen in all of golf. And what is it? Five on on West. Yeah. You just close your eyes. Like that's what a par three looks like. Like in the dictionary, it's a par three. It looks like this. You know, they're just, it's, it is like just classic. I bet, you know, Crenshaw probably didn't even have the

drone out there. I know. Randy, where do you see this thing from above? Exactly. The only other thing I wanted to shout out about the East course and I think this is very cool and just speaks to I think the difference in golf in Australia as compared to the United States. The East and the West, they sit in these paddocks that are just surrounded by neighborhoods and it's, you know, they're nice neighborhoods, but it's not, you know, it wouldn't be like the ritz and glitz of like Beverly Hills in Los Angeles or something. They're just regular neighborhoods. Well, the East course has, and I wish I would have written down the specific holes it's in our video, but they have this little neighborhood loop and they have their

own little score card. I want to say it's six holes maybe. It's starting around like number seven. So let's just call it seven to 13 or something. And the people that live in the neighborhoods around the golf course, they're afforded the opportunity to kind of join, quote unquote, join the club under some type of like neighborhood membership level and essentially what it does, it gets them access, but they're able to kind of, I think as they please, you know, certainly when the club isn't as busy, they can just

walk in and play a little neighborhood loop. They've tucked a little mailbox into the woods and there are scorecards for the loop. And I'm just thinking here's Royal Melbourne, one of the composite courses, a top 10 course in the world. If you were to have a similar course in the States, be it, I don't know, Pine Valley or Augusta, can you imagine them just like being cool with people just kind of coming in, come as you please, we trust you. Here's a little neighborhood loop you guys can can play and just enjoy the golf course. I got it just as hard

for me to not speak effusively enough about like, that's awesome. And golf needs more of that and good on Royal Melbourne for for being that forward thinking and opening what is like a truly special place to people that otherwise would be totally shut out so definitely wanted to call out the the neighborhood loop but curious you know besides that 10 11 12 and the par 3rees on the back, what did you guys like as far as holes and what sticks out to you the most? Couple things on my end of like, I think the going on your theme

of paying it forward, Randy, I think what they've done with St. Junckham Lynx as well, like they share a green staff, and they have the Sutton's mix, the same, you know, grass type on Sandy links and OCM did that. And you know, like Sally, you, you and Ben were saying, you can't really can't tell the difference. We throw the drone up on some of the holes and, uh, you know, we talked to one of the greens keepers. She was wonderful. Um, but you know that, and then I think one of the things that's really interesting about the east is both the start and the finish. Like I think like I think it's probably one of my favorite sets of part fives in the world.

Like seven was that seven twelve and seven eleven and ten or ten. Yeah. And I mean just the way that those holes kind of work and like we had a right pan on one of them and like God I want to hit that shot again. But but one and two like one is super short but it's not drivable and it's kind of awkward. And then two is just like, cool, this is a big boy golf hole. Like this is, you know, this is on the composite. This is, you got to truly, you know, strap in here and really hit a big one. And then the finishing stretch is just bangers, right? Like, Randy, you said it. I mean, 13 is, you know, all world par three, like similar to 16. Like when I think of sand belt, I think of a hole like that.

And then I think 15 is like this really awkward little par four. And then, you know, you get 17 is just an exceptional, exceptional par five, the cross-bunkerings epic. And then 18 is one of like the coolest finishing greens. It's majestic. It's grand. It's, I mean, you can't tell like where the pin is.

It's like the way that it's obscured from the fairway, just with the little rumps and ridges and rolls is one of the most artistic things like you'll see anywhere. So I love it. I played the East six years ago, Randy, and I kind of, I realized I didn't remember a ton about it just because we played on a hundred degree day

back to back from off the West. And I think I blacked out there for a little bit there on the back nine, but I shot a million on this course on this day for a variety of reasons. And I freaking loved it. I thought it was so cool. It was so intimate. I people, if you haven't been there, you might be a little more familiar with like the first three holes and the last three holes, which are featured in the, in the composite routing. Those are the parts that are on the main paddock and the holes that they do feel

different than the rest of the course, just cause that paddock is, you know, a totally kind of separate. I don't know, philosophy and design feel to it than the others do. But I kind of was expecting it just to lose steam when you leave the main paddock. And maybe it did the first time I was there. But the second time around, it absolutely did not. It was just awesome. I loved so much of the detail of how the bunkers cut in

and how the strategy worked on some of the tees and definitely not just bomb it, figure it out, the rest from there. It was a shop maker's golf course. It felt like, of course, it was so up TC's alley in terms of just how you would pick it apart. And I don't know, I left it with a huge smile on my face. So to your point, I think when you move over to the other paddocks,

the character doesn't change, but the scale does. Yes. Right. Things are a different scale a little bit and there's different, it kind of messes with your eye a little bit, but there's just as much interest and there's just as much, I don't know, like I'm struggling to, if I had 10 rounds between the East and the West, like maybe it's six, four West, but you know, and like they're just, I love the East cause the par threes and the par fives and there's just so much variety. Yeah.

Yeah. I can't imagine you ever shown up there disappointed on whichever golf course you're getting to play. Yeah. I would just, I mean, obviously echo everything you guys are saying, but 18, I think honestly one and 18 are the ones that, like you said, Randy, you could talk about every, every single hole in the golf course in great detail. But when I really think back on it, that shot into one is so uncomfortable and weird and unique and just kind of puts you on your back foot and really makes you step up and, and you know, hit a proper shot from the right angle.

Uh, and then 18 is just, that's what it feels like. I think that that's one of those things. It's like, I don't know, that feels like the closest I'm ever going to get to playing like major championship golf. You know, like that's, that is like, dude, that's, that's it. That's the scale. That's the feeling. That's the clubhouse.

That's the turf. That's the strategy. That's, that's all of it. Without suffocating rough. That's the clubhouse. That's the turf. That's the strategy. That's, that's all of it. Without suffocating rough. That's the key there, right? It is like the 18th hole in the East course is about as wide as you can get it. If you've never seen it. It looks a lot like 18 at LACC. If you remember, like if you want to see a hole that didn't play like the way it should in terms of the challenge

involved, like the way the bunkers cut into the 18th green on the east course and the way the wind blows and how they maintain that golf course. It's like the firmest golf course in the world. It's like one of the greatest conditioned courses you could ever imagine playing. But the way the green, the bunkers cut in, the way the wind blows and how firm, the combination of those three things is what makes, I don't, I don't know if it's East or West or composite, but it makes Royal Melbourne, like the greatest test of skill. I think I've ever seen anywhere on the planet because it becomes like the scale of what a good shot is, is just so different.

I watched this at the Asia Pacific amateur. I feel so intimately connected to these golf courses. Now watching top players try to unlock them and see like their little pins of the best, some of the best amateurs in the world can't get at because of these layers of the bunker cut-ins, the firmness and the wind. Like you have to have, when the wind was off the right and the pin on the right on the 18th hole in the east

and the bunker that cuts in, you have to have a left to right shot that holds up just to hit it 30 feet left of the hole. Otherwise it lands and it's gonna be moving the wrong way and it's gonna be 50, 60, 80 feet left of the hole. Otherwise it lands and it's gonna be moving the wrong way and it's gonna be 50, 60, 80 feet away from the hole. And so like the test of like what a good shot is is totally different. And the work you have to put in just to make pars

on a course like this is like what, that's golf to me, way more than just like, oh, it's 118, gun it, boom. Let's send it right at the pin. And I don't know, maybe that's not how everyone else sees the game of golf. But like that's what to me is why I'm willing to like say, and I don't know if this part fits in the East course or the West course, but I think it's the composite. It's like the Royal Melbourne composite course, which is six holes in

the East 12 holes on the West is 10 out of 10 for me. And it is tied for first place with Terry 80 and old course for my favorite golf course in the world. None of them are better or worse than the other. They're each in their own category that I'm only willing to put three courses in. And it's the Royal Melbourne composite main paddock golf course. I think the coolest thing about the, the paddocks too is you feel like you're on a journey. You feel like you're on a cool walk and like Randy,

I'm sure that resonated with you of like, you know, you just, all right, you're crossing a road and you're in this fence, you're going into this new world. Yeah. The electronic gates and yeah, you gotta, you know, wait for the signal to cross the road. It definitely is. You very much feel TC to your point. You're like leaving one specific area and going to a new specific area. And that's, that's, I'm trying to think of other courses where you could, you could say like truly have that feeling of just like, man,

I wonder what's behind this, this literal door. Like, let's like actually open up a door. Like I have no idea what's going to be back. Yeah. That is, that's pretty cool too. I think the way that like one on East and eight on West can run parallel to one another. And there's kind of this center bunker there. And they're pretty different holes. But there's, I think there's something really interesting there about it. It's a nice analogy for the club as well, like the interoperability of the two courses and the two holes and it's coming to different parts. And, you know, but like, these are two great holes right next to each other, but you can't really separate

the two either, you know, they're, but you can't really separate the two either. They're like intertwined and they're interjoined and they both add to the context of the other without detracting anything. Yeah. And I know this part gets confusing, but there's 21 holes on the main paddock at Real Melbourne. There's 14 holes from the West course

and there's seven holes from the East course. And then typically for the composite routing, they will take 12 of the 14 main holes on the West course and there's seven holes from the East course. And then typically for the composite routing, they will take 12 of the 14 main holes on the West course. They'll throw out eight and nine, and then they will take one, two and three from the East course and either four or 16 as a par three that are kind of both right next to each other. We saw 16 at the most recent president's cup that played as the 14th hole. Again, it gets very confusing. And then it finishes with 17 and 18 on the East course. And that's like the best selection of holes.

Like nine is a really great hole on the West course that they don't even play, which is kind of crazy. And then they don't, you cross over on the West course after the 12th hole, play 13, 14, 15, 16 on the other side of the road, come back for 17, 18. But for competitions, anything you would have ever seen on TV for Royal Melbourne, everything is maintained that main paddock for obvious reasons of not having fans and golfers crossing roads and things like that.

So I finally got it down. I took me so long to get this composite down because they also used a different routing for the Asia Pacific Amateur. Well, that's like, that's something worth calling out almost like specifically, right? Is that the, the composite changes all the time. Like I think, you know, again, that's one of the fallacies I think I had in my head was like, Oh, the composite is always going to be this one, this one, this one, this one, we'll add them up together.

And they kind of change it like depending on the event, depending on the needs, depending on it's so sick that they're like, no, we'll just, I don't know, we'll take 18 to the 36 and that'll be this week's composite. So when you hear that, like, just know that, yeah, that's not, it's not always the same thing. I'm sure by and large, it's a lot, you know, it's mostly the same, but they always, they reserve the right to, to, you know, make whatever they want into the composite. And if it's confusing, I would say don't go to the composite on the website. Cause I think that I don't even know if that's,

I'm confused on it cause it, you go from like two East to five West and I don't even know if that's a, if that's right. Cause I'm just saying, I think the 12 like 12 and 14 are like two holes we haven't really talked about and like those greens are all world and there's visual stuff there. And it's just such a, for, for a place that could be, you know, the stagiest club in the world if they wanted to be, it's not right. And you never feel out of place or you know, and they were, they wrote out literally like, I know this isn't the case for everybody, but they, they kind of just gave us the keys and we're like, yeah, you

guys just lock up behind you. And some of that's just like putting credit in the bank, I guess, last time we were there and being there with Malika and having the trust. But like, yeah, again, imagine if Augusta national was just like, yeah, I don't know, you guys, you guys are going to keep playing a couple more holes. Yeah, just, I don't know, just park the car. It's kind of slipped the keys under the door. We're all going to head out. It's like, exactly. Like they're good. They're good stewards of the game. Like the membership is just, it's about golf. Right. And I think that often gets lost at some of the best clubs or some of the most exclusive clubs here in the States. And no, the tie that binds is golf. And that's like why he was saw the Asia Pacific Amateur go there in October. And it's out of this world, man. And we got to play the East course first and play the West course the next day.

It kind of got rained on a little bit on the East course, but when we got to West, it was peak. Like that was peak weather. That was perfect weather, like perfect evening on that course almost to ourselves. And that was like one of the most fun rounds of golf I've ever played, truly. I mean, it'd be tough to beat that round in 2024 at all anywhere else. It's just my favorite, man. It's just the best.

I could do every single hole, I swear I could, and I'm not going to. But the stretch from two to six, and I don't even know where to cut it off, really, cuz you could do seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 in that stretch too if you really wanted to but two is this awesome par five and one of my favorite features of the West End the composite is it is a wide, wide golf course, wide and firm yet almost I'm struggling to think

of even one hole that's like hit driver, pound it and go find it. Like all of them are, hey, you can hit driver and here's the line you have to hit it on. And if you hit it too far, you're gonna go through. And if you don't, you know, if you go too far left, you're gonna have rough cutting in here. Everything's about these angles off the tee.

Going to that second hole, if you remember from the video where Ben and I played the match on the second hole, he hit driver too far, like moving a little left on the second hole and it ran all the way through and into the gunk. Like you have to shape it the right way. It is the proper way to test in this modern era of, of how you hold up against technology and it just becomes this puzzle. You have to keep unlocking the angles into and what risk you want to take on the approach shots.

Uh, the third hole is a drivable, reachable short for that I think is my favorite short for in golf. Nobody ever talks about this hole and I don't understand it. You could play it so many different ways. It's awesome gutter in front of the green that dictates, you don't want to leave yourself the 60 yard shot because you can't play over the gutter. You can't play into it. You got to play short of it.

You almost have to putt it through. You could hit driver up there and try to get in the green side bunker if you draw it far enough left, but you pay a huge price if you draw it too far left and don't get there. It different wind. It's a different play. And so that plate is the first hole of the president's cup, if you remember. And then gosh, I'll go to that one. The next hole is a par five. That's awesome. And then five is one of the coolest par threes in the world. It's no water, no ocean, no nothing,

just contouring and bunker cut-ins. And it's just the best. It is so fricking perfect of a hole going into like one of the best part fours in the world, the very next hole, the sixth hole like this dogleg right to this elevated awesome perched up green with this bunk as cavernous bunker that protects the front left. Oh my god, then you play this dynamite short part three up the hill, which is not the original McKenzie hole, but a great little part three eight, nine or cool then number 10, another drivable reachable four

with this massive blowout bunker on the left. I could just keep going. And the 17th hole is one of the best holes out there in the world. That green side is just incredible. And it's one of those that I don't even wanna keep talking about it, cause you just have to like see the visuals and the drone footage and all that

to like really appreciate it all. It's just awesome. It's everything I love about golf. And it honestly is like, I better wrap this up now, or we could talk about it for two more hours. It's one of the two. You just can't get caught in between. And it's cool to play with Steven Britton, our friend, the superintendent at Chevy chase club,

but started his career there on the green staff as a greenkeeper. And, you know, talking to Richard, the head green keeper there now, it's just, it's such a, yeah, it's magical. It's everything you need, nothing you don't. Yeah. So. Randy, did we build it up too much? No, no, no, no, you didn't.

And that's one of the best things I can say about it is for all that I had heard and seen and all the anticipation, it lived up to it. And it just was I mean, walking off, ending the round on the west course, the sun is setting like it just was a perfect day at golf. Magical, magical place that pin on six, I think I'm going to remember it the rest of my life. They had it perched up on the extreme left-hand side, right over that huge bunker. There's bunker like I literally don't know how you get close to that flag. It doesn't make sense to me. And you know what? That was all right, because there was another way to play it. And you know, you can

navigate your way to it. It just was it was so freaking cool. Yeah, I mean, there's not much more that can be said about it. It's just it's it's a golf course. The whole region is obviously worth traveling to. But it is a true bucket list golf course that like if you're a golf traveler, and you are, you know, you want to play the old course, you want to play whatever like this needs to, it's a buck. You have to play this golf course. You have to do it. And also it's supplemented with some of the best world-class golf all around it as well. But I mean, this is just put it up there. Cannot not play this golf course in your

lifetime. If you're a golf junkie. Yeah. Like the way the land moves, we're like, we're going to Kingston Heath next to close it out. Very flat site, very compact. It's like, that's on like a hundred and, you know, what, 127 acres, I think. You know, it's kind of like the Marion to, you know, the, the Royal Melbourne Pine Valley. But whereas I think the thing that stuck out to me the most about Royal Melbourne is just how much movement there is in the land, especially on that main paddock and the scale,

like grand scale at which everything is. It just feels like everything, it feels like, you know, something really special and handsome. And I'm running out of adjectives. It doesn't show through on TV. The elevation change. Can't pick it up. You want to bring us home then TC?

I know it's a long pod, but we're on our last course. Yeah. Yeah, we'll bring it home. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the meal that Randy and Cody and I ate at Gimlet as well, downtown Melbourne. I think that's the biggest frustration of these trips to Melbourne is like, we stayed like we stayed out at a great Airbnb out in Sandringham Village and took the train into the tennis tournament and took it into town a couple of times. DJ and I went to the MCG, the cricket ground, the G and you know, but there's so much more to Melbourne than the golf and it's a world-class food city. It's a world-class sporting city, all this stuff.

And we're just there playing golf and like that takes precedence. And so it's nice to be able to sneak away and go get a ridiculous cup of coffee. I know you guys went to the coffee chief a few days in a row. If you want to shout them out as well. But yeah, the coffee chief, the truck, just look look, you gotta look for him. He's mobile. But, uh, yeah, great, great spot. I also want to be thinking about that bow sandwich for another two, three years. Great, great Vietnamese food there in Sandy village. But yeah, we had a great,

uh, great meal at Gimlet that night. And then, yeah, we played, uh, played Kingston heat to close it out. You know, Simon Dick, Millsy, Nick Mills, uh, you know, like they were gracious enough to close it out. Simon Dick, Millsy, Nick Mills, they were gracious enough to have us out and the club was super hospitable. That place is just like with Royal Adelaide, it's a place I could play every day. It's so understated. It's so sure of itself and not in an arrogant or cocky way and like a really unassuming and confident way. You know, it sits on 125 acres.

We played the furrows first, which is this part three course that they just put in. They had this extra land over to the side and they brought my cocking in to do this. And I think those are the best greens we played on the whole trip. I think I think we're all Adelaide was probably the second best greens, And I think those are the best greens we played on the whole trip. I think Royal Adelaide was probably the second best greens, but I think just the surfaces themselves, I think that was the pure distinction. And those were rock hard, but without being impossible. It was so fun. Yeah, it was really fun. And just the way that that course played too of, hey, if you want to run shots up, you can. If you want to play aerial, you can.

You know, it's just one of the cooler part three courses I've played anywhere. And hitting wedges off of that turf on a part three course is a great gift, right? It's like, man, all I want to do is hit wedges off of this turf and that's all you're going to do on this course. It's great. That would sub in for so many like quick like range sessions. Like I would just instead of

like going to the range, I would just like go hit wedge shots at into greens. That would be so much fun. Yeah. And I think, you know, Kingston Heath, like you've seen it on, it was interesting because like I wanted to put this at the end of our trip because this was no offense to St. Andrews Beach. This was kind of the way that our trip started in earnest last time on a cloudy morning and jet lagged and we were rushed, you know, kind of rushed getting out there and getting our feet under us and all that. And, you know, so I think showing it like the proper light and the proper, you know, kind of give it its due because I think this place is, is just as good of a, of a golf club and a golf course. It doesn't have the same scale

and the same majesty that say Roe Melbourne does, but I think it, it's got character and it's got such a sense of place that I think sets it apart. One thing I should have said hours ago on this podcast that is important context, I think from our last trip there. And I'm just kind of speaking for myself, but I know Neil kind of felt the same way as it was a weird thing to do. The last time we went six years ago and we went and saw all these golf courses in such a quick, you know, kind of quick fire succession. Like I just hadn't seen that many golf courses around the world yet. I mean, I think it's like, you know, I'm not sure if it's like, I'm not sure if it's like, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know,

it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know,

it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know,

it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like a, you know, it's like why, but like, yeah, I'm sure every great golf course is like that. And then you travel around for a couple of years and you see all these other things and you see some good stuff and you see some bad stuff and you, you kind of develop a little bit more. I don't know if this sounds like high minded, but you develop a little bit more of a palette or whatever. And then when you come back six years later and you see Kingston Heath again,

it's like, holy shit, I did not appreciate this place properly the first time I was here. And so having it at the end of this trip was almost like doubly, you know, it almost like doubly impactful in that way. Yeah, it's such a, I think it's greater than some of its parts. It's a pretty flat site. There's not a wasted spot on the whole plot of land. It's, you know, it gets a little bit more dynamic on the back nine as far as that one kind of ridge line back there. There's kind of three ridges that run throughout, but the way it's

pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle, you truly, and you don't know you're dead until like, similar to what you were saying earlier. So you try to force the issue in a spot or you try to go after a pin and everything's just a little bit smaller scale and you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar and you immediately want to be like, God, I wish I had, I wish I could play that hole again. Like three is a perfect example. I mean, it's just, you could, you could play that hole 18 times in a row. Like it's a dynamic round of golf. You know, it's this short par four and like just the way that the dog legs work and the way that there's these little subtle double dog legs. I don't know. There's three par fives, there's three

par threes, you know, and it's just like there's this loop of the first six holes go out and six comes back to the clubhouse. Then you go back out at seven and you could loop that six holes three times and that would be a super, super dynamic one. I think, you know, like got four green is just filthy. Five's the first par three, like, and it sets the tone for the day. Seven's a par five with this trough in the front that our guy Graham Grant actually added after the fact. And that is such a cool feature.

And the fairway bunker, like the bunkering to make you think about it on your second shot is there. And it's just the kind of course where I think the more you play it, the more scar tissue you develop. And you're like, man, like I'm not going to force the issue here. I'm going to play smart golf. I'm going to be tactical. I'm going to, you're thinking about where to place your drive or you're looking at where the pin is on a 400 yard par four when you're on the tee. And I think that's always like the ultimate compliment that I can give a course.

What I thought was like a cool knife edge that Kingston Heath sits on is, and I guess maybe more talking from like the kind of mid to higher handicap perspective is that I would find it to be like all the things you described. It's small, it's intimate, it's a great walk. It's also really like pretty hard, I think, like pretty hard to score, but not in a way that you're ever going to lose golf balls. And, you know, I was kind of talking about St.

Andrew's Beach earlier. I'm like, man, if you ever careered it there, like that would be a really great feeling. I feel this totally the same way about Kingston Heath. If you ever solve the puzzle, like that might be the best feeling in golf. But what I would say is like, if you aren't solving the puzzle and if you're just, you know, totally outside your, you know, you lose your mind and you can't find, you know, you can't find your swing or whatever, like it's still not going to like waterboard you to death. You're going to make a lot of bogeys and doubles, but not like re-teeing, oh my God, I'm looking for that ball for 10 minutes. It's none of that stuff. It's just hard in the ways that you're describing Tron where it's like, yeah, you might bump your

second or third up next to the green and you might be dead there, but it's a lot different than being dead off the tee seven times. And it's small and intimate, but at no point do you ever feel like crunched in or, you know, like it's claustrophobic. Yeah, it's got I'll push back on that part. That's that's like, that is my critique of it. I mean, it is a little bit of, you know, grading a three star Michelin restaurant, but it is I do find Kingston eat claustrophobic off the tee. I think it is, especially coming from Royal Melbourne, like it does not, it doesn't invoke a lot of creativity. I don't think it feels claustrophobic.

I don't know. Okay. Some of those holes like don't. I think what, but I think that's what's so cool about it. I'm not discounting how you're feeling off the tee at all, but like I am a way worse driver of the golf ball than you and I didn't feel claustrophobic. So what does that say about how the course sits in your head?

I think it forces you to be thoughtful. I feel like it makes you can see it totally different than me. There's less drivers in play. And I don't hate less drivers. I want to be clear on that. My favorite holes are the ones that really encourage you to. You can take on risk with driver and the balance between laying back and whatnot. It just felt

like a couple, I don't know, it felt like a bunch that I'm like, dude, I don't know if I would ever take driver here. Like this is driving iron every time this is driving iron every time it I struggle with the, this is a golf course for me that if it I struggle with this a lot, because if it wasn't ranked so high, I don't know if I would walk off somewhat feeling underwhelmed a little bit. Like it just doesn't fit my eye. And I don't even like putting that thought out there because that could be a totally

personal thing. And it just sounds like, Oh, it isn't tailored tailored to my game. So I don't like it. It's not that it just is the challenges that I like in golf shots don't really get brought out in this golf course to the extent that it does some other sandbale experiences I've had. And, and, and so I, I don't rate Kingston Heath is highly like it's a, it's clearly a rung below both Royal Melbourne's for me personally, and just in, in where I get enjoyment out of golf. But I seem to be kind of in the minority on that one, but I played it three times now-mallor and of like, like distance isn't the thing.

It's not the way to challenge. I love the ninth hole. That was really, really good. It's awesome. Right. It's just, it's like dog glide left par four that like, and I think if you standing there, like DJ, us standing there, it's like, I think it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's It's awesome. Right. It's just, it's like dog glide left par four that like,

and I think if you standing there like DJ, us standing there six years ago, like I wouldn't know why the, why I liked that hole or what, what makes it cool or what makes it special. And you know, and, and it, like there's just so many layers to the onion at Kingston Heath. I think I've never walked off a golf course. I've played four times now. I've never walked off a golf course. I've played four times now. I've never walked off a golf course. And each time, immediately wanted to go back to the tee and also not like, I don't even know what I did wrong. Half the time I'm just like,

God, I need to play that course more so I can figure it out. Like, I don't even know how to start deducing what I did wrong. Yeah. I think I would get addicted to playing there, I think, and trying to figure it out. Randy, what did you think? I know you didn't see it last time, but that has to be in your wheelhouse. Yeah, I kind of fall more in line with Solly, I think. Having just played it once, I would definitely pick Royal Melbourne courses, but that's like, like what an impossible

bar. Like that's nothing against Kingston Heath, right? Like it's a fabulous golf course. I think there was just something about, well, one, it was the last day of the trip and obviously tired and all of that. But it, Solly, I feel you on that. Like I can't really put a finger on why it didn't suit me as much as like rural Melbourne, West or even East but it didn't. I will say there were two holes though, like 15, the par three, ignorance is bliss there.

Like what's the big deal? You guys got gotta remind me. Like we just hit the green in two putt, right? And then I wanted to call out hole 17 just for being like different. That the green complex, no bunkering. I thought that was just like a weird little, hey, this isn't quite like the rest of the green complexes,

but in a fun way. Those were two notes I had on my scorecard as well. Guys, are you still going? I mean, I just full transparency, I had to hop off. This is, this is a, might be a record pod for the NLU squad. You guys got to hop on a couple of the Oscars. It's not so easy to keep it short. It happens, man. You know, it got pretty erotic when we're talking about Roma over in the East, the closing

stretch there. And then we started talking about the composite, all that stuff. But Randy, I'm with you. 17's super cool the way that green sits there kind of blind and you got that long pin. 15's obviously the one that Mackenzie, that was Mackenzie's major influence in the golf course said, Hey, you got to, you got to create this hole. I think some of those, some of those holes on the back nine that work up and back that ridge to the kind of sweep left to right. I, I struggle with like, I don't even play well on this golf course and I love it. So I don't know,

there's just something it's like this. It's like this forbidden fruit or something. Well, that's the good doctor. That's that's like his trademark. That's how I see it. This is Dan su tar was the guy that laid it out like the good doctor just did, you know, some of the bunkering and mainly to 15. Yeah. Yeah, it just for some, it just, it, it doesn't scratch the edge.

And I don't, I don't want like that. The compare I am aware of how unfair it is to compare any golf course to real Melbourne, but even, even, I don't know. I have to, I, I, I test of like, but I'd rather play Metro or Kingston Heath. I'd need to see that again to like, to fully put it. Whoa. Really? I don't know. I just like, I would need to see that again to like to fully put it. Whoa. Really? I don't know. I just like I would need to see it again. Like we got it on a very extreme day. But like, you know, what kind of itch does it scratch for me? It just I don't

know. It's just a hair. Underwhelming for where it's ranked. That's just my honest feedback. I guess where I really, you know, the like, I don't think I've ever been to a place that's as fully realized as Kingston Heath. I don't think the ingredients, they don't have the land that Royal Melbourne is. Is it as good of a golf course? No. But I think the way that they brought every single piece of value out of that, out of that ground. It says Zach Johnson of golf courses.

To put it in terms TC, I'm sure I'm taking words out of his mouth. It's just scrappy and punches above its weight. And it's, it's, there's something really, really cool. The interesting comparison to me was Royal Adelaide versus Kings City. And I think that's where it's like, you know, it's double black diamonds. Like mogul ski. Yeah. It's just, and, and it challenging in a way that you don't, it deceives your eyes. Like it doesn't look challenging, but it's just like, you know, almost after every green, like dang, that was like a lot harder than

it looked. Why did I go down that run from the chairlift? That looked like something I could handle. I just, I guess I was wrong. And I'm so excited to watch the pros play this, you know, and, and granted, like, in like, like, I would say a whole like 10 short par three, tiny little shelf on the front. And it's, you know, like, you know, granted, who knows what hole it's going to be for the president's cup because the routing is going to be all over the place. But, you know, like I just, I'm super keen to see these guys challenge, like just like it was at Royal Melbourne, but the last few times they've had the Australian Open, you know, between different courses, like when they headed at Vic

and at Kingston Heath and it was, you know, split up between the two. I remember watching on TV and thinking, Vic is a top 25 golf course in the world. And Kingston Heath on TV was a clear cut above watching, watching those guys play Kingston Heath. Like it's, you know, there's just, there's some, there's some special secret sauce, secret ingredient in there that I can't put my finger on. I come back to what you were talking about with Adelaide, Randy, the difference right there off the bat is with to me, like off the tee. The tea tree really does cut in, in a lot of places at Kingston Heath. And then there's a whole like eight where the tea tree is not cutting in yet it's blind and there's like

bunkers that encroach into the center of the fairway. Like you got to hit like a 25 yard wide part of the left side of that fairway, which 25 yards is very narrow when you when the turf is as firm as it is. It's just to follow up on the routing for the President's Cup. And this may not mean much to many people. But if you know the golf course, 74512 1314 1516 9 17, 18, one 19 six. That is the routing for the president's cup. So I would say, so which makes looking at the routing though, it makes a ton of sense. What I, what I'd say, uh, it is a lot more

demanding off the T than Adelaide. Then Iide than I think RM West was, I'd say both RM courses. But I think that there's some value in that of like, it's like you have a little bit like a Pete Dye course for me, you know, you have to hit this shot here. And like, that's tough, you know, yeah, that's not going to be as much fun, but I think it's the best version of that, like dictating a shot that you have to hit. And that's a really good test of golf. So it's a more complete test maybe than Royal Adelaide, even if I don't like it quite as much playing it.

That's what I was thinking is, is like a TCM with you. It's really hard to put your finger on why I feel this way. But part of me is like, if you want to know who, like every golfer in the world can enter this tournament and you have to play Hickories at Kingston Heath over 72 holes and whoever wins that tournament is the best golfer in the world. Like straight up, that's how you would identify it.

Completely validated. Yeah, that's what it would be. That's the test. Or even real clubs, not even Hickory clubs, just real clubs. I think it's a complete test of golf. It doesn't OD on distance or it doesn't OD on putting or you have to do everything well. I think also there's just... Going back to the feeling constrained or constricted or claustrophobic a little bit, I think there's a difference between feeling constrained or constricted or claustrophobic a little bit. I think there's a difference between feeling constrained by the tea trees and feeling like

it's claustrophobic. I think my thing is everything feels at scale. The tea trees are low enough and there's some really cool, like some of those massive trees with the big birds flying in and out of them on really all these courses like that's an underrated element of just the lorikeets and the You know massive gum trees and all those things It's like PC goes birdwatching two three times a week if you guys so I just I think

the defining thing for me is Like tea tree is like lost ball stuff. And like there's there's punishment for going offline at golf course. I'm not saying there shouldn't be punishment for going offline. Just when it becomes lost ball penalty is when I switch into a totally different mode of like preservation of making sure that doesn't happen. And that is not as engaging to me in a round of golf as some of the other more wide experiences. Yeah, that's fair. And I think what I was trying to get to with the with the claustrophobia point was at no point do I feel like I'm into some corner or like retreading the same piece of the property. Like you're going over all sorts of different stuff and at no point, and like you could be 30 feet away from where

you were prior and have no idea. It's truly maximizing the routing and the piece of that acreage that they have, I think. And I just want to sit on the porch and have a Southerly Buster. Oh, the Southerly Buster is a great hang. Sully, the T-Tree, it's's a good it has its pros and cons. You're absolutely right. Like I love it. Like Pinehurst number two, for instance, you miss the fairway and it's it's a punishment, but it's not you'll go out and you know, I'll shoot

85 out there not lose a ball. Like I love that as a challenge. But then what the tea tree does bring into play is I love like band and trails where you feel like every hole is its own Environment and to think that you I feel that way at Kingston Heath and it's on the tightest piece of property in us In a neighborhood is just it's not out on the coast of Oregon It's it's in a freaking neighborhood and it's like every hole you're like, whoa, what is this? Why didn't know this was coming next? Like it felt feels like a walk in the woods. And I think the tea tree

helps with that. So it gives and it takes away and take it at the same time. Yeah, I think that's fair. All right, guys, that is three and a half hours on Australia. Thanks. This meeting was supposed to be two hours long. But there's the listen Australian golf brings out a lot of passion. I think for all of us, it was a highlight season. I hope you get to a chance to tune in and watch it on YouTube out April 17th, which

this podcast is coming out extremely close to that date. I'm assuming we're recording this about a month in advance. So I, not almost assuredly, nothing's going to be out date on this conversation by then. But with that, we're going to wrap it. Thank you everyone for tuning in this long with us and hope everyone tunes in. Shout out to our friends at Precision Pro for sponsoring season nine of Tora Sauce and cannot wait for the world to see this. I can't wait to come back.

Victoria, Yara Yara, Commonwealth, Newcastle. It's going down the leaderboard. We're wrapping. That's a cut. Cut. Bangalang! Be the right club. Be the right club today.

Johnny, that's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most!