No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 85: Scotland Golf Trip, Part I

Episode Date: July 6, 2017

With two weeks on the road in Scotland in the books, I debriefed with Scottish golf extraordinaire Ru MacDonald on the trip. As the resident expert, Ru helps fill in the gaps on how to... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 85: Scotland Golf Trip, Part I appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. As promised, we are going to break down my recent trip over to Scotland, a whole lot of info, in to come. But first, want to talk to you guys a bit about how the trip started and want to give a shout out and thanks to my friends at Lugage Forward. Lugage Forward, you may be familiar with other companies that will deliver your clubs to different locations for you, but you probably didn't know Lugage Forward has been doing this exact thing for since 2005. That's 12 years of experience in the business.

They offer full money back guarantee that your golf clubs will arrive to wherever you need them as as well as Additional payment up to five hundred dollars if they somehow don't arrive They are the cost leader for common trips such as Scotland and Ireland from the United States and they ship all kinds of things for you They'll ship your skis for you all different kinds of equipment that you want to ship. I've used them I actually didn't use them between one leg on this trip and it cost me 90 pounds, about $110 in baggage fees, just bringing my clubs from Scotland to Ireland. So for our listeners for a limited time only,

go to luggageforward.com slash no laying up. Just check out the website, even if you don't have a trip coming up. I think you guys can learn a lot about how to get your clubs from location to location on your golf trips. For now, let's get to the podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Join for the first time on this podcast, the host of the Scottish Golf Podcast as well

as a social media extraordinaire for the European tour. The guy that helped me plan almost every step of the way, I think, on this recent Scotland trip that I did, Rue McDonald, Rude. How are you, man? Yeah, good sounds, Chris, and I really look forward to being on that. Long time, less than our first time podcasting with you today, so I look forward to it. I was mostly just looking forward to it. I just wanted you to say the word podcast in your accent

on what you already have. So I already accomplished that. But so yeah, if those tuning in, I'm gonna debrief my trip, but mostly I want this podcast to be focused kind of on helping you plan a Scotland golf extravaganza of your own. Spoiler alert, I'm gonna be gushing

like a little fanboy for the most part. This has been the best, like the lengthiest and best golf trip I've ever done. And like I mentioned before, Rue helped with almost every step of the way. And yeah, there's a lot of, there's some stories to be told, but at the same time, I wanna fill in some details.

And the purpose of this is also to be kind of evergreen and last forever. And some stories to be told, but want to talk about you know transportation courses to play courses I played what I thought of them and also going to be kind of be leaning on you route to fill in on some other courses that maybe I didn't get to but I'm not going to lie there's not many courses in Scotland that I did not play in the last two weeks. Yeah you did a good effort we were just chatting before recording and you'll want to come back to Scotland but I did not play in the last two weeks. Yeah, you did a good effort. We were just chatting before recording. You know, want to come back to Scotland, but I'm not sure there's a need for it.

You've seen pretty much every corner of it. So I was away for the most part. So I was living through your Instagram feed like everybody else. So I'm looking forward to hearing what you thought of every golf course as well. I tried not to blow it up too much because people are just gonna hate me at this point. I mean, it was like two straight weeks of it. And I didn't get to the air shower,

air shower, air shower, how am I supposed to do it? Yeah, that was boot shirt, yeah, air shower. Air shower. I haven't gotten there yet. That's next week looking forward to that. Gonna be there with our promotion with Callaway and Visit Scotland playing in the, sorry, not the Pe Pebble Beach the Dundonalds the Scottish Pro Am. Scottish Open Pro Am that week and then heading out to play Trune Presswick and Turnberry

as well. So those are not going to be included within this maybe debrief on those at a later time but I arrived on around June 20th in Edinburgh and got in the car and just drove straight north. And the plan behind that was I was meeting up with a big group of people that you'll get to to kind of near the St. Andrews Aberdeen area. We were meeting up in Aberdeen and playing a lot of golf in that area.

I had time on my hand, so I came up two days earlier to head north to the Inverness area and see what everyone was talking about. Most of the reason up there was to go play Dornak, but you had quite the suggestion for me on my course that started off with. Yeah, you know, that's a pretty special spell. I think if I was to pick one destination in Scotland and we have five and you visited for them.

The Highlands, Aberdeen, St Andrews, East Lillian and Ayrshire, the Highlands, Aberdeen, St Andrews, East Lothian and Ayrshire. The Highlands probably is sort of your stereotype, type scenery, backdrops, wide open spaces, open roads, and some really good golf. You played Castle Sture and Royal Dorna, and I can grow it up there. And you know know three great golf courses and I think Castlestue was a great first round for you. You know open wide open fairways but a second shot golf course and what was your general thoughts of that when I think it's very underrated. Yeah so I my the first

thing I was talking with Jeremy who's the director of golf there as I came off the course and said, man, this place reminds me of Kings Barnes. And I purposely did very little research on the golf course before going to go play it, because I feel like recently I've been over researching courses and not leaving much of an element of surprise to them. And so I didn't really even know how new of a course it was, and I didn't know that I'm going to butcher the name Mark Parsons. Parsons? Yeah, that's right.

He was the co-architect at Kings Barnes. Am I saying that right? Yeah, that's right, yeah. Okay, so I didn't know that at the time and I walked off the course and said how much it reminded me of Kings Barnes and he was like, well, yeah, it's the same guy. I thought that actually makes a lot of sense, but it helped this day was 70 degrees Fahrenheit and shorts, shorts and shorts leaves and perfect sun for almost the entire day. I zoomed around in like two and a half hours and I hit the ball like almost perfect as

good as I can hit it. And so I had just the best possible day at Castle Stewart and I met I think a lot of your experience on a golf course and I've said this before in the past, it depends on the weather and how you play. So I had like all three things going there. The weather was great, I played great and the golf course was just phenomenal. I felt like it was just very, the wind was definitely down, but I found it very friendly and I know the European tour guys, they eat that place up when they go there for the Scottish Open, which I think they've had there maybe four times, is that right, am I sitting there? Yeah Scottish Open. Which I think they've had there maybe four times.

Is that right, my student then? Yeah, that's right. Last year, and actually, I listened to last week's episode. You hate Alex Known and obviously he won round their last year. So, surprise you guys both like the same golf course. Yeah, he won and then filled one there. I think, as I said, I really underrated golf course. I could see like a world match play type event there. It would be a really strong but

and the welcome that you got there is just like any other welcome that are you know similar to anyone else that goes there. They really do try hard. They don't do too much but they do enough and I honestly put that in my top three in Scotland. It's just such a great place all round and yeah, not a bad start to your trip. Yeah, and I kept, every, almost every place I went, I kept commenting sometimes to myself because I was playing by myself in some places. Well, first of all, I can't escape this nor intake that I just say, it's not, it's been butchered, like it's been so. I just say, it's not, it's been butchered.

Like it's been so exaggerated. But anyways, let's stay focused. I can't. You're talking to European tour employee here as well, man. I don't just like Norin. I just think his rating is a bit inflated. That's the entire take. But anyways, I'm amazed at how different all of the golf

courses are and the different types of links experiences you can get. So for me, in my mindset, when I think of Scotland Golf, I think of I want to play the classic old courses, right? But you also get, you can mix in as a part of your trip, a newer, amazing courses that are basically kind of built, if I may say, for the American tourists. I mean, almost everywhere you go, they're relying, not exclusively may say for like the American tourists. I mean almost everywhere you go they're relying Not exclusively, but big time on American tourists coming over to play their courses am I right and saying that?

Yeah 100% in fact Castle Stewart have no members. They have some corporate memberships Obviously just outside of Bernadass. They have some small corporate memberships there But apart from not they're relying on the visit or traffic. So you're paying close to 200 pounds around there, but you are treated like a member for the day that horrible cliche. But one thing I wanted to point out was the fact that they are literally next door to Embryness Airport. airport. So for people that are looking to fly into Scotland, the flights are much better now. Edinburgh being the probably the most popular starting point and ending point on a trip. But Inverness is a great option if you want to go via Amsterdam or like you know, so you can use DUN maybe. But obviously through London as well. So it's a good option for the start or end of a trip.

Has us sure. Yeah, and you could, yeah, you could start it, you know, flying the Inverness, maybe you fly out of Edinburgh on the way out and just kind of cut off some travel. I didn't do it right. I flew into Edinburgh, just drove the three hours up from Inverness to Inverness, which wasn't too bad, but I could have done it better. But yeah, there were like four minutes from the Inverness Airport or something like that. And I wish I didn't know that more, I'm no longer living in Amsterdam. I could fly over and play the course and fly back

in like a day. It's something as easy as possible day. But yeah, it's a phenomenal piece of land. I mean, you could just tell the vision of the, it's a three story clubhouse there with just like a 180 view of the more a more a Firth, am I saying it right? No, you're saying no, you're doing well. Another thing I was going to point out was the thought that's a Gil Hans design. Yeah, so along with Mark Parsons. So I think anybody that, you know, enjoys his work, who loves to enjoy Castle's Tour. I think he's very proud of it himself

and you know, a lot of what he speaks to and his design is certainly evident, Castle's Tour. Yeah, and I just, in doing this, you know, and one of the questions we got, and we'll get to some questions later, just about a difference between Scotland, Ireland. I think we've talked about this even in the past, is how much golf there is in certain regions, whereas some of the greatest hits in Ireland, I think we've talked about this even in the past is how much golf there is

in certain regions, whereas some of the greatest hits in Ireland, you got to kind of drive a lot in between, whereas here, and I was speaking with some members up at Dornock about just how the importance of having several good golf courses close by is for the tourism basically for an entire city. And I want to ask you some questions about cool links up there in Dornock, because I think you may know a thing or two about that. I forget if we talked about that. But we'll get there. But just that whole area between of Enverness to be able to play Castle Stewart, Bora, Dornuck, and Nairn, which I didn't do in the first leg, but went back to and absolutely loved. It's such a great area. And I feel like it's

just so underrated. And when people, you know, most people, myself included before I started researching this trip, you know, you know, the names of these courses, but I don't know where they are on a map. I don't know how close they are to each other. So that's, that whole region, and that's kind of the point of what I wanted to point out is, you know, everyone knows St. Andrews. And your first trip to Scotland is probably going to be St. Andrews and probably should be, I think. I mean, maybe your second time there, you wanna go up

towards Aberdeen, we'll get to, and then, you know, Inverness is not, and the Highlands are not far away, and easy to get to, the roads were easy to drive, and there's like five great golf courses within, you know, earshot of each other. I played four rounds within my first, like, I don't know, 36 hours, probably being there, and it was just phenomenal world-class golf.

So yeah, Castle Stewart fantastic place to start. Probably should have called it a day after that to be honest. I was on two hours of sleep, I'd driven three hours, but I had, you know, contacted the folks at Borough, which is about as far north as people reasonably go to play in Taurus Go. Is that right? Yeah, that's basically Brawra's the last stop before the end of the world that feels like out there. I was meaning to say when you were speaking about the Highlands reaching there with all those golf courses, for people that are listed and maybe trying to convince their other

half about coming over, the new initiative that Scotland has is the thing called a North Coast 500. It's 500 miles of spectacular road up in the north of Scotland, which bypasses this whole region that you're talking about. And it sort of replicates a ripoff of the root 500. And it's a, you know, for people that are maybe petroheads or cyclists. So it's if someone's want to invite you know a partner trip and golf and come to Scotland, then that's maybe a good place for them to visit as well. But yeah, wouldn't be driving any further than brora, but absolutely, if you're going to play

Dornoch, you make the extra 30 minute drive and get your hit brora. And then I'll leave you to tell everybody what I but absolutely if you're going to play Dornock, you make the extra sorry, but it drives, and you hit Brutal. And then I'll leave you to tell everybody what I have next. So this is where I do have to defer from kind of giving any kind of advice or whatnot and tell a personal story because yeah, I drove, made the trip up there. I was playing with actually a couple podcasts listeners,

Campbell and Caleb, I met up with him. So before I go T off, it was like the most distracting round of my life because I get, I hear through the grapevine that fill and bones are going to be breaking up. And I'm kind of torn up about it to be honest. And you know, I'm out there playing and I actually got a phone call from Bones asking for my email address because he wants to send me a statement. I had to act like I didn't know what was up, but obviously I knew what was up. So I knew that there was a statement coming out. So I spent the next like 45 minutes on my phone just refreshing it, waiting for the statement to come through and it did. And so I shared on Twitter and

you know, the statement went to several media outlets, but I shared on Twitter and it just was going nuts. And again, we were all distracted. We were all on Twitter just kind of reading everyone's reaction. And we just continue on to the back nine. And I was like punch drunk off no sleep and all that golf I played. We get to the 14th hole, 334 yards, and we kind of entertain some options on what to do. It's a little helping wind off the left. I was like, yeah, I mean, come on, you know what I'm going to do here. And I grabbed the driver and just busted on one. And Caleb was like, you know, that's good ball. It's probably just short. I was like, I don't think that's short of anything. Like I destroyed that ball.

We would look up there and there's no ball in front of the green, there's no ball to the right, there's no ball just past the green. And I kind of, I'm kind of ready to give up on it. And Caleb goes over to the hole and looks and says, your ball is in the hole. And I did not fall for it. Like there was no chance I was gonna fall for that.

Like, no, this is what you do to visitors. Like you're just pranking me. If I go over and look at this hole, you're gonna have like a story to tell forever. Ba, ba, ba. And honestly, it took like 20 more seconds before I finally went over and looked. And there was Callaway, Chromesoft, the ball that

changed the ball right there in the bottom of the hole. My first ever Ace came on a par for, I entered a state of shock. I don't even, like, we shot a quick video of me getting the ball of the hole and my voice is like shaking. I had no idea what to do, it just, it took forever to register what had happened and I still, I still can't believe it actually happened. A lot of people think that I was joking with the tweet, but I actually aced a par four first ever ace, and I still don't know how it happened. Well, congratulations, firstly, and lots of questions. I'm sure you had lots of questions.

And but right on brand, of course, 334-yard par four, it had to be, right? It had to. Did you do the customary thing here in Scotland and buy a bottle of whiskey that was sit on the bar? Or did you do the American auction and why I get for your B&B? Well, I'm now I feel stupid.

I didn't know about a scholarship, but I did go into the clubhouse and offer like So word had already gotten back to the clubhouse that it this had happened And they gave like they were so nice about they gave me like a plaque like it or not a plaque like a poster a framed poster of Like the sixth hole it wasn't the whole IA's that would have been amazing gave me like a poster for Brewer and like, I went in upstairs and there was like six, maybe six members and they had all heard about it.

So I think they were waiting around for their drink. But I just, I bought a round for everyone or I told everyone next round's on me and I don't know who ordered and who didn't. My tab was only 15 pounds. I felt like kind of ripped, I kind of felt gipped about it. Like I felt like you're supposed to feel it in your wallet after an ace, right?

Yeah, yeah. But I guess not the end of the world there, Bruno, when there's probably a population of 2000 people in the village. Yeah. But yeah, was there much to ourselves going on there on the T-Shot? No, I think there was probably a twirl in there because I did bust on it. But we never saw the ball go in, obviously. I mean, it's really, really far away. And it's kind of blind. And so we had, we had no idea

that the ball went in the hole. And I, part of me, like a small part of me still thinks that one of the guys put the ball in the hole just to mess with me, which I'm, I'm hoping like 10 years from now they don't tell me that they did that because it just seems so unlikely that that would go in. But I should also note at this point, of course, that this ace was made using the Callaway epic sub zero driver. I've really enjoyed the ball flight. I've been getting out of this driver. The sub zero head is a lower spinning head and the ball is just traging directly through the wind out here. I've had a little case of the hooks, but that's a me problem. That's not an epic problem. And that ball that I found at the bottom of the cup was, of course, a Calloway Chrome softball. The ball that changed the ball, I also just got my Apex Pro irons in the mail today. Can't wait to bust them out this week. Go to

CallowayGolf.com for more information on all of this week. Go to calwaygolf.com for more information on all of this equipment. On the golf course, again, it was just a super distracting round. I would love to go back out there. It was again an awesome night, amazing sun. Just right there on the sea, like a cool breeze coming off that off the sea there. And you know, sheep just freely roam around the property, hurting the grass, and they have electric little tiny electric fences around the greens, hurting the grass, and they have a little tiny electric fences around the greens to keep the sheep off the greens. And it was awesome.

It was like a perfect night. There's a bunch of people out there playing and kind of soaking up the rare sun up there. And it was so cool. It's not like, I was expecting it to be really raw and really not well kept, but it was not like that at all. The greens were really nice, the fairways were really good quality grass, and I mean the layout was, it's not a big golf course, it's definitely an old school, a little tiny, not tiny, but it's old school, a little gem course, it's not a big grand castle steward, like our Kings Barnes,

but I was just really impressed with the conditioning of it and how well kept it was and everything about it. I mean, I think it's absolutely 100% worth 30 extra minutes from Dornak. Yeah, let's go. One of the best green fees, I think you'll probably, you had it there. It's like 50 pounds around. And for what you're getting there, you get a ton of history, but you get everything a good golf course. I think most of the courses you've played on this trip, you could probably

describe this fun and pro-Rostart and do one of that. Yeah, there was like almost all of them. There wasn't like a taxing, Karnusti was like a taxing tough test. The rest of them were just like really, really fun courses, but a lot of that's dictated by by the conditions and the wind and whatnot. But yeah, the Abroars fantastic. Next day, I played 36 holes at Dorneck, which is basically the purpose of the trip going up there. And you know, everyone, some people claim this is the greatest golf course in the world, and I've just, again, heard so much about it. It was phenomenal. I absolutely loved it. It won't ever host an open championship.

It just doesn't have the structure in place to host something like that. But that is one of the greatest golf course I've ever played. Incredible condition. Amazing, just the big, huge greens and so many options on pin placements that just really change the whole, so many elements of strategy into that course.

And it's one of those courses that it would be super, super fun to play when you get, if you, when and if you're able to get your game dialed in and really kind of, I was kind of all over the map and I didn't play very well. But, you know, you can't, you don't get the full challenge of it or the full, you know, thinking that you have to do on golf shots. And, you know, there's certain situations where I'd hit driver on a short part four and end up 50 yards away from the pin but couldn't get to the pin.

And I'm like, okay, I'm glad I have another round this afternoon because I know I can't do that. So, I mean, Dornick has no secret of anyone. I mean, there's a ton of Americans that they're playing with some in the morning. It's a common place on your route. But man, I thought it was fantastic. Loved it, met the hype, exceeded the hype.

I want to go back there badly. Yeah, you know, some people say that, you know, Doranx, maybe the Alex Norrin of golf coaches, super overrated. And I was like, golf digest, have it number five in the world, but I never said he was overrated. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, aside from that, it is a super cool spot. I think a lot of when you go and play these golf courses is you're going to put the golf course, but you're also going to sort of experience the culture, the vibe, the place, and Dornax is very similar to St. Anders in that regard in terms of the village there, he's got lots of restaurants and bars,

and other golfers that you can end up chatting to. And the golf course is like the epicenter of it all. And then much of what was on in the town has sort of came from the golf course. And obviously the history of the golf course dating back all those years. So that's a cool spot and certainly somewhere that somebody should consider hunking down and spending a couple of days golfing in the area and basing yourself from Dordock. Exactly.

And now I had that exact experience actually on my finishing my second 18, there was kind of a backup and I ended up playing in with a couple of members. And you know, we just got the chat and they had actually, they were asking me where I'd been on my trip, I was like up at Borah and he was like, oh, I heard somebody got a hole in one up there last night on a par four. And I was like, you heard that.

Well, that was me. That was awesome. And then we went in the clubhouse and I had three or four beers with them after the round, just talking about the area and talking about tourism and trying to get more people up there and how great it would be for the town if they built another golf course up there, which I, again, wanted to ask you about, but just kind of got the full experience of, shooting the shit with members

and having a couple of beers, telling stories and hearing about golf courses and soaking up the local vibe. And that's kind of something that, if you do a buddy's trip, you might get that that's why I felt so fortunate I was up there by myself and just playing played some some holes out there by myself but mostly was playing with somebody else but you get that there's that extra experience of talking to locals and and it was awesome I really enjoyed it but

so what do you know about this potential new course near Dorna? I believe is it called Cool Links? Cool links. Yes, about C O U L Obviously named after a little village there But I really came of newer but this golf course from an Alan ship new podcast They had a Mike Kaiser probably 18 months ago and at the time I wasn't working with the European tour, I was all in, I was working in the Scottish Golf Tourism industry and very keen to obviously learn about any new developments that were taking place. So I made a contact up in the Dornek area and traveled up and we walked the site of the proposed new golf course on November's evening.

And as I was walking across this bar and landscape, two other gentlemen came across us and one of them happened to be Mike Kaiser himself. Alongside his partner on the ground there, Todd Warnock, who owns a very nice property and now hotel in Dorneck, Link's house, which anybody that's got the money to stay there definitely should super luxury and right on the first tier at Dorak. So it was through that chance in character that I was invited back to Link's house in Dorak and sat down with both the gentlemen and they shared their vision and their plans and I Practically drove home wrote up the article and before you know I was breaking the story of who exactly was behind the project and who they and hopeful architects would be

and Ben Ben Kuh and and and and Bill Kuh and Ben Crenshaw are the other guys behind it so Yeah, that that was a cool trans encounter and I think it's a really exciting project on horizon. At the moment it's going through some planning issues, there's some environmental issues. I think talking about golf development, this is Scotland's sensitive subject, given the Donald Trump's involvement down in Aberdeen and the fact that that was built on a protected site. So, there may be facing some challenges with the golf course, but their hope and their vision is to make it a good thing for the area.

So, a lot of the time people drive up to Donark as you experience and then they play the golf course and they get on their bus and they drive back to Inverness, which is about 40 minutes drive. And their vision is to keep the revenue and the tourism in Dorna, can have guys stay there for the week and play the other golf courses. So hopefully it happens, it sounds like a great project. And you know, with the guys involved and the vision they've got, I think it could be.

So only time will tell on that one. That's a great story. I had not heard that old story, but that's exactly what the member said that I was talking to, you know, it would be great to get people staying in Dornak. I stayed at the Dornak Hotel, which is right close by the, it's not as close as the hotel you mentioned, but it's close by the first tea. It's a dated hotel, but it was like 55 pounds a night or something to stay there and perfect location and just kind of all I need. I mean, for me when I travel for golf I don't need a big fancy hotel room, I just need a place to sleep

and shower and that's pretty much it. So that got the job done. Usually I'm doing it as cheap as possible. I just quit my job. I'm ballin' on a budget right now. So I'm in an Airbnb right now actually near the Edinburgh airport because I've been early flight tomorrow morning and It's in a private room and so I'm yeah, I'm doing on the chief So I try I try to as bus I can so But yeah, I stayed there in Dornock for a couple nights actually But there's just not a lot of whole going on in the town And I think they they're they're thinking if they build that golf course and that's going to kind of just totally transform that town

and people are going to stay in it, eat in it, and kind of get a different golf experience. So, yeah. So, wait, who was saying this golf course overrated? You mentioned that earlier, right? I had not heard that. Yeah, no, you just some people, like when you get them, and what I love about the podcast that I do,

me and you were going back and forth on text, what is the fact that rating golf courses is so subjective, there's never a right or wrong answer. So, you know, Rankins aside, you know, I'm not one for them, but a lot of the time you see Doric up alongside your Pine Valley and your Pebble Beach, you know, of course. So, you know, in that conversation, people give it some some stick, but I love it.

But you know, there's no right or wrong answer on that one. Yeah. I agree. I'm with you and I've said it before on here just about, you know, people always want to know rank, how do you rank the courses? It's a foolish task, I think. My thing is, is something worth it? Isn't like an enjoyable walk. Do I have fun out there? Some people get really

into the architecture. It's like a part of how I evaluate a course. I really take note of some strategic elements to it, mostly just dealing with bunkers. I love bunkers on Lynx courses and I think that like a well-bunkered course is the most fun kind of course you can play but I don't get I don't super nerd into into the architecture and whatnot but that that course just made me like I was just walking around the greens looking at random pin position placements and in all of you know how many different options they had and how many different ways you could play that course and some of the strategy elements. So I really enjoyed it.

I think it's great. But again, I'm not going to rank them all. So I, let's go out of order for what I did. But then the last for that area, I think, of the main ones would be Nairn, which I skipped the first leg, but made the trip back up for. I didn't know a whole lot about it. Enough people said to me, like, you need to go check it out. Man, I absolutely love that course.

First of all, we had almost no wind, which I think is quite, it was the rarity on this trip and the rarity for that property. But so it's really flat course, but I love the bunkering, just going off what I just said, how they kind of have these raised bunkers from the fairway, so it's a perfectly flat fairway. And like you have, you're hitting over a bunker that's like a sod face bunker that's just

in front of the green. I just think that it's such a cool look and design element of a course, just have these bunkers that just pop up out of nowhere. What could you tell me about Naren or what is your overall experience with Naren? Naren is certainly in the bracket of these big courses, hosted of walk-ups and curse cups, and so-hung cups, I believe. So they've got some pedigree there, very old golf course. Not a place I'd probably stay. Of course you want to visit and get to Inverness, Adornox, or Aberdeen when at Webber destination you're reaching your stay in for the night. But certainly worthy of a visit.

I'm not mad for the maybe the aesthetics of the golf course. You'll get better views elsewhere in Scotland. But we're spoiled for choice in with so many golf courses and I believe Bacon loves Naird and He he certainly consider a membership there so well he's talking me into it We're both talking about it like I could I would do it like it was I You say that not the best views mostly because it is such a flat property But those first seven holes do run right along the sea Yeah, and you walk from like from the parking lot out to that first tea along holes do run right along the sea and you walk from

the parking lot out to that first tee along this walkway right along the sea. I thought that was awesome but it is an old golf course which I and so back to what I was saying about the mixture of the different types of courses you get. I just love you know a castle store 30 minutes away. This is this almost brand new golf course that's's this big ballpark, big wide fairways, and then you got to Nairn. Just a completely different experience, completely different walk. It had a lot of, it's tight in spots,

but the Fescue was findable for your ball, for the most part, and you could play out of it, but it was punishing, like that's my favorite kind of Fescue. I think that's how Fescue should play it almost at all times. If you can, I know it's really hard stuff to maintain, but I got to play. I play, there was a five-some in front of me that asked me to join them on the back nine. So I played in with five members as a six. I hope we don't get in trouble for that. And then Sean Burgess is the

assistant pro there. He recommended to me to make sure to ask about the archive room. Have you been in the archive room now? Simply a habit, but I have lived through Europe pictures and other people's pictures of the room and and like many coaches, it's gotten pride themselves in the history and near and probably the best job of documenting their history there. It looks like almost like a museum. Not a little. Oh, I want a room like this in my house in the future. It's just golf books and like all kinds of old information. They had like a membership packet from like 1912 in there. And they had just all these plaques and chairs.

And like of course some scotch there. And like a big, a nice glass, whatever you call it, with glasses there ready to be drank. And like my goal is to record a podcast from that room sometime in the future. Maybe you wouldn't be in Bacon Remembers, but no, I thought Naira was phenomenal. And I kind of felt dumb.

After I went back and played it, I felt dumb that I missed it the first time around. It's the way it works. You can't play them all usually, but it just felt like, wow, how did I not fit this into my schedule the first time through? I do definitely think it's a can't miss course. That's what you really had every big course in that region. You started your first week in the Aberdeen region and

Cruted Bay in my home course, and I don't know if you want to share the part you went with and start the size group of your files and objectives. Well, first I was going to say, did we miss any golf courses in that area that I didn't play, but also recommend adding in any I'd send a rory. One course that kind of speaks to the other side of it, I talk about accessible public golf courses, affordable golf. One that's not like that, probably more like an American type of experience in terms of the hospitality is Skivo Castle, in psych experience in terms of the hospitality is Skivo Castle, which is right next to Dornock and you can play public, and they've got limited public tea times there of 300 pounds per person,

so it's not cheap, but it's such a great golf course and one that I was lucky enough to play about a month ago was my co-host and good friend, Grail and Loomis, who writes for Lynx Magazine. co-host and good friend, Grail and Luma, who writes for Lynx magazine. So we played that. It's a certain thing, Lynx golf course, I'm not sure if I didn't realize it was built with a lot of the sand that it's in the Murray Firth there, that one's alongside and yeah, very high-end experience, but one that if guys are wanting a high level experience and they're in the end or it for long enough then Certainly check out but you've got goalspeave, you've got four trolls You've got lots of other options. You've got enough there for at least a week's golf so And so people listening you're welcome to ask me questions

If you're planning a Scotland trip but man the guy you want to talk to is the guy on the other end of this phone and this guy helped me plan Scotland's two years ago before we'd even ever met it was helping me plan stuff so if you have questions about Scotland golf travel first of all check out the Scottish Golf podcast the Ruhoes as well and shoot him any questions on Twitter he's always willing to help and he knows a lot more than I do so continuing along for the next leg of the trip, which you planned, helped plan most of and helped put together, which was so deeply appreciated. It was absolute blast. Met up with Shane Bacon from Fox, Ashley Mayo, and several of her friends, Jeff, Jeff, Tom,

Patrick Cainig, Halley Ledbetter was there. We met up to play seven courses in four days. We met up at Crudin Bay, which I believe is Crudin Bay, the basically your de facto home course or what is exactly your title. You used to work in the in the pro shop there, didn't you? Yeah, I used to have like four jobs in there. I used to cut it there. Yeah, and now I'm just a member there, so I'm lucky, and that's where I grew up playing, and that's where I really became interested in talking about Scottish golf courses. When I was a little like 12, 13-year-old, I would go out and play my course as normal, but I would also hear lots of voices, a lot of Australian voices, American voices, and I started

to wonder why people bothered to come all the way around the world to play my course. And it sort of as you grew up and appreciate golf courses, I now I realize why. So. Yeah. So you talk about this place all the time. I see pictures about it from and all the time. And again, it just kind of, I thought it would feel like I had been there before just because of how much I've seen of it. It just goes to show how social media and Instagram and pictures and whatnot can motivate you to get to a place, but it doesn't give you an idea. It doesn't even come close to paying the picture of what it's like to be there and play

it. We absolutely love the golf course. It is stunning. There's so many awesome cool design elements to it. Less, the General Manager was so kind. He came out and walked several holes with us. Couldn't have been a nicer guy. And telling us facts about the golf course,

about I think it was the fifth or sixth hole. They rediscovered part of an old Tom Morris Green, like from the 1800s, and they extended the green to connect into that. And just incredible history in this club and just some amazing fun golf holes. It's going to sound, I'm almost going to say it's about every golf course about it exceeding the height. But that was, we had downwind, no winds that evening or not much wind. And it was pretty gettable, I thought.

I actually loved it so much that I went back and played it a second time in the wind. It was quite different, let me tell you that. But, man, Cruden Bay, it was phenomenal. Any trip you're doing to Aberdeen area at all needs to include Cruden Bay. And you know, you mentioned about how you're hoping it doesn't exceed the height. Well, on my podcast, I joke, I call it the crew to me podcast because people that I have on end up talking about it and they love it so much. But Alan Shippnut, Jeff Shacklford, Matt Janella,

those three guys, I think all rate crew to me, if not their favorite, that certainly they've talked to in Scotland. So when you've got guys at that who, let's just say they've played a lot of golf, saying that and guys that know about golf courses And I think it certainly testament to the quality of golf course I is and

Could you imagine a Scottish open or some sort of tournament there again? It probably doesn't have the infrastructure Doesn't have the hotel rooms nearby I would be pretty special to see now on television and by. I would be pretty special to see now on television and seeing some of the players play it. There's so many just cool fun holes and I know that it gets knocked a bit. If there's ever a criticism of the course, it's the amount of blind shots. I guess I should ask, do you hear that a lot or do you hear that as a critique? A little bit and again it's subjective. I always try to educate people about the blind shots and if they don't like them, like Tom Morris was building building, he was walking the golf course in 1899 and you know basically with a

shovel and then when somebody says oh my god there's a big sanger and there I can't see the green while Tom Morris didn't have a tractor. He had a shovel. And it's just trying to like, oh yeah, right. I realized now why that's not the case, why they didn't build those. It was basically people's bare hands that were building these golf courses then. They were using the natural land. It was very cost effective. Didn't have to do any shaping of a land too much, just the green sites. cost-effective didn't have to do any shaping of a land too much just the green sites and you know I think it's just making that switch to realizing well they're not building that golf course with the tools available now they're doing it in you know 1800 so I like it but I can see why somebody who's coming from

the American side you know it's a little bit to them, it's very different. So I see it, but it's a bit of bracing that you're there. You know, these golf courses have been sustainable from that time through now, and that's what we know the local side. So it's a bit of bracing it and not like beating yourself up. I mentioned I used to carry you at Cruden Bay. I was in a group with Steve Balmer,

and I think he's like, it's a richest man in the world. Guy behind Microsoft. And this guy, and the Ziona basketball team as well. The Los Angeles Clippers, yeah. Yeah, now this guy, I've seen his YouTube development videos and he is just the way he appears, just hyper. But yeah, he hated crew to hyper. But he hated Crude and Bay.

He absolutely hated it. He was talking about walking off from the 12th green. And I just had to bite my tongue, A, because I knew who he was, but because I was cadding in his group. But just sort of ignorance to the fact that it's an old golf course. And, and, but, you know, that was,

that was one of my favorite rounds, I think, with him. He was just, he was nuts. But that's exactly why I brought it up, as I wanted to hear that, the exact explanation you gave, right? And that when you go play some of these courses, they're not always, they're, they're, they're, they're definitely not built in the same era as like the castle stew we were talking about in this modern era of bulldozers enabled to shape land however you want to you

built around the land you know and that's part of what you get when you play these old courses is that experience of this is what this golf course pretty much looked like in the 1800s and I know they make changes and move t boxes around and whatnot but that's part of the deal is the original structure and design of these holes is the same. And that's what makes it so fun and interesting. I think, you know, going out for the second time, it was so much easier. And there's a, I forget who had the saying of a shot is only blind the first time you played it. Like there was so much less fear in some of the shots I was hitting the second time around because I knew what was up there

I knew where to aim and whatnot so maybe it is of course need to play twice but I just have heard that it's Christmas there was not a criticism from my end because I was a prepared for it and be you know I tell you even talk less about it some means like this is like you just said that's the natural use of the land you can't just move a doom out of the way. So yeah, phenomenal golf course. Again, so good that I went back for a second time. I thought it was the best in all of the Aberdeen area. Yeah, and it's certainly a course that, you know, I don't know if you have more of the questions about caddies, but that's one that I would probably suggest getting if you could only manage one round there and you don't got the time for two. And staying in the village there again,

the Camarach arms where I had you guys staying, you know, coastfall, you can walk to the third and fourth holes for a couple of minutes from there and walk around the village and good food and drink. So the Camarach arms there in the village is certainly worth staying at, like you're playing Cruden Bay, but then it was kind of an early start for you guys down to Karnustian. Thankfully, Colin, your driver was up for a 630 start down the road in your luxury 8-seater coach as you guys are no longer up to travel. That's, I wanted to talk about that next, so I had only ever done Scotland trips by car and running a car, and that's always my advice people just rent a car. This was my first time, these three, four days with

a rented luxury coach with a driver. I loved it. The coach was amazing. I mean, it was this, so there was, and again, the full disclosure, as always, there was a lot of free golf for me on this trip. But there was some things, also a lot of free golf for me on this trip, but there was also a lot of things that were paid for, and one of them is the luxury coach, but it was a total effort. Can we just pause and have James Codrigan typing away front to me?

I did pay at Nairn, and I thought about Tweety at him. Great round of Nairn. Hey, Jamie, I paid today actually. No, part of a lot of the courses are very accommodating for us and it's super appreciated and that obviously we are going to document our experiences there, share them with you guys, but as a result of that they are able to usually arrange complimentary tea times for us. So I don't have, and I'm going to include them in the times for us. So I don't have, and I'm gonna include them in the post for all these courses about greens fee information.

I don't have them all necessarily handy at the top of my head, but you're obviously much more familiar with that, so you can fill that in. But yeah, having a driver and having a van for like an eight person trip is perfect. First of all, because you probably need two cars, if you definitely need two cars, if you have eight people. And you're talking about just overall relative cost

and convenience of, it didn't even feel like you're traveling. Like you're just in it, you're telling stories, you're laughing, and there's eight of you sitting around in a van, it's super nice, it's leather seats, and Collins filling up waters and has snacks for us. Like that was a different way of doing the Scotland Golf Travel that I had never done before, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That was a different way of doing Scotland Golf travel that I had never done before, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I think if you have more than four people that's definitely an option you're gonna wanna go. Yeah, and I don't know if Cohen had Wi-Fi, but some of these coaches have Wi-Fi and ability to sort of talk about your trip when you're going. And any trip, whether it's goal for otherwise, being with the group and being able to reminisce about certain shots and spend that time together, you know, without flanging up too much about the itinerary that you chose,

there was a lot of driving in there because most of your group are coming to Scotland for the first time and wanting to cram in as much as they could. So, you know, naturally, ideally sorry, there wouldn't be so much driving between the courses, but the way it's shaped up, I think, taking the luxury coach option is a good way to go, especially guys in their first trips that want to maybe do a little bit more. And if you do have kind of the more than kind of four guys, it certainly makes it a more affordable option than you may think. So, and certainly worth considering. Yes. And some people aren't necessarily that comfortable driving on the other side of the road,

on the other side of the car, and some roads can, you know, just driving a different country can be a bit intimidating. So that's something that I've always said in the past, you've got to rent a car, but after experiencing this, I think it's another consideration. So shout out to Colin, he was awesome, he was so much fun. He also helped Colin is a member at Royal Aberdeen, he used to be the club captain there, and is a golfer through and through. And his excitement for the R experience was cool too.

Like he's out there taking photos, and it was cool to have somebody within the experience that was a golfer and was into it and really added to the experience. So, yeah, next morning we were up early and off to Karnusti because you mentioned a lot of driving times, but I honestly didn't even notice it because you're just in the car. You don't even like, you don't have to sketch it out on a map or worry about GPS or anything. It's all taken care of for you. So that was great.

But yeah, it's car news. I played car news. See two years ago and I thought it was my favorite of all of the courses I played in the St. Andrews area the first time around. But again, had a nice day and I played great this time around. We got wet a little bit. It wasn't too bad. We got a little wet in the beginning.

The wind blew strong and didn't really stop for a whole week. I didn't play great. So I just didn't walk off car news to you just absolutely raving about the last time I did. I think, you know, if I can, I think we can go a little faster through something like that because hey, I think people are mostly familiar with car news. See, at least, you know, this is a course that's going to be that first Scotland trip you take, if you're going to St Andrews, it's 45 minutes up the road, and it's just got to be something that you that you play. I mean, would you agree with that? Yeah, and the fact that it's probably the easiest open rule of golf course to get on.

It's they have some members, but you know, if you're a Brooklyn in advance, you're probably can get a tea time there quite easily. Certainly, you're in a royal trun or a murafield or a low course. So yeah, and that was another reason for my podcast and why I start doing the podcast. I was to showcase these other golf courses because there is so many great links, golf courses in Scotland and it seems to be the 10 or 11 that always get spoken

or written about. And so I think you're right, we can kind of rush over Cardooste and obviously... At the same time, I don't want to rush over too fast because I feel like, you know, the first experience I had there, I should have got a caddy this time around, I got one the first time, and he was awesome, just directing me around that golf course in the right way. And I, you know, I didn't have that this time around and probably should have. And I just, I had a couple balls out of bounds. Six, like the sixth and seventh hole were dead into the win. Six is a par five. It's called Hogan's Alley. And just its OB runs right up against the hole. And it's so challenging into the win. I pipe two of those

out of bounds and hit another one out of bounds in the next hole. So that was just kind of in a days after that. But it is, I mean, it's so much fun. That those that finishing stretches, such an incredible stretch of golf, so challenging. That 17th hole is one of the hardest holes I've ever played in the world. And I do need to comment that, first of all, I'm going to try to get bacon onto kind of debriefing this as well. But bacon scheduled as flight for the wrong day and missed Cruden Bay and landed the morning of Karnu City had to take a taxi from Edinburgh like two hours to Carnusie and rolled up onto the course and then on 18 in the downwind he almost drove it into the burn. I've never seen a golf ball go that far and professionals included.

Like he almost said it was 400 yards and almost went in the burn but I want to save I need to make fun of baking more to his face whenever whenever I'm able to get him on but he's a busy guy that's how can you mess up your flights to Scotland that's like Kuture S or something that is so bad Kuture Bay is his favorite too and he had to miss it so I was I was I was happy about that because I was so mad for screwed up his flight one one thing to point out about Karn about Carnegie News is that it will host the open next year. So it's difficult. These coaches play so different for professional events.

But what kind of golf course do you sense that what player does that suit? It's obviously difficult. Last time, you see, last time it hosted the, the open, it came up with a, you know, a strange winner to send a list in, you know, Paul Laurie and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and you're after that. So, it's, it's, it feels tight to me at times, you know, and, and we're going to, we're playing, probably, I think we played one up T's. I don't think we played it all the way back and It the conditions are gonna dictate everything just like with all these courses

I mean that when the win was not so bad the first time around we played it I felt was manageable this time the win was was howling and it was so difficult to get your ball in the fairway and once you're off the fairway There you're just kind of done, but I Know while I was playing it. I just wasn't picturing it as, you know, an open championship course or thinking about it as an open championship course. I was so caught up in the experience of playing it. And it is totally different T-boxes and whatnot. But, you know, it's kind of, I feel like a guy that just is good with a hybrid or long iron off those T's, because you're just not a ton of drivers that you need out there. For those guys, I think that's something someone I think could win out there.

But yeah, I haven't started thinking about the 2018 championship just yet. I'm still on 2017, which I picked Kepp could have win before the season. And I have to stick with it. People are going to think I'm a bandwagon jumper. But yeah. No, I do love car news. I would go back there for a third time and play it. I mean, it's such a fantastic test.

People call it car nasty and say it's way too hard. I just did not, it's playable golf course. I mean, it was super challenging with the conditions we had, but it's not like an unmanageable course. It's not the most picturesque course. It's not, you know, we're in a ton of photos taken out there, but it's a super fun experience. So, yeah. After that led to probably, I'm confident

in saying the most fun afternoon of golf I've ever had, I think. It's a little hidden gem up there in Fife called the Old Course at St. Andrews. We took a bus down there, made it 20 minutes before our tee time. We only had one tee time there. Only four of us were able to play. We'll get to the other four, we're able to line up and play. Before we talk about the story, you've talked at least that link about how to get on the old course, but I talked about it on the pod two years ago, but you helped me with it two years ago when I was figuring it out. And now I feel like I've got it pretty much down. But for people planning a trip to Scotland, getting on the old course, how do you, how do

you start explaining to them how to get on the old course? Yeah, first thing I say is don't make it the B.O. and end of your trip. Like I feel like a lot of people, if they don't get an old-course T-time, it kind of blows out the chance of going to Scotland. And the O-course is such a draw for people that it can actually harm people come to Scotland. I really don't have that one course where it clogs up all the traffic and people have to go through. So that way, if you're comparing the two, I think it's actually sometimes beneficial to have a course that's not beneficial to have a course that's clogged up with people. But I understand it's the home of golf everyone wants to play it. So the four ways you can play is in the kind of

fall season you can apply an advanced reservation.. You just submit the dates you want to play on the the all course and Andrews websites for synandros links.com And you can do that and it's a ballot system. It's obviously overwhelmed with the applications You might have a 20% chance of getting drawn out. feeling that you have a 20% chance of getting drawn out. Failing that, you're second option at this stage about a year or six months out or however long you're out

is to buy a premium T-time. It's guaranteed, of course, T-time, but you have to buy into a package. You have to go through a tour operator. It's going to be pretty pricey, but that way you're guaranteed. And of course, T-time. and for most people that you know that suits Yeah, the third option is Just going for it and booking your trip and leaving yourself time

To hopefully get an all course tea time which you guys did the first time you came over I was just give yourself that time instant standard to go through the two different processes. So the third option would be to have the daily ballot, which is not on the day it's 48 hours prior. And again, you submit your names, your details, and you're drawn out. Again, overwhelmed with applications, and you maybe have a 25% chance of getting pulled out,

maybe 25 to 40% chance of getting out of that. And then the final option is what Ashley and other guys did was queue up, so I'm not Ashley, all the other four guys that never got out on the course. And like you did last time, it's just set your alarm clock for 430, roll up, queue up, similar to what they do at best page in the states, just basically queue up, people ask, how do we get them, how do you get on to the old course, and I go, you get on the old course if you want it enough, and then that morning queue allows that to happen, so you basically wait in line, the star comes along at 6 o'clock, takes your name, and then they just go through the empty spaces, filling up with the people that woke up early enough.

And so I think the group that you were with were up like Saturday morning, 7 o'clock, or whatever they were. They were at night. I don't know. Well, so when I did it two years ago, I did it back to back days. We lined up sometime between 415 and 430. And we were two through five in line the first time. And then the next day, 10 college kids were in front of us. So we were like 11 through 15. And the college was like, camped out overnight. Now, I told our group around, you know,

do it around that time, but they received advice from somebody else that they needed to be there even earlier. And it turns out they did need to be there even earlier. So they lined up around three or three, 15 this year. And they got, they were like, I forget, maybe five, six, seven, eight in line or something like that. And they got the same miracle that we got a couple of years ago and that they got a ForSum off, which is almost unheard of, ForSum at 7am. So they got the full experience as well. So yeah, exactly like we said,

if you wanna play the old course bad enough, you'll get out. So so far, the two times I've done it, and then with this group, I'm considering myself three for three. I didn't do it line up with them, but the story of lining up and doing it three for three and that everyone that's got that has gotten there early before 6am has gotten to play the old course. So it's worth it. It's cool. It's fun. Grab some coffee. If you if there's anything there's nowhere open. If you can make some coffee and then go

and just line up and it's part of the experience and you know you may be playing it two o'clock in the afternoon and you can go home and nap after that or you can go play somewhere else if you want and you can go play the old course. So you can make it happen. It can work. Yeah, and to make it happen, I think you need to give yourself like two days, three nights, since the others

given yourself lots of, you know, chance, you know, a couple of chances to get in the daily ballot for eight hours prior and then giving yourself a couple of chances to get in the daily ballot for eight hours prior and then giving yourself a couple of nights to rock up and queue and cross your fingers. So, yeah. And it's just a fun area to hang out and even if you're not playing it, like literally today. So, I'm recording this on Monday, July 3rd. I've been on Scotland for two weeks. I had a free day today. I met up with some random buddies from the States and we just went to St. Andrews today.

We asked about the old course just by chance, any chance, like no, not getting out today. And we went out and played the new course, the new course is fantastic. I played it two years ago, I think it's played this time around. I love that golf course, I think it's so fun, such a fun style of links and people think it's new. It's like building like 1895, like it's still super old golf course. I think it's so fun, such a fun style of links and you know people think it's new. It's like building like 1895, like it's still super old golf course and it's like really fun strategic bunkering on that course and just kind of a simple links course that is a lot of fun. So even if you go and don't get on the old course go play the other, go play Jubilee, go play the new course and you can't not have a great time. You're still hitting at the same

St Andrew skyline and you're still in St Andrews playing golf. You can see the old course from there and you're welcome to walk around the old course as well. It's a park, it's a public place. And then one's gonna kick you off the golf course. So just that whole area is so, so special, so much fun. So like now my fourth time going. And again, I just wanted to walk around the grounds today.

Yeah, and you know, St Andrews apart from the golf, which obviously dominates the town and it's a bit surreal seeing the old course right in the middle of town for the first time. You literally drive past it as you go into town. It's got so much else going on. It's obviously a popular spot for general tourists that come to Scotland with the old cathedral and castle but throughout the year dominated by the university, they're in town as well. So it's a really vibrant, cool place to hang out as well in the evenings, and then obviously has that old at golf going on as well. Yeah, and so I forget who had the quote. So I think maybe it was Bobby Jones, said the quote of, you know, if you say you

love the old course and you've played it less than 10 times, you're lying. And I forget why that's that saying is or something like you just can't really fully appreciate it until you've really played it a bunch of times. The first two times I played it as much as as amazing as that experience was, I don't think I fully understood the golf course. I just didn't, you know, maybe didn't have my game down and I felt like I was kind of playing from behind the whole time and just couldn't, couldn't, you know, kind of one foot over the other, tripping over myself. This time around, I feel like I got the full experience. Like a late, you know, afternoon tea time, evening round.

The sun came out. The weather was pretty solid. We had a really strong wind, but it was the prevailing wind and it was the wind that the golf course was designed to be played in. And I'm telling you, I don't think I've ever had more fun playing golf. I mean, I went out and four over and just couldn't wipe a smile off my face because it was a brutal win into our face and off the left, the hardest win for a right-hander. You're just trying to keep the ball on the property because all the trouble's off to the right.

And, you know, it was just so much fun. So the very first T-shot, Bacon hits an iron. And so I was like, how about Bacon hits an iron? He's like, just a caddy out here. Like, he knows what he's doing. I'm gonna hit an iron. I hit an iron, I get up there in my life like 190 into number one.

And the caddy's like, yeah, he probably should have drive her back there. He's like yeah, he probably should have had driver back there He's like you got to lay this up and I was like all that That is sorry man that is not an option and I'm contractually obliged to not lay up and he's like you can't I don't think you Can clear the burn and I was like well, I'm gonna try and he was right. I hit in the burn and made double I'm going to try and he was right. I hit in the burn and made double look. You start the round. The wind turned, you know, you used to, you got to earn it.

You got to get through those first nine holes and then really, you know, eight, eight plays, eight and nine play downwind and then 10 and 11 play back into it. But we got, once it turned, once we turned back towards the clubhouse, that stretch in the, in the evening with the sun hitting you and that downwind off the right. It's just it's so much fun like you know you're having a caddy just help so much because you know you say you end up with a shot that you have like one fifty six flag like when I am in the states or I mean if I'm on my own I think one fifty six flag and you know maybe that's a nine iron whatever he's like you have 156 flag the

winds off your right but you have 112 to carry the swale that's all you want to do is carry the swale the rest is going to take care of it blah blah blah so we're usually maybe I would have reached for a nine iron I'm reaching for a gap wedge now and hitting it at the you know landing it 115 120 whatever and then watching the slope take it down to like 20 feet and just that kind of challenge and that kind of a Brett was my caddy shout out to Brett who just guided me around this golf course and we had just the most fun and I I birdied, birdied 10, 14, 15 and 18 to shoot three under on the back and just could not have been like a happier person on the planet.

It was just the the most fun you could ever imagine. There's like an audience gathering around 18 as we teed off and Jiggarin was going Absolutely nuts for the shot bacon hit into the road hole and it was it was it was the best I think I said This is the best probably 20 times during that round. It was I've never had more fun Yeah, I you know you mentioned about it first time you play the old course It's I think the word people use is underwhelming and it's because you don't get it. You don't get the hype. You certainly don't realize that you don't get a sense that your instant Anders for the first kind of 12 holes. But then the minute you turn

and you start seeing the skyline in your plane, that stretch back to the the town, it's pretty special and the double greens, the hidden bunkers, it makes a lot of sense once you play that a number of times and you feel fortunate to play it in a separate way for a full time. So it's special and you can see the lure of it and you know being able to grow up in Scotland and you get to go to so many open championships because it's only a couple hours away, I remember age 9, there's a thousand open when Tiger and Monty were going, and then one of Monty's many memorable and glorious failures. But yeah, just a special course, seeing the sort of history taking place there on a regular

basis. And I'm surprised more guys don't Maybe come over and play the Dunhill and which is one of the coolest events in the year to be tour And either chance to play Karnu City Kings Barnes in the old course and twice It's a pretty cool event and I love to get to you familiar with the old course, but Yeah, I mean it's it's just such a special place. There's just so many people around, like just caddies and people just out there having the time of their life and just the people make pilgrimages to come play this golf course

and get the... Honestly, it's just fun to watch people tee off and finish on 18 and clap for them and it's just such a fun place. And then we obviously made our way to the Dunn Vegan and had dinner and drinks there. And then the next night we ended up at the Jigger Inn, Smoking cigars, having some scotch. And it's the greatest, it's just the greatest place. I love it, I'm obsessed with it.

So yeah, if you ever get a chance, check out the old course at St Andrews. Remember where you heard it here first. But I think we're going to break this into, I hope I'm not taking up too much of your night. We're going to break this into two parts, but we still have a plenty to talk about, but are you still good to go? Oh yeah, absolutely. And then it might be a disclaimer. You might have to put on the, you know, if anyone's bored to death, don't bother listening to the next episode. Oh, people love the travel episodes, man. It

does my, yeah, like there was a week where a week where I did a travel podcast and a player podcast in the same week. And the travel podcast blew the other one out of the water as far as downloads and feedback and whatnot. I mean, it's fun to talk about PJ tour professional golf, but really, we all kind of live for our golf trips and playing at these special places. So I like hearing other feedback from other people's trips and I love hearing information when I'm planning for one. So yeah, people, people love this stuff, man. I can't blame them. So yeah, cool.

Next up was Ealy. So some of our group got to play, they went out and played Crayle that night that we played the old course, which I played a couple years ago. Crayle is a, is played the old course, which I played a couple years ago. Crayle is a crazy place, unbelievable property. It's like 1895, if I'm remembering right, that golf course was built. I didn't play it again this time around. It's what I would call it like a definition of like a quirky course. There's just some funky little holes out there that it's probably just not the best fit

for modern technology or a course that has't aged great with modern technology, but unbelievable property and some incredible, that first four holes that stretch along the sea is immaculate. It's amazing those views and there's several good other good view holes coming in as well, but what are your overall thoughts on Crayl? Yeah, Crayl, when you play they should give you a scorecard, a pencil and a hard hat. It's just, as you say, it's crazy. You've got balls coming out from every direction, you've got a score every two seconds. But observation that my buddy and co-host, Creel, and made, when we spoke about Creel and the podcast was, Creel is literally like probably like a shoemaking drive away from King's

Barnes. You can kind of seek parts of King's Barnes on the other side of the coast. Don't give bacon that by the way. No, don't give him that. I gave him the compliment on the drive on 18. Come on. And yeah, so you compare it to sort of the same land, but obviously it's old versus new and what the, the new is created at Kingsburg's with the technology that, you know, golf course design allows. It creates a really expansive, wide open, like lots of long walks between holes and making the most of the land, whereas like, craylie feel like it's, it's obviously predates it by 200 years and you can tell. It's like they've crammed way too many holes in the size of space allowed on the property

and it's just like interesting to think, compare the two and go, well, yeah, it's fine that you can create something modern and but you've got the ten holes in the land to do it where Crayl has just been like, you know know what they have got to do with what they've been given, the haven't been dealt so it's a fun course a nice one to maybe kick off or if you want just to advertise yourself with playing an off the tight links turf and you know as dafted and cliche as it might sound but you know the sea views, the seas to see air, and certainly the shot making and this sort of history

that you feel when you're at Crayl. And, but it's not one that you wanna, it's not a big boy course that you wanna play in some, a lot of short holes and some silly holes, but I really, you know, enjoyable first or last golf course on your trip. And you may be interested in coming to me when before we went out to play Ely,

which is the next one we'll talk about in that you just said, it's important to see these courses too, right? I mean, the Kings Barnes are designed for the American tourists come over and play, but seeing these historic old courses that, even if some of them are quirky, is important to kind of see where the game came from. And like, what more normal Scottish golf is like, Kingsmarns is not,

you know, there's not a bunch of scots lining up to play Kingsmarns, but Crayo is like a members club that, you know, the Scottish golfers go and play, and that's important to go see places like that too, and not just play necessarily the greatest hits. I mean, that's up there in greatest hits, I think, still. But, Ely, again, of course, it's hard for me to comment on because we had the most outrageous wind I've ever played in my entire life. I've never seen anything like that. We drove it over a par four with five irons,

and I was hitting, I legitimately hit a four iron from 100 yards at one point. I mean, it was, and the four iron was going backwards by the time it landed. I'm not kidding, you couldn't get the ball under this wind. I've never seen anything like it. The wind was so hard on the par 3-11th that it was blowing in from the sea. We were getting wet. The wind was blowing the waves into us as we were hitting shots. It's unbelievable.

But what is your, how would you describe Ely? To somebody that it doesn't, it's not familiar with it. Yeah, you just painted a really graphic picture there. Of your day, your afternoon, Saturday afternoon, Ely. But enough, that's, those types of experiences is why you come to Scotland, I guess. It's totally different golf, it's alien, like how often are you going to be like blown off your feet playing golf? And so it was a bit daft and obviously you wouldn't be playing for any serious money against anybody on a day like that, but it just gives you an appreciation again of just

some of these golf courses and What life is maybe was like when golf was just getting going and here obviously the Foundation of the game was created here and Ely was one of the oldest golf courses in the world and the home of James braid and a cool spot and I found That to be one of my favorite must go spot and I found that to be one of my favorite musk goal, musk visit courses in St Andrews in the area of St Andrews. It's probably a 20 minute drive from St Andrews town center and I think you drive past Kingsbury's to get

there. So it's one that I would say if you've got the time and you've given yourself enough time and hopefully we're going through these regions to give you an idea of the memorable golf that's available in each one but it's about slowing down, setting up, you know, finding somewhere to stay for a week and going to play these other golf courses that people on a normal trip literally drive past. So Ely is a fun course, it's got all the views, it's got the kind of short making qualities, one that I'm quite fond of actually, and a quirky clubhouse, old school change rooms. So yeah, it's one that I enjoy and one that I've recommended to you and many

others. Yeah, no, I know it was it was was a worthwhile recommendation, definitely, but you exactly nailed it. It's not a course where I'm going to say, must be on your itinerary. It's not a must play, but if you have the time and availability to do it, absolutely go play. And when I didn't play it two years ago, enough people reach out to me and said, you need to play ealy, you need to play it.

Then I knew it was a course I wanted to play. And these mixing in these rounds, along with some of the greatest hits in the big bucket list courses is important to your trip. And I think, you know, some of your most fun rounds might just be the casual rounds where you stroll out there to a course like this. So again, I'd like to see it without just biblical wins in our face. And I felt like into our face 14 of the 18 horals I swear. And yeah, it was fun when it turned the other way for one of them. I think I I like towed a drive like a low tow that went about 400 yards on one of the whole holes and bacon

hit like a three iron and three hundred forty yards into a bunker. And it was it was crazy. I've never seen anything like it, but after that that was Saturday. We went over and played we just messed around in the evening at the new course in Jubilee. He played like 12 holes or so and then rolled over and ordered some pizza to the jigger in because they stopped serving food and had beers outside and looked at 18th and 17th at St Andrews and it was perfection and then got in the car super early and we were on the T at 630 and 640 at Kings Barnes. Again, I debriefed on Kings Barnes two years ago, but I'm guessing not many people remember that exactly, but Kings Barnes is a newer course maybe about 15 years old if I remember right. So it's

it's kind of in that modern design that we were just discussing of a big property, incredible use of the land, and just like one of the most picturesque golf courses you could ever imagine. It's so pure, it's wide, it's built like for the American tourists I think and you know wide fairways and just really nice turf that you can just compress the ball against better than some other old links courses. I found it tough for this time around and I'd been the last time if I remember right but you can see the sea from every hole I mean, there's just a reason why everyone plays this golf course when you go there. And it's it is definitely must do. It's a pricey one. I think it's maybe two hundred and twenty five pounds. One of the more expensive ones in Scotland. Is that right? Yeah. I think, yeah, two hundred and thirty six pounds.

And it's going to go up again next year. It's going to host its first major this year. It's hosting the ladies' British Obviously hosted on Hill every year. It's to give you an idea of just how busy it is It's 10 minutes drive from Sinandra's so it's it's built with the the US and the Inbound golfer tourists to play but you're paying your 236 pounds to play, but you're paying your 236 pounds per person per golfer and we broke your trip or we planned your trip six months in advance thinking no problem we'll get out. I contacted Alan Hogg, the chief executive there and we've got these guys coming over. He goes all great, I'd love to have them.

Bear in mind this is six months out. The only two T times they had available was 630 and 640. So that thing is just a cash cow. It just prints money. But a really good golf course, you know, a fun course. One that is on almost everyone's itineraries and rightly so, but it's not that Scottish. All school experience is something very different. It's your castle steward's and your trump advertising's. But yeah, Kyle Phillips design as well. So Kyle Phillips is the designer behind Dundal which hosts the Scotch Open next week. And of course that's probably not in a lot of people's radars, but look out for that next week as well. So yeah, I think King's Barnes has had enough written instead about it that, you know, I know I think I could probably do justice, but I'm just, you know, interesting take there about

how much money the place is making and then, you know, it's obviously successful and they keep improving things down there as well. I mean, that 12 hole is like my dream hole. I think it's one of the most fun holes. Downhill, T-Shot Part 5, water to your left, and the green cut, it dog legs with your second shot. So you got to take on the water with a second shot. I think it's one of the prettiest and most fun holes. I got so excited that I top my drive this time around on it. 15th hole, it's like the signature hole, like a long Part 3 with water on the right, to see there, right there on your right the super tough super tough hole and just it it's so many so many good fun holes out there and the whole structure and layout like he said there's some

long walks between tees but they they use the land in the best way possible and that was that's what seems to be the goal and there's you know several of those fun link shots that you hit where you're landing a wedge 40 feet right of the pin and watching a slope take it down to five feet like you would on a normal link score. So it's a tough bullet to bite price wise but if you're making a trip there, it's not a price high enough that you could justify saying I'm not going to play there. It's on my must play list definitely yeah, and and they're caddies are known to be Sort of in Scotland is the best caddies

Obviously drawn to Kings Barnes where people are paying top dollar. They you hope they're gonna tip in top dollar And be interested to see how it plays the ladies British because we've only seen Kings Barnes in a kind of have it please the ladies British because we've only seen King's Barnes in a kind of amateur saying that you know with the Dunhill challenge ship having you know amateurs in the field, a lot of the pimp positions are you know pretty easy and so I'll be keen to see how they set up the course and maybe the sort of image of King's Barnes being nice and easy, we might see something different come this month. I will be interesting. They're playing the first hole is actually going to be the 18th for the opening. You know that yeah it's interesting basically for crowd control reasons but that is going to be interesting. So

yeah there's not a lot of secrets I don't think they're about Kings Barnes but the course that we finished this leg of the trip with I wouldn't call it a secret. People definitely know about it, but it's kind of more of the cult favorite much like Crune and Bay as you mentioned We made the trek two hours down and played North Barric again in crazy whipping wins again, and crazy whipping wins. Honestly, but I said, Sanjus aside, the most fun round, I think we've had on it, on, on, on this trip in the,

the first eight holes were dead into the wind and just we, but it felt like an absolute grind getting out there. But coming home on that back nine, there was like four or five, like, incredibly memorable and unique holes. Starting with, so the first hole is right set against the sea and right next to the 18th hole, kind of like St. Andrews. And then you go out and you take a left in the routing, St. Andrews you kind of go out and take a right, but we all commented on the similarities

and how the routing kind of goes. This course sits right in a town, but we all commented on the similarities and how the routing kind of goes. This course sits right in a town, right against the sea with houses and buildings that frame the course. They're so picturesque. Do you get this kind of same gushing feedback usually from people that play North Barrack? Yeah, 100%. It's probably my favorite.

I was like, could you payay or the old course for me it's I think when you leave a golf course like a week or two later you're still remembering every shot you hit on the back nine and like there's so many fun holes coming home and the similarities as you say was the old course are pretty scary even that 18th tee shot which is a little easier it's probably easier it's a lot shorter than the old course but like park cars on the right hand side out of bounds and you've got that almost you know valley of sin right in front of the green so the clubhouse probably yeah a more tasteful clubhouse in North Berwick you know it's a backdrop but yeah I really cool spot and one that if you've got, play 306 because you won't regret the second time

round and the best views probably of your trip, arguably along with Crune May. Yeah. And you know, proper old school, like how many times do you play over a wall and regards the green? So, so quick story from the front nine and we're going out into this wind, and I'm feeling the press, there's 400 yard hold a second, I think, and it's like borderline not reachable. I think Pat or Catti even said,

this is a three shot hold today, and he's not joking. I was determined to prove him wrong, and Smotherhook that drives so far left, I think this may be the middle of the third hole, it was the third hole. Hit it so far left, and think this may be the might of been on the third hole. It was the third hole. Hit it so far left. And I saw the ball in and another fairway.

And he goes, is that the other fairway? And I was like, yeah, I have never seen somebody go that far wide. He's been a member there for like 20 years or something like that. So he's like, yeah, you need to just punch back out with the fairway. Don't try to do too much. So I reached my three wood and tried to hit it on the green

and smother hooked another one. And I'm like 80 yards left of the green. And the wind is again crazy. So I take an eight iron. So there's this wall, like the stone wall that kind of runs through the course is behind, it's to the right of the green, but for me it's behind, because I'm so far left.

And I just like punch an eight iron just to get it under the wind. one hops it flies the green one hops hits the wall and comes back and rolls to five feet and I made the par putt for like the best part of my life so I used the wall at any time I could I used the wall more than one occasion to help me out that the the the way that course routes through those walls is one of the coolest elements of touch to a course I've ever seen. I'm obsessed with it.

The whole you're talking about is the 13th where you tee off straight down this fairway and then the green is just on the left side of the wall. You've got to just pitch over a wall to get onto the green. It's incredible. Yeah, one of my probably proudest videos that I've created is with the drone at North America, and it's about to give you an idea of a scenery, but the walls that weave itself through the golf course. And the reason the walls are there

is because it's all boundary lines for farmers and crofters, and they just haven't removed them. They've just built the golf course through them. So it reminds you of the history of the place, but it's a fun to navigate around. And yeah, it's similar to the old course where King's mind's eyes struggled for to sort of sum up in North America

to give it justice. It's one of the coolest spots, I think, in Scotland. And it's popular, it gets a lot of traffic now. I think it's almost became, you know, the most variety of the course is increasing all the time. And it is probably alongside the big names now. But it was only kind of 10 years ago where people knocked it for its quirkiness.

It's certainly quirkie. And quirkies often it's certainly quirkie and quirkies often seen as a negative but in this case I think it's you know absolutely so much fun and one that you should play and it's really quite close to Edinburgh as well it's probably half an hour on the train or you know just over half an hour to get to the Edinburgh airport so an hour to get to the Edinburgh airport. So it's well-located and, yeah, I said, I must play. Yeah, so to me, quirky just means like, just feeling of uncomfortableness standing over a hole.

It's like a 270 yard like non-driveable par four, just a hole that's just kind of, you got like a seven iron off the tee or something like that. I didn't walk away from North Barric saying quirky. I know it's different, but it felt like a course that has matured really well with modern technology and didn't feel like an outdated course in any stretch. I mean, the ninth hole, par five,

is that right? The ninth is a par five? Yeah. One of the best par fives in Scotland or something like that or top 100 par fives in the world. I think our caddy said such a phenomenal hole. And then you come along this, you know, you get a helping win coming down. Like the 12 is another cool par five. And then the 13th is the one where you pitch over the wall. 14 is that the whole it's called perfection, is that right?

Yeah, yeah. And I got, remind me again, how that went place. So I think I get that one in 16 confused. So that was kind of quirky and the fact that you can't really go for the green, there's not really a root onto the green display, only being like 340. So you've got hit, you've got, yeah, of course you did. You have to have six iron and then a wedge on and beautiful backdrop

Perfection obviously at play name perfection and then the following holes the reddan And parts that most copied hole and golf the par three and then the original Yeah, and then you've got 16 which is the Crazy green which you've probably seen photograph. Ashley made up with a great picture of her light in the middle of this crazy green that you'll never see replicated anywhere. And then you might be thinking of 17, which is kind of a longer part for, which has an

elevated green, it was great CVUs, and then you've got 18. So yeah, as I said at the start, when we were talking about North America, I can start remember every shot of that back nine, which I think gets testament to the course. And there was so much like shot value and those holes coming in and that you had so much decision making and true risk reward shots.

So on 14, we had a huge helping win, so Bacon did carry it, I didn't quite make it I miss it. I mean hit a groove low, you know, so but There was so much risk reward and so much like thought that had to go into where you wanted to land it like How to adjust for the wind if I if I lay back here? Do I really want to hit seven iron over this or kind do I want to hit wedge in and I just I was obsessed with that back now.

I thought it was so cool and the houses that surround that property are just multi-multimely and dollar beautiful Scottish houses and right into the other side of you as the sea. I thought it was it was such an unbelievably fun round of golf in a perfect way to cap that leg of the trip. So yeah, that was, that kind of wrapped up the leg with your seven other friends and, and the bus, you have to wave goodbye to the luxury coach at this point you have to, you have to slum it now with a rental car and then you take a crazy, a crazy road trip around Scotland. And so, you know, going back to the planning of that eight person trip, I think the logistics is difficult

when you've got that many people and you've got that many T times in hotel rooms to get. So in that scenario, without somebody like myself to help, then you are maybe looking at a tour operator to just to make everything happen from a logistics point of view. But certainly three, four guys is certainly manageable to do on your own and planet yourself. And now with Instagram and social media, there's so much out there publicly. Just a tweet can get you so much information.

And that's what I'd be saying to everyone listening is reach out to you and to myself and Grail and numerous by co-host and scroll through Instagram locations and see all the pictures of the golf courses and click on the map and see where it is in relation to the airport that you might be flying into. And I really don't see why people are not using the resources out there to plan trips and you know reach out to people like us to help them plan. And yeah, and even, you know, it's as simple as me shooting a question to you saying,

I got to pick between these two, which one I'm going to play one, which one am I doing? And you're like, you know, I'd go here. Like, it's just really helpful stuff. And I just, you know, you hear about all the courses, but you don't know where they are on a map. I go around and I start, if I'm interested in a region, I just start saving golf courses in Google Maps, just give them a star.

And that way I can visualize like, all right, if I'm gonna go play here, I'm gonna wanna play here too. Maybe I'll stay here and blah, blah, blah. And that's just kinda how I've gone about piecing it together. So, but yeah, and that's where, you did the legwork on getting us places to stay and what not, but I thought it was spaced out well.

I mean, if you're going to play in the St. Andrews area, I would just suggest to stay in St. Andrews. You can get to so many places from there. But then, you know, we stayed up in your Cruden Bay. Like, there's so much, and then we'll get to what I did next, was go up and play more in that Aberdeen area. You can stay in Aberdeen, you can stay at Crouton Bay, anywhere in that area, and you can play four really good golf courses within, you know, 30 minutes to an hour of driving, too. So. All right, that's it for part one. Thanks a ton to Roof for coming on. Part two should be out soon.

We're gonna finish up chatting with Roof, and also we are gonna debrief, hopefully with Shane Bacon about that leg of the trip, what he thought of it, and more good stuff to come. Sorry about the length of this, but been a little overdue on podcasts, so hopefully this somewhat makes up for it. Stick around.

This is going to be a huge month of podcasts, and check back soon for part two. Thanks. I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah! That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different?

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