Aaron Rai for Ryder Cup? + The UK's Ultimate 3 Day Golf Trip | Full Program Golf Podcast #35

Episode 35 of the Full Program Golf Podcast - and there’s plenty to get into after a packed Bank Holiday weekend.

We kick things off with a catch up on the last couple of weeks in professional golf, including the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. We discuss the course setup, Aaron Rai’s huge win, whether he’s now a genuine Ryder Cup contender, and our thoughts on the continued changes to the PGA Championship format and identity.

We also touch on the CJ Cup, LIV Golf, and some of the other big talking points from across the golf world.

Then it’s time for another edition of Play 3, Cut 5 - this week focused on US Open venues. From Shinnecock Hills Golf Club to Oakmont Country Club, Pinehurst No. 2 to Pebble Beach Golf Links - which iconic venues survive the cut?

We also debate a brutal golf hypothetical: if you could play every course in the world’s Top 100 exactly once, but never again… would you take the deal?

Plus, we rank four of the UK’s most exclusive golf clubs: The Wisley, Queenwood Golf Club, Beaverbrook Golf Club, and Loch Lomond Golf Club.

To finish, we each build the ultimate 3-day UK golf trip. Josh heads north with an Inverness itinerary featuring Royal Dornoch Golf Club, Castle Stuart Golf Links, Old Petty Golf Club and Nairn Golf Club, while Stevie makes the case for England’s southwest with Saunton Golf Club and Royal North Devon Golf Club.

Transcript

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Welcome back, episode 35 of the Full Programme Golf Podcast with me, Josh Conlon, and as ever, with Stevie Mack in the studio. It's been a beautiful bank holiday weekend here in England. And it got us thinking, where should we go as a good bank holiday break? So we're gonna get into that. Let's do it. Stevie, how are we doing? I'm very well, mate. And for the for the audio listeners, I just want to say to you and describe to them great polo. Yeah, you know, it's just it seemed like the obvious choice, didn't it? The sun is shining. The white needs to come out, but yeah, right back at you. Beautiful. Amen. There was never any doubt. Do you know what? Never any doubt. Of course, we were both going to be in the white today. Now tell me, it's still a very hot day. Are you melting in London or are you okay? It's it's hot. Like it is warm. Don't get me wrong. I like my hair is okay right now. It's probably on the edge of needing a cut. I'm going this afternoon for a little hope of a bit of AC in the barber shop, get it even shorter just to be able to live with the heat. Has that been driven by the heat? Maybe. Have I gone mad? Maybe. We're okay. We're okay. How about you out in the in the sticks? Yeah, out in the sticks is actually a bit cooler. Um and you know, in the countryside, so lots of windows open, a bit of breeze coming across the fields. We we are surviving. So no need to worry about me. Just want to touch on that trim. Um little Turkish number, or you or are you a bit more of an upmarket man when it comes to getting the barnet cropped? So I've got a couple of go-tos, got a couple of go-tos, a couple of um shout-outs actually that I'd like to do uh to the to the guys. I've got the chap's den, Clappen Junction, give them a shout-out for the boys, uh, great establishment. Go there whenever I need to, enjoy it. That's probably the go-to. But when we're moving out towards Richmond and we're out in playing golf, and you want to tie that in with a little haircut, we go to um the gens of Richmond, which is also um as seen in Ted Lasso. It's got all of its things in there, so kind of go there, good stuff. So I would say they're both Turkish barbers, but they're the upmarket side of the Turkish barber. So I've got a nice middle ground there, I think. Yeah, they've both kind of gone down the same Chat GBT name route, I feel like, there. Like the same search engine probably gave them, you know, they both fell into the 10 options that were provided. But love to see it. And do you know what? Ted Lasso. I'm currently watching it, and let me tell you, what an unbelievable programme that is. Series one and two have been slotted. Really enjoy both of them. Halfway through three at the moment, gets a bit weirder in three, but like I'm still enjoying it, I'm still along for the ride. But I don't know what took me so long. It's just easy, straightforward, predictable fan. It's a feel-good, it's a feel-good show, isn't it? I was gonna say feel good film, but it's not film, yeah. Feel-good show, really good. I think it does add to, you know, we spend a lot of time in Richmond, you see a lot of different places. I think that's with anything, you know, whether you're watching golf, whether you're watching a series, whatever it might be, if it's set somewhere you know, it just adds to it, doesn't it? And gives you that little extra little vibe that you're enjoying. But yeah, good show. I'm looking forward to season four. Um, watched it a good few years back, so yeah, it's gonna be fresher for you than it is for me. But uh yeah, it'll be good. We'll enjoy it. Yeah, no, the season four news dropped as we were halfway through season two, so like you can imagine. The we we are excited, very excited, and also I, you know, I'm a big US sports fan, and so like there. There's a couple of little nods and and notes in there which I pick up on when I you know I quite enjoy that. So talking about Richmond, I think you just spent the whole bank holiday in Richmond, didn't you? Um it must have been a hot one out there. Yeah, we had um two of our uh gents spring meetings this weekend at Royal Midsurri, Saturday and Sunday. Uh yeah, it was a hot one. I felt we were actually just saying on the on the pre-pod catch-up that we were having. If you were playing golf from 33 to 34, 35 degree heat in a Spain, Turkey, Portugal, wherever you might be, you'd be expecting buggies, you'd be expecting lots of drinks, huts, cold towels, ice all over the place. And and everyone's clamoring for like the half-seven tea time. But uh no, no, no, not here. I had hopefully a couple of 10 past ten tea times, which was okay. But yeah, when it when it hit the back nine, certainly the middle of the back nine, it really felt like the oven doors had just been been opened up right in your face. So uh it was a hot one. The golf was solid enough, wasn't great. We had a couple of good runners and riders from the boys, um, some good, good, um good performances. But yeah, just a great, great bank holiday fun on the patio. How about you? You've been nursing a bad back on. Yeah, yeah. So so I was in I was in Spain last week and we're we're parking the Spain chop-up because uh you're actually heading there uh in the not too distant future, and so we're gonna have a bit of a you know, you played here, I played there. We've got some overlap, we've got some that aren't. So that's gonna be a really good episode next up. But yeah, in Spain, and always had a bit of a back niggle for you know, back in my cricketing days, I remember 16, I think the first time I did it, and it was always just like a dull pain, and it was manageable and it was fine, and it was a bit crap in the morning, but like you know, we moved. Um, but I had like my first ever like full back spasm on the 14th hole at LaCala Golf Club uh last Sunday, and and had to stop playing, which was the first first for me. I've never walked off in anger and I've never walked off in injury uh until until then. So not ideal at 32, not really where you want to be. Um, but we are trying to look after it. Um but yeah, slightly concerning, but I cancelled all my plans over the bank holiday weekend because I was just like, no, it's gonna be too hot, my back hurts too much, I need to look after it, I'm gonna stay at home, I'm gonna do my stretches, you know, get back on track after what was quite a heavy week, to be fair in Spain. And then Monday came around, and I was just like, Do you know what? It's feeling alright. My mate goes to me, Do you fancy a game? And I was just like, Yeah, I I think I think I just have to play once. And even if I only play half the holes, like, you know, I'll go out with a trolley, it should be okay. And funnily enough, not to bore everyone to tears about back issues, it's sitting in carts, buggies that really, really mess it up. It's that, you know, quite violent movement sitting down, violent movement sitting down. That is what really makes it awful. And so actually, walking around with a trolley yesterday was absolutely fine. And I just wanted to ask you a question on conditioning, because I I I think you know, May in the UK certainly is like peak, peak course conditioning because you've kind of got the rains of April, then you start getting a bit of sun, everything's green, everything's lush, nothing's burnt out. How do you find conditions out there? Because I mean Stonemarket Golf Club, which is not necessarily a club to report home about, but it's just a local one to me at the moment, was just in great nick yesterday. Yeah, RMS was in in good nick. Greens were really true. Um I wouldn't say light and quick, but deceptive, you know, quite spongy and and receptive, but then were quick enough, running nicely. Um, I would say the course is in good nick. I think part of that is to do with this new greenkeeper that we've got in, um, who's about eight, nine months into the job, so he's not that new, but we keep saying new given the last one was there for 15, 20 years or whatever it was. Um, I would say it was in Good Nick, like happy with what was provided to us, what was um displayed to us. And I would say that if they kept it like that from April to September, October, we'd be a happy membership group. 100%. And we had other people out kind of like Hankley Common and different places like that over the weekend and all of it just looking absolutely superb at the moment. Um, all right. Well, as I was away last week, we didn't get a chance to catch up, and obviously um that was post-PGA champ, second major of the year. So wanted to dive into that. I know we're a week late, but yeah, I just wanted to throw throw the bone to you to start with. What were your initial thoughts post uh PGA Championship? Aaron What Aaron Rye, if anyone's backed him, well done, good effort. That is uh a real left field one. You know, a couple of years ago, might even have been last year, it was a couple of people's we do the sweep state that we've spoken about before where you pick um player in worlds one to ten on data golf, 11 to 25. I think it's been amended to might be 11 to 20, 21 to 40, and then 41 plus. And uh Aaron Rye kept cropping up in a few people's um 41 plus category on data golf. I think he had a decent run at the players last year, if I'm right in thinking. He was there about sort of top 10, top 15. Um but he's had a really poor season. Um you know, he's not been anywhere really. I think he's missed quite a few cuts, or he's certainly not been finishing um and been shown on the screens. So for him to come through and actually the bottle that he's shown, I thought it was a solid bottle. You know, he just kept driving forwards. He hit that great bunker shot on the the 13th, I think it was that short path three, uh short path four, the bottle to go for it, had the bottle to to take that bunker shot on rather than leaving it 10, 12, 15 feet short and safe and having a bit more of a run, and ultimately ran out comfortably in the end to what would be a very surprising winner. Yeah, it was um the the leaderboard was obviously very bunched, and that was a discussion point two of the week. I think it had something like an 83% par make percentage on like the course as a as a whole, which was maybe 7%, I think it was higher than your tour average. And they're basically saying that these pins are tucked, the greens are really difficult, and so everyone was just playing to the middle, taking par, moving on. And so as a result, there just weren't these huge kind of scoring swings. And so we go into the final day with a huge bunch of people who were potentially uh gonna get the job done. And he just played unbelievable on that back nine, didn't he? And you know, 65 final round. He he looks like the kind of guy that if he is in contention, it doesn't look like it's gonna overly bother him. Like I actually this morning just went back and watched like his post-winning press conference that he did for 20 odd minutes or so, and he's he's very even keel. Like, as in I can't imagine, and it was actually a point I was gonna throw to you, like when talking about potential rider cup player. Like, how how do you feel about that kind of character potentially being in your squad? Is it is it a good thing at a home Ryder Cup to just have someone who is literally just like flat line when it comes to emotion? I think so. I think you have to have your emotional people. I think a lot of these guys raise their games because of the emotion, but some can't. You know, you look at both the Hoygaard brothers, they've they've been poor, it's fair to say, in the in the last round of cups, because they couldn't handle their emotions. But you look at like a JJ Spawn, who you'd argue is almost a similar type of profile in the US team, very good driver of the ball, good putter, pretty calm, albeit he showed a little bit more emotion than Aaron Rye did when he won his major last year. But he was an asset, he was great in the Forsums, he won his singles point because he's just gonna hang around. I think rather than emotion, it will depend on the course. I think Aaron Rye is showing that he's uh pretty solid on tough tracks, you know, he's gonna hit fair ways, he's gonna put the ball in play, he can hold some putts. I I again this is from a less than um expert opinion. I don't know what he would do if Adair Manor is set up to be a birdie fest. I don't know. Like I don't know if it's a it's gonna be a bomb and gouge. It'll be interesting to see what the rest of the team is as to whether Luke Donald decides, yeah, we want this to just be hit it, hit it as far as you can, go from there, or whether it's gonna be more of a let's make it tight, as as typically Europeans have done. Let's make it tight, let's make it hard, let's make it firm, we'll go from there. Because we we dominated Beth Page when it was just hit it anywhere and make it a putting contest. Be very interested to see who makes that team, and and I think that will be more impactful than how emotional everyone's getting. Yeah, 100%. And you would think that once Donald has an idea of how his team's shaping up, then he will make that final decision on core setup and and kind of tailor it. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see if he kicks on because uh this certainly at this moment in time I feel has the potential to be the who won the 2026 PGA Championship kind of vibe. Uh, and so it'll be interesting if if it you know pours in some confidence to the game and he kicks on with some more wins because obviously Ryder Cup is next year, September, so like there's a lot of time to go, and I don't think winning this tournament now solidifies his spot by any stretch of the imagination. Um, talking about crazy calls, when we put the prediction video out, um, a load of people waded in with their thoughts, and someone did comment with um Smalley, and I I literally was just like through to three days. I was like, that would be an all-time shout. It would be, it would have been sensational. Glad he didn't win. Nothing against Alex Smalley, but just not who I'm rooting for. Same with Schmidt. Like, cool, well done, great week for you. Don't want you to win. Just yeah, I mean, obviously, I wanted Rose to win. That's my guy. Had a great Saturday, but he I just never felt again, just he he wasn't quite there for two days. He got himself in, had a good Saturday. He's got a backdoor, what, top 20, I think it might be, something like that. Never felt like he was in it. I thought Rom was actually going to be the one who would just steamroll through, and I wouldn't have hated it. I know there'd be a lot of people who wouldn't have liked to have seen him win, but I like Rom and he certainly falls into the other category of very emotional. Yes, indeed. And you know, and I think you can connect with that, which is great. So uh two final questions on on PGA for me, uh, from me to you. Course thoughts generally when you strip it back, um, and then PGA championship and just general feelings. There's a lot of chat this week or last week about potential changes going forward. Just keen for your thoughts on on those. I thought it looked great, Eronoming. I really did. I um I know we're accustomed to the US Open being the tournament where they're all battling to break par and one under level par is a good score. I enjoy those tournaments because there aren't enough of them, in my opinion. So I thought they set the course up great. I think they listened to the players too moaning too much for Saturday, made it a lot easier. I'd have rather it had just been continue to beat everyone up. It was good a good watch, in my opinion. Um, I don't like just you turn the TV on and you just watch a field of people hitting putts, which essentially is what the majority of the PGA Tour events are are becoming nowadays. I like to actually see them in trouble, they're having to use their you know, I think about the 11th. The 11th hole, especially when the pin was at the back, you could use the backstop, spin it back, and you there was someone like Dan Brown, our boy, he's you know, he's he's made two there, I think, on the Thursday or the Friday. Um, but you get it wrong and you go long, and you look at K Chris Gotterup, who had a good week, DeChambeau had a stinker, they go long, you can't even hold the green. I love that. I want I want to see more of that. So I thought the course was excellent. Uh I can see why it's uh held big events in the past, will continue to hold big big events, and it sits in that uh Philadelphia just dream list of courses that are around there, like within however many miles it might be. But when that graphic came on the screen, um so I really enjoyed that. I think the PGA Championship in and of itself is it doesn't have an identity at the moment, but I always felt like when it was sat in August and it was always coined as Glory's last shot, that it had an identity. It was the last time in the year for someone to nab themselves a major. You could have storylines where we've not seen it, but our players going on for a grand slam, or they're going for the second, third majors of the year. That in itself would be a storyline that the PGA could run with. Glory's last shot for me is where it should be. Sitting in May as just another, almost feels like just another elevated event, doesn't quite give it the gravitas that I think it should have as a major. So I think it's a shame. Yeah, I completely agree with you. Um it it's kind of just lost, lost in the kind of blur of this very packed part of the season. And even you think of like Speith, who's going for the Grand Slam with the PGA, that just doesn't really seem to really hold any weight amongst the other stories that are going on each year, which I think is a shame. Like that basically that was the storyline at the Masters for a decade, wasn't it? Like that's just what we had to listen to at Sky Sports. Where I feel like it's just yeah, I agree with you. I think I think they've got to push it back. Any thought on the match play stuff that was being mentioned? I mean, I'd love it. I mean, originally it was, wasn't it? You know, I think I think I think there is a place on the golfing calendar for the match play, for the world match play tournament. I loved that. I thought it was a fantastic viewing week, especially when it was at Austin Country Club. I thought it was great. When it was in Tucson as well, it was fantastic. You know, it was just a great event, and it had some great winners. Um, you know, I still remember Victor de Buis on making up and down out of the cactuses like back-to-back holes against Jason Day. I know he ended up losing, but you know, you remember all these moments, and I and I think I don't think it should be a major. I don't think that um I think firstly it needs to have an event on tour that is a match play before you can start thinking that the major's gonna be a match play as well, would be my personal opinion. But I can see the arguments for it. I think we'd see a real difference in who becomes major champions. Suddenly your Sam Burns and uh your Polters back in the day might have been fancying themselves as a multiple major winner, um, and that would have been interesting to have seen. I I personally don't think that the PGA should be a match play yet, but I do think, as I said, we should have a match play tournament sometime in the calendar. Yeah, I agree, and and I quite like the hybrid approach where you'd play, I don't know, two stroke play rounds, and then you take your top 16 or 32 or whatever, and then go into a match play. Like if that solves the problem, then that's fine by me. Like I agree with you. Some of the great memories are from the Dell match play stuff back in the day. Um, so yeah, it'll be interesting. But yeah, I think uh above everything, PJ needs to go back to August. It needs to be Glory's last chance because at the moment, it's lost, and and it is a shame because it is a major, arguably it's got the best trophy. Like, if if you know, no meaning attached to it. I mean, I would say that that might be right at the top of the one you'd want on your mantelpiece just from a visual standpoint. But a great win for Aaron Wright, very out of left field, an English winner. We've got to be got to be happy with that, and uh yeah, it'll be interesting to see how he kicks on. You mentioned that you like it set up hard and how so many weeks are just absolute scoring fests. This week just gone the CJ Cup was just a bloodbath of birdies, wasn't it? Am I right in thinking that this TPC Craig Ranch is where they're hosting the next to PGA championship as well? Uh I'm not sure. I'll do it. Yeah, have a little look whilst I'm having because if that is the case, it's going to go down as one of the worst tournaments moving forward. I think the golf course is is bang average. It's just a bang average resort course, really. PJ Frisco goes to next. Um so no, no, we're we're safe. And then it goes Olympic club, so uh 28 is gonna be a great one. Right, okay. Because I was worried, I was worried, I thought that I'd seen that uh it was moving moving moving to I knew it was going to Tesco uh Tesco, Texas, because uh Richard Pikman had said that he was gonna play in his home state next year. Um I I think it's poor, I think it's a I think it's a crap track for all of the great golf courses that the states have, every different state of the United States has good golf courses. To think that that is the one you choose, you know, I know it's a sponsors thing and what have you. But two guys shot 60, like it just loses its crack if it's that it's it's not easy to shoot 60, but if it's gonna be done that often, well it's not really a target, is it? I mean, I cast my eye down the leaderboard, and you know, the vast majority of the people in the top 20 all shot in the 60s all four rounds. Like, yeah, like I said, these tournaments, these tournaments that go to TPC, whatever, like I'm not I'm not massively subscribed to them, to be honest. No, it it's not a great watch. I think they were I think they got a good leaderboard, you know. I w I caught some of it yesterday. Um sorry, Sunday evening. It feels like it was yesterday, given we're we're here on a Tuesday, bank holiday. Um Wyndham Clark played great, really good for his season because he's he's Been struggling. I saw that he was 133rd strokes gained putting for the season, and that week, last week, he was first. Just shows that you put for Doe. Um, that old that age old saying. I thought he was a decent, decent leaderboard. You know, you got Shefflers up there, Sewood Kim was there or thereabouts. Kepka was leading at one point after the first day. But it was an it's it's a nothing tournament. I think it is pointless, whatever. Thanks for coming. Be interesting to see. Um, so Chris Kim, English lad, got got a sponsored invite. He's sponsored by CJ. Um, and he played, I want to say US Open when he was like 14, something like that. He's a surrey lad. Um, I think he's at Wellington College or was at Wellington College, not sure how old he is now. Um looks like got a really good goal swing. He's probably our hottest up and comer um from the UK scene. So good to see him play, looked solid, didn't look out of place. So I thought that was a little wrinkle to keep an eye on, but um, yeah, like you said, a bit of a a bit of a nothing week, wasn't it? Yeah, it really was. Anything else from the last two weeks? I know you like to take us sometimes around the DP World Tour and other other spots. I'm looking forward to this week's DP World Tour, I have to say. It's in Kitts Buell. Um, I only ever seen it with snow on the mountains, great skiing venue. Um, I remember Tristan Lawrence won last year. He beat uh Matt Fitzpatrick, beat out Matt Fitzpatrick in the last group to I don't know, Francis, yeah, uh Francis Montana. Um but I love it when they go into the mountains and they play the sort of the mountain golf and some of those courses that are in incredible Nick, given that they are completely under snow for six, seven months of the year as well. So that's that's gonna be a um a good event to to keep your eye on. Also, I think one of the things we've got to call out that's just happened, Walton Heath, 36 hole US Open qualifying. Appreciate this US Open qualifying everywhere. Uh if I touched on some of the others, Graham McDowell back in the US Open, um, alongside Caleb Surratt in from the the Texas, I think it was the Dallas uh US Open qualifying. So a couple of a couple of live names there, and great I like McDowell, always like McDowell. Um so good to see him back there. But then if I yeah, touch on Walton Heath. You've got I went there last year, wasn't wasn't able to get down this year, but one of the groups was Tristan Lawrence, Thomas Dietree, and another. You've got like ten people walking with them. Like if you want to go and actually see these guys up close and personal, with without the the crowds and being able to really smell the fear, smell the birdies, get yourself down there next year. It's a phenomenal day. Um they play the old and the new, the new and the old, depends on where they are uh set up. And um great to see a friend of the pod who we've spoken with Truman before. He's uh coaching Nathan Kimsey. Huge shout out. Kimsey went and won the US Open qualifying, shooting four under on the old, and then just taking part the new with a 10 under to just cruise at home. 14 under, he's going to the US Open. Bit of a shout out to Truman. Last year he wasn't on the bag, they didn't get through. This year he's on the bag going to the US Open. Should he cash in the coaching gig and start being a caddy? Who knows? You know, who knows? But yeah, just wanted to wanted to give a little shout out there because I think that's a phenomenal performance and um well worth going to if you get a chance next year. Yeah, yeah, no, I I I think there are there's certain little days like that that if you actually just are wanting that really personal top-tier golfing experience, US qualifier, um, open qualifier stuff, I think is an amazing shout because they go to really, really great regional golf courses. And like you said, especially now with Live Golf, you you have some really quite significant names playing in them. Another one as a little one for people to think about is um it's normally the Sunday before, maybe it's the Saturday before the open in the UK, and I assume it'd be similar for other tournaments, but certainly when it goes to St Andrews, which is obviously in the town, and you can access the course very easily, it might be slightly more difficult when I think about it at other places. But if you were in St Andrews the Saturday before the open starts on the Thursday, they have no ropes out, they have no stewards out, and so you literally can just walk the golf course with whoever's practicing. And because it's a major and it's St. Andrews, lots of people do get in early. And so many years ago, like literally walked up 18 just chatting to Tom Watson and his caddy, and just you know, the next day, stewards are all out, ropes are all up, like you can get anywhere near it. So there are just these days that um that yeah, if you really want to get close and personal, um, you can. Great win for Kimsey. I am gonna be at Shinnekok, so I'm actually really looking forward to uh yeah, giving giving Truman a giving Truman a shout and two two FPG boys, I suppose, will call us, um walking walking the fairways of Shinnekok Golf Club, which uh I'm really looking forward to to seeing. We're gonna swing back to Shinnakock in a minute, but mentioned live there. We haven't really got a chance to chop up what Earth's been going on. Obviously, Piff pulled their funding at the end of this year, which came pretty out of left field, is what I'm getting from all the players and everyone that kind of gives interviews on it. Like, certainly a surprise. The chat is is they're gonna go find more money. I think they need 250 mil, something like that. I mean, if you you look at the numbers that have been published on the amount they've lost, etc. etc. I can't imagine it's an overly appetising business to get involved with, but uh yeah, just keep your initial thoughts on the news. Yeah, the initial feeling is if they got 250 million, they might still be able to operate, but they're not gonna have the purses that the elite players who have gone to live for and taken the risk for will stay for. So whilst they may have a tour, it will not be anything like the tour they've got now with the names that they've got, because they're not gonna pay them enough. And we've we've seen that these guys are mercenaries who are on the live live tour. And fair enough, you've you've got to go, you've got to take the money. Absolutely you do. But they're gonna stay if the money isn't there. Um, so yes, they might raise 250 mil. I mean, it's a lot of money for a essentially a business that is losing so much money. You know, if that was any other business, you'd be looking at who's gonna buy that. It's just failing. Um so I think that's gonna be difficult. I think that they've had to make those noises of well, we're gonna raise money, we're gonna do that, because they still have these events, you know, careers starting in a couple of days and they're all out there. Um I I think if Liv is still around, it will be a very, very different tour to what we know Live as right now. Um you know, you look at John Rahm, one of its well, if anything, it's poster boy, certainly in Europe. I I appreciate some like say DeChambeau's the poster boy overall. Rahm's already made an agreement with DP World Tour. He's paying his fine, he's committed to five events, I think it is, for the Ranger of this year. They've only given him um dispensation to go and play live events for the rest of this year. For me, that translates to you're coming back there for next year. He won't be on live next year. That's a massive loss. He's been their individual winner the last two years. He's leading it again this year. He is the biggest money earner on that tour. It's going to be really interesting. I think it will, as I said, I think it will hang around, but I don't think it'll be anything like. And I think any of the big main players who are self-respecting are going to be searching and looking to play other tours. I don't buy into the absolute crap of I don't want to play the PGA tour anyway, I'm going to do other things. Absolute bollocks. I'm sorry. You you've grown up as a professional golfer. You grow up as a golfer to become a professional golfer and compete against the best and uh be as successful as you can be. And ultimately, it's going to go back to that the PGA tour is going to be the biggest tour in the world, no matter what people say now. With the biggest prize films, with the biggest world ranking points, biggest fields, best players. So DeShambo to come out and say, I don't know if I'm just going to focus on my YouTube and social media and all that, is it's for me it's bollocks. It's it's it's someone who is trying to get the best deal they can by not presenting their hand. And I get that, you know. So you should do it. If he comes out and he says, I'm gasping to play PGA Tour, well, the PJ Tour are gonna give him the biggest fine and they're not gonna concede on anything. So I can understand that. Um but it's gonna be very interesting, and I I I feel more I don't feel for, but I'm interested more to see the guys who don't have status, maybe even the up-and-coming guys who have taken a risk on live. Um, you know, you look at the um Lasasso, who's just gone there, you look at Elvis Smiley, these guys who have Laurie Cantor, who's given up his PGA Tour status, and then you start looking at your Mark Leishman and a few of these other guys who are they a big enough pole for the PGA Tour to welcome them back? Who knows? Maybe not. Where will they play their golf? Will they be playing Asia Tour? Gonna be interesting. Yeah, super interesting. And and like you said, uh you kind of alluded to like almost different pockets of players, and they're all gonna have their own different story. And I think there are there are a lot of kind of sub-stories to it. You gotta think the Brooks Ketchers and the Patrick Reeds of the world are literally laughing somewhere, you know, deep into their belly about what's happening. Um, but you'd imagine the top tiers will find a pretty accelerated path back to the PGA tour. Um, I think the DP World Tour will get an enormous boost uh for the next 12 months at least, probably 24, when you just kind of spread it out like the the 10 promotion places, not this season but next season, I'd imagine will be like electric. Like those 10 players will be the probably the strongest crop that will ever be fed into the PJ tour. So that'll be good to see. But then you've got the likes of Poulter and Westwood, who are now in their 50s, and you know, the Champions Tour is just such an easy like program on the Thursday, couple of rounds, clip it round, earn decent money, and kind of keep it ticking over sort of situation. Have they jeopardised that completely now? Um, I don't know that much about the Europe. Uh the is it is it the senior DP World Tour? I don't even know what it's called, but like I you don't see as much from that, and so I can't imagine that's anywhere near as lucrative or as cushy as the as the champions tour over in America. So yeah, and then and then then the younger guys, like there's and obviously great talents, great potential, but how uh where you know, are they gonna go back to like third-tier US stuff and work up from there? Like, there's there are there are lots of really interesting things, and I think live is dead, like if it does continue, like you said, it'll continue in a aggressively watered down state and will ultimately fold because you know it won't be making any money, and I don't think it fits into the structure of the global tours. And so, like, how long will it take to shake out? Like, it'd be interesting if we're having a conversation in five years and we're like, okay, like let's review like how did that crop of however many players they've had they have 60 or whatever, and like what what happens to them all? Yeah, I and actually just whilst whilst you were speaking, the the guy who came to mind as to who's burnt the most bridges, so where will he end up is actually a guy who's not really playing golf this year. Don't know what's happening with Nicholson. Uh, you know, he he left with a lot to say, and some of it actually was was pretty valid. I think it's interesting to find the PJ Tor have managed to increase their purses, so he wasn't wholly wrong. Um hope everything's okay in the Mickelson household, though, as we do with with everyone who's competing out there, who's had to pull out of quite a few things. Um, it's it's always a little bit um cloak and dagger, quite under you know, there's not really been reasons provided, so we hope everything's okay. Um, but yeah, it's gonna be really interesting to see where he ends up because again, another guy who is post-50 could play Champions Tour. Will they welcome him back? Who knows? It's gonna be a really interesting one. Yeah, and you mentioned about I mean the reality of it is is for a player on the PGA tour, the live thing has actually had a very positive effect, and so the game is gonna be a bit in a better place as a result of all this um rubbish once it's once it's done. I can't imagine Mickelson's gonna go ply his trade 20 times a year on the DP World Tour. So, yeah, that will be interesting to see um see where he ends up. Um, I'm gonna use Mickelson as a nice little segue into a question. So, you know, we've touched on the PGA championship, we've had two majors now. Next major up is the US Open, which comes pretty thick and fast in about three weeks' time. Mickelson obviously fell short in in a good number of US opens and never got that grand slam done. Um, but I was just looking through like the host venues that are coming up and obviously some very iconic golf courses. Um I don't believe you'd have played any of them. So you're coming at at this from a very like neutral position. But I wanted to play a little play three, cut five with you, if that's alright. So I'm gonna I'm gonna list you eight US open venues, either upcoming or recently pass. You don't know what order they're coming in, and you've got a play three, but you've got cut five.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Yeah. So I'll start you off with this year's venue, Shinnicok Hills. I play. I'm coming straight out of the gate with a play. Hard to get on, well, almost impossible to get on. Looks mega. Uh really excited for it. I'm gonna straight out the gate, no safe plays, that's in. One. Love it. Yeah, I'm I cannot wait to get on turf at Shinnakock, like I said. The chances of playing that golf course are very, very, very slim. And so just to be able to walk around it, I'm gonna absolutely detonate myself in the merch tent as well. I'm gonna be just tip to toe in US open gear, which I'm gonna really enjoy. Okay, second course. We are gonna go to a historic course, isn't on the current rotor going forward, but Tory Pines. Ooh. For the opposite reason of Shinikok, pretty playable. You can get on there. Um now I'm I'm expecting there to be a couple of other playable ones that maybe fall higher up in my want-to-play list than Torrey Pine, so I'm gonna give that a cut. Okay, yeah, I think I think that's a valid cut. We're gonna go straight to another public course. Pine nurse number two. It's right on the cust. It's one that I would like. I I would like needless to say, I'd like to play them all. Okay, let's just be really frank and honest. I am going to say cut. The reason I'm going to say cut is because I would like to play Pinehurst alongside then a bit of Harbour Town, a bit of Kiawh, and a bit of that sort of vibe and create a trip out of it with the boys than just Pinehurst. So I'm gonna say cut. Okay, cool. I think I'm aligned thus far. So we're gonna go head back to private now. L A C C.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Ooh, you're teasing me now.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Cut. Cut, not seen enough of it. Looks looks great. Uh people that have played it wouldn't even say it's the best in the area. You know, you've got your Rivieris, your Belairs, a couple of others. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go off other people's opinion, given I've not known enough. I'm gonna go cut. Okay, so still still two positions open. Next we will go to the to the Wicker Baskets of Merion. It's just in Rose territory, isn't it? It's just in Rose Haven. I love the Wicker Basket. I really do love the Wicker Basket. It just doesn't shout to me. I'd love to play it. I think it'd be brilliant, but I'm gonna have to say cut. Okay. By the way, just before yeah, three more. There's there's one that I'm expecting that is definitely an in. I'm not gonna say which it is, but if you go up next, you might help me, but who know? Okay, three left, one cut, two plays to come, and we're gonna go back to the northeast.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

We're gonna go to Wingfoot.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

One of our good friends, Oscar, has played it. He raved about it. He loved what a logo. Meredith's also great. There's some unreal logos through these, to be fair. There are some great logos. I'm gonna say cut and I'm gonna sit and just take the last two, and we're just gonna show you. Alright, which order am I gonna give it to you? Okay. Give me the one I want. Give me the one I want. So Pebble Beach is uh Is that is that what you wanted? That's what I wanted. That's I know it's I know it's public, I know I could play it, but it just looks phenomenal. I want to play it. Don't know what this last one's gonna be. 100%. It's it's the St. Andrews of the US Open rotor. Like, yeah, have you seen the new Cypress tree that they put in on 18, by the way? Yes, I have. Like, that's mega. Yeah, I like it. I really like it. Back to what it used to be. Great stuff. Yeah, it's it's right up there in probably top five courses I want to play, like gasping to get on. I know we can play it, and I appreciate that some people might shout at that, but yeah, if someone offered me that round, I'd be so excited, it'd be amazing. 100%. Like it's got it's gotta be in the top three. It's it's number one as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. Uh, and then your final one, which any guesses? US Open Tracks. Yeah. Recent host. Uh recent host of the US Congressional.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Is that Hell One?

SPEAKER_00 40:40

I thought about adding that into the list because I know we've had some chats about Congressional uh with someone we know. But uh no, so your your third play is Oakmont. Happy with that. Happy with that. You know, we've got some we've got some great we have some great chat about Oakmont in the uh with the boys. Uh another hard course to play. Um yeah, I'm happy with that. If it had come earlier, would it have been an automatic yes? Maybe not. I don't know. I feel like it's in a similar camp to a Winged Foot Amerion. I feel like they're all in that sort of same band, but would be very excited nevertheless. Okay, so so let's just let's just put this to bed. If if you had the full list in front of you, what would your three plays be? I feel like Shinnikok and Pebble are obvious and they'd go in there 100%. What would the third have been? I I think it would be Oakmont. I think it would be. Um so pretty happy with how that's shaken out. I just think it's closer to the grouping of the others that you know, as I mentioned, your your Merians and your uh winged foots. But no, I I would I'd go with Oakmont. I think it's it's got the iconic bunkers. I've seen a bit more of it in recent years. There's a bit more history that's happened there, even with DJ winning. So yeah, I'd go with that. Happy with that. Love it. Things all worked out perfectly. So now I'm gonna segue into another question because a lot of those golf courses are world top 100 courses. Um, a lot of them are private, you know, you'd be very lucky if you do get the chance to play them in your lifetime. So I saw Golf Digest put this question out. I thought it was a really good one. So you get to play all of the world top 100 golf courses once, but then never again. Would you take the deal? So you play all of the world's top 100 courses once, but but you can still play elsewhere, yeah? Play anywhere else as many times as you like, but you just get to play the top 100 once and it's done. Oh, I think that's a really easy answer of yes. I think there's not going to be many of us that are gonna play the world's top 100 more a course more than once. You know, there's not many of us that I'm certainly not a member of a course that is in the top 100, so it wouldn't impact my life from there. There's a lot of courses that I've played once. You know, the cost of golf is is going up. It's it's an expensive hobby, um, might not get back to. And there's a lot of courses in that top 100 you can't get to. So being able to just access those the once is it would be a real privilege. So, yes, easy, easy answer would 100% do that, and I'd go and play some golf in the millions of phenomenal golf courses that don't manage to get in that top 100. And you know what? I'd be keeping an eye on that ranking for one or two that just dropped out, just walked out of there and banged straight into there. Yeah, I I think it's a super easy yes. Like if you were a member of Sunningdale or somewhere like that, and it was going to significantly shift how you operate week to week, then yes, I I certainly would consider that. But like a hundred golf courses, let's just say you played three a year, like that stretches you out over a vast period of your life. And I think I put it on our story, and I was just like, Yeah, I'd played to 100, and then I'd just like die happy playing somewhere like Hillside a million times, which is a fantastic course just on just on the edge. So, yeah, I I agree. With that. And then I just wanted to conclude some ranking staff. So I was chatting to a friend who just played Queenwoods, and we've had various conversations with other people about the private golf clubs in the UK. So, you know, we've touched on the US Open venues, it's a much bigger thing in America, but in the UK, you really don't get that many. And I think the most prominent set, there are a couple extras on the edge, but the most prominent set are Queenwoods, Beaverbrook, Wesley, Wentworth. I'm going to actually throw in as well. Um, and then Loch Loman up in Scotland. So we've got five private clubs. Have you played the West at Wentworth? Yeah. Perfect. Okay. So my question to you is of the five private clubs in the UK, how do you rank them and why? It's a great question. Yeah, been very lucky to have played all five. Um I think it's quite an easy unfortunately it's quite an easy one in five. It's Beaver Brook. Uh it's the newest, and you can see that in the in the golf course. You know, if it if they cut their rough down, it it feels a little bit like a field. It's and it's and it's lot it lost its um conditioning, didn't it, last year? And they've had to do a lot of work with that. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it looks fantastic now, and they've done a great work. The vibe's lovely, it's good spot. Just having you know, having played the others, I think that's the weakest golf course out of the uh the five we're talking to. So it's a pretty easy, pretty easy answer for me with that one. Um moving into number four, I'm gonna go the Whisley. Three nines. Great logo. Um Beaverbrook's got a good logo. It's funny that all of these really have have a good logo, you would you would say, which I think is is part and parcel of being a top private members club. You've got to have a good logo. Um solid, solid golf course. Really enjoy it. Like the practice facilities are phenomenal, as are Beaverbrooks, as are Wentworths, as our Lot Lomans, as our Queenwood. So like that's not a differentiator, it's just straight down on golf. Um Clubhouse is nice, the food is sensational actually in the Wisley Clubhouse. Three nines, which is good. I think it elevates it above Beaverbrook. And I actually think that even if it only had two of the nines, whichever one it was, they'd be ahead of Beaverbrook, but not quite the same level as the others on the list. And now this is where it gets a little bit tougher. I think these three are all magnificent uh properties. Um I'm gonna go in number three. I'm gonna go Wentworth. And the reason I'm doing that is it nearly moved up because it's got three courses, and I think that that is absolutely something you have to consider if you were looking at this being your club because you can have some nice variation. You know, the East Course and the Edinburgh courses are meant to be pretty solid. Having not played them, I I can't if I thought they were really good, maybe that would have pushed it a little bit higher. Um losing the course for probably two, three weeks a year when they're doing the BMW PGA would be a bit of a pain. Um, so probably actually brings it down a smidge. And if you were looking for a private member's course at a club where you could play where you want to be, I'm sure people flood in and say, No, we get access to all these other courses those weeks, so great, cool. Um but iconic clubhouse, I just think it misses the uh added uh level of uh prestige that the other two have, and just uh it feels different when you walk into Queenwood and Lot Loman than it does in Towentworth. So that's the reason I'm going for that. Number two, I'm going Queenwood. Uh was fantastic, loved it, thought it was brilliant. Um it had absolutely pissed it down a couple of days before, and so it it was it was still pristine Nick, but they'd had to drop sand all over everywhere, basically. So it wasn't like one of you, you know, as I'm sat here now looking outside at a 34-degree day's weather in May, it wasn't a day like that. Um very quiet, very uh, you know, felt like it was your own private club, which I know is exactly the vibe it's going for. So if you like that, you achieved that at Queenwood. Great locker room, great, great facilities all around. But what I think it missed was what Loch Loman has, which was the added bit of crack that comes with it feeling private. And I think Loch Lomond is one of those special places in golf that if you ever get a chance to go to, you have to take it. Um, we were lucky enough to be staying on site, so we stayed on the Loch Loman property. Again, I don't think Queen would have that facility. Uh I could be completely wrong, so again, don't bite my head off if it's suddenly that that's the case. Staying on property, you know, you get a tumbler of Loch Loman whiskey as part of your with you. Like when you stay, you arrive and you get a little nip of whiskey. Um, you know, you get sort of you ferry through Willie in the um in the locker room is just part of the furniture. He's a great bloke, he knows Loch Loman inside out. He remembers your drinks order two days later, even after he's seen multiple people. The locker room has this private like sophisticated feel, but also has then like Sky Sports is on and it's relaxed and it's sort of lay back and have some beers, have you know, enjoy your tenants in Scotland, aren't you? Enjoy whatever you're having, watch the football, just just relax. Great restaurant on site, uh and a golf course. Again, being able to compare it to Queenwood because no shock here, it had rained quite significantly the day before up in uh up in Scotland. Uh, and and it actually rained a little bit on and off the course. We were lucky enough to play it twice. It's just magic, it really is just magic. You've got you know, you've got the lock, obviously, hence what it's named from, but then you also you've got right in amongst the the pines, the trees are up there, it's a beautiful scenery. I think you're hard-pressed to find anywhere as as magical as that, and I don't think there is anywhere as magical as that on in the UK. I think you're gonna find a couple over in the States and in other areas, and you know, you've got your your Tara Eetis as well if you start going down to um to New Zealand, but yeah, I can't. I could I could continue to wax local about Loch Loman for a long, long time, and so it has to be number one. But I think it's a great question. Nice, yeah. No, that's very, very interesting. I I would have guessed Queenwood would come out on top. So uh so yeah, that I mean that really does speak, I think, to to Loch Lohman's facility and overall experience. Thought just an interesting fact for for those listening. So Beaverbrook doesn't have any professionals that practice out of there, um unlike Queenwood, where they have they have numerous and Wesley and and Wentworth for that matter. Um and the main reason apparently is the range is on quite a severe has quite a severe slope. And so the pros don't want to practice because it messes their track band data up. Wow. And the first goes down the is if you miss the first right, it's out of boundary on the ranges, and it's yeah, it all sort of squires around the bottom. So it makes sense, but interesting. They need to address that because I'm sure they want some pros. Yeah, yeah, they I I think they kind of sit on the fence a little bit. I mean, ultimately that range is not going to change, so I think that just might be might be the case. But um, and then as you mentioned, um unbelievable logos, and I just thought this would be funny to mention. So I had a meeting last week with uh Gulf Island, and I sat down with them and I went, look, hear me out, lads. Because they were like, we need to get people going to like not the massive courses in Ireland, like that's one of their goals. It's like there's more courses than just bally bunny in a hinge, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so we're having a conversation about that. And I was just like, Well, a good starting point would be going to somewhere like Ennis Crone and going, your logo is rubbish, please change it. Yeah, facts. So you'll be happy to hear that message has been very forcefully passed on to uh to Gulf Island for you. Nice, good. Oh dear, very funny. Okay, cool. All right, let's um let's segue into some some destination stuff. So, as you said in the intro at the beginning of the pod, uh, we've just had an absolute all-time long bank holiday weekend here uh in the UK. So it got us thinking, what is a great three-day golf trip to do in the UK? And they're normally the ones where you go and tick off a couple of hidden gems and go somewhere maybe that you wouldn't necessarily first think of. And so we've agreed, Josh has got one, I've got one, uh, one that we've both done, but we've both experienced. And so we're just gonna we're just gonna lay them out and we're we're gonna bounce them off each other and and see what we come up with. So I'll throw it to you first. You've got you've got three days somewhere in the UK, long weekend, call it bank holiday or not. What's the plan? So I've actually I've treated this slightly differently. I know you said you're hidden gems and things like that, but I've gone for somewhere that bank holiday suggests you're in the summer, so you've got a chance at good weather, which means I'm going somewhere where if you get good weather, it's magical. So I'm gonna, and having recently been up there myself, uh I'm gonna fly up to Inverness. I'm gonna get myself to Inverness, you know, very reachable from many different areas in in the UK. Fly in there, and within 15 minutes, you have access to Nairn, you have access to uh Cabah Highlands, formerly known as Castle Stewart, and now you've got Old Petty as well, the third course there. So as as an ease of trip, 15 minutes, you're gonna keep yourself, stay yourself in Nairn if you want, nice and easy. Or get in a hop in the car, pop up an hour, go and play Royal Dornock. Easy. I would say a perfect weekend, and I'm squeezing, I'm squeezing it in, and I'm going sort of the high end of what you want to do on a bank holiday weekend. I appreciate it's not the cheapest of trips, but it's what I would like to do. I'm gonna land, I'm going to drive, I'm gonna go straight up to Royal Dornock, and I'm gonna have my day on the the championship course there. 13th in the world, I believe it is. I played it mega, got a good October day, but would love to get a good bank holiday day. And come back down, nan, chill out, enjoy it. What I would then do on the Saturday, well, I guess you're going Saturday, Sunday, Monday, aren't you? So call that Saturday. Sunday, I'm gonna go to Cabah Highlands. I'm gonna do a 36 whole day. I'm gonna play Castle Stewart course and I'm gonna play the old Petty course. They are 10-15 minutes away from um from the Nairn town. Easy to get to. Long day on the course, but really easy to get home, back to your accommodation, have some food and enjoy that. And then on the last day, I'm gonna play Nairn. Having recently played it, I think it's like a mini North Berwick. It's sensational. We've got a great day's weather, absolutely magnificent. And again, you can get changed at Nairn, you can have a nice time, or and you could stay over again if you wanted to, or if you're then, as we said, bag holiday shooting off your 10-15 minute drive to the airport. All really convenient, all really easy. And equally, the ability to sub out any of those courses and play Golspie, Brawra, Granton on Spay, all these other courses that are genuine hidden gems that are fantastic, can bring the price point wherever you need it to be, and still keeps you within like a 30-40-minute drive. So that for me just feels like a really great, a great gem of a trip. Agreed. I I think you know Inverness is a much shorter season than even uh East Lothian or something like that. And so if you are in the weather window, especially if you're travelling from the UK, like there are lots of flights up to Inverness, and if you get it, you get those courses on a good day, I'd imagine they're absolutely magic. So you mentioned you were at Nen recently. We've spoken about it on the pod before great logo. What kind of what kind of ProShop damage were we talking about? Yeah, I was trying to be as good as I could. Uh I wasn't. Well, because I just try to be just trying to be good, but I wasn't good. I wasn't good. Um I feel like no one can have too many white caps with good logos on them. Still looking for um the best way to wash them. I don't know how how people go about it. I'd like to actually send that to the to the listeners. Please comment in. How do you wash your white caps? Because we've had um washing machine, we've had get in the bath with it, we've had hand wash them, there's there's there's just multiple, multiple different dishwasher. So would love to know the best way. As a result, my white caps don't last too long. So I got my nice new NAN white cap with a nice logo on it. And then I actually ended up going a little bit left field. I got a a brand that I've never heard of, like Turtleness or whatever it was, Turtles Turtleson, Turtleson, I think it was. Obviously, um we were making jokes about turtle heads poking out and all these different silly things that we had, um having had a couple of drinks, but Turtleson, and I got a nice hoodie that could be worn on course or off course with the Nairn logo, which is just one of the great logos. Reminds me very much of the Sheep Ranch logo, actually, at um at Bandon. It does indeed, and you know, I I just want to congratulate you for being such a big brave boy and going for a brand that we're not 100% sure where it's come from, what it is. Like, what what do people feel about this brand? You had no idea, and you still pulled the trigger, so so very well done to you. Thanks, appreciate it means a lot. So Inverness is a good one, and to be honest, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna struggle to beat that, but maybe a slightly more affordable and potentially one of the best value long weekends that you can do in the UK is one that we've also done together. Um and that's jumping in the car and heading down to the southwest. And I'm gonna do Devon. Now, you can obviously go further, and you've got St. Enadoc and and other really, really good golf courses further down into Cornwall. But a couple of years ago, we went down to Devon, and I think as a 36-hole setup, Saunton is criminally underrated. Like magic, you know, I think it's the East is supposed to be better than the West from a ranking perspective. Like it's it's a it's a definitely a level up, but certainly when you play both courses over two days, or maybe even do a you know a marathon 36 there, they just blur into what feels similar to like Berkshire Red and Blue, where it's just like who knows what course we're on at this point, but like I'm just really enjoying myself. I've only ever played it in super fast, hot, baked-out conditions, and just just what a great little golf club. Like, we've got some friends that live down there who are members of Saunton, and yeah, great setup, great town, great British pubs, like it's got a real like UK holiday vibe to it. You know, people really enjoy living their life and surfing and golfing and being outdoors, and and you kind of really feel that people are really friendly, and so I think Saunton is a must. It's like I said, very reasonably priced as well. Um, and and so a great setup there. Then to then just cap off, so we we did that Friday, and then we did Saturday or Saturday, Sunday, whichever we don't do it if you're bank holidaying it. Um and then on the way out, we played Royal North Devon, which I feel like we're both gonna have something to say about. Royal North Devon is a very well-ranked golf course on virtually all the lists. It is it is seen as having a place in in the world of golf. And I'll be honest, I don't really understand why. It's fine, and you play it on the way out, and look, like I said, it's it's again very good value or or it's at a very good price, maybe I should I should put it that way, and it's a good one to just like play a third course on the way out back into wherever you're going. But like it's a bit of a field, isn't it? Uh I think bit of is an understatement, but it is just a field, it is it is actually a field, it has horses in it and cows in it and sheep in it. I just pulled it up while you're talking there. 55th ranked course in England. Now if there are only 54 courses better than that in this country, we should give up. Like, you know what, golf just isn't gonna work in this country. To say that is the 55th best course in England is actually farcical. It's probably not the 55th best course in Devon. And I don't know how many courses there are in Devon. That's how I feel about that course. I think and the best holes are like the fourth and fifth down by the beach, and they're eroding away. But they are good holes, they're eroding away, yeah. They're eroding away, so they're not gonna be there again in five years. I think it's a good logo, a good logo of on the roll of Devon for sure, but as a golf course, I think it's appalling. And and you know what? I wouldn't think it was so appalling if it wasn't ranked as inappropriately as it is. If someone had just said this is an unranked course in Devon, come and play that. It's well worth playing alongside Saunton, your expectation levels are are reduced, and you go, Alright, cool, oh this is this is okay, you'd still not think it's brilliant, but you'd be like, okay, it's okay. But when someone says, Yeah, this is 55th best in England, you've got to go and play it to tick off your top hundred in England, whatever it might be. Your expectation levels, rightly so, increase, and you are significantly disappointed by that place. And I would say that don't play there. Go and play Burnham and Barrow. It's a bit further away, but it's still on the way back. If you're say you were driving back towards the bulk of the country, doesn't have to be London, but the bulk of the country, you're not going back towards Goldwall. Don't play Burnham and Barrow. It's about an hour and a half away, an hour and 45 minutes away. Breaks up some of that really long drive, and is the two courses there that are very good. But the main course, of course, if you're only playing one, is a sensational track. But it's not my pick. So I'm coming in and I'm coming over the top. But I hope you don't mind me just just offering a potential alternative. Yeah, no, I I was literally going to mention exactly that. And I yeah, if you're you're really looking to just play great golf, then a hundred percent there's there's different options. I think Ronald Devon logistically works. And I said if you're working to a to a budget and you're you know you're looking to do something cheap and cheerful by I'd say our golfing recommendation standards, if that makes sense, um, then then Rolano Devon, you can you can chuck in there. But yeah, I I think there are certainly better options out there. And I mean, yeah, we've actually never paid to play on Royal North Devon, so I can only imagine if we've actually been asked to part with our money as well. But uh yeah, a couple of good holes, and maybe if you are a list ticker, I'd get out there sooner rather than later because as Josh says, they are disappearing um at speed. But a beautiful part of the country, you know, weather tends to be tends to be good through the summer, and um yeah, it it kind of ticks the the bank holiday vibe box, if if you will. So um there you have it. Love it. And you know what? Sat here melting post bank holiday vibes. I think it's time to get to go and sit in my freezer and try and cool down. Yeah, Josh actually just got a chest freezer in his in his uh in his flat in London that he just parks himself in. Keep it clean, keep it open. Absolutely. How how's how's the burn from the weekend? Have you got nice tight skin today? No, feeling good to be fair. Um Sunday, Sunday felt the burn. Uh, you know, operational heather bag in full force, and I'm enjoying it. Really am. Uh no, today just feeling pretty good. You know, this the the light isn't helping me here. It makes me look red. And I think that every time I look back on any of the videos that get posted. Um, but no, I've I'm I'm gonna rich shade of mahogany, as we've heard in other in other areas of play. Um I think it was uh Ron Burgundy, wasn't it? No, come on. Uh feeling good, yeah, feeling feeling good. And we're gonna top that tan up, as you say, going to Spain in a couple of days. Yeah, which I'm sure is gonna be absolutely lovely. And I am very much looking forward to chopping that up next week. But um appreciate you stopping in, my man. Good chop up. And I said, have a great time in Spain, and um, yeah, I'll look forward to chatting to you next week. Sounds great. Catch you soon. All right, cheers, boy. Right, we are full program golf Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. If you're not already subscribing, please do, and we will see you in the next one.