Thursday: Courses in Scotland

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Here's some Here's some of my thoughts on this Scotland trip.
I've been five times. I don't know that there's going
to be a sixth. I love it over there. I
think it's the people are fantastic. As long as you
don't eat blood pudding or hagis, the food is pretty good.
Do you have sticky toffee pudding?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I had sticky toffee putting four times.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's your sugar intake for the whole year.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Oh well, I couldn't. I can only bring twenty buys
with me and stay under the regulation, so I had
to substitute the caffeination that comes from the byes. I
probably had like twenty five cappuccinos while I was over
there dreamingly, so I was loaded up on excessive amounts
of coffee. You have hot tea, Oh yeah, you don't.
I don't drink tea. I don't. I did not have

(00:57):
any hot tea. They have a beer that is native
to Scotland called bell Haven. Okay, I like bell Haven.
I can't say that about most beers, but I like
bell Haven. Is a warm beer. No, it's it's cold,
cold beer to me. Here's the deal about beer. I
never can drink more than one because you're dark beer.
It's pretty thick. So it's like, what is it like? Shiner?

(01:19):
Shiner and Gus Guinness is super good. I like Guinness
too a little bit, but but it's got like a
toffee caramel taste to it. Okay, see now you're talking.
We're getting into the sweet side, you know. And and
uh so I uh, I partake in the local tradition
of belle Haven. Awesome so but fish and chips the

(01:42):
steakhourt's pretty good. Food. Food's pretty good there. So anyway,
of the five trips I've taken, this by far was
the most difficult weather wise. Of the eleven round six
of them were played in pretty high winds. Uh. Fortunately
I had a less breezy day at Mirfield, which was
the highlight of the trip. If you are thinking about

(02:04):
going to Mirfield next year, forget about it because all
the tea times already sold. There are other places that
are not yet. But Mirfield books tea times about fifteen
months in advance and there are no refunds if you
can't go. So I booked February twenty twenty four for
a tea time. In May of twenty twenty five and
I think there was three hundred and seventy five pounds,

(02:26):
and depending on what the exchange rate is, that's a
little more than four hundred bucks. Not too bad, but
that's how they pay their bill. Now. I was talking
to one of the caddies who knows a member, and
the caddies said, yeah, the dues here are two thousand
dollars a year. That's not that's like one hundred and
fifty dollars a month. That's not bad at all for golf.

(02:49):
And most clubs are going to charge that per month
and Gusta per day. Well, Gusta just takes the master's
money and divides the expenses amongst the members. Here's the thing.
When they're charging you basically four hundred pounds around and
they've got and they do it Tuesdeason, Thursdays or visitor
day at Meerfield, and so you've got sixteen hundred dollars

(03:11):
per foursome times seven forour someum's an hour times two
days a week times three hours a day. And we
did the math. It comes up to about four or
five million dollars that they're raking in on visitor fees.
So they don't have to charge very much. They just
need to pay the bills and move on. It's a
member on club. But I had played Meerfield once before
in twenty sixteen, and I did not play well because

(03:33):
I couldn't keep the driver in play. I kept the
driver in play at Mirfield, and the highlight of that
trip was the seventy four I shot there. And if
had a puttet, well it could have been lower than that.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, as long as you had fun, that was the
main thing. I know you complained a lot about the
about the cold. Well I've complained about the wind. I
can deal with cold, and I can deal with with
a little bit of rain. I don't want it pouring buckets,
but I don't mind a little slight drizzle. I'd much
rather play in a slight than in a forty mile
hour win because at least I can stand up when

(04:02):
I'm playing and not blow over.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
But at least five or six days we had really windy,
and the last day it was unfortunate, was at Saint Andrews,
and had there been a professional tournament there that day,
they would not have played because because it's too windy. Really,
the ball, the ball was oscillating on the greens. It
was oscillating in the fairways. It was oscillating when you
put it on a tee to hit the driver, the
ball's moving, you know, side to side. Uh. And I

(04:29):
was sitting there to telling one of my friends was
on the trip. I said, Man, it is June second,
and it's fifty two degrees and blowing forty and the
wind shows forty five degrees. I'm ready to go by
Cithonio where it's worn. Uh So it's that that's part
of the equation as well. Here's what I tell people
that I think is fascinating about this Number one. If

(04:51):
you like the history of golf, if you are not
just a golfer that plays golf for fun but understands
the history, likes the history in Joy's how the game
was invented five or six hundred years ago, and playing
golf courses where they played some version of the sport
as far back as the fifteen hundreds. There's one golf
course that we played on. They say that they're the

(05:15):
fifth oldest oldest club in the world. It's in Montrose,
I believe, and they started playing there in fifteen ninety two. Wow.
And so you're playing on grounds now. Unfortunately, there's a
story about Mantros that they're going to have to eliminate
some of the holes and acquire some land because the
sea is starting to go up against the sea wall

(05:37):
and starting it they can they have a time lapse
of this, and they think they've got maybe ten or
fifteen more years before some of the ocean holes are
now would become beach because when the tide comes in,
it erode some of the beach. So you know they're
constantly moving. The distance between the water and the the

(06:00):
end of the fairway is is getting more and more inland. Yeah. Uh.
And so if you enjoy the history of the game,
then I think you got to go because that's where
the game was invented. And I've always called Saint Andrews
Disneyland for golfers because when you're eight years old and
you see Mickey for the first time and your eyes
light up and you feel like you're in the best

(06:21):
place in the world, that to me is what Saint
Andrews is. It was less like that this time than before,
but I think it was just because of the weather
that day more than anything else.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
By the way, you missed. Mickey Mickey was here, Mickey
Mickey Mouse. Micky Mickey was here Monday.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
I've seen him. I didn't need to see him again.
And I didn't need to go to Saint Andrews again.
Well yes I did. I need. I needed to go
to Saint Andrews one more time. I needed to go
to Burefield. The Mirfield was. This entire trip was planned
around Mierfield and the fact that I actually executed what
I set out to do. I kept telling people, I
know I can play that golf course. It is my

(06:59):
favorite layout in Scotland. Is every hole I look at,
I think I can play it as long as I
can hit the driver in play. And I hit the
driver in play on every hole but one, and and
and so it was. That was a good day. But
we were post playing a golf course up north called
Fort Ross and Roast Markie and it's just it's Fort Ross.

(07:21):
The town maybe of a thousand people, and seven hundred
of them are members of the club. And how much
does it cost to play there? Five hundred dollars a year,
five hundred pounds a year unlimited golf unlimited. Wow, it's you,
you're a member January. First, they send you a bill
for five hundred bucks and you get to play golf

(07:41):
every day, all day, any day you want. Now they
only hit that now basically January, February, March and November
December or cold days that you're not going to play much.
But from April to September October you can probably play
two hundred days a year if you want to. And
everybody's a member. Now you not everybody, they make golf,
but there's people at the club for cards or does

(08:04):
socially drink. The town's not that big, probably five square miles.
You can walk to it from wherever you're at, but
the entire community is wrapped around that golf course and
that end that club, and it's just kind of a
cool place. And I would rather play those golf courses
than there's some of the new round ones that have
been built that are basically American golf courses in Scotland.

(08:26):
But here's the thing you got to you're gonna do.
If you're going to do this, I'll give you three
tips if you're going to ever decide to go play
golf over there. Number One, check your ego before you
get off the plane, because you have zero idea how
much wind is there compared to where you play here.
If you were in San Antonio and you woke up

(08:46):
and it was as windy as it is over there,
you just wouldn't play. You would just say, I'm taking
the day off. There'll be a better day to play.
But literally, I drove one green that was three hundred
and twenty three yards long, and the green the hole
coming back. I needed a lot more firepower to get
there in two shots. For those of you that don't

(09:08):
know golf, you have irons, and then you have hybrids,
and then you have the fairway metals. What is a hybrid.
It's kind of an iron wedgewood combo combo wood, okay,
And so the iron is for like chipping in the
in the chipping, it's for shorter distance. Yeah, the driver's
going to hit the ball forever. Yeah, I know, the
three would a little bit less. And then you get
the irons, and a wedge is going to go one

(09:30):
hundred yards for most people, and a five iron's going
to go two hundred yards. So it's there's they're all
different lofts. But I needed a lot more firepower to
get to the whole end. Of the wind that was
basically the same distance.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I can just feel the judgment from you and tie
right now, like this guy doesn't know what the hell
a wedge.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
He has no idea. He's like, I've got him educated
a little bit on golf, and I got him to
become a Scotti Scheffler fan. But outside of that, we
still have a lot of work to do. We'll get
you there, We'll get you. I will understand this, and offers, well,
understand this. I drove a three hundred and twenty five
yard hole because I had wind. Aid that's a lot
of wind. Yeah, because I only flight about two fifty
five part three or pour four part four, the part

(10:09):
four going back the other way. I hit Driver four
hybrid as hard as I could hit it and barely
got to the green. Yeah. The ten club wind. Yeah
that I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
You said that as soon as you said you weren't
here for this, Michael, But he said thirty five million
hour winds. I was trying to do the math because
you know, you were saying, you know, regular five iron,
you're hitting two hundred. I could do that with the seven,
but now I was because like again, it's a thirty
five mile an hour.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, it's fifty. Yeah, it's going way way short. Is
that uphill or downhill? It doesn't matter. The wind's going
to negate both. So so you you have to check
your ego and look at the scorecard. Okay, you normally
play a sixty five sixty six hundred yard golf course.
Move up one to sixty two sixty three. You're gonna
have way more fun. You're not gonna be able to
hit the ball as far as you think you are.

(10:50):
It's colder, the ball doesn't go as far. It's at
sea level, the air is heavy and the wind is furroush.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Did you take advantage of your your age teeth? Remember
that's what Yeah, I definitely did.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
You're like, hey, guys, you get to go from back
then I'm going to this.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
We're all the same age, within two years of each other.
So uh. But we looked at the scorecard and we
asked the people, what do you normally play at home?
And I said a sixty five or sixty six hundred
yard golf course is about max. Okay, you should play
sixty two or sixty three here, And that's the tea
we got. We played the ego should go out the window.
This idea that you're going to go play a golf

(11:26):
course at seven thousand yards in Scotland. Good luck if
you break. If you break ninety five, you're having a
good day. Yeah, so you need to do that. Number two,
there are no golf carts in Scotland, and the people
that live in the in the in the UK think
we are the craziest people in the world for writing
a golf cart on golf courses. They have them for
the elderly and the infirmed, and if they if you

(11:48):
ask for a buggy as they call it over there,
are you elderly? Are you infirmed? Will consider giving you one.
If you're not, get your butt out there and walk
five or six miles or seven so that so you
get yourself in shape, play the proper set of tees
and be prepared to experience the elements. Bring lots of

(12:08):
warm weather clothes. Because it was June. It was fifty
two degrees at Saint Andrews on Tuesday. So besides, what
was it day one or day two? When it was
when you pulled a rory before the masters missing like
what was it ten to fifteen putts? It was more
than that I hit the hole on some Were.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
There any other days where it was the caddy's fault,
because the text messages that I got, I think from
day one where it was like, yeah, it was the
caddy's fault, not my fault.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
No, I did have an issue with the Now the
Saint Andrew's caddy, which is usually really good, was this
particular one. Nice guy was from New Zealand. But I
kind of expected a history lesson because the previous caddies
I've had there have always told me something new about
the golf course. Yeah, I think I knew more about
the golf course. Oh, I don't know. There's a hole

(12:58):
at Saint Andrews. It's the sixteenth hole, so part four.
It's about three hundred and fifty yards three hundred and
sixty let's save it for next second. And I'm almost done, okay,
And there's something out in the middle of the fairway.
There's a bunker and it's the bunker has a name,
the bumper from Hell. No, this one is called the
Principal's nose because from the air it looks like, I
don't know, like the nose, and then there's eyes on

(13:19):
the other side of it that you can't see the
two bunkers on the opposite side of it. And so
I told everybody in the group, because the caddies weren't
saying anything about it, you need to hit left of
the bunker. And one of the caddies going, no, it's
a good day to take it out over the out
of bounds and drop it back, and I'm like, no,
it's not. It's never a good day to do that. Now,
they pulled the shot off because they had wind aid.

(13:40):
But Jack Nicholas once said, anything right of the principal's
nose is for fools and amateurs only. And I was
able to hit it where Jack Nicholss told me to
hit it, And I'll take Jack's word over anybody else's
when it comes to where you should hit the ball.
You have a picture of it? Yeah, you understand it
now that one sideways, No, I'll have We'll have to

(14:04):
get you a picture. Well, talk, okay, we'll carry this
over the next segment. We also have to talk about
Aaron Rodgers that's coming up next. It's six sixteen on
the tickets,