The Hole Story - Golf Podcast

How to Plan the BEST Golf Trip with The UK Golf Guy!!!

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[REPLAY] Join us as we explore the world of golf travel, course reviews, and memorable golf stories with David Jones, aka UK Golf Guy. Discover hidden gems in Scotland, tips for planning the perfect golf trip, and insights into the sport's most iconic courses.

https://www.ukgolfguy.com/

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SPEAKER_02

In Scotland, we've we've got you know 560 plus courses in a place of only six million people. Um and there's a lot of golf. You will never drive more than 20 minutes, half an hour before coming on another golf course.

SPEAKER_03

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Whole Story Podcast. Robbie here, welcoming you to another Monday series this month. We are in June. Obviously, you can listen to these whenever, and this episode can prove that. This month we are looking at golf travel, right? So going different places, talking to different people that either specialize in it, that talk about certain areas, that just encourage you to grab the clubs and go somewhere. So today we are taking a flashback to an early episode. This one's actually almost three years ago. So it was in our first season, we talked to David Jones, better known as the UK Golf Guy. We had a great chat with him. He was very kind to give us a shot. I think it was episode 18 of the whole story. And so yeah, we had a great chat with him. He has done some incredible things up till that point, and he keeps crushing it. So highly encourage you to check out everything he's doing. Uh UK Golf Guy. We'll have uh links in the show notes to where you can find him. But yeah, we're talking all about travel and what better way to start than another look back at our conversation with David Jones, UK Golf Guy. As always, uh, these are brought to you by our friends at Summit Golf Brands, the Bee Drady Zero Restriction Fairway and Green. If you go to any of their sites and use Best Ball 20, you can save 20% on your order. And if you are planning a trip to the UK, maybe some of that zero restriction rain gear would be appropriate. That's what we got it for. So anyway, David Jones, UK golf guy. Y'all enjoy. Hi, golf fans. Welcome to the Whole Story Podcast. This is Robbie. You will notice Jonathan is not here yet. He is coming. He is uh in in travel mode still. So he will he will join us probably midway through the podcast. Uh today's guest, we've got David Jones. David, uh better known around the golf world, maybe as the UK Golf Guy. Uh, he's got uh a great Twitter handle, I'm sure other social media as well, got a website, UK Golf Guy, specializes in course reviews, golf trip planning, golf execution of golf trips. You can go join him on some great golf trips as well. But uh, David, I really appreciate you you joining me and us today on the Whole Story Podcast.

SPEAKER_02

Lovely to be here. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. Well, how did uh let me ask you just the basic, how did you get started in golf?

SPEAKER_02

Um gosh, how did I get started? So I live in Scotland now. I actually grew up in Essex, just outside of London, hence, hence the accents, not a Scottish accent. And as a kid, I used to go up with my father, to be honest with you. He was um always into golf, played played at a cult course actually called Thornland Park, which was just uh just in Essex, the northeast of London. And probably when I was seven, eight, nine years old, I'd go up with him, walk around with him in the evenings, um, hit the odd ship and the odd putt to begin with, and it and it kind of started from there. Um we moved up to Scotland when I was 11 um and lived in Edinburgh, and Edinburgh's got tons of um local courses which anyone can can pay and play. That was back in the mid-1980s, and I'd pay, I think it's 50p. Um, and for 50p you could go out and play 18 holes. Um, and it was a good it was a good way to to spend my youth.

SPEAKER_03

Sure. Did you uh do you play in a lot of junior tour events or did you just play for fun?

SPEAKER_02

Or no, purely, purely for fun. I was never that good to be honest with you. Um I think when I was about 14, 15, I had my handicapped, it was probably 18. I'd just dropped a few shots from there, but but not a huge amount, but always just enjoyed going out with my friends. I mean, we are blessed in Edinburgh. It's light in the morning in the summer at half past four, and you can be on the golf course till quarter to eleven, eleven o'clock at night where I am. Um so it does I was a kid, I used to go up and play 18 holes uh in the morning early and then hop off to the school after that. Um so yeah, we could we could get plenty of golf in.

SPEAKER_03

Very nice, very nice. Well, uh obviously the open championship just ended. Now I believe you you mentioned you got to go and be a part of that for a few days. Well, um kind of give us your take of uh of the open this year at Royal Liverpool.

SPEAKER_02

Um, yeah, I was I was fortunate. I went down on the Wednesday practice day um when uh I got there about lunchtime. There were still tons of players out there, some of the loudest crowds there were all week, I think, like huge enthusiasm, really good-natured, um, beautiful weather. Then I went on a Thursday um and walked around with a few groups on the Thursday. There's a hell of a lot of people on site. I think I think they had over 50,000 a day. Um, and the good thing about Royal Liverpool is it is quite a large site. The area where they normally have practice ground, they turn over to some of the Tented Village, and they've got lots of other space on the course as well. So there's actually, from an infrastructure point of view, it works pretty well, but there's still over 50,000 people out there watching. So you tend to find um they put up lots of um individual grandstands, so you can sit in a grandstand, watch a few groups come through, and then maybe get a few holes ahead, do the same thing. It's quite hard just to watch a single group all the way around. Um, but having said that, compared to some of the other courses on the open rotor, it works really well. Um, and I was lucky because I was there when it's really um plenty of sun, a little bit of wind, but made for quite interesting golf. And it just I mean, we had the most amazing spring and early summer in the UK. Um there were weeks upon ends, didn't get any rain. By the middle of June, all of the golf courses were just running so fast, it was incredible. And then it started to rain, and and it just felt that that that even if you look at the open itself, you know, it was exciting on that Thursday. I was um I was standing next to the 18th Green when you saw John Rahm and Rory McElroy having to ship out of the bunker next to the green because they couldn't go for the green. That's like wow, this is something really different, and this is something really cool to watch. Um and then on the Friday they changed the bunkers back, so the bulls rolled into the middle again, and then it just started to rain. And I watched Saturday and Sunday on the TV. I didn't have any pangs of geez, I wish I was there because the atmosphere, you could just tell, it just wasn't quite where it could be. And I think that's probably because of like a when you have someone winning by so much, um, that that kind of takes a bit of the adrenaline and the excitement about for anything else, and that's not to take away from Brian Harvard at all. He won it incredibly well, but everyone prefers it when there's 10 players within a couple of shots on the Sunday afternoon, and the weather as well, you know, it's it it's kind of obvious, but if you're holding it on and um trying to keep the rain off you, it's hard to clap when you're uh cold and wet. Um, so as a result, the atmosphere just wasn't quite as good as it could have been. Um so to be honest, I was really excited about it going into it. Well done to the winner, and can't take anything away from him. Is it a classic open we're gonna remember for years? No, it's not, is it?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I agree. And Jonathan, welcome. Uh appreciate you uh you joining us. Jonathan David, nice to see you guys to meet there. Hey Jonathan.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, sorry for being a little late. Uh your kind your city of London is a little difficult to traverse. So um I'm actually staying in Leicester Square. I'm sure I didn't say that right. Um, and you can't park a car anywhere near.

SPEAKER_02

Leicester Square. So you you are you can't park your car near near Leicester Square. If I didn't have Times Square, so if I were to drive into the middle of Manhattan and tried to park my car next to Times Square, would you think that I was a fool?

SPEAKER_00

But I I was just in Times Square last uh November, and yes, uh, if I had been playing a little differently, we would have gone different. Uh I would like to say I'm gonna remember this open though, just back to golf real quick. Um, because the guy won't from Georgia, and I'm pretty proud about that. Um, he's gonna be down. Maybe I'll go see if I can catch his farm down in Savannah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, well, David, what'd you think? Yeah, Larry, he did so well. Yeah, so I mean, he won by what, six strokes at Royal Liverpool, and like you said, it wasn't very didn't seem to be very competitive, but um I mean uh he just he really kind of took it away. Talk about the course, I guess, a little bit. Uh have you played Royal Liverpool?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I played it. I played it a couple of times. Not since they put the new 17th in, but I'm actually playing it again in a couple of weeks, so it'll be interesting to experience that. Um, it's I mean, I think it's really uh it's not a course that people rave about, but I think it's quite an underrated course. Um, you know, if you ask people which rotor courses do you really want to play, it's it's unlikely to be in the top two or three that people mention, but I really like the course. Um without a doubt, it's a course where accuracy is rewarded. And I guess you look at Brian Harmon, he he might not be one of the longest players on tour, but he's very accurate. Um, there is so much sand on that golf course. Not as much as Royal Lytham, which is just up the road, which has got the most insane amount of bunkering, um, but there's a lot. So being able to plot your way around that is absolutely key. What makes it even more interesting when it's really, really dry is of course so many bunkers come into play. As soon as it gets wet, it's more around the accuracy of how you can strategically move around it. Um the greens aren't the most interesting greens. Um, you'd have seen there's not a huge amount of movement on them. Um so as a result, it was it it really was a test of who was executing really, really well, which is so often the case. Um, but he was pretty faultless. Like, even when both on Saturday and Sunday he dropped a couple of shots early on, like came straight back in there. So just when people thought there was a glimmer of hope of getting in, um it was almost like he'd immediately make a birdie, and the guys who were getting close immediately dropped one, and it was like, ah, this isn't gonna get exciting after all.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it was uh it was quite a win, and I I believe, like you said, it might not be one we remember forever, but uh I think like he may maybe mention during the press conference or something, you can't take it away from him, right? His name is on the Claire Jug forever.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. Look, it it isn't his fault that that he played so well, hey? I mean, it's it's uh it isn't like um you know, Paul Laurie won at Carnusti in 1999, and the conditions for that last round um were pretty wild, and as a result, you then get people saying, Okay, um, was it just a bit random? And actually, I I think that interpretation is wrong, by the way, because without a doubt, Paul Laurie went out and won that day. But Brian Harman didn't just win this on one round on Sunday when the weather got bad. You know, he did it over four rounds, being a front runner, knowing that the whole of the world is watching him. Um, and yet, and and and let's face it, not having much support from the fans. I I didn't think the fans were that great over the weekend, not just because they weren't very loud, but they obviously wanted someone locally to win. Um, so he had all that against him, and yet he's he absolutely won this event.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it was uh, you know, it's uh the last major of the year. It was fun to watch either way, even uh even if it didn't get that close and exciting. But you know, you were sitting there waiting maybe for a mistake to happen that would cost two or three strokes, and it just did not happen. But uh let's talk about what you do. You specialize in golf travel all all throughout the UK, but everywhere else in the world as well. Um how did you get into the the golf travel and and I say tourism business? Uh what got you into that?

SPEAKER_02

Um, so I um started a website, UK Golf Guy, going back um probably 10 years, really just just aimed at to document different courses that I'd played. Um and and as much as anything to keep a record, um I had a bit of spare time, easy to set up a blog on Squarespace. That's what I did. Um and then Twitter came along um while it was still Twitter, um, and I um started an account there again, just really talking about the different places I played. And what I soon found there was um there was a community of uh foley nerds out there who previously hadn't really had an outlet because I'm old enough to remember um when the internet began, if you like. And pre-then, if you were into your golf courses or you wanted to share things, it was only people who lived around you, or you happened to have met at the golf club you could really share that with. And clearly what happens um to Twitter is that communities really grew. Um, and I found myself getting introduced to lots of people in the golf industry, getting a few of them to write for the website I was doing um incredibly generously, some big name authors in the world, some major champions, you know, all happy to put stuff there, which was absolutely great. And then more and more people started to follow along. Um, and that was all good. And then I got to the position I've worked in industry um for my career. I'm 49 now, um, and have worked at various different um companies, whether that's Proctor Gammel was my first one out of university, so big US FMCG business, then went into financial services um in the UK. And when my last role during COVID time came to an end, um, I was really the thought of do I want to go back in to do another commercial job like that? Um, or should I just try to do something with what was a hobby, but was a hobby which I had a huge amount of passion for. Um, and that old that old thing about if you're doing something you really enjoy, it's not like going to work, give that a bit of a test. So I um through a few contacts that I'd made, was able to put together a trip to Paris. And I don't know if you or your listeners know much about golf in Paris. Obviously, the Ryder Cup was at Le Golf Nationale. But Le Golf Nationale is very unlike everything else in Paris. All the other courses are very private, um, not US in design, but but often from um the 1920s, the 1930s, really interesting courses, but really hard to get on. And I had a couple of contacts, so I was able to put together a trip, which was um to Paris. I put out a tweet about that, um, and the good thing was had lots and lots of people get in who were keen to go on that trip, and that went really well. Um, and then I put together one for Australia, which we're gonna do next year, but I put this out last year, put out one tweet, and we had a trip to Australia sold out within six hours. Um, so I put out another tweet and sold out the one for the week after, and that sold out in just a couple of days. So that the the insight there was there's a group of people who are really interested in playing interesting courses, um, maybe don't have um a group of friends who necessarily want to do the same thing. Because I had a trip to Ireland, we did to the northwest of Ireland a couple of months ago. We've got one coming here to East Lothian to Scotland in a few weeks' time. And interestingly, the people who sign up for them are obviously just ones or twos, but not big groups. If you want to go in a big group, you might go if you're over here to Spain or to Portugal or in the US, you might do a trip, you know, up to kind of Banden or to Pinehurst. Well, this is for the ones and the twos who really want to do something a little bit out of the ordinary. And for all of those trips, I try and do something out of the ordinary. So the one we had in Ireland, we played a new course called uh Rossa Penner, St. Patrick's Lynx. The architect's Tom Doak, so he came on a Zoom call before and talked about how we'd put the course together. So it's trying to add those extra things to it, I guess. Um, so that's about that was really how I got into it. And I tried a few other things, I've done some uh writing as well, um, and I still write for some of the magazines here in the UK, do some drone work, love uh taking pictures of golf courses, so trying different things in the industry. Um and then I met up with a group called the Outpost Club, which is a US society. Um got just under a thousand incredibly passionate golfers who love going on trips as part of the Outpost Club. Um, and we've set up a separate business called Outpost Overseas now, which is really managing all their international travel. Um, so either you can do that if you're a member of the Outpost Club. We're starting in Argentina next February, we end up in New Zealand in November, but we'll go to Japan, to the UK, to France, to Holland, lots of places in between. Or if just you want to have a trip yourself, um, whether you're an Outpost Club member or not, we'll organise that for you. Um so so yeah, kind of got into it relatively um later in my career, but hopefully still got plenty to give. And it gives me the chance to play lots of courses still, to meet lots of people with a passion for it and and just to really keep on learning.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. Yeah, getting the opportunity yourself to play and visit some of these cool courses is uh has got to be a great bonus with all of that. But very nice. Well, you know, you mentioned earlier sun up four or something in the morning, sun down 10, 11 at night. Uh is the best time of year for uh people to kind of travel and do a golf trip the summertime.

SPEAKER_02

Um, yes, it's a slightly qualified yes, and that you know, I often get asked, especially for people coming from the states, what's the best time of year to come for the weather? Um I I push early summer. Um it happened again this year. It's happened so many times recently. May and June can be really nice. In Edinburgh, August, we have a big international arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival. And God, the number of times I've stood at a venue there getting absolutely poured on, and it's really wet. August can be quite a wet month. Um, it gets nicer again in September, October. Um, so I kind of tend to say it's also much harder getting accommodation in July and August, it's harder to get tea times. If you want to try and get on the old course, it's really tough. Um, so I say actually try to push it a little bit to the sides, come early summer, even come as early as the beginning of April. Um, and I would say through to the end of October. Um, you know, it could be that the weather's not great, but you can book the middle of July and the weather's not gonna be great. Um, you come to the east coast of Scotland, east coast of Scotland, where I am, is drier than it is over on the west. Uh, so there's not a perfect time to come. There's no time you come that's gonna be, yeah, you're not gonna see any rain. Um, but I think any time between April, say middle of April to middle of October, you've got a pretty good shout of getting some good weather.

SPEAKER_00

Are there any areas that are sort of off the beaten path? I mean, obviously everyone knows about the old course and places like that, but is there a place that you could sort of land and find a week's worth of golf that most people wouldn't know to look?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, there's there's kind of a lot of I think almost anything when you get out of around St. Andrews, around Muirfield, and around Turnbury, those clusters have all got like the big names there. As soon as you push away from there, you start getting some really interesting stuff. So you could fly into Glasgow, um, and then a little bit of a drive from Glasgow Airport, you get to McRahannish, which some people have heard of, but not that many people to finish, you really get to. Said to have the most spectacular opening hole in the whole of Gulf, gorgeous links course, lovely rumpled ground in the most spectacular part of Scotland, in the kind of the extreme southwest. You go from there, right next door, there is a place called Macrohannish Dunes. Um, there's then some smaller courses, some nine holers, or some just just short course. When I say short, somewhere like Dunaberty, which is just 20 minutes away, half an hour away, it's under 5,000 yards, but you'll just have great fun. Then you go over on the ferry to the Macri, um, which is on Isla, if you're into your whiskey as well. Again, lovely course. Then you go to Aaron, you can play Shiskin, you can play Brodock, you know, places where, frankly, it'll cost you 30 or 40 pounds to play around. Um, they might not be perfectly manicured, but the conditioning will be really good, and you're seeing the most beautiful countryside. So that west area. I'm actually taking a trip there next year, and I'm so looking forward to it because there'll be people will just be blown away with just how spectacular it is. But then as well, like um I'd love to know, I should know, what percentage of people from the states ever get to Cruden Bay, say now Cruden Bay is up in the northeast in Aberdeen, it is just spectacular. Quirky, fun, tons going on. Um, it's really hard to get tea times in the St. Andrews area, in the East Logan area. Things are crazy expensive and they're sold out months, if not year plus in advance. To give you an idea, for next year, Muirfield's put all their tea times up in March this year. They've sold out within a couple of days. Um, so you're not going to play Muirfield, right? But instead, just go a bit further out, um, and you'll find some fantastic courses which might not have the same history of having an open, but they'll be just as old and they'll be just as interesting in some ways, and they'll cost you a tenth of the price. Um, so I would say if you push more to the extremes when you start doing a little bit more. Traveling to get there from the airports, you tend to find some real, real opportunities.

SPEAKER_03

One thing that uh one of our previous guests, uh, another travel guy here from the US that goes over to Ireland a good bit, he mentioned instead of trying to travel and go to all the different places, like find a find a spot like you were talking about and play all the courses. You know, play the play the ones no one's heard about or the ones that aren't the famous popular ones. Uh because, like you were saying, you can find some really great links courses or old courses that have incredible views. You see the country, uh, and you're playing golf somewhere different.

SPEAKER_02

And and actually you do tend to get more of that. Um, and I'm slightly biased in Scotland than in Ireland. In islands, you tend to find there's quite a lot of driving between different areas or even between courses in an area. You know, if you want to do the Southwest Islands, you'll still spend quite a lot of time driving around, even if you stayed in uh one particular place. In Scotland, we've we've got you know 560 plus courses in a place of only six million people. Um, and there's a lot of golf. You will never drive more than 20 minutes, half an hour before coming on another golf course. And it and it kind of upsets me in some ways when you see people who just want to play all the big names and nothing else, and all they're doing is going in a car to the next place, getting there late at night, going to play golf. It might be raining, they might be wet, loading up the car, driving to the next place. And it's like, oh, but you're driving past so many wonderful courses with great history. You know, you go um between Edinburgh Airport and the old course, it takes you just over an hour to drive there. You're passing through or passing by courses which old Tom designed in the 1880s, um, which you could pay for £25. And okay, they might not have 18 holes which are as good as the 17th year old course, but they're going to have a couple that aren't that far away. Um, so just try to try to think about okay, it's so tempting to try to play all those courses, but give yourself more time in each place because then you get to spend time in the pubs. You go to the same pub two or three nights on the trot, and you start meeting the same people, and you fear the different kind of holiday than going from one luxury hotel to the next.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. Well, you mentioned or you posted this morning uh about a golf map of Scotland. Tell us about that. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So during um during lockdown, we had we had quite a harsh lockdown over here in that we had a few weeks. You you literally were only allowed out of your house for an hour a day to walk, and you could only go a certain distance away, weren't allowed to drive outside of your county. So it was pretty, pretty straight. Um, and we couldn't travel. Um, but I started planning to go on a campaign holiday with the family when things opened up to the north of Scotland. And I had a map of Scotland in front of me and just put a tweet out saying, Does anyone know any cool golf courses to play in this particular area? Um, and then someone actually replied and said, Is that a map with all of the golf course of Scotland on? That would be such a cool thing. And it wasn't, it was just a map of Scotland. But I got me thinking about actually that that would be quite a good thing to do. Because to your point, everyone knows where St Andrews, Carnusti, King's Barbas are. Do you know what you're driving past? And while I spend as much time on Google Maps as any planning holidays, unless you know what you're looking for on Google Maps, again, not everything's there. So I um learnt about cartography and how to make a map, and um, it was the caravan map that I had actually. So I spoke to the people who put that together, and they put me in touch with a cartographer who then was able to do one for me for Scotland. Um, so I I spent quite a lot of time just looking up every single course. There was a guy who lives quite uh close to where I am, who someone put me in touch with, he's played every single course in Scotland. So he was a great guy to get to know because he could then say to me, Oh, that one's closed now. No, you've got that one a bit, well, that was amazing. And then um launched that and and it's been great. It's it's on Amazon. Um, I sold it on my website for a while. Um, it's pretty much sold out now. So I put on Twitter this morning just some of the images because I I know I'd have made some mistakes, and things have changed, some have closed, so then much has opened. Um so I've asked for some input, got some good input in there. So we'll print it again in a few weeks, uh, out in time for Christmas. So there we are. Um and and it is quite old school, right? But there's something just nice about planning a trip with an actual map in front of you. Um, and it only costs 10 bucks, so you know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, we'll be sure to check that out and uh and be looking forward to when it comes out because you know Jonathan and I I keep trying to tell him, like, hey, let's let's make a trip. One, we'll come meet you and play with you in person somewhere over there. Uh, but two, uh, for those that are planning a trip, like, how cool is it to go ahead and I mean if you're thinking about it and dreaming about it, go ahead and have up on your wall the golf map of Scotland and just kind of drool over it until the trip comes, right? So very nice. That's it. That's a great thing. So yeah, we'll be on the lookout for that.

SPEAKER_00

I was gonna say put us down for two, because at least two, because I know that's not that that that could go up on a wall, right? Robbie's almost full of the phone. Yeah, I'll move some of this stuff.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Well, I I am doing a poster version as well, because the one comes like a map, it's kind of all folded up, but I've got a poster version as well. So I'm gonna I'm gonna be doing a few more of those, so I will send you a note when they're ready.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, please do. Well, we uh as you know, uh if you've heard any of our podcasts, uh we always want to hear about the best golf shots, you know. Everyone has that story of the pure drive, the hole in one. So of all the places you've played, uh, what would you put as your best golf shot?

SPEAKER_02

Gosh. Um, in some ways, I shouldn't have to think about this too hard because I've not hit too many good golf shots. Uh but um look, there's there's places which are just really special places to hit the golf shots, and that's probably what I remember more rather than the outcome of the actual shot itself. It's more just that experience of being there to hit it. Um, however, having played this game for 40 years, I did um finally get a hole in one last year. So I was at Ross Cepeda, which is in the northwest of Ireland, and they've got three courses there. Um I was on a crazy schedule trying to play so many different courses in the there and in that area. Um so I I got up very early, teed off at I think it was 6 30 in the morning, maybe 6 40 in the morning, uh to play the old course there, the old Tom course. Uh teed off um wasn't playing great, but it it was it was a windy day, got to the 17th, it's a par three, it was playing about 190, 180, 190 yards into a two-club wind. Um, so I took out a two-iron, hit the two-iron up there, couldn't see the green. I got up there, I spent a good five minutes looking around in the rough in the bunker, check stall, and did that thinking we've all done of just when you walk past the hole having a look in, and there it was, it was just sitting in the hole. Um, what was weird about that was I didn't got in. There was not a soul there. Everyone was either out on the course or hadn't turned up yet, because it was still only 8:30. I think I got around in just over two hours. Um, so I went in, got myself a breakfast, or the pint of the black stuff, uh, and enjoyed that to myself. Uh so yeah, if you ask me the one that I remember the most, it probably is still that one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I would be definitely the guy wandering around looking for my ball in the brush and not realizing that it actually went in the hole, because that's just not gonna happen. Exactly. I'll tell you what, that's also an impressive shot. 190 yard, par three, and you you nailed it down there. With a two-iron. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

If you it's two-iron in into a two-club wins, but if if if you hit enough balls, eventually it'll happen. It's like a monkey on a tightwriter, isn't it? Something happens sometimes.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it has not happened for either Jonathan and I yet, so maybe we need to borrow your two-iron.

SPEAKER_00

You gotta play more. Yeah. We're we're we're planning the hundred shot challenge. Uh well, probably 50 shot challenge, since we'd be too sore of the hundred, but we're gonna we're trying to find a part three place where we can see if we can get close to the whole. I I'm hoping just to hit a green. So if we can we'll start there. Well well, we always do another thing to wrap up our our our time with the year. We call it the quick nine. So we're just gonna ask you quick nine questions in succession. Uh, you can say yes, no, short answers, long answers. Uh, and and you might have already mentioned this because you've listed more courses than I can imagine. What is the favorite course that you've played so far?

SPEAKER_02

Um near to me, probably the Westlink at North Berwick. I love North Berwick. It's one of the most fun course in the world. It's now in the top 50 in the world, so it's no longer a hidden gem, but there's still a lot of people that don't play it because it never had an open. Um, I just love North Berwick. It's it's just the most perfect place to play.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, a lot of pros were visiting that during the uh Scottish Open, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean that's like a testament to it. I think Justin and Jordan, uh Speith, Justin Thompson, Jordan Speith had played nine holes that afternoon at the Renaissance, went down to North Berwick, pulled their own trolley around and played 18 holes. And like, where else do players do that on a tour stop through though? Is because it's such fun and it's such an exciting place to play golf, a way of playing golf, and unlike what they get to play the rest of the time. Um, so that kind of speaks volumes.

SPEAKER_03

Do you have what's the uh what's the course uh that you would say is is on your, and we've heard somebody say this, a realistic bucket list, right? And I think I've seen on your your podcast or your blog or something that you know Augusta National, obviously everybody would love to play that, but uh maybe a realistic course that man, if I could play that one, that's where I want to play.

SPEAKER_02

Um look, I'm really, really lucky in terms of the number of courses that that that I've been to. Um I've played at Pine Valley, which was amazing. I played LACC, I've played some of these, so maybe I'm being slightly um too hopeful, but I think it's realistic I'll get to Cyprus. I don't quite know how yet, but that's probably the one which, if you say if there's one course that that that you'd really want to get to, it would be Cyprus. Um and I've got a couple of friends, I had one guy who I almost managed to wangle my way in. So I'm I'm I'm hopeful it'll happen sometime. Um, but that's I mean, so many people say they think that's the best golf course in the world. And I'd say I've been to Pine Valley and absolutely respect it as a golf course without any doubt at all. Um, and I liked it as well, but I didn't love it in the way that that that I think it's possible to love Cypress, but I want to go and find out for myself.

SPEAKER_00

Sure. Um, well, everyone, all of our listeners know my love of tacos on golf courses. So, what is the course in the UK that has the best on-course food option?

SPEAKER_02

Um so on-course food is not as big here as it is in the States. So in Scotland, a lot of courses either don't have nine, uh how to stop after nine, or it's relatively recent. However, some do. There's one in just outside of London called Sunningdale, and everyone goes on about the sausage sandwich you have at the halfway house at Sunningdale. It's the most overrated thing you could imagine, to be honest with you. So I'm not going to include that, but it's but I'm sure some people will be thinking that should be there. Um, there's a course on the Isle of Jura called Ard Finn, um, off the west coast of Scotland. Um, and they've got a halfway house, which is um an old converted um house you get to after playing Eleven Holds, I think it is, and that is absolutely gorgeous. You get some soup, it's nothing too special, you get some soup, you get a pie, um, and you get a nice weak glass of whiskey. Um, it's a tough course, it's a brood of a course, but it's the most magical, magical spot. So having that there is pretty special. So I think if you said there's one halfway house I could go to tomorrow, it would be that one out of Ard Finn.

SPEAKER_01

Very nice. Who's in your dream foresome? Oh, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02

Um it's probably recency bias, but Brian Harman, no, I've only joked. Um I'd I probably would want to play with Rory, right? Just just to see. I I find it so weird. I've I've seen him a few times. I watched him last week. This this relatively small guy who hits the ball further than anyone else, you know. Just to just to see someone play the game at that level, I think would be great. Um, and also he strikes me as the kind of guy who's not not just all about himself, you know. People I know who played with him say he is he's genuinely interested or certainly looks at about other people, is interested in things outside of golf, which is quite nice as well. Uh so I think I think he'd be a good person to play with. Um my father's no longer able to get out and play any golf, I'm afraid, uh, but he very much introduced him. He introduced me to the game. So if I could if I could get him back a few years, uh that would be a pretty cool thing to do. I and then I'm lucky I've got um several friends in the game or people who who we're good friends who are all into golf, um, and I could perm any one of you know uh kind of six or seven of those guys. Uh so that would probably do it.

SPEAKER_03

Especially if you told him Rory's gonna be there in the group.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and we're playing Cypress as well.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. Rory Rory, when you listen to this, give David a call.

SPEAKER_00

Well, this might be the same answer, but who is your favorite pro golfer right now?

SPEAKER_01

Um besides Brian. Besides Brian.

SPEAKER_02

Um, yeah, look, I think I think I think that Rory is just there's just something about him. He's he's really human. You see that he isn't one of these guys who's just a machine. You can kind of see the the the w what he's thinking, what he's feeling some of the time. You can tell when he's up, you can tell when he's down. He's incredibly frustrating to support. Um, but I was standing 20 yards away from him at the Scottish Open 10 days ago when he hit a two-ine 200 yards to that last green, and you know, the excitement that just went through the crowd when he did that um is something pretty special. And and and like he's as popular in the States as he is over here. I was I was fortunate enough to go to the Los Angeles Open at Riviera this year, um, as well as the Scottish Open here, and and the fans were were cheering for him just as loud over there as they were over here, you know. Um, there's just something about him which which I think people want to see, people want to watch. So he would definitely be of the top players, the the one that I'd want to go out and watch more than anyone.

SPEAKER_03

Alright.

SPEAKER_01

We're uh back to you playing. What's the best round you've had? Where was it? Um in terms of score. True. Um scars.

SPEAKER_02

So I've only broken 80 a few times on the past 72 golf course. Um I did that at the Westflingston of Berwick a few times, so that's quite a good one. It's probably the first time that I did that. It was at the course I'm a member of Called Archerfield. Um I had a 78 there, and I'd never been under 80 before. And that was the most exciting because I knew exactly what I had to do. The other members of my group weren't even looking at scores. I didn't have a clue of it. As that bit was, you know, do you tell them that this is really important or not? Um, but it's funny, there's there's a kind of cultural thing over here. I reckon I keep score one in ten rounds. Um, most golf is match played, um, and you don't even hold out. Um, I'm not saying I would have been under 80 that many more times, I don't think I would have been. But but over here, when I travel in Australia, like everyone counts everything all the time. In the States, you guys like to keep score. You might be a bit more um friendly when it comes to getting the putts sometimes than they are in Australia. Over here, if someone's out of the hole, you just move on to the next one sometimes.

SPEAKER_00

What is the worst weather you've ever played at?

SPEAKER_02

Um, I was in northern Italy last year playing, and I've never played golf in Italy and was really keen to do it. And um we went to this one course, and oh my goodness, it was incredible. It was it was very, very wet, and I'm used to raining over here, right? As we get plenty of rain, we get plenty of wind. Um I've played here and I five four club winds probably once a year. Um, but we had the most incredible monsoon to the point that the course just flooded. And when I say the course flooded, it wasn't like there were some pools of water. Literally, within about five minutes, we got to about the eighth hole, we took some shelter, the entire uh course just turned into water in a way you couldn't see any green anymore. And it was like totally surreal how suddenly it must have just been the w the the way that the place was um sit versus the water table and stuff, and it and it was just like a lake. Um, so we had to go back into the clubhouse and wait for it to pass. And they said, This isn't passing, and we left it, we never saw any green again. Um, so that was pretty bad, but that just took us going off the course. I mean, I have well, here's one I did. I did a charity walk from North Berwick to St. Andrews, which is uh quite a long way. You did it over 10 days, and I stopped to play golf every day. And this was in May to a question we had earlier: what's the best time to come in May? And there was it was cold, it was windy, and then hailstorms came, and the hailstones were were just huge. Um, the entire course went completely white and it was freezing, and it was the middle of May. So, when you think what's the best time to come to play golf in Scotland, um, it could be any time.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, we will, I know you are on a time crash. Let me ask one more question. What is the best thing about joining you on one of your golf trips?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, I I I think it is about getting to meet other people who are just really into their golf, who are like total golf nuts. You'll get to spend time with people who are probably like-minded. You've got someone else organizing it all for you. You know, there's a lot of attractions there, but there's lots of trips that do that. I think I think here it's around finding some of the places a bit off the beaten track, um, hearing the stories from some of the people who've been intimately involved in them, and spending time with people who you're probably going to get on with.

SPEAKER_03

Very nice. Well, uh, that's what we talk about. You know, we we try to help tell golf stories, right? That's what we are interested in, helping people share that. And and we keep making reference to the fact it's not about, like you said, you might not keep score uh and it might not be the the greatest place in the world to play, but it's about who you play with, right? And so I think that's great. Excited about what you are doing. Um yeah, follow him on, follow David on Twitter at UK GolfGuy. Uh check out his website, ukgolfguy.com. Uh, he's got some awesome uh maps, golf maps of Scotland coming out. Um yeah, David, we really appreciate you joining us. No, you got to jump.

SPEAKER_02

No, thank you for the time.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, appreciate you being here with us today.

SPEAKER_02

Really good, really good to talk to you. And um, it would be great when you do come over here next time. Please let me know and bring the clubs, eh?

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. We've got to win. Yep. Good stuff. Well, um, yeah, I'm gonna ask Jonathan a couple questions. Jonathan, uh, I didn't tell you before, but yesterday he was at instead of the the closing uh last round of the open, he was at the final stage of the Tour de France.

SPEAKER_00

So Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02

So that's that's a good alternative. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It wasn't a bad way. We uh were right at the corner, Arch of Triumph on the Champs-Élysée. Got to see the last 55k in person. Uh apparently we found the American section because probably 50% of everyone standing around us was from the US. Uh, a couple folks from the UK, Australia, places like that. But yeah, I've been a Twitter France fan for about 20-some odd years now. Uh my wife and I were talking about it the other day. Back in 2002, you'd get up and there you'd hear Paul and Phil uh chatting away over the computer, but there was no visual or anything. It would just be a little dot chasing across uh up and downstream, and it was you know four o'clock in the morning sitting in my house watching my computer screen for four hours.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And so the culmination to be able to be in Paris for the weekend, which was amazing. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh what was the atmosphere like as it as they came around that last bend? Was it was it a good atmosphere?

SPEAKER_00

You know, it really was like if it was started raining early, and so there was some concern that it was still going to be wet. I I actually I don't know if I should say this out loud, the Paris cops might come after me, but they were shutting, we stayed at a hotel just down the street, and they were shutting everything down early in the morning, so we couldn't really walk anywhere on the Champs-Élysées. So I was like, you know what though, there's still cars. So I grabbed, I grabbed a line bike, electric bike, and I actually rode on the Champs-Élysées and around the Arch of Triomphe. And then finally a cop came out and like pointed at me, like, hey, I need you to get off the road. So wow. Yeah, it was yeah, it was an it was an incredible experience. Uh, it was one of those things, Robbie and I have talked about this a lot, and I don't know if you've been, but you know, the Augusta National is one of those experiences that it lives up to the to the moment. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And if you're you know, if you're a sports fan or if you're a cycling fan for sure, it it was it was it lived up to the moment to watch those guys come around the corner. Uh they're pushing 55k. You could, I mean, we were close enough, you could like see the mouth hanging up. open and the fear in their eyes as they're trying to dart down the cobblestones. So it it it was it was definitely a plus. I'm trying to figure out what the rest of my sort of sports bucket list needs to be, right? A Super Bowl, a uh World Series maybe. Um try to find some.

SPEAKER_02

That's that's a that's set quite a high standard now though for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Oh for sure. Yeah, because you're just you're and and this is like the you know in golf you're right in the moment, right? You're not just in the stand somewhere separated. You know, we were 30 feet away from the bikes. Yeah the French TV car decided to sort of spin out a little bit around the corner. So that was kind of fun too. But yeah could quite a good weekend not as much golf so next time whenever we uh cross the pond we'll make sure to look you up and Robbie and I will come and uh play some golf too. That's absolutely great.

SPEAKER_03

Thanks a lot guys all the best David thanks Jonathan thank you uh this has been the whole story podcast

Head Shot

Jonathan Hill

Co-host
Head Shot

Robby Woodard

Co-host