WEBVTT - Royal County Down and the Irish Open 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.520 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:04.920 When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.920 And when I find my ball in a fried. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.600 Egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg Friday Frida Egg Egg, 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:13.200 fridagg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:14.080 of the course. 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.680 Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast. 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.760 I am your host, Andy Johnson. Today we are going 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:48.239 to talk Royal County Down in the Irish Open. I 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.800 am pleased to be joined by Darra Garahey. He is 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.440 a friend of mine that I met h longtime, you know, 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.640 emailer and communicator, but we met when I was in 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:04.440 iraland earlier this year played some golf together and he 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.840 is a I would say a he's a diehard when 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.720 it comes to golf architecture, at golf history and knows 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:16.000 just a ton about golf on the island of Ireland. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:17.440 So I had one. 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:19.399 I figured he'd be a great guest to come on 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:24.360 and talk about Royal County Down and didn't disappoint. He 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.840 came prepared, ready to go. We talked about one of 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.479 the world's greatest golf courses and this week's Irish Open host. 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.480 I figured this would be a great table setter for 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.800 kind of I would say, the the last hurrah of 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.200 pro golf this year. This year, you know, we got 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.520 the Pea Cup coming up, the President's Cup coming up, 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.040 but I think this Royal County Down this weekend. You 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.200 obviously have the Solheim Cup at RTJ after and we'll 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.840 have an episode later this week that kind of centers 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.080 on that. But the I think the the Irish Open 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.680 and Royal County Down is it's going to deliver the 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.360 goods for people that are really into golf courses and 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.560 in architecture. That'll be on Golf Channel early in the 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:13.160 morning in the States all week, so check that out. 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.400 Before we get to Dara, let's talk a little bit 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.919 about Club TFE. That is our sponsor of this pod. 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:24.280 It's our membership, it's the fridaygg's membership, and it is 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.000 it's a bustle in place. We're producing a lot of content. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.560 I'm actually working on a Royal Kenny Down written profile. 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.440 So every week we do a course profile in there 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.480 where we go dive deep into a golf course. Last 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.400 week we had one of our member videos that comes 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.800 that we put out a couple of those every year 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.640 that was on Southern Pines. We have Design Notebook that 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:53.280 comes out every Monday that kind of talks about what's 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:54.959 going on in the golf design world. 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:56.240 So a ton of content. 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.880 On top of that, there a discounts to the pro Shop, 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.519 and there are a handful of member only events, maybe 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.520 a few more. We've got some really awesome couple of 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.880 add ons that we've added that we'll be announced next 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:16.040 week as some very good golf courses in America some 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.560 would say probably a couple of the best golf courses 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:23.799 in America. Those will go up next week. But really 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:28.040 cool offering and big thanks to everybody that's joined and 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.239 supported us. It's one hundred and twenty dollars for the 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.760 year and it really goes to helping us continue to 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:38.520 grow and do more stuff. So just to check that out. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.880 And then one other reminder we did I did a 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.640 big video with the help of Cameron heard us on 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.520 Royal County Down talked about that. That's up on our 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:53.000 free YouTube page. If you don't subscribe, check that out, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:57.600 subscribe and watch that video. That was super fun to 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:01.320 see come to life. Cameron is believable at putting those 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.240 videos together. So let's get to Dara and our talk 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:17.640 about Royal County Down. Dearah, it's Irish Open Week. This 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.080 is a great year of the Irish Open. Gone is 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.640 Mount Juliet for this year and and Royal County Down 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:29.600 is the host course hasn't hosted in almost a decade 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.800 and this will be really like I think, like in 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:38.440 terms of modern golf coverage between social media, HD cameras, 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.479 this is really kind of the coming out party for 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.320 Royal County Down in the in the modern golf viewing 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:50.839 era with with social media. And so what are a 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:56.200 few of your favorite things about the Irish Open and so. 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.279 Much to say what a week it's going to be. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.600 Just reflect on the week. First of all, I saw 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.039 you've put the Orish Open up as your event of 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.200 the week and your various social media outlets. I'm going 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:08.800 to push back a little. I'm going to say the 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.240 Crump Cup is on in Pine Valley, So between the 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.359 Pine Valley and Royal County Down and being showcased, I 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.240 just think it's going to be an incredible week in golf. 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.040 Obviously we can't watch Pine Valley, so I'm going to 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:20.800 go up to Royal County Down on Saturday, and I 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:21.880 just can't wait to see. 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.520 It with the you're going up huh oh, yeah. 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.039 I'm going up on So I went to the Saturday 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:28.880 in twenty fifteen as well, and I'm going to be 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.440 up on Saturday this year again. The weather was pretty 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.200 bad in twenty fifteen. I think there was some pretty 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:36.000 high scores on the Saturday I was up there, or 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:37.520 maybe it was a Friday. But I can't wait to 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.640 go up just with you know, the golf schedule since 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:43.479 the PGA Championship moved, I think Andy from August to 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.799 July or August to May, everything wraps up so quickly 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.600 in terms of major events on great courses, seems to 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:52.520 wrap up the end of July. We get a premature end. 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.800 So we've just been blessed this year with this wonderful 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.000 closing chapter in Royal County Down. So I wouldn't miss 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:02.280 it for anything. It's just it's going to be spectacular, 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.520 it's going to be firm. The weather's been good here 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:06.720 for the last week or so. I just saw a 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:08.640 picture today of Shane Lowry and Port Rush with some 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.240 myits on, so it can change. But at least there 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.440 should be some firmness in it unless it gets it dowsing. 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.760 But the Irish Open is, as you said, returning to 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.920 a Lynx course, we're spiritual home. We're so charmed. It's 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.240 you know, the heyday of the Irish Open was the 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:29.200 nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties, played mainly on Portmarnick, occasional 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.960 smatterings in Royal Dublin, and they were just brilliant events. 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.039 Nineteen eighty six to nineteen ninety I think Sevy one, 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.160 then Bernard Langer won, then Woozy went back to back 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:41.960 and then I think it was Ola Thabel one in 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:46.599 nineteen ninety. Huge crowds. Those days maybe slightly gone. We 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:48.720 know all the commercial concerns that go around hosting a 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.960 tournament and we can't always go to top tier links and 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:53.680 you've talked so much about that. But just to be 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.719 able to go back even this once this year, it's 0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:59.320 just amazing and I can't wait to see it and 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.240 I hope everyone in America gets to watch some of 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:01.760 it as well. 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.080 I think like one of the interesting things about the 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.560 Irish Open is having, you know, our visit to Ireland 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:15.560 this spring kind of illuminated how great the amateur championships 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.440 are in Ireland, whether it's the North, the South, the East, 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.840 the West, and the courses, the host courses you know, 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:29.000 you know Royal Port, Rush, Bealtray, County Law and La 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.320 Hinch as a host like and you get these great 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.880 amateur championships which anybody can enter. You can enter as 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.680 an American, you can enter as an Australian, play these 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.000 great links courses. But then you know, in recent years 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:47.480 the Irish Open we've had Mount Juliet, we get the 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:53.200 kind of interior, you know, the interior non links golf courses, 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:58.520 and I think, like from from a standpoint of pro golf, 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:04.960 I think venues add a lot. And when John Rahm 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.720 won it Hinch years ago, it was like an amazing 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.800 like win right, it was just like an amazing tournament. 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:12.480 Everything. 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.520 This this event needs to be held at the great 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:18.680 golf courses in Ireland. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.360 It's a showcase for the Island of Ireland. 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.000 Speaking of as the island as a whole for golf, 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.600 I think that's generally the premise there. But these should 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.000 be hosted around and it should be a big deal. 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:36.880 Winning the Irish Open at Port Marnick or Hinch or 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.600 wherever it may be. And I just hope that this 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.880 trend kind of continues in the next couple decades of 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.560 getting places like I'm sure Royal County Down probably wants 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.120 to host about once every ten years, but there could 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.240 you know, with a little planning, you could do an 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:59.600 awesome rotation of ten or so courses in Ireland. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:00.679 Would do you agree with that? 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.000 I would've You've mentioned so many interesting points there. I think, 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.160 as you said, or City probably and any topp Links course. 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.360 They're so filled with visitors now and obviously they're private members' 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:13.440 clubs that there is a limitation on when they can hot. 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.200 So we should say thanks to Yald County Down first 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.000 of all. And you notice you picked up on the 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.040 love of Irish people have for amateur golf and the 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.600 great courses that host those tournaments, and they are just 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.640 it's just it's an over and above love for amateur 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:28.480 golf that we have here and we're so lucky they 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:30.640 are in great golf courses. But the history of the 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.959 Irish Open, as you mentioned there like it was, it's 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.080 coming up one hundred years now, so in nineteen twenty 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:37.680 seven and the first one was in Port Mark and 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.120 the second one was in World County Down And obviously 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.720 times have changed so much since then, but we've only 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.440 got these matterings of hostings in Port Rush or in 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.080 Lahinch that John ram One like. When I was growing 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.400 up as a kid, one of my standout memories is 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.840 and you mentioned Mount Juliette earlier and the Irish Open, 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.199 and interesting enough, on the European tour was actually becoming 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.520 quite strong, and we'll say it in nineties and two 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:03.320 thousands that's when the Irish Open moved for obviously commercial 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.000 reasons and then other reasons from the like support Marnic 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.240 in Royld Dublin to Druid's Lend to Killarney, to Photo 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:13.000 Island and occasionally dipped back into Baltray and then in 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.320 later years support Rush et cetera. But I remember going 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.000 to Bali Bunyon in about two thousand with my dad. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.000 He brought me down as the first golf tournament I'd 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.320 ever been at. I was ten years of age, and 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.360 that just resonated so hard with me. I'd never seen 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.040 a links golf of course in my life. It probably 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.040 played a large reason into why I really got into golf. 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.560 After that, I only started playing golf. And as you say, 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.880 if we could even occasionally lock something in, given the 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.160 great courses that we have the porst viewers not to 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:43.520 mention the Big five or the Big six, it would 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.160 just be it would add so much to world golf, 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.520 and given all the discussions that are going on, it's 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.920 particularly pertinent. I think I would say that things were 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.960 going particularly while Andy pre COVID in with the Irish Open, 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:57.959 the Rolex series. There was a lot of money being 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.720 pumped in and we went back to back I think 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.839 in Lahinch and Port Rush. So that was and I 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.560 think unfortunately obviously COVID happened in European to European tour 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.800 position weakened. But you know, you never know what's around 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.040 the corner, and I think that if there's anything the 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.120 tours can do to come around to this area of 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:19.040 having a link swing, and Ireland has so much stuffware 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:20.720 in terms of the best courses, it's a lot of 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:25.800 interesting discourse now around Live. Have obviously said there's chat 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.200 about John rab wanting a Links event in Ireland before 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.880 the British Open, so I think it should be to 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:34.920 the forefront of everyone's minds. We have too much good 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:36.640 stuff to offer and everyone's going to see it this 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:37.640 weekend in County Down. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.240 Yeah, you hit on an interesting point of the future 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.480 of the Irish Open, and we'll get to ROC after this. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.480 But you know, I think one of the things you 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:53.079 watch what's going on with the you know, potential Saudi 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:57.280 Public Investment Fund PGA tour deal or in lack of 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.400 progress on the deal, I think like one of the 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.200 big things that's a sticking point of the deal is 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.480 a world tour, you know, a global a little bit 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.120 more of a global game where the best players in 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:15.160 the world travel around the you know, to the biggest 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.480 golf markets in the world. 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.360 The Irish Open would seemingly be a. 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:26.880 Lynchpin to that world tour and it is probably you know, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:31.400 along with the Scottish Open and Wentworth behind, you know, 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:38.400 the the Open Championship as the premiere worldwide event. You know, 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.040 I think like the Australian Open, you'd throw in there also. 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.839 But you know, if if a deal doesn't happen, and 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:51.440 maybe the Saudi's look at the European Tour more closely. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.360 This this event to me, if you were going to 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.560 you know, do like a stock exchange for golf events. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:03.000 This event seems to have the most potential of becoming. 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:05.200 A great, great event again. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.040 You know, yeah, that's just such a brilliant point. Like firstly, 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.720 obviously the Scottish Open occupies I think currently the slot 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:17.400 before the Open Championship, and Scotland has an unbelievable amount 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.080 offer in terms of classic of courses and indeed renaissance, etc. 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.400 But the Irish economy is booming, there's no shortage of sponsors. 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.760 The Irish links to America in particular are strong. There's 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.520 a precedent for the Irish Open being a really, really 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.439 great event, like Ben Crenshaw used to come over in 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.480 the mid seventies when nobody was coming over, those record 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.280 crowds at these Irish Opens. We're a natural midpoint between 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.400 everyone that's involved in all these negotiations in this game. 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.160 And as you say, I'm not down on the Irish 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.080 Open at all. I think it's got a huge promise 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.120 to come Andy, I really do. I think that the 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.319 Irish Open should really be agitating for a more premier 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.320 spot in the calendar. I did start this podcast saying 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.319 September is pre eminent in terms of conditioning for a 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.160 link course, and of course it is. But we any 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.840 top pro would love to be in Ireland the week 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.560 before an Open or two weeks before. Courses around Ireland, 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.040 as you've obviously seen on social media have no shortage 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:16.800 of top pros coming to prepare anyway. 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.600 Privately, you know, you know who's one of them that 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:21.680 goes to Ireland every year before the Open? 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:22.920 Go on? 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:23.960 Tiger? 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.600 Tiger, Well, yeah, yeah, Tiger. There's a great, great picture 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.960 of Tiger in two or must be maybe ninety eight 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.320 or ninety nine playing Port Marnick and some of the 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.920 guys who obviously in the club watch him play that day. 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:38.600 In only but five or six people watched him playing. 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.200 This is absolutely incredible. But I've seen Dustin Johnson had 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:44.400 a couple of times, and lots of other guys come because, 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.640 for example, obviously playing Port Marnix some a little bit boys, 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.040 but Port Marnick is as firm and as kind of 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.720 intrigate as it gets. You know, it's very similar to 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:54.920 a lot of the style of golf played on certain 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.520 Open venues like Mierfield. But we have so much to offer. 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.560 We have occupied that kind of top spot in world golf. 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.200 In terms of our Open and the history like the 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.920 history of our National Open and the national Opens are 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:08.960 so important and the Irish Open is really to the 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.600 top of those. Andyes, so something that's here to my 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:13.440 heart and I'd love to see it get a better position. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:15.480 And I think it's very well primed too. 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.520 I think, you know, we talked about they brought up 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:20.840 the Scottish Open. One of the things that the Scottish 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.600 Open struggles with is is venues, because you know, the venue, 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.720 the great championship venues are kind of wrapped into the 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:33.040 Open rota, right, and they aren't. They aren't looking necessarily 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.720 to host a Scottish Open. So what happens with the 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.280 Scottish Open. And these are still great golf courses, just 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:45.040 not the country's top tier golf courses. The Scottish Open 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:49.520 goes to places like Gullen in Renaissance versus you know, 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:54.280 your mirfields, your your truons, your your your great great 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:59.280 championship hosts. The thing that Ireland has is that it 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:01.960 is never I don't think it's ever outside of like 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.120 Port Rush, and you know, it's never going to be 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:09.440 a hub of open championship golf because you know, the 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.240 Open is it's just that the Irish Open, So the 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.160 Irish Open heads this opportunity of we can we can 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:21.080 get the greatest golf courses of Ireland to. 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:26.160 Host absolutely and you know, obviously there's been a little 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.840 bit of discussion recently about Port Marnik maybe putting a 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:32.960 stand up for bigger events and whatever. But well, while 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:34.720 all that's going on in the background, there are so 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.600 many golf courses that could put their hand up. Baltray 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:39.800 would be only too willing. There's places like bally Lyffin, 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.800 which is obviously hard to get to. Yeah, but Lahinch 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:44.880 was such a success, bally Bunyan that I went to 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:46.680 in two thousand or maybe two thousand and one, I 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.360 think it was two thousand. I remember watching Garcia. I 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:52.400 was really got me in throlled with golf, I think. 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.120 But we are perfectly perfectly situated for all this, and 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:59.720 as you said, we're not you know, we're not. We're 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.840 not in the same situation as Scotland is with all 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.119 the open road courses, so we have a completely blank 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.119 slate and it's just the world is our oyster. And 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.080 I really do think it's going to happen quite soon. 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:13.800 And I think that the negotiations that are going on 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.760 probably will have a very positive outlook or positive end 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:20.840 result for Ireland and all this. I think that I 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.440 just thought the live chatter was quite interesting. I think 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.280 that that that'll bubble up and keep bubbling, you know. 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.320 I think that if they were to look for venues, 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.199 they would probably find this under the surface. They have 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.760 eight or ten brilliant golf courses in Ireland that they 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.879 could host a brilliant event on the week before the 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.080 Open and that'll peak people's interest handy. 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:48.560 So all right, let's talk about this week's brilliant venue. 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:50.000 Royal County down. 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:56.040 Staggeringly, staggeringly brilliant, just arguably the best course in Ireland 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.399 and the island of Ireland arguably the best golf in 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:00.840 the world. 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.000 People would put that in there, you know, it is 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.560 I think like it is a it's somewhere. It's a 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.680 golf course that you can I don't think anybody could 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.320 visit and be like, you know what, not my cup 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:18.520 of tea because it kind of offers everything from staggering 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:24.359 beauty challenge. There is like in a sense of adventure 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:28.920 to the golf course, and I think there's a very 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.679 brilliant golf design, so you kind of package all that together. 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.680 People might like one course more than an other. Somebody 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.720 might like Port Rushmore, or someone might like Port Marnock Moore, 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.880 someone might but like l Hinchmore. But I don't think 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.639 it's a golf course many people go to and say, 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.480 you know, I wish I hadn't come up here, this 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.480 was overrated, or this is this is too much. What 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.439 is your personal history, When was the first time that 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.120 you visited Royal County Down and what stood out to you. 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.240 I went to Dublin College in Dublin and played on 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.240 the university golf team, and I still have photos that 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.800 took on a low megapixel camera of we were lucky 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.280 enough to play against university in the North of Ireland 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:17.639 who had playing rights in Royal County Down or just 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.239 the ability to host matches. And it was March two 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:23.760 thousand and nine, the times time says, and the more 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.320 mountains were snow capped. But I don't think they care 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.400 too much about frost Up and roll County Down back then. 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.040 So I still have all these pictures of my opponent 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.959 gone down the fairway, who was a good player who 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.760 beat me. But I just I couldn't believe I was 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:38.600 playing rold County Down. I'd read about it for so 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:40.960 long and with the whole place for ourselves. It was 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.480 absolutely freezing. And he's along with his myths in his hat, 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:48.240 and I, you know, like any golf course, I really 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.119 didn't get a sense of it on first play. I 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.520 was overawed by it. I did play a couple of 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:57.760 more university matches there, but then I went back many 0:19:57.840 --> 0:19:59.840 more times of a particularly good friend there who actually 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:01.680 want the club championship there a couple of weeks ago 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.000 for the first time. So well done to Jack, but 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:06.320 I went back many times with him and indeed them 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:08.320 with other pals. And it's obviously it's less than two 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.719 hours up the road from Port Marnick, and I just 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:14.679 it's a truly great golf course. Like I've given up 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.360 on golf course rankings, and they're one of the most 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.080 useless things I think ever. I like to bucket golf courses, 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.119 and County Down is so far to the top of 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.480 the top tier bucket. It's just, you know, it's truly 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.960 great golf course because it has so many great golf holes. 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.000 That's what a great golf course has. To have great 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.320 golf holes and world County Down has twelve plus truly 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:40.280 brilliant golf holes. And as much as I you know, 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:42.520 I was just talking with my friend. My friend we 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.880 won the club championship. But I'll never admit to him 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.399 Monroe texting each other about County Down being better than 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.959 where I play in portmeric or whatever. But there is 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.720 just so much good going on that even if you 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:59.280 think that the last three holes are overrated, or some 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.320 contriving about the new sixteenth, or you know, you think 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:04.720 the seventeenth is week, which I don't think. I'd love 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:06.399 to chat about that the last trials. I think the 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:08.879 seventeenth is she has a great green site. But County 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:11.919 Down is just all about the terrain. The various people 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.480 involved in shaping it throughout the years never tried to 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:16.480 make too much of the greens. That didn't put bells 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:19.240 and whistles on. They're just so they're perfect for the 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:23.159 land they occupy. It's staggerantly beautiful and it might be 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:25.920 perhaps the most natural top tier course in the world, 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:31.520 I think, because there's nothing. You know, it's got foibles, 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.880 but it's all about the terrain. It's just perfectly put 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.919 along the terrain, but it was quite a journey to 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:40.399 get there. I don't know if you want to go 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.840 into it, but every samples nothing like the golf course 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.120 that was there in kind of eighteen well, eighteen eighty 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.399 nine when it started to nineteen twenty six when Harry 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:52.560 Colt came. But that briefly. Sorry to answer your original question, 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:54.879 that was my that's my history with it. I've played 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:56.960 it so many times and it's a joy to go 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:58.679 up there every single time. I find it to be 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:01.440 an incredibly hard golf course, which is the way to 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:03.560 start the outside of his part, I was laughing at 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:05.119 the idea of the Crumb Cup and Pine Valley in 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:07.760 the other sho opening in County Down, but because it 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:11.679 is a really, really difficult golf course, even in nineteen 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:13.879 oh eight or nineteen seven, I think of us with 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:18.280 a six four hundred yards. But it started, it started. 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:20.679 If you're happy to me to keep going, it started. 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:22.680 In eighty Yeah, I was just gonna I was gonna 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:24.680 jump in here and just go ahead. 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:26.919 I think like a couple of things that you you 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:27.560 hit on. 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:33.200 There are Oh I don't know if any golf course 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:36.919 that has as many overwhelmingly great golf. 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:40.120 Holes, truly brilliant, so many of them, like. 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.560 We can start, you can like like you can nitpick. 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:47.200 There are I think there are a couple couple of 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:51.920 weak moments in the round. But in terms of any 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.800 golf course in the world that I've played, there is 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:58.240 no golf course that, like, if you just like were like, 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:01.520 what are the greatest golf holes in the world, I 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:04.960 don't think any golf course would have as many in 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.920 that initial list because it's like one, two, three, four 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:11.960 or five six, So like you just go the whole 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:15.080 front nine, the entire front nine, Like, is there another 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:18.399 golf course in the world that has as good of 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:19.280 nine holes? 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:22.240 Any nine, like any nine you want to pick? 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:26.600 You could go one, seven, fourteen, like you could pick 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:29.840 your best nine. I don't know if there's any nine 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:32.560 that is as good as the front nine at Royal County. 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:34.600 Dowbt not even close. Is the running course in the 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:37.040 world where you I think the first hole is magnificent, 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:39.040 But you walk down the first hole like you walk 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:41.840 down every hole, every first hole. But what you should 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:44.200 do in first thing, I turn around and look back 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:49.040 up the fairway because you just it's stagnantly brilliant to 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:51.200 just look back on. And then you know, you get 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:53.879 to the second and I'm not a great lover of 0:23:53.920 --> 0:23:56.160 flying holes, but they don't bother me in Roild County 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:59.320 down at all because there's some sort of a compression 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:01.960 or lease on most aspect to the second hole, the 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:04.160 t shot, because even though it's a blind shot, which 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:05.600 you may or may not like, it's up to your 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:08.440 personal preference, but it's so wide when you get over 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:11.399 the hill that you like, it's so different, it's so wide, 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:13.040 and it's just gives so many options, and you know 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:16.080 that that second. Obviously, they approach to the second can 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:18.280 be blind depending on where you've hitch your T shirt 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:20.800 if you pull it left, but that that used to 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:23.360 be I think in different stages that was a completely 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:24.760 blind approach shot as well. 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:28.160 Yeah, they knocked down the do knock down went all 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:29.520 the way across. 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:32.439 And yeah they knocked down to doing ridge that I 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:34.359 think at various points they knocked that down. But they 0:24:34.359 --> 0:24:36.320 also attempted to build up the back of the green. 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:40.520 But then you know, like the the first three holes 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:42.600 kind of play out like a classic links But obviously 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:44.919 then it turns on itself at four. And when you 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:47.120 get these golf courses in Britain and Ireland that play 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:50.000 out and in even though a county nown doesn't, but 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:52.199 the first three holes play out, and they often have 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:54.639 a sense of claustrophobia, I find, but that there's just 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:57.119 none of that. There's a sense of space, as I 0:24:57.160 --> 0:24:59.760 said about the release on the second, there's a great 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:02.000 sense of space. And the third, which is one of 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:05.159 the best holes. I absolutely love the third. But you'd 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:07.760 be so hard picked to pick your favorite holes. If 0:25:07.760 --> 0:25:09.320 I asked you to pick your three favorite holes in 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:11.639 the frontline county down, we could be here all day 0:25:11.680 --> 0:25:14.840 and all night. I think I'd probably go for a 0:25:14.840 --> 0:25:15.760 soft spot for eight. 0:25:17.240 --> 0:25:17.960 It's amazing. 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:22.399 It is amazing, and it used to it used to 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:26.280 play it played down to the left. Yeah, and we'll 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:28.200 come on too that I'll go through that, but. 0:25:28.280 --> 0:25:30.760 Now we can't go now we're here, now. 0:25:31.200 --> 0:25:34.439 Okay, great, Okay, Well maybe i'll work back. So I 0:25:34.480 --> 0:25:38.760 think the golf course, I'll do it in stages of 0:25:38.760 --> 0:25:42.159 that properly. So the golf course eighteen eighty nine rudimentary 0:25:42.200 --> 0:25:46.440 course laid out resemble nothing like the current course and 0:25:46.520 --> 0:25:50.240 then old to Mars came three months after it was 0:25:50.280 --> 0:25:54.520 opened and suggested changes and they built three new holes 0:25:54.560 --> 0:25:57.200 and six year holes, so very suddenly done. By eighteen 0:25:57.280 --> 0:26:01.040 ninety there was eighteen holes course. And you alluded to 0:26:01.080 --> 0:26:04.240 the Irish lave of amateur golf earlier. Immediately the golf 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:07.600 course was hosting Irish amateur opens where the great players 0:26:07.600 --> 0:26:10.040 from the UK were coming over, John Boll and all 0:26:10.040 --> 0:26:12.480 these type of characters. And then there was some pro events. 0:26:12.520 --> 0:26:16.360 Even I think Hilton and Braid might have been coming 0:26:16.359 --> 0:26:18.919 over as well. So it was a plague championship government. 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:22.200 One of the things about the early golf course was 0:26:22.400 --> 0:26:26.119 and how this golf course people came to play it 0:26:26.160 --> 0:26:28.760 was that the first and eighteenth green were right next 0:26:28.760 --> 0:26:30.480 to a train station. 0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:34.199 Yeah, so what happened there. What happened there was like 0:26:34.240 --> 0:26:36.240 all good golf, like all golf in britaint Isreland. The 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:38.960 train line dictated the development of the golf course, and 0:26:39.000 --> 0:26:44.080 the Belfast Railway made the stop in Newcastle, which is 0:26:44.119 --> 0:26:46.840 the village of County Down beside. It made that a 0:26:46.960 --> 0:26:49.840 terminus kind of maybe a few years before, and they 0:26:49.840 --> 0:26:51.800 were so in lockstep with each other of the golf 0:26:51.800 --> 0:26:55.159 course and indeed, the town and the train station that 0:26:54.520 --> 0:26:59.800 the government slash train station and Royal County down actually 0:26:59.880 --> 0:27:03.280 came together to build a room for the use of 0:27:03.320 --> 0:27:06.400 golfers at the train station. That's how we boxed up. Yeah, 0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:09.359 and they I think I maybe paid half and a 0:27:09.359 --> 0:27:12.240 half for the upkeep of it was shared, et cetera. 0:27:12.359 --> 0:27:16.200 And you're right, like the I think the original Home Green, 0:27:16.280 --> 0:27:19.720 the eighteenth Green, was down on the currents side of 0:27:19.760 --> 0:27:22.440 the sleeved Honnerdt Hotel, So you're right. It started way 0:27:22.440 --> 0:27:25.840 further down, finished further down, and it bore no resemblance 0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:27.680 the current golf course at all. So this is eighteen 0:27:27.760 --> 0:27:33.440 ninety and then again between eighteen ninety two and eighteen 0:27:33.480 --> 0:27:36.719 ninety four they rebuilt six new holes in and got 0:27:36.840 --> 0:27:39.800 rid of some others. So we've had three or four 0:27:39.920 --> 0:27:42.399 already major iterations of the golf course and we're only 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:45.520 four four and a half years in. And then, like 0:27:45.560 --> 0:27:48.080 all great golf courses and the there was a benevolent dictator, 0:27:48.640 --> 0:27:51.640 you know, like there was The more I think about it, 0:27:52.520 --> 0:27:55.439 so many great golf courses, mainly in America, have been 0:27:55.480 --> 0:27:59.320 shaped by benevolent autocrats. And there was fans at Oakmont 0:27:59.359 --> 0:28:02.439 and in later years Gerald Micklum made good changes at 0:28:02.480 --> 0:28:04.639 Sunning Dealt. But there was a guy called George Coom 0:28:05.280 --> 0:28:08.520 and he was first noted to be around in the 0:28:08.520 --> 0:28:11.520 mid or sorry, the early eighteen nineties. But he was 0:28:11.560 --> 0:28:13.840 a gentleman of boundless energy. You found these people at 0:28:13.840 --> 0:28:15.920 the time who could turn their hand to anything, you know. 0:28:16.920 --> 0:28:19.080 And he gained a prominent position in world County down 0:28:20.040 --> 0:28:22.440 on the council I think it's called they called their committee, 0:28:22.680 --> 0:28:26.160 and he started changing the course I think in Earnest 0:28:26.160 --> 0:28:29.080 in about nineteen hundred. He built many new new holes 0:28:29.119 --> 0:28:31.000 and he changed the rest so there was only six 0:28:31.040 --> 0:28:33.800 original holes left of the original golf course. And the 0:28:33.800 --> 0:28:36.040 golf course is up to fifty eight hundred yards, but 0:28:36.160 --> 0:28:40.160 descriptions of that course don't really exist. There's kind of yardages, etc. 0:28:40.560 --> 0:28:42.840 But at the same time he was also building the 0:28:42.920 --> 0:28:46.880 number two course, the Ansley Course are the number two. 0:28:46.680 --> 0:28:47.960 Course, the Weak Course. 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:50.960 The Weak Course. So he was a busy guy. He 0:28:51.120 --> 0:28:53.800 was sure. He was honorary Secretary of the Golfing Union 0:28:53.840 --> 0:28:56.800 of Ireland and he did all sorts. But anyway, he 0:28:56.880 --> 0:29:00.440 wasn't a complete autocrat. Yet he got many people who 0:29:00.440 --> 0:29:02.640 he knew understood golf architecture to come over and have 0:29:02.640 --> 0:29:06.680 a look. He had Ben Sayers actually come over, and 0:29:06.720 --> 0:29:09.040 then he would carry out more changes and even paid 0:29:09.080 --> 0:29:10.440 for some of the changes out of his own pocket. 0:29:11.640 --> 0:29:14.760 So he two more big changes, trunch of changes, the 0:29:14.800 --> 0:29:17.960 kind of nineteen two changes that he started in nineteen hundred, 0:29:18.120 --> 0:29:20.720 and then by nineteen oh eighty don it again, so 0:29:20.760 --> 0:29:23.720 we have big golf course sixty four hundred yards. And 0:29:23.760 --> 0:29:28.520 then obviously the most important thing that happened was that 0:29:28.600 --> 0:29:32.080 Harry Cold came over in nineteen twenty six. And this 0:29:32.240 --> 0:29:34.120 is just where the genius of County Down and the 0:29:34.120 --> 0:29:37.000 genius of Harry Cold comes out. And in a nutshell, 0:29:37.040 --> 0:29:39.040 what Harry Cold did was, first of all, he planted 0:29:39.040 --> 0:29:40.720 all the gorse. There was no gorse in County Down 0:29:40.760 --> 0:29:44.840 before Harry Cold. So the fourth hole, as we know, 0:29:45.040 --> 0:29:47.240 one of the most honest biring part threes in the world. 0:29:47.640 --> 0:29:49.720 You've you've just got beaten up by the third and 0:29:49.760 --> 0:29:52.320 you step onto the forty and you're you're looking around 0:29:52.320 --> 0:29:54.560 trying to take it all in, and then you you know, 0:29:54.600 --> 0:29:56.560 you got to pick up a two hundred yard club 0:29:56.600 --> 0:29:59.000 and hit down to just one of the best best 0:29:59.040 --> 0:30:01.080 golf holes in the world. But what Harry Colt did 0:30:01.200 --> 0:30:05.240 was that the old fourth hole was a hole that 0:30:05.320 --> 0:30:09.440 played in parallel, went back up beside the third up 0:30:09.440 --> 0:30:11.520 to kind of around the current fifth green, So it 0:30:11.560 --> 0:30:13.360 was a five hundred and twenty yard hold that kind 0:30:13.360 --> 0:30:16.360 of played along the rough corridor of what he built 0:30:16.480 --> 0:30:21.680 where the current fourth is and the current fifth. So 0:30:22.080 --> 0:30:24.800 he knocked that whole out the three shotter and put 0:30:24.840 --> 0:30:28.240 in the dog leg right fifth, but more importantly the fourth. 0:30:28.360 --> 0:30:30.680 So immediately he was Harry Colt was always on the 0:30:30.680 --> 0:30:32.960 lookout for good bar threes. I think that's how he 0:30:33.000 --> 0:30:35.160 when he was called to port Rush. That's really what 0:30:35.240 --> 0:30:36.960 he did up there as well. He looked for the 0:30:37.000 --> 0:30:38.960 best sites for par threes, is what I understand, and 0:30:38.960 --> 0:30:40.880 then he worked off the rest and that was his 0:30:40.920 --> 0:30:45.880 first change on the front Niner County down, So he 0:30:46.400 --> 0:30:50.160 actually reduced It's hard to believe, but he reduced blindness 0:30:50.200 --> 0:30:52.800 around the golf course as well. So we can only 0:30:52.840 --> 0:30:55.480 imagine the demands of the pre cold iteration. 0:30:56.120 --> 0:30:59.920 Well, I mean, the site itself is naturally can do 0:31:00.320 --> 0:31:03.479 to blindness. You have massive, you have massive you know, 0:31:04.160 --> 0:31:08.360 dramatic dramatic sand dunes. I think, like you know, in 0:31:08.480 --> 0:31:13.400 terms of golf court, but they're well scaled sand dunes, 0:31:13.640 --> 0:31:15.880 you know. I think like the thing that people will 0:31:15.920 --> 0:31:18.680 say is like, oh, the front nine at Port Stewart 0:31:18.880 --> 0:31:21.680 is as good as the front nine at Royal County Down, 0:31:21.840 --> 0:31:26.360 and I just disagree because the variety of the of 0:31:26.400 --> 0:31:29.520 the way that you interact with the sand dunes is 0:31:29.560 --> 0:31:33.880 the brilliance of Royal County Down is that you're you're 0:31:33.920 --> 0:31:36.800 playing through them, and I think like Port Stewart is 0:31:37.000 --> 0:31:40.240 I love that nine, but the dunes are so big 0:31:40.280 --> 0:31:43.000 that you can't play on top of them in the 0:31:43.040 --> 0:31:46.120 way that you play on top of them on six, 0:31:46.240 --> 0:31:50.480 seven and eight at at at Royal County Down, you 0:31:50.560 --> 0:31:55.240 miss that like playing on on you know, the exposed 0:31:55.240 --> 0:31:58.800 center of it. At Port Stewart, you're always playing through them. 0:31:58.880 --> 0:32:02.840 So what I think the brillions of the cult iteration 0:32:03.400 --> 0:32:06.440 is the way that it interacts on the dunes, you know, 0:32:06.720 --> 0:32:09.840 the way it gets you you kind of wrap around them, 0:32:10.080 --> 0:32:12.760 play in them, and then you get on them and 0:32:12.800 --> 0:32:13.960 then you play off them. 0:32:14.280 --> 0:32:16.560 You know. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about it like that. 0:32:16.640 --> 0:32:19.360 You're you're absolutely spot on. He so he obviously probably 0:32:19.400 --> 0:32:22.080 reduced playing through them on the first few holes and 0:32:22.120 --> 0:32:24.920 then made the best of them up on five, six, seven, eight, 0:32:24.960 --> 0:32:27.720 and nine. What I understand is what I understand is 0:32:27.720 --> 0:32:32.400 George Coom as well, our favorite benevolent dictator, also kind 0:32:32.440 --> 0:32:35.600 of reduced blindness. I think the first few holes genuinely 0:32:35.680 --> 0:32:39.800 played just straight over and straight over and through dunes. 0:32:39.840 --> 0:32:43.120 That probably was not in the best way to play 0:32:43.360 --> 0:32:45.920 certain holes. So I think Komb had already started laying 0:32:45.920 --> 0:32:49.959 out the original playing corridors that the holes occupy, and 0:32:50.000 --> 0:32:51.720 by the time he was done in about nineteen o eight, 0:32:51.760 --> 0:32:54.080 the first in the eighteenth were parafise, so they were 0:32:54.120 --> 0:32:57.040 three shutters and the playing carriders were established. And then 0:32:57.080 --> 0:33:01.160 Colt obviously came in and as you just saw eloquently said, 0:33:02.080 --> 0:33:05.840 utilize playing off the dunes and the slopes rather than 0:33:05.840 --> 0:33:10.200 egregious playing over them. So perfectly, that's exactly I think 0:33:10.240 --> 0:33:12.160 that's probably the fairest way to describe it. But I 0:33:12.160 --> 0:33:14.920 do think that this golf course, modern version of it 0:33:15.040 --> 0:33:17.560 was an awful lot to George Coop. But then what 0:33:17.760 --> 0:33:21.880 so what Gold did was and this is just the 0:33:22.160 --> 0:33:24.200 current eighth, which is just one of my favorite golf course, 0:33:24.400 --> 0:33:26.920 a murmer my favorite holes on the golf course. It's 0:33:26.960 --> 0:33:29.320 just at that time that was the seventh and it played. 0:33:29.440 --> 0:33:32.640 The eighth plays up along the ridge. It's you know 0:33:32.720 --> 0:33:35.640 the ninth. You'll see everybody takes pictures of the ninth. 0:33:36.160 --> 0:33:38.280 The eighth is where it gets you to the ninth 0:33:38.360 --> 0:33:40.600 tee and it's I think it's probably one of the 0:33:40.720 --> 0:33:44.120 least talk about great holes at Royal County Down. It 0:33:44.240 --> 0:33:47.400 kind of plays on a diagonal off the tea and 0:33:47.840 --> 0:33:50.280 winds its way up to the top of the dune ridge. 0:33:50.760 --> 0:33:52.960 Yeah, and I think big Part. 0:33:52.800 --> 0:33:57.760 Four most exposed, most exposed to, most exposed shots maybe 0:33:57.800 --> 0:33:58.800 at Royal County Down. 0:33:59.120 --> 0:34:01.960 Yeah, and kind of a tabletop green almost falls off 0:34:02.000 --> 0:34:05.920 on the right anyway. But what Cold did was that, 0:34:06.480 --> 0:34:08.520 as I was just saying, that was the seventh hole, 0:34:08.640 --> 0:34:11.320 and it used to finish down into the left, almost 0:34:11.400 --> 0:34:13.359 near the current first green I'd imagine in my head. 0:34:14.000 --> 0:34:16.040 And then from there you played from down near that 0:34:16.080 --> 0:34:19.479 original green, you played back over at an angle over 0:34:19.600 --> 0:34:22.400 the current hill that you that the nine is so 0:34:22.440 --> 0:34:25.359 well known for in a blind Part three, and then 0:34:25.400 --> 0:34:27.560 you would go from behind that green and you would 0:34:27.560 --> 0:34:31.239 play over another sand hill that was there at the 0:34:31.280 --> 0:34:33.520 time to another green around the current nine green. So 0:34:33.560 --> 0:34:36.360 you two blind part threes, is that green? 0:34:36.600 --> 0:34:40.160 Is that practice green an original green? If you look 0:34:40.320 --> 0:34:42.520 like my side have been the green. 0:34:42.760 --> 0:34:44.960 You are correct. But I don't think that was actually 0:34:44.960 --> 0:34:49.480 the green for that just previously mentioned second blind part three, 0:34:49.520 --> 0:34:52.000 which occupied I think that was the green for another 0:34:52.080 --> 0:34:55.680 hole that was there in the in a more previous 0:34:55.719 --> 0:34:59.520 iteration in one of the. 0:34:58.400 --> 0:35:00.520 Time it could have been an old I think I. 0:35:00.440 --> 0:35:03.280 Think it could have. I think it could have, because 0:35:03.400 --> 0:35:05.279 I actually was just checking that last night. I don't 0:35:05.320 --> 0:35:08.840 think there was. I don't think the second line Parturie 0:35:09.640 --> 0:35:11.920 played to that because it played over it played to 0:35:11.960 --> 0:35:15.239 a green in sand Hills in which is currently gone, 0:35:15.280 --> 0:35:17.279 which has gone in the meantime. So I think the 0:35:17.280 --> 0:35:20.880 practice green, which certainly was a real green, was for 0:35:20.920 --> 0:35:24.360 a different tole. But what he did then was so 0:35:24.440 --> 0:35:27.400 he obliterated that he moved the eighth green up or 0:35:27.440 --> 0:35:29.120 with the seventh hole at the time, up to the 0:35:29.200 --> 0:35:32.400 right onto this magnificent table top. And then you just 0:35:32.440 --> 0:35:34.960 walk from obviously so many or so many of your 0:35:34.960 --> 0:35:36.960 listeners will have just will know exactly where the ninth 0:35:37.000 --> 0:35:39.279 Green ninety is then straight behind the current eight green 0:35:39.600 --> 0:35:42.840 when you play the Magnificent Night. So Harry Colt created 0:35:43.200 --> 0:35:47.360 the modern eight, the modern Night, and indeed the modern Fort, 0:35:48.600 --> 0:35:51.440 which is just pure genius. But he did it all 0:35:51.440 --> 0:35:54.439 through the garters which were previously established. After about seven 0:35:54.520 --> 0:35:57.600 or eight goes from all our various he mentioned pals, 0:35:58.840 --> 0:36:00.959 but you know where to start. But the front nine, 0:36:01.320 --> 0:36:04.680 it's just it's an endless hit list. Really, I think 0:36:04.680 --> 0:36:06.880 Andy so, but that's that was Harry Colt. 0:36:07.560 --> 0:36:09.920 Yeah, Harry Colet. Obviously. 0:36:10.320 --> 0:36:14.160 I think I recorded a pad years ago with Curtis James, 0:36:14.200 --> 0:36:18.239 who's the superintendent at at Old Elm, Harry Cole, one 0:36:18.280 --> 0:36:20.400 of the few Harry Colts in North America. 0:36:20.880 --> 0:36:22.080 And uh and. 0:36:22.040 --> 0:36:26.279 He said, I think this brilliantly is most Americans don't 0:36:26.280 --> 0:36:28.239 really know much about Harry Colt, but if you go 0:36:28.280 --> 0:36:30.399 over the UK, he's like Jesus. 0:36:31.080 --> 0:36:35.320 Yeah. I just for a period of time when the 0:36:35.320 --> 0:36:38.279 screensaver on my phone was the Poe three the fourth 0:36:38.320 --> 0:36:40.480 hole at Swenley Forest, which I just couldn't get over. 0:36:40.520 --> 0:36:43.520 It's just so brilliant. I don't know, I don't think you've. 0:36:43.360 --> 0:36:45.960 Ever played Swenley I have that yet. 0:36:45.960 --> 0:36:47.719 There's that silly old quote that he called it it's 0:36:47.840 --> 0:36:50.680 his least bad course, but it's just it's it's a 0:36:50.680 --> 0:36:54.160 brilliant monument. Was that the quote they said about port 0:36:54.200 --> 0:36:56.200 Rush him he doesn't need a brass statute is port 0:36:56.280 --> 0:36:57.200 Rush is his monument. 0:36:58.480 --> 0:37:01.959 So I think I think what he did at Port 0:37:02.040 --> 0:37:07.200 Rush is so different than at at Royal County Down. 0:37:07.360 --> 0:37:10.319 I think at the green, I think the greens are 0:37:10.360 --> 0:37:13.880 pretty simple at Royal County Down, but then you go 0:37:13.960 --> 0:37:16.560 to you go to Port Rush and they are like 0:37:16.640 --> 0:37:18.840 these beautiful intricate. 0:37:19.880 --> 0:37:21.719 Greens with like some really. 0:37:23.120 --> 0:37:27.240 Wonderful contouring, you know, different pockets, and but Royal County 0:37:27.280 --> 0:37:31.240 Down I think like it's I don't know what makes 0:37:31.480 --> 0:37:35.360 what do you think makes Royal County Down so challenging? 0:37:35.640 --> 0:37:38.640 Because I think it's like from a from a sheer 0:37:38.760 --> 0:37:42.840 challenge right there with Port Rush, Like I would almost 0:37:42.920 --> 0:37:45.480 venture to say that Royal County Down might be more 0:37:45.600 --> 0:37:46.960 challenging than Port Rush. 0:37:47.320 --> 0:37:49.759 I think Royal County Down is way more challenging than 0:37:49.800 --> 0:37:52.439 Port Rushian. But first of all, it was a guy 0:37:52.440 --> 0:37:55.600 called Anthony Babbington who bought cold to port Russian. Again, 0:37:55.640 --> 0:37:58.440 they had a very rudimentary golf course. But I think 0:37:58.440 --> 0:38:01.480 that was Cold genius. He recognized the land, the topography 0:38:01.520 --> 0:38:05.320 of Port Rush. Obviously it was rolling in a sense. 0:38:05.480 --> 0:38:07.680 You know, I wouldn't describe World County Down as rolling, 0:38:07.719 --> 0:38:11.120 and he perhaps he created the greens a little bit 0:38:11.120 --> 0:38:13.920 more rolling fashion. Whereas if you think, if you think 0:38:13.960 --> 0:38:16.759 about the third hole of rold County Down, if I 0:38:16.880 --> 0:38:19.960 was to be laconic in my in my language, I 0:38:19.960 --> 0:38:22.520 would say that two good shots will sort you out 0:38:22.520 --> 0:38:24.680 at the third at County Down, because when you get there, 0:38:24.719 --> 0:38:29.400 the green is relatively open, simple, somewhat inviting, but the 0:38:29.520 --> 0:38:33.719 challenge is before and Cold knew that, you know, so 0:38:33.760 --> 0:38:36.719 that that's part of his genius. There's no overdoing it. 0:38:36.960 --> 0:38:40.360 We talked about Simpson and his restraint at Baltray, but really, 0:38:41.400 --> 0:38:43.000 why do I think I suppose your question was why 0:38:43.000 --> 0:38:45.920 do I think it's so challenging. I think this it 0:38:46.040 --> 0:38:50.640 is very, very broad. It's so beastly in every term 0:38:51.400 --> 0:38:55.200 that the rough is absolutely brutal at times. The gorse 0:38:55.239 --> 0:38:59.000 planted by Colt as well. I know last time I 0:38:59.000 --> 0:39:00.359 was up there was about a year ago that cut 0:39:00.360 --> 0:39:02.440 back some of the course, but it's an incredibly challenging 0:39:02.480 --> 0:39:05.120 golf course, and there are many parallels to Pine Value 0:39:05.120 --> 0:39:09.440 with the strength of the t shots. If you hit 0:39:09.440 --> 0:39:11.759 it five or ten yards right on the third which 0:39:11.800 --> 0:39:16.240 is again four hundred yards plus, there's deep, deep bunkers 0:39:17.680 --> 0:39:20.000 that I don't think, for example, when Americans come over here, 0:39:20.000 --> 0:39:22.120 I don't think they've ever played out of the surrounds 0:39:22.120 --> 0:39:24.040 of a bunker like they played out at the third 0:39:24.040 --> 0:39:26.160 hole on the fair way of World County Down. You 0:39:26.200 --> 0:39:28.719 can take five or six swipes. It's something that's caught 0:39:28.760 --> 0:39:32.239 up on that marton grass and be there all day. 0:39:32.280 --> 0:39:35.040 You know, there is there is nothing like that challenge 0:39:35.080 --> 0:39:37.160 and you were in the world really and I think 0:39:37.520 --> 0:39:39.880 the amount of trouble you can get yourself in between 0:39:40.360 --> 0:39:44.760 green and tea is unrivaled in world golf really too. 0:39:46.040 --> 0:39:50.800 Yeah, yeah, you know, I think like from first glance, 0:39:51.200 --> 0:39:55.520 it doesn't feel that demanding off the tea, like there's 0:39:55.560 --> 0:39:59.080 space there is, But when you throw in the wind 0:39:59.520 --> 0:40:05.400 and the firm when especially firm conditions and wind, it 0:40:05.520 --> 0:40:09.200 becomes like very clear that it is a like you 0:40:09.200 --> 0:40:12.600 you need to drive it extraordinarily well here. 0:40:12.360 --> 0:40:15.319 Yeah, like it's if you look at and obviously just 0:40:15.360 --> 0:40:16.680 to bring it up again. I play my golf for 0:40:16.680 --> 0:40:19.080 Port Marnock and Port Marnik appears kind of tied off 0:40:19.120 --> 0:40:20.920 the tee, but if you miss it left or right 0:40:21.680 --> 0:40:25.520 you're generally okay. But there's no marim grass with the 0:40:25.640 --> 0:40:28.239 volume and the texture like there is a Royal County Down. 0:40:28.320 --> 0:40:30.759 There are no You can be up against the base 0:40:30.800 --> 0:40:32.359 of a hill on the third of Royal County Down 0:40:32.360 --> 0:40:34.360 if you hit a long drive up the left, you know, 0:40:34.400 --> 0:40:36.120 you think you've done all the hard power. 0:40:36.719 --> 0:40:37.400 Not a good spot. 0:40:38.680 --> 0:40:41.239 You know you can be to use your pend there 0:40:41.280 --> 0:40:42.920 twice to use your. 0:40:42.800 --> 0:40:46.120 Parallel so you can be jammed hard, you know. 0:40:46.360 --> 0:40:49.080 So you're not enjoyed over there. 0:40:49.560 --> 0:40:52.799 Yeah, there's all the other golf courses in Ireland. If 0:40:52.800 --> 0:40:55.120 you hit a good law drive you're generally okay. But 0:40:55.239 --> 0:40:57.600 golf is natural and it's not supposed to be fair, 0:40:58.600 --> 0:41:01.040 you know. So I think this is where County Down 0:41:01.120 --> 0:41:03.920 wins out. The same give you said of the fifth hole, 0:41:03.960 --> 0:41:05.800 for example, which is a lovely dog leg used of 0:41:05.840 --> 0:41:08.080 a square green. Actually so a picture from nineteen thirty 0:41:08.160 --> 0:41:11.240 four a day use of a perfectly square green, almost 0:41:11.320 --> 0:41:15.359 like the the Philly Cricket Club the second course there 0:41:16.200 --> 0:41:19.080 Martin Saint Martin's, Yeah, which had a US open. I think, 0:41:20.080 --> 0:41:22.719 but if you miss any of these fairways, even though 0:41:22.719 --> 0:41:26.760 you said the playing carders are white, they are wide, 0:41:26.760 --> 0:41:30.719 but they're they're a different character off the farewell than 0:41:30.719 --> 0:41:33.400 they are at Port Mark or Port Rush or Lane 0:41:33.440 --> 0:41:37.680 for example, very very different. Lane has contouring and undulation 0:41:37.840 --> 0:41:41.160 like Royal County Down, but its penalties for missing the 0:41:41.160 --> 0:41:45.319 fairways are more consistent with the type of rough that 0:41:45.360 --> 0:41:49.359 you see across Ireland, which can be a decent blend 0:41:49.400 --> 0:41:52.240 of escue, but there is mareon grass I think, Andy, 0:41:52.320 --> 0:41:54.680 to answer your question about the difficulty of Royal County Down, 0:41:54.760 --> 0:41:58.239 that's not appreciated anywhere else on the island. That's what 0:41:58.280 --> 0:41:59.400 I'd run it back to. 0:42:00.360 --> 0:42:02.320 I feel like, you know, if I was going to 0:42:02.480 --> 0:42:08.160 use a descriptor for Royal County Down and why I find. 0:42:07.960 --> 0:42:10.560 It to be difficult. So tough is like it's like 0:42:10.640 --> 0:42:12.319 a raw golf. 0:42:13.640 --> 0:42:18.880 You you just are like the elements and whether it 0:42:18.920 --> 0:42:22.640 be on the ground elements like the dunes and the 0:42:22.680 --> 0:42:26.160 contours you're facing like, you know, you have these big features, 0:42:26.200 --> 0:42:28.600 but then in the fairways there are a lot of 0:42:28.640 --> 0:42:32.160 small features that kind of can can get you in 0:42:32.360 --> 0:42:36.560 bad spots and feel uncomfortable, you know, where you have 0:42:36.640 --> 0:42:39.920 like slight side hills and you're hitting into these small, 0:42:40.480 --> 0:42:44.600 small green targets and the wind's blowing hard. But it's 0:42:44.680 --> 0:42:47.960 just like a very raw place to play golf, Like 0:42:48.280 --> 0:42:52.319 you are just you're not going out there, you're like 0:42:52.440 --> 0:42:55.080 going out there and you know you're going it's almost 0:42:55.120 --> 0:42:57.640 like you feel like you're going to war with just the. 0:42:58.760 --> 0:43:01.600 But that's exactly it. Earlier on when we were chatting, 0:43:01.600 --> 0:43:04.200 I said, I think it's the best natural golf course 0:43:04.200 --> 0:43:07.480 in the world, and I really thought about that that phrase, 0:43:07.560 --> 0:43:10.200 because that's what it is. You know, there is just 0:43:10.239 --> 0:43:13.280 so little manufactured about it, and there's other golf courses 0:43:13.280 --> 0:43:16.160 that are in the top bucket that just don't feel 0:43:16.200 --> 0:43:17.600 like that, you know. I think that's what I think. 0:43:17.680 --> 0:43:21.200 Countydown is completely unique and it's how natural it is. 0:43:22.520 --> 0:43:26.600 Well that's why, yeah, I might I might say I 0:43:26.600 --> 0:43:30.120 think where when you get off the fifteenth hole, you 0:43:30.239 --> 0:43:34.720 kind of leave that and that might be why people 0:43:34.840 --> 0:43:35.560 don't love the. 0:43:35.560 --> 0:43:36.520 Last three holes. 0:43:37.320 --> 0:43:40.320 That, yeah, is that I think it loses the plot 0:43:40.480 --> 0:43:42.000 on the naturalness a little bit. 0:43:42.600 --> 0:43:47.080 Okay, Yeah, they're they're off discussed. I think I think 0:43:47.080 --> 0:43:49.719 the best one to start to it is seventeen. I 0:43:50.320 --> 0:43:53.399 hear a lot of people knock seventeen, and I actually 0:43:53.480 --> 0:43:54.240 quite like seventeen. 0:43:54.280 --> 0:43:56.040 I really like, I say, that's the best of the 0:43:56.080 --> 0:43:57.000 three finishers. 0:43:57.600 --> 0:43:59.640 It is, but I actually think it's quite a good hole. 0:44:00.040 --> 0:44:03.520 And now obviously I'm not sure if you if you 0:44:03.520 --> 0:44:05.080 ever saw pictures or whatever, but they're used to a 0:44:05.080 --> 0:44:06.280 pond in the middle of the seventies. 0:44:06.880 --> 0:44:09.240 It was like a natural spring, right, It's. 0:44:09.080 --> 0:44:11.480 An true spring, I think. And now maybe there was 0:44:11.520 --> 0:44:13.640 drainage issues, but they filled it in and they have 0:44:13.640 --> 0:44:17.400 a waste area there, but like I. 0:44:17.120 --> 0:44:20.719 Odd odd of waste area, you know, I'm I'm you know, 0:44:21.680 --> 0:44:24.920 you don't have any of any anything that looks anything 0:44:25.040 --> 0:44:30.280 like it for sixteen holes and on the vast majority. 0:44:29.920 --> 0:44:32.560 Of the week course, yeah, I suppose. 0:44:32.640 --> 0:44:34.680 And then you just like come up, come up on 0:44:34.719 --> 0:44:42.799 this like very it feels very made. That doesn't it 0:44:42.840 --> 0:44:46.800 doesn't feel natural. But I think like the t shot 0:44:46.840 --> 0:44:53.200 there and the approach are extremely high caliber shots. It's 0:44:53.239 --> 0:44:56.000 just this weird to me, a weird pit in the 0:44:56.160 --> 0:44:57.240 in the farewell. 0:44:57.520 --> 0:45:00.560 And to play Devil's advocate for a second and at 0:45:00.640 --> 0:45:04.560 least so some people would say it's not a binary hazard, 0:45:04.600 --> 0:45:06.799 you can recover from it, et cetera. And maybe they 0:45:06.800 --> 0:45:09.640 had some sort of drainage issues, Andy, But I liked 0:45:10.160 --> 0:45:12.880 I actually quite liked the old pond because there was 0:45:12.920 --> 0:45:16.200 nothing like it. It was offering an unusual challenge in 0:45:16.280 --> 0:45:17.880 so far as I was saying, can you hit the 0:45:17.920 --> 0:45:20.279 ball this far or if you hit a little bit 0:45:20.280 --> 0:45:23.359 further you'll paid the penalty. And there's not that many 0:45:23.360 --> 0:45:25.600 type there's not many. First of all, in country lend 0:45:25.600 --> 0:45:29.279 there's very little of that challenge. Obviously all approach shots 0:45:29.320 --> 0:45:31.640 are that challenge. But in the world golf, there's very 0:45:31.680 --> 0:45:33.920 few challenges like that left where someone is asking you 0:45:33.960 --> 0:45:36.920 to actually hit the ball at certain distance off the 0:45:36.960 --> 0:45:41.200 tee with wood club. So that was kind of unusual 0:45:41.719 --> 0:45:43.480 in this day of bomb and gouge, where you were 0:45:43.480 --> 0:45:45.560 being asked to just consider a little bit of restraint 0:45:46.600 --> 0:45:49.000 because you were faced to the binary you know, one 0:45:49.000 --> 0:45:51.759 shot penalenty or two shot plenty or whatever. So I 0:45:51.800 --> 0:45:56.440 didn't really mind it. I do appreciate that it's easier 0:45:56.480 --> 0:45:59.719 to play the hole, but as you've said, I think 0:45:59.719 --> 0:46:01.239 this is I it's a little out of keeping, but 0:46:01.400 --> 0:46:04.239 you know, the green is just magnificent. The bunker on 0:46:04.320 --> 0:46:06.000 the right of the green, which I found myself in 0:46:06.239 --> 0:46:08.399 many times, it's really hard to get out of. It's 0:46:08.600 --> 0:46:12.439 very narrow green as lovely cant from left to right. 0:46:12.960 --> 0:46:17.960 So I'm all in on the seventeenth, you know, as 0:46:18.000 --> 0:46:20.680 I've said, I do. I quite like the quirk of 0:46:20.719 --> 0:46:26.920 the pond. But I think the sixteenth is I've been 0:46:26.920 --> 0:46:29.400 trying to study a little bit recently. The sixteenth is 0:46:29.800 --> 0:46:32.400 for the listeners is three hundred and thirty five forty 0:46:32.680 --> 0:46:36.120 part four that runs the same direction as the fifteenth 0:46:36.239 --> 0:46:38.560 and more or less the same direction as the seventeenth. 0:46:40.480 --> 0:46:43.120 In its place before was a tea. It was a 0:46:43.160 --> 0:46:45.319 whole landy that was a very short driveable part four, 0:46:45.760 --> 0:46:47.440 and it was changed for the Walker Cup in about 0:46:47.520 --> 0:46:49.799 winter two thousand and five two thousand and six. So 0:46:49.840 --> 0:46:51.480 you used to come off the fifteenth green and go 0:46:51.920 --> 0:46:54.520 up left, and then you kind of played slightly across 0:46:54.560 --> 0:46:59.040 the new hole, kind of towards almost towards the seventeen 0:46:59.120 --> 0:47:02.719 tease simple hole. But you know, the interesting thing about 0:47:02.760 --> 0:47:05.759 simple holes is the eight intes Saint Andrews is a 0:47:05.800 --> 0:47:08.360 simple golf hole, and it makes good players angry if 0:47:08.360 --> 0:47:09.840 they don't burn it, So there's nothing wrong with a 0:47:09.880 --> 0:47:15.759 simple hole. And then obviously the the views probably behind that, 0:47:15.880 --> 0:47:18.160 because you know that to the right of seventy isn't 0:47:18.200 --> 0:47:21.279 exactly spectacular more mountain, so the views were probably an 0:47:21.320 --> 0:47:24.040 issue and all sort of challenge for the Walker Cup, 0:47:24.080 --> 0:47:25.719 and maybe pace. The play on a two hundred and 0:47:25.760 --> 0:47:28.600 forty yard hole for the members every week was also 0:47:28.640 --> 0:47:31.840 probably slowed up. So in this winter of two thousand 0:47:31.880 --> 0:47:33.480 and five they changed that hole to make it this 0:47:33.560 --> 0:47:36.640 three hundred and forty yard hole playing kind of straight up. 0:47:37.640 --> 0:47:42.120 And Donald Steel was the architect who built it. 0:47:42.120 --> 0:47:45.919 It was deal and I love a good short part four, 0:47:46.560 --> 0:47:48.759 but it's not quite driveable. I had a good go 0:47:48.800 --> 0:47:51.719 out of a couple of years ago. I suppose that 0:47:51.880 --> 0:47:55.000 the I would just say that I think it's it's 0:47:55.040 --> 0:47:57.200 limited and options off the tee. I think the layup 0:47:57.239 --> 0:47:59.520 is actually quite hard on the left and it doesn't 0:47:59.520 --> 0:48:01.640 reward you that well because the green is still very 0:48:01.680 --> 0:48:04.520 hard to hit. You've did a deadly bitch to hold 0:48:04.560 --> 0:48:07.680 the green and almost there's a I think maybe when 0:48:07.680 --> 0:48:10.720 it was built there was a kind of a separate 0:48:10.719 --> 0:48:14.120 fairway down on the right, which is actually the optimum 0:48:14.120 --> 0:48:16.399 place to kind of approach trum, so that the green 0:48:16.520 --> 0:48:20.000 is then up on your left, but that's been grown 0:48:20.000 --> 0:48:22.279 in by rough and I think there's a couple of 0:48:22.280 --> 0:48:25.200 bunkers there, so in reality you're kind of forced up 0:48:25.239 --> 0:48:27.719 the left a little bit. So if I was playing 0:48:27.760 --> 0:48:29.960 a week in week out, I would never go for it. 0:48:30.560 --> 0:48:33.200 And I think that the lay up on the left 0:48:33.280 --> 0:48:37.279 is actually into quite a small area, and I just 0:48:37.320 --> 0:48:40.520 think that, you know, maybe, and it's a very very 0:48:40.560 --> 0:48:43.640 tricky green. It would be so interesting to be there 0:48:43.640 --> 0:48:45.280 at the time to see if they could have retained 0:48:45.360 --> 0:48:47.640 the original sixteenth old because the green is down and right, 0:48:49.360 --> 0:48:51.279 like you know, there's all these sort of questions after 0:48:51.400 --> 0:48:56.879 but it's just it's a very tricky, drivable part four 0:48:58.440 --> 0:49:01.160 that doesn't give me two options many options in my head. 0:49:01.680 --> 0:49:03.759 So if I was playing it week in week out, 0:49:04.000 --> 0:49:06.600 I'd probably kind of dragging at the five iron and 0:49:06.680 --> 0:49:07.960 hitting it up the left. So I don't know what 0:49:08.000 --> 0:49:08.799 your take on it is. 0:49:10.280 --> 0:49:13.960 I you know, it's definitely it's probably my least favorite 0:49:14.000 --> 0:49:18.279 hole out there. I think what like maybe I don't 0:49:18.320 --> 0:49:21.400 know for pulse is the right word. But the what 0:49:21.560 --> 0:49:26.360 bothers me the most is the green and the homogeneous bunkering. Okay, 0:49:26.640 --> 0:49:30.960 the two the two fronting bunkers that are almost symmetrical. 0:49:31.280 --> 0:49:33.680 It was like they were just like copy and pasted 0:49:35.200 --> 0:49:40.520 to me the golf course. It just it's very clear. 0:49:41.400 --> 0:49:44.480 I think this is probably you know, the worst thing 0:49:45.160 --> 0:49:48.040 when you do renovation work on a historic golf course 0:49:48.160 --> 0:49:50.359 is like that hole. You get to it and it's 0:49:50.480 --> 0:49:53.440 very clear that that's not an original golf hole, Like 0:49:53.520 --> 0:49:56.760 whether you read something or not, like it's like, okay, 0:49:56.800 --> 0:50:00.840 this has been changed because the bunkering and everything just 0:50:00.920 --> 0:50:02.680 screams nineteen nineties. 0:50:02.640 --> 0:50:04.120 You know it is. 0:50:04.560 --> 0:50:07.160 And I think that this is my same complaint with 0:50:07.320 --> 0:50:13.280 the eighteenth. It's just over bunkerd It's there's bunkers everywhere. 0:50:13.480 --> 0:50:17.960 They're seemingly formulaic in appearance. They just you know, check 0:50:18.000 --> 0:50:20.480 her the right and left sides of the fairways all 0:50:20.520 --> 0:50:23.000 the way down the hole. And I think, like to 0:50:23.120 --> 0:50:26.240 me that that hole, the sixteenth, if you took away 0:50:26.360 --> 0:50:30.759 the front right bunker, would be way better because then 0:50:30.800 --> 0:50:33.840 it's like, okay, if I play, if I take this on, 0:50:34.200 --> 0:50:35.920 I have a path to the green. But if I 0:50:35.960 --> 0:50:37.839 play left, then I have I have to go over 0:50:37.880 --> 0:50:38.360 the bunker. 0:50:39.120 --> 0:50:41.520 So this, yeah, like you're the you're the real calf 0:50:41.520 --> 0:50:43.920 of architecture expert here. But what I always thought that 0:50:43.920 --> 0:50:45.640 whole was what I always thought of it that hole 0:50:45.760 --> 0:50:47.319 was I'd love the option to be able to chip 0:50:47.360 --> 0:50:49.560 a ball up or run a ball up from the right. 0:50:51.280 --> 0:50:53.000 It's links golf, and I'd love to be able to 0:50:53.040 --> 0:50:55.320 run a ball in hard turf if I hit it nicely, 0:50:55.320 --> 0:50:59.040 play shot down the right up the green. That would 0:50:59.080 --> 0:51:02.360 just give me so much joy. So you're focusing on 0:51:02.400 --> 0:51:05.080 the bunkers and I you know, and I agree, they're 0:51:05.280 --> 0:51:07.359 a little bit for me. Lake. I just like I'd 0:51:07.360 --> 0:51:09.480 love to see more option around the green. 0:51:09.560 --> 0:51:10.320 I like the idea. 0:51:10.880 --> 0:51:13.400 Yeah, I like the idea of the right fairway to 0:51:13.760 --> 0:51:16.200 what you what you said like that hole would get 0:51:16.440 --> 0:51:19.640 a lot more interesting, I think to me, I would 0:51:19.960 --> 0:51:22.320 looking at the hole, I would just hit driver every time. 0:51:22.480 --> 0:51:26.759 Would you You're a better driver than me. But I just. 0:51:26.440 --> 0:51:29.480 Think I think i'd take the chips around the green, 0:51:30.120 --> 0:51:32.960 knowing like I'm twenty yards around the green. 0:51:33.200 --> 0:51:35.719 You know, quite tight up there, Andy, I think it's 0:51:35.760 --> 0:51:38.680 quite tight on the left as well. Is it's what 0:51:38.719 --> 0:51:40.400 I all see when I look at it. Hit a 0:51:40.440 --> 0:51:43.000 little pole. This is why my mind works with the left. 0:51:43.040 --> 0:51:45.560 But it just you can be again, you can be 0:51:45.680 --> 0:51:47.799 kind of like the third hole after a good drive. 0:51:47.840 --> 0:51:49.360 You can be up against it a little bit. You 0:51:49.360 --> 0:51:50.800 can run the room pretty quickly there. 0:51:52.040 --> 0:51:54.640 Maybe it's the roughest down, but I hit it right 0:51:54.719 --> 0:51:57.600 and thought it was pretty pretty simple to get up 0:51:57.640 --> 0:51:59.800 and yeah, up and down from right. 0:52:00.160 --> 0:52:02.720 I think. I think in the initial period after building, 0:52:02.719 --> 0:52:05.520 I think they did maybe soften the green or something 0:52:05.560 --> 0:52:08.839 like that, but I would have loved it. I never 0:52:08.880 --> 0:52:13.240 played the old hole andy, and I'm always thinking about 0:52:13.280 --> 0:52:16.040 going left after fifteenth is such a nice idea and 0:52:16.080 --> 0:52:18.000 kind of playing across as well, because then you're getting 0:52:18.000 --> 0:52:20.680 a different look and it doesn't bother me if the 0:52:22.000 --> 0:52:24.120 backdrop to that old hole, which is kind of playing 0:52:24.120 --> 0:52:28.759 towards the seventeen t I imagine, isn't so good. And I 0:52:28.760 --> 0:52:31.240 think a simple golf hole is often a good one. 0:52:31.280 --> 0:52:34.600 And mentioned the eighteenth at Saint Andrews, but. 0:52:35.560 --> 0:52:38.520 Yeah, eighteenth at North Berrick, eighteenth. 0:52:38.160 --> 0:52:41.160 At North Berwick. Yeah, there's so many of them, so 0:52:41.239 --> 0:52:43.680 many of them. But I just yeah. 0:52:43.760 --> 0:52:46.759 The real thing with sixteen and eighteen to me is 0:52:46.880 --> 0:52:50.040 just less is more with them, you. 0:52:49.960 --> 0:52:50.760 Know, like eighteen. 0:52:50.840 --> 0:52:53.120 It feels like there's more bunkers on eighteen than the 0:52:53.120 --> 0:52:55.760 rest of the golf course. I know that's that true, 0:52:56.200 --> 0:52:58.680 but that's the way it feels when you stand on 0:52:58.719 --> 0:52:59.120 that tea. 0:52:59.680 --> 0:53:02.680 Yeah, I've always thought that. I always thought that it 0:53:03.640 --> 0:53:07.799 was asking you, in fairness, it's asking you test a 0:53:07.880 --> 0:53:10.640 question of execution, like a straight shot. But then I 0:53:10.640 --> 0:53:13.719 think I wouldn't say I'm a problem with it. But 0:53:13.760 --> 0:53:15.840 I always thought the green was a little skinny for 0:53:16.160 --> 0:53:18.319 someone taking on the second shot, and it's very tight 0:53:18.320 --> 0:53:20.640 down there. There used to be actually out of bounds 0:53:20.680 --> 0:53:22.799 behind the whole, very very tight, and I think Cole 0:53:22.920 --> 0:53:25.399 got rid of that. But it's quite a skinny green. 0:53:25.440 --> 0:53:27.680 I think it's more designed to almost take a third shot. 0:53:27.920 --> 0:53:29.520 And I'm not sure what work was done on it, 0:53:31.040 --> 0:53:33.080 but I think it's a really, really kind of high 0:53:33.200 --> 0:53:34.840 risk shot if you're coming in with a three or 0:53:34.920 --> 0:53:37.319 er or two urn or whatever. So I agree with 0:53:37.360 --> 0:53:40.440 you about the bunkering being kind of off, and I 0:53:40.440 --> 0:53:43.239 can't remember if it's quite symmetrical or asymmetrical. I agree 0:53:43.280 --> 0:53:46.280 it's probably over bunkered. But I think as you approach 0:53:46.400 --> 0:53:48.560 the green, I would you know, I would love to 0:53:48.560 --> 0:53:50.960 see something a bit more open and flowing and less skinny, 0:53:51.880 --> 0:53:52.879 is how I describe it. 0:53:53.480 --> 0:53:56.200 And I do, yeah, I do like the green in 0:53:56.239 --> 0:53:59.240 the sense of like the way it kind of runs 0:53:59.239 --> 0:54:02.880 off on each side, like that narrow green. But I 0:54:03.400 --> 0:54:06.000 just it's the bumkers that lead into it, like do 0:54:06.400 --> 0:54:07.480 you know, I don't know. 0:54:07.480 --> 0:54:10.400 Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think that andy up around 0:54:10.400 --> 0:54:12.480 the green. When it falls off again, it kind of 0:54:13.760 --> 0:54:16.839 ball doesn't really go anywhere. It's into quick bowls, you know. 0:54:16.960 --> 0:54:20.080 So it's you have a very steep incline, so you 0:54:20.200 --> 0:54:21.840 probably put her one to seven or not. But I 0:54:21.840 --> 0:54:24.080 would like to see it, obviously in the modern vogue 0:54:24.080 --> 0:54:26.600 of architecture, flowing off a little bit more. And I 0:54:26.640 --> 0:54:29.440 appreciate that probably won't happen around there because of concerns 0:54:29.440 --> 0:54:31.160 for space. It's quite close to a lot of things. 0:54:31.400 --> 0:54:35.120 It's quite close to the clubhouse and whatnot and everything. 0:54:35.360 --> 0:54:38.000 And I suppose the out of bounds was got rid 0:54:38.080 --> 0:54:40.160 of for a reason there and they want to contain things. 0:54:41.600 --> 0:54:43.960 But you know, when I think about Royal County down, 0:54:45.080 --> 0:54:48.800 I think certainly, no matter what you think about sixteen, 0:54:48.840 --> 0:54:52.720 seventeen or eighteen, the sheer glory of the golf course 0:54:53.719 --> 0:54:57.440 is just something that can't be matched anywhere else. Maybe 0:54:57.880 --> 0:55:00.279 Cyper's Point, which I haven't played with, might match for 0:55:01.000 --> 0:55:05.320 natural setting, Point Valley might match it for shot value, 0:55:05.400 --> 0:55:09.440 shot execution perfection. But Pine Valley is not as natural 0:55:09.440 --> 0:55:12.080 as Royal County Down. It sits alone. And you know, 0:55:12.080 --> 0:55:14.880 we haven't even discussed how good those holes and the 0:55:14.880 --> 0:55:17.879 Ansley Course are behind the fourth hole that Martin Lieber wilt, 0:55:17.880 --> 0:55:20.759 those three holes, they're really really good, interesting golf holes. 0:55:20.760 --> 0:55:24.360 And the Ansley Course is a brilliant accompaniment course. 0:55:24.560 --> 0:55:26.640 I think it's the best short course in the world. 0:55:27.480 --> 0:55:30.920 I think, yeah, I like so many golf courses that 0:55:30.960 --> 0:55:33.239 are top tier in America have two courses, or you know, 0:55:33.280 --> 0:55:35.879 they have one course and brilliant practice facilities. But port 0:55:35.920 --> 0:55:39.920 America has the Yellow nine, County Down has the andlier 0:55:39.960 --> 0:55:43.120 the number two course, and then Port Russia has done 0:55:43.160 --> 0:55:45.640 loose And even if you are at the Valley, and 0:55:45.680 --> 0:55:48.080 then if you play Enniscron on the West coast, I'm 0:55:48.080 --> 0:55:51.719 pretty sure there's another there's another golf course out onto 0:55:51.719 --> 0:55:54.279 the left of Enniscrown, So you know, that's something we 0:55:54.360 --> 0:55:56.600 do well over here, and that golf course is built. 0:55:56.600 --> 0:55:59.600 I think the Ladies Club, which came into being not 0:55:59.719 --> 0:56:03.000 long after County Down came into being played over that 0:56:03.160 --> 0:56:06.200 and George Coomer dictator again was responsible for that. But 0:56:06.440 --> 0:56:09.200 to have that on your on your as yours your 0:56:09.280 --> 0:56:11.799 second course, and I know a lot of people go 0:56:11.840 --> 0:56:14.879 there don't play it, so they're missing out big time. 0:56:15.480 --> 0:56:18.000 And the same same occurs for Portmerica. I don't think 0:56:18.000 --> 0:56:20.359 we got to play the Yellow nine when you were over. 0:56:20.440 --> 0:56:23.239 But those sorts of things are really special. And you know, 0:56:23.280 --> 0:56:25.200 if places busy, you go out and you have some 0:56:25.239 --> 0:56:28.160 fun with friends, and you know, and when County Down 0:56:28.200 --> 0:56:30.200 is such a hard golf course as well, as we've 0:56:30.239 --> 0:56:33.440 talked about so for so long here and it really 0:56:33.520 --> 0:56:36.400 is so hard that you need that kind of contrast 0:56:36.400 --> 0:56:40.080 at County Down, I think. So that's just that's just 0:56:40.080 --> 0:56:42.320 something else that really keeps it up into the amount 0:56:42.320 --> 0:56:44.239 of rushmore bucket of golf courses from me, Andy, I 0:56:44.239 --> 0:56:46.520 think it's there's so much good there. But I do 0:56:46.600 --> 0:56:48.800 think when I when I the more I think about it, 0:56:48.880 --> 0:56:52.719 the simplicity of the greens and compared to the I 0:56:52.800 --> 0:56:56.200 call it lack of internal intrigue. But that's necessary in 0:56:56.680 --> 0:57:00.839 port in County Down, whereas what cult did it? Port 0:57:00.960 --> 0:57:04.040 Rush with just lovely gentle weaving slopes wouldn't work it 0:57:04.880 --> 0:57:05.439 County Down. 0:57:05.640 --> 0:57:09.319 Really, it'd be too much. It'd be too much. 0:57:09.880 --> 0:57:12.480 I love. I think if I had to pick, I'll 0:57:12.480 --> 0:57:13.640 put you on the spot and minu I'll give you 0:57:13.680 --> 0:57:15.640 two seconds to think about it. But if I did 0:57:15.640 --> 0:57:19.640 think about my top three things about world County Down, 0:57:19.680 --> 0:57:23.440 I'd say the feeling of just hitting your drive on 0:57:23.680 --> 0:57:26.320 the second and coming over or even the eleventh, the 0:57:26.360 --> 0:57:28.320 second or the eleventh and the air just coming back 0:57:28.320 --> 0:57:31.560 into your lungs after you see your ball being okay 0:57:31.680 --> 0:57:34.160 or wherever it is, or figuring out if you blind 0:57:34.200 --> 0:57:37.400 semi blind shot into the second or you're blocked out 0:57:37.440 --> 0:57:39.240 on the right you've pushed it on eleven or whatever. 0:57:39.560 --> 0:57:41.120 I think that's really high up there, and I don't 0:57:41.160 --> 0:57:43.000 think people will probably plump for that, but I do. 0:57:43.480 --> 0:57:45.760 It's just, you know, and this is some from someone 0:57:45.800 --> 0:57:49.240 who doesn't really love blind shots, so that's special, you know. 0:57:49.280 --> 0:57:52.720 I love that. I think the eighth toll, as I mentioned, 0:57:53.600 --> 0:57:56.160 is off the charts for me, and I love thinking 0:57:56.160 --> 0:57:59.280 about the sheer simplicity of how cult did thats my 0:57:59.360 --> 0:58:01.840 moving one up and then moving the green up and right, 0:58:01.920 --> 0:58:04.120 and then getting rid of those two rudimentary part of 0:58:04.160 --> 0:58:08.360 threes and giving the world eight and nine, and then well, 0:58:08.360 --> 0:58:09.920 I haven't really thought of the third, but I said 0:58:09.920 --> 0:58:12.360 I'd better come up with three. I love looking back 0:58:12.440 --> 0:58:15.520 up the first toll, turning backwards, something you don't do 0:58:15.560 --> 0:58:16.760 in any of the first hole in the world. I 0:58:16.760 --> 0:58:20.400 don't think you're always looking forward in life, and you're 0:58:20.400 --> 0:58:22.160 always looking forward around the golf, but I love to 0:58:22.160 --> 0:58:23.640 look back on the first to county down. 0:58:26.480 --> 0:58:29.600 Those are your three. I'll try and go with three 0:58:29.640 --> 0:58:35.080 different ones here. I love the approach to the sixth. 0:58:35.920 --> 0:58:40.000 Everybody talks about seven and how demand that is, but like, 0:58:40.080 --> 0:58:42.520 to me, the six is like a terrifying shot. It's 0:58:42.600 --> 0:58:46.520 kind of your first one where you're up and exposed. 0:58:47.040 --> 0:58:49.560 So I think, like the you know, you get used to, 0:58:49.960 --> 0:58:52.320 like you kind of get used to environments on a 0:58:52.320 --> 0:58:56.080 golf course. I find it's always hard hardest the first 0:58:56.080 --> 0:58:59.440 shot in an environment, and that one you're up so 0:58:59.640 --> 0:59:02.840 high and the green. I think it's the smallest green 0:59:03.160 --> 0:59:04.080 on the golf course. 0:59:04.800 --> 0:59:06.880 It's brilliant, I mean, and it. 0:59:06.840 --> 0:59:11.240 Runs off in every direction. It's just an extremely demanding shot. 0:59:12.040 --> 0:59:13.439 That's a brilliant short four. 0:59:14.240 --> 0:59:16.400 It is a brilliant short for just to just interrupt 0:59:16.400 --> 0:59:18.600 you very quickly. I hit it on a playpoint valley, 0:59:18.640 --> 0:59:20.360 hit it into the bunker in the first hit it 0:59:20.360 --> 0:59:23.040 out and had fifty yards into the first toll, and 0:59:23.320 --> 0:59:24.720 I was looking at this pitch and I got this 0:59:24.800 --> 0:59:26.920 green is so skinny and falls off everywhere that if 0:59:26.960 --> 0:59:28.880 I don't hit a really good pitch, I'm screwed. And 0:59:29.120 --> 0:59:31.120 that is exactly the shot you have into the sixth 0:59:31.120 --> 0:59:33.240 of Royal County down as well. You'll hit a five 0:59:33.320 --> 0:59:35.040 r after tea in a wedge and you just gotta 0:59:35.160 --> 0:59:37.720 nail it, and there's so much going on in your head, 0:59:37.720 --> 0:59:43.160 and yeah, it's just brilliant. 0:59:39.720 --> 0:59:44.400 And so strong when you're up there. That one, to me, 0:59:45.240 --> 0:59:47.440 I think the ninth t shot. I mean, it's the 0:59:47.520 --> 0:59:50.560 obvious one. It's like one of the most thrilling shots 0:59:50.560 --> 0:59:53.680 in all of golf. You know, you're just it's just 0:59:53.760 --> 0:59:56.760 so beautiful hitting over that. I think, like the thing 0:59:56.800 --> 1:00:00.200 that kind of surprised me about that whole seeing all 1:00:00.240 --> 1:00:03.400 the pictures, Like the stuff that I didn't understand was like, 1:00:03.520 --> 1:00:06.280 how if you push it right you'll get blind by 1:00:06.320 --> 1:00:08.880 that dune, Like and I think that's really cool. And 1:00:09.000 --> 1:00:12.040 just how all the slope, because that green's built into 1:00:12.040 --> 1:00:16.080 the dune, all the slope just pushes it so hard left, 1:00:16.280 --> 1:00:19.200 like being right there and taking that safe line off 1:00:19.240 --> 1:00:22.560 the tee is really it's not a great it's a 1:00:22.600 --> 1:00:25.960 it's a bit of a spot of bother, but then left, 1:00:26.120 --> 1:00:28.200 like you can get yourself in a lot of trouble 1:00:28.240 --> 1:00:32.200 if you get too far left, like certainly, and I 1:00:32.200 --> 1:00:36.600 think three, I think just going down into the valley 1:00:36.600 --> 1:00:40.720 on thirteen, it's just one of the coolest moments in 1:00:40.760 --> 1:00:43.280 the round. It's kind of the end of the really 1:00:43.320 --> 1:00:48.080 epic dune dune escape area and it's just such a 1:00:48.200 --> 1:00:51.560 like it's such a gentle It's not gentle in the 1:00:51.600 --> 1:00:55.000 sense it's this extremely hard hole, but it's just such 1:00:55.000 --> 1:00:56.240 a gentle. 1:00:56.480 --> 1:00:59.160 You're you're you're shielded, you're. 1:00:59.040 --> 1:01:03.160 Kind of unexposed in that that gorse we got it 1:01:03.200 --> 1:01:07.040 in full bloom was just like it's just I'll never 1:01:07.120 --> 1:01:10.640 forget that image in my head of Royal County down 1:01:10.760 --> 1:01:14.800 is that Valley of Gorse and the thirteenth just going 1:01:14.840 --> 1:01:15.640 down in that tunnel. 1:01:15.680 --> 1:01:17.080 It's so beautiful down there. 1:01:17.480 --> 1:01:20.080 But you can really see Andy who obviously the members 1:01:20.160 --> 1:01:22.560 when they play their hot on the Wednesday or Saturday, 1:01:22.600 --> 1:01:25.840 and they play so much forceomes because it's so hard. Yeah, 1:01:25.920 --> 1:01:28.360 you know, and like Great Britain in Ireland, golf is 1:01:28.600 --> 1:01:30.440 it's a different animal to golf in the States. I 1:01:30.480 --> 1:01:33.280 really think it's an acquired taste. We grew up playing 1:01:33.320 --> 1:01:36.680 it here. We absolutely love it, but I appreciate might 1:01:36.720 --> 1:01:39.880 not be for everyone. But there's you know, score doesn't 1:01:39.880 --> 1:01:43.520 matter too much. We play matches and then, funnily enough, 1:01:43.560 --> 1:01:46.200 all our club championships. I mentioned my Palo won the 1:01:46.240 --> 1:01:48.600 club championship at a Royal county in on a few ago, 1:01:48.600 --> 1:01:50.840 but they actually tendend to be the reverse. We play 1:01:51.080 --> 1:01:53.800 thirty six sols strokes in most club championships and we 1:01:53.840 --> 1:01:55.880 play play all our kind of casual matches, but we 1:01:55.920 --> 1:01:58.040 play these lump championships over thirty six holds off the 1:01:58.040 --> 1:02:01.440 back teas at Portmarnica Role you Down or Port Rush, 1:02:01.480 --> 1:02:04.120 and they're just absolutely brutal. You know, if you hit 1:02:04.160 --> 1:02:06.400 one bad drive you're making an eight or a nin 1:02:06.520 --> 1:02:09.320 er a day. But I do think it's a different sport, 1:02:10.040 --> 1:02:12.120 and I think i'd love to hear when people come 1:02:12.160 --> 1:02:15.640 here and eat all these American visitors and people from 1:02:15.960 --> 1:02:19.440 far away, and I hope they I hope they get it, 1:02:19.480 --> 1:02:21.720 because it's I think it's a different sport almost to 1:02:21.760 --> 1:02:25.720 golf in America, and I think that everyone should. One 1:02:25.800 --> 1:02:27.680 visit is good and two is even better, you know, 1:02:27.720 --> 1:02:29.760 and you really begin to enjoy these things on repeat 1:02:29.760 --> 1:02:33.400 plays so much in places like World County down and 1:02:33.440 --> 1:02:35.520 there's such a different culture of golf up here. They 1:02:36.160 --> 1:02:38.520 you know, they're unchanged in so many ways, and they 1:02:38.560 --> 1:02:43.720 have this magnificent, magnificent course to play over. I really 1:02:43.800 --> 1:02:45.520 just I think that I really hope, first of all, 1:02:45.520 --> 1:02:47.560 that a lot of people will watch this event. I 1:02:47.600 --> 1:02:50.040 hope that the weather is good. Sarren Kelson one with 1:02:50.080 --> 1:02:53.600 two hunderd and twenty fifteen. Yeah, it's And I was 1:02:53.600 --> 1:02:55.520 looking back over some of the scores of the as 1:02:55.560 --> 1:02:58.520 you said about our Irish Amateur golf, So they hosted 1:02:58.520 --> 1:03:01.600 the Irish Amateur Opening. It's twenty seventeen or eighteen back 1:03:01.600 --> 1:03:04.800 to back. Remember I saw Matt Jordan came forth. He's 1:03:04.800 --> 1:03:06.720 obviously become quite a good tour player. You know, good 1:03:06.760 --> 1:03:09.080 players went at these things and come top four or five. 1:03:09.120 --> 1:03:13.520 But the scores are so hard, and that's why we're 1:03:13.720 --> 1:03:15.280 golf over here is molded by that. You know, you 1:03:15.280 --> 1:03:17.520 can chuck away the scorecard sometimes unless you're playing the 1:03:17.560 --> 1:03:21.360 Chub Championship. But it's a treat. It's just a it's 1:03:21.360 --> 1:03:24.120 a different sport and I'm glad you guys enjoyed it 1:03:24.160 --> 1:03:25.880 when you were over here. I know you got pretty 1:03:25.880 --> 1:03:28.560 bad weather at times, but that's the fun of it. 1:03:28.640 --> 1:03:31.760 You know, We've got a great epic day at Road 1:03:31.880 --> 1:03:33.800 County down, you know, did you Okay? 1:03:34.720 --> 1:03:36.360 It was unbelievable morning. 1:03:36.480 --> 1:03:38.280 It got a little gnarly at the end of the day, 1:03:38.360 --> 1:03:42.920 but it was you know, sun was out and it's beautiful. 1:03:43.120 --> 1:03:47.760 It was amazing. So hey, Dara, thank you for coming on. 1:03:48.440 --> 1:03:50.840 How do people find you if they want to talk 1:03:50.920 --> 1:03:53.160 more about Irish golf with you? 1:03:54.120 --> 1:03:57.919 I'm on Instagram, Dara p Gary He so they'll find 1:03:57.960 --> 1:04:00.360 me on that, and then I'm on Twitter, all under 1:04:00.400 --> 1:04:03.720 the same name, and I can be always led upon 1:04:03.760 --> 1:04:05.360 to be just I love it when people want to 1:04:05.360 --> 1:04:08.680 talk about links golf, for anything about the historical nature 1:04:08.680 --> 1:04:11.680 of Artish calf, for GB and I golf, anything to 1:04:11.720 --> 1:04:13.479 do with amateur golf. Really, Andy, that's why I jammed 1:04:13.480 --> 1:04:14.800 you with the crumb cup at the start. You know, 1:04:16.120 --> 1:04:18.120 that's that's my wheel that's my wheelers. I wasn't gonna 1:04:18.200 --> 1:04:19.760 let you out away with that. I know the saw 1:04:19.840 --> 1:04:22.240 Him cup is on, but what a week. 1:04:22.320 --> 1:04:25.640 We have lots of cups, lots of cups up this 1:04:25.720 --> 1:04:26.640 week there. 1:04:26.640 --> 1:04:29.480 Is yeah, yeah, And anyway, look, I'll looking forward to 1:04:29.520 --> 1:04:31.960 reporting back after Saturday. I can't wait to go up 1:04:32.880 --> 1:04:34.760 and hope you get some time with your coffee in 1:04:34.760 --> 1:04:36.000 the morning to watch some golf as well. 1:04:36.640 --> 1:04:38.360 I've got I've got the alarm set. 1:04:38.440 --> 1:04:40.560 It's going to be you know, my wife, by my 1:04:40.640 --> 1:04:43.200 wife is gonna be like, what what the what the 1:04:43.240 --> 1:04:44.160 aff are you doing? 1:04:44.480 --> 1:04:45.320 Why are you agreed? 1:04:45.560 --> 1:04:50.000 Egregiously, earlier I would say that's it is. 1:04:50.200 --> 1:04:53.680 It is all right. Thanks so much, Dara. We'll we'll 1:04:53.720 --> 1:04:56.600 talk soon and hopefully see you soon. 1:04:57.080 --> 1:05:07.760 Yeah, hopefully see you soon. Thanks Andy, Bye bye. 1:05:10.760 --> 1:05:14.320 Thank you for listening to another edition of the fridayk 1:05:14.480 --> 1:05:15.440 Golf Podcast. 1:05:16.640 --> 1:05:20.200 Big thanks to p J. Clark editing producing, he. 1:05:20.280 --> 1:05:23.280 Got up, He got up, came to work after after 1:05:23.360 --> 1:05:28.200 Aaron Rodgers got his tail kicked guy's ass kicked last 1:05:28.280 --> 1:05:30.880 night against the forty nine ers. Was so sad to 1:05:30.920 --> 1:05:34.640 see Aaron Rodgers struggle as a Bears fan. So anyways, 1:05:34.920 --> 1:05:38.040 PJ got up big thanks to him putting this episode 1:05:38.080 --> 1:05:40.960 together in short order. Although when he hears this he might, 1:05:41.280 --> 1:05:44.800 you know, he might scrap some of it. So anyways, 1:05:45.280 --> 1:05:47.720 if you haven't yet, check it out our pro shop. 1:05:47.840 --> 1:05:51.120 It's proshop dot the Fridayy dot com. Meg Atkins is 1:05:51.160 --> 1:05:56.400 doing a wonderful job stocking that. We've got fall coming up, 1:05:56.520 --> 1:06:00.400 and I think we have a pretty good fall line 1:06:00.480 --> 1:06:02.680 coming in there, so be on the lookout there. 1:06:02.840 --> 1:06:04.320 If I was going to pick. 1:06:04.120 --> 1:06:08.760 Out a particular item, I would look at the Potter covers. 1:06:08.960 --> 1:06:12.480 We work with a company called Handcrafted that just has 1:06:13.000 --> 1:06:17.560 you know, beautiful, beautiful Potter covers. There's a potato chip 1:06:17.600 --> 1:06:21.200 green one that I really like that turned out really well. 1:06:21.800 --> 1:06:22.680 I would check out that. 1:06:23.160 --> 1:06:27.360 So check out the pro shop and thank you guys 1:06:27.360 --> 1:06:29.680 for listening and supporting this podcast.