Speaker 1: There's something about the sand Belt that just it comes
Speaker 1: into its own when you've got a school k in
Speaker 1: your pocket and you're playing Samny two half strike light
Speaker 1: that dots in my head. Can't get jan nothing think
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about, can't get him out, not to
Speaker 1: think what I'm thinking about. Hello, this is Alan Chipknuck
Speaker 1: back for another Fire Drill podcast. UM have online here.
Speaker 1: Jeff Ogilvie from Melbourne, Michael Bamberger from Philadelphia. We wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about the coolest event in golf. I guess
Speaker 1: it's up there with a wishbone brawl we'll call him
Speaker 1: one in one A but the Sand Belt Classic, which
Speaker 1: Jeff is the host of and it was his inspired idea.
Speaker 1: I will be traveling down there with a couple of
Speaker 1: other Fire Pits. Staff is Colton Neddler, Benny Westcott. We're
Speaker 1: gonna We're gonna blow out. The cover is super excited
Speaker 1: to be there. I love the city of Melbourne, I
Speaker 1: love the Sound Belt golf courses. So we just want
Speaker 1: to preview this this great tournament, get folks excited about it. Jeff,
Speaker 1: can you talk about what's gonna be new this year
Speaker 1: in the second annual Playing of the sand Belt Imitational.
Speaker 1: We're playing four courses four days, so Kingson heath Royal, Melbourne, Yara,
Speaker 1: Yara and Peninsula Kings would the only difference in the
Speaker 1: courses that we play the North course at Peninsula Kings
Speaker 1: of this year, not the South course. Um. Someone say
Speaker 1: that's an upgrade. I think it's just to move sideways.
Speaker 1: They're both amazing, so I think it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: Um it's a bit more dramatic to look at the
Speaker 1: north So that's gonna be good. UM, a little bit
Speaker 1: better field. I guess Cam Davis is coming to play,
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. Presidents Cup player UM, and a
Speaker 1: bunch of other kids that the kids have been lobbying as, Oh,
Speaker 1: you have to get in the tournament, which is pretty cool. Um.
Speaker 1: The parent parents are calling us and um, coaches are
Speaker 1: calling us and now, so that's gonna be really good.
Speaker 1: We haven't really Uh, we've just elevated all the little things,
Speaker 1: you know, a bit like you mentioned the wishbone before.
Speaker 1: Every time that happens, it seems like it just gets
Speaker 1: a little bit better around the edges. You know. The
Speaker 1: concept has always been the winner, and I think the
Speaker 1: concept of the sound belts the winner. Um, just elevating it.
Speaker 1: Better balls on the range, yeah, his books, better food
Speaker 1: in the clubhouse for them, like a bit more of
Speaker 1: an organized sort of system pre tournament registration where they
Speaker 1: all turn up a couple of days before, but like
Speaker 1: we do it Pebble, you know, a tournament, a normal
Speaker 1: tour event. We'll register and they all get their books
Speaker 1: and all that stuff and they're good. Eas We've got
Speaker 1: a little goodie packs for everybody who plays, and shirts
Speaker 1: for all the volunteers and UM links all of course. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be good. Just elevate all those little bits
Speaker 1: to make it feel just a bit more sort of polished,
Speaker 1: I guess. But the concept I think is the winner.
Speaker 1: I mean, you play four of the best courses in
Speaker 1: a row, four days in a row, with really good players,
Speaker 1: with people who just love playing golf and want to
Speaker 1: be competitive. I think it's a pretty good recipe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And you know, in fairness, last year, this
Speaker 1: it came together very quickly and you were kind of
Speaker 1: building the plane as you were flying it, so, um,
Speaker 1: you know, having an extra year to tide you up
Speaker 1: to details was no doubt helpful. But there is gonna
Speaker 1: be a team element this year, right, Can you talk
Speaker 1: us through that? Um, there is a team element. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we just thought we just had a bit of interest.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're not trying to obviously copy that other
Speaker 1: thing that's going on. Clearly, Uh, there's interest in team golf.
Speaker 1: Everyone when they go play, they play for everyone. When
Speaker 1: I go play at home and they play four balls, um.
Speaker 1: Roader Cup President scout for the best events in golf. Um,
Speaker 1: well outside of the sand Belt in the wish time.
Speaker 1: Like you said, UM, I don't know, it's just getting
Speaker 1: four people and it's just it's just a combined score
Speaker 1: and we're paying out sort of the best team for
Speaker 1: the week, combination of like men, women, pros and amateurs
Speaker 1: in a team, um, and just sort of their aggregate
Speaker 1: schools all added up and how they do for the week.
Speaker 1: So it gives maybe some of the players who aren't
Speaker 1: having the best week, um, a chance to sort of
Speaker 1: have something to play for on Sunday, you know, which
Speaker 1: I think is pretty exciting. I think sometimes seventy two
Speaker 1: whole tournaments get a bit boring for about the field
Speaker 1: in the last round. And also I think it gives
Speaker 1: a chance for the young kids to play with the
Speaker 1: pros and be a part of the whole thing. And um,
Speaker 1: and and pros team up together, and yeah it will
Speaker 1: be I think it's really really it's a cool element.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm big on team golf. I think we
Speaker 1: play way too much individual golf. Um, don't get me
Speaker 1: started on too much stroke play. But that's a different
Speaker 1: that's a different discussion. But um, yeah, I think we
Speaker 1: just added a team element where just just a few
Speaker 1: just this there's is more interest on Sunday or that's
Speaker 1: not going to be some day on the on the
Speaker 1: fourth round, you know, and more things to follow, and
Speaker 1: everyone gets a chance, it gets a chance to sort
Speaker 1: of have two things to win, you know. Jeff Jack,
Speaker 1: Jack Nicholas has played his own or did play in
Speaker 1: his own tournament for years. Of course Bobby Jones did
Speaker 1: as well. Jack with more success than Bob. But what's
Speaker 1: it like for you to play in your own event.
Speaker 1: You've got so many administrative things to take care of
Speaker 1: and now you're trying to get a ball in the hall. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be interesting. It's interesting. I mean, last year
Speaker 1: I couldn't really focus too much on the Gulf which
Speaker 1: is it's amazing to me that Jack, I mean Jack
Speaker 1: one memorial a couple of times, didn't he I think,
Speaker 1: which is incredible. I mean you can think of one more. Um.
Speaker 1: I guess he had such a team around him by
Speaker 1: the end that but after a while that he just
Speaker 1: he didn't have to do so much, you know. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's difficult. It's gonna be fun though. I mean I
Speaker 1: like the courses. I obviously get you get inspired to play,
Speaker 1: and we've just played a pretty cool Australian Open at
Speaker 1: Kingson Nathan Victoria. UM and having a scorecard in your
Speaker 1: pocket around the sound belt is pretty It's amazing how
Speaker 1: the same, there's something about the sound belt that just
Speaker 1: it comes into its own when you've got a scorecard
Speaker 1: in your pocket you're playing seventy two half to play,
Speaker 1: because it's just every mistake gets amplified, but every great
Speaker 1: thing gets amplified. I mean you can make a string
Speaker 1: of six parts in around and be really really happy
Speaker 1: with that, um, and then you can make a couple
Speaker 1: of eagles really quick because it's kind of short, so
Speaker 1: it's it's got a bit of that sort of Augusta
Speaker 1: scoring side of things where it's really really difficult. But
Speaker 1: the opportunities when they present there there, and they're really
Speaker 1: good ones. So um, it's gonna be fun for different days.
Speaker 1: Hopefully I can play well. I mean I didn't play
Speaker 1: very well in Australian Open, but I played okay the
Speaker 1: week before, so the golf is okay. But we'll we'll,
Speaker 1: we'll see. It's more about I just I'm probably just
Speaker 1: going to be making sure everyone has a good time
Speaker 1: and hopefully I can have a good score and not
Speaker 1: not let my score affect how much fine I have,
Speaker 1: which is hard to do. You have such a keen
Speaker 1: student of links golf, I've always sort of wanted to
Speaker 1: ask us because they've never had the right person ask.
Speaker 1: It seems like links golf is built for match play,
Speaker 1: and here you are having stroke play events. Of course,
Speaker 1: it happens every year at the Open Championship, but do
Speaker 1: you feel that at all? Do you feel like links
Speaker 1: golf lends itself more naturally to match player than strut play.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll controversial here a little bit, maybe, but
Speaker 1: I think golf lends itself to match play. To be honest, um,
Speaker 1: I think it's a far more interesting opponent having another
Speaker 1: person as an opponent. Stroke play, you're the opponent, you're
Speaker 1: your own opponent. You beat yourself up your whole life,
Speaker 1: basically trying to be better than who you are, which
Speaker 1: obviously you can't be. Um it's the most frustrating sport possible.
Speaker 1: But batch play, all of a sudden you have great fun,
Speaker 1: you know, because you're playing against your mates, and um
Speaker 1: it gets ultracompetitive and then you have a beer afterwards
Speaker 1: or a coke or whatever you want to do. UM.
Speaker 1: I find matchplay infinitely more interesting than stroke play. UM.
Speaker 1: I think stroke plays a great thing to say, maybe
Speaker 1: find out the best players in the world, and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a great test of golf to play seventy
Speaker 1: dollars around or Gust or the Old Course or Oakmont
Speaker 1: or Pine Ers or Ray Melbourne or I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a fantastic sort of started golf. But if I was
Speaker 1: not a professional golfer, I would only ever played match
Speaker 1: play for sure. I think it's just way more fun.
Speaker 1: So I think we should have more match play tournaments,
Speaker 1: but it clearly hasn't worked. So UM. I mean, look
Speaker 1: at the President's Cup and the Right Car. I mean,
Speaker 1: they are just that is golf at its highest level.
Speaker 1: I think when you watch those things so um, and
Speaker 1: you're right links golf. I think the better the golf course,
Speaker 1: the more it suits the game of golf in general.
Speaker 1: And I think match play is probably a better version
Speaker 1: of golf. So ah um links, a better course would
Speaker 1: do that better. I guess yeah. I mean, Michael and
Speaker 1: I have had plenty of spirited matches through the years,
Speaker 1: and many holes have been one with a bogeye double bogueie.
Speaker 1: It gives you a reason to keep living when you're
Speaker 1: in a match, and um, instead of just like bumming out,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to break eighty, I'm not gonna break
Speaker 1: ninety or what ever. It is like that goes out
Speaker 1: the window. Yeah, and you can give it. You can
Speaker 1: give the two You don't have to put the two
Speaker 1: photos if you don't want. Um, it's just it's a
Speaker 1: more pleasant experience. I mean, when you're playing stroke play
Speaker 1: golf just even anybody, but the handicapped thing baffles me
Speaker 1: a little bit. You are basically trying to compare yourself
Speaker 1: against every golfer in the world. Ever, every time you
Speaker 1: play it, Like, what a measurable sort of thing to
Speaker 1: try to do there. You know, um, way more fun
Speaker 1: to just give. You have a bit of banter with
Speaker 1: your friend and you know you may you hit it
Speaker 1: out of bounds. Let's just go the next you know,
Speaker 1: you both got three fotos that you don't really like.
Speaker 1: Let's just go the next match player. You can play
Speaker 1: the golf that you want to play. You know, you're
Speaker 1: not dictated to the um restrictions of having to compet
Speaker 1: yourself against every other golfer in the world that day.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, look, it's a strug play has
Speaker 1: its place absolutely to find the best player, but I
Speaker 1: think match plays more fun and you you literally don't
Speaker 1: have to get the ball in the whole. You could
Speaker 1: just if you enough, you just pick up, which of
Speaker 1: course everybody knows. But I mean this in the context
Speaker 1: of the golf course doesn't have to be so perfect.
Speaker 1: You sort of need a perfect golf course for seventy
Speaker 1: holds a stroke play because guys do have to be
Speaker 1: able to finish the whole. If you've got crazy wind
Speaker 1: or crazy course or crazy anything, you kind of can't
Speaker 1: really do it. So match places like here's the course.
Speaker 1: If this hole doesn't work out, just you know, start again.
Speaker 1: On the next So it's just it's less perfection oriented.
Speaker 1: Of course, Augustin National has had so much to do
Speaker 1: with our obsession with you know, what constitutes a perfect
Speaker 1: golf course. But I think we're I think you, Jeff,
Speaker 1: and we are onto something in this conversation about why
Speaker 1: match play and links seaside golf is superior. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I I agree. Let's talk about the sand bell invitation,
Speaker 1: although um, just kidding, it's just the sand bill or
Speaker 1: what run down the four again too, I knew what
Speaker 1: were the other two? So Round one ks and Role
Speaker 1: Melbourne West Course Yara Yarra, which is probably unheard of
Speaker 1: from outside of Australia, but it's right next door to
Speaker 1: Kingston Heath and Commonwealth and um right in the same
Speaker 1: it's in the sand belt and it's a great course,
Speaker 1: fantastic greens. It's sort of hard to stand out on
Speaker 1: the sand belt members a bit like Quaker or something
Speaker 1: next to Wingfoot. You've just got no chance, right, Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's just a brilliant course. And then Peninsula Kings
Speaker 1: with West Sorry West Course, North Course and Pentinicila king
Speaker 1: was a bit of a newcomer. Imans has been there
Speaker 1: for a long time, but I had a big um.
Speaker 1: I generated a lot of money through a land sale
Speaker 1: ten years back, and just it always obviously had the
Speaker 1: bones are being incredible and now arguably there'd be a
Speaker 1: lot of people who would turn up saying it would
Speaker 1: be their favorite. I think it's incredible. I candy like,
Speaker 1: it's very dramatic looking. It's in the best condition of
Speaker 1: all the courses in Melbourne. I think, um, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's a pretty special place p K North and South.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean for really really good courses. I
Speaker 1: mean spoil that was the one thing that we got
Speaker 1: out of last year we had. I've never been a
Speaker 1: tournament director or like, I'm not a tournament director, but
Speaker 1: I've never sort of put on a tournament. But I
Speaker 1: don't think because I generally don't do this. I've done it,
Speaker 1: but I don't do it very often. We got a
Speaker 1: note from I think sixty nine seventy two players or
Speaker 1: something saying, wow, Haggard was that please invite me next year?
Speaker 1: You know that doesn't happen, you know what We're like, Um,
Speaker 1: so we're not very grateful usually. So yeah, we obviously
Speaker 1: did something right and I think the coolest part about
Speaker 1: it is there's a lot of ego in golf and
Speaker 1: superintendents don't escape from that disease. So we had all
Speaker 1: clubs in general, So we had Kingston Heath showing off
Speaker 1: against Rayle Melbourne, against the Area against Pial, none of
Speaker 1: them they all wanted to be better than the other one.
Speaker 1: So they all showed off, had the best pins, had
Speaker 1: the course presented as well as they could. And I
Speaker 1: think part of the beauty of the tournament is you're
Speaker 1: always going to get these four golf clubs and supers
Speaker 1: competing against each other because they want to be the
Speaker 1: one that stands out amongst the really good courses, you know,
Speaker 1: So it's sort of guarantees cool conditions and cool set up. Um,
Speaker 1: it was brilliant. It was like playing Sunday He's trying
Speaker 1: open photos in our last year. It was just it
Speaker 1: was absolutely nuts. So, um, it's got everybody really excited.
Speaker 1: And as I said, we've elevated a few little a
Speaker 1: few of the little things. It's going to feel more
Speaker 1: like a tournament. I'm more like a polished up sort
Speaker 1: of tournament. Um, now it's gonna be incredible. Well, Michael,
Speaker 1: you know, you know how modest are our co host
Speaker 1: is here, but Jeff had a hand in in redoing
Speaker 1: a big hand and redoing Princely Kingswood and um so
Speaker 1: how stressful is that? Jeff? You're not only you know,
Speaker 1: only the the co host, but you're essentially the the
Speaker 1: course redesigner. And um, if if there's a if there's
Speaker 1: a if you pin or as you know, a hole's
Speaker 1: not playing right because of the wind. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you spent your whole life probably muttering under your
Speaker 1: breath about the setup and the architect and now you're
Speaker 1: that guy. So did that add any stress to your life? Oh?
Speaker 1: Not too much. I mean pins are a bit interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we certainly want to check out the pins they want
Speaker 1: to use. But see that's another I think there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of Melbourne's got a track record just historically
Speaker 1: if getting a little bit carried away with green speeds.
Speaker 1: I mean it's been happening for fifty years, um and
Speaker 1: I think we finally got over it. Into early two thousands,
Speaker 1: we had an Australian Open where the greens were too far.
Speaker 1: It was a perfect day, it wasn't even windy, and
Speaker 1: the balls were rolling off the greens. And I think
Speaker 1: everyone's sort of all the clubs and the powers that be,
Speaker 1: and everyone had a bit of a time out and said, look, no,
Speaker 1: let's just have a really good time, and let's put
Speaker 1: the pins in sensible spots and not have the greens
Speaker 1: at seventeen. Let's just have a twelve and um so
Speaker 1: because you can get these greens out fast. So I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of a bit of insurance because because
Speaker 1: they want their course to look so good, they're not
Speaker 1: gonna want it's more of them look good. And there's
Speaker 1: there's young kids in this field and guys and girls
Speaker 1: and the whole breadth. They're not going to put the
Speaker 1: pins and crazy spots, but we definitely are sort of ah,
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on where they want to put the pins. Sure.
Speaker 1: And also there's a story to tell. It's an interesting
Speaker 1: seventy two holes. When they're really set up, well, let's
Speaker 1: say the Masters sets up. They set that up so perfectly,
Speaker 1: it's like a story. Right, It's a little bit difficult
Speaker 1: on Thursday, and then they give you a chance on Friday,
Speaker 1: and they get really tough on Saturday, and then Sunday's
Speaker 1: sort of got a bit of everything. And last night holes.
Speaker 1: It's just great fun if you're playing well. Um, it's
Speaker 1: like a novel almost right. It's like this goes up.
Speaker 1: There's ups and downs of easiness and hardness and easy
Speaker 1: pins and tough pins. Um. We kind of got to
Speaker 1: try to create a little bit of that last year.
Speaker 1: I think if anything, it was it was a little
Speaker 1: bit too hard every day because everyone was trying to
Speaker 1: have their course at their absolute Sunday pins. Um. But
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of an appeal to that as well,
Speaker 1: you know. So um, yeah, I'll try not to curse
Speaker 1: out the architect and the designers and um, hopefully the
Speaker 1: pins are all good. How many different sets of tears
Speaker 1: do you use for the adventure? It's just too I think, Um,
Speaker 1: the kids, they're all pretty elite as you know, Um,
Speaker 1: they're all scratchy. I mean there's some incredible players fourteen fifteen.
Speaker 1: Some of the girls, I mean they're all most elite,
Speaker 1: world class anyway. You know what good girls, good girl
Speaker 1: golfers can get. How quick they get really good. Um,
Speaker 1: just men's and women's I think, ah, yeah, they're all
Speaker 1: pretty elite. I mean it's I say kids, their kids
Speaker 1: for us guys, Um, they're elite they can shoot under
Speaker 1: par you know. Uh, um, yeah, I'll be good. I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the aspects of this tournament is
Speaker 1: really cool. Is so the animating spirit was to bring
Speaker 1: together these different generations of golfers and it was born
Speaker 1: in covid when a lot of the Australians didn't really
Speaker 1: have the option to travel widely. So that mentorship between
Speaker 1: the old grizzled pros and and these these elite teenagers
Speaker 1: who are trying to trying to make their way. Do
Speaker 1: you have any favorite stories, Jeff about some of the
Speaker 1: relationships that that were born at the event last year
Speaker 1: and they have carried on now and um and how
Speaker 1: they've these young players careers and lives have been improved. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't have any specific stories. It's just such a
Speaker 1: cool uh because when I mean, if if you sort
Speaker 1: of asked me when I got back to us Try
Speaker 1: a few years ago, Um, I just wanted to spend
Speaker 1: a bit of Timmy and people ask me, all, you're
Speaker 1: gonna sort of help out a little bit with golf,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I thought about it a little bit
Speaker 1: and I thought, well, when I was a kid, what
Speaker 1: what can I sort of provide that wasn't that I
Speaker 1: didn't have that would be great, and it was playing
Speaker 1: with people like me. You know, there've been, always been,
Speaker 1: and that kind of still is really engulfed around the world.
Speaker 1: I think it is. An amateur pro divide is quite
Speaker 1: it's kinde of solid wall, you know, and you generally
Speaker 1: when you're am you play with ams, and when you
Speaker 1: get to turn pro, you only really get to play
Speaker 1: with the good players when you get good enough as
Speaker 1: a pro to get in the good tournaments. You know,
Speaker 1: you start off in a small mini tours and little ones,
Speaker 1: and you don't really get to play with elite great
Speaker 1: players until you are one. So we just tried to
Speaker 1: create an opportunity where that would happen, and we do
Speaker 1: a little bit more. We have a lot of one
Speaker 1: day sort of things and stuff down here where me
Speaker 1: and a bunch of the tour players who are floating
Speaker 1: around will play with some of these young kids, which
Speaker 1: I think is I would have loved when I was
Speaker 1: a kid. And so we just tried to get the
Speaker 1: best players. It's really the best players we can find, man, woman,
Speaker 1: pro or amateur and put them all on the best
Speaker 1: course as we can find. Really I guess is that
Speaker 1: there's a real sort of theory to the whole thing.
Speaker 1: So I mean, yeah, there was a lot there's a
Speaker 1: lot of these people of the kid who wanted Brady
Speaker 1: what last year that was his first timeament when he'd
Speaker 1: been a great amateur and he'd been sort of banging
Speaker 1: away as a pro for a little bit but struggling. Um.
Speaker 1: Some of the young kids, the young young girls especially
Speaker 1: have sort of gone on and grown. And I a
Speaker 1: year is a long time for a sixteen year old.
Speaker 1: You know, when the sixteen year I was a little kid,
Speaker 1: and the next year they turned up their seventeen and
Speaker 1: they're shaving and they're you know, they're a big kid
Speaker 1: or whatever. You know. Um, it's um, yeah, they've all
Speaker 1: had a good year. I've I know that lots of
Speaker 1: them really really well. As I said, we do sort
Speaker 1: of lots of one day as during the years. So
Speaker 1: there's sort of a really good community down here now,
Speaker 1: Elite golfers who want to who love playing golf and
Speaker 1: want to make golf their life. Be it guys people
Speaker 1: like me who are grizzled and grumpy and been doing
Speaker 1: it for thirty five years. And there's kids who are
Speaker 1: just wide eyed and excited and for thing about the
Speaker 1: experience of going out to play with some play another
Speaker 1: tournament you know so and it's everything in between. So
Speaker 1: I guess just the relationships that form, you know, you play,
Speaker 1: you get to play rounds of golf with it's cross
Speaker 1: sections of young girls with Mike Clayton, you know, or
Speaker 1: sort of young boys going out to play with sort
Speaker 1: of SUO or something SA LPGA players and stuff. So
Speaker 1: you get it's great sort of cross connections of people
Speaker 1: who are normally you go through life and you wouldn't
Speaker 1: even see them in your golf life, but we put
Speaker 1: them all in one with the one the one TOURNAMENTUM
Speaker 1: and sort of nice sort of relationships and connections and
Speaker 1: networks form, and people get inspired and people learn a
Speaker 1: bit about golf. And yeah, it's just I think I'm
Speaker 1: not it's it's it's far from perfect, but I think
Speaker 1: it's a really nice model for a golf tournament. Jup
Speaker 1: Well was Cam Davis's path into the event. Um Well.
Speaker 1: I wandered around with him um President's Cup quite often,
Speaker 1: you know, like signed an assistant captain to a group
Speaker 1: or two, you know, and you'll go around and make
Speaker 1: sure they've got sandwiches and enough gatorade. Um whatever, can
Speaker 1: you run back to the van and get my other
Speaker 1: shoes because these ones are giving me blisters and all that,
Speaker 1: you know, like what we do. And I was with
Speaker 1: um Cam and Adam for a couple of their games
Speaker 1: the President's Cup and just wandering around and reving them
Speaker 1: up and just being there if they needed anything. And
Speaker 1: Cam was but it was between one of the OLDNT
Speaker 1: shops or something where we went up the fairway and
Speaker 1: Scotty was in the t shot. Um Cam's like a
Speaker 1: Sandville last year. I'm sorry I couldn't come. I really
Speaker 1: want to come this year, you know. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do. And then he texted us
Speaker 1: pretty soon after that actually and said I'm coming for sure.
Speaker 1: I know I'm back in Australia the whole time put
Speaker 1: me down on plane. So um Cam just loves got
Speaker 1: I mean, he's the ultimate to a pro. You know,
Speaker 1: he just loves golf, thinks golf, works on golf. Every
Speaker 1: decision he makes is around being a better golfer. Um
Speaker 1: and just just loves everything about it. And he's spent
Speaker 1: like a lot of the AUSSI tour players or Aussies
Speaker 1: in general who are outside of Australia. When the pandemic
Speaker 1: came along, they all got stuck outside for two or
Speaker 1: three years. He hadn't been he hasn't been back here
Speaker 1: for three years, and I don't think he played any
Speaker 1: real tournaments on sand belts ever. It was since since
Speaker 1: sort of am golf. So um. Yeah, he was very
Speaker 1: very keene at the President's Cup and then a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks later he backed up, backed up his enthusiasm
Speaker 1: in Texas, US and said, put me down, I'm definitely coming.
Speaker 1: So it was pretty exciting. Yeah, it's really neat, and
Speaker 1: what an experience for a young kid. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: some young kids who get to go out and play
Speaker 1: with the kids one of the best players in the
Speaker 1: world of just playing the President's Cup. That's just the
Speaker 1: sort of part of what the tournament's all about. No,
Speaker 1: that's cool, and that's on the reasons why it's held
Speaker 1: so close to Christmas, right is who when you get
Speaker 1: folks who are coming back home and you know, maybe
Speaker 1: you can pick off some other players of like a
Speaker 1: cam diva stature and in the years to come, they're
Speaker 1: like I want to just go home for the holidays,
Speaker 1: but I want to stay sharp And is that part
Speaker 1: of the d Yeah. I mean look the dates a
Speaker 1: few things. I mean a couple of weeks earlier. Um,
Speaker 1: it will always be in December for sure. When we
Speaker 1: first um put this to these clubs coming out of
Speaker 1: COVID last year, we we had sort of two two
Speaker 1: sort of four or five months patches of no golf
Speaker 1: at all in Victoria at least. So we were just
Speaker 1: coming out of no golf at all and we were
Speaker 1: trying to suggest to these golf courses, how can we
Speaker 1: come and steal your golf course for a day. And
Speaker 1: then we thought the members. The members were like, um,
Speaker 1: we haven't been on here. We haven't been on here
Speaker 1: for a month, like four months. You can't really like
Speaker 1: stealing golf course for a day. So we sort of
Speaker 1: went late in December because that gets quiet and people
Speaker 1: are getting ready for Christmas. It also adds up because
Speaker 1: a lot of these kids go to school, um, and
Speaker 1: it helped if they missed four days of I mean
Speaker 1: it's very late in school obviously like December, but for
Speaker 1: here in Australia, but um it helped that they didn't
Speaker 1: have to worry about that, the parents could get them there,
Speaker 1: they didn't have to worry about missing too much school
Speaker 1: and stuff. So it'll always be in December. And the
Speaker 1: courses are great in summer um, because obviously Australia summers
Speaker 1: we're upside down in Australia. So um, the courses are
Speaker 1: probably just starting to come into their best in December.
Speaker 1: And the lady you hold it sort of the better
Speaker 1: they are. So at the moment, December I think is
Speaker 1: a really good day for a lot of reasons. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's really late December, um. And yeah, there's there's
Speaker 1: nothing on in the world. It's the only tournament in
Speaker 1: the world, I think that week, which is getting harder
Speaker 1: and harder to find a week where there's no professional
Speaker 1: golf tournaments because we seem to be adding more golf
Speaker 1: tournaments and taking them away, which is good. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, December, the deeds we'll to be
Speaker 1: blowing it out on Firepit, Collective, dot com and our
Speaker 1: social channels and um, it's it's really gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: I know that Colt and Benny and I are bringing
Speaker 1: our clubs. That's optimistic given how busy the days are,
Speaker 1: but maybe we can sneak in a little twilight golf.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be staying at Pennsyla Kingswood, which I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see. It's Um, I think the term golf
Speaker 1: porn applies just the photos of the videos. It looks
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing. So it's gonna be it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: great show. UM. If if people want to get involved somehow,
Speaker 1: Jeff as as fans or UM people in the game,
Speaker 1: where would you direct them besides our channels? Like? How
Speaker 1: else can they engage with the tournament? Uh, there's a
Speaker 1: pretty good website, UM sand Belt Invitational. UM. I don't
Speaker 1: know the exact address, but if you just look for
Speaker 1: Standout Invitation on the website, you can register if you
Speaker 1: want to come to one of the tournaments. I think
Speaker 1: you just have to register online or register on the app.
Speaker 1: UM it's free entry. UM, you just put your thing
Speaker 1: down and come along, you know, um four different days. UM.
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know about anything else, but if
Speaker 1: you want to come along, just out to the website.
Speaker 1: It's got all the information. I should be apt to
Speaker 1: spade with all of that sort of stuff. But another
Speaker 1: website is really good. Just check that out and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: light December if you want to come and say good
Speaker 1: appliers by the best courses in Australia, come out. Look
Speaker 1: yeah and maybe actually I've been an evangelist for the
Speaker 1: sand Belt, you know, Matt Janelle and I and a
Speaker 1: couple others went, came, came your way, and um, two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen we did all the sand Belt courses, not
Speaker 1: all of them, we did a lot of them. We
Speaker 1: hit King's Island, played Cape Wickgum, which might be my
Speaker 1: favorite course on Planet Earth, went to Barn Google. Like
Speaker 1: I've been saying this for a while, especially if you're
Speaker 1: on the West coast like I am of the US.
Speaker 1: To get to St. Andrews, you're gonna have to change
Speaker 1: planes somewhere and door to door. I can fly NonStop
Speaker 1: from San Francisco into into Melbourne. It's pretty much the
Speaker 1: same journey. And I would say the golf is as
Speaker 1: good or better than anything you're gonna find in Scotland
Speaker 1: or Ireland, and and the experience of it is is
Speaker 1: so special. So it might be a little late in
Speaker 1: the ball game for some listeners, but I would say
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty three book a whole golf trip to Melbourne,
Speaker 1: come watch some of the sand Belt. It would be
Speaker 1: the trip of a lifetime where maybe we'll this gives
Speaker 1: us a year to workshop that maybe we'll we'll put
Speaker 1: something together for for the listeners and the readers that fact,
Speaker 1: the collective, Like we could have a hoe down, get
Speaker 1: more more American golfers down there to see these courses.
Speaker 1: Would be would be super cool. But food for thought. Yeah, look,
Speaker 1: I think I look when when Americans but whatever reason,
Speaker 1: everybody loves the sand Belt. It's just something unique, something
Speaker 1: about it is. You don't say it anywhere else in
Speaker 1: the world. It's sort of a lot of people come.
Speaker 1: I mean Taga loves it. Um, almost all the anyone
Speaker 1: of any level comes and says, I live staying more.
Speaker 1: That might be my favorite version of the game. You know,
Speaker 1: it really is unique and special and um, yeah, it
Speaker 1: would be definitely it would be a fun if if
Speaker 1: like a little fire pit sort of crew dragged a
Speaker 1: few people down. I think, yeah, you couldn't have you
Speaker 1: couldn't have a bad time. If you love golf, um
Speaker 1: and you kind even had a sad note trip, you'd
Speaker 1: have a guitar. That'd be amazing, and of course the
Speaker 1: Ostins was so much fun. Like one of my favorite
Speaker 1: memories in golf was at the end of this long trip,
Speaker 1: we played until dark at Victoria and went into the
Speaker 1: clubhouse and had dinner. And because you know, Matt and
Speaker 1: I and had had been tweeting about the trip and
Speaker 1: putting stuff on Instagram, kind of folks knew we were there.
Speaker 1: And all these members were in the clubhouse. They kept
Speaker 1: wandering over the table and they're binus drinks and we were.
Speaker 1: We were our friends Tom Junior, Kevin Prison the trip.
Speaker 1: We were We just had a pen and piece paper
Speaker 1: and we were trying to rank our favorite courses from
Speaker 1: the trip. We wanted playing eight courses in the world
Speaker 1: top one because we stopped in New Zealand as well,
Speaker 1: and Um played tar Eat and and it was just
Speaker 1: and then people are looking at our list, they're walking
Speaker 1: around the table, look at the other guy's list, and
Speaker 1: they're off on their momentary. You know, maybe if Victoria
Speaker 1: is definitely better than the blah blah blah. It was
Speaker 1: just the most convival of gathering and it was really
Speaker 1: it was really special. Of course, you have Peter Thompson
Speaker 1: waiting for you, in that statue as you come in,
Speaker 1: it's just like perfect end or to an absolutely epic trip.
Speaker 1: So um. But anyway, Jeff, when you're working on a
Speaker 1: really classic Midwestern American golf course like be Diana, you know,
Speaker 1: as far away from an ocean as could be, not
Speaker 1: even near a lake. But does some of your love
Speaker 1: of links golf show up in in the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing there? Yeah? I think so. I mean every
Speaker 1: way it's different, obviously, And I think one of the
Speaker 1: mistakes that's been made by everybody who's an architect as
Speaker 1: well anonymoustake. It's everyone has the ambition I want to
Speaker 1: build this somewhere else, and you just can't. There's something
Speaker 1: unique about the sand. I mean the sand belt, um
Speaker 1: just be the name sort of gives it away. There's
Speaker 1: lots of belts of sand in the world. You know,
Speaker 1: there's one in Georgia. You know, there's there's Nebraska sandhills.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's sand everywhere. But the sand in Melbourne
Speaker 1: is really really unique. It's sort of very angular, they
Speaker 1: tell me, and it just compacts really hard and you
Speaker 1: can just cut an edge to a bunker against a
Speaker 1: green and it doesn't cave in it doesn't get soft.
Speaker 1: You can drive a mower over and it doesn't. It's
Speaker 1: just it turns into concrete effectively. But then you rake
Speaker 1: it a little bit and it just gets perfect. Um,
Speaker 1: it's really unique sand. So you kind of, I guess
Speaker 1: you learn the lessons that you go to the old course,
Speaker 1: and the old course probably influences every golf course you
Speaker 1: ever build, but you don't build the old course. You know,
Speaker 1: you sort of try to find the lessons or the
Speaker 1: sort of what's this, why is this so great? Can
Speaker 1: we recreate this sort of philosophy in the Midwest situation?
Speaker 1: You know? So I think we're obviously we're clearly all
Speaker 1: three of us, me, Michael and Ashley at our um
Speaker 1: at o CM, we're clearly heavily influenced by the sand belt.
Speaker 1: But we wouldn't ever really try to recreate it anywhere else.
Speaker 1: We just sort of try to learn from the lessons
Speaker 1: that shows you, you know, yeah stuff, because the bunk
Speaker 1: is the bunk is what everyone falls in love with
Speaker 1: in Melbourne, and you just you'd love to be able
Speaker 1: to build them everywhere because everyone would build them because
Speaker 1: they're so it's so nice to have the green edge
Speaker 1: at the bunker. You know, you're can have such more
Speaker 1: interesting looking pin. You're gonna have a pin three or
Speaker 1: what three yards away from the sand, as opposed to
Speaker 1: most places where you've got the little band of fringe grass.
Speaker 1: You end up having the the pins three from the
Speaker 1: edge of the green, but it's actually five or six
Speaker 1: from there, but from the sand and Melbourne, it is
Speaker 1: actually three from the sand, which is a really unique
Speaker 1: look and scary look sometimes and really amplifies strategy, amplifies
Speaker 1: the angle you need to be on and you try
Speaker 1: to you try to do your best you can, but
Speaker 1: you're never gonna be able to do the same thing. Well,
Speaker 1: this has been a great little preview of a very
Speaker 1: special golf Tournamentum, Michael or Jeff any any parting thoughts
Speaker 1: for the Steners as we lead into the Sand Belt Invitational. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm just excited. It's gonna be fun. It's uh, I'm
Speaker 1: tomp to you guys are coming down here. Um, hopefully
Speaker 1: the weather is great. The weather is been attractions and
Speaker 1: Melvin this year has been flooding Victorian and stuff, but
Speaker 1: the coursest being on sand I'd dried really well, so
Speaker 1: they're all in great shape. So I mean hopefully we
Speaker 1: get an US, we gets foiled with the weather and
Speaker 1: we have a good weight. That's great. All right, Well
Speaker 1: this was a fire Drill podcast and starting really the
Speaker 1: days before the tournament, I would say in December seventeen eight,
Speaker 1: team will start putting out a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of fun content around this event. So thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: please tune in. Um I promise you that it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's an evertent event worth paying attention to it.
Speaker 1: It's a great model for other golf tournaments. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be about a huge purse and corporate tents
Speaker 1: and all this other stuff. It's really pure and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be very special to be there. So this is
Speaker 1: Alan SHIPNUK. That was Jeff Ogilvie and Michael Bamberger. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and we'll be coming back to you from Melbourne,
Speaker 1: Australia at some point with some more conversation about when
Speaker 1: this tournament wraps up. So that's it for now. Thanks
Speaker 1: a bed big played to win. Made a fortune within
Speaker 1: my ship game, man, I ran the table and never
Speaker 1: thought I could fall. Then the wintertime hit me like
Speaker 1: a cannon ball, and now I can't shake this losing
Speaker 1: the streak. Every road I take is a dead end stream.
Speaker 1: I got thoughts in my head, can't get out, trying
Speaker 1: and nothing think what I'm thinking about. That God of
Speaker 1: thoughts in my head, I can't get him out, trying
Speaker 1: not to think what I'm thinking about