Speaker 1: It's just astonished me to in this world you would
Speaker 1: play eighteen holes of golf, you would put on a
Speaker 1: coat and tie, you would have lunch, drink the entire
Speaker 1: fucking time and then you would go back and play
Speaker 1: golf again. I never it never even dawned on me
Speaker 1: that for a person would come up with that. I said,
Speaker 1: this has to be the Scottish that would come up
Speaker 1: with this ship because there's no other nobody else would
Speaker 1: do it, you know. So we we did that. Great
Speaker 1: Love the course, loved the people. We had great host Um.
Speaker 1: We went in, did the proper lunch, which was probably
Speaker 1: the most unique experience for me of the entire thing
Speaker 1: because I've never done anything like that. Put another log
Speaker 1: on the fire what he hears get the time. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the fire pit with Matt Chanella. In part one
Speaker 1: of this podcast we covered the start of what was
Speaker 1: the best buddies trip in and around the playing of
Speaker 1: the Open Championship in St Andrew's. Not Even Cam Smith
Speaker 1: had more fun than this band of brothers, which included
Speaker 1: Peyton Eli and Cooper Manning, plus Eric Church, Taylor's Arzer,
Speaker 1: Joe Lecava, Jim Nance, John Daly and Moore. We pick
Speaker 1: it back up on Monday morning. There are two rounds,
Speaker 1: one robe, a historic open and a cemetery trip into
Speaker 1: their adventure. Here's Cooper Manning as they depart the RUSSICK's hotel.
Speaker 1: The remainder of their itinerary includes some of the best
Speaker 1: courses in Scotland and then they're off to Royal County
Speaker 1: Down in Northern Ireland, what many consider the number one
Speaker 1: course in the world. The next morning, Monday, we get out,
Speaker 1: there we go. We're getting a bus and this is right.
Speaker 1: and Um, normally it's like a two hour rod, I think,
Speaker 1: maybe two twenty, to North Berrick. We uh, we jump
Speaker 1: in a van and go to this field not very far.
Speaker 1: and Um, we had already packed, sent our luggage and
Speaker 1: we jumped on a helicopter and went over to North
Speaker 1: Barrick Ay to us, I mean, you know, I think
Speaker 1: it was a twelve minute ride or something. It was
Speaker 1: rolling there, you know, uh, just crunched up, the tall
Speaker 1: guys in the middle, medium, tall guys back. Of course
Speaker 1: they make marshalls sitting in front of the shortest guy.
Speaker 1: You got marshalls running, you know, a shotgun being the
Speaker 1: short guy actually paid you know, paid off. It did it?
Speaker 1: Did you know? Cooper was trying to wiggle his way
Speaker 1: up there in the pilot looked over him and said
Speaker 1: now you gotta get in the back. Marshall sits up
Speaker 1: front and uh, you know, it was good. You know
Speaker 1: it's a little Um. You know you're you're it's tight
Speaker 1: space and everything, but it was great. It was good.
Speaker 1: You can just about see North Barrick. You know the
Speaker 1: golf corps us from the old course. But if if
Speaker 1: you don't have some sort of way to go over
Speaker 1: the water or on the water, then you have to
Speaker 1: go around it and it's going to take a couple
Speaker 1: of hours to get there. And that was that was
Speaker 1: clutch to be able to to cut off that time
Speaker 1: and get to North Berrick with with plenty of time
Speaker 1: to spare to play. On Monday. We literally just in
Speaker 1: a yard like it like a field. Helicopter shows up
Speaker 1: and we're off to North Barrick. I don't even remember
Speaker 1: where the hell we landed, but it wasn't. It's just
Speaker 1: right there's in another field, I think. I can't remember.
Speaker 1: And then we got we go there and we're playing.
Speaker 1: We played. I played with the pro that day. They
Speaker 1: only had. We only had two two foursomes. So some guys,
Speaker 1: so Um mark, eubanks and Marshall, said we're not gonna
Speaker 1: play this morning, we're gonna go get a workout. There's something.
Speaker 1: So we played. I played with the played with two pros.
Speaker 1: Pro At north Barrick, Martin was an absolute delight. Funny.
Speaker 1: We had a we had a good money game there
Speaker 1: and I do know Martin and I uh put it
Speaker 1: on Peyton and and Weapron that day, which is, and
Speaker 1: I'm still hating, collected. It's funny how that works here's
Speaker 1: been weapron. The pro at North Barrack was somebody that
Speaker 1: they that cooper, thought would be a good voice. So
Speaker 1: I played so bad at North Park. Don't call him.
Speaker 1: You check your when you're when your average roop score
Speaker 1: for a week is like, uh, don't you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like you don't want to see it. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Martin Hush. I'm the head professional here at North
Speaker 1: Barrick Golf Club and I've been head professional since two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, taking over from my father that was
Speaker 1: here for forty two years prior to that. So it's
Speaker 1: it's in the family and I started working for my
Speaker 1: dad in so I've been here in north for thirty
Speaker 1: one year, so I do know what Cummute to work now,
Speaker 1: which is nice. And then, ironically, my grandfather, my mom's Dad,
Speaker 1: was also the provint Gull and some were miles away.
Speaker 1: So kind of steeped, steeped in the history of East Lothian.
Speaker 1: My God, this is like you guys are like the
Speaker 1: Morris family of Saint Andrew's. Well, well, maybe maybe slightly
Speaker 1: better sailors, but apart from that, I don't know. When
Speaker 1: did you first catch wind of the idea that this,
Speaker 1: this group of Buddies was coming through? So this was
Speaker 1: this was a weird one for me because I I
Speaker 1: got an email from a well respected golf professional in
Speaker 1: in the US, Mr Bob Ford, who was at Seminole,
Speaker 1: and that I knew him from seminole and he gave me,
Speaker 1: he gave me a buzz and said, look, I've got
Speaker 1: these guys that are coming into town and is there
Speaker 1: any way we can get them on North Berwick because
Speaker 1: they've they've tried to get tea off times in North
Speaker 1: Beric and they were unsuccessful in their application. And so
Speaker 1: it said, is there anyway that we can get these
Speaker 1: guys on. So when Mr Ford phones, Mr Ford gets
Speaker 1: gets what he was. He's a phenomenal gentleman. And so
Speaker 1: we got a couple of guys together, myself and one
Speaker 1: other we we booked some of our advanced guest tickets
Speaker 1: and we put them on the guest sheet without knowing
Speaker 1: really who it was. And then when when we go
Speaker 1: that time, Mr Ford and let us know, you know,
Speaker 1: the nature of the people that were coming and you know,
Speaker 1: we were obviously delighted to be able to host them
Speaker 1: and treat them as our guests. Here's Eli on getting
Speaker 1: back to North Berrick. For my last trip, when we
Speaker 1: went fourteen years ago with my dad and two brothers,
Speaker 1: north Berrick was my favorite my favorite course from that
Speaker 1: trip and I think it's a combination of the course,
Speaker 1: but also on that day fourteen years ago we you know, uh,
Speaker 1: we did the long drive. So we played somewhere that morning,
Speaker 1: did the drive, you know, kind ahead. There was just
Speaker 1: us for in a bus for two hours. You know,
Speaker 1: I had, you know, a box lunch and had, you know,
Speaker 1: fish and chips and a couple of beers and you know,
Speaker 1: I think we ked off at six PM at North
Speaker 1: Beric into a brutal win, you know, right in the face.
Speaker 1: We all shot a, you know, a big number. But then,
Speaker 1: you know, had that win, you know, right at our
Speaker 1: back to that back nine and everybody goes low to
Speaker 1: kind of you know it to finish up at nine
Speaker 1: thirty at night and just like what what a day,
Speaker 1: you know, to sit and kind of see the sun
Speaker 1: going down and just put a special place and what
Speaker 1: a what a cool you know, the Dan Hole, the
Speaker 1: the wall hole. So just, you know, some awesome you know,
Speaker 1: had somebody laughs. Uh, my dad got stuck behind that wall.
Speaker 1: I just couldn't quite get that ball over a few times.
Speaker 1: They had like hit one backwards and you hit the
Speaker 1: wall again, and so just uh, you know, just those
Speaker 1: fun laughs you can have, you know, with your family.
Speaker 1: So I was excited to play it again. This one.
Speaker 1: I was you know, Um, you know, for the most part,
Speaker 1: everything else was new, but it's like, if we gotta
Speaker 1: play one I I played before, I definitely wanted to
Speaker 1: be North Berk and and uh and just, you know,
Speaker 1: just a special place. So, you know, just you know,
Speaker 1: so much fun. Uh, had a great, great match with
Speaker 1: Church and Taylor and Um, you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of action going on, a lot of back
Speaker 1: and forth, and so it was a it was a,
Speaker 1: you know, still one of my favorite spots. These are
Speaker 1: like gladiators of American sports and air church is a
Speaker 1: big but do you have, did you have, any sense
Speaker 1: of who these guys are? Yeah, I mean I obviously
Speaker 1: heard of all the manning brothers. At that stage I didn't,
Speaker 1: I had never known, had never met Cooper, but Eli
Speaker 1: and Peyton were obviously big figures even, you know, even
Speaker 1: in the sleepy holes of the east of Scotland. So
Speaker 1: we certainly knew who they were. We didn't, and I
Speaker 1: didn't probably quite grasp just how how gigantic these guys
Speaker 1: are within their industry. But when I was discussing at home,
Speaker 1: were sitting at one evening that I've said to my
Speaker 1: to my wife and my my daughter in law to
Speaker 1: be in the next couple of weeks is getting married
Speaker 1: and that the Peton brothers were coming to play with it.
Speaker 1: You know, they were pretty nondescript. And then I said
Speaker 1: Him we're playing with this other guy called Eric Church,
Speaker 1: and my daughter in law just about fell off her seat.
Speaker 1: She's an enormous country Western fan and to even have
Speaker 1: the contemplation that Eric was going to be not only
Speaker 1: in Scotland but playing with the future following law was
Speaker 1: it was kind of kind of blew her mind. Just
Speaker 1: talk for a second just about how special North Bark
Speaker 1: is and and where it sits in kind of the
Speaker 1: the ecosystem of Scotland's Scotland's elite level of golf experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we're very lucky. North Barrick has this wonderful
Speaker 1: history within the place it's golf was golf was played
Speaker 1: or played. It's reninned have been played since sixteen eleven
Speaker 1: and off Berwick. Somebody got up find for playing golf
Speaker 1: on the Sabbath in sixteen eleven, so they must have
Speaker 1: been playing golf before that. Um Not guaranteed that was
Speaker 1: on the West links but somewhere in the town. But
Speaker 1: our golf club was formalized in the eighteen thirty two
Speaker 1: when it became the golf club that it is now.
Speaker 1: But we have this unique place where we start in
Speaker 1: the middle of the town, we work our way out
Speaker 1: onto a narrow strip of land that we call the
Speaker 1: links land between the sea and the and the town
Speaker 1: and it's just as really unique natural place to play golf.
Speaker 1: There's no architect being attributed to the course. But when
Speaker 1: you get holes coming down the back stretch called pit
Speaker 1: and perfection and Ridan, and then we have an original
Speaker 1: Bearrett's green and a punch bowl style green on seventeen,
Speaker 1: there's so much history, you know, if you take the pit,
Speaker 1: for instance, whole number thirteen, you drive drive down the
Speaker 1: fairway and then you're obscured by a wall to the
Speaker 1: green us. So the green sits in a little valley
Speaker 1: the other side of the wall, catching the edge of
Speaker 1: the coastline, you know. And when, when the guys were
Speaker 1: we're coming up to that whole. I mean to be fair,
Speaker 1: one of our one of our playing partners, had already
Speaker 1: visited that whole playing the fifth so we had a
Speaker 1: bit of an understanding of what was going to go on.
Speaker 1: He was a little bit ripe of target, but he
Speaker 1: shall be unnamed. And so once we've seen that, the
Speaker 1: history of that and the just the design and the
Speaker 1: style of it is it's just so unique, you know,
Speaker 1: and and being going formally for a hundred and ninety years.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's just phenomenon and we're lucky enough
Speaker 1: to be in the top hundred golf courses in the
Speaker 1: world and our rankings go up and up. And even today,
Speaker 1: I mean we're we're prepping for a whole of the
Speaker 1: ladies coming to us to try to qualify for the
Speaker 1: British ladies. So the golf course is busy every day.
Speaker 1: There's there's formal competitions, there's these body trips, there's people
Speaker 1: playing it for the first time, people returning for the
Speaker 1: fiftieth time. I mean it's it's it's unique because there's
Speaker 1: nothing like it. There's nothing like it. He can't help
Speaker 1: but follow in love with North Bay. Well, I'M I
Speaker 1: WON'T STEAL MR churches thunder since you're going to talk
Speaker 1: to him later today, but I've got a feeling he's
Speaker 1: going to to tell you how special that was to him.
Speaker 1: I thought it was the if if I were going
Speaker 1: to play, of course, every day, out of all the
Speaker 1: courses we played on this trip, that would be the
Speaker 1: one that I would pick. It is just it's so
Speaker 1: much fun and it's the variety of shots, the amount
Speaker 1: of commitment you have to make two blind shots Um
Speaker 1: right there on the sea. We had a beautiful day.
Speaker 1: It was it was a little bit on the hot sides.
Speaker 1: Certainly for the Scots it were. It was Um but,
Speaker 1: you know, to see treasure island right out there and
Speaker 1: in the big rock and then just that the North
Speaker 1: Sea coastline like that was Um. Was So neat. And
Speaker 1: you're right, the rock wall as you're coming in those
Speaker 1: last few holes, the the iconic photographs that everybody takes.
Speaker 1: We certainly took one too. Um. I loved it. I
Speaker 1: loved everything about it. I played with Eric in an
Speaker 1: Eli and Um Eric hit one into the North Sea
Speaker 1: off of the first tea and and the caddy said
Speaker 1: I can see your golf ball and Eric said, well,
Speaker 1: we're going to play it, and Um Eli and are
Speaker 1: just talking on the first green and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden this ball just lands about ten ft away from
Speaker 1: us on the green and it looked like an Eric
Speaker 1: Church concert. He just emerges like from out in the
Speaker 1: North Sea and he's got his sunglasses on and the
Speaker 1: hair is up and he's got this huge smile in
Speaker 1: his face and he said that's for Birdie Boys. It
Speaker 1: was my favorite course of the trip. Um. I just
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about it and I loved how,
Speaker 1: you know, they had the rock wall that kind of
Speaker 1: meanders through it. It It just looked like the Scottish countryside
Speaker 1: at the coast there at the water. I love the VIBE.
Speaker 1: I played well, which helps, and you know, so for
Speaker 1: me I just Um, that was my favorite course that
Speaker 1: we played. They're all phenomenal and that's probably not fair
Speaker 1: to say it. A lot of it is how you play.
Speaker 1: But for me I didn't know anything about it and
Speaker 1: to walk in and I found myself about the turn
Speaker 1: going I love this, you know. So it just felt
Speaker 1: like old country golf, you know, experience and Um, we
Speaker 1: had a phenomenal, phenomenal day. Um, that day, Monday Bactis,
Speaker 1: ours are on church, the dogged scrambler. If you put
Speaker 1: this guy in a position of adversity, he's always going
Speaker 1: to come through. Peyton. Had A lot of comments throughout
Speaker 1: the throughout the trip about how church will get up
Speaker 1: and down from from anywhere. UH, he did. A few
Speaker 1: holes later, hit it way left and the caddy said
Speaker 1: you're in lion territory and Eric said there are lions
Speaker 1: year and he said no, if you find it you're lying.
Speaker 1: I thought that was I thought that was a great line. Uh,
Speaker 1: but we we had such a blast and Eric just
Speaker 1: was raving about the golf course throughout the entire time
Speaker 1: and I'm like you. I thought, I thought that would
Speaker 1: be the one that we really we felt great about.
Speaker 1: I think we already knew. You know, I played county
Speaker 1: down and I knew so much about Merefield. Already had
Speaker 1: high hopes for that and I think that most of
Speaker 1: our group didn't know as much about North Barrick and
Speaker 1: it just blew our minds. Did He make that Birdie?
Speaker 1: Put on one? He didn't make it. No, but he
Speaker 1: he still won the whole of the four net three shockingly.
Speaker 1: At that point. Did you have to dial in and
Speaker 1: listen to a little Eric Church music? Yeah, so now
Speaker 1: he's on my playlist in my car when I go
Speaker 1: up and die, you know, springsteen is the is the
Speaker 1: is the track that gets played, and and drinking my
Speaker 1: hand as well, you know. So I quite like the
Speaker 1: idea I find my drink in my hand. So that
Speaker 1: kind of I could have worked quite nicely. So he was,
Speaker 1: he was really kind of He'd Um. We got a
Speaker 1: Bot an LP and he was very gracious enough to
Speaker 1: sign it off to on that for him, for our
Speaker 1: so yeah, I have a nice little gift to give
Speaker 1: my daughter in lawn a few weeks time. Did you
Speaker 1: get to play with Eric? No, so I I partnered
Speaker 1: cooper and against Peyton and then Mr Weppring. So Cooper
Speaker 1: and I have Peyton's money as we speak, which is
Speaker 1: quite nice. It's gonna be nice to be able to
Speaker 1: to add you in and and create some local flavor.
Speaker 1: And thanks for making the time. Yeah, you're most welcome
Speaker 1: for some golf. Didn't end that day at North Berrick.
Speaker 1: Golan is just down the street. Here's ours are again.
Speaker 1: You guys went over to lunch and Goling and a
Speaker 1: couple of you went out. We did. Um, I knew
Speaker 1: that several of US would be a little gassed. Um,
Speaker 1: Mr Church and Cooper, Um and Ben. Saturday out and
Speaker 1: and of course Peyton said, Taylor, we're playing golf this afternoon.
Speaker 1: So Peyton and Eli and I played with the head
Speaker 1: pro Alistair in the in the afternoon. Played Gallen number
Speaker 1: one for a guy who who hit the Hay. First night.
Speaker 1: You went to the cemetery. You were one of the
Speaker 1: guys who went to golling. Like you know, everyone's peeling off,
Speaker 1: like you know, like to your point, you're not. You're
Speaker 1: the guy on the buddy streep who's in for everything. I'men,
Speaker 1: I'm the end guy. I'm let's let's do it. That's
Speaker 1: like my that's my that's my saying. You know, it's like, Hey,
Speaker 1: we could do this or this. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: we could go home or we could go somebody. Let's
Speaker 1: let's go. Let's go grow on a trip. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know my wife good and she's like, you don't
Speaker 1: have to be the last one to go to sleep
Speaker 1: every single night. I'm like, I'm just kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: no man left behind. I gotta make sure everybody settled
Speaker 1: and in their rooms. And you know, the first night,
Speaker 1: you know, no excuse this. You know, time change and
Speaker 1: and I think got me a little bit and this
Speaker 1: a long bed level. But besides that, you know, it's like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm not, I don't know when I'm coming to Scotland
Speaker 1: again to play golf. So if there's a chance to play,
Speaker 1: of course, you know, let's let's go play it. And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what Weaburn. Weatburn went down, he went out,
Speaker 1: Taylor stepped up and we go to we go to
Speaker 1: Gullen and UH and had had an awesome awesome. I
Speaker 1: mean I mean weather, it's so you're not that good,
Speaker 1: you know, eighty degrees and sunny in Scotland again. You
Speaker 1: gotta take advantage of it to be on that course
Speaker 1: and the views and just uh, it's going to be
Speaker 1: a perfect condition. So it was played with the pro
Speaker 1: uh there and, you know, had an awesome, awesome day
Speaker 1: and had a fun match Peyton and I had a
Speaker 1: great match against Eli and Alistair that that we tied
Speaker 1: and we we had to Payton and I had to
Speaker 1: rally in order to to force that tie, which we're
Speaker 1: pretty proud of. But I really enjoyed that golf course too. Um.
Speaker 1: You can see how how much history is on display there.
Speaker 1: I mean it's hundreds and hundreds of years of of
Speaker 1: golf being played and it it's the thing that I
Speaker 1: love the most is I'm I'm playing golf with, you know,
Speaker 1: two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever live, and it
Speaker 1: feels like in a way, and you, better than anybody,
Speaker 1: has documented all the great public courses in in in
Speaker 1: North America. It felt like we were just like on
Speaker 1: the tee. It's some great public track, you know, or
Speaker 1: some great Muni in the US and I'm standing next
Speaker 1: to these, you know, two legends of the game and
Speaker 1: they're having an experience that they could never have in
Speaker 1: the US. You know that they're in ten minutes. The
Speaker 1: entire town would be there if they tried to do
Speaker 1: that and I love that they were able to have
Speaker 1: a normal experience of gold. Back to Cooper on the
Speaker 1: end of Monday night and then we all met and
Speaker 1: that we were we built a brand new kind of
Speaker 1: a synthetic big putting grain shipping air yet and we
Speaker 1: set outside at North Barrack, at the Marine Hotel and
Speaker 1: had dinner delivered to us outside as a quarters night.
Speaker 1: Bones Mackay was there, Michael Grella was there, bones brother
Speaker 1: had a trip plan for a couple of years and
Speaker 1: finally got it. And we were out there tunes on
Speaker 1: Um and just having dinner and and everybody was kind
Speaker 1: of cooked and we knew we had an early morning.
Speaker 1: We had a seven forty tea time at Merefield the
Speaker 1: next morning. Two Times, three times before we get to Merefield.
Speaker 1: Here's Church's final reflections on North Barrick. And then that
Speaker 1: night we end up. Man's got a great spot there,
Speaker 1: you know, out on the back of the hotel that
Speaker 1: there's putting green chipping and we had dinner out there
Speaker 1: and we were betting and chipping on, you know, and
Speaker 1: the way into the wee hours of the night. So Um,
Speaker 1: it was just a for me. That was my favorite
Speaker 1: altogether day of the trip. Here's Marshall Alexander and then
Speaker 1: you really lose track of what time it is because
Speaker 1: it done getting dark until eleven thirty or midnight. So,
Speaker 1: you know, we're finishing dinner. I'm like, okay, it's like
Speaker 1: nine o'clock. is probably going to bed and it's it's
Speaker 1: one o'clock in the morning. Then you got to get
Speaker 1: up at a six thirty called the next day to
Speaker 1: go play. So Um, it kind of reminds me of that.
Speaker 1: What's that Peter Francie Song? Um, you know, I woke
Speaker 1: up this morning with a wine glass in my hand.
Speaker 1: WHO's wine? What wine? Where the hell did I dine?
Speaker 1: I can't believe where I've been. Must have been a dream.
Speaker 1: Let's do it again. You know, it's kind of sums
Speaker 1: it up for me. Back to Ben Wepron, I mean
Speaker 1: the amount of red meat and fish and chips and
Speaker 1: we drank in every mew like it was we didn't miss.
Speaker 1: We we didn't shore anything right that it was like
Speaker 1: y'all take the U, you know, Avocado smoothie bowl or
Speaker 1: the keen wall, like we went fish and chips or
Speaker 1: steak every single I mean somebody wanted to fish one night,
Speaker 1: like anover Solor, and I don't know what it was like.
Speaker 1: Everybody made fun of him, so I don't I think
Speaker 1: it was an Eli. Sounds that right. It certainly wasn't
Speaker 1: the church. You guys went hard, like red meat, red meat, wine, drinks.
Speaker 1: You know, it was you guys and you weren't skipping
Speaker 1: on calories, he said. But there might have been one
Speaker 1: person who ordered fish at one point, maybe a dover soul,
Speaker 1: and he goes, I think it was Eli, and we
Speaker 1: gave him a ton of shipped for it. I did think.
Speaker 1: The third yeah, the third night I have you know,
Speaker 1: we got we got play, met a little fish. I
Speaker 1: thought it was like get gallop or something. Maybe you know,
Speaker 1: it's just like I can't have red meat every single,
Speaker 1: every single meal. Eli at one point order to fish.
Speaker 1: Were you there for when? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Bo, no,
Speaker 1: there was no and when he did, I ordered a burger.
Speaker 1: They had like a Burger thing there with bacon thick cut.
Speaker 1: I was like, come on, man, you can't do that
Speaker 1: on guy's trip. You can't order fish. This is not
Speaker 1: the time to start thinking about your health. We've we've
Speaker 1: destroyed ourselves for five days in a row. Let's not
Speaker 1: quit now. Don't make us feel guilty. You. That's right,
Speaker 1: that's right. We're all together. We're all in this together. Also,
Speaker 1: just down the street from North Berrick is Mirfield. The
Speaker 1: original old Tom Morris Design, has hosted sixteen open championships
Speaker 1: and is set to host the women's open August. Four
Speaker 1: through the seventh. Taylor's oars on this memorable day at
Speaker 1: one of the most iconic venues in Scotland and Mirfield's
Speaker 1: perfect day is golf, lunch, Golf. What. What did you
Speaker 1: guys do? That's exactly what we did. We we had
Speaker 1: our first tea. Time was seven twenty. Um. I think
Speaker 1: Peyton was on the bus at Eric got on the
Speaker 1: bus at seven Oh four, um, after a few a
Speaker 1: few calls, and he looked at all of us like
Speaker 1: what are we doing? But we we got over there and, Um,
Speaker 1: we played our own ball, which, as you know, doesn't
Speaker 1: that's not really the preferred game at Merefield, but we
Speaker 1: we wanted to do that because almost all of us
Speaker 1: had never played there before. So we wanted to play
Speaker 1: our own ball and we did that. We had we
Speaker 1: had three groups that went off at seven thirty and
Speaker 1: seven forty. We played our own ball. We we had
Speaker 1: a beer um after we finished there, just just right
Speaker 1: on the patio, that is, right next to the right
Speaker 1: in front of the Eighteenth Green, played with members, the captain.
Speaker 1: They had us, they had US ready. The gentleman who
Speaker 1: who takes the Carras their George Smiley, at Nearfield, was
Speaker 1: wearing us. He was wearing his old Miss Uh Zip,
Speaker 1: pretty lie and me. So he was. He was ready
Speaker 1: for us. He had a picture of us when we
Speaker 1: went back in Oh eight with my dad, you know,
Speaker 1: fourteen years ago. He was, he was, he was ready
Speaker 1: and we said that we played. We played near field.
Speaker 1: was phenomenal. Real hot. I think about a hot day,
Speaker 1: wasn't it was a perfect day for for a southerner
Speaker 1: and Um played there. Uh then went in and had
Speaker 1: the traditional to put on our coat and tie there
Speaker 1: had some wine. Eli was in chargeable wine. He brought
Speaker 1: a bunch of big magnums and this big suitcase and
Speaker 1: Magadum just always had him was generous. Uh. These guys
Speaker 1: enjoyed that all the all the members great guys. But
Speaker 1: we think he may have made human history by bringing
Speaker 1: his own wine to the mere field lunch, a tradition
Speaker 1: that's been going on for hundreds of years and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure any member guests brought their own libation with them,
Speaker 1: but two time super bowl champion Eli Manning did. I
Speaker 1: kind of had some wine saved for the Big Rory Win.
Speaker 1: That didn't happen. So we we we we didn't. We
Speaker 1: didn't drink all of it, so I in staid said
Speaker 1: and saved it for the mere field lunch. And so
Speaker 1: he had to, you know, big bottles of red wine
Speaker 1: at lunch. We had a Hardano state was one and
Speaker 1: then the other was a h was a Levy McClellan
Speaker 1: is absolutely know the name of it, which you know.
Speaker 1: Bob Levi is the winemaker at Harlana state and his
Speaker 1: wife Martha's a winemaker at Napa Valley. It's a big
Speaker 1: two magnums of those two. It was what we were
Speaker 1: what we were having our hosts for. Great it was.
Speaker 1: It was awesome. You know, the proper lunch and you
Speaker 1: put on a suit. I had to teach Eric how
Speaker 1: to tie tie. He didn't know how to do that. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's the first time he's wanted to tie
Speaker 1: since high school graduation. When's the last time you've tied
Speaker 1: a tie? Probably an award show or a funeral, one
Speaker 1: or the other. I mean it's been it's been a
Speaker 1: good I used to do it, so it's been. It's
Speaker 1: been a long it's a good, good test. There's someone,
Speaker 1: I think Taylor, said he had to. He had he
Speaker 1: had to tie your tie for yourself. He had too much.
Speaker 1: That's true, I can tell you. For months I've been
Speaker 1: building up this lunch, you know, like I'm aware of
Speaker 1: the lunch at national and a few other great clubs
Speaker 1: that have these have this great tradition. But I kept
Speaker 1: telling especially Mr Church, that this, this lunch, is gonna
Speaker 1: be life altering. You know this is they do it
Speaker 1: right at at Merefield, and when you hype something up
Speaker 1: that much, you know you can be you can be
Speaker 1: let down. We we were not it. Um, it out
Speaker 1: kicked the hype and it was it was sensational. You
Speaker 1: have four courses, you have the beer and then you've
Speaker 1: got a drink and then you've got Eli's wine and
Speaker 1: then you've got the Kimmel that that you drink to
Speaker 1: to wash it all down afterwards. It was a full experience.
Speaker 1: It just astonished me that in this world you would
Speaker 1: play eighteen holes of golf, you would put on a
Speaker 1: coat and tie, you would have lunch, drink the entire
Speaker 1: fucking time and then you would go back and play
Speaker 1: Golfic it. I never it never even dawned on me
Speaker 1: that for a person would come up with that. I said,
Speaker 1: this has to be the Scottish that would come up
Speaker 1: with this ship because there's no other nobody else would
Speaker 1: do it, you know. So we we did that. Great
Speaker 1: Love the course, loved the people. We had great host Um.
Speaker 1: We went in did the proper lunch, which was probably
Speaker 1: the most unique experience for me of the entire thing
Speaker 1: because I've never done anything like that. I mean I've
Speaker 1: never seen, you know, everybody's. You don't really shower, you
Speaker 1: just come in and rip off your golf clothes and
Speaker 1: it's kind of a put together coat and tie. I
Speaker 1: mean it's not doesn't have to look that great. You
Speaker 1: just have to have a coat and town and it
Speaker 1: is a massive lunch. I mean it is not they're
Speaker 1: not playing around. It's, you know, from pheasant, the primary
Speaker 1: of everything you could look at. It was like thanksgift,
Speaker 1: you know, for me. So we did that. And then
Speaker 1: they have that. They have a drink over there called Kumel,
Speaker 1: which is like a liquorice liqueur. I Hate Lita Hey
Speaker 1: and I felt like the main host kept going, hey,
Speaker 1: I want you to we have to do this. This
Speaker 1: is it's only here. I only do this here. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: I tried it. It's so thick, it's like Siri, and
Speaker 1: I give my best shot. You know, I probably drank
Speaker 1: an ounce of it. Maybe I just couldn't do yeah,
Speaker 1: we had such a blast and that, you know, the
Speaker 1: proper lunch of the history there, the rules of Golfer there.
Speaker 1: You know, we all love that. Everybody there is is
Speaker 1: due to history and you know, love all the texture
Speaker 1: of that place. And then you had the uh, what's
Speaker 1: at the drink? The UH, what's it called? I can't
Speaker 1: think of the name. What is that drink? They everybody
Speaker 1: keeps referencing and trying to figure out the name of
Speaker 1: that special mere field. You drink, you wash, it all
Speaker 1: down with. Yeah, it's a I'm drawing a blank on
Speaker 1: and I had trouble pronouncing it. Uh, what if other
Speaker 1: people said it's supposed to be pronounced like have you
Speaker 1: got that? Have you got you gotta rhyme me, like
Speaker 1: liquorice sort of thing that we drank. I can't think
Speaker 1: what it's called. He said it a thousand times. We
Speaker 1: it's like the drink that you only drink there. It's
Speaker 1: like a gold schlager kind of thing. Anyway, I'm drawing
Speaker 1: a blank. Uh. I couldn't get it. I couldn't. I
Speaker 1: couldn't pronounce it. I drank it matter I got took
Speaker 1: a picture, a group picture. I'm actually still holding it. Uh,
Speaker 1: but it was a first for me to have. I
Speaker 1: didn't have that fifteen years ago. But you know, you
Speaker 1: want to be respectful to your host. This is kind
Speaker 1: of a tradition. Uh. So we did it. So I'm
Speaker 1: not sure I'll have it again. I'll say that he
Speaker 1: was the first. Of all, was the thickest drink, you know,
Speaker 1: drink that I've ever had. It was extremely thick. It's
Speaker 1: clear and, Um, I don't even like it looks kind
Speaker 1: of like ever clear, which is dangerous in itself, but
Speaker 1: it's a lot thicker than that. And they say that,
Speaker 1: you know, this is basically Um washing out all the
Speaker 1: mistakes you've just made with with this massive lunch. It's
Speaker 1: supposed to clinge you after, after finishing this meal, and
Speaker 1: then see, then you do um traditional shot at Komel,
Speaker 1: I think that's how you pronounce it. It's this real
Speaker 1: sweet um licorice, but it's clear. And Uh so the
Speaker 1: joke was, you know, some players play. How do you
Speaker 1: play after? How well do you play after lunch? You know,
Speaker 1: some people, once they get sauce stuff, their game goes
Speaker 1: to ship and some people get a lot better. So
Speaker 1: that was the running joke of like who's who's the
Speaker 1: better player after a long lunch, after a proper lunch,
Speaker 1: I should say. And we said there and drinking one
Speaker 1: and went into the road, had some Kummel, Kimmel, that
Speaker 1: that drink they drink. That's just I mean, it didn't
Speaker 1: make you forget your middle name, it just knocks it out.
Speaker 1: I mean church, Church, who will drink anything hard. It's
Speaker 1: like don'tally, I can drink this. And even you know,
Speaker 1: it scared him a little bit. And Uh and then
Speaker 1: you sure enough, you go back in, put your golf
Speaker 1: close back on and we're going to play alternate shot.
Speaker 1: And I was wondering how how upright we'd be for
Speaker 1: the foursomes in the afternoon. But but I can tell
Speaker 1: you that team weapons slash tars are played potentially our
Speaker 1: best golf in UH ENFORCEOM's action. WE WE CLOSED OUT UM,
Speaker 1: Mr Church and in our host, Brent Enman, rather quickly
Speaker 1: in ENFORCEOM's action in the afternoon, which we were very
Speaker 1: proud of. There's some people that are good at luncheon
Speaker 1: and there some people aren't. So some people, you know,
Speaker 1: after that lunch they can't, they can't handle it. Their
Speaker 1: game goes, goes to the crab. So you can, you know,
Speaker 1: you can make a big turnaround after that lunch, after
Speaker 1: a few drinks and a big lunch and some some Kimmel. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, things things can change. It helped my game.
Speaker 1: I played much better on the alternate shot than I
Speaker 1: did in the morning round. I always played a little
Speaker 1: better with a little liquid courage and UH peyton, our partners,
Speaker 1: which is always a little dissy in all the shot
Speaker 1: with him because he's he's not as should old when
Speaker 1: when you hit him and I played, I played well
Speaker 1: and we took care of business, which was fun. beat
Speaker 1: up on old e banks and my buddy mark Mcclain
Speaker 1: is my new best friends remember there. And Uh, Hayton
Speaker 1: rides you like wide receiver. Make sure that you just
Speaker 1: gives you that look a lot like I can't do that.
Speaker 1: And I was hitting it straight and keep it just
Speaker 1: and we we, we have it. He didn't even but
Speaker 1: he also doesn't give you a compliment at the like
Speaker 1: good playing, buddy. It was just like all right. And
Speaker 1: then you go out in the afternoon and you play
Speaker 1: true alternate shot, which, uh, it's really kind of fun,
Speaker 1: especially after you've played your own ball on the boarding, right,
Speaker 1: and they kind of picked the teams and it is
Speaker 1: true alternate shot. I mean you tee off on one
Speaker 1: and you can hopefully just walk straight to the green
Speaker 1: because your partner is gonna it's gonna knock it on.
Speaker 1: And then after you, you know, put out on on one,
Speaker 1: you're walking to the middle of the fairway on two.
Speaker 1: So it's something different. You know, it doesn't happen a
Speaker 1: lot in the United States, except for maybe a speed
Speaker 1: Shal Tournament. So, uh, we had great hosts there. The
Speaker 1: weather the whole week was incredible, just like it was
Speaker 1: at the British Open. So, you know, wearing shorts there,
Speaker 1: shorge sleeve shirts. Uh. Cooper was the only person to
Speaker 1: wear high socks as well, which I think is kind
Speaker 1: of a mirror field tradition that I think just the
Speaker 1: members are kind of supposed to do. But once again
Speaker 1: cooper got the members red socks, pulled those up to
Speaker 1: his knees. Not a good look by any means, but
Speaker 1: I think cooper was kind of feeling the mirror field spirits.
Speaker 1: There's a rule, you know, I thought the Suretd wear
Speaker 1: long pants and you have you can wear short pants
Speaker 1: there and all the members, you know how they wear
Speaker 1: short pants, but they have to wear those red you
Speaker 1: have to wear two socks. So I I asked George,
Speaker 1: who kind of he likes me. I said, can I
Speaker 1: wear the socks just for the you know, just for
Speaker 1: the effect? Shorts and socks? I mean it's it's the
Speaker 1: worst look ever and all the members know that did
Speaker 1: like this is a terrible look. I don't know why
Speaker 1: we do this, but it's fun. He's like you can't
Speaker 1: buy it, not buy it. I go dude, I brought
Speaker 1: my own okay, okay. So I walked out there. I'll
Speaker 1: send your pictures with that too. I'm in my red
Speaker 1: socks next to my remember and these left and at me,
Speaker 1: like you know, that was for the oftinate shot. I
Speaker 1: mean it was. It was ninety degrees and I'm wearing
Speaker 1: wool socks. About calves were on fire. Um, so I
Speaker 1: had a blast of your field. It's my third time
Speaker 1: playing there. The first few times I was terrible. This
Speaker 1: time I played great and then, Um, I love that
Speaker 1: lunch and being around those guys and just the fact
Speaker 1: that it's a seven hour day no matter what when
Speaker 1: you go out there. That that altered shot is fun
Speaker 1: to me. After Merefield it was back in a helicopter
Speaker 1: and they'd go from Scotland to Northern Ireland to not
Speaker 1: only play Royal County Down, but they were also checking
Speaker 1: on another, one of their new assets and what we
Speaker 1: just bought, the Sleeve Donner, which is I mean you
Speaker 1: see a picture of this thing, you think it's out
Speaker 1: of like some sort of, you know, Harry Potter moviebe
Speaker 1: to me it's it's not so. And we knew we
Speaker 1: were on the clock and so it made the most
Speaker 1: sense and uh, and also I think every single person
Speaker 1: on that trip. It's about it. It was only an
Speaker 1: hour in five minutes. I mean I don't no one
Speaker 1: was up more than at least one minute. That it
Speaker 1: was I mean four heads, you know, just Bob and
Speaker 1: Eli and everybody. We try to put our heads together
Speaker 1: to see we can support it as opposed to I
Speaker 1: mean it was it was. They were cooked and got
Speaker 1: there and the weather, beautiful weather there, cooled off in
Speaker 1: Northern Ireland and had a great uh dinner there that
Speaker 1: night and telling stories and laughing and uh, that hotel.
Speaker 1: We haven't started renovation there. It's already really good. It's
Speaker 1: really really special place. Like, you know, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like when you go to pebble or or somewhere and
Speaker 1: you're just like wow, you know, and you just get
Speaker 1: out there and you're just like this is just one
Speaker 1: of the most beautiful places on earth. And then there's
Speaker 1: a golf course. Um That's pretty pretty special and Um,
Speaker 1: it was great and I don't know, I think the
Speaker 1: only person that had played it before was Peyton. So
Speaker 1: it was really cool for everybody to go. And then,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, a lot of guys like me.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Eric has never been over either
Speaker 1: and like it was awesome to to see their faces
Speaker 1: when we, you know, got there and pulled up to
Speaker 1: the hotel. They're like did you, like, did you guys
Speaker 1: buy hogwarts? I'm like actually, yes, we did, and yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a really you know, we're starting that
Speaker 1: renovation soon and it'll be, it'll be. It's gonna mean
Speaker 1: not whatever saying we're great, but like it's gonna be
Speaker 1: really cool. Now you're off to what, arguably, you know,
Speaker 1: many people feel is literally the number one golf course
Speaker 1: in the world, like when you do world rankings, Royal
Speaker 1: County Down is in that conversation. So what were your
Speaker 1: expectations and thoughts on that? They were they were high.
Speaker 1: And then we got there and it was so different
Speaker 1: to go from Scotland to Ireland. So the weather kind
Speaker 1: of change, the location there, the fog was on the
Speaker 1: mountain and what was interesting there is you had these
Speaker 1: treat mountains and then you had the coast right there,
Speaker 1: which is unique. You know, that's not something we had
Speaker 1: seen up until that point and it was it was real.
Speaker 1: It was it was real, at least to me. It
Speaker 1: was intriguing to kind of look at it from a
Speaker 1: visual standpoint, and then it had that old kind of
Speaker 1: hound of the BASTARDVILLE's boggy, Spooky Edgar, Allan Poe, all
Speaker 1: that stuff. You know, that's what it felt like to me. Um,
Speaker 1: it was a spooky and in a great way. I
Speaker 1: absolutely loved the VIBE that hotel. Um was my favorite
Speaker 1: of all the hotels we went to, and everybody was
Speaker 1: well rested after a good dinner on on Tuesday night
Speaker 1: and the tea times weren't too early on Wednesday. I
Speaker 1: think they were after ten o'clock maybe, and so by
Speaker 1: the time we got to the tea on Wednesday we
Speaker 1: were we were refreshed and ready to tackle one of
Speaker 1: the best golf courses in the world. I though. My
Speaker 1: name was Michael Hartness, uh pop coop in Ron Country Nine,
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve. I'm the current convenient off the
Speaker 1: course green committee. I asked Harkness for more info about
Speaker 1: how and why Royal County Down is so special. Yes,
Speaker 1: a lot of recent golf surveys and Golf Digest and
Speaker 1: particular with Red County Down is the number one course
Speaker 1: in the world. I think it's a factor of many things.
Speaker 1: I think it's the tradition from Tom Morris, originally the
Speaker 1: original layout my holes of the course, and then famously
Speaker 1: Harry Colt to get to the next, next level. We've
Speaker 1: had also all too reactions done by Donald Steele and
Speaker 1: more recently Martin Niebert, who who's been doing a lot
Speaker 1: a few minor altar reasons. Of course it's a bit
Speaker 1: like tip acting Amonga Lisa. We're a bit if we
Speaker 1: need to be careful how we how we do things,
Speaker 1: and we do it in very great consideration and I
Speaker 1: think it's a combination of the history of the club,
Speaker 1: the difficulty of the golf course and the setting in particular,
Speaker 1: is through county, down sand dunes and right on the
Speaker 1: beach of Oni Bay and then, of course, of the
Speaker 1: famous mountains of mourns as the backdrop to the course.
Speaker 1: So it's a calm edition of of each of those things,
Speaker 1: I feel. Plus, we keep it in pretty good order
Speaker 1: as well. The good resource to keep it ordered and
Speaker 1: we really enjoy the visitors and we have over every year.
Speaker 1: So we must keep an up there in pristine condition.
Speaker 1: The idea that you guys also had the occasional pro
Speaker 1: or or member or, you know, club secretary or whatever.
Speaker 1: was that helping sort of add to the experience? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we got to, you know, to get to know
Speaker 1: the people, the people from over there a lot of
Speaker 1: the culture. Um, I mean I was at Royal County
Speaker 1: Down and we're on you know, we're getting ante off
Speaker 1: on one and my host goes, you need a walker.
Speaker 1: I said a walker and I said like what? He
Speaker 1: said like a drink, and I said Hell, yes, I
Speaker 1: need a walker. So he went and got me a
Speaker 1: bloody Mary and off we go. We're walking with him.
Speaker 1: So now when I'm back in the states, I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, I need a walker. That's my new I
Speaker 1: got new lingo. Now we got that organized. We got
Speaker 1: a mobile phonnight ran the club Stuart, who brought out
Speaker 1: walkers at several occasions thout the course. So the choice,
Speaker 1: the drink of choice was a bloody berry, which was vodka. toblogies. Uh,
Speaker 1: I have I had a thing called the Moss Com mule,
Speaker 1: which is vodka and ginger beer. So so we had
Speaker 1: with a couple of walkers on the way around, a
Speaker 1: good size walkers to so they're good fun. Did you
Speaker 1: have any sense of who the manning brothers are, or
Speaker 1: or Eric Church, or did you have any sense of
Speaker 1: what these these gladiators of American sort of sports and music?
Speaker 1: Did you know who they are? Well, we certainly knew
Speaker 1: a j capital and obviously had taken over the Steve
Speaker 1: Donnord Hotel, the saved honor sets right on the boundary
Speaker 1: of the golf course. As a good partnership between the
Speaker 1: hotel and the golf course. A lot of the players
Speaker 1: who come over obviously stay in the hotel. So we've
Speaker 1: been introduced to the management team. We were aware mannaged,
Speaker 1: of course, yes, or were even in Ireland, where NFL
Speaker 1: isn't maybe the premier sport, their names are so big. Yes,
Speaker 1: where where, ably they are very much so Um. I
Speaker 1: think for them it's probably coming over to get a
Speaker 1: lot of anonimity and they can be themselves. I think
Speaker 1: that's part of the beauty of the trip. Eric Church
Speaker 1: had never heard of the guys were saying to be
Speaker 1: always a big country Western star and I said bigger
Speaker 1: than Dolly Parton and I didn't mean in the frontal area. Uh.
Speaker 1: They said Yeah, yeah, he's pretty big. So I obviously
Speaker 1: looked him up when I got home unrealized. He's very
Speaker 1: significant singering country and Western in the states, but country
Speaker 1: and Western wouldn't be my choice of music. So it's
Speaker 1: probably more my ignorance of Eric's lack of fame. Here's
Speaker 1: Marshall Alexander. Yeah, for me that one w all county
Speaker 1: down was it was the pinnacle. I mean it the landscape.
Speaker 1: There's this huge mountain in the background, there's the ocean
Speaker 1: right there. you see the long beaches as the tide
Speaker 1: ebbs and flows, and there was one hole I remember
Speaker 1: the fairways hunt dunked in and at one side is
Speaker 1: all kind of the Gorse Bush, Dart Green and then
Speaker 1: over here's your Nestle. I mean it felt like I
Speaker 1: was in Narnia. I was out another world, you know,
Speaker 1: it really did. It was and it was a little
Speaker 1: windier that day. So Um, any little bit of Spin
Speaker 1: you had on your ball would be exaggerated that that
Speaker 1: soft cut turned into a slice real quick. So anyways,
Speaker 1: not trying to started to get on the first tea
Speaker 1: we pretty much had the courster so helves introduced. I
Speaker 1: think it was piping at the first tee shot on
Speaker 1: to the beach. Um I thought he was giving for
Speaker 1: the wide receiver. The wind was blowing gusts. Of course,
Speaker 1: our our caddies were saying this is mild, but Um,
Speaker 1: for us that was much more challenging than anything else
Speaker 1: we experienced weatherwise. Eli played exceptionally well. He Shot Eighty
Speaker 1: and Um, I think that he I think that he
Speaker 1: did some damage and in his group with Peyton and
Speaker 1: his brother Cooper. That golf course, I really do. I
Speaker 1: think it stands up to every championship golf course in
Speaker 1: the world. You go to Shinnecock and you could go
Speaker 1: to county down, you can go to any championship golf
Speaker 1: course and say this is every bit a stern of
Speaker 1: the test. And I think that the views are in
Speaker 1: some places kind of like Cyprus point type of views.
Speaker 1: And then you're playing a Pine Valley type golf course.
Speaker 1: I just I think it's a combination of a lot
Speaker 1: of other great golf courses in the world. Ask elive
Speaker 1: about it. Around the Royal County Downy Bernie, member eight team.
Speaker 1: He was Striping, hitting this high cut down the middle
Speaker 1: of fairway in tough conditions. So Eli finished on a
Speaker 1: good note, for sure. He beat me as well, which
Speaker 1: I'm I'll get over in a couple of weeks. Probably.
Speaker 1: It was just a special place. I was I was,
Speaker 1: you know, really excited about playing and heard great things
Speaker 1: about it. Um, you know, I probably played my best,
Speaker 1: you know, best round of the whole of the whole
Speaker 1: weekend there. I shot, you know, shot eighty. Um, you know, Birdie,
Speaker 1: Birdie eighteen that. You know, I had an eagle part.
Speaker 1: I knew I knew it. I was like if I
Speaker 1: make this ego part, you know, I break eighty at
Speaker 1: royal canny down. So, uh, couldn't quite pull it off,
Speaker 1: but you know, just uh, you know, playing, playing with
Speaker 1: Peyton and my uh and coup so, you know, the
Speaker 1: brothers at that special place was, you know, a memory.
Speaker 1: I won't forget it for a long time. Just you know,
Speaker 1: you know, we only get so many opportunities to play
Speaker 1: golf together, just the three of us, and to do
Speaker 1: it at that location and the same afterwards. Uh, just
Speaker 1: kind of sitting around with the members and telling stories
Speaker 1: and it was a great a great crew of guys
Speaker 1: and kind of doing this was our our finisher, but
Speaker 1: we still took the time and hung out for another
Speaker 1: hour and a half, two hours, just kind of hanging
Speaker 1: with those guys having a few drinks and a bunch
Speaker 1: of laughs. CADDIES were phenomen Phil, but we didn't laugh.
Speaker 1: And Uh, you have to laugh that of course, because
Speaker 1: it's yeah, you're gonna screw up. It's just tighten and
Speaker 1: hard and you feel really good about your parts when
Speaker 1: they come. Haydon played. I played well they'd be. I
Speaker 1: didn't have Kevin and I I didn't help them much.
Speaker 1: I was getting heavy and then but then we all
Speaker 1: went out in the patio outside and drank beer and
Speaker 1: smoked cigars and told stories and uh, it went right
Speaker 1: through there to the airport. So that was I mean,
Speaker 1: but it was just it was. It was phenomenal and
Speaker 1: I mean that's just the framework. I'm sure there's a
Speaker 1: lot more stuff, but that's kind of the lay the land. Well,
Speaker 1: I think clearly these are good buddies. The guys get
Speaker 1: on very well together. So night photographs of the garden
Speaker 1: afterwards and it was great to see all the guys
Speaker 1: who have children relaxed. We had a few beers afterwards
Speaker 1: and there a few cigars smoked as well and I felt,
Speaker 1: even though, that the deadline you get away and the
Speaker 1: play and they didn't really want to go. I think
Speaker 1: it was just very relaxed and I just said, you know,
Speaker 1: if they're they're fame that they have being here and
Speaker 1: went unnoticed and I think for them it much been
Speaker 1: a nice thing to be able to relax. White people
Speaker 1: pastoring them are annoying them. So and uh, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I just think they had a very chill
Speaker 1: time and that they have a little fun together and
Speaker 1: they have a lot of fun UB sandres and near
Speaker 1: fields and kings barnes and they're probably a bit tired
Speaker 1: by the end of the trip as well. But I
Speaker 1: said that they energized themselves on the golf course, that's
Speaker 1: for sure. What's your understanding of Eric, Eric Song that
Speaker 1: he's piecing together and have you had any sense of
Speaker 1: what it what it is, or have you heard any
Speaker 1: chords or or or did you get any wind of
Speaker 1: the fact that he wrote it? I kind of I
Speaker 1: heard some rumblings about, you know, some some stuff that
Speaker 1: he kind of woke up and recorded, some things that,
Speaker 1: you know, we're flying back. I kind of heard in
Speaker 1: the background he and crewd discussing some things, but I
Speaker 1: haven't heard I haven't heard any uh any, any lyrics
Speaker 1: or anything about it yet. So this is kind of
Speaker 1: the I didn't know. I didn't know. I thought I
Speaker 1: didn't know it about this trip. I thought maybe about
Speaker 1: something else. So you broke the news to me. I
Speaker 1: thought I heard a little bit of something. I'm on
Speaker 1: the way back. I never I was just trying to
Speaker 1: get a little bit of sleep because I knew I
Speaker 1: was coming back to reality when I got back. So
Speaker 1: I'm not his up to date on that. But no,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt about you know, when Eric goes on
Speaker 1: a on a trip like that, at times I've been
Speaker 1: around about me. He is there to get away from
Speaker 1: from the music for a while. I don't have anybody
Speaker 1: in my life that's better at being where their feet
Speaker 1: are than than him. He is. He doesn't look at
Speaker 1: his phone for for the longest amount of time he
Speaker 1: he's not one of those guys that subconsciously texts and
Speaker 1: doesn't even realize he's doing it. He is so present
Speaker 1: at all parts of his life and I've taken a
Speaker 1: lot from that. And he is especially good at that
Speaker 1: when he's disconnecting from his professional life. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: there there have been a few times where he's felt, uh,
Speaker 1: the moment was right to pick up a guitar in
Speaker 1: a in a private setting and play something, but it
Speaker 1: just never really presented itself on the trip and I'm
Speaker 1: glad it didn't. It just he was he was all
Speaker 1: about the golf and it was all about the you know,
Speaker 1: the fellowship, and he was he was one of the
Speaker 1: eight guys on the trip, which he deeply appreciates and
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm so glad that he does. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, he doesn't typically do that. and Um, part
Speaker 1: of the reason why is because he is so good
Speaker 1: at being where his feet are. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: spend your whole life looking for inspiration, right, but when
Speaker 1: inspiration hits you, that's when it kind of all comes together,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what happened for him. He uh,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're in these incredible backdrops of the
Speaker 1: mountains and golf courses in the North Sea and and
Speaker 1: these things, I mean any human being is gonna be
Speaker 1: impacted emotionally by that. And you know, how does it
Speaker 1: affect you? And for him he's a creator, he's a songwriter,
Speaker 1: he's a musician. So, Um, I think, just like it
Speaker 1: impacted all of us in a different way, for him.
Speaker 1: He was inspired by it, you know it, it spoke
Speaker 1: to him. Um, he wasn't looking forward, it came to him. Oh,
Speaker 1: when I got up Wednesday morning, because we got Tuesday
Speaker 1: night into Newcastle, Um, Eric had written a song that
Speaker 1: he was inspired by the mountains and went to Percy
Speaker 1: French and, which he does, you know what Eric does,
Speaker 1: and send it to me and I woke up and
Speaker 1: he had this song and I was like, Holy Fuck,
Speaker 1: it was unbelievable to I mean Percy frinchess, writer and
Speaker 1: list name of our restaurant there and like he wrote
Speaker 1: this whole thing, which is like he's whatever, Cyborg and
Speaker 1: it's insane. You have to ask him about it. He's
Speaker 1: not gonna spend the time to write something and record
Speaker 1: it and put that idea into a into motion, unless it's,
Speaker 1: you know, powerful enough too to become a song that
Speaker 1: ends up on an album. So whether it turns up
Speaker 1: or not, there's been a hundred songs that are brilliant,
Speaker 1: they just don't ever turn up on the album because it's,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever for whatever reason. But but yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's something special. You know, he's kept it pretty
Speaker 1: tight to the cuff, but it's good. He he did
Speaker 1: share a few things Um with me. Um, the morning
Speaker 1: after we were at Royal County down. Um, I was
Speaker 1: blown away by it but Um, I'll let I think
Speaker 1: that's his story to tell, but I'll I'm interested to
Speaker 1: see what comes to that. It was a place I've
Speaker 1: never been in. I've never seen rain like that. Ran
Speaker 1: A castle. It had just a vibe and I didn't
Speaker 1: mean to do it. It wasn't something that I sat
Speaker 1: down and just all of a sudden started and I
Speaker 1: thought I even tried to stop. It was like no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing this, and it just kept one and
Speaker 1: I finally and it was late at night, I was
Speaker 1: jet lag, so who knows what that means. But if
Speaker 1: I got up and started, you know, got out my
Speaker 1: iphone and just started recording. I had the full song
Speaker 1: about you know. I sent it to some people the
Speaker 1: next morning. I'll send you like a little bit of it.
Speaker 1: I just I just recorded it'll me, I'll just report
Speaker 1: me playing it and you do what you want to
Speaker 1: do it. I'd see this guy looks to that like
Speaker 1: Edgar Adam poole to a black lack death from an
Speaker 1: acid breath that freezes out it's always been something about
Speaker 1: these hotters that gives you a chicken scanning. Now makes
Speaker 1: your bad. Your sill in your bed and pray all
Speaker 1: the morning in her town. Town Hot Beats on a
Speaker 1: myth flhone. And how do the basketball your house and
Speaker 1: will read the vote. Aims moans out on a midnight prayer.
Speaker 1: It ain't no place for to live in and the
Speaker 1: living wall be round. It gets kind of crowded out here.
Speaker 1: All along, when you ain't on the Gorsten, Damn, you
Speaker 1: ain't on the Goosten Danny's. Sometime loss o have the
Speaker 1: hump with nobody by their side. The Old Bull Rad
Speaker 1: live behind the door. No Robert Johnson Dale to slack,
Speaker 1: just to winch it our Atlanta and that gunpowder civil
Speaker 1: war smell. It win. The trumpy sounds crawled out of
Speaker 1: the ground, but for now it's a here. It heard town,
Speaker 1: town high beads on my floor in the Hound of
Speaker 1: the basketball. Your House and maill read the vote. Aims
Speaker 1: Mos out on in midnight round. He say't no place
Speaker 1: where to live and living all frown. It's kind of
Speaker 1: got after you all along, when you paint all the Golden. Damn,
Speaker 1: it ain't it only ghost. Damn Eric Church, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Speaker 1: I can't thank him enough for an exclusive rendition of
Speaker 1: ain't the only ghost in town, brought to you by
Speaker 1: the inspiration of Northern Ireland mountains of Morn Edgar Allan
Speaker 1: Poe and the setting that is Royal County down. At
Speaker 1: this point the trip is over. The boys went back home,
Speaker 1: but before we end the PODCAST, some final reflections, tips
Speaker 1: and anecdotes. We start with it's kind of like if
Speaker 1: you want to go to if you've never been to
Speaker 1: a baseball game before, you should go to fenway or Wrigley.
Speaker 1: You know. If you've never been to a basketball game,
Speaker 1: you should go to Masson Square Garden. I think if
Speaker 1: you've never been to Europe, you should go to Scotland,
Speaker 1: but after you get past that, then I would say
Speaker 1: go on to Ireland. But Um, just as important, if
Speaker 1: not more important than than where you're playing golf would
Speaker 1: be who you're with. You have to be I think
Speaker 1: you need to be really mindful of how much everybody
Speaker 1: loves each other's company, because if you're going to do
Speaker 1: this for three, four or five days, UM, everybody's gonna
Speaker 1: have to really enjoy being around each other and, Um
Speaker 1: that's the part that was so meaningful to me is that, Um,
Speaker 1: as at the end of the trip, Eli Manning comes
Speaker 1: up to me and says, so, where are we going next?
Speaker 1: Obviously the people. I think that makes a big trip is,
Speaker 1: you know, make sure that you have the right guys
Speaker 1: that are that are excited about being there, that are
Speaker 1: are gonna go with the that are gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: can just that, can rally, that aren't done a complaining
Speaker 1: about things. Um, you know, I think you you know,
Speaker 1: for me, I'm the I'm the hey, the more golf
Speaker 1: you get in, the merrier. You know. I even said,
Speaker 1: if you know, they said he had to change anything
Speaker 1: on this trip, what would you do? I said, well,
Speaker 1: it was pretty cool seeing tiger welcome up seven team as.
Speaker 1: I wonder if I'm playing golf on that Friday right
Speaker 1: when we got in. I think this is the more
Speaker 1: golf you can get in and uh, you know, over there.
Speaker 1: But you know, it was I think. You know, I
Speaker 1: think you can obviously go over there and play so
Speaker 1: much golf that you're kind of like, I don't even
Speaker 1: want to swing today. So I think it was a
Speaker 1: good mix because we know had golf to watch, which
Speaker 1: which was really neat, and to have that, have that
Speaker 1: side of it. So Um. But I think it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's fun. I think the fact that, you know, we
Speaker 1: got to play with some members and kind of have
Speaker 1: you know, I think if you're just with the same
Speaker 1: eight guys the whole time, for for seven days, you know,
Speaker 1: you can kind of run out of not things the same.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think have to bring other people
Speaker 1: into the mix kind of brings up a whole new
Speaker 1: sort of conversation of things going on, new stories, new
Speaker 1: new excitement. So I think that that really adds a
Speaker 1: cool element, Um uh to the whole thing. Mark you banks.
Speaker 1: I think the overwhelming sense of gratitude to be able
Speaker 1: for all of us to be able to do this,
Speaker 1: for after what we've been through the past two years
Speaker 1: with Covid I think the world being able to see
Speaker 1: the hundred and fiftieth for all those three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: patrons that participated it was it was a relief, uh,
Speaker 1: and everyone was grateful for the opportunity to do it.
Speaker 1: Now I've known Peyton and and I've known the brothers
Speaker 1: and uh since two thousand and four so I've been
Speaker 1: around them in certain situations. Those guys, Eric Taylor, they're
Speaker 1: they're great guys, they're great fathers, they're great husbands and
Speaker 1: they're they're great friends. So to be able to experience
Speaker 1: it with them whenever we went to Mirfield and we're
Speaker 1: playing and you've got three groups together, the two groups
Speaker 1: when they finish or waiting on the third, you know,
Speaker 1: to be able to have a beer and sit there
Speaker 1: in a garden and experience that with the members from
Speaker 1: your field. We haven't been able to do that, and
Speaker 1: so it's a special place and a special Um golf
Speaker 1: courses and it's a special time. But it's even made
Speaker 1: more special because we haven't been able to gather and
Speaker 1: do that. So yeah, it was. It was very special
Speaker 1: for that reason and and, like I said, just remarkable guys,
Speaker 1: good guys. Well, you know, certainly you know, put the
Speaker 1: right group together, be sure everybody wants to go right.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you put playing a golf trip.
Speaker 1: You know, hey, let's go play thirty six holds right.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll go to dinner at night. Let's it's
Speaker 1: a golf trip. That's kind of the top priority. And
Speaker 1: so we had the guys that Love Golf, which I
Speaker 1: think that's important. Uh and uh, you know find you know,
Speaker 1: there's so many great courses to play all over, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, all over Scotland and Ireland. So you've got
Speaker 1: so many good options. But uh, you know, I think
Speaker 1: you know, this is my third time going. You know,
Speaker 1: this this one was really a special because we had
Speaker 1: a connection with these hotels that were great. You know,
Speaker 1: the accommodations were great, food was great. Uh, it's that
Speaker 1: just made it made it even better when, when you
Speaker 1: play thirty six holes, it's nice to go, you know,
Speaker 1: sleep in a good bed and you know, have something
Speaker 1: good to eat. So, Um, it was special and it
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun, for sure. Ben Whip, everybody
Speaker 1: has a shared headspace, regardless of, you know, who they are,
Speaker 1: what they do in this you know, just you know,
Speaker 1: sort of the passion for golf and the sent of
Speaker 1: adventure and the curiosity and you know, travel does that right.
Speaker 1: I mean you go, it just opens up your brain, right,
Speaker 1: you learn a lot and you're educated, you're inspired. That's
Speaker 1: what it's supposed to do. and Um, so I feel
Speaker 1: like bring guys together, you know, people that are in
Speaker 1: that doesn't matter who's you know, a great golfer, bag
Speaker 1: golf or whatever. It's like people that are there, that
Speaker 1: are have a lot of gratitude and gratefulness for the
Speaker 1: opportunity and you know that are you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, all in on whatever did, you're doing. That's
Speaker 1: that's that's what makes it right. It's the people, for sure,
Speaker 1: no matter where you go. You go to a Muti
Speaker 1: and it's fun when you have the right people. Then
Speaker 1: you take that and you go to Royal County Down
Speaker 1: or whatever, King's Bar, dumb bar here, like dude, I mean,
Speaker 1: like I said this this this was an absolute bucket list.
Speaker 1: You know, people, the places, the time, the whole thing.
Speaker 1: You know, after a crazy couple of years like this
Speaker 1: was a really, really special thing, Marshall, Alexander, you know,
Speaker 1: for me it just trip of a lifetime, right. So
Speaker 1: it's like jam pack as much as you can into
Speaker 1: what you were, the time friend that you have over there.
Speaker 1: You know, I think Um utilize the it's staying light.
Speaker 1: You know, if you want to play thirty six, play
Speaker 1: thirty six. You know, don't be afraid to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: we need to kind of take it easy, we played
Speaker 1: too much golf. Just go for it and, uh, and
Speaker 1: jam it all in. And here's Eric Hasperger. You're kind
Speaker 1: of like the ninth beetle right, like here. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: That's fine. I'm cool of that. Um, you know, fly
Speaker 1: on the wall in some circumstances, I guess. Um, but
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of the cool part, right, is
Speaker 1: I get I got to watch them and kind of
Speaker 1: see it all happen and, Um, you know, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about it last night after we after
Speaker 1: we chatted, and Um, you know just how like it
Speaker 1: just kind of tells you how unique this really was because,
Speaker 1: I mean those those guys that I don't know how
Speaker 1: frequently they'll get together, but I know it's not frequent, right,
Speaker 1: but like that's just that's the cool part of the
Speaker 1: power of the game and like especially playing it over there. Um,
Speaker 1: bringing people like that together, it just doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1: And then when they do, like it's just such an amazing,
Speaker 1: like magical, fun experience and it was all it was
Speaker 1: also just like uniquely joyous, you know. I mean guys
Speaker 1: just just cut loose, having a good time, and you know,
Speaker 1: people that probably have a hard time doing that sometime
Speaker 1: in public but just embracing it and and going all in.
Speaker 1: It was it was really fun to be a part
Speaker 1: of it and to see it. So yeah, yeah, ninth beetles,
Speaker 1: that's fine by me. I'll be the ninth peal of
Speaker 1: that group any day. And if you throw John and
Speaker 1: I'll be the tenth like. That's cool too. You don't
Speaker 1: have to pack as much clothing as we did. You
Speaker 1: can wear the same stuff over. It's a boy's trip.
Speaker 1: Quick worried about how you look every now you can
Speaker 1: wear sure pretty pairs of shorts and four pairs of
Speaker 1: pants that you've done to sweaters and you're out. I
Speaker 1: look like I'm going to to, you know, Machu Picchu London.
Speaker 1: I mean I look like I had more FRAPP I
Speaker 1: didn't need any of it. Um. Another thing is I
Speaker 1: thought the idea of going on the trip with a
Speaker 1: couple of people. I wasn't. I mean, I knew, but
Speaker 1: didn't know well. It was more fun because I enjoyed
Speaker 1: peeling off and asking. I knew tailors are, but not well.
Speaker 1: We we had some four hour conversations just, you know,
Speaker 1: on the side and visiting it. And it's also fun too.
Speaker 1: I mean at the end of the day, one day four,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna start telling some stories that other people
Speaker 1: have heard, at least one, three or four people there
Speaker 1: who hadn't heard before. Very rarely do you go into
Speaker 1: something knowing that it's it's, it's we can't replicate something
Speaker 1: like this and and that's that's, that's you know. Usually,
Speaker 1: you know, we all tell ourselves I will do it again,
Speaker 1: I'll see you next time, you know, but you realize
Speaker 1: later it doesn't. It doesn't happen that way. I've had
Speaker 1: that happen a few times in my career life and
Speaker 1: this was one of those. Going in I think we
Speaker 1: all knew we're not gonna this, is not gonna happen again.
Speaker 1: You know we're not gonna be able to do this again. So, Um,
Speaker 1: I think that that made it a little more special
Speaker 1: and a little more you need once you become an
Speaker 1: adult and you have responsibility in life, you have families
Speaker 1: and things that go front and center on your list
Speaker 1: of priorities, so you don't get to tap into that
Speaker 1: kind of youthful innocence and just joy full romp through
Speaker 1: life like you did all the time as a kid,
Speaker 1: whether you're at Camp or running around the neighborhood with
Speaker 1: some friends. How many times you get to experience like
Speaker 1: really your youth all over again? And Golf can do
Speaker 1: that for you. So I can tell just from the
Speaker 1: just from the occasional text that I was getting. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe every other day, maybe every day. Hey, we're
Speaker 1: in your field today, we're doing this, we're doing that.
Speaker 1: I'd hear from someone in the group. I could tell
Speaker 1: they were having just like the ultimate boy's trip to
Speaker 1: Scotland and later Ireland, Northern Ireland. I mean it's just
Speaker 1: I felt like in a way that I could see
Speaker 1: what they were doing from afar. I could feel it.
Speaker 1: And you're right, when you can get everybody kind of
Speaker 1: into that bubble where you're caught up in the UH
Speaker 1: giddiness of of of that kind of innocent vibe, a
Speaker 1: sense of exploration and discovery and being able to do
Speaker 1: something for the very first time. And this happens to
Speaker 1: be at the hundred and fifty open championship and that's
Speaker 1: the launching pad for this trip. I mean it's a
Speaker 1: good feeling in a later in life you don't get
Speaker 1: to do those kinds of things. You know, we have responsibilities,
Speaker 1: you know you're not jumping fences and walls at midnight
Speaker 1: into uh, into into a cemetery and visiting grave sites.
Speaker 1: It's just not something to do every day, but in
Speaker 1: this context it works and it was a I just
Speaker 1: think that was for them. I don't know where you
Speaker 1: go from there. That had to be like the ultimate
Speaker 1: golf buddy trip ever and I'm just really glad at
Speaker 1: uh my friends got to do that and and I'm
Speaker 1: appreciative that they made me feel like I was there
Speaker 1: a couple of times. It's been a blur. We got
Speaker 1: home on Wednesday night at ten thirty. I went to
Speaker 1: sleep at one am on Thursday and woke up Friday
Speaker 1: morning at six thirty am. Wow, the kids were coming in.
Speaker 1: Is Daddy okay? Is Daddy okay? They're like mom's like
Speaker 1: let him sleep. So, you know, I was kind of
Speaker 1: I was kind of worn out before we uh, before
Speaker 1: we even started a little trip on Monday, and then
Speaker 1: we woke up and it uh, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a long walk, but it was a great walk. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun, a lot of fun. Eli
Speaker 1: left the shoes at Merefield and I have since located
Speaker 1: them and there and retrieved them. Tell Tell Eli that
Speaker 1: his schoolgirl looking shoes that he that he was so
Speaker 1: proud of, have been located and Um and will be
Speaker 1: sent his way. Taylor told me to let you know
Speaker 1: that they have located your shoes at your people and
Speaker 1: they are being returned. I wanted to keep him there
Speaker 1: just so you know. Next time I go to Merefield
Speaker 1: I always have a pair of shoes. I'll throw it in,
Speaker 1: throwing in Andy's locker and they'll just be there. You know,
Speaker 1: I think that that's kind of my intention. Just you know,
Speaker 1: you know I keep my shoes here. Just if I
Speaker 1: walked in there fifteen minutes, fifteen years later, yeah, you
Speaker 1: can get my shoes out. You know, they're still here.
Speaker 1: That was would be my play, but I guess that's good. ruined.
Speaker 1: It's so good, Peyton, what a pleasure it is to
Speaker 1: to to talk to you. Thanks for your time. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be really fun to put together. If nothing else,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a great audio experience for you
Speaker 1: guys to have for the rest of your lives on
Speaker 1: reflecting on one of the one of the sounds like
Speaker 1: one of the cooler trips, certainly happening around the hundred
Speaker 1: and fift open so thank you for this. I appreciate it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you bet. Thanks for having me take care put another
Speaker 1: log on the fire. Nobody here is getting time