167 – Eclectic 18: James Bledge

On a blustery Monday in Liverpool, Tom traveled up to meet and record this podcast with Royal Liverpool links manager, James Bledge. James has had a fascinating journey in golf and the stories behind his choices are fantastic. Our Eclectic 18 podcast rules are simple, 18 holes, the hole numbers must correlate to the scorecard, and you can only pick one course once!

1. Gullane #1
2. Royal Portrush
3. Torey Pines North
4. Royal St. George’s
5. Princes
6. Royal Cinque Ports
7. Crans Sur Sierre
8. Royal West Norfolk
9. Royal County Down
halfway-hut: Deal
10. Royal Lytham
11. Sunningdale Old
12. Southerness
13. Tralee
14. Dumfries & Galloway
15. Kingsbarns
16. Royal Liverpool
17. Ballybunion
18. Old Course
clubhouse: St George’s Hill
par: 73
yardage: 6,494

Click for transcription

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the cookie jar golf podcast I am Tom Mills and today I’m joined by

James bledge hello how are you all James bledge is the

links manager of Royal Liverpool Golf Club that’s a fairly new thing isn’t it James

yes that’s me a year under my belt now pretty much yeah that’s gone quick isn’t

it no I just at the end of January I started so it’s it’s absolutely flown by

we’ve had all four seasons proper this year and uh I’ve experienced a lot of it

uh it’s been a roller coaster for sure this has been like I think I’ve

I was reading it’s had one of the biggest swings in temperature like it was 40 degrees in the summer and there was obviously it

was like -15 wasn’t it in the winter yeah I mean we had a severe drought this year uh basically had no rain all summer

and then Mother Nature caught up with us in the Autumn where we’ve had it’s bucketed down Non-Stop and we’ve also

had a frozen ground in early December which is it’s not really something that

I’ve been used to being on the cape Coast for nine years but coming up here I think the guys were saying it doesn’t really happen up here either so I’ve had

you could write off half of December for the work for us between frozen ground and illness it’s been a bit of a

nightmare so does that say does that set you back or is it like um it doesn’t grow easy like it doesn’t

grow so it doesn’t really do yeah well I mean ideally you’d want things to keep growing so you could swallow up all the

top dressing we’re trying to put on but yeah it set us back because we really wanted to get all the bunkers reverted before Christmas that was our goal uh

and we’ve left they’ll come back after Christmas just leaving ourselves 12 of which the boys cracked on last week done

six so I think there’s about 90 or something like that over two years we’ve done 50

this year oh wow 50 rivets this year uh including two brand new bunkers on open

16 and uh open one is that how you refer to them though

yeah so we’re gonna from the first of April we’re gonna try and speak purely and open speak it’s quite difficult it

sounds like very 1984 open speak yeah well it’s it’s uh for me being the Newbie it’s difficult

for me to kind of learn the routine and then be told that it’s a different one yeah for the open so when whatever we do

our knee walks we top and open speak and with a team day-to-day we talk normal holes yeah and to make things even more

complicated the irrigation system it’s pre-changes so yeah the 15th hole is

actually the 13th which is the 17th yeah so they’re trying to understand that so tell us a little bit about you blood

you um you moved up here last year you were at rossing ports yep before that

um tell us about this hopefully will not be the first time uh sorry not be the last time

you’re on this podcast and uh we want to do some things closer to the open but tell me about you how did you get into

this how did you get into green keeping and how have you ended up where you are now firstly before we go on a massive

final podcast I I got really into during lockdown and

I think I’ve pretty much listened to all of them so um yeah I get texts from you every now and again saying I mean you

dive really deep you find stuff from like episode 12 yeah it was on shorty golf the other day the TaylorMade guy

and he is fascinating because uh I’m ruining my equipment and listen to him

talking I’ve never heard anyone talk with as much passion about swing weights yeah exactly it’s great so I I would I

would uh encourage everyone to go back and listen to that but yeah as as of my career you just got a quick snapshot

yeah I mean like I know that um I think when we had John McLaughlin or he said

that you guys were in a similar cohort yeah and did similar went to a similar like are you trained in the same time

John and I met in 2013 or 12 at ftmi uh which is future

tough managers initiative which is a high-end uh training course

run by Jacobson who make Moors and bigger which is our association uh down

in Ipswich and John and I met there and I was the first person to graduate through that and become a mentor which I

did for four years and then I’ve passed that on to John now so John’s John’s no matter a far better one than me but uh

John’s a very good friend of mine and he’s someone I massively respect in the industry and look up to he’s doing

really a pioneering things on the management side of which you’ll listen to if you listen to cookie jar podcast

episode of him which is fascinating but before that I started out as a lad uh

Dumfries and gallery golf club which is a low budget Parkland course South of Scotland it’s made it into eclectic I

noticed yes it has for a very good reason and uh I was eight years there a club

that I still I spent New Year’s Day there this year it’s got such a buzz about the clubhouse and it’s it’s very

Grassroots and it’s just cool but uh it gave me a lot and I try and give as much

back to the place now if I can because I do still love it uh and then I I

traveled a bit I was in Michael guard Golf and Norway it’s a Robert Trent Jones course I’ll get some life

experience you worked out there yeah yeah I was there for a season how was that it was it was cool yeah I’ve got

some great life experience met some great people worked with creeping bent for the first time that’s a grass is it

yes okay yeah so it’s like the Augusta grass it’s broken for a lemon uh and it

can be cut very very short and it can run really really fast we used to get speeds of 14 there through really uh why

is that then what allows you to really really take it I guess it’s the way the grass is genetically modified and a lot

of these common modern cultivars uh they can be crossbred head so they can

tolerate close mowing the Leaf’s quite fat so it can still photosynthesize

without being cut short because you’ve still got enough Leaf blade to create chlorophyll make sugars and carbohydrate

and stuff so then you can be I mean you’re cutting you’re cutting these greens at cheese two and a half mil you

know very very short I mean of course it’s like that’s much lower than you’d cut the Fescue isn’t it yeah so first we

we usually go down for four mil 3.75 if you want to push them uh which I’m I’m

totally all right about uh but the so creeping bent would be Queen wood Grove Wesley I’m pretty sure Wesley these are

other kind of golf courses yes you see a nap in them I mean creeper the queen wood creeping greens are the

best greens I’ve seen for creating bear in the superb uh fantastic played a few

times yes very lucky to play there I’m good friends with Steve Richardson who’s a course manager there uh again he’s

like John Pioneer when it comes to everything he does you know he’d be fascinating guy to get on your podcast

the golf bar just makes Steel them first well we haven’t talked about golf badges so this is a new thing for you and Sam

Cooper yes uh started uh probably a couple months ago maybe october-ish yeah

how did that come about I think inspired by yourself really I mean Sam before before I came up here I met Sam down at

deal and it can encourage me to to join the team up here and he’s helped and he’s kind of been like a big brother for

me since I come up here and uh we always said we’d like to do something that was an offshoot from what you guys do more

the green keeping side of it and architecture whereas you cover the full Broad and uh and it kind of like almost

be like a sister podcast kind of thing but uh yes we’ve really enjoyed us some great guests on and

I’ve got some exciting stuff to come but very new to the game it’s not at this

level yet are you no it’s not it’s there’s no level to get to Jeff just keep talking just keep talking until

until people listen but are you enjoying it I love it yeah it’s great yeah I really do it’s uh so we’re talking about

this industry I love talking about this industry and I love my job so it’s very easy and the people that we’ve had on so

far who have been very I’m very good friends with so it’s been an easy chat yeah

and you’re trying to focus on the Agronomy and the yeah it’s more that I can have said of it like we know what you step on tours when it comes to

because you guys have got a lot of that stuff covered but there’s other stuff that we can cover would be pretty cool

okay but hey all right so going after after working in Norway I put it about a little bit working on some links courses

to get links experience I did uh Colin and Kings Barnes Kings Barn’s a

fantastic job loved it there’s that green keeping there yes I still I’ve always done the same uh and then built a

course in Sweden PGA National but Sweden uh Malmo for Kyle Phillips yeah uh and

then came back to Britain and built Gus twitch again God you could talk about that on a podcast its own well I don’t

know a huge amount about gee West I mean it’s that’s the that’s the course that’s next to the needles yeah it doesn’t get

played no it’s not open yet it’s not open Highland Spring owner a richest man in

Scotland wanted to build a golf course to sell housing plots 180 plots gonna sell for between one and

three million I reckon and uh they had the crash we had recession then we had

covered so the question of course is there good to go yeah yeah it’s beautiful it’s David McClay kid design

Paul Kimber was the architect on site all the time beautiful Fescue band everywhere Heather faced bunkers the

design is impeccable absolutely impeccable in the clubhouse 5 million pound build 18 million pound

Clubhouse it looks like a an Arabian Temple right it’s stunning through areas

through Scots Pines and it’s it’s a joy I’ve played a few times when I’ve just kept as a golf course at the moment it’s

kept lightly you know it’s it’s very basically kept just the grass is just cut it’s not brought forward I guess

they’ll be waiting for they can just sit in their hands here it’s not worth them opening it just now and losing all that money yeah you need to open it the

product that they designed it at for the business plan uh if it takes 10 years the money they would lose through

opening it early they would lose more yeah so just keep it ticking along and

open it when the time’s writing I pray hopefully one day the time is right because I put my blood sweat in tears in

that place for three years and it was tough work it was a real tough work yeah so why why weather was really tough uh

how do you building this like shaping it yeah I was I was help finishing it and seeding it yeah so the growing more the

growing the shaper was corner wall shoe you’ll have heard of yeah he’s done a lot of work Walsh golf fantastic shape our great

Dozer driver great digger driver I was I only learned recently there’s a huge difference between shaping and finishing

yes I should I mean shipping can be you’d usually have someone on a bulk everything off to start off with and the

shaper would be from uh stripping and pushing around and getting

the shape and the finishing would be if we’re on like a little sand Trail like a little bunker right with a front blade

getting or a drag mount on the back getting fine fine shapes and greens everything there was done at a really

super super tight torrent so it’s a well-constructed course a lot of drainage a lot of money put into it but

I mean this is obviously this is going to go off into a tangent like these things always do but do they

but do they show you the plans and so it needs to look like this how does that how does that work in principle yeah so

David would have had a plan for every green and you can actually see when he started getting criticism for the castle

course greens being pretty crazy the the timeline on our greens started to soften

off a little bit so our seventh green was really really crazy yeah you got into the eighth and it would be a little bit less because it would probably have

maybe I don’t know got the hint or whatever but maybe he’d learned that oh maybe the castle course was just a

little bit hardcore for this place especially with the wind but uh I might

be a liner at a place saying that I’m not sure but this is kind of the general feeling I got uh but yeah you would have

a Sandbox in the office which is a kind of little tray with sand and we could shape it by that and then we could show the shaper this is how we would like to

land yeah exactly yeah okay I’ll have some pictures somewhere that I can send you but they’ve uh

and then Paul Kimber who’s the on-site architect would come along and do all the fine like say oh we need to raise

that up a little bit in there and I mean the tolerance of the 300 mil debt for root Zone was to a couple of mil really

we would literally dip it down to the gravel layer with a spike so you could hear it Crunch and there’d be a bit of

tape on the spike so we would know and if if we’d sitting right in the sand plus one mil plus two mil minus three

mil just to get it all exactly the same yeah and then it would rain that night or it would be windy and we’re about to

square one the next day and this was common but that’s how tight they wanted this course belt and I mean that would

be in the top 100 in Britain without a shadow without if it was opened it’s so good yeah you look on Google Earth you’ll see

it yeah well apparently you can see it from Glenn Eagles can’t you you can yes you can the designer I mean I couldn’t

you could not have rooted it better you really couldn’t it makes the use of all the backdrops and it’s got great

variation the path of these are superb yeah I mean I’d be heartbroken if I

never if I live in my life I’ve never never played it once it was open but it’s just not looking like it just now

yeah after after G West that’s when I went down uh Royal sync ports where I

where I kind of I I guess forged my future down there loads are only experience and links experience and

management because it was cost manager there for seven years and they had to kind of Pull Me Away

Kicking and Screaming because I’m not very it feels like it I mean we’ve been friends for a while now and I talked to

you it feels like your heart is in deal yeah I love the place like it’s great you know I love the members the main thing I mean you have Paul Craven on my

favorite podcast you’ve done he’s a a great great friend of mine and all the

guys down there Tim Murphy Reigns funny James Lee is one of my best friends a secretary they’re just so many super

blokes down there and girls as well you know and and uh I love the weather and

it was just such a it’s such a club club and I was so welcoming is that club

motto the Latin for befriend a stranger yeah yeah oh it’s just so welcoming down there it’s a

very very special thing you don’t get it anywhere I have the post Club March in in May which is my favorite match of the

year which I was Captain for one year so uh yeah I don’t know much about that a

group of uh Americans that uh it’s not a it’s a club that’s not belonging to a

golf club so it’s like a travel Club essentially okay they’ve got their own Tweed they’ve got their own uh apparel

the the Will Smith who’s a shaper I think he worked with dork actually at

one point possibly uh and but moving up but he as a he’s got this Outpost club

together he organizes all the trips and goes in the trips and obviously takes a fee for that

and one of the trips was uh the English one which is all the sorry heathons the nice ones and then uh Ross and George’s

princes deal and The Outpost members all fell in love with deals so much that they all got

membership did they yeah so every year we have a March where they come across and it’s the most popular Outpost March

I think there’s 700 members now yeah so it’s the most popular one and uh the

year I was Captain for I rigged the draw a spoiler alert I’m sorry the old members for saying this but I like the

draw so I could play with Kai goldby and my mate freezer could play with Zach

Blair because Fraser uh really wanted to play with Zach and it was sex up and create I mean Craven we’re six up three

six and got beat they got hump tank they lost every hole after that but it was great to play where I wrote it was that

one into the trip recently yeah exactly like he was because he was checking out a lot of stuff for the yeah for the tree

farm yeah so I mean it was great to play with Kai because I wanted so many questions to ask him about shaping because we were doing so much stuff

during that time and I just thought it was fascinating the fact that his dad won the Masters and he was such a great

golfer as well but a top top look and we’ve been in touch since but uh did a podcast with him recently uh well Sam

that I was sick but sanded yeah and it was really good but uh the it is a

special place and I’d like we can chat a little bit about it when we get when we get onto this whole uh hopefully but and

I can tell you a funny story about it but the uh at The Lure of hosting an

open being a bit close at home exploring a new area and challenge myself more it

was too much to for Google we’re coming to Royal Liverpool I had to give it a punt I I feel that I don’t really live

my life having regrets yeah and even you know what even if I did it and it didn’t work out then I feel a bit better person

for it but so far it’s worked out well and we’re making good progress and I enjoy it

is it what you’re expecting uh I guess it pretty much is yeah it is

it’s it’s a very similar Club to deal uh although I was more part of the uh

the kind of the club club down there because my sheds were right at the club so I’ve seen them I saw the members all

the time whereas at High Lake we’re a bit more removed from that where are the sheds at Home look uh they’re right on

the where I live in the seventh hole so uh I don’t know as many of the

members at highlight just now and I’ve been playing a bit of golf and stuff and trying to remember names you know but uh

it’s a fantastic Club the drinking culture is on point which I love uh the same as deal although uh uh yeah so that

that’s pretty important I mean the the black Thai dinners we have at Holy Lake are first class I mean there is no

better Clubhouse on the planet it’s special as a fact that’s so good the the

the the way the girls the guys and the girl serve you is is impeccable the the

uh the food is unbelievable that Jay Cooks is superb uh and the views from

the clubhouse are really good and it’s just inside at the decor I mean Simon says yeah the snooker room is brilliant and I

hammered the badger on it the last time we were on there as well which is good but it’s a very special place I hadn’t both meant of using the library which

had draw a Georgia up in room um and the club room was special and

it’s just you know I’ve had a few members up from Dumfries and Gala golf club and

I was late coming up to meet them and Jeremy the captain met him in the car park and said hello to them and they

said they were coming to meet me and they gave them a tour of the clubhouse and that’s very special for me that they

were looked after by Jeremy as if they were one of us yeah and there’s no Reserve species in the car park there’s

no snobbly whatsoever no there’s none you can wear trainers in the clubhouse you know it’s it’s not a snooty Club in

the slightest and you’re treated like a king in that place so yeah it’s very

special is it um different coming from deal uh we will

get on to your collect 18. we will do it I’ll just uh it’s nice to ask silly questions sometimes is it different

coming from deal where you’re the master of your own destiny in a way and you can do whatever you like with obviously

um as long as you you don’t ruin the course um to dealing with the RNA having to get

up to certain standards is does that come with its own challenges is that easy to

deal with or are you finding that transition fairly uh just very straightforward well I knew that when I

took the job on I mean a lot of people said look bledge you wouldn’t have the autonomy that you had it deal because that deal

I felt that I was part architect as well because we we put in a lot of these Sans grapes ourselves or any greens

extensions or teas new T’s I would go to Martin Ebert and say Luke Martin how do you think about doing this and then we’d

work on it together uh so I’d be quite confident to say that we helped with the team to help develop that course whereas

here it’s maybe a little bit different because there’s more people that have got a vested interest in it I.E they are

now if you’re looking to put scrapes in on UTS does it work with the open room does it work with the way we’re getting

people around the course uh but yeah it’s just you know it’s

still have had a decent amount of autonomy here I would never go out and just start doing stuff without asking

you know you’re putting a proposal about everything you want to do like we put in the new scrapes at the fifth you you get

that passed you through hours to begs you threw Mark with your green chairman and then you talked to the RNA and then

there’s more people because you need to talk to Connor from the RNA who gets all the traffic around to make sure that’s not impeding him grandstands uh any if

there’s any sewerage going or what are going out these areas so there’s more boxes to tick but

you can still get there and and everyone’s still up for an idea oil Lake which is great and I can get shot down what’s what’s the purpose of putting the

scrapes is that for the material so you can use the sound of the new bunkers quite a few reasons basically you’re

right with that yeah mining material for uh sustainability so you don’t have to buy in sand which is very expensive and

there’s carbon footprint that comes with buying and sand as well as budgetary but you’re also

using sand that’s already on the course you’re matching the the specs the grand the particle size which is good

uh so we’ve mined about 4 000 tons of sand that I’ve got all stocked up and

it’s going on constantly yeah as well top dressing and bunkers as well but for me one of the big things is

getting rid of rank areas juicy vegetation that might be low-lying yeah that I’ve got no ecological value

whatsoever you can turn them into sand areas I mean we’ve seen we’ve seen buzzards flying

about these sand areas so far because it’s easier for them to find their prey but as well I mean the fifth for example

open seven the one we just put in a few months ago the aesthetic appeal now to that from the back tee when you’re

looking over the open it’s incredible I mean I I I’ve got a good blog that I do for the

members called Short Hill Golf if anyone Giggles it you probably see Short Hill Golf a royal Liverpool I’ve done some

great before and afters of what it looked like before and just horrible thick green Lush areas where no one can

find a ball I really deal we did a great job in that because we kept golf going if you hit a snap who can the third for

example uh with your second shot it would be dead and that’s it and you’re getting frustrated because I’m gonna

walk back and you’re holding up golf yeah but quite often you’d find your ball in the middle of Sanskrit keep golf

going and you’re adding a new shotgun as well that’s pretty well that was a deal uh just before Christmas and I’ve hit a

rank shot off the 17s that should like shortly yes yeah uh hit a rank shot left

down there into that sounds great but if that was any normal golf course that had rough that would just be good that’s a

beautiful place that was but is it fair to say that the sanskrapes get a bad a bad rap so people

think oh it’s a fashion thing but I think you need to look beyond that the the the Sunscape on 17 you’re talking

about I built that during the beast from the East when that came and Adele Yeah Yeah so basically when we’re talking

about autonomy there was no plans for that I jumped in the Digger to Digger out uh it was a load of Buckthorn in

there ripped all the book thorn out dug a massive hole and got rid of it and then we kept on just kept on pushing it

and pushing it and built this big sandscape I mean it was too cold to work outside so it was in a nice warm Digger happy as Larry and it’s one of the

coolest sand scrapes ever now you know and you could probably keep extending that because in a way I suppose

what like you say what you can do is you can start to eliminate grasses that shouldn’t be there exactly or

maintenance problems that these long or these unnatural grasses cause you pull your Google Earth back into the the

1910s 20s 30s the sand everywhere yeah the broken ground level exactly so I

mean why not why not bring it back I mean if you if you let natural progression get in the way it would end

up in being a forest in 200 years time so you really need to keep pulling stuff out and all people would have trees you

look around toilet there’s whips growing out the ground everywhere you know you’ve got to keep pulling them out uh

let’s make it the way it was and plus it looks beautiful as well that’s the thing there’s a lot of guys do a really good job of it well I could talk to you about

this forever but we’re like 25 minutes in we haven’t even started so okay pleasure we’re gonna look at your uh

The Eclectic gay team uh what I love about this is some of these like some of these choices are a little bit off the

wall they’ll come with some really good stories so I really want to dig deep into it you said you worked at I think

we’re just going to crack through it because I think that’s probably the best way to do it you go past 72. it’s not enormously long six and a half thousand

I’m not that long that’s why no 250 of the driver well you like you’re a big um

vintage Club guy aren’t you yeah nostalgic yeah you can’t be hitting 300 yard bombs with these vintage vintage

clubs gallon one yeah so I love that hole I just you know

what there’s loads of great first holes out there but I really believe in a nice easy start to year round the next let’s

just not there’s a million bunkers on that hole inside but it’s I mean it’s not like it’s not it’s not a complete scorecard record like the first thing

yeah yeah but uh it’s just you know we’re going back to Nostalgia I love

watching the open when I was a kid and I I can still hear the noise of a ballater ball hitting a blade off the Foster tune

the Foster Turnberry when the guys are hitting ions yeah and for me that was always a nice iron off the T

quite well quite often when it was when it was burnt up and it’s just nice you’re in the town and you’re playing

out straight hole ready for to be completely destroyed after that oh yeah you get to the top of the hill a second

it gets offensive and the way the green sets is nice as well and you’ve got that white kind of heart that shoots off the

customizer used to sit and work out and it was just 302 yards let’s go perfect

do you think gullan is the best golf town in the UK no it could be yeah it could be when you’ve got all those

courses I know and I love the fact the road goes through it yeah it goes straight through the middle of it and then you’ve obviously got mural fielders

down the road yeah if you remember a goal and you get all

three courses and the kids course and beautiful practice here corner Walsh did the practice area there uh but my Golem

story is the the uh one of the green Keepers told me once that he saw Clint Eastwood uh and Ronnie Corbett and

Garland Spa shop and uh Ronnie was carrying the basket Clinton was caught in the basket sorry

which is quite a funny thing imagine I quite like um gallon with their kids course they’ve

got a um they’ve got like a sign up that says adults only allowed under child supervision yeah that’s amazing

um we’re moving across the Northern Ireland it’s an interesting choice it’s a new hole only well it’s been newly shaped the um second the royalport rush

yeah I think Port Rush is one of my absolute favorites uh Green beat the Green keeper there keeps the best tough

amazing amazing and I think the reason why I kind of fell in love with this horse what do you mean the best tour it

keeps beautiful Fescue bent greens well more more fesky in them sorry they’re like 80 plus 90 first yeah it just this

Farm it’s tight it’s fast uh trimmed down to an inch its

life around Bonkers and everything you know everything rolls perfectly the greens complexes it’s just I fell in

love the Royal Port Rush yes and the bunker on that hole I thought was special I love the bunker Styles uh it’s

a for me it’s a four shot of par five it’s a long way and it was danger all

down and I love how it pleasing in that June uh perched up on the hill yeah yeah it’s a superb whole great great complex

I mean do you know I could have chosen loads of different setting holes in fact I could have done this three or four

times over but I wanted to stick with the first eclectic 18 that came in my head

study it too much do you know I thought let’s let’s just put because the first ideas you have

when you juggle on the boat it’s probably your best yeah what did you do did you do it in order or did you just kind of dot down your I wrote loads of

good first holes loads of good seconds yeah I think I think that’s how I did it yeah I went about it but I was just like I

just picked sort of five holes that were like my favorite holes ever put them down and then worked around it so you

kind of because sometimes you’ve got to move things about it it’s tough because I wanted to still keep it a good part a

good distance and a good well you’ve done it you’ve done really well for like uh variety you know you’ve got four or

five four threes it looks like a proper scorecard so they’re not on this country either which is cool well

you’re obviously fairly well traveled you’ve obviously playing playing golf since you were a little yeah in my early

teens I because you’ve got Torrey Pines North hmm tell me about Torrey Pines so is it good

uh very privileged as a kid mum and dad traveled a lot and took us on holiday with them and we did a a an American

trip and they basically we left in the hotel right beside the 18th at Torrey Pines and they buggered off during the

day and left me to play Gotham it was dead safe for me to do at that age that met the pro and he gave me his

range tokens and stuff and one of the days I played with the female Pro and two

Japanese or three Japanese sorry two Japanese guys and the third at Torrey Pines is

stunning you’re looking right over the Pacific and there’s big uh

paragliders everywhere yeah I mean the sea is unbelievable it’s the best tournament on for me to watch because I

love the PGA Tour and the other Farmers there in February I think January February and it’s the most stunning view

but I uh a three iron so what was it 185 but straight downhill and it had three

Ironton inch and it was behind the hole and it never went in so that’s why I do love that hole and it’s it’s uh I’ve

only ever played it I’ve played three times I think but still it sticks in my head so this is this eclectic 18 is it’s

pretty much 50 nostalgia is that something you look forward to when the PGA comes around I always brings back

memories they play on the North or do they play on the side they play on both do they yeah the south is where they

have the uh the big things and the south is also uh it’s also got a third that’s

that’s similar but it’s it’s more it’s more downhill yeah well there’s a third

course it’s the the third Hall in the south is the same it’s it’s another so you could put the North or South they’re

both incredible golf balls but yeah I I’m a municipal out there yes you had to tie your chain your bag golf bag to the

fence to get a game but the uh you have to change your golf back together they take a combo lock and you change the

locals will go the night before and they’ll put their golf bags in the on the fence so they’re all lined up so

you’re guaranteed to get a tea time that’s what it was like when I was there it’s probably changed now yeah it’s pretty cool it’s kind of like the

equivalent of uh queuing it exactly two at the old except yeah uh no it’s super I’ve got a really good

photo of me when I was 12 or 13 beside the Tory Pines sign and me a couple of

years ago and I was lucky enough to go back with the Bernard’s delegation with work uh so a young and an old pledge but

that’s superb golf well if you take away the C it it’s probably quite forget about golf

course yeah but you had it back in I mean it’s right on top of the cliff black Beach below the the the the

world’s most famous nudist beach 13.

um right one that makes it into nearly well to most people’s eclectic 18 uh the fourth yeah we spent quite a bit of time

down the Kent Coast now uh for a few holes the fourth where is it that you like about it it’s a ridiculous goal

this is silly I adored the sleeper bunkers that used to be in there before

it was made rough edged because that for me again was the open you know it was the uh which ones were the sleeper face

bunkers they were both superfaced or were they the small one and the big one and the other Junior it was like a

coffin shaped but I think the sleepers were maybe becoming dangerous or fall and then they were coming back on

themselves but uh I don’t know I’d love to see that restored in Sleepers and in

years to time but did you work closely with them when you were down there uh no not really no but I I was the three of

us kind of Knocked about together for a bit and we shared machinery and ideas and stuff but uh we’d always kind of go

and walk around each other’s golf course especially well more at princes but when they were doing when Paul was doing the

sleeper work with Martin Ebert uh we went across and seen it happening

uh it’s a shame but you know like it’s I don’t know it it could probably splits opinion people quite like it the way it

is now but I just really I thought that it was probably one of the most iconic bunkers on the planet yeah ever in fact

uh but I mean going up to the greens amazing it’s got the most ludicrous it’s tiny isn’t it I don’t know how big the

top layers it might not be tiny but the only bit you can put to is

yeah it’s a super appalled there’s some of the best stretches I mean two three

four five six that’s just what that’s a great amazing golf course it’s a superb lucky oven

beside each other and then you convert princes I’ve got them on a row here haven’t we yeah yeah you’ve gone from

more again princess June’s beautiful sleeper bunker playing out towards Ross and Georgie’s I love the way the green

sits uh just perched diagonally which was really nice great greens complex

Sean did a superb like left of the Fairway you can kind of

be blind yes the chalks out there I’m usually in the right hand side rough Edge bonkers the

three shorter for me but and also what Sean had done as he’d shaved the area between the green and

the T down the banking to like I don’t know what would be cutting them about eight mil six mil or six seven eight mil

uh so you can hit it long and bring it right back down to the grid as well so bye this is what’s so great about green

keepers green Keepers can totally change a golf course the architecture without an

architect or anyone get anyone else getting involved just by changing the way things are cut I mean that hole has completely changed when

Sean done all that it was it was awesome yeah it’s a super hole I love princes

it’s one of my favorite I must say we we went down there around Christmas time

um went down from Ron mcgurkos hosted a whole bunch of people down there and we were lucky enough to be down there and

the condition is absolutely off the scale ah yes it was they were running

like so quick for I think we’ve played on December 23rd 22nd and the condition

there is amazing it’s Sean set up Aaron who to take over from him uh set them up

a treat and I I just hope they go from strength to strengthy deserve everybody

time effort and money that was put into that project transformed the place yeah I definitely

without a doubt yeah between Rob and Sean has been it’s been brilliant a great family

and then six were back to your your nearest I love it so

they say you’re not a real deal member until you’ve hit the clubhouse

you’ve hit the beach ball on the beach and you’ve done a bar dive so the sexual

Royal sync ports I’ve done all three in one day uh in The Outpost March years ago I can go one better than hitting the

clubhouse which I’ve done loads anyway but I put a golf ball through Carter Banks’s uh car windscreen so you’ve had

Carlo yeah NPC host so I know our husband Ollie came out of the the balcony oh what’s

happening here oh someone’s someone’s put a ball through a windscreen I love it when that happens what car is it oh

it’s that golf down there oh right that’s mine yeah so when I was at Colin always where did my my tip my place uh

was uh placed Mark was uh signified by a Polaroid of a ball through her

windscreen which I’ve still got uh so that was great so then from there

I went on to on the sixth hole which we’re talking about what a stunning goal for you I’ve always

drivable but it’s not drivable I’ve knocked on three or four times but it’s been heavily downwind yeah because I’m

not long but uh I’ve never regaled it but it’s I always go for it no matter what a lot of people hit iron and lay up

for a full shot I’ve only ever played that like the the really boring way yeah you’ve got to go for it you’ve got to go

for it go for the green because if you’re short left at the bottom of the slope it’s a pop up the hill I just

think it’s a lot easier but it’s like a big well it’s not a big dog leg right but it’s like a a dog-like right to a

raised green yeah straight over a June if you’re going for it yeah when you can pretty much see the benefits at the back

uh and then left just play down the ferry but I mean if you go for the green and pull it a little bit then you’re

still putting up the up the slope yeah and it’s everything’s cut tight around there because we we intentionally cut it

even tighter around the back so we could talk more I mean this this is the hardest golf ball and final and

qualifying for the stats how long is it 323 yards the hardest

score for you because you people they are like a column shinkwen uh going for

it all the time and then uh trying to hit flop shots up when you need to keep the ball in the deck you’ve got to be

hitting a buffy yeah or a Potter or whatever but I’ve had it on the beach that day without post match so that’s

two of the deal members things chopped off Holy Trinity and then the third one

I was always going to do a bar dive so what’s the bar done so the bar diving

we don’t ever like put pictures of this in social media or anything you know it said it’s uh if you know you know a

thing but we basically when when we’ve had too much to drink at the end of the night and Paul Craven’s

done all his magic and hypnotized a few folk but you’ve seen quite often which is amazing uh then we’ll get up in the

bar and we’ll see it’s a competition it’s so far you can jump off the bar and the build raw guys either side that will

catch you and then Chuck you up in the air so lots lots lots yeah it’s funny but it’s

uh you’re gonna have to get involved I think that’s the thing about sync ports is it

it’s an outstanding golf course but it doesn’t take itself too seriously no not

at all which I think is where it absolutely Nails it I I feel like it’s more of a rugby club to play golf yes I

think they say you can misbehave but you’ve got to misbehave well or must behave like a

gentleman yeah you know you don’t like you can’t take it too far because you’ll soon get pulled in I think it’s the same Hoy Lake uh but

it it’s things like that are great so that’s why I mean that’s why I love that Hall so much it’s a it’s a belt and I

look forward to playing every time you talked about cutting um that area of six down type

um to make that shot essentially more difficult I suppose that you have to put it up on I think one of the big Transformations

that um deal is the transitions you you managed to put in between green and T it

flows so wonderfully what tell us about what you did there so played Carnoustie years ago

and it was at the same time that we were redesigning the irrigation system at deal so after playing there I came back

to Adrian Morton who’s our irrigation designer Association scrap the designs that we’ve done we want to start again I

want we need to have this bit like kind of stay so it flows between green and tea so we need to design the whole

system around that so we need more heads in here here here A different kind of heads in these areas and then I’ll work

this winter chopping these down coring them seeding them fertilizing them uh to

bring them up to scratch that’s exactly what we did we we flagged out with Adrian uh there is the heads to go and

we walked inside that and two years later we’ve got the most beautiful Transitions and I I kind of felt that I

wanted to stand on the First Tee and put all the way around the course to the 18th green which we weren’t far off in

the end what I think is is interesting when you have a layout like that so we went to

the Netherlands recently and I played we played a course called kanama and when we played at kanama

um they’ve just done a lot of work on putting in Grass Pathways and and making the flow between uh green and tea better

and uh he said oh you’ll need a course map because we don’t uh there’s no coarse furniture on there’s no signage

on the course okay uh that’s quite cool I like the idea of

not having signs everywhere that’s quite nice now before we went out I flew the Drone around

and because it’s so wonderfully grass-packed the whole Golf Course

without ever having seen it before and I I could flow waffle I one fly two fly three and I just the whole thing just

flew just flowed so beautifully because it just tells you don’t need a sign when

it kind of just leads you on to the next thing I think it’s the most important thing you know and Craig get along my predecessor did the same at High Lake

before if you look at Google Earth and you pull it back it’s all red shield paths Redstone pass and I mean the holy

Lake transitions are superb yeah we’ve got a couple of finish off but I mean it’s uh it really is it’s first class

and I think that’s modern golf hillside’s done it well John’s doing it great and I know that Sean oh what he do

it I’ll put a deal next as well and watch just watch the space there that’s what he’ll be all about princes you know

so right now I’ve got another thing I can’t say crunch yourself

Switzerland tell me about it uh it has the Amigo Masters there yeah uh I was

lucky enough to work there uh just volunteering and I was out there for for

10 days and one of the holes I was working on was this uh it was the seventh which is the single most

stunning thing I’ve ever seen very short playing Awards God knows what mountain crowns you’ve got 360 view of mountains

everything different I remember getting off the train at Geneva and taking picture of these mountains thinking wow

but they were nothing compared to what we were going to see an hour later and is that the course is only playable like

six months yeah because of the snow I mean the ski lifts go right down through it but I think the the the the Masters

is in August or September yeah uh I mean it’s beautiful the air is so thin that

I mean these guys are I mean how long is the whole 306 yards they’re hitting uh

five I’m gonna question this you’ve got 306 yards par three uh

it’s a four sorry okay that is a four I’ve seen my first mistake I can’t I

never get through anything about making a mistake well that’s good because we all learned from mistakes there we go it’s a past 73 you know we’ve got now

that’s fine when you’re on that green

you’re looking down over the valley and the value literally is miles below you it’s so locally it’s like a haze is that

the same course that Savvy did the shop to the trees yes yeah yeah 18th yeah yeah I was lucky enough that week to have a

photography pass as well so I could go inside the ropes and took pictures of Richard Ramsey who who’s been on the

podcast and uh he won round there so it’s great to see a Scotsman when yeah but the nightlife you know it was so

funny Hector who’s of course manager Spaniard at City all of the uh all of

the morals they all have a number plates on them you can go you can drive them up at the town and we drive up the town

right enough and we’d see this Toro Ferry more parked outside the nightclub and Hector would be inside

that’s okay but a special special week there stun

and Go full yeah well it’s it’s nice when you get these courses that probably

you know if you look at it from a sustainability point of view it doesn’t shouldn’t work you know let’s make this

under under snow for six months of the year but they just make it work and it’s uh they do a plenty of money up there you know there’s no spa or a or a spa

shop or that in the High Street it’s all Rolex Omega yeah you know it’s proper wealth it’s like Monaco

we’re going across back into uh back to England we’ve got Royal West Norfolk par five this is part five yes yes it’s the

one really obviously where the C comes in and out and uh I think I’ve managed to get that right it’s a five it’s probably a three but it’s uh as a whole

that can change with a tide uh I was blown away by West Norfolk it’s a

place I’ve yet to visit it’s really you love it it’s right up your street everything in fact you will

you’re the I know you well enough now to know that’s going to be one of your new favorite places when you go there for a

load of reasons we did a we did something with the tie recently and um Sam and put on a list roll West

Norfolk and I had to put a film together and I didn’t have any footage from Royal West Norfolk but Sam Cooper did and he

sent it across when I saw the footage of it I was like this place looks sick he’s loads of sleeper face stuff everywhere

yeah it’s a proper old school like in the in the bar the lockers around the bar and there’s like two dogs lying

sleeping at the fire and it’s nothing’s modernized at all the names and the guys

lockers are all faded but you didn’t change them you know because like you wouldn’t put anything modern in there yeah just leave it the way it is it’s

meant to be like an old wrecked pop down Leaf yeah walking in Edinburgh you know it’s not meant to be fancy so that’s

really cool okay you got one of the most iconic knife holes in yeah Whole World of Golf yeah they’re all cut it down so

my friend Liam and I went out and played played Royal cutter down a few times and and Port rush and we’ve been out in the

trips and uh we’ve spent some special time at Royal cutter down there just after lockdown

but just that backdrop of that hill and it had been on fire the weeks previous so it was all kind of black as well but

the bunker in it Royal County Downs first class loads of bent grass and their greens uh

yes I love Ben I really do uh we’ve got loads of bent in high Lake it’s it’s it’s very different from your first Cube

but as I’ve said before compliment each other like cheese and onion you know I’m not a monoculture guy I like a bit

better both but coated down there’s a majority of bent grass you know almost nappy you can see you can either change

in them but they’re they’re so good the surfaces they are as good as I’ve seen anyway and I’ve actually like got in

touch with Gary the the first assistant I said Gary what’s the secret tell me because what are you putting on these

things like what are you putting on your fear is to make them shine like that yeah it does shine ah it’s superb it’s a

little bit of retinating there that’s a terrible accent I’ve screwed that that

was Southern iron yeah no no that was that was Northern that was quite good guys a little bit more like that there

saw it as like Jim McDonald yeah of uh Coronation Street are you big accent guy

no let’s forget that happened no I think you you do access better than most people I know

um but County Down is gorgeous that is beautiful and that um that ninth hole it’s almost too beautiful to play well

yeah like to get it over that hill and down onto the sort of valley where you

need to be and you put a lot of pressure on yourself don’t you yeah there’s some there’s some holes I think they’re just

you stand on the Tee Box and it’s just so breathtaking that you’re like you

just I don’t want to screw this hole up because it’s just so good but in some ways if you walk it you’re equally yeah

I mean I think with our job and stuff you do and of course as we walk is not to play as opposed to playing it’s

pretty awesome as well so I’ve walked it loads as well it’s just great love the place now you’ve already included this uh this

course but you’ve included it again for it’s halfway house I’d like to break a rule here because it’s so good okay I

mean the half the halfway house a deal is not a halfway house it’s a halfway Hut yeah it’s a shipping container Cloud

out so it’s freezing it’s freezing there’s no electricity we run off gas bottles uh Carl who’s the the what does

she call herself the nutter in the hot or the nut and the hot the nut on the hat yeah she’s brilliant brilliant so

she’s that’s been a recent transition she loves it out yeah yeah she loves it that’s her Hut you know she gets dressed

up as a little pixie or an elf she was uh she was like a big Santa Claus last night and I mean like there’s no massive

extensive menu I guess there is for the alcohol you know you have chicken kieva or whatever uh Kumon a silver bullet

yeah my friend Fraser loves to drink a silver bullet shovel a shovel yeah

okay I don’t know if I can see the story actually but Sean and I played once

and they’re Johnny in the heart said pledge you were probably just sitting here for a bit because the guy in front guys in front of you had uh eight

bottles of Heineken and eight whiskey marks and as we go so we let them get ahead and we caught them up when they

were lying one of them was lying beside the green on the 14th but the way boys come down from the city that are members

for the weekend and just what I get away from all and like really had it hard but uh just they’ll have enough holes left

to try and sober enough up to the are not seen from the clubhouse but I always remember that it was the funniest thing

that’s the good thing about the uh that I had to deal is it’s not the furthest point but it’s far enough away that you

can sober up at something yeah that’s what we I would the deal members were

meant to take me down to the Travelers club for malibindu and the morning of said a trip Jenny got

covered so we couldn’t go so Tim Murphy and Paul Craven uh took him out for a game of golf and a two and a half hour

hot stop and I found it you could eat as a sausage sauce exactly yeah a phone

though I didn’t know this but Tim was taking beers to my team who were building the ninth Bonkers at the time so

yeah health and safety I’ve gone from there now so I can see it

I I think the profession are struggling to get as many people in to Green keeping as perhaps they once had

um it seems like there’s really good camaraderie in the profession of green keeping is that about right I would say so yeah we’re all great friends some of

the best friends I’ve ever made in green keeping and I’d like to think we’re turning a corner try and get people back

in wages hopefully are starting to increase uh I mean golf courses are should be

thriving after covert you know we all made good money through covert and everything increased

uh I think we need to be positive about it and keep pushing our industry uh and if I’d like to help as much as I can

with that letting try and grow the industry from such a great is it

difficult to get into not necessarily you know I’ve got I’ve got two jobs up advertised just now and

experience I would be looking for someone who is a good person and would work well on the

team we’ll teach them everything else but uh to the first case you don’t need

necessarily to have done a qualification so not necessarily depending on what level you want to bring them in if I’m just bringing in a a green Keeper at the

bottom level it’s all about your attitude it’s the most important thing being on time and your attitude and getting on the Middle with a team and

being a hard worker everything else you can you can teach it’s got some quality uh

working hours I like getting off early it’s good but the problem with that now is actually for the rest of your life

you can’t have a long eye ever because you’ve got two kids as well I

think yeah once you’ve had kids the Lion’s just gone anyway we’ve digressed living 10. yeah I think the front ten at

Rhythm it’s just some of the best holes ever and ten is just I mean names amazing and then you get under ten but

it’s amazing sevens but yeah let them played it last year for the first time and played it twice since a door that

that’s a daughter I mean that’s a great great hall playing through that June with a bunkers on the right it’s just uh

the 10 is difficult because there’s so many good tenth holes I mean I’d love to put a 10th at deal on so many others but

uh obviously I had to get that in there I mean let them high-end track yeah yeah really good

sneaky good actually yeah I mean it shouldn’t be because it’s got all the pedigree that it’s got but it’s just I

think it’s got some of the finest bunkering oh you can’t believe they were like going and I was in dozens and dozens of bunkers and they’re just so

they’re effective size is just so large they just swallow you up oh yeah the seventh maybe the long the long five yes

yep I mean some of those bunkers are enormous ah yeah I’ve probably had a train there as well

12. Southern s 11 Sunnydale old oh I missed out something that oh perhaps I

thought it was so obvious well this is what James did mixed up with being the uh

the 10th didn’t they because of the halfway hot stop at uh confused them yeah it’s after 10 isn’t it yeah yeah

yeah so obviously tenth is the elevator it’s a beautiful picturesque with it all

in front of you halfway hot sausage and I agree with James without butter sorry without bread no carbs get your

advantage on your plane partner standing up there with a full Bailey brown or red sauce uh no I just have a sausage and

it’s just eat the sausage Plain Jane just just give him a sausage and a private beer oh no I do like the bread

uh uh I’m not a bit more person so stand up there and like James did said go for

the green as well like the Green’s just a little Nookie

lined over a beautiful sunscraper bunker into the face a bunker on the left plays

a little bit to the right with some beautiful Standalone Scots pine trees rapid greens uh and you just knock it

down there and just try and a low lofty club and chipper up uh it’s a signed the

old as my favorite Golf Course of all time that’s it done I would say so that’s the

best I’ve played I mean if I had to choose if you were holding a knife to my throat you know but it’s I

mean I do love Links Golf but I think because I’ve spent so much time on links I think Sunnydale

every golf ball I could remember a year later after playing it for the first time I could remember all the shots I

played which makes it special to me every golf hole is picturesque you could photog photograph it from the T the

green everywhere all around sometimes with Links Golf you can have been flat and you can sparse you can lose some

good photographs it’s hard at a photograph but selling the old is gorgeous ridiculous

gorgeous Place yeah I think the heathland golf in general like there’s so much of a spotlight on Links

Golf in the UK and I think I think partly because it’s not it’s not it doesn’t just like you

don’t only get links in the UK but it’s where the majority of the links are and I think it’s obviously wonderful links

is wonderful golf but the heath lingoff is yeah I love him it’s so good it’s a great break for me to get off the links

and get on the E funds and I’ve got quite a few left to tick off so hopefully in the future but a great

course I do apologize southernness 12. uh it’s lucky enough to be a member of

someone else I played some junior golf there uh and get back when I get now that I’m living in Liverpool three hours

from home so when I do get a chance to go back we play it every time which is great I’m very lucky to be to get back

in the club actually it’s nice but 12th hole Long Haul playing out to see

and behind the 12th on the on the beach there was the first time I ever drove a car I drove my Melvin’s Fiat Panda I

think it was red and we’d take it along with the lighthouse still on the front uh 6 17 maybe okay so you were illegal

yeah uh he just views the first of ocelot to pass his test so uh hopefully

I’ll listen to this Melvin is we call Melvin he works and he’s an oil tycoon in Houston

that’s funny but uh you’ll have a laugh with that but we used to do donuts and

stuff and on the beach but uh now with natural progression you can’t

get along the beach and it’s all rocks I have no idea where that happened but it used to be able to drive right the way

along and now it’s all like screen rocks and stuff so uh but what a stunning golf hole and it was so picturesque with

hill behind it and the Heather uh it’s a cracker it really is if you make

pie on that hole you walk off like a king you used to always go up and be gray stuff all over and what’s that ashes people would quite often members

because it was that famous sport yeah but yeah it’s not a nice high-end Golf Course

we’ve got a few now we’ve got a little short three truly truly some of the best part threes I’ve played in Ireland

ballet Bunyan lahinch I mean you’re playing it over Canyons to I mean the

the Topography is nuts especially in that holiday yeah quite a bit yeah I’d like to do

more I’ve done like down the West corner and obviously bits in Northern Ireland but there’s so much to discover maybe I

can go in Sam’s trip with him when he does the links in the road do you think he’s gonna do a links in Ireland I think

you think you should do yeah I’ll go instead of Harriet if she doesn’t want to she can stay here and walk the dogs yeah yeah

um and then your home Club yeah done fishing Gallery so again for me Nostalgia 14 was uh this is

old 14 before it changed but it was uh that’s why I’m gonna cheat here it’s essentially like two par threes you’ve

got to play the fairies very very kind of small to hit and then you play that with an iron and then and then another

shot let’s play another part three under the green which is wedged into the side of a hill my aunt Marlon unclean used to

live in the house at the bottom of the hill so I used to always go and pick golf balls up from try to drive it in

their Garden so whenever mum and dad used to go to Aunt Marlins how can I run up the hill and run up the hill and pick

up all the balls and you know I can still remember still yeah it still really excites me to think about that uh

but it’s uh yeah I can picture a club championship finals of the guys I used

to look helicopter as a kid there and that’s why it’s such a special golf hole it’s um

it’s nice to have included something I think that’s more nostalgic than than anything else is that was that a big

influence on you getting into golf and working in golf you think oh definitely yeah that’s that’s what it’s all about

for me is I love memories my memory person I love taking photos of everything and uh like sometimes I’ll

just walk that course and just sit down just take it in because I can I can still hear the sounds and the noises and

still remember stories of stuff that I’ve seen there or the way I felt at the time quite a deep person when it comes to that and golf’s giving me that and

golf courses have given me that uh and yeah and fishing Gallery definitely has you know it’s just pure nostalgia

this one is in Nostalgia I don’t think it’s just a world either three didn’t you used to work at Kingston yeah I went

to King spawns yeah so that’s just the the reason why I love the 15th at King’s Barnes

NS used to say like so if you were Rick and bunkers in the morning and you got the section

we’re down by the 15th and you knew that the tide was in the night before and there was a lot of Americans playing and

the tide was out that morning you could go down and just pick the balls off the beach like pearls Pro V Pro V Pro V

there was some mornings you didn’t have enough room in your pockets you’d be bulging but it’s it plays so different

from the front left if a pen was there to the back right oh yeah it would never be near

getting hole in one there but I imagine getting a hole in one they must be the best fuel in the world it’s the closest to playing Pebble Beach or Cypress Point

as you’ll ever get playing 15 16 at King’s Barnes yeah 12. geez what a golf course yeah it’s a wonderful golf I I

was so privileged to work there early and I always knew it you know I always knew I always look forward to going into

work and was never desperate to leave a great place Royal Liverpool yeah our 16th hole which

is going to be the 18th in the open 18. uh 25 yard wide Ferry with a internal

out of Bones I think internal bones a great thing people sleep people hate it it’s really really

um splits opinion no why not though you know it’s like well you’d be a board hole without it it would be it wouldn’t

be the hole that it is you know I’m I’m more often out of bounds with my second shot than I am in but it’s I love the

way that the dog leg is I mean you if you’re needing a score on that last hole

to win the open you’ve got to pipe it down there to the corner well now they’ve got uh the new T which is much

further but only far back because Marco Roy was hitting five iron in there so it doesn’t matter if you’re hitting five iron and a par four or par five it’s a

great golf ball if you’ve got five Islands so now if they’ve got three or four it’s gonna be even better or a

rescue well it’d be nice to see um we had Martha neighbor on the podcast recently and we talked about the

lengthening of that hole it’d be nice to see them having to challenge the uh the outer bounds and go over it

as opposed to bullying your way past it and then just playing uh parallel to it

if they have to if they yeah have to play over a bit that’ll bring in a bit more and definitely because it’s going

to be that much further back yeah definitely and so the team actually as we speak uh this week are uh reverting

the bunkers on that hole so that’s the last one to get done okay uh and it’s a

beautiful picture looking at the three bunkers on the left hand side of the green with the clubhouse in the background before the stands go up yeah

it looks so different when it starts to go up I know well oh I don’t know but I’ve seen pictures yeah well that’s what

I mean like I’ve seen it on TV and I don’t recognize it when I stand there you know we’ve been quite a flat golf

course it’s going to give it definition when the stands up and it’ll make it what it is yep and then a couple of uh Celts to finish

Valley bunion 17. yes uh back to back five strong uh another beautiful hole

right down by the sea as you’re playing back up and I I I was really impressed with the condition of barley Bunyan and

just the feeling the best uh Guinness and hot wings combo I’ve ever had as

well the clubhouse is super up there as well looking out to sea and uh I went across

with a good friend uh Kevin Atkinson Mark Chapman Sam Smith and he’s a pro at uh Walton Heath uh and we had a super

trip down there in ballybunion I just thought it was superb really great and that’s where we’ve got the idea from Rick and bunkers with

brushes with soft soft brooms to get that really smooth face that’s where you do it we did it deal and then brought to

Hoy Lake yeah so they were just the team or everybody uh just the team just to to

get that really compact uh ball shape with a soft broom that you

would sweep up a shed floor with yeah they do that at belly button over the whole bunker so they’re all super bold

and panned but as we do it here but we rake the middles just the ball fluffs up a little bit more otherwise it’d just be

too tough because it’s something here gets a bit firm yeah but yeah ballet

bunion class okay Golf Course Fescue everywhere

and the most magical finishing Hull mm-hmm and possibly the world you’ve got a good

story about playing the old course yeah so I’ve waited my whole life to play the

old and the morning of we played nine holes around Scott’s Craig which is great I felt warmed up when loads of

drivers on the Range it’s an Andrew’s thinking how and I piped it and I was like yeah really confident and Rob

mcguck texts me say no I’m in St Andrews I’ll come and I’ll come and film your first t-shirt and I was like right okay

I’m feeling good I can do a good one and I just basically just stood up and just had a straight necky top that just

cleared the roads in fact then my right foot was on the road and it was so windy as well but I didn’t manage to hit the

green too I just scraped off with a five at the first uh on 17 I hit the hotel like it was

Wendell Bound for the minute it left the face and an 18 I snap hooked it and just stayed in bounds that was seven over par

for one seven eighteen I was one under for the rest so I managed to get around six over which was happy occasion just

completely even did it just ate me up you know it does that to you I think it’s

incredible what is like a I mean I suppose the burn can make it

complex a little bit but it shouldn’t be that complex if you could get over that

still you know and you’ve loads of people watching you an 18 really shouldn’t be no 18 should be dead easy

but I mean there’s people out in the balconies watching yeah yeah yeah yeah like sometimes whenever

I’m you know I’m fortunate to go to San Andreas quite a bit and whenever I’m there if I’m if I’m if I’ve got a spare

five minutes or 10 minutes I’ll just go watch people tee off down one and watch people come back down 18. no it’s the

most amazing Place uh I I’ve never played a golf course like it uh before

going there I remember having this argument with Tim Murphy deal member he was he doesn’t dig it as much you

know he’s like well there’s only three good holes kind of thing and I’m like rubbish absolutely I thought two around

to 16 were phenomenal yeah great golf balls I was lucky enough to go out and watch Shadow Sandy read this year at the

open the courses manager of all courses and Andrews and just fell in love with the place even

more it’s everything about it the conditioning the the the design the

layout you know they’re just a feel you know when you’re playing back playing out of town you’re playing back into the town like you know what’s coming up you

know that oh I can’t wait for that 17th t-shirt I can’t wait hotel but 16 16 is

tough 50. yeah it was a really good body at 16 you know I always remember that the rest of my life I remember that I’ve

only played this yeah I drive wedge to 10 feet in all the pot and then I was

oh delay A2 and that wouldn’t matter so even we took Cardis as well which worth

every penny yeah taking a cardi but I’d love to play the old again I think I

hope I wouldn’t let myself down as much as I did in the first well going around the 7-0 is not letting yourself down six six over six six one sorry

but it’s uh the scores that you can score around that course that you can’t yeah well I’ve only played it twice and

it was in the same trip and the very first time I played it I was one under gross through ten nice uh

and then we turned around and I’ll be surprised when I wrote 90. ah it was

howling down on the way home just like fine on the way out and as

soon as it turned around I was it’s like I’d never played golf before yeah that’s where the old courses is brilliant

it’s one in a million it’s funny the guy we played with hold a huge pop for a Ford after snap pick shank and then I

think at the back of the green to hold the pot the length of the green for a four and the chill it went up from the the balconies all the students and

people all around was was amazing yeah yeah and then that’s what makes it special yeah it’s a truly special place

but pledge it’s been an honor having you on the Pod I hope to get you on before

the open kicks off uh this year in Horlick and we’ll chat about everything that goes on but thank you so much for

joining us on the podcast thank you very much for having me I’ve always wanted to come on so it’s been been good fun doing

The Eclectic 18. was it a difficult task or was it I’d like to do another one just for myself I think you could do

landscape yeah I’m thinking about doing a series called the nostalgic 18. yeah we’re just like it’s all stories it

doesn’t really matter about it pretty much uh that’s that’s what that’s what it comes from for me I’m not as I don’t

dive as deep into the architecture side of it as you’ve probably noticed my mind’s on more kind of stories or what rings a bell yeah but that’s that’s what

it’s about isn’t it no that’s great it was good fun I really enjoyed it and great catching up but thank you very much thank you watch this

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