Make Golf Great Again – The Trump International Golf Links Aberdeen Review

Nish: 0:00

Every story has an ending. Does our quest to play the top 100 courses in 10 years have a good ending? I’m Nish. I’m Chris. And we’re here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast.

Chris: 0:12

Oh my god, this place is gonna be criminally difficult. I didn’t feel as intimidating as I thought. No, listen, it was an absolute fing incredible course. I mean that’s gotta be the most mental finishing hole we’re gonna find. I defy any golfer to go there and not just come away going, that was unbelievable.

Nish: 0:30

Episode 46. Make golf great again. The Trump International Lynx Aberdeen review. Now when we started this whole journey and people knew and had cottoned on to what we were doing and actually understood the challenge in the first place, I remember there were a few courses that kept coming up in conversation, and the Trump courses of which Trump International Aberdeen was definitely one of them. We had questions about whether we’d play them, uh, what would we feel like playing if we had to play them? Well, look, we did, and right at the outset, thank you to Graham, thank you to Adrian for inviting us up. They were unbelievable hosts, unbelievable and that you know invited us out to come and play. And today’s episode is the story of how our day went. But before we carry on, I’d just like to make a little plea, if I may, just for a like or subscribe to wherever you’re watching or listening. And the reason I asked for that is we’re getting to a point now where we’re starting to play some of the bigger hitter courses, and and it would be great if we can just get a little bit of clout. The first thing they always ask us is what are the numbers? And I know we’ve got an increasing number of listens. If we can just back that up now with some likes and subscribes, uh that would lend a little bit more credibility, and we can hopefully get some more interesting content, like we had Dylan at Gullen, and that was Dylan at Gullen. Interesting. Uh that was a that was an amazing you know experience. We’re we’re getting a good club representation. I think it’s the pro that we’re talking to at Dumbarny Lynx, which is uh an amazing new facility that everyone’s saying should be really climbing the ranks quickly. So it is it is definitely helping. So if you can do that, it doesn’t cost anything. But if you do that, that’d be absolutely wonderful. Now back to the episode. So, Chris, do you think we should tease everyone a little bit by holding back what we thought about Trump, or should we just go for it?

Chris: 2:32

I think just rip it off like a like a plaster. Like a plaster, like a bande.

Nish: 2:36

Hated it, hated it. Worst thing in the world. No, um, yeah. I mean, I don’t know. But do you know what? Before maybe before we carry on, and because you’re probably getting from our grins if you’re watching this, we love this golf course. But I’ll be interested to hear people’s thoughts on it because it was a divisive course, and we said this in the preview. And perhaps drop a little comment, you know. If you’re watching on YouTube, drop a comment. If you’ve played it, what did you think? If you haven’t played it, what do you think of us playing it?

Chris: 3:03

Yeah.

Nish: 3:04

I mean, I want to get a flavour of it.

Chris: 3:05

I’d be really surprised if it’s divisive amongst golfers who have actually gone and played it. Played it, yeah. Because when we were just absolutely blown away from start to finish, it was just it was like it was like the greatest hits of golf golf holes, wasn’t it? It was just non-stop. It was unbelievable, non-stop, unbelievable quality.

Nish: 3:26

I mean, our day was great anyway, because we’d we’d had an early start, talked about that in the preview. It was a glorious day. It was excitement. You know, one of the notes I’ve made here is that it’s a bloody long driveway to get up to there. So you turn right off the road and it’s actually actually yeah.

Chris: 3:42

Ten minutes later you finally make it to the still going, yeah.

Nish: 3:45

Um you know, um, not one for being modest about the the entrance to something like that.

Chris: 3:50

Is he uh I did manage to shave a couple of minutes off my uh Trump driveway drive on the on the second day when I had to run back to my shoes though.

Nish: 3:57

Well you knew where the corners were this time. I did, yeah, yeah. I’m just taking them at full tilt. My uh my scotter hasn’t hasn’t ever been round a corner that quick. But I mean I forgot I was driving your car. Shouldn’t have told you that, should I? Yeah, I need I need new uh pads and pads and discs out of it. But it would you know what I uh we mentioned Adrian, Adrian Adrian was in who’s who invited us on to play a Trump. And I I really distinctly remember this now. When we finished, because we’d kind of been going round and we’ve been saying this is amazing, this is amazing, wow, oh my goodness, you know, and he he was great because he could tell us all the good vantage points to see.

Chris: 4:33

Yeah, yeah, he was brilliant though, wasn’t he? Just every time every time we got to a a good vantage point, he’d be like, right, just go up to this tee and we’ll have a little wander up here, and you can just tell us what you can see from that tea. Yeah, yeah. It was yeah, it was it was invaluable, wasn’t it?

Nish: 4:45

And he’s a good golfer, so he was obviously he’s played from the very good golfer, yeah. So it was like, oh right, we’re yeah, we can see what’s actually happening here.

Chris: 4:53

But he did he did also say that they basically never actually use the back tees for anything, so they didn’t even use them. So a couple of weeks before they’d had the DP World Tour there, so did they didn’t even use all the back tees for for that. Yeah. It’s like what the point in having the point. I mean, I guess it’s just you know, it’s Trump, let’s make it this is the biggest, longest course in in Scotland.

Nish: 5:11

Um I’m gonna give everyone a bit of context on this because until you’ve gone and interrogated the website, you don’t know these facts about this course. But looking at the scorecards, so they have six different T’s you can choose from.

Chris: 5:24

So I think the only the only word to describe my feeling after like the day before we were playing it, a couple of days before looking at the scorecard was terrified. Fear, pure unadulterated fear. This is and a couple of people have told me it’s just incredibly difficult. So I was gonna go in there and you look at the yardages and you go, Oh my god, this place is gonna be criminally difficult. 7,452 yards.

Nish: 5:49

The black ones, which yeah, I mean he said they never use, and what and nobody’s ever really done anything with that, but they’ve got the option, yeah. But even the the gold, which is the main T’s got to be gold, hasn’t it? It’s uh it’s the Trump family, but that’s 7,000, and we played off the blues, which is 6,600. And and I remember again, Adrian was quite relieved when we said we’re happy to play off the blues, you know, we’re not trying to make this more difficult for ourselves.

Chris: 6:12

It’s funny, isn’t it? I didn’t I don’t think I’d put up until that Scotland trip, I’d not really realised how how much people want to go out there and just play from the tips, right? I mean, and most of the Americans are like, right, we’re just gonna play this and we want to play it from the tips. That’s the only place we’re gonna play it from, which is even if we don’t enjoy our day and we play we play horribly like they’re not good golfers, a lot of them, and they just play back tees. I don’t know.

Nish: 6:33

Yeah, we’re just good time golfers, mate. That’s what it is. Well, exactly, yeah. But you know, they they range down, so the you’ve got the blues, which is what we played, then you’ve got the whites, which went or silver, I should say, sorry, went down to 6,400, 6,300 yards. Then you had greens, which are 5,800, and then you had reds, they were the forward tees at 5,200. Now, I’ve seen some courses that are on our top 100 list that are hovering around 5,500 yards, so that’s off the forward T’s. Now that just gives you a bit of context, and then further context is that this course are the black T’s, so there’s a slope rating for each course. So now this new for those not initiated, the new handicap system, each course has got a slope rating, it’s a number that’s a measure of how difficult it is. It’s out of 155. From the black tees, Trump International Aberdeen scores 153 off the blue tees, which is the simpler, how fun T, it’s 147, it was for us. So for me, and I actually I can’t remember I don’t know maybe Woodall Spar got me to must have got me to this because I’m sure it was a one five 150 something at Woodall Spar. Yeah, but it’s it’s the joint, if not the highest handicap bump for me. I went from 17.6 to 25 shots that I would get on this course. That’s eight shots, seven seven and a half shots added on.

Chris: 7:58

Yeah, but it’s interesting because we because I went in there and I said like the word the only word to describe it was looking at the card was terrified. And then you look at some of the pictures and you go, Oh my god, I’m even more terrified now. But actually, I think playing it, like you said, we played from the blues, we had a good day, it wasn’t windy, yeah, didn’t feel as intimidating as I thought it would. I think stood on the first T, I felt pretty intimidated. It’s a pretty narrow fairway, and you’re thinking, Yeah, like you can’t go left or you can’t go right, you it’s a lost ball. And there was a bit of that. So I think if you do if you do miss the fairway, you’re pretty much gonna lose the ball. Unless you play with Adrian, he’s like a blood hound.

Nish: 8:30

Yeah, every member we play with is the bloodhound for finding a golf ball. Is that is it just us? Like maybe we’re just gonna be. Because we’re members of a golf ball, but we haven’t maybe we need to download some software, we can see the ball a little bit less. You don’t play enough golf. Um, it was it it it feels it was fairway or bust this place. Yeah, you hit it.

Chris: 8:46

But the fairways were pretty big, right? I thought they were really wide actually. Once you got in there, they’re really wide, like some of them visually were a bit intimidating, but not I think uh it’s maybe because I’d gone in there with a preconception that it was gonna be like just impossible. And like you’re gonna stand there and go, This is a nightmare, I don’t I can’t even hit a shot, I’m too terrified, I’m just gonna kick it off the T. Um, but actually it wasn’t like that. You the there was always there was always more than one option as well, right? So you could always there was always a layup option, or that you can cut over a stream and go to the left and take on that bit of the fairway. So there’s there’s always a little bit of an option to to kind of take a different shot each time. Yeah which I loved about it. I think that was my I think that was the thing that was done best for me was just the the level of shot making that you could do around there. You could go around there 30 times and you could play a different t-shirt every time. Yeah, I think you could. Yeah, you could. I mean I wouldn’t. I was I played incredibly well. So then having said that, I mean obviously Adrian was a good player, but I can only think of maybe once or twice that he got his driver out. And it’s a long course, right? He didn’t, he was like position, position, position, get it in the fair way, and you can play from there. Fascinating.

Nish: 9:53

Yeah, I think that’s the one thing I took from Trump actually, and how Adrian played it. Yeah, there was no like it’s like almost take your ego out of it, you don’t have to get driver out everywhere. Listen, it was an absolutely fucking incredible course, like it really was.

Chris: 10:05

We I mean, yeah, in terms of our in terms of our ratings of courses so far, like it for it’s let’s do it, let’s go straight to our rankings so quickly to number one.

Nish: 10:13

It’s number one, like that now that’s the course to beat. Yeah, I think. Uh, and uh everyone should know me and my personality by now, and and you’d think, well, yes, of course it’s Trump, he’s got all the fineries and whatever.

Chris: 10:27

But then if you know my personality, I’d be going in there probably not wanting to like it. Yeah, that’s but I just came away just completely blown away, completely undazzled by it.

Nish: 10:37

We probably didn’t articulate this, but deep down we probably would have relished in hating it. Or not hating it, but like going, eh, it wasn’t what it was cracked up to be. Yeah, definitely. You know, it’s it’s a it’s um we will get we’ll we’ll we’ll we should do we should discuss the round pricing to to play there as a visitor is £495 for a round. Yeah, comfortably the most expensive that we’ve encountered, yeah, absolutely. And you would, and also the name of the person who owns it, you would be looking for things to absolutely hate about slates and whatever. And yeah, I’ve tried. There’s a few things I will bring out, but there is nothing that’s that yeah, there’s but there’s nothing that gets rid of your enjoyment of the round, there’s nothing that you go, oh my god, that was terrible. It’s just nitpicky little things, you know. Like I locker room wasn’t right for me, yeah. Maybe maybe I did like that.

Chris: 11:29

Well, but once you step on on the course, I mean, even if I was even if I was being the most nitpicking I could possibly be, I’m not really sure I would come back with anything. Not on the course, you can’t, can you? But I mean, I think it was just uh it was an example of just money being no object, right? Yeah, like I we were chatting to Adrian, and he’s he’s been there, been a member there for a few years, and he was saying, Oh, this chel’s already changed, you know, it’s only been there for 10 years. It’s like this already been remodelled. Who changes like a million times by this house? Absolutely. Um yeah, we filled this bunker in, and oh, this green used to be over here, and we’re about to build a new hole around there for the 14th or whatever, and you’re like, crikey, like it’s just a it’s an it’s a constantly evolving beast, isn’t it? Like it’s non-stop, yeah non-stop development.

Nish: 12:12

Um I suppose we ought to talk about the new course very briefly, not what we played, and it’s not in our list, yeah, but it opened that weekend. It did, well, yeah, it was opened that weekend that we were there. Uh and Adrian said that the uh members got invited.

Chris: 12:26

Yes, he’d been out and played it. Uh and he was like, Yeah, it’s it’s equally as incredible.

Nish: 12:31

Yeah, I think he actually said if there’s there’s a actually possible, isn’t it might even be better than the old course.

Chris: 12:36

Well, I think you I think you said there was a four-ball player, didn’t he? And I think there was there was a there was a couple that were I think it was maybe one sat on the fence, there was one that thought it was better, one that was thought it was worse, and one that just couldn’t it couldn’t bring himself to decide in in the ballpark, isn’t it?

Nish: 12:48

Of that kind of quality of course, and so I think yeah, and you could see a lot of that, couldn’t you, in the front nine?

Chris: 12:52

You could see a lot of the new course, you could, and it did look very different, like it didn’t look nearly as duney, yeah, if that’s a word.

Nish: 12:58

I mean, this it is now. Uh the how I mean, how do you describe the this the type of this course? Because is that a lynx course? Is that a duneland course? Is that even a word? I don’t know. Like we’re making them up as we go, yeah. That’s it. Because it what you know there’s links, there’s Heathland, there’s Moorland, there’s Parkland. Yeah.

Chris: 13:20

I mean, it is a Lynx, right? Because you it’s on the coast, but it’s so in the dune. It is Lynx land, but uh yeah, you do often get links in the dunes like that, but uh not not to that extent, because I think and ultimately those dunes have been man-made, right? So it’s not it’s not uh it’s not natural land that you’re playing through, but it doesn’t it doesn’t feel that unnatural. It doesn’t feel you don’t go away going Honestly, it feels like those valleys were put there for a golf course. Yeah, it feels like it’s been there, those dunes have been there for for hundreds of years, and and obviously they haven’t, but I mean they did a great job getting rid of all the wildlife and sticking a golf course there.

Nish: 13:55

Well, bravo, well done.

Chris: 13:57

I mean, as a man who loves both wildlife and golf, I’m not that upset by it because that golf course is just so good. You got one or the other, haven’t you? So it’s fine. Fuck the bad fuck the badgers.

Nish: 14:06

Yeah, I think is that the new podcast slogan now fuck the badgers. There we go. It was just there’s a couple of things uh we talked about as we were going around with Adrian as well, and they obviously had that tournament there the week before, the weekend before, but I couldn’t see where they could get the spectators because everything was like high-sided dunes, yeah, you’ve got this hold that’s right through the middle of it, snaking sometimes, straight sometimes, sometimes just a load of crap, and then it’s the green. Yeah, and it’s like, where are people gonna go? Where are people gonna stand? Like you couldn’t stand there all day, could you?

Chris: 14:44

Well, I and I was I was very surprised by that because I was going in there thinking, right, this course has been built to host the open, right? That’s the main reason for putting the building up. Padre was saying, actually, the course has been designed to be the best golf course it can possibly be, and they’ve not really designed it in a way that you can get spectators on there. So he said they are gonna start to think about remodelling it and changing it a bit so you can get spectators on there, but at the minute it’s just made to be the most glorious golf course it could possibly be.

Nish: 15:10

Let me let me give you some modest words from Mr. Eric Trump about this about this course, and we’ll we’ll see.

Chris: 15:17

So you get basically you get Chris Chris has got so I I strongly urge people if they’re listening to this, please watch the YouTube one on this one because we are gonna put pictures of some of the holes up because although normally we do have a beer or wine or a whiskey, but we are drinking herbal tea today.

Nish: 15:32

Herbal tea today, yeah, absolutely. Um kids going back to school, we’ve been we’ve been caught caught out by it, but we we we’re gonna be putting pictures of the some of the holes that we’re talking about and things like that as well. And listen, I’m I’m I’m very, very acutely aware this is a £500 a round per person round of golf. Yeah, there are gonna be a very small number of people who are gonna actually make make it to playing there, yeah. Not through lack of triangle, whatever, but you try to convince three other people to come and pay 500 quid to come play golf with you. Yeah, you know, so you might want to do it on your own.

Chris: 16:06

But it was it was kind of weird though, wasn’t it? Because you’d expect it to be like just mega busy, but Adrian was saying there’s there’s only a handful of members, there’s not really member many members. Yeah, and actually you can pretty much book a tea time a couple of days in advance.

Nish: 16:17

Yeah, well we did, yeah, didn’t we? It’s no problem.

Chris: 16:20

It’s just so it’s so it’s so expensive to either be a member or go and play it that it’s just not getting that that footfall. I don’t know whether that will change over time or whether Well, this might change it.

Nish: 16:30

Okay. So Mr. Mr. Eric Trump, is his his his own words. So for many years, my s my father searched for the perfect stretch of Lynx land to build the greatest golf destination on earth. Driven by his love of Scotland, my grandmother’s homeland. I mean, there’s got a way with words, haven’t they? And his passion for the game, this breakthrough location was discovered. Breathtaking. Is that what I did? Did I not say that? Yeah, you said breakthrough. Oh, did I? Sorry. Breathtaking. That’s how bad it is. I can’t read. Um woven through Majestic Great June, da da da da. Having opened in 2012 to unprecedented international acclaim, the old course was rated best modern links for seven consecutive years in consistently is consistently ranked amongst the top 100 golf courses in the world and has secured the coveted spot of best Scottish Lynx. I trust you will have an incredible round. Enjoy the greatest 36, which is their slogan for these for these two courses. So, like I say, not not one, not one to be uh knowingly modest, uh, I think. But look, like with the course, you know, they could be onto something there with describing it like that.

Chris: 17:43

I mean, if the other, if the other if the new course is as good as the old course, then I’m I’m not gonna go up there and argue too much about that being the greatest 36. I mean that was just something else.

Nish: 17:54

It was incredible, yeah absolutely incredible. So we’re gonna probably we’ll talk about a couple of little bits about the courses kind of generally, but we we’re gonna try and give you a flavour of the the golf course, not hole by hole because you don’t want to listen to us talk about 18 holes, but you know, certainly give you an idea of of some of them. Now, the greens.

Chris: 18:12

I think that’s only I think it’s only relevant to do this for this course because like I say, it for me. It feels it’s justified for this course. Greatest hits of golf. Like it was just shit on the tea, you were just like fuck.

Nish: 18:24

I think genuinely, I think I took a picture of every single T. Usually there’s one or two that I miss out, but like everywhere you stood, you know, you either had and it and it was you see and you see the pictures on the website, and it is like it’s this kind of browny fescue grass, fescue grass, and then suddenly this green fair becomes and when we’re walking along the course, I was like, bearing in mind they’ve had a tournament here a week ago. I was like, I couldn’t find any divots.

Chris: 18:52

No, it was weird, wasn’t it?

Nish: 18:54

And then Adrian’s actually one of the things Adrian said to us as well was he goes, they don’t want you to repair the divots, yeah, yeah. Because they want to come out and comb the course, yeah, yeah, reseed it, yeah, do it properly rather than a a botch job that you’re gonna do. Yeah, yeah. And I thought even that is just like that’s attention to detail to make sure it’s it’s presented. Yeah, and it was presented immaculately.

Chris: 19:14

Now, even I don’t even think I don’t even think immaculately covers it to be honest. It was yeah, fucking immaculately perfect nail on the head.

Nish: 19:22

I think I’ve read the course, it was it was fabulous. A fabulous golf course to play on. It was springy, bouncy turf. You get to the greens and they’re rolling like carpets, yeah, you know, and you can even even the the the rough bits in inverted commas you know, look like they’ve just made them look like that to cut in keeping with how they want the overall look of the hole to go.

Chris: 19:47

It’s the contrast as well. So the fairways are so green, like bearing in mind this has been like probably the driest summer we’ve ever had, and everywhere else has been a bit burnt out and a bit brown. These were just like lush, like they painted them green, totally. Well, and I would I wouldn’t even be surprised if they hadn’t painted them green because they were just so green. Then you get the big fescue grass growing up around it, which is obviously this kind of brown spray painted yellow, yeah, every yellow colour, it just it just pops, doesn’t it?

Nish: 20:11

Everything just pops, and it just I don’t know, yeah, just it was a visceral kind of course, I think. Like everything you got was like just wow, like wow, yeah, straight away. You know, we’ve got yeah, the colour contrast, you know, and then also every tea almost seen was an elevated tea, yeah. There’s a lot of hole in front of you, yeah, yeah. Which I think was again amazing, yeah. But also, considering you’re in an elevated tea pretty much at every tee, yeah, you didn’t really see any of the other holes or anybody else playing or anything like that.

Chris: 20:42

So you’d you also it didn’t get boring, like sometimes you think it’s kind of the same vista off each tee, but wasn’t it was just totally every hole was just totally different, wasn’t it? Spectacular, spec totally spectacular.

Nish: 20:52

Absolutely that’s the word I think it’s absolutely spectacular, feast for the eyes. We keep using that phrase on this podcast, but we like that. Um, and it was just yeah, we felt we we we did, of course, we got lucky, like weather like that, yeah, yeah up in up in Aberdeen, and I can imagine if the wind starts kicking up, then that’s a tough place to play.

Chris: 21:13

I mean, yeah, you look at the 18th and you play it off the back tees, and it’s 640 yards or something. So there’s a finishing hole, and that insane numbers, yeah.

Nish: 21:21

Absolutely. So, yeah, so we we we you know you arrive, you get your welcome pack, which Chris has got. He’s got the little you know get a little tartan bag with Trump on it, you get some T’s in there, you get your course planner, which this is the only second one I’ve got. Both have been free so far. So the second one I’ve got, and uh you uh obviously you you know you go out and there’s a fantastic practice area. We never encountered it before, but there was a gang of caddies waiting to take what look like 40 Americans already to go out on the course, uh, which was surreal. Like you could smell you could tell that they were just like, We’re not getting any business off these guys. Yeah, let’s go over there and let’s see if we can get it. Poor English folk. Yeah, and it was kind of like then they’ve got these signs up everywhere, and you know, I think you’d expect the the Trump organisation do that kind of drama well. And they’ve got these big signs up explaining about how it’s come about and how the land you know has been developed into this amazing golf course and all this kind of stuff. The starter was lovely, he’s like, Yeah, we play yeah, great, have a good day, it’s you know, kind of thing, and then you kind of come around this corner, which you’ve got no idea where you’re going, you do.

Chris: 22:30

Yeah, I mean it’s just all dunes around you, right? You can’t really see anything.

Nish: 22:33

I like this bit, so the starter wasn’t on the first T before that, yeah, yeah. And he said, Right, go up off you go and go and play, and you go and you turn around, you just you come to that view yourself, yeah, yeah. And it was a bit of like gulp time, wasn’t it? Like, oh, we’re here, yeah, okay. Yes, they’re pretty narrow, you know.

Chris: 22:54

Yeah, yeah, I think that got to hit its. I don’t know whether it was just because the first T, but I feel like that was the most intimidating T shot of the day. It felt it felt like the it felt like the narrowest fair way to hit. It probably wasn’t, probably was just it probably wasn’t.

Nish: 23:07

I think because it does a lot of them started off narrow and then they really open up and then the pitch like kind of your landing area is actually pretty pretty big. Yeah, I think so. Uh so I think I mean I can’t say that a slope-rated 147 course is fair. I don’t think I can say that, but certainly you could be a bit conservative, uh, but you have to get it off the T. There’s no you can’t be duffing it on this night, it’s gone, all’s gone. Yeah, yeah. Um, so that’s that’s the first hole. A lot of them are kind of like long and straight, but very strategically paid placed bunkers, yeah, and bits of water and yeah, yeah, yeah. And that’s something I’ve not really experienced yet on any any of the real course that we played, it’s like burns coming across. Number two had a burn coming across that you you flirted with, didn’t flirt with it.

Chris: 23:59

30 centimetres on the uh side of it.

Nish: 24:02

Is that is that is that coming in? Is that oh no, it’s fine.

Chris: 24:04

Annoying thing is I’d hit like a 7 iron for safety.

Nish: 24:08

Yeah, let’s take the danger out of it. Uh and then you come to the third, which is a par three, and we mentioned this one is because on the left hand side there’s a little inlet, and there’s basically a beach. Yeah, the biggest bunker in the world, sort of thing. And did you end up? You didn’t know you were short of that, weren’t you? You actually still on there, yeah.

Chris: 24:29

I was I was unbeached. Unbeached. We are making a hell of a lot of words up in this episode.

Nish: 24:34

That’s the what’s the way to do it. That’s the way to do it. Yeah, kind of oh now hole four. It’s a cracking arm. It was a it’s I mean, you know, to look at it, it’s just it’s a long, straight hole. It’s a 513-yard par five, yeah, 5’6 off the black, which will probably give you those yardages as we’re going. But they’ve got this burn that’s sort of snakes, it’s man-made totally, but it snakes all the way along the right hand side of the fairway. Yes, it and it the I think the hole sort of slopes a bit down that way, so anything errant will catch you, but it’s again, it’s I remember walking on it going, you know, when you’re now you’re down in the fairway, I was like, This isn’t as bad as it was sort of made out, and you think in your head.

Chris: 25:16

Exactly. It’s and it and you know, I think all those all of the holes are designed to just get in your head a little bit and go, Whoa, you can’t do this, yeah. But actually, I think if you if you can boil it down to just thinking positive thoughts and thinking about the fairway, then actually it’s not that bad. Yeah.

Nish: 25:35

I think I took driver out twice. Yeah, I think that was 18, which we’ll get to, and that was 10, which you know it required a driver.

Chris: 25:43

I think it was quite a lot of holes before I got my driver out, and Adrian. I think Adrian made a comment. He was like, I thought you were too scared to take your driver out today. It’s like I don’t know what you were worried about. I’ve creamed one down the middle, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Nish: 25:53

Yeah, but that’s it. You hit it really, really well. Yeah, uh, but yeah, I think I mean I you know I was just using a three hybrid most of the time.

Chris: 25:59

It just felt like it felt like the right thing to do, didn’t it?

Nish: 26:01

Just be get in position, yeah. Yeah, and then and I think that actually that I took that as a lesson from there. If you can get that working, get getting yourself in the fairway. I think it sets you up in a better frame of mind as well. Yeah, because you can probably sort of muddle your way through the fairway after that. The t-shot is the that’s the key thing, isn’t it? Yeah, it just sets you up on the you know, you’re not playing catch-up straight away. Yeah, but that was a magnificent hole. Yeah, I love that hole. I really liked it. And one of my favourites again, greens, like lovely green complexes built up. Yeah, I didn’t feel like the bunkers were like crazy deep and numerous or anything like that.

Chris: 26:40

Yeah, they weren’t particularly, but they were yeah, they were they were they were yeah, well placed.

Nish: 26:44

They I should have done this research, and I I don’t know who the designers are of the course, but uh what a wonderful job they’ve done with this place.

Chris: 26:53

I think like I love a strategic golf course, but this I wasn’t really going in there expecting strategy, I was expecting just it’s just gonna be really long and really hard, and that’s the that’s that’s its bit. But I think actually it was a lot more nuanced than I was that I was anticipating, and I think like I say, you could you had so many options, you’ve almost you’ve almost got like a couple of fairways to aim at in a lot of a lot of a lot of times you can either go down that right hand side and go into a bit of different fair, or you can cut the corner and kind of go over onto the a a bit further up, kind of the left, or whatever. It’s it’s um yeah, yeah, there’s just so many options.

Nish: 27:26

So it it was, it did feel like that, didn’t it? It felt like you could also just go, you know, I’ll take a sort of a mid to long iron off the T. And that was a good that was a good player a lot of the time. I think, yeah, absolutely, you know, play to your handicap sort of thing and and and do it that way. If you’re you know if you’re chasing a score, I mean sometimes you know you just want to just grip it and rip it sort of thing. Uh and then we got to the sixth, which is we and this is a picture we will put up. That’s a brutally hard part three. You hit the green or you don’t, yeah, and then you you if you don’t hit the green, you’re fucked.

Chris: 28:00

Yeah. But again, it’s one of those that actually the green opens out a little bit once you get down there, but from the T you’ve just got a V, and you’ve just got a V of yellow, and you can just see the little strip of the green running up the middle. That’s it, that’s it. You either you hit your shot or you don’t.

Nish: 28:13

And again, to Adrian being there saying it does open up. Yeah, I didn’t make use of that information, but you did not, no. It it you know, it does open up. I mean you were if there’s something worse than position red. Very wide right, yeah. Well, as I absolutely nailed one, I had a nice shot on there. Your shot was unbelievable, actually, on that one. It was a crack, you know, it looked right on the money right from the start. As soon as he hit it, it was uh it was a cracking shot, that one. Uh and then yeah, you kind of get to this 7, 8, 9 stretch where you’ve gone all the way out and now you’re headed back towards the clubhouse, and you can see that absolutely massive Scottish flag that’s at the clubhouse the whole way in. Yeah, I honestly this is the biggest thing you’ve ever seen.

Chris: 28:51

It’s the big definitely the biggest flag I’ve ever seen by quite a margin. But like to the extent where it moves in a different way, it’s like it’s like a completely different entity, kind of ripple just this ripple. Slow motion ripple motion ripple. It was weird.

Nish: 29:03

It was yeah, it was it was very weird. Uh, and then you get to nine, and that brings you right up to where this where the practice area. You go around the front of the clubhouse, yeah, go and get yourself a little halfway drink and things like that. And I was trying to figure out where to fill up the water, and I was like going to the bar and go, Oh, there’s just water on the side, so please help me. So right, great, yeah, yeah, no problem. And then we get to hole number ten, which again, have a look at this on YouTube and have a look at the picture. Yeah, it’s mental. It’s mental. Like, what’s going on with that hole? It’s yeah, but I can only describe it as it’s a fishing hook.

Chris: 29:42

A fishing hook fairway.

Nish: 29:43

Yeah, like it’s so it’s in front of you. You’ve got the if you imagine a fishing hook, you’ve got the long bit, and then you’ve got the bit that curls around with the little hook on it to get the fish, and the hook bit is on the right hand side, the long bit’s on the front.

Chris: 29:55

I don’t think it necessarily needs to be a fishing hook, does it? It could just be any hook, right?

Nish: 29:57

Could be a U bend. Yeah, absolutely. Uh yeah, anything that’s shaped like a hook, really, I suppose. But it is it was hook shaped. It felt like it didn’t have any purpose for having that bit on the right because that wasn’t another route in.

Chris: 30:10

It was just a I mean, I guess it’s I don’t know, like a bit of a bailout area if you’ve got a slice. I don’t know.

Nish: 30:14

Yeah, I don’t it was it was odd because and also Adrian didn’t say, Oh well, actually, you’ve got a couple of options here because it was just like this is the hole to get your driver out because you’ve got a big inviting fairway, and it was it was it was pretty big, really inviting, yeah. And again, this is one of these things where you kind of go, Oh, it’s intimidating, intimidating, and whatever. And the picture here on the course planner, the fairway doesn’t look that wide, but you get there, it’s pretty big, and it’s like 70 degrees of your field of vision is fairway, yeah. It’s it’s doable, really, really doable.

Chris: 30:42

But I think the the yeah, the money shot for this this hole is when you get up to the green, isn’t it?

Nish: 30:47

That’s it just you you sort of it dog legs a little bit to the left hand rises as you’re going and it narrows before you it opens out to where the green is, and you can’t see the green, can you get it for your second shot? Natural amphitheatre, yeah, and you know, it’s rough all around it. And actually, the the view that I like the best was so when you finish off the back of that and you head up to the 11th team, Adrian said that he actually stood and watched the DP World Tour event there from that at that spot.

Chris: 31:14

He found himself a little hill, didn’t he?

Nish: 31:16

Where it looked like only one man could stand, exactly, yeah, that’s members’ knowledge, isn’t it? Yeah, and you look back down that hole and that fairway, and I was just like, Wow, yeah, I’ve fallen in love with this place just just on that view. It was incredible, absolutely incredible. And then you know, you hit 11, 11 was a dog leg, again, sort of you know, narrow tea boxes, all that narrow fairways. 12s feel like felt like a bit of a alright hole, you know, it was decent, but just wasn’t like as good as some of the ones that we’d just come off.

Chris: 31:49

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it was a fairly straightforward path four, wasn’t it?

Nish: 31:52

And then 13, quite an inviting par three. This one, but again, if you’re short, you’re you’re nowhere.

Chris: 31:57

Or if you shank one to the right, you’re really fucked, which I did.

Nish: 32:00

Yeah, but you found your ball.

Chris: 32:01

I did find my ball, which was incredible. Still made a fucking seven or something, but we’ll get to the scorecards in a minute.

Nish: 32:08

And then the the granddaddy of them now, hole 14. That’s the signature hole, and Trump Abadition.

Chris: 32:15

And we’ve seen that quite a lot, haven’t we, on like social media and stuff like that.

Nish: 32:19

But actually just stood there on that T is it’s fucking beautiful, it’s really and I I think that was that was the most intimidating T shot, I think, because up till now you’d you’d kind of got used to the fact that you could say actually the fairway is quite wide there. This looked narrow, and it probably was a little bit narrow as well, actually. Uh, and I think I was a pressure and signature hole challenge and all that kind of stuff, but it that was an an intimidating tee shot, I thought. Uh the resource suggests that as well. Yeah, yeah, that’s it. But yeah, it played alright, didn’t it? Yeah, and we were good with the wind, and and then you got a really good view out to the North Sea, and it this is this is the archetypal contrast between the darker, the darker, natural colours of beach, sea dunes, and this just lush, green, fairway, all the way up snaking up. Yeah, and and yeah, what a magnificent golf.

Chris: 33:18

Oh, yeah, like I say, I defy any golfer to go there and not just come away going, that was unbelievable.

Nish: 33:23

So good, wasn’t it? Yeah, it was so good. Um, absolutely loved it. 15. I think 15 might have been the one that Adrian was saying. They’re thinking of potentially remodelling. I’m not sure. Yeah. It was one of these things they’re gonna remodel. 16 was again another par threes. I think they were like they weren’t hard. No, that’s just it.

Chris: 33:41

It was it was a difficult course, right? There’s some really difficult holes, but there’s also some really scorable holes in there, like 15. Yeah, that’s a perfectly scorable hole.

Nish: 33:48

Yeah, yeah.

Chris: 33:49

Um, you know, 14’s pretty scorable as well. Like, that yeah, there’s there’s definitely opportunities out there to to make some make some birdies and make a score. Not that I did in any of that, but no, no, not so. It’s definitely opportunities.

Nish: 34:00

I love that.

Chris: 34:01

I mean, Adrian kicked, he did get two eagles. He kicked first hole, he got an eagle, didn’t he? Two eagles in the deck, yeah. So yeah, it’s it’s there for the taking.

Nish: 34:08

Two eagles, Adrian, yeah. That’s it. Yeah, as I said, he was he’s a very good golfer, not just a good golfer. And then sort of 17 was a was a was a nice enough hole, but it leads you up to what is the insanity, I would say, of whole 18.

Chris: 34:22

I mean, that’s got to be the most mental finishing hole we’re gonna play.

Nish: 34:25

I think they’ve just done it just exactly for that. Yeah, it’s like let’s just make something really commentable, really just like it’s insane. So it’s off the blacks, it’s a par five that’s 651 yards. Yeah. Off our blues, it was a par five, it’s 586 yards. I don’t think I’ve got anywhere near 600 yards on it.

Chris: 34:43

Into the wind as well. Into the flag.

Nish: 34:44

You’re really high up, you can see that clubhouse, you see that ridiculous Scottish flag just moving slow motion, rippling, and whatever. Yeah, yeah. And then you, you know, not just just to add a little bit of extra challenge, right in your landing zone where your driver would normally land, they’ve got not quite across the fairway, but on an angle, like a diagonal angle facing away from you left to right. They’ve got three bunkers, yeah. And then a pond on the left, and a pond on the left. So you you you’ve got to kind of either go big or go home.

Chris: 35:17

That’s that’s literally it. Do you know what that hole gave me the feeling of, which I’ve never I don’t think I’ve ever had on a golf course, is it kind of takes you back to when you’ve just started playing golf, yeah, and you just keep hitting shots and keep hitting shots and keep hitting shots, and you still fucking nowhere near the green, and you’re like, am I ever gonna get there? And I’ve never I’ve never had that feeling before since I’ve you know it was reasonably accomplished at golf.

Nish: 35:41

I remember like I I I hit my I was hitting my three hybrids so well that day, and I uh you know, hit my drive and it I skied it and it ended up short of these bunkers. I was like, right, fine, I’m safe, it’s fine. And I I hit it and Adrian was walking along and he didn’t see it, he goes, I’ve not seen it, but that is a great pickup, like that sounded amazing. I was like, Yeah, yeah, that was really, really good, and it was you know a little baby draw or whatever, and then it started rolling out towards the left. But yeah, I was like, I’ve hit it, and then I get to my ball. I’m looking at it. I’ve got another 280 yards to go here, like this is ridiculous. And it was it just it was just never ending, wasn’t it? But it felt like that. It and there was like it felt like they’d almost bolted two holes together and just go, let’s get with the green in between and just like just play the whole thing. But I mean, look, it’s memorable because of that, isn’t it? Um I I don’t I don’t dislike that hole, I think it’s a great because of it. I do always talk about that whole whole golf. So um look, that was the little our little trying to describe this, but you know, please, I keep saying it, but getting our YouTube, we’ll put these pictures of the of the holes actually up. So which we’ll we’ll get to our scoring actually, which was which was fascinating, really. So I said my handicap got bumped bumped up to 25 on this one. So I actually finished net even par. I basically played some handicapped, got 36 points. Pretty good going. Yeah, uh, it was unprecedented, as Eric Trump said in his uh in his little welcome. But I I felt like it was a solid the whole way around. I was quite happy with the way I played. Well, I should be, I was ecstatic actually, with the way I played, and on a difficult course, and one that you’re really excited about. It’s always nice that um, but we had so we had a side bet and we had a signature hole challenge. Signature hole challenge was obviously the 14th, yeah. That was uh net score. So net you got a five, I got a four.

Chris: 37:35

Did you beat me on that hole?

Nish: 37:36

Yeah, even though you I had two shots on that one. Yeah, I had two shots because then because you hit because you hit your T shot and then your next one didn’t go very far. Yes, you sort of topped it or something. I’m not sure which I’ve never seen, but I’m glad I’ve got it on video. You know when you’re just like expecting the ball just to go up towards the green, like there’s it, is it oh, it’s there thanks, mate. I’ve I’ve watched the video back and it’s like ah, he’s cracked under the pressure. It was brilliant. Uh so that was that was our signature hole challenge. Obviously, we’ll get the footage on uh for everyone to it to enjoy. And that’s a that’s stroke index two, that hole. Yep. Uh stroke index one was the fourth. I’m just trying to remind myself of the fourth. I’m just gonna have a look at our our course planner. Oh, that’s the one with the snakey burn all the way on. I think we all played that really well, I thought. I don’t think I did. No, but you you you uh again you topped your t-shot, but it it made the bit of the fairwin, then just kept rolling. Yeah, and I think we would we were not gonna keep rolling, rolling, right? It was just kept going. So I think you managed to get a good distance out of it, and then as always, Chris, good recovery shot. Um that’s just a a hallmark of your play. Um, and then our side bet was the uh lowest net score on the par fives. So uh the first hole was a par five, you got four, I got five. The fourth hole was a par five, you got five, I got four, so we’re level there. The next par five was the tenth, you got six, I got five net. So I’m in the lead, and then we came to the eighteenth. I got four, I got two shots in that one. There’s probably two shots of cover. Well, you got a seven, dead, yeah. I knew it felt like a long hole. That’s pretty bad, isn’t it? So uh I’ve got a clean sweep, Chris. Nice, well done. Oh, yeah, you overall.

Chris: 39:34

Yeah, you played much better than me that day. You deser you deserve to take that, was that I played well then. You did, yeah.

Nish: 39:38

I’ll I’ll I’ll give myself a pat on the back. I think I deserve that. It’s very rare that I walk off these courses and think, you know what, I actually did myself some sort some sort of justice there. Um now one thing I want to I do want to bring out because I know there’s not a load of my friends asked me this question, but non-golfers. Yes, you can buy MAGA hats in the Pro Shop at Trump International.

Chris: 40:00

If you’ve got a couple of hundred quid to spare.

Nish: 40:02

Tell me about the prices, Chris, because you came out and you went, what are those prices in there?

Chris: 40:07

Yeah, I mean I I I’m not really one for hanging around a pro shop and buying shit like Nish. But in this instance I did because well, I was actually waiting for you because you were buying something, and I was fucking chocolates, like a bit of shit, like a gold bar with Trump written on it. I was like, kids are gonna love that. So I was just having a little look and mooch around, and there’s some nice like head covers. I was like, that’s quite a nice like leather-looking head cover. 400 quid. Like it’s eye watering, wasn’t it? It was it was absolutely mental. Like, I don’t think there was anything in there that was less than 200 quid that I saw.

Nish: 40:37

Yeah, I mean I remember um uh so I don’t know, I don’t know why I’ve suddenly halfway through this challenge. I’ve decided I’m gonna oh the coach that we played, yeah, I’m gonna buy a golf ball from each play that plays. I’ll get the the marker. Yeah, I’ve actually ditched that idea now because I’m like, this is ridiculous. Okay, there’s no point, like I’m not I’m never gonna display them or anything. I’ve just got these golf balls for for no reason. Yeah, but what I’ve thought I’d do is I know having said that, it depends what time you play, doesn’t it? Because the pro shop could be closed. But I thought, well, Trump, I’ve got feel felt like especially, but also we finish and we’re like that’s number one. Yeah, like get the ball for the next one that you think supersedes that. Yeah, so you kind of got a bit of a an idea, but that’s not gonna work. We finish at seven o’clock, the pro shop isn’t open, so you can’t buy a ball. But it was dead funny. So I went, uh I couldn’t see them anywhere in the pro shop. And I think I’ve got to there’s no way that Donald is missing an opportunity to sell you a ball with trump written on it. So I’ve gone, oh, do you do you sell the golf balls with with Trump and Tasha written on it? Oh yeah, of course, yeah, yeah. We do sleeves of three, yeah. And I was like, Do you have single ones? Oh yeah, we got single ones as well. Upsell straight away. Yeah, like £75, please, sir. You know, that kind of thing. Yeah, it’s insane that kind of price.

Chris: 41:44

Yeah, I mean it’s obvious it’s obviously geared up for the American market, right?

Nish: 41:48

Yeah, yeah.

Chris: 41:49

I mean, Adrian was saying that some of them just get like container loads of stuff and ship back to America, like 10 grand’s worth of stuff is spent in the shop.

Nish: 41:55

Which in itself is bizarre. It’s not like there’s Trump courses in in America.

Chris: 41:59

Well, no, yeah, but I guess they’ve got Trump Scotland on there. I don’t know, Americans love Scotland.

Nish: 42:03

It’s just yeah, I mean it was it that this was the middle, but it’s the last review that we’re doing of our Scottish trip, but it was in the middle of our Scottish trip. So we played Gullen first, Trump second, Cruden Bay third, and each course had uh different characteristics in terms of the people that were there, yeah. Yeah, like Gullen was this machine almost of people turning up. I mean, Trump had that, but it wasn’t as busy, no, it didn’t feel that busy, did it? No, and even when we dropped in for lunch, I mean I think that we probably wouldn’t have been struggling for a table, really, but because we’d booked it, it was fine. But you know, it wasn’t heavy, no, it wasn’t at all. People coming in, they could get a table straight away, yeah, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, they had like two thousand dollar cigars on for sale, and all this sort of all sort of all this sort of malarkey, but and then you hit Cruden Bay, which is the opposite of all of that. It’s that anti-corporate, yeah. You know, it’s like we’re we’re not doing any of that. So what a what a wonderful trio.

Chris: 43:00

It was a great trio, of course, wasn’t it?

Nish: 43:02

And to walk away with our number one course so far.

Chris: 43:04

Yeah, I think that’s gonna be a tough, a tough sort of long weekend of golf to beat, I think.

Nish: 43:09

This is gonna be a tough course to beat. Yeah, yeah. I mean, what a course it’s gonna be beating this one.

Chris: 43:14

I mean, I think like I say if if I I think as we were going around and said if this was if this was called something else, I can’t remember what what term it is.

Nish: 43:21

Somebody said, I think it’s where it is, where it’s located, if it was called this links or something, yeah, then it would be much further up the list.

Chris: 43:27

And I think I probably agree with that.

Nish: 43:29

I think yeah, but you can’t, we said in the preview, you can’t detach the course from the owner.

Chris: 43:34

I think it’s part of the ownership, and partly because it’s new, right? And it’s not got the it’s not got the history and and all that kind of stuff with the others. But uh, if you’re looking at it from objectively from a golf course point of view, yeah, I I I don’t I don’t see how it’s gonna get any better than that.

Nish: 43:48

No, the next one’s gonna be interesting, next trip to Scotland. So we’ve got another trip to Scotland coming up in a couple of weeks. Yeah, like that is this. That’s chalk and cheese. That is, we’re playing a very new course, Dunbarney Lynx. Yeah, it’s maybe 10 years it’s been open for that. Yeah, and Carnoosty. Yeah, everybody knows it, you know, and it’s been around there probably since the dawn of time almost, you know. Yeah, that’s gonna be an interesting contrast, I think. Yeah, it’s worth staying subscribed for the updates on this, I think.

Chris: 44:16

I mean, actually that’s gonna it’s a pretty good double head of that as well. That’s an unbelievable.

Nish: 44:20

You know, Scotland, you just you’re just gonna get that all the time, aren’t you? Yeah, whatever you play. But yeah, I mean, what what a golf course? Would you be so bold as to say it’s worth paying £495 to go and play there, Chris?

Chris: 44:36

I mean, that’s a big question. Five £500 is a lot of money. It’s a lot of money. It is a lot of money. But having said that, you get a pouch, you get a pouch.

Nish: 44:44

Um get four T’s in that pouch.

Chris: 44:48

I I don’t know. The thing is, a lot of the other ones are are ramping their prices up as well, right? So if you go and play King’s Barnes or whatever, that’s gonna cost you 500 quid as well. So it’s almost like that’s the going rate for some of those bigger courses up there. So I mean, we’ve not played any of those other ones yet, so I can’t really compare them, but it’s pretty fucking good. It was pretty fucking good.

Nish: 45:09

Yeah, I think we you can get desensitised to the price of these things a little bit. Yeah, the quality of golf course you’re playing, yeah. Oh, you know, and it should be you know, whatever. But yeah, I mean that was that’s that’s gonna really take some some shifting out of my top five, you know, at the end of this. I uh yeah. Um I agree. Yeah, but that’s gonna be fascinating. Now, it would be remiss of us to not finish this review by just having five minutes about the tension fest that was a Ryder Cup on Sunday, yeah. How that ended up being that tight and that closing the end.

Chris: 45:46

As we’re doing Trump Trump Trump in Scotland McDonald about that, didn’t they?

Nish: 45:51

Stoke something up for no for no reason. But I mean, what a weekend. Oh, mental. Well, you know, just the the highs of Friday and Saturday, yeah, the sheer despair.

Chris: 46:02

I mean, I said to you earlier, didn’t I, that I I almost didn’t. And I’ve said I said this before that once it if it’s so one-sided during the first two days, then the singles just become pointless. And I was at that point, I was like, I’ll sit and watch it, but I’ll watch a little bit of it, and once we’re once we’re ahead in a few, I’ll switch it off. Yeah, and luckily we were ahead in a few. Luckily, I didn’t switch it off. Otherwise, I’ve been very disappointed when you said it.

Nish: 46:21

Just wait for the first point, you you European points come through. Oh yeah, okay. Just wait for the oh, that’s not happening.

Chris: 46:26

Where are these points gonna come from all of a sudden?

Nish: 46:29

It was it was it was crazy. The first time I’ve ever gone to the pub to go and watch that last day, yeah. And I mean, what an evening we had, you know, it was just drama the whole time. I was a superstitious fellow at the best of times, and I was like, we’re doing alright, and then I changed seats because we were all sat in a row. It was a bit weird like to talk to each other, you had to kind of lean forwards, so I went, I’ll go and sit here. And then it hadn’t twigged, and then suddenly, like, there was this cascade of red point, like American points coming in. I was like, I changed seat, and then then we started getting a you know, halves, a couple of halves coming through, and I was like, right, I’m staying here now, I’m not moving, you know, that kind of thing. But what what a day of what a day of drama, what a rider cup, uh you know I mean it had a bit of everything that rider cup, didn’t it?

Chris: 47:10

Like angst a lot of angst, a lot, a lot of yeah, a lot of angst, a lot of anger, a lot of just shitty behaviour, louts, louty behaviour, yeah, yeah. But it had a lot of drama, and yeah, it was it was yeah, it was a pretty good spectacle in the end, I think.

Nish: 47:24

It would be fascinating to know to see how the next two pan out. You know, I I expect and I I know what’s gonna happen at Dare Manor. We’re almost gonna go, this is how crowds should be, you know, that we have that degree of decorum, I think. I call it basic basic manners and stuff about how we support our team, but we’re we’re pro our team, not anti. Yeah, I think that’s the difference. That’s the key difference. I think that’s the nail on the head sort of thing. But I do, yeah, I think Hazel team in four years’ time, yeah. You know, because the there’s gonna be a lot of spotlight on that. Yeah, and I think it was funny is that this cop-out that you get in that oh, it’s in New York, what are you expecting? Is that yeah, just expecting human behaviour?

Chris: 48:04

Yeah, it’s funny, isn’t it? Because we were chatting beforehand saying like they were charging $750 a ticket, right? To keep it. So they were kind of thinking, well, exactly, yeah. So if that’s without the riffra, imagine if it was if it was like $50 a ticket, what could it be like then?

Nish: 48:17

I think the thing that got me the most was the MC who was shouting fucking. I mean, not as all that about. Yeah, but you can’t. What an idiot. You’re the official.

Chris: 48:26

I love the fact that she stepped down from her role. She’s been gone for two mornings at the Ryder Cup. Yeah, I’ve handed him my letter of resignation.

Nish: 48:34

Yeah, I was like, mate, you’re gonna be done tomorrow anyway, so don’t worry about it. But yeah, I mean, look, congratulations, team, team, the European Ryder Cup team. Yeah, it you know, we were so no nobody’s listening to this by the way, who’s placed for the European Rider Cup team, but we’re immensely proud, you know, and and how good the quality golf that they produced and the clutch moments, they were just they were on it.

Chris: 48:53

I mean, the first couple of days, like they were just like the Americans didn’t play that badly. No, the Europeans were just on fire, right?

Nish: 49:00

Yeah, and all this nonsense I’m hearing now about oh, the course is easy, it was easy for both teams. Yeah, exactly. So if you’re a superior golfer, yeah, you do it then. Yeah, yeah, it should have been easier. What’s what’s stopping you from doing that? So it’s like, and in fact, when the course is hard, which it was at Rome, we we made that course hard and took a driver out of the equation. Still beat you. We still beat you. So come on, stop crying about it. Um, but yeah, look, that was yeah, what what a wonderful tournament, and yeah, look, this is our this is our number one. Don’t hate us, but this is our number one golf course so far out of 16 golf courses we played. Spoiler alert, the next one we played didn’t didn’t displace this at number one.

Chris: 49:34

But yeah, there’s a there’s a fairly there’s a fairly decent margin, I think, between one and two as well.

Nish: 49:38

I think that was the thing that that phrase the you because you said it, and I think your your coach had said that as well. And then we were like, yeah, I mean, you’re almost like the others are sort of feeding off the scraps a little bit now with with this one. So definitely. Yeah, wow, what what a course that’s going to overtake that. If there is if there is one out there. If there is one out there and you you think your course is better, then please invite us. Give us a call. We’d love to get there. Next time on the Top 110 Golf Podcast, we’ll be reviewing the very first Top 100 in 10 Society Day at the beautiful Hollingwell Golf Club in Nottingham.