How to Play the Old Course at St Andrews (Plus new tour balls & Machrahanish)

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Hey folks and welcome to another episode of Both Sides of Potter.

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This is the golf show that comes at the sport from both ends

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of the handicap spectrum. I'm Colin,

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I'm the high handicapper and this is Ross.

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You're the low handicapper, aren't you Ross?

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How you getting on today? Sometimes.

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Sometimes calling doesn't always feel that way.

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Yeah,

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How's it going?

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good. Yeah, not too bad. Not too bad.

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~ I can't remember if I mentioned this last time.

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We talked to Scott last time around,

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didn't we?

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~ So we had a guest on last week.

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Yeah.

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So if you're out there listening,

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you haven't listened to this, go and listen to our interview with Scott Fawcett last

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week. He was so good. A whole bunch of tips in there around how to just cut strokes,

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play smarter strategy and of course,

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all of that kind of stuff. Please do go back and listen to that.

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Such a good interview. ~ But because of that,

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Ross, we didn't really catch up on our playing.

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And I've got to tell you, I'm going to do a shameful ~ boast here,

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a shameful and non-shameful boast,

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shameless boast. That's what I'm trying to get at.

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I won the medal last week.

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ho ho, what on top of the previous one that we talked about?

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we never mentioned that? I don't think we've mentioned it on here.

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I think we just talked about it.

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Alright, okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

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I texted you, but I haven't mentioned it on here.

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The shark.

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yeah, yeah. Well, well.

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So yes, slash the handicap by four strokes.

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Wow.

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So it's like you're 23 now?

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24. 24. So yeah, 28 down to 24.

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Wow.

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I didn't know it could go that far,

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to be honest. I I did, I played,

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I think I was 19. Was it 19 over?

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Yeah, I played 19 over for that one.

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And with a handicap of 28, so it was pretty sharky,

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I'll be honest. But yeah,

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Nice V62.

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exactly. So yeah, so was good.

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But yeah, I was really pleased with that.

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Even though I realised I was kind of...

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The handicap is a wee bit ridiculous at the moment,

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but that's 24 I feel is actually kind of realistic for now where I'm at

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in terms of I'm still very inconsistent,

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but at least it's a little bit less silly than 28.

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So I feel a bit more comfortable with that now.

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gets you a lot more opens as well,

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which is even better.

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Yes,

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yes, yeah, that's absolutely and me and my brother Bruce that was on

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a couple of weeks ago We're gonna enter the Dornach pairs tournament Royal Dornach

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pairs And it's a 24 limit. So It's a ballot.

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Brilliant.

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That's fantastic.

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So don't know if we'll get in or not.

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Don't know how busy it is, but we'll give it a go.

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We'll give it a shot

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They might go

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with the average as well. What's Bruce off at the moment?

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Is he still off 4 or 5 or something?

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He's off three actually just now,

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Right, brilliant.

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yeah.

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Yeah, so we'll see. But yeah, I was pleased with that.

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That was ~ a wee kind of ~ confidence booster just because it was so consistent.

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Yeah.

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I just kind of hit it quite nicely all the way around.

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Only one or two kind of really bad holes.

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So yeah, that was good. What about yourself?

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You've been playing much?

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Well, it's going to dig in a little bit more.

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So what things in your round did you feel like you had improved on?

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mean, obviously the score's great,

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but was there anything within it that we talked about and tips that you've picked

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Yeah.

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up, anything that your drills have done that you really contributed to a good round?

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Yeah, I think part of it was the mindset.

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We've talked about this so much in the last few months,

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around...

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I just hit the five iron, didn't even touch the driver,

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all round. So five iron off the tee,

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every hole, hitting at like 180 to 190 or so,

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maybe 200 on a good hole. So I'm still pretty well down the fairway.

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The course suits that kind of play too,

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because my local course is pretty short.

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It's not a long course by any means.

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So generally, if I'm hitting like 180,

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190, even on the longest par fours,

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I'm still able to get close to the green.

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with a seven, so my second shot,

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either I'm pitching or eight or nine trying to hit the green for my second shot

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or maybe like 180 to 200 to the green and

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I'm hitting a seven, like laying it up and then chipping it on.

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So it's that kind of smart golf that we talked about a bit that I'm just trying

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Brilliant.

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to play a lot more. And aside from that,

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it was just straighter. It was just more consistent.

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It was just less way off into the trees.

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I was always at least within the decent rough,

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never off into the horrible stuff off the side,

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generally hitting the fairway much more.

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And putting nicely too, do you know?

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I've not been working too much on my putting,

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but I think maybe even just...

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I don't know, tell me if you think this is true,

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Ross, but I feel like one of the small advantages I have playing a lot when

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I was a kid is that those little things,

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I can chip reasonably well and I can...

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putt reasonably well, just because I played so much of that when I was younger.

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And they are less erratic. I can hit a five iron well,

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Yeah.

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but then my next one will go off into the trees.

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But with a putt, when you've putted quite a bit in the past,

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you're generally pretty decent.

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You can't go too wild with a putt.

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So I think having played three days in a row a couple of weeks ago in Portugal,

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that just honed it in even more.

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And I hit some really good putts on that round as well.

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Your warm weather practice

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So I think that was a combo.

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is paying off.

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Yes,

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exactly. Yeah, yeah. So I think it was that combo.

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I think it was just three days worth of putting a bit of practice in

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on the putting out in Portugal as well.

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Plus the consistent irons. I think that I think that made the difference.

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That's really good and no like double bogeys or anything like that in

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the round or disasters.

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So

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two holes, I went beyond a bogey.

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That was it. Yeah, which is good for me.

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That's okay, that's really good.

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I mean, that's very good for me.

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Yeah, totally. So yeah, I was delighted with that.

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Really good.

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Fantastic. And then on the putting side,

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so did you have many like long putts and how did that go in terms

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of the actual putts that you were hitting?

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Yeah, yeah, had I had quite a few,

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so I was putting from off the green a few times like this was part

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of this smart play type mindset.

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I was I was laying up a fair bit.

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Sometimes I was like 10, 10 yards short of the green,

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but the fairways are pretty nice on my course as well.

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So you can actually put in from there.

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So I was put I was actually doing a bit of.

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Okay.

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People I don't know some people might roll their eyes a bit but I was like putting

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a few times from like 10 yards off the green sometimes even 20 Because there

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was no hand in front of me. It was like pretty smooth fairway Yeah,

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little Texas wedge I like it

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exactly and I got it close on just about every one of them to like I kind

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of honed in the Scott last week was talking about his lag putting wasn't

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he I didn't actually know what that term meant I am I right in thinking

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Yeah.

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it kind of means just getting it at level with the hole So you're like

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not going past it essentially

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Yeah,

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yeah, just trying to get it within what he was talking about,

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Yeah.

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from a longer putt, like a three foot radius,

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so you get six feet effectively to hit.

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Yeah, Yes, yeah.

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And if you can do that, it just takes so much pressure off.

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Yeah, you've got to hold the next one,

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but even as amateurs, we're going to hold the majority of those putts unless we're

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having a really bad day. So I think what he talks about is just that consistency

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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over time. It's always going to work out eventually if you keep using that same

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Yeah.

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approach. So that's great to hear.

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Yeah,

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yeah, totally. Well, that's what I was getting.

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Like I was getting even off the,

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even from off the green, was generally getting more often than not within six foot.

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And my six footers, even up to eight were really good.

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Like I was holding a lot of them.

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So yeah, that made the difference.

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think it was holding those 68 foot,

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which like normally I'd hold most stuff inside,

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like four or five foot. I'm pretty good with those shorter ones,

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but I'd be quite inconsistent with maybe six,

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seven, eight, nine foot. But I was getting a lot of them actually.

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So it was good. I a hold one, think maybe was about 15 foot or something

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go.

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to get a birdie. Actually, it was my one birdie of the round.

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There you go. Fantastic. that's awesome.

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Yeah. So that was really good.

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Yeah.

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That's really

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great to hear. I'm sure your colleagues at the golf club are delighted

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for you as well.

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Well, was one of the guys I was playing with I hadn't actually...

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He was part of the group that I knew so he's gone out in the same larger group

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as me but I've not actually played in the same tea time as him yet and he was like,

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what's your handicap again? What's your handicap?

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20? 20? No, no, no. So yeah,

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it was quite nice, quite gratifying.

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But don't worry, next week I'll go out and shoot 110 so it'll be fine.

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~ I don't think so. You're on a roll now.

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And the great thing is, like I think I said that to you,

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you tend to find, or I've seen certainly,

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when you've got more strokes to play with,

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you can improve so quickly in just of that round where you tidy up things

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a lot easier and a lot quicker and no disasters and suddenly you've taken

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off eight shots. It's brilliant.

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Yeah,

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yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah,

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it was good. So you said you hadn't played too much in the last week.

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You managed to get a wee bit.

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No, been taking,

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I wouldn't say I've been taking a full break,

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but just trying to relax a little bit.

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I think I'd done so much in terms of practice and working on speeding stuff.

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And then I'd had a couple of medals,

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I didn't play brilliant at all and a few kind of silly things go on.

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So I thought I'd just try and relax a bit.

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There wasn't any competitions on,

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I didn't force it by trying to get to an open or anything.

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And there's not a huge amount of them down here to be honest.

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Yeah.

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So yeah, I played nine holes just last weekend and

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and came back to what we've talked about.

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So pre-shot routine, being really clear on what I'm trying to do,

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stepping off the ball even in a practice round if I'm not clear on what I'm doing,

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making sure my alignment's good.

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Not getting overly complicated,

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but just trying to stick to a really clear process.

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And yeah, knocked a birdie in the first hole for 20 feet.

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And then I think I made four birdies in nine holes and had a couple of bogeys,

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which weren't any great bogeys,

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but.

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as we've talked about wasn't in great trouble.

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One was in a par five, which is not a complete cardinal sin.

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I'd obviously want to avoid that in the future,

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but like I was never really in trouble.

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I just didn't get the right club to get my third shot up to the hole.

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So I left it short of the green,

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got it on two putted, walked away and then made a couple of really nice birdies

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after that by chipping close. So,

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Yeah. Thanks.

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and hold another couple of putts as well from like 20,

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25 feet up. I felt like I couldn't miss and.

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I thought that came again from a really consistent routine.

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And I talked about the countdown thing that I do in my puttting routine that works

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really well with that. Got that into my long game fairly well,

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Yeah.

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but not as good as the puttting side,

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but the puttting just felt great.

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I was really trying to not take too much time over the ball once

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I'd done the countdown and just hit it.

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And it's amazing. What was the phrase that Scott Fawcett used?

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Sometimes the hole gets in the way and it got in the way.

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three times from over probably 15 to 20 feet so it was really nice and yeah

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Yeah. Really.

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try and not to think that next time I'm out I'm going to be amazing but just

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go back to right follow the process hit the right tee shot make sure you're thinking

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about what is out there that can cause challenges and get in the right place

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and and hopefully that will continue to to make for good scores.

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Yeah,

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that's really cool. Good, good.

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Yeah. I can understand that, like,

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the taking the rest. It's, Because you've been doing a lot of practice,

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a lot of drills, a lot of, like,

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stuff in between as well as playing,

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haven't you? So, yeah, good to have a rest week.

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Yeah.

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Give yourself, give the body a rest,

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give the mind a rest, all of that,

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to get back into it next week.

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Yeah, and I've found sometimes,

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and it's usually been true, if I take a little bit of a break,

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like the rhythm comes back in at my swing a bit more and I'm probably

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bit more natural and not thinking so much about technique or anything.

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So that's been really good as well.

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Mm-hmm. Thanks.

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And looking forward to going out this weekend and hopefully having a nice day.

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I don't have a competition round again,

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but I've got a game on Sunday,

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so looking forward to that.

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Yep.

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Good, good. Okay. Right. Shall we jump into a couple of topics?

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We've got a few things to cover today.

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Yeah.

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So you've got your Cleveland wedges.

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I want to talk about them. We've come through at last.

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Yep.

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I have been looking into a few different bits of gear,

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actually. A friend of mine picked up some new gear and that kind of spurred

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a whole bit of thinking around some of these...

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newer brands that are offering a lot better value gear.

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Well, they claim to be better value,

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I'm interested to hear what you think about this as well.

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~ And then I've got a bit of gear that I bought as well,

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a wee power band to try and help with my drills as well.

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Plus, let's dig into the PGA champs as well,

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like ahead of time, see what the stories are there.

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One little thing before we dig into this Ross,

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one thing I found, so I came across this,

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I'll credit this to the UK Golf Guy.

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So ukgolfguy.com.

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~ He had published, and he does this every year I believe,

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it's summer green fees. So top courses in the UK and how summer green fees

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are changing. Have you ever looked at this?

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Like the kind of increases each year?

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think I've seen

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a couple of posts, like I know that the old course is,

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it might be nearly £400 now, King's Barns is north of £400.

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Hmm... Yeah...

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I know that Dornock is £350,

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maybe a little bit more. And then the courses in the South East area,

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Yeah.

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I've heard that Sunningdale's £2000 for a four ball now.

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Yeah.

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Oh really? Wow. Yeah,

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it's partly the cost, but it's partly as well the increases,

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like how much they've gone up.

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So the average fee at a top 100 course

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in the UK is 265 quid this year.

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So that's a lot, isn't it? Like the average for the top 100.

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Well, that's a lot of money.

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So that's not even just the top course.

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That's even down to like 50 or so.

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It's 265. It's up 10 % in last year.

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and it's the second highest increase in the last five years.

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So in 2021, it was 161,

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22, was 174, 23, 200,

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and it's up to 22, 65 now. So like that's gone from 160 average

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to 260 in five years,

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which seems mental to me. Like that is so much more than,

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you know, inflation or anything,

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any kind of normal price increases.

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That's absolutely bonkers.

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Yeah, and I think

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part of it, in fairness to the clubs,

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they can charge it and I don't mean that to say that I agree with it,

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but they can charge it and people still come.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And then the other thing is that you're the members on a lot of these courses

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or maybe feel like the course is getting overplayed and you've always

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got to think about your membership and we forget that the

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Mm-hmm.

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top championship courses across the UK actually do have members for the most part.

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Yeah.

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Very

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few that don't, so they're maybe protecting tee times for their members.

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Then they put the price up, they keep the same revenue,

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but they've got a little bit less play on the golf course.

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Although I've heard from people that in a lot of these circumstances,

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they're putting the green fees up and the traffic doesn't change.

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So they're literally just getting 40,

Speaker: 00:14:55

Really? Just more money?

Speaker: 00:14:57

50, 60, 70 % more revenue in terms of visitors fees.

Speaker: 00:15:01

Yeah,

Speaker: 00:15:02

I suppose if the demand's there,

Speaker: 00:15:03

isn't it? Like that's the old rule,

Speaker: 00:15:04

supply and demand. If the demand's there,

Speaker: 00:15:06

then yeah. I mean, you're looking at like looking at the top 10 most expensive ones.

Speaker: 00:15:12

You've got Turnberry is the most expensive by far,

Speaker: 00:15:15

obviously. A thousand pounds now.

Speaker: 00:15:16

Was that a thousand? Yeah.

Speaker: 00:15:17

A thousand pounds. And that was only five years ago in 21.

Speaker: 00:15:21

That was 395. So that's gone up 150%.

Speaker: 00:15:25

~ You've got Birkdale up to 500 now.

Speaker: 00:15:29

That was only 275 five years ago Yeah,

Speaker: 00:15:31

But those 500 really?

Speaker: 00:15:34

495 Kings Barnes you mentioned there 486 that was only 312 five years

Speaker: 00:15:39

ago Royal Liverpool is nearly doubled 250 to 450 Sunningdale like you said

Speaker: 00:15:44

Goodness.

Speaker: 00:15:45

275 to 450 Royal counted down 280 up to 450.

Speaker: 00:15:49

So these are all like 50 60 70 percent increases.

Speaker: 00:15:53

Yeah, but

Speaker: 00:15:54

You're right, there are some justifications for it,

Speaker: 00:15:58

aren't there? Well, I don't know.

Speaker: 00:16:00

If they're not decreasing the traffic,

Speaker: 00:16:02

maybe not.

Speaker: 00:16:03

I think the thing that's sad

Speaker: 00:16:04

though is it's golf away from your regular player who's,

Speaker: 00:16:09

Mm.

Speaker: 00:16:10

you that's, you need a high income to play those courses,

Speaker: 00:16:13

let's be honest. Or it's a once in a lifetime.

Speaker: 00:16:14

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:16:16

And once in a lifetime you can sort of,

Speaker: 00:16:19

could you justify it? Maybe. The most I've ever paid for any round

Speaker: 00:16:24

I think is something like a hundred pounds,

Speaker: 00:16:27

honestly. And I've been really lucky with that.

Speaker: 00:16:28

Really? Yep.

Speaker: 00:16:31

But that's definitely under pressure now.

Speaker: 00:16:33

I'd need to get into a pretty big tournament on some of those courses

Speaker: 00:16:38

and my handicap doesn't allow that right now.

Speaker: 00:16:40

I've played Grand Sault Sierra in Switzerland and it was £90.

Speaker: 00:16:41

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:16:45

Yep.

Speaker: 00:16:46

Brilliant golf course, unbelievable.

Speaker: 00:16:48

One of the best golf courses you'll ever play.

Speaker: 00:16:50

I've been lucky enough to play most of the Open Rota through Championship Golf

Speaker: 00:16:55

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:16:56

and paid like, honestly, £80 to enter.

Speaker: 00:16:59

But that...

Speaker: 00:16:59

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:17:00

That's only so many golfers that get the opportunity so it's quite,

Speaker: 00:17:03

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:17:04

I think it's sad that these big courses are effectively locking

Speaker: 00:17:09

out your average golfer. I think that's a pretty sad thing as well.

Speaker: 00:17:11

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: 00:17:13

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I feel like,

Speaker: 00:17:15

I mean, it's still a lot of money,

Speaker: 00:17:16

but that 200 to 250 pounds is like,

Speaker: 00:17:19

that's a... I would argue that's maybe,

Speaker: 00:17:24

you know, it's a complete and utter luxury,

Speaker: 00:17:27

but it's still kind of like something,

Speaker: 00:17:30

you know, your average person could potentially justify once a year,

Speaker: 00:17:34

a bucket list course. But jumping up to 400 something,

Speaker: 00:17:35

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:17:37

that's just outrageous, isn't it?

Speaker: 00:17:38

That's like, I don't know, it's...

Speaker: 00:17:40

That's out of reach of just about anyone.

Speaker: 00:17:42

I wouldn't pay £400 for a game at anywhere,

Speaker: 00:17:44

I don't think. Doesn't matter where.

Speaker: 00:17:46

I know if I'd,

Speaker: 00:17:47

could I justify 500 at Augusta?

Speaker: 00:17:50

Maybe. It's gonna cost me about six grand to get there,

Speaker: 00:17:51

~ Yeah,

Speaker: 00:17:54

so.

Speaker: 00:17:54

totally. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So maybe maybe some some very,

Speaker: 00:17:59

very particular ones. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:18:01

But it's

Speaker: 00:18:02

quite sad really, isn't it? Golf,

Speaker: 00:18:04

Yeah. Isn't it?

Speaker: 00:18:06

in Scotland, calling us a game of the people,

Speaker: 00:18:08

really, right? We are very afraid of that,

Speaker: 00:18:09

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:18:11

having been brought up, well, you were brought up on a golf course in Scotland,

Speaker: 00:18:14

in some parts of other countries as well,

Speaker: 00:18:15

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:18:17

on golf courses. So it's just,

Speaker: 00:18:20

it doesn't feel natural to us,

Speaker: 00:18:21

I think. That's the issue.

Speaker: 00:18:22

No,

Speaker: 00:18:23

I know. Yeah, and you can understand it.

Speaker: 00:18:25

It brings more money into the support,

Speaker: 00:18:27

I suppose, but most of that money's not going to us as golfers,

Speaker: 00:18:30

of course, or increasing the facilities for us.

Speaker: 00:18:33

I do like the fact that in Scotland,

Speaker: 00:18:35

at least we have a few courses leading the way.

Speaker: 00:18:39

~ St Andrew's been one of these,

Speaker: 00:18:41

making an effort to open up tee times at a much cheaper rate.

Speaker: 00:18:46

So have you come across this, Ross?

Speaker: 00:18:48

Do know the St Andrew's ballot process just now?

Speaker: 00:18:51

Yeah, I've seen that. I know they drop the price,

Speaker: 00:18:53

but you maybe get some more detail than the most recent changes I've made.

Speaker: 00:18:57

Yeah, let me, I'll bring it up in front of me as well,

Speaker: 00:19:00

but the idea is that they open up,

Speaker: 00:19:02

last year they opened up 100 something T times.

Speaker: 00:19:06

So not tons by any means, like you could argue they could have done more,

Speaker: 00:19:10

but they're doing something, most people are doing nothing.

Speaker: 00:19:13

And this year they've expanded it,

Speaker: 00:19:14

so all credit to them for that.

Speaker: 00:19:16

They call it the drive.

Speaker: 00:19:16

Bravo.

Speaker: 00:19:19

And let me see how many of the opening up this year.

Speaker: 00:19:21

It someone like a hundred and it was a ballot and you could enter your name

Speaker: 00:19:24

in the ballot and if you came out in the ballot you got a round on like

Speaker: 00:19:29

the Old Course or any of the other ones as well for like fifty quid

Speaker: 00:19:33

or something like that. So this year they're doing it on all six,

Speaker: 00:19:39

all seven. So the Old Course, Strath Iron,

Speaker: 00:19:42

the Jubilee, the Eden, the Craigtown,

Speaker: 00:19:44

Castle, down to the Jubilee. Yeah,

Speaker: 00:19:46

so all of them.

Speaker: 00:19:47

~ opening up a bunch of tee times.

Speaker: 00:19:49

The old course is going to be 45 quid,

Speaker: 00:19:52

Eden course 10, Castle course second best in it 23.75.

Speaker: 00:19:53

drawing.

Speaker: 00:19:56

So I mean it's like total affordable,

Speaker: 00:19:59

good prices. And there's not like a ton of places,

Speaker: 00:20:04

~ spaces, but at least it's a,

Speaker: 00:20:07

they've got participants counted from last year was a thousand people.

Speaker: 00:20:10

So that's decent, isn't it? Like you can,

Speaker: 00:20:12

if...

Speaker: 00:20:13

And to be fair, this is only if you live in Scotland,

Speaker: 00:20:15

but that's the idea, isn't it?

Speaker: 00:20:16

It's like to try and help the locals to get back into it.

Speaker: 00:20:17

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:20

So that's quite nice. It'd be great to see more courses do that.

Speaker: 00:20:20

And if you

Speaker: 00:20:23

If you pick out a couple there for me,

Speaker: 00:20:24

there's obviously the old course,

Speaker: 00:20:26

right? Don't need to really talk about that,

Speaker: 00:20:28

but I listened to the Fry Deck podcast,

Speaker: 00:20:31

I think it was a couple of weeks ago,

Speaker: 00:20:31

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:20:33

and they'd just done a trip, so they got over,

Speaker: 00:20:36

managed to do the old course reverse day,

Speaker: 00:20:39

Mmm, yep.

Speaker: 00:20:39

so they must have been invited for that.

Speaker: 00:20:41

One for our Bucket List calling and achievements in the future to get into that sort

Speaker: 00:20:44

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker: 00:20:45

of category. But they played the Eden course.

Speaker: 00:20:49

The Eden course doesn't really get a lot of press but one of the guys was saying,

Speaker: 00:20:53

I think that was the first course he'd played when they came over and he's like,

Speaker: 00:20:56

this is unbelievable, it's like one of the best golf courses ever played.

Speaker: 00:21:00

And I have to say it's a brilliant,

Speaker: 00:21:03

brilliant track. And there you go,

Speaker: 00:21:04

it was at 10 pounds for Eden. That's really,

Speaker: 00:21:06

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker: 00:21:07

really awesome. Really, really good golf course.

Speaker: 00:21:10

Yeah, I mean, people that I know that have played all of these,

Speaker: 00:21:12

my dad's played them all, like just say that they're,

Speaker: 00:21:15

actually, if you look at it objectively,

Speaker: 00:21:18

the old chorus is not the best of them.

Speaker: 00:21:20

It's just the most prestigious.

Speaker: 00:21:24

It's the oldest, it's the original,

Speaker: 00:21:25

you know, and it's got that aura.

Speaker: 00:21:26

And it's experience, it's standing in the first

Speaker: 00:21:27

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:28

tee with the hairs in the back of your neck coming up and feeling nervous when

Speaker: 00:21:33

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:34

there's like a 200 or whatever,

Speaker: 00:21:36

it's probably 150 wide fairway.

Speaker: 00:21:38

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:39

And then coming up, you the last couple of holes,

Speaker: 00:21:41

you go on the 17th and it's a real tough finish St Andrews,

Speaker: 00:21:44

it genuinely is. Like the last six holes are super tough.

Speaker: 00:21:44

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:48

And then even coming up the last,

Speaker: 00:21:48

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:50

you know, you've got maybe a couple hundred people sometimes standing around

Speaker: 00:21:54

the 18th green at St Andrews and you've got...

Speaker: 00:21:56

Yes.

Speaker: 00:21:57

and the clerks wind in front of you and the old clubhouse just waiting for a thing.

Speaker: 00:22:01

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:22:02

There's all that stuff going on in your mind which sounds ridiculous

Speaker: 00:22:08

but it's absolutely true and it's brilliant.

Speaker: 00:22:09

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:22:10

It's a great feeling.

Speaker: 00:22:11

Every time I visited St. Andrews,

Speaker: 00:22:13

which was often when we lived in Dundee for five years,

Speaker: 00:22:16

you walk past because you go down the beach or there's a nice area down there,

Speaker: 00:22:20

you end up walking past the first tea and there's always like a group of four,

Speaker: 00:22:24

often Americans, like just ready to tea off.

Speaker: 00:22:26

And there's, 20, 30, 40 people all standing around watching because there's just

Speaker: 00:22:30

always that many people in St.

Speaker: 00:22:31

Andrews watching the first tea of St.

Speaker: 00:22:32

I know, it's incredible, it? Unless the weather's wild,

Speaker: 00:22:33

Andrews. Yeah,

Speaker: 00:22:37

there's usually people

Speaker: 00:22:37

true.

Speaker: 00:22:38

there, especially when you come in from your round,

Speaker: 00:22:39

Yep. Yeah, so making you nervous.

Speaker: 00:22:41

there's always a gallery.

Speaker: 00:22:47

Cool. well, no, I just thought that was some interesting stats there,

Speaker: 00:22:50

actually. yeah, we'll try and I'll try and put together a list of

Speaker: 00:22:54

the courses doing those kind of those kind of projects,

Speaker: 00:23:00

actually, like the drive that St.

Speaker: 00:23:01

Andrews is doing, because there's a few others doing it now.

Speaker: 00:23:03

So I'll try and report on that in a future episode.

Speaker: 00:23:06

But yeah, I'll come back to it.

Speaker: 00:23:07

Yeah, another thing we could maybe do between us calling is find some

Speaker: 00:23:10

of the hidden gems that are out there as well that people from afar

Speaker: 00:23:12

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:23:15

or even within Scotland wouldn't maybe know too much about that either we're aware

Speaker: 00:23:18

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:23:19

of or we've played and you know the green fees are really reasonable

Speaker: 00:23:23

and perhaps there may be an open on as well which can bring the price down even more

Speaker: 00:23:27

potentially so yeah there's a lot of good things we could find there.

Speaker: 00:23:28

Absolutely. Yeah, you're

Speaker: 00:23:31

doing that with your comps for sure.

Speaker: 00:23:32

But yeah, you're right. There's so many courses that are like same kind

Speaker: 00:23:35

of tier of quality as all of these expensive ones,

Speaker: 00:23:39

really. just, yeah, it's well known.

Speaker: 00:23:41

That's all it is. I mean, that was like,

Speaker: 00:23:43

wasn't that the case with Dornach until,

Speaker: 00:23:45

you know, 10 years ago? Dornach got kind of picked out as this hidden

Speaker: 00:23:47

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:23:49

gem and chucked in at number one in some top 100 courses.

Speaker: 00:23:54

with a magazine, wasn't it? And that's what kind of gave it

Speaker: 00:23:56

the prestigiousness that it has now.

Speaker: 00:23:58

But I think it was one of those like 10 years ago,

Speaker: 00:24:00

wasn't it?

Speaker: 00:24:01

Yeah, and it's just become even more magnified,

Speaker: 00:24:06

the more that, and they've just done a really nice big clubhouse.

Speaker: 00:24:10

You're called by a CEO.

Speaker: 00:24:10

~ Looking forward to seeing that when I'm up in the summer.

Speaker: 00:24:13

So yeah, I think it's crazy actually how,

Speaker: 00:24:13

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:24:17

I guess, part of it's social media,

Speaker: 00:24:20

part of it's just attention, part of it's people talking about it

Speaker: 00:24:23

on formats like this, like podcasts and maybe on YouTube,

Speaker: 00:24:24

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:24:27

doing reviews, doing videos. It's really brought them to the fore.

Speaker: 00:24:31

Mm-hmm, great. All right, let's jump into the gear.

Speaker: 00:24:34

So tell me about these wedges,

Speaker: 00:24:36

your Cleveland wedges. How are they,

Speaker: 00:24:37

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:24:38

are they still in the rap?

Speaker: 00:24:40

They're still in the wrap column just where I kept them in there.

Speaker: 00:24:42

There we go. We've got the 58

Speaker: 00:24:43

You

Speaker: 00:24:45

RTZ Cleveland with a graphite recoil shaft on it,

Speaker: 00:24:51

which is regular. 95 grams and I've got the

Speaker: 00:24:56

48 degree CBZ Cleveland. That's not got the full face.

Speaker: 00:24:58

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:25:02

The 58's got a full face so it's got grooves right along,

Speaker: 00:25:05

which we'll show. So you can see that if I can manage to do it.

Speaker: 00:25:09

Can I get that? You can see the grooves right along the face.

Speaker: 00:25:12

And that's true for the 54 degree which is on its way as well.

Speaker: 00:25:13

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:25:17

So I lighter on the shafts,

Speaker: 00:25:20

which makes the head feel a little bit heavier.

Speaker: 00:25:22

So it'll be interesting to see how it goes with that.

Speaker: 00:25:24

But I'm looking forward to using it.

Speaker: 00:25:26

Nice.

Speaker: 00:25:27

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:25:28

What's the principle there? So you bought a lighter shaft and heavier,

Speaker: 00:25:33

heavier head? No, no, it's a normal head,

Speaker: 00:25:35

but it's just that the lighter shaft makes the head feel heavier.

Speaker: 00:25:37

Yeah, lighter and

Speaker: 00:25:39

softer. So normally I would have stiff or potentially extra stiff

Speaker: 00:25:43

all the way through the bag. But having met Joe,

Speaker: 00:25:44

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:25:48

who's the product manager at Strix,

Speaker: 00:25:49

and he suggested getting softer shafts in the 54 and the 58.

Speaker: 00:25:52

And I've done that. And actually going lighter as well.

Speaker: 00:25:56

So all my irons are 110 grams.

Speaker: 00:25:58

And then I've gone 95 on the 48,

Speaker: 00:26:01

but kept it stiff. And then on the 54 and the 58.

Speaker: 00:26:05

I've gone regular and I've dropped the weight to 95 well.

Speaker: 00:26:09

So yeah, be looking forward to see how that goes.

Speaker: 00:26:11

And it should hopefully promote the club going through a little bit better when

Speaker: 00:26:14

I'm chipping. I think that's the idea.

Speaker: 00:26:17

You know, around the greens that the club feels a little bit heavier

Speaker: 00:26:19

and you don't necessarily feel like your hands are going to dig in

Speaker: 00:26:23

or anything like that. So we'll see how it goes.

Speaker: 00:26:25

Fingers crossed.

Speaker: 00:26:25

Interesting.

Speaker: 00:26:26

So it makes it feel like it gives the clubhead a bit more or perceptual momentum.

Speaker: 00:26:30

Yeah, a bit more prominent. Yeah,

Speaker: 00:26:32

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:26:32

and I can feel

Speaker: 00:26:33

it, like just doing little swings even in here in this room,

Speaker: 00:26:38

which are tiny, like a foot back and a foot through.

Speaker: 00:26:38

Yeah, yeah. Really.

Speaker: 00:26:41

I can feel the head a lot more than I did on the other wedges,

Speaker: 00:26:45

which is amazing really.

Speaker: 00:26:47

That's funny. So yeah, mean it'll drop the center of gravity closer to the ground,

Speaker: 00:26:52

basically won't it? So it'll make it feel more like when you're swinging it's less

Speaker: 00:26:57

effort for more momentum potentially.

Speaker: 00:26:58

~

Speaker: 00:26:59

It'll

Speaker: 00:26:59

be interesting to how the ball flight comes out as well.

Speaker: 00:27:02

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:02

Obviously there's going to be potentially more spin but I don't know until

Speaker: 00:27:06

I hit them and I'm hoping to get a Trackman Bay and measure that against

Speaker: 00:27:07

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:27:10

my old wedges. So get my old 50,

Speaker: 00:27:13

hit a full shot, see what the spin is,

Speaker: 00:27:15

see what the launch angle, all that stuff and then do the same with the

Speaker: 00:27:18

new one and the same with the 48.

Speaker: 00:27:20

It'll be interesting to see. And the bounce is a little bit different

Speaker: 00:27:24

on both as well so I've got more bounce on each of them and so there's more.

Speaker: 00:27:28

on the underside of the club effectively.

Speaker: 00:27:30

So it'll be interesting to if that changes the profile of the ball coming

Speaker: 00:27:33

out as well.

Speaker: 00:27:35

That's cool. Okay. Yeah. So when they're coming out,

Speaker: 00:27:38

when's the rap coming off?

Speaker: 00:27:42

Soon. Before this round at the weekend.

Speaker: 00:27:47

So we'll see when I get the chance to do that.

Speaker: 00:27:49

Maybe tomorrow night or something,

Speaker: 00:27:49

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:51

hopefully.

Speaker: 00:27:52

Nice. Okay, cool. I look forward to hearing how they perform in action.

Speaker: 00:27:57

Yeah,

Speaker: 00:27:59

as long as it doesn't turn out that they're great at track man being rubbish

Speaker: 00:28:01

in the course. Obviously wanted to be good in both,

Speaker: 00:28:02

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:28:05

so we'll see.

Speaker: 00:28:06

Some advice then for me. So I've been thinking about this a bit because I've been

Speaker: 00:28:11

doing this. I found with my playing a bit smarter and laying up a bit more,

Speaker: 00:28:16

I'm often ending up with a shot somewhere between 80 and 120.

Speaker: 00:28:21

A full hit on my pitching wedge is something like 125,

Speaker: 00:28:26

130.

Speaker: 00:28:27

So, ~ but a full hit on my Sand Wedge,

Speaker: 00:28:30

that's all I've got just now, so no lob wedges or anything,

Speaker: 00:28:33

Right.

Speaker: 00:28:33

I just have a straight up Pitching Wedge Sand Wedge combo.

Speaker: 00:28:35

It's my Taylor made Stealth Irons.

Speaker: 00:28:39

Sand Wedge tends to go about 100,

Speaker: 00:28:41

maybe a little bit more at the moment,

Speaker: 00:28:42

maybe 105, 110.

Speaker: 00:28:45

I'm feeling like I need something for in between them.

Speaker: 00:28:47

I presume that is exactly what a lob wedge is for.

Speaker: 00:28:51

Something in between those two that's going to get me like 110,

Speaker: 00:28:55

115, something like that, that gives me a full swing to hit that distance.

Speaker: 00:28:56

Yeah, so you would look at

Speaker: 00:28:59

Is that right?

Speaker: 00:28:59

the profile and I would imagine your stealth iron's a wedge will be quite strong

Speaker: 00:29:04

so it's probably close to what a nine iron would be in a regular set if

Speaker: 00:29:09

you want to put it like that. So you could look at something in between.

Speaker: 00:29:13

Why'd say

Speaker: 00:29:14

that? Is that just what stealth irons are like?

Speaker: 00:29:16

Typically, yeah, typically that type iron.

Speaker: 00:29:19

So if you look at any sort of cavity back iron,

Speaker: 00:29:20

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:29:22

they tend to be a stronger loft.

Speaker: 00:29:23

But that's not necessarily true.

Speaker: 00:29:26

Obviously you want to get it measured,

Speaker: 00:29:28

but typically they're a little bit stronger.

Speaker: 00:29:30

And a lot of irons these days,

Speaker: 00:29:30

Yeah, cool.

Speaker: 00:29:32

if you look at the loft on an iron now,

Speaker: 00:29:34

like a seven iron now, it's probably what a five iron was 25 years ago,

Speaker: 00:29:38

Yeah, I've heard that.

Speaker: 00:29:38

which is funny. But yeah,

Speaker: 00:29:43

you want to get something

Speaker: 00:29:46

that gives you a consistent gap.

Speaker: 00:29:47

So if you're pitching wedge, and I'll just make up,

Speaker: 00:29:50

say your pitching wedge is 46 degrees,

Speaker: 00:29:52

which would be fairly normal, it might be 44,

Speaker: 00:29:54

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:29:55

maybe a strong one, then look for what the next measure is between that

Speaker: 00:30:00

and your sand wedge. So find out what your sand wedge is.

Speaker: 00:30:03

If your sand wedge is say 54, 55,

Speaker: 00:30:05

you probably want to get something about 50,

Speaker: 00:30:08

and that just helps you cover that gap.

Speaker: 00:30:10

And I think we've talked about...

Speaker: 00:30:14

Not necessarily trying to hit to a number,

Speaker: 00:30:16

which is how I would have done a lot of that before,

Speaker: 00:30:19

but hit the club and find out the number.

Speaker: 00:30:22

I.e. hit 10 balls with your wedge,

Speaker: 00:30:25

take the shortest out, the longest out,

Speaker: 00:30:27

and then get the average of the other eight.

Speaker: 00:30:28

Assuming you've had a good strike,

Speaker: 00:30:31

do the same with maybe the 50 degree.

Speaker: 00:30:34

If it's 50, you go for and take out the shortest and longest,

Speaker: 00:30:37

get the average and see what that is.

Speaker: 00:30:39

And then do the same with your sand wedge.

Speaker: 00:30:41

And that should then give you

Speaker: 00:30:43

like a really nice range of let's say 120,

Speaker: 00:30:45

100 and maybe it's 80 and I'm just making that up but it should just give

Speaker: 00:30:51

you three kind of stock shots and then the other thing you can work on

Speaker: 00:30:54

as you go forward is with each one you can maybe do a three quarter swing

Speaker: 00:30:58

so that gives you the three quarter 46 degree goes

Speaker: 00:30:59

Hmm. ~

Speaker: 00:31:03

X distance the three quarter 50 degree goes whatever distance in the same with

Speaker: 00:31:09

the 58 and that just gives you so much

Speaker: 00:31:12

coverage in terms of different distances.

Speaker: 00:31:16

That's the, I've read about something around the clock system that was at Tiger.

Speaker: 00:31:20

I used to talk about that a lot.

Speaker: 00:31:21

I'm sure others did as well, but.

Speaker: 00:31:22

Yeah,

Speaker: 00:31:23

well I guess invented and brought to the fore by Dave Pelts.

Speaker: 00:31:27

Like he's got a, if you get the book The Short Game Bible,

Speaker: 00:31:28

really? Okay.

Speaker: 00:31:31

he goes into massive detail about this.

Speaker: 00:31:31

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:31:34

And he would talk about having three positions and either three

Speaker: 00:31:40

or four wedges. So you've either got nine shots that you can hit or you've got 12.

Speaker: 00:31:44

And that gives you all the different trajectories,

Speaker: 00:31:46

all the different distances. And that can work really well.

Speaker: 00:31:50

mean, I'm...

Speaker: 00:31:51

I've not been disciplined, it's terrible admission,

Speaker: 00:31:53

but I've not been disciplined enough to do it.

Speaker: 00:31:55

But I have done it in the past,

Speaker: 00:31:57

but these new wedges, it's inspiration to go and say,

Speaker: 00:32:00

right, let's get these wedges,

Speaker: 00:32:02

let's get them all. I guess measured out is the way to say it when I'm hitting it.

Speaker: 00:32:06

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:32:06

Get the distances and do that really outside if I can,

Speaker: 00:32:10

even if I need to pace it off or use a laser and do it old school,

Speaker: 00:32:14

it's probably a really good way to do it.

Speaker: 00:32:15

Yeah. Yeah,

Speaker: 00:32:16

nice. I found myself hitting a lot of over the last couple of weeks,

Speaker: 00:32:21

like playing a bit more in the course and doing these kind of layup shots.

Speaker: 00:32:25

I often had a 90, 90 yards seemed to be my most common shot by far up to the green.

Speaker: 00:32:30

Yep.

Speaker: 00:32:31

And I found myself having this kind of I kind of managed to hone in over 15,

Speaker: 00:32:37

20 shots like that.

Speaker: 00:32:39

~ Over a few weeks this kind of three-quarter wedge shop that just seems

Speaker: 00:32:43

to go that pretty reliably So that was quite nice.

Speaker: 00:32:44

Perfect.

Speaker: 00:32:45

Actually. It was like somewhere I was thinking about that clock system

Speaker: 00:32:48

as I was doing it It was something like 10 to 11 so 10 to 11 o'clock back

Speaker: 00:32:53

and then just the same every time and that seemed yeah So I can I

Speaker: 00:32:55

can imagine that getting better and better.

Speaker: 00:32:57

I need sir. I need a bit longer I need something that can hit a hundred hundred

Speaker: 00:33:01

and ten hundred and twenty They're the best that I'm kind of missing at the moment.

Speaker: 00:33:04

I think so. Yeah

Speaker: 00:33:05

And the thing that's

Speaker: 00:33:06

nicer about that, mean obviously you could hit your sand wedge 90 say,

Speaker: 00:33:08

but I you live in Scotland, but even if you're not in Scotland or wherever,

Speaker: 00:33:09

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:33:12

if it's fairly windy, and I mean like 10,

Speaker: 00:33:16

I don't mean really strong winds,

Speaker: 00:33:17

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:33:18

but 10, 15 mile an hour, if you can hit your wedge and be pretty consistent

Speaker: 00:33:23

at 90 yards, you'll find it's not as affected by the wind.

Speaker: 00:33:26

So if you hit the sand wedge and it balloons up in the air,

Speaker: 00:33:26

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: 00:33:29

yeah it might go 90, but if it's into the wind it might go 75,

Speaker: 00:33:32

it might even go less.

Speaker: 00:33:34

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:33:34

or downwind it could do even more so.

Speaker: 00:33:37

It

Speaker: 00:33:37

gives you a lot of control over those shots,

Speaker: 00:33:39

which is nice.

Speaker: 00:33:39

I just find,

Speaker: 00:33:40

yeah, I also just find at my level,

Speaker: 00:33:43

my consistency, the sand wedge,

Speaker: 00:33:45

a full sand wedge is maybe not quite as bad as 50-50,

Speaker: 00:33:50

but at least 30, 40 % likely just to skin it,

Speaker: 00:33:53

just whack it straight through the green,

Speaker: 00:33:54

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:33:56

especially on a kind of tight lie.

Speaker: 00:33:59

So yeah, I just found my pitching wedge was a lot more reliable for that.

Speaker: 00:34:03

Like I could make good contact with it so much more easily with that

Speaker: 00:34:06

and with my sand wedge on a full swing.

Speaker: 00:34:09

Yeah,

Speaker: 00:34:09

totally. And you see the pros doing it.

Speaker: 00:34:09

That's why I kind of stuck to that.

Speaker: 00:34:11

see all the, most of the top pros,

Speaker: 00:34:14

mean there's a few exceptions,

Speaker: 00:34:15

but most of the top pros have got those three quarter shots and you'll

Speaker: 00:34:18

see them just feathering in a nice wedge from 80 yards.

Speaker: 00:34:23

They might take the 52 degree and keep it low,

Speaker: 00:34:23

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:34:25

a low spinner with that. They might have a slight cut or a slight draw

Speaker: 00:34:26

Really.

Speaker: 00:34:30

and try and take a bit of spin off,

Speaker: 00:34:32

doing it that way. typically the pros are trying to take spin off the shot.

Speaker: 00:34:33

Yeah. Yep.

Speaker: 00:34:37

rather than you're hit really hard and have loads of spin because

Speaker: 00:34:40

Had it.

Speaker: 00:34:40

it becomes uncontrollable.

Speaker: 00:34:43

Interesting. ~ Takes me to the other side of this.

Speaker: 00:34:47

The thing I was looking into recently around irons.

Speaker: 00:34:51

~ Gear in general, actually, like the resurgence or upsurge

Speaker: 00:34:56

in brands that are coming into golf,

Speaker: 00:34:58

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:35:00

looking to disrupt it, bringing in of lower...

Speaker: 00:35:03

Price gear like the kind of old brands tight list Callaway,

Speaker: 00:35:06

Shricks and all of them like they make great stuff But they tend to charge

Speaker: 00:35:09

for it because there hasn't been that much competition or there's always competition

Speaker: 00:35:13

But there hasn't been that much coming in like low price,

Speaker: 00:35:15

but you've got now So the thing that brought this to mind was a friend

Speaker: 00:35:18

of mine who plays a lot ~ kind of low Low teens,

Speaker: 00:35:24

I think he's maybe off 11 or 12 just now bought himself a set of Tacomo irons

Speaker: 00:35:25

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:35:28

you come across them at all Yeah

Speaker: 00:35:30

Heard of them, yeah, they look...

Speaker: 00:35:31

I think I've seen them and they look pretty nice,

Speaker: 00:35:33

almost blade looking in most of the sets.

Speaker: 00:35:35

They look really nice.

Speaker: 00:35:36

Yeah, totally. They do. Even their improvement forgiveness irons,

Speaker: 00:35:40

they're iron 101 mark two, they call them,

Speaker: 00:35:43

look pretty blady rather than cavity.

Speaker: 00:35:45

Exactly. So they look really nice,

Speaker: 00:35:46

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:35:48

but they're like 529 for a set,

Speaker: 00:35:50

a set of irons. And again,

Speaker: 00:35:51

Wow, that's really good. When you consider

Speaker: 00:35:54

that, I think like other brands are probably starting,

Speaker: 00:35:59

even for six clubs you're looking retail price is probably 1300.

Speaker: 00:36:03

It's usually about 200 a club now,

Speaker: 00:36:04

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:36:06

just over.

Speaker: 00:36:07

Yeah, totally. Yeah. So, I mean,

Speaker: 00:36:09

I was like, maybe I hadn't been planning to get a new set of urns this year,

Speaker: 00:36:13

but I kind of fancy it because I've had those stealths for a couple of years.

Speaker: 00:36:14

you

Speaker: 00:36:16

mean, it's fancy, I don't know.

Speaker: 00:36:17

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:36:18

But I've had those stealths for a couple of years and I got them second hand.

Speaker: 00:36:21

And even the little, is it the Hossel,

Speaker: 00:36:23

the wee plastic bit that attaches the,

Speaker: 00:36:25

like a couple of my clubs, like those are kind of cracking and coming off and stuff.

Speaker: 00:36:29

So they're a bit, I've probably got a good reason to swap it.

Speaker: 00:36:29

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:36:32

I was thinking, ~ that kind of price.

Speaker: 00:36:33

I think the thing

Speaker: 00:36:35

you could do as well is, mean,

Speaker: 00:36:36

a lot of these won't have custom fit and you should definitely want to

Speaker: 00:36:39

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:36:41

be getting a certain amount of tailoring on your clubs to get them right for you.

Speaker: 00:36:46

But you could take them to like a club fitter after you've bought them,

Speaker: 00:36:46

Mm.

Speaker: 00:36:49

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:36:50

assuming they're forged and they're easy to move and it's worth checking that,

Speaker: 00:36:52

Yep.

Speaker: 00:36:54

I think I've talked about that before.

Speaker: 00:36:55

If they're forged, you can move them fairly easily.

Speaker: 00:36:55

Yep.

Speaker: 00:36:58

I mean, rather than spending...

Speaker: 00:37:02

1300 quid and you get them for say,

Speaker: 00:37:05

I think it was 529 you said, you could take them to a club for,

Speaker: 00:37:08

it's probably £50 max to move them all and do that through a session even

Speaker: 00:37:12

Really?

Speaker: 00:37:13

in a Trackman bay, especially up the road as well where you are.

Speaker: 00:37:15

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:37:17

And that would get you, maybe the lies adjusted,

Speaker: 00:37:20

the loss adjusted potentially as well,

Speaker: 00:37:22

just make sure everything's right and you've got a really nice set of irons that,

Speaker: 00:37:26

one, look good, you like them,

Speaker: 00:37:28

you like the feel and are set up for you as well.

Speaker: 00:37:29

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:37:31

Nice. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Speaker: 00:37:33

Yeah, I'll have a think about that.

Speaker: 00:37:36

The other one, the other one. Have you come across any of the vice gear?

Speaker: 00:37:40

Only the golf balls. I've used a couple of different ones.

Speaker: 00:37:45

thought about buying them. But I've just tended to go with,

Speaker: 00:37:46

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:37:48

if I'm going to buy balls now that I'm not using in competition,

Speaker: 00:37:54

tend to just get the Pro Lake balls from eBay for the Pro V1,

Speaker: 00:37:59

Pro V1X. But what are the vice ones like?

Speaker: 00:38:01

I think there's quite a few options,

Speaker: 00:38:02

isn't there?

Speaker: 00:38:03

Yeah, the clubs they do, they do a couple of really nice looking,

Speaker: 00:38:07

or they do really nice woods and hybrids.

Speaker: 00:38:10

They just look good. They look pretty sleek.

Speaker: 00:38:10

Right?

Speaker: 00:38:13

I've not seen many reviews on the vice stuff,

Speaker: 00:38:16

but...

Speaker: 00:38:17

And the irons look really nice as well.

Speaker: 00:38:19

Like they're quite similar. Wow.

Speaker: 00:38:22

They look a bit more cavity. You've got the VG-101s with the VGI-01s,

Speaker: 00:38:27

is the kind of high quality one.

Speaker: 00:38:29

does look like a blade, but a really nice design on it.

Speaker: 00:38:31

And then the VGI-02, think is the...

Speaker: 00:38:34

~ no, it's the opposite way around actually.

Speaker: 00:38:36

The VGI-02 is our performance one.

Speaker: 00:38:39

And it looks more cavity, but it's got this kind of like style on the back

Speaker: 00:38:39

Right.

Speaker: 00:38:44

of it as if it's a terrain map or something like that.

Speaker: 00:38:46

They just look really nice.

Speaker: 00:38:47

All right, I'll be there.

Speaker: 00:38:48

There's

Speaker: 00:38:50

also like Decathlon. I don't know if they still do irons,

Speaker: 00:38:53

Hmm?

Speaker: 00:38:54

but I'd seen that they did irons before.

Speaker: 00:38:55

They looked really nice as well.

Speaker: 00:38:56

Really? Huh.

Speaker: 00:38:57

there's Kayleigh Golf, Scottish brand.

Speaker: 00:39:01

And I think they're actually assembled in Scotland,

Speaker: 00:39:03

which is nice. And there's one other that's escaping me at the moment.

Speaker: 00:39:04

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:39:06

But yeah, there's definitely quite a lot of choice out there.

Speaker: 00:39:09

As I say, if you can get the forced ones,

Speaker: 00:39:11

you can get them customized for you,

Speaker: 00:39:13

which is great.

Speaker: 00:39:15

Yeah, perfect. Well, yeah, just good to see kind of some new brands coming

Speaker: 00:39:19

in with different style and like you kind of tell from the way

Speaker: 00:39:21

I'm describing them here. I'm more about how they look than how they feel.

Speaker: 00:39:24

But you got to go and play them,

Speaker: 00:39:25

obviously, as well.

Speaker: 00:39:27

Or there's the other option is the Costco ones as well,

Speaker: 00:39:29

the Kirkland. They've got irons,

Speaker: 00:39:32

they've had wedges for a long time.

Speaker: 00:39:33

I know they've got driver. I don't know if they've got a three wood.

Speaker: 00:39:36

I can't remember seeing them. But yeah,

Speaker: 00:39:39

they've got a putter as well, which looks very like a Scotty Cameron.

Speaker: 00:39:42

The only thing I'll say is it's got a big massive Kirkland badge on it,

Speaker: 00:39:45

which doesn't look particularly appealing.

Speaker: 00:39:47

But it is basically the same as a Scotty Cameron.

Speaker: 00:39:48

Really?

Speaker: 00:39:50

So there's a lot of different options there.

Speaker: 00:39:53

What about balls as well? So, ~ Vice do some good balls.

Speaker: 00:39:57

You said they bought you by the Vice Ball.

Speaker: 00:39:59

Do you like them? Are they as good as anything around?

Speaker: 00:40:01

Yeah,

Speaker: 00:40:02

I mean I would choose some. I tend to stick to tight list style or Shrixon.

Speaker: 00:40:08

~ But certainly if you're playing a lot of golf and you're paying

Speaker: 00:40:15

50 quid for a box of Pro V1X now,

Speaker: 00:40:16

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:40:18

it's getting ludicrous. But if you can pick up the vice ones,

Speaker: 00:40:22

what are they? Something like 35 for two dozen?

Speaker: 00:40:25

Something like that. 40 pound for two dozen.

Speaker: 00:40:26

Mm, really? Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:40:28

They sell them in Costco as well,

Speaker: 00:40:30

funnily enough. I've seen them in there.

Speaker: 00:40:31

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:40:32

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:40:35

And I think, I could be wrong,

Speaker: 00:40:36

but I think they're a German brand.

Speaker: 00:40:38

Am I right in saying that as well?

Speaker: 00:40:39

Made in Germany. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:40:40

Manufactured in Germany, exactly.

Speaker: 00:40:42

The balls that I found actually were the seed balls,

Speaker: 00:40:45

you come across them as well.

Speaker: 00:40:47

Yeah, I've seen them. Yeah, I've not used the seats yet apart from finding them

Speaker: 00:40:50

at my golf club and giving them a smack down the range.

Speaker: 00:40:54

But I think it's great to have disruptive brands coming in and challenging

Speaker: 00:40:59

the norms and challenging the prices.

Speaker: 00:41:00

That's always a good thing, isn't it?

Speaker: 00:41:02

Especially when we're talking about the price around being £450.

Speaker: 00:41:03

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:41:06

~

Speaker: 00:41:07

Hahaha, yes exactly, yeah, you need to save on the gear so you

Speaker: 00:41:10

can actually afford the courses.

Speaker: 00:41:11

The last thing you want to add

Speaker: 00:41:12

to that is taking six brand new balls out losing them for another 30 quid.

Speaker: 00:41:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know,

Speaker: 00:41:17

I know. It's not a small thing,

Speaker: 00:41:18

isn't it? Lou's a couple of Pro V ones and that's a tenner down the drain and yeah,

Speaker: 00:41:22

totally. well. Right,

Speaker: 00:41:26

anything else on gear you want to cover?

Speaker: 00:41:30

I should have mentioned that actually I've got a trolley that's got GPS on it,

Speaker: 00:41:35

so a MotoCad AM5 GPS which I've used now the last three

Speaker: 00:41:41

or four rounds and found it really good actually,

Speaker: 00:41:44

it's brilliant, just works straight out of the box,

Speaker: 00:41:47

it finds your course that you're at and one of the nice things is it's embedded into

Speaker: 00:41:52

the top of the trolley and the handle so that's been really good

Speaker: 00:41:55

and I've found myself getting away from using the laser.

Speaker: 00:41:59

So I've used it three or four times,

Speaker: 00:42:01

saved so much time. I'm not digging into my bag to find a laser.

Speaker: 00:42:03

Really? Just quicker? Yeah.

Speaker: 00:42:05

Yeah, just walk up to the ball.

Speaker: 00:42:07

I've got the front of the green,

Speaker: 00:42:09

middle of the green, back of the green,

Speaker: 00:42:10

and you can actually move the little pointer around and get the point

Speaker: 00:42:14

of the green where the pin looks like it is.

Speaker: 00:42:16

So you can see maybe how far it is to clear a different part of the green.

Speaker: 00:42:21

So that's really nice. So yeah,

Speaker: 00:42:22

really, really good. Feels really well made.

Speaker: 00:42:26

And the thing is, it's...

Speaker: 00:42:29

certified for holes in the battery but I actually got 45 holes out of

Speaker: 00:42:33

it by treating it really nicely the last couple of times I was out.

Speaker: 00:42:36

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: 00:42:37

I'd forgotten to charge it of course so I thought no,

Speaker: 00:42:40

no way I'm not getting another 18 holes out this but I managed to get the full

Speaker: 00:42:44

18 so yeah 45 holes in total without charging it was brilliant.

Speaker: 00:42:48

I wonder if those electric trolleys are a bit dependent on the golfer too.

Speaker: 00:42:53

Like I probably walk further than you do on your average round.

Speaker: 00:42:56

I was definitely doing plenty of walking in a lot of those rounds,

Speaker: 00:42:59

let me tell you. It's all over the

Speaker: 00:43:01

show.

Speaker: 00:43:03

That's cool though, that's one of those little luxuries.

Speaker: 00:43:05

My dad uses one but I mean he's like 70 odd so I can kind of understand that.

Speaker: 00:43:09

I've always felt a bit like I'd be a total wuss if I was buying an electric trolley,

Speaker: 00:43:14

taking even more of the exercise out of it but actually,

Speaker: 00:43:14

No, no.

Speaker: 00:43:17

I don't know, I could buy into it.

Speaker: 00:43:20

I mean I've had an electric trolley years ago,

Speaker: 00:43:23

then I got a push trolley and I just find with a push trolley,

Speaker: 00:43:27

I think some of the issues I've got with my shoulders and my hands,

Speaker: 00:43:30

I do get a bit of tightness in my back,

Speaker: 00:43:31

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:43:33

even just pushing it. So I've found that I was totally gone using this electric

Speaker: 00:43:37

trolley which is great for me.

Speaker: 00:43:38

yeah, old man trick but it's definitely working well.

Speaker: 00:43:40

That's great.

Speaker: 00:43:42

No, I mean, it's good to get out for a practice round or whatever and get

Speaker: 00:43:46

out for a walk, it? For a wee bit of activity.

Speaker: 00:43:48

But when you're playing it, when you're trying to compete,

Speaker: 00:43:50

you don't want to be... you don't need to add the extra fatigue.

Speaker: 00:43:53

yeah.

Speaker: 00:43:53

Yeah, and I

Speaker: 00:43:55

carried my bag all winter because the course was so wet.

Speaker: 00:43:57

I wouldn't take any new trolley out on the golf course in the winter,

Speaker: 00:44:02

to be honest. So it's going to be a summer thing for sure.

Speaker: 00:44:05

Yeah, cool. All right, shall we jump into just a quick ~ summary of

Speaker: 00:44:11

the PGA champs coming up? I don't think you've even looked into it much,

Speaker: 00:44:14

have you Ross? Yet? No.

Speaker: 00:44:15

No, it's

Speaker: 00:44:16

funny, apart from the Masters,

Speaker: 00:44:18

the US opened a little bit and then they opened.

Speaker: 00:44:21

I don't get too excited about many tournaments.

Speaker: 00:44:24

I know and I've read a little bit online about the golf course.

Speaker: 00:44:30

seems to be they've done a reformat and they've cut a lot of trees down,

Speaker: 00:44:34

but it's got a sort of very British feel or certainly very English feel

Speaker: 00:44:37

to it in terms of golf course.

Speaker: 00:44:39

So what about yourself? You must have dug in a little bit.

Speaker: 00:44:42

Yeah, looking into it a wee bit.

Speaker: 00:44:43

I do quite enjoy watching a tournament and when I get,

Speaker: 00:44:48

I don't know, sometimes they catch my attention and I start looking into them

Speaker: 00:44:51

and sometimes they don't and this time it had.

Speaker: 00:44:53

I mean, obviously the kind of the stories around it are Scheffler going

Speaker: 00:44:58

for back to back. So he's on the shortest odds.

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Yep.

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So can he do that? But then you've got Cam Young,

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getting a lot of attention just now as well.

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Of course,

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is well-informed. But also the whole ball thing as well,

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like have you been following this story around the ball rollback and all that caper?

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Yeah, I picked

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up that Cam Young's using the ball that's the rollback ball already

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Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

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and he's still smashing drives 375 at Sawgrass.

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still beating

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people, yeah, totally, yeah. So he's like,

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if you're out there listening,

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you haven't heard about this, I had to look into this,

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because I had no idea either. But the RNA and the USGA,

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they want to roll the ball back about 5 % from 2028 for elite play

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to stop courses being totally overpowered.

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So they're basically taking the current ball technology and rolling it back.

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They claim like around 5 % in terms of performance.

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I don't know exactly what that means in reality,

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but.

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The pros are pretty furious. Us amateurs not really that affected.

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But that's about it, isn't it?

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think it's measured

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by the speed of the ball coming off at a certain club head speed

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is what I understand. even myself calling with what I've done over

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the last two years and especially in the winter there,

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I've been able to add like 10 miles an hour to my own club head speed.

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Sorry, five or six miles an hour to my own club head speed and about

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12 miles an hour on the top end to my ball speed.

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If I can do that and I'm definitely not a full-time professional golfer.

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I'm certainly not in the gym. These guys can pick up 5 % is nothing.

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They could probably do that in genuinely a month.

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Just swinging a little bit harder and be consistent with it.

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I think if we're really serious about a rollback,

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and I've gone back and forward on this,

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if we're truly serious about it,

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you need to move it back 10, 15 % because the guys will make it up.

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Really? Yeah.

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They'll make up half of that dead easy.

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Yeah, really interesting. Yeah,

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yeah, it doesn't seem like a lot,

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does it? But I suppose when you're at that level,

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like those kind of little tiny incremental gains do make a bit of a difference.

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Maybe there is something in that,

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but still, yeah.

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Yeah, and there's so many,

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you know, we just talked about the price of golf courses.

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Part of that is these courses have had to spend a lot of money extending.

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So if you don't need to extend your golf course,

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and of course, your dad would have known a lot about that as well back

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in the day when he was doing redesigns and all that kind of thing.

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Think of the money that's been effectively wasted on these amazing golf courses,

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moving tees. And a lot of times...

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Yeah, just try to

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some yards.

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A lot of times in some courses they're literally just adding yards,

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they're not even thinking about what the layout looks like after it,

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so it's quite sad.

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Yeah, doesn't make it better, just makes it longer.

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Yeah, totally. The other one is Jordan Spieth,

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isn't it? Like, he's on the Grand Slam narrative now.

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So now that Rory's got his, guess it's Jordan Spieth as the next one.

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So he's the only other one, isn't it?

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That's the other narrative that's going on just now.

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So, but yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker: 00:47:58

Enjoy watching it this weekend.

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It's funny, we've

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gone from best player not to one majors now to best player with a chance

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of winning a Grand Slam, so there's him.

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And Scotty, think Scotty needs the US Open,

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is that right? That would be the one that he's not got.

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Is that right? Really? I couldn't tell you which one.

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Yeah. Yeah. But I think Speithson coming into good form.

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I quite like him. I think he's quite entertaining.

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Don't always like the amount of time he takes,

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but the way he does it is always really entertaining.

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So yeah, I think he's a great player.

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I'd love to see him back doing really well.

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Yeah, that's cool. All right, we'll report back next week.

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See who won. ~ Right, Ross, do want to jump into the open before we turn it up?

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Yeah, speaking of those green fees,

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but an amazing golf course in Scotland,

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Macra Hanish, on Saturday the 19th of September.

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Got a Texas scramble on, so yourself and three of your friends could go,

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and it's £80 a team, so £20 each.

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Not an easy place to get to necessarily.

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It's definitely a commitment to get there,

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No.

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meant to be spectacular. I've seen incredible pictures of it.

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I a few people that have been there.

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Just out by Campbelltown, and yeah,

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80 quid, 36 handicap limit.

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Great round of golfing, Maccahannish.

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What a day out or weekend out that is.

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So really good value as well.

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This is on our list for me and my dad,

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my brother going off on trips.

Speaker: 00:49:17

My dad wants to play it. It's one place he hasn't played in Scotland yet.

Speaker: 00:49:19

Really?

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One of the top courses. Yeah. It's a long way to get to it.

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So it's such a trial, but yeah,

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hopefully this year at some point.

Speaker: 00:49:28

Brilliant, sounds great.

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Cool, okay, I'm going to tie it up because the builders seem to be starting

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to build stuff downstairs. Ruining our sound here,

Speaker: 00:49:37

Ross. So thank you out there for listening.

Speaker: 00:49:39

Please do get in touch. We're always looking for feedback.

Speaker: 00:49:42

Go over to hello at both par.

Speaker: 00:49:45

That's our email address send us something in for that and you can check

Speaker: 00:49:48

out the site as well sign up for the newsletter these days put out

Speaker: 00:49:51

a newsletter to update you on the podcast on everything else give you some golf news

Speaker: 00:49:55

as well ~ All sorts of stuff in there to help you with your game.

Speaker: 00:49:59

It's over at bothpar.com Otherwise,

Speaker: 00:50:02

we'll see you next week. I'll talk to you then Cheers

Speaker: 00:50:05

Cheers, Colt.