Lukas Michel on His Travels and His Preparations for the Masters

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. Today's podcast is brought to you by our friends at b Dratty. Just like the greatest golf architects, b dratty is all about the meticulous attention to detail. Every product is designed with intention, just like the Chadwick Gingham button down shirt. I just picked up one of these and it is a game changer. It has quickly become one of my favorites. I love a little bit of a off course style post round style that they have created a b Dratty. The fabric is wonderful. It's got that snappy feel and a spread collar that has built in memory wire collar stay, so you're not going to get a sloppy collar, which nobody wants to sloppy collar. Why hasn't anybody else thought of that? That's what I wonder like, why are there are more conversations about sloppy collar? And of course is made using many of the techniques that made their polos so popular and obviously easy to dress up or dress down. Today's episode I am joined by Raining longest raining you know now almost two years Raining us Midam Champ Lucas, Michelle Lucas has been on a grand golf tour of America since he came back over for the US AM and US Open. He's been working with Mike Derees on a restoration renovation of Bloomfield Hills in Michigan.

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Speaker 2: Also, so we talk.

00:01:32
Speaker 1: About his Master's prep as well as what he's been up to the last few months and a lot of the.

00:01:38
Speaker 2: Great golf courses he's played.

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Speaker 1: So Lucas is somebody that I'm pulling for next week and hopefully you guys all become fans of his. Without further ado, here is Lucas Michelle And of course if you missed our first conversation, we talked after his US Midam win, so you can check that out from a a little over a year now. One quick note also sorry I said without further ado already, but one other quick note. We will have extensive Masters coverage on the website on the podcast. This is the first of many episodes coming, as well as newsletters and articles on the site. So the easiest way to stay up to date is to sign up for our newsletter Master's Week. It will be a daily newsletter. Go to the website thelfridagg dot com. There's a bar right there. That's sign up for our free email newsletter. Just enter your email there. It'll get you locked in and you won't miss anything that we put out this week. Will Knights does an awesome job with the newsletter. You know, Garrett I and Will will be pumping out articles and fresh stuff all week long.

00:02:50
Speaker 2: So sign up for the newsletter.

00:02:51
Speaker 1: At the Fridagg dot com and thank you for listening to the podcast.

00:02:56
Speaker 3: I miss the Green, for example, I'm already upset when I find my ball in the bumper, I'm really upset.

00:03:01
Speaker 4: And when I find my ball.

00:03:02
Speaker 3: In a bright egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg Frida egg egg egg egg bright egg, Lie, I'm about ready.

00:03:08
Speaker 4: To run off with the thirteen. That's a really good short for, isn't it. With the creek on fact. Yeah, yeah, we saw him there and I said like, you've come, like that was the only time we saw him. I was like, oh, you've come the right time, Like this is a great hole and we're talking about that.

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Speaker 2: But did he roll up with his cart without a top?

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Speaker 4: It's convertible. I think he was using a proper card at that point. But it was a good guy. We actually went and checked out wake Forest's little facility as well. Out of the back. So he took us through the little fence. I don't know if you've been through. Yeah, it's like a little back way through the fence and that, and that's pretty cool set up over there too. But it was a good day.

00:03:55
Speaker 3: I've had a.

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Speaker 4: Really good trip. Like overall, you missed out. Oh, I know, I'm completely missed out. I thought about coming over for it, but it was never really it's hard from Australia. No one, no one really, not many of Aussies go unless you're like really.

00:04:15
Speaker 2: Good, yeah, trying to think.

00:04:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always because you see all like the random guys. I always like laugh about like seeing like somebody from Norway playing golf college golf at Texas Tech and Lubbock, Texas, and I'm like, you know, this goes from Norway to Lubbock, Texas. It's got to be like the most ultimate culture shock. But Australian do you guys just turn pro.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got we've got pretty good like high performance programs. And for a while, I think in like the late nineties, there was a lot of kids from Australia going to college and then Australia realized that they should probably do something to try and like match the college system, so they started like this Australian Institute of Sport, and then all the states in Australia have created these sporting institutes and with like scholarships of their own, and that kind of attracted people away from America. So that's as what. I don't know. I think the college system is really good. I think the competition, the level of condition, you can't beat it. Whether the coaching and that side of things actually develops the players as good is would be questionable. But if you want to just play against the best players in the world in that Asian college's the way to do it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you think of Old Town?

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Speaker 4: Yes, it's awesome. I'd been so. I mean there's been a pretty cool trip I've been to like everywhere, but I liked it probably every bit as much as Pinehaust number two. I thought it was because Pineus number two is like a funny one. Like, I really don't know how I feel about Pinehouse number two. I don't know where it sits for me because the land's good but not great, and it's obviously sand and all that, But and the green complexes are interesting, but there's not much not that much variety in them because they're all kind of crowned. And then it's it's really hard obviously. I don't know. I just I'm I like it as a golf course, but I'm I'm not sure if it's as good as it's made out to be. I don't know. That's just how that's just like my little impression of it, like Old Town Club was was awesome. I mean, it's such a more undulating, varied kind of property with creeks and lots of interesting natural features running through it, and on top of that, it's a really good routing that uses the land really well. It's just like if I was comparing that to Pinehurst, I just felt like there was more to offer it old Town Club than Pinehurst.

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Speaker 2: But I mean it's interesting.

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Speaker 1: I always think of Pinehurst number two as like a sum of all parts golf course, like there's no there's no weaknesses, and the stretcher. I think one of the things that gets lost is like that stretch of like three through six at Pinehist number two is really good, but it comes to really right.

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Speaker 4: And that's and that's probably where the land is best if you're probably going to talk about like where the land movement's best and using the natural features and all that. So, yeah, for sure, that's that's where that course probably pops in. You're right, it's early in the round, so you probably come away a little maybe a little kind of forgetful of how good those early holes are. But obviously like sixteen seventeen or fifteen sixteen seventeen and eighteen are great as well.

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Speaker 1: So it's like that's like one of the things where I always like think about with like really great golf courses, like what's the worst hole there? And then it because pine her number two, it's really hard to pick the worst hole.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if I was high, might not be as high.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Like there's no real weak holes. I think there's what it's. It's is it eleven and twelve that are like kind of they're a little disconnected from the routing, Like all the other holes are kind of like in amongst each other, and then those two are kind of like an extra whole holes width away from the other holes, and they kind of just sort of sit out there on their own. You kind of go out back. There's sort of the same distance roughly in a lot of similar features. They're probably the only two that kind of like maybe kind of blend into one in my mind. But there's still really good holes in their own right. They're just kind of a little disconnected from the other.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're pretty flat that part of the land.

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Speaker 1: It's like I I know in that part of the like you know, I haven't been there a bunch of times, Like you can kind of lose track of like what hole is that? Like just like what you did, Like I've had that same moment in my It's like is that eleven?

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Speaker 2: That twelve?

00:09:19
Speaker 1: Like it's I completely get how you feel about behind Hurst number two. I really like the golf course, but that's where like memorability I think, you know, but it's really good when you look at everything.

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Speaker 2: But old Town I agree, spectacular, right.

00:09:37
Speaker 1: The neat thing I think about old Town is in the and Garrett asked We did a podcast on old Town and Garrett asked me this question.

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Speaker 2: I'm curious your thoughts. Do you think there's like what would you do to make old Town better?

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Speaker 4: There's probably not much. It's pretty severe land. Like it's pretty severe land. So I think they've pretty much got as much out of it as as they could. There's probably a couple tee shots where you feel like it's maybe a touch awkward, but like the intimacy of the routing and how well it does use the land, Like you're always going to have like a couple shots given how severe it is. I think you're always gonna have a couple shots that just feel a little like they kind of got stuck with this little corner of the property and they had to had to use that on a t shot. I think trying to remember, like I think, what is it like.

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Speaker 2: Four?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, four a little bit. There's a couple of those, like semi blind ones where or even like nine to an extent, like it kind of a little too severe the side slope and everything kind of runs into the the ride and then you've got a few maybe trees that are in your way on the right, just like tiny little stuff. But it's not I mean, it uses the land as good as anywhere.

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Speaker 1: See That's why I kind of it's like if you went out there and you're like okay, like almost every course in America, I feel like you can go out and you can be like, you know what, you're at like eighty percent of what you could be, you know, and and that place and a lot of it is credit to Dunlop White who's out there in the greens chair, and then Bill Corr that place.

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Speaker 2: That place is maxed out pretty much. And there's it deserves.

00:11:30
Speaker 1: So much praise because it's actually a golf club that has realized, fully realized there are golf courses, you know, capabilities and what it is.

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Speaker 4: It is it like there's hardly a tree limb that you'd trim more, you know, a little slope that you might fix up. Like it's as good as it gets for what's there. It's awesome.

00:11:52
Speaker 1: I had Colin Sheenanon, who's the coach of Yale and one of.

00:11:56
Speaker 2: The founders of the Outposts.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: He he thought it was so similar to Augusta. And I'm curious that you're obviously getting ready to play the Masters next week and I assuming you've been out there a couple of times, Yeah, how would you compare Old Town in Augusta.

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Speaker 4: We actually spoke about it today. I was chatting to Will. As soon as I got a couple holes in, I was like, well, this is perfect preparation because the greens were rolling at like twelve. They've got heaps of slope on them. They're bent grass, which is unusual for this area. And yeah, there's a lot of sloping lies in the fairways, and I mean it really is like perfect preparation. I wish I'd had a few extra days. I probably would have bunkered down here and you know, try to play it a few more times. But yeah, I think there's not too many courses that would have been better preparation than old Town. You know, Augusta probably it it's not Augusta is like a pretty wide golf course, but old Town's probably got a little bit more forgiveness of the tea and then it's obviously august is probably a touch longer. But I mean, in terms of prep, it's pretty damn close to the ideal place to be practicing. I'd say the greens at Old Town probably they're probably more cantered than Gusters. Maybe, like Augusts have a lot a lot of internal movement, and I'm not sure if Old Towns have as much. But like that's tiny like that, They've still got heaps of heaps of slope on the greens at both courses and yeah, it couldn't have been a better place to play around a golf today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine with the with Augusta before the tree planting stuff and certain halls where you know, like I think one of the neat things with Old Town is you hit a ball, So you hit a drive and you just catch it a little on the toe and you get a little DROs spin and it's five yards left of where you want to hit it.

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Speaker 2: It catches a slope.

00:13:59
Speaker 1: Out there and just shoot, it'll roll thirty five yards further away from where you wanted to be. And I imagine that there's a lot of the features that Augusta used to play, like in the nineties.

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Speaker 2: Or even earlier than that, where you know, you.

00:14:14
Speaker 1: Just missed and it just it shoots it, and Augusta still has a lot of that in it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I think for sure, I think Old Town probably is the course Augusta should probably play and look a bit more like you know. Obviously, Augusta hosts probably the most important golf tournament in the world, and part of that is probably challenging the best players in the world. But even if the esthetic could just be changed a little bit more to look a bit more like old towns. That would probably be a good thing for golf. But yeah, it's tough because Augusta does a pretty damn good job at what they're doing and you wouldn't want to change too much.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. It's always hard.

00:15:00
Speaker 1: You're nitpicking, you know, with a lot of stuff. But you've got one of the more unique preparations for a major championship season of an amateur. Obviously you're you're stuck in Australia.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and now now you're kind of stuck here.

00:15:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, you took You've been working on a restoration renovation project with Mike Debrees up in Bloomfield Hills Country Club. Talk a little bit about that experience and how how did that all get set up.

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Speaker 4: I'm just yeah, I'll start probably. I mean, last time we chatted was September last year, just after I'd won, and at the time I've been chatting to Mike Clayton about helping him out with some architecture stuff because it's something that I've always been interested in and I had like a little bit of technical background, like I studied an engineering degree, but it wasn't that relatable. But at least. It kind of was something to kind of give me some sort of like knowledge in terms of like drawing up plans and engineering drawings and that sort of stuff. But yeah, so Mike, Mike needed a little bit of help from that department. And then so we throughout like early twenty twenty, we went to a couple of courses, looked at a few things, but very minor stuff, and then COVID happened. I actually went over the States, went to Augusta, actually played Prepped at Augusta, and then that was like March fifteen, So that was when everything went down, and so I ended up coming back home. I had to quarantine for two weeks and then I got locked down completely, so I couldn't touch a club for like it was a total of that. Wow, I could touch a club, but I couldn't play golf for it was like eight or nine weeks. I was just hitting balls in a ned in my backyard for like a year.

00:16:53
Speaker 1: I had like a home I remember the Instagram she had like your home gym set up in your front yard.

00:17:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had like it was like the most ghetto looking setup because I rent a house from Metropolitan Golf Club where I'm a member, and it's in a reasonable area, but like I get a really good deal on the rent, So it's like a pretty it's like a little bit run down the house and there's like a lot of like from the previous owner. There's like a lot of like bricks and like plumbing parts and all this other stuff in the backyard. So I with my housemate, who's the assistant pro at the club, we made this makeshift gym and then we had like this net setup that was like, I mean, it's a miracle that balls didn't go flying through the net into neighbors and all that. But I had a track man there so I could actually do some pretty decent practice.

00:17:43
Speaker 2: That's great.

00:17:43
Speaker 1: You got a net that you're nash, a shotting net that you're nasher could keep the balls, but you got a thirty.

00:17:49
Speaker 4: Dollars track then and yeah, exactly, and then the and then the contrast between my gym set up and then like Rory McRoy in his like home gym in Jupiter, I don't know where he lives where he's just like working out on his peloton and then he's got his like one hundred thousand dollars jym set up. It was pretty funny because we're both prepping for effectively the same tournament. But yeah, so it was interesting. I didn't get to play much golf for ten weeks or so, and then golf opened up and I got to play a little bit, but there was no tournaments, and then in August I sort of USAM was sort of touch and go whether it was going to go ahead, and it ended up that it would go ahead, so I came over for that. But prior to that, I spoke to Mike Clayton, and obviously he's now in partnership with Mike Derees and Frank Pont in that in CDP Golf Clayton, de Freeze Pond. So I kind of worked out really well timing wise, because Mike Derees was starting a project at Bloomfield Hills Country Club in near Detroit August one, and I was heading to the States August six to go to the Bandon USAM at Bandon, and then straight after Bandon I would have like five weeks between that and the US Open, So I ended up heading to Bloomfield Hills. I didn't really I don't really at the time. I didn't know anything that detailed about golf course construction or growing or anything like that. So it was a good opportunity for me to learn a lot more in that department. So I spent four weeks at that point with Mike just learning some hands on golf course construction, design and construction like basically everything. I was hopping in bunkers, digging, you know, digginged edging lips and you know, filling in with sand, helping fill them with sand with the crew from Labar Golf Renovations, which is one of the big contractors. So but it was also fascinating, like I do that, but it was fascinating just watch watching Mike operate a bulldozer as well. I mean, there's probably not too many people in the industry that have as many hours on a bulldozer as Mike debrees, So watching him like shell out bunkers and then and then like the crew from Labar coming in and you know, Mike could sort of mark out where he wanted the edge, and then the guy that they had from Labar was just a genius on an excavator and he would just you know, finish it up to exactly how Mike wanted it. It was pretty cool to watch and I got to hop in a bulldozer. I probably only spent a few hours overall on the whole trip, because it was it was a pretty expedited sort of project they were trying to get.

00:20:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, came together really quick.

00:20:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was like getting they were Basically it was every single bunker on the course rebuilt. I think they added overall, the bunker numbers stayed about the same. They might have added a couple extras, but overall it stayed about the same, but it was effectively like seventy new bunkers. There was green expansions on most greens, if not all of them, and then like sort of expansions of short grass areas as well around them. And then there was three brand new greens. So they redid a Part three. They converted two part fours into a path three and a long part four because that was like the existing or the original layout had a three and a four in that area, so they kind of restored that, and then they rebuilt another Part three green that was kind of sort of crammed in near the clubhouse. So it was a lot of work, I think they probably so it started on August one, and they they would. They were scheduled to finish October thirty first, but I think it might have got pushed back a week or so. But it basically basically it's just so it was all done in what's that three months? Yea, So it was pretty it was a pretty fast expedited sort of project. But I mean so I spent four weeks at the initial stage between USAM and US Open, and then I went away played US Open, and then I went back for another three weeks or so and kind of watched it almost go to completion. So it was really cool to see it all unfold and look at how like someone like Mike sort of project manages it with the construction, the contractor and all that sort of stuff. Was really interesting.

00:22:37
Speaker 1: What would you is somebody that hadn't spent time on a projects? Aye, Like, what was the thing that shocked you the most? Was there anything that you were like, WHOA, I didn't realize.

00:22:47
Speaker 4: I think this is probably unique to myke degrees, but I was standard how how much time he spent on site, Like I think he's probably a little bit unique in the industry. Like everyone talks about, you know, like the new New age golf course architects sort of their design and builders, and they spend a lot more time on site. But Mike Devrees legitimately spends seven am till seven pm on site six days a week, and if they're running behind or they get a bad weather day, he'll be there on Sunday as well for you know, another eight hours or so. So he legitimately spends almost every waking hour on a golf course in a bulldozer eighty percent of the time. It was pretty crazy. But so that was probably the most surprising thing. I don't think that's specific to golf course construction like in general, but that was like a very interesting thing I saw about how Mike Derees works, which was, I mean amazing, Like I've never seen anyone who who would you know, I can't imagine anyone else does it like that. It's it's yeah, really impressive.

00:23:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, I always find it amazing. You've touched on it earlier. It's like the excavator. The guys who are you know, a sheep working on an excavator is like the precision and how like, you know, how minute their cuts can be on those bumper edges, and then they do that they pad him down. It is just it's unbelievable to see him work with that, you know, the bucket of the of the excavator and how they use like all all parts of it to get the edge exactly how they want it.

00:24:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like, so the guy they had, Mike basically specifically asked for this guy, Sammy, because he'd worked with him before. He's one of the Labar guys. And he's it's not like he's like he doesn't even play golf, he doesn't know golf really, but he's done. He's built a lot of bunkers, so he kind of knows what they need to look like. And Mike could just say, you know, here's the edge I want it kind of like this deep whatever, and Sammy had just come in and just it's like an extension of his arm. He's literally just like a guy just like a little t Rex arm, just like scraping way everything, patting it down, you know, scraping it off to the side, and then scooping it up, and any excess material was just putting in a dumper. It'd be driven away to a dump site. So it was like it was literally like he had his arm just just scaled up by like a hundred and he was just out there just digging away and making this perfectly shaped bunk. It was awesome to watch.

00:25:21
Speaker 1: It's they they're almost more precise than me with an arm. Like if I went to the beach and tried to build something like what they build, I wouldn't be as good as they are, and like not always great soil, but it's just unbelievable to mere operating a heavy piece of machinery better than I could, you know, operate my hands on a sandy beach.

00:25:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's crazy. These guys are so good.

00:25:45
Speaker 1: That so you start a ton of stuff. Did you see a bunch of stuff in Michigan while you were there?

00:25:52
Speaker 2: Yeah? I went up.

00:25:55
Speaker 4: It was interesting. I went to Crystal Downs with Mike. He's a he's a member, but also he's I mean, he's he worked in the backroom from the age of fourteen, and then he worked on the golf and Sevane like through college until he's like twenty four and then and then he got the job at high Point with Tom sort of helping out there. So I mean he he pretty much went from yeah, like growing up at Crystal Downs to then becoming a member there and now being a golf course architect. So I walked around the course twice with him at Crystal Downs, which was just incredible that there's not too many people better that you'd want walking you around Crystal Downs. You know, him and Tom dok are probably two guys that have a pretty good understanding of that golf course. And you could argue that Mike's got even more experience at that golf course than Tom, which is pretty incredible. And then Kingsley Club, we went up there, played there, which was like another awesome golf course. You could see how much Crystal Downs sort of Inflo whins his design there at Kingsley because they're on very quite similar plots of land in a similar area with similar vegetation in that.

00:27:07
Speaker 1: So that's I see so much Maxwell and bikes stuff like even all Town, ye see a lot of like all you know, and obviously because of Crystal Downs and you know, yeah, but like just the way he built greens with the you know, the simplistic you know, kind of muffins and and uh and rolls in them.

00:27:31
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of sad that the only thee course I've played is is Kingsley. I haven't been down to Cape Wickham in Australia, which I need to see, and we didn't get the chance to go up to Marquette Gray Walls, but yeah, Kingsley's awesome. We also went to Belvidere Charla super cool. We love that. That was That place is awesome.

00:27:58
Speaker 2: That's like the perfect golf club, the little.

00:28:01
Speaker 4: Club, semi private sort of deal, like anyone can kind of get on there. It's not that expensive. It's awesome, little little course. It's actually not even that little of a golf course. It's it's quite a good test.

00:28:14
Speaker 1: That's The greens out there are really neat too, you know, Like it's funny because I feel like Willie Watson gets characterized by Olympic Club, but you go out there and it's like kind this place has so much character and like a little spunk.

00:28:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, they've expanded out things. I think it's Bruce Hepner that's done a lot of the work there, so things that, like Mike said, like it was much improved since he was last there, so it was cool to see it. It was. It was really good. And then down sort of nearer Detroit, we went to We kind of saw a lot actually near Detroit. We'd kind of go every Sunday when he had the day off, he'd take me out to somewhere news So like meadow Brook, which is really cool, really funky. Yeah, it's wild.

00:29:01
Speaker 1: I like, you know, Andy Steeples did that. I always say, like, you know what, he didn't chicken out at all.

00:29:07
Speaker 4: No, crazy Mike couldn't believe it was like, how did you get this through the membership? Like he was like, that's what I'm greater cell of all time. But yeah, it's that's place is so cool. And then like Franklin Hills, which is Donald Ross, which coincidentally was like four hundred yards from where I was staying, Like it was legitimately like just around the corner, which was cool. I went out there with the superintendent who took me around and that was really fun. Brian, Yeah, yeah, he's awesome. So that was good to see. Indian Wood, which probably has as much potential as anywhere that place d Yeah, the place is so cool. If they could just spend a little bit of money to expand out some greens there and just yeah, some moningline stuff, but other than that, it's still awesome to see.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, that land. It remained me like of shittacock the land.

00:30:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I've not been ashing a cock, but I mean it's incredible, Like Sandy Rolling Undulation looked like it was. It was so cool.

00:30:11
Speaker 1: I put that on like the all potential lists, like I would if if you gave somebody like Mike or Tom or you know, the ability to do greens and greens and bunkers there and fix the mowing lines.

00:30:24
Speaker 2: Oh my god, because the greens in the surrounds are kind of repetitive out there. But guy, that that place could be unbelievable.

00:30:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really cool. What else? Orchard Lake we went up to, which was really cool as well. And I played Detroit Golf Club as well when I was there, so I got a pretty good look at sort of golf in Michigan when I was when I was there, which was really cool because I didn't realize how good of a golfing city Detroit, Detroit is, and then how good of a golfing state. I didn't get up to like Arcadia Bluffs or anywhere like that, but or the foris the Loop, yeah up there. But I got a pretty good look at some of the old school stuff mainly, and then a few of like say, like Mike's stuff at Crystal at Kingsley Club, which was was cool.

00:31:14
Speaker 2: What uh?

00:31:15
Speaker 1: And then you did you did a big Boston trip too, and Philly you were You've been living the dream.

00:31:22
Speaker 4: Yeah it was, I mean, it's it was. It's been a really good trip. I never expected to play this much golf when when I was here, but yeah, at at the Open, I kind of could have gone to probably played some golf on Long Island after the US Open. But my caddie, Will Davenport has spent the last two two and a half years in Philadelphia him studying doing his NBA at Wharton and so he he's a really good mid am player and had a bunch of contacts in Philly. So we lined up a really good trip out in philadel So we played I think the first course we played was Rolling Green, which is awesome.

00:32:08
Speaker 2: That's kind of reminiscent of Old Town too, with the land.

00:32:11
Speaker 4: Yeah similar it is. Yeah, yeah, so Rolling Green was really cool. Where we go next? We went to Old Stonewall Stonewall Old, which was really cool as well. I love that eighteenth whole so cool. I remember reading about it actually in the Getting to Eighteen book about how Tom had like re routed that to be right next to the clubhouse, which is cool Philly cricket, which is awesome. I'd been and I'd played the the Militia Hill course there a couple of years ago, but they had a tournament on the the Wissy Hickins, So I'm going to play the Wizy Hickens this time, which was awesome.

00:32:53
Speaker 1: So Buddy said that those courses, if you told them, like, they sound like they're made up courses like Whissa Hicken particular.

00:33:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, but it's awesome. Yeah, And then we went to We played Pine Valley and Marion on the weekend, which was like topped off the trip. We also played actually I've got we played Hidden Creek as well, which is down there kind of more near Jersey Shore kind of area, and that's that's awesome too, like really kind of subtle, doesn't try to you know, be try and do too much. It's kind of like lots of ground greens on the ground and kind of yeah, it's really it's really cool. But yeah, Pine Valley and Marion to finish the week was pretty nice as well, so it was my second time playing Pine Valley. I played it a couple of years ago. But we got a nice day for it. And I mean golf doesn't get any better than Pine Valley.

00:33:50
Speaker 2: Triple the lifetime.

00:33:52
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah.

00:33:53
Speaker 1: Talk about the Open, How how was that experience? Obviously played first major championship.

00:34:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was. It was. It was tough, like the course was set up really tough. The toughest part for me, and I think it probably was all the amaateurs as well, was the amateurs didn't really have a good schedule through summer. There wasn't really a lot of events to lead into the Open with, so in a way, it was like I think everyone, all the amaateurs kind of came in a little a little rusty, out of out of kind of practice. You know, as much as you can hit balls and beat balls at your home track, there's nothing quite like playing a bunch of tournaments through summer. And I think, I mean one amateur made the cut in the end, which is you know, given that there was twelve out there and I think the top seven on the World Amateur Golf rankings got exempt, so there was a lot of good amateurs playing that event. To have only one made the cut was probably more a reflection of the amateur schedule just being so disrupted, Whereas you know, the pros were playing made a bunch of events to lead into the with. But I mean I played okay.

00:35:03
Speaker 1: It's interesting talk about, you know, just leading into event, like just what you notice with your game not being as sharp?

00:35:12
Speaker 2: Where do you see?

00:35:14
Speaker 4: Yeah? For me, it's like the toughest part all The area I've been struggling with lately was getting off the tee in you know, just putting it in position off the tee. That's something that I don't know without playing tournaments, I was really really struggling with. I'm not sure if it's like the pressure when you when you've got an event or you've got a bunch of events on you. You get used to like just getting into your preshot routine and getting all your preparation before you hit it right. But something about not playing a bunch of events just had me. I was just hitting it everywhere off the tee, which was an ideal at wingfoot, so that that hurt me. And then just little stuff around the greens, like I mean, wing foot can make you look stupid around the greens. Those greens are crazy, but I mean on for example, in the final of the second round, my final round, the second round, I hit it green side for two on the ninth. The ninth was my last hole, and so I've got like a basic twenty yard chip. I went like a little bit through the green. I've got a basic, like twenty yard chip. I chip it like a little too firm, and it rolls down. It's like sitting up against the collar, probably only ten or twelve feet from the hole. And then I tried to put it, but because it was up against the collar, I kind of tried to hit a little bit harder in case the part of grabbed, and then I hit it like eight feet past and then I really want to hold the part for par because I actually had a reasonable round going. If I think I hold it for par, I think I shot seventy five on the second round, which was actually like respectable in those conditions because I think the scoring average was like seventy six that day or seventy five points something. So I'm like trying to hold this part. And then I ran at like four feet part and then I missed the four foot and I make double. When I was like green side for two on a part five. I'm just thinking, like, how did that happen? So it's just like stuff like that, where like if I if I think I was, if I was playing a lot more tournament golf, I feel like at least one of those shots I would have done better on and would have walked away with a five.

00:37:20
Speaker 2: It's almost like everything just moves a little faster.

00:37:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, and it can get away from you really fast. I noticed that on the back nine of my first round. I played pretty good on the front nine. I think I was like even path through nine holes in the first round, and then I like made bogie on ten, actually made a really good bogie save on ten, I hit it like left of the green, and then I like hit a good flop shot that caught the rough and just stayed up and then chipped it down and hold like a twenty foot for bogie. But then I like made I think I made double on eleven and just like got on this little bogie train. And then before I before I could look up my score, I was like seven over for the for the back nine, and then I tripled the last, which was really nice as well. After hitting a sixty three yard t shot which ricocheted thanks to shot Lenk. They told me it was sixty three yards, but at ricocheted off the you know, the shoot on eighteen ricocheted back almost onto the seventeenth green. It was legitimately like where some Yeah. The group behind I like was like, this is so embarrassing, and they even brought out like there was a guy with like a standalone camera that came out to like video me while I was there. I was like, oh, please not now, I need to get my Caddy to run in front of him, like Bryson.

00:38:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, you kind of protect the brand exactly. It's a brand what I want for, you know, yeah go for it. Yeah.

00:38:51
Speaker 4: So that was embarrassing, and I actually should have still walked away with a bogie, Like I could have played straight down the eleventh aairway on the east course because it was like the easiest little shot down there, and then like a seven nine over the trees. But I managed to put it between the eleventh east and the eighteenth west and then I was like behind a tree and then ended up three putting on top of that, so made triple.

00:39:13
Speaker 2: So that's a great way to end around.

00:39:16
Speaker 4: Oh beautiful.

00:39:19
Speaker 1: So that's what do you think about Wigfoot in general, like as a you know, championship course and set up wise, you know, it's spent a few few months.

00:39:30
Speaker 2: I'm curious.

00:39:31
Speaker 4: I spoke to a few people about it. I actually think for some reason, well I kind of know the reason, but the setup actually made angle sort of matter. I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but the fairways were narrow, but like you had to be on the right side of the fairways slash the right the correct rough line to actually attack greens, So you didn't want to be for instance, the first whole dog leggs left opens up, the green opens up from the right. If you're in the left rough your toast, but if you're in the right rough you're fine. So I was aiming like down the right side of the fairway, trying to open up the angle to the pin if I hit in the rough and the fairways were so narrow, like it was actually really hard to hit the fairway, so you'd rather kind of just hedge toward the rough line to avoid being in the wrong rough line. And then like the second was the opposite, and the second you'd hit it, try to go for the left rough line because you knew that you could open up the green from the left. And it was kind of weird how the setup, I guess, because the roff was so thick, but it was kind of uniform as well, so like you could you could draw a bad line, but most of the time you could advance it without any spin on it, like one hundred and thirty yards or something like that, so you'd be kind of just hedging your angles, like to hit it in the just the correct rough line, so you could kind of approach the green properly.

00:40:53
Speaker 1: And if you pull it or push it down the rough line, you're in the middle of the fairway exactly.

00:41:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, you hit a block down the second and you're in the middle of the fairway. You pull it, you're probably still able to punch out through the trees and get it somewhere near the green, whereas sometimes, like the second, if you push it in the right trees, it's a pretty tricky shot to kind of get something in play from there.

00:41:19
Speaker 1: With those faaraways like twenty two yards wide. And then how does that compare it to like Augusta. You're the lines that you take Augusta, I mean, are you I'm assuming you're shading towards certain areas, but it's not anything like that, right.

00:41:35
Speaker 4: It's a lot more of aiming toward the middle of the fairway, I guess, because I mean there's obviously some fairways out there where the angle kind of matters a bit more Like maybe the third hole, you can kind of like you're thinking about which side of the hole depending on where the pin is. But most of the time, I think you're probably aiming closer to the middle at Augusta just because like a lot of the greens are pretty open from the front. The rof's not a stick, so you're going to be able to get a little bit of spin out of the rough. There's kind of there's a little bit more opportunity to recover from from out of play areas at Augusta, whereas Wingfoot was, like you really if you're out of play in the wrong spot, you were just just chipping out to somewhere where you could get it back in play. But yeah, Augusta you can kind of you can get a little bit more creative with your recovery shots than at Wingfoot.

00:42:32
Speaker 2: I think in terms of the.

00:42:36
Speaker 1: Masters, you know, what are there areas of your game that you've been particularly focused on leading up that you've been working on.

00:42:45
Speaker 4: I'd safe like my if I've got a weakness, like compared to most tour pros, it's my ball striking just isn't anywhere near as sharp as like the best players in the world. I think my putting's pretty solid in my short games decent normally, but where I kind of lose out is like I hit it long enough, but I just hit it too erratically. So I've been working a lot more on trying to just hit it better, like a bit of technical stuff. But then more recently I've just been hitting a lot of different shot shapes and trying to kind of get a little bit more creative with my shot making. I find that when I'm like in the trees and have to hit a shot that does something, I always am way more committed to hitting the shot and seem to execute a lot better when I've got something specific to hit, Whereas like if I'm in the middle of the fairway and it's like I'm trying to hit a dead straight shot to the middle of the green for some reason, I just hit bad golf shots from there and I can't really figure out why. So I've been more recently, I've been trying to like hit almost shapes from the middle of the fairway and trying to like work get different ways, and I've been sort of finding that I can vary my distance with shot shaping. So like if I hit an eight nine one hundred and seventy yards like stock standard, like with a little drawer, which is like my normal shot shape, I can hit it one hundred and seventy five if I try and draw it, or I can hit it one hundred and sixty five if I try and fade it. So I can kind of like I've been sort of playing around with just different ways to vary how far it goes, and that kind of gets me more committed to hitting better golf shots when I'm kind of in the middle of the fairway, which you think would be the easiest place to hit from, but for some reason, I've been just pretty poor from approach play in that part.

00:44:42
Speaker 1: Do you think like when it's windy, I imagine you feel like, yeah, because you just you're more engaged, your mind's more activated.

00:44:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, I played the Azalea amateur or the Zalien. Yeah, I played that last week and it was really windy the first two rounds, and I played great in the first two rounds. I think I shot sixty, sixty eight and seventy, so like I was four under through two rounds, and then rounds three and four. Three was still pretty windy, and round four was like dead still, and I think I shot seventy seven seventy four to finish like it was like and honestly, the last round was like dead still. I don't know. There's something about, yeah, when you're forced to do something, there's like almost no options on how to play a shot. You know, it's played one way and not any other ways. My level of commitment walking into the ball and ability to execute seems to be a lot better. But yeah, put me in the middle of the fair with no wind and an easy pin and I'll find some way to screw it up.

00:45:53
Speaker 2: That's It's interesting.

00:45:55
Speaker 1: I Yeah, when I used to play, I always felt like when it was windy, as I always it was randomly i'd play better and it was like, you know, totally, I can totally like you space out almost you take you get complacent. I think is when when there's that stuff going on, sometimes what do you what do you think of country club often.

00:46:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's awesome that place, so much fun there were Dan Actually it's a crazy Yeah, it's off its head. Actually berdie the first two rounds, so two plays.

00:46:28
Speaker 2: At your courage. You played it two under for the week. That's unbelievable.

00:46:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I actually played that whole really well. But yeah, it's it's sweet. I mean, I've actually not played that many seth Rainer golf courses. I went to Yamen's Hall as well when I was there last week, and so I saw that place as well, which probably is the best Seth Rainer I've seen. I played Fox Chapel as well, but I think Yamens takes the cake as far as I've seen. But yeah, Charleston's awesome as well. Like almost a dead flat stile, I think. I think I think those sort of like more bolder kind of Rainer style golf courses. I've not seen a lot, but like they seem to work really well when the architect had almost nothing to work with, Like you can create something really interesting out of out of almost nothing, like there's there's not many natural features there to work with.

00:47:26
Speaker 1: Well, it just shows like how you can make something really interesting and carry interest with just a really good green. You know.

00:47:34
Speaker 4: I've always thought as well, like people talk about minimalism in golf course design, and I think in a way, like that sort of architecture where it's literally literally just cut and fill and leaving everything really kind of sharp and not really massaging it out into like tying it in, that's actually probably what minimalism should be called, because that's like they're kind of just doing it and like leaving everything as it was, like they're not actually even bothering to like try and tide in. It's kind of like it's it's like i'd call like the other type of golf cause access like naturalism or something like that. But I feel like that's sort of minimalism when you when you're kind of just leaving it, like all that early Golden Age stuff as well, like Walter Travis and that sort of stuff, that's kind of minimalism in my mind because it's it literally is just like moving it as minimal as possible to do it.

00:48:29
Speaker 1: I always say that, I would say Rainer Banks Lank for Moreau, those guys were like the Golden Age maximalists or today's minimalist you know. Yeah, it's like because their construction sites probably look like a mic Debrees or a tom Dok or Filk or constructor site these days, where there's some heavy machinery out there, but in the grand scheme of things, they're doing very little.

00:48:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly like they're doing in a way less because it but because it looks so abrupt and maximal like it it just it just it's just a different look, I think.

00:49:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, with those those greens, you know, prapped up, and it's like when they put pins and corners out there, you got to be so good. It's yeah, because you can set that those especially that golf course up, You could set it up for the azalea Am for guys to go out and shoot nothing, you know. Yeah, but then if you put the pins in the corners, all of a sudden, you've got to be really golf in your ball.

00:49:31
Speaker 4: Yeah. It's kind of like the sand belt there's you can cut the pins so close to the edges of the greens because obviously the sand belt you've got no fringes between like greens and bunkers, whereas at like Country Club of Charleston or other rain of courses where the greens are really mowed out so close to those like abrupt edges, you can pin it. Like I think they've had a pin on the second round on the seventh hole and it was in the left part of the and it would have been like a pace and a half off the left edge. So it was the coolest shot because everyone sort of bailed out left. It's sort of like a short put four. Everyone will bail out left and they're hit in this raff and they couldn't get it within forty feet of the hole, Whereas if you kind of took the correct line and try to I think it's a Kate template, Yeah, try and go down the right a lot along the hazard line and then you can actually open up the pin. So that was that was cool to see that, But yeah, that's kind of the only way they can defend a golf course from players like at my level was just like make them quick and make the make them firm, and put the pins in corners, and they can They can actually legitimately defend it though from par because it's that they can be so creative with those pins.

00:50:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought one of the cool things to do with those two quarterly Yeamans and country Club Charleston. You see like the different like gam it's a little bit more understated because it's got better to pography than the you know, country club with Charleston. It's got it's so such bold features because like we talked about, just nothing really going on on the site. And it's interesting with Rainer. I notice it here in Chicago. It's very similar with shorre Akers. He's got this intricate ravine system that runs through it. And there it has much more tame greens than at Chicago Golf, where it's it's got. It's a nice site, but it's not, you know, anything crazy, And there it has greens that are similar to country Club with Charles and.

00:51:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I definitely think he knew where to like tone it down. I'd like to say Fishes. I haven't been up to Fishes Island, but I don't know if you that'd be just sick. It's a cool it's cool because it wasn't rain supposed to build Soccer's Point as well? Was that like the original?

00:51:54
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:51:54
Speaker 1: That was they so they always say he routed. He did a routing for Cyprus Point and then obviously died. He was building NPCC too, the dunes course there. Yeah, and I think Robert Hunter, I think, actually finished that plan, so it was but then they obviously redid that.

00:52:13
Speaker 2: Fisher's is neat.

00:52:14
Speaker 1: I think I think Fisher's like from like Fishers is great and it's an idyllic place to play golf. I mean, anywhere you're playing on an ocean is how could you ever complain? But you know, of of the like top flight rainers, it definitely has like the most weak holes, but it also has some of the most spectacular holes, So it's like how do you weigh it? But like, you know, it probably has four of the weakest holes of you know, any of the if you've put Yamen, uh short Akers, Chicago Golf and and Yale in a bucket those, you know, Fishers has the most weak holes of any of them. But yeah, it also is set on you know, Fisher's the experience which is unbelievable. You know, you take the ferry out there, and you know it's a great golf course and this stretch of holes from three through twelve is absolutely astounding and as good as a stretches anywhere in golf.

00:53:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it'd be interesting to see what he would have done at like a site like Cyprus Point, where you know Mackenzie probably the ultimate kind of working with nature, like not trying to overpower the site in a way, like he was probably the perfect match for that site. But to see what someone like Rainer would have done there would be really interesting.

00:53:39
Speaker 1: I'm interested if you notice anything being somebody from Melbourne samp Belt Mackenzie's work in Melbourne versus Mackenzie's work at like Crystal Downs where he worked with Maxwell or even Augusta, if you say difference from stylistic or anything, because obviously like the associates were such you know, the Morecamb's in Australia.

00:54:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's interesting, like roll Melbourne the Greens compared to like I haven't actually seen that much McKenzie outside of Australia, like I've seen obviously Crystal Downs, haven't seen Cyprus Point. I've really got only a small sample size of mackenzie course like Augusta I have seen, but it seems like Mackenzie would put pretty bold internal contour into his greens. Like that does seem like a pretty key Mackenzie feature. And if I was going to talk about the Melbourne sam Belt, I would say, that's probably not a feature you really see, particularly like the only course he really built was Roal Melbourne West. He did the routing there. The other courses he didn't do the routing. So the routing at roll Melbourne West is awesome, Like it doesn't get much better. But if you look at the he only built, I think he was only on site for the construction of the Fifth Green on the West course, which is that iconic three that unseen photos of, probably the only green he actually saw pleted. So that's fine that the green's kind of got like a pretty severe tilt in it doesn't have a lot of internal con have that much internal conjuring, and the greens, it's generally like it'll be like a three percent slope kind of throughout the green and they'll be like a bunch of like subtle rolls. But it's not really like you'd see it Augusta, like on the Fifth Green where it's got like a massive abrupt shape in it, which I assume is original. I don't know enough about the history there to know, but like stuff like that I haven't seen, or like McKenzie's like the Boomerang Green, Christian Down's like nothing along those lines. It's definitely like the green complexes don't have like heaps of internal contour, I wouldn't say, or any like super abrupt contours. It's more just like subtle slopes, which I guess Mackenzie only spent I think it was like five or six weeks actually in Melbourne and he was consulting a lot of golf courses like it. Obviously Royal Melbourne was he was brought down by the Royal Melbourne Golf Club committee, but he also like subsidized the trip with with sort of like working for other golf courses. So he went Royal Adelaide and then went saw you know, King Sneath and Victoria and Metro, so like he wasn't I don't think he actually had that much that much influence on the construction of the golf course. I mean he was gone well before it was finished. So it's kind of I'd say it's a lot more more than rustle around the greens.

00:56:56
Speaker 1: So when do you get down to Gusta You getting down there this weekend or you know, and then what's the plan? Are you staying in the crows and as what's your game plan?

00:57:07
Speaker 4: Yes, so I'm heading to Augusta on Sunday. I could have got there Saturday. I think Saturday's the earliest you can get there. I could have like done like a pre visit, but Saturday's the earliest day for like the tournament where you get COVID tested on that. But Sunday was sort of early enough, so I'll get tested on Sunday. I might walk it Sunday afternoon because I got to wait for my test to come back. And there's a couple of things I'd probably want to see as well, Like the yardage books almost don't have any information on them that you get for the tournament. So I've got one. I got it when I went there last time, but because I did a little visit in March, but they don't have any like up down measurements, the greens are pretty blank. What else it's Yeah, it's it's kind of it's all. You need to really go and see it a little bit more to fill that stuff out. So I'll probably go down with a slope rangefinder and just put in all the slope measurements with my caddy and walk that on Sunday afternoon, and then yeah, start sort of practice rounds on Monday.

00:58:16
Speaker 2: Do you have those.

00:58:17
Speaker 4: I listened to a podcast, actually not yet, but I'd listened to a podcast with Mark Leishman's caddie. I think it's Matty. I don't know his surname, but he did one with no laying up the other day, so that was cool. I might I've got a contact with Leishman, so I might try and set up something with him, because they seem like pretty good guys to learn from. And I've still got Adam Scott's details from the US Open. I had a practice round with him, so I'd like to maybe line up those two together maybe on one of the days, which would be pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, and all Assie, Well that's what I got at the US Open for the actual stroke plan. I don't know if you saw that, but I played with Lucas Herbert and Matt Jones, so that was kind of funny. But it'd be interesting who I actually get paired up with for the tournament, because I know you always get a past winner. It would be cool to get someone like Adam Scott, given you know he's the first and only Ossie winner of the Masters. But I'm not sure I could quite get that sort of marquee group.

00:59:20
Speaker 3: But yeah, right, yeah, well you're the first midam winner, right correct. Yeah, so that's a natural thing.

00:59:35
Speaker 2: Masters loved their like stories like that.

00:59:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that'd be cool. It was actually really comforting playing with two Aussies for the US Open, because not that I knew Lucas pretty well because he's from Victoria, where I'm from, and I've known him for like five or six years, but I didn't know Matt. But you know, he's another Ossie and we could talk about cricket and all these ozzy things a mysterious to Americans. So the comfy pairing, you know, it was very comfort Yeah, and it was good. I think Golf Australia liked it as well because for them, you know, Golf in Australia, they could just sort of play that as an almost like a feature group if they wanted to.

01:00:16
Speaker 1: So yeah, and the journalists, the journalists got they didn't have to follow a bunch of groups. They just got to go out and follow one group what's the name, Ben Priest Evan Priest, Yeah, yeah, and then then from.

01:00:31
Speaker 4: The people to yeah yeah yeah, so no, it was it was. It was cool. So hopefully I get a cool pairing. I'm actually I saw this is funny today actually Old Town. When I played there, I caught up with d C. Hunch poul Pack.

01:00:50
Speaker 2: D C.

01:00:51
Speaker 4: He's I think he's a member there and he's playing with a couple of friends of mine, and I might.

01:00:56
Speaker 2: I was playing with Alex Firzpatrick today.

01:00:59
Speaker 4: Right, Alexzpatrick and so two friends of mine. So one of Alex's friends from England, Barkley Brown played the Azalea, and another friend of mine, Henry Shimp who also played the Asalier, who's at Stanford. So I caught up with them, but I didn't play with them, but I met DC and we talked about the Tree Farm. So I'm staying in Aiken, so I might. Actually he said he's going to be out there, and yeah, staying in acan So I'll probably head out to the tree Farm that week as well. At some point, I know Zach's.

01:01:30
Speaker 2: There one of the Palmetto at all while you're down there.

01:01:34
Speaker 4: I played in Palmetto. I actually played it last year. I loved it actually, like I played Midpines. Sorry, I played Pine Needles, but I thought Midpines had a lot of Palmetto, like small scale like just like really cool, like fine features small greens and so I played Palmetto last year and loved it. Actually it was this year. It was because of COVID. I got kicked off the grounds at Augusta. They kind of closed up the course for the COVID and then I managed to get around in Palmetto after that.

01:02:09
Speaker 1: So man, yeah, kicked off the course as you.

01:02:13
Speaker 4: Know, not really kicked off, but like we left the ground. We left the ground. We had another round booked for the Tuesday, and because of COVID they couldn't. They'd closed it for basically at that point for the rest of the summer, I guess. So we didn't get kicked off, but we left and then they were like unfortunately, like you won't be able to play Tuesday, but ended up playing Palmetto, which was awesome. So yeah, I love Palmetto. That's cool place. I might I might head out there again. I played Acing Golf Club as it was really too. I know, you love that place.

01:02:55
Speaker 1: I don't think there's a town in America, like a non major city that's got a better private public golf combo than Ake and Georgia.

01:03:05
Speaker 2: Like there's no town that's got a better private and public smaller town.

01:03:10
Speaker 4: No, I don't know American geography well enough, but it'd be hard to be.

01:03:16
Speaker 2: I think you could say George.

01:03:18
Speaker 1: I think I'm not sure if they're in the same town, but I think George right and the country club or like right next to each other, that would be one in Brookline or Massachusetts area.

01:03:29
Speaker 4: I might be, but yeah, but I was up there. We briefly spoke about that. I was up there in a couple of weeks ago when it went had a pretty good trip through Boston. Yeah, I didn't get to play Brookline because that would it was Actually Gill Hans was there when I was there, but I missed him by like a few hours. But I chatted to one of his sort of always one of his associates. He's actually from from Melbourne. Yeah, Ben, So Ben and I chatted. He took me around the course and then and then sort of showed me what they doing.

01:04:10
Speaker 2: That was.

01:04:10
Speaker 4: That was cool. So shout out to Ben Hillard. So that was that was fun. And then I went in Charles River down the Road, which is really cool. Played there. It's Donald Ross that got a really few really cool green complexes and good Tangent and Myopia, which is like the coolest place in the world in Essex County, which was probably my favorite out of the whole trip. Side, Yeah, I've done I've done well this this trip in the US, but I'm actually kind of stuck here.

01:04:43
Speaker 2: Are you stuck? You can't get back?

01:04:44
Speaker 3: Now?

01:04:47
Speaker 4: Well I can't. I can get back, but it'll cost me like ten grand to get home, Like, it will cost me a lot of money to get home. Basically, Australia has limited the number of arrivals into the country to a number that they can manage so that like COVID doesn't get out, So they limited it to four thousand people per week. So that means that all the airlines coming into the country are limited to like forty passengers per plane, and so what they're all doing is they're trying to fill their planes with business and first class passengers and if there's any economy, they'll still like charge pretty high for So I had three economy tickets booked back home, had one for November seventeen that got canceled like about a month or two ago. Then I had another one booked for December one because that was the nearest I could get, which got canceled maybe two weeks ago. And then I then rebooked on an American Airlines for December two that got canceled like maybe a few days ago, maybe three or four days ago. So I've had three tickets, all booked on economy for like reasonable prices, like one thousand dollars one way, which is like pretty tip for an economy ticket, that have all been canceled. And now I'm looking at tickets because it's before Christmas, and I'm now now I'm booking late because all the other ones are being canceled. I thought I had a ticket, Now I don't, so because now I'm like booking late, all the prices are just jacked up, so they're like five grand to go economy one way, or it's like ten grand for business or like. So basically I'm like, screw it. I would probably end up waiting until after after Christmas to get home. Basically, like I could try and get home to see my family for Christmas, but because my family are in Western Australia, they've completely closed the border, so I'd have to fly to Perth, which is like a really tricky place to get to. It's just it just it's not going to work out that I'll see my family. So it kind of doesn't make sense for me to try and get back before Christmas because the prices are so high. Unless someone at Augusta manages to private jet meal, that would be the only way I'm getting home. I might have to put my feelers out during the tournament.

01:07:05
Speaker 2: But you got to you gotta cozy up with Adam Scott.

01:07:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I expect to him though he's not coming back home for Christmas either, because you've got to quarantine in our hotel for two weeks as well, and you've got to pay for it. It's like three grand. So like none of the Aussies are going to go home for Christmas. It's all a shambles. So yeah, I don't know what I mean.

01:07:31
Speaker 3: I might.

01:07:32
Speaker 4: I don't know what I'm going to do. I might try and find like another work experience project to help the breathe.

01:07:37
Speaker 2: But somebody Lucas a job.

01:07:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, give me a job. If you know someone who's got a golf project happening that needs a guy that has shovel experience to edge bunkers that also play the Masters, just let me know.

01:07:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, we need the we need the Frida Egg paid internship program to get rolling, you know, exactly.

01:08:01
Speaker 2: You gotta figure something out. But maybe somebody will have some ideas. I'm sure they'll they'll.

01:08:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I need to somehow fill my time before I can head home. So yeah, I've been playing a lot of good golf, so maybe there's more good golf on the cards.

01:08:21
Speaker 1: Well, you know if you if you played really well next week, that that probably would take care of a lot of stuff that does.

01:08:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, if I play well, if I play well, I probably uh probably Tom and pace in my way exactly.

01:08:35
Speaker 2: That's what I'm thinking. So just play well next week, you got extra incentive exactly.

01:08:40
Speaker 4: That's the plan.

01:08:41
Speaker 2: All right, Well, good luck, thanks for the thanks for the time.

01:08:44
Speaker 1: I think everybody that listened to this is very jealous of you, even though you're not gonna be all to get home for the holidays. Yeah, you know, I think that that's probably a price that most people would pay for for your last six.

01:08:57
Speaker 2: Months or so.

01:08:58
Speaker 4: So it's decent right off. Yeah, I've had some I think most of your golf Sico kind of listeners would be happily tried Christmas with their family for the schedule I've had.

01:09:11
Speaker 2: So they wouldn't they wouldn't admit it to their wives or their kids.

01:09:15
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, I'm in a good position overall.

01:09:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, so well, hopefully we'll hopefully see you playing all weekend long and then people have something somebody else to roof for it.

01:09:32
Speaker 2: But then we'll touch base if you need a recommendation to let me know.

01:09:37
Speaker 4: Okay, sounds good, All right, Sanny