Eggsplorations: Rory McIlroy discusses golf and growing up in Northern Ireland

00:00:00
Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in a fried egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg Friday Frida Egg Egg, fridagg brid egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump course. Welcome back to another Friday Golf podcast. I'm your host, Andy Johnson. Uh, this is a new episode to this feed. I think this is an episode that a lot of people didn't know existed. About a year and a half ago, when we were in Northern Ireland we recorded podcasts with Rory McElroy all about Northern Ireland. We were taking a trip through Northern Ireland and he was excited to come on and kind of talk about where he grew up. This first appeared on the Explorations page the Explorations podcast, so this is a re air of our conversation. It would have been Player's Week twenty twenty four, so there's a little context there of the intro of this podcast. But we figured this would be a great week to throw this back on the main feed for all the people that did not hear it when it first aired. On the Explorations feed. So this is Rory McElroy on growing up in Northern Ireland, so it's really centered around his childhood in Northern Ireland, the host site of this year's Open Championship. So yeah, before we get into Rory, this bonus episode. Did not know we were going to put this up, but this episode is brought to you by Mercedes Benz. Mercedes Benz has partnered with the Open since twenty eleven and has rooted and shared values commitment to excellence and bridging tradition with modern luxury. The big thing with Mercedes Benz I always catch around where I live. Whenever I see a Mercedes Benz SUV on the road, it kind of catches my eye. They are the perfect companions for golf enthusiasts seeking performance, style and space on the way to the course, and the GLS stands out as the pinnacle of this lineup. The GLS combines power in finesse and is backed by twelve driver assist systems, nimble handling and cutting edge AI technology, as well as their hallmark SUPERB craftsmanship. The GLS anticipates their needs, ensuring every journey is as strategic as a championship winning game plan maybe as strategic as a championship course like royal Port Rush. So if you'd like to learn more about the GLS and Mercedes Mercedes Benz full lineup of SUVs, visit MBUSA dot com. Big thanks to them for partnering with us on the Open Championship. And here's Rory McElroy. Rory McElroy, this was pre Grand Slam, Grand Slam winning golfer on Northern Ireland and royal Port Russian All things Northern Ireland.

00:03:26
Speaker 2: Rory, Welcome to the Explorations podcast. First off, we were recording this on Tuesday of Players Championship Week, so we have to ask you what is the real green Emerald Isle. Is it seventeenth at Sawgrass in the overseeded Tpcsawgrass or is it where we are the island of Ireland.

00:03:47
Speaker 3: I don't know if I've ever seen a greener plis on Earth. They say that the Phoenix opens the greenest like Claus on Earth, but this is they have went to tyn with the overseas this week like they have when all I've never seen the roughest, thick or as lush like I can't it gets It's actually unsane. How much like thick grass there is everywhere. So they've they've had the fertilizer out, but hopefully as it dries out, it gets they can start the modarn a little bit. But it's yeah, it's it's it's green here. It's probably a little it's probably a little greener than where you guys are, which is surprising.

00:04:25
Speaker 1: It's got to be. I feel like stawgrass overseated is the furthest thing from links golf in Ireland that there is, you know, Yeah.

00:04:38
Speaker 3: I mean this morning it is. It's still so soft. I mean they need to get the cell bear on the greens. I was hitting seven irons into greens this morning that were blacking up fifteen feet. It's like it is so soft. So thankfully they can hopefully, you know, put the cell bear on and they can get these things. There's no rain in the forecast. There's no reason why this player shouldn't be a little firmer and faster by the by the tournament days. But yeah, it is, Yeah, from from where you guys are and what I grew up with, Yeah, it's it's a it's a far departure from that.

00:05:11
Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about that you now are a father. I'm curious if you could contrast kind of the golf culture that you grew up with in Northern Ireland with the golf culture in America that you see now for kids.

00:05:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely think that coming from my part of the world, the golf culture is a lot more inclusive. Like I joined I joined Hollywood Golf Club as a junior member at seven years old, and I think my mom and dad paid one hundred points a year for me to be a member. You know, in the summer's day run junior compositions every Tuesday, every Friday, there there wasn't there wasn't an issue with getting access to the course. Yeah, there were certain times during the week that juniors couldn't play, but we had ample access to getting on the golf course. And I sort of contrast that with I think there's a lot of great programs in America in terms of getting kids into playing golf, whether it's youth on course or first team or PJS for junior league. Obviously, you guys just did a piece on the park, which I think is you know, if the park in West Palm could be replicated one hundred times around the country. I think that would be amazing for junior golf in the United States, but there's definitely just I think there's still an accessibility issue in the United States compared to where I grew up. And you know, my oldest friends or the friends that I grew up with at Hollywood Golf Club, and you know, some of my fondest memories are playing golf until ten thirty at night in the summers with those guys because you know, we could and no one was yelling at us to get off the course or you know, so it was I felt like it was just a lot more accessible and inclusive as as golf. You know, I think golf is getting better in this country, but I still think it's got a way to go.

00:07:11
Speaker 2: What was it like Hollywood? Growing up at Hollywood Golf Club in Hollywood in particular, and those friends that you still maintained.

00:07:18
Speaker 3: I made a kind of an.

00:07:20
Speaker 2: Amateur cop to Arnold Palmer's latrobe that I saw probably a decade ago, kind of this unassuming club that created these one time, you know, eventual golf superstars. What was that like growing up?

00:07:33
Speaker 3: Uh, it was great. You know, my whole life revolved around that golf club. My dad worked there. As I said, all of my oldest friends, like Harry Diamond, who's my best friend and who's on my bike, has been on my bike for the last whatever it is, seven eight years. I met him on the cutting green when I was seven years old, and it was it was great. It was a place too to play the game that I loved and to meet friends and to spend time with people that I that I became really close with. And yeah, I think it just it had it had that culture of you know, of inclusion, and I didn't realize it at the time, but you know, getting to this point in my life, I you know, I look back on those days and on those summers and I really appreciate it because it helped me cultivate whatever talent I had in the game. And you know, no one there in any way tried to hold me back or tell me that I wasn't old enough or I wasn't good enough for you know, I had a wonderful support system from that golf club that helped me, you know, improve and honestly get to the level that I got to.

00:08:49
Speaker 1: I have like a lasting memory of my course that I grew up playing at and it's like of riding my bike with my bag on the back, and I like always think about it. I I would ride, I'd go over these train tracks and then I'd get there and they had this big putting green. I just we would spend hours, me and my buddies on this putting green. Like all day we'd play nine holes, but we might spend three hours on the putting green. Was there a place at Hollywood or a thing at Hollywood that you always think back to?

00:09:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I would say the putting green was a bit, you know, I always you know, I was always the youngest one there, and we always played to take golf balls each other. So like we'd be playing for you know, someone would have a Turbolada in their big and I'd play them for that on the putting green, or a professional ninety or you know when the Probe one came, for example, or the Max Fly Revolution or the HTM ninety whatever. It was like you always like were playing people for their golf balls and the putting green, which was which was a lot of fun. And then there's a the practice range was so far away from the clubhouse and it was between the thirteenth and fourteenth poles in like this little valley and it was only like one hundred and eighty yards long, but it was only I don't know, twenty yards wide, and every time, you know, you'd bring your practice bag down there, you would, like every shot that you were practicing, like you were fearful of losing a golf So, you know, I remember those days of like hitting six irons and five irons and like really putting yourself under pressure because if you don't hit a good shot, you know, you're hit with in the bushes, and that golf balls on so and golf balls were such a valuable commodity when you're ten and eleven years of age. So yeah, I have some really cool memories of the putting Green in Hollywood and then that little practice range between thirteen and fourteen, and then also like we probably shouldn't have been doing this, but we had a lot of fun like in the clubhouse and chasing, you know, chasing you know, ourselves around like locker rooms and having you know, just getting up the stuff that kids get up to. But you know, so many great memories of that place.

00:10:55
Speaker 1: I got to ask, did you learn how to hit it high? Because of the tenth hall.

00:11:05
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think I think I've always had a ten you know, I was a small kid, and I'm still a pretty small guy, but I always had a tendency to like drop the club underneath and get get like get it underneath the plane and get it behind me, and that helps you launch it up in the air. Like I just had to try to hit a hide draw with everything because it was the only way I could get distanced as a kid, and then that sort of stayed with me. But no, you would think me growing up in that part of the world that i'd be able to, you know, flight the ball low and hit all these shots. And I've you know, I've been able to do that at times in my career, but I've definitely been more comfortable hitting it high for some reason. But and as well, like you, I think with you know, we'll probably get into this, but like today's technology, you don't really have to hit the shots that you once had to, especially on these golf courses, and obviously something that we all agree on and we would love to see some of that come back into the game.

00:12:02
Speaker 2: You talked a little bit about the support system you had at Hollywood and obviously, like your parents made a lot of sacrifices for you and the club did. We saw some of the investment you put into it a couple of days ago. There's a big gym like fitness center, and then a bunch of track man bays and things that you've helped foster or create. What is your current relationship like with with your home, with your home club? What is it like now?

00:12:28
Speaker 3: It's you know, I don't. You know, unfortunately I guess like I don't. It's still home. It's the place that I grew up, but you know, I'm I'm making my life elsewhere, you know, I don't. I haven't been home in over two years. I think COVID hasn't helped either. No, I didn't get a chance to go back during COVID, but my last time last time there was in January twenty twenty two. So obviously, with the Irish Open being back at County Down later this year, I'm looking forward to to spend them a little bit more time there. But it'll always be home, like I'll always I don't want to ever lose the connection to the place that I grew up in, and I also want my daughter to know the place that I grew up in too, because I think that that's really important. She she knows Upstate New York pretty well because she's been there a lot more often than she's being the Hollywood Northern Ireland. But you know, hopefully in time she'll she'll get to, you know, experience things there and start to spend a little bit more time there too.

00:13:33
Speaker 1: You said you came back a couple of years ago. How would you say that Northern Ireland has change since you were a kid, and maybe using Hollywood as an example.

00:13:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think I felt very fortunate that I was. You know, Hollywood was always a pretty sort of affluent, like nice time to grow in. We never really experienced the troubles or anything like that, but some of the other other areas of Northern Ireland did, so I was I was quite shielded from that, which was probably fortunate in some ways. You know, most of the bad stuff that I saw it was on the news rather than with my own lives. So I would say that Northern Ireland over the past, since the turn of the millennium, over the past twenty years, has become very very progressive, and I think, you know, it's sort of turned a new a new beege or a new chapter in it's in its history. I think it's a Belfast is a pretty vibrant city. That's that's attracting international business.

00:14:45
Speaker 1: And I heard they got play the food culture.

00:14:48
Speaker 3: Now yeah, they've got like so the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast is really good. They've got. You know, I think a lot of people within the UK travel to Belfast for weekends and you know, it's a it's a it's a cool, vibrant city. Like I you know, I haven't spent as much time there recently as I probably would like, but every time I go back, I I'm always I'm always pretty impressed with the I guess with the progression that it's me and especially you know, since my childhood.

00:15:20
Speaker 2: Speaking of progression, we were over at Port Rush yesterday and we saw Fred Daily right his his his medal and the Cleric jug replica. It had been like sixty years, not like it had been sixty years since anyone from the island of Ireland one major and now we've gone this incredible run right with Patty Shane. You Graham, Darren, do you feel like that what is it? Was this just lightning in a bottle has the level raised competitively in the generation maybe preceding you, and you're sort of the youngest of that collection.

00:15:53
Speaker 1: How is it?

00:15:54
Speaker 2: I guess we're we've sort of been wondering how do you get from junior golf here to major champion? And five of them happened in such short succession. It seems like such a different system, like you talked about, than America, a Scotland or Ireland, Northern Ireland. How do you get from here? Is that lightning a bottle? And do you see that not maybe maintaining but at least staying at a high level like that.

00:16:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both.

00:16:18
Speaker 4: I think.

00:16:21
Speaker 3: I think when Podrid won his three majors in quick succession, I think it certainly give gmac belief and it probably gives Darren belief as well, because you know, I would say for the most part, Darren Clark's up until that point maybe had a better career than Podred. So I think it gives those two guys a lot of belief that if Podrick could do it, then they could go on and do it too. And then the big turning point was me with me, was when Gmac won the US Open in twenty ten, because I would play every single Tuesday with him and practice runs, and I would beat him ninety percent of the time, and I thought, well, if I can do If I can beat him ninety percent time on the Tuesday, why you know, there's no He's just one a major. There's no reason why I count went a major. And that's not the I'm not that's not the meaning of Gmac. That g Mac has had an awesome career and you know his his win at Pebble Beach in ten was was awesome, but it just it gave me belief in myself that I don't know that I had up until that point. And then too, you know, I go on in eleven and g mac is defending the US Open and I win it Congressional, and then I think, just the we were sort of riding a wave of momentum at that point. Parky wins, it's Rolson, George's the very the very next major after that, and then obviously it's I had my little run. And then then she and did what he did in twenty nineteen at Port Rush, and I think, and I think it it happens. You know, if you look at the Europeans back in the late eighties and early nineties. I think it happened Dan with you know, it was Savy, then it was Faldo, then it was Woozy, then it was Lyle, then it was Liner and then it was Jose Maria and it was like all these Europeans saw what the other Europeans were doing and we're like, Okay, if they can do that, I can do that too. And I think seeing your peers do these things gives you maybe just gives you a sense of belief that you didn't know that you had.

00:18:27
Speaker 2: Absolutely I bolletin board material for teams smash maybe there with Graham no w.

00:18:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I don't want to Yeah, I'm I was. Yeah, I was going to say, you know, g Max had a great career and he continues to have a great career, and I mean, who knows he might he might have I don't know. I'm not keeping up too much with Smash Smash.

00:18:53
Speaker 2: One question I had for home and then we'll get some of the golf is like we were at our glass also and that's where Michael Bannon I was wondering for you as a since junior golf and I was a pro. How important is it for your coach to have a connection to your home, for a coach to have a connection obviously to your career, is that important at all? Is it a comfort thing? How is important is that in the grand scheme of things?

00:19:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, I like coaches are coaches are important, But I think coaches are more important because they need to know who you are as a person and how you receive information, rather than you know who you are as a player. Like you see it all the time right here. You know, guys will change coaches and they'll have like an instant, an instant at a success like that happens. But that's again, and that goes back to just like every PG player is an amazing golfer, and if you give them just a little bit of beliefs that they're on the right path, they can go and they can win or they can play better again. But what happens is you get that you get that quick uptick in performance and then you sort of regress back to your average. Like that's you know. I think that golf has like done so sort of studies on this as well, But I think it's way more important for a coach to know who you are as a person and how you receive information, Like Michael knows that it needs to be my idea and he's very happy with it, you know, And that's that's on me, Like that's me as a like I just need to feel like I own it. And maybe that's just me having a little bit too much ego or a bit too much like like a bit more of a control freak over it than I should. But he knows that I need to be the one in control of that. And and if I'm not and I feel like I'm being told what to do and it's not my idea, I don't respond to very well. I actually shut down and then I don't So so I think having a coach that knows, like Michael Bannon knows me since I was seven years ago. He actually knows me way he's known me since I was born, but since we started to work together on golf, it's been you know, he's we've been doing it together for twenty seven years. So he knows how I tick. He knows he knows what I respond to, what I don't respond to. And I think that that's that's super important in a player coach relationship.

00:21:08
Speaker 1: Growing up playing junior competitions. One of the things I've been taken aback about Ireland is just how competitive the golf is like there. It doesn't feel like there's casual golf. It's just like every time they play it is it is just like the knives are out and everybody's trying to win. And as a kid growing up, I always remember there were like tournaments you wanted to qualify for to play courses or competitions you wanted to play in, and it was like, oh, that's being held here. Was there Is there a course in Northern Ireland that just stood above the rest? And and if there was, what was it And what are your early memories of playing maybe your first tournament there?

00:21:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I would say, yeah, the two that stand out of Port Rush and Royal Country Island. Obviously, my dad brought me to play port Rush on my tenth birthday and it was the first time that I ever met Darren Clark. I met him on the chipping green at Royal port Rush. And I think the one great thing about golfing in Northern Ireland and in Ireland is a lot of these clubs old open weeks, so it's not as if you have to wait to qualify for a competition that course to get to play it. They hold these open weeks and if you enter early enough you can go and play in their Open Stroke or Open Stableford or whatever it is. So again just going back to the accessibility of the of the golf there. But I do I remember like the North. So the North of Ireland is a big amateur championship that's played at Port Rush every year, and that was all to do with the only way you could enter was if your handicap was low enough, So that was always the big goal in the summers was to try to get your handicap done as low as possible so that you could enter. You could enter the North, and my dad played in the North a lot. My dad was a decent amateur player, a good club player, not really like he didn't really do much else, but we played in the northmost years and he actually was beaten by g Mac in the match play one year. But yeah, so like it's a I don't know, it sort of sounds a little incestuous, like how small it is, but it's yeah, it was. It was a cool culture to grow up playing golf in and I'd say the one I'd say the one golf course that maybe felt more out of reach than the rest was Royal country Line because of the membership there and because it feels more like a almost like a private American club compared to even like a port Rushing port Rush. Maybe not soom all because it's got so busy as it's a you know, it's a it's on the open road again, so you know that the demand for playing there has gone up a lot over the last years. But yeah, I've always felt like most courses in Northern Islands have been super accessible and you could really if you really wanted to, you could, you could go and play them.

00:24:10
Speaker 1: That first time playing port Rush, so you're you're a kid, you've been playing your golf at Hollywood. Was there something that stood out about port Rush that that you remember to this day.

00:24:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, just it was bay Like I just like, like, I remember, I'd never been I've never played the course before, and you you you're driving on this little, this little road and then you get to the crest of the hill and you just you're overlooking the entire golf course before you take the left to go down into port Rush, and I remember just looking at it going this place, especially as a ten year old, It's like this place looks absolutely huge and the guns are so high, and like everything just was like it was a golf course but bigger. I guess am, I you know, Hollywood's this tiny, little, you know, piece of land on the side of a hill, and you go to somewhere like port Russian. It's just like a It's a completely different style and a completely different scene of golf that I hadn't very experienced before. So I just think how big everything was, and yeah, it was, you know, the bunkers were and you know some of the you know, even the hill up to the first green is like a big climb and I don't know, it just it just to me, it just felt big.

00:25:27
Speaker 1: It's funny. We were driving on that that road down the coast. I'm I'm like, it's kind of like dusk. It's very dark. It's like getting dark, and I'm just worried about keeping the car on the central on the left, and I like, out of the corner of my eye, I like, right where you're talking about. I crossed the hill and I think I said to Brenda, I'm like, oh my god, look at those dunes over there would be amazing if there was a golf course and we drive like one hundred more yards and Brendan's like, I think that's that's Royal Port Rush.

00:25:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a pretty you know, to put a golf course on that peace of land is pretty strecial.

00:26:06
Speaker 2: You talked about your first time at Royalport Rush and then Royal County Down feeling not maybe as easily accessible to you. What was your first time, your first memory of Royal County Down, What was your first impressions, how did you play and what went through your head when you walked onto that course for the first time.

00:26:25
Speaker 3: So I think the first time I was at Royal Country Down and I didn't actually play. I was there to watch an inter club match between my dad was playing, but it was called the Barton Shield, which is like the big inter club Forsom's tournament, and I'm not sure what the other golf club was that they were playing. But I think the first time I was at RCD was to actually watch golf, not play. But I remember the first time that I did play, I was probably thirteen or fourteen maybe, and I just it was the hardest golf course I had ever played. I remember going around and going like, how could anyone break car round here? It is it's so difficult, you know. Fortunately that was where my Walker Cup was, and that was always my like goal as an amateur, was like make the Walker Cup at Royal Country down and O seven and then turned pro after that. I had opportunities to turn pro before that, but I I just so wanted to play the Walker Cup at home at Country Downe and thankfully I was able to do that. And yeah, I still like the Walker Cup. Yeah, it was that was It was stacked, especially the American team. American team, and I mean, you know there was a there's a couple of studs, a few studs on the on the GV and item as well. But yeah, it was a it was a really yeah, it was a good It was. It was a good same Unfortunately, you know, the outcome wasn't what I wanted, but it was it was cool to be a part of.

00:27:55
Speaker 2: So your first your first time, like, how did how do you play? How does anyone score around here? How has that relationship evolved with RCD? You've obviously in back you played a competition there in Walker Cup. How has it evolved with RCD.

00:28:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think you just need to be you know, at thirteen or fourteen years old, like I was a good golfer, but I was so wrong and like didn't really know how to play the game. I knew how to hit golf shots, and I knew I knew what to do, but like I didn't know that, Okay, well it's probably better to miss here, or you know, like like that t shot on the fourth the part three, it's like it's sort of what you feel like if you don't hit that green, then you're dead. But it's like, okay, well, you know, dismiss is probably better than that miss, and you know it's it's probably the first golf course that I played that I almost needed to think like one shot ahead of myself and sort of you know, I think to me, playing Broad County down a lot help me learn about how to be more methodical with my course management and be a little bit more disciplined as a go.

00:29:00
Speaker 2: I guess, is there is there a favorite hole or favorite memory you have of RCDs and all your loops around there.

00:29:14
Speaker 3: I would say, so if you get the it's a pretty unusual wind, but you can get the wind that's sort of coming like up over the mountains and like DN and just take the fourth hoole plays into the wind and the seventh hole plays into the wind. That little part three, and I remember, like I hit I hit three onn't into that seventh hole before where is this going to go? Like I've hit I've played that hole and I've hit it onto the thirteen box, I've hit it. I've hit it like done the eighth fair way. It's a it's such a cool little part three. And that's you know, I think seven is a very underrated hole on the course and it's probably my it's probably my favorite hole in the course because of that. I love a short, difficult part three.

00:29:53
Speaker 2: Dude, you still love it like we were playing it in the caddies that they also may have told us that story of when you hit it left right onto uh on the six yeah yeah six?

00:30:06
Speaker 1: Sorry.

00:30:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:30:09
Speaker 2: As a pro, it feels like that that short part three and the fall off in the back would drive them. The pros would not do well with that. The pampered UH pros would not do well that.

00:30:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, of course they wouldn't.

00:30:25
Speaker 2: Is it still your favorite now that you're a pro.

00:30:27
Speaker 3: And absolutely yeah, of course. Yeah, like I'm in my kingdom, uh I Yeah. I think as I've gone on and I've started to appreciate a little bit more golf course architecture, and I've started to appreciate the origins of the game and the history of the game. I've started to appreciate holes like that more and more. Like one of my favorite holes in world golf is the is the members Canful Kingston Hoof. It's like one hundred and twenty yards and you're standing there with a sand wedge in your hand, and you're like, if I don't hit the screen, I'm going to look fine. Like for me, those are great part threes. The postage stamp patruon coming up to the Open this year, you could maybe say the seventeen year at Sawgrass. It's a little contrived, but to need the twelve hole in Augusta, for example, I think that you know, the short part threes where you've got a short iron in your hand, but it really makes you think and fearful of hitting a bad shot. Those are the best parts reason the world.

00:31:33
Speaker 1: What uh, what what is it about rc D? You know, one of the things I was kind of taken aback on our visit was just like how simple the greens are like they they're they're fairly flat. If you're if you're on them, you feel like you have a pretty good chance of making putts. Yeah, to me, it was it is a it is about a stern of a test as you'll find. What about Royal County down when you think about it, you talked about how you need to think through it and really what makes it so tough.

00:32:04
Speaker 3: I think, as you said, if you hit the greens, it's it's yeah, you feel like you have a lot of chances and the greens aren't you And there's some rings that are that are quite large, but others that aren't. But I think the trouble is hitting the greens right, like you got the like the big run off on the right of the second you know you've got the you know the even the par you know, the par three fourth, even the short par four sixth, like that second shot is difficult, you know, it's it's almost a little Donald ross like in some in some ways like the greens there and again it's it's it's sort of what Augusta does so well. You're standing in the middle of the fairway with a second shot, and and it makes you think you have to do more than you have to do. You know, it makes it it it's sort of it gets you to It gets you to play shots you don't want to play. And I think that's the I think that's the benchmark of a great golf course in great green complexes is when it just makes you, just makes you second guess yourself a little bit over the second shots.

00:33:09
Speaker 2: You talked about playing balladas or tour professionals and junior golf. You've obviously seen these two sort of pillars of championship golf that this country miraculously has in top five ten, whatever courses you want to rank and you want to give them. How is equipment the evolution of equipment in your lifetime changed those two courses?

00:33:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, if at all, I mean even I know it has. It certainly has. I think links courses more than ever made the elements to defend them. I think that's a I think that's a given. I mean I remember even that Walker Cup and O seven. You know, the first holes are pretty it's a pretty good car five, but you know, if it gets running down there, you know, but like I remember you know, having seven aren in there as an eighteen year old and that was seven so it was still like you had prov one X and you know we were plan you know, a pretty hot driver at that point. But it I think, you know, they both, you know, as I said, they're both big golf courses. They both fortunately have had room to go back and on certain you know, even port Rush is built to new holes for the Open. So but you know, not all links golf courses in Ireland or in the UK can do that. And you know, fortunately, you know, these two have been able to do that because they're on pretty big pieces of land. But yeah, you know it's I think you can take a lot more bunkers out of play than previously. Yeah, and I would say, you know at our CD, you know, you don't hit driver off too. You don't hit driver off three, you don't hit driver off six. You know, there's a lot of holes where I think modern technology is almost taken. You know, it's taken the skill, like it's taken driving out of out of the equation a little bit on some holes at RCD for example, and like I you know, like the thirteenth hole, like as a prime example, like you'd much rather have to stand up there with the driver and hit it down that shoot than just you know, punt at the two ron down there, because the golf ball goes a million.

00:35:22
Speaker 1: Miles with with port Rush. How would you compare the test of port Rush in you know what makes that such a great court championship course with Royal County down.

00:35:36
Speaker 3: So I think they're both tremendous championship golf courses. I think the the benefit the port Rush has and the reason that it's able to host an Open championship is because of the size of the property. So you think of the you think of the logistics and everything that need to go into hosting a major championship. You know, port Rush have most of that infrastructure if they want it, where r CD doesn't. I would you know, I would argue that r CD is a more challenging golf course and I think it would probably provide a sterner test to professionals. But I just think port Rush has the it has the infrastructure to host a huge event and they I mean, and it is it is. It is a hard golf course if you get strong wins and you get the right conditions. But if it's benign at Port Rush. I mean you can, you can go live, and I just don't think even if the conditions are benign at RCD, I just don't know if you can, if you can quite go as little there as as Port Rush.

00:36:39
Speaker 1: They could go full l a CC and just have like, you know, a small small gathering of fans for for one.

00:36:46
Speaker 3: At RCD, yeah, they could, but I don't think that's the RNAs. I don't think that's their thing. I think they they like bringing golf to the masses, or at least that's what they tell us.

00:36:56
Speaker 2: Can we do the cliche question ten rounds? How would you split them out? R CD and Port Rush? Everybody ask this around around here, ten rounds? I would you split them?

00:37:10
Speaker 3: So it's like, if I want to challenge, I go to r c D. If I want to enjoy myself, I go to Port Rush. I would say I would say six r CD for Port Rush.

00:37:28
Speaker 1: All right, all right, is it go five and five? I commend you for not going.

00:37:32
Speaker 4: No, No, I'm not, I'm not.

00:37:33
Speaker 3: I'm not a fence sitter.

00:37:37
Speaker 2: Can we just add one more on the on the golf?

00:37:39
Speaker 1: Is there an under raidar?

00:37:40
Speaker 2: Under the radar course, there's like a bunch of good courses we've seen that you particularly enjoyed. You probably haven't played in a while, but maybe in club competitions or junior golf aside from those two really high pillar highly ranked pillars of the golf up here.

00:37:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, kind of think Corchure.

00:38:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we could have done it.

00:38:08
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not something that we haven't seen yet anything in Northern Ireland. Really it's hard.

00:38:18
Speaker 3: It's hard. Like there's actually a couple of decent inland golf courses. Uh, it's near Belfast. I'd say Malone is decent for like an inland course. Beaver Park is pretty good. I'm trying to think what else. I think you've hit all the Yeah, I think you've hit all the.

00:38:43
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:38:47
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think, like people are going to travel to Northern I want to play links golf. I don't think they're going to trees and what they can get where they're from.

00:38:54
Speaker 1: So that's that. What's your favorite links course outside of the Big Two?

00:39:00
Speaker 3: Then my favorite links course I started the Big Two. It's not quite Northern Ireland, it's in the north of Ireland, but I would say Bali Lypphins. Yeah, is really good. It's a really good golf course.

00:39:18
Speaker 1: I've heard that they that's a great, great golf course.

00:39:22
Speaker 3: That there's two good golf courses there. So there's they have the Glusidi Links and they have the Old Links and they're both they're both very good. I would I would take a trip up there if you, if you're ever backing.

00:39:36
Speaker 1: Last last question about port Rush favorite hole. I'm just curious. There's so many out there that I loved.

00:39:48
Speaker 3: I would say my favorite whole port Rush. It's not that I always say it's it's the old thirteenth, but it's not fifteenth up over the crest of the hill, and then it's the one before the really hard part three. Well, I think it's fifteen.

00:40:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's all fifteen.

00:40:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great it's a great goal. I just I love the I love the view. I love the second shot view. I'm big. I think I think I think I've realized during this podcast I'm a big second shot guy.

00:40:23
Speaker 4: Yeah. I like. I like.

00:40:24
Speaker 3: I like a golf course with good second shots. I like it.

00:40:27
Speaker 2: Should we do speed round? Really click that we did ten rounds between RCD and Port Rush. This is for Andy. Here ten rounds between RCD and Quail Hollow. How do you split them?

00:40:39
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:40:48
Speaker 3: I like that North Carolina Sunshine. I'll go I'd probably go six Clail Hollow for r CD. Not not the answer, and he was looking.

00:41:05
Speaker 1: Killing me, killing me. Tour pros just they love quail howa.

00:41:12
Speaker 4: You need?

00:41:13
Speaker 3: You need to set your feet on the ground there and actually experience it yourself.

00:41:17
Speaker 1: All right, I'll uh. I got to ask did you do a bunch of damage? And we saw a video of you carrying a bunch of bags into into sawgrass last night? Did you do a bunch of damage in the bay Hill Pro Shop?

00:41:30
Speaker 4: I did not.

00:41:31
Speaker 3: That's uh, just all my laundry, all my laundry.

00:41:35
Speaker 1: Did they do the laundry? Is that like you bring it in and and then do you play around and then your you're back and it's done for you?

00:41:42
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:41:44
Speaker 3: Wow?

00:41:46
Speaker 4: What? What?

00:41:46
Speaker 1: What's the from home? What's the best thing that the tour provides that the general fan doesn't know about? For players? Like that makes your life way easier?

00:42:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, I think the laundry service is nice. Obviously, the cars, the look like like three food every I don't know, it's everything. I mean, there's not like there's honestly there is nothing to complain about that nothing.

00:42:21
Speaker 2: Well, it seems like they're from it. It seems like there's still more that could be had from what we are well, right, I mean there's never enough.

00:42:31
Speaker 3: I mean in this, in in this in this world right now, I know there is never enough, but it is there's there's literally nothing like I I like my first year on tour in a seven or eight on the European Tour and flying from China to Korea, to Malaysia to Singapore, to Japan, to the Middle East to whatever, like I mean, like it is like and then I think about, like just how convenient quite easy we have it. It's like it's not it's a different, different world.

00:43:07
Speaker 2: Next real quick speed around question. I don't know if it's just us looking particularly dopey lumbering down Newcastle or Hollywood or Port Rush, but how easy was it for you to pick out Americans or North Americans to tourists or golf tourists when when you were kind of coming up, was it easy?

00:43:24
Speaker 3: It was very easy? Ye gave it away very I don't know. I think Americans are like usually like just bigger people than Irish, bigger, louder for that.

00:43:39
Speaker 4: Uh.

00:43:41
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that that's why everyone is, but I just think that, like, yeah, they you sort of stand out a little bit.

00:43:47
Speaker 1: Hey, what what town if you were going to take a vacation Let's just say it's not a golf vacation to Northern Ireland. You're gonna you're gonna bring the family. What town would you most want to stay in?

00:43:59
Speaker 3: Oh? Oh, it's It's say port Rush has got like a little bit more going on than like, especially in the summertime. Like I used to spend so when my dad played in the North of Ireland at the Port Rush in the summers. There's like an amusement park in port Rush called Barries. I used to spend all my time in Barries. That was like that was like my my thing.

00:44:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a cool town. I thought I thought Port Stewart was super cool too. It's like it's got a real nice, like kind of energy. And it seems like the food and drink scene has gotten a lot better too. And yeah there's some good places.

00:44:45
Speaker 3: Yeah there are. There's some really good restaurants in port Rush on the port Shirt and yeah, and I think as well because they get a little bit more action from people coming from out a time. Yeah, it's sort of it makes that better anyways, I guess. But yeah, I would say for most people that, like, say, are from Northern Ireland, if they were to have a holiday home in Northern Ireland, most people would have it in court Rush.

00:45:09
Speaker 1: Do you think the Guinness tastes better here in Ireland?

00:45:14
Speaker 3: So? I think it's shipped everywhere. So so I'm not a big Guinness guy like you Andy, so I they say it does like people that actually really like gonna say that. You know, there's there's like a few different places even within Ireland that like there are like certain bars that are known for the Guinness more so than other ones. So it must there must be something. I don't know what it is, but I'm not a Goodness drinker.

00:45:47
Speaker 4: So all right, that's it.

00:45:50
Speaker 2: That's the final world final word.

00:45:52
Speaker 1: Okay, we were gonna we were going to ask if it went in if that did that go in? The fourteen T shot?

00:46:00
Speaker 3: Uh?

00:46:01
Speaker 2: That's o kill?

00:46:02
Speaker 4: Did it go in?

00:46:03
Speaker 1: Do you know did that go in?

00:46:04
Speaker 4: Rory?

00:46:04
Speaker 2: Can you confirm did that go in?

00:46:07
Speaker 3: Blocking? Oh my god, thanks, No, it didn't Michael. People are just jumping up for a reason, all right. They're jumping up and doing because I missed. I missed the green by twenty yards of the right.

00:46:25
Speaker 1: All right, Rory, thank you for your time.

00:46:27
Speaker 2: Really appreciate it.

00:46:28
Speaker 4: No problem, no worries, all right.

00:46:41
Speaker 1: Thank you again for listening to Friday Golf Podcast, and UH, big thanks to PJ Clark for unearthing this uh and putting it back up in the feed and uh and of course thanks for Rory for joining us a year and a half ago to talk about this topic. I hope everybody has a great open week, and I hope you enjoyed this little easter egg of a of a surprise for this week.

00:47:06
Speaker 3: Mum, hm hm