Episode 25: 2023 Year End Review - Part II

This week on Top 100 Clubhouse James Henderson, Simon Holt and David Davis get together to carry out a review of the 2023 golfing year! They chat about the amazing courses they have visited in the past 12 months, and discuss the places you should be adding to your golfing itinerary in 2024! 

Part II of III 

The Top100 Clubhouse is brought to you by Eden Mill. Bringing the art of distilling back to St Andrews. 

Transcript

James Henderson
 0:00:00
 The Top 100 Clubhouse podcast is brought to you by Eden Mill. Bring the tradition of distilling whiskey and gin back to St Andrews, the home of golf. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Top 100 Clubhouse, the ultimate podcast for golf course enthusiasts worldwide. I'm your host James Henderson and we're about to embark on a journey through lush fairways and breathtaking landscapes, as well as delving deep into the minds of fascinating individuals from every corner of the golfing universe.

Get ready to explore the world's top golf courses through the eyes of those who know them best. 

Golf aficionados, welcome back to the second part of the exclusive three-part series.

Let's continue our journey through the memorable greens of 2023. Anywhere else? Hit me. 

Simon Holt
 0:01:01
That I've been to this year, well actually Dave has done the vast majority of our combined  travel so he might want to dive in at this point and I'll get on to the newer courses I'd, you know, the unsung hero is continental Europe.

David Davis
 0:01:12
I can't have a chat without talking about continental Europe and, you know, that's where I live, so I have to give it a little bit of a plug, basically, you know. We did a wonderful trip to the Netherlands. That's where I've called home, as many people know already, but that's where I've called home for the better part of thirty years I'm a huge fan of Dutch golf and I've been trying to you know encourage people to come and take in what's there probably literally it's the only place in the world where within thirty minutes you can play amazing links courses and amazing heathland courses and and

James Henderson
 0:01:57
 well they've got uh... you've got uh... Roel Haeg, you've got uh... Utrecht, Japan.

David Davis
 0:02:02
 Absolutely.

James Henderson
 0:02:03
 There's Kenmore, you've got several.

David Davis
 0:02:06
 Very good, yeah. Nordviks, Kenmore. Nordviks, Kenmore.

James Henderson
 0:02:09
 And the National, is that?

David Davis
 0:02:11
 No, well, there's a course called the International. Is it just been redone? Or re... let me think for a second.

8
 0:02:20
 I might be wrong.

David Davis
 0:02:21
 No, no, no, that one hasn't been redone. That's a very modern course, the International. So, the other place that's a bit of an unsung hero is Eindhoven. It's called the Eindhovense. They've been doing a ton of work. They're removing a ton of trees. So, that's an old Harry Colt rooting. So, I have that one very much as one to watch in terms of like it just keeps getting better and better all the time. It's a great membership and they're really pushing the course in the right direction. The same with DuPont. DuPont, as everybody knows who knows or listens to me or looks at Instagram or whatever, Utrecht DuPont is one of my favorite courses. I absolutely love it. I think it's one of Harry Colt's best routings anywhere, and of course he's known very widely for doing the majority of the work at Pine Valley.

Simon Holt
 0:03:11
 But for him to have a – for Harry Colt, for you to compliment his routing and say it's one of the best of

James Henderson
 0:03:17
 his writings for such a routing expert is a massive compliment to the golf course.

David Davis
 0:03:22
 Yeah, it's one of the tightest routings. It's a really small property, but yet you have the feeling it's, you know, people have called it an inland links. It's actually a Heathland course, but it's set in these ancient sand dunes that run across the Netherlands, that obviously used to be seafloor, more than a few years ago. Yeah, I'm surprised the Netherlands still exists, to be honest with you.

Simon Holt
 0:03:44
 And so I'm fresh back from a beer run to the fridge here at HQ, but we've talked about a few flashy trips so far, in terms of distance at least, New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, get on a plane to Amsterdam, which is dirt cheap, get hire a car and everywhere is within an hour. David will be in the traffic. It's not as bad as he thinks. And get yourself over there.

James Henderson
 0:04:13
 They're all super welcoming as well. The Dutch, they really want to show off.

Simon Holt
 0:04:16
 I have to underline how easy this trip is. It's difficult to book because the Dutch golf scene, even for their members, as we found out, only really books a couple of months ahead. They don't really even have a member count.

14
 0:04:27
 A couple of days, literally.

Simon Holt
 0:04:29
 No, no, but when you say, when you ask them for their calendar, say, hey, where do you have medals and your matches so we can book around that? No, no, no, call back in a few months. We only work that out a couple months before.

David Davis
 0:04:39
 Opens up like the end of January or something like that.

Simon Holt
 0:04:41
 Sure, so but to go over there for a quick in and out trip and David can reel off all the courses, but with David's encouragement, I've been twice now and done like Kenema, Eindhoven, De Panne, which I always pronounce the wrong way, Rohe.

David Davis
 0:04:58
 Actually, you did quite well.

Simon Holt
 0:04:59
 Well, you know, you're welcome. Noordwijk, how's that? Excellent, perfect, in fact.

David Davis
 0:05:05
 Like a native.

11
 0:05:06
 Well, I think.

Simon Holt
 0:05:06
 And so, just incredible, just great fun. And all the jokes that we'd certainly have in the UK growing up and maybe in America about the Netherlands being dead flat You don't feel like that on the golf courses you play. I'll tell you some ethical Jews There is no hate a big old war Well, if you do so the the big mistake that you know

David Davis
 0:05:23
 I'm gonna pick on Americans being an American a big mistake that a lot of Americans make is they say, ah, you know What no problem. It's only 20 minutes from Nordvijk to Roelhage. I'm gonna do those in one day and just kind of like, that's a piece of cake, good luck. That is a serious walk to do those two back to back.

Simon Holt
 0:05:46
 Yeah, and he's not talking about walking between the courses there, he's talking about the actual, the big, like, Hague is just like big elevation changes. Wonderful golf course, but we talk about underrated golf destinations. David has done a wonderful job of putting the Netherlands on the map and still people are listening. It's like get on a plane and go. It's an hour away from most places in the UK with lots of flights to Amsterdam.

James Henderson
 0:06:11
 Well, now it's, you've got two now entered the top 100 in the world and that's just starting

David Davis
 0:06:17
 to show the appreciation. And what I'm going to, what I'm going to say, you've heard it first right here and I've probably said it before. Nordvik is my home club. We're getting a big renovation at the end, probably the end of next year. Martin Ebert's doing that and I'm thinking kind of like Turnberry or Hirono type stuff here so it used to be in the World Top 100 and I'm telling you it's coming back.

Simon Holt
 0:06:43
 He's had one and a half pints ladies and gentlemen.

James Henderson
 0:06:48
 He's sound like a WWE promoter.

Simon Holt
 0:06:50
 He's turned into Ric Flair.

James Henderson
 0:06:53
 Oh God, Martin Ebert coming into some people's elbow.

David Davis
 0:07:00
 So back down to earth. The other continental Europe tour that I'd really like to talk about is France. France is a very overlooked golf destination. You know, look,

4
 0:07:16
 you can love the French or hate them.

David Davis
 0:07:18
 I love the French, just for the record. We're meant to love them.

4
 0:07:22
 Exactly.

David Davis
 0:07:24
 But I will say that what's special about a trip to France is that it's really an old world cultural extension of the UK. So first of all, all their courses, I knew you guys would like that one. I'm not sure the French would be too impressed with saying that. Well, they have their golf to thank on the UK.

Simon Holt
 0:07:46
 Well everyone has their golf to thank.

David Davis
 0:07:48
 This could be true. I'm not going to get into that debate.

Simon Holt
 0:07:50
 I kind of probably agree with that.

David Davis
 0:07:53
 But I will say that the great courses in France, with the exception of a couple of really brilliant newcomers. They are from the classic great architects like Tom Simpson and Harry Colt, you know, and there's several standouts there. But we took a group, I took a group of our lockout members over there and I think it's another place where everybody is kind of like, you know, thinking what's this gonna be like? You know, is this gonna be really good? I haven't heard that much about it. There's one course everybody wants to play. That's called Morfontaine, of course. Obviously that's magical, mystical, amazing place. It's got the same vibe as like Pine Valley or Muirfield for France. But it's the only place that anybody who's ever thinking about it up until like more recent years. Okay, so tell us, where did you go apart from there?

James Henderson
 0:08:48
 So you got like Le Borde, would be the classic other...

David Davis
 0:08:52
 Exactly. So we started, the first place we went is an old Tom Simpson design, which I'm a huge fan of. I know they've recently renovated, so I'm going to be a little bit controversial here. Was that a goal for the national? No.

James Henderson
 0:09:07
 I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking.

13
 0:09:08
 I had to, I had to.

David Davis
 0:09:10
 But that's probably, that's a wonderful Ryder Cup destination if your name isn't USA.

James Henderson
 0:09:16
 Sorry, I had to interrupt there.

David Davis
 0:09:20
 Where was your top six in the gold course? So Fontainebleau and excuse my American pronunciation of that, so that is a place that just has this wild property with the potential to be the best course in continental Europe. They would need to remove 100,000 trees, perhaps, in order to get it back to the way it was when Tom Simpson went through there and first made his rooting, which is phenomenal. And that will never happen, unfortunately, just because trees are fairly sacred there and very difficult to remove. But it's an amazing property and a place where you run into things that you've never seen before, like these big rocks sticking out of things where you, you know, there's a part five where you play over these rocks, there's big drops, elevation changes, I mean, it has everything, totally wild greens. Have you been there?

Simon Holt
 0:10:13
 No, but it's been noted that the trees go on strike if you try and cut them down.

David Davis
 0:10:18
 Yeah, no doubt about it.

James Henderson
 0:10:20
 Just use this method.

Simon Holt
 0:10:21
 What, just do all of them down overnight?

David Davis
 0:10:25
 That's the typical strike is, you know, we're going to stop traffic and then until it's

Simon Holt
 0:10:32
 lunchtime and then we're going to have baguettes and wine. Well, indeed. But anyway, we've gone off on a tangent back to the golf courses. But I was lucky enough, David, I know, took this group of Lockhart members to Les Bords, who very kindly had invited David down. And I was lucky enough to be there earlier in the year a couple of times and what a great facility, facilities, understand what an amazing golf club it is. And we talk often about golf courses, golf clubs, sorry, with two courses. Is it quite in the bracket of Sunningdale, Royal Melbourne, Wingfoot? No. But the two golf courses are amazing falls to each other. So you've got this 1990s, Von Hagee. 85, probably, something like that. Yeah, you know, real tough penal school of architecture. You have to hit your shot here to hit it here. And then you've got this wonderful modernist, minimalist, Gilhans design on the new course, which is broken into multiple World's Top 100s now.

James Henderson
 0:11:35
 It entered our continental Europe at seven.

Simon Holt
 0:11:38
 Yeah, and it's fantastic. But what a place again, how friendly the people are wonderful. The staff, I mean, Jack Lowe's the director of golf, Ollie, shout out to Ollie Hush, North Berwick boy that's out there now working in the pro shop as well.

James Henderson
 0:11:52
 Oh, is he in the pro shop there? I was chatting to him in the pro shop at North Berwick.

Simon Holt
 0:11:55
 Do you know, I saw him walking along the road the other day. I should have stopped the car, but it was raining.

James Henderson
 0:11:59
 I didn't realize.

9
 0:12:00
 Yeah.

James Henderson
 0:12:01
 Jack's actually going to come on the pod.

Simon Holt
 0:12:03
 Oh, fantastic.

David Davis
 0:12:04
 For the people that don't know, that's Laborda's Old World French Country Charm, right? Like the best of it.

James Henderson
 0:12:12
 That sounds like something you type in Instagram.

David Davis
 0:12:14
 Combined, exactly. Sorry, that is a quote from Instagram. Probably that's a quote from Instagram. Combined with, you know, there's a complete juxtaposition between the two different courses, the new and the old. The old is definitely what you said. It's Pete Dye School of Architecture. That's where Van Haga came from. Tough, tough course. They used to put people on a board inside the clubhouse if you broke 80 from the back tees. So, they were very proud to be the most, they said, the most difficult course in Europe. So, that was a matter of pride for many, many years and then a new owner came in, changed everything around for the better, made it this amazing private club facility that is certainly the best of its kind in Europe for

Simon Holt
 0:13:01
 sure. It's fantastic, I mean off the golf course, accommodation fantastic, food, wine fantastic, countryside fantastic, just nipping away to do, you can go on these old school wooden river boats and have the charcuterie board and the wine and talk through by... It's very near Saint-Sérenes. Yes, absolutely. And Pouly-Fumé. Yeah, and a wonderful part of the world, not a million miles from Paris, it's easy to get to and just a wonderful place to go. But the golf course is great. They also have the head greenkeeper, Romain, who was at Montfontaine before. So he's got one of the best in the business down there, taking exceptional care of two very different golf courses, but what a place to go to for a few days.

David Davis
 0:13:45
 And actually, not only, you could spend your whole time down there playing those two, actually three courses because they have a, is it 12?

Simon Holt
 0:13:55
 The piglets as well, yeah, we forgot about that. Piglet course.

6
 0:13:58
 Fantastic.

Simon Holt
 0:13:59
 Yeah.

David Davis
 0:14:00
 And it's 10 holes, I think. 10 holes, okay. So, really close by, they have another course that's brilliant and gets overlooked. That's actually a Martin Hautre course called LISSES, and you'll have to forgive me because that's the American pronunciation of it, of course.

Simon Holt
 0:14:15
 It's like A-I-double-S-E-S, isn't it?

David Davis
 0:14:18
 L-E-S. L-E-S. And then A-I-S-S-E-S.

Simon Holt
 0:14:21
 Yeah, A-I-S-S-E-S, yeah.

David Davis
 0:14:24
 And pronounced supposedly La Cisse and if there's any French listeners I apologize immensely. It's a short drive up to the Holland border and… I'm sorry I'm off on a trip.

James Henderson
 0:14:41
 Is there any other golf course in France you want to talk about?

David Davis
 0:14:44
 Well actually yes, so we went to, next we went to Saint Germain, Saint Germain's…

Simon Holt
 0:14:51
 Saint Germain.

David Davis
 0:14:52
 Saint Germain, sorry.

Simon Holt
 0:14:52
 Come on David, at least try.

David Davis
 0:14:53
 Yeah, you're right, you're right. That's that pint and a half getting to me. So, Saint Germain... Saint Germain. Yeah, it's okay. Saint Germain. Are you half French?

Simon Holt
 0:15:06
 I'm butchering it, but I'm closer than you, I'm fairly sure.

David Davis
 0:15:09
 I am sure you are. Give me a pound.

James Henderson
 0:15:11
 I think you're both doing an awful job.

David Davis
 0:15:16
 So very, very tight rooting, very small property, extremely difficult course, very firm and fast, amazing green complexes. The course was super flat and it's one of the places where Colt went and actually did a fair bit of shaping on the greens and he came up with something really spectacular. It's really known for its par 3s that are completely standout. So if you stand on a fairly flat course and you look at these wild greens on the par 3s, then you know like, okay, this is a serious test.

James Henderson
 0:15:52
 Yeah, massive, massively. But the par 3s are always the last thing you put in, right? It's always your last thought. It's almost an afterthought.

David Davis
 0:16:00
 Except that Colt started with a par 3.

Simon Holt
 0:16:02
 Yeah, I was going to say, Colt always started with a par 3.

James Henderson
 0:16:04
 Always. Well, there you go. That's very against the modern theory, but yet Colt has built so many fantastic golf courses.

Simon Holt
 0:16:11
 I think most, to be fair, just really down and dirty with the golf course architecture. Get filthy. The architects are, from what I believe, really looking for green sites, and they find lots of green sites and then start to figure out the routing. I'm sure everyone else has got a different, everyone's probably got a different way of doing it, but I believe that's what happens, David, right? They really try and look for green sites and then build around that.

David Davis
 0:16:37
 Especially with a minimalist architecture, that's absolutely right.

James Henderson
 0:16:42
 Both of you have spent a lot of time with a lot of architects and yourself with Tom Doe because you've played a bit of golf with him. And he's arguably the best writer currently, a green site finder currently.

Simon Holt
 0:16:56
 Yeah, I mean, yeah, he's always talked about it. We've said this numerous times on the various pods he's thought of as a genius in terms of routing. When we interviewed Zac Blair, you know, who had Kai Golby really grab the golf course by the scruff of the neck and build the thing. But Tom was brought in to do the routing and, you know, Zach had his ideas and came in and then there's other people I'm sure that are famous for other things. So we'll get on, I think a little later to sort of prominent younger architects that are coming into the industry. But I'm trying to think back to where I was, David, in terms of Lockhart this year, which is a Florida trip, whether then there was Brazil, then did we do an England trip as well? You went on an England trip.

David Davis
 0:17:43
 How was that? Yeah, we did kind of the, okay, I'm going to say the best of the Heathlands, but I know that there could be people throwing food at me literally for that. We did the two Sunningdales. I'm a little bit biased there. Sunningdale is one of my favorite, you know, my favorite 36-hole clubs in the world. For a lot of people I know, but it is really up there.

Simon Holt
 0:18:04
 For me, it's the best 36-hole club in the world.

David Davis
 0:18:07
 I don't feel so bad.

Simon Holt
 0:18:08
 For me, as we're talking about club, I just think the feel, some places have it and I can't articulate it any better than the feel. When you walk into Salingdale, quintessential English club, a proper, proper club with two

David Davis
 0:18:22
 outstanding golf courses. Are you an old course or new course guy?

Simon Holt
 0:18:27
 I'm probably an old course guy. I'll tell you the new course is growing.

David Davis
 0:18:31
 I'm a halfway hut guy, that's why. Don't tell me the sausage.

Simon Holt
 0:18:35
 If you hit that... I've told the story before about the sausage convener, which I just think is the most hilarious story of all time. You know, some guy walking around Sloan Square or somewhere with a car that he's the sausage convener at Sunningdale. Really has me fizzed. But no, two wonderful golf courses, incredible club, great bunch down there. But tell us about the other courses you played around there.

David Davis
 0:18:54
 Yeah, so we went to Swinley Forest, which used to be a place that was, I mean, it's a very private club in the London area.

Simon Holt
 0:19:05
 But so David, I just want to jump in about Swinley. You talk about, you trekked as one of Colt's best routings. Swindley to me is every bit as good, if not better actually, as a routing. I just think Swindley is phenomenal. Absolutely love it.

David Davis
 0:19:22
 Yeah. I agree. Definitely one of Colt's best. There's no doubt about it. And they've done it, you know, it took, and as much as you can realistically look at that and then say that, it took a bit of flock for quite a few years is maybe not getting enough love. The members saying, you know, we love the course, we don't need to do anything with it. But they've done quite a bit of giving it a lot of love and in the last few years, and that really shines through. It really shows. So, you know, kudos to them. And they're moving in the right direction with that.

Simon Holt
 0:19:54
 But I think as well, when you stand there, there's lots of internal views. So what we mean by that is you can stand on, you know, whichever green and you've taken a look around after I've three putted and you've taken a look around and you see all these other holes, just little peaks of holes through trees and things like that. And you just get a nod of what's about to come during the round or you see a hole that you've already played from a slightly different angle. And that's what I love about Swinley. You get lots of these little looks at holes, there are maybe little three-hole triangles, wee loops that you go, oh, I can't wait to play that. It's also a bit of a racetrack and I can't wait to get around that corner or around that bend. And that's what Swinley has. It's always giving you a peek at the surprises, so, you know, semi-surprises that are about to come.

James Henderson
 0:20:42
 That's something that I've learned over the period that I've started the podcast with you guys is when we did Zach Blair, Zach Blair was talking about how Tom looks at a golf course and he actually looks for loops that have got holes. And the fact that you want to be able to visualize those golf holes before you get to them, you want to be able to see what's going on before you get to them. And that's exactly, that just shows you, it works, it's right, it's completely, it's a thing which is very cool.

David Davis
 0:21:13
 Just moving on for the rest of the England trip because it was, you know, every course was spectacular. So, every one we could kind of go on and on. You could almost have a pod, you could literally have a podcast about each one of them. We went to West Sussex, amazing two-ball club. By two-ball club, that's very unique for at least the North American viewers to hear that because that's a place where, you know, regularly they play foursomes. We don't even know what foursomes are except for the

Simon Holt
 0:21:39
 Ryder Cup basically. So... Do you know I've not actually played there? That's a huge hole in my resume is that side of London and then also the London area and then also South West England.

David Davis
 0:21:54
 I didn't know that I've actually played someplace that you haven't played. Well,

Simon Holt
 0:21:57
 you've played many places I haven't played but that's a big hole in the resume that's far too close to home to have not filled, so to speak. But also...

David Davis
 0:22:07
 Listen, I know a guy.

Simon Holt
 0:22:08
 Well, of course you do. But also in Dope's Confidential Guide under the gourmet choice is West Sussex.

David Davis
 0:22:14
 Absolutely. And it should be there. You know, one amazing hole after another. There's one hole that is quite famous that I actually don't like. I don't need to go into that. I want to say it's the exact number, it fails me at the moment. I want to say it's number six. It's a long par three over water. There's a big pond there that just feels like that's a weird place for a pond. Very difficult hole, don't get me wrong. It's a really good hole, I just don't like it for whatever reason basically. But anyway, the course is unbelievable. It's very, very good. It's a very one of those, you can't say it's a hidden gem anymore because enough people have played it and heard of it, but it feels like it is.

Simon Holt
 0:22:54
 I don't know, David. I think it still is a hidden gem. I think for a large part, and maybe not for the UK listeners, but most people in the US, there's no way they've heard of West Sussex. And I mean, I've not been there and I live in Edinburgh, so I need to go there. James needs to go. I think outside London, most people don't even know much about it. We talk about, we were talking a lot about travel today and that was the whole point of the pod, a year in review of golf travel, specifically David with the Lockhart Club. But I think we've talked before about underrated golfing destinations and England almost, well not almost, hands down top of the tree. And one of our good friends, David Margolis, that we had on the pod at the Walker Cup says, you know, the B sides in England, the depth of quality of English golf is absolutely ridiculous, but people are so focused on going to Scotland because they've built this home of golf brand and rightly so. The golf in Scotland is amazing. We're here in Scotland. Ireland is doing an amazing job. If England wanted to put their foot on the gas for golf and golf tourism, they could do it. And it's so easy, so easy to fly into most English airports.

David Davis
 0:24:04
 Yeah, I agree and there's a pretty tight little area where you could spend weeks literally in that area playing, you know, everything around London, the London Heathlands, all that area, you know.

Simon Holt
 0:24:18
 So Walton, the Three W's, Sunnydale.

David Davis
 0:24:21
 Surrey and Sussex and you know, all these places running through there.

Simon Holt
 0:24:27
 But even if we're sort of talking about the pounds and pence here, whether you live in the UK or you're flying internationally into Heathrow, the golf in that Surrey, the Heathland area around Surrey and London.

David Davis
 0:24:41
 Sandbelt.

Simon Holt
 0:24:42
 Well, I was going to say Sandbelt, but I sort of cringed at the thought of saying Sandbelt. It's punchy er than most golf in England and there's so much exceptional value golf to be found in England as there is in Scotland But let's focus on England for a change if you go down to that southwest corner and you don't say it anadark That's true. Well top 100. I've not played that but everyone that I respect that's been down there. It says it is and David you could reel them off but parent or So, I'm going to help me out here a little bit. Trevos, there we go. And that's just naming the bigger name stuff down there. Value for money is really big. Westward Ho. Yeah, it was Royal North Devon. Royal North Devon.

David Davis
 0:25:21
 Yeah, but then other places in England kind of up towards East Anglia.

Simon Holt
 0:25:25
 So, when you're talking like Hunstanton, Brancaster. Brancaster must be one of the most magical places. Brancaster is amazing.

James Henderson
 0:25:32
 Yeah, I've been a couple of times. It's so cool, isn't it? So cool. The fact that you cross a road that floods with high tide into the spit that floods itself in high tide. So it's a 36 whole day because

David Davis
 0:25:48
 you get there and you don't realize that it's going to flood. So you end up going to the

Simon Holt
 0:25:53
 clubhouse and have you seen the photo on the right when you come in? It's Winston Churchill with his shoes off while he's walking up the drive to get into the golf course. But I mean, these are the sort of trips that people should be taking. And you know, sometimes it looks like something that we can come across a wee bit flash when we're talking about these name dropping places that David and I've been lucky enough to get on a plane and go to.

David Davis
 0:26:15
 Right. Are you accusing me of name dropping?

Simon Holt
 0:26:17
 Absolutely. So we can in here in the UK and just get in the car and drive to an area for a long weekend and go and play these what some people would class as B-side courses, in most countries they would be absolute headliner courses. And they're in the kind of 100 to 150 pound mark, sometimes cheaper, and just go and have an absolute blast for four or five days.

James Henderson
 0:26:39
 There's one of my favorites, and I think probably one of the most undervalued golf destinations is Wales. And it may not have that many golf courses at a very, very high quality, but if you do Aberdovey, St David's, Neffin, Neffin's not at the quality I'd like to, but Neffin is stunning. If anyone wants to see a golf course that's on a cliff, it's Neffin and District. It's wild. But it's £99 for bed and breakfast and golf.

Simon Holt
 0:27:09
 Well, Neffin's almost like old head in terms of the drama, like the high up on the cliffs drama.

James Henderson
 0:27:15
 It's only, it's one hole wide, there's two holes there. It's wild, but if you go to Aberduffy, which is Bernard Darwin's favorite golf course, and then you've got Royal St. David's, which is kind of a top 100 UK course.

David Davis
 0:27:33
 Pretty cool name.

5
 0:27:34
 Are you a saint? I could be.

James Henderson
 0:27:37
 What's its, is it Harlech? That's its second name, Harlech. It sits below a castle and it's very similar to your Royal Liverpools, your Troons, it's those golf courses that Troons charge you £150, no, £350 for a round. £150? £350 for a round. But all these golf courses that are in that bracket that I see as great lengths courses, but have four or five holes that are slightly flatter or lacking compared to the rest of the golf course. Connecting holes. Yeah, connecting holes. St. David's has that, but it also has these wonderful dune holes and beautiful par threes through the dunes. It's a wonderful golf course. But isn't the UK and Ireland kind of like full of those places if you discover them, if you get out and start searching. And Royal St. David's is, it's only 400 quid for a membership. And you get reciprocal to all the Royals.

10
 0:28:36
 Royal Melbourne.

Simon Holt
 0:28:37
 What we just talked about there in the space of rightly going through a few of the great trips that David's taken this year in the most parts, and you know, one or two that is we've dropped in Southwest England, Wales, and East Anglia as trips that you can, as an international, fly into Heathrow and access within a few hours drive of Heathrow. No problem at all. And with incredible value, wonderful Gulf Coast architecture, it doesn't have to be all like massive name droppy places that Dave and I are doing here, which makes me cringe at times, to be honest. It's weird, I've found it a bit odd,

James Henderson
 0:29:15
 I've watched and listened to a lot of things, right? And golf is very much about having a name drop, a golf course, there's a level where, I'm going to drop you guys in it, as top 100 completers, you know, but everyone wants to play Augusta, everyone wants to be able to say they've played St Andrews, everyone wants to say they've been able to play blah, blah. But yet, there is a verge of golf that a lot of people are now talking about where they find hidden gems.

David Davis
 0:29:47
 Well, Simon always talks about the cigar story, right? And the cigar story is something I'd never even thought about or heard of until a couple of years ago. So tell them.

Simon Holt
 0:29:55
 Well, you're not a cigar guy, but kind of.

12
 0:29:57
 Actually.

Simon Holt
 0:29:58
 No, you do enjoy the cigar, I've seen you. Yeah, well, that's one kind of throwaway phrase is, oh, that's the cigar story. So if predominantly Americans, I grew up caddying for it as a young lad at North Berwick and things and then University of St. Andrews, they'd come over and everyone was on this trip that would be Muirfield, St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, maybe over to Troon, Turnberry, if they were lucky, Prestwick, which is like, you know, I absolutely cannot miss golf course. And I'm not even for a change in their name, drop North back there, but they would, they would, I would say there's always room for one or two courses and you'd be hard pressed. Understandably if international golfers are coming to the UK, they want, they might only come here once or twice. They want to play all the big names, much like as if we were to go to Australia or New Zealand or America. Access isn't an issue over here, so you can play most of the courses if you plan ahead. But please, please, please insert one or two rounds where you go to an Ely or a Crail or Redanian or Slothian, go and play at Kilspindi or Dunbar. If you're on the West Coast, go and play Prestwick St. Nicholas. Westingales is not quite in the hidden gem bracket.

10
 0:31:14
 It's amazing though.

Simon Holt
 0:31:15
 Yeah, it's amazing. Or if you're going out and playing, making the effort to go to Makar Hatt, Hanisch played Dinavity that, you know, name-dropping the No Landing Boys and made a big fuss of last year.

10
 0:31:25
 Or Shishkin.

Simon Holt
 0:31:26
 Yeah, Shishkin on Arran. And if you just have one or two of those places, I promise you when you go home and everyone's got the St. Andrew's story, everyone's got the Carnoustie story, for you to sit there and go, hey, that's great, but did you go to Crail? Did you hang out with the members in the bar at Crail? Or did you go to Ely and look through the periscope? Did you go to Kilspindi and hang out in their bar afterwards, which is one of the great little cute pub houses in the world?

James Henderson
 0:31:52
 That's fun, isn't it?

Simon Holt
 0:31:53
 I mean, that's the experience part that we drift away from Gulf Coast architecture and we talk about memories and experience. For you to go home and, you know, we came up with this tagline between us all, play fast, lunch slow. You go out there, we all like to play fast, so we chase it around. But for me, sitting down there afterwards, having a drink with your playing companions, maybe you've only met that day. There's very few sports like golf that you can make that connection with people, with kindred spirits, and sit there and talk the world away. Like we're doing now for hours, just talking utter nonsense about golf. Okay, so yeah, full disclosure, you just listed a bunch of places I've never been. Well, there you go. An absolute bullshit. That's a joke. David's played lots of besides. But no, maybe it's harsh to call it a B-side. Maybe we should come up with a new term for it. Well, I think besides like a term of endearment, it's slightly different from hidden gem because there's so many courses now in the world we live in with the internet and these bloody podcasts.

11
 0:32:54
 Yeah, they're awful.

Simon Holt
 0:32:55
 Hidden gems are no longer hidden gems. I think B-sized is not meant to be a dismissive term. It's just meant to mean you're gonna go to a place and if you're on this trail of playing the big names that are very well conditioned and all the rest of it ticks all the other boxes, country club for a day type experience go to what we're calling the b-sides and You will be blown away by the golf experience probably more enamored with the off-course experience by a factor of a hundred than you are with the off-course experience at one of the big resort courses and Go and at least treat yourself to one or two of those courses. If you're over on a seven day trip, tick your boxes, make sure you make room for just one or two of those other places.

David Davis
 0:33:44
 No doubt, about 100%. I have a question for you guys actually then. So we're talking about hidden gems. What's your, this year, 2023, your biggest hidden gem, James, go.

5
 0:33:56
 Biggest hidden gem. It's not as much hidden,

James Henderson
 0:33:59
 but I do think it's a fantastic golf course. I do appreciate it. It's Gossik.

Simon Holt
 0:34:06
 Big Gossik guy. I mean, not quite ruins it, but gives it a hard time and confidence. I think Gossik's really good.

James Henderson
 0:34:16
 Biggest hidden gem. It's not as much hidden, but I do think it's a fantastic golf course. Never played it, but I do appreciate it. Down the coast. Small greens, but for the record, are you a shareholder?

8
 0:34:32
 I think it's a fun golf course.

David Davis
 0:34:34
 Small, difficult to approach greens.

10
 0:34:37
 Dirt cheap.

Simon Holt
 0:34:37
 Old Second World War, concrete blocks. It's a fantastic little golf course. It's not expensive. In terms of value for money you won't get better than that.

James Henderson
 0:34:55
 No, I wish I was. God.

David Davis
 0:34:59
 What's the bacon roll?

James Henderson
 0:35:03
 It's built in these beautiful dunes. It's just a fun and everyone is super friendly as well. So you sit down in the clubhouse and have a bacon roll. The guy next to you is a member, he's just chatting away from you. He's like, so where are you from? Because he already knows everyone in the bloody pub. Well there you go. There's another, who else?

David Davis
 0:35:27
 That's one of the ones that...

James Henderson
 0:35:29
 Southern Ness.

David Davis
 0:35:31
 We've talked about a couple of architects, but I know Martin Ebert quite well. That's one that he's told me, you've got to get down to see Southern Ness at some point, basically.

Simon Holt
 0:35:38
 Yeah, Silla fits in that bracket as well.

9
 0:35:40
 Yes, but not for-

Simon Holt
 0:35:41
 I'd say this world we live in, it's essentially just next to the English border. I don't know how many of my English listeners

5
 0:35:45
 will have heard of.

Simon Holt
 0:35:46
 Wallacy's a great shout, just a little- We're gonna visit there next year. I'll throw that in.

David Davis
 0:35:51
 We'll have a lot of luck our trip there, yeah. Yeah.

Simon Holt
 0:35:53
 The green thing in there is an absolute spot on that.

James Henderson
 0:35:56
 And they're looking at changing it, not going to get to the Amsterdam sort of thing, It's a big hit on Instagram.

Simon Holt
 0:36:07
 Wallacy.

James Henderson
 0:36:08
 I was on Wallacy earlier in the year. I'd love to. The greenkeeping there is absolutely spot on now and they're looking at changing it up a wee bit to sort out those three or four holes that aren't in the dunes. Do you want to hear some interesting facts?

David Davis
 0:36:31
 So you're telling me that they're not bitten? So there's four paintings of Bobby Jones in the world. So Augusta, if you're listening, the number is a bit higher than what you've seen so far. Four paintings of Bobby Jones in the world and one of them is there. Augusta keeps trying to buy it and Wallacey keeps rejecting it. That's the story I've heard.

James Henderson
 0:36:54
 They're obviously not bidding enough well or they just don't care.

David Davis
 0:36:57
 Okay so is that yeah yeah so we lost time. And it sits above the fireplace. Definitely my biggest hidden gem. And everybody in Canada will be throwing beers at me for saying this but without a doubt I played Toronto Golf Club for the first time this year. We had a trip over that direction and we were just so fortunate to be able to visit that. I feel like they, I could be wrong, I feel like they really keep it under the radar. Toronto Golf Club, mind-blowing good. So for me even, as much as I've tried to travel, Toronto Golf Club was by a mile the biggest hidden gem that I've experienced this this last year.

Simon Holt
 0:37:42
 I've not played there recently, but I played pre-COVID and they had their inaugural international invitational. So I played with a good friend, Richard Levine. But yeah, Richard and I played and the wonderful dorm he has there at the club at Toronto Golf Club and wonderful course. 18 holds course spectacular cult, but I think David will correct me on that if he comes in and I'm wrong. And they have a Watson nine. And they had this nine hole course that we played. It was a fun event, actually. We played this a few years ago now, but we played with a member on the nine hole course. So we all got to know everyone. They had a big event that night, outside, under the lights, all in jacket and tie, fantastic. Fantastic. And then the next day we played matches as pairs against a Toronto Golf Club pair and it was some big, you know, total score, kind of visitors against Toronto Golf Club, which was great fun. But the other thing that David will have done that trip is obviously go out to Cabot and talking about hidden gems. So you've got the Cabot courses out there that are fantastic, Cliffs and Links. I'm probably one of the few people that I think prefers Links to Cliffs. And when I was there a few years ago, there's quite a cute story that was in the pro shop at Cliffs, which is like a yurt, a big tent. And I was chatting away to someone and one of the gentlemen that works there, an older gentleman, wandered over and says, I couldn't help but hear your accent. And then what you were saying, you know, you're over here playing these golf courses. Have you ever played Highland Links? Stanley Thompson course right at the edge of the world. I'm there in Cape Breton. I was the pro there for 35 years and now my son's the pro. I said, well, I've heard of it. I'd love to go and play, but I haven't really got the time. He goes, you really should, and let's call my son right now. So he called his son. He got me the tee time that didn't exist, which was five minutes before the first tee time and knowing that I promised them that I'd play fast. So I left at four o'clock in the morning, my alarm went off in this grotty Airbnb in this town called, horrendous, in this town called Inverness of all things. Up there in Nova Scotia, as the name suggests, New Scotland, all these towns are named after Scottish towns, like Inverness, New Glasgow, places like that. So the Cabot courses are in Inverness. Jumped to the car at four in the morning.

James Henderson
 0:40:04
 How did you feel?

7
 0:40:06
 Oh, of course, yeah.

Simon Holt
 0:40:08
 Good cabinet, really, to joke that. So, anyway, hopped in the car, went out to play Highland Links. What an amazing walk in the woods. And we say hidden gem, it was in World Top 100 however many years ago, but this is in a national park. They're all in bloody Inverness. They've got a little bit of a ready are in for nothing. Well, as it was worth every second of that four hour drive I took to get out there, every single second of the five and a half hour drive back to Halifax airport because I was racing to get to Toronto golf club. And I would say, if you go out to Cabot, Lincoln, Cliffs and I think actually David might've messaged me whilst I was there. This is before we worked with each other and before we was close as we are now, David messaged me on Facebook, you know, pre-Instagram. David messaged me and goes, hey, like I see you're out in Nova Scotia playing the Cabot courses. You'll disappoint me. I could probably pull the message up now. He said something along the lines of, you'll really disappoint me if you're not going to Highland Links. And I was, but I'm glad David doubled down on you must go. What an amazing walk, an amazing piece of property, and just an incredible part of the world i've not thought about the fact combined travel was close to nine hours but in

6
 0:41:22
 one day

Simon Holt
 0:41:23
 to play this golf course to race around in three hours worth every single second imagine it would have been quite easy so it's like

David Davis
 0:41:31
 you said it's a little bit rough and ready. Imagine if they pumped a bit of love into that and got rid of a lot of trees and whatever. The bones of it are just phenomenal.

Simon Holt
 0:41:45
 Incredible, but it's more the walk, and I've said this before, it's all about the walk to me and just being out there in the fresh air is gulfs escapism for me. And you've taken this incredible walk in the woods and at points you would think, oh, this is a bit of a clunky route because you've got this big walk along the river, but it's this sense of place that just fits entirely with where you are. And so it makes it acceptable, more than acceptable to, it's part of the journey of this 18 holes. And wow, I want to go back. If you're out there, you have to go play.

8
 0:42:20
 Yeah.

David Davis
 0:42:21
 I agree. If you, a trip to Cabot, if you don't get out to Highland Links, you didn't do it right. I mean, that's just plain and simple.

Simon Holt
 0:42:30
 That's a massive problem to that golf course. I'm going to rattle off a few things. Firstly,

James Henderson
 0:42:40
 I'm going to ask everyone to, I'll give you the answer for the next pod. I'm going to ask everyone between 2010 and this year, if we add together the world rankings of the Combine the golf course, the venue, that the majors are at in a year.

Simon Holt
 0:43:01
 So for example, in 2013 the majors are obviously Augusta, Merion, Muirfield, and O'Kelley. You can add the numbers to get those courses in terms of the ranking numbers of those courses to get your total. You add the world rankings, that's a pretty good idea. That would be, like if you can do that, I love golf architecture but there's no way that I could do that without a, I have a cheat sheet here so I could probably figure it out with a cheat sheet if you give me a calculator. There's only one actually that's better than that.

David Davis
 0:43:34
 Well that's a pretty sexy reason. 2013 is the year that I have a right to be doing that. You chose the right one didn't you? I think that 2013 is one of the better years. Definitely.

Simon Holt
 0:43:42
 And there's a few, I don't want to give the game away yeah well i don't want to give a game away but 2013 is an amazing year so people use that as an example look at 2013 and obviously every year has got a guster but that year also has oakhill, merion and mirfield what a set that is and then think of another year that can compete with that in terms of golf courses and their relative rankings. That's pretty tough. Is that fair, James? Is that what you're asking?

David Davis
 0:44:33
 That's a very good question.

James Henderson
 0:44:34
 What I'll do is we'll use that on Instagram and send that to everyone on Instagram to

Simon Holt
 0:44:38
 have a bit of a comment. Maybe give a hat to it, James?

7
 0:44:40
 Yeah.

James Henderson
 0:44:41
 I think bucket hats are very in vogue right now, right?

Simon Holt
 0:44:44
 We're a big bucket hat, guys. Are those bucket hats there? I'm looking at them. Yeah, over in the corner of the room there. Boxes, boxes everywhere.

James Henderson
 0:44:52
 Yeah, it's a good question. Yeah, and I want, what I'll do is we'll use that in the Instagram and send that out on Instagram and get people to comment. I think bucket hats are very in vogue right now, right. I'm going to start off with, we've already done favorite courses. Okay, your highlight of the year in terms of one individual course, you don't need to know why. We've already talked about most of them.

Simon Holt
 0:45:24
 TRI, yeah, the greens are bonkers in the best possible way. That really, because I had super high expectations and that really blew me away. And then if you can humor me a second, I was lucky enough to be invited down, I went down to be a campus at Lucia Point Hardy, I think it's a Sunday name. And I have to say, there's been a bit of controversy around this one about, oh, it's in the golf.com rankings. And it's got straight in people, oh, the course isn't even open yet. Of course, the course is open, like open in the middle of the year. The official member opening was in December. The last five holes are like a greatest hits album. They're just like wow after wow after wow, but not just the visuals, like the strategy on the holes as well. And the 17th hole, there's about three different Ts there, and the 17th hole is this par 3, and there's a cliff, and from the middle T, you kind of play up and blind onto a green. And forget the shape of the green when I say the word Bayeritz, but the original Bayeritz hole in Bayeritz, France was across this chasm, uphill from what we can gather, because it's no longer in existence, uphill to a green. It must be as close as you can come to hitting that tee shot anywhere in the world. And the 18th hole is an all world 18th. So that to me just blew me away. But I would say in terms of an entire course, then TRI North, the dope course down there in New Zealand. How am I supposed to follow that up? So that's why I got impressed.

David Davis
 0:47:06
 The single best course I played, that's going to be kind of boring, but it's got to be Real

6
 0:47:08
 Portrush.

David Davis
 0:47:09
 I was just thinking about this, you know, I mean, that's not new to anybody. Anybody who's played Real Portrush knows it's phenomenal. It's been also, you know, the benefactor of a few years ago, an addition, a couple of new holes and a redesign and got a lot of love in before the Open went back there but it is just even as even if you look at it as like a top 15 in the world I have a feeling like that might even be a you know underrated if you're if you're saying it's number 15 in the world which is incredible and it's just so solid from start to finish so I played it you know did I was very fortunate I got to do a lot of traveling this year I got to share a lot of places I really love with a wonderful group of people from Lockhart Club. And still, I would say that's probably the best. I am, additionally to that, I'm going to say that a controversial course that we visited is Ardfin fan. Do I think it's perfect and they couldn't do a lot of work to it to make it even better in the eyes of the masses that go there, the people that get to go? Yes, I do think they could do a lot of things. First of all, add 10 to 15 yards of manageable rough on either side of the fairway and many places and if it became more playable, it would be, yeah, a course that people were looking at saying like, you know what, that's one of my favorites in Scotland of all things. And I'm sitting with a couple of guys who probably disagree with that. But in any case, I remain a huge fan of Ardfun. That is a place that just has a very interesting presence and scale and everything. If you get lucky and you get to go there, it's a spectacular place to be. So those places, if you ask me my personal favorite, if I was going to die tomorrow, which place would I go this last year, that's going to be Santa Pazienza for obvious reasons that we've already touched on. And then the last one I suppose is a place I'm most looking forward to go back to next year is Girona. So, you know, there's a trip we have planned to go back. I'm extremely fortunate to go there. After seeing the Renault this year, it's just really high on the list.

James Henderson
 0:50:05
 As we conclude this exploration of golfing wonders that shaped 2023, we can't help but marvel at the beauty and challenge each course presented. Stay tuned for part 3 where we shift our focus to the future and the exciting prospects that

4
 0:50:25
 await in the horizon. Until then, play fast, lunch slow. the the the

 
 
 Transcribed with Cockatoo