On the contrary, I think it still fits with the ethos of the show to show good golf in an area people wouldn’t normally visit while also showing off just how much fun you can have under a certain threshold. If $800 is going to be the new number that they stick with from here on out them I’m totally fine with that since we can then look back and compare the fact that they were nearly a hundo under budget in West Texas, but were fighting that same budget somewhere else as a way to show just how affordable golf is out there.
Truly, some of the drama of the mega bonus and the money round which is one of the bigger parts of the show (for me) was just completely absent this time around and that kind of sucks. Which isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I totally did. Strapped continues to be my absolute favorite thing that NLU does. I just enjoyed them fighting the $850 budget for Spring Training and seeing how they got creative (putt-putt) to fit under that budget than I did seeing them cruise to an easy weekend of not having to worry about how much was spent.
As someone who doesn’t really get to go on golf trips (buddy or otherwise) very often, Strapped is the most attainable version of golf travel for me personally and if I was on the trip I know I’d be cognizant of the costs associated with it so to see the budget character die, as you put it, is sad for me.
Strapped has never been about the budget, or the money round, or showcasing decent golf in flyover country. It’s about the cast of characters: The relationship that Neil and Randy have and the people they meet and introduce to the audience along the way.
Love strapped. Can’t speak to whether or not the budget actually matters. But what about the rental car?!?! Driving along in some sweet minivan and it’s not included.
Honestly, that would be pretty funny, an alternative or director’s cut for Nest Members that’s just like network tv garbage. I could see it now for this episode:
Randy saying the line about drifters and then Neil struggling with the door making it seem like they’re about to get robbed in a shady area.
The drama with the sword fighting class and fallout from the money round.
Icarito and the Mega Bonus.
Richmon Houston from Midland making it seem like he is -15 and walks off for a party.
Neil is about to fight some college kids in a bar for going after their women.
So many ways they could take it. Outside of that, another variation where they have some of their actor friends play Neil and Randy and just shoot it like the Office or something would be absolutely hilarious as well.
The $800 budget sucks. Hot take - this isn’t “Strapped” anymore. Maybe $500 wasn’t realistic anymore, but the notion that it needed to up to $800 because they couldn’t afford 3 days in Scottsdale during the most expensive time of the year is crazy to me. Now we’re staying in 5,000sqft houses and taking fencing lessons and visiting museums while never even once having to worry about the budget - what are we even doing here anymore? If we want to just do away with the budget side of it and make it a buddies trip thing, fine, great, but if that’s the case, let’s go to interesting places and play some actual good golf courses instead of boring munis.
This one speaks to me a little more personally than previous seasons. This is right in the same budget and experience range as my annual trip. That’s not to say this is necessarily my favorite season. It’s up there, but SoCal still probably tops the list for me, and the budget wasn’t a big factor there either.
Totally out on this take. The drama from trying to fit everything within the budget has created the most memorable elements of the series. Breaking Bad in South Carolina is meaningless without the stakes of the budget and the money round.
That’s totally fair and I can definitely see that perspective as well. I’ll admit, just due to the love of the character, I was really pumped for the Mega Bonus part of the show even if they were sweating the budget. I legit fist pumped when Neil drained that putt to get to even.
But I do 100% see where you’re coming from too. I think, like you mentioned, finding the right balance is important. I don’t think it needs to be the main character of the show but being able to completely ignore it does take away from some of the original charm and creativity for sure. Like you said, without the putt-putt I never would have been introduced to Jason Benetti who is now one of my favorite people in sports and I was so happy when he came to Detroit to call games for my hometown Tigers.
Sure. But some of those characters you don’t meet if you’ve got a bigger budget. You know what I’m saying? How many early season characters came from them choosing their AirBnB and happening to find a host who is just a thrill and delight? Do you think they reach out to Maggie Koerner in Louisiana to get a free night if they have the extra couple hundred to just get a hotel?
I mean “Bring on the Pancakes” comes straight from an AirBnB host!
My hot take is the day Strapped changed wasn’t even on Strapped. It’s when Soly said to the camera “this is the last thing we have. If Neil is actually good…” and Neil turned out to be actually good. Hell, that might predate Strapped. But that was a marker that Neil related content was going to be heavily playing/performance centric.
Still very much enjoyed the watch but I feel like this season just missed a bit of the cast of characters. The last 30 minutes felt like strapped once they met with the sword lady and did the football interview but we learned nothing about the town or townsfolks in the first hour. Most seasons it feels like the city/courses are a main character, they interview locals and course employees, and can even get me interested in going to Iowa. I learned nothing about West Texas other than Buddy Holly was from there.
edit: also agree its a bit more entertaining when they’re worried about budget and this usually leads to fun scenarios and meeting interesting people. But i understand why they might not enjoy it
Echoing off my point above, most of what NLU does, while awesome to watch is totally and completely unrelatable to me and Id imagine a lot of people. Its something they had mentioned early on, like its cool you’re going to all these high end places, exclusive places, but Im never gonna go there. Show me the boys going to less traveled locales, playing courses that look like places I play while having the budget to not stress over what they’re having for dinner, and having some funds to do some extra curricular stuff too.
Its a win win as the bones of the show are still there, its just grown up a little bit but still hands down the most relatable stuff they produce (Im never getting high end TPI fitting, Im not playing exclusive country clubs, or jetting to Argentina or Australia but I am gonna go to other states and play public courses, and gasp even munis). And I think Randy highlighting that its about a buddies trip where they play golf really brought it home for me.
I honestly don’t get the criticism as applied to this season. The boys stayed in dirt-cheap airbnbs (everything is cheap in that area, 5,000 sqft or no!), ate Tex Mex and shot pool, and played three public tracks. I guess they shouldn’t have “splurged” on sword fighting, one of the funniest scenes in the season? The Buddy Holly museum was filler and like 20 bucks.
