This is maybe the best TS episode ever (thus far). This is the first video of a course I hadn’t previously heard of that made it vault to near the top of the must play list. Excellent job by all involved.
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Amazing scenery. Beautiful golf course!
Props to the keeper of the takes. Fans of @TomCoyne and @Randy finally got some footage. Of course if we were keeping tabs, there would be a six minute stretch in the middle of the video where you didn’t even know if Randy was on the course, but we will just be grateful for what we got.
Nice athletic dive from @djpie. I didn’t know you had it in you.
Love the last few comments from @Randy especially as it foreshadowed the stripe show he put on in Cincinnati.
Man that course is beautiful. Hard to know which one to love most.
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Let me guess… the Old Course has too many blind pot bunkers?
From my experience, almost every single links course over there has room from the sides of the fairway to the dunes to expand width. There are some holes like the Klondyke where you couldn’t and you wouldn’t want to, but you certainly could on the majority of holes.
I still would want to keep blind shots if you are on the wrong side of the fairway but as Ran once said, golf is infinitely more fun when playing from short grass. When it’s windy, there are simply too many shots played from the rough on most of these Irish links (and too much time spent looking for balls). Rock Creek is incredibly wide but your angles are extremely important out there. There are a lot of blind shots and poor angles if you don’t hit the correct side of the fairway.
I actually tend to agree with you that there’s no shame in offering very nit picky criticism about good things. If they’re almost perfect, you’ve got to point out the little stuff that keeps them from perfection!
Also I’m curious to hear your answer here: In your opinion is there a balance to be struck between architectural merit (namely width in this case) and “Irish identity”. I definitely agree that a lot of these holes look incredibly narrow, but I do also wonder if that’s what makes them distinctly Irish (and if that’s really important or not) (also I recognize it would be one of many things that contribute to an Irish identity)
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F$&k I literally have 100% of the items mentioned.
No membership for me…taking crap for brining up wanting to join the Nest…
“Pay for your free golf blogs? Sounds lame.”
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What’s the golf course version of name dropping because this, this was impressive.
I honestly don’t know how this is funny to you. The charm of golf in the UK inspires many like yourself to turn off their critical thinking. No honest person could say that those little circular pots above look as good as Jeff Bradley’s bunkering. Golf courses in the UK get a lot of things right, that doesn’t mean they are infallible.
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I was supposed to get permission?
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I really just wanted to see her reaction. Fortunately $90 is well within the no need to ask window.
Not enough island greens for sure.
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I honestly never even thought about the width of the fairways in Ireland. I think it’s because the playing corridors are so wide that it’s not really that much of a factor. Links fairways aren’t mowed the tightest, and the playability difference from the fairway to the rough was legitimately unnoticeable. Doonbeg was the only course that I felt squeezed in and at the most risk of losing balls in crosswinds. Unsurprisingly, least favorite course on the trip.
Regarding the conditioning of the greens in the video. During the great drought of 2018, they let the Kilmore course go. They didn’t have the budget to properly irrigate the greens. They’re actually in pretty great shape considering this was in April of the following year and they had grass growing on them again. But not yet back to full speed.
We’re confident this video is going to give them the help they need to properly maintain this course.
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Wow… showing us gorgeous golf courses… and then helping to finance their reconditioning? Take literally all of my money!
Is there any possibility of a dedicated Randycam? Can we crowdsource something. It’s just disgusting how much low handicap privilege is going on here.
Love u guys
Thanks for another amazing episode.
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How firm were the greens for your trip? The difference isn’t extreme but definitely noticeable in my opinion, and it does make you less prone to try and play width and angles golf.
Another aspect is that aesthetically, maintained rough is just not as as attractive as a fairway transitioning straight to native. You can see how the big 3 architects feel about this because a lot of their courses have hardly any maintained rough at all. Ohoopee also has great fairway to native transitions.
Again, this isn’t to say that links courses in Ireland are bad, just that all courses have room for improvement. Width being the primary flaw in courses over there as well as most over in the states as well.
Would you agree that the most common ingredient that great courses have is fairway width? Think about the Doak/Hanse/Coore catalogs (as well as most of the golden age classics). 98% of their courses are wide.
Such a bad comment if directed at me. If you read my original post and think I’m a fan of overly artificial design you are obtuse.
Similar to it being darker than cameras make it appear, it is wider than the dunes make it appear. Truly. Kind of a visual mind-fuck.
I’ve stood on tee boxes in Ireland and felt majorly pinched and hit one I could swear was headed for a dune and some rough. Often surprised to find it sitting pretty in the fairway or manageable rough.
Ireland has dunes. Love em or hate em. But pushing them out and widening…no thanks…head to Scotland.
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7:45-8:50 is truly my favorite ~1 minute stretch of video produced by NLU so far. The music and ability to let the pictures tell the story hit me in all the right spots.
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I can vouch for this. I played the Kilmore 9 in August 2018 and it was in quite poor condition (didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying it nonetheless). The conditioning in this Tourist Sauce episode looked markedly better - great to see.
BTW, well done to @Soly and the crew on this episode. They did a great job of capturing the massive dunes of Carne, and that sweeping drone shot up the tenth hole at 7:50 gave me the exact same feeling I had when I was actually playing the hole.
I would say “Irish identity” is the dunes landscape. Royal County Down is decently wide and one of the reasons why it’s ranked as the best course in Ireland. I don’t think widening fairways would have any negative effect on the ambience of Irish links.