I’m loving season 2 of tourist sauce - it is exactly what I am looking for in golf content. Pretty informative (course info, history, etc), very entertaining, and tons of great views of the golf courses. I lean heavily to the golf nerd side of the whole equation, but enjoy non-gca content too. I haven’t been able to get into EAL fully - tried a couple of times, and a couple of episodes were solid, but several missed the mark (for me). Sounds like I am not the target audience, anyway. I’ve never heard of golfholics, but between websites, podcasts, youtube, and a whole bunch of golf books, I have as much as I can digest right now. When some real golf tournaments are on TV again, and weather improves (so I can play more often), I’ll probably start to fall behind on my reading, watching, and listening again. Even with all this great content, if I go more than a week or two without playing, I get pretty irritable.
Can you imagine how they may feel when Rick Shiels pops up and you can see he has 500K views on every single video of a club review. He literally inserts a new club and copy pastes the video. Throws up screen shots of Trackman data for good measure. All the content could be read in 30 seconds but we get a 10 minute video instead.
My take on it is that NLU video content is good at attracting the correct viewers - ones that are passionate for what they do, watch each and every piece of content with vigor, and are happy to open up their wallet to support NLU and everyone surrounding them. Views may be lower than others, but the quality of views is way up.
This describes every golf video, tbh. Strapped possibly being the only exception.
Agree with this. I think I’ve watched every NLU YouTube video at least three times and many of them more. I rewatch Strapped every couple weeks because it was so good (also incredibly bored at work). I feel like I (and presumably, the rest of The Refuge) am right in the heart of their target audience and I can’t get enough.
I can see where you’re coming from here, but I assure you that’s not the case. If anything, it’s a tip to us to show that there is a seriously starved market for golf content. If people are going to watch them play golf, they’re probably in the market for more stuff (that they probably don’t know is out there). I watch a lot of YouTube videos for “market research.” Seeing high view counts on videos isn’t deterring, it’s inspiring.
Having built audiences on other platforms, we’ve learned a lot about not getting caught up in immediate gratification. Build the portfolio, and people will come. We’re still way more concerned with the informative and entertaining aspect than the view count.
I just can’t believe there was a Tron/Balionis feud at one point. My world has been shattered. As hard as it is to pick a side, I must stay true to myself. #teambalionisforever
Pretty unfair to pull that one out IMO. That wasn’t the intent of the take - I apologized and that was that. It falls pretty far outside the spectrum of what we’ve done day to day over the past 3-4 years. But then again, you seem quite keen on the occasional cheap shot.
“the dirty little secret” ?? Okay, I’ll bite. I don’t think we’ve changed all that significantly with what we were when we started. We made jokes on twitter, tried not to pull many punches, and as time progressed, to produce the content that we felt was missing from the golf scene. So if you want to paint with a really broad brush and say that equates to Barstool that feels a tad lazy (and to juxtapose it with the other end of the spectrum in GC Atlas is doubly lazy).
Also, nobody is suggesting that NLU is targeted narrowly at GCA nerds (nor do we want it to be). And in response to a separate post of yours - at no point was Soly lecturing anyone on what anyone “needs in order to enjoy golf content.” He was explaining our process/objectives for producing our series, which is the subject of the thread.
If Phil Landes is half the character of @Randy he’s the ultimate share a beer guy. GOAT friend material. It is what you would call a man crush.
it’s design thinking — create for extreme users and you will ultimately hit the large average of users…may not catch on at first but the large mass just don’t know what they need yet…love it
What was the intent?
Also, I think all my “cheap shots” are pretty light hearted. Don’t think i’ve crossed a line. If I am wrong, then apologies to @randy for ribbing him about using a sunday bag on a push cart. And apologies to you for making jokes about your swing. Apologies to Jordan Spieth, for everything.
First, any time I say something that remotely amounts to criticism of NLU, I feel the need to express my resounding admiration of this thing, whatever it is, that has absorbed embarrassing amounts of my time and attention.
But… I didn’t equate you guys to Barstool? I laid out the golf media spectrum, the poles of which are GCA (polite, immersive architecture dorks) and Barstool (an ignorant, tasteless trash heap). Despite what many newcomers may wish, early NLU was closer to the latter pole than the former. The differences are important, and still quite vast. That being said, the early irreverence was a model for a much clunkier, dumber, Barstool model . My Barstool sentiments are well documented, so I don’t think I need to defend my admiration for one entity, versus my life-consuming loathing for another. I don’t feel one bit of that comment was lazy - I can’t say the same for your response.
Someone, literally, was suggesting that in a prior post. Though, no shrapnel intended toward @gluteactivator. He later clarified his point, consistently fuqs on this board, and brings the heat with defensible takes.
This spun, hard.
NLU keep it up. If hardo’s get triggered then the extremes get weeded out, which is a good thing, because the refuge is already a home for the extreme.
This is good because it’s an opinion. I think Radiohead blows.
And Urban is a better guitar player
And moving on…
Can’t wait for the next episode! Been loving everything so far and it brightens up dreary Northern Irish winter days to see last summer’s amazing weather again.
Thank God someone said it. Radiohead is a terrible band. And in the spirit of bringing things back to the original intent of this thread, I cannot WAIT for Cruden Bay. I’ve only played it once, in 2014, and it so deeply resonated with my golfing soul that it’s not a matter of IF I get back for several 36-hole days, but when. If anyone wants a somewhat thorough hole-by-hole breakdown as study material before the premiere/further reading:
We need to be specific, Radiohead almost had 3 stages of sound. 2 of the 3 version of them I can get on board the take, but their middle period cannot be denied…misunderstood genius.
Dammit we’re off track again 
Knew a Radiohead take couldn’t go unreplied-to. Do there need to be separate threads for music, movies, pop culture in general, or would those risk diluting/melting the Refuge altogether?