Co-sign this completely. Shame it was tricked up because in my experiences I thought it was super fair for a variety of skill levels. But I understand that the margin for error could get absurdly low if it gets too firm + tough pins.
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I interviewed for a job in Detroit many years ago. One of my soon to be superiors took me to lunch at Detroit Golf Club. I loved its vibe. I was thinking I would get plenty of invites to play DGC. After 5 years, a grand total of 0 rounds played at Detroit Golf Club prior to leaving Detroit. Oh well. Iāve enjoyed watching the Rocket Mortgage Classic the past couple years. The show last night was great! It captured the Detroit citizensā pride and the grittiness yet appealing nature of the area.
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@tron https://www.gest-omelettes.com/
In my opinion, this is the only thing the boys whiffed on in the D 
Maybe a stop next time your playing Rackham.
Great job on the episode.
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Giraffics Interchange Format
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Brother! Gif gang.
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Iāve enjoyed the NLU podcast criticism of Pac Dunes and The Loop because I have been a GCA.com member for 15 years or so and owing to Tomās active participation on that board, I think a lot of people donāt post critically about his courses, which on one hand I understand because very few have the knowledge or experience to discuss or debate golf architecture on Tomās level, but fundamentally I think is a shame because I believe Tomās courses all have a few features that are intended to be divisive (and because I think generally when a criticism is presented the right way, Tom loves to get into it and argue his side in good faith).
Some people are meant to walk away from Tom Doak courses feeling how @soly and @tron have described (because the same ingredients make others walk away all giddy and euphoric) and I think for the most part itās extremely well-argued and worthy of a podcast ādebateā with Tom, if he were agreeable to doing it.
I know that the 3-4 courses I have played with the architect I have come away with a different, typically more positive, opinion of the course for having had them either explain a bold/dramatic/unconventional hole or feature before or while we played it or for me to be able to ask āwhatās the go with that?!ā if something feels like it needs explanation. So I would be curious if any of the NLU dads was willing to share their thoughts on how they think the quality time David Kidd and Mike DeVries (Gil as well?) have spent with them both talking about their philosophy and shepherding them around their courses while playing has impacted their general view of their work relative to the other modern GCA A-listers, principally Tom, but also Bill and Ben?
I appreciate Tom has been on the pod (as has Bill), is on this TS series and I think gave a walk-around on the Lido rebuild, so I know thereās not a total dearth of time spent with him getting to hear and discuss his philosophies etc, but from an audience perspective it feels like a less substantial arm around the shoulder than DMK & MDV especially.
The episode was unreal, as everyone has said. The balance between buddy trip content, location content and golf course content is feeling absolutely dialled from the Pinehurst season on.
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Would love to play with Tom in the same manner weāve been able to with DMK and MDV, but that wasnāt in the cards. Takes two to tango (pun intended)ānot our choice to limit Tomās participation.
Also, it absolutely rules how much Tron, Soly, and Neil freaked out. I was giggling to myself the whole time watching them lose their shit in real-time.
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Just want to be clear (not that I think you read my post that way, but just for the avoidance of doubt) that I was not suggesting that it was.
Gotcha. I didnāt really, just clearing up that weād have loved to have taken more of Tomās time, but that wasnāt feasible this time around.
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Tom D is interesting guy to talk with, and I donāt mean to insinuate that heās not a nice guy, but having played with both of them a couple times, if Iām going to spend four hours on a golf course with someone, Iām going to pick Mike DeVries every time. I canāt think of any experience Iāve had with Mike that wasnāt entirely positive. Just a genuine nice guy.
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MVD is about as good as people as there is. Heās going to be the star of the later episodes.
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Look, absolutely. Likewise David Kidd.
Heās Tom Doak, not Tom Bloke.
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I donāt know if I will ever have the chance to play the loop but the one thing that was said in the pod that made me cringe was the fact that every miss required the exact same next shot. In this case it is an uphill chip to a small flat spot on a green you canāt see.
It is impossible for me to judge the loop having not played it but the idea that, as a 14 handicap, I will have 16-18 of the same kind of shot, hole after hole does not sound appealing at all.
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Absolutely agree. I LOVE the Loop, but Iāve played it numerous times and I have become very good at knowing where to miss. That said, there are some pin locations that could be borderline unfair on some of those greens if played in the opposite direction. Especially for the @MerchCzar comment that the two courses take away from each course itself. Iām guessing a huge factor in that feeling was because of the pin locations. I find both Red & Black enjoyable - but my opinion changes often based on the day & pin locations on which I like the best.
Iād love to see what they would think on a day that wasnāt setup difficult for the Duel.
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The guis I played with at Tobacco Road last week were from Grand Rapids (one had a buck club belt, incidentally), and were quite worried about the impeding TS blowing their best kept secrets! Ha ha. Listening to the Pod, and the hype around this DeVries courses, I can see why!
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At first sight of Detroit-style pizza on the TS episode I thought āthat looks fuckedā and now itās 16 hours later and I just did some googling to discover that there is a Detroit-style pizza place here in Sydney and I am now planning to do a 90min round trip to try it. Life comes at you fast!
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Hell Yeah Brother! There is a place in Lawrence that makes a nice detroit style 
The turbo crust is absolute fire.
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Truthfully, our cup overfloweth. The amount of good to great golf within 2 hours of GR is nuts.