where in Syd? ill add it to my list for the next visit up there.
Theyāve got three outlets ā Darlinghurst, Redfern and Newtown.
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After listening to the recap pod, itās hilarious seeing Randy wearing a The Loop shirt in the first episode. Loved hearing him and DJ stand their ground during such a heated debate. Really enjoyable conversation.
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Finally getting through the whole preview pod and the discussion of Greywalls and laughing @MerchCzarās description of the drive to the first tee. Itās crazy. When I talk about it with people, I tell them you drive through a typical parkland course to an old asphalt parking lot. You check in and pay your greens fee. Then you get in a cart and drive through the maintenance parking lot and disappear into the woods. When you emerge, you feel like you went through the wardrobe into Narnia. Itās like youāre on a different part of the planet.
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hear hear! Iād meet you. DS rules, I played it last year, and still think about it all the time to this day. Have played the others in the trio and they are some of my faves anywhere. Hospitality at Pilgrimās was above and beyond for me.
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The wing analogy is phenomenal. I think this is spot on. I was certainly critical of the Loop, but I canāt wait to play it again.
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Enjoyed this episode. Really looking forward to the next one, for obvious reasons.
Iāll have plenty more to say/demonstrate about the loop as we get closer and can point to plenty of specifics. I do want to go back and play it again.
I guess the biggest frustration is that itās objectively a brilliant routing and concept, but that thereās just some unnecessary design elements and elevated greens. I love firm, I love fast, I love reversible (TOC is my favorite course in the world and is all of those things), I just donāt think many of those greens/plateaus, shelves (many of which werenāt even where the pins were on the day we played) made sense and detracted from the experience and fucked up an otherwise really cool thing. It was like playing slam ball - if the ball lands beside the green itās not hopping up but if it lands on the green youāre getting launched 12 feet in the air and probably blowing up your ACL.
Iāve felt the same thing about Doakās shaping at Pac Dunes, Barnbougle and some restorations heās done where his stuff sticks out against the backdrop of the existing design. It felt like he got cute and his mean-spirited side came out. But weāre not allowed to criticize it bc heās a āgeniusā and we just donāt understand the brilliance of it. Iām over it.
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If that was how it played the day you were there, the conditions were WAY too firm for the golf course. Again, this is where the āspicy wingā analogy comes in. I would say 90% of the rounds I have played there, it is firm but the ball will sit on the greens if you play an appropriate shot. Weāre about the same indexā¦youāre good enough to play that course and score well. A significant portion of the mounding and elevation you mention doesnāt really repel a golf shot when the greens are receptive.
That said, one of the points @soly made on the Podcast (high jumping 8ft vs 12ft) is absolutely true. There is some mounding there that could be 8ft, but Doak made it 12ftā¦which goes directly against minimalist architecture. Combine that with very firm green conditions and that course can become borderline unplayable with challenging pin conditions.
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Exactly. I just walked off asking myself in a Nancy Kerrigan voice āWHY???ā Felt unnecessary.
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Louiās is awesome!
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@Soly : Shamrock :: Me : Flagstone.
Difference is Shamrock was a menace and Iām not sad it is gone.
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Not to muddy the waters in this thread but there is one KC called Providence Pizza that is fire, not sure if itās the same place in Lawrence.
Weāve got a Providence at one of our food halls in OKC (Iām pretty sure itās the same folks as in KC) and can attest that itās very very nice.
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This is super interesting to me. I played it this summer in a pretty good wind and still walked away ranking it clearly #1 of the 5 courses. I played one-ups instead of tips, so maybe that contributed, but I felt like the idea of 10-13 being a slog because theyāre all into the wind did not end up being true. All those holes are short enough that I ended up getting to play fun, flighted links approach shots with reasonable clubs into every green (e.g. think I hit a flighted 7 into 11, as opposed to what I can only assume wouldāve been 3 or 4 iron from the tips). Without any wind I think they mightāve lost quite a bit of the appeal/challenge. Or maybe I just wouldāve needed to switch tees, who knows. In my opinion 14 suffers more than any other hole from a strong summer wind. Itās really, really hard to hold that green when itās blowing 25mph and that holeās straight downwind.
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My dad got hit b2b years on the same day/same hole at shamrock in November in early 90s. Heās only play it when Wedgewood would shut down for winter.
My dad and 4 buddies had the opportunity to purchase the Rock in early 00s- Passed on it.
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Just way too tight to be sustainable. But great in HS to just go out and play for cheap.
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I live in Denver and there is a place called Blue Pan Pizza that is Detroit style. Does anyone know of that is a good example of what we are talking about?
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Just finished up the pod, Michigan is 100% on my radar now. Hearing how excited all the guys were talking about the quality of the courses makes my anticipation for the next episode that much higher.
I had a playing lesson yesterday where Iām standing over a side hill below my feet lie in the rough, trying to hit a knockdown 8 iron from 147 and Iām thinking to myself āIām working close to 60 hours a week at the course, playing golf on my day off, and spend the majority of my free time consuming NLU/golf related contentā¦is there something wrong with me?ā. Then I think about all the people Iāve met through NLU a smile comes to my face and I tell myself āAbsolutely not!ā as I pure my 8 iron to about 12 feet.
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