It’s 11 great holes, 4 excellent holes and 3 kinda throw aways, but a really fun, quintessential Maine track. Just wish they had a bit more room on property, but that’s so typical w these older courses.
Great conditions and really fun greens. We had an awesome day!
The great part about being divorced is you don’t feel guilty playing as much golf as you can when you have a week long work trip to Fort Worth.
Fly in Monday and head straight to Fields Ranch East. I really enjoyed this course. I mean, it’s hard. Really hard. It was blowing 20 and gusting 30.
Oh and had a fun member of the group…
Now in the last 24 hours while I sit at the airport…
Pecan Valley Hills Course
The Golf Club at Fossil Creek
And ended with the Texas 9. Where a guy drove onto the 9th green like an absolute maniac!
This was my first time playing in Texas and I am not disappointed. Truly enjoyed myself.
Dave Ramsey?!?
Yup. His group had an event out there and after speaking in the AM he was taking a break. He was really soft spoken and kind. He also putted exclusively looking at the hole no matter the distance which my caddy and I just would look at each other because he could not buy a putt with any amount of cash.
But he would use cash, not card.
You’re a better man than me. 0% chance I’d have been able to resist telling him I bet he could buy a putt with a credit card
I let his caddie say, “Have you ever putted looking at the hole?” It was straight awkward side eye monkey at my caddie.
Last week I played…
Tot Hill Farm on Tuesday:
CCNC Dogwood on Wednesday:
Old Town Club on Thursday:
Blowing Rock (not really a Raynor anymore) on Friday:
Little end of season convention took to me:
Formby
Hesketh
Royal Liverpool
And Carnoustie:
Surprisingly good weather for the end of October!
Did ye get on Formby Ladies?
That place is high on my bucket list. Looks super fun.
Sadly no time for that. Looks great though.
Outsiders tend to believe it’s the better while still shorter course out there.
It’s been a while since I played it - 2008? - but I remember it being tighter than Formby and the heather being a significant hazard.
Anybody that knows me will not be surprised to find out I just got back from a golf trip to a far off locale.
This time though it was golf on two brand new (to me) continents!
Earlier this year my sister chose a destination wedding in Thailand for the 3rd week in October which (in)conveniently was the same week as an already scheduled trip to England with the Fried Egg crew. I was able to get my deposit back from that trip and since I was sacrificing an international golf trip to support my sister I decided I needed an alternative trip I could tack onto Thailand.
Since I was already on the other side of the world I figured a trip to Australia wasn’t that far out of the way 
So ended up playing once in Thailand and then 6 courses in Australia.
North Hill
This one wasn’t on the must play radar - simply picked the most convenient course to where we were staying. Like a lot of “resort” courses there you are required to have a caddy. In my case a 4 foot nothing Thai lady whose only real English was “OB left, water right, good shot”. Had a great time though and since I booked a twilight round I got to enjoy the last few holes under the lights!
The day after the wedding I flew to Melbourne and then immediately got on another plane to hop over to Tasmania.
Barnbougle Dunes
As close to an Irish links courses like Enniscrone/Lahinch/Carne as I’ve played outside of Ireland. Really glad I grabbed the yardage book as I played this solo.
The 7th hole (pictured) is probably one of the most treacherous sub 100 yard par 3’s I’ve played. Not quite as penal as the 9th at Erin Hills (this one has a bailout area) but left and/or long is trouble up the wahoo as the green is small with runoffs and a huge false back.
Lost Farm
The second full course at Barnbougle couldn’t be less like the first. For the most part it is much flatter with more benign greens and relies more on “width/angles” for strategy. I’d compare it more to a traditional “Scottish” links course. All that being said I loved it - thought it was very fair but if you want to go low you do have to put the ball in the right spot of the tee. It’s also really cool in that it has 20 holes with 13 and 18 (par 4s) having alternate par 3’s that you can play after the main hole. From my understanding it’s because they had 20 good holes and wanted to include all of them. I’m assuming for competitions they play the normal routing but it seemed like everyone plays the full 20 holes outside of that since they are built right inline with the routing (no detours needed).
Bougle Run
Maybe the best short course I’ve played. They have tons of land to play with so the holes are much more “isolated” compared to something like the Sandbox. I think I enjoyed it so much because it doesn’t feel like it needs a big group of guys to be fun. Short courses like the Sandbox don’t cater as much to the single golfer because part of the fun is the “vibes” of the group you’re with.
For the course itself it’s 14 holes with 2 par 4s - one driveable and one that’s ~330 yards. To no ones surprise I played 2 balls off every tee - one with a normal club and one with my putter. There are ~3 holes where you can’t take a putter (at least from the back tees) due to a forced carry but for the most part it was doable. Pictured are the 4th (drivable par 4) and the 10th (extreme downhill par 3). The picture of the 4th is from the forward tees where I still took putter and successfully carried the 40ish yards and got the ball on the green 
After a couple days in (on?) Tasmania I flew back over to Melbourne to finish the trip.
Royal Melbourne West
This was the course I built my itinerary around and it didn’t disappoint. Really glad I rewatched the Tourist Sauce episode before playing so I could appreciate the in person experience. It’s definitely not the blow you away visually type of course but it’s just so so good from an architectural and strategic standpoint. I want to play it like 5 more times to try and appreciate those things even more. I will say the full rack rate for international guests was quite a bit more expensive than I was expecting based on other similar pay to play non US courses (like Royal Dornoch/Old Course/etc). With the required caddy I think it came out to ~750 bucks US which would be more than twice what Dornoch was in early May 2023.
As luck would have it I got paired up with a guy who lived in Montana for a while when he was in high school 40 years ago so that was fun!
Didn’t get many pics as I was enjoying the walk and talk but my caddy did grab a couple on this par 3 (12?)
St. Andrews Beach
Easily the biggest surprise of the trip for me. I absolutely loved SAB and at literally 1/10 the cost of each of my Royal Melbourne (and Peninsula Kingswood) rounds it was a hell of a steal. I walked the course and while easily doable a lot of the transitions green to tee were designed more for carts. I was the only person I saw that was walking that particular day. Also the 18th green is nowhere close to the clubhouse - was probably a good 5 minute walk back there after I finished the round. One of the best parts of the round was I finally got to see Kangaroos - a large group of which were hanging out on the tees and fairway of 18.
Peninsula Kingswood North
My final round of the trip I think was my favorite. I got paired up with a great group (only the second round after RM that I didn’t play solo) and played some of my best golf. I’d maybe describe PK North as a bit more “turned up” version of RM which for the most part revels in low-key simplicity. PK has some bigger and bolder holes that possibly sacrifice some architectural chops in the name of pizazz but they are still world class holes. For the base round it was very slightly more expensive than RM (though you weren’t required to take a caddy) but like RM I thought it was worth it. I did get an offer from one of my playing partners to reach out if/when I return to play South to get the much cheaper guest rate (which I will definitely take advantage of). Like RM I didn’t get much for pictures since I was enjoying chatting with my caddy and group too much.
Final thoughts: Melbourne (+ the adjacent Tasmania and King Island) has an absolutely absurd amount of tremendous golf and I barely scratched the surface. I could go back and do a full two weeks there and not repeat any of the courses I played on this trip. Outside of the cost to get there from the US and the cost of the Royal Melbournes/Peninsula Kings rounds I thought it was pretty reasonable cost wise. Barnbougle was about ~800 for 2 nights/3 rounds (that also includes some meals I charged to the room). The cottage I had could sleep 4 so if you went with a group it would be even more cost effective. I also didn’t do replay rounds.
At any point did you consider trying to convince your sister to end the relationship?
Fun Fish fact - I grew up north of Chiang Mai in Chiang Rai. I’m glad you got to see what I think is the better part of Thailand, the northern mountain region
I did put off putting in my cancellation for a little bit. I also told her I’d disown her if they get divorced.
My sister chose to get married there because she fell in love with Chiang Mai about a decade ago. She’s spent probably the equivalent of a year there over the last 10 years doing the digital nomad thing for a few weeks a year.
I really enjoyed it after having some initial trepidation whether it was going to be something I’d like!
Alright - backfilling a lot here, it was a busy summer. Throwing the Highlights in!
Wilmington Country Club - Wilmington, Delaware!
DuPont Country Club - Wilmington, Delaware
Sweetens Cove (A few times) - S. Pittsburg, Tennessee
The Tree Farm - Batesburg, South Carolina
East Lake Golf Club - Atlanta, Georgia
East Potomac, Blue Course - Washington, D.C.
