Crooked Tron setting up a bumper for his drive on 18
In the first episode of this season you heard Randy worrying about whether
Scotland would live up to his expectations. He took to Scotland quite
nicely. "Trying some black pudding. D.J. said it's blood of some sort."
"That's really good." "What blood type are you?"
"O positive." "There's not a whole lot of us." "I don't know if I am or not."
"All right, here we go this is haggis."
"It's like sheep intestine among other things." "One bite, everyone knows the rules." "I don't know what that means."
"Traveling east the jet lag gets very real and it was tough
to pull ourselves away from our beds at the Ducks Inn. But it's a little easier to
do so when you know you're headed North Berwick.
Listen I know we can tend to get a little hyperbolic at times. "Best par I've ever made in my life."
"World's best turf." "The best in the entire world anywhere."
But I'm gonna try to keep my views on North Berwick very coldly objective and
in perspective. "I don't say this lightly I think this is my favorite golf course in
the world." All right maybe not. "First impressions?" "I might stroke out."
"I'm worried for Randy's safety to be honest." Like most of the small Scottish towns are gonna see this
season North Berwick is a completely golf-obsessed place. It became a holiday town,
almost like a Scottish version of the Hamptons in the 1800s because of its
beaches and of course its golf courses. The North Berwick club itself held its
first meeting in 1832 making it the 13th oldest club in the world today. There
were 28 original members that played North Berwick's six hole course back then
in 1832. In its early days it became a popular spot for exhibition matches
between people like Old Tom Morris, Allen Robertson, Willie and Tom Dunne and others.
In fact the whole history of the club is littered with names that golf nuts will
recognize. The course was a meeting place for the who's who of East Lothian. It
still kind of is. This was my favorite bit I found while I was reading about
North Berwick. It said quote, "It is recorded that on a certain day in 1903 there were
in the course of play at the same time on the west links the prime minister, the
Speaker of the House of Commons, two members of parliament, two bishops of the
Church of England three eminent professors, a field marshal two generals
and a famous Tibetan Explorer."
Not bad. Although, I'm sure the day that
No Laying Up visited will be remembered similarly in the annals of history. One
can only wonder the last time that a renowned takesmith, a critically
acclaimed podcaster, an American Slenderman an international golf
superstar and their consigliere all visited the West links on the same day.
It's truly historic stuff.
The history is one thing but any conversation about North Berwick almost
immediately leads to a discussion about the quirkiness of the golf course.
So you want to hit it max like 170 from this tee. Downwind, firm running firm it
would be like a wedge. I'm gonna go for it come on.
I mean it's 260 carry over that thing." "I'm weak."
Can we talk how great golf in Scotland is that we said
8-iron might be too much off the tee on a par 4?
For instance it's totally possible to hit a wipey fade down onto the beach and then try to play it.
"The first time you play you don't really realize that playing close to the hazard
is the best play gives you the best angle."
You get in this mood where you just try to hit golf
shots just to see if you can hit them. You even have that mindset when you're
facing a shot that you know is physically, completely impossible and it
just doesn't matter.
You have to think about protecting yourself from the ricochets
off stone walls.
We made up a specific game for long trips like this that we like to call Tilt.
It's a very modified Stableford game where you earn a number of points
for whatever score you make on each hole. But then the catch comes when you make a
net birdie. That's when you go on tilt and your next hole is worth double. If
you make another one your next hole is worth triple and so on. It's a game that
really causes big swings either way. We've seen Neil get all the way up to 7x
before and at North Berwick we saw Randy make the turn in the lead with 52 points
and then finish the day in last with 36. Big shout out to Icarito there.
I've played North Berwick four or five times in my life and I couldn't tell you
what I've shot ever there ever. You just get so sidetracked with all the
other fun shots that you just want to try to hit. This type of golf certainly
isn't for everyone and that's fine. If you wanted to take a swing at North
Berwick, I suppose it would be that the front side is far less dramatic than the
back side, which might make it feel a little unbalanced. But the flipside of
that argument is that the back side is just that good and that's we're gonna
walk through now. And because I'm driving the ship I'm gonna say that the back
side technically starts on the ninth hole. The course is a very traditional
nine out nine in type of links routing and the ninth hole is that turn on the
far side of the track that makes you just want to slam your foot on the gas
down the homestretch. I'm not a racing guy I don't know if that analogy makes
sense but it just it makes you want to go fast. The ninth is a wonderfully
simple par-5 with a dramatically elevated green. It features the baked in
strategy of two perfect centerline bunkers, which is something that always
gets the whole NLU crew all hot and bothered.
From there you make the very literal turn onto the back nine. The prevailing
wind is into you for almost the entire front nine, which means that the whole
back nine you're coasting downwind at full speed and feeling like a goddamn superhero.
The tenth hole is a downhill par-3 that can either make you feel
destined to make an ace or a triple depending on where the pin is.
The eleventh is another par-5 that's extremely friendly to the wipey fade.
It's reachable in two but approach shots are gobbled up by an absolute death bunker
on the right side of the green. Number twelve, Bass, can make the wind feel like
a jigsaw puzzle as you're trying to figure out just how much to cut off and
how to avoid the well-placed bunkering. And then you have to try to stop a
downhill, downwind shot on the green. And that brings us to what is probably the
most famous hole at North Berwick, the 13th, Pit. The tip in the yardage book
might sum it up best. It says "don't argue with the wall, it's older than you."
In reality if you put a good drive in the fairway the wall doesn't
even exist. You just knock a short iron on to the punchbowl-y kind of green.
The problem comes as your tee shot gets farther away from the wall. The longer
the second shot, the more of a chance you have of being absolutely Mutumbo'd
by the wall, which definitely happens. That's when things start to move really
quickly for you. Then you're faced with trying to hit a flop shot up over this
wall off of turf that's as firm as a car park. This hole is very fun.
Hole number 14 is boldly named Perfection and it's frankly really tough to argue.
The hole is all about placing your tee shot in the fairway and then firing a hero shot
into the blind green. It's not really until the second time you play this hole
that you realize just how much this hole is about using the ground, especially on
your second shot.
"How good is that?"
The 15th hole is the Redan, a word you surely have heard exported around the
rest of the world. It became one of the most famous templates of Seth Raynor and
C.B. MacDonald and if the pin is down on the left side it's one of the most fun
shots there is. It challenges you to play toward the slope on the far right side
of the green if you really want to get the ball close. Number 16 features a
green so comically insane that it's impossible to be upset at how difficult
it is. even the yardage book there says you either need accuracy or luck to succeed.
The 17th is a gorgeous par 4 with a wild trench bunker and a semi Punchbowl
green. And the 18th is the ultimate half par finishing hole. It's only 269 yards
from the member tees making it drivable for the everyman.
"All right Matt we're good we don't have to show this one. You really... like you don't have to keep
showing it it's fine. I don't think people... this isn't really
what they're looking to see. All right you can see it one more time and then
let's let's move on. We've got other things to talk about."
With a patio of members watching you want nothing more than to finish with a birdie in front of everyone.
Even with his spectacular fall on the back nine, Randy wanted to point out
that he did make birdie on 18 while Rickie Fowler made par. He was insistent that we point this out.
Always good to see Tron acknowledging the center court crowd at Wimbledon.
You have miles and miles of room to hit it left on 18 but there
still seems to be one person in every group that flirts with the carpark.
Like this guy. "How you gonna play this one?"
"This could be interesting."
You're gonna hear a lot about vibe this season and North Berwick, both the course
and the town, has it in spades. That's what's driven so many people to come
play this course, especially Americans. And it's what drives so many pros to
want to play it when they're in the area. Imagine how much golf Rickie Fowler
plays and imagine wanting to play more golf on your day off.
That's what North Berwick does to you.
It offers something that is so hard to find in the world of golf.
It offers something unique.
"Boys what do we think of North Berwick?"
"If everybody played that course the game would be way too big."
"I've got sickle cell. If I play a course that's too sick, it flares up. I was feeling some symptoms of that today."
"It's not a chore. You know sometimes you go out and play golf and it's a chore.
You feel like you're getting beat up. You don't get any of that."
There's a little bit of quirkiness. Just enough to really ignite the imagination
from time to time. You're by the sea which is great for the soul.
"It's just a fantastic experience."