Feb. 24, 2026

9-Hole Courses Aren't a Joke, They’re Really Awesome! with author Anthony Pioppi

9-Hole Courses Aren't a Joke, They’re Really Awesome! with author Anthony Pioppi
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GS#491 June 2, 2015: Author Anthony Pioppi returns for the first time since 2006 to talk about the second edition of his book "To The Nines". Anthony’s book looks at nineteen 9-hole layouts across the US that date back to the 1890s and really are the roots of the game in our country. These aren't just executive par3 courses, these are great, challenging courses that were designed with 9 holes in mind. This could be an answer to golf's dilemma of the game taking too long!
Anthony’s books are available at amazon.com

If you have a question about whether or not Fred is using any of the methods, equipment or apps we’ve discussed, or if you’d like to share a comment about what you’ve heard in this or any other episode, please write because Fred will get back to you. Either write to golfsmarterpodcast@gmail.com or click on the Hey Fred button, at golfsmarter.com

WEBVTT

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Hi, This is Paul Dundas in addition to being a

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golf Mader listener since the beginning. I'm from wothenar And

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in Netherlands and I play at the Boston Artha Golf

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Club Rosenstearin. This is golfmart number.

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Four hundred and ninety one, published on June two, twenty fifteen.

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Welcome to golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain

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insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the

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Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets old. Our

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interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations

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like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.

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Is much more in the East, and if you think

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about it, that's the way that golf moved across the

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United States. I mean it started in the East and

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moved west. And so these nine hole courses, a lot

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of them, were built in the early days of golf

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and then late eighteen nineties into the early nineteen hundreds,

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and then they were updated by better architects along the way.

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Some were expanded into eighteen holes, like Myopia. Some Whitonsville,

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which was built in nineteen sixteen state is that the

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ones up and down the main coast state is nine

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hole golf courses. But I think as golf moves west,

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eighteen holes become standard. And the reason you see nine

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in the Midwest states it's population reason for they have

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enough people to play in it, and the budgets upkeep

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so by the time it gets to California, golf is

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real and golf is eighteen holes, and so you see

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very few. You see Glenn Eagles in southern San Francisco,

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and then you see Northwood north of California outside of

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the Bohemi Club, but that's too in that entire state

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that I came across, I didn't really have anybody say

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to me, you know, you missed this. In California. The

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bulk of the good nine old golf courses are in

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the east.

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Nine hole courses are not a joke. They're really awesome.

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Our guest is author of To the Nine's Anthony Poppy.

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This is Golf Smarter Premium.

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Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf Smarter podcast. Anthony.

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Hey for how are you doing, Matt.

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I'm doing well. Welcome back.

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It's been a while, has it.

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Well, yes, it's been a long time. You were one

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of the first guests. You were on episode number fifty one.

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We're approaching episode number five hundred now, and you were

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back in December of two thousand and six, so it

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was almost our one year anniversary at that point, actually

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is one short of our one year anniversary, and at

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the time your book came out, why don't you hold

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up the new version? And to let everybody who's listening

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to the podcast know, we are broadcasting this interview as

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well on Periscope. It's being done live, a live video

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feed of Anthony, who's actually on Skype and I'm looking

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at him through my phone on periscope.

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Your technology is beautiful, and you're in California and I'm

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in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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Don't you love the Internet? I do too, so yeah.

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So for those of you who are not on Periscope,

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we are at golf Smarter. You can follow us on

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Twitter as well. And if you are on Periscope and

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you have a question for Anthony while we're going through,

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please submit it. It'll come up on my phone and

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I will be able to hopefully write it down and

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ask that ask that question that you've submitted. So Anthony.

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Let's let's get to the book all right, originally the

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Book to the Nines with a wonderful forward by Brad Faxon.

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How did you get Brad Faxon to write your forward?

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Well, I had known Brad Faxon a little bit at

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the time, and he, you know, you hear that he's

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really into golf course architecture, and you know, don't believe

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everything you hear, don't believe everything you read. He really is.

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I mean, he's one of those guys that would drive

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twenty five miles out of his way to go to

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a night old golf course that has one good hole

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on it. He's really that kind of person. And he

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grew up playing essentially, you know, public golf as a kid.

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And so I chatted with him about this and in

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the area where he is and he's from New England

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and I'm from you know, he's from Rhode Island that

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I'm from Massachusetts and on living Connecticut. Now. He he

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just thought it was such a great idea to talk

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about these you know, legitimately really wonderful golf courses and

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that that people just I think overlook and at times dismiss.

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And he's not that kind of guy. You know, he's

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the guy that he's going to go see a golf

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course and go see a golf hole. You know, that

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kind of person.

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So it was very nice of him to write this

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for you. This is yeah.

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I said, well, here's the concept of the book and

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he was like, wow, I've never thought of that. You know,

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in New England we all grow up playing nine hole

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golf courses. I said, I'd really appreciate if you did this,

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and he said, not a problem, and he did it.

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Amazing, amazing. Let's talk about nine hole golf courses are

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not really in great favor these days. Let's go back.

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Let's talk about the history of nine hole golf courses

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when they were popped.

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Well, yeah, I think they were popular right up until

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World War Two. First US Open US AM in our

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Newport country Club was nine holes. I think the last

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US Open played on a night whole golf course was

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It was at Myopia and I want to say nineteen

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ZHO six somewhere around there. And at that time all

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the great architects were building nine hole golf courses. SETH.

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Rayner built a nine hole golf course one that two

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possibly too. I'm just trying to think about got I

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think two. Donald Ross built a number of them. Alistair

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McKenzie built them. And what it was is in a

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lot of situations, it was It's what my friend Bob

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labanster since past, who wrote the chapter on Maine and

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since passed away, talked about is they were referred to.

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We referred to them as village courses. That people who

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summered in these small towns, one who wanted to sail,

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who wanted to ride horses, who wanted to swim, who

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wanted to play tennis, wanted a good nine hole golf course.

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So they brought in and nine holes because it was

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part of what they were doing for the summer activities.

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It wasn't just dedicated to They weren't just dedicated to golf.

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So Wayne Styles and Donald Ross and Walter Travis and

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people like that designed nine hole golf courses and nobody

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ever thought of them as not a real golf course

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or a little golf course. I don't like that phrase.

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It's a little golf course. It's a nine hole golf course.

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It's not a little golf course. And those guys built them,

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you know, the Bohemian Club in Northern California, had a

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nine hole Alistair Rickenzie golf course built for them. They

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didn't considered it a little golf course. They considered it

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a nine hole golf course.

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Well, I think the little term is probably because of

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executive golf courses, right, these little par three courses.

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Right, and executive courses. And so I didn't realize because

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I used to say the phrase, it actually has become

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it fuses people because I've got one of the most

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frequent questions I get about this book is are you

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talking about executive courses? Are you talking about par three courses?

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I said, no, I'm talking about nine hole golf courses.

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And there seems to be this kind of confusion over that,

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you know, And it's amazing because I think, and it

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still holds true, there's eight states that have more nine

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hole golf courses than eighteen whole golf courses. The only

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one east of the Mississippi is Maine. But a lot

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of the Upper Midwest courses, I mean Upper Midwest states

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have nine whole golf courses because there's not enough people

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to support an eighteen whole public golf course or an

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eighteen hole and another eighteen hole, So there's nine whole

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golf courses all through the Dakotas and Wyoming and Montana

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and places like that, and so I don't think any

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of those people consider them, you know, little golf courses.

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I think they consider them their golf course.

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Do you think that those the states that have more

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nine hole courses than eighteen whole courses, you think that

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has anything to do with farm country in the sense

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that people don't have as much free time because they're working.

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I don't know, I'm making yourself.

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I think it's just the the the small amount of

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people that live in an area. You know that if

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you have one hundred square miles and there's not that

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many people, I don't think they can afford the upkeep

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of an eighteen old golf course, or there's enough people

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to play in a to play in a you know,

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to play an eighteen whole golf course, that makes it worthwhile.

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You know, it should be a thousand square miles, not

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one hundred square miles. A thousand square miles where you know,

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there's just you go through and there's these these these

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nine hole golf courses kind of dotting the countryside. You know,

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you just drive up and people are playing and it's

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not a it's not a social place. It's a you know,

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it's not someplace you hang out and eat and drink

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after you play. You you play golf and then you

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go on. It's just it's it's really much the way

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golf started. The golf course is just about golf.

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I just want to let at golf trips know that

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he's watching on periscope, and he has submitted a couple

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of interesting questions. I will get to those when we

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get to that part of the conversation. So thanks for

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the questions. And again, anybody on periscope is watching. If

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you want to submit a question, I will try to

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pay attention to Anthony and right down the question at

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the same time.

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Awesome.

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So these nine whole courses, they've got par three's, par four,

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par five. How do they break them out? They've got

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long hole short holes. It's the real deal. It's just

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not eighteen.

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Right exactly, it's the real deal. Some of them do.

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And this is rare is that some of them will

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actually set up different ts. Not just so if the

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second time you play it the yardage is different, but

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that angles are different. But they're true golf courses. I

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mean it's you go out and you golf, you ball.

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You know.

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A few years ago, the USGA made it so you

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can now enter a nine hole school or for your handicap,

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you know, with your gin. And the USGA, which is

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now has this play nine initiative, is helping to leg

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once again legitimize nine hole golf courses. I mean, you're

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the real deal.

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Do you think it will be accepted by players? Do

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you think people will think it's just nine holes? I

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want to go out and play a full a dean

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come on.

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Yeah. And I understand that if somebody plays a lot

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of golf, playing the same nine holes over and over

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and over. But you know, for for people, if you're

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really a golfer and you truly enjoy golf and golf courses,

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then then dismissing I think dismissing a nine hole golf

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course is kind of like dismissing a diner because you

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don't think there's going to be good food there, or

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you don't or you're you know, you're looking for whatever,

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you know, hot cuisine you want, and to just not

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go to a five star restaurant every time if you're

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a true lover of food, doesn't make any sense.

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I love the retro reference on that being a diner

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being you know you, You wouldn't be a diner. I'm

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not going to go there. I need but I need

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a real restaurant like Denny's.

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Right, yeah, yeah, exactly, you know you'. And that's that's

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an interesting reference too, because so much of golf now,

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or so much of it after World War Two, was

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cookie cutter and really repetitive and not thoughtful and didn't

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require strategy that it did become Denny's. You know, since

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Pete Dye in the late eighties when he brought strategy

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back to golf, it's gotten much better. And what all

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but two of these golf courses in my book are

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classic era golf courses before before nineteen sixty, and they

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all have, you know, some very cool hole, some wonderful strategy.

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You're not going to go there and just hit it.

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Hitting it straight at every hole is not going to

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be off. The t is not going to be the answer,

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and that's what makes it fun. The course on the cover,

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that's the second hole at Fenwork in old Saybrook, Connecticut,

231
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and that's one hundred and ninety five yard part three,

232
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and the flag is actually blowing. So that's the left bunker.

233
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You're looking at the whole place, the whole place from

234
00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:18.919
your right, as far as the way we're looking.

235
00:12:19.879 --> 00:12:21.799
Yeah, show us the cover again.

236
00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:24.960
Yeah, so let me get this right. So you're playing

237
00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:27.200
from this direction. But that's the ocean right there. That's

238
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Long Island Sound, and right over here is the house.

239
00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:32.360
Like we're move moving a little more there a little

240
00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:37.039
bit right there in front of you would be oh,

241
00:12:37.080 --> 00:12:37.639
is that right?

242
00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:42.519
And so she grew up playing fenwork. And this is

243
00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:45.080
one hundred and ninety five yard hole and you if

244
00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:46.840
you want, you can fly it to the green and

245
00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:48.679
the wind, the prevailing wind is the way the flag

246
00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:51.600
is blowing. There. That's Long Island Sound, and you see.

247
00:12:51.879 --> 00:12:54.639
And the play is to play the ball out to

248
00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:56.799
the right and let the wind bring it back. But

249
00:12:56.840 --> 00:12:59.159
the real play is to play it low. Is to

250
00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:01.879
play a pure link style golf shop because this is

251
00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:04.320
a course with no fairy irrigation. And if you know

252
00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:06.440
the course, there's a kick slope about twenty yards short

253
00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:08.279
of the green, and all you need to do is

254
00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:11.200
flight something about one hundred and sixty five hundred and

255
00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:13.639
sixty yards and it will run onto the green underneath

256
00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:13.879
the win.

257
00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:15.720
That's a hell of a lot of strategy for one

258
00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:17.559
golf that's amazing.

259
00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.480
And that's one wind, and the wind swirls and the

260
00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:23.279
wind changes and all of that. So people who come

261
00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:26.120
to me and say, you know, Fenwick really isn't that

262
00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:28.399
much of a golf course. It's twenty five hundred yards

263
00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:31.840
at par thirty five. My question is, I say to them,

264
00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:33.519
We'll go play and come back and tell me what

265
00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:36.039
you shot. Let me know if you shot below par,

266
00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.879
let me know if you if you shot below your handicap,

267
00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:42.200
tell me what you played. And nobody ever comes back

268
00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:44.919
and says, no, I was right. I killed this golf course.

269
00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:47.720
Yeah. I love when people say I don't want to

270
00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:50.679
play the front tees. I don't want to play that course.

271
00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:52.279
It's boring. I don't want to play the front tease.

272
00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:54.039
It's not long enough. It's like, oh, are you going

273
00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:54.600
to shoot par?

274
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Right?

275
00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:57.159
No, well, then shut up.

276
00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:02.200
Rory McIlroy's hitting driver at and the Masters players are

277
00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:05.480
hitting drivers six iron into par fives. That's us playing

278
00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:08.279
a fifty eight hundred yard golf course to do the

279
00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:08.759
same thing.

280
00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:13.519
Incredible. There are resort courses. I'm seeing more and more

281
00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:17.840
that have three sets of nine and they're like on

282
00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:23.399
Mondays you'll play nine A and nine C, and on

283
00:14:23.480 --> 00:14:26.399
Tuesday you'll play nine B and nine A and once.

284
00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:28.559
You know, so if you're staying at a resort, you

285
00:14:28.600 --> 00:14:32.960
can play every day, but have different combinations in different courses.

286
00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.279
And they're completely different courses too, right, And you know,

287
00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:38.480
does that count for nine hole courses or no?

288
00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:40.840
It doesn't for me because that was built as twenty

289
00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:43.679
seven you know, if you like, I consider the front

290
00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:46.440
nine at Rolling Rock, which is Rolling Our Club now

291
00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:48.919
an eighteen old golf course. It's in the book because

292
00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:51.559
it was built by Donald Ross's as a nine hole

293
00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:55.159
golf course. And so my whole discussion is about the

294
00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:57.679
front nine of that golf course. But if you build

295
00:14:57.679 --> 00:14:59.759
it like that, that's just a twenty seven hole golf course.

296
00:14:59.799 --> 00:14:59.960
You know.

297
00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:03.720
Yeah, I guess so that makes sense. And I don't

298
00:15:03.720 --> 00:15:05.320
even know if you can get a nine hole rate

299
00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:07.440
at those courses. It's like you just want to say, no,

300
00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.159
I just want to play nine today because I want

301
00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:11.039
to play first thing in the morning. Then I want

302
00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:12.759
to go be with my family all day. I don't

303
00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:14.960
want to t off at eight and miss lunch.

304
00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:18.639
Yeah, well it's you know around here. In fact, in

305
00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:22.080
West Hartford there's two twenty seven whole private courses and

306
00:15:23.159 --> 00:15:26.840
they're setup for the membership is you know, like the

307
00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:28.919
Red White and Blue nine. So if you play Red

308
00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:31.399
and White as the eighteen whole course, blue is a

309
00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:33.720
nine hole course for the day. And I think that's

310
00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:36.240
fantastic because that's where people go and get a quick

311
00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:38.759
nine in, that's where people go and play with their kids.

312
00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.200
That's where people go who are learning the game. It's

313
00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:43.639
really cool because you're not in anybody's way and you're

314
00:15:43.679 --> 00:15:45.159
still on a golf course, you know what I mean,

315
00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:45.919
And you're still at the.

316
00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:49.360
Club exactly exactly. Actually, that's one of the questions that

317
00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:53.440
at Golf Trips asked on the periscope was about different

318
00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:54.320
color flags.

319
00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:57.840
Oh for what on.

320
00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:03.960
You can recognize which course you're playing if it's got

321
00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:05.480
multiple lines on there.

322
00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:08.399
Yeah, I guess I'm trying to think. Yeah, I think

323
00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:10.519
there might be situations where you need to make sure

324
00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:13.159
you're walking to the right tee on the right nine

325
00:16:13.240 --> 00:16:15.840
and playing to the right green and all that. And

326
00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:19.960
the two courses here they just have the you know,

327
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:22.519
the if they're private, so you know where you're going.

328
00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:24.120
But I could see that being a heck of a

329
00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:26.799
problem at a resort.

330
00:16:27.720 --> 00:16:30.120
And what about courses again, if I'm going to take

331
00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:34.759
Golf Trip's question about holes with two flags on one green.

332
00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:39.639
Yeah, I kind of get that. I'm not sure I'm

333
00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:42.320
a fan of that. If the course is if the

334
00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:45.039
green is big enough, if we're talking a green that's

335
00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.600
you know, double the average size of a double the

336
00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:51.399
size of an average green, say somewhere in the vicinity

337
00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:53.639
of ten to twelve thousand square feet. I get that,

338
00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:58.039
but I'm not sure I want to. I want to

339
00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:00.799
get involved, make my superintendent have to be doing that

340
00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:04.599
kind of stuff and putting to different places and all that.

341
00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:06.759
One of the interesting ones is the Dunes Club out

342
00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:10.440
in Michigan. Mike Kieser, the guy who started banding Dunes.

343
00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:13.200
This was his first course. He has the flags changed.

344
00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:16.359
He has the flags change once a day at the

345
00:17:16.440 --> 00:17:18.799
nine hole course. So you played a two, if you

346
00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:21.440
played twice in a day, you played a two separate

347
00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.240
or two different two gole locations.

348
00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:26.960
Oh, that's very cool. A couple months ago, I was

349
00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:30.000
back in visiting a friend in Maui, and he's a

350
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:32.440
member of Maui Country Club and it's a nine hole

351
00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:37.200
track with different tea boxes. You play eighteen holes, but

352
00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.160
you really are playing, you know, and some of the

353
00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:43.880
tea boxes are in a completely different location. The look

354
00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.640
is different, the feel is different, the bunkering just comes

355
00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:52.799
into play so differently. I was thinking at first, I'm like, really,

356
00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:55.440
you pay membership to be on a nine hole course,

357
00:17:56.119 --> 00:17:58.160
But that after I was like, Okay, I loved that.

358
00:17:58.160 --> 00:17:59.400
That was so much fun.

359
00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:02.519
Yeah, And I wouldn't be surprised if that's if that's

360
00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:09.119
a trend that we see, because with with land issues

361
00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:12.839
and cost issues for construction and all of that, you know,

362
00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:18.240
the cost of adding entirely separates is so much cheaper

363
00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:20.960
than building another nine holes. I mean, you're not talking

364
00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:23.640
about changing the whole quarter with of the existing nine

365
00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:26.480
or the first nine. It's really a way to make

366
00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:30.799
to make the nine play completely, you know, completely different

367
00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:33.039
a second time around. And then what you start to

368
00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:35.519
do is you can then mix and match. You know,

369
00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:38.720
just because you have a technically a front nine and

370
00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:41.079
a back nine doesn't mean you have to play it

371
00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:42.920
that way all the time. You know, you can flip

372
00:18:42.920 --> 00:18:45.680
your par threes, so you're playing your first nine out

373
00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:47.359
of you're playing the back nine of one in the

374
00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:50.559
front nine of another. It actually ends up with a

375
00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:53.160
whole bunch of, you know, cool scenarios to keep you

376
00:18:53.240 --> 00:18:54.440
interested in the golf course.

377
00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:57.519
When you mentioned there are eight states that have more

378
00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:03.960
nine hole courses than eight whole courses, I being a

379
00:19:04.119 --> 00:19:09.079
West Coast person, I don't see any good nine hole

380
00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:11.839
I don't see any nine hole courses. I see a

381
00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:14.799
lot of executive courses. I learned how to play on

382
00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:17.880
a par three and I played it once or twice

383
00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:19.200
when I was a kid, and then I never played

384
00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:22.039
golf again. And then as I started playing as an adult,

385
00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:25.000
there was a nine hole track right down the street

386
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:26.920
from me that was an executive It's a par three

387
00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:32.519
and par four, No par five's on it. And yeah,

388
00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:35.920
so are does the West Coast? Is it mostly an

389
00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:39.119
East Coast thing that there are great nine hole tracks

390
00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:41.680
with par three four, part four and par fives.

391
00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:44.160
Yeah, there's there's much more in the East and I

392
00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:46.000
and if you think about it, that's the way that

393
00:19:46.039 --> 00:19:48.480
golf moved across the United States. I mean it started

394
00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:52.039
in the East and moved west and so these nine

395
00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:53.920
hole courses, a lot of them were built in the

396
00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:57.599
early days of golf, and then you know, late eighteen

397
00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:01.559
not late eighteen nineties, into the early nineteen hundreds, and

398
00:20:01.559 --> 00:20:05.519
then they were updated by better architects along the way.

399
00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:10.160
Some were expanded into eighteen holes, like Myopia, some like Whitonsville,

400
00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:15.079
which was built in which I could nineteen fifteen, nineteen sixteen. State.

401
00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:18.559
Is that the ones up and down the main coast,

402
00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:21.119
you know, State is nine hole golf courses. But I

403
00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:25.359
think as so then as golf moves west, eighteen holes

404
00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:28.240
become standard. And the reason you see nine like we

405
00:20:28.279 --> 00:20:31.799
talked about in the Midwest States, is that it's a

406
00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:35.680
population reason for it. You know, it's not that people

407
00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:37.359
are looking for nine hole. I think it's all that,

408
00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:41.160
like we said that they can they have enough people

409
00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:44.160
to play in it and the budget to upkeep. So

410
00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:47.400
by the time it gets to California, you know, the golf,

411
00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:50.119
golf is real and golf is eighteen holes, and that's

412
00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.279
what a country club is. And so you see very few.

413
00:20:53.319 --> 00:20:56.440
I mean, you see Glenn Eagles in San Francis, San Francisco,

414
00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:02.559
right southern San Francisco, and then you see Northwood, you know,

415
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:06.559
north of California outside of the Bohemi Club. But that's

416
00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:08.839
too in that entire state that I came across. I

417
00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:10.960
didn't really get any after I wrote the first book.

418
00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:13.720
Had anybody say to me, you know you missed this

419
00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:16.720
in California. There's a couple I wish I could have

420
00:21:16.759 --> 00:21:19.400
gotten to and you know, done some more with. Willie

421
00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:21.799
Nelson owns a nine hole golf course called Pernallis and

422
00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:23.920
I was never able to line up doing that, but

423
00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:27.200
that would have been a wonderful story. But the bulk

424
00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:29.640
of the bulk of the good golf nine golf courses

425
00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:30.200
are in the East.

426
00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:38.920
At a quick Willie Nelson aside, since I brought up

427
00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:41.079
the Maui Country Club, oh boy, hope, I'm get in

428
00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:46.119
trouble for this one. He he came out to that

429
00:21:46.279 --> 00:21:49.000
court course at Mali Country Club and he was asking

430
00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:51.920
there are people allowed to smoke on the course and

431
00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:54.079
they said, well, of course, he goes, no, no, no, man,

432
00:21:54.519 --> 00:21:57.000
can they smoke weed on the course? So they have

433
00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:00.880
the Willie Nelson role at the MOUNTI I didn't say that.

434
00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:02.720
I didn't say that, Okay, well, and.

435
00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:06.400
He I think the name of his course is Pern Allison.

436
00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:09.559
He's famous for the line he who has the fastest

437
00:22:09.559 --> 00:22:12.359
golf card never has a bad line.

438
00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:15.680
That's a great one.

439
00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:18.559
Yeah. And one of my friends who actually who co

440
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:21.000
wrote the book The Towel of Willie with Willie. His

441
00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:23.240
name is Turk Cook and he's a golf writer, talks

442
00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:25.640
about playing in a fourteen some with Willy there because

443
00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:27.799
it's Willy's golf course. He makes the rules and it

444
00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:29.839
was fourteen people in fourteen golf cards.

445
00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:32.559
That's very funny. It's the golden rule. He who has

446
00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:34.000
the gold makes the rules.

447
00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:37.039
Absolutely absolutely.

448
00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:42.160
You mentioned the guy who owns Bandon Dunes. Have you

449
00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:42.880
ever been out there?

450
00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:47.079
I have. I haven't seen Old McDonald, but I played

451
00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:47.799
the other three.

452
00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:51.200
Yeah, I think there's he opened a fourth course there.

453
00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:54.880
Old McDonald beat the crud out of me. But they

454
00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:58.839
have one of the most fun nine hole courses I've

455
00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:01.680
ever played. It is a part three. It's an executive style.

456
00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:04.160
But I had so much I would go back to

457
00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:06.519
Bandon just to play the par three again. It was

458
00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:07.279
that much fun.

459
00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:10.000
Yeah, I know, it's cool. The whole concept that he

460
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:12.519
has out there was great, and that he built something

461
00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:16.759
like that. That par three golf course, I think really

462
00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:21.599
indicates that he understands what is what makes golf fun

463
00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:25.319
and how it's not just big eighteen hole flash sand

464
00:23:25.319 --> 00:23:27.960
bunkers and you know that kind of stuff that you

465
00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:31.279
can go play a par three and have a blast,

466
00:23:31.319 --> 00:23:31.519
you know.

467
00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:34.519
Oh yeah, No, all the courses that he's built there

468
00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:39.759
are truly done with reverence to the game. There's no

469
00:23:39.880 --> 00:23:43.160
question about it. It's spectacular and band and it again,

470
00:23:43.599 --> 00:23:46.359
it was the hardest golf I've ever played in my life,

471
00:23:46.359 --> 00:23:49.119
and I hated it while I was there, but once

472
00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:51.880
I left and I started looking at the pictures and

473
00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:54.240
thinking about it, it was like it was magic.

474
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.599
Yeah, I argue with you. You know, somebody else by

475
00:23:57.759 --> 00:24:00.680
another place has that concept is the Prairie Club, Nebraska,

476
00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:03.440
which has thirty six holes, but they have the ten

477
00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:06.680
hole horse course and there's ten sets of te's and

478
00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:10.359
ten greens and there's no scorecard and no direction on

479
00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:12.480
how to play it, so you can walk well it's

480
00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:14.519
not even tease. You kind of walk off greens and

481
00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:18.079
hits whichever flag you want, and there's no yardages. And

482
00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:20.079
I don't think that I think the longest hole is

483
00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:22.759
one hundred and forty yards and so you just take

484
00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:24.279
a handful of clubs and you go out and play.

485
00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:26.440
It's a blast. It's an absolute blast.

486
00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:28.920
It sounds like it was designed by somebody from our

487
00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:32.240
generation who is part of the woodstock generation, who had

488
00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:35.319
one too many sugar cubes and said, dude, let's play

489
00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:35.920
some golf.

490
00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:39.039
Yeah, it's pretty cool. And the only thing that's out

491
00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:41.200
there is trash cans. A couple of tresh kids here

492
00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:43.640
in there, because guys, after they've played their thirty six holes,

493
00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:46.200
eat dinner and just walk back outside and play some

494
00:24:46.279 --> 00:24:48.000
holes and beers on their hands and just drop them

495
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:50.640
in the drop them in the cans and just in

496
00:24:50.680 --> 00:24:52.440
the bins and just keep playing. And you can play,

497
00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:54.960
you know, play until ten o'clock at night during the summer.

498
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:56.599
So it's really really a lot of fun.

499
00:24:56.680 --> 00:24:58.920
That may have that may have been the birth of

500
00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:04.200
disc golf. Those trash cans. That's the next book. That's

501
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:09.599
the next book. There are some very famous nine hole tracks.

502
00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:15.319
We talk about Bandon Dune's Olympic Club in San Francisco. Again,

503
00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:21.920
I think that's an executive nine holer. Augusta on Wednesday,

504
00:25:23.160 --> 00:25:27.200
Par three. There isn't that interesting. So they're not that famous, uh,

505
00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:31.440
nine hole tracks, they're just little executive courses that are cute.

506
00:25:32.359 --> 00:25:34.920
Yeah, I mean Augusta's Augusta and Pine Valley which is

507
00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:38.039
ten holes. They don't even have part fours. Those are

508
00:25:38.039 --> 00:25:42.240
just straight par three's interesting. Yeah, kind of like the uh,

509
00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:46.160
the little course in front of the Turnbury Hotel, which

510
00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:50.440
I think is twelve holes. Those are all par three's. Wow.

511
00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:56.319
Architects who've been involved in the design of nine hole

512
00:25:56.680 --> 00:26:02.319
courses some pretty famous names that we're doing some great

513
00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:05.519
work on nine hole tracks. Give us a little background

514
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:06.160
on that too.

515
00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:10.960
Yeah. Donald Rossa did something in Kinetic excuse me in Massachusetts,

516
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:13.599
and it's interesting that in two the best I think

517
00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:15.640
where's now the best hole golf nine hole golf course

518
00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:18.319
in the United States is Whitensville, which is a Whitensville,

519
00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:22.000
mass which was the Witton family and the Witton family

520
00:26:22.039 --> 00:26:24.799
owned this big mill and they built a golf course

521
00:26:24.839 --> 00:26:28.119
for their employees and they brought Ross in and ross

522
00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:30.400
did a great job. They had the plans. The ninth

523
00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:32.519
hole is and I talked about this in the book.

524
00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:35.480
The ninth hole is one of Ben Crenshaw's favorite par

525
00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:38.759
fours in the world. It's really an astoundingly cool part.

526
00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:41.640
Four down the road from that, twenty miles is where

527
00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:43.799
I grew up in a town called Southbridge, and we

528
00:26:43.880 --> 00:26:46.160
used to have the American Optical Company, which is the

529
00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:49.400
largest manufacturer of eyeglasses in the world, and the Wells

530
00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:52.920
family built a nine hole golf course. Just like in Whitonsville,

531
00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:55.599
they had Ross come in. It was built for them

532
00:26:55.640 --> 00:26:58.319
originally that then became a country club, but not in

533
00:26:58.359 --> 00:27:00.519
the way that we think about a country club. It

534
00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:02.599
was very much a blue collar country club. It was

535
00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:04.920
for the mill workers and and there are people that

536
00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:07.759
could afford to play golf, and so Ross did things

537
00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:12.440
like that very very often. Where where it was it

538
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.519
was built, it was built for a specific family, a

539
00:27:15.559 --> 00:27:18.440
wealthy family that you know, there's there's a Ross course

540
00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:21.480
in I'm just trying to think Petersham, Massachusetts. He built

541
00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:26.240
that for I think that was Pittsburgh Steel summertime steel money,

542
00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:30.160
so they wanted and they wanted a nine hole golf course.

543
00:27:30.359 --> 00:27:32.519
So Ross Ross did a lot of them, I would

544
00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:35.599
get I would think that Ross did more for whatever reason.

545
00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:37.720
It may be his New England roots did more than

546
00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:39.039
anybody of the classic care.

547
00:27:39.079 --> 00:27:42.880
Architects, but he wasn't the only one. I mean, I

548
00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:47.599
saw another very classic name in your list while I

549
00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:52.160
was reading the book again, Mackenzie. What's that, Alistair Mackenzie.

550
00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:56.559
Mackenzie. Mackenzie built this this nine holes at Northwood, uh,

551
00:27:56.880 --> 00:27:59.599
you know, north of San Francisco. That's just astounding is

552
00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:03.599
Ben's changes in the golf course. One because the Russian

553
00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:05.839
River wiped away a green and they had to sense

554
00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:08.200
during a flood, they had to move a tee for

555
00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:12.160
safety reasons. But you just get out there, and he

556
00:28:12.200 --> 00:28:13.799
didn't mail this one in. I mean, this is a

557
00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:16.480
real golf course and he's got some strategy and some

558
00:28:16.599 --> 00:28:20.400
options and deception going on out there. That's just amazing.

559
00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:23.400
And it's carved through a redwood forest. And for somebody

560
00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:25.599
like me who's from New England, to be playing golf

561
00:28:25.640 --> 00:28:29.839
in a redwood forest in itself is just an amazing experience.

562
00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:31.880
But to be playing a Mackenzie course at the same time,

563
00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:33.400
it's just over the top.

564
00:28:39.400 --> 00:28:41.279
Well, you're gonna have to let me know when you

565
00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:43.839
come back out and visit, and we'll take a tour together,

566
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.119
because I seem to be playing along tall trees all

567
00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:52.160
the time. All right, all right, yeah, And what's really

568
00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:55.160
interesting because of the drought situation here now the Russian

569
00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:58.640
River is going dry. It is, yeah, so they're not

570
00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:01.119
gonna be wiping away any floo, any greens, but but

571
00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:03.440
the Russian River when we do have lots of rain,

572
00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:07.319
the Russian River wipes out towns, right it overflows.

573
00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:10.680
And the cool thing about Northward for me is that

574
00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:14.319
you know, it's it's it's above the vineyards, it's you know,

575
00:29:14.480 --> 00:29:16.039
north of the vineyards and all that. And you get

576
00:29:16.119 --> 00:29:18.000
up there and you think to yourself, like what am

577
00:29:18.039 --> 00:29:19.559
I going to do? And there's and there's a little

578
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:23.279
motel right there, and so you can bop around that

579
00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:25.480
area and see what's going on, and there's some cool

580
00:29:25.559 --> 00:29:28.279
nature thing. But here's this Alistair McKenzie night whole golf

581
00:29:28.319 --> 00:29:32.839
course that's incredibly affordable and you're literally a four minute

582
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.640
walk from the first t That's amazing. Yeah, that's fun.

583
00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:40.920
Wow. So your book came out originally in two thousand

584
00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:43.839
and six, which is when we did the first interview,

585
00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:46.680
and the reason you've come back now is because you've

586
00:29:46.680 --> 00:29:50.359
got a new chapter, just the one or there's there's

587
00:29:50.519 --> 00:29:54.920
it's a new edition of the book. Congratulations, right and why.

588
00:29:55.359 --> 00:29:57.359
Well what happened was is that I was about a

589
00:29:57.400 --> 00:30:01.599
year ago, I was approached by people from the publishing

590
00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:02.720
house Roman and Littlefield.

591
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:03.440
Uh.

592
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:06.000
One of the guys involved with the company had read

593
00:30:06.039 --> 00:30:09.680
the book spend some time every year and I'll say

594
00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:12.559
Brook knows Fenwick, loves the Nighthole golf course at Fenwick,

595
00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:16.839
and asked me if I would be interested in them

596
00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:19.880
the book's been out of Princeton's twenty ten, I believe,

597
00:30:20.279 --> 00:30:22.319
asked if I would be interested in the book coming

598
00:30:22.839 --> 00:30:25.599
in them and them reprinting the book. And that's you know,

599
00:30:25.640 --> 00:30:27.440
that's the dumbest question I've had asked me in the

600
00:30:27.480 --> 00:30:30.839
last year. Absolutely, you know, let's do this again. And

601
00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:33.960
I said, there's this new there's this course that just

602
00:30:34.039 --> 00:30:37.920
opened in uh are about to open in Tennessee. It's

603
00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:40.599
the only one that's opened since the a note that's

604
00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:42.799
opened since the book came out. And I'd like to

605
00:30:42.839 --> 00:30:45.079
add that course. And they said, you can do whatever

606
00:30:45.079 --> 00:30:47.720
you want. Uh, we want you to update the chapters

607
00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:50.480
that the existing chapters and we and we'd love you

608
00:30:50.519 --> 00:30:52.920
to do that. So I went out to Swanee in

609
00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:57.160
South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, near Chattanooga. And that's the new chapter.

610
00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:00.880
And the course opened in October to rave reviews and

611
00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:02.640
continues to get ray reviews.

612
00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:03.720
That's amazing.

613
00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:05.799
I think it's the best. I think it's the best

614
00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:10.200
nine to hold golf course built since since the end

615
00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:11.839
of World War Two. I think it's better than the

616
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:12.440
Dunes Club.

617
00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:14.279
Wow.

618
00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:17.720
Why it's really really, really amazing.

619
00:31:18.119 --> 00:31:19.400
Why do you think it's so great?

620
00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:22.359
Well, it has an immense amount of strategy to it.

621
00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:25.839
Rob Collins and Tad King who designed it. It's Rob

622
00:31:25.880 --> 00:31:28.759
Collins or the architect. He partners with Tad King who's

623
00:31:28.839 --> 00:31:33.000
the construction superintendent and the shaper. And their whole concept

624
00:31:33.200 --> 00:31:37.720
was really what Augusta National concept was, which is now gone.

625
00:31:37.799 --> 00:31:40.920
But the kind of the Inland Links course, very very

626
00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:45.200
wide fairways, no rough. Anybody can play the golf course.

627
00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:47.039
Most of the greens are open in front, so you

628
00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:49.920
can bounce the ball onto the green. But there's specific

629
00:31:49.960 --> 00:31:52.920
strategy to every hole. So when a when a whole,

630
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.440
when a whole quarter is eighty five yards wide, you

631
00:31:56.519 --> 00:31:59.279
can you still have to come in from a correct side.

632
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:02.920
And so that's really really fun. The greens have a

633
00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:05.480
lot of movement in and but they're big, so they're

634
00:32:05.480 --> 00:32:07.400
not lacky, you know what I mean. You have some

635
00:32:07.480 --> 00:32:11.720
big sweeping putts, but the cupable areas are very sublime.

636
00:32:11.799 --> 00:32:13.759
It's a lot of fun, a lot a lot of fun.

637
00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:18.960
And what about the future of nine hole courses? Because

638
00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:23.319
the United States, there are no new courses being built.

639
00:32:23.319 --> 00:32:25.599
There's no money going to it's all going into China.

640
00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:28.359
It seems like there hasn't been a new course. And

641
00:32:28.440 --> 00:32:31.440
some people blame the tiger effect on this, but there's not,

642
00:32:32.200 --> 00:32:36.119
you know, a lot of construction being done. And it's

643
00:32:36.200 --> 00:32:40.160
also because of the classic complaints. It takes too long,

644
00:32:40.200 --> 00:32:43.720
it's too hard, it's too expensive. People's lives are so

645
00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:48.000
there's so much going on in everybody's lives, they just

646
00:32:48.039 --> 00:32:51.359
don't have time for a full eighteen holes. Nine holes

647
00:32:51.359 --> 00:32:55.519
seems to be the perfect you know, resolution for this,

648
00:32:56.920 --> 00:32:58.119
Is that the right word? Resolution?

649
00:32:58.359 --> 00:32:58.559
Yes?

650
00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:02.200
Okay? And I mean, like I would love to be

651
00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:04.079
able to go out to my favorite course and say

652
00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:05.880
I just want to play nine today and say I'm sorry,

653
00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:07.640
you can't do that after eight thirty in the morning.

654
00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:10.960
Another way, I would love to see it is break

655
00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:12.960
it up into six, twelve or eighteen.

656
00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:16.519
Right, they do that to you that you can't play nine. Yeah. Yeah.

657
00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:18.680
I recently I said do you have a nine hole rate?

658
00:33:18.680 --> 00:33:20.519
And they said not eight after eight thirty in the morning.

659
00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:24.839
That's interesting because that's the usg HIT now has come

660
00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:28.680
out with this play nine initiative, and it's multifaceted. The

661
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:32.839
idea is to get people back to golf to golf.

662
00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:36.279
They're letting people know that you can submit a nine

663
00:33:36.319 --> 00:33:38.720
old round as partry a handicap. You can go on

664
00:33:38.759 --> 00:33:41.319
the website and find nine hole golf courses, but you

665
00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:43.359
can also go to the web and find go to

666
00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:47.359
the website and find eighteen hole or golf facilities that

667
00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:50.160
are nine hole friendly. You know, all the nine hole

668
00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:52.839
eighteen hole golf courses in my area that are public

669
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:56.079
are nine hole friendly. You can play nine holes. They're

670
00:33:56.079 --> 00:33:58.799
also encouraging people to go and practice, to go and

671
00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:01.160
chip and pod to go or the range to have fun.

672
00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:03.599
But I think I think you're going to see the

673
00:34:03.720 --> 00:34:07.960
end of excluding nine hole play pretty soon. I mean,

674
00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:11.039
that's that doesn't make any sense from a business model

675
00:34:11.079 --> 00:34:14.559
standpoint to me. And I think you know, we're in

676
00:34:14.599 --> 00:34:16.880
a downturn for golf for whatever reason. It may just

677
00:34:16.920 --> 00:34:22.280
be cyclical, but I see nine holes rounds and rounds,

678
00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:26.840
and I guess that the realization that nine hole golf

679
00:34:26.880 --> 00:34:31.079
courses are out there, you know, becoming more as time

680
00:34:31.119 --> 00:34:33.199
goes on. And I hope that that's true, because there's

681
00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:35.239
some really good golf courses that are being overlooked.

682
00:34:35.719 --> 00:34:38.440
Yeah. And you know, for me what would be awesome

683
00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:41.360
is because I usually I like to play later in

684
00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:44.079
the afternoon, so I play a lot more when it's

685
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:47.280
daylight savings time. So when it's not daylight savings time,

686
00:34:47.320 --> 00:34:50.519
if I want to go out at two o'clock, I

687
00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:53.400
can only get nine holes in any way, right, you know.

688
00:34:53.840 --> 00:34:56.440
So there's a municipal golf course in the top next

689
00:34:56.440 --> 00:35:01.119
to me, Meriton, and they usually have very busy play

690
00:35:01.159 --> 00:35:02.519
in the morning, so they would do it, you know,

691
00:35:02.519 --> 00:35:06.239
a double crossover started both teas one and ten crosses

692
00:35:06.280 --> 00:35:09.000
over the course is full. When the course opens up again,

693
00:35:09.159 --> 00:35:11.880
they dedicate one T to eighteen and one T to

694
00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:15.719
nine And that's really cool. If you pitch your nine

695
00:35:15.800 --> 00:35:18.000
hole early afternoon play out there and they're done in

696
00:35:18.039 --> 00:35:18.599
two hours.

697
00:35:19.079 --> 00:35:21.159
And now I would love to get a quick tip

698
00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:21.480
from you.

699
00:35:22.039 --> 00:35:23.920
Okay, I've given this tip to a lot of people

700
00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:26.400
that come back to me and told me it was

701
00:35:26.639 --> 00:35:28.840
spot on. Go find a nine hole golf course that

702
00:35:28.880 --> 00:35:32.199
you've overlooked, that people have told you isn't worth playing,

703
00:35:32.599 --> 00:35:34.800
isn't a true golf course, isn't a real golf course,

704
00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:37.039
and go play. You're going to be pleasantly surprised.