It didn't match your tattoo. No. No, he's got a yeah, he's got a monarch, and that's actually. 0:20 Hello and welcome to another episode of Must Play. Today we're talking about sheep ranch at the Band and Dunes Golf Resort with our friend Brian Baldwin, founder of Harbor, a commercial production company out of Portland. Brian, how are you doing? Great. Yeah, Thanks for having me. Brian, I got to start real quick with Harbor in the homepage of your website because you have a headline that spoke to me. 0:39 Harbor is dope and we do dope shit. Do you want to elaborate and also tell us about Harbor? Yeah, well, thank you. I that headline works kind of like as sort of a A2 part. It serves 2 masters that that headline. 0:56 So one it it's just like the classic Kanye quote. I don't know if you know the the story when he's talking about hanging out with Dave Chappelle or like Dave Chappelle telling the story about hanging out with Kanye. And I just thought, I just thought it was like kind of funny. 1:13 So I put it on there, but but also like I kind of wanted my, my website to sort of serve as like a, a little bit of a guard dog and, and kind of a bouncer. And so like my harbor is a commercial production company, like you said. So what I do is I, I produce and I direct commercials and brand films and this that and the other social stuff, whatever. 1:39 But I kind of, I kind of wanted to have like a little bit of a like a, a doorman at on my website so that when, if, if people would go to my website to vet who I am and if they came up to that quote and if they were just like, what is this joker doing? And they turned away, I just, I feel like that that's a good test for me to be like, yeah, I probably wouldn't have had that good of a time with those people anyway. 2:01 And so no you. Wouldn't have vibe with that client. Yeah. So I it, it, it's, it's kind of like, it's kind of like a get to know you, you know, question a little bit of a bouncer, a guard dog there. So yeah. Well, Speaking of directing, so I want to talk real quick about directing yourself 'cause you have this little series on Instagram called How To and this might be my favorite character of yours. 2:24 And I just wanted to quickly call out the How to hit a hole in one video because I was tackling to myself, for those who haven't seen it, if you're OK, if it'll post a clip while I want to know, did you actually try and hit the shot or did you top that one on purpose? 2:40 What was that shot? Yeah, Oh my gosh, man, I I'm so happy to be talking about this Harbor how to also kind of serves like a guard dog a little bit, you know, because, because we we do like, we work on, you know, national larger campaigns for for big, you know, Fortune 500 companies. 3:01 But but our Instagram is like very unserious. And so a while ago we I like we had this idea to to do Harbor how to's where we were just really giving tutorials on like stuff that is not you don't need a tutorial on. And then just kind of through. 3:16 But but we we said like we, we have to make fifty of them before we can post one, because if we just do them one at a time, we'll we'll never like continue with it. And so we just made a bunch of just meaningless a ton of them. And the ones that we we always loved or that I always loved were the ones that were super deadpan. 3:36 And if you get deep enough into the weeds on, on my Instagram, like my favorite one probably is the, the how to how to take photos, how to take good photos. And I just take a photo of my dog. It's it's it's so bad, but. It gives Tim and Eric vibes, like where I'm watching it and I'm cracking up and I'm like, some people this is going to go right over their head. 4:00 Totally. And, and, and the, the people, the people that don't get it, I'm OK not working with them, you know, 'cause like I have a very like very stylized sense of humor anyway. So the the how to hit a hole in one that one came about because I was like, how can I like I play out of golf? 4:17 I'm I'm always out here, like, how could I do some golf ones, but but not like shift the whole series to golf? And so I was like, all right, I'll just do like I had a hole in one and, and I did so I I flew my drone up and like back on on this hole and I had my mic and I I did the the same. 4:34 I I did the the whole, the whole thing as you like see it. And then I, I hit a shot and I like, I knew I wasn't going to hit a hole in one, but I just like hit a, a normal shot. And I, I brought, you know, and I looked at, I looked at the footage and I was just like, I just, that's just like not that funny. It's not the punk line. 4:50 Right, yeah, it's like, it's not it's not that good. And so so I was like, all right, I'll just try and hit like a like a horrible shot next. And I, I, so I, I purposely tried to top it. But when I tell you like that, trying to keep it together after hitting that horrible of a shot because the whole delivery is very like, hey, what's up? 5:10 I'm Brian, you know, like it's, it's, it's very dead man. And it, and so it's really hard to keep it together on a lot of those. But that one especially because it topped in it hit the cart path. I don't know if you, I don't know if that showed in the video, but like it hits the cart path and then it bounces up and it like rolls a little bit. 5:28 It was and, and that was like one try of when I tried to hit a bad shot. It was like the one try. So anyway, I'm so glad you called that out 'cause like I, that's all I ever want to do. And I'd I'd I have to stop? So. Good DJ. I received them on set too. 5:43 Like we did a Nike shoot, so we were doing them like on Nike set shoots and stuff and and I was like, yeah, I don't know, man. I'm kind of feel like I'm prioritizing harbor how to use over like the shoots. I have not seen that, but I know it's, it's funny 'cause I remember when you and I filmed an ad that we did for Chubby's last January, I had to hit a really bad drive and you were surprised at how poorly I could hit a shot on command. 6:14 And I and I think that you've lost your way in that you've become so good at golf that you don't know how. To. Like you've lost the muscle memory on how to just do something poorly. Like everything comes out kind of OK for you. Whereas for me it's like, oh, if I just, if I just black out and swing a Golf Club, it's gonna be really bad. 6:35 Like. Yeah, yeah, the recall. I mean, look, I, I, no matter how good I'm ever going to be, like I'll always be able to hit bad shots. I'll tell you that. I'm the same but I mine's a Shank I can't topping. It is just so hard to do on purpose for me. I don't know why but. I, I told I, I, I teed the ball. 6:52 I can't remember how I did it, but I, I, I purposely told myself like cut it in half like that. That was my swing thought cut the ball in half and and it, it worked so good. Apparently I'm really good at hitting on shit shots so. OK, well let's let's transition to a course that penalizes some of those shit shots. 7:11 Let's transition to Sheep Branch. How often are you going down to Band and Dunes, by the way? I know the drive is it could be a longer one if you take the scenic route or a shorter one to go down the five, but either way you're still spending some time in the car. So how often are you going down there? Yeah, it's like AI think, I think it's about just like 4 and change four hours and change from where I am. 7:31 So I, I'm, I'm really lucky like living up here in and I live on the South end of Portland. So like it's, it's even closer for me. But I'm really lucky in that I have kind of like an, an alternate invite on a, an annual Bandon trip. 7:49 And so these, these guys, my neighbor or my old neighbor, I guess since I just moved, he, they've been going since it opened. So they've been going since year one to OG band and it's been an annual trip ever since. And so there's, there's 24 guys that go annually on this trip. 8:07 So then they call it battle abandoned. And it's, it's kind of a, they look forward to it every year. It's like kind of a big deal. And so I, I got kind of an alternate slot to be, to go in like during COVID, cause a lot of guys couldn't like make the trip and all that. And so I've, I've been kind of in that on that trip ever since. 8:27 And then I've, I've gone just a couple of times with friends since. So I don't know if that answers the question, but it's, it's, it's not that far. And I have a lot of opinions on, on bandit in general. Like, you know, everyone avoids the winter and, and, and everyone here is like, oh, you know, it's, it's, it's 18 months in advance to book and, and this and that. 8:48 And and it's just, it's not as like cumbersome as I think people have made it to be. I think the lore around Bandon and and and like the tee times and I think that it's been kind of like Bandon is a very sort of golf romantic place, But I think that it's been maybe a little like over sensationalized with some things. 9:11 But like you could just you could drive there right now and get you could probably get a tee time right now. I got paired with a guy last time I was there that like drove his wife, drove him down, dropped him off. She went into town to ban and picked him up after he was done. And he was like, yeah, I just like asked what time I could get on and he got off, which I thought was crazy. 9:30 Yeah, it's not, it's not, it's not as, it's not as cumbersome, I think as, as some people think. But like if you want to the the stay in play side of things, like that's where it gets tricky. But yeah, you just kind of pull up and get a tee time. All right, well, before we dive into all that kind of stuff real quick, I just want to make sure we one moment to hear from our sponsor for today's episode, Deveroe Golf. 9:48 This episode of Must Play is brought to you by Deveraux Golf, their brand new Spring 26 release dubbed the Westward Collection. If your golf wardrobe needs a reset, then this is the time to act. The Westward Collection brings clean SW inspired knit polos and lightweight layers that are going to work on the course, at the range, or even wherever you're heading after your round. 10:07 And don't sleep on the accessories either. Deborah's hats and leather head covers are some of the best round. They're the kind that instantly upgrade any bag or outfit. Also their shirts, they feel incredible without feeling sloppy and the socks are just all day comfortable whether you're walking 18 or just walking your dog. 10:24 It's a new season. It's time for a new direction. The Westward collection from Devro Golf over on devrogolf.com. Use code fair wagers 20 to always get 20% off your orders. See you out there. All right, let's get into a little bit about sheep ranch real quick. 10:40 TJ, this was your first and only time that you went to Bandon was when I was with you last time. What'd you think of it so far? Sheep is incredible newest track out at Bandon, right? I don't. I Did you guys play it when you guys went the first time? 10:55 Yeah, without me. You did so, yeah. So I remember, I think I remember you guys probably saying, OK, sheep's for sure on the list. Here's here's some things we could pass up on at the time when we played, we played all, we played four out of the five. The only one we did not play was was band and Dunes itself. 11:13 And I think I know, I know, I know. I still have aspirations of making it back out and actually playing band. And that's for another podcast. We got we got to play the original course the previous time and so when we took TJ there and we can only pick four, I was like, I don't know how we killed out which one that are old Mac And I was like, I really wanted to take them to Old Mac, so we kept it in. 11:34 Yeah. So Sean and I actually played a match at sheep was our was our championship for that trip. We played, we played a stable for it across the across the trip and that was our championship that we had actually previously decided to just split in half our winnings. 11:51 Collusion as someone. Said collusion. But I think it still came down to like 17 and 18, didn't it? I think it did, yeah. But we were taking, I mean, we were taking that bus, 2 sheep, you know, you got to take the little shuttle. And TJ and I realized you're like, if we just decide to split this, we could bury all the stress. 12:08 Yeah, why would why do I, why do I want to stress during a round at sheep ranch? Yeah, this this course is for me. Unlike much else in the world, I've never played a lot of link style golf. 12:25 I've played golf that's obviously sees the ocean, but not in a world like this, right? It is so visually stunning that it's like I'm having a hard time actually like describing it here on a podcast. Like you really, I know we're doing an audio version and there's a visual version where you can see our faces. 12:44 But I also implore you that if you have never actually you listen to our podcast for something else and you've never heard about sheep ranch or watched anything about sheep ranch like this is ill advised as a podcast. Stop what you're doing right now and go watch something about sheep ranch before listening to the rest of this. 13:01 Like Sean gave me the guidance beforehand to go watch, you know, our godfathers of golf podcasting, no laying UPS Taurus sauce on their Oregon trip, right? And it's it's so good. They have an entire episode of dedicated sheep ranch. I watched it last night just as a refresher to go back through. 13:18 And it's fun doing that because you get to relive those holes again and you remember how you played them. They. Do such a good job stuff. They do. They do. Sauce is so good. I mean, it's gosh. Yeah, yeah, the. Scandinavia one, Gosh, I don't get sidetracked. 13:35 I don't get sandwiched. So good. They do such a good job. And I'm, I'm the media and I'm like, God, this is so good. Either way, the visuals are, it's tough to say like second to none, right, But it's it's up there. 13:50 There's a lot of holes out there that I'm like, man, there's not a lot else like this that I foresee myself ever going and playing in my lifetime. I I can only hope and pray that I will get to experience more golf courses that are like this golf course, right? 14:08 Yeah, agreed. Brian, what sticks out to you? What are some of the headlines for sheep ranch? Just something that I think I I don't know, maybe most people know about it or couldn't find out really quickly is that there are there are no sand bunkers on the course. 14:25 So there's just a lot of golf being played out there. I think that, you know, you didn't you didn't get a chance to play at at OG Bandon. But I think that that similarly is especially with like how it finishes is like you get to 15 and you're like 151617. 14:46 It's like, what is this? Like where, where are we? And I think that sheep, I love it. I I always have had the time of my life playing sheep. I mean, what an opening hole, like start for one, like the opening hole is stands out like it's it. I don't know that there's a hole that I've ever played that that looks 800 yards long that isn't, you know, I mean. 15:12 Yeah, for sure. It you get to like the top of the Crest on one and you look all the way down to the like I'm not getting there. It's three shots like it. It feels so vast when you're standing at the at the top of that, that hump. 15:29 I think that I think that like and maybe I I could be mistaking something, but isn't isn't like the no the turn the is the turn at 10 or not? It's like 11, I think, yeah. After 11, so you go up the volcano hole, right? 15:47 And then that's where you go back by the pro shop again. Right, yeah. And so like that, that is a that is a little unique to the course as well. Is that the the the the the turn, you know, like the the turn is not on 10. I just like all the like I've never had a bad time at sheep. 16:04 I've I've, I, I, I feel like I could not play Pacific ever again and be fine. It, it just, it's like 2 penal and and I just don't like, I don't, it's not, it's not made for a golfer like me, I don't think. 16:20 And so so like Pacific is just Pacific is, is like a but heart palpitation course and sheep is just kind of like a good walk. And I know that most people score probably the best, their best scores on the property at cheap. 16:36 And I think that I think that it sort of gets in certain circles, it probably gets labeled as like the easy course or, or, or like the the one that's like, yeah, it's not that interesting or whatever. And I just disagree. 16:52 I completely disagree. I actually really, I really, really like, I like the feeling I get when I'm at that part of the property. And we took a day trip. We, we literally took a day trip. We flew down there for the day and back just to play sheep with some friends like and and and like. 17:11 What a time that was. Yeah, I would. I would agree that I think Sheep actually might be the easiest course, but I don't think it deserves that title. I think it's a hard course if your game's not there because you have gorse lining a bunch of holes, you have wind, which we'll talk about, I'm sure on this pod, Just like hearing no bunkers is like, oh, automatically easy. 17:36 It's like, no, it's not. It's got plenty of teeth. If it if you really wanted to, if, especially if you're trying to play a tee box that like, you know, you're with a group that wants to play maybe one for the back then you're comfortable with. All of a sudden a ton of danger comes into play on on this course. 17:53 Well, also too, 'cause I think like from the backs, it's like 6600, which to like a lot of people, even if your game's not in like the best place, like I personally like as a 20 plus handicap, look at 6600 and I go like, oh, it's not too bad. I can I'm long enough to play that right. But then, yeah, it where where your landing zones are from back there for everything starts to get really. 18:16 I'll I'll, I'll borrow a term from the gorse here. It starts to get really prickly, right? Yeah. And I think, I think so much of it too, on scoring depends upon how much wind there is that day. Well, you can also there there's a lot of stuff that you that you if you get out of position, you have to hit over things that you just might not know what like what's kind of around there. 18:36 And so if you don't have a caddy kind of saying, hey, you know, you got to kind of hug the right side of this it you can because it's very exposed. So it's not like you're just, it's like there's alleys of like, hey, this is your, you know, the trees tell you where to go. It's pretty, it's pretty exposed out there. 18:52 And so if you get a little offline and you're not totally sure of where to go, like you're hitting blind shots for sure. For sure. Yeah, I have. Just real quick, 'cause we used to do pros and cons on a big list and then we kind of killed some pros and cons in the favor of shorter episodes. But this course, I feel, deserves a bit of a pros and cons just real quick. 19:11 So I'm going to go through these. My pros are dedicated driving range. This is the only course in Bandon that has its own driving range tucked behind. Some people don't even know it's there. I wrote coolest opening hole I've ever played in golf, which you just brought up, Brian. But like that reveal is so epic when you see the ocean right off the 1st hole. 19:31 Amazing views of the ocean that I think this of course has the most holes that stare at the water than any other one. No sand bunkers. We talked about I wrote great food in the clubhouse. Like I had some really good sandwiches out of that clubhouse. And I'm sure we're going to talk later on and test about. 19:47 I wrote one of the most peaceful walks I've ever had and one of the most stressful walks I've ever done because it's one time the wind was whipping. So I can be a pro and a con. And then just real quick on the cons, I wrote Wind. Enough said there. 20:03 Routing on some of the holes can lead groups to get backed up sometimes. I feel like I've had some instances where we got bunched up. And then the only thing that I feel like has to be said about Bannon in general, this is not just sheep ranch is that it's walking only. And that is in itself sometimes too much to ask of someone that might be slightly older or have some issues. 20:24 And so it has to be said that that that's a con for someone that doesn't walk a course and doesn't feel like, you know, putting that mileage on their body. For example, I want to take my dad here. He has a hard time with walking some that far. And he's like, I'm like, I really would love to show you Bannon, but like, I don't know how it's going to work. 20:41 So that's got to be a con. Yeah, I mean you always, you always play 9. That's true, but it's a long way to go out just for 9:00. Look, I didn't say it'd be easy. Yeah. Yeah. TJ, what do you got, man? What do you got? Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm the same way as Sean. 20:58 I think one of the things that Sean probably left out that I'm a huge fan of and have started to become somewhat of that guy on social media. Great logo. I I personally think that it's arguably the best logo out there at. Band, it's my yeah. 21:14 Outside of Preserve, I think it's my favorite. Like shorties. I know you like. I know you like shorties because you like crude hand drawn logos. Sean. No. The air holding the flag. That thing is, yeah, it's crude, but it's fine. This is my opinion. 21:32 Brian asked me my opinion Yeah, but yeah, no, I think I think sheep is a very like simplistic, but very well done, very well thought out design. Actually, I threw on the hoodie today so we're. It's so good. 21:48 It's just like I love how how minimal and classic that logo is. Exactly. It's, it's very simple. It says exactly what it is. You get it right away. You don't have to think extra about it and it says everything that it needs to say about it. Also like interesting note on hole one par 5 opener. 22:08 Yeah. You don't see it a ton in golf and I think that's why I, I think it's, I haven't necessarily heard anyone talk about it, but it almost feels like they're trying to get you down close to the ocean as fast as possible, right? They can get the key box closer and they have to put it way back up there. 22:28 Fair, fair, fair, But it feels like they want to use that first hole to get you like, hey, we want you to be down by the water, like fast, whereas like you play Tory Tory S right, and you play 1 and you're kind of going down towards the water. You play 2 and it runs, it runs parallel to the to the to the horizon. 22:49 And then you finally get to 3 and you're like, oh, I can see all the way down the coastline where I was like this one feels like it's like, Nope, par 5. It's a super long hole. You're going to see the ocean as soon as you Crest that hill. And then you're just all eyes forward trying to get out there. The OG banning course and pack dunes are the same. 23:05 Let's not to like hole 4:00-ish that you start to see the ocean like directly like that close. Dude nothing beats 4 man, nothing beats 4 abandoned. Where's the thick hole? Abandoned I. Have to say yeah, I can't. I I'm so bummed you didn't play it. It's it's it's. Yeah, totally guys. 4 is incredible. 23:21 I could go, I could go to, to the, the property, I could go stay on property and I could play that course four days in a row and like and, and be psyched. Yeah, like that. Well, we have plans to get TJ back out there, so. It's I do have some friends who moved to Bend, so the the the the the day trip without having to stay at Bandon is in is is, yeah. 23:47 Yeah, you can do from here too, man. It's just, it's a long day, but it's, it's not, it's not tough. Yeah, yeah. All right. Should we dive into the history of the course? Let's let's hear the history, Sean. So to understand the story of sheep ranch, we're first going to understand the story of the land it sits on. 24:03 And that goes way back before a club was ever swung there. So this was actually area called Whiskey Run Creek, which was a beach that gold was discovered in 1851. First trivia question, can either of you name the road Whiskey Creek Run? 24:19 Which two courses does this bisect today? At Bandon. Uh huh, you go on maps, there's Whiskey Run Rd. going right between two courses. Is it like it hold on, hold on, it runs through those courses or it splits 2 courses? 24:36 Splits 2 from each other. Well, then that's Brian. Go ahead. Guess. Guess gets dibs on. This does it? Does it split Pacific and Bandon? Nope. It splits trails and preserve. 24:51 Nope. It splits Sheep Ranch and Old Mack. You know, on Sheep Ranch when you're on 9, you're like at the bottom of the property and you look out and you can see Old Mack. And. There's like that road that goes down to the beach and you can see cars that go down to the beach right there. Yeah, I wish we got the old Maccas that far, like over there sometimes. 25:09 Yeah, that far out there? Yeah, yeah. So that beach was where gold was found, actually. And you stand over that beach when you tee off on #6 where you cut that angle, essentially where the coastline is. So hundreds of miners actually congregated there back in the 1850s. 25:26 But the gold rush didn't last long because it emptied out, except for a handful of settlers who moved just S to our present day. Bandon is so Bandon was founded by an Irish guy named George Bennett, who named the town after Bandon, Ireland, his hometown. And here's where it's a little ironic. He also introduced gorse to the area, a thorny, highly flammable plant that now infests thousands of acres of land in southwest Oregon. 25:49 So this guy is the reason that Abandoned Dunes has gorse literally everywhere around the course? Do this man. Like how, how, how uncreative do you have to be to like to name a a town like the same name as like another town? 26:05 Like like just call it something different. Like how uncreative can you be? We have what, 3 different new states 4IN in America? Exactly. You already have abandoned. You're literally from there. 26:20 Like call it something different. Maybe it was homesick. They didn't. At least they didn't call it new Banded. Yeah, what they basically did like they did. Yeah, have you ever been to New band? New band. Anyways, so Bannon's early economy was built on trees, cheese and cranberries with beach tourism as a constant, and they were basically known for that up until most of the 20th century. 26:44 It was a quiet, hard working fishing timber town on the edge of the continent, about as far from golf as you can get. So how does a place like this become a golf destination in America? Starts with one man, Mike Kyser, who there's multiple stuff about out there. I'll focus just a little bit about Bannon real quick here. 27:01 He basically made his earnings well in a card company. So he was someone that was responsible for recycled greeting cards and things like that. And when he set out to build this, he wanted to kind of echo back to the rustic wind swept wind swept spirit and not the stadium golf that was taking hold in the US with waterfalls and tricked out golf carts and things like that. 27:24 So he'd already built a small private course in Michigan that scratched that itch, but he wanted something bigger. And word spread through the real estate community that a guy from Chicago was looking for coastal property anywhere coastal. And Annie Hunter knew about 1200 acres just north of Bandon that had been on the market for 4 1/2 years because it was covered in. 27:47 Unmistakably gorse, cause all it's everywhere out there. Yep, so his advisors thought he was out of his mind. My prayer was to break even. Kaiser would later say everyone I knew plus me thought it was a crazy idea. Not only did he buy land in such a remote place, he hired an unknown Scottish architect named David Mclay Kid to design the first course. 28:07 And no big names, no safety net, just a belief that if golf was great and the land was wild, people would find it no matter how far they had to travel. And with no major city within a 2 hour drive abandoned the closest Interstate more than an hour away, he was betting everything on the golfer's willingness to go make a pilgrimage. 28:23 So the first course, Band and Dunes opened in May 1999 and it instantly garnered high praise. The first year they projected 10,000 rounds, they did 30,000. Then came Tom Doakes packed Dunes in 2001. Core and Crenshaw's Band and Trails in 2005, Old Mac in 2010. 28:41 By the early twenty 10s, Band and Dunes was regarded as one of the greatest golf resorts in the world. But tucked away on the northernmost edge of the property sat a piece of land with its own story that most golfers didn't even know existed. The property that would become sheep ranch had been a wind farm in the 1970s, but had been abandoned because the winds were so strong. 29:00 The turbines of the era couldn't harness the wind. Let that sink in for just a second. The thing it was built for, it couldn't do because the winds were too much. So they gave up and they walked away. And that was the land Sheep Ranch sat on. Kaiser purchased this property in 2000 for $4 million with the intent of building a private club. 29:19 And he called in Tom Doak, fresh off Pack Dunes, and asked him to start shaping the land. Doak built a ragtag cross country 13 hole course with no irrigation, and it would later eventually become part of Old Mack. So no formal routing, no order of play, just green sites that were carved into one of the most spectacular stretches of oceanfront cliffs here. 29:39 There were thoughts of developing the informal layout into a private 18 hole course, but the owners backed off after they learned that people were objecting locally. So rather than press forward, they basically just let it sit there. The green sat there UN irrigated. Fire trucks were actually brought in to keep the turf barely alive. 29:55 Getting on to the original sheep ranch required getting in touch with the right guy in town, meeting said guy in a truck at the gate and being ready to present $100 each. It was a rumor and it was a legend of essentially caddies would tell lucky resort guests about it. Tom Doak himself called it transcendent. 30:12 So for over 15 years, one of these most spectacular pieces of golf land in the world just sat there, mostly off limits. But in 2015, Kaiser and his partner Phil Friedman, who had Co owned the sheep ranch property since day one, decided it was time and they brought in Core and Crenshaw. They had established their firm in 86 and had already done Bannon Trails and Preserve. 30:31 And there was something poetic about bringing them back because when Koor had been building trails through the trees years earlier, he looked out at the ocean and joked to Kaiser. Mike, what are we doing up here in the trees now? Finally he got his chance at the coastline. So Kaiser and Friedman's directive was simple. You guys try to use every linear foot of shoreline you can. 30:50 Coors response was pretty tall order. We didn't quite make every linear foot, but we got pretty damn close. So the site earned its ocean views by virtue of basically being perched high above the beach. But it was a small site trapped between Bluffs and this ravine, which was the risky run Creek that we just talked about earlier. 31:07 So their solution was to come up with a unique routing of clustered pairs of teeing areas. So 2 and 18, five and 15-8 and ten are all very close, allowing them to build holes that radiate out at different angles from the same spot. Now that feels like it's defined the size of the property and it surprises you with a new angle on the ocean each time. 31:26 One of the things that's unique about Sheep Ranch among the banning courses is that it's not just its lack of sand bunkers, but its shoreline. Instead of sitting literally on the coast, it moves in and out with peninsulas and one called Five Mile Point, which TJ mentioned earlier. Go watch drone shots at this property. 31:42 You'll see Five Mile Point sticking out and that's one that hosts the green of 16 that you'll head into, which is a really cool hole. The bunkers. Speaking of, this wasn't a naturally sandy sight. It was going to be imported sand that had to be maintained. But because of the aforementioned wind, sand bunkers would be a maintenance nightmare, essentially blowing sand out of the bunkers. 32:03 So instead they created these grassy hollows and depressions, about 20 of them that give the layout kind of a raw ancient feel and ironically now closer to the type of golf back in the UK that they were hoping to get with this property. So Corin Crenshaw worked tirelessly to bring this to life and Sheep Ranch opened in June 2020. 32:22 The 5th 18 hole course abandoned Dunes Golf Resort and with one mile of ocean frontage and 9 green sites on the coast, unobstructed views of the Pacific Ocean from every single hole, almost the design with the view of the Pacific from the very first tee is as well. This was essentially widely acclaimed when it first opened up, and now it still gets tons of play and brings about the question that we always ask everyone when we talk about Bandon. 32:45 Name your five favorite banding courses and rank them in order. And that's where I'm going to end this history section real quick because I wanted to ask you, Brian, right now, you got to rank the five preserve and shorties are not included. What's your order? Bandon One 2. 33:10 Honestly, probably old Mac. OK, nice. Just for the same, like there's just a lot of golf that to be played out there. Like I, I, I, I, I don't, I don't, I, I feel like every time I play old Mac, I, I come away being like, dude, this is the only place where I'll I'll I'll ever get this, you know, as bizarre as that sounds, but honestly, probably sheep and then trails in Pacific. 33:39 Yeah, and, and, and and and no, no shade to trails because it's really good and it's like in one of the best shapes of all the courses that are out there. I, it just fucking eats my lunch every time I play it. So like it, no shade on the course. 33:56 It just it it, I just play like trash every time I play that course so. Yeah. I've heard a lot of people that I've heard that be a lot of people's complaints about trails. I've also heard if you live in a place where there's already a lot of Parkland, golf trails doesn't feel that special to you. 34:16 Whereas I think like Sean and myself being Arizona guys through and through, and then a little bit of Southern California in our lives, like playing Parkland golf like that where every hole is enclosed by trees feels like you're on a different planet. It feels like playing a video game, right? 34:33 Yeah. You, you, you got to come play with me up, up at Tualatin because I don't know if you've seen, I mean it, it's like our Northwood. I mean, it is, it is like tree lined with 100 foot tree like it's so I, I know what you're saying. Yeah. But I, I would encourage you to come play with me because you you will get that in Portland. 34:51 Don't threaten me with a good time coming up there and playing. Ball that's that's absolutely a threat. That's 100% a threat. Like if you please, please pick me up on it. All right, let's transition into the must play test now. So we're going to put this course up to the test. We have a 10 question test to determine if a golf course is a must play. 35:08 It's got to score a six out of 10 to be up for debate or get a 7 out of 10 or higher to automatically earn our must play status. So question one here is the Augusta test. Is this course easy to get a tee time on? Does it have a straightforward booking process and are the times available the week of your intended play? Ryan said. 35:24 It's not that hard. It's like flying standby. You know, it, it's there. There's tricks to it, you know, but like, are you going to get the the Easter Sunday flight? 35:39 You know, unlikely. So that's just how I kind of equate it. But like, you know, the people that do it all the time or the people that are like good at it have have no problem doing it. Yeah, it's, it's tough because in it's like principal sense it is a golf destination and to plan to play around there and have it like in your brain that I have a tee time, it is damn near impossible, right. 36:08 I think they've two years out. Do you want to two years out and it's now a lottery system, so you're not even guaranteed if you apply or find a slot in my brain that makes it a fail. 36:23 Like if you can't plan accordingly and you try and you're obviously in this sense you're trying to plan a trip around it, you and also like, can you do that for four guys? Like is it Brian, like you could probably give me some sense here? Like is it how hard is it to find a spot for four guys for a tee time? 36:43 Like, I know walking on as a single is one thing, but for a full foursome to just say, hey, we're going to go out and do a standby, like what's the likelihood of that? It's, it's a, it's a little trickier, but it's, but we've, we've, I've done that before where, you know, I mean, I think that it must be said that, that people's plans change all the time. 37:07 So if you can be in a position to say, you know, to get a cancellation or kind of be honest, it's tough. It's tough to like plan that shit because, because, because if it doesn't work out, it's not like you're in Saint Andrews, Scotland, You're in Bandon. 37:31 Yeah, you're kind of not even in Bandon. It's like another 20 miles away or like Coos Bay or whatever. So, you know, so it's not like you're just going to go walk around the history of Scotland. But we like, I've, I've done it. 37:46 I've done it before where there was like a foursome, A foursome available. And but I mean, again, I live close like you guys. It's a fail for you guys 100%. If you're not, if you're not as close as I am, it's a fail. Like it wouldn't, it just wouldn't work. That's what I'm saying, you trying to plan something there and it's and use your flight analogy. 38:06 I'm not going standby with all three of my buddies like guaranteed on the same flight. Well, and and and and not only that, but like the flight itself is not close. Like, I mean, you can fly into the airport there. I think like Denver now has 11 flight a day or something. 38:24 But like, if you're flying into Portland to then drive down to, then it's that it's a, it's a tall order. Yeah, telling me that, Telling me that I have to drive 4 hours to the airport to maybe make it on the airplane. Not happening. Right. 38:40 Hey, how desperate are you, man? You know. So I'm a fan of that reason, yeah. Yeah. I think it's AII think it's a fail across the board in the sense of the question, because we're talking about planning, right? So yeah. Yeah. Right. OK so O for one question 2 the bang for your buck test. 38:57 Is this golf course worth the rate you pay? Do you feel like this course is good value during peak season? I have to say absolutely yes. As hard as it is to get on, when you go look at the rates at a resort like this and compare it to another golf resort in California or somewhere else, the replay rate included. 39:14 Now you are getting such a bang for your buck when you see like, oh, I could play 36 here for a total of like $210.00. Like it's not that much. And some of these like in May, I think they wanted like I don't know what the price was like 1. I've got it, I've got it up. 39:29 It's 170 for resort guests as a replay, but it's 3:40 for your single round. Yeah. So add those together and then you're talking, you're talking just over, yeah, 500 for two rounds, and you could play one round at Pebble for 510. 39:47 And that that it that does say that it's for resort guests. So I. Yeah, the the, the day rate is essentially $50 more for the first round across the board, no matter what time of year and then obviously only 25 for the replay. 40:04 So if you're looking for the day trip and you want to play 36 that day at probably another. It's going to be 50 bucks. Just call it 100 if you're going to play 36. But. I don't think that's, I mean, it's tough because in this sense, if anyone ever asked me, hey, how would I, what should I do about doing a trip to Bandon? 40:23 I'd say play 36 every day that you're there. If you can just from a, from a financials aspect, like if you humanly can play 36, play 36 just to get the discount. But if we're judging. On the body there. Big if on the body, I mean, right? 40:39 I mean, when we did it, I was, I was changing shoes between rounds everyday, I was changing socks, I was changing underwear like doing everything in my my power to make sure that I was OK to play another 36 that day. Yeah. But I mean. I I'm still doing this golf shoes honestly out there like I I don't, I don't wear golf shoes out there. 40:56 I wear like trail running Nikes. I think, I think I, I think Jones did that and I think you might have even done that, Sean. I did that one day too. Yeah, I just had to switch it off, but. But it's tough because I mean, it's not necessarily tough. 41:12 It's it's, it's always going to be under $400.00. And realistically, this course is what, top 25 public course in the USI? Don't know where it sits anymore, but I know like yeah, it's always in the high rankings. It's it's definitely the top 50. 41:30 Yeah, for some reason, I think about this as like, people are coming for spring training here in Phoenix right now and they're going to go play true north. And true north is going to be more than sheep ranch at its peak. And I'm like, no, like, that is not even close. Sheep ranch is miles better than true north in my opinion. 41:47 And I understand not everyone gets to see desert golf, but like with there's so many other options out here in Scottsdale that you could go do that for versus in Bandon or that part of Oregon. How many of those options are there? Not that many. And I feel like sheep is totally worth it for that reason. Brian, how do you, how Brian, how do you, how do you feel as a, as a, as an Oregonian? 42:12 Well, I, I would never go there in peak season. To be fair, I think that the Oregon coast has like a, a funny, a funny behavioral pattern. And sometimes I swear it's like if it's, if it's nice in Portland, it's awful at the coast and vice versa. 42:32 And so, so you know, January is like, you can be in a T-shirt. I mean, it, it's you will get hammered one day. And I, I just left a comment on someone's post like yesterday of like sideways rain at Bandon. And, and I was like, dude, all I can tell you, all I can tell you is that tomorrow it'll be entirely different. 42:54 And, and that just seems to be the case. So anyway, like I would pay that. I would, I would, I would, I would pay that and, and just, and just drive down there because like the, the, the practices included, OG shorties is like my favorite place ever to play golf 'cause you can just like get a basket of beers and, and five clubs. 43:19 And like I, I, I I would rather play 18 and loop OG shorties, yeah, 6 times instead of playing 36 holes. But again, like I'm, I'm a little different. So anyway, yeah, I think. But yeah, yeah. Especially when the weather's nice and they have Charlotte's, that BBQ thing out there. 43:37 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about, yeah. But it's, it's it's Charlotte's now. But it used to. It used to be Shorty's before Shorty's was. They changed the name of that course, Sean, to Charlotte's. No, I'm no no, I'm talking about the trailer that they serve food out of this college Rd. 43:56 Yes, we are saying the same thing but differently. Or you're not fully informed. I thought Shorty's was the name of the course that's next to the driving range. Just hold hold on name they they right. So that course used to be named Shorty's. Then they built another course and named that Shorty's in order to not confuse people and they now changed what was Brian just referred to as OG Shorty's. 44:22 I believe that course is now named Charlotte's, correct? I don't think so. No. Did they not change? I, I, I know that. I feel like they changed the name of the shorty's course to not provide confusion. Hold on, I will. 44:38 They I thought it was a. Do a reference. Check here but I don't know. And we'll cut. That's a clip right there. We don't have to. I can, I can. I can multitask. That's a genuine clip. OK, but we're all passing this. Yeah, For paying for your buck, Yes, absolutely. 44:57 It's worth whatever they want to charge. It's just a good time. Yeah, A. 100% and you can catch it. You can catch it on like shoulder seasons and get a really good deal. Yeah, on TJ, feel free to interrupt whenever you find it. All right? We're going to keep absolutely, absolutely keep keep trucking along. 45:13 OK, One for two here. Question 3, the Iverson test. Does this course have good practice? For Hold On Hold on interruption breaking moves here, Merlert Band and Dunes Golf Resort renamed the original 9 hole practice course shorties to Charlotte's in 2023. 45:32 This name change was made to honor Charlotte Dow, wife of the late Shorty Dow, while transferring the Shorty's name to a new 19 hole par 3 course. OK, well, if nothing else, I am but a humble man and I. Thank you for. 45:50 Your allegiance, I have no pride. All right, back to the Iverson test. Doesn't of course, have good practice facilities. Would you spend time warming up or just head for the bar before the round? TJ, you wanna go first? This is yeah, like we talked about in our pros and cons, A dedicated, it's the only course that has its own range by itself. 46:11 So you can go we, we talk about this when we talk about putting greens, right? We how we love a putting green that is near the first tee number one. It does have that number 2 being here abandoned. It's very nice to actually have your practice range be at the course that you are AT and you don't have to wait for calling the shuttle, waiting for the shuttle to get to you drive over to that course and what not. 46:36 So if you're a guy who obsesses over practice, this is the best course for you to do that at. It's also just incredible. We played it. It was our morning round that day, so I know I got there really early because I still wanted to beat you even though we had decided we were splitting the money. 46:54 But watching the sunrise on the backside of that range in the morning with nobody else out there is burned into here. It is burned into my brain on how serene of a setting that is for a range. 47:13 You think about how lucky am I to like what did I do to lead up to this point and be right here where no one else. Yeah, yeah, like how could I ever have any complaints about anything in my life when I get to experience? Yeah, agreed, Brian. Yeah. Yeah. 47:30 Well, you know, to sort of counterpoint that I have, I have some sunrise photos from the original practice like facility that are also very tasty and also great and feel makes you feel just as magical. 47:49 I like that it has its own practice facility. I don't love the like it's I think it's Matt's year round at cheap. I could be wrong about that. You'd have to. You'd have to correct me on that. Maybe it is now, but we hit off grass when we. Were there Oh, you did OK, OK, OK yeah. 48:06 Well, that, that, that change. I, I, I don't, I don't think that it's like any better of a practice range. I just think that like it gets it gets top marks the for just the fact that it has its own facility. 48:22 It's it's just like a landing strip of, you know, grass. Like it's not, it's not like there's anything spectacular out there. It's just kind of nice that it is out there. So I, I, I when I would still probably rather warm up at the normal range if it's, but it's, it's always so busy. 48:43 Like, you know, it's just like the normal 1 is like you're, I feel like I'm jockeying for like a lift line or something. Yeah. You know, so it is nice that it's over there and it's kind of like it's, it's, it's reserved kind of more for like that side of the the property and it it is nice that they have it so. 49:03 Yeah. We were going to talk about a larger pod. We talked about how do we do Bandon because the resort shares that practice facility. And so like, if we're going to do multiple courses on the spot eventually, do we Ding a course for not having its own range or do we assume that that range is shared by everyone? 49:22 And I could have argued that, you know, sheep, like any other course shares that. And so we could rate it based on that. But the fact that it does have its own is like a cherry on top where it's like you now have two ranges to choose from. You could essentially go over there and and you know, have amazing like shipping facility bunkers, everything else, plus a short course named Charlotte's that I learned about, or you can go out to your own. 49:44 So I think yeah, it's just like a little extra and even. Better, Yeah. I mean, I think if you're just trying to smack balls before you're around, I think it it works great. If you want to try and tune some shit up, I don't think that it's necessarily the spot. Yeah, I can agree on that. OK, so are we passing this one up? 50:00 I'm a pass. Yeah. I'll defer to you all on this one. You can agree. You can disagree with us. By the way, we have a. Record, I mean. It's sort of yes, sort of, no, I don't know. I'm, I'm like, I'm just kind of a fence guy. Like, like, like I just said, I mean, if you, if you wanna, if you're just trying to loosen up, I, I think it's great. 50:19 I think you could also probably let it slide on a pass on just even also having access to the other practice facility as. Well, that's what I'm trying to say. Yeah. You know, like we'll. Open on both end it's it's a easy pass. Yeah, OK. So 2 for three here. 50:35 Question for the Jonesy test, could you see yourself spending $100 on merch in their pro shop? Do they have a logo or apparel worth wearing? You're the merch guy, bro. Go. Let's hear your merch story on it. You're the merch guy. I'm literally sitting here on this call wearing a $200 hoodie like. 50:54 That was going to be my, my statement as like as like yes, I could see myself doing it because like 1 ball marker is like $100.00. So it's like. I mean, yeah, Sean, this feels like as the economy goes in One Direction, I feel like this dollar value has to slide a little bit. 51:11 I think, I think, I think potentially we might have came out a little, we might have come out a little too low on this, but we can figure that out for another pod, another day. Question to just our question. Yeah. I mean, it's the tough part right now is it's like, man, you go out there and you buy like a lot of Polo brands or 1:20 right off the bat and you're like, Oh well. 51:29 Polo, Polo ball. Marker is that's 150 bucks. I mean I might not even like the logo. I just want a memento. But yeah, I like we talked about earlier in the pod, this is, I think, the best logo on the property. Sean obviously disagrees, but that's fine. That's his opinion. 51:44 He's entitled to it. But I think it's the best logo out of the main courses I do think. I think both preserve and shorties have better logos, but I think out of the full eighteens I like sheeps the best. I just smelt another content idea where everyone ranks bandon on what courses. 52:02 Rank your logo? Rank your banded logos. That's it. I mean, how do you how do you not go trails after sheep with the butterfly? I trust me, I own a piece of merch from each of the courses right so I'm not. It's not like I'm shitting on any of them. 52:18 I just feel like the butterfly looked really cool but also didn't match what I wanted from trails. I don't know why it. Didn't match your tattoo? No, no, he's got a yeah, he's got a monarch, and that's. Actually. I mean, we can all agree that without going off the rails to do a full banded pod, we can all agree that Dunes is the like pack. 52:42 Dunes is the worst one, right? It's laughable how bad packed and banded I I just I get it. I don't get it in. Literally in literally like the one of the first logo rating videos I did I slammed pack Dunes and people were like you are wrong and I was like well this is an opinion based piece #1 so no. 53:01 But 2. Like you think that 2 fish swimming around each other is a good logo? I. Think they're like, are they fish or are they like? Dogs. You're right. No, they're sea lions. They're seals. You're right. Never mind. I mean again, the fact that it's so unmemorable that I can't remember what actual animal it is, but I digress. 53:19 Sheep is the, I think the best logo on property. Whether it is the full sheep ranch with the hook or just the Sr. Very immediately recognizable. Never confused for another course either. So you wear it. It gets the instant recognition from those who know you're definitely. 53:37 I would still say maybe Pak Dunes. And Pak Dunes aside, you're probably going to pass this test on every course at Bandit because also, like, I think I spent a lot on Bandon stuff just because you want to tell people that you went to Bandon and that's the one that people recognize right off the bat. 53:56 Yeah. Yeah, I got, I got Kai, my kid, a puffin hat, just abandoned one because that's like the only one that's like an animal that I think he'll think is cool or cute or whatever. And whenever he wears like we go travel, I put that on him sometimes. And then like when we're walking down the aisle of the plane, at least two guys will give the nod. 54:14 Like they're just like, hey, it's gone. Nice, nice hat. I'm I'm such a branding like elitist that dude. I mean, I could play. I was just in I just played the the Half Moon Bay course down in San Francisco like last weekend. 54:36 Incredible course. Awesome. I mean, talk about access to a coastal course like that place was great. I went into the pro shop and I was like, this logo is so, but I, I cannot, I can't, I can't get a sleeve of balls from this place. Like it, it and I, I hate to say it, but I was just like, what? 54:55 Like, yeah, what a missed opportunity. Like, just it was, it's so bad. And like the place, the court, the property is so awesome. And I was just like, I'll just tell people I played here. I don't got to show anybody this. I'm not wearing that low. It's so it's just too bad, TJ. Are we doing, are we doing a drive by right now? 55:11 44 swoops or whatever. Yeah, dude. Like. Come on, no. It's yeah, with Sean. We, we this, we can't spiral like this. We got to keep. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Let's just put your vote on. Let's get your vote on. 55:26 It's like a Ritz Carlton or whatever. I'm like, dude, yeah, come. On they play it safe, they play it safe. Anyway, OK, so DJs the pass Brian, pass or fail. Oh, it passes for sure. It's 100% pass. OK, I'm gonna pass as well. All right, so 3 for four doing well here. 55:41 Question 5. The buzzworthy test. Are there multiple holes worth talking about? Does this course have more than one hole A group would want to immediately go play again? Yes. If if, if you for some reason did not stop the pod earlier and watched a video about what this golf course actually looks like, here's your second opportunity to stop the podcast and go watch something about this entire golf course. 56:05 It's there's not one, there's not 2. There's fucking 14. Like how many good holes? Yeah, it's what are what real quick. Not we don't have to listen bald, but just like what's your favorite hole? 56:21 If you had to pick one, I'll I'll tell you mine. I think like 17. I was going to say I like, I like, I like 1716's really good Part 3. If everyone. Has the like crusty tree over the green. 56:38 Yeah, that's 17. That's that's 17, Yeah, yeah, that's 17, yeah, also. But like 1's really good. I was going to say, mine's full one. I honestly just I could play that. It fits my eye. I'm a lefty and that thing bends left and I just always want to be like, OK, how much am I taking off here? 56:55 What am I doing? And the first time I played it, I tried to play a big fade and I over faded. And so when we played it the second time, I was like, OK, don't do that. And I think I still put it left side. You just gotta go right down Main Street on that one, man. Don't I know, but just just go right down Main St. 57:11 I know. But how often do you get an opportunity to do that first? Like I just wanted that. Every time I play golf I get a chance to hit a fade off the tee. Except for Eastmoreland. Yeah, if you're me, you can do it on every time you break out your driver. Yeah, it's like not that complicated all. 57:28 Right. Are we all a pass though for Buzzworthy? For sure. Yeah. I mean, that course is so sick and there's so many there's like what, 9 coastal greens or something like that or something that it's like, yeah. OK, so 4 for five, question 6, the glizzy test, does this course have good food at the turn? 57:47 Are you eating here or packing your own snacks? And we're gonna say specifically, turn is wherever it is, which is after 11 minutes. Yeah, 'cause there's, yeah, 'cause there's a little snack shack I think between 5:00 and 6:00 and then there's the actual like quote, UN quote, turn. Sean, I'd like to start a new brief segment here in the middle of the must play test, please. 58:08 I would like to ask our guests moving forward. Brian, how do you take your hot dog? Dude, I mean, just play the hits ketchup and mustard. 58:24 And you know, if they got some dill relish, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll church it up with some, some dill relish. But that's, that's, I mean, ketchup and mustard, man, just just play the hits. OK. Just a just a yeah, just a straight, just a fastball right down the middle of the play, No. 58:40 Yeah. No count, man. Just yeah, just get ahead, get ahead, OK. I like it. You know, like a man of a man of class. Yeah, I mean the the the turn stander like the clubhouse has, I always get like the hot pastrami sandwich I think from there. 58:58 I mean that's a can't miss. But the little powerballs are super good too. Yeah, the Bandon balls. The yeah, Bandon balls, Yeah, yeah, those are good. But it's always the hot. It's always the like pastrami guy. I always. Get. That's what we got. We got the pastrami, right, DJ? Yeah, got. To yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I had, I think I had a pastrami at the turn and then I think I had another one after the round. 59:18 Like I think, I think me and like somebody else like split one after the round because I was like, I want that again before I leave. And you go out on the patio and and eat it. That's 118. So good. Yeah, yeah. So also if you are a huge fan of the abandoned energy balls or whatever they are called, I implore you to go check out Bungies. 59:40 I saw them at the PGA Show this year. They are very similar. They come in like a pack of two or three. They are designed by Hallie Ledbetter, who is famously David Ledbetter's daughter, one of the great golf instructors of our time. And I think she actually worked with the people who started them at Bandon and designed the formula around that and they. 1:00:01 Are. A little bit more commercially available to you. So it's like slight plug there. Whoa. But yeah, I'm a past the pastrami's great. The the band and energy balls are great. Like the, and I think it's like the, it's sometimes you run into like resort courses like this where it's like, oh, the menu's the same at like all the courses. 1:00:20 They don't want to throw you any curveballs. But I like that this has like its own dedicated spot where like I think you can only get that pastrami there. They might have maybe added pastrami to the old Mac restaurant. There's too many things that carry over course. No, they do a really good job of that to make it all feel unique and special, right? 1:00:38 They also have a bagel sandwich that I remember I had in the morning there once and it was really, really good, like a sausage, egg, cheese like bagel sandwich in the foil wrapped and I was like brought that with me to the range and it was incredible. So that's not the turn, but I I either way, I wasn't packing snacks. 1:00:56 I knew what I was getting when I came to sheep. For sure, for sure. So I'm a pass. Pass is all around 3 passes, yeah. I only, I only lower mark just only for the fact there's not really like much of A outside of the patio. There's not. 1:01:12 There's not like much of A dining. We'll have that coming up. We'll get. We'll get that. We'll get that. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. That's our, we have that coming up. That's our next question. OK, 5 for six. Question 7, the Marshall test. Does this course have a decent pace of play? Can you rely on a what relatively quick round here if you have somewhere to be after, somewhere to be after in this case would probably be like what another 18 or a lunch or something else on property, right? 1:01:39 Yeah, dinner. Like it? Yeah, 'cause usually I, I don't think the move is to wake up, play 18 and then drive back to Portland that day. No, I don't. Think that's what I don't think that move Brian, Brian saying he's done it, but I don't think it is the move. 1:01:55 Brian, you've played here the most probably, So what do you think about pace of play? I've never had an issue ever. Typically played relatively early rounds, but I've never been backed up or or if I have I haven't noticed it because the Palomas are too good. 1:02:13 Nice. Yeah, I was going to say I've had, like I mentioned the top sometimes bunching, but the best part about the properties in terms of pace of play for me is the caddies. The caddies know when they're out of position and they hurry things up and they kind of give you a nice light warning, right. 1:02:30 And it's like a, it's not like a Marshall warning. It's more so like a, hey man, don't worry about that. That putt's good. Pick that up and like, let's get headed to the next. Like little subtle cues that you're maybe a little slow. The Marshalls are also like kind of militant out there. I don't know about sheep in particular, I don't think, but on like Bandon, absolutely, absolutely. 1:02:48 The marshals are just like up your butt. And you'll see. Every couple holes I don't. I don't feel like I ran into that at sheep, but pace. I've never had an issue with pace. We ran into it at sheep making the turn or we're between 8:00 and 9:00. We got told by the Marshall, But then I wasn't bothered by it because like we were like, yeah, we knew we were a little out of position. 1:03:08 I'll also say that this falls into our same rule and our same exception that we had with Torrey Pines, where if this round for some reason took 4 1/2 to five hours, there's not a lot of better places out in the world to just be stuck hanging out. 1:03:26 Unless unless the weather is torrential and it's ripping wind or it's or it's raining or any of that stuff. Like then it kind of sucks. But like, if you're just having to hang out on some tea boxes and look out at the ocean at this golf course or look out at, because this one is unlike trails, this is a very Open Golf course. 1:03:47 You're going to see a lot of groups throughout that day. You're going to share some tea boxes with some guys and you're going to run into some guys over and over again. Yeah, there's not this. If you give me a 5 hour round, I'm not going to be like, damn, that round was five hours today. What the hell? Like I'm going to be like, dude, today was sick. 1:04:03 Like I won't even remember. Five hours. Yeah, yeah, I'm a pass. This is real quick an opportunity for me to tell a story that I've wanted to tell ever since we started doing this podcast because I was waiting for the sheep episode. So Jones, the one that we named our test after earlier in this pod, he famously went a little too hard day one. 1:04:24 Day 2, we had sheep in the morning and he said, I'll meet you guys there. And he basically had to take a long shower and a few Gatorades to kind of wear things off from the night before. OK, Alex and I decide to go up there and he says, hey, just make sure you grab my bag. 1:04:40 I'll just literally shuttle up there. Just bring my bag. So the caddy has and everything else. So we bring our bag, but we forgot that the night before we had been putting on the punch bowl at the punch bowl right by pack kids and we had left his putter in the room. So when we were leaving Alex remembered he goes oh shit, don't forget his putter. 1:04:58 And we went back, grabbed his putter, but he's already in the shower, so he didn't know. And I was like, we have the opportunity to do the funniest thing right now. We're going to basically get there and pretend like we forgot the putter because it would have it wouldn't have been our fault. Like he had it in the in the living room. So we get there and he gets there right when we tee off. 1:05:18 I mean, like Alex and I were sweating. We're like, where is this guy? We didn't want to be the group out of play already. Like before we even tee off and he shakes the caddy's hand, takes no practice wings, no practice putts, nothing. Just rolls straight up to the first tee. It's a decent one, like off to the right. We get down to the 1st hole and we get all the way to the green on the 1st hole and he goes to reach for his putter and we put the putter in Alex's bag and his face drops. 1:05:43 He's like, oh shit, we're like what? What's going on? He's like, I left the putter in the room and the caddy's in on it and the caddy's like, oh man, he caddy pulls out his three wood and goes well here. We. Go. Here's the best option gonna. Be a long day. Yeah, and Alex and I are looking at each other. 1:06:00 They're like, are we really gonna make him putt with A3 wood? And like, no, we don't want to do that to him. I go, Jones, I'm sorry, man. We pulled him on you. Here's your putter. And he's like, oh, you guys. He was mad and happy at the same time. His putt was on the edge of the green and the pin was in the back. He had at least 70 feet, 60 feet. 1:06:18 I mean, how big is that green on one? Yeah, it's a giant. He sinks it. No way. Sinks it, the caddy goes. Unreal. I've never seen anything like that before. Like this guy didn't even know he had a putter with him and now he sinks the first putt on the 1st hole. 1:06:33 Got a birdie? Legend. Incredible. He's incredible. It was, it was insane. We always think about it, but I mean, just like God damn. Hey, you got a seal on your shirt, man. You're you're, you're rocking, you're rocking the Timu Bandon logo there. 1:06:49 Timu All right. Anyways, thank you for listening to this story. Well, we are passed on this one, so we're 6 for seven. Question 8, the high handicapper test here. Would a mid to high handicapper enjoy this course in typical conditions? Is it fair to all handicaps and are the greens or pin positions fair? 1:07:07 DJ, you want to go first. I mean, I feel like I've let off a lot of these, but I can say there's definitely an asterisk on this because I think so much of it is dependent upon the wind. The the no, the no bunkers sounds super enticing. 1:07:24 You're still going to run into some really tough lies out there. A gorse is going to eat your ball at least once like completely gone that that don't even try and reach in to get that ball. But again, like not tough because it's not you. 1:07:42 You hear 6600 yards, you hear no bunkers. You think, oh, this course is pretty gettable, but then you introduce some of the elements and what not and then that starts to change things. And then I think also it depends on do you have a caddy? Have you played with somebody who's played there before? 1:07:58 Do they know? Yeah. What's what's? Do they know the routing a little bit? Do they know where spots are dead like course management type stuff that technically a lot of high handicappers, that's a huge portion of why they're high handicappers. They don't have good course management. So I have AI have a tough time. 1:08:15 I've been this is probably out of all the tests, this is the one that I've probably waffled back and forth on the most. Yeah. So I can, I would say I'm, I'm open to be influenced here based upon how some of the some of the better golfers answer this question. Brian, you want to go next or last? 1:08:37 Just I mean, I think that for me it's kind of like if is it the high handicapper that doesn't know that he is a handicapper? I mean, is he playing from too far back? You know, I mean, I don't know if like I feel like if you're playing your appropriate tee box, it's a good time and there are some like crowned greens or like some built up, you know, greens. 1:09:03 So like if you're a short game is really suspect, like it's it's going to eat you up no matter what. But I mean it's not like Pacific is so penal it. That's kind of what I'm sort of comparing it to. 1:09:19 And I would say that when I went, one of my friends is is a a pretty marginal golfer at best. Shout out Channing and he had a good time and he you know, so so if I'm putting it up against that, it's like I I think yeah, I think that you could have a good I think you would have a good time because like you're not going to get swallowed up by some of the mega wall bunkers and things. 1:09:46 Right. You know what just actually swung me as he talked about that? Sean Bunker? No, he might not have. I don't even know what triggered it in my brain, but you and I played a match that day and I believe it actually came down to the 18th hole. 1:10:03 Obviously you gave me strokes, but it was not uncharacteristic of me going out there and being like, oh, this is a golf course that requires you to hit a lot of really good shots to be able to compete well. I was able to. 1:10:20 I was able to hang in there with, given the strokes with a a much better golfer who can execute things that he needs to do. And like, like Brian said, it's not super penalizing it. It is not trying to force you into the shot that you have to hit. 1:10:37 It allows you to play the course in a certain way that maybe suits your game a little bit better. If you're not, you know, I think you, I think you know. A good short game obviously helps anyone score a little bit better. But I don't remember sound there, which is nice. There's a lot of grass out there. There's a lot of times where you play some other courses and you're like, I have to hit like a open face 60° here to even have a chance at this ball staying up on a tier or whatever. 1:11:06 Whereas like out here you're like I'm I'm 30 yards out. Give me my putter. Like let me just let me just whack one with my putter and I'll be OK. That's. What I was going to say is that the only trouble beyond gorse is the holes on the boundaries of the property. So you got the volcano hole and then you've got maybe like 1 and then you've got like 9 and the rest are either essentially in the ballpark and you're going to find your ball in another hole or somewhere else. 1:11:31 And you have an angle in. And without the bunkers as well, you have a little bit more of a standard chip or play that you can use. And I feel like the reason it was so close is because sheep comes down to essentially putting maybe where you're like, hey, these greens are a little bit tricky just because of how it grows or the wind or whatever. 1:11:49 And that to me is like a sign of like a pretty well balanced course, not like a John ROM. What is this, a fucking putting contest? Amex type quote? This is more so like a no now it's so I'm a pass for Hyandy Gabber. 1:12:04 Yeah, it's too fun of a course not. Yeah, we swayed you. We persuaded you, TJ. Yeah, No, I'm a, I'm a pass. I think I you guys persuaded me and I think I. Persuaded myself as well. OK, so it's 7th frame, which means it's already officially a must play. 1:12:23 Before we get into the last two questions, let's just say our previous high score on this test on this pod is 8, so let's see how it does here. Where was that? It's. Goat Hill, Goat Hill and. Ocean. Oh yeah, I know. I played there. Well, you gotta make it Question Question 9, it's must play. 1:12:39 Yeah. Question 9, the vibes test. Is this course worth staying at post round? Do they have a good restaurant or patio scene? Now, Brian, it's time for you to go off on that. Yeah, well, so restaurant, no, I mean food's the the sandwich that I've had is good, but like the there is no real restaurant quote UN quote grabbing your food and going out and hanging out on the patio and watching people come up 18 is great. 1:13:04 And the the sunsets over the ocean right there. And like that that end up is, is awesome. I it's I probably more times than not have come off sheep and just gone over to pack. 1:13:22 The pack? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. So it is kind of more of a restaurant and like the patio is kind of just a little bigger and the punch bowl is right there. But like if I'm, if I'm on the course for multiple nights, I like, I don't mind kind of being there. 1:13:37 But if I'm there for just like one or two, I'd probably still wind up at pack. So, you know, maybe you grab a beer afterwards and you kind of, you know, beat it and go go somewhere else. So could probably have failed for me. 1:13:54 I'm, I'm a definite fail. And it's for that reason you just said each time I've been here, I've gone to pack right after I've had a beer on the patio before. But like, yeah, the bee's nice. But like if you've been drinking all day, let's say, and you're saving maybe one or two more beers for after the post round or something or whatever, how aggressive you want to be. 1:14:12 I'm kind of like, I'd rather go do that at Punch Bowl. I'd rather go do that at the restaurant at pack real quick. And so that's where I usually lead. Well, I'm a big like shit talker, so it's like I'll be yelling down at people and like I, I, I have I got more targets over at punch bowl you. 1:14:30 Know you? Know yeah, that's that's fair. I got, I got, I got more ways to work on my material over at Punch Bowl. Yeah. OK. All right, So hadn't failed one in Wilder, but seven for 9:00. So let's see if you can type GOAT here. 1:14:46 Question 10, the dime a dozen test. Is this course unique to the area or could you get this golf experience somewhere else on your trip or visit? Well, the resort's unique to the area, let's say. That Well, no, there's three other courses like it next door. Hell yeah, dude. 1:15:03 I mean, I mean, what are we talking about? It's like it's one of the, it's one of the most unique experiences you're going to get in golf in America. I, I would, I have to say, I think it must be said that it's public and it's not, it's not Cyprus, but like, So what? 1:15:25 It's great and it's public and it's accessible and you can go there whenever you want and it's so it's incredible. Like it's absolutely not a dime a dozen. It is, it is. It is one in 10,000, you know in my opinion. 1:15:41 I hard agree with that. Yeah, I'm, I'm a full pass on this. I think we don't need to sit here and fully stroke off Bandon. I think the the Internet and the golf world does that enough. But like, to have five courses like this in such a tight space of geography and not have them all feel like they are the same course speaks wonders to where it's like, oh, like all of these courses all have very distinct personalities from each other. 1:16:11 And it's not like, you know, I, I, I, we came on the pod and I said, Oh, I've never played banded. And you were like, oh, and it's not, it wasn't like, oh, well, you've played sheep and like, sheep's kind of like banded, right? But they are a fucking 3 miles away from each other. 4 miles away from each other on the, you know. 1:16:32 They are unique. Each one is unique for sure. The feel, it's the feeling, man. It's the feeling. I would say probably sheep. Sheep and Bandon probably share the most DNA potentially. I mean, you know, yeah, maybe Pacific and Bandon, but I don't know. Pacific's so fucking hard that like, I just, I have a hard time with that course. 1:16:50 We we played, yeah. I mean, remember, we played, we played. Pack was the last course that we played on the trip that I went on. And we had one buddy who was having some eye issues and was just not, we had to, we had to pretty much drag him out there to play the last round of the trip. 1:17:05 And the only the way that we got him to do that was to play a four man scramble, make him not play his own ball. That's. A great idea to do out. There and then now, like every time we do a boys golf trip, we're like, oh, we're closing out at least the last nine of the last round that we play as a four man scramble. 1:17:21 There's no way to get everybody back on the same page. Everybody's boys again like it's It's the best way to close out a trip. That's so. That's brilliant. Yeah. I love that idea. Yeah. All right, well, sheep ranch, Congrats. 8 out of 10, tying our highest score put it in the Hall of Fame so far. 1:17:43 Wow. OK. Well, Brian, First off, thank you for coming on the pod. We've been meeting with you for a while and chatting golf with us. Anything you got coming up, I want to leave the space for you to share. Anything exciting you have on the horizon? Oh, man, no, no, I'm just, you know, no, I'm no one special. 1:18:02 I'm not an influencer. I don't, you know, I started harbor golf. The harbor dot Golf Instagram is just kind of as a way to not over feel overindulgent on my kind of personal accounts with golf. 1:18:19 But but I do what I do and I, I'm in this industry for a reason. Like I love what I do and I, I always have my camera with me. You know, anytime I I go and play and you know what one of those back there like I, I have them all the time and I, I, you know, make do media for the my Country Club and stuff like that because I, I just really enjoy it. 1:18:39 And so I started harbor golf as kind of a, a warehouse for stuff so that I, I, it, it didn't feel like I was, it was a look at me. I'm playing all this golf move and it's kind of hilarious that people have like taken to it. I mean, I would have, I would have never. 1:18:56 I, I don't, I don't, I'm, I'm not, I'm not out here doing it for followers or for like to try and get invites to go and do club reviews or or get VIP at the 16th at waste management. I just kind of wanted to do it for me and I made some merch and I just give it away to my like, there's nowhere to buy it. 1:19:16 I just like I screen print all my shit, like in my living room myself and I buy stuff at Goodwill and I screen printer, embroider, Harbor golf on it and I just give it to people. So it's like you just can't get it anywhere. And not, not because it's like exclusive. Well, it is exclusive, but I just don't want it to be a bit. 1:19:32 It's not a business like this isn't that's not what I'm doing this for. So, so, yeah, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of wild that it's brought me here to you guys and, and introduced me to, you know, a lot of people kind of around the, the game of golf. 1:19:47 And, and I I've had some, some fun opportunities because of it and gotten to know some great clients and, and really good people in it. And Portland's actually like a really great golf spot. You know, we have, we have quite a, we have quite a few brands and like and and and and more niche stuff and, and like smaller. 1:20:08 But like well known brands and like it just I feel like the area kind of breeds that like culture of friendship and stuff. And so I just I'm happy to be in the middle of it and you know, be on this podcast with you guys like it's awesome. This is fun. Yeah, some of our favorite brands are up there by you. 1:20:25 Oh yeah. Going for days about Portland brands that I like. Oh, they're yeah. I mean, and they're all like fun. You know, I, I've yet to kind of run into someone up here that's that's into it that I'm like, yeah, I don't think that person's going to make it. 1:20:42 All the people will be just like, yeah, you got a great like energy and I support your hustle and congratulations. Like people don't understand how hard like I, I, I, I own a business. Like people don't understand like what it takes. And so if I so if someone is starting like a small business, so they're wanting to do something that that where they're going out on their own to do it, I'm like, that is very hard. 1:21:04 Congratulations. Like I support, I support your success. For sure, yeah, especially, especially in Oregon, where they decide to send you the most amount of mail that I've ever seen a state send. I, I on my desk here, I literally have like mail from, from like jury duty. 1:21:21 I have like I did. It's so funny you say that. I will not turn the camera around but like I I have I have so much more mail. Dude, it's a bane of my existence. I get organ mail weekly I swear to God. Because we have a. Anyways, I'm going to leave it there for those of you, For those of you who stuck around, thank you so much. 1:21:39 Yeah, sorry for yapping too much. No, you're fine. For everyone who's listening, if you're here on on Spotify or Apple podcast, please make sure you rate US five stars or like and subscribe on YouTube. We appreciate it. And Brian, thank you again, and hopefully we get to play with you sometime soon. Yeah, let me know when you're here. 1:21:55 Trust me. I'll. I'll, I'll take you up on the bet, on the on the what we say on the the threat. Thank you. The. Threat. Oh yes. I'll take you up on the threat. All right man, take care all. Right. Thanks, Brian. Later.