Southern State of Golf
A podcast dedicated to all things Golf in the South - courses, resorts, logos, food, travel, & more! Follow @SSofGolf on social media and email your favorite southern golf things to John at southernstateofgolf@gmail.com.
Southern State of Golf
Anticipating Pinehurst
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John sits down before his first trip to Pinehurst to share the schedule and his expectations!
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Welcome to the Southern State of Golf Podcast. Hi, I'm your host, John, and welcome to our short course episode where I'm actually live and in progress and on site at the Pinehurst Resort. I'm going to be talking about our buddies trip that we've got going on this week up here at Pinehurst. For the record, this is the first time I have ever been on a buddy's golf trip. I've never done that before, where the primary reason was golf. One of our good friends was on the podcast before, Jeff D. Battisto, it's his 50th birthday coming up, and he invited me on uh to participate in this golf trip. And I was certainly glad to be able to join in, and I'm super excited. You know, I'm less than 24 hours into the trip. We just got into Pinehurst yesterday. We're staying at one of the villas here on property. Right now I'm sitting just outside the Carolina Hotel having a little cup of coffee and recording a podcast. Life is pretty good with that, isn't it? Well, I want to just talk to you a little bit about, you know, our itinerary for the entire trip and you know, certainly love to get your thoughts on different things. Well, we started off yesterday, but the first course we played was Pinehurst number seven. We played that in the afternoon. We had a late uh afternoon tea time. I was rushed getting in because I didn't get off to a great start getting out of town yesterday from Columbia. But Pinehurst No. 7 was a fantastic course to be able to get in. My only criticism on Pinehurst No. 7 is they don't have a dedicated Pinehurst number seven logo golf ball. So that is my only criticism I can give of the of the entire course. But it was a fantastic course. And the thing that's kind of a treat for me is everybody says it's to probably be the least favorite of any of the courses we play for the rest of our trip. And if that's the least favorite of all the courses we play, then oh my goodness. I'm I'm certainly in the store, certainly excited about this opportunity to play some great golf courses. Last night we did have an opportunity we ate at Plate. It Plate restaurant, Plate with the A in it is actually a number eight. Is that Pinehurst number eight, which I actually think the number eight logo on there is very cool. It kind of looks like where it's got the line underneath the eight, but it's actually, I think, symbolic of 100 years of Pinehurst, or maybe even that particular course, that part I'm not particularly sure. But plate was fantastic and had some really good, had a really good, like um, you know, some type of pimento cheese balls and a great steak. And then had a sweet potato banana pudding that was really, really good. So I highly recommend that. So plate was a fantastic, I mean, it was a great start to our particular trip. You know, the villas that we stayed in last night, it was a fantastic, you know, I it was great. It's perfect for a buddy's trip where there was four individual rooms and then there's a larger common room. The common room has also got a dedicated water machine and a dedicated ice maker there. It's got a big sitting room where we were sitting around telling some great stories. Matter of fact, one of our guys on our uh golf trip had an opportunity to play Augusta National and hear him tell the story about that was certainly fantastic. So I'm excited about it. Overall, with this guy's trip, the thing that's kind of interesting to me, I only know three of the guys that are on the trip. So there's four of these guys that this is the first time I've met them. And so far, they've been great to meet. So I think this has been a so far, it's been a great balance. I'm looking forward to it of you know, getting to hang out with some good friends, but then also meeting some new friends as well. And one thing we always say in the uh the best ball family podcast, golf is people. And I'm excited to do some stories from this particular weekend. But let me kind of go over the rest of our itinerary for the trip. Uh, on Tuesday, we're playing the cradle in the morning, and then we're gonna, in the afternoon, yes, we're going for the big dog. We're playing Pinehurst number two later in the afternoon. I I am super excited about that. I don't know what to expect, other than I don't expect to shoot particularly low, although I hope that I shoot a little better than yesterday. That might be unrealistic. I lost way too many balls on Pinehurst number seven, but they said that that's not completely uncommon for that type of golf course. But to play Pinehurst number two, it's just going to be a real treat. I've heard nothing but great things about it. You know, you see it on TV. You know, it's one of the world's best courses. So an opportunity to play it, I'm just so I'm just looking forward to it. And then later on, we have a reservation at the Deuce. I've talked about the Deuce, how to, you know, Robbie Wooders talked about the deuce. I I'm so I'm I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to a meal there. And there's a big part of me. I I I I know this may be wishing a lot. I just want one putt today. One putt on Pinehurst number two for a chance at a deuce coin. Not even that it doesn't even have to be a realistic putt. I just want to say that I I want the coin. Isn't that crazy? That I want the coin. Now, I I know that is so tangible, so I don't even know what the word is for um childish maybe or simple-minded, but I want the deuce coin. Or even though I really don't think I'll get a two on number two, I just want to say that I had a putt that gave me a reasonable chance. So I'm I'm certainly looking forward to that. And then, like I say, having a meal at the Deuce afterwards, it's just gonna be a full day of golf. Everybody raves about the cradle. Yeah, I've been fortunate to play some good par three courses, short courses, and everybody said that that the cradle is just right up there. So, you know, we've got a full day golf ahead of us. I even got a workout in this morning before things got started. So trying to pace myself, I'm afraid it's gonna be a full day. It's gonna be a hot day. We'll stay very hydrated and looking forward to it. Well, the next day we're playing Pinehurst number 10, sandmines. I will tell you, if I'm being truthful, I might be looking forward to playing sandmines almost as much as number two, because it just looks cool. I've heard, you know, it's like the new and upcoming course, the hot course here at Pinehurst. And I'm gonna make a prediction. I'll probably come home with more sand mines logo gear from number 10 than I will number two. That's just a that's an early prediction. I certainly could be wrong on that. But I think the the sandmines logo is elite. Um it's high level. I I love it. So I'm just looking forward to it. Uh the station there for the meal looks really fantastic as well. So that that's I mean, that's just gonna be a great day. I'm very much looking forward to that. And then afterwards, we are eating at Pinehurst Brewing Company, you know, for our dinner Wednesday night. And so it's just gonna be, you know, Pinehurst Brewing Company, I've always only heard good things about it as well. I think it will be just fantastic. It will certainly be a good day. And then we're gonna end our trip at Pinehurst number four. We actually got a very early, early tea time. I think it's 7 a.m. Hey, I'm I'm here for it. 7 a.m. tea time to end our trip, Pinehurst number four, before we go back to our regular lives and got to work and be fathers and husbands again. But it's been a good, you know, I'm excited about a getaway for a little bit because it certainly has been, you know, busy at work. You know, one of the things, I got a little uh internal bingo card that I'm putting out there. This is probably gonna be extremely embarrassing. An internal bingo card where I, over the course of this time, I want to have one par on a par three, one par to par four, one par on a par five, and then I want to have one birdie on a par three, one birdie on a par four, and one birdie on a par five. I think the overunder is three. And the under might be the safest bet after yesterday because I didn't mark anything off the bingo card. So I'm hoping I can get three of the six on my bingo card. And we're not even gonna get crazy and talk about eagles or anything stupid like that. We're just talking about pars and birdies on a par three, par four, par five. You know, and it might be actually very ambitious considering I don't know if I've ever gotten a birdie on a par five. And I'm saying that, yes, that just ought to tell you how poor of a golfer I am. But, you know, I I had a couple looks yesterday. I had one look at a at a out of par on a par five on number seven, didn't get it done. But I'm hoping that, you know, today will be a good day. Might be a little ambitious. I'd love to, gosh, once again, I'd love to get a deuce on number two. I would think it would be so, so fantastic. But I'm just looking forward to all the great golf that we have here and you know, just you know, hanging out with some really good people here. It's, you know, I'm still getting to know the guys. We come from a little, you know, similar backgrounds, but different in many ways, too. So there's just a lot of, you know, like I said, they've been good people. The service so far, you know, uh at the Pinehurst Resort has been fantastic. And one thing I did not maybe realize as as much as I did before coming here was, you know, once we parked and we're staying on property here, you know, we probably won't have to get in our cars at all, you know, because you there's shuttles all over the Pinehurst property. The people here have been insanely friendly. They'll even take your golf clubs from one place to another. You know, they give you bag tags when you check in, attach it to the bag that tells you all the different tea times, you know, that you're at. And like I said, it's just a, you know, when we drove into Pinehurst and we got to Pinehurst Resort, you know, I think a lot of times when you go to a bigger resort, you kind of see signs, you kind of kind of like you almost anticipate coming up on the resort. Well, this is one of those times I didn't anticipate coming up on the resort. It's like one of those that said, you know, did the Google directions and Apple maps, and all of a sudden I turn in, you know, looking like I'm going to a residential neighborhood, and boom, there's the Carolina Hotel, there's the pine part of the Pinehurst Resort, and I was like, man, this was uh, you know, it was fantastic. It's, you know, this place seems to be all about the golf, although I do know that they have a spa here at Pinehurst that it, you know, is for famil other family members as well, maybe not the golfers, but this you could definitely tell this is a golf-focused resort. You know, one of my things that I'm looking forward to while on this trip, I want to get all the teas that I can possibly get at the different resorts. You know, a lot of the different courses have different their own branded teas. Number seven did not. They they had the standard Pinehurst resort tea, but I want to find the secret teas. Like I think there's one at the Cradle Crossing, which I think is the halfway house there at the cradle. They say that's kind of hard to get. You gotta ask for that. So I'm gonna I'm gonna ask for that today. Hopefully there'll be some good luck and we'll come out with a with a with some extra teas. I mean, I love teas. I love good logo teas, something that's a little bit different. And I love how Pinehurst has embraced it. You can tell they embrace putting teas out and just grab some. You know, they're not like trying to be stingy, oh, just take two or three for what you need for the round. They just got them laying out, like here at the Carolina Hotel. I mean, anybody can go in there and just grab a handful. I don't think that they'll say anything. Now, I haven't seen anybody try to abuse it or anything like that. And I'll certainly show some restraint, but I'm certainly going to get me a handful of the Pinehurst teas at all the different uh resorts and the different places. And so I'm really looking forward to that. And if you go uh, you know, search Pinehurst secret teas, like they've even got like a couple of places where there's a, you know, kind of a sneaky hidden tea box where you know you only know about it if you like see it on social media. And Pinehurst does a great job of leaning into that. And one of the things, too, that they also got here that I think is kind of interesting, that they talk about is those plastic cups, kind of like the plastic cups that you get at the masters that are always the same thing every year, but you know, have the different year dates and all that on there. You know, the Pinehurst has also leaned into that as well, that they got different cups at some of their different resorts and maybe some of their different restaurants. And so I'm gonna try to see if I can collect some of those cups as well. Why? No good reason. Do I really need extra cups in my life? No, probably don't. But do I want them? I absolutely want the those cups. So I'm looking forward to this entire trip. Like I said, getting to know these guys. I can't wait, you know, to give you a full breakdown. I'm even hoping if I could talk the guys in, maybe we'll do like a little round table at night where we pass around the microphone and just talk about our different experiences, you know, playing today, playing the cradle, playing Pinehurst number two. I mean, I know last night, I mean, I was, you know, we ate late and got back to the villa. We we talked for a little bit and went to bed. It was not a late night. We just enjoyed hanging out with each other, talking, and just, you know, we were tired. We put in a full day. And then, of course, I know today is going to be an extremely full day because we are walking number two, of course, walking the cradle. You know, so it's gonna be a full day. I'm I'm kind of hoping that there's gonna be a little time somewhere to recharge, even though I don't think that there might not necessarily be a time for us to get a nap. But, you know, that is a little concern that I have because it will be really hot. I'll certainly be taking in a lot of electrolytes and staying hydrated and getting me some protein and you know, making sure I'm I'm fueled up for the entire day that we have. So, well, I'm excited to bring you more uh coverage from the buddies golf trip. It sounds like that this is some massive event. It's not. It's just a bunch of guys playing the game of golf and get an opportunity to play it at a pretty cool place with a lot of good golf courses, hang out with some good people and share some good stories. And it's early on, but I've already heard some great stories. I'm hoping we're gonna have some great stories, you know, from today. And I'm hoping to knock a couple of things off the bingo card today. Well, I thank you for listening to this short course episode of the Southern State of Golf podcast live from Pinehurst. All right, take care. Bye bye.