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is with Nick Nate. Nick is the superintendent at South Bend Country Club. He got his art working on Warren Golf Course at the end of their construction. Nick is a golf nut. He does it really for the love of golf. He's superintendent and I was really exciting to talk to him about turf and his career. So without further ado here is Nick Nate I miss a green. For example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
And when I find my ball in a brid egg Friday egg the dread Frida egg Frida egg egg Frida egg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off the golf course.
So are you a big Notre Dame fan?
Huge Notre Dame fan? Grew up here? Love it, been going to football games my whole life.
What's the take like? Are you know should they join a conference or.
It's tough because they've joined the conference for for all the other sports except for football, and from a money side of things, it wouldn't be good for the university. And they like their anonymity so they can stay separate and do their own thing and have a better chance to get into the playoffs. So I don't think they ever will for football, but they have for all the other other sports.
It's uh so what uh? Any tips on?
Like?
Somebody people make the pilgrimage to come to see a Notre Dame game all the time? What are what are? What are a couple of local inside tips?
You want to get here? Early enough and actually walk around see the tailgate and watch the team come walk walk from the basilica over to the university. That's a cool, cool little thing that they do, and it's it's really neat to watch. And note getting over to the linebacker is a must at some point.
What's the line bar.
It's a bar that's right there off a campus that it's just a kind of a tradition, but it's a great actual, great place to go to.
Yeah, you know, one of your great tips was if you don't like football, the best time to play golf in South Bend is on Saturday afternoons.
Very true, very true, because it's a you can hear the game actually going on when you're at the golf course on the with the Warren golf Course. The Brick golf course is closed at that time, but every golf course in town is virtually wide open. You could play anywhere here at that point, especially Warren.
When did you decide that you wanted to get into turf.
I was going to business school at IU South Bend and I was working at the Warren golf Course.
And what year would this be?
It was two thousand, I was there nineteen ninety nine and two.
Thousand, So that's like right after it opened.
Yeah, yep, it was. It was it was during well, they were still doing some of the sootting I started there. We were still doing some of the sotting at the golf course, and we were getting truckloads a day. I really, I just I just realized that I didn't want to do my business side of things and decided I was going to go to school at Rutgers and my boss there at the time really helped me out doing that.
And so you're in business school and then you just so you already had gone to undergrad.
Right, Yeah, I was already three years into business school.
Three years into business school, and you just to make an abrupt change. You were in school. You were in school for a long time.
I was, and then I moved went out to Jersey and went to Rutgers for turf and decided that, uh, that was my path. And it just it just something triggered me. I love golf, always have and grew up playing it with my with my dad and just absolutely loved it.
Where'd you grow up playing around here?
I played Morse Park and Brookwood golf Course, and my dad really played all over the place. Took me kind of everywhere in this area, Erskine, Elbell here, South End country Club, just all over the place.
What was it like, you know where people must have been really excited about Notre Dame getting a new course and then you were a part of it. And then what was it like when it opened? Was it was it really busy with with locals and students alike, or how how was that whole transition?
It was very busy, very very busy right when it opened. It was a phenomenal golf course still is They They offered a lot of a lot of neat things for people to come play there around the area, So it was it was jam packed, uh for a good five ten years where everybody got to come play it. And uh, the the locals really really took to the fact of having Bill Core and Ben Crenshaw build a golf course in in this area.
Yeah, it was early on and there it probably was so much different than everything around too.
Yeah, I mean it was it was basically like a celebrity coming to building a golf course in your area. But you know, at that point he was still playing pretty and so they h it was it was a really big deal in the area.
It's you probably his celebrity definitely gave him more license to do different stuff.
Yeah, and there it was. It's not like any any golf course we have in the area. It's a it's a newer model golf course and it was one of their first and just uh it's it's held the test of time over the last twenty years. It's been a great golf course.
That's the thing that I look at with it is like how well it's aged. You know, it's essentially effectively almost twenty getting close to twenty five years old, and it just seems like everything still works just perfect the way it was worked the first day it was built.
Yeah, they both. They both when they built the golf course, they really looked at it from a standpoint of maintenance issues and how the golf course can stay stay healthy in the way way they built it from a maintenance standpoint, because the maintenance practices haven't changed much and they still keep the golf course in pristine condition and they've only
they've only changed a few things over there. They added some bunkers and stuff for the for the Senior Open that they had a couple of years ago, but golf courses, it's great.
Yeah, what do you do? You have any moment do you was there a specific moment that you remember that made you say, I, I don't want to do you know, go work in the business world. I wanted to be a superintendent. Is there like a did you have a specific away at like moment that you remember back to or is it just kind of like a did it just build over the time that you were working at Warren.
In two thousand and one, I went and volunteered for the Buick Open up at Warwick Hills in Michigan, and that was my first real besides some of the college tournaments that they held at Warren, I'd never been a part of a big tournament like that, and I realized that that point on, I wanted to be at golf course that was holding holding tournament events. And so that's what propelled me to go to Rutgers and then and then be on from that to Saint Andrews.
Talk about that talk with America gone working at St. Andrews.
Once I realized I needed to do an internship in the summer, I really I wanted to go to the best place I could and so I called Gordon Moyer, who was the head of the UH runs all the golf courses at Sant Andrews Leaks. He actually just retired last year, and asked him how I could apply, and he said, you could come over here for an interview.
And so my brother lived in London at the point that time, so I flew over and stayed with my brother for a week, went up to Saint Andrew's for a day and met with him, and from then on I got the job. And the following two months later I was there working.
What did you work at all the courses or just the old course, the old course, just the old course, yep. I mean, how many people apply for that that internship?
I don't know. We had We had six other interns at the other golf courses and I was the only one. Not that I was anything special, but they gave the original plan was for everybody to flip flop and get a chance on all the different courses, and for whatever reason, they just kept me on the old course, and I loved every minute of it. I got to learn how they how they they still used a lot of the practices that they did back in the day with old
Tom Morris. We topped dressed by hand with a knapsack over our like we were carrying a backpack, and we would throw it out a specific way. It was just it was a very neat experience for me.
Was that your first time to Scotland? Yes, at that point, yeah, for that interview. Yes, you went up for one day, it came back up for one day, it came back and then you're then you get that and you're there for two months.
Oh, I stayed there for eight months?
Eight months, okay? And that so where what did you start by doing? Like what year were you in interf school at that point and what how did your kind of like progression and in the internship work? How did it work?
That was my first year. That was after my first year interf school and we needed to do an internship. And once I first started there, my first probably two weeks I was there, I did nothing but rake bunkers pretty much all day every day because the wind would blow and we would need to push up bunkers. And then they've slowly graduated me to doing course setup and mowen greens and moan fairways and everything. And by the end of it he was letting me supervise different things.
It's like supervise the fairway crew and things like that. My direct boss was Eddie Adams and he works for the European Tour now as an agronomist and he was great for me. He's helped me a lot in my career. Him and Gordon both have been really good. And at that point Gordon McKee, who's the superintendent of the old course now, he was the superintendent of the strath Tyron Course and so I still know a lot of the guys that are over there and still talk to him
now and again. So it was a great group of guys that really helped me on my career.
What was your favorite job of all of them? Was it the setup or the mowing the green? Like what do you think think back to the.
Muff, Probably the walk mowing of the greens and the top resting of the greens. Those were two things because when you walk mode the greens over there, which wasn't every day, we'd triplex them sometimes, but walk mowing the greens over there was a six hour job for six guys because the greens are so big and when you're taking that long route going side to side. You're talking about one hundred and fifty one hundred and fifty yard
pass and conditioning over there was everything. I mean, you didn't have to do a lot of things that we do here in the States, and so the molling lines being straight, bunkers and good edges was everything over there. That was what kept the course interesting.
Condition Did you think about ever just staying over there and not going back to America?
I really did, and I decided to come back. I've been back there a few times, but I've yes, there were a couple of points I regretted not staying over there, and longer, what do you go.
Back now as a superintendent, Like what are the things that you look at that they do in you know, the UK that you wish was more of a common practice here.
Bunkers are hazards over there, and they treat them that way, and they're not meant to be perfect, and I you know, over here, we've gotten to the point where bunkers need to be just absolutely pristine on a day in, day out basis, and they keep them a little bit more natural over there and makes it a little bit tougher to get out of them. And I really like that
and everything is simple over there. It's there. You know, we only had nine nine, well twelve crew members total on the old course, and over here you're having crews of fifteen to twenty on a on a normal golf course. And that's the thing about courses in the world.
The old courses like the crown jewel of you know, maybe all of all of golf. But like if you compare it to many how many guys are on the curre at Pine Valley probably forty.
Fifty easily, easily at least thirty five.
Or yeah, so so you got four times the amount of people almost, yep, just to it's interesting, yep. A lot less inputs, right.
A lot less inputs. The only applications we put on the year I was there was we did a little bit of herbicide along the edge of the the smoke and burn, and a few a few other fertilizer inputs. But it was pretty much take what mother nature gives you over there.
And of course, like it's a completely different setting.
So comparing, oh yeah, definitely that comes into play.
Yes, yeah, So what'd you do after Saint Andrews and how and how disappointing was the next next thing.
The next thing was disappointing just just leaving there in general, because it was, you know, it was it was such a simple time and you only worked forty hours, and so every day after work I would go play golf. And so going from that to coming over here, moving to Chicago and going to the was a huge change because then you're going to work in eighty plus hours a week and doing everything from watering every day, fertilizing, spraying every day, and just it's a different maintenance practices
all in general. But it was good. I was at Madina from two thousand and three to two thousand and eight, and I loved it. I had a good time there. Had a great bosson Tom Lively who really took care.
Of us and furthered my career had a major.
Yeah, we had the two thousand and six PGA Championship while I was there, and it was a lot of fun hosting that and a lot of other small events that we had that were great as well.
What about tournament golf really kind of let your passion for being a superintendent.
Just having that course in pristine condition, for having the best players in the world come and play is just puts it at another level. In my opinion, I just love it. I love setting up a course for a tournament and having those players come and play it and being able to show what you do you off it means a lot to me.
What how do you kind of go about the process like it? If you're six months out, what are you trying to do and are there certain milestones that you're trying to hit as you go along? You just finished having a Cemetra event here at South Bend. Yeah, you know this has got to be fresh in your mind.
Yeah. About about six months and months ago we started working on some of the bunker issues that we had and redoing those with a better billy bunker and getting the mowing lines sitelines good for the girls coming to play, and getting the greens where we want them from a firmness standpoint and moisture standpoint, and just basically getting those projects done. We added a few tea and complexes for it,
those those things. Getting those issues resolved about six months out, But once you get to that three weeks out is when you start getting the course in just prescene condition, all the details, everything trimmed up, everything mode properly. We dealt with a little rain this past week for the for the Cemetro event, but other than that we had everything where we wanted it.
Yeah, big a little bit of rain understatement.
Yeah, we had. We had eight inches of rain this on during during the week. So by by Wednesday afternoon when we had the pro ams, it was it was dicey to say the least, where we had a lot of water on the property. My crew absolutely killed it getting the h with squeegees and pumps and getting everything off the course. We did. We it worked out really well. We had the greens, the greens were fine. The greens drained well here, so we had those good to go. But it was the fairways and some of the rough
spots getting those in good shape. But it worked out really well and by by by Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we were good to go.
So, you know, while you're at Medina, what what type of stuff did you take away from that experience from like how different it was from Saint Andrew's to Madonna, Like you know, obviously that's it. It's a big chasm, but both like especially at that time, landmarks of you know, American golf, landmark of UK golf.
It was more about the conditioning. So being at St Andrews, I really learned everything was about pristine condition and that's what that's what the we did there there. There wasn't a lot of other things to do. You didn't have to worry about hamwatering every day. It was the basics. It was top dressing, it was the mowing lines, straight
mowing lines and everything like that. And I really took that to Madina that that really has helped me in my career, just making sure detailed work is done and roll prepped up for the golf course.
Where were the places you were playing when you were You said you played a lot of golf when you're at St Andrews because you're you know, forty hours a week.
Yep.
Where where were you were you exploring all over the country or was it mostly centrally located around around the old course?
Mostly entry located, But I Kings Barnes is right down the road. I played there a lot. I played all all six of the courses at St Andrews now they have seven, but played the Old course probably at least two times a week, And which is I've felt spoiled being able to do that. That was probably the worst part of coming back here, but Kings Barns, Mierfield, Carnusti I would go kind of, I would go all over, but mainly the St Andrews courses and Kings Barnes were my favorites to play.
Now that you go back as like a visitor more so, are there pockets or courses that you've kind of discovered that you wish you had played more when you're around.
Yes, I wish I would have got to Golane and some of the other ones that I never really never really made it to, And I plan on going back next year and hopefully I'll get to go to some of the other ones because there's still a lot of courses over there that I haven't hit Berwick and some of those they're just great golf courses.
How does you're obviously you you travel, You play a lot of golf, and you travel a fair amount to see places. How does that help you as a superintendent? You know, when you go see places.
I think it's really important to go see other golf courses because you can see what other people are doing and pick things up. Anywhere I go. I've been able to pick things up that other people do, and it helps you maintain your own golf course and see what things you can add to make your golf course better, because you can always make it better. And I've learned that at every place that I've gone to.
Do you have any examples of things that you've brought back from somewhere else.
Yeah, Over the past past couple of years, I've played some really good golf courses, and I would say I would say the mowing lines and visuals going to a place like Seminol that I went there a few years ago and just seeing some of the visuals that you have going up to the holes and trying to bring those into your own course of how you see a hole, and not so much that comparing anything that I have to Seminole, but just how you visualize a hole, making
you realize how you can visualize certain holes at your golf course. It really impacts what we've done here from a member standpoint and how they view our course now on some of the holes.
Yeah. So you're at South Bend. It's a nineteen sixteen George O'Neill design. You've been in the process of, you know, trying to take out some trees and start to restore some features that we're here. And obviously that probably Seminole would be interesting because you know that place doesn't have a lot of trees. The trees it has are very skinny and unobtrusive to sight lines.
Yep.
But talk about the process of kind of starting to bring back some of the features that have been lost over the years here at South Bend.
So over the years have been a lot of changes. The greens have gotten a lot smaller, and wanting to bring those out to the way George O'Neil had it was on one of the first things I wanted to do here. We're in discussions about trying to do some of that and that open it out. We've lost probably about half our green size over the years. There weren't a lot of trees when they built a golf course,
and so that's been the other thing. We've taken out twelve hundred trees in the last five or six years, and so.
We've still there's for everybody that loves trees, there's still a million trees.
Still, there's still a million trees out here. Could we could keep going easily and we could get to two thousand, you'd still see plenty of trees out here, so they were not short on planting trees out here. But beyond that, there's beyond the greens expansions some of the visuals that we've had a lake. We've really expanded it where you
can see the lake from a lot of points. Before you and I were out on fifteen t earlier today and five years ago, you couldn't see the lake from fifteen to T and now you have a whole clear view of that whole of chain of lake out there and out here where we're sitting now you can see part of the lake, but we still have a decent amount to go to get get to that point.
Yeah, So with this with this club, obviously you you're very well traveled. I think you've you've got members that are you have a large national member contingent, But then you have members that have traveled, members that haven't really in South Bend Country Club is like a very good course and you know a lot of members that haven't
seen stuff. Do you Is there some struggle with getting them on board with pushing towards you know, something different than what they've played for a number of years.
Yeah, there's always a struggle with getting everybody on the same page. It's never going to happen getting everybody on the same page. But as we've done things here, guys have realized that there is a purpose for it and
what it's brought to the table. So there's been a lot of people who weren't happy with certain things we've done, but they've realized the endpoint is is something that they that they would want and so we're we're slowly making progress with that and I think we'll we'll eventually get there.
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Distributors, both of whom are passionate about delivering turf equipment and irrigation solutions that solve real world problems. Follow at Toro Golf on Twitter and reach out to your local Toro distributor today. Now back to Nick Nate, what you know into in terms of, you know, agronomically would have been the biggest things that have happened with the with the tree removal that you've seen, you know, dat to day.
It's drastically helped our drainage issues and on some of the holes and helped really the shade issues for the most part on the greens. So we had a lot of greens that had trees way over into the canopy
that most courses wouldn't even think about having. And so we had some challenging spots on the greens and we've removed most of the ones around the greens from an economic standpoint, but down on the low holes, we had a lot that was the roots were growing through drainage lines and everything from that standpoint, so we really opened
that up, helped drain the low holes. We've added some a lot of drainage over the last ten years and this course to help pump it off because most of our fairways on the low holes are actually below lake level and so we have a lot of challenges there when the sea walkns sometimes come up over.
Yeah, that's got to be the hardest thing. I used to work at a club that had flooding issues with a river, and I you know, you sympathized with the superintendent of the days that it came over. You know, in terms of what's been like the outside of the tree removal, it would have been some other things that you've done that have really worked well that helped move water off off the golf course.
We've added some new pumping pumping stations around the course to pump the water back into the back into the lake. We've added about twenty thousand square feet of linear feed of drainage throughout the golf course and a lot of those are French trains, but most of it is hooked up to our drainage system. We have done a drainage master plan and we hope to start that to kind of finalize the getting the water off the golf course.
We have a lot of places to take it, but sometimes we have the issues where if we get too much rain the lake comes up over and so sometimes that stuff doesn't do us any good.
At that doesn't seem like that as an avoidable.
That's not available. You wouldn't be allowed to build the golf course.
It can be able to raise the golf course.
No, you wouldn't be able to build a golf course here nowadays with the wetland restrictions from Army Corps engineers and things like that. So it's it's what kind of makes it a special place. But they build this back in the day, and virtually half the course could be deemed as a wetland if it wasn't already grandfathered in as a golf course. So it's it's kind of a unique property where we half the other half the properties
up high and half the properties down low. So it's very, very challenging to maintain.
Yeah, talk about that. I mean you've got like you've got the up the upholes which are in you know, kind of like roll along a high ridge with rolling hills and it's sandy and uh. And then you've got the lower holes that are down at below in some cases you're the lake level, and you know, you've got two distinctly different almost like nine holes split. How do you go about, like, how do difficult is it to manage properties that to effectively two different properties within one.
Yeah, there's a lot of times where we will be removing water off of the low holes with drainage pumps and while watering on the high holes. So it's it makes it incredibly difficult, and we have a lot of different irrigation programs in our computer just specifically for that, because we have basically high hole watering and low hole watering and it's very, very different. So it's very not very common that we are watering both the holes at the same both low holes and high holes at the
same time. And the we top dress all of the fairways on the low holes just to try and make those play as play as the high holes do.
Because the high holes are real bounce here, right.
Real bouncy, very sandy property up there, straight sand all the way down and on the low holes we have a very very high clay content and below that is straight sand actually from back in the day. So if you go to about a foot or two down, then it's straight sand from then then on really, so it's almost something where you if you ever wanted to flip flop it, you could try and just flipop it, but it would be a monstrosity of a project.
Is the sand uh is the lake of sand bottom micee? Oh wow?
Yeah, So so it's it's it's it's a very unique property from that standpoint.
Nobody would think South Bend sand site. Nope, but here we are.
Here, we are Yes, the it the fair ways. With all the top racing we've been doing over the years, are are starting to match up with the high holes pretty pretty good.
So where do you get do you get the sand from just on site? Do you dig a hole or something?
Or we we have we have a top racing mix that that we that we matched up and uh, that works well for.
Those You're not like sand hills where they just go dig a.
Hole and no, it's not like that. When we topped a scene Andrews, we took it from the beach. You just just went over, rent over and we would dig a hole right at the beach and load up, load up and go.
That's it makes it your life a little bit easier, right yep. That's so how do you go about kind of pushing things that you wanted to do through? I don't you guys don't have an architect right of record like that that's on retainer per se. You've got a committee, you've got yourself. How does how does decision making go through? What works?
Well?
What's you know? Maybe one challenge of the setup you guys have here.
I've had some really good boards over the years here that have that have really been good. I've had one green chairman uh my entire time here and he's been he's been very receptive to making changes to the golf course, doctor Jim Granger, and he's been He's been really good for me from seeing seeing the visual of what we need in the future. The rest of the boards of you know that they're always going to have their questions on what we should do and want to do, and
there's always debates. We had a membership meeting this year where we discussed removing more trees and what we need to do as a membership. But it all in all, getting it approved has has gone pretty well. The only hiccup we have right now is approving one of these master plans to really go for We've had a master plan done and some other ideas that we've been kicking around, but everybody's under the same assumption that we really need to restore the golf course back to what George O'Neil
did here because it's a really great layout. Yeah.
Yeah, you can tell the bones, you know, just from like the greens and getting kind of the corners back, and you know, obviously, like one of the tough things that happens with all these courses, you know, is over time the golf course, the memories, memberships or have get locked into what the course was at that time of you know, the great shot, the great home one, or
the great round I shot. You know, I was behind this tree and I hid an unbelievable hook shot, and those those memories become like sentimental moments that lock in, like we need to keep this tree, or we need to keep the whole of the way it is, because this is the way it always was. But you know, in terms of your golf course, you look back, it's like it's very clear where the great history was. It was when it was hosting Western Opens in the forties and and Western Ams, and you know, you look at
the NTA Championships. You've got you know, Frank Stranahan one here, one of the great amateurs of all time, Sandy Tatum wanted an individual national championship here, that's the golf course, and you've got a program with pictures that's the golf course. That probably was the best iteration of South Bend Country Club. But getting there when you're so far away from it has got to be the big, big hurdle it is.
We have a long way to go to get it there. And yes, that was that was the best time of this place. It was. The golf course was amazing. It was one of the it is it's still one of the top ones in the area. But it it can go so much further by get taking it back to that design. And it's just the removing the trees is
one of the first step. And and not necessarily all the trees, but the trees that are in play that are that are blocking those visuals and we really have some bunkers we need to add and some some sight lines and some mowing lines that are around the greens, uh to bring it back, because the size of the greens then, uh, and the shape of the greens then where he had he had a lot of fingers that came out up towards the tops and top sides. And they still they still have the same slope that they
have then. But the additions to those edges and the perimeters of them where they mow right into the bunkers, where you mowed right into the bunkers, that that's a special special thing that we could do. Yeah.
And you know when you go from the small like the ovals, which I mean this is a majority of golf courses have this. You know, you go from you've got very sloping greens and small green green sections. Like you know, from your setup standpoint, you're very limited as to where you can put pins. And the effective result is, you know, members play the almost the identical golf course
every day. You know, a pin might be five yards up or five yards back, but you know, you get some of these corners back the greens go back to even if you're seventy percent, All of a sudden, you add these new pins that might dictate you know, different types of shots into greens that you need to hit, or different thoughts because you get these these pins that loom over bunkers as opposed to you know, kind of five yards away from them.
Yep. You know, the stuff that would bring into play on these green complexes would be so foreign for most are members, and they would love it once we got to that point, because there's a lot of when you look at the old old pictures and the old aerials, you can see how he funneled a lot of shots onto the green from those edges and it was all kind of sloped, sloped in towards spots, and so it would open up a lot of great pin positions around here.
And we are very limited at this standpoint where you are your point essentially the same golf course every day. And by by adding some of those some of those green complexes the way they need to be, it would it would really open up this golf course to just make it even more special than it is.
It's something that I find interesting just with in general, with golfers as they become these creatures of have it and it's like they you join a club where you play the same public course every day and you play the exact same teas every time you play, and it doesn't make any sense to me, Like why don't you change things up one day, play up here and back here. And I think a lot of it has to do with the handicap system, like that's the thing that's ingrained.
It is, like I have to play here in order to keep my score. But you know, I always dream a big some sort of position at some golf course where I could set up having back teas in front of you know, middle tis some holes because I want to see you know, the players that play back teas usually play up and see what they do. I think that more variety is something that like, you know, you play somewhere every day, but it would be like if you went to the same restaurant every day in order
the exact same thing every time you went. What what's going on?
You know, you want some differences, you gotta have. You gotta have differences when you're playing the same golf course every day and you want to be able to you should be moving, moving teas around, t complexes around, and by doing what we would do do with the greens, it would make it so much better and you could have so many options where you wouldn't feel like you're playing the same golf course every day and you just
have all those options. And that's one of the reasons why I love going playing different golf courses around the country and the world, just because you see all these different options that courses have and if you can bring some of those to your to your own golf course, it's it's made me a better superintendent.
So I hate the favorite courses question. And you know, you travel, you play a lot of golf, but I'm more interested in your favorite places, so it could it's not necessarily a favorite course. But let's just say like three favorite places that you've visited, had a chance to play, but like not necessarily all just hey, this golf course was the best, but just your favorite place.
Saint Andrew's is by far, by by far number one. Just just the whole living in the town and playing those golf courses all as one is just the experience is amazing. Second second is Cyprus Point, just out in Monterey, is just great. The everything about it, from the golf to the special golf architecture that's out there too, to the views, and just just in general that area.
I'm convinced, like the Cypress thing is like you just can't have a bad day when you're out there.
No, it doesn't matter how you play or anything. It's just a it's just a special place. Every everything about it is so special. Just walking around there is just amazing. Yeah. After that, Seminal to me is just everything about the experience there. The golf course is great. Everything about the experience there and just walking those grounds is amazing. The property, the property of the clubhouse, it's just it's just a great place.
You picked three places with a lot of history. Yes, and then what are a few places that you are kind of dying to see that you haven't gotten to yet.
A couple of places I'm dying to see. Boy, there's a lot. I really want to go to. The country Club. I'd really like to see see the country club.
Out in Masskline Bookline.
I just feel like that's a really special place with a lot of history that I that I that I like to go to. Another one that's uh that I've always always wanted to get to and just never been able to get there is Marion. I feel like that's that's another special place. Both both out on the East coast. Those are two great golf courses, and I think they have a lot of special history with them. I love looking into history and things that have happened at golf courses.
That's just that's that's neat to me. Mm hmm.
So last question is is Notre Dame gonna make the playoff this year?
They're gonna make the playoff this year? I feel very kind.
Are they gonna, you know, put together a decent performance in the playoffs?
Though? Yes, I think I think they're I think they're learning as they're going. We've had some really had some really bad ones, and I think they're I think they're learning what they need to do to get into that playoff. And they have a really good recruiting set up this year. So yes, I think they're gonna be in the playoff and they will perform this week this year as well.
You know a lot of people are calling for them to just be banned from it.
I could see that from the outside looking at I could see how nobody would want them in the playoff because they do. They take a different road to get there, and there's a lot of people that want them, want them in a conference just to solidify that. And you know, if they were going to be in a conference, it would probably it would it would be the ACC because that's where they have their ties to.
It should be in the Big ten.
They should be in the Big ten based on location and.
And and academic stand.
And academic standards as well.
The UH it would be they don't want to they don't want to run up against Ohio State.
I guess that's that that could be the fact. But you know, right now we have Clempson in ACC, then we're not playing them every year because it's a modified schedule. But you know, it's hard for them from a standpoint to not play Navy and to not play some of the Boston College and uh Purdue Michigan, say, some of those some of those rivalries Michigan. It's hard for them not to play someone's driving. So they like the modified schedule where they play.
Oh that's why they got to join the Big Ten. They don't lose those games.
We're adding Wisconsin this year, so we have Wisconsin a home and home, Soldier Field and Green and lambeau Field, so that'll be, uh, that'll be interesting to play start playing them because in Ohio state, I think we start playing them in twenty twenty eight. So they're they're they're trying to bring a tougher schedule in trying to play some SEC C SEC teams and some Big ten and Accy.
Might be in the SCC before you.
That's what that's what it's looking like. So I think they have a good chance of getting there this year though, and they'll I think they'll perform this year.
All right, Well, Nick, it's been a pleasure and UH look forward to uh seeing what what the Irish do and then seeing South Bend Age as it as it enters it's next iteration of its life.
Here, appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Thank you for listening to another edition of the Friday Podcast. Today's episode was edited by Meg Atkins. As a quick reminder, I think we've got the best free newsletter in golf. I'm obviously biased, but Will Knights does an incredible job. It's three days a week, it's Monday Wednesday Friday. It will keep you abreast to all the latest news in golf with some humor and quick wit from Will, who's a very funny guy. So the way you can sign up,
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