Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Both Sides of Par: Golf Podcast for Every Handicap

Follow us on @bothsidesofpar for more from both Ross and Colin! Also, In the Pines, Colin's Tuesday newsletter, lands with more from the episode, the drill of the week, rules Q&As and the bits that didn't fit here: colingray.link/nl-sub-pod

Winter is closing in, Colin's golf has been non-existent, and Ross has done something he's barely ever done: pulled out of a medal because his short game wasn't ready, then spent the morning practising instead. That sets up a test Colin has found for the rest of us. Twelve balls, three rings, and a scoreboard that puts beginners on three, double-digit handicappers on five, scratch amateurs on seven and tour pros on ten. Ross guesses the last two correctly, which is either very impressive or very annoying. They also share what's working in Ross's chipping practice, including a routine with no practice swings at all, and why Ryan Fox's Open-winning pace has him thinking again.

Then it's on to TGL, Tiger and Rory's enormous indoor golf arena, with its moving green and its spotlight for marking the ball. Colin wants to pick a team and actually follow it this year. Ross is more interested in whether a two-hour match on a winter's night might bring younger people into the game, and neither of them can quite get over what the teams are said to be worth.

The last stretch looks ahead to 2027: why the best opens need planning now, Ross's eye on the Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl, and Colin's trip to three north-east England courses he'd never heard of and now can't wait to play. Ross finishes with his full speed training routine, which involves flailing at an 8 iron as hard as he can while the rest of the range looks on, and Colin asks for your help: a one minute report on your own course, recorded for the show.

🟢 The 12-ball chipping test you can set up with a handful of tees, and how your score compares with beginners, scratch amateurs and tour pros.

🟢 Why Ross withdrew from a medal for one of the first times in his life, and what he did with those three hours instead.

🟢 Ross's new end-of-session chipping routine: walk in, no practice swing, look at the landing spot and hit it.

🟢 A range drill from Karl Morris, where you lay six balls out and hit them as fast as you can, and why the last one might be your best.

🟢 How Ross has reached 183mph ball speed with his driver, and what 30 extra yards of carry changed on the holes at his old club.

🟢 Player Development Index (PDI) chipping test: three rings at 3, 10 and 20 yards, measuring 3, 6 and 12 feet across, with four balls at each.

🟢 Short Game Wizard and wrist weights, which Ross now keeps for his warm-up.

🟢 Karl Morris, Ryan Fox's performance coach, and how Fox's pace stood out at the Open: golf.com/instruction/ryan-fox-speedy-pace-more-golfers

🟢 The How Low Can You Go podcast, and its episode with past Both Sides of Par guest Scott Fawcett.

🟢 TGL, Tomorrow's Golf League: tglgolf.com

🟢 Trackman simulators, where Ross has played Wentworth and Royal Dornoch: trackman.com

🟢 Shell's Wonderful World of Golf, the classic series Ross recommends looking up on YouTube.

🟢 Goswick Links, Berwick-upon-Tweed: goswickgolfclub.com

🟢 Close House, Northumberland, where Lee Westwood is attached: closehouse.com

🟢 Seaton Carew, Hartlepool: seatoncarewgolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Colville Park Golf Club, Motherwell, where Ross used the indoor Trackman.

🟢 Padraig Harrington's step drill for speed: golf.com/instruction/driving/step-drill-sequencing-padraig-harrington

🟢 Scott Borrowman, speed and power coach at Stirling Golf Club: his story at pga.info

🟢 Leave your one minute course report for the show: bothpar.com/coursereport

🟢 Scottish Seniors at Royal Dornoch, Sutherland, 5 and 6 April 2027. A seniors event Ross has his eye on. Check format, course and entry with the organisers. Royal Dornoch's fixture list: royaldornoch.com

🟢 ISPS HANDA Senior Open, Royal Porthcawl, Wales, 22 to 25 July 2027. Ross's bigger goal for next year, entered through qualifying. Qualifying venues and entry fees weren't available at the time of publishing. Details: randa.org

00:00 Winter practice plans

02:19 Why Ross pulled out of a medal

04:13 The 12-ball chipping test

11:22 How the tour pros score

13:20 Ross's chipping drills and new routine

16:20 Ryan Fox, Karl Morris and playing faster

18:19 What is TGL?

21:38 Is team golf more watchable?

25:42 Team money and younger fans

29:03 TGL's viewing figures

31:43 Planning next year's opens

35:04 Colin's trip to north-east England

38:58 Ross's speed training routine

47:06 Send us your course report

📸 Follow @bothsidesofpar on Instagram

What if everything you've been told about the perfect golf swing is wrong?

This week on Both Sides of Par, Ross sits down with former Ryder Cup player and two-time DP World Tour winner Oliver Wilson for a fascinating conversation about life at the highest level of professional golf, the lessons learned along the way and why most amateur golfers are making the game far more complicated than it needs to be.

Oli's journey is anything but ordinary. From walking out of a geography lesson to pursue professional golf, working in a supermarket bakery to fund his ambitions and arriving at Augusta State thinking he'd be practising at Augusta National, there are plenty of laughs along the way.

His career took him through American college golf, the Walker Cup and onto the European Tour, where nine runner-up finishes preceded an unforgettable victory at the 2014 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews.

And then there's the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla. Oli shares the incredible story of qualifying under enormous pressure at Gleneagles, partnering Henrik Stenson against Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim, and holing the putt that sealed their memorable foursomes victory.

But this isn't simply a trip down memory lane.

Having recently stepped away from full-time DP World Tour golf, Oli is embracing a new chapter involving TRUE Linkswear, broadcasting with TNT Sports and BBC Radio, and coaching golfers of all abilities.

He explains why he's so passionate about golf footwear and natural movement, what he's learned watching Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy up close, and why his own experiences have completely changed his approach to coaching.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway? There is no perfect golf swing.

Oli believes understanding ball flight, learning how your own body moves and practising with purpose can transform your golf far more effectively than endlessly chasing swing positions on YouTube or Instagram.

From Ryder Cup pressure to the importance of hitting shots from bad lies, this episode is packed with stories, humour and practical advice that golfers of every handicap can take onto the course.

⛳ In this episode:

🏌️ Walking out of school to chase a professional golf career

🇺🇸 College golf at Augusta State and winning the Walker Cup

🏆 The incredible pressure of qualifying for the 2008 Ryder Cup

🇪🇺 Beating Mickelson and Kim alongside Henrik Stenson at Valhalla

⛳ Nine runner-up finishes before finally winning at St Andrews in 2014

👟 Why Oli believes TRUE Linkswear is changing golf footwear

🎙️ Commentating for BBC Radio and TNT Sports, including watching the world's best up close

🎯 Why most amateur golfers misunderstand their own swings

💡 How understanding ball flight can help you become your own coach

🏌️ Why there's no single correct way to swing a golf club

⛳ Follow Both Sides of Par

📸 Instagram: @bothsidesofpar

🏌️ Ross: @theshedisback

🏌️ Colin: @mcgraygolf

🏆 Find and follow Oliver Wilson

📸 Instagram: @oliver_wilson

🌐 Website: oliver-wilson.com

𝕏 X/Twitter: Oliver Wilson

🏌️ Coaching: Find Oliver Wilson on Skillest

⭐ Enjoying Both Sides of Par?

We're an independent golf podcast bringing you honest conversations, great stories and practical insights from across the game.

⭐ Leave us a rating and review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps more golfers discover the show.

📲 Share this episode with one golfing friend who loves the game or could benefit from Oli's advice.

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Two golfers. Two handicaps. One obsession.

In the Pines, Colin's Tuesday newsletter, lands with more from the episode, the drill of the week, rules Q&As and the bits that didn't fit here: colingray.link/nl-sub-pod

Ross has the week off, so Colin's joined by Mark Asquith, co-founder of the North of Par podcast network (https://northofpar.co.uk) and a mate from the podcasting world. Mark opens with the most painful handicap story you'll hear this year: a back-nine card he never meant to take seriously, a 52 degree wedge that suddenly flies 15 yards further than it should, and a three foot lip-out on the last that left him at exactly 10.0 instead of the single figures he'd set as his goal. He then broke a finger, so that's the season done. Lovely.

The two of them run their own companies, so the bulk of the episode is golf's business problem, from the inside. Mark built a piece of club management software, prototyped it, and killed it, and he explains why selling to volunteer committees is a business nobody should want. From there it's the stuff that software can't fix: why a free coffee machine is a marketing strategy, how a sold-out winter scramble and a 15 player sim league happened while the club was cancelling its own events, and what Mark learned as vice captain of the Rabbits when he started putting brand new members into the friendlies ahead of the lads who'd played them for 20 years. There's the clubhouse question too: dress codes, a drinking culture that under-35s don't share, and why Mark can eat dinner in a baseball cap with the biggest brands in golf but not at his £1,500 a year club.

Colin brings up the wave of companies taking over Scottish clubs, Scotscraig and Forfar among them, and Mark's view is that it's the mid-tier clubs that are in real trouble and investment has to come from somewhere. They close with gear (Mark used ChatGPT to fit himself into a new driver shaft, and it took him from 12 to 10) and Mark's list of the courses worth playing within an hour of Huddersfield, which Colin's going to cash in next summer.

🟢 The lip-out at 03:58 that cost Mark a 9.9 handicap, followed by the broken finger that means he might not get another card in before the temp greens go in.

🟢 Why Mark built club management software and then killed it: four pitches to every single club, volunteer committees, and a three year contract cycle.

🟢 "Make the coffee machine free." Mark's case that experience design, not software, is where clubs are losing members.

🟢 The Rabbits friendlies story: new members put in the team, the community grew fast, and the committee reverted the whole lot the next year.

🟢 Mark fed his shot data, his miss and his swing speed into ChatGPT, bought the shaft it picked, and dropped two shots off his handicap without changing anything else.

🟢 North of Par, Mark's golf podcast network (Colin was a guest in September): northofpar.co.uk. Daily content on Instagram, search North of Par.

🟢 Evolving Golf, North of Par's show for golf club managers and pro shop staff.

🟢 Meltham Golf Club, Huddersfield, Mark's home club: meltham-golf.co.uk

🟢 Castlefields Golf Club near Brighouse, the six hole par 3 course Mark takes his kids to.

🟢 BRS Golf and ClubV1, the club systems Colin and Mark can't stand, and Golf Genius, the one Mark rates: golfgenius.com

🟢 18Birdies and Hole19, the GPS and round tracking apps Colin mentions.

🟢 Putt & Strut, the Sarah Stirk and Anton Du Beke podcast Mark put a live show on with at the BMW PGA Championship.

🟢 Mark's new driver shaft: a 65 gram extra stiff, cut to 44 inches, chosen by ChatGPT from his shot data and swing speed.

🟢 Garmin R10, the launch monitor Colin feeds his own numbers from.

🟢 The Ancient Links Golf Company, which now runs Scotscraig and Forfar and is in talks over Montrose and The Glen at North Berwick.

🟢 Mark's courses within an hour of Huddersfield: Meltham, Crosland Heath (Alister MacKenzie, 1914), Halifax Golf Club at Ogden, Manchester Golf Club, Willow Valley, and the Leeds MacKenzie pair Alwoodley and Moortown (the 1929 Ryder Cup, the first held in Britain). Lindrick hosted the 1957 Ryder Cup.

🟢 Fox Hills, The Grove and Royal Dornoch, Mark's examples of top tier clubs that don't bother their members with daft rules.

00:00 Welcome and Mark Asquith, playing off 10.0

00:31 The lip-out that kept Mark out of single figures

04:17 A broken finger and the temp green problem

06:08 How Colin knows Mark, and North of Par

08:10 The club software Mark built and killed

14:22 Practice and tracking apps: a crowded market

15:39 A solution looking for a problem

17:09 What golfers actually want: an hour and a few holes

19:11 Experience design and the free coffee machine

21:05 Events that sell out while clubs cancel theirs

22:19 Group practice sessions and winter leagues

24:22 Vice captain of the Rabbits

28:06 Why the new members' friendlies got reverted

30:48 Drinking culture, dress codes and the clubhouse

35:13 The volunteer skills gap

36:55 Companies buying up Scottish clubs

38:10 Why mid-tier clubs are the ones in trouble

43:54 What Colin's dad makes of golf now

45:32 Colin's Yorkshire trip next summer

46:16 Gear: fitting a driver shaft with ChatGPT

50:00 Where to play within an hour of Huddersfield

52:07 Wrap up

Contact: hello@bothpar.com · bothpar.com · Instagram @bothsidesofpar · Track your courses at track.bothpar.com

⛳ Follow us on Instagram: @bothsidesofpar for golf tips, course reviews, practice drills and behind-the-scenes clips from Ross and Colin.

Are expensive golf balls really worth the money? This week on Both Sides of Par, Ross and Colin dig into the differences between premium golf balls and cheaper alternatives, including Titleist Pro V1, Pro V1x, Seed, Vice and Kirkland. With robot testing data suggesting some surprisingly small performance gaps, could golfers be spending far more than they need to?

Colin's also back from an Irish golf trip, having played the spectacular The Island Golf Club near Dublin, with its towering dunes, blind shots and unforgettable links layout. He shares why it might be one of the best courses he's ever played, alongside a visit to Roganstown.

Meanwhile, Ross is putting in some serious winter short-game practice, hitting 200–300 chips per session as he works to rebuild confidence and consistency. There's also a new Odyssey Ai-One putter in the bag, a discussion about SuperStroke grips and some practical advice on improving your putting without spending a fortune.

In this episode:

• Premium vs budget golf balls – Pro V1x, Seed, Vice and Kirkland compared
• Golf ball robot testing – does spending more actually deliver better performance?
• The Island Golf Club, Ireland – Colin's experience of a spectacular links course near Dublin
• Roganstown Golf Club – affordable golf and challenging greens
• Winter golf practice – Ross's 200–300 shot chipping sessions and landing-spot drills
• Odyssey Ai-One vs Scotty Cameron – Ross's new putter and improved short-putt confidence
• SuperStroke putter grips – choosing the right thickness and changing grips yourself

Two golfers, two handicaps, one obsession. From scratch golf to the challenges of a higher handicap, Ross and Colin share their experiences, discoveries and plenty of laughs along the way.

🎧 Enjoying Both Sides of Par? Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, leave us a rating and review, and share this episode with one golfing friend. It makes a huge difference to helping our independent golf podcast grow.

📲 Follow @bothsidesofpar on Instagram for more golf course adventures, practice tips, episode highlights and the latest from Ross (@theshedisback) and Colin (@mcgraygolf).

Think custom club fitting is only for good golfers? Think again. This week Ross is joined by Aaron Ellis (@golf_specs) from SGGT (@sggt_uk) to bust some of golf's biggest equipment myths and explain why the right clubs can make a difference whether you're playing off scratch or 25.

With Colin representing the higher handicappers and Ross at the other end of the spectrum, Aaron explains why the fitting process should be just as valuable for both. And it turns out there's a lot more to it than hitting a few seven irons and being handed an expensive new set of clubs.

We get into the fascinating details of SGGT's fitting approach, including testing different irons throughout the bag, using real golf balls outdoors and understanding why strike and consistency matter more than chasing extra yards.

Along the way, we discover:

• Why higher handicappers can potentially benefit most from custom fitting.
• Why your height doesn't necessarily determine your club length or lie angle.
• How graphite shafts have evolved and why they aren't just for older or slower golfers.
• Why shaft flex labels don't tell the whole story.
• Why low-spin drivers and forgiving irons aren't always what you need.
• How small adjustments to loft, lie and shaft weight can transform ball striking.
• Why wedge fitting might be the most overlooked opportunity in your bag.
• Why the latest driver isn't necessarily better than the one you already own.
• What to expect from your first fitting and why there's absolutely nothing to be nervous about.

Aaron also explains why a good fitter might actually recommend keeping your existing clubs rather than selling you something new.

It's a fascinating conversation packed with practical advice, a few surprises and plenty of myth-busting for golfers of every ability.

Follow our guest:

Aaron: @golf_specs

SGGT: @sggt_uk

Follow the podcast: @bothsidesofpar

Ross: @theshedisback

Colin: @mcgraygolf

🎧 Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

2 golfers, 2 handicaps, 1 obsession.

Colin and Ross are back together after a wee break, and the handicaps are behaving for once. Colin is down another stroke to 22 after a cracking front nine on the Jubilee Course at St Andrews, where he found two thirds of the fairways, outdrove a single figure golfer by 20 yards and holed more 15 footers than he has any right to. (A windless day, a borrowed spanner on the second tee and some Scott Fawcett lag putting thinking all played their part.) Ross, meanwhile, endured a traumatic fortnight playing off one, resisted the urge to throw everything in the bin, and is back to scratch. His chipping is still the problem child since moving to the tight heathland lies at Farnham, so he's out on the practice ground with a heavy training wedge and a kilo strapped to his wrist. Colin, like any good friend, asks whether that's helping or whether Ross has just become one of those Instagram spoof videos.

The middle of the show is a proper iron shopping session. Colin's second hand TaylorMade Stealths have shed their ferrules, which is all the excuse he needs. The lads tour the categories from blades to game improvement, cover why cavity backs forgive your worst swings, why a modern 7 iron is basically a 5 iron from 30 years ago, and why Ross can't stop buying Srixons. Colin's shortlist runs from the Srixon ZXi5+ to the Mizuno Pro S-4 (which he suspects are too good for him) to Takomo's direct to consumer irons at around half the price. Since you can't hit those before buying, Ross shares a marker pen test for checking your lie angle and makes the case for paying an independent fitter for your specs first.

Ross then confesses to yet another purchase: a mint, left handed Odyssey two ball putter from eBay, which has sent the Scotty Cameron to the naughty corner. There's lead tape and glued in metal pellets too, because of course there is. The show wraps with a reminder of why open competitions are the cheapest way onto great courses (Royal Dornoch for £60 instead of £360), and a look back at last week's chat with Colin's dad, a former head greenkeeper at Lahinch. The lads are still kicking themselves for not getting him on before the Walker Cup.

🟢 What changed for Colin on the Jubilee Course: one driver weight adjustment on the second tee, two thirds of fairways hit, and a lag putting mindset that had the 15 footers dropping

🟢 The nine ball up and down game Ross learned from Dalmahoy pro Scott Dixon: three easy lies, three medium, three hard, with a target score of 18

🟢 Colin's frank question to Ross: do wrist weights and heavy wedges improve your chipping, or just give you more to think about?

🟢 Iron categories decoded, from blades to players distance to game improvement, plus the physics of why a cavity back gives you a bigger sweet spot

🟢 How to buy irons online without a fitting: Takomo's fitting quiz, Ross's marker pen lie angle test, and why £75 with an independent fitter could be money well spent

🟢 Last week's episode with Colin's dad on links course design: https://bothpar.com/episode/how-links-golf-courses-are-designed-bunkers-greens-and-strategy-explained

🟢 Jubilee Course, St Andrews Links, where Colin carded his best nine: https://www.standrews.com

🟢 TaylorMade Stealth driver, with the adjustable weight Colin finally moved back

🟢 Scott Fawcett and DECADE Golf, the course management system behind Colin's lag putting approach: https://decade.golf

🟢 Farnham Golf Club, Ross's new home club: https://www.farnhamgolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Momentus Short Game Wizard, the heavy training wedge Ross is practising with (mostly found second hand), plus a 1kg wrist weight

🟢 Scott Dixon, Head PGA Professional at Dalmahoy, who taught Ross the nine ball chipping game: https://www.scottdixongolf.com

🟢 Muir of Ord Golf Club, Colin's lush parkland practice ground: https://muirofordgolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Nairn Dunbar Golf Club, Colin's links option with the snooker table lies: https://nairndunbar.com

🟢 Srixon irons: Ross's ZX7s, the Z-Forged blades he resisted, and the new ZXi5, ZXi5+ and ZXi7 range: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/srixon-sxi5-zxi5-plus-zxi7-irons-what-you-need-to-know

🟢 TaylorMade RAC combo irons, Ross's favourite set of all time

🟢 Mizuno Pro S-4 irons, the review that sent Colin down the rabbit hole (pitched at scratch golfers moving into single figures, so his suspicion may be right): https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/its-official-the-new-mizuno-pro-s-4-irons-prove-we-have-an-all-new-irons-category/ golfalot

🟢 Takomo Iron 101 MKII, the direct to consumer game improvement set at the top of Colin's list: https://takomogolf.com/products/iron-101-mkii

🟢 Takomo Iron 201, the players distance alternative: https://takomogolf.com/pages/iron-sets

🟢 Takomo Fitting Tool, the online quiz Colin walks through: https://takomogolf.com/pages/fitting-tool

🟢 Caley Golf, the Scottish direct to consumer brand: https://caleygolf.com

🟢 Odyssey Ai-ONE 2-Ball putter, Ross's eBay bargain: https://www.golfbidder.co.uk/odyssey-ai-one-2-ball-db-putter

🟢 Scotty Cameron putter, currently in the naughty corner: https://www.scottycameron.com

🟢 Dave Pelz, the short game guru who invented the two ball alignment idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Pelz

🟢 Lead tape, for Ross's plan to bring his wedge flight down

🟢 Banchory Golf Club: https://banchorygolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Royal Dornoch Golf Club, played by Colin and Bruce for £60 each through an open: https://royaldornoch.com

🟢 Dalmahoy Hotel & Country Club, where Ross played an open for £25: https://www.dalmahoyhotelandcountryclub.co.uk

🟢 Golspie Golf Club: https://www.golspiegolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Drumoig Golf Course, with a course report teased for next time: https://www.drumoiggolfhotel.com

🟢 Lahinch Golf Club, where Colin's dad was head greenkeeper and host of the 2026 Walker Cup: https://www.lahinchgolf.com

🟢 No Laying Up, who Ross reckons would have been all over the Lahinch connection: https://nolayingup.com

🟢 Curtis Cup 2028 at Royal Dornoch, pencilled in for some on course coverage: https://royaldornoch.com/2026/08/14/dates-revealed-for-2028-curtis-cup/

🟢 Both Sides of Par on Instagram for practice clips, drills and Colin's new irons when they land: https://www.instagram.com/bothsidesofpar

No new opens this week as the season winds down, but Ross gives a reminder for the Banchory open flagged a few episodes back, and a nudge to keep using opens to play top courses for a fraction of the green fee.

🟢 Banchory Golf Club Open (as mentioned on the show)

Location: Banchory, Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire

Date: Ross believes Saturday 10 October 2026 (check with the club before travelling)

Cost: £30 when first featured

More info: https://banchorygolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Banchory Golf Club Texas Scramble Open (the next open currently listed)

Location: Banchory, Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire

Date: Saturday 24 October 2026

This week Colin swaps Ross for a guest he's known his entire life: his dad. Duncan Gray started out as a greenkeeper at Gatehouse of Fleet, spent years at Lahinch, ran the Ayrshire municipal courses, then moved into designing and consulting on courses before building his own, the Pines Golf Centre in Dumfries. He's also been playing for 65 years, which is roughly 60 more than Colin has been any use at it. The pair landed a round on the Jubilee Course at St Andrews through The Drive ballot. It turned out to be the one course on the Old Course site Duncan had never played, so they sat down afterwards with a recorder.

What follows is a 23 handicapper asking a course designer all the questions he's been storing up. Why do some greens feel brilliant before you've even hit the shot? How does an architect walk a bit of dune land and find the holes already hiding in it? Why does Royal Dornoch have upside-down pudding bowls for greens, what did Prestwick look like with 12 holes, and what did the Turnberry redesign get right? Duncan has opinions on all of it, including a lively one about bulldozers, fertiliser and a certain school of golf course construction. There's also the small matter of playing Turnberry once a month in the 80s for nothing.

Then it's on to ranking the St Andrews courses for fun, difficulty, looks and architecture, with a verdict on whether the Old Course is actually any good or just old. Along the way there's a bunker that turns out to be three times bigger than it looks, a pod of 50 dolphins off the point at Turnberry, and 65 years of playing partners summed up in one sentence. There are no competitions this week and no Ross, who will be back next time to restore order.

🟢 The funnel bunker: Colin thinks he's hit a perfect 280 yard drive and only escapes the sand by about a foot. Duncan explains why links designers shape the ground so a 20 foot bunker plays like a 50 foot one, and why the fix was the club in Colin's hand.

🟢 How a designer reads a site: Duncan walks the land first and notes the natural green sites before drawing anything. He uses the Jubilee's drivable par four, with its green cut into the side of a dune, to show what that looks like when it works.

🟢 Turnberry for free: monthly rounds in the 80s with course manager George Brown, a course so quiet they had it to themselves at five in the afternoon, and the changes the group agreed it needed decades before anyone made them.

🟢 "The most boring two holes in world golf": Colin on the 1st and 18th of the Old Course, why Duncan would still pick it for fun over any of the others, and which part of that famous finish he reckons was dug out by hand.

🟢 The dolphins: a flat calm evening at Turnberry with the sun going down over Arran, and four greenkeepers standing still for ten minutes. It's Duncan's case for why golf is about more than the score.

🟢 St Andrews Links, Jubilee Course. It opened in 1897, was rebuilt by Donald Steel in 1988, and the starter called it the hardest of the lot: https://standrews.com/play/courses/jubilee-course

🟢 The Drive, the St Andrews Links Trust ballot offering heavily discounted tee times to golfers living in Scotland. Details are announced through St Andrews Links: https://standrews.com

🟢 The Old Course ballot, for anyone wanting to try their luck the traditional way: https://standrews.com/old-course-ballot

🟢 The other St Andrews Links courses discussed: the Old, New, Eden, Strathtyrum and Castle, plus the former Duke's, which the Links Trust took over in January 2026 and is renaming the Craigtoun Course.

🟢 Royal Dornoch Golf Club, home of the upside-down pudding bowl greens: https://www.royaldornoch.com

🟢 Prestwick Golf Club, which recreates Old Tom Morris's original 12-hole Open layout each autumn: https://www.prestwickgc.co.uk

🟢 Western Gailes Golf Club, one of Duncan's favourites to play: https://westerngailes.com

🟢 Trump Turnberry, Ailsa Course. It's Duncan's favourite course, and was redesigned in 2016 by Martin Ebert of Mackenzie and Ebert, with a new par three 9th by the lighthouse, a par five 10th and an 11th across the bay: https://www.turnberry.co.uk

🟢 Lahinch Golf Club in County Clare, where Duncan worked for several years: https://lahinchgolf.com

🟢 Carnoustie Golf Links, scene of Jean van de Velde's 1999 collapse, in the Open Paul Lawrie went on to win: https://www.carnoustiegolflinks.com

🟢 Open history mentioned: the 1977 Duel in the Sun between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry, and Costantino Rocca holing out of the Valley of Sin at St Andrews in 1995 to force a playoff with John Daly.

🟢 Coastal links name-checked for proper sea views: Golspie, Brora, Nairn, Moray Golf Club at Lossiemouth, Prestwick St Nicholas and Royal Troon.

🟢 Walter Hagen, the actual source of the "smell the flowers along the way" line.

00:00 Intro: meet Duncan Gray

03:08 First time on the Jubilee Course

05:06 Framed greens and the par four you shouldn't hit driver on

07:57 How a course designer walks a site

13:11 Royal Dornoch's upside-down pudding bowls

15:28 Prestwick's original 12 holes

17:28 Turnberry: Duncan's favourite, and what the redesign fixed

20:53 Free golf at Turnberry and the Duel in the Sun

24:15 Is the Old Course actually any good?

25:48 Bulldozers, fertiliser and sustainable greenkeeping

32:15 Ranking the St Andrews courses for fun

37:42 The hardest course and the funnel bunker

43:11 Do looks matter? Smelling the roses

45:21 65 years of playing partners

47:46 Links courses that never see the sea

51:45 Fifty dolphins at Turnberry

52:35 Best architecture, the Castle Course and the one he'd play every day

Instagram - @bothsidesofpar

What happens when one of the world's most recognisable names in Formula One and automotive engineering decides to enter the golf industry?

In this special episode of Both Sides of Par, Ross sits down with Neil Howie, CEO of McLaren Golf, to discover the story behind the brand's arrival in golf and its ambitions to challenge conventional thinking in golf club design.

After 27 years at Callaway, including more than two decades leading its international business, Neil thought retirement was calling. Then McLaren came knocking, offering an opportunity too interesting to turn down.

From the involvement of Justin Rose and Ian Poulter to the engineering expertise of McLaren's Formula One operation, Neil takes us behind the scenes of a fascinating new chapter in golf equipment.

We explore:

• Neil's journey from aspiring amateur golfer to senior leadership roles at some of golf's biggest equipment brands.
• Why McLaren decided to enter golf and what convinced Neil to come out of retirement.
• How McLaren's Formula One engineers are challenging traditional golf club design, including the question: does a golf shaft actually need to be round?
• The technology behind McLaren's new irons and the role Justin Rose has played in their development.
• McLaren's ambition to build a complete 14-club offering, including wedges and metalwoods.
• Why premium custom fitting and a concierge-style experience are central to the brand's strategy.
• The challenges of launching a new golf equipment company in a market dominated by established manufacturers.
• What's next for McLaren Golf as the brand expands its product range and international presence.

Neil also shares some fascinating insights from his years in the golf industry, including why a famous brand name alone isn't enough to succeed and why McLaren is prepared to take its time getting things right.

A fascinating conversation for anyone interested in golf equipment, technology, business or the people shaping the future of the game.

Two golfers. Two handicaps. One obsession.

Follow the hosts:

Ross – @theshedisback

Colin – @mcgraygolf

Follow the podcast: @bothsidesofpar

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, or visit bothpar.com.

Follow the podcast: @bothsidesofpar

Can you really find a Vokey wedge for £1? Apparently you can. Colin walks into a charity shop, digs through a bucket of mostly forgettable golf clubs and somehow comes out with a Titleist Vokey SM6 52° wedge for the price of a chocolate bar. Ross explains bounce, grind and why Colin might have landed on an almost perfect setup completely by accident.

There’s more gear chat as Ross discovers the hard way that his Ping Hoofer Lite is definitely light on waterproofing, before revealing just how much people are prepared to pay for collectible Scotty Cameron headcovers.

On the course, Ross reports back from Oxford Golf Club, a historic layout with James Braid and Harry Colt influence, while Colin has a big trip coming up after landing a round on the Jubilee Course at St Andrews through Drive from St Andrews. He and his dad are turning it into a golf break, with another Open at Drumoig the following day.

Practice is producing very different problems for the two hosts. Colin’s driver is finally becoming more predictable after working on completing his turn and committing to the finish. Ross, meanwhile, is still battling his short game from 30–60 yards. He can hit the shot cack-handed, with his eyes closed or after pausing for ten seconds at the top — but ask him to hit it normally and things get interesting. Naturally, the solution involves yet another training aid.

The lads also dig into the PGA Tour’s proposed new Tour Championship format, including a season-long champion and a 32-player, two-week match-play finale. Could bringing proper head-to-head match play back to the top level actually make the end of the PGA Tour season worth watching again?

And Ross finishes with another Open bargain: Banchory Golf Club for £30, one of the later chances in the Scottish season to get some competitive golf in.

🎙️ Ross: @theshedisback

🎙️ Colin: @mcgraygolf

⛳ Show: @bothsidesofpar

Follow Both Sides of Par on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and check out the show on YouTube for clips, shorts and more from the episodes.

Ross opens Episode 30 by trying very hard not to talk about the 84 he shot at the weekend, his worst round in three years, before Colin gives him sixty seconds to explain himself. The consolation, as Colin points out, is that it's reassuring to know scratch golfers have those days too. From there it's straight into the gear, and this week that means golf bags. Ross has just picked up a Ping Hoofer Lite to sit alongside the £50 eBay tour bag he bought for Senior Open qualifying, while Colin has been down a research rabbit hole after spotting a Callaway Chev Dry 14 at £100 off in the Nairn pro shop. The pair weigh up carry bags against cart bags, whether it's a faux pas to carry a club logo from a course you've never played, and why Ross spent his first round with a £180 bag holding the stand legs together with a golf glove. There's a brief detour into the £400 G/FORE and £1,200 Scotty Cameron bags neither of them will be buying, and Colin discovers the Motocaddy Protekta he'd been eyeing up deliberately won't fit his Motocaddy Cube trolley.

Ross then flags a bargain open at Nairn Dunbar, Colin's new home course, and gives an update on his chipping practice, where he's still building confidence with a left-below-right grip. He's mid-sentence explaining why chipping yips are even harder to shake than putting ones when his laptop dies, leaving Colin to finish the show solo.

Which turns out to be fine, because Colin finally gets to the South West Scotland trip report he's been promising for a fortnight. Having grown up in Dumfriesshire, he admits to an unfair snobbery about the place, and this trip put him right. He covers the Cally Palace Hotel near Gatehouse (putting green next to the bar patio, pitch and putt for the afternoon, a proper course attached), a cabin at Kippford with a nine-hole course his dad designed a walk away, and Gatehouse of Fleet itself, a hilly, blind-shot, honesty-box nine-holer where Colin's wife, who is just learning the game, hit the green on the notorious drop-shot ninth. He rounds off with pointers to Kirkcudbright, Newton Stewart, the two Dumfries courses and Southerness for anyone planning a trip.

🟢 Ross's 84 and why it's oddly reassuring: a scratch golfer's worst round in three years, and the story of the 95 followed by a 71 the next day

🟢 The golf glove solution: Ross discovers his new Ping Hoofer Lite has no Velcro to hold the stand legs together on a trolley, and improvises

🟢 Is it a faux pas to carry a bag with the logo of a course you've never played? The hosts settle it

🟢 The Motocaddy trap: why the Protekta cart bag won't work with Colin's Motocaddy Cube, straps or no straps

🟢 Colin's hometown reckoning: how a week in Dumfries and Galloway turned around his unfair opinion of the courses he grew up on

🟢 The ninth at Gatehouse of Fleet: a 50 to 100 foot drop, a pitching wedge for 150 yards, and a beginner who found the green

🟢 Ping Hoofer Lite stand bag (Ross's new purchase, bought from American Golf): https://ping.com/en-us/shop/bags/carry-bags/hoofer-lite

🟢 Ping Hoofer Monsoon (the waterproof version Colin mentions)

🟢 Callaway Chev Dry 14 waterproof cart bag (spotted at £150 in the Nairn pro shop): https://eu.callawaygolf.com/en/gb/callaway-golf/gear/golf-bags/cart-bags/

🟢 Titleist Players S4 StaDry stand bag: https://www.titleist.com/product/players-s4-stadry/26TGBP4S.html

🟢 Titleist Players 4 Carbon stand bag and Titleist Cart 14 StaDry cart bag (mentioned as top-reviewed options)

🟢 Motocaddy Cube trolley (Colin's current trolley), Motocaddy Dry Series cart bag and Motocaddy Protekta cart bag with the EASILOCK base

🟢 PowaKaddy Dri-Tech cart bag and PowaKaddy's magnetic bag-to-trolley system

🟢 G/FORE golf bags, including the camo parachute carry bag and the croc-embossed leather tour bag

🟢 Scotty Cameron golf bags

🟢 Srixon tour bag (Ross's £50 eBay find)

🟢 Nairn Golf Club: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nairn_Golf_Club

🟢 Nairn Dunbar Golf Club: https://nairndunbar.com/

🟢 Cally Palace Hotel and Golf Course, Gatehouse of Fleet: https://bespokehotels.com/cally-palace-hotel/

🟢 Coastal Kippford holiday park (formerly Kippford Holiday Park): https://www.visitscotland.com/info/accommodation/coastal-kippford-previously-kippford-holiday-park-holiday-caravans-and-lodges-p272171

🟢 Craigieknowes nine-hole golf course, Kippford (designed by Colin's dad)

🟢 Gatehouse of Fleet Golf Club: https://www.gatehousegolfclub.com/

🟢 Other South West Scotland courses mentioned: Kirkcudbright, Newton Stewart, Dumfries and County, Dumfries and Galloway, Southerness

🟢 Ross's chipping aid (referred to as a "strike wedge"): product not confirmed, please check before adding a link

🟢 Both Sides of Par on Instagram: @bothsidesofpar

🟢 Colin on Instagram: @mcgraygolf (spelling to be confirmed)

🟢 Nairn Dunbar Golf Club, Nairn, Highlands. Sunday 11 October 2026. Gents open, 21 handicap limit, £30 entry. Ross notes there's plenty of room on the tee sheet and calls it an absolute bargain for a course with a green fee around the £100 mark. The club website lists this as the Springfield Autumn Classic Open with booking via BRS, but the date, price and handicap limit above come from the episode and should be confirmed: https://nairndunbar.com/visitors-open-competitions/

00:00 Welcome and Ross's worst round in three years

02:10 Ross's new Ping Hoofer Lite and Colin's bag research

09:42 The stand bag on a trolley problem

12:37 Dream bags: G/FORE and Scotty Cameron

15:51 Cart bag roundup: Titleist, Motocaddy and PowaKaddy

19:58 Weekly open: Nairn Dunbar

21:00 Ross's chipping practice update

24:03 South West Scotland trip: Cally Palace

26:35 Kippford and the course Colin's dad built

28:19 Gatehouse of Fleet and the drop-shot ninth

30:57 More courses to play in Dumfries and Galloway

32:16 Wrap up and where to follow the show

Follow us on Instagram - @bothsidesofpar

Former DP World Tour player Peter Whiteford joins Ross this week to talk about a very different way of getting better at golf: stop assuming you know what's costing you shots and actually go out on the course and find out. After nearly 20 years travelling and playing professionally, Peter's career was cut short by hip problems, eventually leading to a replacement hip and, somewhat unexpectedly, a second career in coaching. Now he's launched The Scoring Coach, an approach built around watching golfers where their scores actually happen rather than relying entirely on what they think is going wrong on the range.

Peter explains why his starting point is a nine-hole scoring assessment, where he watches a player without interfering before identifying their biggest "scoring leaks". And those leaks aren't always where golfers expect. The player asking for a long-iron lesson might actually be losing shots with a wedge; the golfer convinced they're a brilliant driver might be making terrible strategic decisions from the tee; and the player blaming their chipping technique might simply be choosing completely the wrong shot for the lie. Whether you're playing off scratch or 28, Peter's argument is the same: find the lowest-hanging fruit and work on what will actually move your score.

That takes Ross and Peter into course management, driving strategy and the very human side of golf. Peter explains why some golfers are "Ferrari drivers kicking about in a Fiat Punto", playing far too conservatively for their ability, while others are Fiat Punto drivers trying to handle a Ferrari and repeatedly taking on shots they simply don't have. He talks about having an A-game and B-game driver swing, knowing when to take your medicine from trouble and why strategy can't be completely separated from how you're feeling over the ball that day.

There's plenty here for golfers at both ends of the handicap spectrum. Peter explains why even Tour professionals have the same demons standing over shots as the rest of us, but have developed more tools for dealing with them. He shares the simple "hold your finish" thought he uses when driving feels uncomfortable, why focusing on avoiding a bad shot can be so destructive, and why golfers often score better in match play because they're thinking about winning the hole rather than diagnosing every mistake they've just made.

And then there's perhaps the biggest lesson of the episode: read the situation before blaming your swing. Peter explains why golfers should assess the lie before choosing the shot or club, why he likes players to actually stand over the ball and feel the shot before committing to it, and how something as simple as the amount of sand beneath your feet can completely change the bunker technique required. Ross provides a timely example from Dalmahoy, where failing to notice there was barely any sand underneath his ball turned a straightforward bunker shot into an entirely avoidable mistake.

🟢 Why Peter Whiteford believes watching golfers on the course reveals far more about their scoring problems than simply asking them what they need to work on

🟢 "Ferrari drivers in a Fiat Punto": why good golfers can be far too conservative from the tee while other players repeatedly take on shots their game can't support

🟢 The A-game and B-game driver swings Peter believes better players should develop, and why taking less club isn't always the safest strategy

🟢 Why Tour professionals have the same demons standing over golf shots as a 28-handicapper — and the extra tools better players develop to keep those thoughts quiet

🟢 Read the lie before blaming your technique: how golfers misdiagnose bad chips, bunker shots and recovery shots and then practise the wrong thing

🟢 Why Peter wants golfers to stand over the ball and feel the shot first, rather than deciding on the perfect trajectory from behind the ball and trying to manufacture it

🟢 The simple "hold your finish" trigger Peter uses when his driving feels uncomfortable and why focusing on something you can actually control can free up your swing

🟢 Why golfers often perform better in match play than stroke play — and what that tells us about acceptance, commitment and the way we react to bad shots

🟢 The Scoring Coach: https://thescoringcoach.co.uk

🟢 Peter Whiteford on Instagram: @peterwhitefordgolf

Peter's coaching starts with a nine-hole scoring assessment designed to identify where a golfer is genuinely losing shots. From there, he can prescribe the technical, strategic, short-game, practice or performance work that offers the quickest route towards better scoring.

00:00 Peter Whiteford's journey from Tour player to golf coach

02:02 Introducing The Scoring Coach and why Peter wants to watch golfers play

04:43 Are golfers asking coaches to fix the wrong things?

07:31 Scratch to high handicap: finding the biggest scoring leaks

09:00 Why golfers misdiagnose their own weaknesses

10:25 How Peter assesses an entire golf game

12:05 Driver strategy and the "Ferrari versus Fiat Punto" problem

14:58 When driver actually makes a hole safer

16:23 The simplest short-game gains for higher handicappers

19:24 The human element that golf strategy can't account for

21:15 Ross and Peter's Castle Stuart first-tee disasters

23:14 Peter's tools for dealing with driving anxiety

24:41 Tour professionals have the same demons as everyone else

26:15 Why we can score better in match play than stroke play

28:18 Trouble shots: when should you simply take your medicine?

30:36 Read the lie before you choose the club

31:06 Feel the shot first: Peter's approach to shot selection

34:22 What better players do before they hit the shot

35:00 Reading bunker lies and choosing the right technique

38:18 Technique or decision-making: identifying the real problem

39:34 How to work with Peter and The Scoring Coach

The nights are drawing in and Colin is feeling a bit wistful about the end of the golf season, while Ross, basking in 21 degrees down south, cheerfully reminds him that medal comps run all winter at Farnham. Consolation duly not provided, the lads get into gear, and this week it's Ross with a new toy: the Strike Wedge. Colin assumed it was an actual wedge (Ross did just buy three, after all), but it turns out to be a wedge-shaped bit of plastic you put beside or behind the ball and try not to hit. Ross is using it to cure a case of the toe strikes rather than for its intended purpose, because his chipping confidence is still a work in progress. He can strike it beautifully with his eyes closed or with a left-below-right grip, but with a normal grip and eyes open, something upstairs gets in the way. A demo video is promised for Instagram.

Colin, meanwhile, has news on the driver front: the slice that's haunted him since he came back to golf is finally, mostly, gone. The turnaround came from two things. First, his little brother (a former teaching pro, so not to be asked for help unless absolutely desperate) diagnosed "lazy legs, lazy hips" after three consecutive lost balls, and a proper hip turn and full finish did the trick. Second, Colin stopped hiding on the mat and started hitting driver on the actual course during quiet solo rounds, which fixed the fear as much as the swing. That leads into a proper conversation about the difference between practising your golf and practising the course, how Ross uses the range for technique, routine and speed work, why the pros don't rip up their swing after one bad shot, and Colin's plan to go and hit twenty balls out of the heather to finally learn what it does to a clubface.

Ross then reports back from his first ever senior amateur open at Dalmahoy, his old stomping ground, where a level-par front nine and some of the best tee shots he's ever hit there carried him to second in the scratch, despite a couple of dodgy club choices and a near-shank with a four iron on the widest fairway on the course. A lesson from Peter Whiteford (a future guest on the show) about actually walking up to your ball to read the lie makes an appearance. Colin's South West Scotland trip report gets bumped to next week thanks to the school run, and Ross wraps up with a cracking £35 open at Fortrose & Rosemarkie, one of the most scenic links in the Highlands.

🟢 Ross explains the Strike Wedge, a plastic training aid that gives you both a visual and a physical reason to find the middle of the clubface, and why he's using it for long irons rather than actual wedges

🟢 The two-part fix for Colin's driver slice: a "lazy hips" diagnosis from his brother, and the psychological shift of hitting driver on the course instead of hiding on the mat

🟢 Practising your golf versus practising the course. Ross on how a scratch golfer uses the range, why the pros don't chuck their technique after one bad shot, and Colin's plan to learn how heather closes the clubface

🟢 Ross's round at the Dalmahoy Senior Open: birdies on both front-nine par fives, smashing driver down the tight 13th, and then nearly shanking a four iron on a 60-yard-wide fairway at the last

🟢 Peter Whiteford's tip on reading the lie before you even reach for your glove, and how ignoring it cost Ross a bogey on 15

🟢 Strike Wedge training aid: https://strikewedge.com/

🟢 Strike Wedge how-to guide (positioning for heel, toe and angle of attack): https://strikewedge.com/pages/how-to

🟢 Ross's Strike Wedge demo video on the Both Sides of Par Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bothsidesofpar/

🟢 TaylorMade Stealth driver (Colin's, with the adjustable weight for fade or draw bias)

🟢 Scott Fawcett's DECADE Course Management System: https://decadegolf.com/

🟢 Peter Whiteford, former European Tour pro and coach, appearing on the show soon: https://talkgolfscotland.co.uk/staff-profile/peter-whiteford/

🟢 Dalmahoy Hotel & Country Club, Edinburgh (East and West courses): https://www.dalmahoyhotelandcountryclub.co.uk/

🟢 Dalmahoy open competitions page: https://www.dalmahoyhotelandcountryclub.co.uk/golf-leisure/golf/golf-at-dalmahoy/open-tournaments/

🟢 Fortrose & Rosemarkie Golf Club: https://fortrosegolfclub.co.uk/

🟢 Both Sides of Par on YouTube: search "Both Sides of Par"

🟢 Fortrose & Rosemarkie Golf Club, Fortrose, Black Isle (around 20 minutes from Inverness). Gents 18-Hole Stroke Play Open, Saturday 3rd October 2026. Singles stroke play. £35 for visitors, 24 handicap limit. A James Braid links on the tip of the Chanonry peninsula with sea on both sides and Fort George across the water. Entry via the club website: https://fortrosegolfclub.co.uk/competitions/open-competitions/

🟢 Ross mentioned a second open later in October, held over for a future episode

00:00 Welcome and the end of summer

03:40 The Strike Wedge training aid

10:16 Colin's driver update: fixing the slice

18:12 Course practice vs range practice

25:03 Practising trouble shots and the heather problem

30:01 Ross at the Dalmahoy Senior Open

38:36 Weekly open: Fortrose & Rosemarkie

41:11 Wrap-up

Colin's got a new toy and he's not even using it for what it's meant for. This week he unboxes the Shot Scope Pro L2 rangefinder and cheerfully admits the main use so far has been checking whether the group ahead is out of range so he can smash a few extra practice drives. Ross, playing the sensible one for once, weighs in on lasers versus GPS and why chasing precision to the yard might matter less than most golfers think. That leads nicely into a proper club fitting revelation, as Ross explains how getting his nine iron and wedge bent one degree flat cured a mystery hook that had been sending shots 30 yards left, plus how to spot the symptoms in your own bag before you rage-sell a perfectly good set of irons.

Both hosts have also joined new clubs this month. Colin signs up at Nairn Dunbar, the unfairly overlooked links along the road from its famous neighbour, lured in by a clever points-based membership and a genuinely brilliant list of reciprocal courses. Ross returns to Farnham after moving house, where the 45-yard chipping green and free range balls have him practising more than ever, and where his one-handed Jonathan Yarwood chipping drill is finally starting to pay off. There's also a nostalgic detour into what it's actually like to run a driving range, which may or may not become a future episode.

To round things off, Ross reports back from the BB&O County Championship at Woburn, where £65 bought two rounds on the Marquess course, breakfast, lunch and one heartbreaking closing double bogey that cost him a shot at getting to dead zero. Colin counters with a tale of nearly holing a 295-yard drive for eagle at Alford, conveniently glossing over the two lost balls the hole before. And there's one final open competition of the season to recommend before the Scottish golf calendar winds down.

🟢 Why Colin's rangefinder gets more use spying on the group ahead than measuring to the flag, and the practice use case that actually justifies the purchase

🟢 The one degree lie angle adjustment that fixed Ross's hooking nine iron, what it costs, and the tell-tale symptoms that your clubs might be too upright

🟢 The one-handed chipping drill from Jonathan Yarwood that's freeing up Ross's short game (with a demo video on the show's Instagram)

🟢 Inside Nairn Dunbar's points-based membership and rover ticket, and why reciprocal course lists deserve more attention when choosing a club

🟢 Two rounds at Woburn's Marquess course, breakfast and lunch included, for £65: Ross's county championship bargain of the millennium

🟢 Shot Scope Pro L2 rangefinder (£150 RRP, Colin paid £130 on offer): https://shotscope.com/uk/shop/products/golf-rangefinders/pro-l2/

🟢 Shot Scope Apple Watch golf GPS app: https://shotscope.com/uk/discover/my-shot-scope/ios-watch-app/

🟢 Jonathan Yarwood on YouTube (source of the one-handed chipping drill): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgyB8vthTrPFTGplzR-mPkg

🟢 Both Sides of Par on Instagram (chipping drill demo video): https://www.instagram.com/bothsidesofpar

🟢 Nairn Dunbar Golf Club, Nairn (membership options including the points scheme): https://nairndunbar.com

🟢 Farnham Golf Club, Surrey: https://farnhamgolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Woburn Golf Club (Marquess course, host of the BB&O County Championship): https://www.woburngolf.co.uk

🟢 Haddington Golf Club, East Lothian: https://www.haddingtongolf.co.uk

🟢 Haddington Golf Club Autumn Open, Amisfield Park, Haddington, East Lothian. Saturday 26th September. Gents singles strokeplay, £25 for visitors. One of the last open competitions of the Scottish season, played on the 19th oldest golf course in the world, and there are plenty of tee times still available. Book via the club's BRS open competitions page.

00:00 Intro and handicap updates

02:44 Shot Scope Pro L2 rangefinder: first impressions and laser vs GPS

16:11 The one degree fix: lie angles and the hooking nine iron

26:32 One-handed chipping drill progress

30:33 Colin joins Nairn Dunbar: points memberships and reciprocals

36:04 Ross joins Farnham: practice facilities and free range balls

45:08 County Championship at Woburn's Marquess course

51:33 Colin's near-eagle at Alford

53:49 Weekly competition: Haddington Autumn Open

55:23 Wrap-up

Normal service resumes after a few weeks of summer holidays, and the lads have somehow managed to golf Scotland from top to bottom between them. The main event this week is Royal Dornoch, which both Colin and Ross played within days of each other, narrowly missing an actual meet-up but successfully completing a 550-mile wedge handover via the pro shop. Ross marked his 50th birthday with an early morning round, while Colin got the full experience playing a foursomes open with his brother Bruce. There's plenty of chat about that striking new clubhouse (part sandstone masterpiece, part Minecraft build, depending who you ask), the changing room lounge where folk watch The Open with their feet up, and the course itself, including Colin's heroic 8 on the par 3 second after a battle with a bunker taller than his head.

From there it's on to Golspie, where Colin reckons his high handicap eyes could barely tell the quality apart from its more famous neighbour, and where Ross survived a competition round so windy that a single figure player hit driver on a 150-yard par 3 and still came up short. Ross also drops a tease for a future episode: Brora might just be the best natural links course he's ever played. The pair are asking listeners for feedback this week too, so let them know whether these course reports are worth the airtime.

The improvement corner covers the borrowed Cleveland 58 degree wedge Colin has been putting through its paces in Glasgow, plus a brilliant one-handed chipping drill from coach Jonathan Yarwood that Ross swears by for curing the chipping heebie-jeebies. Ross also gives Colin's chipping video an honest critique, which is what friends are for. The show wraps with this week's open competition pick at Cathkin Braes, a James Braid design and the oldest course in Glasgow.

🟢 Colin's 8 on the par 3 second at Royal Dornoch, featuring a shanked tee shot, a bunker face higher than his head, and a chip out backwards

🟢 The new Royal Dornoch clubhouse debate: spectacular modern statement or a bit of Minecraft on the hill?

🟢 Ross calling Brora possibly the best natural links course he's ever played, teed up for a future episode

🟢 The Golspie gale: a low single figure player hitting driver on a 150-yard par 3 and still not reaching the green

🟢 The Jonathan Yarwood one-handed chipping drill that forces you to turn your body properly, and why Ross used it before every single chip at one point

🟢 Royal Dornoch Golf Club: https://royaldornoch.com

🟢 Golspie Golf Club: https://www.golspiegolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Brora Golf Club: https://www.broragolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Cathkin Braes Golf Club: https://cathkinbraesgolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Jonathan Yarwood, golf coach behind the chipping drill: https://jonathanyarwood.com

🟢 No Laying Up, who stirred the pot over the Foxy signage at Dornoch: https://nolayingup.com

🟢 Cleveland RTX 58 degree wedge, the rusty loaner that made the 550-mile journey

🟢 Get in touch: hello@bothpar.com or @bothsidesofpar on Instagram

Gents Individual Open at Cathkin Braes Golf Club, Rutherglen, Glasgow (between East Kilbride and Rutherglen, handy for the M74). Sunday 6th September 2026, individual strokeplay format, £25 per person. A James Braid design and the oldest golf course in Glasgow, always in great condition according to Colin, who has been playing it on and off for 35 years. Watch for the sharp left turn into the club entrance off the B road.

00:00 Intro and golfing Scotland top to bottom

02:25 Royal Dornoch and that new clubhouse

10:25 Playing the Championship course with brother Bruce

21:05 Favourite holes at Royal Dornoch

29:55 Golspie course report and a Brora tease

37:38 Listener feedback: do you like these course reports?

39:10 The 58 degree wedge and Jonathan Yarwood's chipping drill

46:47 Weekly open: Cathkin Braes

Colin's flying solo this week, and by solo we mean putting on a repeat while Ross plays Royal Dornoch and Colin nurses his jealousy after a consolation trip up the coast past Brora, Tain and Golspie. So it's back to one of the early episodes, recorded when there was five inches of snow on the ground, which is either quaint or cruel depending on your current heatwave situation.

The episode itself is a proper tech deep dive. Ross explains how he managed to cave in the face of yet another driver, this time his TaylorMade Qi35, and why he's jumped ship to a Ping G430 LST driver and G425 LST three wood while he waits for the replacement. Colin, meanwhile, has been surviving the snow with a putting mat and a scoring system so nerdy it comes with rings like a dartboard, which sparks a genuinely useful conversation about measuring outcomes instead of obsessing over what your backswing looks like on video. Claude Harmon gets his customary mention, because of course he does.

From there it's a full tour of on-course and practice tech: lasers versus GPS watches, why Colin's Garmin lasts two weeks while Ross can't find his charging cable, phone apps like Hole19 and Golfshot, and the growing world of AI golf tools, from Golf.ai's AI caddy and rules assistant to swing analysis apps like Swing Coach and Mustard Golf, where Mark Blackburn will critique your swing for considerably less than the £1,800 a year one poor soul was paying for online lessons. There's also a lovely detour through Carnoustie, including the night Ross blagged the Gary Player Suite for £50, before Ross rounds things off with a cracking scramble recommendation at King James VI in Perth.

🟢 Ross breaks another driver face and explains his switch to the Ping G430 LST, including how low spin versus max heads actually differ and why the feel change from carbon to titanium takes some getting used to

🟢 Colin's putting mat scoring system, and the case for measuring practice by outcomes rather than video analysis of your swing positions

🟢 The full on-course tech comparison: laser rangefinders versus GPS watches versus phone apps, and what each one actually earns its place for

🟢 Golf.ai and the rise of the AI caddy, plus AI swing analysis apps that score your swing red, yellow and green and might just work alongside a human coach

🟢 Ross's Carnoustie stories, including a £50 night in the Gary Player Suite and why it's one of the best free spectating spots at the Dunhill Links

🟢 Ping G430 LST driver and G425 LST three wood: https://ping.com

🟢 TaylorMade Qi35 LS driver: https://www.taylormadegolf.com

🟢 Ping Proving Grounds Podcast

🟢 Garmin Venu Sq 2 with Garmin Golf app: https://www.garmin.com

🟢 Hole19 golf app: https://www.hole19golf.com

🟢 Golfshot app: https://golfshot.com

🟢 Golf.ai, AI caddy, rules assistant and live scorecards: https://golf.ai

🟢 Mustard Golf swing analysis app with Mark Blackburn and Justin Rose, £25 a month or £150 a year: https://teammstrd.com/golf

🟢 Swing Coach app

🟢 18Birdies phone app (https://18birdies.com)

🟢 Carnoustie Golf Links and the Carnoustie Golf Hotel stay and play packages: https://www.carnoustiegolflinks.com

🟢 Dan Grieves, tour short game coach

00:00 Intro: classic episode replay week while Ross plays Royal Dornoch

01:17 Five inches of snow and Scottish skiing

04:15 Carnoustie: the toughest, fairest course you'll play

06:42 The £50 night in the Gary Player Suite

09:40 Ross breaks another driver face

10:51 Switching to Ping: the G430 LST and G425 LST three wood

14:59 Low spin vs max: choosing a driver head

18:50 Colin's putting mat and scoring games

21:10 Measuring practice by outcomes, not technique

27:01 On-course tech: lasers, GPS watches and phone apps

33:16 Rangefinders, and whether the cheap ones are any good

35:04 Golf.ai and the AI caddy

37:24 AI swing analysis: Swing Coach and Mustard Golf

41:02 The £1,800 online coaching story

41:55 Weekly competition: King James VI gents scramble

45:26 Trackman bays vs the driving range

Ross and Colin are back with a proper mixed bag this week. Colin's been living his best golfing life at two very different Scottish gems, the windswept championship links of Western Gailes and the quirky Old Tom Morris charm of Cullen, though the Gailes part of Western Gailes lived up to its name and cost him somewhere north of thirteen balls. Ross, meanwhile, is preparing for an Open qualifier by wisely not treating it like an Open qualifier, recommitting to his fade after a flirtation with draws that cost him a ball in the water (and, somehow, still a par).

The middle of the episode is a short game masterclass by way of confession. Colin wants to know how Ross chooses between a pitch, a chip and run, or the hero flop, and the answer starts with the lie, every time. Colin then reveals the moment that converted him to the chip and run for good: a 70-yard seven iron scuttled along the ground at Cullen's 18th that dropped in for his first ever eagle. The pair also dig into a fascinating MyGolfSpy article built on Arccos data from over 660,000 par 3s, which shows that almost nobody flies the green, nearly everyone comes up short, and we're all guilty of clubbing for our best strike rather than our average one.

They wrap up with tales of the toughest par 3s at Ross's course, a case for laying up when the carry isn't there, and this week's competition recommendation: a cracking open at Royal Burgess in Edinburgh, one of the oldest golf clubs in the world. Colin leaves with homework (pitch and run practice, possible Vokey purchase) and listeners leave with an invitation to send in their own course reports.

🟢 Colin's first ever eagle: a 70-yard chip and run with a seven iron that rolled straight into the hole on Cullen's 18th

🟢 The Arccos data on par 3s: fewer than 10% of golfers fly the green at any handicap level, yet we all plan for our perfect strike

🟢 Ross loses his tee shot on a 560-yard par 5, drops, watches his playing partner accidentally play his ball, and still walks off with the par of his life

🟢 Thirteen lost balls at Western Gailes: what playing a top links course in a full-blown gale does to a recently cured slice

🟢 Claude Harmon's short game rule that stuck with Ross: whatever you do, never leave yourself two chips to get on the green

🟢 Western Gailes Golf Club, Ayrshire: https://westerngailes.com

🟢 Cullen Links Golf Club, Moray: https://www.cullenlinksgolf.co.uk

🟢 Golspie Golf Club, Sutherland: https://www.golspiegolfclub.co.uk

🟢 The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh: https://www.royalburgess.co.uk

🟢 MyGolfSpy article: You're Playing Par-3s Wrong. Here's What the Data Says to Do Instead: https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/youre-playing-par-3s-wrong-heres-what-the-data-says-to-do-instead/

🟢 Arccos shot tracking: https://www.arccosgolf.com

🟢 Scott Fawcett's DECADE Course Management: https://decade.golf

🟢 Son of a Butch with Claude Harmon (podcast)

🟢 Titleist Vokey wedges: https://www.vokey.com

🟢 Trackman (for gapping sessions and knowing your average carry): https://www.trackman.com

Gents Individual Open at The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh, Barnton, Edinburgh. Sunday 26th July 2026, individual stroke play open with a handicap limit of 32, £50 entry for visitors. Ross mentions three spots were still available in the field between 2:15pm and 3:00pm at time of recording. Entry is via HowDidiDo: https://www.howdidido.com/Directory/OpenCompetitions/3010. A brilliant parkland course less than five miles from Edinburgh city centre and the airport, so it's an easy trip from almost anywhere in the country. HowDidiDo

One thing to double check before publishing: the transcript reads "handicap limit £32" which I've interpreted as a handicap limit of 32 (a transcription artifact). The listing online also shows £35 for members versus £50 for visitors, so the £50 quoted on the show is the visitor price. HowDidiDo

00:00 Welcome and catching up

01:10 Ross's Open qualifier prep and committing to the fade

04:02 Course review: Western Gailes in a gale

11:07 Ross's competition round and the par of his life

14:47 Colin's handicap update and Golspie course review

18:35 Chip and run vs pitch: choosing the right short game shot

27:20 Par 3 data: why we all come up short

42:03 Weekly competition: Royal Burgess Gents Open

44:25 Wrap up and listener course reports

Big news opens the show: Ross has made it back to scratch for the first time in roughly 16 years, and the lads pick apart exactly how he got there. It turns out most of the battle was in his head, with old handicap barriers (that stubborn 0.5, the dreaded jump from 6 to 5) doing more damage than his swing ever did. The fixes were refreshingly human: their weekly chats keeping him accountable, three years of left-handed putting, a focus on pace over line (a Scott Fawcett favourite), some carefully added clubhead speed for strategy rather than showing off, and properly purposeful practice where you actually test yourself on the course. Colin, holding up the high-handicap end as ever, soaks it all in and the two have a lovely back-and-forth about whether you can ever truly ignore your score (Ross, for the record, cannot).

From there the chat turns to Senior Open qualifying, which Ross has now entered. He explains the whole thing in plain English: turn 50, get to 0.4 or better, pay your £250, and take your shot in a one-round shootout, in his case at Stirling on Monday 20th July, with the actual Senior Open landing at Gleneagles' King's Course and a field featuring the likes of Henrik Stenson and Pádraig Harrington. Colin then unveils his weekend project, a "course-bagger" app at track.bothpar.com inspired by Munro bagging, complete with regions to complete and prestige points for links courses, Open venues and famous architects. That sparks a genuinely useful discussion about what actually makes a course worth seeking out, from qualifying pedigree to a proper grass range.

The back half is all about playing more golf for less money. The two dig into reciprocals and second memberships, including the 300-plus James Braid Association courses, Spey Bay's generous reciprocal list and quirky Summer Solstice comp, getting onto Royal Dornoch via a Golspie or Brora membership, Nairn Dunbar's country option, and joining somewhere like Southerness for reliable winter golf. A quick detour into eye-watering London joining fees (think £20k just to get through the door) makes the Scottish maths look very sensible indeed. They close with this week's competition pick at Downfield in Dundee, plus a heads-up on new Instagram swing clips using Coleman's shot tracer.

🟢 Ross's route back to scratch after a 16-year gap, and why the real barrier was almost entirely mental

🟢 The pace-over-line putting shift (credited to Scott Fawcett) that quietly cut out the three-putts

🟢 Why Ross added clubhead speed for smarter strategy rather than ego, and how it changed his club choices off the tee

🟢 Senior Open qualifying demystified: the criteria, the £250 one-round shootout, and the realistic odds of getting through

🟢 Colin's new course-bagger app and the "prestige points" debate over what genuinely makes a course worth playing

🟢 Both Sides of Par on Instagram (@bothsidesofpar): clips, swing videos and weekly updates

🟢 track.bothpar.com: Colin's new course-bagger app

🟢 Scott Fawcett and the DECADE Course Management System: the pace-putting and aggressive-off-the-tee thinking referenced throughout (decadegolf.com)

🟢 Coleman Golfs and his shot tracer: Find Coleman over at @colemangolfs

🟢 The Association of James Braid Courses: 300-plus Braid-designed courses with reduced green fees (jamesbraidgolfsociety.com)

🟢 The Senior Open at Gleneagles, King's Course, 23 to 26 July 2026 (legendstour.com)

🟢 Stirling Golf Club: Ross's chosen Senior Open qualifying venue

🟢 Spey Bay Golf Club: links course with a wide reciprocal list and the Summer Solstice comp (the membership and reciprocal figures were quoted live on the show, so verify before relying on them)

🟢 Get in touch: hello@bothpar.com

🟢 Downfield Golf Club, Dundee: Open on Sunday 2nd August, £45 entry.

A James Braid-designed parkland championship course, beautifully tree-lined and a former Open final qualifying venue (now a regional qualifier), roughly 25 minutes from St Andrews and easy to reach off the A90. A brilliant excuse for a weekend away, with a Saturday-night stopover in Dundee and a Sunday round.

00:00 Welcome and the plan for today

01:09 Ross gets back to scratch after 16 years

03:50 Why handicap barriers live in your head

06:48 What moved the needle: pace putting and weekly chats

09:55 Adding clubhead speed (and why it isn't about bombing it)

13:24 Purposeful practice and smarter course management

23:23 Can you actually ignore your score?

24:17 Senior Open qualifying, explained

33:03 Building a course-bagger app for golfers

45:44 Reciprocals and second memberships worth having

55:12 The eye-watering cost of a London membership

57:44 This week's competition: Downfield in Dundee

1:00:44 Wrap-up, Instagram and swing clips

Ross is off the grid this week, so Colin holds the high handicap fort alone and brings in a guest who sits at the other end of the spectrum: Coleman Rollins, better known online as Coleman Golfs. Coleman is a near scratch software engineer who got so fed up with launch monitor prices that he did the only reasonable thing and built his own, an open source unit called OpenFlight. The two quickly discover a shared origin story of being used as moving targets on a driving range as kids, which sets the tone nicely.

From there it becomes part golfing journey, part tech masterclass. Coleman talks through almost ten years of caddying and what it taught him about reading greens, course management and the classic amateur sin of not playing within your means. He covers the grip change that wrecked his game for a full year, the coach who finally rebuilt his swing, and then the good stuff: why a Trackman costs the price of a small car (it uses the same phased array radar that tracks missiles), how his three radar Doppler setup works, and why his whole rig comes in at around five hundred dollars. There is also a very enjoyable detour into reverse engineering commercial monitors from their publicly filed photos, which earned Coleman a distinctly unfriendly Instagram message from one red and white branded manufacturer.

The back half turns practical. Coleman explains which numbers actually move the needle for an improving golfer, how handing data to a coach (human or AI) has helped him, and how dialling in his wedge distances on a Trackman paid off at his biggest tournament of the year just the day before. A quickfire round closes things out with some genuinely useful takes: the metric golfers underrate, the one they hopelessly overrate, a twenty quid putting hack borrowed from woodworking, and the golf marketing trick that makes him want to throw his phone. Colin, to his credit, resists buying a launch monitor on the spot. Just.

🟢 The "playing within your means" lesson Coleman picked up caddying for everyone from Tuesday ladies' tournaments to single digit men, and why even near scratch players get this wrong

🟢 Why a thirty thousand pound Trackman is arguably fair value: a plain English explanation of phased array radar versus the Doppler tech in cheaper units like the Garmin R10

🟢 Coleman's Trackman wedge session the week of his state amateur qualifier, and how knowing his exact 50 to 120 yard numbers gave him a dozen confident shots on the day

🟢 The quickfire round: vertical launch angle being underrated, swing speed being wildly overrated, and a twenty dollar woodworking laser that doubles as a putting trainer the golf brands would sell you for a hundred quid

🟢 Coleman Rollins, the guest, on Instagram and TikTok as @colemangolfs

🟢 OpenFlight, Coleman's open source launch monitor, on GitHub at https://github.com/jewbetcha/openflight

🟢 OpenFlight project site and cloud (FlightWeb) at https://openflight.dev

🟢 Open Tracer, Coleman's free shot tracer web app for swing videos, on GitHub at https://github.com/jewbetcha/opentrace (Colin mentioned a hosted "try it" page too, worth confirming the exact link before publishing)

00:00 Welcome, no Ross this week, meet Coleman and OpenFlight

00:56 Growing up in the game: caddying for almost ten years

03:57 What caddying really teaches you about golf

06:05 The biggest mistake amateurs make: not playing within your means

07:31 The grip change that broke his game, and finally getting a coach

11:18 Why he built his own launch monitor

13:13 The metrics that actually matter

16:24 What separates a thirty thousand pound Trackman from the rest

20:08 Inside OpenFlight: three radars and a Raspberry Pi

22:13 The parts list and building one yourself

25:56 Reverse engineering the competition (and an angry DM)

30:55 Keeping it open source and affordable

34:40 Using your data with a coach, and AI as a caddie

37:59 What's next: a DIY rangefinder

38:46 Open Tracer: free shot tracing for swing videos

40:29 The OpenFlight Discord community

42:01 Quickfire round: metrics, gadgets and marketing gripes

47:15 Where to find Coleman and everything he's building

Follow us at @bothsidesofpar and grab the newsletter here.

Ross very nearly gets to scratch this week - painfully nearly. He talks through a round where one missed short putt on the 18th left him sitting at 0.5, along with the classic golfer’s curse of knowing you should stick to process while your brain quietly screams, “go on then, make history.” Colin, naturally, offers sympathy while also enjoying the drama just a little bit.

The pair then get into gear chat, with Colin trying to make sense of the new TaylorMade Spider putter range and the Cobra OPTM Max-K driver, while Ross brings the lower-handicap reality check on forgiveness, lie angle, workability and why most amateur golfers probably don’t need to be shaping it like prime Tiger.

There’s a big short-game section too, covering Ross’s chipping experiments, looking away from the ball, cack-handed chips, landing-spot practice, ladder drills, using a putting stroke with different clubs, and even the mighty five-wood chip-and-run. They wrap up with Colin entering the Golspie open, Ross recommending Grantown-on-Spey, and a reminder to follow the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Instagram.

🟢 Ross misses a two-footer on the 18th that would have taken him to scratch - brutal, funny, and very golf.

🟢 Colin tries to decode the TaylorMade Spider putter family, from Tour and Tour X to the smaller V model and different hosel options.

🟢 Ross explains why looking away from the ball has helped free up his chipping stroke, borrowing the same idea from his putting.

🟢 The boys talk through practical chipping games, including landing drills, 15-yard stock shots, ladder practice and up-and-down challenges.

🟢 A deep chat on lie angle, flatter clubs, workability and why “standard” clubs might quietly be sending half of us left.

🟢 TaylorMade Spider Tour / Spider Tour X / Spider Tour F / Spider Tour V putters — discussed around forgiveness, MOI, True Path alignment and the White TPU Pure Roll insert. TaylorMade describes the White TPU Pure Roll insert as using 45-degree grooves to encourage forward roll and says the white insert works visually with True Path Alignment. (taylormadegolf.com)

🟢 Cleveland Frontline putter — Colin’s current Spider-ish mallet putter, which he still seems dangerously close to replacing because golf equipment exists.

🟢 Cleveland wedges — Ross gives another glowing mention to his newer Cleveland wedges after a very tidy bunker shot on the 18th.

🟢 Scotty Cameron putter — Ross compares his current larger-headed Scotty Cameron setup with the stability he used to like in the Spider.

🟢 Cobra OPTM Max-K driver — Colin’s latest temptation in the “maybe this will fix my driver” category. Cobra says the OPTM driver line uses shaping and weight placement to reduce twisting, while Golf Monthly describes the OPTM Max-K as Cobra’s most stable model, with a combined MOI of 13K. (COBRA Golf)

🟢 Scott Fawcett / DECADE Course Management — referenced again in Ross’s scratch-handicap journey, especially the idea of sticking with process and long-term averages rather than forcing one heroic outcome.

🟢 Golspie Golf Club — Colin has entered an open there and is looking forward to testing the game somewhere slightly more exciting than the garden lawn. The club’s open competition listings include the Millicent Bowl & Campbell Shield and the Golspie Open. (Golspie Golf Club)

🟢 Grantown-on-Spey Golf Club - Ross’s weekly open recommendation, picked partly because it looks gorgeous, has heather, mountain views, and doesn’t cost the price of a new wedge.

🟢 Golspie Golf Club — Millicent Bowl & Campbell Shield, Golspie, Scottish Highlands. Saturday 13 June 2026. Gents singles strokeplay. Visitor entry listed at £35, members £25, with Golf Empire listing the handicap index limit as 28.0 for men. (BRS Golf)

🟢 Golspie Golf Club — Golspie Open, Golspie, Scottish Highlands. Saturday 25 July 2026. Gents singles strokeplay. Visitor entry listed at £35, members £25. The club describes this as its flagship competition on its James Braid-designed course. (BRS Golf)

🟢 Grantown-on-Spey Golf Club — Gents “McCulloch Cup” Strokeplay, Grantown-on-Spey, Scottish Highlands. Sunday 6 September 2026. Ross mentions a handicap limit of 24 and an entry cost of £27 per person in the episode; I found a Golf in Scotland post confirming Grantown-on-Spey’s 2026 open schedule includes the Gents McCulloch Cup Strokeplay on 6 September, but the visible search result did not confirm the £27 price. (Facebook)

00:00 Welcome back, intro duties, and Ross taking four shots to start the podcast

02:51 Ross hits the crossbar on his scratch-handicap attempt

08:30 TaylorMade Spider putters and Colin trying to understand the range

12:12 Mallet putters, forgiveness, Rory, Scottie and off-centre strikes

17:00 Ross’s chipping practice update and balance work

20:13 Switching chipping grips during a round

24:20 Chipping games, landing drills and target practice

25:40 Why the 15-yard chip is such a useful stock shot

26:53 Using a putting stroke for chip-and-run shots

27:29 The five-wood chip-and-run enters the chat

30:28 Colin enters the Golspie open

32:02 Cobra OPTM Max-K driver and the search for more forgiveness

35:35 Workability, shot shaping and whether average golfers really need it

37:46 Lie angle, flatter clubs and why standard might not suit everyone

41:58 Why getting your lie angles checked could make a huge difference

43:31 Ross recommends the Grantown-on-Spey open

This week, Ross takes us through the highlights of playing the iconic Wentworth West Course, diving into his five favorite holes and what makes the experience special.

The boys also tackle a deep dive into modern golf trolleys, sharing tips and insights for anyone considering an upgrade.

Then they discuss whether you should take advantage of the WHS rules around using whatever tee suits you in competitions, and how that makes sense for smart golf.

Plus, hear about an incredible value open competition on the Isle of Arran and get an update on Ross's Cleveland wedges, featuring a new tip that could improve your short game instantly. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, this episode is packed with stories, advice, and practical gear talk to help you enjoy your next round even more.

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Until next time—play smart, have fun, and see you on the fairways.

— Colin & Ross

This week Colin and Ross catch up on a productive stretch of golf, with both of them quietly sliding down the handicap charts. Colin is dropping into the low twenties and threatening more cuts, while Ross casually drops in a one under round that takes him to 0.7, the sort of update only a low handicapper can deliver with a straight face 😆 Before any scorecards come out, there's a proper gear nerd-out: Colin has ditched fiddly towels and dropped gloves for a £5 figure-eight power band to keep his arms connected and rein in his flying elbows, and the pair compare notes on connection ball drills that mostly gather dust in the garage.

From there it's wedges and wisdom. Ross talks through his new cavity-back Cleveland wedges, the tighter gapping he's noticed, and a round that finished with two birdies in the last three holes, alongside an honest confession about misjudging a yardage because the front of an angled green sits closer than it looks. There's a genuinely useful run through formats too: why Ross loves match play while Colin shelters behind Stableford, how to actually use your shots rather than trying to beat better players off scratch, and a plain-English explainer of foursomes, four-balls and greensomes ahead of Colin and his brother Bruce teeing it up in the Royal Dornoch foursomes. Add a neat tip on cutting down a graphite shaft without shredding it and you've got a tidy little improvement toolkit.

The back half is a love letter to underrated Scottish golf. Colin reports back from Buckpool on the Moray Coast, a links he'd never heard of that served up blue skies, revetted bunkers, a couple of ugly early numbers, and the highlight of his comeback: team twos on the same par three. They land on a lovely point about value, namely that the gap between a hidden gem and a famous name is far smaller than the green fee suggests, with cracking courses going for £35 to £50.

🟢 The £5 fix for flying elbows: Colin's figure-eight power band that finally beat the towel and the dropped gloves

🟢 Ross shoots one under to reach 0.7, and explains how his new cavity-back Cleveland wedges tightened up his gapping

🟢 The angled-green yardage trap that cost Ross a shot, and why you should laser the pin rather than the front edge

🟢 Match play psychology: how to win by using your shots instead of trying to beat better players off scratch

🟢 Buckpool on the Moray Coast: back-to-back twos, revetted bunkers and proper links golf from as little as £35

🟢 Power band connection trainer (figure-eight arm band), around £5, search "golf power band" on Amazon

🟢 Cleveland wedges (cavity-back 48, 54 and 58 degree) - https://www.clevelandgolf.com

🟢 TaylorMade Stealth driver and adapter shaft, with cheaper replacement shafts found on eBay - https://www.ebay.co.uk

🟢 Scott Fawcett and DECADE course management, referenced on lag putting and the 50-foot three-putt - https://decadegolf.com

🟢 Buckpool Golf Club, Barhill Road, Buckie, Moray Coast - https://www.buckpoolgolf.com

🟢 Leven Thistle Golf Club at Leven Links, Fife - https://www.leventhistlegc.co.uk

🟢 Royal Dornoch Golf Club (the foursomes tournament) - https://www.royaldornoch.com

🟢 Dalmahoy Hotel & Country Club, East Course, mentioned as a Solheim Cup venue with cut-price evening tee times

🟢 Both Sides of Par on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bothsidesofpar

🟢 Colin on TikTok and YouTube as Golfing Gray, search "Colin Gray golf"

Leven Thistle Gents Open

Course: Leven Thistle Golf Club, played over Leven Links

Location: Leven, Fife, Scotland

Date: Saturday 8th August

Format: Gents individual singles stroke play, 18 holes

Cost: £40 for visitors, with coffee and a bacon roll included on arrival

Worth knowing: a former Open qualifying links with famously fast greens at this time of year, and early tee times around 7:30am were still showing as available. Entry is via the Leven Links booking site. The club also runs other well-priced opens through the season, including Four Ball Better Ball and Texas Scramble formats.

00:00 Welcome and handicap updates

00:01:41 Connection drills and the £5 power band

00:08:00 Ross's new Cleveland wedges and a one under round

00:12:09 The angled-green lesson: why the front number fools you

00:15:24 Weekly competition: Leven Thistle open

00:16:57 Favourite formats: match play, Stableford and scrambles

00:19:19 Match play psychology: play the shots, not the player

00:23:57 Foursomes, four-balls and greensomes explained

00:28:33 Driver control and cutting down a graphite shaft

00:31:50 Buckpool golf course report

00:36:48 Back-to-back twos: the highlight of the day

00:39:22 Hidden-gem value: brilliant golf for £35 to £50

00:43:04 Wrap-up and where to follow the show

Colin's riding high this week after slashing his handicap from 28 down to 24, the result of a 19-over medal win at his home club. The secret? Putting the driver back in the bag, hitting five iron off every tee, and committing to the kind of smart, course-managed golf the lads have been preaching for months. Ross is on his own quiet roll too, knocking in four birdies across a casual nine-hole round by leaning into his countdown routine and pre-shot process. Both of them, somehow, playing better golf at the same time. Statistically suspicious.

From there the conversation pivots to the eye-watering cost of British golf, courtesy of UK Golf Guy's annual summer green fees report. Turnberry has hit a thousand pounds. Sunningdale is two grand for a fourball. The lads work through the numbers, get appropriately outraged, and then highlight one of the rare bright spots: St Andrews' "The Drive" ballot, which is putting Old Course rounds in front of Scottish residents for £45 and the Eden Course for a tenner.

Then it's gear time. Ross unboxes his new Cleveland RTZ and CBZ wedges with some interesting thinking on softer, lighter shafts. Ross then talks Colin through how to fill the gap between his pitching and sand wedge using a proper lob wedge and Dave Pelz's clock system, and they get into the disruptor brands shaking up iron and ball prices: Takomo, Vice, Kayleigh, Decathlon, Costco's Kirkland line, and Seed. There's a glowing review of the MotoCaddy M5 GPS trolley, a PGA Championship preview with the ball rollback debate fully unpacked, and a Machrihanish competition that's been on Colin's bucket list for years.

🟢 Colin's handicap cut from 28 to 24 after a 19-over medal win, all from ditching the driver and hitting five iron off every tee

🟢 The shocking math on UK green fees: the top 100 average has gone from £160 to £265 in five years, with Turnberry now £1,000 and Sunningdale £2,000 for a fourball

🟢 St Andrews' "The Drive" ballot, opening up Old Course rounds at £45 and the Eden Course at £10 for Scottish residents, a rare counterweight to soaring prices

🟢 Ross's deep dive on filling the wedge gap, including a proper breakdown of Dave Pelz's clock system and why pros take spin off rather than adding it

🟢 The disruptor brands worth knowing about, including Takomo, Vice, Kayleigh, Decathlon, Seed and Costco's Kirkland line, plus a tip on getting them custom fit after purchase

🟢 UK Golf Guy summer green fees report: https://ukgolfguy.com

🟢 St Andrews Links "The Drive" ballot scheme (Old Course £45, Eden £10, Castle £23.75, etc): https://www.standrews.com

🟢 Scott Fawcett (referenced from last week's interview)

🟢 Cleveland RTZ wedge (58 degree) and Cleveland CBZ wedge (48 degree)

🟢 TaylorMade Stealth irons: https://www.taylormadegolf.com

🟢 Dave Pelz, "The Short Game Bible" (book)

🟢 Takomo irons (101 MkII): https://takomogolf.com

🟢 Vice Golf clubs and balls: https://www.vicegolf.com

🟢 Kayleigh Golf (Scottish brand, assembled in Scotland): https://caleygolf.com/

🟢 Decathlon golf irons: https://www.decathlon.co.uk

🟢 Costco Kirkland Signature golf clubs and balls: https://www.costco.co.uk

🟢 Seed Golf balls: https://www.seedgolf.co.uk

🟢 MotoCaddy M5 GPS electric trolley: https://www.motocaddy.com

🟢 Royal Dornoch Pairs Tournament: https://royaldornoch.com

🟢 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow

🟢 R&A and USGA ball rollback (set for 2028)

🟢 Both Sides of Par newsletter: https://bothpar.com

🟢 Get in touch: hello@bothpar.com

Machrihanish Golf Club Texas Scramble

Saturday 19th September

Near Campbeltown, Argyll

Texas Scramble format (teams of four)

£80 per team (£20 per player)

36 handicap limit

One of Scotland's most spectacular and remote courses, and on Colin's own bucket list. Worth the long drive west.

00:00 Welcome and a shout-out to last week's Scott Fawcett interview

00:56 Colin cuts his handicap from 28 to 24 with a medal win

03:07 What worked: smart play, five iron off the tee, and consistent putting

05:55 The Texas wedge and lag putting from off the green

08:43 Ross's four-birdie nine holes and his countdown routine

12:33 UK Golf Guy's summer green fees report and the eye-watering numbers

18:33 St Andrews' "The Drive" ballot and affordable tee times

20:35 The Eden Course as a hidden gem and the aura of the Old Course

24:35 Colin's new Cleveland RTZ and CBZ wedges and the lighter shaft theory

28:06 Filling the wedge gap with a proper lob wedge

30:55 Dave Pelz's clock system and the case for three-quarter shots

34:43 Disruptor brands: Takomo, Vice, Kayleigh, Decathlon, Kirkland

39:53 Vice and Seed balls and the cost of losing Pro V1s

41:11 MotoCaddy M5 GPS trolley review

44:05 PGA Championship preview

45:14 The R&A and USGA ball rollback debate

47:41 Jordan Spieth's Grand Slam shot and Scheffler's US Open hunt

48:32 Weekly competition: Machrihanish Texas Scramble

49:31 Outro and how to get in touch

Colin and Ross sit down with Scott Fawcett, the brain behind the DECADE Course Management System and the man who caddied for a then unknown Will Zalatoris when he won the Texas Amateur and the US Junior back in 2014. Scott has worked in some capacity with roughly a third of the PGA Tour, holds three quantitative degrees, and once played pro golf himself, which is how he discovered the unromantic but inconvenient truth that the lads at the very top are not just better ball strikers, they are also far better thinkers. He brings all of that to a conversation pitched squarely at the two sides of the par.

Things kick off in the most heretical place possible: putting. Scott makes the case that leaving some putts short from fifteen feet and beyond is not a sin, it is maths, and that speed control alone fixes the vast majority of bad putting rounds. From there the conversation opens out into the full DECADE philosophy. Why the flag is the biggest distraction in golf, why bogey avoidance drives lower scores far more than chasing birdies (the fractional bogey idea alone is worth the price of admission), how Ross genuinely saved shots by swapping driver for a five wood off one tee at his home course, and how big your shot pattern actually is when you are honest about it, even on a Tour pro's sand wedge.

The chat rounds out with strategy from the trees (Scott's lovely framing of adversity versus opportunity), why nearly every Tour player now owns one shape off the tee rather than working it both ways, and the mental side of all of this, including Scott's confession that he used to be the worst hothead in professional golf. He finishes with his single biggest tip for the twenty plus handicap brigade, and it is simpler than you would expect.

🟢 Scott explains the maths of capture size and why hitting a putt two feet past the hole actually makes the cup 55% smaller, with stories from his Friday wolf game to back it up

🟢 The two foot circle drill: Scott's go to speed control practice routine from 20 to 30 feet, and the college player who fixed his three putt problem in a fortnight by doing nothing else

🟢 The Will Zalatoris hole in one at the US Open, where Scott was less interested in the shot itself and more interested in the fact that the flag was not Will's target. Seven yards right was

🟢 The fractional bogey theory: why a double is two and a half times worse than a bogey, not twice as bad, and why Scottie Scheffler's run of wins came mostly from bogey avoidance rather than extra birdies

🟢 Ross's real world example of swapping driver for a five wood off the back tee on a 340 yard par four at his home course, going from half a shot above par to making pars on average

🟢 Scott's one tip for higher handicappers in the closing minutes: have a very clear, visualised intention on every single shot, and be willing to say it out loud

🟢 Scott Fawcett's DECADE Course Management System: https://decade.golf

🟢 DECADE Golf on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decade_golf

🟢 The DECADE app (available in the App Store)

🟢 DECADE Breaking 90, Scott's upcoming app aimed at 15 to 25 handicappers

🟢 Will Zalatoris, PGA Tour player and Scott's original guinea pig back in 2014

🟢 Mark Broadie's book Every Shot Counts, the foundational text on Strokes Gained

🟢 Raymond Floyd's book The Art of Scoring

🟢 Lou Stagner, Scott's go to source for amateur golf data

00:00 Welcome and intro to the show

00:34 Scott Fawcett joins Colin and Ross

01:25 Why leaving putts short isn't a sin

04:26 The college putting problem and capture size

07:18 The two foot circle drill for speed control

11:09 Cam Smith and the mindset of not trying to make putts

12:48 What DECADE actually stands for

16:14 The cardiologist analogy: is DECADE only for elites?

20:19 Course management for the mid 20s handicap

20:51 Why the flag is the biggest distraction in golf

25:07 Ross swaps driver for a five wood and saves shots

26:28 The fractional bogey theory

31:42 Should different handicaps approach the same pin differently?

34:33 Shot patterns and the 20 yard circle

37:39 Owning one shape off the tee, and the Rory question

43:06 Strategy in the trees: adversity or opportunity

49:01 The mental side of course management

55:18 Scott's one tip for the higher handicapper

58:48 Where to find Scott online

We'd love to hear your feedback - what can we improve about the show? What do you want to stay the same? Email us at: hello@bothpar.com

This week on Both Sides of Par, Colin reports back from a lads' golf trip to Portugal, where he tackled three courses near Cascais including the stunning Oitavos Dunes, a links-style track with greens so fast they left everyone slightly traumatised. Despite scores north of 100 (those courses were hard, OK?), Colin found himself putting smart golf strategy into practice for real, laying up with a trusty 7-iron from 200 yards during match play and actually winning his singles match. He even unleashed the driver on the final two holes and sent one 304 yards dead straight down the fairway!

Meanwhile, Ross has been quietly rebuilding his putting routine around a countdown technique he picked up from a sports psychologist. The idea is simple: count down from 10 as you walk to the ball, take your practice stroke at 5, and pull the trigger on 1. It sounds almost too easy, but a friend he played with recently commented on how relaxed his stroke looked, and Ross was sinking putts from all over the place. He has also been seeing real results from his winter speed training, getting his 8-iron ball speed up to 118-120 within just a few swings and accessing 165 ball speed with the driver comfortably. A pre-round warm-up routine involving a 5kg medicine ball, therabands, and arriving 45 minutes early is paying off in a big way.

The lads wrap up with this week's open competition at Cardross Golf Club near Glasgow, a course Ross describes as a mini Augusta, and put the call out for listener feedback on what they want to hear more of going forward. Email in at hello@bothpar.com.

🟢 Colin's Portugal golf trip review: three courses near Lisbon, including the spectacular Oitavos Dunes with its terrifyingly fast greens and stunning par 3s over cliffs and ravines

🟢 Smart golf in action: Colin laid up with a 7-iron from 200 yards on six to eight holes during match play, saved strokes, and won his singles match against a 6-handicapper

🟢 Ross's 10-to-1 countdown putting routine: a simple mental technique that blocks out overthinking, keeps you calm, and has transformed his consistency on the greens

🟢 Speed training gains: Ross can now access 170+ ball speed within 10-12 balls and his 8-iron ball speed has jumped from 112 to 118-120, all thanks to consistent winter work and a med ball warm-up

🟢 Colin pulls the driver out after keeping it in the bag all day and smashes it 304 yards straight down the middle, outdriving a 5-handicap playing partner

🟢 Oitavos Dunes Golf Course, Cascais, Portugal - oitavosdunes.com

🟢 Campos de Golf Peña Longa, Sintra, Portugal - penhalonga.com

🟢 Club de Golf Quinta da Marinha, Cascais, Portugal - quintadamarinha.com

🟢 TaylorMade Stealth Driver (Colin's current driver)

🟢 5kg Medicine Ball (bouncing type, for pre-round warm-up)

🟢 Therabands (for range warm-up stretches)

🟢 Claude Tarmann - mentioned for course management and smart golf strategy

🟢 Ryan Chrysler - mentioned alongside smart golf strategy discussion

🟢 Mark Immelman Podcast - referenced for a sports psychologist episode on the countdown technique for clearing your mind

🟢 Cardross Golf Club - cardrossgolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Windy Hill Golf Club - mentioned alongside Cardross, with pro David Orr praised for junior and ladies development

🟢 Blinkby Golf Podcast - Ross's other podcast, mentioned in connection with David Orr

Cardross Golf Club is this week's open pick. Located just over the Erskine Bridge, northwest of Glasgow, Ross calls it a mini Augusta and says he has never heard anyone say a bad word about the place. The open takes place on Saturday 13th June, it is a pairs event with a handicap limit of 25.8 and costs £35 per person (£70 per pair). A great excuse to grab a mate, play a beautiful course, and maybe win a prize.

00:00 Welcome to Both Sides of Par

02:35 Colin's Golf Trip to Portugal

05:20 The Three Courses: Peña Longa, Oitavos Dunes and Quinta da Marinha

07:37 Oitavos Dunes: Stunning Par 3s and Lightning-Fast Greens

09:26 Playing in the Wind: Ross's Simple Low Shot Technique

15:19 Ryder Cup Style Match Play in Portugal

16:52 Smart Golf in Action: Laying Up with a 7-Iron from 200 Yards

21:16 Scores, Slope Ratings and Managing Expectations on Foreign Courses

25:29 Colin Unleashes the Driver: 304 Yards Straight

27:52 Portugal Course Reviews and Recommendations

30:21 Ross's Early Season Form: Process Over Results

32:36 The Countdown Putting Routine: 10 Down to 1

39:06 Speed Training Progress and Ball Speed Gains

42:38 The Pre-Round Med Ball Warm-Up Routine

44:09 Open Competition: Cardross Golf Club

46:40 Listener Feedback and Sign Off

Colin and Ross are back with a spring-in-the-air episode that finds both of them actually getting outside for a change (Scotland hitting double figures apparently counts as tropical). Colin, flying the flag for the high handicappers, reports back on the swing drills he's been grinding through at home, specifically the towel-under-the-armpits connection drill and the now-infamous chair-behind-the-backside drill to stop his Elvis-style hip thrust. Spoiler: both feel deeply, profoundly weird, but Ross talks him through why forcing the extreme is actually the point. Colin is also off to Portugal for his annual British Invitational, sporting a freshly chopped handicap of 21, and he's wrestling with the classic dilemma of whether to bring his half-built new swing on holiday or just leave it in the suitcase.

Ross then walks through his first medal of the year, played in 25mph winds on firm greens, where he managed level par by fully committing to his pre-shot routine and, more importantly, his new Claude Harmon-inspired par 5 strategy. Three-wood off every par 5 with water, including a 605-yarder, and somehow he got inside 100 yards for his third shot every single time without a driver in hand. He breaks down the whole thing hole by hole, along with his full pre-shot routine (diaphragm breathing and all) for Colin to nick. There's also a proper dive into travel bags for flying with clubs, the new Cleveland wedges Ross is waiting on, and a rundown of pairs comps they're eyeing up around Dumfries and Galloway, Southerness, and the brilliant-sounding Spey Bay summer solstice event where you can tee off at 4am.

The back half is pure Masters chat. Both lads watched most of it, loved the finish, and get into Rory's near-collapse, Justin Rose's missing intensity compared to last year, the mixed feelings about Cam Young and Scheffler's robotic energy, and Shane Lowry's hole-in-one that Sky replayed roughly every twenty minutes. They close out with the Colville Park open and Colin getting very excited about the new season of Full Swing landing the next day.

🟢 Why the chair-behind-the-bum drill feels like being in a straight jacket, and why Ross reckons that's exactly the point when you're trying to kill a swing fault

🟢 Ross's full par 5 masterclass, including why three-wood off a 605-yard hole left him wedging in for his third shot (and how driver had been costing him for years on the same hole)

🟢 A proper step-by-step walkthrough of Ross's pre-shot routine, from the practice swing behind the ball through the diaphragm breathing to the open-shoulder alignment trick

🟢 The travel bag rabbit hole, hard cases versus soft cases versus the hybrid Amazon special Colin took a punt on for his Portugal trip

🟢 Masters post-mortem, including the Cam Young emotionless debate, why Justin Rose looked flat compared to last year, and Shane Lowry's 7th at Pebble and 17th at Sawgrass hole-in-one collection

🟢 Claude Harmon's podcast, referenced for his par 5 strategy advice about removing stress and big numbers, available at most podcast platforms: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/son-of-a-butch-with-claude-harmon/id1561803455

🟢 Cleveland Golf wedges, which Ross has on order https://www.clevelandgolf.com

🟢 Southerness Golf Club in Dumfries and Galloway, former Open qualifying venue https://www.southernessgolfclub.com

🟢 Spey Bay Golf Club and their summer solstice exhibition weekend on June 21st, with tickets from £180 to £300 https://www.speybaygolfclub.com

🟢 Royal Dornoch (the Struie course), mentioned from a previous trip https://royaldornoch.com

🟢 Gatehouse, Kirkcudbright, and Dalbeattie courses in the Dumfries and Galloway area

🟢 Full Swing on Netflix, new season landing the day after recording

🟢 The towel-under-the-armpits drill for swing connection and the chair-behind-the-backside drill for early extension

🟢 Both Sides of Par website and email https://bothpar.com and hello@bothpar.com

🟢 Colville Park Golf Club Open, Motherwell, Sunday 2nd August. A James Braid designed course with a tough opening stretch including a 200-yard par 3 and a couple of 400-yarders. 28 handicap limit, £15 per person. Format not specified on the show, contact the club for details https://www.colvilleparkgolfclub.com

00:00 Intro and who's actually the high handicapper

01:30 Swing drill update, towels, gloves and the chair behind the bum

07:30 Portugal trip prep and the British Invitational

11:45 Ross's first medal of the year in 25mph winds

14:00 Par 5 strategy, three-wood everywhere and removing the stress

20:30 Pre-shot routine broken down step by step

25:30 Indoor sims, Inverness update and winter practice

27:30 Travel bags for flying with clubs

30:45 Cleveland wedges incoming

31:30 Planning pairs comps, Dumfries & Galloway and Spey Bay solstice

35:30 Masters recap, Rory, Rose and the Saturday wobble that never came

40:00 Cam Young, Scheffler and the emotionless player debate

42:00 Shane Lowry's hole-in-one collection

44:00 Colville Park weekly open

45:15 Full Swing season drop and sign off

In this episode of Both Sides of Par, Colin and Ross bring in a special guest, Bruce, for a deep dive into golf from every angle of the handicap spectrum. What starts as a casual catch-up turns into a fascinating journey through golf-mad childhoods, living on top of legendary courses, and the bizarre paths that lead players from early obsession to scratch (and beyond).

They swap stories about growing up surrounded by golf at places like Lahinch, obsessively grinding (or avoiding grinding) through the teenage years, and the reality of chasing elite handicap levels in competitive Scottish golf culture. From bouncing balls on wedges for hours to brutal club match formats and the elusive journey from scratch to plus, it’s part nostalgia, part insight, and all golf chaos in the best way.

A relaxed, funny, and surprisingly deep look at what shapes golfers — and why no two journeys ever look the same.

Colin and Ross are back with a practice-heavy episode that covers everything from AI assisted swing diagnosis to the ongoing plague of slow play in modern golf. Colin kicks things off by sharing his weekend project of rigging up a massive monitor in his shed so he can actually see his launch monitor data while hitting balls. He then walks through the results of feeding all his swing data into Claude AI and getting back a proper diagnosis. Turns out he's been steepening the club halfway back and recovering with some Elvis style hip thrusts, which explains the two way miss pattern that's been haunting him. Ross plays the role of curious coach throughout, asking all the right questions about what goes wrong and how it shows up on the course.

Ross shares his own progress with the drills from Scott Borman, including a hilarious moment where he realised he'd been aiming 50 yards right of the green after changing his foot position. Colin has a matching story about training himself to aim 30 yards right because of a fence post on his practice mat, proving that even with all the tech in the world, the basics will humble you every time. The lads then get into a proper rant about slow play on the PGA Tour after Matt Fitzpatrick called out his playing partners, which spirals nicely into how recreational golf has slowed from three hours 45 to four and a half hours and what that's doing to club culture.

They wrap up with Ross teasing next week's topic on proper pre round warm up routines involving medicine balls and Therabands, plus a weekly competition recommendation that's a lot easier on the wallet than the £600 Dornoch entry they mentioned off camera.

🟢 Colin's DIY outdoor practice setup using a spare monitor, extension cables, and a shed, giving him full launch monitor visibility without dragging a laptop outside every time

🟢 A complete breakdown of early extension, including how to spot it in your own swing using nothing more than a chair or an alignment stick behind your backside

🟢 Chris Ryan's pitching wedge heel drill that gives you an instant visual cue when you're thrusting forward in the downswing

🟢 Ross's back to basics alignment fix after realising he was aiming 50 yards right of the flag despite all his recent coaching work

🟢 A proper discussion on slow play, Matt Fitzpatrick calling out his playing partners, and how etiquette habits like bag placement can save you 10 minutes a round

🟢 GS Pro launch monitor software - https://gsprogolf.com

🟢 Swing Coach app for swing analysis and numerical scoring of swing faults - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/swing-coach-golf/id6739074629

🟢 Claude AI - used by Colin as a personal golf coach project - https://claude.ai

🟢 Chris Ryan Golf on YouTube - source of the pitching wedge heel drill - https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisRyanGolf

🟢 Scott Borman - Ross's coach providing ongoing lesson drills

🟢 Trackman Range and Trackman app - https://www.trackman.com

🟢 Medicine ball and Therabands for pre round warm up routines

🟢 Matt Fitzpatrick's Valspar Championship win and Players Championship interview on slow play

🟢 Full Swing on Netflix - where Colin first got to know Matt Fitzpatrick

🟢 Royal Birkdale - referenced for their on course pace of play clock system

🟢 Burntisland Golf Club Gents Open

🟢 Location: Burntisland, Fife, Scotland

🟢 Date: 1st August

🟢 Format: Gents Open with a handicap limit of 28

🟢 Cost: £20 entry, described as roughly 50% off the standard green fee

00:00 Welcome and cold snap golf frustrations

01:28 Colin's outdoor monitor and launch monitor setup

03:33 Feeding swing data into Claude AI for a full diagnosis

04:22 The steep backswing and early extension explained

06:30 Breaking down the two way miss

08:46 Connected takeaway drills with towels and gloves

11:14 Feet together swings

12:04 The chair and alignment stick drill for hip thrust

14:00 Chris Ryan's pitching wedge heel drill

18:00 Setting a two month practice plan and measuring progress

20:15 Ross's speed training update with Scott Borman

24:37 Teasing next week's pre round warm up topic

26:24 Matt Fitzpatrick wins and calls out slow play on the PGA Tour

30:01 How slow play is killing club culture

35:15 Ready golf, etiquette, and bag placement habits

38:24 Ross's 50 yard alignment disaster

41:01 Colin's fence post aiming story

43:14 Weekly competition: Burntisland Gents Open

As the weather finally turns and the golf season edges closer, Colin and Ross dive into the excitement (and frustrations) of getting back on the course after a long, wet winter. They chat about early-season conditions, upcoming competitions, and the reality of shaking off rust.

Ross shares insights from a recent lesson and opens up about the challenge of managing emotions on the course - highlighting how mindset can make or break a round. The conversation also turns to goal-setting for the year, including a big ambition: Open Qualifying.

A mix of practical strategy, honest reflection, and pre-season optimism - perfect for any golfer gearing up for the months ahead.

In this episode of Both Sides of Par, Ross takes Colin behind the scenes of a visit to the European headquarters of Srixon. From walking into a building covered in a giant image of Shane Lowry to seeing signed tour bags from Hideki Matsuyama, the experience felt like a golfer’s version of Willy Wonka’s factory.

Ross shares what actually happens inside a professional custom-fitting facility: how shafts, grips, and club heads are selected, how swing characteristics affect the build, and how thousands of custom orders from across Europe are assembled every week. The conversation dives into the surprising amount of detail that goes into matching a golf club to a player’s swing, from shaft stiffness and length to lie angles and materials.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens after a club fitting—or how tour-level equipment gets built—this episode pulls back the curtain on the process and the people behind it.

This week on Both Sides of Par, Colin and Ross explore what really happens to your golf game during the winter months — and why the cold, wet season might actually be your biggest opportunity to improve.

From course closures and muddy fairways to the unseen importance of drainage systems, they unpack why some courses survive heavy weather while others struggle. There’s also a deeper look at how course design and maintenance influence play far more than most golfers appreciate.

Alongside that, they discuss smart ways to practice when conditions aren’t ideal, and how focusing on the right areas now can pay off massively when spring arrives.

If you’ve ever wondered why your local course floods, why temporary greens appear, or how to keep progressing when the weather’s against you — this episode is packed with insight, realism, and practical takeaways.

In this episode of Both Sides of Par, Colin and Ross tackle the realities of winter golf in the UK - relentless rain, course closures, and why some layouts cope far better than others.

They dive into the often-overlooked science of golf course drainage, sharing insights from a greenkeeper’s perspective and exploring why what’s beneath your feet matters more than most golfers realise.

Plus, they get into this week’s practice focus, discussing how everyday golfers can make meaningful improvements even when the weather (and the course conditions) aren’t playing ball.

Whether you’re battling clay-based fairways or lucky enough to play on free-draining sand, this episode is all about understanding the game beyond the scorecard - and finding ways to keep progressing, whatever your handicap.

Let us know what you want from the show! Email us at hello@bothpar.com, as tell us:

• What parts do you want more of?
• What do you want less of?
• What else could we cover that would make the show unmissable for you?

Thanks!

On today's episode:

• Why Hitting Fewer Balls Could Transform Your Practice Sessions
• The £15 Training Aid That's Actually Worth Using (SimStick Review)
• How One Scottish Course Uses Dramatic Elevation to Create Unforgettable Holes
• Winter Golf Tournament Formats That Keep You Motivated Through the Dark Months

Colin and Ross kick off the episode with Colin sharing his exciting move to Muir of Ord Golf Course on the Black Isle. He's particularly drawn to their winter tournament series—a weekly Sunday competition running through the coldest months where players accumulate Stableford points for a season trophy. The course itself sounds like a gem, with two distinct halves separated by a railway track: one side relatively flat with interesting tree-lined doglegs, the other featuring dramatic elevation changes including two par threes with 50-100 foot drops and one hole that climbs back up, leaving Colin baffled about club selection even though it's barely 100 yards.

The conversation shifts to Ross's recent revelation about practice quality. After struggling with consistency despite logging plenty of range hours, he's discovered that hitting 30-40 intentional shots beats mindlessly working through 100 balls. This sparks a discussion about the SimStick—a simple but effective training aid that's been helping both hosts work on swing path and strike quality. They compare it to alternatives like the Divot Board and Tour Striker Smart Ball, debating the merits of each for different aspects of practice. Colin admits he's still getting value from working through strike issues with his irons, while Ross emphasizes how the SimStick provides immediate feedback without the faff of more complex training tools.

The episode wraps with a chat about golf balls (Colin's experiment with Srixon Q-Star Divide's half-orange, half-yellow design mostly taught him that new balls just feel nice, even if they don't actually perform differently), before Ross shares two fantastic competition opportunities in Cornwall. Both are on Sunday, May 24th: an open at the stunning coastal Carlion Bay for just £27, and a 36-hole better ball at West Cornwall Golf Club in St Ives for £120 per pair. The lads make a compelling case for a spring golf trip to England's southwest corner.

00:00 Introduction and welcome

03:30 Colin's new club at Muir of Ord

08:45 Winter tournament format and course description

15:20 Muir of Ord's dramatic elevation changes

19:10 Ross's practice quality breakthrough

26:35 SimStick training aid discussion

34:50 Comparing training aids: SimStick vs Divot Board vs Smart Ball

41:15 Golf ball chat and Srixon Q-Star Divide experiment

45:00 Cornwall competitions: Carlion Bay and West Cornwall Golf Club

Let us know what you want from the show! Email us at hello@bothpar.com, as tell us:

• What parts do you want more of?
• What do you want less of?
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Colin and Ross kick off with another cracking competition find – a three-person team event at Cleveland Golf Club in Yorkshire that has Colin planning a road trip from Newcastle to Edinburgh. Both lads are sporting their new Druids ambassador gear and share first impressions (spoiler: impressed, especially for the price). Colin finally retired his 20-year-old Cleveland Launcher after his son broke it, and a trip to the local shop turned into a TaylorMade Stealth purchase – the numbers were just too good to ignore, even if it didn't feel quite as sweet as the QI 35. Ross, meanwhile, is fully committed to Ping life and loving his G430 LST driver after some early teething issues.

The practice chat is gold this week. Ross put Episode 4's mental game advice into real action during a one-under round, proving that staying calm mid-wobble actually works. Colin discovered through impact stickers that he's been addressing his driver wrong for years – a simple six-inch step back fixed his heel strikes entirely. Ross talks speed training progress (174 ball speed, not bad), and they wrap up chatting about watching golf on TV. Full Swing gets a strong recommendation if you haven't seen it yet.

🟢 Colin tests two drivers in-store and goes with feel vs numbers – the TaylorMade Stealth wins despite not feeling as "sweet" because it added 20 yards

🟢 Ross applies the mental game strategies from Episode 4 during a real round and shoots one under, proving the mindset work actually pays off

🟢 Impact stickers reveal Colin's been hitting off the heel for years – a simple setup change fixes it instantly

🟢 Both hosts unbox their Druids ambassador packs and share honest first impressions on quality vs price

🟢 Speed training update: Ross is back up to 174 ball speed and 118.5 club head speed after some winter rust

🟢 Cleveland Golf Club, Yorkshire – the only true natural links in Yorkshire, bookable online https://www.clevelandgolfclub.co.uk

🟢 Happy Golf – competition search tool Ross used to find the three-person event https://www.happygolf.co.uk

🟢 Druids Golf – affordable golf clothing brand, ambassador packs available https://www.druidsgolf.com

🟢 TaylorMade Stealth Driver – Colin's new driver purchase with adjustable weight and loft

🟢 TaylorMade QI 35 Driver – tested but not purchased, very forgiving feel

🟢 Ping G430 LST Driver – Ross's current driver choice

🟢 Ping G425 3-Wood – Ross's fairway wood, highly recommended

🟢 Inverness Golf Centre – local shop with Trackman fitting bay

🟢 How Did I Do – online booking system used by many UK golf clubs https://www.howdidido.com

🟢 Impact Stickers – strike location training aid for club faces

🟢 Trackman – launch monitor used for fitting and speed training

🟢 Therabands – resistance bands for golf warm-up and flexibility

🟢 Full Swing (Netflix) – golf documentary series, highly recommended https://www.netflix.com/title/81483353

🟢 Golfing Gray YouTube Channel – Colin's channel with Druids unboxing video coming soon

🟢 Cleveland Golf Club – Redcar, Yorkshire

The only true natural links course in Yorkshire, right on the waterfront. Ross found this three-person team event perfect for Colin's family golf trip with his dad and brother.

Format: Three-person team event

Cost: £22 per visitor

Booking: Online via How Did I Do through the club website

Access: Two train changes from Inverness, one change from most mainline stations. Airbnb options available nearby including beachfront accommodation.

00:00 Welcome to Both Sides of Par

00:50 Competition Challenge: Finding a Three-Person Team Event

03:30 Planning a Golf Road Trip: Cleveland to Edinburgh

05:25 Druids Ambassador Pack Unboxing and First Impressions

10:50 Colin's Driver Upgrade: TaylorMade Stealth vs QI 35

18:15 Ross's Ping G430 LST Driver Update

21:50 Mental Game Breakthrough: Staying Calm Mid-Round

27:45 Tiger Woods' "Box" Technique for Managing Emotions

30:00 Putting Practice Games and Scoring Systems

31:05 Impact Stickers: Finding Your Strike Pattern

35:45 Speed Training Progress and Trackman Sessions

39:40 Watching Golf on TV: What's Worth Your Time

43:15 Full Swing Netflix Documentary Recommendation

45:30 The PGA vs LIV Discussion

50:40 Listener Feedback Request and Outro

Let us know what you want from the show! Email us at hello@bothpar.com, as tell us:

• What parts do you want more of?
• What do you want less of?
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Colin and Ross brave the Scottish winter to discuss everything from broken driver faces to AI-powered golf coaches. Colin shares his experience switching from TaylorMade to Ping after his QI35 driver gave up the ghost (again), while Ross opens up about creative ways to practice when you're snowed in. The duo dives deep into golf technology—from rangefinders and GPS watches to AI swing analysis apps that could change how you practice. Plus, Ross shares a brilliant story about staying in the Gary Player Suite at Carnoustie for just £50, and they discuss why measuring outcomes beats obsessing over swing mechanics.

Chapters:

00:00 - Welcome & Weather Update

03:30 - Carnoustie Course Review & The £50 Gary Player Suite Story

08:50 - New Club Review: Switching from TaylorMade to Ping

18:45 - Winter Practice Tips & Putting Mat Games

26:30 - Golf Tech on the Course: Rangefinders, Watches & Apps

34:30 - AI in Golf: Caddies, Rules & Swing Analysis Apps

41:30 - Competition Corner: Team Events Worth Entering

46:45 - Wrap-Up

Let us know what you want from the show! Email us at hello@bothpar.com, as tell us:

• What parts do you want more of?
• What do you want less of?
• What else could we cover that would make the show unmissable for you?

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Ross and Colin check in on their golf weeks, with Ross bringing tales of solid scoring at his home course Wokefield—carding a couple under and one under par despite a few mid-round wobbles. Meanwhile, Colin admits to a complete golf drought this week, not even picking up a club, which naturally leads into a candid conversation about the eternal struggle of building practice into daily routines when motivation runs low.

The lads dig into winter golf realities, from muddy lies and temporary tees to the ongoing debate about whether courses down south use mats on fairways (spoiler: they mostly don't need to). Ross shares his latest putting practice revelations, including a structured drill he's borrowed from the internet that's transformed his green-reading approach. They also tackle the mysteries of the World Handicap System—breaking down course ratings, slope, and why your handicap behaves differently on easier versus tougher tracks.

The episode wraps with Ross presenting two absolute belters for competition lovers: Brora Golf Club's five-day open in August and Tain Golf Week's various formats. The conversation touches on everything from Ross's mental approach to scoring rounds, to Colin's quest for better practice habits, to whether five consecutive days of golf would leave you knackered or energized.

🟢 Ross shoots two under par at Wokefield and reveals his secret to not letting mid-round mistakes derail the score—finishing with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18

🟢 Colin opens up about struggling to build golf practice into his routine and the conversation explores practical approaches to habit-building when motivation is lacking

🟢 Deep breakdown of how the World Handicap System actually works—course rating, slope index, and why your handicap changes based on the difficulty of the course you're playing

🟢 Ross shares a structured putting practice drill he found online that combines distance control, green reading, and scoring to create meaningful practice sessions

🟢 The reality of playing five consecutive days of golf during competitions and whether it's exhausting or exhilarating (Ross has done it and shares his experience)

🟢 Wokefield Golf Club, Reading (Ross's home course)

🟢 broragolfclub.co.uk (Brora Golf Club website for five-day open competition)

🟢 tain-golfclub.co.uk (Tain Golf Club website for golf week competitions)

🟢 World Handicap System (WHS) resources for understanding course rating and slope

🟢 Royal Dornoch Golf Club (mentioned in context of Ross's previous five-day golf trip)

🟢 Lanark Golf Course (played on Ross's trip to Scotland)

🟢 Brora Bridge and Castle Highland courses (mentioned from Ross's Scotland trip)

🟢 Brora Golf Club Five Day Open

Location: Brora, Scotland

Date: August 3-7

Format: Five-day competition with match play stages and guaranteed rounds even if knocked out

Cost: £190 for visitors

🟢 Tain Golf Week

Location: Tain, Scotland

Dates: Available on website

Format Options: Four-day competition (£90), Ladies two-day (£25 per person)

Website: tain-golfclub.co.uk

00:00 Intro and Weekly Golf Recap

03:00 Ross's Scoring Rounds at Wokefield

08:00 Winter Golf Conditions and Course Setup

14:00 Competition Practice vs Casual Rounds

19:00 Ross's Putting Practice Drill

29:00 Understanding the World Handicap System

38:00 Course Rating, Slope, and Handicap Calculations

45:00 Colin's Practice Routine Struggles

48:00 Building Better Practice Habits

50:00 Weekly Competitions: Brora and Tain

54:00 Listener Feedback Request and Wrap-Up

Let us know what you want from the show! Email us at hello@bothpar.com, as tell us:

• What parts do you want more of?
• What do you want less of?
• What else could we cover that would make the show unmissable for you?

Thanks!

Colin and Ross kick off this week's episode with Colin fresh off the course after sneaking in seven holes at Inverness Golf Club during a rare sunny winter morning. The lads dive into an interesting discussion about playing the back nine more often than the front nine - something Ross did religiously when he first joined his club, inadvertently creating a massive advantage when it came to course management on those holes. Colin shares a hilarious accidental GoPro capture of his teenage son literally sleeping on the fairway mid-round, which perfectly sums up the reality of playing golf with teenagers.

The conversation shifts into serious practice territory as both hosts get deep into their winter training routines. Ross walks Colin through his impressive home putting setup, covering everything from basic putting mats to high-tech options like PuttView that can adjust green speeds and simulate slopes. They discuss the merits of putting mirrors for checking eye position and shoulder alignment, debate whether you need to spend big money on practice equipment (spoiler: you don't), and explore how to build an effective practice routine when you can't get out on the course. Ross even reveals his DIY approach to creating realistic practice putting greens at home, including cutting the actual shape of putts into carpet.

The episode wraps with Ross giving a quick plug for the Royal Deeside Golf Week coming up in July 2026 - a 72-hole stableford event across four stunning Scottish courses including Aboyne, Ballater, Banchory, and Braemar. It's the perfect blend of practical winter practice advice, relatable golf stories, and inspiration for future golf trips.

🟢 Ross reveals why playing the back nine three times as much as the front nine at his club gave him a massive course management advantage - and how you can use the same strategy to lower your scores

🟢 Colin accidentally captures his 13-year-old son literally sleeping on the fairway with a GoPro he forgot to turn off - the most relatable teenage golf moment ever

🟢 Detailed breakdown of Ross's home putting practice setup, from basic £15 mirrors to high-tech PuttView systems that simulate real green conditions and slopes

🟢 The truth about expensive practice equipment - why you don't need to break the bank to build an effective winter practice routine at home

🟢 Ross's DIY putting green hack: cutting the actual shape of breaking putts into your carpet to create realistic practice scenarios without spending thousands on synthetic greens

🟢 PuttView - High-tech putting training system with app integration, slope adjustment, and green speed simulation

🟢 Putting Mirrors - Available from £10-20 on Amazon, Putt Out version around £20 for checking eye position and shoulder alignment

🟢 Putting Mats - Various options discussed for home practice

🟢 Linked by Golf (Instagram / YouTube) - Ross's social media channels with practice tips and videos

🟢 Golfing Gray - Colin's Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok handle for amateur golf content

🟢 Royal Deeside Golf Week (royaldsidegolfweek.co.uk) - Multi-course tournament event in Scotland

🟢 Royal Deeside Golf Week

Location: Aberdeenshire, Scotland (Aboyne, Ballater, Banchory, and Braemar)

Date: July 19-24, 2026

Format: 72-hole Stableford across four different courses

Open to: Ladies and Gents

More info: royaldsidegolfweek.co.uk

00:00 Winter Golf at Inverness & Playing the Back Nine Strategy

08:12 The Accidental GoPro Footage of Colin's Sleeping Teenager

12:45 Why Ross Played the Back Nine Three Times More Than the Front

18:30 Winter Practice Routines & Staying Sharp Off the Course

25:15 Building a Home Putting Practice Setup

32:40 Putting Mats, Mirrors & Essential Practice Equipment

38:55 High-Tech Training: PuttView Technology Explained

45:20 DIY Putting Green Hacks That Actually Work

50:10 Royal Deeside Golf Week Competition Details

53:45 Where to Find Colin & Ross on Social Media

In this episode of Both Sides of Par, Colin (the high-handicapper) and Ross (the low-handicapper) dive into a week of extreme contrasts, from chasing professional-level clubhead speeds to navigating the literal "frozen" greens of the Scottish Highlands.

Whether you are looking for tips on speed training, debating the merits of a new driver, or looking for high-value course recommendations in Scotland, this episode covers the game from every angle of the handicap spectrum.

What’s Inside the Show This Week:

• The Quest for Speed: Ross shares his latest results from "swinging like a madman," hitting clubhead speeds of 120 mph and even a wild 130 mph during practice. He discusses why "freedom of motion" is often more important than control when trying to find extra yardage.
• The Winter Diary: Colin recounts a "game of two halves" at Muiravoord, where the first nine holes were played through thick frost before a sudden thaw changed the green speeds on every hole.
• The Driver Dilemma: With Colin’s driver officially "launched" (and broken) by his son, the guys discuss how to choose a replacement. Ross offers a "brand tour" of the best current options—including the Ping G430, TaylorMade Qi10, Titleist GT, and Srixon ZX—and explains why you should always test a driver on a range rather than just an indoor simulator.
• Field Experiments at Strathpeffer: Colin describes the "crazy" experience of playing Strathpeffer Spa Golf Club, home to a first hole with a massive elevation drop that might be a world record.
• The Pace of Play Debate: A look back at the "famous sheets" of the pro shop and why modern golf needs to embrace "Ready Golf" to get back to the three-hour rounds of the past.
• Ross’s Recommendations: High-value Senior Open entries for 2025, featuring Ratho Park, Royal Montrose, and the world-renowned Cruden Bay.

• Colin’s YouTube Channel: Search for Golfin McGray to see the drone footage of Strathpeffer Spa and Muiravoord.
• Ross' Instagram - search LinkedByGolf on IG.
• Gear Discussed: Payntr Mesh X001 shoes, MCC Align grips, and the TaylorMade Stealth/Qi10 series.

Want to add serious distance to your game? In this episode, Ross breaks down exactly how he increased his driver clubhead speed from 106 to 121 mph and gained 25-30 yards of carry distance—without changing his entire swing.

You'll discover the simple step drill that transforms swing speed, why the mental side of speed training matters as much as the physical, and how raising your ceiling automatically lifts your floor. Ross shares his complete journey from speed sticks to Project Harrington drills, including what worked (and what caused injury).

Plus: impact stickers that reveal exactly where you're striking the ball, a brilliant £100 weekend golf trip across three Scottish courses, and why getting feedback is the key to actually improving your game.

Whether you're a high handicapper looking to compete with longer hitters or just tired of being outdriven on every hole, this episode delivers practical strategies you can implement immediately.

Topics Covered: Speed training protocols, step drills explained, clubhead vs ball speed, the psychology of swinging faster, impact stickers review, Scottish golf trip recommendations, and more.

00:00 Introduction

00:58 Speed Training: How Ross Added 25-30 Yards

09:00 Speed Training Tools & Protocols

12:02 Garmin R10 Setup & Practice Routine

21:50 Using Claude AI as Your Golf Coach

25:07 Impact Stickers: Finding Your Strike Pattern

36:56 Scottish Golf Weekend: 3 Courses for £100

41:48 Wrap Up

In this podcast episode, Colin and Ross explore the vibrant and accessible world of open golf competitions in Scotland and around the UK. They highlight the financial benefits of participating in these events, allowing passionate golfers to play renowned courses at a fraction of the typical green fees. Key competitions and websites like happygolf.co.uk are discussed, along with personal anecdotes about the enriching experience of playing diverse courses and meeting new players. The conversation also touches on the benefits of playing in less-than-ideal weather and the joy of impromptu, peaceful rounds in the Scottish rain. Overall, it's a love letter to opportunistic golf enthusiasts.