Andy Johnson

A lot of simple architecture is great architecture, but if it's really windy and it's firm and it's fast turf...

You're able to put a bunker 10 yards in front of a green, and if it plays downwind a lot...

That bunker all of a sudden is right where you want it to be.

And if you did that in America, it wouldn't matter because you just fly it over it and you land on the green and whatever.

Everything has to be pushed up into the green.

And if you're talking about, especially, say, golf architecture in St.

Louis or Washington, D.C.,

Everything has to be geared towards aerial.

And I think the benefit of Scotland's situation, and I think it's similar with Ireland, is that you have aerial and ground game, where in certain situations, even the most aerial player, a Rory McIlroy or a Scotty Scheffler, have to land the ball short of the green.

And that makes just more golf architecture come alive, whether it's contouring, whether it's bunkers, like that changes the whole dynamic of like what a golf course could be.

And just that turf, the turf and the, the wind and the natural elements allow rudimentary architecture to play better than really sophisticated architecture in America without elements.

Yeah.

I think there's also something about Scotland where the way we experience it is you're kind of going out there and it feels like you don't know a lot sometimes about some of the courses you're going to.

And you're just looking for something.

And if you discover...

a couple things that you like about it, you feel this like gratifying feeling of like, yeah, it was awesome playing out here.

And I think part of the, some of that, it always goes back to like the turf, like the turf being the way it is and allowing you to hit all these different shots absolutely lends itself to you having a better experience out there.

So what's, what's next on your list?

I will contend that the most underrated golf trip is just you pick a weekend, especially for anybody on the East Coast.

You fly into Edinburgh.