I was lucky enough to play 'The Deuce' in late January 2023 on a trip to Florida and North Carolina. It was worth every second of the 537 mile, 9 or so hour drive to get the chance to play the courses which had already started gearing up for the 2024 US Open.

It was already clear that, from those pro tees, this would be a brute of a course and it's no surprise that one of the longest hitters in the game took the title at the end of the week.

Back to my round though and, although the course starts with a few relatively gentle par 4s from the mortals tee box, my driving took a few holes to get going so I struggled keep it on the (at that time of the year) dormant Bermuda grass.

Playing a course which has such brown fairways and dull green 'greens' can be a little unsettling for the first time but (as my caddie advised) the fairway turf is quite forgiving and the longer grass is even more forgiving than it would be in growing season.

The volume of sand - but complete absence of bunkers! - was another aspect which took some getting used to but this remains one of my absolute favourite experiences on a golf course in the US.

Sadly I didn't card a 2 which would have earned me one of the 'Deuce' coins from the pro shop (the closest I came was at the 6th when a putt grazed the cup and rolled on an agonising 2ft!) but one of my playing partners did (at the 15th) so we enjoyed tasting that in the bar afterwards.