Zotye is Ford’s new friend in China, companies signed a joint venture agreement to make cheap electric cars for the masses. Ford used to own Land Rover until they sold it on to Tata in 2008. So Zotye must have thought it was perfectly okay to ripoff the Range Rover Sport for their new flagship T800 SUV. The Zotye T800 will be launched on the Chinese car market next year, powered by a 200 hp 2.0 turbo and a ±250 hp 2.0 turbo hybrid. It will be positioned above the infamous Zotye SR9 Porsche Macan clone. The T800 marks the first time that Zotye rips off a Land Rover. But others went there already, most notably Landwind with the X7. The real thing. Zotye even cloned the fake air vents on the bonnet! The Range Rover Sport is imported into China. 114,000 - 350,000). The 5.0 is taxed extremely hard, and is therefore far more expensive than the 3.0 models. 27,300. That would make it the most expensive Zotye so far, but one would be able to buy four T800’s for the price of one Range Rover Sport 3.0 V6. Size wise they will be close to completely similar. This is the only pic we have of the interior of the T800. It does not appear to be ripped off of any Land Rover product, and still it looks somewhat familiar. The screen appears to be about 10 inches in diameter, the vents are located below the screen, and the aircon controls below that. The center tunnel looks rather nice with shiny black panels and shiny silver buttons.
Of course, they all were unanimous that this was an amazing itinerary and it was clear that my wife would be okay with me going as long as I was comfortable with the expense. So I started looking at flight costs. Things were also slightly complicated by the fact that my destination airport was going to be different from the departure airport. It took me close to 48 hours to make my final decision. Work was going to be okay and in fact, it was the PERFECT week for me to be away, as there would be no one else at the company taking vacation that week. My wife knows how hard I've been working for the past six months and the fact that I haven't been able to get away for any golf excursions all year perhaps made her sympathetic to my plight. So I bit the bullet, booked my flights and sent the email to the others, saying I was "IN". The result was unquestionably the greatest golf trip of my life, with an unrivaled collection of golf courses and experiences that I'll simply never forget.
I took a red-eye flight from Toronto direct to Glasgow and met up with Andrew, Matt and Steve S at the airport on Saturday morning August 12th, as we all had arrival times within a couple hours of each other. Western Gailes is an absolutely wonderful introduction to links golf, with appropriately wild terrain and where wind is always a factor due to the exposed nature of the course near the Firth of Clyde. Chris, Howard and Ed arrived via rental car and met us at the course after their morning round at the Old Course all the way on the other side of the country. We had a picture perfect day, with mild temperatures (approximately 17 degrees Celsius) and a crazy three-club wind that exposed any weaknesses in your ball striking. We finished off the day in the Western Gailes grill room with a couple drinks before heading to McCallum's Oyster Bar in Troon for a late dinner. Our accommodations for the first two days in Ayrshire were at the lovely Marine Hotel in Troon, located right alongside Troon's championship course, which incidentally we did not play during the trip.
Day two saw us meet up with our eighth member, Dan, who finally arrived after a brutal commute. We would venture south for 36 holes at historic Prestwick Golf Club, the birthplace of the Open Championship. We'd finish the night off with a nice dinner at Lido in Troon before heading back to the Marine Hotel for our final night in Ayrshire. The next morning, we packed up the coach and headed further down the coast. We'd be going from the oldest Open Championship venue to the newest, the exquisite Ailsa Course at Turnberry. In 2014, current American President Donald Trump purchased Turnberry for a bargain price and his surname now precedes the Turnberry name like every other course in his portfolio. Often called "the Pebble Beach of Scotland", almost everyone on our trip felt it is stronger from top to bottom than PB and we had some interesting discussions about where we'd rank it versus other courses on the trip.
To sum up, it's very, very good and unspeakably beautiful and played very tough in the weather we had. I played very well, making an eagle (!) and a birdie in my round of 79 (36-43). And the "Wee Links" (18 hole pitch and putt course at the foot of the imposing Trump Turnberry Hotel) was delightful. From there, we boarded the coach for the 2 1/2 hour drive to East Lothian and North Berwick, where we'd be staying for two nights at the MacDonald Marine Hotel, directly adjacent to the famed West Links. The club is unique for many reasons, one of which is due to the fact that the game most commonly played by members is foursomes, more commonly known as alternate shot. Muirfield is commonly ranked among the top five or ten courses in the world, with its distinctive routing and excellent bunkering being celebrated. Muirfield is unquestionably one of the finest experiences I've ever had in golf and the course may be the best I've played as well. Oh yeah - how did I play, you ask?
