Hillside Golf Club Review: Is This England’s Most Welcoming Top 100 Links?

The Journey And Hillside Setup

Nish 0:35

Every good story is about the journey. And this is the story of our journey trying to play the top 100 courses in the UK and Ireland in just 10 years. This is the top 100 in 10 golf podcast. Let’s put it this way, Jim. After that tee shot, I waited for the trains to pass before I hit again.

Chris 0:50

And then the 11th, the hole to it after that is also absolutely awesome haul. So that’s the elevated Tee.

Subscribe Request And Ireland Trip

Shock Sunshine And Course Conditions

Nish 0:55

Not a signature hole. We’ll definitely talk about that later, Jim. Oh mate, it was over at the Tee. It was all over at the Tee. It’s very rare that Chris is five shots before he’s even hit his second shot. Episode 66, The Hillside Review. So we played our first top 100 round of 2026. Took us both a little while to get going, unfortunately, but and we did rack up some pretty high scores early early doors. But once we got going, what a day we had. And this is a story of how that day went. But before we carry on, could I ask you, watching or listening out there, to please drop us a like or subscribe, whatever platform you’re watching or listening on. It really does help us. We’ve got some great content coming up in the next few weeks. And numbers and subscribers always helps with that. And before we do get into the meeting bones of the episode today, you probably will know that last week we announced a trip that we’re organising to go out to Ireland. We’ve been very vocal about the difficulties of getting on to play in Ireland. And we feel really lucky that we’ve been in a position where we can get teas all at all five clubs that we’re playing, but the Tee sheets are all full, and you can’t actually play in 2026 if you wanted to go and organise that yourself. So then when you couple that with you’re getting you’re staying in a five-star resort for the whole week, uh you’re getting busted about everywhere, so you don’t have to worry about your traveling transport, getting your clubs there, it’s all sorted. Uh and you’re with you with a group, there’s 16 of us going. Um we feel it hopefully feels like a trip of a lifetime, and it does feel like that to us. We can’t we can’t wait to get out there and and and play and play some of those amazing golf courses. So please check it out. There is a link uh to the trip itinerary and booking information and all that kind of stuff that is in our description. Uh so check it out. Uh, but let’s get back to the episode. So this started off it’s coming off the back of like the wettest winter since Noah, I think, this uh round of golf. And we have to start with the weather, Chris, don’t we?

Chris 3:11

Like, what was it looking like all week? I mean, it was just a continuation of last year, right? So, um, as as the frequent listeners will know, pretty much every time we’ve played so far, it has been glorious sunshine. So we were like, this time we’re starting in March, we’re starting in the northwest of England. There’s no fucking chance, absolutely no chance, we’re gonna continue that this year. What was it? Like 18 degrees, full sun, I’ve got a bit of sunburn on the forehead to prove it. Um crazy, wasn’t it?

Nish 3:44

Top 100 weather, mate. This was particularly uh important because it had been so wet everywhere, and I suppose that might just lead me into the first thing that I noticed about Hillside, and we commented on was the amazing condition.

Chris 4:01

It was yeah, it was mental. It was I mean, obviously it was a nice day, and it’d been a nice day for a few days before, but it was like bone dry, rolling fast, absolutely like the yeah, it was in such such incredible condition. Like the greens were absolutely rapid and perfect, fairways were just beautiful. It was yeah, I mean, nine times out of ten, you wouldn’t have got a better day in the in the middle of summer, to be honest. So, we did pretty well on our on our winter rates to to get that experience, I think.

Nish 4:30

We did, yeah. I mean, I suppose we we said it, didn’t we? We were like, you probably don’t get it better in the summer either, really, because it was lush. Yeah, uh, the greens were quite receptive, actually. You could fire it in and it wasn’t skipping on and things like that, which we might not do in the middle of June, July on a links golf course. So you’re probably not firing it right at the flag, are you? Um, but yeah, well, it was incredible, nick, that golf course.

Chris 4:56

Mentally good, it was, it really was.

The Welcome And Members Club Feel

Nish 4:58

Yeah. Um, so I suppose we’ll let’s we’ll try and keep to our structure for the first of the three episodes that we’ve had together, we’ll try and stick to it. So the first point I’ve got here is the welcome, the arrival, and our first impressions. So I’ll let you lead the way with that, Chris. What did you think of all of that?

Chris 5:16

Well, I mean, let’s start with a welcome, because I guess that was the first the first part of the day, right? Um what a welcome it was. I think I think the best welcome we’ve had so far, and we’ve done what was that, number 19 we’ve done. And I think it was probably head and shoulders above any welcome we’ve had so far. It was so friendly, so informative. Like, so we went into the pro shop, didn’t we? Um and we spoke to Steph. Steph, was it? Yeah.

Nish 5:44

I think I want to say.

Chris 5:46

And she was just brilliant, she was absolutely brilliant, wasn’t she? So she gave us all the information you could possibly want, just delivered in exactly the way you would want it to be. Um, you know, I think sometimes you can go in there and you feel a little bit like you not shouldn’t be there, or but you know, people don’t want you there as a visitor, but it was the complete opposite of that, right? They were absolutely yeah, overjoyed to have us there, which was which was pretty cool way to start the day, wasn’t it? Um, and I think a lot of these, especially, especially a lot of these Merseyside courses uh certainly sell themselves as being friendly, don’t they? Um but a Hillside absolutely 100% delivered on that from the pro to the people behind the bar to the members. Uh like everyone was like overly friendly throughout the entire day, weren’t they? They were they were brilliant.

Nish 6:30

They walked the walk, didn’t they? They talked the talk, but they walked the walk very much so they did, yeah. Everybody was interested in us, weren’t they? And they were all like, I mean, we even had people as we were playing because we were teen off at two, so we’re a bit worried about getting round. Um, and there were some members ahead of us who were playing off the the yellow tees rather than the blue tees, and they went, Oh, you’re visitors, and like, yeah, yeah. And he was like, Oh, play off some of the blue tees because they’re actually better, you’ll get a better experience. Because they’re obviously worried about not worried, but they care enough that we have a positive experience of the club and the course.

Chris 7:00

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it’s incredible, isn’t it? That and I think that’s great because it is, you know, it is it is a golf club, it’s not a you know, it’s not one of these owner-managed bit, you know, golf courses that’s just kind of out there to to support visitors. It is a members’ club, and I think pretty much everyone else there on that day was a member, wasn’t it? I don’t think there were many other visitors around, didn’t feel like that anyway. Um, so it very much felt like you were part of a members’ club, but you certainly had that welcome of of you know of that we’ve had it at some of the the more prestigious um higher end kind of you know visitor experience clubs.

Nish 7:32

Um you approach the club through what can only be described as a an a a bevy of mansions as you’re driving through to it, so kind of sets the tone quite quite well. But it’s all kind of like laid out in front of you, isn’t it? You’ve got like a clubhouse and first tea and like you’re off kind of thing. It was uh yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s it was a bit crazy, really. So I I got I got chatting to one member and uh as I was I’d had permission to film, so I was I was filming and he said, Are you from Sky Sports? I was like, Well long made that sort of impression continue. But um he was telling me about it’s always something interesting because obviously this the preview was all about this two-toned nature of this golf course, the front nine back nine thing. And he was saying that a lot of what you we could even see then when we were teeing off, a lot of that had been built up in response to that to try and even it out as a a full full golf course. So um, yeah, that was great. Clubhouse, what do you think of the clubhouse and the the general facilities, Chris?

Chris 8:37

Yeah, I mean the clubhouse is was pretty sweet, wasn’t it? It’s kind of like it’s one of those ones that kind of has a still retains a little bit of a hint of tradition, but is is much more modern, so it’s kind of but I think they’ve done it really nicely, so it’s kind of you know it’s it’s definitely a modern f a modern feel, but you still know you’re in a golf club.

Nish 8:57

Um yeah, it had like all that because all modern furniture and like the the frames around the honours boards are all a bit more modern, but yeah, but uh it has to like a traditional fit.

Chris 9:07

But weird to describe it. It is kind of weird, isn’t it? And we’ve kind of seen both ends of it, and we’ve seen like the Uber modern, which doesn’t fit just doesn’t feel like a got golf clubhouse at all, like hotel style, and then we’ve seen the uber traditional stuff, but this was definitely somewhere somewhere in the middle. Um yeah, good balance. I think I think it was a great balance. Like if you remember that, it’d be a great place to just hang out and have a few beers and have some some food and stuff afterwards. Um yeah, I think it’s a yeah, a pleasant place to go and spend your time after you’ve after you’ve played your round of golf.

Nish 9:35

And the terrace overlooks the first Tee.

Chris 9:39

Yeah, I mean that first Tee is dangerously close to the terrace, isn’t it? Like it wasn’t too busy when we were playing because it’s quite late on in the day, but I imagine if you’re having a in the middle of a comp there or whatever and you’ve got all the members watching, it might be quite an intimidating tee shot, I’d imagine. It’s a knee knocker, I think, that first tee shot.

Nish 9:56

Oh, it’s bad enough anyway, because he got the railway line up the up the left hand side, but it was uh Yeah, yeah.

Chris 10:02

So Nisha started, I don’t know if you know this, Jim, but Nish has started to do uh he’s put some logos on the side of some balls, some top 100 logos, so that if people find them, they can. I’m not even sure how they get in contact with you, how they get in contact with you, email you. I don’t know. I can’t tell you the link because you can just go on the link. Yeah, yeah, fine. Um and they can win a sleeve of balls. So Nisha stood on the first Tee, train line down the left. Uh where’s the ball going? Into the train. If there was a train there, Jim, it would have derailed it.

Nish 10:33

Let’s put it this way, Jim. After that Tee shot, I waited for the trains to pass before I hit again.

Chris 10:39

So I think your next shot also went on the train line, Nish, is that right? It did.

Nish 10:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris 10:44

Nisha’s bought all these balls with uh top 100 logos on, and there’s basically a load of a load of builders gonna find them in the building site next to uh Hillside. Be like, yeah, not interested in that.

Nish 10:53

I’m thinking two lost balls on hole number one of that and not brought enough fucking golf balls with that’d be just a bit easier now. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Jim 11:02

Um what about what about the practice facilities? And did he get free balls at the driving range, or was it not? Or did he just stay in the bar and eat your club sandwich?

Nish 11:12

We did have a club sandwich, actually. We’ll talk about that in a sec. But um, yeah, Nish got a story about the range.

Chris 11:19

Yeah, so Nish has obviously been waiting for a pyramid of balls for his entire life, like since he came out of the womb. He was just he just wanted a pyramid of golf balls, that’s all he wanted from life. Um so I so I I’d not seen it before, but I think you might have seen it somewhere because you had mentioned it before, haven’t you? Maybe on the previous, or maybe you’d asked me whether there might be a pyramid of golf balls, and I think I’d said no. But anyway, when we got there and we had this great introduction, she was talking to us about the practice facilities, and she said, Oh yeah, there should be a pyramid of golf balls down there for you. Although it’s been quite busy today, so they might have all they might have all gone. So I was like, Yeah, this is you know, we’re doing this, we’re doing this podcast, and she’s been waiting 20 courses to get this this pyramid of golf balls, it’s the only thing you need in life, hoping that you know she’d uh someone would uh mooch over and just kind of build Nish your little pyramid of golf balls. Um so we got free range balls, however, all of the pyramids had been used, so they were we were pyramidless. So Nish is still still waiting for the elusive pyramid of golf balls.

Nish 12:17

Still waiting, yeah. I think the other I the other thing I noticed about the range was that I didn’t see what brand the golf balls were, but the mine were not very good at all.

Chris 12:29

There were basically some of them didn’t have dimples on them, they were like that’s because I that’s because I picked all the balls out of a basket Nish, pitch all the shit. Picked me all the good ones. I had all the Taylor maids in mine, all the new Taylor maids. You had all the shit the shit yellow one that just been picked up from uh absolutely love it from started early.

Nish 12:47

Um yeah, I mean it was it was a a great uh I mean the short game area that we walked past looked absolutely fantastic. That bit was closed. There was another short game area as well, yeah. Um, which I hadn’t seen, but uh great facility to go and um yeah, practice some good good pop bunkers and stuff like that.

Chris 13:06

And it was all kind of pretty much close to the to the clubhouse as well, so you can just kind of wander down and and then wander back up to the first team.

Nish 13:13

Yeah, I I liked it, it was compact, like I think you just everything was just around, and uh although it is a bit of a knee-knocker, that first tee, it is nice when you’ve got that kind of almost amphitheatre-ish-ish feel to it, where you’ve you know it’s all centred around that that one bit, and it’s probably actually more on the practice green rather than the tea, because the T is to one side a bit, so they do give you a bit of a bit of chance of respite.

Chris 13:38

There was a little part of me when we were stood on the range, just kind of over your right shoulder. You’ve got you can just see the top of the Royal Birkdale Clubhouse, which is currently just covered in scaffolding. I thought if I just turn around, I reckon I could get like a three-iron through one of those windows.

Club Sandwiches And Halfway Soup

Nish 13:54

So I found something out today, actually, about that scaffolding. So we thought it was for improvements for the open, didn’t we? Well, I assumed that, yeah. It’s yeah, the roof got damaged in the storms. Oh decent storms. Wasn’t just someone else with a three-iron from the uh the Hillside. No, no, no. Yeah, well no, it wasn’t any of that, wasn’t any of that? Um should we talk about the food? We actually had the luxury this time of loads of loads of time, so a lot of time, didn’t we?

Chris 14:20

We arrived like two and a half hours before.

Nish 14:22

Two and a half hours, yeah.

Chris 14:23

Yeah, and I was like, well, I mean, what were we gonna do for two and a half hours? Once Nished walked around every centimetre of the clubhouse with his new his new camera gadget. We had about ten minutes left to go until we needed to go out and play. Solid two hours of it.

Jim 14:39

Didn’t get told off at all. Didn’t get told told off at all by anybody.

Chris 14:43

No, not at all. I think everyone was was pretty encouraging to be fair, weren’t they? They were just asking what we were doing. Well, I had full permission, Jim.

Nish 14:49

So, you know, I was like, ah, the secretary said it’s absolutely fine for me to do this, there’s no problem. But um we did have club sandwiches, they have a Hillside club sandwich, don’t know, Hillside special or something like that. Yeah, back on the club sandwich train.

Chris 15:03

It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? I kind of forgot about that little uh little number. What’s your rating? My rating. I mean I had it on brown bread, which in hindsight was a bit of an odd choice. That’s unusual, yeah. I got I was got given the option of white brown, and I went brown, I’m not quite sure why, to be honest. But actually, do you know what? It was no no worse for it. It was it was pretty up there, to be honest. I’d give it a solid eight out of ten.

Nish 15:26

Yeah, mine was good and a gluten-free bread as well. Good solid chunks of chicken and bacon was was well cooked rather than cremated or or cooked under a torch, that kind of thing. So yeah, it was good. I really liked it. And obviously, we’re sat outside of the terrace in the baking hot sunshine at this time as well, so that does make sense. I mean, bacon hot’s maybe over selling that a little bit-ish. Mate, I’ve clearly I’ve I’ve I’ve uh I must have been I must have been too hot uh with the information I provided earlier. Um the uh we must also give an honourable mention to the halfway hut. Because it was great. We had a soup, the curried vegetable soup. It’s becoming a bit of a lovely. I’m liking my soup. Yeah, yeah, it’s good. That I mean, we obviously had the one at Dumbarnie, which was we both said was probably the greatest soup we’d ever had in our lives.

Chris 16:21

I think it’s still up there. Yep.

Nish 16:23

Dumbarnie’s still number one, isn’t it? But I think pushed it pretty close. Yeah, it was nice. It was a close second, to be fair.

Chris 16:29

It was.

Ranking Hillside And Course Identity

Nish 16:30

Yeah, it was very nice. Um yeah, so I think that that’s that’s the kind of club and facilities and all that kind of thing. And 18 ends up right at the clubhouse as well. Shall we talk about the course? Sure. Uh so the course is ranked 51 on our ranking, so it’s right in the meat of the top 100. And uh, you know, so it’s not it’s not moved out, it’s oscillated around that, probably. Um, and I think what do we say? We’ll probably maybe maybe jump in the gun a little bit, but we sort of felt that was that was fair, wasn’t it?

Chris 17:00

Yeah, I think it was like it was a really, really solid golf course, wasn’t it? Like no, no, it was better than that. It was better than a solid golf course. It was deserving of being in the top 50 in the UK and Ireland. Like it was a genuinely awesome golf course. Um I think it was, it was brilliant, and uh yeah, I absolutely loved it. Um what what what’s your opinion on this whole front nine? So I think we both really enjoyed the front nine, didn’t we? So we were sitting there going, this front nine’s pretty pretty fucking good, considering it’s supposed to be a back nine course. Um so yeah, we were kind of going to the back nine thinking, wow, this is gonna be this is gonna be like way up there. This is gonna be one of our favourites that we’ve played. And to be fair, it’s it’s definitely up there. It’s in the I don’t know, it’s pushing probably close to the top five, I think, we’ve played, haven’t it, isn’t it, so far? Um so yeah, and then the back nine, I mean the back nine starts off incredibly. So you go from the halfway hut onto the tenth, which is an absolutely awesome par three. Unbelievable par three.

Jim 18:00

So you’re thinking, yeah, is that an elevated tee as well looking over the room? It’s an elevated green.

Nish 18:05

No, it’s the green’s elevated, yeah.

Jim 18:07

Oh, the green’s elevated.

Chris 18:09

Yeah, it’s a really beautiful par three, and we were both sitting there going, Well, this is gonna be one hell of a back nine, like you know, best back nine in Britain. Here we come. Uh, and then the 11th, the hole straight after that is also absolutely awesome hole. So that’s the elevated tea.

Nish 18:22

That was a signature hole. We’ll we’ll definitely talk about that later, do you?

Chris 18:26

Um, so yeah, that’s beautiful. Elevated Tee, par five, another great, great, great hole. Um I think beyond that, there was I I think it because it had been built up so much in my head that it was gonna be the best back nine, and it started so strongly, I was kind of going into it thinking this is gonna be some, this is gonna be some course. And it maybe just left me feeling a little disappointed, a little bit, not like not overly disappointed, but just a little bit of like, ooh, like the next hole, I think the 12th just was just kind of felt like a bit of a normal Parkland dog leg, which kind of didn’t felt a little bit out of place for me. Um, and then beyond that I did get better again. So I think you know, 13 was a great hole, 14 was a great haul, 16, 70. Yeah, I mean it was pretty good, but I think I don’t want to listen it to you and just go, I don’t want a disservice because it was a brilliant, brilliant nine holes of golf the back nine. But I think when it becomes spilled so highly, you have such high expectations that I just felt a little bit like it didn’t quite live up to those expectations for me.

Nish 19:31

Um however, I think there’s a couple of things going on with that.

Chris 19:35

But I think if I went back and played that again without the expect without the ex the massive expectation, I mean and I think even just kind of reflecting on it, I think actually it was pretty awesome. Like there were some pretty awesome holes in that back nine. Um and to add that to the front nine, which was also absolutely brilliant, like it was just it was a brilliant round of golf. But you know, I you know I can’t I can’t refault it. Like you said, it was in such good condition. You know, every hole was a great challenge. Um and you know, it had it had so much diversity, I think, around the course. So it was you know, there’s like little bits of like trees, and you had little sand scrapes and some pot bunkers, and yeah, it had a great great variety to it, I think.

Nish 20:17

Um I think they there’s a couple of things here. We we did an unusual thing this time round. We sort of filmed a or I did film like a an initial thoughts halfway checkpoint, like what do you think of the front nine, and then we did one right at the end. So it’s like kind of your unfiltered reaction at that time. Maybe not to share, it’s just for our own sort of record kind of thing, maybe. But um, I think we both said that we felt that the promise wasn’t delivered upon uh initially. I’ve revisited that, I think that back nine does stack up because I think we’re spoilt by when when when you think about a dune, a duney land landscape now and playing within dunes, for me, the first image that comes to mind is Trump International. Now they were maed monstrosities, like you know, big things like towering over you, and you’re not gonna get that everywhere because there isn’t the budget and the there isn’t the natural landscape. But I think if you were to take the profiles of a lot of those holes at Trump and just if you could visit like chop off 50% of the Dune, you would get what you’ve got at uh the Hillside, I think. So but I think but then the second point of that is that you know, even the members and people that we talked to and the the staff and everybody was always like oh the back nine’s amazing, the back nine’s amazing, the back nine’s amazing. I think they’re doing the course a disservice almost by doing that because it does almost make you go like we weep love that front nine.

Chris 21:58

But I think I think if you were to pick a section, I’d probably pick the middle section. I think from kind of six through sort of fourteen. I think for me, pref that was probably the best, the the best section of the course, that middle section, rather than necessarily the back nine. Um but I mean, like yeah, let’s let’s yeah, let’s let’s give it the credit that it’s due. It was an amazing 18 holes of golf.

Par Threes And A Wild Near Ace

Nish 22:21

It was, I thought it had a really good flow to it, I thought. And you’re right, the variety was incredible, wasn’t it? I mean, uh for me, I could hear like birds chirping and all sorts. I was like, oh, this is this is amazing. And it’s like trees, but not trees that are gonna get in your back. Yeah, and you’ve got yeah, some great elevation. play route wasn’t there really yeah we we we did see quite a few actually when well I obviously nearly took a few of them out but uh we yeah we did we did see a few but they weren’t as loud as I thought they were gonna be there’d been other places we played where you can really hear the trains but they they were kind of silent assassins really weren’t they sometimes you’re like oh train’s on its way kind of thing so is that because you just smashed the engine off the front of them with your uh with your cult ball yeah that’s I was just coasting at that point um we we we touched upon that 10th par three uh I want to talk about the par threes in general uh you’re our par three resident specialist Chris and you’ve got a whole in one challenge this year so um we’ll we’ll start off with was it was it the first was it the first no it wasn’t was it the seventh I thought that was that the first par three that we encountered uh no no it wasn’t the fourth was the first par three that we encountered we we the par threes I think are and we’re gonna we use a word we used yesterday Jim pretty majestic I thought they were fantastic par threes I think they were a right level of challenge they’re not crazy long uh they’re not littered with bunkers but there’s enough challenge in there to to keep the sharp and keep you honest and they look amazing they’re all set in in amazing sense they were like you know kind of almost natural amphitheatres they’ve created with either trees or banking or whatever um but that seventh uh which we’ve both so we we we’ve done a brand new thing again so it’s all all change in 2026 mate brand new thing again we’re both going to nominate our top three holes from a golf course which I think is quite a useful thing to do for people and we both agreed on this hole actually we both agreed on the seventh it’s quite it’s quite an unusual links links hole wasn’t it like you almost got like a little pine forest behind the green um so it’s definitely not a traditional links hole but it was it kind of takes you a little bit surprised by surprise doesn’t it kind of because there’s that little I don’t know I don’t know if it’s called Hillside because of that little hill that’s in the middle of it I’m not sure and you kind of play around that Hillside but this is the first kind of point that you get into that little that little bit around the middle where you got that hill that’s kind of sitting up above it.

Chris 24:54

I mean for us that’s where the really good stretch of the course started is yeah we were really happy with that um but that that’s uh that’s seventh so um this is all on film so I’m hoping to have this footage playing as we’re speaking but Chris steps up and uh hits this t-shot uh I I my my eyes have immediately gone upwards because usually that’s where a golf ball goes when like somebody hits it and uh I’m like there’s no fucking golf ball in the air what’s going on here what’s going on here and he’s knobbed it like right along the floor and there’s all this horrible grass and rough stuff in the way and I’m thinking I’ve just I’ve just pissing myself I’m like oh you fucked that one up mate what have you done there and then it hits the the path and it gives it a little bit of extra momentum and I’m looking at it going you’re having a laugh and like I will I’ll I should have the audio because I was biked up for this but I was like you’re kidding and it was tracking not only for the green but it was tracking to the right at it wasn’t it so I was like it’s going right at it I was like oh my god it’s still going it’s still going I was like you cannot be at you you you’re joking this is unbelievable that you’ve managed to finish if that had gone in it would have been no one else’s fault but yours you challenged me you challenged me to the last the last time we spoke you challenged me to get a hole in one and a top one under golf course that is definitely if it was a good you said to me you went the way it’s gonna go I mean absolute fucking jogger of a shot oh do you know what if I took if I got a hole in one like that I don’t think I could I don’t think I could brag about that I was like fuck off that’s the best story to have for a hole in one story is like the most unlikely one you’ve ever heard but um yeah I mean even if you do it on a pitch and put like Nish does he still count that doesn’t it you’ll take you’ll take the credit for that.

Nish 26:40

So so so we and it looked a lot closer from where we were stood because we we couldn’t get the the the depth of it and the group ahead of us were watching so they’re like and I so it’s my turn at this point I’m like oh god he’s just done that he’s just they’ve turned round and seen this ball on the green now we think it’s dead close but they have not seen the route the ball’s taking now I’ve got to play mine thankfully I did nail on my tee shot and you know it was it kind of went and all that kind of stuff it was it was fine but yeah beautiful beautiful par three that was I in my top three then nominated the par three straight after the um after the halfway hut and that was again all it was all uphill you’ve got a bunker short a couple of bunkers left and right and then you know but it’s it’s basically and it’s flanked by trees and it was just a magnificent sight that hole I thought um majestic majestic some might use the word majestic um so that was my my second uh nominated top three hole and then uh sorry that was Chris’s sorry not not mine it was Chris’s and then we both nominated the signature hole which was hole number 11 which is a par five it was a great signature hole to be fair wasn’t it I love that what was was that’s a is it dog leg left was it was it the a little bit yeah it turns a bit left yeah and obviously we had our signature hole challenge on that on that hole as well so yeah without further ado or do you want to wait and uh talk about the oh we can wait that’s fine we can just skip it actually this week that’s fine we probably could do it can’t we mate yeah could we yeah we could skip it totally yeah oh mate it was over at the Tee it was all over at the Tee it’s very rare that Chris’s five shots before he’s even he’s even hit his second shot yeah it wasn’t wasn’t a great showing like we were saying this weren’t we on the day every time we stand up for a signature hole either we both play absolute garbage or it one of us plays alright and the other one plays absolutely or I play really well like we’ve never actually had a signature hole challenge where it’s actually been even close remotely close it’s always like oh someone’s lost two balls so you just have to make like a double bogey and you win well you you hit you went first because you had the honour I’m I’m sticking to that now um so you had the honour I’ve got the honour next time unfortunately that’s the problem now but uh and then you think he did he send it left I went left into the gorse didn’t I sent it left and yeah and we were just like that’s in a big big pile of gorse I know you like gorse Chris but I don’t think you were gonna go fishing.

Chris 29:22

And then uh so I stepped up and I absolutely marmalised my drive right down the middle and I was just like gets in there come on so Chris like goes I’m gonna hit a hit a provisional hits his second one good contact but it starts drifting a bit right and I’m like I haven’t really seen it down I don’t know what there is and then you said it didn’t you were like I think there’s water down there I didn’t didn’t even get there’s water yeah it looks like water to me yeah so it was he was a bit splish splash having a having a bath at that time um so I so I then played my second just seven iron like sort of get it up there and uh Chris is about to play his fifth shot at this point and I went oh you you need to film it Chris and he was like oh do I need to bother I was like yes you need to film all of this think I’m letting you get away with that no Jeff but Jim I did manage to film an entire hole without losing any of the equipment not even a little bit of it and I managed to film all the shots so I mean that is if nothing else progress is that a moral victory I’ve taken a moral victory for that yeah this is great it might this might be your kryptonite maybe the filming is what’s putting you off so it’s uh it’s good it’s just gonna give you that for forevermore so um so yeah but what a magnificent holiday despite me playing it absolutely terribly it was a great great great elevated tee and the green is awesome up there like yeah it’s great big bank down the kind of left in the front of it and then it’s kind of trees surrounding the back of it yes there was a lot of with the greens uh there were a lot of really friendly banks weren’t there so like stop things like that yeah they weren’t particularly punishing with it which I quite like sometimes you know like places like Trump we had a few where you like you just missed the greens off the front and you’re 40 50 yards away um but yeah they didn’t really have too much that did they like it gave you a challenging next shot but you weren’t penalised two shots for for for missing the green um yeah yeah the greens themselves were were pretty pretty tricky I thought but uh they were they were subtly difficult they didn’t look particularly like drastic in terms of slope but they were just just hard to get get puts in to read them properly in that I think I think that was it I think it was the read was hard wasn’t it like I think that they were very true true pace um I think we we got we got to grips with that well but you know even a what would seem like a straight three footer there was a little bit of movement or you’d think there’s a movement and then there wasn’t and it was that was the thing that was a bit was a bit tricky.

Nish 32:07

But then the member I’d spoken to before on the first two thought I worked for Sky Sports he did say that actually he’s like the the greens are actually quite tricky here.

Chris 32:15

I didn’t which in a good way I was going to have a good challenge it wasn’t you know it’s not like stupid slopes or anything but like yeah yeah yeah it wasn’t like yeah this kind of angle or anything like that.

Nish 32:27

Um and then so so we’ve got your three holes there Chris was seven ten and eleven uh so signature hold the two parts like I say that’s my middle stretch for me I think was was my favorite favorite six right there yeah that was great wasn’t it I nominated the 17th as well I really like that 17th because that was like really elevated T you know from there you can see over to to Birkdale and and things like that and it’s it’s a long that’s a par five as well it’s I mean it’s it’s it’s a long straight hole but it kind of you do the elevated T and it dips all the way down and then it just gradually rises back up. Um so I yeah I really like that that was a that was a great uh great hole despite it being the first hole that I went into a bunker in I couldn’t believe it and then where did your second shot goes that stuff about a bunker watch anyway well no that was on 18 Chris on 17 I just went into a bunker on 18 I went into a bunker then the bunker behind it.

Chris 33:22

Yeah one of the benefits of playing in the winter was that every bunker I went in was ground under repair.

Nish 33:27

I couldn’t fucking believe it.

Jim 33:28

So you’ve got this nobbled Tee-shot that we’ve what we thought was nearly a hole in one and then every bunker he’s gone in is like G U R I was like what the fuck is going on and then I hit three bunkers and all three of them are in play it’s so unfair so unfair um so okay right we’ll done signature challenge we didn’t have a side bet on this one um for reasons unknown sorry had a massive hangover now I was jumping asleep and asleep on the uh on the couch now I was well I mean the side bet would have been you know the net score on the back nine bearing in mind oh interesting right okay you can do retrospectively if you so much we can yeah net so uh yeah I could do all of that so I went on stableford I got 28 points Chris got 26 net you were plus ten Chris I was plus eight uh on the back nine I shot net a level par 36 you shot on the back nine a one over thirty seven what yeah and it all comes down to that signature hole floor which is even sweeter even sweeter but yeah I mean we we did we did enjoy that that round of golf yeah what a great way to start 2026 back underway isn’t it for 26 for sure so just in just in terms of the signature hole challenge now so Chris you were up with three up through 18 so now it’s two up through 19 I mean I’m still I’m I’m still not happy with that I feel like I should be at least five or six ahead I’m sure I was miles ahead you were you were you were and then you you bottled it mate you were and then you totally bottled it.

Three Reasons To Visit Hillside

Chris 35:16

See what you’re thinking about the hole in one yeah you’ve been too much pressure breathing down your neck now mate two two two down two down with what eight to one to play there you go the longest match play known to man um yeah the uh just what I thought about Hillside and that 18 was we obviously we were expecting the two toe thing we felt the front nine was still very good uh back nine is better yes but we actually thought as an eight as an overall experience of an 18 hole course yeah so I was thinking yeah I think it does a bit a bit of a disservice saying that it’s a back nine course and it’s the best back nine because it is a great back nine but actually as a as an 18 and as a as a flow of a golf course I think it was right up there with some of the some of the best we played um so I think yeah I think it’s a really really strong course um definitely had good flow to it didn’t it yeah and one that again I said I would love to go and be a member there I could just quite happily see myself just playing there playing there regularly like it was a great vibe great atmosphere um real members club real members club proper members club we’re real real members um but just a yeah an awesome awesome not not ai members what the what the frick does that mean or real members who are actually there and not just like living in America but playing in once a year or robots okay yeah I see what you mean yeah people actually turn up and play yeah yeah exactly yeah um we spoke about on the way home we spoke about whether we thought and again this is another new thing for 2026 uh do does this now get into your top five because we’ve we’ve we’ve decided we’re not gonna attempt to try and rank these bloody things because it’s so hard to do so we we’ve got a top five more probably more over like top three with a couple of extras notable mention kind of things but and then would on a case by case basis we’ll just see does it go into your top five and if so where does it go in sort of thing so Chris did it get into your top five golf courses so I have Trump we’ll both have Trump international Trump Ganton Carnoustie Dumbarnie Dumbarnie rather and Gullane are my top five um does it get in there I’d say it might it might give Gullane a bit of a a bit of a run for its money actually ooh interesting interesting I think because Gullane for me has been the truest links course we’ve ever played I think it would be close I’m not sure it would quite break in not sure it would creep in right yeah it would be but it it’s a strong contender though I think right for me it’s not and it it it’s probably hovering around that kind of seven eight probably yeah uh I think that’s actually more to do with the breadth of courses that we’ve played so far on our journey because we played a good mixture Heathland we’ve got some Parkland in there we’ve got obviously the linkses the Duneland all that kind of stuff so um it doesn’t get in the top five to me but that’s not a discredit to to Hillside at all we had a thoroughly enjoyable day actually of golf um you know I just I thought it was a it was just a a majestic majestic course I’m loving that word loving that word but I mean look I’ve I’ve I’ve I’ve got going into more new things for 2026 Jim we’re gonna I’m gonna give you the three reasons why you should visit Hillside Golf Club.

Nish 38:55

Go for it.

Chris 38:56

So the first one and we cannot ignore this we talked about it at the top of the show is the friendliness of the welcome like Chris is absolutely spot on there have been a odd occasion where we’ve gone in somewhere and we thought oh we’re you know we’re a visitor we’re paying visitor whatever but they’re not really that bothered about us whether we have a good time or not it’s just you know great hello yeah fine on you go uh this was the opposite like yeah the steph in the clubhouse gave us so much information but it was all the right stuff it’s like here’s the codes and here’s like your the the way to go for a range where you get your tokens help yourself to a drink have some lunch you’re teaing off quite a lot later you know the the the food’s excellent all that kind of stuff and it was just like a really really nice casually delivered welcome I thought yeah and all the members all the staff everybody asked like you know I mean we must have looked like visitors because everybody’s are you visitors straight away so that that goes one of two ways it’s either that the members are in there offering enough that everybody recognises them um you know or actually that they’re they’re they’re just flown in not sure yeah that’s it or or you know actually that they’re all trained to pick up on you know people looking around at honours boards and things like that so they’re visitors so just introduce yourself say hello and and make their experience good so yeah one of those things where I think that is clearly the ethos of the club and that I suspect that comes from the top and that that kind of permeates through the staff through the members through everyone and I think that I I think that’s the only way that you can have that experience is that is to be directing that from the top and I think that’s who said that who said that um the next thing for me was we again we’ve alluded to this was the variety of the terrain and and profile of the holes and things like that and the setting that you’re in.

Nish 40:49

So you know you go out in this quite it’s less flat now because they’ve built it up but you go out in this sort of more flatter bit where the railway line is and all that kind of stuff you then start hitting this area where there’s loads of trees and then you hit this dune bit and then right at the end you’re on these elevated Tees where you can actually see the ocean and things like that. So great variety I could hear birds chirping and stuff like that. So you know you’ve got all these different things to keep you interested there’s water in and around the course as well which is we haven’t really encountered water anywhere have we Chris I don’t think uh we’ve seen bits in some of the Scottish courses yeah bits in Trump maybe or Carnoustie probably we had a bit of Carnoustie but they were all burns weren’t they but yeah it was uh that was so the variety is is great um that golf course uh yeah it doesn’t it doesn’t really feel like a traditional links does it but I you know it’s got it’s got a bit of everything hasn’t it really um which I think it’s not worse for it is it’s it’s actually better for that isn’t it better for the variety yeah absolutely um and then the last reason I’ve got is I thought you know if you’re going around playing these in University of Commons elite courses top 100 courses that was a highly playable golf course it really was there were lots of bailout areas the greens weren’t and the complexes weren’t ridiculously punishing it wasn’t littered with bunkers everywhere trying to catch you out I think you could you’d go there and just have a good fun round of golf without it being gimmicky fun by either playing from a forward Tee or you know it’s just they’ve they’ve put all these high dunes in or whatever it’s not there’s nothing artificial about it. It’s not manufactured fun it’s just a fun golf course and you could strategically plot your way round come away with a really good score or you could sort of you know go for it and have a bit of fun with that so I thought that was a really really good trait for Hillside to have what did you think Chris yeah absolutely couldn’t couldn’t agree more with that like you know we’d read a few things hadn’t we think we said in the preview beforehand people saying that it was like almost unplayably difficult.

Chris 43:02

I mean that wasn’t that I mean yeah we played in the winter so maybe the rough wasn’t up as much as it can be but I mean the rough was up a reasonable amount it wasn’t like there was no rough there.

Nish 43:10

Well I think I asked you didn’t I I was like I I’ve sort of asked you but I wanted you to give me the answer before I didn’t want to give you a leading question but I was like what what do you think about the the the rough today? Because in the preview we talked about the fact that we’re coming into the early part of the season so it’s probably not had time to grow but yeah it was pretty bad in some places.

Chris 43:28

Yeah I mean to be fair if it if that is without it growing then maybe maybe in the summer it is completely brutal and you can’t you can’t move for it but but yeah I like you know wide enough landing areas and and fairways and stuff so I don’t think I don’t think it was an overly punishingly difficult course. Like if you hit a bad shot you get punished for it like twice on the 11th Tee one left one right um but generally speaking when you stood on a Tee you’re not sitting there going oh this this feels overly difficult you’re sitting there going actually yeah I’ve got I’ve got a chance here um I can have a little go at this or I can score I can score well here you know I’ve got a birdie opportunity or whatever. So yeah I think it it it it keeps you in keeps you interested throughout the whole round I think in terms of its playability. Yeah and I think but it’s definitely scorable if you’re playing well.

Nish 44:17

Yeah and I think that’s where the par threes for me uh worked well because there you know it’s a par three so there’s obviously going to be some danger. There obviously are some bunkers and you’ve got to do a bit of carry and all that kind of stuff. But because then even like so the one that was the tenth which we both liked did have Some pot bunkers and ready to gobble up a ball or whatever, but um it wasn’t long, so you still you know if you’re not a big hitter, you still got a chance, you know. You probably still would only have an eight, nine iron, seven iron in your hands, which most people are pretty confident about playing, aren’t they?

Chris 44:52

So yeah, I think all the part threes were reasonably short, weren’t they? They were all kind of 180 and less, I think, ish. Absolutely, yeah, yeah.

Nish 44:59

Yeah, and then I suppose I must give it, I’ll give a 3.5 mention. I thought the greens were brilliant, yeah, really, really good.

Chris 45:07

Yeah, I mean they were probably some of the best we played, and we’re playing it in March, right? The grass hasn’t even started growing. They were they were pretty spectacular, to be honest.

Nish 45:14

Yeah, those those greens were were apart from the subtle breaks, they were they were right up my street, those greens. I really liked them. So they’re our sort of three and a half reasons to visit um Hillside Golf Club.

Chris 45:25

Um the other reason is that you can win a sleeve of golf balls if you just kind of walk down the left hand side of the first two or three holes. First two or three holes, probably ten three box three boxes of balls, I reckon. Yeah.

Hillside Versus S&A And Neighbours

Nish 45:38

I’m after change the T and T’s and C’s on the link. Yeah, it it didn’t um didn’t start, it didn’t start great. It was it was really odd because I was striking it really well, but everything just seemed to be going like the whole winter I’ve played, everything’s been going right, and then I rock up at this golf course and everything starts going left all of a sudden. I was like, what the frig is going on today? But you know, we got luckily we got over it, so we only had five holes, and we pretty much scored the same, didn’t we, for that first five holes, Chris? Yeah, it was a pretty pretty brutal start, wasn’t it? Got our arse in gear and actually started doing something, but I I had one of my highest ever green in regulation rounds. I got seven greens in regulation, which is mental, and and all of them are three-putted, which is even more mental. But I think that tells you about the greens really more than my golfing ability, I think. Um yeah, was there anything else, Chris, that you think our viewers and listeners might well not viewers because we don’t know where the hell you are, but our listeners might think about that they might want to take from our round at Hillside?

Chris 46:50

Yeah, um, I guess I guess the only thing is is that people always draw comparisons, don’t they, between obviously the three the three courses that are all right next to each other. So you’ve obviously got Burkdale Hillside and and S&A.

Jim 47:02

Um so maybe worth just doing a little bit of a comparison to to S&A in terms of where was gonna suggest actually what you could do later on in the in the journey in the comp is uh is to rank the well the all the courses on English is on England’s Golf Coast Coast. Oh that is interesting, isn’t it?

Nish 47:28

Because we’re playing Wallasey soon. Yeah, that is a great little mini. Well done, Jim. Well done.

Jim 47:34

Even if it was just a three, but I think you you have to add Royal Liverpool and Wallasey and Lancs and Formby. Formby, yeah, yeah.

Nish 47:42

He doesn’t play much, but when he does, it’s pretty good.

Chris 47:45

Because I think there is a lot of competition between those, like oh yeah, between themselves, you know what I mean? It’s like, yeah, there’s a there’s a huge amount of pride at stake, isn’t there, in terms of those those courses around there and who’s the best. Um well what have you played?

Nish 48:00

You played S&A and Hillside. I’ve played S&A Hillside Burkdale.

Chris 48:04

So what’s your where the for the two where you I mean, like we’ve always said, I think we would we would both like to go back and play S&A again because we had it on a day where we both played terrible golf, the weather wasn’t great, and we’d just come off the back of our first two rounds that were completely different, and uh we feel we both feel like we didn’t really do S&A justice. So I would like to go back and play S&A. Not sure I agree with that.

Nish 48:28

I had a I don’t I was like four over through ten holes, I’d collapsed in the last eight holes. Yes, I agree. I was having an absolute blinder until the halfway hut.

Chris 48:39

Okay, yeah. I mean, I I can’t really think about anyone else’s golf other than my own niche because I’m just very self-centered. You were pretty bad actually. I had to put my arm around you and just go, come on, Chris, you’re better than this.

Nish 48:49

That’s that’s very rare.

Chris 48:50

Yeah, I would like to go back there and play it again. Um but yeah, I think I think probably Hillside just edged it, I think, for me. Uh just a bit more variety.

Shoulder Rates Verdict And Next Stop

Nish 49:01

Um I’d go along with the rankings. Um S&A’s down in the 90s, yeah, uh, and Hillside’s 50. I’d I wouldn’t argue with any of that. No, I don’t think I would either, no. That would be the difference uh that I would probably put between the two of them. Um I don’t think there’s really a place where I found a weak hole uh at Hillside. No, no, not really C1. Um I thought I thought the flow was really good, they went from one to the other, like the pace didn’t dramatically change, it was like a a sort of shifting of the gears to the next phase of the golf course as we described it. Yeah, um well, really well thought out and well planned golf course. I thought that was. Yeah, agreed. Classic, classic braid, I think, really, a lot of that stuff. Check me out, getting all golf architectural about this now. Um in summary, what are we saying here? Go and play Hillside, particularly if you can get on a shoulder rate, I think. Um having said that Hillside’s quite close golf west to Birkdale, uh, with its with its green fees at £300 in the summer. Birkdale’s probably around £360, £370, something like that. Uh probably a bit higher this year just because the open. But um yeah, I don’t know that the number’s quite high, isn’t it? I think so. If you can get on a shoulder eight, I think I would I would go for that. And it was so well conditioned.

Chris 50:32

Yeah, I mean I don’t I don’t think that we lost out anything by playing. I mean, obviously we got a good day for it, didn’t we? But like there’s a few few bunkers that were out of play, but other than that, and the practice ground was out was out of play, but other than that, like you know, it was one of the best conditioned courses we played at any time of the year.

Nish 50:49

Yeah, looked looked incredible, didn’t it?

Chris 50:51

Yeah, it looked incredible.

Nish 50:52

Like the fairways were great, and so I think if you can, that’s that’s the that would be my recommendation for when to go and play. Um but yeah, what a wonderful, wonderful golf club, what a wonderful golf course. We would love to go back at some point. Um, hopefully, when I am working for Sky Sports, that’d be great. Um and yeah, look, we can’t overstate the the you’re gonna be made to feel very, very welcome if you go there. You’re not gonna feel like you’re uh an outsider intruding on anything or anything like that. Um, it’s quite the opposite. I think it’s almost like a welcome with open arms kind of thing. So there was, I think it was on uh some of the reviews, like you know, the the famous Hillside welcome. They’ve very much lived up to that. Yeah, for sure. Next time on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, we’ll be reviewing our round at Delamere Forest Golf Club, which is the nearest top 100 course to us.