Delamere Forest Golf Club Review : Why Is This Course Only Ranked 95th?

The Top 100 Journey Begins

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. Episode 67, the Delamere Forest Golf Club review. It was a very quick turnaround to play our second round of 2026 at the fabulous Delamere Golf Club, Delamere Forest Golf Club, I should say, which is the nearest Top 100 course geographically to us. So we also had to set our growing differences aside and work as a team because we were taking on our pals, Chris K and Hookie, and we had some interesting results, which we will get into as the episode unfolds. Before we carry on, could I ask you, whether you’re listening or watching, to drop us a like or subscribe, and if you could also ask if you share it with somebody who you think might be interested, because all of those growing numbers help us produce better and better content and we can share the journey with more and more people. Now back to the episode. So we had an interesting day, didn’t we, Chris? But before I fully go full tilt into the duel at Delamere, which is what we badged it as, I want to get your thoughts on our Irish trip because it’s been me talking about it really, and and you’re Irish. So you tell us.

Chris 2:00

I’ve drank enough Guinness, yeah. But yeah, I mean, very excited. What what a lineup, eh? Um, I mean, five absolute stunning courses. Um all in the space of all in the space of a week as well. I mean, that’s gonna be one hell of a trip, isn’t it? Um, yeah, and I think our hosts seem like really great guys as well. So I think it’s gonna be yeah, it’s gonna be A, there’s gonna be some amazing golf in there, but B, it’s just gonna be a really fun trip. Like it’s just gonna be great, great crack. Uh that the Apre golf is gonna be as important as the golf in some in some respects, I think.

Nish 2:40

Correct. Yeah, I keep sort of thinking that isn’t it amazing all the course that we’re playing, but you’re like, actually, that’s probably a very small percentage of the entire time we’re there.

Chris 2:48

Absolutely, yeah.

Nish 2:49

It’s gonna be great, isn’t it? So good. Yeah, it’s uh it’s exciting development, I think. We’ve we’ve had there. Um what uh I mean Port marnock is 15 on our ranking, so yeah. I mean that in itself is pretty pretty big hitter to to knock off. Absolutely.

Chris 3:06

I mean it’s it’s a massive golf course, isn’t it? In in you know, just in general golfing terms, but certainly in Irish golfing terms, it’s it’s right up there, isn’t it? In in the top handful of of courses over there. And that’s that’s a pretty um it’s a you know it’s a highlight reel of golf courses anyway, isn’t it? When you look at that, that Irish, that Irish lineup. So one of them very much looking forward to Port marnock for sure.

Nish 3:26

Yeah, absolutely. And Baltray people keep talking about County Love Baltray all the time, and it’s very highly regarded.

Chris 3:31

So yeah, I think people who know Irish golf, a lot of people have got that up there as their as one of their favourites, if not their favourite. Um so again, that’s one that’s what I don’t really know a huge amount about, other than from just kind of hearing people talk about it. But yeah, people people speak about that with in real high regard, don’t they? So yeah, again, another one that should be should be a cracking day.

Nish 3:52

I know it’s gonna be it’s gonna be amazing, and maybe we should add a bit of competitive element to it, which brings me very conveniently to our day at Delamere, the duel at Delamere against Chris and Hooker. It was a duel as well, wasn’t it? It got quite heated quite quickly, didn’t it? Tell me how that felt for you. I’ll tell you what I felt what I noticed, but I’ll I’ll let you tell me tell me first how it was for you. How was it for you, Chris?

Chris 4:21

It was honestly that was one of the best days golfing I’ve had for a long time. Not just because I played well, but just because I just I just thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think that it was just the right level of kind of competition to just get my juices going and get me get me thinking properly about golf again. And it it’s the first time I’ve like it’s funny because you put um so we’ve been doing some profiles, haven’t we, for our um for our society day, and you put on your profiles that I can’t remember what you wrote, but something about having not really seen um me play at that level. And I was like, do you know what? I’ve never even really thought about that because we just come out and we uh we amass around and I’m not bothered about how score. And I was like, do you know what? Yeah, that’s a good point. And this has never really ever seen me play any decent golf. And I don’t think I’d ever really I think I just kind of it wasn’t a personal comment, Chris.

Nish 5:06

No, no, no, no, we’re just taking the piss.

Chris 5:08

It was taking the piss and then I fully appreciate that, and I took it in that I took it in that um in that regard. Like I wasn’t offended in any way by it. I was like, oh god, yeah, like I’ve never actually played any golf because we just like I’m never really in that zone of kind of focusing and playing properly. It’s more just I’m just gonna come out and hit some balls and I don’t really care what happens, and usually it’s shit.

Nish 5:30

Um I drag you down to my level.

Chris 5:33

Yeah, so no, it was it and I I kind of said to you on the day, didn’t there afterwards? I was like, I I love playing, I love match play. Like scratch match play for me is like my favorite, my favorite way to play golf. Like it really just gets me gets me excited and gets me engaged with with what I’m doing.

Nish 5:52

Um I’ll tell you what got me excited when I saw what you were doing was we are as people will know listening, we’re signed up to this creator creator cup thing that uh Rick Shiels and Peter Finch set up. I think we’re gonna win the fucking lot, mate. I think I’m gonna fuel this. This is great. I could just turn up just have fun and you just go and absolutely rip it up, it’d be brilliant, it’d be brilliant.

Chris 6:20

But yeah, I guess for some context, it just became a very high-level match play between me and Hookie, didn’t we? And we were both just kind of pushing each other on, I think, and it was just kind of birdie after birdie after birdie just kind of kept flowing, didn’t it? Really?

Nish 6:33

Um I don’t think I’ve ever actually sort of had a front row seat to anything like that ever. You know, and it wasn’t like you weren’t like at you know, it wasn’t only like you were going at each other or anything like that. It was just both playing so well, and it was like I want to get buried, it was like I want to get inside that and I want to now want to nail the put, and it just focused your mind so much. So I’ve got a question for you. Okay, fine. When are you when are you turning pro?

Chris 7:02

It’s already done deal, mate. I’ve uh sponsorship lined up. Yeah, yeah. I shot one one round of three over power, and that’s it. I’m uh yeah, I’m back.

Nish 7:10

Yeah, my my comment was again for greater context for everybody. So if this is for the Burnham Society Day, and my I’ve done player profiles for everyone. My comment about Chris was like, despite having uh 19 rounds at top 100 courses uh played together, he’s never corroborated his claim that he was once a good golfer. Um and you know, that obviously it’s a it’s just a a pistaky comment, but yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve never seen you play like that. It was just like it was unbelievable. I mean, the thing that really switched you around was it’s putting. I’ve just never seen you put like that. Yeah, it was like I need to make this putting, and you made it, yeah.

Chris 7:49

Right, yeah, and like I’ve said to I’ve sent to this before this to you before, and you’ve probably not really ever taken much notice of it. But like, since I’ve come back, I’ve I’ve really struggled to get into the right mindset to play good golf. And I if I’m honest, having got into that mindset at Delamere, I’ve I’ve never I’ve not been in that at all since I’ve come back to play golf ever. And yeah, realised how far away I was up until the point the way you’ve actually gone back and done it and got into that zone again. Oh, yeah, this is what it feels like.

Nish 8:18

It’s amazing, isn’t it? I think you just needed something I mean, it helps, isn’t it, when you’ve got somebody really pushing you along, yeah. And I think Hookie was really good, so he was like pushing you along, but it wasn’t like in a um, you know, it wasn’t like money on it or anything like that, or actually, it’s it’s an actual competition. It was just we’re playing good golf and we’re sort of subconsciously just yeah, egging each other on here and trying to get better and better.

Chris 8:41

So annoyingly though, we still we still lost the match though, Nish, didn’t we?

Nish 8:44

So we did, we did, which doesn’t really bode well, does it?

Chris 8:48

Annoyingly. I mean, uh so yeah, so to be fair, hooky did shoot one under par gros, so it was fairly fairly good going.

Weather Luck And Forest Mist

Nish 8:55

It’s incredible, wasn’t it? That absolutely incredible. Um, well, I suppose look, let’s let’s let’s try and keep to our now famed structure of our events, and we’ll start with weather again. I’ve got to say we start with weather again because we’d had this we we were like, okay, this is by the way, round number 20 out of 100, so big moment, 20% of the way there. Feels great, like we’re ahead of schedule, all that kind of stuff. And we’ve got this run of getting lucky with the weather, and then we wake up in the morning and it’s like, oh, it doesn’t look great. It was like pretty damn, wasn’t it? Yeah, yeah, it was. And then we got up there and it was like it was dry all the way up there. Then you hit the forest, and it’s like, oh, there’s just this mist hanging, we had the broys out, and all of a sudden it was like it gets close to tea time, it’s like clouds part, yeah. You know, the the the it was a bit windy, but like the clouds part, yeah, yeah. Sun came out at the end, like so 20 times, mate. 20 times it’s happened.

Chris 9:56

I think we should we should change our intro. We should just have Here Comes the Sun playing else. We uh is the intro to this podcast.

Nish 10:02

I love that. I love that. Is that is that uh mind you, who who owns the Beatles back catalogue now?

Chris 10:09

I’ve got it, I’ve I’ve signed it recently, Nish.

Nish 10:11

Perfect, right? We can you can use the we use this music then. Um but okay, so so we we arrived. Delamere Forest is as we said in our preview, is a fully, fully exclusive members type club, right? When I say exclusive, I don’t mean gates are totally shut to you can’t get on at all. It’s you know you can get on, it’s very friendly for visitors, as we found out. And I spoke to the the professional Martin Brown, and we had a really good, interesting chat with him. But um it’s a members club, and you know, you were very much a visitor to that. Um what were your first impressions when you walked into Del amere?

Chris 10:50

Uh it’s an interesting one, isn’t it? Because I think you know, a good chunk of the courses we’ve played so far have either been um you know, a big kind of uh hotel kind of like big complexes where you’ve got you kind of got you know, you you’re expecting you know you’ve got a full tea time of people booked in all day. Every seven minutes you’ve got four people going out, and it’s you know, it it can be a bit kind of circus-like in in in some ways, can’t it? Because there’s just people everywhere, um and they’re just incredibly busy. Whereas this is the complete opposite. We kind of drove into the car park, and there’s like six or seven cars there, maybe. All right, this is pretty quiet, and then there’s you know, there’s a few people milling around, but there’s not really anyone there. Um, so it was kind of yeah, it was it was a pretty cool experience, wasn’t it? Really?

Nish 11:40

It was absolutely the opposite of of most of the places we’ve been to. Like you say, there’s there’s you know, there’s no like you know, usually there’s so many people milling around, like say there’s tea sheets full, whatever. Yeah, talking of tea sheets, there isn’t one, which is so cool though, isn’t it?

Chris 11:56

Like you just rock so cool. Play. So if you’re in a two-ball, three ball, or four-ball, you just play at a slightly different hour, but you can just go and play. You don’t book a tea, you just roll up, bring your dog with you, out you go. Go and play some golf whenever you fancy.

Nish 12:11

And we did be saw a few people taking their dogs out. I mean, brilliant, isn’t it?

Chris 12:14

That yeah, it was uh I mean we play very sorry, yeah, different vibe to to anything we’ve experienced so far, but one that was really, really cool and a vibe that I could definitely get used to for sure.

Nish 12:26

Yeah, uh a hundred percent. Like it was just a it was a relaxing, sedate way to start your round of golf, wasn’t it? Yeah, I just just go out whenever it’s fine, you know. And and obviously we’re playing with a member, so um that that meant when we were flexible when you could go on. I can imagine if you’re a visitor, you’d probably do book a certain time or whatever. I don’t know, actually, probably should have asked uh Martin. We met with Martin, who was the the head professional. What a lovely chap he was!

Chris 12:57

Yeah, he was a great great guy, wasn’t he? Yeah.

A Top 100 Panellist Insight

Nish 13:00

I mean, you know, the the bearing in mind that it’s that kind of club, members, club, all that kind of thing, dead exclusive. We’ve got like a membership of 500, I think. Yeah, it’s closed, like you know, there’s there’s that you can’t apply, all that kind of stuff. But he was so nice, uh, just explaining everything to us, telling us about the course and all that kind of thing. He obviously asked where we were members, and we told him about Reddish Vale, and he’s played there. That then developed into a chat which meant which took he turned told us he’d reviewed Reddish Vale because it was the last of the Cheshire top ten he hadn’t played, um, which kind of piqued our interest a little bit, and we’re just like, okay, well, tell us about that anyway. Turns out Mr. Martin Brown is a top 100 panelist on the website.

Chris 13:50

Yeah, what a which brilliant coincidence that was. It just came up in conversation. Like we hadn’t mentioned what we were doing or anything, had we? You just you just kind of pulled it out and we were like, oh right, wow.

Nish 14:02

Yeah, I had a fascinating chat with him. I think you you guys were warming up at the range, and I went back to chat to him because I thought I might not get a chance later, he might go or whatever. So I’ll I’ll just go and speak to him. And he so he does all the Scottish courses.

Chris 14:16

Um it’s not a bad gig, is it?

Nish 14:19

I’m amazing, you know. And he was he was giving me loads of information about uh you know, and heralded courses, all that kind of thing. So a few little things I’ll I’ll bring out because we have discussed rankings and things in the past, and I’ll try and keep this as brief as I can. So one of the things he mentioned was that it’s quite rare for courses to jump up 20-30 places, and some of them have been doing that, which he’s found odd. You know, it’s like it hasn’t really made sense to me. Usually a few places up and down, and you’d expect. Um, he’s also said that uh he thinks in Scotland, you know, when you look at the rankings, he goes probably half to 60% just writes itself. There are courses on there that are just gonna be on there because of just what they are, which we knew anyway. Yeah, um, but he said the real kind of gold is in the courses that are a bit unheralded, again, something we know and and we’ve found, and the better experiences of some of these courses as well. Specific to Delamere, he said why Delamere isn’t ranked higher. So Delamere is ranked 95 on our list. Um maybe I’ll have a little aside. What did you think about that as a ranking for Delamere?

Chris 15:29

What did I think of that as a ranking? Um, I think as a as a golf course, as a set of 18 golf holes, that is right up there with some of my favourites we’ve played. Um I think obviously we’ve played it, it’s been it’s it’s kind of winter time, isn’t it, still at the minute? I think maybe some of the conditioning wasn’t quite at the kind of level that we’ve seen at some of the other places. However, I think if you go back air in the summer, I think you get a very different experience. It was, it was, it was very wet, so I think hooky was saying basically, like it’s never wet here, like this is the worst you’ll ever you’ll ever see it. And obviously, the rough’s cut the rough’s not grown grown or anything like that. So I I mean I would love to go back and play it in the summer again, to be honest, if we get a uh um an opportunity to do the duel at Delamere part two, I’d be I’d be more to avenge our defeat. Absolutely, yeah. Right, right that wrong. Um yeah, that’s it. It yeah, 95 feels low. It does feel low, yeah. I’d say somewhere around the kind of 60s, 50s, 60s will probably be where I’d kind of put it, I think.

Nish 16:37

I mean what it’s a Heathland course in the middle of Cheshire, like that doesn’t exist, yeah, right? Yeah, you used a phrase you said it’s like this course has been plonked into the middle of this land from Surrey. Yeah, and it it it it feels like it goes toe-to-toe with those courses, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Chris 16:54

Absolutely.

Nish 16:55

Like, you know, with the the and the the drama of the land that you know the I mean, you know, we I was in love with Hanke Common, for instance, but there’s much more dramatic slopes and hills and things like that. Yeah, it’s enemy forest.

Chris 17:10

You don’t you never feel like you’re going massively uphill or downhill, but there’s always like a reasonable kind of like elevation change, sometimes even like two or three times on the same hole, you’re kind of up and down, up and up and down, up and down, but it didn’t feel like an overly hilly golf course. It’s just it’s kind of yeah, just say it’s kind of up and down, it’s like wavy, isn’t it?

Nish 17:30

Almost um wavy, yeah, rolling hills kind of thing.

Chris 17:33

Yeah, absolutely.

Nish 17:34

Well, so so Martin’s uh comment about why Denimere isn’t ranked more highly was about specific. You say you mentioned a specific thing, and that was about the the turf that’s on the fringes of the greens. So you said it it’s the way it’s done doesn’t give you options with how to play that shot, so you you you’d almost have a that’s the way you’re gonna play it, which is characteristic of a lot of normal golf courses, yeah. Okay, um, but the the higher ranked ones you’ve got options you could put it, you could chip it, you could bump and run, you could stick it up in the air, all that kind of thing, and that that that optional playability is obviously something they look at. Yeah, yeah, I’d I’d never considered that.

Chris 18:13

I mean, you would never I’m gonna start but you know, playing around a golf, you would never really think about that whilst you’re going around, but it is it’s an interesting concept though, isn’t it? In terms of actually, yeah, and maybe maybe that’s why um the Lynx course is fair much higher, you know, there’s there’s a much higher proportion of Lynx courses than there is part line courses because you do have that that opportunity and playability of different different options when you’re around the green. So maybe that’s part and parcel of why they are so so highly ranked.

Nish 18:41

But that that has led me to a little bit of a segue. I had a conversation today with Paul, Carnoustie Paul, and he was saying about uh we’re talking about Carnoustie as it happens. I sort of made the comment. I said, I feel like a bit of an idiot not having it in my top five. It’s Carnoustie for God’s sake. And he said, he goes, Do you know what it’s interesting? He goes, Carnoustie is that a kind of golf course that if you play it multiple times, it gets better and better and better because you understand the nuance of how that course is laid out, but and he said that the flow of it is actually really, really good. You can you can go there as a it’s a brutally difficult or whatever, but as you then learn how to actually tactically play this course, the options that are available to you all of the time on all of the holes, yeah, you you really start to appreciate. And I was like, Do you know what? In a small way, I think like that about Reddish Vale. I think that is a golf course. I haven’t got bored of it yet, being a member there for six years, yeah. And you you feel like you can never you’ve never really quite mastered it.

Chris 19:48

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Nish 19:49

There’s always some little stretch that catches you out, yeah.

Chris 19:52

Yeah, but that’s any good golf course, right? That should that should be the case, right?

Clubhouse Views And Practice Setup

Nish 19:56

Exactly. That was it. So it was really interesting that you said that. But let’s bring it back to Delamere. So that was our chat with with with Martin. He’s called Marty Brown, he’s actually an official palette, he’s re reviewed, done something like 40-50 reviews for top 100. So he’s a you know, big hitter, so um well worth looking into. He did a fantastic review of Reddish Vale, actually. Um, but bringing it back to to Delamere um and that course. So we’ll start with the clubhouse and the facilities and practice and all that kind of stuff, because you know, you still think 500 members, um, maybe it’s gonna be a bit smaller, whatever, but pretty grand clubhouse.

Chris 20:33

Yeah, it’s a great clubhouse, isn’t it? Fantastic clubhouse, in fact. Um and I think I don’t think we’ve been anywhere. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever played any golf course where you have when we sat out on the terrace outside, you can basically see four entire holes. So you can kind of see the first, the eighteenth coming back, you can see the tenth coming in, the ninth coming in, the tenth coming back out. But you can see all those holes, and you could you could watch someone play pretty much the entire hole for all four of those holes, which is pretty unique, isn’t it? Um, yeah, it’s mad. Yeah, but what a vantage point that isn’t it’s just kind of set up a little bit above, isn’t it? So um, yeah, you can kind of see out all over all four of those holes, which is a really cool thing. Imagine again in the summer, you’ve got like comps going around or whatever, and you’re having a couple of beers afterwards, it’d be great, great just sitting there watching people.

Nish 21:22

You’d have to get your driver to come and pick cute, wouldn’t you?

Chris 21:24

Yeah, absolutely. Um, but also what you know, some great holes that you get to see there. I mean, 18, 9, 10, probably some of the best golf golf holes on the on the course, aren’t they? Really?

Nish 21:35

Yeah, amazing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, what a cool place. It was one, it was absolutely wonderful. Like a wonderful place to be. It’s the first time I’ve been somewhere where they’ve had a visitors dressing room and or locker room, yeah, members’ locker room. So we we obviously couldn’t go in the members’ one, but yeah, what a great facility. It was just it was lovely inside, wasn’t it? It was everything you needed. And uh we had a did you have a club sandwich? Did you have a burger? I can’t remember now. Did you have a burger?

Chris 22:02

I skipped the club sandwich this time around.

Nish 22:04

Oh you can’t rate it then. Can’t rate it. I have I had a club sandwich, it was quite nice. Yeah, lovely, lovely gluten-free bread and get bread again. That’s catching on. Nice thing. I feel like I think people are listening to us and they’re going, we need to make sure we’ve got the gluten free bread for these guys. Um, and then practice range, so complimentary balls at practice range. Um I really liked the land, the terrain that you were shooting into. Yeah, it’s cool. In the practice range. It was like in a little valley and hills and things like that. It wasn’t just like a Flat bit of land with some 250 yard markers or whatever.

Chris 22:38

I don’t know if it looks like it’s it looks like it’s maybe been fresh freshly done. That it looked quite new, didn’t it? There’s a new facility. I don’t know if that’s always been there or whatever that has been done. Right, okay. Yeah, it just looks quite fresh, didn’t it?

Conditions Greens And A Birdie Run

Nish 22:50

Yeah, I mean that bit was really like up and down, wasn’t it? You like you come right down this pathway and then back up again. You know, it was yeah, lovely dramatic setting for for your round of goals. Yeah. Um and then uh let’s talk about course. Yeah, that’s that’s what we’re here for. So we said it’s rank 95. What did you think of the conditioning of the course in general? And you mentioned a condition not quite there as I reached the upper echelon, but it’s pretty pretty good condition, wasn’t it?

Chris 23:18

I think we played Hillside the week before, which was absolutely pristine, like as you know, as pristine as any golf course I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t quite at that level, but I mean it was in pretty good nick, wasn’t it, to be fair? Like I say, I think it’s about as wet as that’s gonna get. Um again, that’s gonna dry out pretty quickly, and I think you’re gonna be you’ve played it before, haven’t you? So HM, you’ve seen it in that summer, that summer time.

Nish 23:40

Um yeah, I I felt that was it it was better than I remembered it.

Chris 23:44

No, okay.

Nish 23:45

When when we played it. Now I don’t know if because I played it significantly better than I did the first time round. Um, you know, we we actually both played pretty well for I mean you played unbelievably well out of your skin, but we we both actually played pretty well for for our respective standards. Yeah, yeah. Um but yeah, it was it yes, it was fascinating. I mean, I think you know, it was the greens were were interesting because I think we all got the pace of the greens.

Chris 24:13

They were really, really enjoyable. Really enjoyable.

Nish 24:16

Yeah, I thought so.

Chris 24:17

They weren’t easy, but like if you read it right and it you put, you felt like you you felt like you were in a chance with a chance of making it.

Nish 24:24

Um stayed true to the line, didn’t they? Yeah. Once you committed to it, yeah. I mean, we did our classic, we would have gone out holes one to three, and we we were pretty, pretty crap.

Chris 24:34

Yeah, I mean I was four over after three holes and then finished three over in total, so yeah, wasn’t it quite a great crap? A couple of pars instead of those double bogeys, and uh all of a sudden it’s a it’s a it’s an under par round.

Nish 24:45

It’s a level par round of golf, yeah, which is which is random. But I mean we we both clicked into gear on hole four because we we it was a part that was at par three, yeah. We both absolutely nailed our t-shots. Um and it did it just clicked us into gear, didn’t it? I mean, you certainly you know you’ve gone from there, you’ve done uh two three bogeys, and then you’ve had like four birdies in between as well. So you just it was just a highlights real almost, wasn’t it?

Chris 25:13

Yeah, I mean it’s 300 on the back nine, it’s pretty pretty good going. Um still not enough to win, though. Is it still not enough to win?

Nish 25:20

Um I mean the thing is that I normally I’d say like, oh yeah, I’m really sorry Chris didn’t really contribute, but I I’ll just give you an example of what sort of what I did. So um we got to fourth, we both parred it, played good t shots, and then I’ve gone um the par threes I did not play well, and I’ll get to that in a in a in a second. But if I look at my last ten holes, I was three over for the last ten holes. Nice. So I was like in there’s a middle stretch, like four pars in a row, finished with a couple of pars. It was just like I I was there, it’s just the where I was parring, you were getting birdies.

Chris 25:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nish 26:00

Like it wasn’t even a chance to to contribute, so I can’t even tell you like that.

Chris 26:03

Pretty much every time I stood on a T, I was like, I’m gonna make a birdie here. I’m gonna make a birdie here. You’ll do all right, is it just back into that mindset of going, yeah, birdie’s what I want here, um, which was pretty pretty fun.

Nish 26:15

Great. No, it’s good. You could see the the the twinkle with the spark was back. Absolutely, mate.

Chris 26:20

Absolutely. It’ll be gone again next time to play for sure.

Nish 26:23

Mainly because you were like, sorry, how did you do? I’ve got no idea how you played. I’m just I’m just in my zone.

Chris 26:28

It was like brilliant. I love that. Yeah, absolutely. I have no idea how how how you and Chris played. Like you two were just you two for me, we’re playing like another game. It was just me and Hookie. I was like, concentrating on what he’s doing, and I’m gonna beat him. Yeah, I’ve got to beat him on every hole. Um, that was good.

Nish 26:45

Like I say, we’re gonna win this creator creator cup thing that’s going on. It’s easy. Um, par threes. Talk to a bit about the par threes. What did you think of those? You are our resident expert with a hole in one challenge set in front of you. Yeah, I mean it was uh I thought you’d got one at one point.

Chris 26:59

It looked like it was right online with the flag. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, again, another really good set of par threes, weren’t they? Some some tricky par threes, actually. Some of the I think probably I think probably some of the hardest parts. Yeah, that we’ve played.

Nish 27:11

Um they weren’t like littered with bunkers or anything like that.

Chris 27:14

Just everything you looked at. Decent length, weren’t they? So there were there weren’t many kind of real short ones. They were all that kind of pushing towards the sort of 200 marker or just less than uh a couple of shorter ones in there, but they were all you know 170 plus for for the most part. Um, but yeah, I think a challenging set of par threes, to be honest. I don’t think I think most of those holes, if you walk away with a three, I think you’re feeling like you’ve done well.

Nish 27:40

I think you’re doing well. Yeah, yeah, I think so. It was it was just it was odd. I looked at my shot traces and stuff like that, shot maps, I should say, and yeah, so I I’ve seen I’ve played on much more daunting looking par threes, but there was just something about them, you just couldn’t. I mean, nothing clicked for me pretty much apart from that fourth where I parred it, that fourth oh where I parred that one. Everything else I got fives on because it was like as soon as you missed, it’s like you were just in trouble somewhere. It was just hard to get back into the back into the hole sort of thing. Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, you you came close again, so it’s two two courses in a row now. You’ve you’ve you’ve potentially come close to a holding one for that. This is gonna happen.

Chris 28:21

Whether I’m just edging towards getting that hole in one that you’ve set me, or whether it’s just gonna be a really painful year of just near misses every time every time we play around, I’m gonna get like six inches away from a from a hole in one and just just miss out. But um, hopefully I’m just editing.

Nish 28:35

So if you look at if that sharpens you up towards getting all these birdies on par threes, I mean that’s good, isn’t it? Absolutely. I’ll just I don’t know. I’ve just got a feeling that it’s just one of those things that’s gonna happen and we’ll have full evidence of it. How good is that?

Chris 28:48

Um watch the when it does happen, you’ll be stood in front of the camera.

Nish 28:54

I’m making sure I am on par threes now. That’s it. Um, do you have any notable moments that you remember from your incredible? I mean, look at that back nine. I couldn’t you know, watch four four birdies in the back nine.

Chris 29:06

Yeah.

Nish 29:07

Um is there anything in particular that stuck out to you and how that was going for you? Or was it just literally you’re just watching what hooky was doing?

Chris 29:16

Uh a little bit, but I think yeah, just that that kind of run sort of ten through ten through fifteen, I suppose. Yeah.

Nish 29:24

I just feel like four under in six holes.

Chris 29:27

Yeah, I just felt like I was gonna burdy all of those. Um so yeah, I just really felt in the zone for those six holes, and also what a great six holes they were, like ten fantastic hills. You get you can come back towards the clubhouse and you kind of go up the hill as like a like a master’s style bit of uh topiary, uh just halfway up the um the fairway. Great, you know, some short par four, but a great hole. Uh then the 11th, another great, great par five, great t-shot from there. Um really enjoyed that haul again. And then you’ve got a short one of the shorter par threes coming up after that. I think it’s a really great run of holes, to be honest. I think we we we said it um during the round, didn’t we? I already said it during the round that I think it’s a golf course, and something I don’t think we’ve experienced yet so far, that just built and built and built and built and built, and I think it just got better and better and better and better and better. And I think as a set of holes, I think that’s the one of the best flows that we’ve played as as a as a as an 18 as a set of 18 holes, and there were just there’s just no bad holes in there. There’s not a single hole where you go, do you know? I could I could take or leave that hole. And I feel like a lot of the other courses we’ve played where we’ve you know, some of the high, highly, highly ranked ones, we’ve gone, oh, I love that section that was four or five holes, whatever, and there’s a couple holes that I wasn’t bothered about. I think each and every single one of those holes was just was brilliant, and like I said, they just got better and better, and just yeah, just kind of built to a crescendo, I think, towards the end, and and they finished in the 18th, which is a glorious golf hole.

Best Holes And Signature Fourteen

Nish 31:02

What a hole that is, what a hole that is. Yeah, I mean, yeah, we we did say that it’s this this it was uh it was linear, it was just this upward trajectory linear of quality of hole, quality of challenge, quality of view. Yeah, and that’s not to denigrate the early holes. The early holes have got plenty about them, by the way, because that opening T shot is a is a as that’s a tough one, yeah. Particularly when you’ve got the the whole potentially, where’s nobody ever there, so nobody’s gonna watch you, but you potentially got people watching you on the first T. Um it it it did, it just builds. I think it we we’ll get to our top three holes now, yeah. Because I think this demonstrates that point. So we’ll start with yours, Chris. What were your top three holes in in order of holes? Like not as in order of top three, but like as in order of holes number two.

Chris 31:52

Yeah, so the tenth, the tenth hole for me was a great hole. So that’s one of the ones that’s coming. Uh sorry, the ninth hole, wrong hole. Ninth hole. So you’re coming back into the clubhouse. Um and you’re kind of at an elevated T, there’s just a little island of fairway that you’ve got to aim at. So it’s just kind of like this racing dips down and then comes right back up. There’s a little hump, which is just the fairway. So you’ve only got a pretty small landing area to hit it onto, and then again it dips down again and then comes back up to like a raised green. So you you yeah, it’s like a little, it’s almost like one of the one of the holes that you see on like TGL. Like you’ve got this tiny little landing area, you’ve got to hit that, and if you’d miss that, your ball’s gone.

Nish 32:30

Uh, and then we get so you made it, you made a golf reference there, Chris. I was gonna say it it’s like a a cartoon nessi. It’s like your Tee off and then it disappears under the water. There’s a little bit comes up, that’s the the bit of fairway, then it goes disappear. Then the little bit comes up, that’s the header, that’s where the green was. Yeah, yeah. Um crazy golf hole.

Chris 32:48

Yeah, it was a crazy golf hole, but uh, but I loved that. And I think but if you filled those gaps in, it would be a really boring golf hole, probably. But like it was just so well built into the land, and I think that’s something that that was done well throughout. Is that like those golf holes look like they were just built into that land, so that land was there, and they’ve gone right, we’re gonna build some golf holes on it, and we’re gonna make the most of the natural landscape that we’ve got here, and I think that’s done brilliantly. Um, and I think Mr. Herbert Fowler, well done. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the tenth is is is one of the great examples of that. Uh ninth, ninth, sorry, ninth. I keep wanting to call it the tenth, but it is the ninth. You do, yeah, yeah.

Nish 33:25

Yeah, well, you when you said the ninth, then I was like, he’s totally the tenth, I’m sure he’s got the right one. No, no, he’s not, he’s got the right one. That’s fine. Um, okay. What was your next one then after that?

Chris 33:34

Uh next one to that was 14, so that’s their quote unquote signature hole. Um, but I mean, what a golf hole that is. Um, you know, the Tee-shots, it’s not a particularly challenging one. Uh, you can hit you can hit a long iron, sort of I hit a firewood pretty poorly. Um, but that then leaves you with this shot which is kind of going downhill towards like there’s a kind of forest uh sort of backing backing up behind the green. So it’s just uh it’s an amazing vista to play into this beautiful little green, tucked down little sort of bunker, bunker stream green. Um but yeah, what a what a beautiful second shot that is. What yeah, yeah, it’s it’s really really pleasing on the eye, isn’t it?

Nish 34:20

Um but also I’m gonna chirp in here because that is on my you can definitely see why it’s a signature hole. Yeah, that’s on my list as well. Yeah, yeah. 14. Yeah, it was unbelievable. Um what I I I have played that before, and that was the hole that I remembered most. And again, when I told Hockey, he was like, Yeah, that’s the one that I would say goes that says Delomere most. Yeah, yeah.

Chris 34:42

The bit about that is you all remember that hole when you played it for sure, you’re not gonna forget that.

Nish 34:45

Correct, yeah. The thing that I think I love about that hole is you play your t-shirt, it’s a sort of a blind-ish t-shirt because it’s going over the crest of a hill, so you don’t quite know where you’ve all ended up. Yeah, anything straight is gonna gather at the top of that hill and just roll down. Yeah, so I didn’t hit my drop particularly well, but it was straight and it just kind of carried on, and it just leaves you a very short wedge in. But because that hole is the hill, sorry, all you can see is just the tops of the trees of the top of the hill. You come over and it slowly reveals itself.

Chris 35:15

Yeah, it’s a great reveal, isn’t it?

Nish 35:17

Oh, and that’s you play golf for moments like that, yeah. Totally, totally. Particularly if your ball’s in the middle of the fairway, that’s that’s even better. But you know, if you’re not looking around, yeah.

Chris 35:28

But also the last time ever that we’ve both it was been a really competitive signature hole. We both played really good golf.

Nish 35:36

Yeah, should we go to it? Should we just do it? Sure. Should we talk about it? Yeah, it was amazing, wasn’t it? We both both like got away. I think, yeah, because I think my drive because it went, it was fairway and then caught the downslope. So it went, I had that that fairway bunker followed me around, so it caught the downslope, but it it shot on a bit further than yours.

Chris 35:58

I think as you’d gone into the left rough, yeah, I just got mine a bit a little bit off the off the top of the club face and didn’t go particularly far, but again, just caught the caught the slope and went down sort of left left hand side of the the uh the rough on the left hand side of the fairway.

Nish 36:11

Um yeah, so we we both sort of walking up and Chris is in his element in his zone on the left hand side. I’ve kind of just come over the hill and I’m expecting that ball just to kind of be there, and then look, he’s stood near this other ball really far down, only about 100 yards out, and um he’s just sort of stood near it. I thought, well, that must be his fine. He hit a really good drive, and he’s like, Oh no, this is you. I was like, Oh, okay, right, dead surprise kind of thing. And I stood there, and then I’ve sort of just about got used to where my ball is. I’m like, Yes, that’s a really good drive. I’ve got a chance here, great, to see suddenly this flash over on my left hand side, and it’s Chris has just played this shot, and I’ve very rare for me to actually be able to spot the ball the whole way, but I saw this ball and I’m like looking at it, going, Fucking hell, that looks really good. That was really good. Like, I don’t I don’t know, I’m at an angle, but that looks good. Yeah, but then I think you must have dropped it to like 10, 12 feet, something like that.

Chris 37:07

Yeah, I mean it was maximum. It’s kind of a blind shot that so I couldn’t see the flag from where I was, so I kind of mooched up the hill to see where the flag was, and I’d picked a spot, and I was like, right, there’s a little bunker sort of to the to the front of the green, and the the green kind of uh I guess it’s kind of like there’s a slight diagonal at the front, so it kind of it’s kind of going from the front to the back. I’m not sure how I’m trying to describe them, but anyway, essentially what I was decided is like what I need to do is I need to draw one in here to try and get as close to that flag as I can. So I was like, I’m gonna hit a nice, a nice swinging draw, and I hit exactly the shot that I wanted to hit, and it landed, yeah, yeah, six or eight four. What hole to do it on it spin? It was pretty pretty nice.

Nish 37:48

It’s great. So he’s yeah, he’s dropped it like that close, and I’m like, oh fuck, it’s a signature hole challenge. Of course he’s done it, yeah. Of course he has. Right. So I’ve like, I was like, I think because I was higher up than the green, so it was like, okay, I think I can get away with my nice, easy pitching wedge here. And actually, I was striking the ball really, really well all day. I was so happy with the way it was just generally playing. So I was like, right, come on, just go through your normal process, it’ll be fine, you’re gonna be okay. And I got the distance absolutely on the money, like it was pin high, just sent it a little bit, little bit right, and I was like, Oh man, like gutted. But then I was because I wasn’t really paying that much attention to how you would necessarily play. And I was like, Oh, you still gotta put that. I know, Chris, you still gotta put that, so I’ve got a chance. So we’re walking up. Also, I didn’t realise it’s uh it’s a par four, so it’s a net score anyway. So actually, I would have had a really good chance, but uh we’re just working at this time, we’re playing so well, we’re working on pure gross scores, aren’t we?

Chris 38:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nish 38:48

And um, so we’re walking up, and I’m like, right, I’ve got to put some pressure on here. So I called, I said it said to you, didn’t I? I was like, I’m just gonna chip this in just to put the pressure on you. And I hit it again. We’ll have the footage playing if you watch the YouTube version. I came so close to nailing the chip from the from the edge of the green. It was really as I was watching it, I was like, fuck, I think I’ve called this. That’s going in, that’s really going in, and just tailed away just at the end. So I was a bit gutting about that, a bit myth, but that would have been quite a good early call. That um, and then that that left us with a sort of a straight, straight shootout. So yeah, you took your you took your two putts uh for a par. I nailed my putt for a for a par, but we both got a shot at that. So net it was halved, so we halved a signature hole. But what with good half on a great hole, though.

Chris 39:41

So yeah, I’m I’m pleased with that. It’s better than our usual.

Nish 39:44

It was amazing. That’s what it can be like, Chris. That’s what it can be.

Chris 39:48

Make a concerted effort to make it more like that every time we play a signature hole.

Nish 39:52

Exactly, exactly. Uh so that was one of your top that was your second top three of your top three holes and the signature hole all rolled into one. So we are you are still two up.

Chris 40:02

Yeah.

Nish 40:03

Um, now through 20% of this of the challenge. So um it’s all to play for, Chris. But what is your final top three hole?

Chris 40:10

My final top three hole is the final hole, which is number 18. Uh snap. Yeah, what a glorious way to finish it. Part five, you’ve got this kind of raised Tee-box. You can see the clubhouse in the in the distance. You kind of have to drive over a little copice of trees, and yeah, it’s just a beautiful, beautiful golf shot to hit off the tee, isn’t it? It’s such a great tee-shot.

Nish 40:31

It feels like one of the like it should be talked about as one of the great finishing holes in golf. That’s one of the better finishing holes that we’ve got.

Chris 40:38

Yeah, because there’s a lot of places we’ve played where they’ve said this is one of the great finishing holes in golf. I don’t think Delamere is one of those, but I think that’s probably the best 18th hole we’ve played so far for me. I love that hole. I think it’s a great.

Nish 40:51

I mean, what let’s what what springs to mine? Obviously, Carnoustie the 18 springs to mine. Yeah, um the 18 at 18th at Hollinwell springs to mine. That was a good one. That was again another elevated T, wasn’t it? Now that was a narrow landing spot. This wasn’t a narrow landing spot, but that top, and then you curve around to the right a little bit, and then again the clubhouse appears and it sits majestically on top of this hill.

Chris 41:17

It’s such a pleasing drone, isn’t it? Just to smash around off the top of that hill. And yeah, it’s yeah, it is great.

Nish 41:23

Yeah, we played it all right as well. Yeah, hit a few, a few out, a few out of the screws, didn’t we? Um it’s good. Great, great golf hole, great finishing. Um, and you know, my my other thing in the top. So I echo you with 14 and 18. I thought they were brilliant holes. Absolutely see why 14 is a signature hole. Um, my other hole in my top three was the eighth. So the eighth is there’s a plaque there at the minute. So members will know about this. Anybody who played there on who’s played there will know about it. There’s a plaque there from a member who’s sadly passed away, but they had driven it’s a it’s a pretty long par four, to be fair. They’ve driven the green. Yeah, a bit crazy, really. But you’ve you’re going over very reminiscent of going over like the pandies at Ganton. You’re going over this sort of rough patch, yeah, yeah. And then the whole turns a little bit, and then you’re playing your approach, but it’s to a green again that’s a little bit lower down.

Chris 42:21

Yeah.

Nish 42:22

Um, but it’s kind of back to front, sloping back to front, so that the ball gathers back up towards the back down towards the hole, I should say. But just you know, you have to think about what you’re doing and where you’re playing it and how you’re gonna do it. Not littered with bunkers or anything like that. Yeah, um, I thought that was a that was a cracking order.

Chris 42:41

It’s a got it to miss. I had two really good shots in there and then just missed my birdie putt, so that would have been another birdie to add to the tally on that hole. But yeah, that was a it was a great hole, to be fair.

Nish 42:50

Yeah, amazing. And I think if you look at our hole choices here, we’ve gone eight, nine, fourteen, eighteen. Yeah. So the point being that that’s the way that round builds, yeah. And I I think that they don’t try and Herbert Fowler hasn’t tried to like smack you in the face with like three or four amazing holes at the start, and then you go, oh whatever. Yeah, he’s just gone, all right. There’s a little bit here, there’s a little bit here, there’s a little bit here, and it’s getting better, and it’s getting better, and it’s getting better, and it’s getting better, and you just like 18 is just like this amazing climax to that to that golf course.

Chris 43:23

So, yeah, I I think again, I think we said it on the day, didn’t we? I think as a collection of 18 holes, I think that’s right up there with some of the some of the best we played, if not the best set of 18 holes, just for consistent for consistency of quality, it’s just it’s absolutely bang up there. Absolutely.

Nish 43:41

You couldn’t get bored there, could you? Absolutely.

Chris 43:43

Never, absolutely not.

Nish 43:45

I think it’s an amazing, amazing place. Um does it then next question, does it get into your top five?

Chris 43:55

Really thought about that to be honest, in the in that concept. I I think it probably does. I think I think it if it does I think it probably does, I think it’s very close.

Nish 44:05

Um that’s amazing, isn’t it? Considering the course that we played.

Chris 44:08

If I went back there and played there in the summer and the grass was up, and I think the first couple two or three holes, I think Hookie was saying like normally they this all like really well defined because the because the the rough is grown up in in between. I think if you went back and played it in those conditions, I I think it would be hard to hard to argue why that wouldn’t be in the top sort of three or four golf courses that we played.

Nish 44:29

So the level of challenge goes up, I think, considerably, doesn’t it? Because it’s there’s a premium on your on your you’re you’re driving and and whatever yeah yeah um yeah interesting okay so if it if it’s made at your top four at five where is that fitting is that into top three territory are we talking four five I think yeah I think probably yeah maybe three three four five I think I’d have to sit down and I’d have to unpick that but I I mean maybe it’s partly because I played I played so well but I just thoroughly enjoyed that round the golf from start to finish I just think it was brilliant absolutely brilliant I couldn’t I couldn’t vault it I really couldn’t it really was throw a couple of facts in for you here as well for well for not for you you know these but um for people listening and watching uh is that it’s 165 pounds to play there on a Saturday or Sunday in the middle of summer yeah I mean yeah that is some seriously good value comparatively to what else we’ve been playing and the prices that you’re paying I think that is that’s a steal for me it’s an absolute steal and it’s the fact that you’re if you’re in our area here or if you’re in the north really I would say yeah we we’ve said mentioned this in the preview we’re not really blessed with amazing courses in Cheshire which is strange when you see what can be done um but that as a as a rate to play a top 100 core I mean this is you know it’s just holding on at 95 but it’s not that I think that’s underranked so again it’s in that hindhead territory where it’s underranked for me. Yeah okay maybe not technically having spoken to Martin maybe technically speaking you could rank it where it is but I think round that golf course I think that’s it’s right up there isn’t it there isn’t a boring t-shot on there you know but equally they’re not like a boring shot on there you’re not quaking no you’re not you’re not quaking in your boots at the teeth they’re going oh my god I can’t you know there’s nothing I can’t I can’t actually play here um it’s it’s all it’s all gettable it’s all playable but so enjoyable so enjoyable you know and and that I was I’ve always loved that tree backdrop anyway Chris so that always gets me but um me personally does it get into my top five it’s probably pushing it I think it doesn’t quite get into my my top five I don’t think but I could see it landing six seven easily because that’s kind of the that’s the kind of golf that I like playing where it’s there’s good fun there’s real interest in it that’s why I’m a member at Reddish Vale I love it you know I’m I’m not about like flat whatever um so it it you know it it ticks a lot of those ticks a lot of those boxes yeah yeah um so yeah I that’s where I’d have it you know personally um and we didn’t have a side bet because Jim was MIA when uh when we did our did our preview found him yeah um nobody knows where do you know what I was gonna do right and I for I totally forgot to do this I was gonna print off a picture of Jim and just kind of put it here like that. What did you think Jim did you have a what do what do you what do you think we should do for a side bet kind of thing do his do his really deep voice but um okay I think we’ll we’ll finish with our three reasons we had a little chat about this before we came on our three reasons that you should go out there and visit Delame Forest Golf Club so the first one and we’ve talked about this a lot is the rhythm of that course and how that momentum of the course builds I don’t think we’ve ever experienced that anywhere I think that’s unparalleled in I think in in terms of what else we’ve played if if I’m totally honest.

Chris 48:19

I think that’s yeah such a such a great selling point for that golf course I think so I think it leaves you wanting more doesn’t it absolutely you could you could go if that carried on for another 18 holes you could quite happily just go and play 36 holes and I don’t think you’d even notice that you’d have played 36 holes you’d have just carried on you’d just be swept up with the with the correct you know with the flow of it all I’d have very happily time permitting and light permitting I’d have very happily gone round and played another 18 straight away for sure 100% which there’s not that many courses I’ve come off thinking of a decrepit body and quite happily quite happily carry on yeah we need one of those Stuart golf golf buggies that just follows you around you don’t have to do anything with it. So yeah I mean that that was we both said it that it just I think I think Chris said it first and as soon as he said it I was like do you know what he’s just said it just absolutely makes sense that it just builds and the momentum has just carried on it’s been like linear not up and down and and like a real highlights real queens one of my favourite courses you know in Lincoln Eagles I remember that front nine I just it was highlight real like six holes I was like these are all amazing and then it probably tailed off a little bit comparatively now yeah whereas this was just like yeah just steady the the whole way I kind of think now looking back at it I probably appreciated the slightly easier building yeah it’s it’s it’s an inverted comment it’s not easy yeah yeah exactly and you just get like fisters everywhere bad scores yeah I know same here I’m like you know just lost a lot of golf balls all that kind of stuff but yeah it was it was a nice easy I quite like that a little easy introduction into it it reminds actually do you know it reminded me of a little bit of Gullan Gullan did that yeah it was nothing amazingly challenging at the start it was just a little easy and then suddenly it just starts growing yeah yeah and gets better um so so that’s that’s the first reason that we we picked um the second reason was there’s no tea sheet we love that what a novelty that is it’s amazing you just see this sign and it’s like if you’re a two-boy you roughly go out of bin these hours if you’re four boy go out here three boy you know that kind of thing and there’s just something I want to use the word quaint and I don’t think quaint is the right word but it’s one sort of old fashioned yeah but in a in a great way though like what what a great way to you know if you remember that you’re just like oh you know like we were playing with hooky and hooky was in a meeting work meeting whatever he’d finished his meeting made his way to the club realised he didn’t have his clubs gone back home come back and he just box up and we just stand on the tea and off we go like it doesn’t it doesn’t matter if you missed the tea you know there’s no no dramas around that you just go and play whatever you want and it was yeah it was such a cool atmosphere wasn’t it I think like I say just people yeah rocking up with the dogs going for a little for a little nine holes or whatever um yeah it was it was really cool that wasn’t it I think I will say we’ll add something else here that um with the way that this club is you can imagine if this was down in Surrey you’re talking at some place where you probably feel a bit like you’re out of place and not that you’re not welcome maybe not welcome is the right not is not the right way to look at it but more like yeah I’m I’m definitely a visitor here you know that kind of thing I thought everybody took the time to talk to us it was really nice like I thought there was a nice friendly vibe still like it was didn’t didn’t come across as like snooty or anything like that at all.

Final Verdict And Next Preview

Nish 51:34

So I thought it was like it’s a Surrey Heathland golf course Chris with northern hospitality absolutely absolutely mate what more could that’s what it is what more could you want what more could that’s like the perfect blend the perfect blend and then my third reason is and I’ve just only just mentioned it is the £165 weekend summer rate to go and play a top 100 course with that kind of conditioning and challenge and fun factor and the that building up a mental I mean that is an absolute steal I think totally you know it’s almost pushing into not quite but almost pushing into you know Silith kind of value where you go do you know what that is why are more people not talking about this and taking advantage of it so um I think it if you were if you were I I’m I’m lucky enough and privileged enough that I get people messaging me about our um the courses and we’re playing and and whatever and there’s a whole broad range of people who watch and listen and I certainly know that somebody who’s just starting off and we were like this weren’t we two years ago just starting off playing top 100 courses there’s a little bit of like fear factor intimidation factor this is a great place to start play it in your first five courses yeah yeah I think you’ve it sets you up really nicely I think yeah and if you can try and catch Martin and he’s in what a what a top guy top guy he was um and we I did this in the last the um hillside review and I’m just gonna stick in a three and a half again really those greens were were absolutely brilliant yeah I it was a dream putting on them yeah it was maybe because we got the pace of them I don’t know but they were so they’re so true they were just subtle but makeable for putts certainly I mean if you’re nailing your putts Chris they’re pretty easy greens must have been must have been piss easy absolutely so you’re just flattening your trench all the way along to the hole um but yeah I thought the greens were an absolute dream to to put on and again you know bearing in mind there’s the wet the wet winter we’ve had I think the fact that it was wet probably just indicates how bad it has been this winter um but yeah I think Martin was telling me there’s something crazy like 500 feet of sand or something under the course or whatever I was like what that’s it’s like half the beach of the UK underneath this one little bit of land but um yeah one wonderful day we hope we’ve done it justice I think is what I would say yeah I mean I I like say it’s only an hour down the road I would quite happily go and out I would go and be a member there and and drive an hour every day to go and play my golf for sure I would 100% without like you wouldn’t even need to convince me no to do that. Yeah great you know um yeah well look I think that’s that’s effusive praise for for Delamere Forest the closest one to us and it certainly did not disappoint in any way shape or form so um bravo Delamere well done next time on the top 100 in 10 golf podcast we’ll be previewing the incredible first 2026 society event we have so we’ve got our own society and we put together an unbelievable event at Burnham & Berrow Golf Club in Somerset