Burnham & Berrow Golf Club Review

Welcome & The Burnham Plan

Nish 0:35

Every good story is about the journey. And this is a 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.

Chris 0:45

Yeah, I think it was really hard to do our proper kind of review. We were playing kind of match play. I mean I was playing against the number one in Wales.

Nish 0:53

I enjoyed the variable lies. You know, you were always on an angle. Yeah, yeah. A toin coss. What’s a toin coss? Is that what I said? Yeah. But if we want to go and play it back again, I think that does speak volumes of the quality of the golf course.

Society Ryder Cup Weekend Setup

Chris 1:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Nish 1:07

Yeah. Episode 71, the Burnham & Berrow Review. So Burnham & Berrow hosted us for our Society Ryder Cup weekend, which was a wonderful flying success, and what wonderful hosts they were. We’re welcomed, made to peel feel part of the club, and we even bumped in to retired England batter Marcus Trescothick. This is the story of how our day went. Prior to that, I’m going to ask you out there in a listener and watching land to hit like, subscribe, share, anything you can do to help us grow our podcast. It’s absolutely free for you, but it’s vital for us to get those numbers. We can then grow it for content, we can grow it for production, we can get better and better ideas, content, things out there that are going to keep you interested and you entertained. So that’s your bit. Our bit is we’ll promise to keep producing good content. Now back to the episode.

Chris 2:01

Just before we start, Nish, I’ve just noticed in the intro, I’d noticed it’s changed, but I noticed now that it doesn’t say every good story has an ending. Do you have you have you got a sense that this isn’t going to end at some point? Do you think we’re not going to do it? Have you lost the books?

Nish 2:19

Yeah. Um yeah, what do you call it? Um the the naivety of youth. So in our first year of existence, it was like, yeah, we’ll bash this out, no problem. We’ve done 18 courses in a year. This is a freaking piece of piss. But yeah, I you know, that there are some sizable challenges ahead.

Chris 2:40

There’s some doubts creeping in niche.

Nish 2:42

Yeah, we’re taking people along for that along to that journey. Yeah, I think, Chris. So um well noticed. Well noticed. That was a subtle little tweak I did. Um, but yeah, anyway, enough of my doubting Thomas uh impression. Uh well, we we this was uh the first of our society Ryder Cup weekend. We had 20 golfers there. It was a brilliant weekend, just in general. You can’t get 20 guys in a pub uh not having fun, basically, and chucking a bit of golf, chucking a bit of competition, and it was great. And we couldn’t separate the teams. We had to do countbacks and points and all sorts, and it was just amazing.

Chris 3:27

Remarkable how close it was after two days of golf between 20 people, wasn’t it?

Nish 3:32

Yeah, couldn’t have dreamt it any closer, really. Um and our first day was at Burnham and Berrow. So the way we’d done it, we wanted the first day to be the big top 100 course that um everybody was fresh for, there were no hangovers or anything like that, um, and excited for. So yeah, we headed over to Burnham and Berrow. Uh great golf club. Um, you know, quite small and compact in that initial bit, wasn’t it? Where the clubhouses and facilities and pro shops kind of traditional older golf club kind of vibe, wasn’t it?

Chris 4:07

It wasn’t it’s not kind of big, you know, modern facility. It’s definitely that old school uh clubhouse, which which I like. I like that. It’s a bit more quaint and feels like a a proper golf club that you’re going into.

Nish 4:18

So that was Yeah, it was lovely, it was a lovely clubhouse, wasn’t it? The size was great actually, because there was a lovely buzz about the place. There were you know, there weren’t that many people in there, but it just got felt busy quick, yeah, which is always nice.

Chris 4:31

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Clubhouse Feel & Practice Facilities

Nish 4:32

Yeah, you know, especially when there’s 20 visitors turn up, you kind of want to blend in a little bit, don’t you? Not stick out like a sore thumb, which there’s a few places we’d be where we might have done, you know. Um, but you know, everybody sort of was passed over, said hello, you’ll enjoy it, yeah. You’ll have a great time. Uh I think there was awareness that that we were there, and and it was it was a really traditional kind of clubhouse, wasn’t it? There were some really old bits in there.

Chris 4:56

The bit that stood out to me, I think, in terms of that setup is I don’t think we’ve been anywhere where you know, so it was it’s fairly compact, but like you kind of rock up, you’ve got the clubhouse there, you’ve got the putting green right in front of it, you’ve then got a chipping green just just next to that, and then you’ve got the drive-in range just kind of next to the pro shop. So within you know, 50 metres of the kind of you know the main entrance, you’ve got everything that you need before you go around, which is which is awesome, I thought, you know, really good range, great short game facilities, just all right there next to the next to the clubhouse.

Nish 5:25

Um there is one place we’ve seen that, um, and that is Dumbarnie. But that is been purpose built to be like that because that is a a tourist course, right? And they’ve done it so that you don’t move around too much. It’s not being seen at an as an old classic traditional golf club that’s been around for over a hundred years.

Chris 5:49

I mean, normally they just try to find a piece of land somewhere that they can put a range onto, right? Um, but yeah, this is all done done really well and all yeah, really compact and kind of yeah, uh I didn’t notice that, Chris.

Nish 5:59

Well, yeah, well, good good spot that that’s a good little doff of the cap to to the design originally, you know, then and how they’ve kind of um i evolved that. But yeah, it was great. It was actually green and nice having everyone, you don’t have to like really shout anybody over or anything like that.

Chris 6:13

It was like we had 20 people to kind of organise, everyone was within the same within the vicinity of where we should have been.

Weather Turns & Review Caveat

Nish 6:19

Yeah, I must I must say I’ll I’ll I’ll give a big round of applause to Harbs for helping me corral everybody and get everyone together. And um, we just about managed it, I think, didn’t we? Um, but yeah, that that that clubhouse is it’s worth spending a bit of time in, and we had a bit of food there before, and and it was yeah, it was just a lovely pleasant place. But you can see the the practice green, the first tee, and the 18th green all from that terrace, which was great. Yeah, yeah. Um now we can’t avoid the inconvenient truth about the day. Uh we were looking at the weather, we do weather watch anyway in our top 100 thing because we want to go out and have a good day, don’t we? And the weather does play a part in that. Now, the weather forecast for when we were playing it originally it looked alright, it was gonna be fine, and then as the week was progressing, it kept changing, and basically it looked like there was gonna be this big, heavy band of rain, the only band of rain over a three-day period, the day before, the day of, or the day after, that was gonna hang over Burnham and Berrow pretty much the time that we were playing golf. Yeah. Um, now it didn’t quite start that way. That was alright. We had these it’s by the sea, so things blow over quick, right? So that’s fine. But we started off, and the weather was grey but brightening, and it seemed like we might get away with it. I kept spoke speaking to the starter, um, I think his name was Andy, um, who was brilliant with us, by the way, knowing what we were doing as a society, all that kind of thing. He was so good with us, like good, friendly banter, but the right tone of banter uh with everyone. And his was like, it’ll be fine, you’ll be okay. And then the first groups went off. And then under his breath, going, Fucking idiots, they’re gonna get I’ve sold you a right and to sold you up the river here. Uh, and then the first groups went off. We we me as a captain had to tee off, and then we had to wait half an hour for all the groups to go out, and then yeah, I’ll uh by the time we teed off of the last group, it started raining, and it was like just a little bit of light drizzle at that time, and we’re like, we can cope with this, this is okay. Didn’t really need to put the jacket on, and then suddenly it was like, oh no, okay. This looks like it’s not stopping at the minute, so right, let’s get the jackets on. And so you guys probably would have been, you were you were lead group, weren’t you, Chris? So you probably would have been what whole three, four, probably when you even earlier than that.

Chris 8:53

Even the second, sort of end of the second, start of the third, I think it yeah, it started raining at that point.

Nish 8:58

And it it not only was it rain, there was quite a decent wind as well. So blinks where there wasn’t it wet and windy and pretty cold as well to boot. Yeah, and we haven’t experienced that yet, have we? We’ve been all of our journey, we’ve been quite lucky.

Chris 9:13

The top 100 gods were looking down on us, and it’s the first round we’ve not played together, and it basically shat it down for the first 12 holes.

Nish 9:20

Yeah, there’s a lesson to be learnt here, I think. We we must play these these uh courses together to keep our luck, our run of luck going. Because spoiler alert, uh actually isn’t a spoiler alert because we’ve we’ve already the Wallace episode has already gone out, and the Wallace episode, if you watch it, it’s glorious sunshine. It’s windy, but you know, we will take that any day of the week. So yeah, maybe there is some merit in in that. So yeah, we we obviously yeah, the weather weather wasn’t kind to us. Now, we’ve never had this before, and I’ve written in my show notes that we need to do a bit of a weather caveat for our review.

Chris 10:03

Yeah, I think it yeah, I think it was really hard to do our proper kind of review, get our real review hats on because A, we were playing kind of match play. I mean, I was playing against the number one in Wales, so that didn’t help. Yeah, let’s let’s add that in.

Nish 10:19

Now we had we had Toby who’s been on the podcast, but Toby Hunt is the number one ranked golfer in Wales, and and I’ll put you up against him.

Chris 10:25

Which I was really looking forward to, actually, and thoroughly enjoyed. It was absolutely awesome playing with Toby, like good, he was incredible to watch around there. I mean, it was horrendous weather, you know, the worst weather you could possibly hope for around links course. I think he was at one under through the first time. Um and yeah, he was he was unbelievable to watch.

Nish 10:44

And he doesn’t like links golf as well, that’s the other thing. So in amongst all of that, it’s like one under nine.

Chris 10:51

He literally didn’t hit a shot, you know, not exactly where he intended to until I think like the 15th. It was it was unbelievable, unbelievable to watch. That’s the difference, isn’t it? Great guy to boot as well.

Nish 11:02

Um he was a top guy. Thanks to Toby for coming, you know, I really appreciated that. Yeah, but yeah, I mean we got uh uh for me it rained until hole seven, I think. Uh yeah, hole seven, yeah, I got, and you can see it on my scorecard, which is uh unbelievable, really. Like I I was like six, eight, eight, eight, six, eight, something like that. Yeah, and then get to hole seven, suddenly you’re like a par it. Yeah, and it’s like, and then now that set me on a good run.

Chris 11:37

Yeah, but it was just one of those days where you literally all you can think about is getting your head down and try to keep everything dry for the first the first ten holes for us. Um so yeah, didn’t really feel like I took the first the front nine in properly, I don’t think. So it would be it’d be good to go back and kind of experience that a little bit a little bit again.

Nish 11:54

Um yeah, I I tend to agree with you there, Chris. And I suppose because we weren’t playing together either, we couldn’t almost go right have a look up. Yeah, let’s go.

Chris 12:03

We’ll often do that, won’t we? We’ll be stood on a tee and we’ll just be still there and we’ll have a little chat about kind of either the hole we’ve just played or the hole we’re about to play. Um, whereas it was, you know, just kind of chatting to chatting to other partners, just more generally. Um yeah, I feel like it was a different, difficult review, I think, as much as anything.

Nish 12:19

Um, yeah, I think so. So we’ll we’ll give we’ll give the caveat, you know, it it it’s um we we really enjoyed it still. Like let’s let’s not absolutely you know, let’s not say we’re gonna absolutely pan Burnham and Berrow because we’re not. We’re just that’s not what we’re gonna do. Yeah, there is just gonna be a back nine slant to this over a front nine slant. And Burnham and Berrow, of course, firstly forgive us for for that. You know, if there are holes in there that are you know real highlights in that front nine, we’re really sorry we’re probably gonna miss them. Um, but you know, the wider issue with this is and and um as we are sat right now, the rankings have just been updated, and and there’s been a lot of debate about that. And you kind of do go like you know, if a reviewer turns up and the weather’s terrible, like I we’ve struggled to do reviews and ratings and rankings anyway. Yeah, like I don’t know how you do that when the weather’s inclement and you’re kind of like you know, like you say, you can’t even get your head up, can you? And sometimes we’d be like, you hit your ball, you look where it’s gone, it’s like right, I’ve got a sight of where it is, but and it’s just you’re just marching with your hood down.

Course Condition, Greens & Undulations

Chris 13:26

You’d probably almost better just walk in the course rather than trying to play golf, I think, at that point when it’s when it’s such bad conditions.

Nish 13:31

Like, um that’s a great idea. Play imaginary golf, yeah, just go right down the middle, hitting under par there, burdy on every ball. This is how I would hit it right here, and I’d put it right there. Yeah, absolutely brilliant. Uh, yeah. So look, sorry, we we we we don’t wish to talk too much about that, but there is that weather caveat to what we’re gonna talk about. So being ranked 62 as a golf course on our on our list, it’s hovering around clubs and courses such as Gullane No. One, which we’ve played. Yeah, uh Hankley Common is 58, obviously, which we’ve played, and both of those are individually are in one of our top five lists. So, you know, it’s it’s it’s in there, it’s in a it’s in a meaty chunk of the the uh the rankings. Yeah. What did we think of the condition of the golf course when we could look up and see what was going on?

Chris 14:26

Yeah, I mean the condition was was pretty good. Um I think it’s still still early in the year, right? So it was still only still only April when we were playing. So I think for that time of year, I think the condition was was pretty pretty good, to be honest. Um, I think it meant builders having some of the best screens in in certainly England, uh if not the UK. I I’m not quite sure they quite stacked up to that for me. Having played Hillside a couple of weeks before, um, I think that was in that was in much better condition, I think, from a Greens perspective. Uh, I think generally though, outside of that, I think you know it was it was a pretty well conditioned course. It was it was pretty good looking.

Nish 15:00

Do you think yeah, do you do you think that was on quality of greens surface-wise or challenge-wise? I’m not sure. It’s difficult sometimes because sometimes people don’t qualify the comment, do they?

Match Play Pressure with Toby Hunt

Chris 15:12

I mean, there’s some great slopes on the greens at Burnham. Some believe some really, really tricky puts, even if you kind of put it put it into a decent place on the green, you can still end up with a really difficult put. So I think that in terms of though, in terms of that challenge, you know, sometimes you get on links courses and they can just be really flat at the greens, but it definitely wasn’t like that. There’s a lot of undulations. I think that that kind of that flows through all the way through the course, wasn’t it? From green to fairway to T’s. It’s it is an undulating course, and there’s lots of pumps and hollows and mounds, which is great, great kind of links experience. And you know, there’s lots of little chips and um you know, bump and runs and stuff that you need to play around the greens to be able to kind of get close. Um so yeah, I like that about the greens in terms of the challenge. I just think the condition probably wasn’t quite at some of the some of the levels that we’ve played elsewhere. You know, we’ve played um we’ve played Hillside, we’ve played Wallasey recently. Um I don’t think it was just quite at that level that that those two were at, if I’m if I’m honest.

Nish 16:05

Yeah, the the those greens uh undulation-wise could make you look very silly very quickly, couldn’t they? Yeah, absolutely, yeah, for sure. Uh that there’s one notable moment, and I’ll get to it maybe. Oh no, let’s do it now. There’s there’s one notable moment. So day day one on our society ended up being three and a half points each. Um and we had to do something cool. We had to pick a a wild card or a joker, we called it, I think. Um, and that person basically, if they won their match, they got an extra point, but if they lost, they got a minus point, which will come back to haunt me a bit later. But um, I picked myself as the the joker because I was up against Harbs, it was my opposing captain, and I was like, if you’re gonna do it, do it properly, right? Let’s do it. Anyway, I’d had a stinker for six holes, so I was six down after six holes, and then I suddenly the the heavens cleared and I started playing, and I’d clawed it back to I was just one down on the 16th green, and I four-putted from not too far away, but I foreputted in my absolute stupidity um not not realizing what score I was on and what Hobbs had done. So actually, the the the fourth of my putts was really close, and I was just like, I’ve got two putts to to to win this hole because I thought the Hobbs had a different score. What I should have done was asked him what he was down for, and then I just didn’t do it. And then he went, Oh, that was a six or whatever, or whatever it was I’d done. And then I was like, No, it wasn’t. So we had this whole like discussion on the transition to the next tee, and I was like, Oh no, and do you know when that penny drops and he go, Oh, you idiot. Yeah, you’d have just thought for a second could have got it all square on that going into the last two holes, which would have been epic, absolutely epic. So, yeah, that was but you know, that’s they can make you look that stupid that quickly, so you’ve got to really concentrate on those greens. And uh what do you know what I did like when I did start playing playing well and taking the course in properly and all that kind of stuff? I enjoyed the I enjoyed the variable lies, you know, you were always on an angle, yeah. There was very little that was flat, and I enjoyed the different shot. I’m getting into this shot making thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris 18:29

I mean that’s what Links Golf’s about, right? So I think, yeah, that that that’s kind of I think that’s probably part of the reason that it’s up there in terms of the rankings, isn’t it? It’s not it’s it’s not the most visually stunning. I mean, obviously we couldn’t see any of the views or anything because it would say it was so cloudy and wet, but like it didn’t feel like the most visually stunning um course layout. Um but yeah, in terms of it in terms of a challenge of golf, it’s it’s right up there. I think that’s one of the tougher links courses we’ve played. So I can see why it hosts a lot of the big amateur events there because that is a stern test of your golf for sure. Like you say, you can’t. Yeah, you can see why they do open qualifying and stuff. Which isn’t which isn’t particularly easy. Once you’re there, you’ve still got a real challenge to to kind of get in get down for sort of one or two putts. Um so yeah, it’s it’s it’s a real pro it’s a proper challenge of your golf around Burnham and Berrow for sure.

Par Threes Stand Out

Nish 19:14

Yeah, and I would say as an overall sort of snippet of the of the course, it I would look got to again do the do the caveat of the front nine, back nine, weather changing, whatever. But I felt the back nine was the one that really kind of got my juices flowing visually off the T. And uh yeah, I I I really enjoyed that that back nine. Like it’s a difficult back nine, that it really is, but and it helps that I I scored really well. Um, you know, and I had this moment going on with Harbs, and it was like I was like, I’ve got to seven, it was funny because I got to the 17. I just went, I’ve seen I was I just said to him, look, when you’re six down, you can say whatever the hell you want, right? So I just went, um, well, I’ve seen matches lost from this situation, mate. And it and then I clawed one back and it started becoming a thing, it’s like this momentum was growing, and uh um, but I I I really enjoyed that back nine, you know. I thought that that there was there was some really good quality, quality golf in there, um which I think let let’s maybe do some overall stuff and then we’ll get into our top three holes. I think that’s the it’s it’s really interesting some of the holes we’ve picked there. Um the par threes, what did you think of the par threes, Chris?

Chris 20:28

Yeah, I thought the par threes you’re our par three expert. We’re really good, actually, to be fair. Um, yeah, I think again, all are kind of real challenge. Um so uh hitting the greens wasn’t particularly easy, you know. I think especially the the ninth, is that one of the McKenzie ones?

Nish 20:46

I think ninth, the McKenzie, yeah.

Chris 20:48

Six bunkers surrounding it. It’s a reasonably sized green, so you can have a little bit of a go at it, and it’s a reasonably short iron in. Um, but like you know, that was particularly strong, that par three. I like that hole. That was it, it was a really good hole. Um so yeah, again, they were all they were all a real challenge. So it wasn’t an easy set of par threes, but a really good, strong set of par threes, I think.

Nish 21:07

Yeah, a lot of them. The the 16 was strong, I thought. 16 was the one that was, you know, uh 17, sorry, not 16, 17. It’s the penultimate hole. Yeah, it’s a long par three. Yeah. There is a backstop, so it’s quite good actually, even if you do manage to shoot it, but again, it’s there’s uh elevation change in there. Yeah, the green and the tea are level, but like there’s a big dip, and that’s always deceptive, you know, it’s club choice, you’ve got to trust the number, really. And I I thought 14 was a was a cracking par three, and that was like but it was like on a tabletop and it all fell away.

Chris 21:38

Yeah, and we’ll come to that, but that that’s one of my favourite holes, I think, that we played.

Nish 21:41

It was uh great, great golf hole that but I thought that so I thought the par threes are were were really were really strong. Yeah, you know, you had to be on your on your game for that. Um, how did you do in your quest for a top 100 hole in one, Chris?

Chris 21:56

Um so we kind of mentioned earlier that I was playing against Toby, the sort of Welsh number one, and I don’t know whether that had a bit of an impact on my game or whether my swing my like I just could not swing my golf club, I couldn’t get anywhere near the ball, everything was going right, Nish. Like I never hit anything right, and everything was like going nearly out of the shank, going massively right, and I just couldn’t I couldn’t get on top of it all day. So I had a real struggle. Like you you know no, you know me normally with my irons, like my irons are alright, like sometimes my driver’s a bit wild and my putting can be off, but normally my irons are a reasonably yeah, are reasonably steady, but I just I couldn’t hit anything, so I had a real struggle to be honest around there, which probably didn’t help my review either. Um, so I’m not even sure. Did I hit one of them? I think I might I hit one of the par threes. I think I hit the ninth. I think that was the only one that hit. And it wasn’t particularly close. Um that’s a tough day, mate. That’s a tough day. Not a great showing for me, to be honest.

Nish 22:45

Oh, that’s a shame. So what you’re saying is I’ve just got to turn into the Welsh number one, and then that’ll that’ll put you off your game. Yeah. Put you off your game. Oh, okay. Well, look, we’re we’re uh we’re it’s gr I think this is this is a great little little thread because it’s uh you can see that it does sharpen up your sharpen up your game. Um but yeah, okay, so part threes are good. Uh now let’s get to our top three holes. I think that’s let’s discuss that. So we’ll we’ll should we do one at one each?

Chris’s Top Three Holes

Chris 23:12

Yeah, sure.

Nish 23:13

And then we’ll we’ll we’ll do it that way, do it a little bit differently. So what’s your first top three? Oh no, actually, we’ll do it as a set as a as a three. Go on. It helps me with my editing later, Chris. Sure.

Chris 23:23

Um so yeah, I think that the first hole for me is actually the first, which is unusual. I a really tough, and I played it terribly, like absolutely monumentally terribly. But I think as an opening t-shot, that’s a great opening tee shot. It’s really it’s quite intimidating, and you’ve got like three or four different options that you can play. You can get your driver out and have a blast kind of down the left-hand side of the bunker, kind of gets quite narrow up there, though. You can just get an iron out and and and have a little uh little go short of the bunker, but then you’ve got kind of a long blind shot in for your second. Um yeah, and I just I just duffed mine and topped it in front of everyone, uh, which was a good start to the day. My my golf continued in that vein for the rest of the day, to be quite honest. Um, but what an opening hole. Like, I mean, one of the hardest opening holes that I think we’ve played so far. Certainly one of the hardest T-shots.

Nish 24:12

Um yeah, it had a feel of the second at Gullane for me, and I really like that hole. It’s quite it didn’t, it wasn’t quite as sort of valley narrow-ish. Um, but that kind of the lead up to where the green was and all that kind of thing, it was like it was in like almost a punch bowl sort of effect.

Chris 24:29

And no, I really like that. It was really like that as an opener. It’s not even a it’s not even a long hole, it’s kind of it’s less than 400 yards from the from the yellows, in fact, even from the blacks it is. Um it’s not a long, it’s not a long hole, and you can hit a you can hit an iron off the tee if you want to.

Nish 24:43

Um it’s it feels like it’s not the modern way to have a smack you in your face as your first hole. Welcome to Berlin Berrow.

Chris 24:50

Get your first shot of the day right, otherwise it’s gonna be a tough second, basically. Yeah, and I had a tough second and a tough third, I think, as well, to be quite honest. Um yeah, great opening hole, I thought. Great opener. Wonderful. Really? What’s your what’s your second one then? Uh it’s my second is the tenth hole. So it was kind of it was a bit of a toin coss between the the ninth and the tenth for me. Um a toin coss. What’s a toin coss? Is that what I said? Yeah Well it’s been a long weekend. It’s been a long weekend, mate. Um a coin toss. I like it though. Uh sorry, the ninth and the tenth. But I’ve already I put I’ve put another par three in later, which we’ll come to. Um so I kind of went with the tenth. You know me, I love a blind, I love a short par four and I love a blind tee shot. So they kind of ticked a lot about boxes for me, that one. Um so again that was the definition of it, wasn’t it? Yeah, it’s a design archetypal. It’s quite uh again, it’s quite an imposing blind tee shot, isn’t it? It’s one of those ones that’s just kind of like big ridge in front of you. It’s quite, it’s quite, it’s quite close to the tee box, so you’ve kind of got to get it up and over. Um you don’t need to take a driver off there, you can hit I think I a five wood or a three wood or whatever. Uh, and you’ve got a fairly generous uh fairway behind it, so it’s not it’s not the most difficult shot, but because it’s blind, it just feels that that bit more difficult. Um, but yeah, nice little dogleg round to the right. But yeah, like I say, short path four with a blind tee shot. I’m I’m a happy boy.

Nish 26:17

I bet I bet if you’d have seen what I’d have seen, uh you might not have picked ten. I saw three separate groups clambering up the hill, hacking up the hill. Oh, right, okay. Just like, oh, they’re not even made it over that bit. Okay. But it was it’s interesting that hole, actually, because we we had some members playing behind us, and uh so we were like, do we do we hit drive here? And they were like, well, the drive might be a bit big, but it depends. If you’re swinging it easy, then it’s probably a good play because it it’ll go a decent amount and it’ll leave you a very short iron into or wedge even into the green. But you know, they’re like, we we usually play a an iron, like, okay, fine. We all took driver, it was like, right, let’s just do it. Um, but it was uh it was dead interesting, like, because obviously we’d seen all these all these things going on, and we did when we had the drivers in our hands, they were just like, oh we’re not sure about this. But actually, it does open up quite a lot. I think there’s this fear of like, you know, you’ve got um you’re gonna run out of fairway or whatever. But listen, I’d rather run out of fairway at the other end than being a bit of rough in this side and being the be on the hill. But yeah, that was that was a challenging tee shot.

Chris 27:27

Yeah, good, good, tough, good, tough, tough short power. So yeah, enjoyed that hole.

Nish 27:31

So you’ve gone with two very tough holes for your uh opening tee shots for your first top three holes, yeah.

Chris 27:36

Yeah, and to be fair, I think the third one is also a tough one. But I mean, uh, you know, I think a lot of the holes around Burnham are tough hole tough goal holes. There’s no there’s no kind of like shoeing birdies around there, is there? Um, you know, I think if you’re getting a birdie round there, you you’ve worked for it, I think. Um, yeah, and the next hole is the 14th, which was the kind of middle distance par four, uh par three rather, playing up onto a hill. Um, and it the green kind of looks ledge like, doesn’t it? But you’ve got a big drop-off down the left and you’ve got kind of drop-offs down the front and um a reasonably big green. It’s not it’s quite long, but it’s not particularly wide. But if you miss left, it’s a it’s a really tough chip. Um yeah. This was the first shot that Toby hit something that wasn’t exactly where he wanted to, and he missed the green to the left. I was like, brilliant, get in. Oh, that’s a good shot, yeah. Good place for him to be. Yeah, it had bounced down quite a long way from the green as well. I was like, great, he’s got a really tough chip here, and then he chipped it to about four foot and knocked it in.

Nish 28:31

Fucking Welsh number one.

Chris 28:33

I was like, finally sniff of a a of a chance, and then he just up and down. No, no dramas. Yeah, um, but yeah, a great hole. I think if you hit a good shot, you’ve got a good chance, you’ve got a chance of a birdie there. If you’re slightly offline, you’re gonna have a tough up and down. Um and not a bunker in sight, you know. A links par three to be made at such a tough hole without any bunkering, I think, is is pretty impressive.

Nish 28:56

Yeah, it was a good hole that I did enjoy playing that one. Oh, that was nice. I’ve got um what my one story about the 14th. Uh I can’t let you have your top three without hogging your your top three with my story. But um the uh so we we’d been given the the little uh slip of paper that tells you where the pin positions are. Yeah, yeah. And up to now, whenever I’ve been given that, it’s been like, thank you very much. Folded, put in my pocket, gone, never thought about it. Will, who I played with, used it and I learned how to use it with him. So you never used one of those before never used it before. And the first time, so I’ve always just used my watch, like front, middle, back, whatever, and you’re like, okay, I’ve got an idea roughly where it is at a rough yardage. I mean, the exact yardage almost doesn’t matter to me. Yeah, yeah. But um we were we that that hole is where it made sense to me because that hole it is a long green, and but visually when you look at it, it looked quite narrow, and then obviously you’re worried about the tabletop thing. Yeah. Um, and we used that because then we were like, right, well, the pin is is there, and it was it was two clubs different with where the pin was and what we were going with and how much room there was on the back. Yeah, yeah. And obviously, as a result of using that, I absolutely nailed my tee shot because I think it’s a psychological thing, isn’t it? You get the comfort of like, well, actually, you’ve got a plan short, yeah, and short and left, like where the drop-off is, isn’t really in play with this club. Yeah, whatever I hit, I can’t remember what I hit, but isn’t in play with the club. So, like, yeah, just swing it and see what happens. You know, the worst that’s gonna happen is you’re gonna be probably pin high, but yeah, you know, left or right.

Chris 30:32

So I love a good pin sheet.

Nish 30:34

Yeah, yeah. Uh I mean, you know, I think I think I’m gonna keep asking now, and I was like, if there’s no there’s no pin sheets, like, uh, where’s the pin place?

Chris 30:42

You expect me to play in these conditions?

Nish 30:44

What yeah, what do you how do you think I’m gonna maintain my 17.7 handicap, you know?

Chris 30:49

Yeah, I used mine for the first like three, four holes, and then it was just too wet, and I was like, I can’t be bothered to get it out, it’s just it’s just sodden.

Nish’s Top Three + Church Hole

Nish 30:56

See, you don’t carry anymore, you carry now again, you see. That’s where my trolley came in handy. So I had it in the little thing. So even Will, because he lost his, he was like, Oh, can I have a look at it? I was like, trolley. Um, wonderful. I think they’re the three, actually, it says a lot that you’ve you’ve picked the three, like you’ve picked three really challenging t-shots. I think that says what what gets your uh what gets your your juices slower there. Um right, let me let me start with mine. So my first one was the the third hole. So I picked an early one, and I picked an early one on sort of countback memory. A lot of countbacks earlier this weekend. I sort of I sort of did it on on yeah, on on countback. No, I I I didn’t, like I said, I was on sixes and eights and and whatever. But um let me just quickly see why.

Chris 31:45

Yeah, I mean I I think if we played those again, I think those first five holes, I think were probably a really strong opening five holes. Yeah, I I felt there was a little patch six to be honest.

Nish 31:56

I’d probably say that maybe the first four slash five. Yeah. Um I think the first I think that little patch in the middle of five, uh certainly six, seven, eight, that was the weakness of that was.

Chris 32:12

I think were were probably definitely the weaker holes, yeah.

Nish 32:15

Yeah, seven and eight definitely, and and I don’t know, five was I know five you had the the the from the T you got the view of the little pasture.

Chris 32:23

That’s good.

Nish 32:23

Oh, it’s a five power three. Oh, so six gives you the view of the estuary, I think. Yeah, but even that the hole for me wasn’t wasn’t good um or wasn’t up to standard with the rest of the rest of the course. There was definitely that patch in the middle. Uh but I loved hole three, and now I’m um even though I’ve only done this this morning, I can’t remember why I loved hole three. But I look, I loved it. Oh no, no, and now I now remember it. You were you’d sort of teed up, it’s a bit elevated.

Chris 32:50

Yeah.

Nish 32:51

And then the whole sort of turn to the it dog legged a little bit to the left. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And then the it the green is a bit to the right, and it’s in like a punch bowl. Yeah. And it was like a blind approach, which I quite liked. I like a bright, a blind approach. Let’s say the tee shot, I like a blind approach nowadays because it’s like a pick a spot, aim for that. You’re not thinking of a target or anything like that, it’s an area you’re going for, and I like that. Um, and I thought that was a really visually nice hole. It was tanking it down at the time, so we were struggling to figure out where to go and whatever. But as I was walking it, I like that dip down turn, that elevation change that really worked for me. So I really like that hole. Um, it’s interesting we both picked a hole from the front nine, actually, considering that. But I suppose it wasn’t raining when you the first on the first when you went off, was it? No, it wasn’t, no. From second. So um the next I’ve picked is uh hole number nine, which is uh our old mate, Dr. Alistair McKenzie’s par three. That you know, withn as an intro centre, the back nine, yeah, it’s like a great, it’s like the doors fly open to that back nine. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, quite an interesting pace, and also because you played, you know, I’m gonna put it in inverted commas, the sort of you know, the weaker holes in seven and eight or six, seven, eight. Um I think that is a suddenly like wham, I’m back at burn and this is great.

Chris 34:11

You’re out on the sea brilliant tee box as well, aren’t you?

Nish 34:13

Can see right out of the S tree there.

Chris 34:15

It’s good.

Nish 34:15

I mean point. Again, I had the privilege of seeing three groups and they were all on the T taking pictures. So top tip, go get your pictures at on the ninth T. But that par three is is stunning, and it’s a it’s a big old hit as well. So I think you know you’ve you’ve got to be on your on your game to score well on that one. Um, I think there was a there’s a big bunker right at the front, it’s like a it drops off at the front, and there’s a big bunker to catch your ball, and there’s there’s quite a few people in there.

Chris 34:42

Yeah, I mean we’ve got six fairly decent sized bunkers littering the uh the surroundings of that green, isn’t there? That’s it.

Signature Hole Challenge

Nish 34:49

Yeah. Um then I’ve picked 15. Now, 15 for me was all about the tea shop, and you basically you’re you’re looking at the the whole, you’re elevated again, and the hole kind of curves round to the right. Uh, but all you can see from with the tea is just loads of hills, like overlapping hills, yeah, and that’s it. There’s no discernible like that’s where the fairway starts or anything like that. So me and Will were like, right, where do we go here? And what yardages, whatever. I mean, uh the one of the reasons I like to have a bit of bias about your play. I stonked my drive right down the middle, and it was like, oh yeah, that felt like really good to send it out into this space, and it’s like, yeah, it’s ended up really well. But I really loved that hole and the approach then to the green, um again, greens in the back, back nine in particular. I thought were really undulating and challenging, and that was a that was a lovely visual hole. Again, high up. We turned around, got a picture, all that kind of thing. So it’s a good good spot that for me, 15. Uh, and I must mention 12, which is called church. Um it’s I don’t think it’s a particularly challenging hole. Uh, you’re in it’s not you’re not in dunes, but you’ve kind of got these banks on both sides, so it’s a it’s a sort of a narrowish t-shot. Uh actually, no, it’s not a narrow t-shot, but it’s like you know, it’s a it’s good drive, you know, you’ve got to be accurate with it. But that church in the background, um approaching nice little leg flavour of the course, that isn’t it? I like that beer around there. It was stunning. I got a good picture of it, and it was yeah, it was great, great to see that. So I really enjoyed hole 12. Um, so it’s not in my top three as such, but you know, definitely an honourable mention for that, and it was a it was a lovely little, lovely little touch. Um so let’s talk about how we ended up with our side bets and signature hole challenge, Chris. So we’ll do the signature hole challenge first. I have a quick question for you. Okay. Um it was stroke index eight, right? Which is the 18th, stroke index eight. Now you’re off what? What are you off? Um 17.7. So do you get a shot on stroke index eight? Yeah. Right. Okay. So we both do we both get shot on that. Is that what it is? Yeah. Right. Okay. In that case, we tied it. We both shot a five. Yeah, yeah. I was trying to figure out whether there was a technicality, and I can’t I might have won that one, but but no, no, no. Alas, it remains I remain one down in the signature hole challenge. Uh, but great finishing hole.

Chris 37:29

Yeah, look, yeah, yeah, great finishing hole. Tough, tough finishing hole.

Side Bet Fallout

Nish 37:33

Tough finishing hole, yeah. Um yeah, hard T shot. Yeah, like long second shot. Yeah, and uh actually that as a as far as the greens went, that was flatter. That was a bit flatter, actually, yeah, yeah. And that but it was smaller, so it was like, okay, right, got to kind of you know hit hit this one. Um, but yeah, great. And and uh I get well we’re not we’ve not had an 18th finishing signature for a while, but yeah, that was good. I really really enjoyed that. Uh then our side bet. So our side bet set from Jim, because we were doing a Ryder Cup weekend, was whoever contributes the least number of points. Okay. So shall I tell you a tale? Well, let’s go to maybe day two. So day two, we were paired together. Yeah. Uh well, I paired us together, sorry. So I paired us together and we were we were playing match play. Yeah, which we somehow conspired to lose to draw to tie on the lattice. Two up with two to play. Two up two to play, and we tied it. That was but we both had a stinker on an individual holes. You won 17, you need to use your drive, and me on 18, uh, had to just had to bur bogey it probably. That was that was it. Yeah, would have been enough. Uh into the outside fence. Yeah, so that was a half each there. Yeah. Day one, so well, obviously we know now you now now know you played Toby and uh Toby won. And I played Harb, took on the captain, and I won. And I lost, sorry. So we have contributed half each. So in theory, this is this is tied in theory, however. You were the as I said, yeah. Yeah, my boldness, my brass neck to go and say that I’m gonna be the um the wild card meant that I got minus one. So I ended up on minus a half points contributed to the team, and you got half. So boom. Yeah, you win the side bet, mate. What I will say is that the uh we didn’t know this at the time, I suppose, but what I what I will say is that the forfeit was that it was a shot of the winner’s choice for the loser to be consumed at the weekend, and that’s over now. So we’re done. We’re done. We’re through it all.

Chris 39:45

I think you probably consumed enough shots anyway, Nish, without any input from me. Um yeah, I didn’t didn’t need to do that. Yeah, just so you know, if it had been the other way around, if you’d have won and got an extra bonus point, there’s no way I would have accepted that as you winning the uh the match play. That’s that that’s fair enough. But I mean the thing in my head was I’m totally gonna accept it the other way around though.

Nish 40:05

I’ve got to say, the thing in my head was though, I was like, number one, I’m playing their captain. Like that’s like gotta gotta go. And actually, that was one of the things that was really helping me ramp up the pressure on Harbs as we were going through. So I’ve seen these turn round, or imagine imagine getting your minus one because of you like whatever, or me getting an extra bonus point because I’ve pulled this amazing comeback. Um, yeah, and I was like, imagine being able to just go, yeah, that’s what did it, and that’s and actually that would have won us the the whole weekend. Yeah, yeah, it would have. Oh well, com si comsa, as the French say. Uh, does Burnham and Berrow get into your top five, Chris?

Chris 40:42

Uh yeah, I think like we’ve like we’ve said, it was kind of a difficult one to judge in in the context that we played it in, but I yeah, I don’t think it gets into my top five currently now.

Nish 40:51

I would echo all of that. Um totally see why it’s a top 100 golf course. Yeah, uh, but it yeah, it isn’t in my top five. I would probably say I don’t think it’s a 62 either. Um look, I’d I’d I I’m I’m wary of it sounding like I’m bagging Burnham & Berrow out, and I really am not. Um I just sort of look and I think Hankley Commons 58, and that’s in my top three. Yeah, uh Gullane is 64, 65, and that’s in your top three. Yeah. And I I I don’t think it’s up there with those. No, tend to agree. You know, overall, but it it very much has its merits, and and I I would actually, I will say this, I would like to go back and play it. Which do you know what I was saying?

Chris 41:40

If we didn’t like it and I was thinking about this the other day, Nish, and I think we came off West Lanks with a kind of similar feel, didn’t we? And I think again, that’s a really hard links golf course. Um so I I think that kind of I think that probably plays into it a little bit in terms of in terms of our view of it. I think, especially in those conditions, it’s a tough, tough all day around the links course. I think sometimes that can leave you feeling a little bit bad and bruised. But like I say, if you play that in different conditions, if you’re playing it in the in the sun, uh I think you’ll probably have a a different view of it. I think.

Nish 42:12

Yeah, you’ll have a great day out. And and and look, we we aren’t very early, we ditched our uh attempts at trying to rank some of these courses because we were like, we can’t actually do that, we can just go with what we think is our favourite, we can’t rank a hundred of these, it’s hard enough to do five. But um, you know, that that that should give you if you’re Burnham & Berrow and you’re a member at Burman and Burnham & Berrow or anything like that, you know, we we we aren’t this isn’t us going, we don’t rank it, all that kind of stuff. This is us saying we did get weather that wasn’t great, and that that that we’re just average Joe golfers, and that does play a part in in how we view view the course. But but I think to say both of us said it, and if we both of us said it in meetings, uh, but if we want to go and play it back again, I think that does speak volumes of the quality of the golf course.

Three Reasons to Visit

Chris 43:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Nish 43:10

Yeah, if because I uh you know, uh I’d probably like to go and play West Lancs again, but I didn’t have that feeling after I played West Lancs. I was like, I don’t really want to necessarily go back. Yeah, and again, that’s not backing out Westlangs, again, don’t at me. But um, you know, it it’s uh I do feel like it would be great to go and play there on a nice sunny day and test test it out again. Yeah, um so we’re gonna end with giving you our three reasons to visit Burnham and Berrow golf clubs. Number one is the par threes, particularly strong on this course. Uh they’re a great challenge, uh, they’re gonna make you think on the T, certainly. Uh, but use your little pin position sheet, and I think that will help you decode it a little bit more, and that’s something I’ve taken away from playing Burnham and Berrow this time. Uh, it’s amazing, isn’t it, what you pick up sometimes when you’re going round. But they’re a great challenge, and particularly as we’ve mentioned, the ninth and the fourteenth are great, great. Like they’re amongst the great par threes that we’ve played. Yeah, I think they stack up. Uh reason number two is the humps and hollows and undulations. And I said to Chris in our little warm up chat before that I really started enjoying this shot making challenge now and playing off different lies and and and what have you, and getting your brain engaged a little bit more in what you’re doing. I think that helps in a couple of ways, even if you have. Having a stinker because you’re thinking sometimes you know you can go that was my intention, that’s what I was trying to do. I’ve left it short, but it’s gone how I wanted it to go. I think that keeps you engaged in the round and it keeps you positive about what’s going on. But what a test! Like you can see why it’s an open, yeah, yeah, absolutely qualifying venue.

Chris 44:54

All those, yeah, big amateur events there. Cause yeah, that’s gonna that’s that’s that’s a test for anyone, I think, playing around there for sure.

Nish 45:00

Yeah, and I must say that I spoke to a couple of members in the the clubhouse who were all lovely, by the way. They were amazing, all the members. And it was two lady members who were in there, they were having their afternoon tea, it was wonderful. I was taking a picture of a trophy, and then they sort of were asking me what you know why I was taking a picture, what I was doing, all that kind of thing. And one of them had their name on one of the trophies, which was amazing, but they were so effusive about how uh lovely it was to hear from Justin Rose that he said this is one of his favourite courses. Um, so I thought I must bring that out and I must bring out their chat chat with them, but I can see why, especially with those hunts and undulations. Yeah. And then reason number three is that church on 12 and that blends into 13 as well. That is not something we’ve seen anywhere else. It’s a great little unique selling point, I suppose, for Burnham, but really helps you get a feel that that club is like rooted in the community, it’s rooted in that village, it’s just it’s at one with where it is. And I got that feeling from Burnham. It’s just a comfortable, it’s comfortable in its skin and it’s comfortable with where it’s at.

Chris 46:07

Yeah, it’s very, it’s very kind of natural, isn’t it? It doesn’t feel like it’s been kind of built up or or bastardised in any way. It just feels like it’s it’s a proper traditional old links, isn’t it? It’s been there for a hundred and so years, um, and feels like it’s probably not really changed that much over that time.

Nish 46:21

I feel it was totally unforced and just effortless at Burnham and Berrow. Um, and then you know that they’ve been doing this, and they have been, I suppose, but for decades, effortlessly doing it for decades. So um it was a lovely, peaceful uh day, uh, and we had a we had a thoroughly enjoyable time there. Um anything you’d like to add as closing remarks, Chris?

Chris 46:44

I guess just a big thanks to everyone who kind of came down for the Society Day. So 20 of us went down. What a weekend we had. Um yeah, I think it wasn’t necessarily just about the golf, was it? It was uh it was about all the other good stuff around it. But yeah, we had a great fun. Like I said, it was a really close match. Um so yeah, but yeah, I think everyone had a had a good time.

Nish 47:03

Um and we’ll we’ll stick a little plug for our society on there. You know, it really was a a great weekend. We’re not just saying that because we run it, but um everyone said they had an absolutely brilliant time. We thoroughly enjoyed organising it, and we’ll pop a link in our, it’s totally free to join. We’ll pop a link in our descriptions. Uh the next event is at Lindrick uh on the 2nd of October, who have been great with us again. And we think we’ve only got about five spaces left for that now. So um if you’re interested, please sign up, let us know, drop us an email, I think is the way to go about it. Uh, and we’d love to have you along to share the wealth of another top 100 golf course. Until next time on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast.