We Took 10 Golfers to Lindrick Golf Club – a Ryder Cup venue. (Beyond The Top 100 #3)

Nish 0:12

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 90. The Lindrick Society Day Review. So we’re really fresh from playing Lindrick Golf Club over in South Yorkshire on the third society event from our Top 100 Society. Shameless plug, you are absolutely free to join the society. It’s a big, varied bunch of people who’ve all got together who like playing Top 100 courses, and just by being there with like-minded people, it makes for a great day. So click the link in the description, you can do just that. Today we’re going to tell you about how that day went and what our thoughts about Alindric were. Now I’m saying we, I mean us as a group. We had 10 golfers there and we all had an absolutely wonderful time away. Great reception from the club, and I will explain all of that in just a brief moment. Prior to that, I must ask you out there to hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re watching or listening to this podcast. That’s the one single thing that you can do today that costs you absolutely nothing, just a little bit of effort to go and tap. By doing that tap, it shares our content to a wider audience, which gets more ears and eyes on it. And it does cool things like get us nominated for awards. So hopefully we’ll pick something up or some kind of recognition when we get the when we go to the awards ceremony on the 4th of November, and we’ll obviously let you know how that’s going. Now back to this great episode. So one of the purposes of creating the society was that as we were playing some golf courses and the word was spreading amongst our friends and we were developing contacts, people kept saying to us, it’ll be really good to one day play golf with you. And that’s what got us thinking. Looked into the setup of a society, got ourselves set up, and at the minute we’ve got about 45 golfers who receive notifications. So, like I said at the top of the episode, you can do that as well. It’s free to join. We just add you to the WhatsApp community. We don’t spam spam anybody until we get to event time, when obviously there’s a little bit of banter flying around. It’s all announcements only, and you can decide whether you want to get involved or not. Shameless plug for the next one. We’re just planning our 2027 Ryder Cup style weekend where it’s going to be over two courses, and we might have an amazing course lined up for that with an amazing experience. So it’s a good time to get in now if you

Ryder Cup pedigree and the numbers

Nish 2:46

can. So we contacted Lindrick. Lindrick isn’t in our GB in Ireland or UK in Ireland top 100 list, however, it is in the English top 100. It’s also a club that’s quite traditional in the way it’s run, and I’ll get through a few elements of those uh those things in a minute. And it is one that has amazing golfing pedigree. One of the main things that you will know about Lindrick is it was the host of the 1957 Ryder Cup. Now, there are only a handful of golf clubs that have hosted a Ryder Cup in the UK, so that’s great company to start off with. You’ll also know that Lindrick has three very famous current professional members. So they are Mr. Lee Westwood, Mr. Matt Fitzpatrick, and Mr. Danny Willett. All of those players are absolutely huge in our game in Europe, and they’ve been stalwarts of the European sides for years gone by. And uh it’s it’s great to understand that you know there’s still members there, they still enjoy going there, and they still see it as an amazing challenge to go and go and play. So I’ll give you a few numbers about Lindrick just to give you some sort of idea as to as to where we went. And uh Lindrick is ranked 82 in England. Now, when you consider there’s over 2,000 golf courses in England alone, that’s pretty good. So you can see that the golfing pedigree is there to start off with. Um green fees range from £85 uh in the winter season over to £150 peak summer, which I think is pretty reasonable for the pedigree of golf course you’re gonna play. Um the original course opened up, it was called the Sheffield & District Golf Club, and you’ll see actually when you’re going around, every tea box has a metal, oh really old metal marker. They’re all well maintained and painted and all that kind of thing. There’s a metal marker and it says S & D Golf Club. And uh Andy, the head professional, who uh we will hear from shortly, he explained to me that uh we we will see those everywhere, and that is what the S & D stands for. So uh it was originally laid out as a nine-hole course, and that was in consult in consultation with old Tom Morris, who obviously everybody will know as a uh as golf boss if you’re listening. Uh, and then also Alistair McKenzie, who’s the designer of my home course, Reddish Vale, uh, got involved and he designed six holes at the golf course. So there is some really big golfing heritage and pedigree involved at Lindrick. And I must admit, until I started getting into lists and things like that, I hadn’t really heard of Lindrick. Um, but boy, have I heard about it now, and obviously we will get to that uh very shortly. Now,

The welcome and the Ryder Cup Room

Nish 5:43

in terms of our society day, you know, we we got in touch with a gentleman called John, who uh was absolutely wonderful, very amenable. There was nothing that we asked that they couldn’t do for us. They were just you know, there’s a look you tell us how you see the day going, and we will fit it around you. So it was really nice to get that. They weren’t sort of going off like set packages or anything like that. Um, I must give a special mention to Julie, who’s a food and beverage manager at uh at Lindrick. She was brilliant, she was communicative with us the whole time round. Uh, when she when we were there, she was so welcoming. She came and said hello to everybody, wanted to know when we wanted to have bits of food out and things like that. Uh, and she was just an amazing person to meet on the day. Um, and we really got a lovely warm welcome uh at Lindrick. It was a really nice, nice feeling. Um, shan’t name any names, but there have been occasions when you do hear members talking about societies, and look, I can understand it. There’s a bit of a reticence with societies being around, it’s usually a big group, they’re usually all in four balls. It probably does grind to a halt a little bit behind societies. However, you know, uh look, we put money into a club, and everyone comes and they spends they spend money in the in the uh pro shop, they will always have a few beers and some food afterwards. Uh so you know it’s nice to hear an occasion like this where the members were so so so welcoming to us and really happy to have us there. Every member who came and spoke to us spoke to us in glowing terms about the course, but also they wanted to know about us and where have we played before, and uh, you know, what how many groups we got out, you know, and all this kind of thing, and and it is it was just really nice. It was a really lovely, warm welcome that that we received. So that was kind of our overall impression of the club. Uh, we can’t ignore Lindrick the clubhouse. The clubhouse is iconic. It’s one of these clubhouses where that is the hub, that’s the centre, that’s the the iconic part of the golf course. The 18th hole is a path three, and it shoots straight up towards the clubhouse. The first T is right outside the Pro Shop, so it’s it’s really compact when you get there. You know, you’re not going to be lost in amongst things, and I think that helps with the warmness of the welcome because then it sort of permeates to everybody. So uh when we arrived, went and checked in with the the professionals uh then the pro shop, and we were explained where the driving range was, we were told uh where the bar was, what time it opens, all that kind of thing. And the first tee is lovely, it’s a beautiful area. Uh, it is, as I say, right on the left uh hand side of the the whole club shop building or the pro the clubhouse building where the the professional’s shop is. Uh but it’s not one of these places where it’s right next to the terrace, so it’s not quite as intimidating as some of them can be. Uh, but it beautifully laid out. The tea boxes were absolutely brilliant all the way around, they were so well presented, really immaculate, and the greens were unreal. Um, but you know, that was our arrival, and you can tell that there is a real care and attention goes into making sure that you do feel welcome there. So we did that. The clubhouse is lovely, it’s old, it’s traditional, but it’s not sort of too traditional where it’s falling apart or anything like that. Lovely appointed locker room. Uh, they’ve got the rider cup room, which when you’re there, you you can’t miss it, and you will be in there. Um, and it’s brilliant. It’s got all pictures of uh the event itself, it’s got an amazing shirt from 1957, which is the captain uh wore, and obviously pictures, there’s pictures of Peter Alice up there. You then have pictures later on from uh Danny Willett, you’ve got Lee Westwood, you’ve got Matt Fitzpatrick. So there’s a real kind of sense of the history of the place, but you know, not too much. They’re not so I’ve got loads of trophies everywhere that’s that are just uh almost like Walton Heath, there’s too many trophies there, if anything, but it’s not that kind of place, it’s just really welcoming and and warm. So that was our sort of arrival experience in the clubhouse.

Head pro Andy: what to expect

Nish 10:10

At that point, I had an interview with Andy, who is the head professional, and here is what he had to say to me. Um, so hello Andy. Um, well, we’re here for our Society Day. Yeah, there’s ten of us here. What kind of golfing challenge can we expect out there today?

Andy – Head Professional 10:27

Well, obviously, today it’d be a bit different to what you’d have played six weeks ago when we’d we’re right in the height of the uh summer drought, but what you’ll find today out there is still firm, fast fairways, um a little bit of work done to the fairways in preparation for winter in terms of uh seeding so that the seed has time to germinate and grow through. Um greens are incredible at the minute. They’re just we’ve had we’ve been very fortunate this year. The greens have been off the charts good, um, they’re running great. Um, just try and avoid being beyond the hole. You don’t want to be above it. Oh, right, okay. It’s a bit tricky. I went out last Sunday with a playing lesson, and we got on the second, and the second slopes quite severely from back to front. The flag was only about eight or nine on, and we went up above it because it was down, and I played into the win second shot. Yeah. So we went up above it 15 feet. Just touched the ball. Just like, there’s no way, it’s like putting down my head, you just can’t stop, couldn’t stop it. Really? Like a 30-yard pitch was the next shot. Oh my goodness. Uh they’re not quite that pace, but we’ve but they’re they’re they’re really, really good. And it’s just it’s just a golf course that tests every part of your game in a lot of ways. It’s not as long as some like major, major like the seven and a half thousand yard courses you see now, it’s with six, eight off the blues, six, five. You’ll probably play today. But it asks a lot of shapes, like a bit of right to left off the T, then left to right in approach, and and and you’ll pretty much I’d be very surprised if you’ve not had every club in your bag in your hand on the golf course today. And that’s the one thing that stands out to me here is a couple of part threes, but you like you go down the first, and you’ll hit two of the club, and then you get on the second, and it’s like it’s a different club off the Tee, and then it’s a nine-in. So you’ll it’s very it’s really interesting, it’s very varied in the questions it asks of you. Yeah, and there’s a couple of places you need to know where you’re going, like the fourth, the the approach into the green is down a hill that you can’t see the green until you get to the top of the hill. Yeah, but that’s a that’s a limestone rock face, and with some of it you you see, so you’ve just got to be careful to take that out of play and just make your right decisions with your second and third shots there. Um now I know all of this. This is brilliant. So I don’t have to tell everybody. But you don’t tell the guys, do you? Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nish 12:53

You’ve just got to make greens are really slow guys, yeah.

Andy – Head Professional 12:58

But we’re we’re great here because we’ve got the putting green outside the first Tee. So you they can hit a few puts, but you don’t again tell them they’re really slow and tell them nothing about four and twelve, you get to the twelfth, obviously, much later in the round, and it looks really narrow off the tee, like really claustrophobic, right? But actually, when you get down there, you look back from the fairway to the tee, and you think, Jesus, there’s so much space to hit into, but then and it’s the only hall that’s on the golf course that’s not got a bunker. That’s 12th, right? Okay, interesting. Okay, second shot plays down a hill to a really undulating, interesting approach to the green and edges of green. It’s yeah, it’s it’s good down there. Yeah, brilliant.

Nish 13:38

Um, is

What visitors don’t know about Lindrick

Nish 13:39

there anything that you wished that visitors knew about Lindrick, but they don’t actually know when they come here?

Andy – Head Professional 13:46

Um I wish they knew how friendly and open the club was, if I’m honest with you. Yeah. We’ve got a really whilst we’ve got this obviously the serious history that we’ve we’ve got as a championship course and the events we’ve held here, yeah. Uh people drive past and think it’s a bit exclusive. When people come in, and I notice this coming in here as professional, it’s a really warm, welcoming place. People members make people feel really welcome. Members work hard to search out if it’s a visitor. They like, have you had a nice day? There’s the it’s a really friendly welcome, not just hopefully from the staff, but but from the membership as well. And and and I see that at the end of play from visitors when they said, Oh, everyone’s made us feel so welcome, and so yeah, that that we’re really happy to see you. And and I think sometimes that doesn’t isn’t felt by people who have never been here. Yeah. But when people do come and see that, and they see how warm and open and hospitable we are, yeah, they enjoy it. And it just I guess there might be a bit of a stigma with coming here. You could feel a bit intimidated, you’re playing a course that’s held all these events, but the minute you walk through the doors and everyone’s happy to see you and whatnot, that that for me that makes a big difference. Um, I suppose for the golf historians, the thing that I’d that really I’d like people to know, and it means a lot to me, but John Jacobs was actually born here. Right, okay. Which most people I don’t think would know that. John Jacob’s dad, Bob Jacobs, was the pro here. Right. So John Jacobs started his life and also his golfing life here at Lindrick, and obviously we all know what John Jacobs went on to be. Yeah. Uh our members here knew John Jacobs as Morris, not as John Jacobs, but obviously. That’s amazing. Yeah, his uh his dad was professional here until about 34, I think, and then his uncle, um Jack Jacobs, was the pro here for 50 odd years. So it’s not just the tournaments we’ve had, it’s we are like interlinked with serious professional golf as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it’s uh yeah, we’re lucky.

The 1957 Ryder Cup drama

Nish 16:04

I mean, talking about the tournaments, you know, it’s it’s you can’t ignore the rider club, you know. Um as a it’s sort of you know it it’s totally sewn into the fabric of this uh this golf club, and yeah, that can never be taken away. Um how do you feel hosting something like that has impacted the club?

Andy – Head Professional 16:23

Well, it can only help it can only impact it positively. Um some people make fun of us sometimes saying, Oh, you’ve just gone about hosting the Ryder Cup. But hosting the Ryder Cup’s a big thing. Um we were fortunate that Sir Stuart Goodwin, when the Ryder Cup that year looked like it possibly wasn’t gonna happen, paid the PJ um, I think it was 10 grand to host the Ryder Cup, yeah. Um and select Lindrick as the venue. And so we’re very fortunate. We’re we’re one of only 33 clubs that have held the Ryder Cup, yeah. So it’s quite a um select group of clubs, and we’re very fortunate to be part of that. Yeah, um, it nearly didn’t happen at all because the fifth T which you’ll play today, yeah, you’ll notice there’s a stream that separates the Tee you’ll play from and the ladies’ tee ahead of it. Well, the Tee you’ll play from actually wasn’t part of our land at that point, it was a farmer’s land. And on the eve of the Ryder Cup, the farmer um said that we weren’t allowed to use it and demanded a fee of 150 quid to to be able to use it, and which we didn’t pay, and we played off the forwards. It was like 15 yards short, to play it from there.

Nish 17:36

But but no, it’s like when when you have stuff like that, when stories like that, it’s like evo, it’s like you’re just holding us to ransom now, aren’t you? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Andy – Head Professional 17:44

And we were strong enough as a club to just say, well, sign off, we’ll just go 15 yards forwards and play it from there. Um, but it was like yeah, it’s a it it’s a big thing. Obviously, it was GB and I then we are now Europe in the Ryder Cup, but interestingly, we are the last GB and I team to win the Ryder Cup. Interesting, right?

Nish 18:03

Yeah, and obviously we’re in the Ryder Cup room now, and you know the lovely pictures and things like that, and and golf historic. Do you know? I mean, the Ryder Cup is so big now, I don’t think you even need to be a history buff team golf team to know the significance of that. But yeah, right, it’s the last GB and I team to actually win. Last GB.

Andy – Head Professional 18:19

And it’s one of those things that again people talk about notorious comebacks, don’t they, in Ryder Cups? Yeah, there was one here, right?

Nish 18:28

Okay.

Andy – Head Professional 18:29

We were on the last day, we won six and a half, one and a half, I think it was, on the final day of the Ryder Cup. Oh, wow. Um in the singles to cut to come back, and there was which obviously was it again, doesn’t get put out there. It’s not it’s not that big a thing. Yeah, people talk about Medinah, and we all can remember that. I remember I was that night, it was yeah, we’re all in the pub, we were. Yeah, we’re all at yeah, I was at my previous golf club and we had a we had a game of golf and then watched the right, it was just a a great event, yeah. But yeah, we had uh a massive, massive comeback at at Lindrick in 57 um with some trauma because uh Harry Wheatman refused to play in the singles, or it was dropped from the singles and then refused to play any further rider cups whilst ever Dai Rees was the captain. Oh my goodness, so there was the the drama then the match didn’t go without controversy whether through at the beginning of it or there’d be a press conference about that now, wouldn’t there? No, there would of course there would be, yeah.

Nish 19:27

Yeah, they’d be all sat there facing the the media and yeah, wow.

Andy – Head Professional 19:32

No, it was yeah, so we’re we’re lucky to have had that, and I think what that’s then done for us is allowed us to host events from there. So we talk about the Ryder Cup in 57, the Curtis Cup was held here in 60. Um that should never be forgotten about. Yeah, amazing. We held we’ve held the Dunlop Masters here twice in 77-79. Now, a lot of people think that’s that event’s ended. The Dunlop Masters is now known as the British Masters, yeah, which this year is at the Belfry. So it’s it’s still in it. So we we’ve still got that link to the high level of playing professional golf. Still an event that was held here is still played for on the European Tour.

Nish 20:10

So it’s yeah, and yeah, I mean it’s a highly regarded uh club from everybody I’ve spoken to that are playing injury, particularly in the serious golfing circles. That’s what everybody’s always saying. Great track, but also uh there’s a lot of history about the place, and you’re gonna love it. And yeah, you mentioned before that kind of warm welcome and things like that. You know, I’m I’ve been fortunate we’ve gone to 29 at the time of recording top number golf courses and things like that. But you you you do get a sense of a place as soon as you walk in, and and I’ve only encountered two members today, but they’ve they’ve all been great, they’ve all said hello. But a place just gives you a vibe straight away, and that definitely does come through. I think that’s a really nice thing to put down there. Um talking about that kind of thing, you you went mentioned the friendly site. What’s the Lindrick Welcome like? A visitor walks in through to register with you in the pro shop.

Andy – Head Professional 21:02

Well, I hope it’s good. Um obviously, I’ve I’ve got a great team that work for me. Um, I’ve got Keir Stockdale who was here before I came here. Uh, I took Keir on. Fortunate enough to get Holly Morgan on board in 24. Um Mia Eeles- Smith works for me, and and Max Tomlinson, who Max is a junior member here. Um he’s now making his way into Wants to do the PGA. So I’ve got a really good team, and I try and lead by example and make the staff welcome people out. But hopefully, yeah, we’re very we’re thinking about people before they get here. We’re not just waiting for them to come in. We yeah, we know what what time people are arriving. We we we don’t have many visitors, so we can we can really spend a bit more time with each visitor that comes, make sure they know where where everything around the place is the range, the putting in, the locker room, codes to get in the locker room, codes for toilets out on the golf course, yeah. Where the kitchen or the bar is so that people can come and order food. That’s an important one. Yeah, so it’s so yeah, we we we’re the first port of court, as most uh pro shops are. We’re lucky with our position, we’re right on the side of the first tea. So it’s great. So we get to see a lot of golf as well, and and we we have become a bit of a hub in terms of the the golf club membership. We yeah, we we like to get to know people and yeah what the habits are and then you can look after people because you know what they what they want from the day and yeah with visitors we we’re pretty pretty good now, I think, uh great looking after people when they get here and making sure that they don’t feel lost and they feel at home pretty quickly. That’s a wonderful way to look at it.

Nish 22:40

Um now

Tour-star members, no tee sheet and the signature hole

Nish 22:41

you mentioned some of your membership, you’ve got some very illustrious members here. Yeah. Um have you got any interesting stories from their time here?

Andy – Head Professional 22:49

Well, I’m sure there probably are interesting stories, but maybe not for not that I know of. Um but I suppose I mean it’s there’s like interesting stories in the fact that obviously I think you’re alluding to uh Matt Fitzpatrick, Lee Westwood, Danny Willett, who were members here and they’ve been members here for some time now. Um I think it’s worth noting they weren’t junior members here. They joined here as a result of being able to come and play golf here without being put on a pedestal. They could just turn up and play golf, they’d just join in with the members and what happened. So that so that was the first thing. They don’t get bothered when they come here, they’re just a normal person. Um, but I think it’s like I mean, we back in 2016 was interesting in that obviously Dan won the Masters, yeah. But before there, there was before that event there was a Ryder Cup warm-up event called the Eurasia Cup, yeah. Okay. Um, which we had three Lindrick members playing in. We also that year at Hazletine in the 2016 Ryder Cup had three Lindrick members playing in the Ryder Cup with the same team, and it’s like I I don’t know if it’s happened prior to that.

Nish 24:05

Isn’t it?

Andy – Head Professional 24:05

Yeah, it’s um and I and that’s I don’t know if it’s happened since. I guess it will because a lot of the top players are all members at a variety of golf clubs. I think McElroy said last year he was a member at about 20 golf clubs or something. So there’s a chance that it’ll probably happen again, but uh uh that whether it had happened before then I’m I’m really not sure. But I think yeah, but they they just come when they when they come to play here, they they just turn up these beautiful, it’s really nice because we don’t have a booking system.

Nish 24:35

Yes, yeah. So how do you manage that then? Because we’ve encountered this at a couple of clubs.

Andy – Head Professional 24:39

Uh we we have visitor booking only. Yeah. So we have uh depending on the day of the week, a number of visitor spots available. Yeah, the rest of the time is just rock up and play. Brilliant. Members, and there are as as there are at all golf clubs, there are fiddles, yeah. Groups, and they almost they self-police when they’re gonna play. Yeah, yeah. They our our retired section here call themselves the pencils. We know what time they’re gonna be here on a Wednesday. They’re gonna do the draw at 8 45 and go to the first tea of the same on Saturday, and amazing, and then there’ll be there’ll be a group before them each day, and then after them, there’ll be a couple of groups certainly on a Saturday, and then you get to lunch time, there’s a couple more, and you just know you just once you’ve had a few weeks here, yeah, you know exactly who’s gonna be playing at what time. Great, yeah.

Nish 25:27

That’s really nice, that’s very homely, isn’t it?

Andy – Head Professional 25:29

So, yeah, and we can look and we look after certain members’ clubs down underneath the Pro Shop there, so we know who’s club, so we don’t even they don’t have to ring us up anymore and say they’re coming to play, they turn up and the clubs are out for them waiting. So it’s just it’s just that level, but because we’ve got such a small membership, that works. Yeah, because we can then understand what the habits of the membership is, and yeah, wonderful.

Nish 25:50

I mean, amongst the memberships in it uh at the minute, um, have you got any notable players that are you know kind of somebody we need to look out for?

Andy – Head Professional 25:56

Uh yeah, I mean we this year we had uh the British, uh sorry, the Spanish amateur and the Brabers and winner. Uh member here, Tom Osborne. Yeah, Tom has been very close to the World Cup on a couple of occasions. Yeah. Great player, Tom. Obviously, two big wins this year. Uh, just embarking on his professional career. So Tom’s definitely someone to look out for. We’ve got Jigger Thomson, who is a member here who famously had a hole in one in 20 in the 21 open at St George’s. Um he’s a big guy, Jigger, six foot nine, I think he is just coming back from a second battle with leukemia, actually, in touch wood for Jigger. He’s on his way back, he’s now back to full practising and playing and appears to be back to good health. So Jigger’s a good guy to look out for. Yeah. Um, and then amongst that, we’ve we’ve got quite a lot of pros who are members here who are trying to make the way. There’s Oliver Sullivan, there’s Sam Rook, who were and they’re they’re playing on various tours, whether it’s Clutch Tour, Asian Development Tour, really trying to make the way in the game. So, but again, they come here because they are made very welcome by the membership, they get involved with the membership, but then they’re left to get on with the work when they’re here. So it’s yeah, that’s what attracts them to it. So it’s but it’s yeah, it’d be it’s great to see them all work hard, and it’d be lovely to see one of them. Yeah, everyone’s treated as an equal and everyone’s treated well, everyone puts the trousers on the same way in the morning.

Nish 27:25

Absolutely right, yeah, very well put. Um, what is the signal? We’re gonna let’s talk a little bit about the golf. Like, what’s the signature hole here?

Andy – Head Professional 27:33

Signature hole here is it’s a long time in coming, but it’s 18, I would say. Yeah. Um, it’s one of the five or six holes that McKenzie designed here. Yeah. Really tough part three to finish. Um, you don’t get a break until you get back on the terrace or back in here. Uh, but I think when you just walk from the to under the tunnel under the A57 from 17 Green to 18T, and the clubhouse presents itself, which is right in the distance there. It’s a building there. Yeah, it’s just a really good hole, but that’s that doesn’t mean there’s not 17 other holes that are really strong holes and worth considering. But I would say that is the signature hole, whether it’s my favourite hole, is another thing. That’s what I was gonna ask you.

Nish 28:17

What’s so what is your favourite hole in one?

Andy – Head Professional 28:18

Uh I love I love 13. Yeah. 13 is just a great hole. It just creeps around and up the hill, around three bunks in the fairway, stronghold, very, very difficult part four, up to an elevator green that’s protected by bunkers, plays nine or ten yards up the hill, depending on where you are in the fairway. Yeah, but it just presents itself incredibly well from the tee. I just just like there’s a lot of holes here that but that really draws you in. And yeah, I like um I get get on that tee. I I really look forward to playing 13 as soon as I’ve um got out there, to be fair. It’s yeah, I would say that’s my favourite. But I also like, I mean, 17’s a great golf hole. Yeah, really like the approach to 17, well bunkered, it’s not a long approach, but it’s a tricky one. It’s four offs either side of the green. Yeah, so you and once you’ve played it a few times, you know what the penalties are, don’t you? Yeah, exactly. So you miss it right on 17, and like you miss it right on the first, it’s okay then you can get it up and down quite easily. You miss it right on 17 and it’s a middle to right flight. I’ve just I’ve made five. Yeah, it’s gonna be like I’m holding a 12-footer for four if I do. So it’s yeah, there’s but yeah, 13’s the one that really Yeah, I like it.

Nish 29:29

I like that there’s gonna be a good all-round challenge for everyone today, and we’re really looking forward to our day. So, thank you for your time today, Andy. It was uh absolutely brilliant chatting to you. Pleasure.

How the course plays

Nish 29:39

So it was lovely to hear from Andy that they do concentrate on that welcome, and that’s a really important thing to them. And I have to say, one of the things that I really grabbed onto, and we had the interview prior to playing, but we had it post me meeting a few members, and it was so nice for him to say that the thing that he wished visitors knew before was how welcoming and friendly the club is. You know, he wasn’t talking about anything historical, he wasn’t talking about anything about the course, it was we will welcome you here, and we want more people to come and visit. And that was great, I really loved that, and I love the fact that they don’t run a tea sheet for the members, they know when people are here, then it’s very homely feel, small membership. Uh, we’ve encountered a few courses that are like that, and clubs like that. Delamere springs to mind, and I love that. I think there’s a lot of place for that in in in golf, it’s a different kind of way of doing things. And I mentioned at the top again, there’s 2,000 golf clubs in and courses in in England. There is place for every single type of golf club and course, so it’s really nice to do that. Now I’m gonna get a little bit to the golf and the quality of the golf course and things like that, and I’ll talk to you about course highlights. The main thing I wanted to bring out about the quality of the course was that I feel Lindrick as a collection of 18 hole builds to a crescendo. That 18th is a wonderful golf hole, and the 17th before it is as well. I’ll get to my highlights shortly, but you’ll start off and it feels quite innocuous looking, like it doesn’t look really tight from the the T’s, it doesn’t look like there’s loads of mischievous bunkers there to gobble up the ball, anything like that. But do you know what? You still need to plot your way around there. There are times when you can give it a bit of a lash with a driver, and actually the driver wasn’t the right play. So Andy mentioned that he thinks you probably will end up working through your whole golf bag. I think that’s worth bearing in mind when you stood on the tee. Do you need to take the longest club in your bag? Not necessarily. You know, there is decent undulation, and and obviously we’re playing at a time when it’s not really rained that much, it was rock hard, the ball’s bouncing a lot. Um, you know, one of the things you could see from the fairways they’d taken a battering over the summer. However, the tea boxes were all immaculate, really well presented. Um, I’ve I’ve seen greens that have been worse than those tea boxes, but they were so nice, really well positioned. You had these really interesting eye light like sight lines as you were teeing off. And there’s a lot of t-shots where you’re like, you know, you’ve got to shape it a little bit right to left or left to right if you’re going for a for a big shot. So I think that’s where think about which club you’re gonna take in order to you know plot your way around that course. And they’ve got some great fly-over videos on the website, so it’s worth having a look at those to plot your way around. And the greens, my goodness, the greens were impeccable. Everyone commented about how fast they were. Now I I’m lucky I’m used to playing some amazing golf course, and I played a lot over the summer, so I didn’t find them particularly fast as such, or as in impossibly fast. The other guys did a little bit, they struggled to get the pace of them. I found they rolled really true. If you’re an if you’re a good judge of pace generally, I think you will love putting on those greens. And again, bearing in mind the weather that we’ve had, they were very well managed. I found out later from one of the professionals in the pro shop that the head green keeper is a bit of a perfectionist, he’s never happy with the way things are, and I think that’s a great trait for a uh green keeper to have. So uh you will enjoy the golf and you will enjoy the experience, but like I say, it looks innocuous, but I think that is a tough, tough golf course. You have to it the way that those holes are designed makes you feel like you can take it on. I think if you give that course a bit of respect and you play conservatively when you need to, and you you know, and you can let it fly when you when when it looks a little bit less dangerous, I think you can come away having scored very well at that golf course. So I’m gonna run through a few highlights for me in terms of golf holes, and they’re all on the back nine uh for me.

Our hole highlights: 13, 15, 17 and 18

Nish 33:57

So the first one I’m gonna pull out is hole number thirteen. Now, hole thirteen is uh the halfway hut on uh at um Lindrick is actually after the 11th hole, it’s on the back of the 11th hole, such as a par three. Uh a word on the par threes in a minute. But you finish your par three, you have your drink at halfway, you then go under the road, and there’s a tunnel, so there’s none of this sorry, crossing crossing the road that’s really busy or anything like that. No, we go underneath the road. Um this first tunnel, going from the tw the 11th to the 12th, was actually opened by Lee Westwood, of all people. So you finish playing the the 12th, and you come round the corner onto the 13th Tee. And the 13th Tee is reminiscent of some of the great Surrey Heathland holes, really, really reminiscent of that. So you’ve got an elevated T, the hole dips right down in front of you. There usually some bunkers ready to catch you out, and then it’s the hole starts to rise, and there’s an elevated green at the end, but it turns as it rises. Very, very classic Surrey Heathland style, I’ve found, and it’s a great hole because it’s a par four, so you need a couple of long hits to get up there. The green complex is fantastic. There’s one bunker that’s on the right hand side that’s there to catch you up, relatively deep green. There’s a bunker at the back as well, but it is a wonderfully visually great hole to play, so you will really enjoy that. So that was the first one that was my highlight. The next one that I had was then the 15th hole, which is a drivable par four, and it is it’s just got this amazing green complex. So you’re actually take playing a bit of a blind tee-shot, you’re sort of aiming for a bit of a space, and my playing partner Coxy actually caught his driver really, really well and ended up nearly driving it to the green. There is a bunker there to catch you out, but if you don’t know about it, you can just kind of play it in kind of ignorant bliss, really. Um, but as you know, hit the crest of the hill, then suddenly the the sort of the green falls away from you, and you can see these hills in the background. It’s just wonderfully framed. There’s a wall, it’s a bit reminiscent of sort of some of the Scottish uh inland hot inland courses where you know there are brick walls and things like that in the way, and it’s separating course from Farmersfield or whatever it is, and it’s a beautiful green complex. And I really, really enjoyed that whole that 15th. That was that was very nice, very easy on the eye. Um, I’m then gonna take you know on to the 17th, and I mentioned the 17th previously. The 17th looks like a pretty standard drive, really. Um, you can sort of again it’s it’s kind of teen up from high up. There’s a wee bit of a hill, and then it falls away to where the green is. But the beauty of this hole isn’t the drive. You want to position your drive or your t-shot quite centrally. If you hit a really big drive, you might overrun on either side. You’re probably better off playing a bit safe and playing a wood or a hybrid to get yourself in position. But the approach on the 17th is absolutely wonderful, it’s all downhill. We were playing a little bit late in the afternoon and the sun was out, so we were into the sun, and it’s got these amazing bunkers that are just sort of littered around the green, but but you’d also give you a shot, and I think Lindrick is really good at that. You’ve got bunkers that are there, obviously, to catch you out, that’s what they’re there for. However, if you take your time and look, there is a neat, there is an out, there is an escape from all of that, there is a route in. I managed to play a 7-year, and I fed it in between two bunkers and you know just landed softly on the green because the greens are in great condition, just rolled out towards the hole. So it was a really nice approach, very satisfying approach shot to hit, and it was a beautiful hole. Um, and then we get to 18th, which is a testing par three. It’s uh it climbs all the way up the hill, going up to the clap at the clubhouse, and it’s just a wonderful finishing hole. There’s a lot of snootiness, I think, and a lot of snobbishness about par three starters and par threes to finish. I must admit, we haven’t hit a good par three to finish yet, but you know, when you’ve got that clubhouse that you’re shooting towards, I think that you can’t fail but be in a good mood from playing that at the end. It’s a tough hole, it’s relatively long, you know. There was a bit of wind swirling around, there’s a bit of tree danger, and there’s some pretty big deep bunkers. But if you can hit the green or you can get it close, I think that’s an incredibly satisfying way to finish your round. So those are my whole highlights from Lindrick. Like I said, they it’s a course for me that builds, and once we hit the turn, we really felt that it came into its own. That kind of 12 to 18 stretch was absolutely magnificent. Um, now the par 3s in general, I really, really liked them. They were really well bunkered, all of them, but they all had a built-up green complex from where you were teeing off. So that kind of gave it a bit of a grandstand appearance, like it was like, you know, here’s our green complex. They were loud and proud about it, and I think that made a really good event of it. What I would say about the those par 3s, if you transported them to somewhere like a Formby or somewhere up in Scotland where you they usually have the par threes framed by trees, tall trees, they would not look out of place there at all. That is how good those par threes are. So when you go in, that is definitely something worth relishing. And then the 11th is a hole worth mentioning. Again, it’s one of these par threes, it’s it’s very easy on the eye. But when you’re teeing off and you’ve got the halfway hut behind, and there’s people sat there, it’s incredibly satisfying when you hit that green. So that’s another little highlight to watch out for um at Lindrick.

The verdict, and the pro shop moment

Nish 40:19

So look, we had an absolutely wonderful time. I hope I’ve given you a good flavour of it. I would at those green fees, I very much would consider adding it to your list. Um, we’ve had an extraordinary summer with heat. I think if you got that course when it’s lush green at the start of at the end of spring, early summer, you will have an absolute visual treat. There are some really interesting Tee-boxes there, and I think if you if you really want to tame that course, you’d better know how to shape the ball both ways and deal with very varying lies because that is what it’s going to be you’re going to be faced with. Um the bunkers weren’t particularly difficult to get out of, actually did okay, and I’ll I’ve historically got some problems with my bunker bunker play. Um, but you know, look, it was absolutely wonderful to have the day there. Everyone found it tough going. Um I can’t make any bones about that. But then when you consider that it’s a uh small membership club, it doesn’t get overrun with with people at the best of times. For a society, it’s a wonderful, wonderful venue. And the welcome that we got was absolutely spot on. I wholeheartedly agree with Andy when he says they look out for people uh to give them a good visitor experience and a good welcome. Um, it was absolutely brilliant, and they did something that I haven’t experienced so far, however, um it’s it just it was just a lovely touch. So you get your range balls from the pro shop. Um, there’s no kind of automatic bucket kind of thing, you just go get them from the pro shop. And they had an amazing Lindrick bag that the balls are in, and I thought that was just a lovely, lovely touch because it just sets you in a really good frame of mind as you’re warming up and you think, yeah, do you know a bit of care and attention has gone into it. One more special mention I will make, and that is their scorecards. And Andy’s gonna love me for this, but the scorecards I’ve not felt a scorecard like it, they’re really tactile, they have a kind of almost a laminated plastic feel to them, but they’re they’re textured, and I don’t know what it is because it doesn’t slip out your hands. It felt really nice that, and there’s some that again, that’s that attention to detail that I think they’ve got. So I would say societies 100% is a big thumbs up for me for going as societies, but as a visitor with those green fees, you know, make the effort to get there. It was really easy to get to. Um, you’re gonna get a wonderful warm melt welcome, and it’s just not one of these places that’s gonna make you feel out of place, members are gonna come and say hello to you, and that terrace overlooking the 18s and the first Tee was just a wonderful place to be. And we would got blessed with some sunshine, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. So there were my thoughts about Lindrick. Um, and while it’s not on a top 100 UK and Ireland list, look, I’m not naive to the fact that some people are trying to play the top 100 in England, and I think it’s only fair that a place like this gets some mention because it might not do otherwise. Uh, my only thing would be that I’m surprised it’s not a little bit higher with the pedigree that it’s got and the kind of the very varying golfing challenge that it has, everything gets tested, absolutely everything. You know, you’re gonna have to play some um chips over bunkers, you’re gonna have to play you know out of some bunkers that are of varying uh depth. The sand was amazing, amazing quality sand there, um, and just the angles that you’re coming in from, um, yeah, it was absolutely wonderful. And like I say, if you stick a load of tall trees around that golf course, you could be up in Scotland or on the Golf Coast in Southport very easily, and none of those holes would would be out of place there. Um, so that is what I thought of Lindrick Golf Club. And before I leave, it would be absolutely remiss of me to mention uh a lovely lady called Mia, who was one of the professionals in the Pro Shop. So she was actually going out uh to just play a few holes as she’d finished work, and uh our overall prize winner who gets the Green Gilet, the prestigious Green Gilet, uh, but in addition, he had a voucher to spend in the Pro Shop. Now, the professional who was working at the time had gone to the range to go and collect all the golf balls up, uh, so it was closed. She rushed over straight away, uh, and thank you, Mia, for this, by the way. But she rushed over straight away, found out what was going on, found out that it was going to be about another hour before it would be open, and she opened the shop back up for us. And do you know what? She didn’t have to do that, and I think that tells you everything you need to know about Lindrick. Number one, she is a professional, she’s on the the uh the LET tour, the LET tour. Uh, she was was a wonderful representative of the club, but she had it in her mind that these guys are visitors and we need them to leave thinking positively about our club. Now, if that doesn’t give you a glowing endorsement of how they are there and what the welcome is like, I don’t know what will. Until next time on the top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast.