A Real Gem – The Hollinwell Golf Club Review

Nish: 0:00

Every story has an ending. Star Quest to play the top 100 courses in 10 years had a good ending?. I’m Nish and I’m here to guide you through this golfing day. Everybody took the time to say hello to who we were. Like it had the whole golf course in itself. Episode 47. A real gem. The Hollingwell Golf Club Review. Seven boys embarked on a journey to the heart of the country looking for an adventure to share with those back home. They set off with wide-eyed wonderment and nervous excitement. Those seven boys came back men after an epic day on the ground where Robin Hood once vowed to steal from the rich and give to the poor. This isn’t a plot for a movie. This is a story of how our first ever Top 100 in 10 Society Day went. But before we carry on, I’d just like to ask if you could kindly hit subscribe or follow wherever you’re watching or listening to this podcast. It’s really important to us to get the kind of numbers that we need to get the engagement from the golf clubs that we’re going to. For instance, we’re going to Carnoustie this weekend, and it would be great to be able to go to them and say that we do have these engaged followers and we’ve got a platform where we can share stories and hopefully get some good club representation and some good content for you. Doesn’t cost you anything, just one click, but those numbers mean the world to us. Now back to the episode. I’m joined in this review by Lee from Harbs7 Golf. He’s a good friend of the podcast, and he played the course with us that day. That was our first ever Top 100 in 10 Society Day. Now, our society is absolutely free to join. You can go on our website, which is top10in10.co.uk, and you can sign up there. And at the moment, if you go on the website, have a little look. We’ve just announced a bumper second event, which is a two-day event in April down at Burnham and Borough in Somerset. So check out the link in the description, I’ll pop it in there. Get more information, sign up. It’s as simple as you hit sign up, it opens up your email, you send us an email, say I’m interested in coming along, or I’m interested in the future events, and then we’ll add you to our list. And that’s it. It’s dead simple. So welcome back, Lee. Now we’ve talked about the Society Day. How was the first one for you?

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 2:31

Brilliant, mate. Yeah, absolutely loved it. Um, well worth the effort of uh effort. Sorry. Obviously, I’ve come from Somerset and you guys are all up in Man near Manchester. So it was a bit of a trek, but well worth it. I set off at about four o’clock in the morning, went and picked my brother-in-law Rory up, who’s joined the society as well as a member, um, super keen to play as much golf as possible. We embarked on our what we thought was going to be a four, four and a half hour journey, and we managed to somehow get there in three hours and twenty. So way too early to even check into the hotel before you come and picked us up, and off we went on our merry way to Nottingham. So yeah, love the start being part of the mini bus journey over there with everybody, and you know, the ban started pretty early. Um, everyone almost feeling a little bit nervous and tentative about playing in the first society match, but didn’t take too long before the banter on the bus was going, and um, and then the journey was over before you knew it, and we’re pulling into the long drive headed towards the clubhouse, and I think the the kind of beauty of Homewell was instantly mesmerizing, a bit captivating right from the start. As soon as you start driving down that driveway, you think buddy how this looks like it’s gonna be an amazing course. Um, yeah, so I think we should talk a bit more about that as well.

Nish: 3:49

Yeah, it was great. I mean, it was so good to have uh, you know, the the magnificent seven, it was absolutely wonderful. It was nice for me and Chris to actually have a uh a few more people with us just generally and kind of talk about it and take everything in. And uh obviously it’s a bit of a different vibe for us because normally it’s the two of us turn up uh or we’re meeting somebody there and you kind of you’re in them almost daily. You’re you’re one of the people playing on the golf course as a T-slot. There were only seven of us, but because we’ve gotten a society, you know, there’s a little bit more about it. We had some lunch included, so you’re kind of like a big deal when you turn up, you know, people know you’re gonna be there. There’s a little bit more to organise in terms of near-to-the-pin competitions, all that kind of stuff. So it was really nice to have that, and yeah, I mean, top effort for you coming up to Manchester to then go back down again to Nottingham. So um well done, mate. But I mean it was so appreciated, everyone had a great time on the on the minibus, and that was another thing because we knew we were all going from most of us going from Manchester, we sort of sorted that out, and and the great thing is we’re all we’re all you know good pals or pals of pals, and and everyone’s just happy to to be there and happy to play some of the the top courses, which can sometimes feel a bit inaccessible. And I think sometimes there is, I don’t have this now because I’ve gone and done it a few times, and obviously we’ve always had the podcast, so we’ve always had a little bit of an in with the club when we go, but if you’re turning up to a place that you know is one of the best course in the country, I mean Hollingwell’s ranked 47, so a bit of course information and knowledge it’s ranked 47, which is right in the meat of obviously right in the meat of the top 100, it can feel a bit intimidating. You’re going into you know what is it going to be like? Obviously, we were sharing things like dress codes and things like that and code of conduct in the in the um in the clubhouse, and that sort of stuff, you when you’re not used to it, can put you on your on your back foot a little bit at the start. But having six other people with you, and obviously we’ve organized it, we’ve got lunch and all that kind of thing, just yeah, puts you straight at ease. You know, you’re you’re there as part of the bigger thing, there’s other people to talk to, all that kind of stuff. So it was wonderful. We had a we had a brilliant, brilliant time.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 6:05

Yeah, I’ll I’ll echo that, Nish, to be honest. When I think walking into the clubhouse, actually, you kind of did your thing, you ventured off to try and have a look around, you know, do your thing for your social medias, which is great. And then the guys have kind of walked in, and I’m a little bit similar. I went around and did a couple of pictures and stuff, so I’ve gone in slightly after the guys, they’ve already got a drink in, the lady’s trying to bend over backwards to get the food out as quickly as possible, which was super lush. And there was an old chap in there, and he’s just going around asking everyone who they are and shaking their hand and just introducing himself and telling them a bit about the course and what they’re what they’ve got to expect. And then I’ve walked in, it didn’t even look like I was part of that group, and he’s just walked straight over and said, Hi, are you part of this group? I’m you know, whatever his name was.

Nish: 6:50

I’m sorry, I can’t remember, but yeah, I I don’t know what his name was, but I mean, what a gentleman he was. Honestly, the the welcome we got was was cracking, actually. I was I was expecting that it would be okay, I was expecting it to be busier, and I think Hollywell in general, from speaking to the pro, is a quieter golf club, and it actually that is in keeping with its surroundings, isn’t it? It’s in this lovely, quiet, out of nowhere. You just the golf course, that’s it. And I thought those surroundings were so in keeping with that, and everybody took the time to say hello, find out who we were, didn’t they weren’t taking the club too seriously. It was just like, you know, come along and enjoy yourself. I think there must have been uh some um ladies’ comp going on when we when we turned up because there were a load of lady members there. I always think there’s a friendlier vibe as soon as you’ve got all the the women members uh knocking around the golf club. So that was brilliant. That guy, again, forgive me, we don’t know his name, but he was brilliant. He had the blazer on with the club crest on it. To a man, he said hello to everybody, didn’t he?

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 8:03

I think by all accounts he’d been there a very long time at the club, so um he seemed really passionate about just letting people know his knowledge about the course and what they’re to expect. And I’ve got to say it lived up to what he said, in my opinion. Um, he told us we’re in for a cracking day, and of course, the the course is ranked 49th, so you you are expecting that, but um we’ll get into it. But after having the drought we had for the summer, you you just never know really what you’re gonna walk into. I know a couple of courses that are in the top 100 have struggled keeping their grass on the course and keeping things green. It’s you know costs a lot of money when your water reserves run out and things like that. So um, yeah. Yeah. Um, but I agree with you as well. You mentioned about how it kind of felt you know, really enclosed, it was fantastic. I think me and you had a chat as we’re walking down maybe the 11th or 12th, and it just felt like we were out on the course on our own.

Nish: 8:55

Like just yeah, it was so quiet.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 9:02

And it just felt so enclosed. Yeah, it just felt a little bit enchanting at times, which was really cool.

Nish: 9:09

Yeah, I think enchanting is a really, really good word, Lee. I remember Alex in the preview. And if you haven’t watched the preview, please go back and watch the watch it. It’s it’s well worth doing. So, Alex is another top 100, and it’s always good to chat with him. But he kept trying to describe the course as being in a bowl, and I think he was sort of struggling to describe that. But when we got there, it all totally made sense. It is in a bowl, it’s just kind of like which is way weird to say you’re in this forest, and then I think it starts with a drive, doesn’t it? So you kind of head down this driveway, you sort of turn off the main road, and then you’re just driving, driving, driving, dead long, straight road, and then all of a sudden it banks right, and then you dip down, and then you’re down the one side of this bowl, and right ahead of you is the clubhouse, which is beautiful by the way, it’s just like sticks out there, it’s not like a sore thumb at all. It it it obviously doesn’t blend into the background. We’re in a forest, and it’s a building, but it’s a classic design building, and it just sits proudly, I think, and it I think that puts you in a good mood about your round straight.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 10:19

Yeah, and while we’re in there, massive pain glass windows, and you’re just overlooking the 18th hole, watching people come into the clubhouse on the 18th, and we’re all stood there, just like with pure excitement, going, you know, watching people come in, thinking, Where do you want to place the ball when you’re coming down the 18th fairway? And we’re watching a lot of people’s ball get collected just short left, so everyone’s going, right, I’m gonna go longer right, and planning out what they’re gonna do. Yeah, and there was a bunker there.

Nish: 10:48

Very, very yeah, I mean, it was just a beautiful, beautiful setting for for playing golf. And actually, one of the things that you you will get when you sort of turn up, and it is a very tranquil place, so you kind of you know, we all got out the the minibus, and the seven of us pretty outnumbered the number of people that were in the clubhouse, including the staff at that time, didn’t we? When we all sort of up and and immediately you just go, all right, everyone, just be a bit quieter, let’s sort of see where we are. But you’ve got this clubhouse, and then next to it you’ve got a building that’s a matching design, but it’s where the the pro uh pro shop is and the pros um. I think his name was David, lovely gentleman, really, really helpful. And behind that, you’ve got the driving range, behind next to the driving range, you’ve got the the sort of shipping area, you’ve got a little putting green as well next to the tea, uh or in the front of the clubhouse. I should the clubhouse, I should say. So just everything’s really close by, you know, you don’t have to walk miles away. It’s obviously well designed and well thought out, and again, just puts you in a nice, relaxing frame of mind to go and have a good round of golf. In fact, not even a good round of golf, a great round of golf.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 11:58

Yeah, and I think as well, David was really helpful rather than make us feel like you know, I know you’re here as a society and it’s all about your podcast and your social media as well. Like he didn’t make us feel bad about any of that. In fact, he was like, if there’s anything I can do to help, like I can put you with some good backdrops and get some good pictures of you guys all together and that sort of stuff. He was super helpful. So, you know, again, like I know it was quiet, but they just in as far as that goes, they went slightly over and above what you would expect from any golf course. They were literally trying to do anything they could to help and support our day, which was really cool.

Nish: 12:34

Yeah, they were, and and it was just so refreshing to you know, for them to almost just go, I mean, you’re almost better than a member for the day. You’re you know, you’re just you’re our guest for the day. You know, it’s even better, isn’t it? You’re really important to us, and it yeah, it was lovely. And the clubhouse itself, it was so nice and traditional inside. Um, it had loads of memorabilia and stuff on the wall, and obviously we talked to the preview about uh Brian Waits, who played in the Ryder Cup, who was a professional there, and they’ve got a great display. Like you head to our website, we’ve done the blog and got the pictures up, a good lovely display. And even that we we were playing on it on Friday of the Ryder Cup, and we were excited about that anyway. And then you sort of get in there and you see a bag from the 70s or 80s with the Ryder Cup logo on it. It was just full excitement, wasn’t it? It was great. Um, so it was yeah, cracking. And then yeah, David was amazing setting us off, took all our pictures, all that kind of thing. We got some signage and all this sort of marky, so it was it was great, and you could see all these backdrops. Now, one of the things that we noticed when we were pulling up to the first T was, and you sort of touched upon it a little bit earlier, Lee, was that we noticed a sign saying that preferred lines was in place. So for the uninitiated, preferred lies is colloquially known as lift clean in place. So we were like, hang on a minute, it’s been really dry. Has it been like really been muddy here? Or or like well, I think we were expecting that, weren’t we? And then David actually was at pains to sort of say, well, actually, it’s not that, it’s because we have been struggling this summer with the the fairways because it’s a sand-based course, just under the grass it’s sand, and then after under that it’s sandstone, so it’s very porous, so the moisture doesn’t get retained in any way, shape, or form. So they’ve been struggling with it. Now we have to say the fairways weren’t in good condition because of that dryness, and I think they’d done something because they had these sort of stripes all the way along them, they’d done something to try and uh get them best prepped so they can obviously withstand the winter and then be ready for next summer. So it wasn’t it wasn’t the best in terms of fairway playing experience, but preferred lives helps because then you just move it to the grass that you can’t actually play. And I I have to say, it didn’t bother me, it really didn’t bother me, and and it took me back to when we played Hankley Common. We played Hankley Common, and that two a day before I think they’d aerated the greens, so they all had obviously puncture marks in them, and we sort of went, Oh no, like is this gonna really wreck our enjoyment of the round? And again, it didn’t that day. I mean, if anything, I put it amazingly, so I was very happy with it. But you could take in the beauty of the course, and Hollingwell is a beautiful course, really, really beautiful golf course, and it’s got some I’ve written here on my notes that so each hole feels like an event, and it was you know, you sort of stood there just going, Oh my god, isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that lovely? And I I can’t say that about the first hole, and I I’ve got to agree with Alex in the preview. He said he didn’t understand where the first hole fit into the whole course, and actually, that’s right, it’s almost like you had the first one, and that doesn’t set you up for what then two to eighteen aliens. Agreed, agreed. And there was with a hole that was like that, it was we holed out, didn’t we?

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 16:06

And as we were walking off, I said to you, I hope that’s as easy as it gets, and it’s set like lulling us into a false sense of security, and then it goes in the rest of the course, bam. Um, because I just thought for a course that’s ranked so highly in the top 100, I didn’t expect there to be any easy holes on the course. But for the first one to be like that, I was a little bit nervous thinking, I have seen the 18th, and it looks spectacular, but that was yeah, I was expecting something a little bit more dramatic for an opening hole, and then you kind of hit two, three, four, and you’re like, All right, pretty yeah, and it’s just elevation changes everywhere.

Nish: 16:43

You know, you’re either teeing up high or you’re teeing up low and you go in and rising up the hill or whatever. They’ve used the land incredibly well. Uh, and then I mean, this the whole number one thing is is just kind of eating away at me. So I I went back and then friend of the podcast, Bernard Darwin, we’ve talked about him quite a lot. He’s and Chris bought me the book for Christmas, and it’s interesting reading the book that about Hollingwell, and it’s kind of made me reassess a lot of the stuff that he said. So in the book, he says it’s a magnificent opening hole. Now, unless it’s been vastly remodeled to the detriment of that hole, I don’t understand that. But then he says, so much so that almost the rest of the course doesn’t deliver on that promise. And I thought, well, that’s the absolute opposite. I mean, it’s almost I had to reread it three times. I thought, see, it must be the other way around. It must be like the first hole does not is not deserving of the rest of the course, sort of thing. And it does feel like that a little bit, I’ve got to say. I did not like that.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 17:46

I do I do have a potential theory on it though, because when we arrived and you handed out the scorecards to everyone, I’ve got to say it’s the first time I’ve ever received my scorecard, and I’ve double checked and gone, I think you’ve made a mistake here, because my playing handicap had gone up five strokes, and I’ve only ever been to a course and thought, bloody hell, that was difficult, and it’s gone up by two strokes, which I thought was so when you said, No, no, no, that’s the course is difficult, so we’ve all got an extra five strokes on our handicap, so everyone’s like, bloody hell, and you know, the higher handicapped in our group started instantly panicking, going, Holy Christ, like how are we gonna survive? But I gotta say, I think as a result of the drought, I think getting to pick and place on the fairway perhaps wouldn’t have made any difference. So, you know, no, I I don’t think it hindered us in any way, shape, or form there at all. But I do think I expected m much more of a challenge in the rough. And I think because of that drought, I think the rough was cut quite short just to kind of make sure that it didn’t get too long, die, and you know, kill other areas of the grass. So I have a feeling that we got away with it and that those extra strokes would normally have been lost by probably not finding your ball in the rough half the time and trying struggling to get out of that rough because you know we’ve we’ve both played lynx courses before, and usually if you’re in the rough on a lynx course, you you’re near on snapping your wrist trying to get the ball out of the out of the rough. So um I gotta say, I I landed in the rough several times, which if you if you check out um a video I put on my YouTube channel, Half Seven Golf, you can see that you know, holes two and holes three, I think I’ve hooked my or holes three, I’ve definitely hooked the ball into the rough um and I think search for it for about two minutes, and then I think you spotted it, and then I had a relatively comfortable shot out, or they put it straight into a bunker. But my point is normally when you go into perhaps ten foot into off a fairway into rough set of links course, you either struggle to find the ball or it is really thick and dense stuff, and you’re normally going out sideways just to try and recover. But yeah, I we we didn’t struggle with any of that. And I I I do think that you know, while yeah, fine the drought perhaps did cause the the fairways to be patchy. I think it benefited us high handicappers not having the course at its full effect.

Nish: 20:10

Yeah, I I think so. I mean you you you’ve got to look at it from your playing experience, haven’t you? And go, that was that definitely helped us.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 20:18

I can guarantee you, every one of those lads walked off that course thinking, fucking hell, that was amazing. Because the course was stunning, especially when you get to the T-box on that 13th. We were looking down into that par three bowl, which Chris brought up actually as a feature hole for uh on on the um podcast before we went and played. That was absolutely beautiful, and that that hole is gonna live with me forever because Raw’s hit his t-shot and nearly got a hole in one, didn’t he? So we were bonkers, but I I was literally just lapping that hole up. I was like, this is such a stunning hole, so visually fancy.

Nish: 20:55

That stretch, actually, that we hit it’s 13, 14, 15, I’d probably say 15, 60, 17, 18, that 13 to 18 stretch, and that’s six holes, isn’t it? That was it was stunning, you know. We had elevation change, we had narrow fairways, we had, yeah, like you know, teen off on a 190-yard par three, but it’s all downhill, so it’s just a flick of a nine-eye and that kind of thing. Um, it was it was stunning, and it had everything that was good about like I you know, I love trees on a golf course, and when it’s tree fringed, it just like it’s nature’s ball tracer. I just love it. And I just thought it had it had a little bit of everything for everyone. There were a couple of drivable uh par fours as well, you know. And there was a there was a there was a premium hitting it straight, however, it wasn’t so penalizing, you know. And a lot of these things, when you look at them on the course map, they look intimidating, and you get up there and you think, actually, it’s alright, this is okay. Yeah, there was you know, I can I can play.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 21:57

There was one hole where me and you teed off kind of close to each other, didn’t we? And then the second shot from at from the right-hand side where we were coming from went down into this valley, and you ended up with this tiny little bottleneck that led up onto the green. The green was surrounded by these really high kind of um heathery hills, and Chris actually landed up in one of the hills, so he’s got one foot down here, one foot up here, trying to hit down onto his ball, but pop it up onto a well down onto a green, but up onto a raised-tiered green. And I I just I looked at that hole and thought it’s absolutely stunning.

Nish: 22:35

It was amazing, wasn’t it? Because it was this, yeah, this bowl, natural bowl, green, and then beyond that, there were trees all the way around the back. So it was just this lovely amphitheatre almost.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 22:45

And that shot he hit, I thought there’s no way he’s getting this on the green, and he somehow wedge underneath, it just floated and just gently landed on the green. One of one of the best shots, classic classic Chris.

Nish: 22:55

That the git classic Chris. Um, but yeah, so so I mean, look, it was it was you know stunning. Um I’m gonna run through a few hole highlights here, actually. So we talked about I did my Robin Hood intro uh and hole two, so the back of hole two, there’s this hill type thing, and it’s called Robin Hood Seat. Now that hole, I think because we’d done hole number one, and I think we were excited and giddy, and it was like, yeah, yeah, great Ryako, done hole number one, and hadn’t really taken in that it didn’t maybe it wasn’t up to standard, so to speak, you hit hole two, and my goodness, you’re at Hollywell, Hollingwell, like straight in, and it’s this par four, you tee off big landing area, it then dog legs left a little bit. There’s one hill coming in from the left hand side, and then as you kind of feed your way around the um pardon me, as you feed your way round the fairway, this hill appears, which is Robin Hood seat. And it’s just stunning. It appears out of nowhere though, doesn’t it?

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 24:01

Yeah, it appears out of nowhere.

Nish: 24:07

Absolutely, it was it was beautiful, and then you head up to the so that was that was a lovely hole anyway. You know, and that’s the just the whole forget all the whole Robin Hood thing. And actually, weren’t you there because it’s so eerily quiet and it’s so peaceful. I I sort of was a bit flippant and mocking about the whole Robin Hood sitting there story kind of thing, but you really want to believe it then. You really want to believe that this is a historical place, it’s uh it’s got some sort of mystery and mythology about it. Then you hit that third T, and I thought that was an amazing hole of golf. So, third T, you’re really high up, you’re by this sort of Robin Hood seat, and then you’re looking all the way down the hill to the clubhouse in the background, and it’s a long par five, and what a hole of golf that was. There’s sort of danger everywhere, your drive needs to be straight, but you know, also it’s it’s gettable, you know. We we I mean we we flirted with the heather a bit, didn’t we? Unfortunately, but you know, it’s gettable. That was it, we’re just kicking it along the heather, basically, you know, and then you kind of get to four, and four was another great hole, it was like a tight driving hole, but then the green complex was beautiful. Then you head up into the kind of the upper bits of the uh the hill, and so we head into hole eight was remarkable. That’s where the holling, that’s where the holling well is. That’s where the so again we’ve got the pictures on the website as well. The well is from the the name Hollingwell, and I didn’t have a drink, no, unfortunately. I got a good picture and I looked at it and I thought, oh, I could go down there and I saw the cup, but I was like, I know what’s gonna happen here. I’m gonna try and walk down there and I’m gonna slip and I’m gonna break my back or something. So I’m not I’m not doing that. Don’t fancy getting on a mini bus with an injury, but you know, really lovely and tranquil and peaceful and and water, you know. I’ve been on so many of these courses now, and we’ve seen hardly any water, hardly any water. I think the most probably was at Trump. There were a few inlets and things like that, a few little big, you know, a few big bodies of water, but there was a decent whack of water knocking around here, but not kind of in your face, oh it’s right over the right in front of the tee or anything like that. It was kind of just just there, right, you know, in amongst the trees, and yeah, you’re getting out the sound of the water running, and you’re getting the the wind in the trees, a little bit of bird every now and again, but then you’d just again, you know, almost they were obviously that I was taking pictures, so it was occasionally when you guys would go ahead a little bit. If I needed to sort of shout one of you, I didn’t need to shout, I could just go please, and the my voice would just carry in this channel of trees, you know, that kind of thing. So it was such a peaceful, beautiful place to play golf, and then you know, we sort of you mentioned it, we we hit 13 for that par three, which is magnificent par three. It’s one to get your heart, your ticker going a little bit, and but not for Rory. So Rory, our playing partner, uh absolutely buttoned his t shirt. He’s got a little natural baby fade, hasn’t he? Yeah, just set it out just enough. And we’re looking at it going, I think as soon as he hits it, we’re like, well, that’s a good clip. We’re so high up as well, aren’t we?

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 27:19

And he hits his ball into the clouds, doesn’t he? Every shot he hits is like sky high. And we’re just watching it on the video, you’re like, that’s on it, that’s on it.

Nish: 27:28

That’s a that’s on. It was it was on the flag, and it was it had just the right amount of draw. And I was like, that’s on it. If that lands and it skips forward, that’s a very high chance that that’s actually gonna go in. We can’t believe we’re gonna have a hole in the middle of the state.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 27:44

And then it just comes up.

Nish: 27:45

We still made it put made him put it out.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 27:48

Yeah, you can can you finish that please?

Nish: 27:51

Listen, I I don’t want to be giving that for a birdie, I want to I want to actually tap it in myself. But but I’ll if we rewind a couple of holes, so we did eleven, and again from the preview, I remember Alex said that I’m surprised that eleven isn’t a signature hole. That was a magnificent hole of golf that had real um memories of hindhead for me because it was this valley and it was a snakey valley as well. So I think we all hit like a I hit a three hybrid, Chris hit like a five wood, I think you hit five wood as well. We all kind of just go for position. All hit and we all hit fairway, so we all like did well in in that first bit. Not we won’t talk about the approach shots, though. We put mine into the tree on the left, too well, yeah. I was like, I hit mine and Chris went, Did you do that deliberately? I was like, Yeah, I did try to lay up, but just not quite that laid up, you know, whatever. But again, you’re rising the whole way on that, and it’s sort of snakey.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 28:56

It’s like going through a valley all the way, isn’t it?

Nish: 28:59

Yeah, and it wasn’t difficult, it was just there’s enough there just to sharpen your senses a little bit, and you go, Oh, I’ve got premium on hitting it straight. And you don’t, you know, it’s you’ve got some bailout, it’s all fine, but it’s visually an interesting, interesting way.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 29:17

I love that beautiful um on the video um where I had to place the bag so that I could get a um full shot of the green was about 10 feet up on a hill over the green, um, because I’d obviously I’d been up and the left to try and find my second shot hoping it was still alive, but it wasn’t. Um, but yeah, so the the shot I’ve got of that is the camera coming down on all four of us on the green, and it just looks really cool. Looks really, really cool.

Nish: 29:45

Cool is exactly it. I mean, I didn’t realise then at 11 what we were walking into for that 13 to 18 stretch, and it was just I remember using the phrase I think we got to. I think it was the 16th. And I know I think it was I don’t think I remember it being the 16th. The 16th was that was the one that we could you could cut the corner and you could potentially drive the green. The green was like you teed up really high up, dipped all the way down, and then it turned very sharply right, and then the the green complex was high up with with a big row of three guarding bunkers in the lower bit. So you either go for it or you kind of just you know go for your drive in that bit and then sort of play up from there. And I hit a stonking drive, and I was walking down one of the few I hit, but um we walking we were walking down, and I remember just thinking this golf course is a bit of me, and I remember saying that to Chris. I was like, I think I’m slightly falling in love with this golf course, and it was that like I felt like you could be a member there and never get bored of it, yeah. Like you just couldn’t have the same round over and over again. Now I’m a the course I’m a member of Reddish Vale, is very much like that. There’s risk reward everywhere, there’s just so many interesting things to go for, you know. You you can grip it and rip it with your driver if you want to, but you can also be very, very strategic. Place the ball somewhere and it will give you a good chance to score. And I just yeah, I think I did fart slightly fall in love with that. And Alex said to us that I would guarantee you this will go and jump into your top five.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 31:28

And yeah, I I gotta say this golf course. For what it costs to play in a top 100 course, you’re expecting it to be immaculate, and I think there will be people that will walk away from that going, I’m not happy the fairways weren’t good enough. But my honest review on that is you’ve just got to accept the summer we’ve had’s been brutal and it’s been it’s been punishing on every golf course around the country. Um I I had no problems whatsoever overlooking the patchiness of the fairways. I thought that golf course was probably the most stunning golf course I’ve played, and I will be very surprised if I go to another golf course anytime soon and go this is as good as or better than Oliver. Better, yeah. I wholeheartedly agree with that, but this is my number one at the moment um of all the courses I’ve played.

Nish: 32:23

It’s it’s one out of one.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 32:24

Yeah, I mean I’m not not just like the top 100. Um, you know, I’ve I’ve I’ve I’ve played like Sandy Lane in Barbados, I’ve played all all the beautiful courses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Um as far as just picturesque, just walking that course and soaking it up, and it almost felt like every hole we got to like I agree with you, 13 to 18. I just kept thinking, bloody hell, it just keeps getting better. Like it gets more beautiful. What a stretch that was in the tree strength all the way, you felt enclosed, you just felt you felt like you had the whole golf course to yourself all the way around. Yeah, I haven’t had that feeling on any of the golf course before.

Nish: 33:02

It it felt, I said it at the outset, it felt magical, it really did, and we we ended up um obviously with the tea time that we had, we were playing in golden hour, and it was just like there is not a place I’d rather be. This is it was just so nice, and I think also because you’re not in Lynx Land, you know, you’re in you’re in a forest, the greens were so vivid. I know we’ve had a dry summer, but the greens were vivid, you know, the trees are deep green, you know, the balls you I keep saying it, but you know you can see the ball against it and all that kind of stuff, and I think that made for a really visceral experience when I was playing golf there. It was like, you know, almost like the greens were too green, you know, it was like spray painted green, it was like the the darkness of the water was like it’s popping, and I think it’s because of the light of the time and all that kind of thing. I’m just it’s so peaceful. Like it’s it was just it was a magical, magical experience for me, and it really has jumped into my top five, if not top three, potentially. So it’d be interesting to see how we sort of get on. But we I feel like we should give this goal hole its its due deference, I think. You know, we had this whole stretch 13 to 18, and I feel like it builds that to the 18th. So the 17th is again, it’s a it’s a big wide I didn’t make it look like this, but big wide landing space to put your tee shot, and then again it’s another one of these amphitheatre-ish type greens fringed by tree, and uh it’s uh you kind of finish there, and it’s a that’s a magnificent hole anyway, and then you head up towards the 18th T. And you’ve not really you could look over them, but you haven’t really looked over at this point, and you head over towards the 18th T and you just sort of go, I can see that clubhouse, and I’m on the T, and it’s this hole that’s just all the way downhill taking you home. What a stunning hole of golf that’s gonna be.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 35:10

But you stand on that T-box as well, and it opens back up, doesn’t it? So you’ve got like the third hole coming in off your right up by the green, you’ve got the putting green over by the clubhouse, you’ve got the fourth hole all the way over to the back hole, but it’s all back open again, and you’re no longer enclosed and enchanted by this course, and now you’re faced with this daunting 18, like you said, all the way downhill, and so cleverly placed bunkers. I I was like, even if I go with my my iron that would normally be this is at my fairway finder, it’s gonna get trapped. So I thought, sod it, I’m gonna go driver and I’m gonna try and clear that bunker. But of course, my drive went ping straight into the 260 bunker. So brilliant.

Nish: 35:53

Well, I mean, it was it was uh identified by Jim as the signature hole, so it was a signature hole challenge for us, and then also we’d asked David, the professional, to sort of tell us where we should do our longest drive. And he said, you know what, do it on 18 because it’s downhill first, obviously get a bit of distance, but it’s a magnificent t-shot, so it’s a good one to sort of go for. And I I sort of went, Oh, I’m not sure we should do that on the 18th, because everyone’s shattered by the whole 18, you know, who’s gonna go for longest drive. I’m so glad he did that because I think it made an event for everybody, didn’t it? That last drive. I mean, look, yours truly, I bombed it three events straight down the middle. I mean, it went about as middle as it can get on that fairway. Uh, and then you know, just I scooped the longest drive prize, you know. All that kind of thing. But it was again lovely, just watching like you hit your drive, and it’s just straight. You can just see this ball all the way down, you see it down, land it, all that kind of stuff, and it was just it’s a magnificent hole of golf. Water on the left, you got bunkers on the right, you’ve got the road going back up. I think Chris needed to hit a car with his drive.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 37:02

The only car around about five miles, and Chris’s ball was making a P line for it. Yeah.

Nish: 37:07

No, I think we got it on video. We’re like, oh god, he’s gonna hit the car, isn’t he?

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 37:11

Hell of a drive as well. If it had just put a bit of drawer on it, that was going for miles, but it was.

Nish: 37:17

It was a big one. It was a big one, but it you know, it uh didn’t count in the end because it didn’t stick on the fairway. And I want that, but yeah, got a wonderful finishing hole. Uh really, really and as such a contrast to the first hole, you know, you start off with this one, and uh I kind of almost appreciated the last hole a bit more because of that. I was like, what a way to finish at Hollingwell and and remember. Now I think um we will get to scores and things in a minute, but I’ll add you we’ll all notice eagle-eared, eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that my partner in crime, Chris, isn’t actually here, so he wasn’t available to help us with the review today. But I in true press style, I managed to get a statement from him, which I’m gonna try and read and not get any words wrong. So I’m gonna read it as it is. So this is from Chris. I’ve not done the preview for this one, so I was going in slightly blind, but one entrance, possibly the best dryway we’ve seen so far, albeit slightly diminished by the view from the minibus, who’s looking straight at me, unfortunately, felt more like a stately home rather than a golf course entrance. It was a very different vibe from most of the courses we’ve seen so far, which have been busy sausage factories. By comparison, it was the quietest place I’ve ever been, and I’m from Cumbria. The first was an interesting start, and I won I was worried it was giving me crude and bay vibes. So just for context, Chris hated Crude and Bay. He just said wasn’t up to standard, couldn’t see how it was number 23 on the rankings, all this kind of stuff. So um I can imagine if he was getting that vibe straight away, which weeks maybe we all weren’t, but certainly in hindsight, now number one wasn’t it wasn’t important for what was going to happen later on in that round. Um, so then he’s put but straight away it was turned around by holes two and three, which were magnificent golf holes. I think overall it was a really cracking set of holes, and I can see why everyone loves it. However, the state of the fairways did tinge my experience of it. There were times when you had to move two to three metres on the fairway just to get a preferred lie with some actual grass. Personally, in my opinion, for a top-rated course charging £200 a go, that’s not good enough. But I would love to go back and play it again when it’s at its best. And I think that sums it up, doesn’t it? If you can see, if you see past that all and you go, do you know but I’d still go back, I’d go back and I’d pay that again, and I would play it when it’s in its peak. That’s how enchanting and magical that place was. And and I I keep I use that word really advisedly magical. I think it is that I can I could imagine we got a good time a day to play it. I could imagine playing that on your own in that kind of twilight-y golden houry time, you know, with some headphones on, just listen to some chill out music, and you will have the most wonderful experience playing golf ever. Because you’ll be totally relaxed, you’re gonna still have challenge there because there’s so much to do on that course, it’ll just be amazing. It’d be so good. What a great course they’ve created. What a great course, and it feels like the the people who are who are running it, you know, they’re they’re good guardians of that course as well, and good guardians of that club. And I hope that you know, we’ve we came on a Friday afternoon. Uh, I must admit I was expecting it to be a bit busier, and I I hope that’s not a general trend there of it’s it’s becoming less busy. I hope that’s just we caught it at that time, and obviously it was later in the day, and it was busier early on because that place deserves, in my opinion, a good, strong, healthy membership, and it deserves to to keep its place in the top 100 for another hundred years. You know, it was out of 16, it probably has jumped into my top five. I really loved playing that golf course, I really did. Uh I can’t say I played particularly well, but didn’t play particularly badly either. It was just everywhere I went. This is a great place to play golf, and that’s what we do it for.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 41:28

Yeah, no, I completely agree. I don’t really have anything more to add than that. I think we’ve we’ve um we have waxed lyrical about this course to a point where we don’t want to make it sound a bit OTT. I just agree, I just agree with you. Like everything you’ve been said, I’m totally according with that mate.

Nish: 41:47

I I hope that’s it. What terrible place? Uh now we should give everyone a few scores. So we obviously went on the Society Day and we had a few slides about society challenges. So you might have picked up if you haven’t. Uh I will reiterate I won the longest drive on the 18th, which is a really, really tight uh drive. So it went dead straight. It was caught on film. You’ll be able to see it on the signature hold challenge video. Uh, I also won the signature hold challenge, which was obviously the lowest net scores. Chris had a little bit of a mare on that one. Um, so I got a net four, he got a net five. So it’s another win for me. Uh the nearest to the pin was on the fifth hole, the par three. It’s a shame it wasn’t on the 13th, because my goodness, what a shot to get that. But it was still the same man who won the nearest to the pin, that was Rory. So uh he, I think, I believe he won it because he was the only one out of seven of us to hit the green and stick it on the pin. So default. Always take that. So well done, Rory. Uh, you deserve it anyway, mate, for that t-shirt on 13. That was magnificent. Uh, then we had our side bet with Jim, which was the net score. So unusually for a lot of golf courses, there were only three par fives in this golf course, and uh it was the net lowest score over those three par fives. So the first hole par five was the fourth, which was downhill back towards the the third, sorry, downhill towards the clubhouse. Uh so uh myself and Chris both got a net six, so we’re all square at that point. The second par five was I believe the sixth or the sixth hole, yeah. So that was uh that was just basically long and straight, I think that that hole, but you had a few humps to to negotiate. So um I got a net six, Chris got a net seven, so you would have had a shot on that, and then yeah, so didn’t didn’t do too well. So I’m uh I’m ahead there. I stroke, and then the third par five was 17. Straight to think 17 was it, right? Okay, so on that way we did, but I managed to get a good recovery shot in somewhere because I managed to scramble the net six, and Chris got a net six as well, so I won the side bet too. Nice getting onto clean sweep territory here. Um, so that was a side bet, and then just our sort of score totals. Um, we’ve not really done this before, but I’ve started kind of logging now what we sort of get. So um the gross totals, this is the only thing that Chris beat me on. He got shot on 94, I shot a 99. And I think I remember saying in the maybe it was on the way over, if I break 100, I’ll be happy. So uh just because I was expecting it to be a very tough course, and which it was, but but a beautifully tough course. Uh so 99, happy with that. So Chris Chris won that on gross. Stable for points, I got 25, Chris got 23. Absolutely, Chris. It’s a shame he’s not on. It’s a shame he’s not on. Uh he will, yeah, and I’ll get messages as he’s watching it. And then um net, I was 11 over, Chris was 14 over. So I think Chris, if I’m honest, is disappointed with his round. He sort of said to me that he think he thinks he thought he played pretty horrifically, which I mean, 23 points is not really covering yourself with any glory, is it? There, so probably go along with that. I’ve seen him play much better. Um, but you know what? We did still come back and say, what an absolutely magnificent course that was. So bravo, Hollingwell.

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 45:34

Uh I’d just like to point out as well, it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever scored 42 points, and I didn’t even I came third. You came third? I was like, what do you mean I’ve not won? And then when you told me on third, I was like, what’s happened here?

Nish: 45:49

But but on the day, I feel like the handicap committee’s gonna have to roll into click into gear a little bit there, isn’t it?

Lee @Harbs7Golf: 45:57

On the day Rory was just hitting some unbelievable shots, wasn’t he? He would have won the committee on every part three as well.

Nish: 46:05

Uh it would have done it was a part three, part three merchant, wasn’t he? Uh before we do close off, I must say obviously thank you to everybody who came. It was you made it an absolutely amazing day. Thank you, Lee. Uh, you have been a good sidekick for our podcast anyway, and then you did us the honors by by filming it all. And I was having a bit of a meltdown with my camera, so thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And I’d also like to give a special thanks to uh my good friend Andy, who’s our society man, so he put a lot of effort into organising our scorecards on the day, working it all out. I mean, I didn’t have the foggiest what was going on with all those scores, so Andy was really good at figuring it all out. He got some great prizes, you know. We had good some wine in there, he organized a minibus for us all. Um for my longest drive, I ended up winning a cap and you know, with daddy cool written on it and all that kind of thing. I mean, brilliant. So so well organised and unexpected for Andy actually. He’s usually pretty useless at these things, but he did a cracking job. So publicly, Andrew Andy, thank you. You were you’re an absolute legend. Next time on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, we’ll be previewing a course that’s jumped into the top 100 in under five years since it opened. That’s the Barney Golf Links in Five.