A Welsh Wonder – Aberdovey Golf Club Review

Nish: 0:00

Every story has an ending. Does our quest to play the top 100 courses in 10 years have a good ending? I’m Nish, I’m Chris, I’m Jim and we’re here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast

Nish: 0:13

Episode episode 25. A Welsh wonder Aberdovey Golf Club. So we are fresh off a round at Aberdovey

Nish: 0:24

.

Chris: 0:24

I’m not that fresh. I’m still hurting quite a lot, to be honest, Nish.

Nish: 0:27

Come on, what’s happened.

Chris: 0:28

Just my ankles and my elbows.

Nish: 0:30

Oh, are you in serious discomfort?

Chris: 0:32

I wouldn’t say serious discomfort, but two rounds of golf in two days is certainly making me feel my age.

Nish: 0:39

I didn’t realise that was a thing.

Chris: 0:41

Yeah, yeah, no, I’ve knackered both my ankles playing tennis and I want to play golf.

Nish: 0:46

It’s really sore because you kind of roll into it. Your hand was injured as well, so how’s that?

Chris: 0:48

Yeah, hand’s fine.

Nish: 0:49

Right.

Jim: 0:50

Hand’s fine, I’ve got blisters.

Nish: 0:53

Oh my God, what has happened to you two?

Jim: 0:55

It’s only golf, it’s the golf sport, and they’ve got the walking wound in here.

Nish: 1:12

otherwise we’re doing we stretches, wasn’t they? So, oh, wow, okay, well, I’m fine, by the way, just stay overweight, guys. That’s the way to do it. I think that’s that’s that’s what you should learn. So a few things that we will discuss about abduvi. We’ve we’ve gone through how unbelievably friendly this golf club was. Yeah, so we’ll say it once they were unbelievably friendly.

Chris: 1:29

Yeah, I think on the day it was it, you know it lived up to expectations, didn’t it? It was um, it was a great welcome, wasn’t it? We got?

Nish: 1:35

around personal introductions from the manager to to gareth who played with us and gareth is the chair of memberships and yeah, uh, the the pro was unbelievably friendly. Um, there’s a chap now people listening may know about this guy, so he’s gone viral. He’s the barman at abu dhabi. Yeah, big newcastle united fan. And he’s gone viral because I think since something like well, all of those in 1992 when the premiership kicked off, but he knows every single newcastle united premiership result like and he could just recall them like that.

Nish: 2:08

Yeah, it’s a pretty I mean a pretty useless, but a pretty incredible talent right, but somebody told me this before I’d actually met him and I was like where have I heard about this? I think it’s because it had come up in the cookie jar uh podcast as well cookie jar golf podcast, so I had heard about that.

Jim: 2:23

but honestly, that character yeah, he was, wasn’t he? He was still on a come down from Newcastle’s glorious victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup.

Nish: 2:33

I’ve got the feeling he partied hard.

Jim: 2:36

I definitely got that feeling I think he was ready to party again on a Sunday night.

Nish: 2:41

I think if somebody would have said shall we go again, he would have definitely done that.

Jim: 2:46

When I was at the bar he was telling a story that just towards the end of the game he looked up, caught someone out the corner of his eye and it was Alan Shearer Sat kind of six rows behind him. Wow, nice For a massive Newcastle United supporter to see Alan Shearer there.

Nish: 3:03

Yeah, legend, until he managed them, but you know yeah, didn’t win anything with him either, did he?

Chris: 3:09

no, no, he didn’t did he yeah neither did anyone else, though, jim, to be fair, until recently. That’s another podcast, isn’t it?

Nish: 3:17

Newcastle United. But yeah, it was just like we just felt at home, I think yeah.

Chris: 3:23

I think, was just like we just felt at home. I think, yeah, um, I think, like to a man, everyone at that golf club was on the same kind of level, I think, weren’t they? They were all just had that. That’s extra. That is rare.

Nish: 3:33

Yeah, it’s very rare that extra level of kind of customer service yeah, I, I got an email from suzy, who’s the manager she’s the one who’d sorted us out yeah, for, uh, for jim’s round and things like that and she said, you know, again, it was on. So it was on, I think it was at like 10 o’clock on sunday night and it was like it was a pleasure meeting you. Thank you for for being great visitors. Um, if there’s ever any time you want to come back, you’re more than welcome. Please let me know, we’ll look after you, all that kind of thing. I just wrote her back on monday. I was like so sorry I didn’t reply earlier, but you know, we kind of got home and it was like straight to bed and all that kind of stuff. But I can’t begin to tell you how thankful we are for the welcome we got yeah there’s also actually a massive amount of credit to you.

Nish: 4:20

You’re the person at the top, yeah, and then that filters down absolutely to a man, everybody follows what you’ve asked them to do so yeah or not to do, but like how to be?

Chris: 4:29

yeah, I think so if you’re going to consider playing somewhere and you’re like, oh, I’m not really sure about this is an unbelievable place to play and I think by the time we get to the end of this, hundred golf courses, I still think that’s probably going to be our number one in terms of customer service and how we’re going to be in a slide. It feels difficult to beat, doesn’t?

Nish: 4:48

it absolutely. How do you beat that kind of welcome? It’s just unbelievable. So we’ll leave it at now. I think we’ve probably over egged that way. People want to know about actual golf. Yes, I think. So, kind of looking at few things I’ve got to discuss, we didn’t disgrace ourselves on the signature hole this time.

Chris: 5:06

Not entirely.

Nish: 5:08

I don’t think we covered ourselves in any glory, but it was certainly better, jim, was it Not?

Chris: 5:14

for me it wasn’t. Jim had a little trip into the Irish Sea. Is it the Irish Sea there? It wasn’t quite that bad. It wasn’t quite that bad, but we certainly didn’t find the ball’t get it airborne to get in the sea, did you?

Jim: 5:26

that’s pretty much it. That’s where it all started to unravel for me on the round.

Nish: 5:29

I think did it, yeah, 12 right yeah, I think we noticed you visibly looked tired and actually it turns out you maybe had blisters at that time. No, I didn’t notice.

Jim: 5:40

No, no, no, I think it was just you, you visibly looked. I think that I was concentrating so much through the random, you know, the tips that you give you’ve been giving me chris and uh, I think the mental exhaustion just kind of set in but I mean, that’s an interesting point, because I think, because so we, for the weekend we were staying right next to the course.

Chris: 5:57

We were overlooking basically the first and the 18th holes, weren’t we? And every time I looked out the window I just thought, crikey, that looks tight, that doesn’t look like there’s much forgiveness in there, there’s not much room for error. And then, I think, when we, when we first arrived, we kind of got directed over to the practice ground, didn’t we? So me, jim and I went over to the practice ground with it with a tube of balls each, and the pro said doesn’t matter if you lose a few. I was thinking, I won’t lose any balls. Uh, don’t be ridiculous, I can hit, I can hit some balls down a practice ground. And then we got to the practice ground and then there’s maybe like four or five meters of width it was very narrow shit is this a prelude for what’s about to come on the course?

Chris: 6:37

and ultimately it certainly was for the first few holes. Anyway, you kind of go out that first, first three or four holes which, by the way, are a great opening four holes.

Nish: 6:46

What were the words on the, the flyovers that they did? So we, we didn’t watch any videos, did we of of the, the actual course, not until on our preview yeah, and then we’d done our preview and then we watched it and then me and chris sent a couple of messages to each other going. I think we might have just done it just the day of preview, maybe Send a couple of messages to each other going. We’d better not send these to Jim, because they keep using the words challenging and hard and hardest in Wales.

Nish: 7:13

And we were like oh, we’re excited about this round. We don’t want to be putting any kind of down on it, but it didn’t feel like that though.

Chris: 7:22

I think, apart from the first. So I think that opening hole that’s a tough opening. So we had the, we had the prevailing wind, didn’t we? So it was into the wind reasonably long, sort of 400 yard par four. Um, that’s a tough opening hole the hardest in welsh golf apparently. Well, I mean, it’s still yeah, it’s probably only the second or third time I’ve played in wales, but it’s certainly the hardest, hardest opening hole I’ve played in wales isn’t it?

Chris: 7:43

um? But yeah, certainly a tough, tough opening drive, like if you’re nervous going in there in a comp, like what a great host gareth was.

Nish: 7:49

He didn’t hit a good drive on the first he lost his ball for us. Yeah, yeah, he did, thanks, made us feel, uh feel welcome I hit the fairway just saying you did I think you pretty much the only one who hit the fairway radio. I think we were all a little bit a little bit wide, so but yeah, I think Hardest but it is and challenging, it is hard and it is a challenging opening, but it’s also an incredibly beautiful opening.

Chris: 8:10

Three, four holes. Isn’t it Stunning place to play golf? It’s not one of those. I think we played St David’s the day before and you kind of it takes a little while to get into like straight on that first hole, you’re like wow like I’m playing lynx golf now yeah, there was no like definitely lynx golf and then whether it’s easy into it?

Nish: 8:28

no, absolutely not I think it felt like it eased off a little bit in the early part, maybe the mid part of the back, the front nine yeah, definitely, there was a lot of point and click kind of holes, and it was like what you see is what you get. Yeah, it wasn’t too much danger or anything like that, and then it built up again.

Chris: 8:42

Yeah, for the back, which is a great way to do, actually, because, like, yeah, you’re kind of straight in there and you’re like, oh, this is real lynx golf, I think. Walking between the the second and the third, you’re just kind of walking in between all the dunes, you’ve got all the big kind of the big grass growing up either side of you and it’s yeah, you really feel like you’re immersed in it, don’t you?

Nish: 8:59

I think I took a picture of them but I really loved the paths that we were walking on.

Chris: 9:04

Yeah, well, I think Gary was saying they’ve just been relayed, haven’t they? But they looked kind of pristine and bright and kind of Really nice white sand. Yeah leading your way through the dunes was just a pretty epic way to start the round.

Nish: 9:15

It’s a well-maintained golf course as well. Despite retaining a lot of rugged features, it was really really well looked after. Yeah, I mean that bit when you hit the 12th and then you stood at the top. I mean the lucky thing about my tee shot was that it went out wide right, so it gave me the opportunity to stand there and just kind of stand on the edge.

Nish: 9:37

And it drops off and there’s the beach and there’s the sea. So what a stunning place to play golf Sandwich, between a beach and a railway track. You wouldn’t imagine it, would you?

Jim: 9:47

No, it was a very stunning course actually and obviously, where we stayed we got a reasonable view of it and driving up the coast to see how long it was actually, I think I was a little bit worried.

Chris: 9:59

I think, having looked like, I say, overlooked those two holes for two days, thinking this is going to be tricky, and then you go on the practice ground and you’re like, having looked like, I say, overlooked those two holes, for two days thinking this is going to be tricky. And then you go on the practice ground and you’re like this is going to be really tricky. And then you play the opening hole and you’re like, yep, this is exactly what I signed up for. But actually, like you say after those first, sort of four holes.

Chris: 10:16

It kind of eases off a little bit and lets you in a little bit doesn’t?

Nish: 10:19

it wasn’t there. Yeah, it had a net and things like that. The chipping sorry, the putting green looked in pristine condition, but I didn’t get a chance to go in any of it because I was kind of off talking to Too busy schmoozing.

Nish: 10:36

Yeah, too busy schmoozing and then the kids came and I was. Some old couple were there and I couldn’t figure out whether they were packing up or they’d just arrived. So I said, oh, have you finished? He said, oh, I just need two hits. So he just had two hits moved, all of his stuff. I hit three balls, that was it, and then we went to the tee. So it was time, and then as I turned around and looked back, poor guy, he’d gone back into the net again because I’d asked him.

Nish: 11:07

He just went, I’ll let this guy have a little hit. I was like aw, that’s really nice. I thought I was a bugger off no mate, wait your turn, so that was like a lot of the practice facilities. The clubhouse is pretty new as well, because I think it was 98, I think it was built, wasn’t it?

Chris: 11:29

I think Gareth said it burned down twice, twice, yeah, third time, lucky this time. Yeah, maybe, yeah, but that maybe, maybe the uh, the rough had just grown too much in the bit of a wildfire.

Jim: 11:34

Well, I think that was another thing that Gareth mentioned about.

Chris: 11:37

You know we’re very early in the season and things haven’t fully grown because they’ve been tending to it over the winter, so yeah, it could be, a very, very different round if we went in, say, three or four weeks time, absolutely, but I mean it was that’s the beauty of it was in pretty pristine condition, it was the greens were markedly better than more st david’s.

Nish: 11:55

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, um, yeah, I mean, even though that rough was down, if you ball went in there, it was a. I mean, we looked a few times. It was a battle finding your ball. That’s my book. There was a really funny moment actually, and I think it probably came on the the back nine actually, if I think about it now, but we were kind of not walking along and I think you’d hit your, uh, you’d hit your drive, and then I hadn’t noticed this at all up to now and you just went. Oh, it’s nice to be able to just walk with you guys so I can have a bit of a chat, all right.

Jim: 12:33

No, that was on the 6th or 7th, early on, was it early? Yeah, it was.

Nish: 12:38

I think you spanked your drive then, didn’t you? Yeah?

Jim: 12:42

Well, the driving in the Royal St David’s in the back nine was improving. There was an about nine was improving so I was hopeful that things would move slightly in a slightly better direction and it did for a bit.

Nish: 12:52

Yeah, I mean, I’ve got him looking at scorecard, I’ve got you got three pars in a row, is that right? Yeah, so I sound really, really surprised, is that right?

Jim: 12:59

this scorecard’s not right um, and one of them was one of them had to take a drop, otherwise it would have been a bird, but you’re part of par five, you’re part of par four and you’re part of par three.

Nish: 13:09

All in a row, that’s golf isn’t it that’s completing golf.

Chris: 13:12

Seem to do that like 15 more times. Yeah, do that.

Nish: 13:15

So you did it left-handed, right-handed and with your head, and that’s the perfect hat trick sort of thing. Um, shall we, shall we? What? What? I’ll let you guys decide what we talk about next. Do we do the signature hole, the side bet or our actual scorecards? What do you think? What do you think people would want to know first?

Chris: 13:32

I think signature hole. We’ll leave scorecard to the end because you won this.

Nish: 13:36

So spoiler alert yeah, yeah, I’m pretty happy with my scorecard it should be you both.

Jim: 13:44

You both played really really well over the whole weekend. I thought so, yeah, particularly you, on, on, on the whole weekend.

Nish: 13:48

I thought yeah.

Jim: 13:48

I think Particularly you on the Sunday. I mean, you were just solid, I think the whole On the Saturday.

Chris: 13:53

Yeah, I think I was a bit disappointed on the Sunday. I felt like a bit of a. A few of those poor shots just crept back in on the Sunday. But I don’t think it’s just a bit of tiredness and a bit of lack of concentration. Best 18 holes of golf I think I’ve played.

Nish: 14:10

that’s definitely the best 18 holes I’ve seen you play. Yeah, you were, even though I shot lower, which may give it away a little bit more. But even though I’ve shot lower, I felt like that was the right mixture of on a tougher course, all that kind of thing. There was wind up, you know all that kind of thing and thinking about things clubbing up and all that kind of stuff it was. I loved it, yeah, because I was hitting it well I loved it. I think I can imagine, if I wasn’t, I’d be going.

Chris: 14:31

But yeah, I think that that level of wind is. I think it’s the perfect amount for a lynx course, like it’s about a club and a half club and a half worth of, you know, worth of wind. It’s enough to make it challenging, but it’s not like so brutal that you’re like, well, I’m just gonna have to drive a par 4.

Nish: 14:45

We didn’t really have any cross either, did we?

Chris: 14:47

No, there’s that one par 3, that kind of cuts across, but it is pretty much an out and back, isn’t it I?

Nish: 14:52

nailed my tee shot on that one. That was very satisfying to do, okay, so you said signature hole. So the signature hole at Aberdovey is the 12th. It’s a par 3 uphill. Yeah, it’s on the side of the hill. Well, on the top of the hill I suppose this green anything short and left is just massive, massive drop off, isn’t it? So I actually asked gareth.

Chris: 15:17

After we played it I said is that, is that like an actual sand dune that they’ve kind of taken the top off and put a green on? He said, no, they’ve built it up, but it it feels like you’re playing almost the top of a sand dune, doesn’t it just like a plateau on the top of a big, a big kind of dune like?

Nish: 15:30

uh, mound, they’ve built that up. They’ve built that up incredibly well, because that does look exactly it looks natural, doesn’t it looks really natural? Yeah, yeah, like they said, it just lopped off the top of the exactly, yeah, it kind of felt like that, didn’t it that’s incredibly good, a good course design, isn’t it then? And then, yeah, right, long and right right of the hole is but yeah, you just basically a load of sleepers.

Chris: 15:54

I mean, that’s one thing worth noting. The sleepers, like the upright sleepers, were used really beautifully around there, so you’re kind of walking along the path.

Nish: 16:01

Sometimes it’s beautiful and c-shaped sleepers pointing out, which is a really nice touch we’ve already used the word a few times, but it was a stunningly beautiful golf course. Yeah, like a really pleasing on the eye. Yeah for sure, right. So our signature hole challenge that’s me and you and that is who’s who wins the hole. Basically between me and you. Uh-huh, we cover ourselves in glory, but it wasn’t as bad as royal saint david. It wasn’t quite that bad.

Chris: 16:25

That was horrific that was pretty horrend. It was so.

Nish: 16:28

I think we did better than that, in that we got up and around the green.

Chris: 16:32

Yeah, I got on the green one shot and it’s my standard three putt to get in.

Nish: 16:36

Yeah, yeah, I mean, you could see that happening, couldn’t?

Chris: 16:38

you.

Nish: 16:40

And then, yeah, what happened with you, jim? Because I think we sort of lost you a little bit in amongst the trying to film things. I’m not part of the challenge. Let’s move on. Let’s gloss over it, shall we? What challenge, what side bit?

Chris: 16:55

I feel like we did lose you on the Sunday. I felt like we lost you a little bit. Jim, in the links we spoke, didn’t we?

Nish: 17:00

and we were like.

Chris: 17:04

I think, jim, you looked like you were done at one point.

Jim: 17:06

That must have been the 14th or 15th maybe, yeah, I think towards the back, that’s around about the time we said it?

Chris: 17:11

I think yeah.

Nish: 17:13

As we said in the last episode, you had your 19th hole stance on at that point.

Chris: 17:17

Yeah, it’s like get me to the bar.

Jim: 17:19

We have a drive to get back, almost run out of fuel in the middle of Wales. Get me to the bar.

Chris: 17:24

I think that’s you know. I think two days of Lynx Golf is mentally and physically it’s challenging, isn’t it? Like you’re always kind of got to be switched on, you’ve got to be thinking, and it’s not. It’s not a place you know. If you’re hitting bad shots, it soon gets to you, doesn’t it?

Nish: 17:39

It’s going to be tough that when we do our little Aberdeen adventure yes, that’s three, that’s in Scotland in August. It’s, that’s three, that’s in scotland in august. So it’s going to be lashing down and cold and wet. So, yeah, if we’re looking, yeah, okay, so that was this. That was that’s the signature hole challenge. But we had a side bet, didn’t? We did. I think we had a side bet to that didn’t mean that was closest to the green, we did. You have to be on the green to be closest to the green. That was the earth, was the hole? Sorry, you have to be on the green, don’t you yeah?

Chris: 18:09

yeah, so you officially I wouldn’t. Yeah. Yeah, I think you were probably a bit closer, but you weren’t on the green.

Nish: 18:15

I was pretty close my shot that I played actually because that you, you, obviously you filmed it, because we’re filming those, those shots, we’re gonna, we’re gonna try and uh, clip that up, yeah, if it makes any kind of decent. It probably doesn’t make any kind of decent viewing, but people might want to see it. I don’t know, the internet is full of wonderful things that people like. But, um, uh, the shot that I played, the execution wasn’t right and it was about half a yard short of where it needed to land. But as I’d hit it, I was like I know I’ve not had this enough, but if I’d hit that right, that was like one of know I’ve not hit this enough, but if I’d have hit that right, that was like one of those ones where I’d have gone. That was like the perfect shot to play in that instance, like I’d planned it just right. I’d say that by any shot really couldn’t you yeah, yeah shut up, Jim.

Nish: 19:05

You’re not part of this now. In my head, that’s the perfect.

Chris: 19:09

Yeah, yeah, that’s stupid, isn’t it?

Nish: 19:10

okay, so that’s so, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve done our side bet and we’ve done our signature hole but you did stop the rot, though, nish, so you didn’t lose that hole didn’t lose that hole. We halved it in four, so we are still four up four up after five rounds.

Chris: 19:24

Yeah, the comebacks on it could start now.

Nish: 19:26

This is it. Just, you know, you just need a run, of run of form and then form. Now do we talking about the holes anyway, and the the cause? I think we’ll we’ll maybe blend this in with a scorecard, because I think it’ll help us probably remember the the course of it yeah, I’ve got three parts in a row.

Jim: 19:44

That’s all you need to know about my right mate.

Chris: 19:47

I mean, where was, where were those three holes?

Nish: 19:49

That is 7, 8, 9. 7, 8, 9. 7, 8, 9.

Jim: 19:52

And actually, so the ninth was the par three, where Okay, yeah, yeah. And then you got.

Chris: 19:57

Was that the really long par four into the wind? Par five was Par five. Sixth was the one. Was that the really? It was? I had driver five and I was still short like two really good shots yeah, the six was the one where you went.

Nish: 20:11

You went left and he said, oh, that’s on the 10th fairway and we couldn’t find it. But then we did find it on the 10th because, you know, when you found that ball on the 10th behind that bunker and you were like this is a tight list, this yours or no? No, mine’s probably one and you were like, oh well, take it anyway, it was Jim’s ball from the previous hole, that’s it.

Nish: 20:31

So it was there the whole time but I was like, but where it was landed it was behind a bunker. Like how it’s ended up there? I’ve got no idea. I’m a special type of player. That’s never a truer word. Expect the unexpected, Expect the unexpected. Yeah. So, as we established a very hard opening hole, reflected in 6-7-6 for us we were a bit like oh, even though.

Jim: 20:59

What did Gareth get, though?

Nish: 21:00

He just picked up. He just picked up, didn’t he? 20, isn’t it 10.?

Jim: 21:05

So we were meant to be engaging in a little bit of a match. Play me and Gareth versus you.

Chris: 21:09

That didn’t last after the first hole, we were three or four up after. Yeah, we were probably four up after four and I think we probably gave up after that, didn’t we? No, we were three up after four.

Nish: 21:18

I tied the first, just saying yes, you tied the first, that’s right, and then went on a run.

Jim: 21:25

You, did you did.

Nish: 21:26

You won the second, didn’t you, because you got a par then. Yeah, then I went on a run. It was just becoming a massacre, mate, I thought. We thought let’s just not keep count anymore.

Jim: 21:36

I can’t believe he saddled me with him.

Nish: 21:41

Sorry.

Jim: 21:41

Gareth, I’m only joking, you know I’m only joking. Can you imagine? Can you imagine he’s like oh, don’t put me with.

Nish: 21:46

Gareth again. I mean what a top guy.

Chris: 21:51

He was a lovely, lovely guy, wasn’t he?

Nish: 21:53

He was really great about you, wasn’t he? He’s a physically imposing chap, isn’t he? Because when I first heard him, I was like, oh, you are a big guy.

Nish: 21:59

But, what a lovely, softly spoken, really nice manner about him. If we meet other members and play with him and they like him, I, if we meet other members and play with them and they like him, I think we’re in for a treat, aren’t we? Yeah, absolutely For sure. So we’ve got, I think, yeah, the first three or four and you kind of they were all. They all seemed like we were teeing off all on the left-hand side, right by the sea, weren’t we?

Chris: 22:21

Yeah, quite high up, you kind of in the dunes at that point. Yeah, now you’re still right in the midst of it.

Nish: 22:25

There were some tough tee shots. There weren’t there. Visually they felt like they were all funneling into one point.

Chris: 22:31

Yeah, again, that was the benefit of having Gareth there. Certainly, for those openings at a four or five, you need someone to tell you where you’re aiming at, because there’s not really a lot to go off visually. Yeah, there was one.

Nish: 22:41

I think where he was going, oh, bailout area’s like no, it opens up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was really helpful having him there, wasn’t it?

Chris: 22:53

Yeah, but I said to you, didn’t I Nish? In the morning I kind of got the card up and got the yardages up and I said to Nish I was like, oh, maybe I should hit my driver.

Nish: 23:14

But I, I did say that to him. Actually I said as we got to the end of the round I was like there weren’t many holes where you would think he not to take the drive I think tactically pretty much yeah, every path. I did one stupidly on one or hit a five iron, it still left me like 260 yards approach.

Chris: 23:30

I was like well, I’ve done that I should just hit my driver like get it a bit further down like normally on that sort of course I would probably get my five or dot quite a lot, and play play fairly safe, but actually you just needed the drivers to get low in the wind, and just we played off some of them winter teas yeah, a bit forward.

Nish: 23:43

So, yeah, yeah, I think when the wind kicks up on there, it’ll be.

Chris: 23:48

That’s a, that’s a test I mean, there’s some really, really, really long par fours on that long par four.

Nish: 23:52

There’s two really long par fours so we, we sort of hit that, and then then we then we hit uh, uh, was that, was it the fifth? Then that was the par three that had the cross the par three. That kind of comes across, yeah, yeah yeah, I think that that was the only hole that seemed to have the crosswind, didn’t it? Because, again, that was obviously up and down, but that, of course, turns 90 degrees, doesn’t it? So the kind of wind changes direction yeah it’s kind of out and back.

Chris: 24:13

So you get to 10, is it? And then you turn around at 11?.

Nish: 24:16

Yes.

Jim: 24:17

I think, so Turn around at 12.

Nish: 24:21

No 12’s the signature. You don’t turn there, do you? You turn just one, no 10. You turn at 10, 10, then you go back at 11.

Chris: 24:33

You played that part, that path region where you absolutely nailed your tee shot, remember? Yeah, because I’d, I’d turned up. I did a beautiful six iron in there, like a really nice six iron. I thought yeah, nailed that. And then jim rocked up and hit the exact same shot.

Nish: 24:42

I was like hell, jim making me look bad, it wasn’t that special, I was quite proud of that but I think a bit like I think the early par threes were kind of just they felt like they were a bit of respite from the rest of the course because there wasn’t a huge amount of challenge. It was just there was distance involved in it and then you were either up against the window or it was going across, yeah, but it wasn’t like visually anything challenging. And then suddenly you hit 12 signature holes and you’re like okay.

Chris: 25:11

Yeah, it kind of switches back on, doesn’t it? Those first three or four holes are really kind of mentally and visually challenging, and then it flattens out a little bit. You think, oh, this is okay. And then it kind of kicks off again when you go at 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and it kind of lays back in another really good set of holes coming back in you’ve got to drive the ball.

Nish: 25:27

Well, in that course, I think, haven’t you?

Chris: 25:29

yeah, not, not really long, but you’ve got to. You’ve got to get a reasonable yardage out of it and get it on the fairway, haven’t you carry?

Nish: 25:34

that, uh, carry that bunker around with you that you get a kick off, okay, every time I hit a long drive, oh, you also? Got a kick off the back of that bunker all right, yeah, fine mate. Yeah, I’m down here, mate. Anyway, I’m playing from down here.

Chris: 25:47

So yeah, so just kind of it definitely does.

Nish: 25:54

You got the flow of it right. It starts off hard, eases off a little bit I’m talking a little bit marginally. Yeah, I mean, there’s still some long holes in there, yeah, yeah, and then it’s a fabulous finish. Yeah, it’s a lovely finish, isn’t it? Of course, I think there’s a par five.

Chris: 26:08

Is it a 15th, 15th par five?

Nish: 26:11

that’s yeah great.

Chris: 26:12

That green complex, oh fantastic. It’s like a triple layer green, really long, kind of thin, thin green with that lovely bunker in around it.

Nish: 26:21

That’s a really nice it’s great looking at, looking back at this actually, because you do start remembering the the course a little bit more when you look at the card and yeah, yeah, lovely and actually it was. It was quite receptive as well, like it wasn’t many places where like bouncing just like kept going, like you could, you could hit the green and yeah I mean, that’s the beauty of planet, that time of year, right you go.

Chris: 26:43

You go two or three months later and that’s um. There’s a whole different story not happening then so should we go to the?

Chris: 26:47

scores? We should, but we should mention the 16th as well. I don’t know if did you mention? Oh, the 16th? Yeah, the 16th was a great, great, great hole, I think my favorite hole in the course. So it’s a risk reward, par four it’s only. I mean, I hit a 3 iron to try and get to the greens. It was like 240, 230, 240 down the railway down the left hand side, big dunes down the right hand side. I bailed out a little bit right and I had a fantastic second shot. It was basically over a I don’t know what.

Nish: 27:13

I mean, you can’t see anything at any point, can you?

Chris: 27:15

so I’ve got this tiny sort of slim green down the other side of this dune and I’m playing right directly over this dune, so I had to go and put my putter at the top to try and give a lie, because there’s absolutely nothing to go off, but I mean, that’s a great proper goal. No, it’s totally cheating.

Jim: 27:29

Oh is it.

Chris: 27:31

It was only a casual goal, was it, was it? Oh shit.

Nish: 27:35

Is it ever?

Jim: 27:36

Does that mean my null and void score? No, does that?

Chris: 27:37

mean my null and void score. No, no, this has happened. But yeah, like in normal golf, you don’t get to play a shot like that where you’re literally just playing over a dune, so you’re going from the bottom like directly over it and the green’s kind of at the bottom of the other side of the dune.

Nish: 27:50

That was a cracking hole of golf, wasn’t it that?

Nish: 27:52

I remember getting on the tee and looking at my piece of a par four great and it was like there’s a flag just there. It was only like 250 yards from where we stood. It’s like there’s a flag just there. I said to gary. I was like, is that, is that the hole there? I’m not. That’s not another one. He was like no, no, that that’s the one, was it? Yeah, yeah, it was one, that was really. Really it wasn’t. There was one to the right. That wasn’t the one, that was a different one, but it was the estuary. I was like, oh, okay, in my head.

Nish: 28:20

I was like that’s not for me, but I was like that’s drivable. I’m like well, why have they given you a drivable green on the S3? He’s like no, no, the normal T is 50 yards further back. I was like, okay, right, fine, no problem. But yeah, that was a stunning. I mean, we had a bit of a chat before we came on and we’re probably putting 12 and 16 forward for dream 18?

Chris: 28:42

I think so, and I said to you I’d be very surprised if one of those holes still isn’t in the top yeah, top 18 by the time we finish it, because they were two really you take a bet on that which one would you think would stick around for me? I think probably 16. I really enjoyed that hole. I think I liked it a lot.

Nish: 28:58

I played it terribly but, uh, I think 16 is probably the one isn played it terribly, but I think 16’s probably the one, isn’t it?

Chris: 29:04

I think so. Yeah, but don’t get me. I mean, 12 is a brilliant golf. I think we should put both of them forward to the dream 18 and what other courses have had two. I think the earlier ones. We picked a couple of Sillith that was it.

Nish: 29:17

Yeah, I think, just because it’s sylvan, just to get on, just to be salty to chris, um, okay, so we’ve done that dream 18. We should probably. We’ll go to our scores, maybe in a second, but I think before that we’ve mentioned him quite a lot, the chat that we played with gareth. So before we all came on to record this, we had a little bit. I had a little bit of a chat with him. Um, so this is what gareth had to say thanks for joining us in our review episode. So you had the misfortune of playing around with us just this weekend. Gone, my pleasure. Oh, thank you. That’s very nice of you to say so, uh, now, uh, we’re gonna jump straight into the real nitty-gritty here. Gareth, what did? What? Did you think of our golf?

Gareth: 30:08

oh, it was good it was. We had some fun, didn’t we? Um, we had the weather. The weather was good, yeah, and we had a bit of a laugh around the links and it was all good fun we had a great, great day.

Nish: 30:20

We’ve our sort of dream in all of this is to play with people from the course or members or whatever, because the experience is enhanced so much and we had we’d played another local course the the day before. But you know, as soon as you’ve got somebody who’s guiding you around, mostly telling us, once we’ve hit it in the rough, that it’s going to be all right over there.

Gareth: 30:44

I think that’s sometimes you just need to first toll, it’ll be okay over there. Don’t worry, it’s fine, it’s not there yeah, that’s it, um, that’s.

Nish: 30:52

It’s incredibly comforting.

Gareth: 30:54

So you’re just explain to us who you are, gareth, and why you’re actually playing with us uh, so I’m the chair of membership avid of the golf club. Uh, I do all the marketing, the social media and basically the output and the image of the golf club. Uh, and I get the pleasure of playing with people like yourself. It’s always good fun to meet new people. Um, I think that’s what makes the game so unique and so brilliant, as you can play with people you’ve never met in your entire life and by the end of it, you’re just chatting like you’re friends with your friends of life.

Nish: 31:25

It was great, wasn’t it? We were talking about, like turning 30 and, you know, getting into nerding out on sleep, Marks and Spencers.

Gareth: 31:31

Marks and Spencers was more attractable when you turned 30.

Nish: 31:35

That’s it. So all of a sudden, it’s like I would never notice these clothes before. Yeah, honestly, we had such a good time and it was uh, we obviously we appreciated your time, especially because you’d had you had come up from cardiff and then you were going straight back to cardiff, which is a about a three hour journey back, so we were sort of um having our chippy tea, uh, before we set off home and first thing everyone was saying was what a nice chap gareth was. That was, that was very nice and it what. How? How do you feel? How do you feel as opposed to normally? How do you feel you played?

Gareth: 32:11

I played I mean I I was on my fourth day of four playing golf. Uh, I had back. I went back to abu dhabi and I played on thursday, friday, saturday and Sunday. It was good fun. My put in was absolutely atrocious.

Nish: 32:25

You weren’t having the best day in the Greens no.

Gareth: 32:27

I was not having my best day in the Greens. The golf gods were certainly against me that day. It was good fun.

Nish: 32:34

I got the feeling we dragged you down a little bit. No, I dragged myself down. There was nobody really giving you any healthy competition to to sharpen up your game, I think so, uh, yeah, um. So we are sorry about that gareth, it’s probably not one you’re proud of. Uh, you’re gonna put up on the mantelpiece anywhere? I don’t think. Um, so obviously you know that’s your. Your role is, uh, kind of marketing the club as such. Now we spoke about this in the preview episode. Uh, between us, that abu dhavi is not dhavi, is not really a course, that’s kind of entered our consciousness really until we started looking at the list and plotting things. Um, so it’s probably not somewhere that most people listening will have ever really heard of. You know, it’s not really kind of popped up anywhere. What tell us a little bit about the, the sort of history of the club? You know you really sort of regaled us with some really amazing stuff about it, so that’d be great to hear from you so abu dhabi has quite a unique history actually.

Gareth: 33:41

So it’s got the closest railway station to a golf course in the UK, so if you step off the platform you’re pretty much straight onto the first team or less.

Gareth: 33:51

So the actual railway has a massive, pivotal role in the club’s history. So there was a guy called Arthur Colonel Ruck and he was a colonel in the British Army and he once he was going on the train from Machynlleth because he had a family in Machynlleth and he was heading towards Towen and there was back then it was just a common ground and he basically saw the opportunity to build a golf course so he planted nine flower pots along this common ground and I think I mentioned it was by the 16th tee.

Gareth: 34:25

so the way they believe is where the first ever golf ball was hit in abu dhabi, and he headed down towards turn, planting nine flower pots at intervals, down actually down the railway. And then, 10 years later, abu dhabi was actually founded and then we’ve been playing golf there ever since. So it’s quite a unique story of a guy just wanting to get into the game, wanting to grow his fondness and love for the game by planting flower plots in the ground.

Nish: 34:53

It’s amazing, isn’t it?

Gareth: 34:54

Yeah, it’s quite a unique story really, and he was actually the family of Bernard Darwin, who’s quite a famous golf writer of his time and actually quite a capable amateur golfer as well. I think he played in the Walker Cup as well. He was quite a player in the British amateur and he’s obviously used the link to Charles Darwin as well.

Nish: 35:16

His name has actually come up in one of our, or is going to come up, I should say, in one of our, or is going to come up, I should say in one of our future episodes, because he wrote quite glowingly about Royal Liverpool Hoylake. So I think our paths are going to cross a little bit as we’re kind of doing this journey through the top 100, because he must have played, you know, a lot of those courses uh, particularly at sort of at that point where they were in there, sort of the rawest element, and now they’ve all been sort of changed a little bit and and and refined.

Gareth: 35:49

But yeah, I think we’re gonna, we’re gonna hear that name quite a lot now yeah, well, he’s also the first captain as well, so you’ll see his name in the actual clubhouse as well and it’s quite. You just see in the history of the golf course and in the clubhouse it just comes, brings it all to life. Just actually seeing his name, because it was so long ago, it’s incredible really.

Nish: 36:10

Yeah, it was really now. Forgive me, I can’t remember the chap’s name, but you’re pro at Aberdovey.

Gareth: 36:18

Rob Greer.

Nish: 36:19

Yeah, rob. So he was, uh, he again. He was speaking in really glowing terms about, um, the history of the, the club when we we sort of checked in and it was a lovely welcome actually, he was so helpful. We were like we, can we have a practice? He was like take a tube of balls, you just go out to the practice range and you can have a little hit over there. So we got a really, really friendly. Well, I mean, I’d say, uh, you can’t be over friendly, there’s no such thing. But it was like so friendly it was just an absolute pleasure to to kind of experience. So so thank you for the welcome that we got. It was great, gareth, honestly, uh, and you know, even like suzy who I’d been talking to, um, and she came up in the preview, she came and introduced us very formally, so it was all. Just, it was a bit otherworldly, I’ve got to say, gareth, it was great.

Gareth: 37:08

Yeah, we had a fantastic time we do pride ourselves on actually welcoming people, so they are actually like a member for the day and it’s something we take quite seriously as well. We want people to feel at home at Abu Dhabi yeah, there’s a lot.

Nish: 37:22

I think there’s a lot of places say stuff like that, don’t they? It sounds great, doesn’t it? But I think you guys definitely live and breathe that, that kind of ethos, really. So, yeah, it was amazing. Now there’s been some recent changes to the I think it’s just this week to the, the top 100 in in Wales. So what’s what’s what’s going on?

Gareth: 37:43

so it’s quite a quite a shift really in welsh golf. Uh, so penhard has gone up to second best golf course in wales, with ross and davis dropping down to three. Uh, we’ve remained at four, um, but I mean there’s so many different quality of golf in wales. You’ve got at golf in Wales, you’ve got Royal Porthcawl as well, which is the person I think is the best golf course in Wales by considerable distance. But all the qualities we’ve got across Wales as well, it just shows actually how strong Welsh golf is as well. And you’ve got Conaway at five as well, and it’s quite. Welsh golf is really quite, it’s growing. I mean it’s not as well known, it’s quite. Welsh golf is really quite, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s growing. I mean it’s not as well known as your england, england, scotland and ireland.

Nish: 38:28

Uh, but the the caliber of golf courses we’ve got in wales as well, it’s, it’s, it’s quite high yeah, I mean we look at sort of our list so we’re the official top 100 list that we’ve got uh, and there are four courses in in wales which, I have to admit, I was a bit surprised by because we we holiday in wales all the time and it’s a stunning place to go. The drive that we did between, or the approach into abu dhabi was was just incredible and you’d sort of think that that’s set up for stunning golf courses and it sort of felt like it was almost a bit of a oh, we’ll just ignore those. I mean, I know, for instance, I know Conway. I’ve been invited up to play at Conway and that’s supposed to be an absolutely fantastic course and Anglesey’s a stunning coastline. Do you feel there are any others that potentially push into that list?

Gareth: 39:23

quite a bit. I personally haven’t played Corny, but I’ve heard really good things about it. I’m also a member of Radder as well in Cardiff, which is this time of the year it’s clay-based, so when spring comes and the summer comes in, it comes back to life. It’s a really good golf course. As low as Cardigan down in um south mid wales has got absolutely superb um views. Uh, there’s temby. Temby is an unbelievable golf course. Uh, you’re right next to the beach. I think it’s like the the eighth hole. Uh, you’re pretty much more or less hitting off the beach and then you’ve got, uh, pan and kenfig. In the south as well, there’s so many golf courses that kind of off the radar, uh, but are quite when you find they are hidden gems. Really in british golf.

Nish: 40:12

We we sort of taken aback really by the, the value that that we got as well, because it’s, you know, people like us, you know we’re, we’re there to play the golf, of course, and the golf course was, was amazing. Uh, we, we had a, an absolute ball playing there. There was so much character to to the holes and particularly as you’re reaching towards the the end of the round. You know we obviously did the the 12th, so we did our. We tried anyway to get nearest to the. Chris managed to nail that one, didn’t he? But I think nobody else got anywhere near it there’s a bit of drama in the 12th, wasn’t it it?

Nish: 40:49

was quite good to watch it was quite good, I enjoyed it give us your take on it.

Gareth: 40:56

I mean I I left it short, just kind of. Uh, yeah, I left mine short and then yourself and yeah, I left mine short. And then yourself and Chris both stuck it just off the green, didn’t you? And then you both left your putt short. I think my putter actually must have rubbed off on you, really. And then it was a bit of a who’s going to sink this. Now putt off really, and just to watch. It was really quite good fun.

Nish: 41:21

A par three halved in four. A par three halved hole.

Gareth: 41:24

I mean the 12th hole as well. I think it’s 120 yards An uphill par three. I mean they’re quite unique really to get uphill par threes but it’s not to be sniffed at really. I call that the actual amen corner of Abu Dhabi. I mean 11, 12, 13 Abu Dhabi. I’ve had so many absolute catastrophes on that part of the golf course.

Nish: 41:46

Is it the 13th? That’s the drivable par 4? Or is that the 16th?

Gareth: 41:51

That’s the 16th, so we played off the winter tees. But when the summer comes back again, we’ll be playing off that, back on those tees, and it’s perfect for me because I hit a fade, so you’ve started off on the railway. I mean, it can get quite sketchy sometimes if a train comes around the corner and you’re halfway through a swing, but that’s my personal favourite hole.

Nish: 42:14

I don’t think it’s quite a unique hole really. The track is just there.

Gareth: 42:19

The track is right next to the.

Nish: 42:21

There’s no distance, it’s just it is there. Yeah, we were quite lucky we didn’t. We weren’t anywhere near the trains at the time, so that was good. I think we would have threatened them otherwise. Right now, gareth, before we we leave you, we do have to ask you about one thing. So we were walking down. I think my memory, if my memory serves me correctly we would have been walking down maybe the fourth or the fifth I think it was the fourth hole yeah, fourth hole and uh, you pointed out, uh, a town.

Nish: 42:49

I was like, is it? I’m presuming it’s a town, but it’s two in. That was a bit so towing yeah, a bit further down the coast and uh, tell me what you told me on that Not actually golf related, but it’s quite a unique story actually.

Gareth: 43:06

So the Tallaslin Railway which is just located you can see it from majority of the golf course really is actually the founding place of Thomas the Tank Engine. So, reverend Audrey I think his name was, he actually came up with the idea of Thomas the Tank, based on the Towson Railway.

Nish: 43:26

Amazing. That isn’t it. My childhood that was as well. Yeah, well, that’s it, the amount of Thomas the Tank engine books we got in our house. I told my son that and he was like what, that’s where it’s from. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like, oh, let’s go and see Tom’s. Like no, I don’t know, I think that’s the thing. But anyway, you know, yeah, maybe you need to tone it down a bit, turn down your expectations a bit. But I was like what? Yeah, I mean yeah, otherwise. So, um, forget all the golf stuff. Actually that was my favorite.

Nish: 44:04

That was the favorite fact of the day. Fact of the day and favorite, I think you. You were very like because because I think it was early in the round as well you’re like really apologetic when you’re telling me you’re like it’s not really strictly golf related this, but actually that’s probably better. Let’s take our minds off the golf for a minute. Well, gareth, I think all that’s left for me to say is that, honestly, we had a fantastic round with you. It was an absolute pleasure walking around. We hope you enjoyed it and we’d love to come back at some point.

Gareth: 44:30

We’ll come back any time, all of you.

Nish: 44:31

We really enjoyed it. That’s great. Very, very kind of you to say so, gareth, and we will certainly take. It was stunning. I mean, our kids even managed to have a beach day on the Saturday in Abu Dhabi and they said it was just perfect. So I think that kind of greased the wheels of being able to do this again. So maybe we’ll do backgrounds or something like that. For sure, yeah, and we’ll try and give you a bit of a better game this time. I’ll try and raise my game as well. Oh no, you don’t need to do that, don’t worry. But yeah, thank you, gareth, thanks for coming on. So that’s a few words from Gareth, and we must say again, even if we may have said it before, but huge thanks to him.

Nish: 45:17

He’s also got a business where he does drone photography, which the visuals are stunning. So he did actually say that he’d be happy for us to use the, the whole photography, for anything that we wanted to feature. So I think maybe we’ll put that on for the two holes, because a picture never does that justice. You know, the, the stuff that your eyes take, take in, just you can’t get it on a picture. So I think we’ll probably get those and that’ll be a little plug for him as well, I think. I think that’ll be quite a nice thing to do, but before we do finally go to scorecards, perhaps we should give our course rating and club rating. So what did we say? Now, I think we had a bit of disagreement actually, didn’t we?

Chris: 45:58

We did Me and you had a little bit of a disagreement on that?

Nish: 46:00

Did we say we wanted to go eight and a half?

Chris: 46:03

I think we went eight and a half for the club.

Nish: 46:05

Yeah, because we sort of said it was probably eight because of things like then there wasn’t a driving range and yeah it was like that, so not their fault. There’s no room. Where do you fit that in your pizza? That’s fair point, yeah, yeah, yeah, just get it on the beach for sake. However, they definitely deserved a bit of a bump up with the overall friendliness oh, absolutely, everybody, absolutely. Everybody was the same, him, she, everybody knew what they were doing. There’s no intimidation about that place at all.

Nish: 46:36

Not at all no, and actually you get that feeling straight away as soon as you walk in. It’s a bizarre thing to explain, but you cross those tracks. We were excited anyway, but you cross the tracks and it’s just like it just feels nice and comfortable.

Chris: 46:57

I don’t know, what do you think? Am I just talking? I think the clubhouse was great. That wasn’t it like really big, modern kind of facility?

Nish: 47:01

yes, yeah it was really good lovely terrace, if you yeah, absolutely, if you’re out there in the sun.

Chris: 47:04

What did we?

Nish: 47:04

say for the actual course. Oh, it was no halfway hut.

Chris: 47:07

That was the other thing that we marked down for yeah, I mean it was both the Welsh ones the same for St David’s as well, wasn’t it?

Nish: 47:12

maybe it’s because it’s just so bleak and out there, I suppose you know you just kind of. Of course, sapp would get put out on the 9th, as far away from the clubhouse as possible. Maybe we should go to the actual official scorecards. So back to back. Rounds of golf, which was pretty good. I loved that and it felt like a proper nice weekend away. Kids loved it, all that kind of stuff. So, jim, we’ll start with you. St David’s you shot 115, which we said was a very creditable score.

Jim: 47:45

You Condescending bastard. No, no, I’m joking. I’m joking, I think it was.

Nish: 47:50

That was a tough intro. First time at a Lynx course.

Jim: 47:52

That was only the second time. I’ve used the new bats as well and, like I said, I think I said because I shot 113 around Sillith.

Chris: 47:58

Yeah, of course you knew, Of course I knew, and I think it was much less challenging conditions.

Nish: 48:05

I think 115 around there is actually very respectable. We got 106 at Aberdove. Abu dhavi I thought abu dhavi played harder than saint david’s. I think there were a lot of visually very challenging holes and there was more wind up, which there wasn’t as much at saint david’s yeah, I think going out in 47.

Jim: 48:21

I’ve got a bit overexcited, um, and I think that when it came crashing down in the progression.

Nish: 48:27

Yeah, that was phenomenal. That’s a good round of golf. That was phenomenal. That was a good round of golf.

Jim: 48:31

That was good for a night, isn’t?

Nish: 48:32

it.

Jim: 48:34

I’m starting to grow into the clubs now, so I just need to do a bit of practice and keep it up, get more consistent, absolutely. I didn’t have any disastrous holes, absolutely disastrous holes in this one. I had three which I messed up quite badly, but not.

Nish: 48:51

But even then you’re only scoring 7s and 8s. Yeah, my disasters are getting up to 10.

Jim: 48:56

If I’ve had a bad hole it’s getting up to 9, 10.

Nish: 48:59

And then that’s your card record, isn’t it straight away, Right? So I thought that was really good, Chris. You got an 85 to back up your 83 at St David’s, yeah. So how do you feel about your 85?

Chris: 49:10

I was a bit disappointed in my 85, if I’m honest. Like I say, I just just a little bit of that. Yeah, a few of those poor shots, just cropped back in Nine pars in there, especially at the tee. Yeah, I think when it was, for the most part it was good, but just some sloppy shots cost I mean, yeah, probably the first hole didn’t help, did it? First hole wasn’t a great start.

Nish: 49:31

Yeah, I shot an 83. 83. Which for me was phenomenal. Very happy with that.

Chris: 49:38

You were. So you were just consistent. Solid, wasn’t it? Solid all day, you were.

Nish: 49:41

Striking it really really well. I mean, he kept saying, didn’t he, gary? He was like strike, strike was the par threes.

Chris: 49:53

I was much better on the par threes this time and I got birdie got to do the dance that was good, awful dance. You need to work in that way, or just make less birdies, it’s better for us all around.

Nish: 50:02

So six pars and a birdie nine. So I went back and listened to the new year’s episode, the awards one, and just listened to what our targets were for the year. So one of my targets was to place my handicap, which I did the day before. One of them was to break 90, which I nearly did at St Davies and I definitely did here, and then the other one is to get 9 pars in a round. So I feel like I’m trending towards that.

Chris: 50:32

You need to set some better goals, nish, they were too easy you’ve done them in the first two rounds of the year. It’s a bit bonkers really, what were my goals? Can you remember?

Nish: 50:40

uh oh no, you wanted to score something in the 70s, I think that was your one. You said I want to shoot something in the 70s which I don’t think you’re too far off no, it feels like I’m I’m heading that way, I think. I wouldn’t have said those two scores that I’ve got a 90 and an 83, were possible around Christmas time because I was so down about my golf in general. So I’m happy with that.

Jim: 51:03

That was a pleasure to play with you, sir. Thanks very much for the invitation. It was great.

Chris: 51:07

It was a great weekend. What a doubleheader that was.

Nish: 51:14

It was fantastic Overall now, which we’ve now put it on the website. Now it’s closed, I decided to put it on the website. Overall, after five rounds, you are plus 115 and I’m plus 116.

Chris: 51:23

Plus 115 after five rounds.

Nish: 51:25

Five rounds, yeah, so that’s about 20 over each round Silith nailed you really. But yeah, I think we’ve done Aberdevey Golf Club justice there. I think it deserves all the plaudits it gets.

Chris: 51:41

It deserves a lot of plaudits. We really enjoyed it and it was £80 for a round of golf there. Throw away money on this Everyone’s a winner.

Nish: 51:49

Yeah, go and do that. So new outro. You know we don’t want. Please like, please subscribe and please share this episode, because it would mean the world to us, because we are getting some really good reviews for the podcast, so it’s always nice to hear that kind of feedback. Until next time on the top 100 in 10 golf podcast.