Castletown Golf Links Review Is the Isle of Man Worth the Ferry Trip?

Nish 0:01

Every good story is about the journey, and this is the story of our journey trying to play the top 100 courses in the UK and Ireland in just 10 years. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast. Episode 76, the Castletown Golf Links Review. So we sat on a ferry. We’re on a boat on our way back from an unreal round and of and welcome at Castletown Golf Links in the Isle of Man, where the general manager Andi played with us and he was the most fantastic tour guide. So this is the story of how our day unfolded. But prior to all of that, please can I ask you watching to not get seasick as the boats move in. Uh, but while you’re trying to hold all of that in, just drop us a like or subscribe because we got an unbelievable welcome today at Castle Rock at Castle Castle Rock, at Castle town. Uh, and that is thanks to the numbers that we can prove to a golf club that we have. So please do so, please share it. Uh, and uh it just takes two seconds of your time, but it really does mean the world to us. So back to this episode, Chris.

Chris 1:09

Yeah, absolutely. Before that, though, I think I need to put a formal complaint into my I’m gonna call you my employer niche. Right. Um I can’t work in these conditions. Like I’ve got to sit on a wibbly wobbly ferry with a pint of cider. Drinking cider. Yeah, trying to trying to do a golf podcast. Tough life, isn’t it? It’s ridiculous. It is hard. Hard life.

Nish 1:26

With cheers, Chris, by the way. I mean, we’ve had the most magical day today.

Chris 1:30

Well, what trip it’s been, it’s been class, hasn’t it? Yeah, we should talk about the trip. Really. For sure. So it started.

Nish 1:38

First of all, mainland UK? Yeah, exactly, yeah. Yeah. And we got a ferry. Uh catamaran. Fast. Ferries are mad. Right, I don’t get them, I don’t understand them. Like, I couldn’t figure out how the car situation was.

Chris 1:53

You were genuinely fucking baffled, weren’t you?

Nish 1:55

Really baffled.

Chris 1:56

I was like, what is going on here? How how how is everyone gonna get out of this? I mean to be fair, it was a bizarre ferry settle. Like normally you drive on, drive on one way, it opens up the other end, and you drive straight off the other way. But that’s my my only experience of ferries. But this one was like a little fucking go-kart track in the room. Yeah,

Why Castletown Is A True Trip

Chris 2:13

up on the ramps and round bends and it was the most odd experience.

Nish 2:18

But the reason we’re doing this on the ferry and and braving seasickness and talking about the ferry is because like the journey over to Castletown, yeah, yeah. The Isle of Man, that’s part of the story of it, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah. You know, we we the story of how this ended up, it’s it it it ended up on our rankings list last year. Yeah. A bit out of nowhere, and we were like, oh, actually it’s nearby, let’s let’s do it.

Chris 2:44

But I think like it’s it’s a bit of an outlier. There’s not many courses where you can’t make a little trip of it. So you can’t go and do two or three that are in a sort of similar area. Like this is literally an outlier. There are a few other courses on the Isle of Man, but none others that are kind of even close to that sort of top 100 scope of of golf courses. So it is you know, you’ve got to specifically make that trip to go and play Castletown. Um Which is why we’re coming in. It’s very unique, you know. We’ve come on a ferry for a one-day trip, it’s a short, sharp shift of of uh now of a golf weekend.

Nish 3:19

We should get to our hotel, shouldn’t we? Um I’ve called it here the Hotel of Doom. Uh it was that was an interesting.

Chris 3:28

I assume we’re not gonna name the hotel on the uh I feel we shouldn’t.

Nish 3:31

It’s unfair on them because the geezer who checked us in was lovely. He was brilliant. It was really nice, to be fair.

Chris 3:35

He was lovely, very knowledgeable about him with for a few hours there in the bar.

Nish 3:40

And obviously we’d we’d picked the Manx TT weekend to come over or at the start of to come over. So they’re expecting the island to what’s it swell three times?

Chris 3:48

I feel like we should have like um swapped the car in for the weekend and come on a couple of motorbikes. That would have improved the uh I mean it was experience for the weekend.

Nish 3:56

There was a lot of motorbikes, wasn’t there? A lot of motorbikes. But yeah, we ended so it’s been a while since I’ve been in a hotel room, Chris, where I’ve not had an ensuite bathroom and I’ve had like to go down the cloud. I know I’m just too posh. I’ve had to go down a corridor, I’ve had to go in a separate toilet and a separate shower room. Guilty as charged. Me also uh apologies to the the the unnamed hotels. Sorry, sorry, unnamed hotels after we and thankfully I wasn’t wearing any logo of clothing, so they don’t know who we are or what’s going on. But undercover top 100 in 10. Yeah, exactly. Now while we were sat there, probably eight, nine times in the space of drinking two pints, we kept checking weather apps. Chris has got a new technique with triangulating the weather by working out. You were looking at Dublin, Belfast, and Manchester and Liverpool, weren’t you? I think.

Chris 4:54

Uh yeah, I think there was one more in there. Oh, there was like there was Barrow In Furness as well. Barrow, right. So the three closest.

Nish 4:59

So you’re doing a a square and then go from there and work out what’s going to happen on the Isle of Man. Yeah. Now the forecast was for quite a lot of fog and mist.

Chris 5:09

Didn’t look great, did it? It’s like 25 degrees when we left Manchester. Um, and then yeah, it’s like 15 degrees colder, fog, mist, 20 miles an hour winds. We’re like, this can’t be right. Like it can’t be right. There can’t be such good weather back over. Like it’s not that far, yeah. It’s like what 100 miles away, absolute max. Yeah. It can’t be that different weather. And then you look at the water.

Nish 5:32

So I’m gonna say you need to tell people how you did this because your triangulation method did actually work. I mean it worked perfection-ish. We didn’t get any mist.

Chris 5:42

We didn’t. We got sunshine, we got the wind, we knew we were at the wind, and and like you can’t avoid the wind. It certainly wasn’t 20 mile-an hour winds and I think it’s a bit more. It was a nice it was a nice stiff breeze. Hello. Um yeah, no, it was perfect links conditions, wasn’t it? It was great. Like it was windy enough that it’s a an additional challenge, but it’s not so windy that you’re standing there going, fucking hell, this is a chore, it’s gonna take me four shots to get to this part. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was it. Um

Weather Triangulation And Perfect Links

Chris 6:07

it was perfect.

Nish 6:07

So we did really well with the weather, we like really got away with it. Um we mentioned that we played with Andi, he’s the uh general manager over at Castletown. Yeah, what a top guy. Yeah, I would gladly play golf with him anytime really nice.

Chris 6:25

Yeah, we’ve you know we’ve kind of met a few of these people, and they’re always great people, aren’t they? But Andi Andi felt like a special one. I really enjoyed playing with Andi today. I think he was a really, really topic. It’s a fun round with him. It was a fun round, it was good, yeah.

Nish 6:35

And he was a fantastic tour guide. We could we to we turned up on the T and he was really kind. He gave us a Stroke Saver, yeah, incorrectly named Stroke Saver, he gave us a scorecard, he gave us a divot tool, which is like in the shape of the Castle and Castle, he gave us uh what else did he give us? He gave us something else, didn’t he? There, uh oh a little bag tag uh and a ball and things like that, and it was just like yeah that was so nice. I mean he didn’t have to do any of that.

Chris 7:00

Yeah, um I feel like we we felt the love for Andi today, didn’t we? Both of us came away and we were like top, top guy. Yeah, like thoroughly, like, and what what a great guy to represent your club. Like he was so you know, I think he’s just so enthusiastic and and knowledgeable and really wants to push push the club forwards. That’s kind of you can you can see that, can’t you?

Nish 7:19

He gave us some great information, but without going like overly effusive about his own golf club. Yeah, yeah. And just it was I th I thought he was just very honest. Yeah. A lot of stuff. Yeah, absolutely. You know, there’s a lot of stuff that he probably was like, oh, I’d do this a little bit differently, or I’d do that a little bit differently, I wouldn’t have this there. And we were like, Oh, actually, it’s fine. Like, it’s we we’ve not noticed what you’ve noticed, but that’s your attention to detail as a GM. Absolutely, yeah. That’s why he’s in that role, right? Correct, yeah. We’re not looking at it from a GM’s eyes, sort of thing. But so look, uh Andi, thank you for your time. It was absolutely wonderful.

Chris 7:52

Um genuine pleasure today of running. One of the rounds that I’ve enjoyed the most for a long time playing around around the golf. Like, really, really just thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nish 8:00

I had to sweet talk him into playing with us. Like, I think he was he kept sort of saying, Oh, um, I won’t be offended if you say no. You don’t want to play, just want to do it on your own. And I was kind of going, like, is he trying to tell me like a British way of going? Yes. Oh, I won’t be offended if you say no. It was like, no, no, you’re gonna play with us, mate. You know, that kind of thing. But I’m glad I did. I’m glad you did, yeah, because it was it was great. It was it was unbelievable, unreal. So let’s talk about the our drive-up first impressions, all that kind of thing. So we stayed in Douglas, where the hotel of Doom was, where I think I sent Chris a message saying, Um, if if you don’t see me tomorrow morning, will you tell Emmer I love her? Will you tell her that I hope the boys grow up to be the boys that I think they’re gonna be, or that kind of thing? Um, because it was that kind of vibe about it, wasn’t it? A little bit, yeah. And then some arthole decided at quarter to six this morning he was gonna have a loud phone conversation. He wasn’t even on my phone floor. Yeah, it wasn’t even on my floor. My next door neighbour, but yeah, I felt like he was in the room with him. I was just like, what is going on here, mate? Do you not know? I’ve got a top 100 mission to do. Um but look, I mean the course is uh well maybe before we get to the course, it’s like first impressions as you rock up.

Chris 9:12

Uh I mean it’s interesting, isn’t it? Because you rock up and they’re currently in the middle of dismantling the hotel. Um however, you kind of take that out of the vista and like the drive down. So you basically drive down what we’ll come to later is the is the fifth hole. You’re literally just driving down the side of the hole. So you’ve got the the beach down the left hand side and you’ve got the the fifth hole down the right hand side. I mean, what an entrance that is. Unbelievable. It’s brilliant little drive in that. I really enjoyed that.

Nish 9:38

It’s like this sort of crescent moon-shaped road that you’re driving down. It’s pretty special on that, isn’t it? I mean, so I know something about that hotel. So basically, it’s

Arrival Shock And What Facilities Exist

Nish 9:47

obviously fallen into disrepair.

Chris 9:48

Yeah.

Nish 9:48

I mean, it is, it’s all over the logo and stuff like that. Like it is quite an iconic looking building, right? Um Andi’s gonna share with me some pictures of what it used to look like in like the 1920s and stuff in its heyday. Right, yeah, I can imagine it’s yeah, a point of the iconic. There were loads of times when we were playing, and particularly when you’re coming up that last stretch, 16, 17, 18, and it’s in the background, and it was just like it uh well, you know, we’ll throw these pictures up and the videos up, and I was like, that it’s a shame that that’s now gonna go because the hotel is being demolished, it’s fallen into disrepair, yeah, it’s had loads of like you know, crime problems, rat infestation, that kind of thing, that’s all over the news, and there’s been an emergency order to demolish it now. Yeah, so somebody something else is gonna get built in its stead, which is a challenge in itself because it’s an area of special interest, yeah.

Chris 10:37

And it’s you know, I mean we heard so many birds, didn’t we, while we were playing? I mean, that that chorus of birds is definitely the best, definitely the best chorus of birds we’ve heard so far. Like it was yeah, it was just awesome. There’s just like everywhere you were, there was at least like ten different birds just kind of chirping away. It was like a beautiful little It was just incredible, wasn’t it? Like an incredible place to play. I mean Yeah, you can tell it’s a an area of special interest. Like it’s so so beautiful, isn’t it?

Nish 11:01

So it’s surrounded on three sides by sea, isn’t it? Yeah. Um now so okay, so you can imagine the drive up to it is spectacular. And then you get to kind of like the clubhouse, facilities, that kind of thing. So it’s you know, we’re going at it at this now from the viewpoint of somebody’s gonna make a special trip over because you have to. Yeah. Like a special trip over you’re flying or you’re getting a ferry, whatever. And then you know, this is all about it’s gotta be it’s gotta be what your expectations are gonna be when you turn up. Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. Now we knew, because we’d spoken to Andi before and whatever, we knew what was awaiting us, but yeah, yeah, there ain’t a lot. There ain’t a lot of the what you’d call the fineries around the top 100, definitely.

Chris 11:46

You don’t you don’t get that deal there, but I mean, it’s not really about that. For me, that that that round of golf wasn’t in any way um you know offset by the but, you know, if you’re if you’re rocking up thinking there’s gonna be a nice plush clubhouse, whatever, you’re not gonna get that.

Nish 12:08

No, like there was there was a couple of hitting nets, which was which are great. Short game area was decent, actually. I quite like the look of that, and that’s at the the back of the room.

Chris 12:16

There is a range which Andi kind of showed us later, but it’s like I said it’s about an eight-minute walk from the clubhouse down to like a there is like a 300 yard range down there, but yeah, we didn’t we didn’t use as facilities, did we?

Nish 12:26

And I think you know, it seems like changing facilities and stuff like that, you know, it’s it’s pretty basic. It’s pretty limited, yeah. Um you then come into the we didn’t go early on because we actually by the time we turned up it was like we needed to get out and start playing. But at the on the top floor is where they’ve got the kind of the the lounge, I suppose you’d call it. Sort of almost calf vibes. Yeah.

Chris 12:50

Salt and swing cafe, yeah.

Nish 12:51

I don’t know if it’s like a pun on something. I don’t know, yeah. I didn’t get it. No but it it was nice, it was there was a lovely atmosphere in there. There were actually quite a lot of people in there. Quite busy in there, wasn’t it? We had some lunch in there afterwards, yeah. Um and the food was great, all that kind of stuff. But again, you know, if you’re expecting the fineries and the trappings of a top 100 course, like that’s not there. No, no, it’s not. But you know, what we would say is that this is this trip and this the place that you’re gonna visit is all about the golf.

Chris 13:20

Like it’s it’s a genuinely special place, isn’t it? It is. And I know like kind of Andi’s obviously there day in, day out, and uh but I think for us going in there as kind of first timers and not not really having like mega expectations of what we were what we were gonna kind of encounter. And I kind of you know, we’d read bits about it being kind of sea lined on on three sides and the other but like like pound for pound, like I just feel like you pretty much always got a Sea view wherever you are, and it’s not even just like a a little bit of a Sea View, you’re like it’s just there right in front of you the whole time. Yeah, um which

Sea Views And Rugged Coastal Drama

Chris 13:55

is massive. Which is for me, yeah. That was that was genuinely special for me going around.

Nish 13:59

Like human beings and sea, like it’s just it’s a thing, isn’t it? You know, um what what what what I found fascinating was, and we probably it was probably lost a little bit in our early arrival and whatever, but like you know, obviously you haven’t got these the the like I said, the trappings of a top 100 club, the classic stuff that you get, but yeah, you know, you head up and you as you start walking towards the first two, you go through the practice area, you see the 18th green, yeah, and immediately that tells you what’s in store. Yeah. So you’re like, it’s rugged. Yeah. Now I know rugged can be used as a bit of a cuss sometimes, can’t it? It’s like it’s a bit rough round the edges, whatever. Now this is like uh it’s it’s just it’s like it’s on cliff edges and it’s kind of like it’s it’s handsome, rugged, isn’t it? It’s basically the the course is like it’s not, but like it it feels like it’s falling into the sea basically, isn’t it? It’s like you’re there and it’s the sea. Yeah. And it’s kind of like you do these bits right by the beach on one side of the peninsula, then you go the other side where it’s the cliff tops, yeah. And they’re really dramatic. Yeah. And you’ve got you’ve got that pretty much the whole time.

Chris 14:59

Yeah, like I fucking incredibly love a coastal walk. And like I’d quite happily just walk around there without playing golf for a few hours and I’d have a great day.

Nish 15:07

Yeah, you said that.

Chris 15:08

Um afterwards, I could have gone for a couple of hours. Got my boots on and gone for a bit of a hike down there, yeah, down the shoreline. I could have got quite happily gone and done that.

Nish 15:16

And you can see why it’s the I mean it’s said to be the eighth most spectacular course in in the UK and Ireland.

Chris 15:22

And it’s like I’d I’d be interested to know what the seven above it are. But the other seven. Well Because for me, that I think that’s the most spectacular setting for a golf course we’ve been. That we we’ve played. I’d say by a quite a margin.

Nish 15:34

Yeah, we’ve we’ve not played anything as dramatic as that. We haven’t, no. You know, and it it’s got it’s said to have comparisons with Turnberry, and I can totally see that. Yeah, yeah. There’s a bit actually where I thought actually the course was gonna get up towards it, but I can’t remember which stretch it was. Maybe it was that 11-12 sort of stretch where you’re heading out and it looked like there was a white lighthouse in the distance. And I was like, oh, is the course gonna go up there? It’s like because I was gonna say to Andi’s like, oh, this is like your own little turn, well, not little, but like you know, it’s a Turnberry uh lighthouse. So you you get those vibes completely for some while that can find a fraction of the cost. Well, yeah, yeah. So we spoke about how much the round was, like a peak season around is 180 quid there, yeah. Which is crazy. No, it’s not even under sixty-five, it’s 180 for for a day pass to play, which is incredible value if you can make it over. Yeah. Um now one other thing that then we it was very notable actually, and so this club has been around since 1981. 1981. 1991, sorry. Yeah, such a long history, 1981. Uh 1891. Designed by old Tom Morris. Yeah. Then Dr. Allister McKenzie’s done some work on it, and then Philip McKenzie Ross has got it into its current current layout. There ain’t anything about that anywhere, and it’s a bit of a shame that I particularly now knowing the quality of that golf course, and spoiler alert, we’re gonna recommend you come and play it. Yeah, yeah. But you know, like golfers do have a an affinity with history, and it’s kind of oh sometimes it’s ran down your throat, isn’t it? It is a little, I mean, it’s not gonna be too much, but yeah, I think it was totally the other way there, isn’t it? There’s nothing there isn’t like you know, it was it so I think a bit of a lacko history uh for maybe some of the aficionados might uh turn them off a little bit from that. Yeah, that’s yeah um and actually that is because a lot of it is just lost, it’s been lost through time and nobody really knows stuff.

Chris 17:35

I mean you obviously you’ve got the history of the seventh, which is the um And the dar uh the race course. So you know there is some there’s some pretty cool history there, I’d imagine, over the years. Yeah, and it was that private school that we were teening off the back also that was like being around since the 1700s or something like that.

Nish 17:54

So like incredible, incredible place. So so those are kind of our original, unoriginal, initial thoughts and and what have you now of the golf course, Chris. So I realise we’ve got recency bias, and it’s the most recency bias because we only played the course two hours ago, right? But you know, we’ve got it’s ranked 96. Uh I don’t know, did you check? Did it go up in the rankings? 93, but 93, yeah. So 93, so it’s getting itself firmly established in there. Um we’ll go with we’ll go with the condition of the course.

Chris 18:30

Yeah.

Nish 18:30

What were your um comments on the conditioning?

Chris 18:33

Um the condition of the course is It’s a tricky one because I like you know, it’s not it’s not kind of

Conditioning Debate And Top 100 Context

Chris 18:41

up to that level of you know, heavily manicured course that you kind of come to expect from the top 100. But it has a like because it’s such a rugged kind of coastline, I actually kind of think it fits it quite well. Yeah. I think I definitely, you know, I definitely think there are some improvements that could be made there that would elevate that course, like, to a point where, you know, if you had other conditioning around there and you made a few tweaks here and there on that course, I I mean that is that’s an incredible like it was an incredible place to play in its current conditions. Yeah, absolutely. I think you just you just kind of amplify that up a little bit more, yeah, and spend you know, spend a bit more on it and just kind of get a bit more manicured and refinement on it, I mean that’s become then becomes an incredible destination golf course to go to.

Nish 19:34

The wallasey conditioning, yeah, transplant that, like copy and paste it. Oh my god. If you put the wallasey filter, let’s call it that, yeah, onto that golf course, you’ve got something magical there, really magical. Yeah, and I think that does speak volumes for the quality of that golf course and the terrain that it’s in. Yeah. You know, we we had a little comment before we started, and and I think it it it did make me think, I think, and you think you’d absolutely spot on. You transplant that golf course somewhere else, and you’re thinking, yeah, good golf course. But yeah, not top 100. That’s not doing anything for me, really. As in like I’m not getting I’m not whooping and hollering about it. Yeah, but that course exists in that space, and it’s for that space. Yeah, yeah. And that’s that’s a testament to the original designers, it’s a testament to anybody who’s worked on it afterwards, that they just maximise what there is there naturally, yeah. And that’s what makes that course what it is. You can’t put that anywhere else. Yeah. Um having said that, let’s talk about uh the top three holes.

Chris 20:40

And normally there’s a couple of things that normally happen at this point is A, if someone’s told me that there is a like a you know, uh the best holes are the most signatures. There’s an eight signature hole, and yeah, I’m not gonna like it. I’m not I’m not that’s not gonna be in my list because that’s that’s just my personality.

Nish 20:55

So so any anybody out there who’s hosting us, uh you can reverse psychology Chris into this now.

Chris 21:00

So you can just pick the worst hole, say that’s the best one, he’s not gonna like it, and you’re in. But yeah, I mean I think certainly the two the two standout holes are I I think some of the best holes that we’ve played anywhere. I mean, certainly the fifth for me

Best Holes And Black Tee Adventure

Chris 21:15

is such a great hole. So it’s the road hole that we talked about earlier. So you see you drive in on the on the drive and you drive down the side of the hole, but it’s yeah, it’s just this beautiful kind of c-shaped curve of a fairway that goes down the side of the road. You then there’s got this vast expanse of beach and sea down the right, um, and you’ve got an elevated Tee above it.

Nish 21:35

Yeah.

Chris 21:35

Um it’s quite a daunting drive.

Nish 21:38

It is. There are some very daunting tee shots there, aren’t there? I mean, it’s not we haven’t mentioned this yet, and I can’t believe we’ve got to whatever 20 minutes into the episode, we’ve not mentioned it. We played off the blacks black teas today, we played off the the absolute dog’s bollocks, tees, didn’t we, today? Which I’ve never done. First time. The odd tee shot here and there, but I haven’t ever really done it. And that was a really good experience. I really enjoyed that.

Chris 22:03

I mean it’s quite a good length, like it wasn’t like stupid long length. Sometimes you get a few yards and you just back in the gorse and you can’t see anything. But actually the teas, the black teas today were great because a lot of them were you know, you kind of get the best view of the hole, or you get a bit more elevated and like that angles were changing more than the actual distance, I think.

Nish 22:20

No, yeah, which was yeah, it was really interesting. I really like that. Now, again, we have to look at this from uh uh somebody’s gonna play a top 100, you know. I I I don’t know, but you know, I’m sure somebody’s listening to it going, oh, I’m only gonna play one this year. Like, make of that experience what you want to make of it. So speak to the professional uh in in the pro shop, ask them are there any championship tees that are worth just going up even and having a look at? Okay, look, little insider secrets, go and play it, nobody’s stopping you, you know, you’re out on the course, who cares? But make that experience what you want it to be, and if that means a sprinkling of forward tees, a sprinkling of really bad far back tees, whatever, just do it. Yeah, like you’re only gonna go there once. Exactly, yeah, yeah. Make the most of it, take it in. And we were lucky because we had Andi and he was like, Look, you must play this black tea here, and yeah, that was great. We might not have done that otherwise.

Chris 23:11

No, we probably wouldn’t have, we’d have probably just gone for the yellows and made it easy ourselves because we’re quite lazy like that.

Nish 23:16

Exactly. Um but anyway, so getting back to these top three holes. I mean, another weird thing that’s happened is we agree on all three holes, which has never happened. Synergy, mate. In the in the four courses that we’ve done this feature on. But um, you know, I think uh we we talked about it quite a lot as we’re going round, so there is a bit of that, and we probably have talked each other around on that. But yeah, that road hole. I’m gonna play the footage in the background of Chris’s drive on the road hole. So you know.

Chris 23:48

Well, it’s called the road hole for a reason, right? You’re supposed to hit the road and just let it ro roll all the way down the road for an extra like 150 yards.

Nish 23:54

Well you caught the road, and I thought it’s gonna go off the road at some point, surely. And it just kept following the curvature of the road.

Chris 24:00

That is like a C-shaped road, like is that a straight road, it’s not a fucking Roman road, is it? Like, and it just catches the road and just carries a bounce and a bounce and a bounce down the middle. It stayed right down the middle the whole way, it was right around the curve. It was beautiful.

Nish 24:10

Yeah, it’s a kind of 700-yard drive. It was unbelievable, but so you played it exactly as you intended, and then a member had spotted it as well, so he he sort of spoke to us about it. But great, great golf hole.

Chris 24:20

Yeah, yeah.

Nish 24:21

Um I again I I agree with that one.

Chris 24:23

What’s your second the fourth before it I think was also, yeah. Great hole. Great, like it’s only a short par four. You know, you we were kind of playing it into the wind today, so we had you know, we were hitting sort of three would take you a driver, didn’t you? Um so is it a good tee-shot away? So we played it from the blacks to get good tee-shot away. You’ve not got loads of space. No. And then it’s only a short iron in downwind, but again, you’ve got like anything left is just dead. Hotel in the background. Yeah, yeah, hotel in the background.

Nish 24:55

It’s a shame that’s gonna go actually, because uh it you know, it it is quite an iconic it’s a bit, you know, not it isn’t like it, obviously, but it’s a bit got that kind of that the Clubhouse at Birkdale vibe about it, you know, it just sticks out, stands proud. Yeah, it does, yeah. You can see it, uh the hotel at Carnoustie, same thing, you know. It’s you’ve got those iconic buildings, so it’s a shame, but you know, that’s progress, isn’t it? I suppose. But that that whole I mean the classic thing happens in golf, you know. I I lost my t ball, my ball off the tee, went into a gorse bush, and I was like, I’m not gonna find that. Hit my um provisional and split the fairway. It’s like classic. Why can’t you do that the first time around? Uh so that was hole number four, that was great. And again, we’ll we’ll play our tea shots, that’ll be all on the on the footage.

Chris 25:41

And then but it’s a great approach shot in there as well. It’s only a short iron, but it’s a it was kind of a tough tough one to get right.

Nish 25:47

Tough approach shot, yeah.

Chris 25:48

And I think Andi said it didn’t it, it kind of sort of leads you down the right hand side because you don’t you don’t want to go left and it kind of points towards the right.

Nish 25:54

There was a lot of visual stuff like that in that course where it your eye went one way and actually you needed to play it another way. Yeah.

Chris 26:00

Messing with my alignment today, that course for sure. Yeah, it did a little bit in a good way.

Nish 26:06

In a way that you’re happy for it to happen to mess with you. And then what was the what was your third top three? So I’m gonna agree with four.

Chris 26:13

I mean the seventeenth is absolutely spectacular, isn’t it? Like, I mean, what a hole of golf art is like in terms of drama, it’s the most dramatic whole hole we played by by some margin, isn’t it? It’s just see T shot is you know, it’s the longish tee shot over essentially just a ravine, right? We’ve just got waves crashing crashing in in below you.

Nish 26:33

Um for any anybody watching, I’m I’m just getting the uh the stroke saver out, and you’ve got like the the the outline of the hole, and then to the right it’s just like cliff, cliff and deep blue sea sort of thing, and it it is a spectacular model, isn’t it?

Chris 26:50

That normally I’m pretty good at like just if there’s you know danger kind of shortening in front of you. I’m good at just it kind of ignoring that and just thinking about the shot going over it, but today I fucking shanked one into the middle of the ocean.

Nish 27:03

Yeah, I mean it was a signature hole challenge as well. Well, we’ll get to that in a second. Um yeah, I mean great. Look, again, that was another one where we play so again we played a black uh tee on that on that hole. Funnily enough, then we went to the so we’ve got a bench in front of the whites, I think. We’ve got a bench, and we had a picture taken there, a little lovers bench on the on the the back of the tee. And I was like, oh actually, do you know I’m glad we played off the black tee? Because on the black tee, you don’t get to see the the ravine and the cliff. From the from the white tee, it’s just right in front of you. Like so you’re like, oh shit, I need to get over that. Yeah, and but in ours, it wasn’t like it was that wasn’t really a thought, you just pick your target. So, yeah, spectacular. I fully wholeheartedly agree with all those three, Chris. I think it’s hard.

Chris 27:51

I think they’re kind of they’re almost just easy, easy pickings, aren’t they, in terms of the best holes, because they are just so good. I think some uh certainly the fifth and probably the seventeenth, probably two of the two of the the best holes we played in the first.

Nish 28:05

And one thing I’ve got here is I’ve got like there’s a bit of a weird lack of par threes. There are only three par threes on this course.

Chris 28:10

Yeah, well, I mean, what’s the is the first like the ninth or something? So yeah, you played sort of seven or eight holes and you’re like, hang on a minute.

Nish 28:16

Yeah, and then that’s the next one is on 13. Yeah. So I like remember saying to Andi, you know, I got to 12 and I was like, hey, this is really random, but it just feels random that we’ve only played one par three so far. I mean it’s good because you get in your groove when you start playing par threes, so it’s great for me. So yeah, yeah, a bit of an odd one, but I uh you know, I don’t think it’s any worse for it. It’s just but it’s there’s so

Par Three Oddity And Side Bets

Nish 28:40

much other quality, you know, golf to to go at. Yeah. How’s your holding one watch?

Chris 28:45

Not great. Did I hit one one out of three greens on the par threes today? You you bogeyed two of the power threes, Chris. That is I mean I was lucky to bogey certainly one of them. Yeah. Rare. What’s going on? I I it’s you, you fuck you fucking ruined me with this holding one chat. Got into his mind. Got into his mind now. You used to hit every par three green wherever, wherever it was from. Now I’m like, greens and regulation are at about 10% or something.

Nish 29:11

Well look, the par 3s, I’ll bring them up because that was our side bet, we think. Um we asked Jim to reconfirm what the side bet was and he couldn’t remember, and we couldn’t remember, but we can’t listen back to the episode because it’s not gone out yet the preview. So I was like, alright, okay, fine. But I think it was three par threes. If you want it, you got a point, and it’s who got the most points. So we halved the first one in fours. Amazing. Um Chris parred the second one, so he got a point then, and then we halved the the second one. Which being amazing. Which means you win the side bet. Yeah. Now let’s talk about the signature hole challenge. Yeah. So as discussed, it was the 17th over this cliffy ravine thing. Now, the state of play in the signature hole challenge is I am one down. And I’ll reiterate I was three down before I even knew it was a thing. But anyway. So basically, I’m I’m since I knew it was a thing, I’m two up. Right? I’ve clawed been clawing it back, so it’s alright. So we’re what? This was what course number 23, is it 23 or 24? 23? Right, okay. So we stepped up. I think I’d won Wallacey,

Signature Hole Challenge Meltdown

Nish 30:26

so I got the honour, hit my drive, started tracking right, didn’t it? And I was like, oh, it’s going. And the wind was going that way, and it’s like that’s that’s going out of bounds into the rocks. Suddenly it held up, dropped, saw it like land, all that kind of thing. I was like, okay, I’ve got a second shot, great. Chris steps up. You tell us what happened with your drive, Chris.

Chris 30:51

Yeah, I mean, so over the last few months there’s been a few moments where a few rounds where I’ve just had the shanks, right? And I’ve just not been able to get over it. I’ve managed to get rid of that. Didn’t hit anything even close to a shank today until the fucking 17th tee.

Nish 31:05

Until the pressure of the signature whole challenge hit Well it was always gets me.

Chris 31:10

Always gets me.

Nish 31:10

You hit your drive and it went out and it was like, oh, it’s gone, oh it’s gone. And actually, only two holes before we were talking about when somebody says, Oh, it’ll be right out there, whatever, and then put the the is when you get the doom silence and nobody says anything. No, there it was. That was the full-on doom silence. Oh shit.

Chris 31:24

I mean, there’s nothing to be said for that.

Nish 31:26

I mean it’s in the ocean, you know.

Chris 31:28

It was it was that bad that it missed the hundred yards of fucking cliff edges that there are down the side of that 17th.

Nish 31:34

Yeah, you weren’t even gonna get a bounce or lucky bounce back into play, were you, from that? But so I I then looked to Andi and I was like, Andi, uh just need to let you know that on these signature hold challenges. I don’t know why I’m whispering, it’s not here. I was like, on these signature hold challenges, I’m actually one down. So if I win this one, it’s all square after 23 courses.

Chris 31:55

I was just trying to make it interesting. You know, it was gonna be boring for everyone if I just ran away with it like a hundred nil. Well you were, weren’t you? I was, yeah, at one point I was like after the first eight or something, I think it’s one of the is it?

Nish 32:05

Is that a charity thing, is it? Right, okay, I see. Um so I said and he was like, oh, oh, and then you hit your your provisional standard rule of golf, hit your provisional in the fairway straight down the middle. Uh and then and then obviously then we’re in di we’re in divergent strategies at that point. So you tell me what happened after with your with your you have to obviously play the provisional, didn’t you?

Chris 32:27

So that was uh yeah, I can’t remember. It was a bit of a blur, really, wasn’t it? Oh yeah, I just hit it to front edge and then three-putted.

Nish 32:32

Front edge, three-putted, yeah. Okay, so I mean look, I was on easy street at that point, so I played an easy away from danger second shot. I played a relatively easy just approach, just you know, roll it onto the green, whatever, two putted for a five, big whoop celebrations. We’re back to all square after 20.

Chris 32:54

This is gonna back to boring, boring golf on the uh the signature hole where one of us just completely fucks it up and the other one can just roll in a bogey or a double bogey.

Nish 33:01

Ultimate scenes, Chris, ultimate scenes it was. Um so that was signature hole challenge. Now, um I’m gonna ask whether you think that golf course, now we’re quite effusive about it because we have just played it, we’ve had a wonderful day and whatever, but does that golf course sneak into your top five?

Chris 33:17

Um I I I don’t think so. However, I and you know, I don’t think so for a couple of reasons. I think like we said, the conditioning probably isn’t quite there. But I think in terms of the rounds we played, that is one of the ones that I’ve enjoyed the most. I just loved walking around there. And I think I said I could quite happily just walk around there and not play the golf, just walk the course.

Three Reasons To Make The Journey

Chris 33:41

Um I think it’s such a beautiful place to play. I think there’s just a couple of bits that that yeah, that probably just Yeah, just don’t quite have it on that side of the side. Yeah, don’t elevate on that topics.

Nish 33:53

Um, interesting. I I would probably concur with you. Well, I will concur with you, there’s no problem about it.

Chris 34:00

Yeah.

Nish 34:00

Um it’s a regretful concurring, because I really want it to to get in there. Yeah. Um but I suppose what I will say is what we both have said uh in meetings, uh, that we we thoroughly enjoyed that round of golf.

Chris 34:17

I mean it was fabulous, isn’t it? I’ve said it a few times, haven’t it? But like we’re so glad we made the journey. I don’t know, everything about it I just loved the company, the course, the setting. Yeah, the you know, the journey, like you say, the trip’s been a great little trip.

Nish 34:33

Um we mentioned the journey and the trip and things like that, and I I think that that is very much part of the story of going to play Castletown, you know, it’s great that much more special.

Chris 34:42

Like I say, you just go in for that one round of golf, and you’ve got to kind of cross the ocean, you’ve got to jump on a ferry, you’ve got to jump on a plane. I wish I was in driving, we’d get leathered now, couldn’t I?

Nish 34:50

You know, but um it it you know, just uh wonderful place. We we’ve got to we’ve got to get the the balance right a little bit, you know. We don’t want to sound like we’re just like, oh my god, it’s the most amazing thing about oh but it’s not about my top five, whatever.

Chris 35:05

Yeah, yeah.

Nish 35:05

But you’ve got to look at these things, you know, take your hat off of like, oh I’m assessing the quality of the course, take that off, take it off.

Chris 35:14

And I’m sure that there’s some you know panellists or whatever, they come away from there and go, it’s not true. It’s not quite true, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nish 35:21

Oh, no, there’s not enough options from the a hundred metres and in or whatever. Yeah, it’s like no, like where that is, yeah, it’s spectacular. Yeah, area of special interest, it’s like a peninsula, there’s sea everywhere, the wind is very much so many times today where I just stood looking into the ocean, just kind of breathing in that sea air, and I was like, this is fucking incredible.

Chris 35:42

Like, what’s the thing? Yeah, there’s a lot of times we’re trying to get to hurry up when you were doing it on the home, mate. What an honour it is to just go and play around some of these places.

Nish 35:48

Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Um so look, we’ll we’ll we’ll end our round up before we give our closing thoughts to anyone. We’ll end our round up by giving you the three reasons we think you should visit Castle Town Golf Links. Um, and the first is what we just mentioned there, the trip element, like it’s it it it’s a special occasion, it’s a special trip to get there. Yeah, yeah. And that’s very much part of it. We were excited anyway, because it’s like we’re going on a fucking boat. Like, this is great. We’re easily pleased. Yeah, very easily pleased. You know, we’re we’re not only going on a boat, we’re like getting off the mainland UK. Yeah, yeah. Uh that there feels like that’s an Alaman before. Neither of us have ever been to the Aleman. Yeah, yeah. You know, so even that, I mean I’m not going back to the hotel if I’m honest, but uh but again, kudos to the guy who checked us in, he was great. Yeah, you know, he did, but not the guy that woke us up at court to six. Um but it’s that’s that’s amazing. Um reason number two is you said it, sea sea sea That’s all it is, the three C’s is what that’s called. And that’s not the road hole, but it’s you are surrounded by it and it strikes you really quickly. I think it’s not on hole two, it just starts smacking the face like this sea everywhere.

Chris 36:59

Yeah, but it’s just every hole, you’ve got like a wave. It’s not even just like it’s like a genuine like a proper ocean view, like you can see like miles into the sea, can’t you? Like, because you’re so close to it. It’s yeah, it’s I loved it.

Nish 37:11

I mean I had the camera out probably uh more than anywhere else because there were just spectacular views everywhere.

Chris 37:18

Yeah.

Nish 37:19

And what I actually quite liked is I’m gonna use this word, I’ve used this quite a lot in the past, but there’s the juxtaposition of the wild rugged nature, but then also you’ve got like modern elements, like there’s an airport, there’s a there’s a runway that off the back of that’s like the sixth fairway, something like fifth fairway, off the side of it. You just see this like runway, and you like that’s like a really ultra modern thing in amongst all this ancient land. It was it was great.

Chris 37:45

And I mean you kind of mentioning that, like if they put put a new hotel in there and you know, spend a bit a bit of money on the course and just kind of make just elevate that a little bit. I mean, what a destination. Oh destination golf place that would be to go. Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, you know, rival rivaling places like Turnberry and places like that, and you can fly straight in, airports just next door, yeah. Nip around the corner, it’d be an easy journey to do. Stay in the hotel, like I mean you’d have a golf trip there.

Nish 38:13

And I hope this doesn’t happen, but that course and where that is and proximity to the to the airport at Castletown and things like that, that has a real feel of . Yeah, so sorry, we were interrupted by an announcement then, but and now we’ve forgotten where we which bit we were up to. But we’ll start again, this yeah, maybe start the whole thing again. Uh yeah, the the the sea, the the again the juxtaposition of the. Oh yeah, that was it. I was talking about it being the where it is and what it’s potentially it’s got. Yeah. It’s got a feel of if somebody wanted to do it, you could turn it into something like an Ardfin type play type resort where it could be a rule of it. No, that’s really hope that doesn’t happen because I think then it gets lost to people like us. Yeah, yeah. And people people are golfing nuts, not just like I’m not playing it because I’ve got like seven million in the bank, and it’s just a it’s a badge of honour to play Ardfin. But it it has all the ingredients that it that you could potentially do.

Chris 40:03

And like I said earlier, I think part of its charm is that kind of rugged element to it, isn’t it? That it’s not like that perfectly manicured over the top kind of place.

Nish 40:11

Yeah, I almost think that there’s some things that probably do need to get manicured and polished, yeah, but then you don’t want to lose the rugged and it we sort of said like this is what golf must feel like playing in Ireland, and that’s really wetted my appetite for playing in Ireland because that was fabulous. And I wouldn’t a year two years ago when we started this, I wouldn’t have said that that kind of golf course I’d walk away really excited about having played something like that. I’d have thought I’ve endured it, I’ve put up with it, and like let’s get back to a nice Parkland somewhere, or Heathland, actually, that’s my favourite, but um that was fabulous, yeah, really fabulous. And then the the third reason is it’s all about the golf, this golf course. It really is. It’s a fantastic golf course. You’re gonna have fun out there, you’re gonna be there’s opportunities, right?

Chris 40:56

Yeah, opportunities to make birdies, but there’s also opportunities to make sevens and eights, which I did today, both of uh I scored I’ve got 42 points off the blacks today, so it’s gettable.

Nish 41:07

Yeah, you know, if I can do that, anybody can do that. So that you know, though there are three reasons to go play Castletown, stick it on the list. I think that’s what our uh advice would be to other top 100 hunters out there.

Chris 41:21

I like I was kind of going there with m reasonably not low expectations, but like I didn’t really know huge amounts about it, and kind of like yeah, had no preconsor. You did a preview, Chris. I did not know anything about it. Yeah, I don’t pay attention, come on, you know that by now. Um but yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by that today, for sure.

Nish 41:38

We both got beeping smiles on our faces, and we’re just like I finished and I was eating my food, and I was like, Normally when the plate of food gets put in front of me, that’s pretty much the only thing on my mind. Yeah, yeah. And I was just talking about the course, I had adrenaline going through my veins.

Chris 41:51

That’s it, and we talk about it a clock quite a lot between us, don’t we? That that top 100 buzz where you come off and you’re just like, oh man, that was good. Like, I’ve just really loved every moment of that, and today was one of those days, wasn’t it?

Nish 42:01

I was getting all the top 100 feels off that place. For sure. I really was, yeah. So look, it might feel like it’s an outlier, it might feel like it’s an effort, but we thoroughly recommend making the trip over. Yeah, and when you’re making your booking, look, of course you can just go online and whatever, but get in touch with the guys directly, like it’s a really personable club, yeah, and it’s probably gonna be Andi who’s gonna deal with you, but get in touch with them and they will give you a lovely warm welcome, yeah, you know. And a new thing happened that I’ve never seen before. So we got our um uh soil to the uh seed, sorry, to fill in the divots, and it was a lovely, like branded pot school, like it was really cool, and only get a bag, and you’re a bit like carry this horrible bag and monkey bag around with me. But and I’ve been to some good clubs where you’ve given you a mankey bag, yeah, yeah. Um but yeah, I just got to see. I was like, this is smart. I thought it was a water bottle first time. I was like brilliant, but don’t drink that, you know. But uh yeah, but and look, thank you to to Andi. We must give us real special mention to Andi. We’ve done it already, but he was unreal today. Yeah, he was class, really good, great golfer, great banter, yeah, just top guy. Yeah. Um so yeah, thank you, Andi. Um and we we will certainly be back. Certainly back to Castletown. Yeah. Maybe not on a ferry next time, I don’t know. But although it’s this bit of the crossing’s been alright. It’s been pretty stable. Yeah. Or am I just lost in top 100 chat?

Chris 43:26

I don’t know.