Ellis Courtnell

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 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 19, Ellis ellis Courtnell Cornell.

Nish: 0:16

So we’ve got a special episode today. We’ve got Ellis sat with us. I’m going to read off some of the stuff that Ellis has done, which is frankly, disgusting. Ellis, you’re the current Cheshire Under-16 champion. You’ve won the Cheshire Under-14s at the age of 12. You were the youngest player ever to play for Cheshire Under-18s at the age of 12. You won the Royal Liverpool Junior Under under 15 championship twice at 12 and 14 that’s just recently and you won the inaugural faldo series junior challenge at the age of 12 as well

Nish: 0:53

.

Chris: 0:54

Well done, it’s hard work reading that out, I think we can pretty much wrap the podcast up here, can’t we? That’s enough of a podcast, isn’t it give?

Nish: 1:00

ellis a follow, and that’s it. Um welcome to the podcast ellis. Thank you and thanks for welcoming us into your, into your home. So we’ve had a bit. Give Ellis a follow. Welcome to the podcast, ellis.

Ellis: 1:05

Thank you.

Nish: 1:06

And thanks for welcoming us into your home. So we’ve had a bit of a hit with you today on the simulator. First question, before we get into any meaty stuff what were our swings like?

Ellis: 1:15

They weren’t not too bad. Some good strikes. I’ll take that. I’ll take that.

Nish: 1:23

From the current under-eshire under 16 champion. That’s good for me, right, ellis? Look, we’ve got loads to chat about, so I think we’ll just dive straight in. So, chris, if you can start us off.

Chris: 1:33

Obviously. We’ve just heard that kind of list of accolades that you’ve, that you’ve achieved over the last handful of years. But which is your favourite? You know which would be the biggest win for you today?

Ellis: 1:42

I’d probably say the Cheshire 16 at Vickers Cross, because it was quite a nice course and the people that I was up against that day there was some competitors that definitely could win it, apart from me. So I don’t think I was the favourite, you could say going into it. But no, I managed to shoot two under, which wasn’t too bad to win that. So yeah, I think that to shoot two under, which wasn’t too bad to win that. So yeah, I think that’s probably my favourite competition that I’ve won.

Nish: 2:10

of the ones that I’ve won, Did you have a feeling in amongst when you were playing? Because obviously you’re around, probably these players aren’t you?

Ellis: 2:19

Yeah.

Nish: 2:19

Relatively frequently, but actually yeah, I’ve got my work cut out here.

Ellis: 2:23

Because I was out quite early that day, right, and most of them were out later, and I started 300 after three.

Ellis: 2:32

I was like, oh, something, something could happen here and then I was 100 after seven and then was 200 after nine, and then part every hole on the back nine, which was quite frustrating, but I think finishing at that point because the weather was coming in the rain, so I thought maybe that could be enough, maybe not, and then when the people that could have maybe done something against that came in with worse scores, yeah, so I was quite happy so were you kind of sitting around watching the scores come in, or did you kind of left at that point and yeah, so I was there’s like, um, because it was raining.

Ellis: 3:13

There was a massive canopy. Yeah, the 18th green, so everything. Everyone was sat there just waiting for people to come in and soon as they walk off the ring, what did you score? Yeah, and then picturing the leaderboard where everyone was yeah, so yeah that kind of thing.

Chris: 3:26

So was that a long, a long wait? Then it was about an hour, right that’s a wait.

Ellis: 3:30

So because I was leading by about four and then someone came in with one over, so I was leading by three, right, okay, and then I knew that a good score was going to come in.

Chris: 3:41

So how much did you win by? In the end, I won by two. In the end, you won by two.

Ellis: 3:46

Yeah, the other person shot level.

Nish: 3:47

Right, excellent, oh, I see the only person who shot under par then Fantastic God, that’s brilliant. I don’t even know how to describe how that weight must feel. That must just be like agony. I’ve done my bit.

Chris: 4:06

Yeah, obviously you’ve been playing for quite a number of years and you’ve got a wealth of kind of experience playing competition. How do you find your kind of nerves in those situations now?

Ellis: 4:13

I don’t think I really get that nervous. I’m just more focused on what I need to do and more excited to play instead of nervous. Really, yeah, okay.

Nish: 4:25

Yeah, Okay, Wonderful. So what’s your current handicap? Current handicap is scratch. Yeah, we were talking to your dad before. Actually, he’s been helping you a lot with the analytics and the stats of your game At the moment. You know what is it that you feel you need to work on to get you to the next level? I’d probably say holding out inside 10 foot.

Ellis: 4:43

You know what is it that you you feel you need to work on to get you to the next level. Um, I’d probably say hauling out inside 10 foot, just getting percentages up up in them, and hauling more puts and more puts, which is going to increase the amount of pars I make and increase the amount of birdies I make.

Ellis: 4:58

Hopefully, I’d say iron accuracy as well, because I’d say my driving’s pretty good, but uh, the more greens I hit and the closer I get to the pin, the short putts I’m gonna have, and then more opportunities to make birdie I’m gonna have so, in terms of your strategy to kind of improve that inside 10 feet, what?

Chris: 5:16

kind of things have you got in terms of your practice.

Ellis: 5:18

So I’ve got a putting coach, jordan massey, and I’ve got some drills from him, like inside 10 foot, so T-pegs around six foot, t-pegs around 10 foot, a drill that’s four foot, 10 foot, so you hold the one from four foot to par and then the one from 10 foot. If you hold it to birdie and you try and you go around four times and you’re trying to shoot, I think it’s eight under. So they’re they’re just quick, easy, simple drills which can, over time, make a quite a big difference I find the drills quite interesting.

Nish: 5:53

Actually that when you hear a lot of them and you know instagram’s amazing, isn’t it for this sort of stuff? Now, yeah, and you can get, maybe like phil’s putting I’ll go, I’ll do this drill with phil, but everything’s around like score, beat this, beat that, and it’s like get the competitive juices flowing. Is that? Is that the key ingredient you think to try and really get you focused.

Chris: 6:14

I mean, you can answer that, but I mean for me, I think if you get into that level of um, you know, achievement within golf, you’ve, you’ve got to have that competitive edge right. So I think that that certainly is what spurred me and as I was always super competitive and still now, whatever I do, I’m incredibly competitive um, and I think you kind of have to have that edge to be able to force you to go and do those things that you might not necessarily want to do but, you know, go out there and do all that practice and put all the time and effort in has got to be driven by you want to go and win it.

Nish: 6:42

We’ve. We’re like neighbors for about two and a half years now, like everything’s gone really well so far, and then we’re playing a pairs comp in ganton in june. I I just think this animal’s gonna come out. He’s gonna be like, let me up there, like ripping his shirt open and all this.

Chris: 6:57

Yeah, I’m a nice guy until I’m on any kind of any kind of sporting arena. Yeah, it’s hilarious that I find it so funny.

Nish: 7:05

Yeah, yeah. Maybe it’s because I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m not that competitive, Maybe I am secretly, but I don’t. I think everyone you are right.

Chris: 7:15

I think everyone’s got that competitive streak, whether it be a board game or a competitive sport.

Nish: 7:20

If you don’t win that often, you’re not competitive. If you do whatever you can.

Chris: 7:23

I think ultimately it’s where your niche is, is what you’re good at, isn’t? If you’re good at that, then you’re going to be competitive and you want to win at that, totally agree. So I guess I see you’re 15 now, yeah, um, how do you balance school, kind of social life and golf and what sacrifices you got to make so golfing shape?

Ellis: 7:40

I’d say I put a lot more time to golf than I say school and social. But if I’ve got like exams coming up, yeah, then I’ll put a bit little bit more time to school. But I’d say the main sacrifice is probably social yeah so I don’t really get to go out as much or see friends outside of school as much. Yeah, but when I do, it’s like twice, three times better than if it was just every weekend yeah so it’s like more special every now and again than just every every week and does that, does that kind of uh, does that come ever flowing?

Chris: 8:17

kind of how difficult that feels, or are you kind of just focused on the golf just?

Ellis: 8:21

mainly focused on golf, and then obviously if I’ve got exams or I’ve got some other curriculum thing, then I’ll focus a little bit more on school, spend more time on that, but then it’s always the main thing is just focusing on the golf and yeah, hopefully that can follow through.

Nish: 8:37

Yeah yeah, I suppose winning stuff helps with that, doesn’t it?

Ellis: 8:42

yeah, so yeah if you win, then you just want to try and win again. Of course you do.

Nish: 8:46

Yeah, kind of the drive to yeah, practice more, play more, get better yeah whereas if you’re not, the temptation to give up is very much there, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll find that just so interesting because I bet everybody’s wrestled with that. Yeah, in our, in our field, it’s work life, for instance, it’s not going out and playing golf, but it’s like actually I want to play a bit of social golf, but then I’ve got work to do and whatever.

Ellis: 9:13

So I’ve gone through periods where I’ve not won, maybe even just like a club comp for a couple of months, and then I win one, and then I win another, and then I’ve won like four in the space of two months right, it’s just like you could say purple patch and then yeah patch, and that’s how golf works really yeah, yeah.

Nish: 9:34

Well, it’s your tiger woods which we’ve realized, didn’t we? Yeah it was just about 12 years yeah, um, at this moment in time, you know so, you know you did. We spoke earlier about your, your golfing heroes, and we’ll maybe get to that in a bit. But, um, what would your dream golf career be?

Ellis: 9:52

I’d say my dream golf career would probably to be a top professional golfer and just play on the pj tour, db world tour whenever I want, really just to play the big events against all the big players and be able to compete against them do you have a path that you’d like to take? Well, I hope to go to america hopefully for a scholarship over there, which would be quite nice.

Ellis: 10:15

Um, hopefully like a top 25 college. So I’m playing in like nc’s double, a championship and all the big events over there and then to qualify onto Corn Ferry or PGA and progress that way great, amazing.

Nish: 10:32

Who are your golfing heroes?

Ellis: 10:34

then I’d say, justin Thomas is definitely my favourite, and then Bryson DeChambeau, ludwig Eberg, all some of my favourite golfers definitely you reckon you’re hitting that hole in one over his house quicker than 16 days.

Chris: 10:50

You’ve not got that on the sim yet, then Not got that on your house.

Nish: 10:53

no, Did you hear about the fan that came and did it? Oh yeah.

Chris: 11:01

Did it in five shots.

Ellis: 11:02

Was it five shots?

Nish: 11:02

Yeah, he offered somebody 100K. He did it in five shots. Was it five shots? Yeah, he offered somebody 100K. He did it in five shots. I was like who’s the pro here?

Chris: 11:07

He’s got it, hasn’t he? That was a bit mad really. I mean, there’s just such an element of luck in that right.

Chris: 11:12

Yeah, because you can’t really properly see where it’s no, you can’t see the whole like you know you’ve got a yardage or whatever, but If the guy’s that lucky he’s doing it in five, I think he should turn pro. To be honest, take the 100 grand and run. So I guess, in terms of your, you kind of mentioned earlier that you made some sacrifices around your social life. What do your friends think of your golf as a sport and your achievements within it?

Ellis: 11:36

So they definitely, I’d say, support it. They do quite like golf. Some of them have started to play it.

Chris: 11:43

Right, okay, I’d quite like golf.

Chris: 11:44

Some of them have started to play it right, okay I’d say most of my friends are at the golf club, yeah, or a part of like cheshire or golf, yeah, so because they’re the people I probably spend most of the time with, yeah, and I met weekends really when I was growing up, playing golf was being me and my pal who were kind of a similar, similar standard, and we must have spent I mean, I spent so many more hours with him than anyone in my family over those years, for sure, so it’s like. It’s like another little family, isn’t it?

Chris: 12:07

a little community that you’ve got going there, kind of golf mates that you’ve got yeah, um have you got any kind of like arch nemesises in terms of your, your junior, your junior status? There’s always someone that’s kind of been in there and has kind of beat you in the odd competition there’s always the there at the same sort of, because there’s always different people up there. Yeah.

Ellis: 12:26

I mean golf’s, like if you have a good day, next day you can play bad. So it’s like all different people are up there. There are some familiar faces, but all get on well.

Nish: 12:38

I feel like we’ve got a bit of an insight into your psyche there, craig.

Chris: 12:41

No, no no, no, absolutely no, just from the web. There was anyone that was just kind of up there. What’s his name? What’s his name?

Nish: 12:46

yeah, what support do you think you’ve been getting from your maybe the wider family? I know we know how much your dad supported you through.

Ellis: 12:55

Obviously you know that would have been a bit flippant about it, but yeah, what sort of level of support, so just taking me to like even just golf club or different competitions everywhere, really, which I’m gonna be forever thankful for yeah so, and it’s mom and dad both make the sacrifice sometimes to just take me wherever I need to go to, really, which is I suppose they’ve all been on the journey with you as well, haven’t they?

Nish: 13:24

from a very young age. You started at five, yeah, yeah, like they’ve known you basically playing golf, haven’t they so?

Chris: 13:30

and what kind of age did those sacrifices for you and your kind of family? What did they? What sort of age did that start?

Ellis: 13:36

um, I’d probably say 12 that season, when I first started to win some stuff. That, yes, the season. I think that really kick-started everything, yeah, so I think the sacrifice level went up and then the golf time went up and a few other things have to decrease because of that yeah. I’m fine with and still fine with at the moment.

Nish: 13:59

Yeah, yeah, everything’s good when you were going through that at the age of 12 yeah, which is an interesting age for a boy anyway 12 but did you have an appreciation that actually things are really changing here now?

Ellis: 14:13

this is starting to become serious yeah, I could tell that so just from winning I think it was the Cheshire 14s one and there was some like very good, I thought, oh, something maybe could happen from here.

Nish: 14:31

Yeah.

Ellis: 14:32

And from that I won another thing, the Faldo series thing, and it was like, oh so this is now starting to get a little bit more serious. So then I’d say my time into golf definitely increased.

Nish: 14:47

Explain what the Faldo series is, because I don’t know anything about that.

Ellis: 14:50

So it was a competition at Mottram Hall from ages 7 to 12 I was 12 at the time so it was like there was a category for 7 to 8 boys and girls, category for 9 and 10 boys and girls and 11 and 12 boys and girls, and then there was an overall winner. So it was placed on like eighth proportional courses. So if you’re in the 7 to 8 category played on a shorter course, and 9 to 10 they played on a shorter course to eleven and twelve, right. So it’s like basically what the pros equivalent to us is basically. So it was a five thousand five hundred yard course, I think it was right, okay, okay.

Ellis: 15:29

So I played okay. I shot three under, but I had 42 putts oh. It was an interesting day on the greens, but no, it was just a good experience playing it and then obviously that qualified me for the World Championships in San Diego, which was just way too expensive to go.

Nish: 15:54

It was never, it was just during school and everything, so yeah, that’s tough, isn’t it, I think, when you you know you obviously want to do that, don’t you? But there is a reality. Yeah, oh yeah 100%, you know, and for somebody your age so younger at that point to go, no, I appreciate where that is. That’s a very mature way of looking at it. I’m not sure I would have been like that at the age of 12.

Chris: 16:19

Yeah, and I think it’s really difficult, isn’t it, when you get to that level, that it does start to just kind of elevate in terms of cost and you know?

Ellis: 16:27

seriousness and kind of like the travel and all that kind of stuff. So for this year the travelling is going to be ridiculous.

Chris: 16:32

Yeah, so just kind of touching on this year. So what competitions have you got lined up for 2025?

Ellis: 16:38

So I’m hoping to play in English, scottish and Welsh and maybe Irish under-16s. The England under-18s mixed which is down south, hopefully the Carrus Trophy.

Chris: 16:50

Yeah.

Ellis: 16:51

North of England under-16s Sir Henry Cooper Masters, which is all the way down in Kent, Hopefully try and qualify for the British Boys in RA.

Chris: 17:01

Yeah, which is, I think, in.

Ellis: 17:02

Ireland this year Okay, so that’d be, good to qualify for that yeah. And then just a few other like Northern Order of Merit comps and a couple of comps like in Cheshire, lancashire and all the other different places A busy year, then, by the sounds of it, a busy year.

Nish: 17:18

And obviously that’s all crammed into short season as well, isn’t it? Yeah, that kind of summer period, I guess, yeah, six months.

Chris: 17:25

So, given that we’re kind of talking the podcast is talking about the top 100 courses have you got any particular out of those tournaments or anything that you’re playing this year? Have you got any particular course that you’re looking forward to, or do you not really care where you play, as long as you’re playing golf?

Ellis: 17:39

I mean, yeah, it’s good to be playing golf, but then I think the courses that most of them choose are really good. So I think Sernia Cooper Masters at Kings Hill, which is supposed to be a very good course private course, I think as well, which should be really good.

Chris: 17:58

That’s a little bit like I think Wentworth the style of that Sorry. I’ve put you on the spot there, it’s all right, or is there any course that you’ve played in terms of those those kind of tournament golf that you’ve played? Is there any particular?

Ellis: 18:10

course that you’ve enjoyed. So last year I played at McGregor. That was at West Essex.

Nish: 18:13

Okay.

Ellis: 18:13

That was a very, very nice course. That was quite hilly, quite weird. You could say. Yeah, but it was a very good course, very good venue and, like North of England, under 16s, that was at Pannel.

Chris: 18:24

Okay.

Ellis: 18:30

I think no, it is a good course, good place, but the conditions matter at a lot of these courses, yeah, I mean, ultimately they often get played on Lynx courses, right?

Chris: 18:42

A lot of these tournaments. You’re often at the behest of the wind and the rain and whatever else you get that comes your way when you’re playing Lynx golf, isn’t it? Yeah?

Nish: 18:50

What do you think the best part of your game is?

Ellis: 18:53

I’d probably say my chipping short game, because that’s what I’ve worked on from the early age of like five, six. We’ve just worked from the green backwards so everything’s just been around the green putting chipping. I’d definitely say chipping’s my biggest strength.

Chris: 19:07

Brilliant, yeah and is that something that you’ve kind of driven, or is that coach, or is that dad? Where’s that kind of thing really?

Ellis: 19:13

yeah, so I’ve always liked shorter shots and then the practice facilities at ringway it’s about the longest shot you could probably hit is about 60 yards, so anything inside 60 yards, it’s just yeah it’s one club, 60 degree, it’s just chipping, and then obviously then from that learning to use different clubs. So like gap wedge, 998 time yeah for like run shots, which is which I’ve learned at links courses like brother’s pool.

Chris: 19:41

Yeah, and have you kind of noticed when you’ve been going into that sort of competition arena that comparing your game to other people’s, that your short game is, is kind of benefited from that?

Ellis: 19:51

but yeah, so definitely see, my short game is up there with one of the best. I think the main factor why people are shooting these scores and you could say better than what I’m doing at the moment is because of distance. They’re hitting it 310 yards and I’m hitting it 260. Because of that, they’re having shorter clubs, in which is basically easier for them to get it closer and then have more opportunities at birdies. Yeah, but that’ll just come with strength, height, nothing.

Nish: 20:23

Yeah, obviously your home club is.

Ellis: 20:26

Ringway, ringway.

Nish: 20:27

Yeah, who’s your coach James? Who’s your coach james salt?

Ellis: 20:35

james salt.

Nish: 20:36

He’s been a coach, he’s been alive for 10 years. Wow, yeah, I know very well then. Yeah, so, uh, this is a leading question because I do know the answers to this. But, aside from ringwage, the home course, what’s? What’s your favorite course in the uk?

Ellis: 20:46

uh, my favorite course in the uk is ready to fail. That wasn’t. That wasn’t set up in any way, shape or form. Which is in Stockport, which is it’s just, it’s a weird course, but it’s just really, really nice. I don’t know why.

Nish: 20:59

Yeah it is. We’re both members, we agree. Yeah, absolutely. I just didn’t expect you to say that. No, you know genuinely. It’s like, yeah, you’ve researched it very well and you knew exactly where we were meant to be Genuinely.

Nish: 21:16

Yeah, we love it as well. We’ve never got bored of it, but I had to get that in somehow. It was funny that If we keep referencing old previous stuff anyway, just obviously nobody was party to it necessarily, but Alice has got a sim in his house. So yeah, we were like kids in a sweet shop, weren’t we?

Chris: 21:35

Yeah, we had a great little session. It’s amazing.

Nish: 21:37

Yeah, this is absolutely amazing. Sorry, chris, I interrupted you then.

Chris: 21:41

No, no, it’s all right. I was going to say, obviously we’ve kind of talked about all the things that you’ve won, but what’s the favourite tournament that you’ve played so far?

Ellis: 21:47

Favourite tournament tour. I’d probably say the mcgregor okay, yeah it just feels like a proper tour event because you’ve got your scorecards with like the rip-off at the bottom.

Chris: 21:57

Yeah, yeah, which is quite cool.

Ellis: 21:58

You get all the pin positions and stuff, yeah live leaderboards it just feels like a proper tour event yeah and the fact that it’s like four rounds with a cut yeah it gets quite competitive which is where did you say you played mcgregor it? Was at west essex west essex, which is down south in london, yeah, okay that was this year, this year right.

Nish: 22:18

Great, which is good. What good experience that would be yeah, so I played.

Chris: 22:22

I played in that sherringham so I was down in sharing them down in norfolk when I played that. How did? How did you do terribly. That’s where, especially, that was the end of my career. That’s where I I injured myself. Oh no, practising for that on the practice ground just before day one, and that day I shot like 17 over on the first round and then came back and shot, you know, one or two over on the second round but still missed the cut, and that was basically it.

Chris: 22:42

Then You’ve opened up, but yeah, it is a great it’s a great step up and it feels, like you say, it kind of gives that feel of that sort of professional is this McGregor, the manufacturer, mcgregor, that makes clubs?

Nish: 22:56

no, I think it’s the name of somebody. Yeah, so you’ve got like the.

Chris: 22:58

Reid, the McGregor and the Caris trophies. That’s like the 14s, 16s and under 18s boys England competitions.

Nish: 23:06

Basically recently, uh, clubhouse, yeah, that was golf. Uh, no, but actually that is a plug because they were brilliant. But when I, when I went and swapped my the last set of eyes that I’d got at, sadly, american golf. But when I got them there before that they were mcgregor’s and I’ve been for about 20 years. But when I was getting fitted, the guy came in and he was like is this what you play with? I was like yeah, yeah, he went, just wait a minute, went out and he got two of his mates who were doing fittings in other bays to come over and he’s like come and have a look at this, lads. I was thinking what’s going on here? Like what have I done wrong? Like what have I got on wrong? I’ve seen those lads golf like that, isn’t it sometimes? And they were like, oh, years ago. And he’s like, oh right, oh, I won my first tournament ever. We’re playing with it.

Chris: 23:52

He’s like really, I’m having some lessons with a guy at Adlington and he’s similar age to me, he’s about two or three years older than me and every time I pull up one of my clubs, he’s like oh man, I remember these. I had a pair of these, you know, 20 years ago. There must be so much nostalgia, wasn’t there?

Nish: 24:07

because it’s your tool of your trade, I suppose. And like you, you fall in love with your golf club, don’t you? So yeah, sorry I digress. I’m trying to just get involved in the co-chat. That’s all. That’s my, that’s my in. Obviously we’re talking top 100 stuff yeah so, ellis, you are very fortunate. You’re a member of Royal Liverpool Hoy Lake, which is obviously why you could enter those tournaments. But yeah, what’s it like being a member there?

Ellis: 24:34

Really good. The practice facilities there are great Courses obviously really good, and I think just learning the style of links is completely different to what most people play on Parkland Learning the shorter shots, playing higher bunker shots and your play, and just learning the wind as well, because sometimes you’ve got to aim at two holes across to, just to hit the fairway, yeah, which is sometimes ridiculous, and I think one of the biggest perks of it was a couple of years ago.

Nish: 25:05

The open was there so yeah, have some access into that, like the clubhouse with yeah and then by the putting green amazing yeah, I saw a couple of pictures on your insta and it was like I can imagine that age he’s like jamming around next to me he’s right next to me, yeah and what is this?

Chris: 25:24

I think it’s great, though, because I think, if you can, you can play there and practice there and and you know learn your trade there. I think if you can, if you can play golf around there, then you can play golf around anywhere, right?

Ellis: 25:33

so the next time I was there there was I dropped a couple of balls from some shots I’d seen hit on the tv and played them and to see how different it was compared to what they had to me yeah, we, we talk about it quite a lot, and one of the attractions of doing this for us is that and golf is unique in that you play the same course that the pros are playing.

Nish: 26:01

You might play from a different tee or whatever, but you’re playing the same hole.

Ellis: 26:04

It’s still the same green, same pressure, exactly the same thing.

Nish: 26:06

You don’t get that in other sports. You’re not going to get to play at Wembley.

Nish: 26:15

You’re not going to get to play wembley, you’re not going to get to play it. Well, you might do, but you could be very, very good at not with my knees, ankles, elbows and whatever else is falling off my, uh, my body, shoulders, knees and toes. Um, and that is the attraction of playing this, because you know, these are iconic golf courses in the world. I think when I was on an american podcast, they sort of said, oh, there must be like a few courses over in the uk that have crept onto the world list. I was like, uh no, you’re probably looking about 40 or 50 because, don’t forget, golf was invented here firstly, you know and then courses are the founder of golf.

Nish: 26:42

Correct like scotland, was that scotland’s probably got 20 in the in the world list? You know, yeah yeah um, and it’s just like, yeah, these are iconic places to play, you know, I mean, you know, even, even. I mean everyone will know Hoylake now, won’t they? Because just had the Open there. Yeah, absolutely yeah. We’re still starry-eyed about it all. So it’s nice to know what it’s like being a member.

Chris: 27:05

Have you got any kind of specific goals that you kind of want to achieve this year 2025? Kind of want to achieve this year 2025?.

Ellis: 27:11

So I think try and get as many top tens as possible, try and win hopefully a major event and then make the England under-16s team at the end of August, which is hopefully to go and play either in Italy or to play in Ireland, which would be nice to represent my country and then some like stat goals as well. So gaining more strokes on approach shots, getting strokes on driving and then just maintaining my stats on shot game and putting.

Chris: 27:43

And is that a big part of what? Because I think when I played stats wasn’t really a big thing, you didn’t have kind of simulators, you didn’t have all that kind of information really available. Is that a big part of how you structure your kind of practice and how you, how you kind of look at?

Ellis: 27:59

your game is a lot of it through stats, yeah, so stats can basically show you what your strengths, what your weaknesses are, and then you can get better at your weaknesses or you can improve your strengths even more. And then, with england regional, they give you up game, which is basically just a way to collect your data, collect your stats and then you can view it on charts, tables and see clearly where your areas, where you need to improve.

Chris: 28:26

The accountant in me absolutely loves this Charts and stats. Maybe I need to do this for my golf game.

Ellis: 28:31

I think, so yeah, they’re not going to look great.

Chris: 28:34

At least I can look at them on a pretty good level. Plenty of areas for improvement, Chris.

Ellis: 28:45

Plenty of areas for improvement.

Nish: 28:46

Quick, quick silos on that. When I was 12, I think, there was barely a computer around, so they didn’t need any stats. But um, I’m just going to go back to your holy lake experience. Obviously you’ve won the junior championship there now, so you put your’s on the board yeah it has it?

Nish: 28:59

has it sunk in that that name will be on that board for the next 300 years, while that course because that course isn’t going anywhere. No, does. Does that? Does that sink in at any point Hoyl ake? Probably not. Yeah, no, because you want to be on there more, right, so so?

Ellis: 29:14

still three years left with the under 18s, so hopefully try and win that once or twice. Open champion, that’s what you want on the board at Hoy Lake I like that one and to win it at Hoy Lake, I think would probably be one of the would be the best moment. Yeah, that’d be amazing, wouldn’t?

Nish: 29:31

it. No, I’ve seen I get part of my regrets on this because I don’t know this sort of stuff. But so you hear about at the Open and you’ll have like the top ranked amateur. So Rose did well, didn’t he, when he finished fourth. But you know, you hear it and it’s always like, oh, he’s a member at the local club, sort of.

Ellis: 29:48

Thing.

Nish: 29:48

So is there a thing where, like if the Open is at that venue, that there is a process for a member amateur member to get in to play, or is that not?

Ellis: 29:59

it’s just no you’ve got to go through the normal. You’ve got to go through open qualified.

Nish: 30:02

Yeah, okay, that’s fine. Sorry, I thought it was like you know, because they do that at. Uh, what sport is it now? Uh, well, they do the olympics, don’t they?

Chris: 30:10

like the host nation gets just get certain entries, yeah, no, no, you don’t just get like some 18 handicaps hacker just gets to go in the open you can’t pay your way into the open mate.

Nish: 30:24

Unfortunately that’s a good point. We’ve got hills about these lovely rolling stockport hills to. There’s a lovely uh tower block that people could probably just go in it’d be a great, be a great addition.

Chris: 30:37

That wouldn’t it actually thinking about that?

Nish: 30:39

Can you?

Chris: 30:39

imagine it’s an addition to the Open. Just have like a little Open club competition. Whoever wins it gets to go and play in the Open. Oh, I thought you were going to say it’s a great addition to the.

Nish: 30:47

Open, though, to get ready, Keep it real, go and play it, of course, like Red, I know I noticed on your Instagram feed you did an advert for American Golf, yeah, so how did that?

Ellis: 31:00

go. So yeah, it was a really good experience really. So it was for two days in I think it was June and the advert was going to come out in November and it was about diversity in golf and it was basically they had this kind of simulated setup into a net with all different clubs that they wanted you to swing from different camera angles and basically it was just an advert of everyone swinging. So there was probably about 40 different people there all hitting a shot and then it was 40 different people in one swing basically. So it was just different snapshots and you know the whole experience of it like clothes.

Nish: 31:47

So clearly it’s not as professional as what we just brought in here. I mean, you know, we’ve had the makeup lady in.

Ellis: 31:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah, all that.

Nish: 31:56

Yeah, I mean, what a great experience Again at your age to go through that and you know following direction.

Ellis: 32:04

Yeah, because I knew some of the people that were doing it. So I was with them for most of the time and there was a massive area next to it where there was nothing there, really a massive area next to it where there was nothing there really. So we just played games there like putting drills, putting games like shootouts and stuff.

Nish: 32:24

so it was yeah, it was a really really fun experience, great, and uh, I’m going to bring it back again top 100, because I thought about holy lake a little bit more. Yeah, so we, we were talking a bit previously and you said when the open was on, you had a bit more access. So what sort of things could you do that day or that weekend?

Ellis: 32:43

Yeah, Dougherty so I went, so I could go every day. So I went, thursday, Dougherty, Saturday because it was a bit wet on Sunday so I could go by the putting area, like right next to all the players, I could go into the main clubhouse area, which if I think the players went into the main car park, they could go into there. So on the final day I know some of my friends were in there Matthew Jordan came in. There was a massive party celebration because he obviously made the top 20 at his home club, which was a big achievement. And then I could go into the like by the range and the sky zone, which was quite fun, so going on the putting green there and seeing, like all the people you see on Sky Sports regularly by that area. So yeah, it was a.

Nish: 33:36

Nick Doty was one of them. Right yeah, it’s a podcast joke. I’m not the Nick Doty stalker, so yeah Okay, nice chap.

Chris: 33:47

Yeah yeah, he’s not shouting your illusions at him Looks like a nice guy.

Nish: 33:52

Yeah, if you want advice about worth Nick, feel free. You know, ellis, I really think you go to places because obviously you’ve got your head screwed on. Like I said, we’ve come into your home, we’ve spoken to your dad.

Nish: 34:03

There’s no hidden pretension about you at all. I think you’ve really got a good focus on and you can hit the ball pretty far as well. So I think that’s going to hold you in good stead in the future. So we’re going to keep an eye out for you, thank you. You’ve also been kind 100 in 10 enough and if you haven’t now you’ve got to promise because it’s now out there but you’ve also been kind enough for us to come and play at Hoyle Lake with you. So we will gladly accept that invitation and there is a royal red carpet invitation to Rennish Vale for you any time you like, that’s a glowing endorsement Well done, well done.

Nish: 34:34

We’ll play later your life. That’s a glowing endorsement. Well done, well done, well played, sir. So yeah, thank you very much, ellis. I hope you enjoyed. No problem, that was fantastic. Yeah, thank you, that was quite good. Yeah, it was good, wonderful. Until next time on the top 110 golf podcast.