Formby Golf Club Review

Nish 0:35

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 83, the Formby Golf Club Review. Well, what a day we’d had amongst the trees and on the links of a course that sits in the most famous parcel of golfing land in England, the famed Golf Coast. And a place we’re finding we’re that we’re finding is full of unexpected surprises and frankly gorgeous golfing conditions. There’s a reason why so many amazing golf clubs have made this area at home, and we’d explore perhaps one you may not know that much about. Prior to that, could I ask you out there to hit subscribe on YouTube? And if you’re listening to this podcast, please press follow. That helps spread the word to other people who are perhaps like you who might enjoy listening to our podcast. End ure is the word you’re looking for. Sorry, I’ve got it wrong. Enjoy listening to our podcast. Now back to this episode. So, Chris, we played Formby Golf

First Impressions: A Grand, Premium Entrance

Nish 1:40

Club.

Chris 1:41

We did. We are two very lucky boys, aren’t we? What a place it was.

Nish 1:47

It’s interesting about that place because I think in the preview we sort of said that we think it’s it could perhaps be divisive because it feels like it’s a bit different in that area for a golf course.

Chris 2:00

And I think like you said in the in the little kind of intro there, we’ve played we’ve played a good chunk, if not pretty much all of that golf coast now, haven’t we? We’ve got what we’ve got left, we’ve got Lytham and uh Royal, Royale Birkdale left to play. So we’ve got three left to play. Yeah. I think it’s fair to say after we played the first two, we were a bit like, yeah, what’s everyone going on about this golf coast stuff? Since like they were both alright, they weren’t our favourites. Yeah, yeah. But I think as we’ve played more and more, I think we’ve just understood it more and more as we’ve gone on, haven’t we? And I think Form by was like another step in that understanding of the golf courses around there and how incredible they are, right?

Nish 2:38

I think it’s interesting, it’s like building to a crescendo, isn’t it? And it’s like we’ve got probably the three biggest hitters in that area, which is Birkdale, yeah. You know, open we just had the open this year. Yeah, you’ve got Lytham, amazing, like eight-time open venue, yeah, and then Hoy lake, same again. Yeah, and we’re sort of building to that.

Chris 3:01

I never, yeah, I’d never really kind of realize that, but yeah, I guess we are. But it does it does feel like that, doesn’t it? It just feels like every time we play one, we feel like, oh crack, this is stepping up, getting better and better.

Nish 3:11

It’s mad, it’s like it’s really mad. I don’t know what we’re gonna do when we hit the top, then just go like, oh my god, like everything’s terrible now. But um, yeah, I mean we play so we played this uh golf course with a gentleman called Mark, who’s been on our podcast before, and his friend Andy, uh who’s a legend, uh, for many, many reasons, but primarily one reason which we will reveal when it happens. But um it and we got it on a glorious day, but a very windy day.

Chris 3:38

Yeah, it was a bit breezy, wasn’t it? So it was I was about to say it was proper links golf, but I’m I’m not sure our class uh formby as the proper links now. It’s it feels completely different to a links course, doesn’t it?

Nish 3:50

It doesn’t have like heather and stuff like that around the side, so it’s not that kind of Heathland kind of feel to it, but it it it there’s a lot of trees there.

Chris 3:58

Yeah, it’s kind of got yeah, the trees definitely make it feel kind of Heathlandy, don’t they? Yeah, and it kind of feels like links and the Turf and the bunkers, it’s a it’s a real mixture, isn’t it? Which I think is absolutely I think absolutely mixture, yeah. It’s a really great mixture.

Nish 4:13

I mean we should have known there’s trees because they’re in the fucking logo, like straight away, it’s like left front and centre tree. Uh but it’s kind of really noticeable, isn’t it? You kind of get there and you like this enclosed bit. Now we we also said in the preview that it’s there’s there is Formby golf club and then within the confines of Formby, yeah, there is Formby ladies. And it but the way it’s done, or the way that area is, it is like there’s like a hug from the trees around it all.

Chris 4:45

Yeah, it’s kind of I mean there is a little one little bit where you get down to six or seven where all of a sudden like you can see the sea there. Yeah, yeah, but that’s that one little bit, and then you kind of come back inland, don’t you?

Nish 4:56

Yeah, um it’s this warm embrace of a tree. Yeah, it it is oh my god.

Chris 5:01

Is that like a reverse tree hugger? What am I doing?

Nish 5:04

Yeah, so I’ve got all um Lord of the Rings. Um now, okay, so it was very windy, so obviously we’re like set ourselves up here, we’re like, okay, it’s windy, it’s not that wide open as such, but you know, keeping control of your golf ball is gonna be tricky. Um we’d arrived in plenty of time, so we had a chance to go and have a little warm-up at the range and stuff like that.

Warm-Up: The Grass Range

Chris 5:26

We did, but I think it’s worth noting when you first get there, it just feels impressive, doesn’t it? For me, you’ve got the clubhouse is great. Big clubhouse, and you’ve got on the left, and you’ve got the big pro shop on your right, and you’ve got a huge putting green, and then just in front of the clubhouse, you’ve got the I mean it feels like the size of a football pitch, the 18th green, this massive, long, beautifully manicured 18th green that sits outside the front at the um the clubhouse. Um, and I think it’s just a really spectacular entrance to a golf club, isn’t it?

Nish 5:54

There’s a lot of space to breathe there before you’re around.

Chris 5:57

It feels kind of grand and it feels special, doesn’t it? And it just feels felt pristine, didn’t it? Everything.

Nish 6:01

There were a ton of people on the practice green, yeah. It wasn’t out, but you didn’t feel like it was overcrowded or anything like that. It was it was yeah, it was plush, yeah. It but in a not in a leather-bound chairs kind of way, it was plush in a golfing kind of way, yeah. Like nice comfy space, like there’s loads going on. Bit of a hike to the driving range. So if you want to warm up, you’ve got to walk a bit. Bring your hiking boots, yeah.

Chris 6:28

It was uh it was a bit of a trek, wasn’t it? Yeah, I mean, I don’t walk apart from let’s play golf. But I was just like, oh wow, wow. To be fair, it was one of those moments where the guy in the pro shop was like, Oh, the driving range is just kind of down there, give us some directions. He’s like, It is a bit of a walk, and I was like, Yeah, sure. Like, you know, when you look at a Google walk and you’re like, Yeah, but that’s for like an 85-year-old person. I can do it in half that time. And he said it would be like a I don’t know, five ten-minute walk or something. I was like, Oh shit, it actually is like a five-10 minute walk.

Nish 6:54

I had to stop halfway to have a breather and take a picture of the clubhouse. Um yeah, it was it was that was uh I mean look, you gotta you fit your driving range where you can fit your driving range. It’s always great, we’re grateful. There’s there was a grass driving range and there was a space to do it.

Chris 7:08

Great facilities, right? Free balls, grass range.

Nish 7:11

But I think it’s it would be remiss of us to not mention that because it takes me by surprise. I was like, oh okay, right, I’ve got I’ve got what now, right? Yeah, I mean also it means look, look, somebody go into play for me, allow yourself a bit of time. If you want to go to the rage, you need that kind of you almost need that 15 minutes to get there and back in walking, yeah, exactly to get there. But you know, just go and pick up many balls because you want all that kind of stuff. Worth the trip. Um, and then welcome and arrival and stuff like that. So I uh um there were they were doing something, there was loads of Open vans knocking around, weren’t there? Was there’d been some kind of yeah, well, it was if I’ve been qualifying or something that happened, or something and I wasn’t.

Chris 7:46

It was something else, wasn’t it? There’s some sort of amateur event on, I think, nearby. Something was happening. Um, I think was kind of what we what we thought it might be. Yeah, yeah. As we were leaving, there was a whole kind of row of R&A vans rocking up, wasn’t there?

Nish 7:57

Which is incredible how that makes you suddenly feel like, oh, this is a bit special. Yeah, it’s just it’s just a van with a logo. Yeah, like if I’ve seen that anywhere else, it’s like it’s not a problem. Um, but what I found the entry the arriving there and stuff like that a wee bit curious. You park up and you kind of don’t know where to go because you’re at the back of the clubhouse where the car park is, you know, there’s this other building, so you kind of like walk out front and you’re kind of looking for a sign to say, like, here’s the pro show, you know, clubhouse, whatever.

Chris 8:27

Pretty sure there was loads of signs. Was there? Yeah, yeah. I think before you get to the clubhouse, I think there’s like one of those little spirally ones with different directions. Yeah, yeah. Well, there you go, it exists.

Nish 8:36

Um, but we we we’ve checked in at the the pro shop. No, we didn’t we didn’t we didn’t we did an odd check-in because um we’d we’d informed Formby that um we’re from the podcast and we’re we’re coming on, whatever. So the the young guy must have been like a uh assistant pro or something like that. But he he sort of said, Oh yeah, you the guy’s from the podcast, and we’re like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And usually, you know, we’re we’re all tired of this now. We’re 26, this is 26 course, we’re 26 courses in. You you you get a little bit of like, oh, what’s the podcast about, whatever. And he kind of just went, Oh, you’re from the podcast? And I’m like, Yeah, okay. And it was like nothing. So we almost had to go, like, oh, where do we go and warm up? Where do we do anything? It’s like he’d gone, oh, your podcast, you must have researched this, we don’t need to tell you anything, it’s fine. So it was a bit, a little bit odd, but poor guy. Maybe we just rab it in the headlights with us, mate. But then we had a pretty decent conversation with him after that, though, I think, didn’t we? It was fine after that. Yeah, I think it was just that initial. I think you just kind of it’s not like you wasn’t expecting us.

Chris 9:30

I think I think he was a bit confused as to what to do with the green fees. I think he wasn’t quite sure how to, I don’t know, something somewhat technical. So I think it might have thrown in. But he was he seemed like a really nice guy, he gave us a good intro and stuff afterwards, didn’t he?

Nish 9:39

He did, yeah.

The Clubhouse & the Hippo Head Story

Nish 9:40

Um, and then obviously we were playing with Mark and Andrew. So Mark and Andrew had been really kind because they said, Look, we’re on this trip, they played a couple of amazing courses before, and they played Lytham, hadn’t they, the day before? Yeah, and then uh they said, Do you want to join us? We’ve got spares, a couple of spare space. Absolutely, we will join you, no problem. Yep. Um, so then we headed into the uh the clubhouse, and we must give mention to that clubhouse because it’s yeah, it’s a pretty good one, isn’t it? Very good, yeah. Understated, but like very good. It’s got the famous hippo, which we covered in the preview, I think, but it was donated. The hippo head was donated uh to the club. Um I’ve got a really good story, and I have forgotten her name. Um I might have written it down somewhere. But there was a lovely young lady who worked in the halfway hook, the halfway was great. Yeah, um, and she worked in there and she was like, Have you got so when I told her we were doing the podcast, she was like, Have you got time for a story? I was like, Yeah. And she goes, That hippo head. So apparently what had happened with it was it was donated to the club, and then the war happened, and it got because it was seen as good luck, it got taken onto a warship, and then once the war had finished, the club wrote to the admiralty and said, It’s a good luck charm. Please can you return the bullet to us? But I think it’s brilliant. Like, what a great and obviously it was good luck because there’s nothing happened to the to the ship. So there you go. Now I don’t know you’re supposed to touch the hippo and you go, but don’t do that, please don’t do that because I don’t want to get in trouble for doing that. But um, it is quite a shocking, like it’s a big picture, it’s a nice picture, but it’s like hippos are massive, yeah, actually massive. Good shot, whoever shot it. Um and then, yeah, then what about welcome in the clubhouse? What did you think of that?

Chris 11:26

Um, so I think when we first walked into the clubhouse, I got a bit of a I think it was Legly Lady on like reception who gave uh who gave me a little bit of her kind of curt response, kind of what you did here kind of thing. I think I’m not sure what she thought was going on, but that as soon as she realised that I was playing golf and I was, you know, we were signed in, she was she was she was brilliant, and she kind of told me where to go and stuff. But it was just initially it was like a first slightly strange reaction. There was something because are you supposed to be here kind of thing?

Nish 11:52

Yeah, a little bit as is our way. Um Chris goes in, I don’t, I take pictures. So I was taking a picture of like the Formby sign on the clubhouse, whatever, and I wasn’t really paying attention to what was happening, but it was it’s weird, isn’t it? Like a human intuition is a bit weird, like it was just the tone of voice on on how the conversation was. I was like, Oh, what’s happened here? You know, and you were just like, Oh no, we’re here to play golf, whatever. And it’s like okay, yeah, fine. But it was a bit it was a weird exchange, wasn’t it? But I can’t remember what it was. It was a little bit, it was a little bit, but um once we got in, I mean fabulous clubhouse, eh? Incredible clubhouse, and the staff were incredible, they were brilliant, absolutely fair, they were so nice, incredibly friendly, which we always get in that part of the world, don’t we? Yeah, we do, yeah, you know. Um famous scouse welcome, very famous scouse welcome, yeah. Absolutely. So look, the facilities there are absolutely lovely. The the locker rooms are great, yeah, really, really nice locker rooms are traditional, but also then when you go to the bathroom a bit, that’s the bit that should be modern and it

Course Condition: “Premium” and “Classy”

Nish 12:48

is modern.

Chris 12:49

Yeah, and it’s really, really nice. So I think it just it just feels because Formby is a lovely place, like the surrounding area is lovely, it just feels like when you’re going in, it just feels premium, doesn’t it? You feel you go in and you’re like, Oh, we’re gonna have a good day.

Nish 13:02

Premium is a great word, Chris. I like that word premium. Yeah, it has that it has that this is a 300 odd quid green fee about it. Yeah, no, no, I think it it matches those expectations. Yeah, absolutely. I think it exceeds those expectations, yeah. It’s a lovely clubhouse, wasn’t it? It was, but but but relaxed as well, like it wasn’t it wasn’t like I don’t belong here, that kind of thing. It’s I don’t think we’ve ever had that really where we’ve sat somewhere and gone, this feels awkward or weird or whatever. Maybe we’re just belligerent about all that sort of stuff. I don’t know. Um so that was a clubhouse and the kind of facility and checking in and all that kind of thing. Now the course it was ranked 52 in our original list, it’s gone up to 39. Yep. I get that. Absolutely. What do you think of the condition of that golf course?

Chris 13:46

I I like like I said, I think when you first walk when we first walk around that corner and you see like the 18th green and the putting green, you just go, okay, we’re in for a good day here. This is gonna be a good day. Um because everything was just immaculate. Like that 18th green looked like one of the best greens I’ve ever seen. And I think to be fair, some of those greens were some of the best greens we played on so far.

Nish 14:06

It was a beautifully presented golf course, wasn’t it, Chris?

Chris 14:09

Um and uh yeah, everything just looks like in place. The bunkers look immaculate, just yeah, it just everything it just looks perfect.

Nish 14:18

Yeah, and I you know, a heart back to the green fee, you know, you’re paying 320-ish quid. Yeah, you you expect that, but even then when it’s there and it’s laid out in front of you, you’re like, oh my god, this just like it feels like it that we had it at Wallacey where it feels like someone’s just gone and just trimmed individual blades of grass to the right height.

Chris 14:43

Just that at you can just tell that attention to detail is just right up there, and whoever’s whoever the the green stuff in there that are doing that, you can tell they’ve obviously just got very high expectations and high standards in terms of the way they present that course.

Nish 14:56

I used a word to mark that I felt encapsulated the the course and the course condition. That was classy. Yes. I felt the whole thing was classy.

Chris 15:06

I think that’s yeah, again, premium and classy. I think that’s two great adjectives to describe Formby.

Nish 15:11

I think if you’re at Formby, credit to you, you would take those two words any day of the week, wouldn’t you? You probably would, yeah. Yeah. Um okay. Well, look, we we will talk about let’s talk about the overall flow of the course, maybe, and then we’ll get to our top three holes because that does facilitate that conversation. So, yeah, what was your overall impression of it as an 18 holes?

Chris 15:29

As

Where Formby’s Love Affair Begins (Hole 3)

Chris 15:30

an 18 holes as a flow, I think. So the first two holes are good holes. Something about bad holes, not the most memorable on the course, I think it’s fair to say. So two fairly straight down par fours. Yep. You’ve got kind of trees down the right hand side, you’ve got the train line running down the right hand side. Um I think two two two good opening holes. Like, yeah, not complaining, not remarkable, but yeah, yeah. But I think then when you stood on the third T, I think for me that’s where Formby began. And I think the kind of the love affair started at that point, I think, with with Formby for me, because I think sort of three through three through fourteen, if you can say that after two glasses of Fanta were just incredible holes.

Nish 16:13

This is Vodka Orange, mate. What are you on about? Um he’s bloody hot at the minute, so we’re drinking ice cold Fanta. That’s what we’ve come to. Can’t even drink beers anymore. Um, I mean that was a it was a fabulous third hole. We we’ve actually we’ll we’ll maybe jump ahead for two seconds, but we both identified hole number three as our in our top three holes. Yeah, we did. Yeah, and that was it in we discussed in preview that was highlighted and promised to be by a lot of independent reviewers and online reviewers like one of the best tee-shots in the Northwest.

Chris 16:46

I mean, it was, wasn’t it? It’s pretty good, isn’t it? Like you’ve kind of got a so it’s basically like a big long sweeping dog leg from right to left, isn’t it? And you’ve got a row of bunkers kind of going up there that you’ve sort of got to kind of cut over a little bit.

Nish 16:58

I think it is when I looked at the course map, and it like it keeps you honest a bit, doesn’t it? You either go for it over them or you bail out right. I mean, you stand over there, it’s not like it’s a difficult tee shot, because you can bail out space. Yeah, yeah, there’s space to go at. But it it’s I it’s just looks clever.

Chris 17:15

It’s just yeah, just something about the angle of the Tee and the and the bunkers and the fairway that just kind of sets you up to think, oh, this is a A interesting and B difficult tee shot. Yeah. It’s probably it’s it’s probably a much easier tee shot than it looks, yeah. But just the the way it’s been designed and the way it’s been set up just kind of sets everything out in front of you, and I think just leaves the um I guess it just brings the danger to the to the forefront of your mind, and it’s just right there in front of you. Just enough, isn’t it? Just enough to kind of give you that, ooh, well, this there’s five bunkers there, yeah.

Nish 17:46

Um it was a do you know what? Like you be and we’re privileged, we’re not privileged, because we chose to do it, so we we kind of brought it up on ourselves, you know, pat on our own backs, whatever. But we do the previews, so you you have a flavour of what’s coming on in the course, yeah. Which you perhaps wouldn’t do if you’re just playing it as you just booked it, whatever you just go, I want to see it as he goes there. But you you you know, you play one and two, you’re right, one and two are kind of just golf holes, you know. Welcome to to Formby, that’s it. And you know this third is coming and what it’s been described at now. It works two ways. There’s a little bit of like, come on, is it really gonna be that good? Yeah, the other bit is you get a bit tingly excited where you just go, Oh, this is gonna be, you know, uh this is gonna be great. And I just stood on that and I was like, Oh yeah, I get it. And also it’s because the reveal of that T as well. So you sort of finish the second, and there’s a bit of tree that juts out, yeah, and then you kind of head to back left towards the Tee, then you turn, you look it on, you go, Oh right, this is what everybody’s talking about. Yeah, yeah. And uh, I mean, I played it well, so I absolutely I’m I’m I don’t know what something’s happening with my golf at the minute, but like off the Tee with a driver. I mean, I’d rather just hit driver every day. I mean, it’s getting frankly, it’s getting ridiculous. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? It’s ridiculous. It’s like an out-of-body experience.

Chris 19:02

This when I get on that first it’s been like 10 rounds in a row, more than that.

Nish 19:06

Mad.

Chris 19:07

I mean like 15 rounds where every driver’s just gone straight and pretty long.

Nish 19:11

Going kind of where I want it to go, yeah. It’s weird, but I mean I reached this green in two, so that shows how long that drive that first drive was. However, um, yeah, I mean, just a beautiful, beautiful tee shot. And again, the approach as well is like I think there’s it’s dead odd. So you kind of get to not odd, but good odd, but you’ve got this green, you know, it’s a it’s a long-ish approach, shot, but there’s this one solitary tree just next to the green. Yeah, and it’s it’s it’s that feels out of place, but then when you get there, you’re like, but I like that because it kind of divides that green and then the next Tee up. Yeah, it just kind of gives you that framing, doesn’t it? Something to it for the green framing. Yeah, that’s a great word, it just frames that hole perfectly. Yeah, so that was a beautiful golf hole, wasn’t it? It was, it was great. Um, and then you kind of you know, uh I mean, what do you think of the rest of the front nine then? I don’t know.

Chris 20:08

That’s brilliant. I think the next hole’s like short par four after that was brilliant, and then there’s the par three up the hill, the fifth again, great hole. I yeah, I I it just didn’t really feel like there was any weak holes there between, like I said, between sort of three and fourteen, it was hole after hole, I thought was just uh excellent.

Nish 20:25

Yeah, I mean I I I particularly loved the we’ll get to it later a bit later, but I particularly love that 12 to 14 stretch. Yeah, that is around the clubhouse. You’ve just had your half-time drinks kind of thing, and then it’s it’s around that kind of area, and we we will we’ll touch upon that a little bit later. But um, and then you kept the closing. What were your thoughts on the closing stretch? I know we do obviously mentioned the 18th green, and that was that is incredible, isn’t it? And you’ve got the clubhouse on the right, yeah. And it’s weird because it’s a lot of times you’re sort of shooting straight at the clubhouse, but you’re not this time, it’s just angled off to the right, so yeah, finishing alongside it.

Chris 20:59

And I think, yeah, I think you know, again, it’s a bit like the first and second, that they’re certainly not bad golf holes, but they’re just not quite as quite as engaging and quite as exciting as the as the kind of middle section of the course, yeah. I think I would say. Um, so there’s kind of a short path three, isn’t there? There’s that 16, and then there’s kind of 17, 18, two holes back towards the clubhouse. Yeah, which you get they’re all you know perfectly great golf holes, but yeah, just not quite at the same level as some of the others on there. Um, but I mean, like I said, that stretch for three through fourteen was just incredible. Incredible, isn’t it?

Nish 21:29

Incredible. Such good golf. Such good golf.

Chris 21:32

It’s just like I say, it’s it just feels very unique, doesn’t it? In the in the we played loads of links courses, we played loads of Heathland, but this was just like you say, it was somewhere in between. There was loads of trees around. Yeah. Feel like you’re kind of out in nature. It doesn’t feel just doesn’t you know sometimes links courses incredible kind of test of your golf, but just don’t have that aesthetic, you know, the visuals that you get on, like I say, a parkland course. But I feel like Formby just kind of has it’s almost got like the best of both worlds. I feel like it’s got that as well. Um which I think makes it a fairly unique. I don’t think we’ve played anywhere quite like that. Sort of SNA and Hillside are a bit like.

Nish 22:11

Hillside was the closest, I think.

Chris 22:12

But they feel more linksy. This feels less linksy, so it kind of feels more closed, it’s just more enclosed.

Nish 22:20

Where else are we falling? We felt enclosed at Hollinwell, didn’t we? Because that’s like sits in a bowl and whatever, and it’s almost had that kind of feel about it. Like you’re here now. Yeah, you’re in the the care of the golf course, yeah, and you’re feeling yourself.

Chris 22:30

You feel like you’re probably kind of in in nature, don’t you? Rather than just getting blasted by the wind in the And the sea. Although we still get blasted by the window, weren’t we? Yeah, we were, yeah.

Nish 22:38

However, it was just it, yeah. I mean, it was lovely. But there’s a few people that we crossed as we were playing, and but to a man, everyone said, This is a tough golf course. Yeah, I mean it’s it’s it’s not an easy track, is it? No, no, we had differing fortunes. Yeah, I played a blinder, I really did. Yeah, you were playing well. Um, you didn’t. I struggled to keep the ball in play. Yeah, I think well it off the T you were struggling, weren’t you? But but I mean, so sometimes it’s difficult to separate. If you played really well, you’re obviously gonna have a good impression of the golf course, aren’t you? Yeah, for somebody who then didn’t play as well. Your impressions of the golf course, I mean you’ve detached yourself away from the score. I absolutely loved it.

Chris 23:19

Brilliant. I just loved it. Like I say, I’d say from start to finish, but specifically that kind of middle section, I thought was just fantastic, and right up there, right up there in the in the hunt for the for the best course on on that kind of thing. It says a lot for the golf course, doesn’t it? That yeah, if you can detach it. I mean we’ve played some great ones, right? We’ve played Wallasey, we’ve played um Hillside, we’ve played S&A, we’ve played some really, really top-notch quality golf courses, and I like I say, I think for me it’s it’s in the running for the best that we’ve played in there.

Nish 23:49

It it stacks up, doesn’t it, for the golf club. Um okay, so with with the the top three holes, um so you we we both went with three. Um what was your what was your next one? I think the next one.

Chris 24:01

Mine are all quite close together, which is quite unusual for me. Normally there’s a bit of a spread across the course, but I’ve gone for three, which we’ve already kind of we’ve already touched on the long par five, or shortish par five, should I say rather. Yeah. Um the fifth, then, um so a couple of holes later, is the first of the par threes. Um so it’s an uphill par three, which right into the wind, wasn’t it? Which was right into the wind. So it’s only like 150 yards, but it’s kind of uphill, maybe a club. Um but I think it’s just really well designed. So you’ve kind of got a you’ve got a lot of rough up on the right hand side, which feels like the place that you want to miss, but actually, in reality, once you get up to the green, there’s a big kind of cavernous rope uh runoff down the left hand side. So actually, in reality, behind that rough on the right hand side, there’s a bit of space. Right. So you’re kind of okay, unless you’re to go really far right, which which one of our parts. Not mine, mine. You’re in the green, yeah, you’re in the green.

Nish 24:52

That the uh yeah, Mark and Andy, Mark and Andy both went way miles right. We both were here, I think. Both made fun. Yeah, I mean I’ve got a memory from that one because you I think you played your tee shot. I played mine last, yeah, and you’d played yours, and then it was like there weren’t any challenges or anything, it was just a par three, but it was like it’s tough into the wind kind of thing. And then I played mine, I absolutely buttoned my tee shot, didn’t I? And it was like I should have birdied that hole, really. But I was over I could have only been seven or eight feet away from them, but didn’t have my new putting technique at that point, you see, so I probably would have done it otherwise. But I mean, yeah, it was a it was a wonderful part three into the wind. That is a difficult tee shot.

Chris 25:33

I say it’s only 150 yards, and it looks fairly innocuous, but like I say, if you it feels like you don’t want to go right, but actually, in reality, if you’re left, you’re in much more danger.

Nish 25:41

Yeah, I mean, there’s nothing short, like there’s no danger in short short, it’s just long enough.

Chris 25:45

I mean there’s a bit of a runoff at the at the front, isn’t it? So you want to be short, but you could probably just play it low and and let it scoot up or something like that. I just felt like it’s really well designed, par three. It was nice, wasn’t it? It catches you out a little bit with with kind of the visuals and the aesthetics of it, but actually strategically, I think it’s a really great hole.

Nish 26:01

I’ll tell you something else I remember from that whole crisp. Okay, so we had to cross a gate, didn’t we? You had to cross a little road to get over to it. Yeah, I just pick up on stuff like this. How many times do you go on a golf course? And you got these gates and things like that, and they’re like, you’re like, looks like it just needs a lick of paint or something. That was a brand new gate. Now I don’t know how new that was, but that was like splinters still coming out of the damn thing. It was like it was always branches and trees, it was just spick and span, wasn’t it? I think that’s that that’s kind of true. Everything around there, isn’t it? Everything just looks perfect. They can’t have it, they can’t have it if they’ve got uh anything out of place there at all. It was uh yeah, it was really that was that was a beautiful, beautiful hole.

Chris 26:40

Yeah. Um what have you got next? The next I’ve got is it’s a two par fives actually, which again is quite unusual for me. So I’ve got the eighth. Yeah, which was that uh that was our signature.

Signature Hole Challenge: The 8th

Nish 26:49

That was our signature hole challenge. Shall we go there? Sure, we might as well, I guess. While we while we’re talking about it, tell me what you liked about it, I suppose.

Chris 26:57

What I liked about it is it’s it’s not a particularly long hole, so it’s only 480 yards, I think, so it’s a pretty short par five. However, 468, I’ve got off the yeah, it was a short one, so it’s definitely gettable. Yeah, but the drive, I mean the drive was into the wind, although the hole was into the wind, I’m assuming that’s the that’s the way it normally feels like short.

Nish 27:14

But almost all of that until we turned at the halfway, like everything was into the wind, and we were in all different directions, but it was like we’re always into the wind. Yeah, what is going on here?

Chris 27:23

Um but yeah, it’s a really narrow fairway, and you’ve got a big drop-off on the left, and you’ve got some kind of trees down the right. Um, so it’s a it’s a tight drive, it’s a tough, it’s quite an intimidating drive, I think. Yeah, which is good because I think I can say it’s that you’ve kind of you’ve got a chance, but there’s also some risk in there as well. Um, so if you get a good drive, which I did, um it gives you a really good opportunity to make a good score.

Nish 27:47

I think on a non-windy day, yeah. If you were able to shape, if you were to draw it slightly just off the middle, you then catch the down slope. Yeah, you’re gonna have a monster drive there, aren’t you? And then that will do. A wedging probably pretty much at that. Yeah, that would uh, but I mean how often do you get a non-windy day there? I don’t really know that’s the thing.

Chris 28:05

So I think it’s yeah, it’s a tough tea shot, but I think the second shot is really my favourite part of the whole. So it’s kind of it’s a kind of raised green and it’s surrounded by dunes. You’ve got this big dune just in front of it to the right hand side, so you can kind of you can see the green, but you can’t you can’t quite get a feel for what it’s like up there. Yeah, but you’re in range, two-tiered, big, two-tiered green, you’re in range, right? So you can have a crack at it, even into the wind. I did a decent drive. Yeah, and I was right, do you know what? I just fancy this shot. I’m gonna get my three wood out, and I’m gonna draw one off that mound and and and and um and see where it ends up. So anyway, I hit an absolute peach of a second shot. Yeah, over the flat, probably, wasn’t it? Right at the flag. I was like, Yeah, that’s gonna be really good. Yeah, that’s gonna be really good. And I get all that and I was like, yeah, where is it? I wasn’t expecting it to be on the green. Did you did you check the hole? Did you did you think? Well I did, but it was right into the wind, and I was like, Oh, maybe it’s just come up short. So I was just checking short, short, short for ages, and I was like, Oh, there’s nothing there. I kind of been like the tune’s quite far back from the green. I was like, I don’t think I would have been that far back. So I was like, I’ll go and have a look up on the green. Nothing on the green. I don’t think I looked in the hole at that point because I thought that’s ridiculous. I’m not an ish. Um hey, I’m taking that.

Nish 29:14

I’m taking it there.

Chris 29:16

So yeah, so then it just happened that it had just trickled over the back of the green, and it was right behind the flag, but it just trickled behind and it had just settled in a really nasty piece of rough on the upslope. Which I felt like the shot deserved more than that.

Nish 29:29

It did it in fairness, it did. It was you did you hit it and it was uh you know, I’m filming it, and I’m just looking at it and go, Oh my god, he’s really hit that well. Yeah, that is the the shot.

Chris 29:40

That was the shot, yeah. Um so yeah, felt a bit lucky there. So just gone over the back of the green, and then I had a tough ship out, but I think the greens at Formby were were difficult. I think they were quick and they were slopey, so yeah. So I kind of got a little bit too much ball going through, uh uh, and it just went all the way off the green, rolled all the way back down the hill, down the fellow. There’s a lot of video of me chuckling. There’s a lot of video of me chuckling. I’ll tell you what, I just didn’t feel like that bad of chip to be honest. It’s not like I thinned it or anything, like it got contact with the ball, it’s just it was just a bit of a tough line, just shot out a little bit, just shot out a bit, yeah.

Nish 30:18

And it just sort of I think you hit it and you went, oh, it’s sort of okay, and then it caught the downslope, and then it went and it just went even further. I think it was rolled off the green, didn’t it, or something? Yeah, and then so in the meantime, so I’d put my drive out to the right a little bit, so there’s a the the fairway runs out, and then you get a dip of rough. So it meant I didn’t have any option, I had to lay up really, I had to just kind of play out of it. Um, and then I set I went more left into the rough rough again, but then maybe about 60-70 yards short. Yeah, so both my approach shots were just blind, I just had to kind of pick a spot and aim for it, which works well for me sometimes. If I’ve got a target, it’s just an area and that should just pretend to do that all the time. So then my I hit my third and ended up on the on the green. So I’m on green regulation, yeah, and I’m like, this is alright.

Chris 31:03

And I’m not, even though I was only like three feet off the back of the green, yeah.

Nish 31:07

Well, you know, and you’ve you’ve like rolled off. So I’m thinking, all right, well, you know, I mean, I don’t know what was SI on that one. Stroke index on that one was stroke index five. So I probably would have had a shot on you anyway, yeah. But um, I think you’re probably guessing from all of this that I didn’t need the shot. But um so you then hit your first approach back onto the screen, came up, didn’t quite make it to the top tier. No, you’d walked off a little bit, and then it rolled back, and you were like, Oh fuck, it’s back again. I was just like, this is fucking hilarious, and then so then you were like, right, I line up was like, right, I late my first putt, didn’t really do too well with it. Um, and uh I think I still had like 10 feet or something like that. Yeah, then you played your next one, and like the next one like went shooting by or something. I don’t know what you even know. I think you’d even made halfway or something like that. This is all on we’ll have it all playing, by the way, on the video version. So it didn’t even make halfway, and it was like, oh, hang on a minute, I think I’ve got a chance here.

Chris 32:06

Yeah, there was I am masked quite a few eights on that day, I think, didn’t I? It was one of those days, and I think do you know what I think that’s testament to the course? I think every you once you’re at the green, it’s not it’s not over at Formby. I think every shot that you play on on that around that course you need to be switched on and you need to be tuned into what you’re trying to do. Yeah, if you get it slightly wrong, you’re gonna be in trouble again.

Nish 32:27

I want to shock you, Chris. You actually only got two eights.

Chris 32:29

Did I? Yeah. Did I get some nines?

Nish 32:31

You didn’t get anything. All right, okay. Nine, eight, eight was your eight was your highest. Yeah, okay. Um, which I’m in two eights in a one round is two eights, a six and eight on the signature hole challenges are pretty on a power five. You should be licking your lips on a power five, Chris. Um yeah, I mean, look, I had great fun watching it all unfold. And uh, like I said, we’ll be we’ll be playing all this, but it was a wonderful hole. It was. And do yourself a favour if you’re on that on the green and you get a chance, just turn and look back at where you’ve just teed off from because there’s a beautiful like dip and rise. And and I think that course has that in plenty, yeah. It’s not that flat, flat as a pancake kind of terrain, and they maybe built a few bits up.

Chris 33:10

There’s lots of undulation, lots of character, and even on some of the flatter holes, you’ve still got all the kind of lumps and bumps that you’d kind of expect with with links Golf.

Nish 33:17

Yeah, I think they’ve they’ve done that, that has been designed into the course incredibly well. Yeah, the nothing is flat and featureless. No, it’s really like there’s something there, even if it’s like and one of my uh favourite holes um had this bit where you know the the the drive was relatively sort of flat, but then as you get to the green, the complex is such that you can kind of use the terrain to feed your ball around and that kind of thing. Yeah, um it just keeps you interested all the way. For sure. It was so good. Um, so you had eight. Did you have do you say you had another one that was uh that we mentioned are there your three? That’s my three, yeah. That’s your three. Okay, but well I’m I’m gonna go one hole back, so I’m gonna go at the seventh. Okay, yeah, which we again we highlighted in the preview as a whole, a notable hole, and that was one of the Donald Steele redesigned ones. I thought that was a fabulous golf hole. Like it’s not really a driver, it’s an iron slash hybrid or wood off the Tee. Yeah. Narrow landing spot at about 200 yards, there’s a big bunker on the left.

Chris 34:20

Yeah,

Bunkers, Par 5s, and the 12–14 Stretch

Chris 34:20

um I think just worth noting, I think the bunkers at Formby were brilliant.

Nish 34:24

They were amazing, weren’t they? They were this is coming from me.

Chris 34:27

Yeah, well you can hate them then. They were all uh I mean, there’s quite a lot, quite a lot of them. There’s not like loads and loads, but there’s there’s enough of them, and they’re all right in those landing landing zones. You’ve really got to be strategic on off the team. You want to fly them, the fairway bumpers, and you can like there’s a there’s an opportunity there for you, so it’s not like overly punitive, but you’ve got to get it right, you’ve got to get in the right half of the fairway, or you’ve got to get it right, or you’ve got to get it at the right yardage to kind of stay out of them. And I think that’s sometimes you don’t quite get that, but I think you get that. You’ve got to think your way around that golf course.

Nish 34:56

I think it just lends itself to strategy there, doesn’t it? But that was a beautiful golf hole, and it was like you know, there’s it’s all uphill rising all the way, but there’s dips and hollows, and um again, we’ll have played the video on the video version of it. Um, and then I mentioned that kind of 12-14 stretch. I really liked 13. I just mentioned there there was a hole where it was like a relatively flat drive, but then it’s these built-up mounds, and you kind of you know, I played my approach to the right, knowing full well everything kind of cambered down towards the hole, and it sure you didn’t quite just push one. No, I just pushed it, but you know, hey, nobody sees that, do they? Until you admit it on a podcast. Uh, and then 14 is a point I think is it didn’t come up on any previews, but is well worth making the effort on this hole. So the 14 is right next to the the halfway hut. Yeah, um, pretty tough drive, it’s a narrow landing spot, but you it’s it’s high up next to the the uh halfway hut and you’re shooting straight at the clubhouse, yeah. Which something good about that, there always is. Um, and it’s just a beautiful hole. Now, generally speaking, everyone’s gonna be playing off of yellows or or whatever. Make the effort to go up to the championship tee, yeah, because it’s much higher up. Yeah, it’s a completely different hole from there, isn’t it? It’s totally different hole. I mean, it’s an easier drive, I think, from up there because you can see a lot more of your landing spots. Yeah, possibly, yeah. But um amazing, and that’s the picture that I took. I didn’t take it from the from where we we teed off. So definitely put that in your little asterisk on on 14 to do. Um, and that like I said, that that little stretch. What do you think of the par threes in general, Chris? Uh what did I think of the par threes?

Chris 36:32

I mean, obviously I’ve picked one of them for my for my favourite holes, so that that was a that was a good hole. I think as a collection, probably not up there in in my favourites. They were they certainly weren’t bad, but um, but yeah. Didn’t leave didn’t float your boat. Uh it’s not that they didn’t float my boat, I just think I think the par fives were really strong. I think I think as a collection of par fives, they were some of my favourites. Um, I’d go along with that, you know. Which maybe I don’t know, lessened the impact of the par threes for me, maybe not sure. Yeah, um, but yeah, I I I didn’t come away because sometimes we come away going, oh, those par threes are incredible, like especially when you play the Heathland courses, that’s just so pretty and so like perfect. And yeah, I didn’t kind of get that feel from the par threes, but like I say, I was I was a fan of the par fives.

Nish 37:18

I liked the par threes. Yeah, I’ll tell you for why. Um it was I thought they were playable par threes. I don’t think there’s some par threes you’ve we’ve played and you’re just like, oh my god, like if you’re not accurate, yeah, you’re screwed. Yeah, and I think these all had good bailout around them. You know, they weren’t trying to overly penalise you and make you lose a load of golf balls and whatever.

Chris 37:44

I I think I think they were tough with the runoffs though. They were hard with the runoffs. If you miss yeah the the greens are fairly generous, I would say, yeah, for most of them. Um and they’re not particularly long, are they? I can’t quite remember there’s certainly two. There’s only there’s only three of them. Yeah, there’s two is two are short, aren’t they? So the sixteenth is a short one, the the fifth is a short one. I can’t remember what yardage the what was the third part three.

Nish 38:06

Uh so we’ve got the fifth, which is we played that was like one fifty, isn’t it? 160. The fifth, it was uh the tenth, which was 180. Yeah, and then we had the sixteenth, we’re 120. Yeah, yeah. So there’s one long, two short.

Chris 38:22

Yeah, and I guess there’s only three of them, so maybe that’s why they’re less memorable.

Nish 38:25

Maybe less memorable because of that, yeah. Absolutely. I mean that’s quite, yeah, so that’s unusual, isn’t it, as well. Um, Hole in One Watch.

Chris 38:31

No, uh nowhere near it. Nothing notable. No, it wasn’t a great day for me on the on the course, golf wise.

Nish 38:37

No, it wasn’t. Well, look, we’ll we’ll we’ll get to our uh any any well, actually, any of the notable bits that you saw. We sort of said that we’ve got the 18th green, which is magnificent, isn’t it? Really good ending point. And set said lady who welcomed us into the clubhouse, and we were a bit like, oh, what’s happened here? She came scurrying over when we were having our food afterwards, yeah. And she was like, Did one of you drop a golf glove? And I was like, Yeah, I I did. And she was like, Oh, well, here you go. And I was like, How how on earth did you know that was that was mine? She switched on, so good fair play to her.

Chris 39:10

This is because you were fully adidased up . Yeah, there’s only one in that guy. It’s definitely him. Yeah, it’s got a tattoo on his own. One thing that I’ve just remembered that I’ve forgotten is actually we left that clubhouse and what did we what did we not do, Nish, before we went?

The Bill We Forgot to Pay

Nish 39:23

Oh yeah, I mean, this shouldn’t really um shouldn’t shouldn’t we should we broadcast this? We forgot to pay our bill, didn’t we? We walked away and we didn’t walk away, we were in the car, like we’d walked very casually, nothing had happened, got in the car, and I just went, Chris, did you pay the food bill? He’s like, No, no, did you pay the food bill? I was like, Oh, I didn’t pay it. So we rang him up straight away.

Chris 39:48

So we sat there for a while, so not ages. Quite sure how we didn’t pay.

Nish 39:50

I even went and said, you know, thank you for your hospitality, it helped us, whatever. At no point was it like, oh, you need to pay us kind of thing. It was weird, wasn’t it? I you know, I’m not endorsing anybody doing this, but like that was lovely that they didn’t even it wasn’t transactional for them, they were just so nice and stuck in the the hospitality mode. Yeah, but yeah, we rang up and we were like, Oh, so sorry. And they went out and they went, actually, thank you for reinating and telling us that you did that. Um, so that then leads us to our side bet. Side bet Jim had set us was the most net birdies. Now, you probably got a bit of a hint that I’ve won that, but I’ve won that six birdies, six net birdies to your three, and four of those came on the back nine for me. All three of yours came on the back nine, so we sharpened up our game at the end, then didn’t we? Yeah, I think yeah, I think because we were playing match play, weren’t we, against the lads? And we I mean we have to also mention that. Yeah, we pasted the Scotland, yeah. We pasted them like with like four roles together. I think we was it was done and dusted on the 13th or 14th or something, wasn’t it? Yeah, yeah, I was like, thanks for coming, lads. Yeah until next time. Until next time, yeah, on the top 110 goal podcast. Um yeah, okay. Well look, uh the the obvious question now is does it get into your top five Formby? I think it does. Does it? I think it does, yeah. Right. Okay. I think it does. Does it get into your top three? I think it probably just misses out on that. Right. And is that it misses out on anything that’s come since? Because this has gone back a little bit. We’ve played a couple of rounds. Does anything else come in, or it just it’s genuinely out of the top three?

The Verdict: Top Five or Not?

Chris 41:24

Uh I think at the time it was in the top three. Right, interesting. So for this, for the for the purpose of this review and this podcast, this is this in podcast we are reviewing this a little bit late, aren’t we? We’ve had busy schedules, we’ve not managed to get together to review this, so uh we’re a little bit behind schedule. We have played quite a few other courses since then. We have. Um, I think at the time it was in my top three. It’s not into my top three. Okay. Yep.

Nish 41:46

I would say it’s it has all the ingredients to go into my top five. It’s not going to because I I’m I’m just a awkward fucker. So uh I I’m ranking these things completely not based on what the golf course is like. So I’m very sorry, Formby golf club. I had a fabulous time there, and I think you’ve got a fabulous golf course. And dare I say it, 300 odd quid is punchy but worth it. Um but I don’t think it I mean it put it probably pushes in my top five, I don’t think it will make it in there. And I think that’s because there’s probably a whole lot of other stuff that I consider that goes into my top five. I don’t think Formie did anything bad, it’s just I’m nitpicking on the best of the best kind of thing. So I feel like a bit of a golf fraud for saying it’s not going into a top five at the time of playing that was 26 in. Yeah. Um yeah, but it doesn’t quite a highly noticeable, notable mention and a very creditable uh performance by Formby. Um I’ve now got our three reasons to visit Formby golf club. So we touched upon it when we first started. Um the visuals of that golf course are absolutely out of this world, aren’t they? Yeah, it’s stunning, absolutely stunning. I I I I’ve probably taken a tee shot, a picture of almost every tea and every tee shot. Yeah. It was there was something interesting about everything. Um and you look at them, you look back at them, and it and they don’t feel like a boring set of pictures. Like it was just like amazing. Yeah, really easy on the eye. Um, number two, that clubhouse is fantastic. Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it? Right. I mean it’s massive, isn’t it? It’s huge, absolutely huge, really comfortable. Yes, hospitality was wonderful, it’s really amazingly decked out. It’s like like a little bit like hillside in that kind of modern but traditional kind of way. Yeah, yeah. Um, loads of memorabilia on the walls and things to to kind of get your teeth into, and then the locker rooms are amazing, yeah. They were so nice, so that was great. And then a third reason I’ve got is that you know, you you’re going into these areas and you’re playing sort of you know some of the best links courses around or whatever, and there’s been a debate about lithium recently, hasn’t there? You know, with the women’s open, is it a links course? It’s surrounded by houses and trees, whatever. Yeah, but I thought that was a really varied golfing challenge, yeah. For sure. You know, you you you have you do have trees, but you don’t you know you don’t have heather and gorse and things like that to contend with, but the rough is up a little bit on the sides, yeah. You gotta keep it within the confines. But which is good about links courses, sometimes you can spray it to the next um fairway and you’ve got to shot in.

Chris 44:30

Yeah, you know, so I can I can attest that doesn’t happen uh at Formby.

Nish 44:37

There was one hole that I ended up on, I think it might have been the 12th where I ended up, it was straight after the halfway hut, actually. I ended up on the other the other fairway, and there was three three guys coming up that fairway, and I was sort of like walking on to come place my trolley, so I kind of roughly knew an idea of where the the green was because I couldn’t see it from where I was gonna play. And he was like shouting over, he was like, Hey, hey bud, I think he was American. Hey buddies like you got your balls here. I was like, Yeah, I was alright, I got it. See, it’s right in the middle of your fairway. I’m really savvy, kind of thing, but um, yeah, it was brilliant. So, was there anything else you would like to say as your last parting words to Formby golf club, mate?

Chris 45:14

Um, my last parting words to Formby golf club. Um, yeah, I just like I said, I just think they’ve done an incredible job of keeping that. I mean, incredible, it’s been pretty dry summer, but it was just beautiful, wasn’t it? It was a beautiful place to play golf. Um, I didn’t see any red squirrels, which I was a little bit disappointed about. Yeah, no red squirrels.

Nish 45:34

Um but and you were out in the rough quite a lot. I was.

Chris 45:38

I mean, that’s essentially why I was out in the rough niche. I was just oh I see I was squirrel hunting, wasn’t poor golf.

Nish 45:42

Totally makes sense, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you’ve got no other excuse, have you? If you just keep putting it in the middle, you can’t see anything in the wildlife, can you?

Chris 45:49

No. Uh yeah, but no, I had an incredible day then. I I really enjoyed it, and like I say, it felt like a premium experience for me.

Nish 45:56

Yes, and we’ll we’ll like to say just thank you to Formby Golf Club. They have actually we will in the video version, you’ll see we’ve got flyovers of the and drone footage of the the course, and that it was courtesy of them and um James Hogg photography. So thank you to those guys for letting us do that. Um, my parting words to Formby would be I hope to see you again because uh I’d love I loved that place. Yeah, yeah, and everything was so nice about it, and obviously the lead up to it was great, wasn’t it? Going through all the mansions and things like that. So yeah, I hope that we we do cross paths at some time again soon. Wonderful place. Put it on your bucket list course. Yeah, list until next time on the top 100 in 10 golf podcasts.