Gleneagles Queen’s Course Preview

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.

Chris: 0:06

I’m Chris.

Nish: 0:07

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 28. The Glorious Playground, Glene agles Eagles, Queen’s queen’s Course Preview.

Nish: 0:19

There’s a quote from a chap called Patrick Patrickrick Dickinson dickinson who wrote a Glene agles book about eagles and he said about the resort in general. He said let us be fair from the very start, and even before we start, eagles is something that was created and exists sheerly to please. Now, that’s a nice quote to go into the weekend, isn’t it

Nish: 0:43

?

Chris: 0:43

that’s a nice little thought to have in your head as you’re driving the four or five hours up to Scotland, isn’t it? Yeah, that’s a good point.

Nish: 0:51

Well, we’ve only just done it, we’ve been up for a guy who does our branding, tom Biddle, just been up for his wedding and that’s pretty much next door to Glen Eagles.

Chris: 0:59

So we sort of drove past You’ve already done the trip.

Nish: 1:01

Yeah, it’s great. I don’t think my car’s going to be able to hack it for two, two weeks weeks in a row, uh, but the queen’s course, which is what we’re playing first, uh is ranked 77 on our list. Yep, and the. It’s been really difficult to actually get information. That’s kind of course specific, because there are three courses there and also, I think, because of the hotel right.

Chris: 1:25

The hotel is almost probably more famous than the golf course in some ways so a lot of it’s kind of like wrapped up in that, I think, isn’t it. So you kind of get. You get some good kind of glen eagles general kind of um, you know, general kind of content about the experience you’ve got, the glen eagles and the hotel and how wonderful a place it is and all the customer service and stuff. But you don’t necessarily see or hear that much about the golf courses. There’s a little bit of a kind of enigma about them, isn’t there in some?

Nish: 1:50

ways. Yeah, they don’t put too much on their website.

Chris: 1:53

No, it’s kept to a minimum and I’m guessing for a reason right, it’s to kind of whet the appetite a little bit yeah but all the touches that are there are like.

Nish: 2:02

But all the touches that are there are like like the website is well, one of the things that we found out. So the way we’re playing these two courses is we’re taking our wives up because we feel like this is going to be a once in a lifetime type experience. Yep, actually not because of that it’s because we love them very much, but it’s a real, once in a lifetime experience. The hotel which then Lucy subsequently told us yeah, yeah, the 41st best hotel in the world.

Chris: 2:31

Yeah, so that’s got my juices flowing already.

Nish: 2:32

Uh, we’re gonna. There’s a two mish is our restaurant in there, so we’re gonna go and have some food in there yeah we’re doing the, we’re going all out really, and we were even staying in the premier inn in sterling the night before so that we can save our experience. At 7 am we’re off upon glen eagles doorstep so I feel like it’s been building up quite a lot anyway, and then when we get to prepare for the previews, you’re scrabbling around to find some information and yeah you know, every other course is like detailed flyovers of each hole.

Nish: 3:03

Yeah, yeah, there is really detailed yardage books and visualizers and all this kind of stuff, and then lots of people have played these courses and left really detailed reviews.

Chris: 3:14

Yeah, it doesn’t seem to be that much kind of information. And it’s odd, isn’t it? Because occasionally I mean, I don’t chat to my friends too much about this because it bores the hell out of them. So I just chat to you about it. But I chat to a few of my friends that aren’t golfers and you say, oh, we’re going to play well St David’s this week, and they’re like just a glazed look.

Nish: 3:32

And they don’t give a shit, don’t care, not interested.

Chris: 3:37

Can we talk about something else now? But you say Glen Eagles and One of the first mates that I spoke to about it. This was before we’d done any and he was like well, you’re not going to be able to do that, are you? I was like, well, why not? He was like well, you’re never going to be able to get on some of these places. He’s like how the hell, are you, chris Gibbons, going to get into Gleneagles? This is a uni mate, is it?

Nish: 4:05

No, this is a mate from moments. Oh so they’re even older, right?

Chris: 4:06

yeah, as uni mates and make some really like far back, can say stuff like that yeah, absolutely so. Yeah, he’s like how are you gonna get into glen eagles? Like he’s never gonna happen.

Nish: 4:09

Yeah, but like that was the first course that came to his came to, came to mind for him that was like you know, one of the one of the most famous ones yeah, but there’s this, so the story of how we’ve we have got onto glen eagles. So we are actually playing uh as much as we’re doing the weekend away, but we are actually playing the two courses back to back. We’re playing them in queens first, which is what we’re reviewing today, yeah, and we’re playing kings second and we’re going to review that next week. Uh preview that I should say next week, and we’ll do the same with the reviews, but we are playing with uh. So I mentioned tom before we went up to Scotland for his wedding. It’s his wife’s uncle, so Katie’s uncle he’s called Uncle Hendy.

Chris: 4:52

Big thanks to Uncle Hendy massive, yeah, particularly as he’s.

Nish: 4:56

I don’t know if he was crying it in because he thinks he’s not going to play very well or whether he was actually worried about getting on, but he thinks he’s done his rotator cuffing. Was it quite a few weeks ago? But he’s not. But I think he’s done his rotator cuffing quite a few weeks ago. So he’s not sure If he’s done that he’s not going to break off, he said he was fishing.

Nish: 5:10

So he was like, you know, whatever Classic fishing injury, that Well, what he’s done is he’s done us a right treat, actually. So Hendy’s been a member. Hendy’s a great character, by the way, so I a great character, by the way. So I hope he does get to play with us fully. Yeah, because he’s a great laugh, okay, like a full-on good laugh, excellent, good scottish banter. Yeah, yeah, cool, and he, uh, so he’s been a member there for 25 years.

Nish: 5:34

Okay, doesn’t get to play much, which is criminal, but he doesn’t get to play much, yeah, uh. So already we’re in. You know we’ve got somebody who knows the lay of the land, all that kind of thing. Yeah, it’s likely we’re in. You know we’ve got somebody who knows the lay of the land, all that kind of thing. Yeah, it’s likely we’re going to be playing with a buddy of his Okay, who, again, I met at the wedding. Yep, now, if he plays with us, he’s been a member. He certainly can do the Saturday, yep, so that’s King’s course, definitely, okay, he’s going to see if he can do Queen’s of glenn eagles for 60 years. Wow, so he joined. It was a family membership that his family took on 60 years ago. Yeah, and it was 10 guineas. I don’t know what that is in modern money, maybe that’s worth a google, but 10 guineas for the whole family to join, and he’s been a member ever since.

Nish: 6:17

Wow so so what that’s that?

Chris: 6:19

what’s that? Then do my quick maths. What’s that like 60s, 60s, yeah, so he’s seen.

Nish: 6:26

One of the things that has come out we’ll probably talk about it a bit later is the the changes in the course and the re-changes back, but he’s seen all of that yeah so for him to be able to go. Actually, this is what’s changed. Yeah, yeah is incredible.

Chris: 6:38

Probably seen it before and before even that, and then the change, and then after the change.

Nish: 6:42

Yeah, so it’s so, it’s quite that’s. I’m very much looking forward to playing with hendy anyway but as soon as that got chucked into mix, I was like, oh my god, this is going to be even better now. It feels like you watch a lot of other podcasts and, golf course, review videos, yeah, and you know somebody will come out, a little bit like when gareth came out with us. Yeah, it was a full history and all that kind of thing.

Chris: 7:05

But you know, this is like somebody who’s lived literally, seen the history, literally, seen it all you know he says you know gareth?

Nish: 7:13

gareth were younger than us so for him to go. Oh, yeah, there’s all these, yeah, great, but you’ve not really seen that. Yeah, and as much as we appreciated it, it was great, yeah, but this is, yeah, like doing some real tale I would imagine like a good old if you’d have hit your t-shirt there 60 years ago you’d have been in trouble.

Chris: 7:29

I mean, I’m looking forward to that even just like there must be some pretty awesome stories around it, just like you know, celebrities that have been there and just the general like there must be some pretty cool tales yeah glenn eagles it’s um, it feels like, it’s uh yeah I think you said you say at the top of movies before but that kind of playground of the rich and famous in scotland, and yeah, I think it was.

Nish: 7:52

It was mentioned in the same uh breath on one of the reviews that I read as loch lomond, and loch lomond is quite mythical in that yeah in that respect, and you can’t just get on there and all that kind of stuff, like yeah, I just feel like I’m giddy with excitement, absolutely, about playing these courses.

Chris: 8:09

I think it’s also, I guess, kind of alluding to what I was just saying. It’s the first course.

Nish: 8:13

Really, that like it’s kind of a big deal right, it’s a big hitter, or the resort is Glen Eagles.

Chris: 8:22

People know it, yeah, or the resort is. People know it. It’s the biggest name by far that we’ve played so far up to now that was SNA, wasn’t it?

Nish: 8:30

and reputationally everybody knows SNA, who’s a golfer, but, like you said, your mates don’t know everybody knows Glen Eagles.

Chris: 8:38

You know everyone from every part of the world. Everyone knows Glen Eagles. There’s probably at least 56% of the golf courses on that list that even most like you know, most americans or whatever, would never have heard I’d not heard of them. Yeah, exactly, we’d never heard of them, yeah we live right that’s it um. But glenn eagles is pretty iconic isn’t it now also chuck in?

Nish: 9:00

and I think one of the other reasons I’m really looking forward to this whole weekend is the name Glen Eagles jumps into a lot of golf fans memory banks. Anyway, straight away, because in 2014, it hosted the Ryder Cup, which Paul McGinley was captain. Jamie Donaldson famously hit his approach shot. I was actually there and I was on the side of that green when he hit that approach shot. Nice, and we were not in the midst of celebrations because you are ushered away from it all, but you know we were caught up in that whole thing, you know, and seeing him, you know, walking down the fairway with his finger in the air and you know it was like felt 20 feet tall, all that kind of thing, you know we lived through that and we’re not playing that course.

Nish: 9:51

That’s the pj centenary course. That was purpose built.

Chris: 9:53

Yeah, um, in some quarters very uh rudely described as an absolute abomination of scottish golf. Yeah, well, isn’t it? It’s like ranked like 50 odd just in scotland, isn’t it? So it’s like what? It’s nowhere near, nowhere near, yeah absolutely yeah. But then you said you you watched a review video and somebody said they thought it was the yeah, however it was, it was it was another podcast actually, but I think basically what happened is he played really well there are no other podcasts.

Chris: 10:12

Chris, yeah, he played really well that day and I didn’t play so well the other day, so I suspect that that’s probably okay. There’s a little bit of yeah. It’s kind of going to his thinking what’s that now?

Nish: 10:21

that what I think ultimately it’s just, it’s a big kind of american style, golf course long yeah, long, lots of big bunkers, white, really wide fairways you can see what they’ve done to to make it a right I mean, look, you know the like you said, the purpose, built it right.

Chris: 10:34

They’ve built it so you can have loads of crowds there. They’ve built it so there’s going to be exciting moments and but I think, yeah, the kings and queens are slightly different in terms of their yeah, they feel like they’re, they’re like the grand old, yeah it feels kind of old school old school courses.

Nish: 10:48

Yeah, I mean, I’ve gone to the extent where I’ve bought myself some really nice new shoes.

Chris: 10:53

I bought a nice lyle and scott sweater pretty much at the minute.

Nish: 10:56

Uh, nice, lyle and scott sweater, that just it feels like it deserves that extra little bit and I’ve not. I’ve not felt the need. Like you know, one of the courses we potentially can get on later on this year is dornick, which is in the top five. Yeah, royal dornick, even with the royal, even when I’ve played the place that shall remain, remain nameless. A couple of times I’ve not felt the need to do that, but my, what I’m wearing, yeah, yeah, but I feel like it deserves that little bit of extra.

Nish: 11:29

Yeah, definitely, yeah, you know, I don’t, I don’t know yeah, a little little soup, some of extra dress but, um, yeah, so so you know, so it holds a bit a special, something special for me anyway, and I’m really looking forward to being in that place. And obviously I’ve seen all the videos afterwards and they do all the behind the scenes stuff and that would have been in the actual hotel and resort itself. So yeah, things might sort of pop up and I might have a bit of uh, I mean, I didn’t see it at the time obviously because we weren’t allowed to just spectators, but you know the whole like getting there at five in the morning and then running to get to the first tee, all that kind of thing.

Chris: 12:04

I’ve still never done a Ryder Cup. I would like to do that.

Nish: 12:08

Yeah, it was. The first one we went to was Celtic Manor. Okay, yeah, that was the first time they’d done this whole amphitheatre, first tee. Yeah, yeah.

Nish: 12:18

They’d never done that before, yeah, and so it wasn’t really that big. So actually getting there was quite that’s some good laughs at that one, actually, because it was the first. It was the first golf thing I’d ever seen live, anyway, right, I’ve never seen the tournament of any description, so to have this kind of europe, usa thing, brilliant. Yeah, and it was my first experience of american golf fans as well yeah, never seen that whatever and it was.

Nish: 12:46

It was hilarious because we’re in like south wales. Uh, you’re getting a whole mishmash of accents from the British Isles there. Yeah, yeah, they were not getting any of the chanting that the Europeans were doing at all.

Nish: 12:58

They just couldn’t. The accents weren’t cutting through. So we had some good fun with that. But I guess we’re getting back to the Queen’s course Now. The Queen’s course is described as the fun of I’m going to say the two. Let’s say the two at the minute, let’s take PJ out of the equation but two original courses. The fun one of the two.

Chris: 13:16

The fun little sister. I think I’ve heard it required.

Nish: 13:17

Fun little sister, yeah which that’s Her Majesty the Queen up in heaven being described as the fun little sister I’m not sure she’d like that. But yeah, I’m not sure she’d like that. Yeah, I mean, it’s a really short course. It’s like 5,600 yards from the yellows. Yeah, I think even the white’s only just tipped to 6,000. It’s pretty wild isn’t it.

Chris: 13:38

Yeah, I reckon we can still make a mess of it though, nish oh 100%.

Nish: 13:42

I fully expect that, but it’s got one par 5. Yeah.

Chris: 13:52

And five par threes. I should say sorry, it’s got back to back par threes as well, hasn’t it?

Nish: 13:54

yeah, yeah, is it like 12 and 13 or something interesting? I didn’t, I didn’t, yeah that that. Yeah, I think I blanked par threes out after woodall, but I’m I’m led to believe that the par threes are a particular strength of this course. Yeah, you’d hope so if there’s five of them. Yeah, and you know they. I think they’ve got some like blind tee shots and things like that.

Chris: 14:12

So I’ve got a renewed appreciation now for blind shots in general that’s a good thing, I think, but it sounds a bit especially for the king’s course it sounds like there’s yeah, there’s a lot of undulation a lot of blind t-shots on the king’s course, I believe well, there you go, and we’ve got somebody who’s been a member for 60 years guidance.

Nish: 14:27

Yeah, yeah, just just just head for that, yeah great okay fine, um, and then the other thing I’ve got about the queen’s course is that they say that it does actually probably enjoy the best views of the local countryside which I imagine is probably quite a high bar set by the others anyway I mean when we were driving through there, chris yeah, I mean, it was stunning.

Chris: 14:47

It’s such a beautiful part of the world, it isn’t it.

Nish: 14:49

It’s a lovely, lovely I’ve never been to.

Chris: 14:50

Glen Eagles, but just around.

Nish: 14:51

Well we were. I think where the wedding was was probably around about 45 minutes further along the road. It was smaller roads but 45 minutes further along. But when we saw the signs we went oh well, let’s have a little drive. I was like I don’t really want to waste it driving for four and a half hours already. Yeah, um, but yeah, I think that I’m getting that already. We’re a week away and I’m getting that excitement yeah, definitely what is it gonna feel like?

Nish: 15:17

what’s the approach gonna be like? Yeah, in fact, when are we a week? Yeah, we are a week away. Yeah, that’s right, we’re a week away. So, yeah, I think this trip now starting to feel pucker now isn’t it?

Chris: 15:27

I feel like this is probably the most exciting one we’ve done so far. This is it, isn’t it? Most excitement building, because it’s not just golf, is it?

Nish: 15:33

there’s, there’s so much more surrounding it than that by the end of it. I might be saying that as well.

Nish: 15:38

It wasn’t just about the golf, you know yeah, yeah, let’s forget about the goal yeah, um, so I suppose we ought to give a little bit of history of the club now. We said at the outset there is a little bit of a dearth of information about the course. There’s not much on the website because it’s primarily hotel based. Yeah, and it’s one of these things where it’s a bit of an annoyance actually that you can get really good golf courses. They’re linked to a hotel, it’s a resort and it’s like the golf. There’s very minimal information about it and I think that’s that’s.

Chris: 16:08

It’s often the case, isn’t it? I think you know the belfry and celtic manor are kind of similar, I think, in that it’s a, it’s a resort right like they’ve obviously afterthought. Yeah I mean, it’s not the, it’s almost not the primary objective, is it? The objective is to get you there for two or three days, and get your money right.

Nish: 16:25

Oh, we’ll be doing that. Yeah, 100. But yeah, you could do a bar crawl in all the bars. Yeah, we could do that and we will. I think we will.

Chris: 16:34

And an important note not only can you do a bar crawl, but the breakfast buffet, which is supposed to be amazing, also has a Bloody Mary stand.

Nish: 16:42

I believe. Oh yes, it’s just getting better, isn’t it? It’s just getting better.

Chris: 16:46

I mean there might not actually be any golf played over the weekend. We not actually be any golf played over the weekend. We’ve got a later tea time on the kings, haven’t we? I think it’s 12 o’clock, yeah, at the king’s school, so that might be a bit of a bit of a saving race.

Nish: 16:58

Five hour drive back home after, uh, after completing that, drive back, chris. I’m gonna go hell for leather on that yeah, yeah yeah, it might get me through the round.

Nish: 17:04

Yeah, I think. Uh, we were talking to to colin, so he’s the one who’s been a member for 60 years, yeah, and he said in passing he was like well, make sure you have a drink in the American bar. Okay, that thing, that’s a really famous bar at Bloody Eagles. I hope you bring your credit card with you, okay, okay, right, fine, so it has been cleared, just to make space. But, yeah, we said it didn’t be at the start, but if we go in, we’re going to get the full experience.

Chris: 17:35

Yeah, there’s no point in going and half doing it as they’re. Like you say, you’re only going to go once yeah, so.

Nish: 17:40

So history of the club wise is not that much around, but a name that golf fans certainly will be familiar with, and that’s james braid. Yeah, a very famous course designer. Yeah, so he’s designed both courses, the kings and the queens. Yeah, sadly didn’t leave live to design the pga centenary one for the rider cup, but this course was the first one to open the queens open in 1917. Yeah, for for actual play by patrons kind of thing, or whatever you’d call them. And the whole state in general has been described as one of the finest parcels of golfing land on the british isles, nice now we have a lot, is it?

Nish: 18:19

it’s great tagline we have a lot of stunning places to play golf on our fair isles, like it’s. Yeah, we’re probably oversubscribed with that, really aren’t we? You know, are we going to get to 100? And we’re like numb to it all and that kind of thing and and you’re kind of you’re looking for the next thrill. It’s like you need a bigger rollercoaster each time.

Nish: 18:35

But for it to be described as that, I think. And then, having driven through it, that area, I was like if there’s, like golf courses here, stunning backdrops I think I’ve mentioned it, I might have mentioned in a preview before, but which is what I was looking forward to? Playing Woodhawks, it was inland. Yeah, I like trees, yeah, I like the backdrop of the tree. I like to see nature’s ball tracer right. Yeah, you hit the ball and you can see the white ball against the backdrop of the dark trees. I love that. Yeah, that for me, that’s golf. That’s magical for for me. So we, we’re gonna get that in bucket loads, yeah, with a few mountains in the background as well. Oh, just a stunning place to to play golf. And it feels a bit unheralded really, doesn’t it? Because kind of in the middle of middle of scotland, isn’t it?

Chris: 19:20

it’s not really like anywhere unusual, like because most of yeah, mostly the courses are links courses, right that’s it um yeah it’s fairly unique, I’d say, in terms of scottish scottish golf.

Nish: 19:30

The main. The main thing that’s happened that’s probably worked in our favor is that in 2017, yeah, they completed a complete renovation of the queen’s course. Okay, this bit isn’t in our favor. They added 89 bunkers. Sweet, which how?

Nish: 19:43

many are there now uh, 90, I don’t know they only had one before, probably, but that was that was basically to enhance the view, which is great. Looking forward to that. And aid drainage. So I think there was another review I read where it said the springy firm that’s an oxymoron, isn’t it? Springy firm? How can you have that? The springy fairways that encourage firm contact, it said. That was it. That encourages firm contact in itself is something I’m really looking forward to. Like you know, if I get it, the fairway, like last round, did not not fill me with any kind of confidence. Um, but it’s moved everything back to more original design.

Chris: 20:25

I think they went and looked back through sketches that, james braden, that’s right, yeah, yeah trying to renovate it, but they did make the fairway 40 wider, I believe, which is definitely in our favor.

Nish: 20:33

Very much so 40 is quite a lot, isn’t it? Having said that, we have said this plenty of times, haven’t we? Where we’ve gone, give me a big, wide fairway and there’s no way I’m hitting it. Yeah, that is true.

Chris: 20:41

Like that happens, so much doesn’t it so true, I think the queens is quite short, isn’t it? And I think there’s quite a lot of hazards on there, like quite a lot of forest and stuff like that.

Nish: 20:51

There’s a premium on strategic golf on the Queens? Yeah, definitely. So how do you feel about playing Queens first over Kings? We didn’t have a choice, which I’ll explain in a minute, but how do you feel about that?

Chris: 21:02

How do I feel about that? I think that’s probably quite a good thing. I think it just eases in a little bit, I think.

Nish: 21:09

Do you think it will ease us or do you think it’ll be a pretty tough test?

Chris: 21:13

I don’t know in my mind it’s going to be much, much easier because it’s only five and a half thousand yards we’re sticking on, described as fun yeah, we’re gonna have fun, we’re gonna have fun, but exactly we don’t care, we’re staying in glen eagles, we’re gonna have a nice time we’re gonna do that, whoever wrote it’s, it’s fun like I’m gonna hunt them down yeah, we have an actual stinker that day, yeah what do you just define fun?

Chris: 21:36

I give me a description of what you mean by fun you sound like a miserable git um yeah, what is fun, known ish, and this is a little nugget that I’ve come across and I’ve never, I’ve never come across this before. Okay, up until just kind of doing a bit of research into glen eagles. But the queen’s course used to be the host to like an 80s tv show called pro celebrity golf yeah, you mentioned this and I’ve just never uh, honest to god, go and have a look at it. It is absolute gold.

Nish: 22:00

Go on and give me the, give me the elevator pitch.

Chris: 22:02

So it’s basically peter alice, obviously very famous legend golf commentator. Yeah, yeah, wearing classic 80s golf get ups. He’s. He’s got massive collars, he’s got the full, like you know.

Nish: 22:13

Pringle jumpers and all that kind of stuff.

Chris: 22:15

He loved it, didn’t he? He absolutely loved it. He lived and breathed it, didn’t he? And with his classic Peter Ellis commentary going on, he’s kind of yeah, he’s awkwardly kind of interviewing the players, but basically the other is lee trevino again do they sign? Up for that. It’s wild, isn’t it? Um, but actually peter alice isn’t it.

Chris: 22:38

Yeah, I mean, I kind of heard about it and I thought that sounds like it’s gonna be quite funny, yeah, so I watched a bit of it. It was quite funny, but actually I think if they remade that, it’d be an absolute, absolute goldmine. I think people would laugh it up. Yeah, who?

Nish: 22:51

would he have Go on then?

Chris: 22:53

Modern day players. Who’s the modern day seven?

Nish: 22:55

So who’s the modern day? Peter Alice, I suppose, as you first said Modern day Peter Alice.

Chris: 22:58

Is that not just Peter Alice still?

Nish: 23:01

Peter.

Chris: 23:01

Alice isn’t still alive, is he?

Nish: 23:17

He’s still not commentating anymore, but it wasn’t that long ago that he was still commentating, yeah okay, all right, I think he’s still alive.

Chris: 23:19

I don’t think let’s keep on peter alice doing it. He’s still gonna do it. Well, look, we’ll ai. These days you can do this, can’t we can do. So we can have a hologram, yeah, yeah, you know, we can have abba in the background.

Nish: 23:23

We can do what we want, we can splice all of his commentary together and we can probably come up with the his bit so let’s keep him. Let’s not not do that with Seve, because what will the Ryder Cup team do? Because that’s the only way they can seem to get motivated to win a match. So who are you two? Because Seve and Lee Trevino are pretty big, big characters, right? Yeah, big characters, and yeah, big characters as well. Yeah, who are you having in today’s golf arena?

Nish: 23:50

It’s really hard isn’t it because you don’t really have those?

Chris: 23:54

kind of characters. Do we really hard to make that kind of comparison?

Nish: 23:56

who’s who’s the maverick? Go on, who’s the maverick golf player right now on tour?

Chris: 24:01

is it? I mean, I guess you could argue maybe for aurori. At least he kind of stands up for what?

Nish: 24:06

he believes he’s pretty outspoken, isn’t he?

Chris: 24:07

yeah, I think he’s got that charisma he did.

Nish: 24:10

I think the tgl did him a world of good because a lot of his stuff on his mic was pretty, pretty decent yeah, I think his personality came out.

Chris: 24:16

I think you’d be quite. I think you, I think you would work quite well on it, because I think you’d have good chat, yeah, yeah, better chat than some of the others, all right, yeah and who’s? I think I chucked him in there is there.

Nish: 24:25

A joker in there, I’ve heard justin thomas is a bit of a joker. We’re putting ricky fowler in there because he’s supposed to be a bit of a joker, isn’t he? And he’s kind of like you know what about the?

Chris: 24:35

uh, what’s called joel, joel darmer? Just stick him in. Oh yeah, so they have celebrities then as well. Then play so yeah so basically, they’re paired then with a celebrity. So one of the celebrities is a sports celebrity, right, one of the, and the other is an entertainment business. So the one I watched was sean connery, of course, classic.

Nish: 24:54

And Henry Cooper, and this was this one that you watched.

Chris: 24:58

Yeah.

Nish: 24:58

I mean, I didn’t watch the entire episode. It was at Gleneagles.

Chris: 25:01

It’s all at Gleneagles.

Nish: 25:02

Oh, the whole thing. Of course, Sean Connery was there.

Chris: 25:05

There’s like eight series of it, so it obviously went on for a long time.

Nish: 25:08

Eight series.

Chris: 25:09

It on the Queen’s course. Yeah, Holy shit. I think there’s definitely like a little rabbit hole of YouTube videos to go and watch there Nish.

Nish: 25:17

Look, I bought a Lyle and Scott jumper, but maybe I’m going to save that for the King’s course. Now I might buy a Pringle jumper just in his honour.

Chris: 25:24

Peter Alice jumper.

Nish: 25:26

Yeah, I mean, do you know what I am going to reuse? Tom got us some tartan trousers to wear for the wedding.

Nish: 25:35

Right tom got us some tartan trousers to wear for the wedding, right, okay, I am actually gonna wear, bring them out for a round. I’m gonna wear them for around it, just I don’t know which way around to do it, potentially, or just maybe both. I don’t know, depends if the weather’s all right. But I’ll bring my kilt then, shall I? Yeah, I mean, I’ve got my plus plus two. Still, good opportunity. It’s a good opportunity to do it, isn’t it? Maybe that’s, I think that, maybe that’s. I think that should be safe. I follow this Instagram feed. They’re called the Hickory Hackers. Okay, so they basically just go around playing all these golf clubs with Hickory clubs I mean mental, really doing that because it’s hard enough, hitting new tech, but something like that which has got zero, yeah, know, yeah, I mean. They do obviously play saint andrews and places like that. Quite a lot big news on saint andrews, though this week. Did you hear about that? I didn’t know so for scottish residents.

Chris: 26:17

They’ve reduced the green fee all right to 42 pounds, 50 if you’ve got any scottish resident? Yeah, it’s. Basically, we just need to buy a house in scotland. Fine, actually, it’s probably cheap just to pay the green fee, isn’t it?

Nish: 26:30

just pay the green fee? Yeah, uh, but how good is that? Yeah, it’s booking the trend of all of the green fees, which are going astronomical yeah, and then suddenly the home of golf comes along and says no, you’re all right, actually, if you’re scottish, yeah we’re gonna give you.

Chris: 26:44

Do they have like first dibs on tea times as well? Can they get?

Nish: 26:47

I’ve got no idea actually yeah we’ve got two tea times a day. Yeah, well, the whole scott, that St Andrews University thing. But you can never get on. Yeah, we’ve got two tee times a day. Yeah, the whole St Andrews University thing. Do they then get first dibs on?

Chris: 27:02

I think there’s a day. I think there’s a specific day, like Tuesday or whatever, that they can go and play and there’s a section of tees that they can go and play.

Nish: 27:08

To be fair, bear in mind what St Andrews is and what it means to golf. It’s democratic, though, isn’t it? Because you can just turn up in the morning and get added onto a group, which we will do, which probably will be doing, won’t be, but you know, that’s fantastic. How democratic is that? Whereas there’s some courses which are the best, I put inverted commas the best in the world. You can’t get on there for love, no money, you know, property, never mind you’ve got to be like a president or something you know to get on.

Nish: 27:34

So, yeah, I think that’s great, that’s that’s absolutely fantastic. But yeah, okay, right, yeah, of course sean connery was there.

Chris: 27:40

He’d love it but yeah, it was kind of like something out of a film. It was quite, it was quite weird, but it was definitely, uh, definitely worth a watch and definitely worth a remake again this is another netflix program.

Nish: 27:51

We’ve, uh, we’ve’ve just created right, yeah, netflix, if it happens, then copyrighted 2025. It was we came up with the idea first, to resurrect the original idea, anyway, so I digress, but look, I think that we’re dead excited about this course because of the whole experience and I said this to you the other day, didn’t I?

Chris: 28:12

after we kind of both had a look at the course, I think I’m going to prefer the queens. I know it’s much lower ranked, but I love, I love those little short strategic, strategic path falls and, yeah, that that’s my favorite kind. Of course there’s a couple of really short path falls here yeah, it’s like 250 yard, kind of you know.

Nish: 28:29

I felt about that one at abu dhabi that I didn’t go for I think.

Chris: 28:31

I’m going to have to do it again. Well, now’s your chance to redeem yourself, Mish.

Nish: 28:34

Well, now you’ve told me about my shoulder turn. That’s my swing mantra now, I mean, jim isn’t here today, but he has sent us through all of his side bets and signature holes, things. But is there anything else you want to talk about? The Queens, chris? I know you’re looking forward. Uh, I don’t think so. No, I’ll. I’ll bring one thing up, yeah, so, uh, we’ll. We’ll sort of talk about it in both episodes, I think as well. But alex, who is the top 100 golf guru, who was our first ever bona fide guest, yeah, um, who’s doing the same thing that we’re doing, just not insane enough to do in 10 years? He, about three, three weeks ago, four weeks ago, did exactly the same double-headed trip. Okay, yeah, and number one, he absolutely loved it. Like he just said, you are in for a treat, boys.

Nish: 29:22

Now bear in mind. Alex has played some really heavy hitter ones Wentworth and places like that. He’s played all those, yeah, and he was like you’re in for a proper treat. So he’s got to jump on the reviews. I’m going to interview him the day before we do the reviews just to kind of get a bit of a feel from him. Cool, I’d compare notes, I suppose.

Chris: 29:40

Yeah yeah, yeah, it’d be great to do that.

Nish: 29:41

Now he on the Queens course. Did he play just the two, same as us. Just the two, kings and Queens. Okay, he first, queen second. Okay on the second at the queens he for the day. So what they do in the clubhouse, they’ll have a clubhouse leader.

Chris: 29:59

Okay, whoever shot the lowest round that day. Okay, um, so he’s got to officially like hand you scoring when you get to the end, you must have to let them know, or something like that.

Nish: 30:05

Yeah, I don’t know how to do that I shot a 58 today. You’re not gonna believe it, yeah um he, he finished with with the lowest score of the day.

Chris: 30:15

Oh nice.

Nish: 30:15

He shot a 78 that day.

Chris: 30:17

Right, okay. So what’s that? Like 10 over that is 10 over.

Nish: 30:21

Yeah, and it looked like an absolutely glorious day. Yeah, I think it was on the Queens. I hope I’m not doing him a disservice that it was actually on the Kings course. Yeah, alex, forgive me. If it is actually the queen, the king’s course, please forgive me. That was a. That’s a bit of a. That’s a pretty big, big error. I think that’s the wrong way around. However, on one of them he he shot the okay lowest round of the day.

Nish: 30:41

I mean, that’s great, isn’t it, to have that little snap. Yeah, this is my score. Yeah, so that’s all I’ve got on the queen’s course before we get to what jim has very kindly sent us through, which which I’m not happy about, but anyway. So obviously we do a signature hole challenge, don’t we? Yeah, and if you haven’t watched the one from Woodall Spa, please do. Give yourself two and a half minutes. It’s not even while you’re making a brew.

Nish: 31:09

It’s quicker than that it’s going to make you feel a whole lot better about your golf game. Yeah, you’ll sort of go hold on a minute.

Chris: 31:22

So they’re doing a podcast about golf. My god, look at them. I’ll say them hey, look at him. That was a classic.

Nish: 31:26

I just thought of the royal we look, we’re playing it’s playing a couple of royal causes here. So the royal we uh, yeah, it was, I think, any kind of glory there. But so the signature hole challenge that jim has set us for the queen’s course is the signature hole is the 18th hole? Yep, um, it’s a, it’s called queen’s hame, forgive me if that’s not how the scott say it, but obviously it’s the last one.

Nish: 31:55

It’s a par four. It’s 350 yards, nice Drivable then, and he’s gone for longest drive on that hole. So it’ll be a short video, is it?

Chris: 32:05

dogleg, or is it straight up?

Nish: 32:07

He hasn’t given me any description of that. Should we?

Chris: 32:10

quickly check. I think we should have a look at that. That could be interesting. Should we quickly check? I think we should have a look at that. That could be interesting If it’s 350 dogleg, you’re going to be hitting an iron or a fairway wood in there, aren’t you? Unless we both go tiger line over the trees.

Nish: 32:23

So the signature 18th hole on the Queen’s course is described as the 18th finish in front of the clubhouse and is a lovely closing hole. Downhill drive Ooh, downhill 350. Definitely drivable then To a large green allows you to really attack the last. Okay, interesting.

Chris: 32:44

It’s going to be a fun finish. Then that’s day one, isn’t it? So we’re still going to have a bit of energy.

Nish: 32:49

It’s not going to be 36 holes in. That is a. I’m glad we’re doing this signature hole challenge now you know, that’s a good one to focus the mind on, isn’t it oh? Strong finish there I don’t want to do anything else now, just that’s what I’m focusing on the other 17 holes, yeah, just I’m just picking up at the tee. Just pick up at the tee.

Chris: 33:09

Oh, that’s a good yeah, that should be a challenge. It’s one of those that when it’s kind of in range like that not that it’s quite in range for me anymore, but it feels like it’s in range or very close to being in range it’s very hard not to just try and wallop it you rip it.

Nish: 33:25

I mean, if you do the drive like you did on the second at woodall spa, yeah, I think you’re good. Yeah, if you drive like the other 17 holes, you’re not good, I’m afraid big trouble. Yeah, that we haven’t had a chance to talk about it because I could only give my, your one-sided opinion, it wasn’t going well, was it?

Chris: 33:47

really wasn’t going well, was it? But it’s so annoying because the first drive of the day on the second was an absolute like 320, 325, what was it right down the middle, christopher, that was it oh, christopher, yeah, so the the, then the sidebar, and we’ll mention this on both previews the side bet is the lowest total score over both rounds.

Nish: 34:08

Which total score?

Chris: 34:09

yeah, less handicap.

Nish: 34:11

So I said are we going points, or are we going less handicap, or are we just going gross? And he said just gross, just gross. So I don’t know, I don’t know how I feel about that because I mean, I don’t happen to do that. You are, of course you are, I feel like I feel like that’s in the bag already.

Chris: 34:29

It’s fairly one-sided at the minute. The side bets, oh no, the side bets aren’t.

Nish: 34:33

No, the side bets the signature hole. Signature hole we’ve been par threes. A lot of them, haven’t they? Yeah, uh, that’s all right. I mean, you know, I don’t mind the signature hole ones. I think what’s what’s interesting? And this is the point I made to jim. I just said it feels like now because your lessons, I think, are kicking in and speaking to you like your putting was fantastic actually, yeah, yeah, you know it was more consistent.

Nish: 34:55

You were getting you know your lineup right and all that kind of thing. Yeah, I think you’re getting now to you know your score. Let’s take sylith out of it because that was a real anomaly. Yeah, that score. But I checked your scores and you’re like it was like 93, you’ve done like 89, you’ve done 83, 88, 84, 88, that kind of thing. So you’re hovering at that kind of level, sub 90, and I feel like I’m just knocking on the door of breaking through that.

Chris: 35:19

I think a good day, if everything comes together I feel like I’m starting to which could happen here, because, short course, yeah.

Nish: 35:25

So your distance is going to come into the equation with, especially with your approaches. Yeah, because if you could be much shorter, iron, yeah, with your approaches, I think that’ll stand if I can get to 100 yards. Generally, generally, I’m going to score pretty well, yeah, yeah, I think you’re, I think you’re reaching that kind of level. You know it that you’ve got to be playing pretty badly, I think, to get over a 92 93 yeah, I’ve had a pretty bad day, I think for me if I’m hovering around that 90 to 93, um, that’s a good day for me, yeah.

Nish: 35:55

So yeah, I think total gross might be nailing me a little bit. I will go. I agree with that. So are we? Are we gonna do it?

Chris: 36:02

5,500 yards.

Nish: 36:04

That probably plays into your just help a little bit it just takes a bit of that distance off yeah, let’s stick with it as it is now, okay, um, but maybe we should start, because we do now before we didn’t. Now we do have official handicaps, so we could handicap, adjust these, we could have these things and say what’s your, what’s your gross?

Chris: 36:24

say what’s handicapped, I’ll give you a, I’ll give you an out. If I I’m not having it, I’m not having any, any generosity I’m afraid apart from the handicap, that’s it right.

Nish: 36:33

Okay, that’s the only thing, just because I know what’s going to happen. You didn’t really win, though, did you right? Yeah so okay. So that’s our, that’s our side bet, and signature hole is going to be longest drive. We’ve not done longest drive since sni. I don’t think have we.

Nish: 36:47

It’s the only one we have done, so that’s going to be good, um, so I’m looking forward to that and just this course in general. I’m downplaying this, sorry I’m underselling this course now, but it almost feels like that kind of you know, go and do your little warm up on a par 3 course before you go and do the main course. It’s got that kind of feel to it 5,500 yards.

Chris: 37:09

It feels just like that second course, right. Yeah, essentially like the ladies course at. Yeah, like, I mean essentially like. Yeah, like you know, the ladies course at some of the old traditional clubs. Yeah, I mean, I guess that’s probably that’s what it is, I suppose, isn’t it?

Nish: 37:19

how funny would it be if we come off of that and go actually, yeah, really like that queens. On that, I just I have a sneaking suspicion. You do like that strategic.

Chris: 37:27

I love that I love that stuff, so I think that’s going to play right into my.

Nish: 37:30

I think so um, there might be a little bit of. It’s the first course. We’re playing there as well and we’re giddy and excited and we just had a fantastic night, yeah, so yeah, not hung over, actually, that’s. That’s probably the main, the main thing. Next time on the top 100 in 10 golf podcast, we preview the king’s course at glen eagles.