Josh Simpson (Ginger Golf) Played 652 Courses. We Asked About the Showers!

Nish 0:11

Every good story is about the journey, and this is a 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. Bonus episode. It’s a world wecord. Now hopefully you all like my Chris Akabusi impression, but more seriously, in today’s episode, we actually have a genuine world record holder on with us. We’re going to be talking to Josh Simpson, aka Ginger Golfer. And if you don’t know who he is, well, frankly, where have you been for the last year and a half? But he owns he h owns and holds the world record for the most number of golf courses played in a year at 652. Which is mind-blowing. So we’re going to go a little bit beyond the numbers. We’re going to get deep into what it’s like doing such a frankly unbelievable number of golf courses. But before we do that, I’m going to ask you out there for a favour. Please hit follow wherever you’re listening or watching to this watching this podcast. Because that’s the one thing that makes the algorithm push it out to more people just like you who hopefully will like things like today’s episode. So let’s get back to it. Welcome, Josh.

Josh 1:19

Thank you for having me.

Nish 1:20

Uh it is absolutely my pleasure. Um, have you recovered from your physical exertion yet? Because I struggled to play two rounds of golf in a day.

Josh 1:28

Just about. I still enjoy golf. Uh I’m playing today a little later on, so the uh the bug I still haven’t got rid of that.

Nish 1:36

I mean that that was a question that came up really early when we were first encountering what you’re doing. We were like, will you still have an enthusiasm for a round of golf like afterwards? And was there ever a time where you’re just like, oh my god, like this is really becoming like a grind? Or do you just always like end goal in mind?

Josh 1:56

I think given the amount of effort that it took to make the decision, and it was bear in mind it was the hardest decision of my life to do. Once I’d signed up for it, I’d already figured out that that was it, and I had to muddle through it regardless of whether I liked it or not. But that was certainly a consideration am I still going to enjoy golf at the end of it? And I’m happy to report back that I still do. So uh a minute for the long run, I think now.

Nish 2:20

All good, yeah, absolutely. I’m

The Road Trip That Planted a Bonkers Idea

Nish 2:22

interested in how that idea even gets into somebody’s head, and I’ll tell you why I’m interested in that. You know, ours is a little bit crazy as well. Like, we’ve committed to a hell of a lot of money in 10 years’ time, and we’ve got young families and we’ve got wives who are sort of looking over our shoulders going, why can we not go out for dinner this weekend? But you’re gonna go and play this amazing golf course. But like, where did the the idea germinate from?

Josh 2:51

Uh, I was on a road trip with a really good friend of mine, Michael, and we went to the Netherlands, very underrated and untapped uh region for golf. And I remembered a very long drive from Dover all the way through France and Belgium, and and we were just driving and chatting. And I said, one day I’d love to buy a motorhome and travel around and play golf courses all over the place, and that was more when I retired. And the idea obviously, Michael was looking at that a slightly different way and would mention the world record and being broken, and he said, Well, this is gonna sound a bit crazy, and but why don’t you have a go uh at the world record? And I said, You’re you’re right, it is absolutely bonkers. But then it it that planted the seed in my head, and and after that trip and for the the the the few months after, I then was figuring out why this was such a bad idea, and I kept coming up with reasons and kept speaking to Michael about it, and every reason I gave him was there was three objections to that, why it’s a good idea, and and it actually very, very slowly but surely became a a consideration, and then obviously the the whole programme of of figuring out if the whole thing’s viable, etc. etc. And and yeah, so that was probably around March time, and then yeah, hit the button on it in November and did it in January.

Nish 4:11

Yeah. I mean, there was one thing on the mechanics of it that fascinated me, and that was going up and playing in Scotland. So I gather a lot of the golf course in Scotland were sort of off limits to you because they weren’t long enough. Is that right?

Josh 4:24

Yeah, the the Guinness criteria was uh it had to be over 6,000 yards, had to be an 18-hole golf course. Uh there was a there was a really kind of strict set of guidelines and which pushed it in the direction of being quite obviously an American world record because a lot of golf courses, not just in Scotland but in the UK in general, are quite short. They’re you know, they they it’s quite normal for a course to be under 6,000 in England. And uh it was it was tough because there aren’t too many hidden gems out there anymore, with the power of social media and and how everything is now visualised and and searchable. Scotland is one of the probably the few remaining places I would say that does have some of them hidden gems in the nooks and crannies, and it was just a shame I wasn’t able to go and play them, you know, the little honesty box courses and uh things similar.

Nish 5:12

There’s some really cool stuff about golfing culture in Scotland that I really appreciated. I hadn’t till we started doing this, and we were fortunate the first place we went up to was Glen eagles. Um I hadn’t set foot in Scotland to play golf ever. And then I got up there and I was like, oh, this is what everybody talks about. Like, but you those, yeah, like little stories, and yeah, like you just drive past this course, so there’s like a husband and wife in a porter cabin, just run a nine-hole course, and it’s amazing, it’s right on the coast, and you just give them like three, four quid if they’re happy with that, or or whatever you want to pay. Like, that’s there’s so much story and romance about that.

Josh 5:51

Um, but also there is certainly a market for these little niche nine-holes, and some of the best stories I’ve got from the last couple of years actually was this year going up and playing two or three little nine-holes that no one would have ever heard of, and just you know, looking at it and going, is there a hole around here somewhere? And just navigating your way around it.

Nish 6:10

Just follow the sheep, they’re usually trying to go for the green, aren’t they? To do it. Um, no, but two things. I am by no means trying to equate what we’re doing to what you’re doing, Josh. You’re like what you’ve done is superhuman, like that. I don’t think I’ve played 650 rounds of golf in my life. Do that all in one year, is like mind-blowing. Um, however, obviously, you’ve you you had your cadence that you wanted to do and your frequency of playing. Um, ours, ours is a bit different, mainly because look, we’re restricted to some of the most expensive and best golf courses in the world, so we have to pace that out. Uh, but we do a preview episode, we’ll have a little good look around the course and think about it, we’ll then go and play it. And I’m a voracious photographer of golf courses, so like I’ll just annoy Chris at every single Tee-box. And then we’ll sit back, we’ll do the drive back, we’ll have a little debrief about the course, then we’ll sit down a couple of weeks later and record a review episode. So there’s like it’s a different pace. Um, you’ve not done it how we’ve done it, but you probably have just previously when you’ve done a bucket list trip or whatever. Yeah. What’s your preference now you’ve done the real quick quick way?

Josh 7:22

That certainly was one of the drawbacks to doing something like that was that you were just running around everywhere like a headless chicken. There was no real time to to breathe. I tried and it was tough because I’m meeting maybe 10, 15, 20 people a day, and uh not really being able to have a sit down and have a pint with them and and and kind of put the world to rights about golf and and and the things they’re passionate about, but I probably still would pick the record. It was it was an incredible thing. I really enjoyed it. It was something that helped me grow on such a personal level as well. There were so many life lessons I learned from being so independent, coming from someone who was a bit of a mummy’s boy growing up. So getting out and and exploring the the different parts of the country was was phenomenal.

Nish 8:10

Is it is there anything looking back you’d have done differently?

Josh 8:16

Uh it’s a good question. I think from a social media point of view, one of my biggest regrets was probably not having someone in terms of like an agent or someone like that that would have really helped, I think, because I was kind of in in that year, and and I was I’m not gonna say household name, but within the golf scene, people would recognise you, and and I think having that person who knows social media, has the contacts with different brands and etc. would have I think would have helped a little bit because I was navigating the whole thing, doing it all by myself. Everything was so new to me, and I didn’t really know what I was doing, and also didn’t have time for a lot of it as well, with obviously trying to get so much golf in. So I’d probably do that a little differently. Uh also spent the first kind of three or four months booking all of the golf myself uh without help from anyone, which was more by that I was I was forced to rather than anything, but yeah, it was uh it was a really hard time to start with. Whereas towards the end, when I had Alex and Andy jump on board, that was uh it was a lot easier.

Nish 9:26

Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, it’s it’s hard enough what we do, which you know we’re we’re trying to book up next year now, and you’re trying to work, but then there’s all those emails flying around, and then sometimes you’re like you get a message back in, like, oh yeah, this is the oh no, that’s a different course, right? Let me just remember the conversation. And in the meantime, you’ve got to play. In the meantime, you’re taking pictures while you’re out there, you’ve got to be I’m not saying you’ve got to be nice to people, you just naturally you’re a nice guy, so you find that an easy thing to do, but you’ve got to give people the time of day, they’re giving their time to play with you. Um, yeah, I’ve honestly the the the effort that’s gone into that, the mental capacity to do that is commendable. Uh, was there anything that or what what would you say surprised you most about trying to do this world record?

Josh 10:11

I

The Closed Course That Opened for One Man

Josh 10:11

think it’s probably the the cliche answer, but the golf community really shocked me. I didn’t really have I obviously knew it was good and and I’d experienced the good side of it before, but this was just on a on a different level. I think we’re so trained nowadays in in the modern world to see the negative, all of these news stories that are going left, right, and centre about how the whole world is going down the toilet and all of this. And and it’s hard to actually get out of that sometimes. And and that year just showed, you know, the amount of people that I’d never met who were offering to do laundry, offering to you know pick up a bushnel that I’d left 40 minutes in the other direction, so I didn’t hold my journey up. You know, people uh do you need a bed for the night? Do you need dinner cooked? Like it was it was just a year full of absolutely incredible people, yeah. And that’s the one thing that I I won’t be able to thank everyone enough for.

Nish 11:06

You couldn’t do it, could you know? It is you just know that there’s that gratitude, it’s just yeah, hopefully just gonna they’ll I mean they’re probably gonna remember it perhaps perhaps even more than you, I think, because they’ll have been part of something bigger and that we like that, don’t we? Um the in terms of the welcomes at clubs, was there one that you ever got that was just like, oh my god, this is absolutely amazing, and I just didn’t expect that as a as a welcome.

Josh 11:34

It’s it’s a really hard question to answer because I had so many experiences of of that from golf courses last year. I think one in particular was a golf course called Sherland up in Derby, Mansfield kind of way.

Nish 11:50

Yeah, okay.

Josh 11:51

Uh the golf course was closed, and the the lady who runs it on her, she was absolutely brilliant. She says, We’re gonna open the course. So because the course had to be open as part of the record, so she said, We’re gonna open the course, but it’s just gonna be for you, like no one else is gonna turn up anyway, but it is technically open, but uh we’re gonna open it. And and I remember having breakfast, sitting down, spending most of the day there with her, and I had that times 10 for the whole year from you know, everyone was absolutely brilliant, but I remember this was like course number 13 on the journey, and that for me was one of the first ones that I thought, wow, like I I’ve put all my eggs into one basket with this record and yeah, this choice that I’ve made, it has to work, and it was a massive relief just to to see how good people could be, yeah. And and I’ll remember that.

The Shower Rankings Everyone Waited For

Nish 12:42

Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s it’s brilliant that. I mean, one of the one of the things that uh I bought into very much was your shower rankings. So, I mean, who whose idea is that? At what point did you just go? Do you know what? This is a really, really good thing to do. I felt like it almost became like the star of the show, didn’t it? Everyone was waiting. My club had a little sign up just going in case he’s ever turned up, Josh. This is for you, this tower’s reserved for you.

Josh 13:11

It was it was a phenomenal yeah for showers. Uh I I don’t know. I I I remember starting it very early, but I didn’t really have like a set of guidelines, and I thought that was a bit unfair. And as soon as people started commenting on the showers, andor people would come up to me at a golf. It’s crazy because you make a video and you don’t realize that people can actually see it, and so yeah, I’m living my life and obviously documenting it, and people are going, I saw that shower the other day, that was awful. And I’m like, Oh wait, yeah, I I forgot. And I don’t know. I I just I took a bit of inspiration from Cheeky Golf Club before the the year before. I remember looking at their content. Uh, these are the guys for people who aren’t familiar, is that they made tried to make 18 pars in a row, and but their content was exactly the same every single time. So they would very similar intro, very similar format of video. And so I wanted to follow that because they’re doing the same thing every single day, and it’s it’s working for them. Yeah, so I wanted to follow that. So at the start of every video, it was always day 200 of me doing this, and uh at the end, it was always the this is how many days, this is how many courses, this is how much we’ve raised for charity, and yeah, and the shower review was was part of that as well. And I suppose looking back at it now, it was it was a cool little way to try and keep people engaged because they knew at the end of that video that’s it, there’s gonna be a shower review, and that was the the contentious topic.

Nish 14:37

I loved it. It was like I would almost just go, forget the golf, let’s just fast forward the real right to the end. Let’s see what’s going on. It would yeah, it was it was great. Um, you don’t want to use the showers at my club, by the way, because they are terrible.

Too Many Eggs at Borth & Ynyslas

Nish 14:49

However, um, if you were to pick a course that and and I’d I I wish you to not pick a big name here, but just gave you the most like joy while you were playing it, what would that be?

Josh 15:03

Oh, I’m gonna have to go back into the archive here. I think I I really, as I said earlier, there aren’t many hidden gems left nowadays, and I think one of them that I I really really enjoyed was on the west coast of Wales, and I’m probably gonna butcher the name of this, but I think it’s Borth And Ynyslas Golf Club.

Nish 15:21

Yes, okay, heard of it, yeah.

Josh 15:22

It’s one of the most out and back golf courses you’ll ever play. It’s eight holes in one direction without any deviation, and you turn around and you play ten holes the other direction. Uh, and on the eighth hole, you are closer to the clubhouse of Aberdovey, which is uh a very well-known course in Wales, which is a 45-minute drive away around the estuary uh than you are to to Borth’s. Uh, I just I’ve I’ve fantastic memories. It wasn’t a good time of year to play, but I really enjoyed the course. The second hole there is probably one of the most brutal I’ve ever played. Uh, I remember asking the chef for a kind of a generous portion of scrambled eggs on toast, and I probably got like a stupid amount of eggs. He just unloaded a whole factory of eggs onto one plate. And I that was one of the first breakfasts of the year. I didn’t finish. Uh, but I really, really enjoyed the golf course, and I knew nothing about it before. And I’m very, very glad that I played it.

Nish 16:15

It’s a top tip, don’t ask for any extra food. That’s gonna catch you up on all time.

Josh 16:19

He was he was kind of saying, Are you sure? and I was like, Yeah, just just a few more eggs. And he was like, I yeah, I’m I I really regret that.

Nish 16:26

It was uh and he’s a protein, but no, no, no, no, no, like I’m fine.

Josh 16:31

He looked at me like, I told you so.

Nish 16:34

It’s almost like he’s trying to get one over you there, isn’t he? Yeah, what’s it? Um do you do you have any um sort of either pinch me or like how have I ended up playing 18 holes with this person? Is there any has it has there been a character that you encounter that you’re like, oh, that was surreal? What’s just happened to me?

Josh 16:54

Um Yeah, I I remember playing with Chris Kirkland, uh which was quite a bonkers one. And I always remember this kind of full circle moment of when I was young getting these little like I don’t know what they were, these these little coin folders. You’d go to the supermarket and buy a coin and you’d you’d rip it open, almost like the what you know, kind of the the the the playing cards or the the stickers are the paninis, that’s it. Yeah, and and I remember see like getting the England, it was a Euro squad or a World Cup squad, and and Chris Kirkland was one of the goalkeepers in that. And I remember pulling his his coin out, and and obviously the full circle moment uh to actually playing golf with him was was quite a cool one.

Nish 17:35

Yeah. Can you sign the coin, please, Chris?

Josh 17:37

Yeah, either that uh the the lead singer of the Wombats was was another really cool one. Um I did some filming with him, and I’m a big fan of the Wombats, I like their music, and I’ve seen them a couple of times. So all of a sudden, again, that full circle moment of looking up at them on the stage and and now actually you know playing some golf with him was was a really cool moment. That’s mad. Anybody ever asked you for your autograph? A couple, yeah. Yeah, I had to do it on a ball. I had these kids come up and ask, and they asked to do it on a ball, and I remember going, like, what autograph should I do here? Like, do I do like my normal legal signatures? When I’m like signing for a house, I’m not gonna sign ginger golf, am I? So it’s like what do you do?

Nish 18:15

I love the idea of like a dude and making sure the ink’s dry so nobody can just kind of like imprint it on a bit of paper somewhere. It’s like, no, this isn’t my legal autograph, right? I can’t be doing that. That’s that’s brilliant. That um you must must have gone through a decent chunk of equipment playing that frequently.

Snapped Keys, a Flying Two-Iron and a Sherman Tank

Nish 18:36

What’s the weirdest, maddest thing that ever broke on you?

Josh 18:40

From an equipment point of view, I think I had a had a lob wedge that started peeling. I had a two-iron that flew off down the fairway at I think it was uh London links in Scotland. Uh on the van, I had a couple of annoying the heating didn’t work to start with, so it was a couple of really cold nights, stuff that no one really sees, obviously. The behind the scenes, when I started in January, yeah. Brilliant. So and then I had I had to get two locksmiths out as well. The little kind of garage compartment on my uh on the motorhome, just the key broke in the lock, and so I did two times that happened.

Nish 19:20

Um, so I’m not gonna be recommending that brand of locksmith or um in in that then, just obviously you’ve got like in your head, you’ve got like, right, I’ve got to keep up with my pace of rounds, I’ve got to like organise the next round, I’ve got to post my reel tonight, I’ve got to get something to eat, heater’s not working tonight, and then something like a lock break. Like when at what point did you put the pillar over your head and just have a like scream into it? Just like, what is this?

Josh 19:52

What am I doing? It’s I think that was one of the things that I’ll pride myself on is that you need to be that kind of dynamic person who is able to deal with these things, and just if it if it all does hit the fan, you just laugh about it because it’s not that serious, you know. At the end of the I’m not gonna look at this in 50 years and go, Oh my god, that lock is still bothering me.

Nish 20:14

Uh you just got it hung up on a mantelpiece somewhere.

Josh 20:17

I remember turning up at a golf club, and we I luckily we got there early, and I was like probably an hour and a half before we supposed to tee off, and I couldn’t get the clubs because they’re in. And I’m like, well, what am I gonna do? And so this whole frantic moment of right, okay, ringing around the members at the golf club to see if anyone’s a locksmith and all of this kind of stuff. And luckily we we got it all sorted out. But again, I look at that, even in the moment, I look at it and go, Do you know what? Be a good story to tell on a podcast like that, you know. And that you know, that’s the way that I look at it. You you are obviously a little annoyed, and there was so many moving parts the last year, and that’s something that you don’t really want to have to deal with. But yeah, it wouldn’t be uh a challenge if you didn’t have anything that that popped up like that.

Nish 20:56

Yeah, I would do my Frank Lampard now, you know, he does that meme where he’s like laughing and then dead seriously, but on a serious note, obviously the resilience that you’ve just shown there, like it’s it’s great to do stuff like that. It’s like when you go like in in a again, not equating it, but when you go backpacking or something like that, and you lose all your gear, and you’re like, uh you just find a way, don’t you? You have to, yeah, you have to. Let me let me do it for the camera. I’ll do that like that. Yeah, Frank Lampard. Look it up if you don’t know about that. It’s one of the funniest things ever, isn’t it? He was talking. I saw a thing the other day, and he was talking to about his daughters told him about it, and he’s like, I don’t I never knew that I did that. And he goes, Now I want to listen to my interviews, I do that all the time. Like he’s a funny guy. Um, we talked about your camper. Um it’s quite an intimate thing to do with an inanimate object. It’s like spending a year in that one camper. If that camper van could tell us a story, what do you think that camper? What’s the one one main story it would want to tell us?

Josh 22:00

I’m glad it can’t. Um I think it was just the behind the scenes stuff. Obviously, I was spending a lot of time there, it was all of the the narrow. Narrow roads that you don’t really think about all of the the car parks that were an absolute nightmare to navigate in a car, let alone in a in a Sherman tank.

Nish 22:22

Yeah.

Josh 22:22

It was the height restriction barrier that I I hit into by accident. I just tapped. I I thought I could it was like a mine was 2.7 and I was like, well, this is 2.7. What’s the worst that can happen? And yeah, it uh bad, bad idea. Uh just all of the stuff like that. And you know, it was a lot of time that I was spending in there, it was a lot of recovery, but it was it was a really cool. I actually really enjoyed it. Like my own little kind of tranquil environment, which when you’re spending 12 hours talking to people every single day of the year, you need that little bit of respite. So as kind as it was for people to offer you a bed for the night, or do you want to come around for dinner? You realize that social battery is then taking another hit and to recharge. And so that was my little my little portable power bank, so to speak.

Nish 23:10

It’s hard work that, isn’t it? Actually, it look it there there are personality types that you know you could just be on all the time. But that you’re right, that social battery thing is really, really interesting, isn’t it? Because I bet everybody can relate to this when you’re like, you know, you’ve had a rough night or you’re tired or whatever, and I was like, Do you know what? Today I just do not want to talk to people. However, this is the last thing I need to be doing now because I you know it’s kind of it’s incumbent on me. It’s like if you’re somebody you invite somebody to your golf club anyway, like it’s incumbent on you to you’re 100 in 10% of yourself. Exactly.

Josh 23:45

Yeah, it was tough to do. Uh it was it was really tough, especially the days where I was ill or I hadn’t had a lot of sleep, or etc. etc. So that was it was again like I mentioned earlier, it was a real character building exercise, and that allowed me to. I think that’s that’s improved me as a person because of that being able to talk to loads of different people and give it when you’re not feeling like giving it.

Nish 24:07

Did you ever have a moment where you’re just like I just sod it, I’m just gonna go get leathered?

Backstage With the Wombats, Then 18 Holes Hungover

Josh 24:12

No, I I’m not a massive drinker anyway.

Nish 24:14

I I’m two fights then. Happy happy days, happy days done. It’s a nice cheap one, isn’t it?

Josh 24:18

But I well, I I did try and I did I had a couple of days where where I did get have a few, uh, but I I’m very much I I drink to get drunk. I’m not like have one or two with a meal. Uh I remember that the the the day that I met uh Murph, the lead singer from the Wombats. I was up in Newcastle. It was a couple of days before the end of the challenge. Uh not the a couple of days before I broke the record, sorry. And we were doing some filming for a documentary, and he invited me to his concert that night, and so we had AAA passes, and so I was in his dressing room backstage, whatever, you know, nicking beers from behind behind backstage. And I may have taken advantage of that. I was right at the front on the barrier, and I remember the day after. Well, I can’t remember the name of the golf course I played, but played something in the morning before getting the train all the way back down, and I was not in a good way. That the poor lady I played with put her clubs back after nine holes and put my I was carrying, put my bag on a trolley and wheeled it round for me for the rest of the round because I was just I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was hungover, but I was not in a good way at all.

Nish 25:24

Everybody who’s been on a that’s a golf trip has just gone, yep, we know what that feels like. Yeah, it’s yeah, but then you’re flying by the time you get to the turn. It’s amazing, it’s amazing what adrenaline does to you.

Josh 25:37

I at that point I was not, I was ready to and and the fact I had to get like a tube across London with a golf bag and suitcase, and it wasn’t a good day. And that was I I remember breaking the record a couple of days later and still feeling the effects from that night. Uh, it was not great.

Nish 25:57

Not great, it’s probably an understatement, isn’t it? Yeah, a lot of yeah, when has you got to do all of that? And you’ve got to think it’s the thinking bit there, doesn’t it? Isn’t it? You know, just like oh I mean, if you if you would knew you were just gonna do that on your own, around the golf on your own, you’re like, I’ll muddle round this, but you’ve got to go and talk to somebody. We’ve all been there. Even a even a big full fat can of coke is not gonna help you with that feeling. Um let’s talk numbers of just a tiny little bit. Uh where did you end up as a total for for money raised for charity?

Josh 26:27

Uh so with gift aid, it was just uh a tad over a hundred thousand.

Nish 26:30

Amazing, absolutely amazing. I mean, uh everybody’s been touched by the cause that you um that you supported. So so well done. Um thank you. You you obviously had your your ball marker. Do you still carry that around with you?

Josh 26:45

I’ve got it at home. I I don’t want to, I’m I I’m partial to losing stuff, so especially ball markers, they they seem to be very easy to lose, especially in my golf bag.

Nish 26:54

So there’s a black hole in your golf bag sometimes, isn’t there?

Josh 26:57

It definitely is. There’s something that’s dodgy that’s not not right that’s happening. I think it’s maybe the powers that be want us to buy more.

Nish 27:04

Yeah. I don’t know. I actually discovered this, so in my pre I’ve got a new one now, but in my previous golf bag, so I I get uh uh amongst various other things from the the gift shops at the golf clubs, I always pick up a metal ball marker. A lot of people do it, and I was like, I was whacking them in the pocket, that’s fine. And then I’d got from uh Dumbarnie, I’ve got a really cool divot tool, and I whacked it in the bag, and I was like, that’s gonna be my new divot tool now. And I love Dumbarnie anyway, so it gives me a talking point. And I was like, right, get to the course, put your hand in. And you can’t see anything, can you? So you’re like, put my hand in, and I was like, I can’t feel it, right? I’ll just use another one. Next round, I put my hand in, can’t feel it. And then I was like, that’s a point. I was like, I’m losing the ball markers here as well. Like, what is going on? This is ridiculous. So I was like, right, empty the whole thing out, let’s see what’s going on. I pulled out, actually turned the pocket inside out, and there’s a massive hole, all the nylon had all ripped on the inside, and I was like, Oh no. So then you’re like, right, give it a shake. But at that point, I mean, who’s ever opened up a golf bag? Like, where has this thing disappeared to? Is that has it fallen out? What’s going on? That’s why I have a new golf bag now. I took the whole thing apart, so I’m not losing my ball markers.

Josh 28:19

Yeah, for the sake of ball markers, save you a lot of money. They are expensive nowadays, yeah.

Nish 28:23

Um, I’m gonna ask you. I asked our listeners for a few questions on Instagram, so I’m gonna hit them with them. Um I will caveat this that these aren’t my questions, so please don’t try and swing for me afterwards. But that I’ve only got four, but I thought they’re four really good ones. So uh you’ve probably been asked this a few times, but what was your favourite course that you played that’s outside the top 100?

Josh 28:50

Good question. Um it would probably either be that that both one I mentioned earlier or a course in Loughborough called Longcliffe.

Nish 29:00

Longcliffe, right?

Josh 29:01

Really, really enjoyed it again. When there were no expectations and really enjoyed the place.

Nish 29:06

Fantastic. Um, everything considered, so that’s cost, course, facilities, vibe, etc. Where would you be a member and why? Uh no members from your club are listening, by the way.

Josh 29:20

So Well, of course, you’ve got to preface that with the the course that I’m a member of. But I would probably say Parkstone. Yeah, okay. It’s it’s just a golf course that I fell in love with uh years and years ago, and I cannot say good enough things about the whole place. Uh I just every time I walk off that, I am so happy I’ve I’ve been privileged enough to play it. Uh and it’s just a really, really cool layout. And practice facilities, I don’t think they’re they’re that great there. Yeah, but if there was a golf course that I’d want to be a member of, it would be That’s the one, it would be Parkstad.

Nish 29:56

This is gonna do the rounds like that. Rory click now, you know, when he mentioned his three three favourite course that it’s going viral. I’ve quite got the pull, but you never know. You never know. Um, what was your least favourite in the top ten? So now we’re talking about the real big hitters.

Josh 30:12

Oh dear. Um least favourite in the top ten.

Nish 30:18

Like I say, not my question.

Josh 30:19

I’m gonna have to think of what’s in the top ten now.

Nish 30:22

Uh yeah, that’s the question, isn’t it? Which top ten is the next question. But yeah, I mean this this came from the same person who asked you about your favourite course in the outside of top number. Okay. So they’re they’re obviously going for some kind of uh yin and yang type answer from you.

Josh 30:38

I that’s the first time I’ve I’ve actually been asked that one, which is good because I get some similar questions, yeah. I don’t know. I I think I mean St. Enedoc I think is a fantastic golf course. Uh I I really enjoyed it. If I had two gun to my head, I’d probably I’d probably say that, but it’s still a phenomenal golf course. Yeah. But I just think in that in that top ten list that I’m thinking of anyway, there’s there’s some real strong hitters.

Nish 31:08

It’s funny, there’s an asterisk on that, isn’t there? And we do this and we do our reviews, and we’re like, you know, we’ll I’ll always ask Chris like, did X course make it into your top five? And he’ll be like, no, and you feel like a little bit of a dick saying that, you’re like, no, it’s not in my top five, but you’re like, but then we’re trying to play the hundred like best courses in our country, like it’s like saying it’s the it’s the least best sort of thing. It’s weird, isn’t it? It’s a weird.

Josh 31:36

I’ve spoken to a lot of golf courses in that kind of no man’s land of just just not quite in the top 100, but arguably good enough. And and it’s it’s brutal. Like there’s only a hundred courses that will make that list, and yeah, you are very, very close, but it’s there’s also another 50 courses that you could probably argue a case for that aren’t in the top 100. So it’s tough.

Nish 31:58

I understand it as well because the economics of that, you know, as soon as you get into that top 100 list, like you know, you your your visitor green fees can go up, you can then invest more in the course, you can do its conditioning, so it’s kind of self-fueling. But yeah, it’s a it’s a tough thing. We’re getting a kind of touching on that a little bit with with where we’re getting now. Now we’re on we’ve played 29, so we’re we’re starting to understand the kind of I’ll put inverted commas for anybody who’s watching, but the politics of the top 100, like it’s it’s brutal. It has some sway.

Josh 32:28

Yeah, it’s it’s it’s a vicious circle almost because it’s it’s tough.

Nish 32:35

You just like we’re leaving. Right now, this this is this question is um all good questions start with a with a a prefix, right? So this is somebody you’ve played with. You mentioned the course before at Aberdovey. So Gareth, you played with at Aberdovey. Um and I mentioned that because the question is there are some great courses near championship grounds. Which ones are you most excited about visiting with Spurs next season? Not my question. I’m gonna ship him out. It’s Gareth.

Josh 33:07

The first podcast answer I’m going to refuse, I think.

Nish 33:12

Yeah, had to read it out. Sorry.

Josh 33:15

Don’t blame me.

Nish 33:16

Sorry, don’t blame me. Right, we’ll we’ll gloss over that. Thanks for that, Gareth. Um

How to Play Anywhere: Don’t Be a Dick

Nish 33:20

thank you. Now, uh a little bit of advice for us. So obviously, we’re doing this at a different different pace that we’re trying to do this, but um what advice would you offer to us trying to play the top 100 in in a 10 years now?

Josh 33:37

I think golf is incredibly expensive now, and I think for most people, especially kids, mortgage, everything that goes on with with life nowadays, I think it’s it’s unattainable for a lot of people, and there are members at every single golf course, even the exclusive ones, that would quite happily play with you if you’re a nice person, yeah. And so being respectful, being a good person goes a long way. Putting yourself out there is also great. I was fortunate enough, even before the world record, I was trying to do something similar to you, trying to play the top 100. And I one day decided to do a little video on one of them, and and that then snowballed into posting a video that getting a few views, and then someone messaging you going, Hi Josh, I’m a member of this golf course. Do you want to come and play it? And that’s how I got on, like Wentworth, for the first time, was just because I wrote a review on Stoneham, I think it was, and he was also a member at Stoneham and saw my review and said, You’re gonna need some help if you want to play Wentworth. And you realise from the outside looking in, people who don’t know just think, Oh, I’ll never get to play that. Like it was a dream for me to play Wentworth. And I I remember being that person who goes, I’m never gonna get to play it, and then playing that and the Queen wood and the Loch Lomond and all these really, really difficult golf courses to get on. You realise that if you put yourself out there and people know that you exist, there’s gonna be at least one member of that course that that’s happy to have you. It’s just how do you exist to them?

Nish 35:13

Yeah, it is uh we had this in year one, it would have been. Um, and I’m playing with them next weekend. So, Andrew and Tony, shout out to you guys, you’re absolute legends. But they’re members at Hindhead, and I was on holiday, I really vividly remember this. And uh, if I was to ask you the questions that uh you asked me, sorry, the questions that I asked you previously. Like one of the things that really stuck out in my memory was we were like getting ready to go to the pool with the kids, and as you do, you just end up checking your phone, don’t you? We’re all wedded to our phones. And I looked at his phone and I got this email, and I was just like like wide-eyed, and I looked at my wife and I was like, I think that might be the greatest email I’ve ever received. And it was Andrew and Tony who were trying to play the top 100 as well, and they’re like, We’re members of Hindhead, we’ve just encountered, we’ve just played Aberdovey, we’ve encountered your podcast episode, we listened to it, thought you sound like really good guys. If Hindhead’s on your list, would you like to come and play? And I wrote back to them and I was like, I cannot tell you how nice that just email just made me feel. Thank you for that. Yes, of course, we would love to do it. And they were like, Oh, we also know members at Hankley Common, and all that. I was like, you know, we just go, This is just an incredible development to have happened. It’s so nice, isn’t it? Like when you went the guy that went with when you’ve been like, What has happened here?

Josh 36:37

I mean, I remember playing that and just was absolutely star-struck. And fast forward today, I’ve played it like five times. It’s like you you you become desensitized to it, but yeah, there are really, really good people in the golf community. And you know, I just met so I just come back from Tunisia and I met someone over there who played golf and lived in the the same county that that I’m from and wanted to come and play my course. And I was like, Yeah, by all means.

Nish 37:01

Like, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Josh 37:02

I know you, like I know you now, I know you exist. And if you want to come and play, that’ll cost you 45 quid rather than 220 quid or whatever it is nowadays. So it goes a long way, it really does. And so being a good person, being a good host when you know they they come and play your course, and uh and yeah, it’s just just don’t be a dick.

Nish 37:22

Yeah, Chris is gonna struggle, I’m afraid. So that’s why I’m the face of the organisation.

Josh 37:26

Ah, of course, yeah.

Nish 37:28

Uh Jesus, big head. Um, now obviously we we we we alluded to the fact that we we have the the long incubation period over playing around a golf, we did the previews, we do review. Would you ever consider coming and doing the savourite version of of playing a top 100 course? Or are you like, no, actually, that’s my snapshot of that day.

Josh 37:51

I think doing what I’ve done, I’m now very trained to play quick golf. Yeah, and that’s something that I’ve luckily I’ve still got the love for it, but I I don’t tend to take my time. I I still get videos and pictures, I just do it on the move a lot more. Uh, but I still do enjoy. I mean, there’s some courses you’re forced to have that experience because if you go up to Scotland in in the summer season at some of these courses, you accept that you’re gonna have a five-hour round. Yeah, uh, I just you just gotta try and plan for it. So play on a four-ball and not on a one-ball. And uh but yeah, I I enjoy it, you know, especially if it’s a course I’ve not played. If it was a uh a course maybe over an island that I haven’t been to yet that I’m really, really looking forward to play, yeah. I’ll join you on a slow burner.

Nish 38:36

Nice, nice. Just to all the course managers out there and the GMs out there, uh, I don’t hold up play. I just need to make that.

Josh 38:44

It’s not what you told me. It’s not what you told me before the uh podcast.

Nish 38:49

Yeah, no, I’m I’ve I’ve got I’ve got a I’ve got a a good system now where I don’t hold anybody up, I do everything. Like I’m very conscious of somebody stood there going, oh, what is he doing?

Josh 39:01

Like filming this thing, but I’ve got a really the the kind of so-called influencers have this this kind of rep of being holding play up and being very slow, and I think I’m the opposite, like I’m very conscious and get done, get around quickly.

Nish 39:12

I’m the same, like you know, I’ve my my camera’s on my trolley, so it’s recording all the time, so I don’t have to just I can clip up. I mean it takes an age, but I can clip up from that and it’s easy. And four balls are easy, aren’t they? Because there’s three of the people teeing off, so you can quickly do your little panoramic if you want to, kind of thing. So um, I do have a good system um for anybody out there. Um, one very serious question. Uh I might say it’s very serious, it isn’t as serious as it might sound, but is there anything about golf culture in this country that you could you’d like to change?

Josh 39:43

I’m I’m not sure if it’s exclusive to the UK. I think there are problems with it in other countries, but I there is this kind of epidemic of people gaming the system to get their handicap up. And as a single-figure golfer, that’s uh really annoying because you have to play out of your skin to uh to even compete, and and you’ve got people who are fudgeing their handicap around to try and win a you know, a trip to saw grass or or something like that, which is quite tough, yeah. Um, but again, I don’t think that’s necessarily just a problem the UK has. It’s certainly a big problem in the UK, though.

Nish 40:19

Yeah.

Josh 40:20

Uh slow play, we’re we’re pretty good for it. I mean, I’ve played a fair bit of golf over in Europe, and I think that’s worse.

Nish 40:27

Is it right?

Josh 40:28

I would say uh people don’t look back anywhere near as much over there as they do here, but I even you’re always uh over your shoulder, aren’t you? Well, I I am, but but yeah, uh not everybody is, you realise that. Um but uh slow play is is one and a single player standing rule. I I don’t mind whether I’m playing on a four-ball, three ball, or a or a one-ball. And I remember there’s a few courses that still have this kind of archaic rule of that you’re if you you’re playing as a one, you have no standing on the course, which is no one has to let you through, which I think is a it’s a weird rule in today’s day and age.

Nish 41:06

We’ve we’ve encountered a few people who are playing on their own. You’re a member of a top 100 golf course, like you get some spare time, you go and play it. Like that’s just that’s that’s the privilege you’ve got. Um, we’ve always done a great thing, we’ve just let them blend through in the hole with us, so it’s never really slowed us up and it’s not slowed them down, and they’ve had a little chat with us on the way through, or we’d had a fair way, it’s great. And actually, sometimes they’ve just gone, oh, we’ll meet you in the bar afterwards, you know, that kind of thing. It’s yeah, I think it’s be nice to people.

Josh 41:35

They’ll be about four deep because you’re you’re plowing five-hour rounds, that’s that.

Nish 41:39

No, no, no, five-hour rounds. Just again, for clarity, you know. Five hour rounds. Um, yeah, okay. That’s that’s interesting you’re saying a bit slower in Europe. So you’ve you found that, have you?

Josh 41:49

We’ve got a time shape again. I think it’s it may just be more resort-minded courses over in the Spains and Portugal’s. Uh some of the more private members’ clubs, Netherlands has a few more of them. They’re I think they’re a little better, but it’s an experience thing. I might have gone there and just created this assumption based off my experiences there, but I could have just been a dodgy.

Nish 42:10

I know everything slows down when you’re a bit too hot, you know. You try to get drinks and stuff like that, and it’s just yeah, it’s a it can get a bit of a bit tricky. Yeah. Um, right, so we’ve reached the

The Ambush: One More Course, Soaked Through

Nish 42:22

point. Now, everything up to now, Josh, I’ve sort of prepared you for. Okay. Because I didn’t want to catch you by surprise. Right. This one I had to catch you by surprise. Okay. So I’m gonna ask you to take us back to the penultimate day of your challenge in Kent. And you absolutely piss wet through, uh-huh. And you’ve got Andy on the phone berating you and begging you, no, I’d say forcing you to go and play one more course before the final day. How did you feel at that moment?

Josh 42:54

I’m PTSD from that day. Uh I was not happy. Uh, that was one of very few occasions in the whole year that I was like, Do you know what? I’ve done it, I’ve already broke the record, I’ve got one day left to go. I’ve played every day of the year. I’ll play one today and then I’ll move on and we’ll finish on a nice, nice, not round number, but we’ll finish on a nice number of six, five, one. And uh, and yeah, I remember sat in the the clubhouse, I can’t remember the name of the golf course, but I couldn’t play it uh because it was closed. We had breakfast there, and so it was going like probably nine, half nine, ten o’clock at this point, and I was very kind of very laxadaisical, just chilling and having breakfast, and he goes, You’ve got to play two courses today. Where has this intensity been for the the last you know six months? Because he’s a very Andy is a very chilled out person, uh, and I’ve been like, you know, kind of chaotic and and getting everything done, and and he’s the opposite. And then this one day he’s like, No, no, no, both of them were like, No, you’ve you’ve got to play. And I was like, what is going on? And so I’m running around ragged, and we finish in the dark. We’ve got one poor bloke uh who who ended up pulling my clubs around on this hill. Course when it was wet and it was horrible, it was raining everywhere. And I remember just walking into the it was a lovely clubhouse, actually. I remember walking into the clubhouse, soaked through, and Alex and Andy just kind of stood there going, Well, it’s the big deal. And I wanted to throw throttle both of them. Um, but it was it was a very kind gesture, and I did have a an inkling that there was something that had 652 engraved on it, or I thought it was a cake or something, you know. Congratulations, and I’d made a point of that.

Nish 44:37

Just refrost the damn thing.

Josh 44:39

It was it was a lad putter uh with uh with a lovely little inscription on the bottom saying well done, Josh, 61852 courses, which obviously was not able to be edited at that that late stage of the game. So I I I’ll never forgive him for that, but it was uh it was a we were having a laugh about it.

Nish 44:56

We were like, you know, if really he’d have put his foot down and gone, no, I’m not doing it. It was like, what are you getting? You’re getting some tipex, you’re getting those when we were kids, you could get those pens that had like a little diamond tip on them, and you could use that to engrave stuff. I was like, Are you trying to do that? But how do you change a two to a one?

Josh 45:13

Like, how do you well, knowing how much Andy likes his allowed patterns, I would I’d assume that he’d have I’d have never known about it and just had it for done later on in his patting room.

Nish 45:23

Yeah, I was just I was like, brilliant. I have to ask Josh about this, but he has to give me a live reaction to it. Um, that was probably the moment where you’re just like, what have I done this for? I’m gonna give up. It was a horrible day. Josh, look, it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you today. Thank you for your time. Thank you for having me. You know, it honestly, the the pleasure has been absolutely all ours. Uh I hope our paths cross at some point as well. We would love you to come up and sample the the the showers at our at our golf club, that’d be amazing. But um look, I just wish you all the best. And that’s very kind.

Would He Do It Again?

Nish 46:00

I bet everybody’s asked you if there’s uh another attempt in the offing, but now you know how to do it. Would you ever do it again?

Josh 46:08

I I probably would, but it’s there’s there’s there’s different layers to that. I think I’m probably not gonna do it if I don’t need to, let’s put it that way. So if someone comes and breaks it, I I might consider it. Uh I’ve obviously got a lot more knowledge and a lot more experience, and I think I’d even now, I think I if I’d have had a crack at it knowing I could probably hit 7, 750. Yeah, but it was it’s just I hope if someone does break it, it’s within the next kind of five years. So at least I’ve got half a half a chance of working body to do it.

Nish 46:40

The energy to do it, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, creatine, that’s what you need to get onto. That’ll that’ll get you through. Um, it’s dead funny. I was I was gonna say to you that um, you know, do you when you are being interviewed by people about it, or you’re just speaking to people, do you find yourself uh kind of having a pre-prepared bank of answers for something that might be a little bit like would you do it again? Or how would you feel if somebody broke your record? Because sports people always say, don’t they, like, how would you feel if you somebody broke your record? And they’re always like, Oh, I always say that records are there to be broken, you know, that kind of thing. Absolutely, they don’t want their record broken, do they?

Josh 47:18

I I think it it’s weird because you have to give up a year of your life, and that was something that I didn’t really consider when I did it. Uh, that you have to be financially in a strong position to do it. I was very lucky that a lot of the courses were very good to me, but you’ve you’ve got to be in a position, and and I think people, whilst they’re young, kids, families, jobs, there’s so many barriers in the way, and I kind of had the perfect storm of of doing that, and and obviously losing mum so suddenly was was the kind of kick I needed to to do it. Uh so I think if it all lines up for someone, there’s it’s there for the taking, but you have to really seriously love golf.

Nish 47:58

Yeah.

Josh 47:59

A lot.

Nish 48:00

A lot. Yeah, yeah, and then to come out of it the other end on the skate. And still want to play, yeah. Yeah. What you’re saying is nobody else can really do this, can they? Don’t do it, is what you’re saying.

Josh 48:09

Is this for the clip? Is it this is everything? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you’re doing. No, no one’s gonna break my records. Trying to wriggle you in, yeah.

Nish 48:17

That’s it. No, no, I wouldn’t do dream of doing anything like that to you, Josh. But I just I’ve I just have always loved that answer from the most competitive of people, and they’re like, no, no, no, I’d be happy with the you know, the records are there to be broken.

Josh 48:29

Like I’ve certainly become a bit more media trained. Not this, not not maybe this politically correct on a on a golf course, but uh as I’m sure uh some of my friends will vouch for. But it’s uh yeah, it’s it’s one of them. I I’d love to see someone do it, and at the very least, I have to be as courteous as Patrick, the previous holder, was to me when when I kind of went and asked him a load of questions.

Nish 48:52

Amazing, yes. So, I mean, how did that interaction go then? So it does Patrick is Patrick a little bit about him.

Josh 48:59

He’s an American guy, Patrick Coney, golf photographer. Yeah. And he went and he did it a year before, and someone told him, You realise the world record is like 440, and he’d done something similar the year before and got like 400 and didn’t know the record existed. And so then he went for a concerted effort. Uh he played by himself a lot, so he didn’t he didn’t get it verified. It’s not on like a Guinness World Record, uh, because that’s another complete another layer of of difficulty and complexity trying to organise all of that. But he got uh 580 and yeah, I messaged him probably May time. Yeah. And this is the May after he had broken the record in January, so it wasn’t long after. Yeah, and so he was absolutely brilliant. Had a few conversations with him, picked his brains about stuff, and and I’m still very grateful that that he was as as good as that because I probably wouldn’t have been, but now I’m I’m definitely going to be because that’s the the that’s kind of like a passing the cherry on kind of thing. It’s it is a shared experience.

Nish 50:01

Yeah, you’re a very exclusive, very exclusive club of people who’ve been crazy enough to do it. I mean, yeah. Look, mind blown by all of that, absolutely brilliant, and uh thank you for being so candid as well. Uh I really appreciate that. Um, so look, please give Josh a follow if you haven’t. I mean, if you don’t follow him on Instagram, I don’t really know where you’ve been. But obviously, we’ll pop all the links in the in our um episode descriptions, which is the the done thing to say, I think, at the end of these. But until next time on the top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast.