Nish’s Top 5 Holes of 2025

Nish: 0:00

Every story has an ending. Does our quest to play the top 100 courses in 10 years have a good ending? I’m Nish. I’m Chris. And we’re here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast. It was the the archetypal roller coaster hole. Yeah. I mean what I didn’t like from there. The uphill walk. For me, mate, that was I that was everything. Episode 55. Nish chooses his top five holes of 2025. Nish being me, of course. Or niche. Or niche. Depends which part of the country you’re from, apparently. Following on from Chris’s top five holes, these are my choices. But again, before we carry on with the episode, please click follow, please click subscribe. It doesn’t cost you anything at all, but we’d really appreciate it. So two seconds of your time. If you can do that, we’d be eternally grateful. Now back to the episode. So we’re not doing his order as we as we spoke, but I’m going to hand over the reins to you again, Christopher.

Chris: 1:04

Okay. I won’t ask you for the top five service station um shops.

Nish: 1:10

As a segment, I think that’s we need to find out what that service station was called because they need to know that Johnston Bridge. Johnston Bridge. They need to know that they have very limited gluten-free options. There’s not much for me to eat there. So and I still keep going back, of course, as you do. Yeah, top five holes, eh, Chris?

Chris: 1:27

Yeah, so I guess before we before we kind of go into talking about your top five holes, and I kind of I’ve talked about it a little bit in terms of what’s your what was your experience of uh or how easy or difficult did you find it going back into the archives and and kind of pulling these out?

Nish: 1:42

Um well so when I did my top three, yeah, uh I said that and one of the things that I used as a barometer for consideration for my top three was can I mentally walk through the whole 18 holes without needing to look at a score saver, stroke saver, or without having to look at videos or anything like that. So that made it quite that made it easier. Yeah. Uh the further back we went, it was a bit more of a stretch. Yeah, yeah. I think that’s got a bit to do with what this is in this can right here. But I found it surprisingly easy to recall my golf. Yeah. Which has shocked me, has pleasantly shocked me. Yeah. Because the worst thing that we can do is we play all these golf courses and don’t fucking remember it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Chris: 2:32

Well, like, you know, we said it’s been a long year this year. We started off in March time in in Wales, but I, you know, that round around Aberdovey, I can remember that like it was yesterday.

Nish: 2:41

Bizarre, isn’t it? Yeah, you know, Royal St. David’s. Yeah, again, that was a blinding day, like it was a baking hot day, and all that. We were like, this is easy street, isn’t it? You know, all of that stuff, it it’s it’s amazing. And and I do uh you know, I do I do think there’s a bit of a thing like we we we have I think if we were going into this trying to score, yeah, which while we do keep all of that, if we were going into it trying to score, we I suspect we might have had a slightly different experience of that because I think then you are almost attaching how you play to your experience of the golf course. Yeah, we’ve not really done that, we’re just gonna we just want to experience it and do everything, and we’ve always turned up relatively early at courses, and you know, we’re not we’re not we’re self-propessed, professed, we’re not ones to rush, and you know, we will take snaps and things like that, but because you’re forgetting a snap, just because you stood on that tee, sort of looking around and taking it all in, you do, and we talk about it as well, don’t we? We don’t just silently get to the tea, just like, oh, put myself an eye up and just go and you know what what coffee you play? I’ll just meet you down there, kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We try and talk about it all inevitably because we’re playing some of the best courses in the world, yeah. We will stand on a tee and just go, Oh my god, look at that. Digest it, look at that, that is amazing. So you remember all of that. Yeah, I could almost sometimes remember the conversations that we’ve had, like as we’ve been getting through, which is yeah, weird for it, isn’t it? But um, yeah, uh yeah, not being as hard as I thought. I think my idea of doing these episodes came to me simply because I thought if we tried to do this next year, the year after, when we’ve got maybe four. Wow, yeah. I mean, at least it gives us like we can take all the top threes and then try and pick from that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I mean it’d be not an impossible, I think, at that point. But you but we might pleasantly surprise ourselves. We remember it all. Yeah. You know, and we remember some of the experiences and shots that we’ve played on our deathbed. I mean, that’d be amazing, wouldn’t it? That’s kind of why we’re doing it. Yeah. You know, we just go, I remember when I hit that Hickory Club on 13 at kind of you know, that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, or I remember yeah, amazing, mate. Yeah, so good. Yeah, what a challenge. What a challenge. And what a challenge it was trying to pick five. Five of my favourite holes. So should I start? I can’t put these in order, I really can’t. It’s it’s too much to put in order. But what I will do is I will put in the two that we uh two out of five we’ve agreed on. Right, alright, and I’m gonna go with those first.

Chris: 5:17

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Nish: 5:17

Let’s get those out of the way then.

Chris: 5:18

Right. That’s that’s that’s a little bit out of the way, but also like yeah, out of 270 holes that we’ve agreed on, too.

Nish: 5:24

Two, yeah. I mean, one’s dead obvious, and that’s the 14th at Trump. Yeah, okay. We spoke about it. I probably gave it away while you were doing yours, but yeah, fantastic golf hole. Like just everything about it. It had. I mean, we actually because we did hit it on a good day, we even got like almost the perfect pictures because the sky was so blue. Yeah, it was. But it’s almost like he’s paid somebody to just make sure this looks like fantastic, and it was just it had everything, it had there’s a couple of things on it, like I had a duffed t-shot, then I hit a good recovery shot, and then you duffed your approach, and I was like, yes, we’re back in the game, and we it were all square on the signature. Like it just had a lot to it. Yeah, my first putt was going way past the hole, but it hit the flag and didn’t go as far. It was just like there were so many little elements to it, and I kind of we played it as a four-ball, so we were never on our own as such, but you still felt alone in that little bit that you were playing, and that’s the majesty and the beauty of that golf course.

Chris: 6:29

Yeah, I mean, that hole could have just literally just been on its own, it could have been one golf hole, couldn’t it? For for all intents and purposes, yeah. There was nothing else, like nothing else around it, yeah.

Nish: 6:37

Like you’re gonna get bugged to the other bit, sort of thing. Yeah, no, no. It was, yeah, it was a it was wonderful and seriously intimidating tee-shot, but you know, you nailed your t-shirt, and that must have been so satisfying to hit that and just go, oh yes, yeah, especially because I’ve not been playing that well. Not being that, yeah, yeah. That’s always an especially satisfying thing to do, I think. But yeah, brilliant, brilliant hole. Again, if you get a chance to play that, you’ve got to play it. So that was so I don’t need to wax too lyrical about it because we both sort of agree on it. Yeah. Um, the next one that we both agree on is the par 3 8th at Dumbarnie.

Chris: 7:13

Oh, okay, yeah.

Nish: 7:14

So again, I sort of chirped up a bit while you were describing it, yeah. But yeah, I mean, what I like about it is it’s not too difficult. I just hit a pitching wedge, that was it. Yeah. But the whole while you’re looking at this stunning view, yeah, and it’s all like downhill. Like there’s a lot of these courses and holes and things. I was thinking, I was like, there’s a lot, there’s a lot of elevation change, and I don’t know what it is. I think elevation change just makes it easier on the eye.

Chris: 7:44

I don’t know, but and I think often like a downhill par three, I’m not a mega fan of, if I’m honest. Right, okay. But I think because that one like continued to then go down and then kind of like went all the way down to the sea, it was just like it was it was just remarkable.

Nish: 7:57

There’s like stepped all the way like almost, but yeah, but I don’t even know if it was because I feel like the ninth fairway went off behind it, but just the way it was done, yeah, just look like that’s the edge of the world, yeah, yeah. Into the sea, and that’s it done. Yeah, it was honestly, Clive Clarke has done a wonderful job on that, yeah, on that whole yeah, yeah, you know, and I I think that is that’s the only par three on my I’m not very good at par three, so that’s pretty indicative of what’s going on, but it’s the only par three on my list, yeah. I mean it’s the only part three on my list as well. Which is funny, isn’t it? Yeah, I found that really interesting, yeah. But yeah, only part three on my list, and it was it was just you you summed it up perfectly when you said you come around that corner and you’re not expecting it. And we we we were a little bit because Blair had told us eight-nine is a fantastic stretch and my favourite stretch, but he was clever, he didn’t tell us why. Yeah, yeah. Like we got there and it was like, oh. We’re just gonna reveal that and ruin that for everyone. Yeah, sorry, sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry, not sorry. Uh yeah, so so I think we’ll yeah, we’ll both agree on that. And obviously the golf course was was fantastic as well. So that was my second of my top five. Yep. My third one to one of my favourite places in the world, I think now, is Hindhead. Okay, yeah.

Chris: 9:21

And it was the the fifth hole at Hindhead. And we do we’ve not done a kind of like notable mentions, but but the fifth at Hindhead was was very much next on my list, I think, beyond my top five.

Nish: 9:33

Brilliant hole. It was it was the the archetypal roller coaster hole. Yeah, you tee up from high up, yeah, you drop right down, the c the hole curves round to the left. I’m hoping we’ve got some footage and we can show everyone. The hole curls round to the left, you’ve got bunkers on the right hand side to stop you just going for a straight one. Yeah, it’s banked again still, so you’ve got this, you gotta get it in the middle, yeah, you know, and then it just kind of then raises up a little bit, and then the green is raised up again. It just it was a that summed Hindhead up, yeah. That whole thing.

Chris: 10:08

The more I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere else in the world like Hindhead. And I’ve done a fair bit of travelling, you know, been to some fairly beautiful places, but that there’s something incredibly special about that that stress the way that just kind of winds through that little valley with the trees, like two Jurassic Valleys, they call it, or something like that, isn’t it?

Nish: 10:27

Yeah, it was just class, wasn’t it? And again, the imagination to go, that’s where we’re gonna put the golf course. Yeah, you know, this is where it’s gonna happen. Yeah, um, it was a fantastic. I mean, what I didn’t like from there, and well no, actually, I think I still liked this bit, but it was wasn’t good for my health. The uphill walk after you finish. But right, so there’s a couple of things that I did on that hole. As I was uh so I hit my drive well, and then I hit my approach and it was just short of the green. So I was like, when I hit my drive, as I was coming up to it, that’s when I got this moment where it was like I was just coming around the corner and the reveal was happening for the rest of the hole because you couldn’t see it. And I was like, I got my phone out and I filmed it, and I was like, my goodness, like look, this reveal on the goal in the hole is amazing. So that was was brilliant for me. And then the next one was that walk-up from five to six. Yeah, you go through this like clearing, don’t you? And it’s all these little like trees and things like that, are like overhanging. It felt like I was in Jurassic Park, like full on, you know, I was waiting for a velociraptor to come out and attack me. But I filmed that as well, and it’s just me panting basically the whole time, you know. But that kind of added to the whole feel of that that hole. So that yeah, that that sixth uh fifth. The sixth was interesting because that was that really big drop par three. I thought it was okay. That was their signature hole, wasn’t it? And I thought it was okay. I think maybe because it’s coming after five, yeah, didn’t quite didn’t quite do it for me. But yeah, fabulous place. And again, compliments to to hindhead, so good. Right, so I’m middle halfway through now, and I so that’s five number two. Halfway through five, halfway through five, yeah. Uh good, really too much cider. Uh okay, I’m trying to think which way around I want to do these two. Okay, yeah, I’m gonna do I’m gonna do this way around, right? So my fourth choice is from one of your favourite places in golf courses we’ve played so far. Okay, you fell in love with it, yeah. It’s Gullane, okay, yeah. And I’ve gone for the 17th, which takes you all the way down into town. Yeah. And a characterful hole, not anything remarkable as such. Yeah, apart from these paths, bunkers in the front. But oh my god, that view. Yeah, you know, and then also the fact that we took the uh opportunity to turn around, yeah, yeah. And it’s like there’s the rest of the golf course, yeah. So town here, golf course there. What a great time we played that as well, right? Golden Hour setting behind us. That was yeah, there’s definitely a little bit of golden hour bias in that choice, but possibly yeah. I felt like unbelievable on that tee. So we’d had a great, great round of golf, we’d had a great day in general, and then to get that view in, you know, we played all played it all right as well, all that kind of stuff, and it was like a bit interesting.

Chris: 13:15

It was just Gullane was a funny one because I feel that Gullane punched so far above its weight in terms of like the kind of layout of the cut. Like, yeah, it was just there’s not much you touched on it earlier, but it was something just special about that place, and I can’t it’s it’s one of those things that I can’t quite put my finger on, but it was just maybe you never will just magical, probably won’t.

Nish: 13:36

And I think that’s uh I get the feeling that there’s gonna be a few places where you’re gonna play in Scotland that are gonna be like that, where you’ll come off and you’ll go I don’t know what it is about that golf course, but it’s got its teeth into me a little bit. Yeah, I mean it he’s got to have something because uh if you were to really strip it back, as you just said then, as he’s really strip it back, yeah, but you know, you were struggling to lose a golf ball in Gullane because it was wide and it was you know forgiving. Yeah, uh you weren’t there weren’t any ridiculously penal bunkers anywhere. Yeah. It was just like this wide open stretch of turf to go play golf on, right? Yeah, but just yeah, like it stood the test of time for a reason. You know, it would have closed in a few years, it was terrible, you know, it just had everything going for it.

Chris: 14:24

Yeah, I mean I guess it’s one of those things that like just the simplicity, like simple things, right? They’re still to trick it up, yeah. They work, don’t they? They work, but yeah, I mean that that return back down into the village on 17/18.

Nish: 14:38

I feel like 17/18 always blend into one um as an experience, but yeah, what what a great, great finish that was. So that was my penultimate choice for the top five holes. Um so my last one uh is at Queens, uh, and it is the ninth. So the ninth was it was a dog leg right, you tee off, and you low down, and the whole dog leg is right up to the right.

Chris: 15:10

You went off to the top. I tried to cut the corner and right up onto the easy, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Nish: 15:14

That hole, and then it’s got a couple of things going for it for me. So it it encapsulates Queens for me because it’s this roller coaster ride again. Yeah, right, it’s not a butt down, whatever, it’s not a big hole. Yeah, so you hit your I hit my drive, hit it well, so it was you know, it was all fine. Kind of got there in the middle of the fairway, and again, because there’s hills in the way on the right hand side, you don’t see where the green complex is, and you come around the corner and you go, Oh, yeah, yeah, look at that. And it’s kind of like it’s it’s elevated, yeah, and it climbs all the way, big green, yeah, couple of bunkers by the side, but nothing too like gonna put you off or anything like that. Trees lining the left hand side, trees at the back, so you hit your shot. I hit a six sign in, yeah, and actually I nailed my six sign, like it made a good noise and it went arrow straight, and you could just see it the whole way, like lands on the green, you know, nail your pal, whatever, and then the thing that topped it off for that whole for me, and I’ve got to include one of these sorts of things of these golf courses was that you get to the next Tee, which is the 10th Tee, and that’s where the phone box is to order your food from the halfway hut. For me, mate, that was like that was everything living life to its to its fullest. Yeah, I I’ve got I’ve got great golf, yeah, beautiful scenery, and then at the end, the novelty factor. Pick up a phone, stick your order in. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I probably took way too many pictures and videos of us ordering food, but how good was that? And I’m glad we did that that day because the next day the phone wasn’t working, we had to use our mobile phone, yeah. That’s true. But that that it’s that whole summed up the character of Queen’s course to me. Yeah, and that’s another one where you’ll go and you cannot walk away from that without just having had a fun day. Yeah, you know, and if you if we don’t get me wrong, King’s was a great golf course, yeah. But if somebody said to me you pick one, you’re having one night there, yeah, you pick one golf course to go and play, you pick Queens, in my opinion. Yeah, I think I agree, yeah. Because it’s just stunning, yeah. And and again, you’ve got a chance to score and things like that, and you’ll be you’ll get your camera out more on that than you will on the King’s course. So that that was my that was my top five holes a bit of 2025.

Chris: 17:28

So we’re gonna jump one more question, a bit of a curveball for you. So take taking out what are your favourite holes. Okay. Can you pick out or can you can you remember which hole you’ve played best this year?

Nish: 17:41

Which hole have I played the best this year? Ooh, okay. I’ll I’ll maybe I’ll do my I’ll do my working out. So I mean it’s gotta be well, obviously one where you’ve sh you’ve shot a good score. Yeah. Nearly getting an eagle at Glen eagles was good. That’s which hole was that? I remember I remember the eagle at Glen eagles, but I can’t remember which hole it was. I think that was like the it was it was a fifth, I think it was, because it was after the fourth. Was that the one that Lee Trevino said is the hardest par for? Yeah, yeah, so that’s the one up the hill, isn’t it? Yes, it’s the fifth thing. Yeah, it was the fifth, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that one, um nothing particularly to it, but you know, we need to get a good drive on that. Yeah, yeah. I was quite enjoying that one. I mean, I loved the the was it the 11th at Dumbarnie? I loved that because you drove the green, I drove it just short of the green on your birdie, you know, whatever. That was that was great. Yeah, trying to think if there was a par oh, no, no, no. I think I’ve I’ve got my winner. Yeah, it’s the par three seventh at Hankley Common. Oh, of course, yeah. I mean that was yeah, that was a great shot. Yeah, that was an unbelievable shot, wasn’t it? That was just like yeah, yeah, that’s going in. Yeah, that’s going in. Actually, are we doing top 100 uh shots? So, can I count my hole in one at René Fail?

Chris: 18:54

No, you can’t, you can’t you can’t mention that ever again. Never again.

Nish: 18:57

To be fair, uh I’ve just always got this thing as I I don’t know, I feel a bit disappointed with that because I didn’t see it go in, yeah, yeah, yeah. But seeing it go in is different, isn’t it? Absolutely. There’s grades of the hole in one, are they? But yeah, that t-shirt that hit on that seventh, it just like I don’t know how it happened, and I’m trying to recreate it ever since, but just everything felt right about it, yeah, yeah. And it had the perfect shape, little baby draw, yeah, and it was like right on the flag, and we were just like, that’s on, that’s on. And then and then what made it as well was then you followed up, and it was almost exactly the same shot. Yeah, yeah.

Chris: 19:30

This is it. Um yeah, I guess that was that was a bit of a leading question to what’s yours? Well, no, what’s my well no no no, no? I was just thinking in terms of how how well have we managed to unpack our good golf from our best holes and courses. Well, I’m thinking you’ve not mentioned a single one of your top five holes in those holes that you’ve played the best.

Nish: 19:52

I’ve been thinking about it there. I played I played this, I didn’t play the 17th particularly well um at Gullane. Ninth at Queens, I parred, so I did that well. Yeah, the fifth at Hindhead I got a five and it’s a par four, didn’t play that particularly well. The fourteenth at Trump, I got a six, um, and the par three, eighth at Dumbarnie, I got a par, yeah. Um, which was okay. Yeah, I I think yeah, I feel like I’ve the ones I played the best aren’t in my in my top five. Did you feel that same as well?

Chris: 20:22

I think so, yeah. I don’t think I’ve played anything particularly well. I should probably look through the list, but um to have a look.

Nish: 20:28

Yeah, it’d be interesting to know what our scores were on. Maybe we’ll put that up as a graphic on the case.

Chris: 20:32

I think Queens at six I had a bit of a shocker on there, to be honest from memory. Uh the 14th at Hankley. Again, I think I might have scored a five or a six or something in play particularly. I don’t think any of us played that particularly well, didn’t we? No, we didn’t, no. Uh Dumbarnie eighth, I hit a really good shot in there, to be fair. Yeah, missed. We’ll put them both away with passed.

Nish: 20:49

Oh, you got four actually, didn’t you? Yeah, god, yeah, yeah.

Chris: 20:51

Trump 14 again. I didn’t play particularly well. I had a couple of good shots, but some pretty bad shots. Aberdovey 15th, yeah. I blew my eye and miles that. I actually played them all pretty, pretty poorly, to be honest.

Nish: 21:03

That’s interesting, isn’t it? That we’ve detached our performance away from what we thought was the party of the golf hole. Interesting. I’ll tell you what, I I hit another there’s a few good t-shots I’ve hit actually. Uh I’m trying to think if there’s a drive that I’ve hit that I’ve thought of particularly. I mean, I’ve had troubles with my driver this year. Ganton. No, no, Ganton, sorry, uh Hollingwell. Oh my god, 18th at Hollingwell. That was yeah, that was a crackerjack of a drive, wasn’t it? That was spanked right down the middle. Do you know what? The third at Dumbarnie, there was a good drive. We both would have been on the green if it was if we were sort of somehow accurate. Yeah, we got the distance right. Although I think yours was a bit of an odd route because you went quite left, but it’s honestly hit a bank and then you can think. You got lucky. Mine was a mine was actually a good shot. But um yeah, I’m just trying to think, like, drives. I hit a real oh no, oh right. One hole I was pretty proud of was the 16th at Ganton. Now we all know the 16th I had an absolute at Ganton had an absolute rotter because I was hungover and had any sleep. But my driver was not working well at all. Like I was right in the middle of my troubles with my driver, but that one I hit it and it went straight as you like and it bisected that fairway. I could have paced that out and it was right in the middle of that fairway. I remember Ann-Marie looking at me just going, where the fuck’s that being this whole time? Like if you could play like that, why have you been pissing about this whole time? Yeah, yeah. She probably actually said it if I’m honest. But um, yeah, if you listen to Ann- Marie, I appreciated it. Took it as a compliment. Yeah, there were there were a few good. It’s great going and thinking about those because you do think about just the great tee-shots we’ve been able to play and not play. Yeah, as as would be the case. Yeah. Yeah, what a wonderful, wonderful thing. So good to be good to take these forward as well, our top five holes, and see what beats it I can’t find a common thread.

Chris: 22:58

A common thread and yours. Yeah. No, and that’s not a bad thing, is it? Because ultimately we’re playing lots of different holes, aren’t we?

Nish: 23:04

Good views, I think, yeah, seem to do it, don’t they? Yeah. Good views on a bit of a bit of undulation, bit of bit of roller coaster elevation change. Until next time on the top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast.