Swinley Forest Golf Club: Heathland Golf At Its Best?

Nish 0:35

Every good story is about the journey, and this is the story of our journey trying to play the top 100 courses in the UK and Ireland in just 10 years. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast. Episode 79, the Swinley Forest Golf Club Review. We were both young when I first saw you. I close my eyes and the flashback starts. I’m standing there on a balcony in the summer air. See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns, see you make your way through the crowd and say hello. Little did I know that you were Romeo. You were throwing pebbles at my and my daddy said, Stay away from Juliet. And I was crying on the staircase, begging you please don’t go. And I said, Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone. I’ll be waiting. All there’s left to do is run. You’ll be the prince, and I’ll be the princess. It’s a love story. Baby, just say yes. I will explain why I’ve come up with that as my intro for this. But before we do that, please can I ask you to hit follow, subscribe, like, comment, share it, whatever you can do to spread the word about this podcast. This humble little podcast that consistently ranks in the top 20 golf podcasts in the UK. And uh by sharing the word and just doing that one little action which costs you absolutely nothing, it means the world to us, but it helps us spread our reach that little bit further. Now we’re gonna get back to this episode. I will explain that intro maybe in

Chris is away — Jim hosts

Nish 2:06

a little while. But we have a notable absentee, we don’t have Chris with us today. There are personal circumstances involving that. So we’re doing the show slightly differently today. Jim’s gonna basically compare. Which I’ve tried to I’ve attempted to do before and I’ve always taken me back over again. But um I I’m I’m I’m gonna let it I’m gonna let it go this time, Jim. I’m I feel like I’ve matured. This is episode 99 out of a out of all our podcasts that we did. 99? I know episode number 99 with all the bonuses and all that kind of thing, which is seems like yesterday, only yesterday when when we first started this. Mad, isn’t it?

Jim 2:43

Yeah.

Nish 2:43

Mad. Yeah, we’ve got a few treats lined up for the hundredth episode special. Um, new guests, I think, and new new hosts. Everyone can get some actual actual humour and insight rather than rather than us. But look, Swinley Forest was around we were both immensely looking forward to. It was like it had something mystical and magical about it, and I think it’s quite fitting actually that we’re gonna do a slightly different type of episode. I can’t really, in good conscience, give people full chapter and verse about this golf course and golf club because I just feel they need that mystery and that mystique, and you need to experience that for yourself.

Jim 3:31

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I remember when you told me that you’d you’d managed to get on there, and I thought I thought that would be one of the really, really difficult courses for you to actually play. So to get that so early in the in the journey, really, yeah, it was it was quite surprising. And obviously, you did the preview with Alex @Kattergolf, yeah. Yeah, um, which was a great episode, and I mean the whole the whole mystique of it, as we’ve talked about, is is something that I I thought that that you would like this golf course and this whole experience, possibly more than others, but um up to date anyway.

Nish 4:10

Correct,

The mystique of Swinley Forest

Nish 4:11

yeah, and it’s it’s number 26, we’re we’re over a quarter of the way into the journey. And I I I felt when we did the preview with Alex, I felt like he was just holding back a little bit on me, uh, as much as I was trying to coax information out of him, and I get it now. I totally get it. It’s just one of those places I kept keeping saying it’s in Surrey, it’s not, it’s in it’s in Berkshire, it’s near Ascot. You know, all of those images come to your head about places like Ascot, don’t they? And you know, it was just like I just felt that it was a it was the the golf that we played so far, it’s just an experience we’ve not had anywhere else. And it’s is the overall experience. So I’m gonna talk a lot about my feelings and oh please don’t. I’m not paid for this. It’s a weepy, it’s a weepy. So strap yourselves in, get a tissue, everyone. Um so like I say, I’m not gonna hand over to Jim. Jim has got all of our segments. I’m gonna keep my tablet going because I want to make sure he stays on track. But Jim, oversee you, you be you be niche for the day. Channel, you’re in a niche.

Jim 5:12

Don’t no, I think everybody should should should suppress their niche.

Nish 5:17

They’re in a niche, suppress you’re in a niche, yeah, absolutely.

Jim 5:21

Um, but obviously it was it was something that you were really looking forward to, and I can I know what you’re like, so you and Chris and that drive down to to Berkshire would be pretty giddy.

Nish 5:31

Yeah, and we’d we’d played a pretty good course before. We played Lip Hook just be the day before, and that was stunning. And we go like, I’m looking forward to this already, and then we’ve already played a good one, and we know that this one’s significantly better. The people that we played with were like chalk and cheese kind of thing, but yeah, just everything was so set up.

17th in the UK, 52nd in the world

Jim 5:55

So it is ranked 17th in the top 100 and 52nd in the world.

Nish 6:00

52nd in the world, yeah. Of all the golf course in the world, it’s in the top 50, which is like it’s madness, like real madness. Totally get it, totally see that. Um, it’s funny playing the world ones, you know. So we I think we’ve we played Carnoustie, Cruden Bay’s been on a world list. Cruden Bay obviously split opinion between me and Chris, and then Swinley Forrest. I mean, I don’t it hasn’t split opinion between us this time. We were like it we’re pretty impressed with the whole setup. The day was magnificent. We left ourselves with no rush whatsoever. We were playing with a member, um, we’re playing with another another gentleman that that had uh agreed to come and come and join us in our football. It was a charity voucher that we’d that we’d won. Uh it was brilliant, and like the day was beautiful, weather was great.

Jim 6:46

Yeah, I was going to ask about the weather because uh obviously we have had a few heat waves in recent times in the UK. It’s all our fault, of course, you know, humid-induced climate change. Yeah, yeah.

Nish 6:57

Well, look, the the course was in unbelievable, knick, bearing in mind all of the trouble that we’ve had with real wet, you know, just consistent days of rain and then just hot, dry weather. So I mean, so good. It’s you know, looking at it, I don’t I think because of the way the course is and the membership is it’s not a course that’s just got wave after wave of people playing it all the time. So I think it has a chance to recover, and boy, does it recover. So it’s members only no visitors allowed unless you signed it by a yeah, I think they’d I’d seen they let they actually do allow societies to come and play. And the society thing is that they’ll do two rounds in the day, they’ll have lunch um in the upstairs dining room, and it’s all like a you know, a big package, that kind of thing. I think they only have two or three actual visitor slots assigned every day, so you can get in touch with the club and do it, but it’s not like a big you know, come and pay us a few hundred quid and you can come in come and play it.

Jim 7:51

I think it’s a it’s deliberately withheld.

Nish 7:53

Remains that exclusivity and correct aura of uh we didn’t need a tea time, it was basically just our host turned up and he was like, There’s no tea times here. Um there’s one magical thing happened that we that we heard, and I love this, and I think this for me sums up what Swinley Forest is all about. So Swinley Forest, we’ve covered on the preview very famously, didn’t have a scorecard till like the mid-90s. They don’t really have any competitions as such in the clubs, there’s no honours boards around or anything like that. It is a come along, enjoy the golf course, enjoy the facilities, and then go out into the real world kind of kind of place. When we teed off, um our host who’s fantastic, he said he said something, and like me and Chris has looked at each other and we were just like that’s brilliant, and he said, Oh, we teed off, and like I I fortunately uh my my driving’s going well at the minute, so I spanked it right down the middle, whatever. And he said, Well, you’re in the middle you’re in the fairway, so it doesn’t really matter at the minute. But he goes, We play um winter rules all year round, and I was like, What do you mean? And he said it’s his preferred lies. If at any point you’ve got a bad lie, you’re allowed to just it’s part of the way we play, you’re just allowed to pick it up and just play with a good, better lie, cleany ball, whatever. Because a gentleman should never have to play golf off a bad lie, and I was like, This place is a bit of me all over. I was gonna say, so I expected some really good scores then as a result of that. Yeah, let’s maybe not talk about no look. We we both I mean Chris played out of his skin, like absolutely out of his skin. I don’t think I’ve seen him better play better than that on this whole whole journey. He was brilliant. Um I think and he was he was like that as well. He’d played so badly at Lip Hook the day before, I think he just went, I’m just gonna enjoy it. No pressure on me today, no stress, yeah, no stress. His first t-shirt went off really well. I was like, Yeah, I’m gonna I’m just gonna do it today. And it was just feeling good on the race, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it was I thought that summed up Swinley Forest for me.

Jim 10:06

So going back to your first impressions of the of the whole golf course, I mean, what is that experience like when you come off the main road and you explain that journey? Because I know this is something that would that that that you particularly enjoy and you get terribly excited.

First impressions

Nish 10:22

Well, because I’m shit at golf, like this is the thing that gets me excited and going. But look, we we’re doing this and we’re doing these reviews is to kind of give people that idea. You can read about the course and do all that stuff, but you know, you can figure all that sort of shit out. But this is like I’m playing one, two, three, maybe top 100s ever, and like where am I gonna go? Like, where am I gonna get those feels? And odd really, because you you kind of you know, we drove up and like you know, gates opened up, all that kind of thing, and like we’re just sort of parked up, but it it’s quite unassuming, really. I mean the the clubhouse is beautiful, it’s a really old building, quite grand, but in an understated way, kind of thing. So you go in, it’s really like everything’s really traditionally kitted out, but you know, not intimidating. And that that was the thing that really struck me about the whole thing. I really expected it with its history and with its exclusivity that it’s gonna be really like you’re gonna walk in and not feel the welcome or whatever. We went in, checked in at the pro shop, they were brilliant in there. It’s a tiny little pro shop, but it’s so well laid out and stocked, it’s just fantastic. Like I was getting a kidnapping. Uh so it you know, professionals were were were brilliant with us, and they were like, you know, are you gonna have something to eat before you go out? Please help yourself, you know, heading to the the the bar. You are um your host, you’re his guest today. Uh so he you know, he sort of went in over the courtyard and um had some breakfast. Um smoked salmon, scrambled egg, poached egg. No, poached egg, smoked salmon, poached egg on toast. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you don’t need to scrambled egg at play. You don’t just scrambled egg in place. I don’t know, it must be poached. But you’re overlooking the practice green, you can see the 18th green, you can see the first tea going out. That view from that clubhouse is amazing. So as a scene setter for getting you in somewhere and getting you ready for a round of golf, like it’s brilliant. You walk over, there’s like a really nice like range. Um, it wasn’t a grass range, it was off mats, um, and it wasn’t a full full range, so you can’t really get your driver out. But you know, again, like I say, it’s the I don’t think this is about getting your your swing dialed in and whatever, it’s just like go and have a go and have a few hits, but then get back and enjoy the club. Save it all for the course and tea before you go out, that kind of place, you know, very genteel kind of kind of thing. So it was it was lovely, and like I said, the weather was really nice. So so I think first impressions were just like all preconceptions of is this gonna be snooty, is it gonna be elitist? Am I gonna not fit in? None of that, absolutely none of that. And if you’re a member’s guest, which we were, you know, everything has to be done with the approval of the member. So if you just went, oh we’ll we’ll just get our breakfast and pay for it, it’s like no, no, no, it has to go on your host’s account, they have to approve you paying for that, so you you can’t just go, oh no, I’d like to just do it off the record sort of thing, so they don’t they don’t know what I’ve spent the money or whatever. It’s no no no, you’re their guest, so as our service goes, we we can’t let you do that. I’m afraid as a guest, like your your host has to let us know that that’s okay to do, which I think again I think is a lovely touch. It’s a bit less a bit of an old-worldly type of thing. Very, very much so, yeah.

Jim 13:37

Same if you go to the House of Lords or yeah, correct.

Nish 13:39

Yeah, oh yeah, is that right, James? When the freak have you been to the House of Lords?

Jim 13:45

Been a few several times. Yeah, Lord, Lord James of uh I was a guest, and you know, they pay for everything and then you pay them back later on.

Nish 13:54

Yeah, I mean don’t don’t get me wrong, you pay them back later on, yes, of course. Absolutely. Yeah, so it was it was just magnificent, and you know, you you I was a bit bit cheeky because there is a visitors you went for the Dom Perignon, didn’t you? I did, yeah, exactly. Yes, I don’t just 47. Put it through as the Moet, it’s fine. Um you there is a visitors locker room and there’s a members locker room. Uh so obviously as I said that’s we what we were required to use. Um however, when you’re if you’re eating, you know, I was just like now I’d heard that the visitors’ locker room is really nice. So I was eating, just went into the bar staff and I just sort of said, uh, you know, is it I just need to pop to loo, like where’s where’s the nearest? And she was like, Oh, just please pop across just the members. And it was like brilliant, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear. So I was like, in there having a little look, and it was lovely. It was you know, again, so well prep like or like the you know, the loo was really in that old fashioned cat. It was just but it was like nice, it was all clean and just slick and just everything was until you until you went in there, left your skid marks. Say no more, Jim. Say no more. Um so yes, that was it, and it just sets a perfect tone. Like I said, there’s no tea times or anything like that. You just rock up, it’s like he was just like, Yep, we’ll go after this four-ball. We’re like, okay, great. You’re gonna get it. We’re used to like getting at 10, 10, 10.56, your tea and off. Like a better tea off on the dock, and you’re there 10 minutes before. Yeah, exactly. Doing all of that sort of stuff. So it was it was great, and we did like a little informal match, and and yeah, it was wonderful, wonderful experience doing all of that.

Jim 15:17

Um, so did they have how many restaurants do they have? Is it just the one waiting for the breakfast?

Nish 15:22

There is there is one on the top floor. So when we were there, there was uh so Shell were there, we haven’t had a society there day there. So they’d obviously been out in the morning. We turned up, I think everybody had gone out at that point, and then they were like, you know, uh somebody from Shell was like running around trying to make sure that they were all okay as they were going round, and then they were like, Oh, we’ve got dinner upstairs, and so everybody was like up there in their jacket and towel. We didn’t have to have jacket in towel, you don’t have to do that in the downstairs bit um in the the normal lounge. And I must say the terrace, which overlooks all of that, the outside stunning. What stunning place to have your you know, your post-round drink and and whatever. And and up to a man, everybody who was doing that afterwards, like we were all just like, oh what is this place? Like once in a lifetime type thing, you know. I think feel like it’s that kind of place, the bucket list kind of place.

Jim 16:12

Well, you’ve you’ve been and you’ve done it.

Nish 16:14

Yeah, I want to go back now. Merchandise, is it not that type of no no no, it’s actually interestingly enough. I I I thought that the merch was quite um quite modern, actually. Like um, you know, there’s big like uh hats and you know, bag towels with like um you know SFGC on it and stuff like that. So it’s it’s quite you know, the it’s it’s quite modernly merched out, if you know what I mean. Um it was great, great, tiny little place, but just fantastic. So what did he get? I don’t know about I bought a Gilet, bought a new Gilet. New Gilet. Yeah, which which I went at the gut back, I was like, why the hell didn’t I try this on before I did it? But it’s one size too small, so we’re we’re down.

Jim 16:56

Oh, you’re on Mounjaro now, are you?

Nish 16:57

I’m on Mounjaro now, yeah, just to fit into my expensive Gilet from Swinley Forest. Um what else did I? I get my usual like ball markers and and stuff like that. Uh I think that was it really. It was I didn’t have to go too too wild overall.

Jim 17:12

Yeah, so that yeah and in some in terms of the the the actual golf course itself, I mean, is it relatively hiv hilly? I mean I’d anticipate. I mean, obviously listening to the to the to the preview, um that part of the world, plenty of heather, plenty of heather.

Nish 17:28

Um

The course: heather and elevation

Nish 17:28

I and Chris will probably back me up on this because we played well, we weren’t really in it too much. Um so the impact of it was lessened a little bit. It was so as a as golf courses go and course characteristics go, this like for me, on my eye, the thing that I like most is that I’ve got these colours popping. So the heather looking, you know, colourful in the time of the year, particularly, yeah. Yeah, the you know, the green, obviously it could be lusher and greener, but the weather, current weather has dictated that’s not necessarily the case, but it wasn’t detrimental. I like trees, you know, and and in the background, all that kind of I like trees. Yeah, I really love a tree. But it it just I like everything, and it had it had a decent amount of elevation change as well. And sometimes you’d be like your teen off your tee and your green were the same height, but you’d go through a dip and and things like that. So all of that stuff was like just just what I would have wanted in a golf course, so it was really, really nice in that in that respect.

Jim 18:39

I think the elevation is quite surprised, but I mean you because a lot of the courses in that part of the the country do seem to be quite undulating as well. I mean, I know you do have the south downs for some of the other courses that you’ve already done. Um, I mean, Liphook is probably similar in some respects to that as well.

Nish 18:56

Yeah, I think that kind of that Heathland type golf course where they do have these sweeping elevation, and I I love it. Absolutely love it.

Jim 19:04

I love looking at it, it’s just you know, when I know we’re gonna go down there and then you’ve got to come up.

Nish 19:08

I mean, like I say, look, it are your experience is very much here, I thought I would say tempered by how you play. Like if you spray it, you know, you’re gonna find your ball or that kind of thing, but you’ll be always like chipping it out because it’s stuck in heather and and whatever. So that will make a difference to how you view the the overall golf, but I suppose the overall riding emotion that I had with it all was like look, notwithstanding playing well, I was like, actually, we played really well it it’s about the overall feeling that you get when you’re playing there. Now, while I’m saying that, I’ll apologise for any playing background in the noise, but we are in the middle of said heat wave. Another one, number three. You can probably, if you’re watching this one, you’ll see behind Jim. It’s the first time we’ve actually thrown all the doors open because we have to get some kind of breeze coming, otherwise, we’re just gonna stew. So, uh, apologies if you hear some background noise, and and obviously England are playing in the World Cup currently, so we’ve got flags and stuff around, and kids are loving all of that. But you know, it was just I I’m I’m generally speaking, in these reviews, I will I will give you some really good intel on the course. I’m I’m gonna try and avoid doing that. I really am. Um there’s a couple of reasons for that. Number one is what we covered at the start of that mystique element, like I really think you need to play it and and experience it. Number two, I actually weirdly struggled to remember like highlight holes from the golf course. It’s a little bit of time since we’ve played, and Vino dictates the the the memories isn’t isn’t as good as it used to be. But I I struggled, I struggled with that. Um but that’s not because there aren’t holes there that are just absolutely magnificent to see.

Signature hole challenge

Jim 20:58

So out of the out of your round, obviously one of the things that we do generally discuss as part of the post round analysis is the top three holes for both you and Chris. Yeah. I know you’ve just said that it’s quite difficult to pick a favourite or a few favourites.

Nish 21:16

Yeah, it was it was tricky. Um I think now we didn’t we should have done this or taken notes on this probably a bit sooner after our round, and we haven’t done that. And I suppose look, it feels like I’m trying to make an excuse for not having done that, but the thing about this golf course is that I would I struggled to find outstanding holes out of the general fact that it’s just an outstanding golf course, so it was like you know, and it I I could I couldn’t say I’ll take that hole and I’ll just transplant it onto another course or a Dream 18 or whatever, and it’ll be it’ll stand on its own. I feel like the flow of that golf course is what it is, and those holes work well in that order, and as they’re done. So it’s been interesting to hear when we were going round that they’d remodelled a couple of the holes. It was there’s one stretch where there’s three of them back to back, there’s like a par five, a par four, a par four, and a par three, and they’re basically just in one long straight line. Um which you can almost see from the first one, you can just see this like line of holes. But that makes it sound like it’s just this long and straight thing, like whatever. And generally speaking, they are just straight, relatively long, but there’s so much interesting nuance to all of them. There’s one, um, I think it’s the seventh, maybe sixth or seventh, and there are like three bunkers that are in like. A diagonal line right across the fairway, you know. So if you you crack your drive but you just send it a bit right, you’re in one of those bunkers. But if you crack it and it’s just on the left hand side, it’ll just run on and it’ll get you get good distance. So that kind of like just tricks it up a little bit, but not like we’re trying to make you have a shit round here, like you know, they just wanted to go and enjoy your golf, like, and that’s it.

Jim 22:56

Sometimes I think sometimes the bunkers are there more as a feature. I mean, they obviously it is it is a a risk and a hazard, um, but also it’s just part of a golf course, isn’t it? In many respects.

Nish 23:06

I feel like in Heathland golf courses I’ve found so far that the bunkers almost serve a dual purpose, they look unbelievable. Where they’ve placed them, they just look amazing, and then and they’re so well manicured, but made not made to look manicured because they always have heather tops on them and stuff like that. But then there’s the strategic element as well, but I just don’t think they’re trying to catch you out with a lot of them, you know. If you’re right, look if you’re gonna spray it, you’re gonna spray it. That’s just that’s the punishment for for doing that.

Jim 23:32

They’re gonna get to play these golf courses by being an amateur, well, rank amateur like me. Yeah, exactly.

Nish 23:38

You know, we’re all we’re all in that same boat. So but I will look, I will pick out a few highlights. Um the par threes as a whole, probably amongst the best collection of par threes that I’ve played. Every single one, you stood on the tee, and you were like, Oh my god, that’s amazing. And like I took a few pictures and stuff like that. Our host was great, he was like, Look, take as many pictures and videos as you want, it’s not a problem. Like, we’re not we’re not precious about that kind of thing. But again, I said to Chris, I was like, I don’t want to do too much of that, I just want to experience the golf course. I mean, I did in the end, like I took enough, but I but I did it with the mind of like I’m not here to get content today, I’m here to experience a golf course I’ve been really looking forward to. And the but the par threes we did, we stood on all of them, and it was just like that’s amazing. That’s amazing, that’s amazing as well.

Jim 24:28

So and in terms of how how they the aesthetics of it was it elevated Tees elevated.

Nish 24:34

Yeah, some of them, some had big carries over, big bunch, big swathes of heather. They some of them had I mean they’re all they’re all actually quite tough, like um long-ish, so you know, needed a decent clip, but you’ve always like trees surrounded, you know, there’s a couple of deep bunkers around, whatever. So there was good jeopardy on all of them. We we played them all right, actually. I mean, stuff we’ll we’ll we’ll probably jump ahead actually. So we did the signature hole challenge. We’d always do a signature hole challenge. We still did that, but it was again like we know what hole it’s on, we’ll just figure it out later and what happened. Now, I wish I’d made more of that because it was a par three. Now we know par three is a Chris’s speciality, right? Um they have been. Yeah, he he prides himself on it. Yes, he does, right? And uh the par threes do give me a bit of an advantage. So he’s he’s got to be on his game actually, because I’ve got a bit of an advantage, and I get a net, it’s a net score on a control challenge, right? So um the part the signature hole is the four, or we asked our Host again, like which the signal he was like the the fourth, like par three, fourth. Everyone’s everyone says that’s their favourite or slash the one that they remember the most. So we’re like, right, let’s do it. And he it’s a it’s one of these ones, tee shots. There’s a bit of a dip, all heather. So if you’re short, like you know, yeah, you’re you’re fucked, basically. Um, you know, sort of elevated green, you’ve got big drop-offs either side, there’s some there’s a backdrop or backstop, I should say, to the green, but that’s got bushes, so if you overshoot, you’re in there, and that’s a bit of a problem. So basically you’ve got to hit the green. Yes, that’s how it is. Get in the hole, which we both duly did, which was fantastic. So we’re quite happy. I was chuffed because I was like, and I’d played very well at Swinley. I was quite happy with how I played, uh just general on that trip anyway.

Jim 26:19

But um Chris has putting let him down again, obviously. On this one, it did, yeah.

Nish 26:25

It was really he didn’t three put, did he? I think he did more than that. Oh, because I got a net three and Chris got a net four. So um now we we haven’t done our lip hook review, and prior to that we’d played um Formby , I think, as well. So um we’re jumping ahead here, but do you know when we started this signature hole challenge? I was already like three down or something like that. I think you were more than something. I think I think I was three down. We’d we’d done the first three, and he’d won all three, and he was like, I think we should do a signature hole. I was like, Oh yeah, do you right? Well, um, it’s a complete reverse. So I’ve not only just pulled it that level um now, like two or three heads, something like that. So to do it on a part three, absolutely hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. I I was um, shall we say, revelling in it when when I won that one.

Jim 27:19

And there’s a reason why Chris is here, and it’s not personal circumstances. It’s he’s he’s on the put he’s he’s he’s practicing. It’s shame. He’s on the putting green and he’s going next door.

Nish 27:28

It’s a shame he’s not here to defend himself, but he has no defence from any of this. But look, the the collection of par threes were amazing. The the front nine is you you like the hole one, actually, is one of my top three holes here, and that that start and end is is amazing. So the clubhouse sits someplace on top of a hill, and you’ve got practice green that’s right outside the terrace that I mentioned before. Behind the practice green, there’s like a little road, and then it’s the the 18th green to the left of that is the first tee. Really unassuming, but like first tee, there’s a couple of trees up, and that’s it, and then like you’d tee off. But the view of seeing that first hole, because you can see it all, and you see other people playing it, you see it all, it’s just magnificent elevated tee shots always great anyway. And then seeing it back, seeing it like the view, but yeah, yeah, they’re great for the view, and then seeing the 18th coming back up, like it’s just a beautiful setting that like you will not get enough pictures of that, and and the pictures just don’t do it. Just as I look back and I was like, oh, it looks alright, but you when you’re there, it’s just wonderful to see. So definitely hole one sort of did it for me. There was a par three, there’s a couple of par threes of my favourites in there. So the 17th is an amazing par three. Um, I think that’s better than the fourth, personally. Um, but what a great hole that was. So I think they’re my sort of I’d say they’re my two real highlight holes that that really stuck in my mind, and I probably would take that anywhere on the anywhere on the course. Um and then I think generally in terms of kind of like um you know memorable moments and things like that from our play. There is one bit that I think everybody should, and you know, had we not played with a member, we wouldn’t have ever figured this out or heard about this. So you play the seventh, off the seventh green, you basically if you look right, so if you if you if you’re basically walking up to the seventh green, you look right, you will spot you know, maybe about 50-60 yards up to up to the right, you’ll spot three trees that sort of look a little bit out of place, but just three random trees, right? And they’re brilliant because they kind of break up that view because you can basically you can see a lot of the golf course from there, but those three trees are what form the Swinley Forest logo. Okay, and I’ve got pictures of those, and I think that’s really cool. Yeah, I’ve noticed that on the looking at the website, yeah. Yeah, and you end up like kind of taking a few from different angles, trying to replicate other than the logo. I mean, you can’t go this is whatever, but it was brilliant.

Jim 30:06

And we were told through an AI filter, it’d be fine.

Nish 30:08

Yeah, stick it, stick it through AI, stick it through AI.

Jim 30:12

Chuck GBD.

Nish 30:12

And I think you should, if you’re on there, I don’t want to give you too many things to do there, but like that is a is a lovely thing to take a picture of.

Jim 30:20

Um seem to be focusing a little bit on the par threes, and that does a question. There’s a very obvious question that jumps into my head anyway. We did set Chris a little bit of a challenge, didn’t we? Probably about 20 episodes ago. I don’t know, it’s the where is that time gone? Um, because Chris has never got a hole in one.

Nish 30:43

No, he hasn’t, which I keep reminding him of.

Jim 30:46

And so, as part of this overall this journey, I suppose we call it. Um this challenge, I take it he didn’t take uh make a hole in one on this course.

Nish 31:00

Chris did not make a hole in one, he didn’t really actually play the par threes on this course particularly well. Um I would love to actually check. The other thing I actually did this time round was I went old school and I did I even did our scorecard on paper and I did it afterwards. So I was like, because we track everything on Squabbit, scorecard sponsors, and I was like, Oh no, I’ve not done our score, I’ve not done our score on Swinley. We’re gonna have to try and remember what scores we’ve got. I was like, I don’t know, that’s Chris because I know what he’s gonna say. Birdie, birdie, birdie, but whatever. Um we yeah, I like wrote it, and I’ll tell you what, the pressure, because I wanted to keep the scorecard because it was you know, when you just get a feeling of this is gonna be a special round. I wanted to keep the scorecard, wrote the date in nicely and all that kind of thing. Posh handwriting joined up, not your yeah, absolutely not your doctor’s handwriting, but I tell you what, the the pressure to write the numbers neatly is that’s real, that is real pressure on a golf scorecard. So, yeah, we did we did it that way. Um, but yeah, no, no dice on the hole in one, and in general, since I’ve put in this challenge, the pressure is hard, isn’t it? Right up on the path. You’ve had two in the last 12 months, not on any of the top 100 courses, may I add, but and actually, July is my usual hole-in-one month, so I’ve need to get out there a little bit more. Maybe it’s gonna happen at Walton Heath. I don’t know, that’d be amazing. Do it in a competition with Chris watching again. He’s been there for the other both the other two, so you know so funny.

Jim 32:33

Though it just happened to walk past, oh, it’s in there, oh it’s in there, yeah, yeah, yeah. Drop out your trouser, yeah. Exactly. There is a little gold finger style, isn’t it?

Nish 32:41

I’ve heard there’s a little gadget you can use for yeah. Um, yeah, it was uh yeah, he’s he’s not he’s not faring very well on his hole in one watch. And actually, the hole in one thing has actually just reminded me now. So Paul, um who’s been on our podcast before, we played at Carnoustie with him. Um he has just three seasons been doing a hole in one challenge. So basically, he films every part three that he plays, he plays a lot of golf, sometimes two rounds a day. Wow, and um finally he has nailed his hole-in-one. Congratulations, so congratulations, Paul. Well done, mate. Um, I don’t know what he’s gonna post about now because he’s been doing that every single day for the last year and a half, but uh no, I mean, as we know from Chris. So is that is that still a thing though that you have to buy everyone around, then I don’t know. I really I do you know what? I really don’t know. I mean, look, ultimately you’d gladly buy everyone around, wouldn’t you? Of water. I wouldn’t just iced water everybody, and that kind of thing. Um I don’t know. I mean I don’t think anybody’s gonna hold it against you if you decided not to. But there’ll be a lot of phone calls being going out. Somebody’s got somebody’s got a hole in one quick.

Jim 33:46

So one thing that we’re gonna introduce into this challenge is that if Chris does have hole in one, then he’s buying around for everyone.

Nish 33:53

Um it’s obviously gonna be on social media, isn’t it? So it’s uh straight away.

Jim 33:59

Absolutely. Any other notable moments from either the play or the day itself? I mean, there’s there were plenty that we talked about already.

Nish 34:06

Well, any we talked about. I just think my overriding thing would be make sure you give yourself plenty of time at this golf course. Everything is done at a I’ll call it a relaxed pace. It’s not there to be rushed, it’s not there to turn up 10 minutes before your tea time tea time in inverted comms, you know, when you’ve agreed to meet your host. You you want to take it all in because it’s just that kind of place. There was one thing that caught us both a little bit off guard, and it’s that it’s just modern life, isn’t it? But you know, you you’re playing these golf this golf course, and there’s some magnificent spots there, and you’re like stood over this team, you’re like, oh my god, that is just like I love this, and you just hear this constant din of the M25 and or just like roads and things like that, and I find that bizarre because I wouldn’t have thought that moving away from the north, like we’re it’s relatively densely packed here, but moving away from here, you go elsewhere and you go to these amazing golf courses. That if that was here, there’d be nothing around it for miles, like you know, we played Delamere, there’s nothing near Delamere, like you can’t hear anything. Um, if it was that, I mean it just elevates it even more. If you’ve got that feeling of seclusion, as well as the the quality of the golf course, so yeah, we find that a little bit odd. I mean, you know, I’ve I know it’s a swimny review, but going back to Lip Hook, there was one moment where we had to cross an A-road to go through. I mean, it was a 60 mile-an hour A road as well. And I was like, Is there not a bridge that we could use? Like I’ve got to run across this road here now, and it’s like I think it was like a Bryant blind crest of a hill or something. I was like, this is odd, like really, really odd at a quality golf course, but hey, you know, it can’t avoid it, it’s just no no absolutely progress, isn’t it?

Jim 35:48

And you’ve alluded to the fact that you both had really, really good rounds overall. So do you just briefly want to touch on the scores and how you both did?

The scores

Nish 35:55

Yeah, let me have a look at our scores. So I didn’t prepare for this, Jim, even though I gave you the script that I was gonna use. You did, you went off piece there, Chris. Uh Chris. Jim. Um but yeah, let me have a quick look at our scorecard. So that was lip hook, pardon me. Right, Swinley Forest. So um total gross scores. Chris, like I said, played really well, Shine. 81. Wow. Which is phenomenal. Really good, yeah. Um which is interesting. On the oh no, actually he did actually get a birdie on a par three. Yeah, Chris got Chris got one, two, three. He got three birdies that day, actually. Four, four birdies.

Jim 36:39

And he did a dance in every single one.

Nish 36:40

No, he’s not really the place, is it? It’s not his thing. I would. I’d be fucking jumping for joy, mate. I’d be like Shane Lowry at the Ryder Cup, like you’d think there’s about to be an earthquake. Um I shot a 91 and I was ecstatic with that because I was out in 46 and in 45, so it’s just solid the whole way. Chris was out in 40 back in 41, which was amazing. So he was plus 12 gross, I was plus 22. Stableford points, Chris scored 37, I scored 33. And as a net score goes with handicap adjustment, Chris was one under his handicap, I was plus three, so we both played really well. So, did your handicap go up as a result of this just as a refresher for um yeah? I think it went up a t a tiny bit. It wasn’t like this, it’s not designed to be a tricked up, difficult golf course. This like, I just don’t think that’s their it’s like go out and enjoy golf and just have a good round, come back in, tell some stories about the quality of golf that you played, and and that’s it. So it sounds different experience, yeah.

Jim 37:40

No, it’s uh it sounds like it it fully let lived up to expectations. Um, one thing that we try and keep a track of, which becomes increasingly more difficult as the rounds go on, trying to remember what was first, and we all know. Um does it get into either of your top five golf courses?

Nish 37:57

So I

The reveal: new #1

Nish 37:58

can’t speak for Chris. Um I probably should have asked him this really, shouldn’t I, before we we came on? But look, I’ll I’ll it’s all been personal so far. So this 100% unequivocally gets into my top five. Okay, and I think it’s gonna be hard to shift from that top five because it does so many things. Just as a recap, what else what are the courses? Yeah, so uh currently I’ve got Trump International and Aberdeen is my number one, I’ve got Hankley Common is in there, I’ve got uh I should really know all this, shouldn’t I? Off the top of my head. But I’ve got Queen’s Gleneagles in there, I’ve got I think I’ve got Hindhead in there. Um god, I can’t remember what was number two, or was it Hangleycom was number two? In fact, I think it was uh oh Dumbarnie. That’s my top five. So Dumbarnie was number two. So currently two links courses sort of on the top of the top of the tree with Hankey common and third. Yeah.

Jim 38:56

And so where would Swinley Forrest? Well, I think we ought to do a drum roll, mate.

Nish 39:03

And that’s probably just giving it away, hasn’t it? So drum roll. Swinley Forest is my new favourite golf course. It’s number one.

Jim 39:15

Without a doubt. Without a doubt, without a doubt. Because when you came off Trump International, I remember that I didn’t think I thought that that was probably gonna remain number one for quite some time, actually.

Nish 39:27

Special Trump, uh totally different kind of experience, totally different kind of course. Like I say, look, these things are always subjective, but it does on the eye, it does everything for me. But then for me, that experience is important, it is important how you’re made to feel, welcome there, it is important that it’s relaxed, it’s a bit quirky, you know. That you’d call you’d call those things quirky, but it isn’t those things aren’t quirks, but for a golf course, it’s a different experience, and like that’s that thing, it’s that magical, mystical part of this golf course. I’m I fell in love with it, mate. And that is why I gave you Love Story by Taylor Swift right at the start. It’s a song that keeps following us around anyway. We we go to watch the rugby at Twickenham quite a lot, and um, we had a moment, didn’t we, with a couple of members of the this sounds dodgy, doesn’t it? With a couple of members of the women’s rugby team. We didn’t have a moment. They were on stage, but they were karaoke and they sang it, and we were just like singing along with it with them, whatever.

Jim 40:28

Jim was singing along with him. No, Nish had never heard that song before.

Nish 40:33

Yeah, it was weird.

Jim 40:34

It’s like, wow, where’d you be living up under a rock?

Nish 40:37

Yeah, that was it. So I thought I’ll I’ll I’ll reprise the the song. And I feel it is appropriate, you know. Like this episode is isn’t a love story as such about Swinley Forest, but there’s very much a lot of that, like, I fell in love with that place, I really did. You know, you’re gonna do it.

Jim 40:55

Taylor Swift and should do, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m a swifty. Congratulate her on a wet recent nuptials. Yeah, that’s it. You would as well to get more likes.

Nish 41:03

I should do, shouldn’t I? I should, I should tag her in. Yeah. Um, I know it was just it was it it was amazing. I like there’s a I feel like there’s I want to go back desperately. Um and it’s one of these things where look, I’m not I’m not one for being like um gestures and and you know Matt getting too emotive about it or anything like that, but I feel like a little bit of my heart will always be in Swinley Forest. Like there’s just like it just felt so good being there. And I do know what we were shown around by an amazing host, and uh he should just thank his lucky stars, he’s a member of Swinley Forest Golf Club, he’ll literally just go play there whenever he wants, which is just for me would be the most magical, wonderful thing ever. So if anybody out there wants to buy me a birthday present, please contact Swinley Forest uh Pro Shop and see if you can get me in. That’d be wonderful. But look, if anybody is out there who’s a member of Swinley Forest and wants to play with me again, I I will gladly take up that invitation. And I will say, we actually played this for charity, so it was quite nice that the club donated that and our host donated that to charity. Um, but I gather that that seemed to be quite a popular thing to do, so I will actually say you know, big shout out to the members who do at Swindony Forest who do do that, they have no reason or inclination to want to do that, just out of the pure generosity of their hearts. And to us mortals who get a chance to play, it’s just it’s a win-win-win, isn’t it? You know, they’re paying it forward a little bit. People are getting to play a wonderful golf course, and charity’s getting a bit of money out of it as well, so it’s just a virtuous. We win for all parties, it was great, yeah. Yeah, yeah, such a yeah, just a magnificent place to play golf, mate.

What’s next

Jim 42:49

And then after your round, back to the restaurant.

Nish 42:53

The the Apres Golf, we did. We went back to the terrace, and final thing to box off your experience at Swinley, grab yourself some lunch, grab yourself some food there on that terrace outside. The service was impeccable, they looked after us so well. Um, we’d actually given ourselves like a nice four-hour window. Well, we didn’t have anything to do, so we’re like, we just want to sit here and just take it all in. I mean, the the food is practically, you know, Michelin guided sort of sort of standard of food, you know. Um Chris didn’t get to have a his club sandwich then. Well, he had scallops, the posh twat. He actually had scallops. I was like, who has scallops after a round of golf? What’s going on again? You’ve changed, man. Certainly forrest has changed. Certainly for is that’s it does to you. Maybe for the better. But you know just even that, like just seeing scallops on the menu, it was like, this is it’s a different. I always order them anyway, whether or not you’re scallops. You know it’s gonna be done well. So yeah, Chef was was absolutely wonderful. The service was great, we’re just so so friendly, and I just think they took that um intimidation factor out of that experience altogether. So if you if you’re lucky enough, you’ve you’ve been you’ve you know won a charity thing or whatever, they’re gonna look after you incredibly, incredibly well. And it just feels like a nice, relaxed place to play golf and do all the Apri Golf and pre-golf.

Jim 44:19

Yeah, absolutely.

Nish 44:20

So yeah, it’s my new number one, mate. Wow. It’s my new number one. The king king is dead, long live the king.

Jim 44:26

Well, it sounds like it’s gonna be an incredibly difficult job for anybody for any of the courses to uh to Beat that, but we just moved into so that was course twenty-six or into the second second quarter of the of the challenge now.

Nish 44:42

Yeah, there’s some big hitters coming.

Jim 44:44

Um you’ve got St. Andrews Old course coming up.

Nish 44:47

Yeah, not confirmed yet, but it’s gonna happen. Um, we have hopefully we’ve secured Wentworth, which is gonna be amazing. We should have got Birkdale, Royal Birkdale sorted out. Um, and I’ve not mentioned that course for a while in the episode. Yeah, forgot a word of that. Yeah, we’ve got obviously we’re playing Walton Heath next week. Um, and then yeah, I mean, just looking at the list of places still to come, but they’re gonna be working hard to shift the experience at Swinley Forest. So if you’re on our hit list, the other 74 clubs now that we’re gonna play, you’ve been warned. Yeah, yeah, you have a bit of uh living up to do.

Jim 45:30

Oh, I don’t think any of them need to up the game because from the experiences of pretty much every course that you’ve had, I mean, the welcome that you’ve received has been of the the highest standard quality, so you’ve been very fortunate in that. You know, for that to just jump straight into the top of the pops is uh is quite incredible.

Nish 45:46

Even the courses that we’ve been a little bit worried about, and I’ve heard actually, you know, you hear off you mentioned we’ve booked somewhere and people will comment on stories and and things like that on Instagram and be like, oh just you know, it can be a bit funny when you get there, whatever. Like we’ve we’ve hand on heart, that’s not happened yet. There’s not been one place where we felt that was a bit odd, wasn’t it? Like what’s really don’t feel like we were welcome at all as visitors. We’ve we’ve all we always been welcomed with open with open arms, and certainly everyone’s giving us the time of day. But yeah, so mate, that was our round at Swinley Forest.

Jim 46:19

Well, I’m chuffed that you’ve actually lived up to all the all the expectations because it’s new fucking number one, mate. Yeah, new number one.

Nish 46:25

What a thing, what a thing. I was just like, there’s a bombshell in this episode, there’s a bombshell in this episode, and it wasn’t and that’s why I never ask any questions.

Jim 46:33

The round, yeah, yeah, so yeah, yeah. Play well, play well, just keep it at that. Yeah. So that it’s a little bit of mystery for me, so I can actually see your reactions and then you can see my reaction to that as well. It’s quite well.

Nish 46:44

We’ll we’ll we’ll find out when we got Chris next time, we’ll we’ll find out where he rated it. I suspect it might have snuck into his top five because we were both because obviously we were playing together and it was us two against our host and another guest that we oh no, actually, I don’t think it was. We were on separate teams actually, but we kept checking in with each other and we were just like, what is this place? What is this place? Like I just kept going like pinch me, pinch me, pinch me, because this I’m in dreamland, like it was so it was such a great experience playing there. It helps you play well. Um it helps when the weather’s good as well, doesn’t it? There’s not many better places in the world to play golf, I don’t think, than that kind of sand belt. Yeah, so it was great. So look, that’s our review of Swinley Forest. Thank you, Jim, for being niche today. Um, so it’s it’s it’s weird being interviewed by myself. It’s a real experience. But uh guys got a mirror in front of him, so he thinks it’s duck. Just painted onto the back of my glasses. Uh so yeah, no, th thank you for for hosting uh today, Jim. So um look, we’ve alluded to it before, but next time on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, we’re gonna bring you our hundredth episode special, which sounds crazy to say, but here’s where we are.