The Back 9 Greg Norman Raves About – Hillside Golf Club Preview

ChatGPT Lied To Us About Hillside (Here’s What It Got Wrong)

Nish 0:00

Every good story is about the journey. And this is a story of our journey trying to play the top 100 golf courses in the UK and Ireland in just 10 years. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast. In this episode, we are previewing our first round of 2026. According to ChatGPT.

Chris 0:18

So this is AI slot that we’re talking about here. Yeah, this point of victory.

Four Months Without Golf — Welsh Weather That Nearly Broke Us

Nish 0:22

It’s been awarded the Walker Cup, which is absolute bullshit. GregI Norman saying it’s the best back nine in Britain. Episode 63, the Hillside Golf Club Preview. Now, before we do carry on, can I ask you out there, whether you’re listening or watching this podcast, to click like or click subscribe wherever you’re watching it or listening to it. The increased numbers that we’re getting now who are subscribing just allow us to produce better and better content. Like the episode we had last week, which was at Conwy Golf Club, and we got some great access. We were able to produce a really good, really nice episode for everyone. So please keep going. Thank you. Now, in this episode, we are previewing our first round of 2026. It feels weird, doesn’t it?

Chris 1:09

It feels like such a long time since we’ve done any top 100 stuff.

How We Got The Hillside Booking

Nish 1:12

Yeah, what are we talking? Did we message the other day? Has it been like it’s been four and a half months already since we played that? What was the last round we played? Dumbani? Just can’t hoost him, mate. I can’t hoosty. How could you forget? On that really windy day. Yeah. Well, I topped that at Conwy because I had the wind, but I also had sleet. Nice. So that was nice. My face was stinging. Nice. It was that. Winter Welsh golf. Yeah, it was pretty um, yeah. I think we I would have called it if it wasn’t for the fact that it was like I’m an hour and a half away from home, and I you’d already made the journey. Yeah, I think that was that was borderline the worst I’ve ever played in. I think otherwise. But you love a bit of winter golf as well, don’t you? I love it, yeah. Not not a problem with it. But it was just, you know, when you get to the point where you’re going, I can’t look up because my face is just hurting all the time. Yeah, that’s it, absolutely right. So well, look, we’re we’re previewing Hillside. It’s the first golf club that we’re playing this year. Dead excited about it. Dead excited about the course because it comes with a good reputation. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Sits in amongst two very celebritous neighbours in SNA and Royal Burkdale. Um, so I’ll give you a little story about how the booking came about. Okay. So my little please like, please subscribe. We can uh get a lot of things.

Chris 2:30

I love the fact that you’ve got to tell me this story. That’s brilliant. I know that’s how great our communication is.

The Full 2026 Course Lineup Revealed

Nish 2:36

Yeah, you just get the we’re booked in Hillside. Okay, yeah, great. Yeah, what do I what do I pay? But yeah, I basically I emailed the club and I said, can we um we I’ll do it with this podcast and we would love to interview somebody from the club or or whatever it is, um just because it adds more to the episode and they’re always better ones. Yeah, and now I’d and I’d done that because I’d heard from a lot of people that Hillside is an incredibly friendly club. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of the members in you know it’s it’s it’s more so I mean I found that vibe sort of generally in SNA, and the members that I’ve spoken to now since that we played have been very, very friendly, yeah, yeah. But like it felt like it it had this little we’re we’re bit better because we are friendly and we’re more approachable. So email the club, I heard nothing back. So you know when you get that uncomfortable thing when you go, Oh, has it? I’ll check my scent item. Is it gone? Oh, it has gone, so I’ve not waited it. Yeah, that exactly it. So I was like, okay, well, what how long do I leave it now? So I think I left it like phone call after an email. Have you received my email? I’m just checking your emails are working, you know. Just a server down or something, you know. Um, and then so email just going, uh, I think I said something like, I can totally appreciate nobody wants to get involved. Like, that’s fine, it’s not a problem. Yeah, yeah. Um, can we go ahead and just just as I requested in the email anyway? Can I just book a a um a visit to tea time? Yeah, yeah. I got an email back within three minutes, and it was just like, Yes, of course, it’s this is the when are you looking to play? You know, these kind of things like this is the rate, whatever. It’s like okay, yeah, yeah, fine. So we kind of got it. Um, and then yeah, kind of got got booked in. But at least that means we get the normal, proper, full-on visitor experience. We’ll turn up, nobody will know who we are or anything like that. So we’ll just is that not the same as every everyone else we’ve played? Yeah, we try we try and style it out a bit, but basically that happens everywhere. So uh, yeah, that’s how the booking came about. So it’s our yeah, but like I said, it’s our first round of the year. Um, it’s what mid-March. I think we played this sort of time of year when we played in Wales, didn’t we? Last year, I felt like it was a bit later than this, but could be wrong. Yeah, I don’t know. About April time, yeah. Maybe it was April time. Yeah, you could be right, you could be right. So we don’t know, could be here. We’re testing out our luck on the weather, I think, this one, aren’t we? Uh particularly with how wet the winter’s been. But um, well look, we’ll give you a bit of an update on our on our journey. We did an episode at the start of the year, which was the plan ahead. Yeah, not much has changed from that, so if you’ve heard it, we’re not really giving you any new information here. However, we have got books in, obviously Hillside. We’ve got Delame, which we’re gonna be previewing in the next episode. Yeah, we’re playing Burnham and Berrow, which is our Society Day, we’re playing Castletown over in the Isle of Man, and they’ve been so welcoming. Yeah, it’s kind of believed. Two Walton Heaths, yeah, and I mentioned the two Walton Heaths as well because one of the designers, one of the courses that we’re gonna be previewing has also designed Walton Heath, so that’ll be good. Liphook and Swinley Forest, which are gonna be great. Wallacey, over back over in merge. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, comes with a really good reputation again for friendliness and things like that. So that’s one that’s just come that’s come into the top number this year, isn’t it? Just come in. Yeah, just come in. And well actually, that’s a great question point you just raised there, Chris. The list gets updated soon, doesn’t it?

Chris 5:57

No, no, no, that’s the end of the year.

Nish 5:59

It’s end of the year. Yeah, yeah.

Royal County Down: Phone Queue Chaos & No Online Booking

Chris 6:00

But that’s like September, October time, I think. Interesting. Maybe even a bit later. Okay, right. Good.

Nish 6:06

We don’t have time to do that. Yeah, don’t worry about it. Right, fine. Great. Um, and we’ve got actually interestingly enough, we have club representation from most of the places that we’re playing. There’s only a couple, I think, that we haven’t. Yeah. So that’s gonna be fantastic. And we’ve got variety as well. So we’ve got like course managers, we’ve got professionals, we’ve got general managers. So it’s really nice to hear a differing range of views and members, yeah, of course. Yeah, you get a different view from all these different people, don’t you? For sure. Absolutely. And then, and we keep mentioning it, and it’s the the pinch me, is it gonna happen? Is it not? You know, will St. Andrews happen? Will St. E, will St. Andrew get us onto St. Andrews? Uh, we’re hoping so. And then we are still we just did an episode on golf in Ireland, and we’ve established some really good contacts in Ireland, and we’re still fleshing out potentially something that might happen. So that’s on the back burner, mate. It’s a side burner, yeah. The side lights are on, not the main headlights at the minute on an island trip. Um, because next year it’s got to be crazy, isn’t it, in Ireland with the rider cup being on.

Chris 7:12

Yeah, it’s gonna be pretty wild, isn’t it, in terms of like American tourism and stuff. I imagine it’s gonna be a pretty busy summer next year in Ireland, isn’t it? Have you have I given you any informate any information about the Royal County Down booking?

Nish 7:23

Oh, yeah, yeah. You did mention it the other day. So James, who’s been on the podcast, yeah, sends me a message saying, just to let you know, Royal County Down tea bookings are going live tomorrow morning. And I was like, Oh, kind of gonna see how the layer of the land goes. We’re thinking we’re we’ll we’ll duck out of trying to definitely get something in for 2027 and we’ll just see how it see how it works out. And he goes, So then the morning, so this is on Thursday morning, I think they went live. James sent me a message just saying, just out of sheer curiosity, just try and get through to Raw Counted Antwerp at tea time. And I was like, Okay, I was like, what are we talking? Online phone? He’s like, Oh no, there’s nothing online, you have to ring. I was like, Okay, right, yeah, fine. So I was like ringing, yeah, yeah. And it’s like, can’t connect, can’t connect, can’t connect, can’t connect. I spent about 10 minutes. Old school Glastonbury style, proper old school, and I rang it, and then I messaged him just going, Well, like, what’s the deal? Because I’m trying to get on. He’s like, No, no, that’s what’s going on. He goes, I’ve got two phones going. Right. I rang up at 8 58 and I’m like, I was like 20th in the queue, yeah. And in the last 15 minutes, I’ve moved down to like 18 or something like that. Right. And I was like, Oh, okay, well, I was like, if it’s phone, it does make sense that because you get through and it’s like find a tea time. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that’s not suitable. All right, just find another tea time. Oh, right, now let’s take your payment detail.

Chris 8:44

I love the idea that it’s just like just like the pro in the pro shop, just sat there with the with the phone, like trying to try to serve someone a Mars bar, and he’s like, uh, yeah, I can fit you in at uh 2 30 on uh the can I just check this person in, you know, that’s right, Gary, right?

Nish 8:59

But it was funny because I did say I was like, is it just one phone line? And then it’s so what I was basically then. I started getting more messages off people, yeah. And I did a video about it actually, I went live on Instagram for for about this because I was getting phrases like it’s chaos, there has to be a better system. Who the fuck doesn’t have online booking, you know, that sort of stuff. And it was like, Oh, okay, this is like a thing, like it’s a big thing.

Chris Is Playing Loch Lomond Without Nish. We Need To Talk About This.

Chris 9:22

I mean, I guess it’s a test of how much you want to go and play there, I suppose, in some ways, isn’t it? Yeah, I can you be bothered to sit and wait on the phone for four hours to get through this. That’s exactly what I thought.

Nish 9:31

And I thought, well, they’re making you work for it, yeah. So you feel like it’s a reward, but then equally I said, But I do appreciate I’m coming at this from a person who’s not trying to get a tea time. Because if I was trying to get a tea time, I’d be probably saying exactly the same thing. Yeah, so it was uh yeah, it was very interesting the way that was all panning out, and then I gather this week of the week that we’re recording, or the week this is going out, actually. Uh Port Rush is going, yeah, going on sale. So I don’t know if they have that same system. I still feel I think it’s easy to have online booking. I get it, it’s scalable and all that kind of thing. I quite like that almost old-fashioned traditional, isn’t it? Yeah, pick up the phone, you know, what do you want? You know, that kind of almost that kind of thing. It’s like, oh yeah, okay, yeah. Um so I quite like that, and you know, giving you card details out of it you know, just all that kind of stuff. So I don’t know, maybe when in three, four years’ time we’re trying to book, we’re gonna be frustrating and putting our limited hair out, uh trying to do it. So um, yeah, I don’t know. That was a bit of a a thing. But then talking of James, something big has happened and seismic has happened in top 110 world. Oh, it has, isn’t it? Yeah, um, you are playing Loch Lowman.

Chris 10:45

I am a play Lock Lowman on my own. And like when we set out to do this, I wouldn’t cross my arms. We we had like several rules, didn’t we? And like I think within well, we had we had like three official rules, I think, doing when we first started. I think we broke them all within the first like two rounds. So why not break this one as well? Well, this was kind of an unofficial it wasn’t unwritten, but I mean it was certainly said. We said we’re always gonna play these together. Well, it makes sense, but it makes sense that we can’t not play it together because we’re gonna have to go and talk about it and do a podcast about it. Yeah, the first opportunity we’ve had for one of us to play it on our own of these courses. I’m going to pock up fish. You’re on your own, mate. I’m gonna lock Lomond.

Nish 11:20

It’s hilarious, it’s absolutely hilarious. So I don’t know what we’re gonna do. Like, I don’t know how we because I sent you a message going, like, what we’re gonna do about the episode because yeah, yeah, how’s that gonna work?

Chris 11:28

So I just have to sit on the naughty step and record it myself.

Nish 11:31

Don’t know. Maybe you yeah, maybe you’ve got to do some penance and you’ve got to like sit, yeah. You you’re not allowed to speak, or you’ve got to put tape over your mouth and you or whatever, but yeah, I I look Loch Lohmann. We’ve talked about this in our what the challenges are in the year ahead episode, and there are a few golf courses that are right up there with challenge to get onto. Yeah, yeah. Just yeah, three come to mind immediately now, which is Skibo, Queen Wood, and Loch Lohman. Yeah, I mean they’re the proper, proper private ones, where they’re I mean, even like you know, Muirfield, Muirfield, and you look at it and look at all these pictures at Muirfield, and there’s like there’s signs everywhere saying like this is the home of the honourable company of Edinburgh Golfers, only invited get whatever. But you can, and actually that’s another thing, you can just email in and request the tea time, and they can you can get drawn out. Yeah. But this is like you have to know a member, yeah, you have to be invited somehow. Yeah, uh so the opportunity came up, yes it did, and you just jumped through the window to grab it, yeah. Yeah, so yeah, I don’t know how we’re gonna yeah, I don’t know how we’re gonna deal with that.

Chris 12:42

What happens if after nine and a half years I’ve not played Lock Loman, I’ve played Lock Loman and you haven’t? What did we do at that point?

Nish 12:50

Well at that point, I’m not gonna let you on Burtdale until I get on Lock Loman again. That’s what I’ll do. Yeah, I’ve got sorry Dave, you can you know I’m using your uh invitation here, but you can’t let Chris on until I know it’s it’s a weird one, isn’t it? Because up until now it’s always just been like yeah, yeah, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s fine. It was with uh through gritted teeth I wrote it down on the calendar, like on the on our spreadsheet crushed pioneer lock loam and to be fair, it’s amazing though that you did send me the invite, like the invite didn’t come directly to me, it was sent via you.

Chris 13:21

So I’m imagining if you were available for those dates, it would have been role reversal.

Nish 13:26

I basically uh I’ll tell you how it all went. Okay, so it’s James, yeah, uh, who has been on the podcast and who I’m gonna go and play with next week. You play next week in Southampton? Down in Southampton, yeah, which I’m very much looking forward to seeing. Yeah, lovely guy, really, really nice guy. Um, and I’m gutted I can’t make that as well. Actually, I would just like to come come and do that. Yeah, but um he sent me a message because he had won a charity auction for a three ball it was at Loch Lohmann because they’re playing with it’s a St. Mirin Golf Club, uh football club, sorry, um, charity auction. Yeah, and so you’re playing with a player, I gather, or an ex-pro, whatever. Um don’t care, it’s not interesting to me anymore. But uh it was so they’ve got the three ball with him. So James actually messaged me to say, awkward question. I don’t know how you guys sort this sort of stuff out, but have you got anything to get on to Loch Loam? And I was like, No, but I’m interested. Uh singling, ready to mingle, you know, that kind of thing. And he just went, Oh well green, I’m green. Yeah, because that we can’t go, you can’t get two of you on, but we can get one person. Would you like to come? And I was like, I did at this point I didn’t know the date, and he hadn’t mentioned anything about the date or anything like that. And he said, Well, uh, I didn’t know I don’t know what would you do. And I was like, Well, I’d fuck Chris right off. Yeah, it had a really rare generous moment here, Chris. This is totally out of character. And I was like, Well, do you know what? If one of us is gonna get on, it ought to be the person whose actual challenge it is. Okay, because it wasn’t my idea, it was always your idea, yeah. And then he sent me the date, and I was like, Oh, actually, I’m not available then, so that works really well.

Chris 15:11

That’s that’s far too convenient. I’m just gonna just let’s dial it back.

Nish 15:14

Actually, I still don’t know the date, so I just it’s it was totally altruistic of me. Um, no, no, but I was like, actually, that’s what should happen because you know, then and then secretly I was like, uh, yeah, but you know, I’m gonna figure out another way to get on. Ali McCoyster something. But uh but I I don’t know, it feels like it. I’m trying to be positive about this now. Feels like I could spin it into a new thread here of like how the hell am I gonna get onto Lock Lone uh after you’ve done it? But yeah, we’ll have to live vicariously through the Chris and hear about that.

Chris 15:47

So uh the worst bit about that is you’re sending me who is incapable of a remembering anything, b taking any photographic evidence, yeah, yeah, and C relay that in a coherent way on a podcast.

Hillside Golf Club: History, Course Character & What To Expect

Nish 15:59

We’re gonna need to buy some of those uh Ray-Ban meta glasses. Is that what I need? Yeah, just so at least we’ve got something. Yeah, yeah, like some evidence of something having happened, but yeah, um I’m I’m I’ll I’ll prep James. Okay, yeah, yeah. That’s probably a good idea. The guy’s gonna forget everything. Yeah, like he’ll probably forget his trolley in the car before he actually gets out there. So please take a picture of the first team. But uh mate, what a treat that’s gonna be. Yeah, no, what a treat that’s gonna be. It’s gonna be pretty cool. Lovely part of the world. And yeah, I mean, what’s it? Monty’s just beaming about Loch Loaman, isn’t he? Is that one of the best places to play golf? So it looks pretty spectacular. It does look amazing. Pretty cool. Git anyway, uh yeah, let’s well let’s move on. Let’s move on to the course at hand, and that’s Hillside. Yep. Um now I’ll do a bit of history bit. Okay, and I’ll do that quickly. Normally, this is the bit where people probably just go, let’s skip on to the next chapter, whatever, and switch off. There isn’t much on their website about their history. It’s quite it’s quite modern, though, isn’t it? Oh yeah, founded in 1911. So I think it’s not it’s not I mean, you know, all right, courses kind of founded in that 18, 1900 sort of early part of the century kind of uh period, but I think it is that whole it’s overshadowed by Burkdale and SNA quite well.

Chris 17:13

Well I think it was was not redesigned quite a lot later on to in terms of it and then it redesigned something like that in the 60s or something, I think.

Nish 17:20

Didn’t even I didn’t even well the reason I didn’t do that, uh actually, and I’ll be very honest about this, is there ain’t that much on the website. Yeah, yeah. And I kind of thought if you can’t do that, yeah, then why should I even do that? Because what am I looking for? And then I was like, well, let me just let me have a little look and see what it is. And as you do with these things, you go, right, let’s get a chat GPT summary about the history of Hillside.

Chris 17:45

Well, according to ChatGPT, so this is AI slop that we’re talking about here, yeah.

Nish 17:49

This at this point of history is Hillside, it’s been awarded the Walker Cup, which is absolute bullshit. So, like, I got it, and I thought, oh, it’s been given the Walker Cup, that’s pretty big deal, right? Well, Hillside, yeah, great. Oh my god, it’s like this and when we’re playing it in the Walker Cup year, it’s gonna be in great condition, whatever. And I just went, I need to check this because it’s nowhere on the website. Why would I never mention it’s got the Walker Cup?

Chris 18:12

Normally, if they’re holding like a big amateur event, like it’s plastic, like yeah, even if it’s just like a junior amateur event, it’s like the first thing you see when you go on the website, isn’t it? The girls’ amateur championship. I went to Comwit and had that, and it’s everywhere.

Nish 18:22

Yeah, I was like, all right, let me just chat this. I went on and I was like, it’s like in Ireland, I think. And I was like, How is it? You know, now then you question everything, don’t you? Like every single fact I’ve ever like ever gleaned from ChatGPT. I was like, no, right, forget all this, stick to your own instincts and do your own research, kind of thing. So so it hasn’t been ordered, the walking book. Um what they do have on their history is a picture of Jack Nicholas. Okay, he played his first ever professional match or tournament or whatever, right, in the British Isles at Hillside. Okay. That’s the history. Right. Done. So finito. It’s next to a railway line. Excellent. They’ve moved it over. But actually, the recent stuff has been a bit more. Um there’s a bit more to it in the recent history. So in 2019 it hosted the British Masters. Yeah. In 2022, it hosted a DP World Tour event. Yeah. And then 2023, it ho 2023 it hosted the amateur championships. Yeah. So it’s always on the open qualifying as well, I think, isn’t it? And it’s always on the other side. Yeah.

Chris 19:28

So it’s been getting more recently, it’s been getting a little bit more into it’s certainly like a well, you know, it’s it’s it’s up like in terms of names that you say to people that they recognise. I think Hillside’s in that kind of like second bracket. You know, it’s not it’s not one of the open rotors, but there’s quite a lot of people that even non-golfers that have heard of Hillside as well. Greenfee’s punchy, so 185 in March.

Nish 19:49

Yeah. Like that’s that’s that’s punching that.

Chris 19:53

But it is it’s kind of up there, isn’t it? It’s any thought of highly responsible. You know, it’s sandwiched between SNA and Birddale, right? Like it’s a hallowed piece of golfing land, isn’t it?

Nish 20:02

Yeah, like I think I can’t remember which hole it was, but there was a couple of holes where you would high up at SNA. Yeah, yeah. You could look over the railway line and you could see.

Chris 20:09

So I’m not just blocking you off there, but yeah, you could see. Sorry, mate. I think you owe me you owe me a few of those back just after every Lock Loman. Every course we’ve been on, standing in front of the camera.

Nish 20:18

Yeah, I think I’m gonna have to get Chris to do a tattoo or something to say I played Lock Loman before Nish. Um, yeah, it yeah, it just it sits on that parcel land, and actually, looking at um the the course as we spotted it from SNA, yeah, and this is where I feel like I read SNA disservice, and I probably do need to go back and play it again just to you now can judge it a bit better. But I feel like I was almost looking over at the hillside going, oh that looks nice, yeah.

Chris 20:51

It looked, it looked it certainly looks a bit more I was gonna use the word exciting, but that’s probably not the wrong word, probably the wrong word, but it’s a bit more landscapy, there’s a bit more about it, isn’t it? There’s a bit yeah, a bit more duney.

Nish 21:02

Well, you’re gonna tell us that anyway. I am gonna tell you. And maybe we’ll do that. Go on, you you tell us about the crit of the course, Chris. So we’d we’re gonna start actually putting some bit of structure to this, aren’t we? No, rather than just a load of little load of random stuff that I’ve got to then edit the order of. Right? Is that the way it works? So I’m making my life easier. You’re gonna start at course characteristics.

Chris 21:20

Is that why I sound coherent when we have to after we after you’ve edited these podcasts?

Nish 21:24

I never knew I don’t even get a full sentence. I’m like taking individual words out, and you’ve just got a bank of words that are Chris Chris words. That’s exactly why that clock shouldn’t be there. So nobody can tell when I’ve edited it. But um tell us about the course, Chris, because you sent me a message about it and because it’s the first one we’re playing.

Chris 21:41

Yeah, well, it’s the first one it wasn’t it wasn’t planned to be the first one we’re playing, was it? So we were supposed to play Delamere before we played Hillside, and then we’ve had a bit of yeah, but swap over a bit of a swap over, so it’s it is now going to be Hillside first of year. So I just texted you because I was having a bit of a look at the course and I was like, fucking hell, this looks like a tough start to the year. Um, because Yeah, it looks like a there’s none of the easiest of courses. Okay. I think so go on then to a lot of a lot of thick rough kicking around. So I think there’s a lot of people saying some people there’s a lot of people saying it’s their favourite out of the three in the parcel of lands. Interesting interesting. There is, however, quite a few people out there saying it was too difficult. Like I found it like good golfers saying it was a real challenge, like go in the rough, lost your ball, it’s gone. Wow. So I think it’s gonna be a like I’ve not played a round of golf for nearly two months now. So hasn’t it? Yeah. Luckily I’ve got another round in before we go to Hillside. But it’s gonna be a bit of a baptism of fire, isn’t it?

Nish 22:39

I think for now I’m not a horticulturalist in any way, shape, or form, but um in March, are we talking uh RAFs had a chance to grow?

Chris 22:50

Yeah, it should yeah, we should be in a it should be in a better position, like there should be less round. Oh, thank god because over the winter, yeah, you’re not gonna get the big thick grass. So we should actually get it at its best, I reckon. It’s probably a good time of year to play it, I think. Nice as long as this is not fucking pissing down and windy and cold.

Nish 23:05

That’s the challenge at the minute, isn’t it? I think the challenge really is uh it’s it we mention it flippantly, but it’s it’s testing our top 100 weather look that we’ve had. So it’s gonna be 20 degrees. Get the shorts out, yeah. But the reason I say that is that it wouldn’t uh I’ve and I’ve alluded to playing Conwy just just last week, and it was it was borderline the worst thing I’ve ever I’ve ever played in.

Chris 23:30

But one of those where you get to like the fourth hole, and you’re like, oh I’m not really sure I’m in the body.

Nish 23:34

But too far out, like yeah, like is this an out and back kind of play out? Or uh it was funny because I can’t like normally and I I have a camera strapped to my and because obviously I was I was preparing a video episode, yeah, especially for Conwy, so I had the camera ready to go, and I was more mindful of doing that. I couldn’t remember the first seven holes because you could see them because you were covering your eyes. Yeah, I don’t think I looked up that much, and it was only really when I got the the footage back.

Chris 24:07

Yeah, yeah.

Nish 24:07

I was like, oh yeah, okay, that was an interesting one. I remember actually remember the first hole, and then that two to seven was a blur. Yeah, and then eight, eight, nine, ten were great, yeah, and then it stopped raining, and then suddenly it’s like your head’s up.

Chris 24:20

I mean when you’re playing you’re playing in wet weather when it’s like link’s golf, it was lashing it down, you know. You do you are literally just like head down, like you don’t take it, you don’t really take it in there.

Nish 24:28

We were talking probably three to four club wind, yeah, probably, which that’s golfing parlance now, isn’t it? I’m switching into proper golfing like terminology. It was yeah, so I’m hoping we don’t get that because that feels like that’s gonna make that a really tough day.

Chris 24:46

But then we should we should have a few of those experiences, didn’t we? Like we had a carnoosty last year and we it wasn’t raining, but we really enjoyed that as a as a challenge, didn’t we? I think we really we like that. Um, but yeah, so I think in comparison to the others, so Burkdale and and um SA definitely a lot bigger, bigger and better dunes, certainly on the back nine. So it sounds like I think the first couple of holes like are a bit easier, the first two holes, and then beyond that, literally just the first two, that’s it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nish 25:13

Oh, so alright, okay, because that’s interesting, because uh I suppose we have to uh you know, think of this, we’re doing on a hillside preview, but we’re we’re mentioning the neighbours a lot. But I suppose you have to because it’s sandwiched in between them, yeah. But like uh SNA didn’t feel like it had any dunes. Not really, we weren’t really in amongst the dunes at all. Not at all, no.

Chris 25:33

No, so considering it’s pretty much the same parcel of land. Yeah, I mean I guess they but I think from something I read that initially, like when they were designing courses back in like late 1800s, yeah. Early 1900s, and that that would have been a piece of land that they’d be like, no, we don’t want to build the golf course there. We need the flat bit. Oh, we don’t we don’t actually want to build through the dunes because if it’s designed a bit later, yeah. Actually, someone’s come in and go, actually, those dunes are perfect, like we can go and make some features out of those. Yeah, okay. Um so interesting, so yeah, big dunes, certainly the back nine. I think the back nine is sounds like it’s definitely the better of the two. I’ve heard that. I think Norman said it’s the best back nine in Britain.

Nish 26:11

Greg Norman said that. Greg Norman said that. He also then went and set up Liv so. Well, yeah, exactly.

Chris 26:15

So yeah, we can just discount that that opinion.

Nish 26:18

Oh, but that’s fascinating though, isn’t it? So and that’s a that that’s not just like a few hole, that’s the back nine. Yeah, like it’s so that’s a pretty good sounds like a pretty good stretch. I’ve now I know I’m I deliberately didn’t do anything looking at the course, really. So I was like, Chris is gonna tell me everything, and that’s fine, it’s nice to have the surprise. Yeah, yeah. I did see a couple of pictures in my sort of hunt through for history stuff, and it had more of a look of almost Trump International in our day about it. Yeah, yeah, maybe to me in that big rough big dunes. Yeah, yeah, and it’s like everything’s like little valleys, yeah.

Chris 26:51

I’ll tell you what else you’re really gonna like as well, Nish, because you your for you the downfall of Lynx Golf is a lack of trees, right? Yeah, it’s got trees. Surrounded by mature pines.

Nish 27:02

I’ve seen, yeah, because that’s what that’s what I mean.

Chris 27:03

We had a bit of that when we had a bit of that at SNA, didn’t we? We did, yeah. But I think maybe more so at Hillside. So I think it might suit you a bit better.

Nish 27:11

And I I’ve just been chatting with I’m name dropping everybody who’s been on the web the podcast so far, but um do you remember Gareth from Aberdove?

Chris 27:18

Of course I do, yeah.

Nish 27:19

So Gareth, top guy. Um he um very recently played um he he recently played West Lanx. Okay, yeah. Which for us was a bit of a we didn’t really get it course, wasn’t it? I think we both sort of agreed with that. But we were we were sort of chatting away and it got me thinking again of the course. And but that was like we hit the sort of maybe 12, I think we hit. We did that par three, and then we went into the kind of the back bit, and then a few more trees came into it, and it kind of felt interesting.

Chris 27:51

That little stretch, wasn’t that?

Reviews, Green Fees & The Grumpy Member At The Halfway House

Nish 27:52

Oh, so we could be in for a bit of a treat there.

Chris 27:54

Yeah, I think you’re I think this is gonna be up your street. I do. I think you’re really gonna like it. I think there’s a lot of stuff in there. I think there’s some good stuff in there for me as well. Good. I think it’s I think both of us are gonna enjoy it. I think there’s gonna be a lot of boxes ticked for us.

Nish 28:07

Do you think that’s a front line back nine thing, or do you think generally just as a I think possibly more so for me, the back nine, like you know, you know, mate.

Chris 28:13

I love a big June. Yep. Um, so yeah, I think the back line for me is gonna be good, but I think yeah, tree trees throughout Nish that you’re interesting. You’ll be happy. Um, yeah, a lot of people complaining that they’ve lost a lot of balls.

Nish 28:25

Well, it’s interesting you say that.

Chris 28:27

Yeah. So we have a feature on that.

Nish 28:28

So if you do find our golf balls, you can win yourself some a sleeve of golf balls of your job.

Chris 28:34

Well, there you go, just follow us around Hillside then. You’ll I mean I ordered six dozen.

Nish 28:38

I think I might take all of them out with that. I think you probably shouldn’t. I think you probably should. I mean, one of my comments I made was actually if I go through this whole six dozen, then I’m doing something wrong. But we’re playing Hillside first, so yeah, yeah.

Chris 28:48

The other thing which which I read which was interesting is um, and again, something that you like have a course is that you feel isolated, which is interesting because we kind of seen a bit of it for mess and a and it didn’t necessarily feel like because you you just sandwiched in between two golf courses, right? But having that kind of isolated feel where you’re not really seeing anyone else whilst you’re out there is that’s appealing, isn’t it? I like that. I like that as well.

Nish 29:11

I think that was that was interesting about this is all becoming a who’s who of what we’d done, but when we played Gullen, yeah, loved it, yeah, yeah. But it was a it was the opposite, though. It was a bit shocking, actually. Yeah, I’ve got to say, like, shocking, not in a oh, horrific way, yeah, shocking in like a oh right. You weren’t expecting that. There I could just see people everywhere, yeah, yeah. And it’s like I don’t get that where I play normally. Yeah, like you don’t really see that many people around, you’re in your own little bit. But um, I mean that wasn’t a bad thing, I don’t think it was just it was a new experience for me. But I like I like that solitude, all you can see is that one hole, and that’s yeah, I like everything else beyond that. I mean, you know, Trump had that in bucket loads, didn’t he? Yeah, for us. So yeah, that was great.

Chris 29:54

So, what we’re saying if we like being alone, essentially, yeah, we are just loners. We are just loners, yeah.

Nish 29:59

Yeah, we’re just gonna lose our golf balls on our own.

Chris 30:01

We’re gonna get angry losing golf balls on our own and not speak to anyone else.

Nish 30:05

So it was 185 quid for the round, and now I’m gonna lose a fuckload of golf balls, and people are gonna claim three free golf balls off me as well. So does that come out of your back pocket?

Chris 30:14

Oh dear, what have I done? But yeah, I you know, I think we’re in for a pretty, a pretty good day. Hillside again is one of those, like I was saying earlier, that I’m I was excited about. It’s in that kind of second bracket of kind of big courses in Britain, and I think it’s definitely in there for sure for me. I think so.

Nish 30:30

I’m looking forward to it because we’re teeing off, it’s March, we’re teeing off at two o’clock.

Chris 30:34

Oh god, are we gonna finish?

Nish 30:36

Well, that’s what they said. They said to me, they were like, Oh, you know, you might be putting it’s not gonna go, it’s not sunset, it’s not till like six o’clock. So it’s like, okay, fine. Um, and it’s two of us, so we should be okay. Famous last words, yeah, yeah. But um what I’m quite sure. We might not even see the back nine, we might not see the back nine, yeah. But I’m quite looking forward to uh having a nice relaxed day actually leading up to it, going yeah, grabbing a spot of lunch and stuff like that at the clubhouse before and just kind of taking it all in and and and actually it is reputation, it does come with that it’s a friendly golf club, all that kind of stuff. That’s that’s always a great thing to look at. Do we know if we’re gonna get a pyramid of golf balls at the range or anything like that? Do we know?

Chris 31:15

Don’t think so. Not sure.

Nish 31:17

Still waiting for that, aren’t we? So haven’t we had the pyramid yet?

Chris 31:20

I’ll build you on this.

Nish 31:21

Yeah, maybe we just carry the thing around with us to go and make up make our pyramid. Um okay, cool. Anything else on the golf course you think that might be interesting and notable? Any anything?

Signature Hole Challenge, Final Thoughts & Next Up: Delamere Forest

Chris 31:31

Not that I’ve got on my list. No, there probably is. I mean, see I’ve got the signature hole on there. Tell us that because he’s not here.

Nish 31:38

Jim, unfortunately, he’s not here with us today. Is uh uh can I say what he’s doing? Sure. I don’t know what he’s doing actually. So let’s just make something up. But um yeah, Jim’s not here today, but we have got what the signature hole challenge would be, so which is what hole is that?

Chris 31:55

So the 11th hole at Hillside, which is a par five.

Nish 31:59

It’s yeah, four nine. I think Trump was a par five, wasn’t it? I think. Oh, I don’t know, was it?

Chris 32:07

No, Trump Trump was a par four, wasn’t it? It’s a par four. We have had par fives before his signature. Yeah, yeah, we have.

Nish 32:11

Hang on, it was um at SNA, wasn’t it?

Chris 32:14

SNA, yeah, it was Gumblys, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nish 32:18

Interesting.

Chris 32:18

So yeah, 493 yards, par five from the yellows. So that should be advantageous you, really, shouldn’t it, on a par five, I think.

Nish 32:26

But I don’t know. Possibly. Depends whether give you one of those exploding golf balls or not.

Chris 32:31

Depends if I smash my drive into that massive, massive rough to begin with.

Nish 32:34

So what’s the deal with it then? So it’s is it just that it’s long or is it like it’s long and it’s got loads of bunkers, or like what’s oh yeah, what’s the bunker sitch at Hillside actually?

Chris 32:43

Uh they have got bunkers. They have bunkers. I believe. I believe they have bunkers, yeah. Yeah, okay.

Nish 32:48

Better sharpen the game. Yeah, it’s interesting that because um, yeah. I mean, look, some courses make a thing of it, don’t they? That’s like, oh, we’ve got loads of bunkers, whatever, but they’re obviously not, it’s not front and centre, is it?

Chris 33:00

I think this one is this is a bit more of a views thing. So I think you can see the the fells of the late district, my my home. Amazing. Um, yeah. So maybe it’s just a a good looking hole and also a challenging hole as well, I think.

Nish 33:14

Eleven, right, meter the round, okay.

Chris 33:16

Yeah, I like it. Well, yeah, it’s quite a good place to have it, isn’t it? Where you I feel like that’s a good section of the round. Like the first nine holes, I’m just getting started. Sort of like 10 to 13, I’m in my pump, and then I’m tired after that.

Nish 33:28

And it’s it’s a shame it’s a par five, actually, because we can’t really tee off with a hickory club on the signature hole on a par five. We could we could try it, yeah, absolutely. But um, yeah, okay, great. And I think my recollection is you’re either two or three up on a signature hole challenge. So almost as we were.

Chris 33:48

It doesn’t feel like enough, but sure.

Nish 33:50

Yeah, two or two or three up. Okay, yeah. I made a bit of a good run towards the end. You did actually, to be fair. I think it was that coupled with you on a couple of signature hole challenges. You signature holes you hadn’t done that well yourself. So it was a by default, I’d been winning some of them.

Chris 34:05

The tide the tide’s turning-ish. Yeah, I think so.

Nish 34:08

It’s gonna be interesting on that, isn’t it, this year? Because I think we’re playing some pretty, pretty hectic courses, aren’t we? I think they’re gonna require a bit of tactics. I don’t know who’s got the honour on the signature hole. Better work that out. Who won the last one?

Chris 34:21

Who won Carnivastic? You won Carnoostie?

Nish 34:23

Did we draw Carnisti? No, 18. You would have won an 18, wouldn’t you? Did I? Yeah, you would have won any 18. I had a bit of a mare, didn’t I? You went out of bounds on the left, didn’t you? No, no, I didn’t know. I smoked my drive, but I went all went out of bounds. The approach, yeah, yeah, next thing I approach next thing. And then I’ve flat four putted or whatever it was. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so you’ve got the honour. Wonderful. Um okay. I’ll just I mean, we’re gonna do reviews, I think. Um good reviews, you always get good reviews, don’t you? And clubs like this are always gonna have them. Yeah. There are a couple of and I this is what I like. I think this is the gold really when you dig into the bad reviews. Yeah, absolutely. You know, on Google, yeah, you just go, right, well, what has somebody left on a one star? Right? And I think I’ll I’ll I will I will read these out because they’re out there, you know. We’re not we’re not highlighting anything that we’ve just like dug out from somewhere or or whatever, but I’m just gonna read these out and I think I just think they’re quite funny. Like, you know, you can imagine somebody with last angry man voice. Um, but we got out so one of those £500 for a round of golf is absolutely disgusting now. Yeah, it’s that’s uh people’s opinion, I suppose, isn’t it? Yeah. On the rounds does sound quite punchy.

Chris 35:38

Is it £500 in summer?

Nish 35:40

I mean, this is what this is a month ago. All right, okay. I mean that it’s been left. So I mean we’re paying what £185 in March, right? April will be shoulder season, so it’s probably gonna be about 240-ish.

Chris 35:52

Summer rate’s only 300 quid. I was thinking. Yeah, 500 quid. Yeah, okay, so Jason. I think he’s maybe talking about Birkdale or something.

Nish 36:00

Oh bless. It’s been the wrong uh the wrong place. But he has said that they should be ashamed of themselves for charging that kind of money for 18 holes of golf. We’ve touched upon this on a few occasions, haven’t we, with um pricing on golf and things like that. And but it’s probably right, but then you know that’s what you’re in for, aren’t you? If you if you don’t want to spend time quite spending that way, yeah, yeah, don’t bother. Don’t bother with it. Yeah, you know. Um the next review uh to the captain, you should never judge book by its cover, rude person. And that’s it. End of review. End of review. End of review, like some context, some anything? No, no, I mean the and these ones are like there’s one, two, there’s four of them for the by the same guy. One star. No, no, four of you, one star, and they’ve literally not left a comment just on a one star one star, which makes no bloody sense. Yeah. Uh then we’ve got uh a chap called James, not our James, I don’t think, but played on a Monday, course is in great and I was reading this and it’s two stars. Right, okay. So I started reading this, and tell me if you think what I was what I was thinking. So the first bit of the review goes, play it on Monday, course is in great shape for the time of year, and with the recent weather we’ve had, that’s excellent. No fairway mats, and only one temporary green. The pace of play was good, and the staff were very friendly. And I’m thinking four stars, five stars?

Chris 37:23

What the fuck is it?

Nish 37:23

A two-star review over there, like what’s going on. However, the day was spoiled by a member playing behind us who shouted, move along to us from the ninth green while we were at the how the halfway house. We politely asked if he would like to play through as we were happy to wait. He snapped back. No, I just want a drink. Not really sure what this man was after, but the way he spoke was disgusting and very disappointing to see. This is the way members treat visitors at the golf course. Would certainly think twice before playing playing as a guest, especially with Burkdale yesterday, either side, where the welcome from members is superior.

Chris 38:02

I’d love it if that guy just like had a deck chair out and like having an ice cream 45 minutes into his halfway hut experience. What’s this guy’s problem?

Nish 38:10

Wasn’t even playing this guy, he’s just that hanging around at the green. Um, so yeah, I’m you know, reviews you always take with a pinch of salt, don’t you? Um as they are. But I always find it. No, no, nothing at all. But it there’s this is a three-star one, actually. So as Link’s golf goes, this course is a reasonably nice challenge, but it’s overhyped, certainly overpriced, in my opinion. Some bits certainly are pretty, but there’s not enough here to call me back anytime soon. Nothing wrong with it as such, just not much wow about it.

Chris 38:42

I definitely think there’s that that’s a that’s a fair enough thing. I definitely think it’s it’s slightly divisive. I think there’s definitely a lot of people who are going, we love it, it’s better than the SNA Bird Dale, and a lot of people going, I wasn’t I wasn’t blown away by it at all.

Nish 38:57

This isn’t a real name, it can’t be Jeffrey Grecian, can’t be the can’t be a real name. Yeah, uh yeah. I mean it’s uh we’re finding this just with the rankings, right? It’s so subjective, totally. You just got no idea, like and and in fairness to the person who left that review where they were where they were like, Oh, it was all great, but one person ruined it for us. We’ve had that, yeah, yeah. We’ve had that at the neighbouring course, you know, where we just got terrible welcome and we’re like, oh can I deflat you a bit then? Deflates you so you know, be warned clubs, it’s a members, it’s it’s really important that. But well, I’m really looking forward to playing on very much so. It’s the first round, which is always good. Um, and it’s local, so that’s nice, we’re not coming too far. Yeah, um, and we have what, we’ve done two-thirds of that very famous parcel of land then at that point. So that’d be great. And actually, what we’re playing it in open year as well around Hillside. Yeah, yeah, that’ll be nice. It’d be nice to see if we can spot anything from Burtdale, actually. Uh, from Hillside. I don’t know. We’ll have we’ll have to see. I’m not sure if there’s anything high up enough to look over to the other courses or or not. But um, yeah, fantastic. Next time on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, we’ll be previewing Delamere Forest Golf Club, which is the closest top 100 course to us. And we’ll be playing with a friend and member and a fantastic golfer. So that’ll be an absolutely brilliant treat.