The Best Golf Course You’ve Never Heard Of? Ganton Golf Club

Nish: 0:00

Every story has an ending. Does our quest to play the top 100 courses in 10 years have a good ending? I’m Nish, I’m Chris, I’m Jim and we’re here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast. So we played Ganton in the Mizuno Pairs competition. We did, yeah, first competitive round we played.

Chris: 0:21

Every round is competitive, chris. Very true, the first officially competitive round we played.

Nish: 0:27

How was the event for you? How did you find it?

Chris: 0:31

How was the event for me? Yeah, it was reasonably low key actually, wasn’t it In terms of the actual overall event, which created quite a nice atmosphere. I think most people were there for the same reason for us as us really just to go and play ganton, rather than anyone being there particularly to go and win the competition. So it did feel kind of low key, didn’t it? So we kind of we rocked up and we kind of signed in.

Chris: 0:53

I mean that was pretty much it in terms of like the official kind of um setup, wasn’t it really?

Nish: 0:59

yeah, it was. I don’t know I’ll. In my head I had a bit more fanfare.

Chris: 1:04

Yeah, I was thinking that. I was thinking like big signs and kind of like you know, I kind of didn’t know where to go. When we arrived, leaderboards and that kind of stuff yeah, it was pretty low key, wasn’t it yeah?

Nish: 1:13

I don’t know if that happens early on, though, because when I see their Instagram feed, that doesn’t match up with what we got, I suppose, yeah, what we got I suppose, yeah, and I don’t know whether, because we were, yeah, I think there was like a five-day yorkshire thing going on, wasn’t this?

Chris: 1:25

we were, I think, towards the tail end of that five days so lots of other people have already played three or four days before us, didn’t they?

Nish: 1:32

we’re the last tease on the last day all the merch had been stolen I thought we was. I genuinely thought we were supposed to get a sleeve of golf balls, but we didn’t get it so I thought that was part of the like the deal, but is that?

Chris: 1:45

really why you went. Yeah, yeah, exactly that’s. That’s the only reason we were there.

Nish: 1:49

Yeah it was. It was a bit, I think it was kind of it was well oiled, wasn’t it like?

Chris: 1:56

everyone was going to get off. You know there’s no. It was pretty organized, wasn’t it? Like everyone was in the right place the right time. We were even kind of early to our tea, weren’t we? So I think it was fairly well organised from that perspective.

Nish: 2:06

Question for you, the guy who started us. Yes, do you think he was a Ganton member or do you think he worked for golf pairs?

Chris: 2:15

Good question, I think Ganton.

Nish: 2:17

He had a feel of Ganton about him, didn’t he? Definitely A bit old school, you know, had a really worn cricket sun hat.

Chris: 2:27

Yeah, yeah, looked like he’d been there quite regularly for the last few years, didn’t he?

Nish: 2:32

Didn’t really have much bants.

Chris: 2:34

Just kind of was like it was day five.

Nish: 2:37

Well it’s not day five at their course, it was only day one at their course. There’s a five-day Yorkshire event, but the lady Chet Simmers was great and she ran us all through everything and she introduced us to our pair, who actually were great by the way.

Chris: 2:51

Yeah, they were good value. Wayne and Anne-Marie, they were good fun. They were great banter, weren’t they? It was a good introduction to it was what was your first impressions of Ganton? Actually, it’s ranked 25th. 25th on our list and all the other lists it’s in that mid-20s so it’s pretty rare for them to be.

Chris: 3:08

I think it’s quite a it’s a fairly iconic entrance, I think, into Ganton because it’s like a long, really long kind of narrow country road with like a white picket fence going all the way down the side of the course. But it’s got that kind of oldie worldie kind of english vibe to it and I think that’s kind of sets you up for what ganton is really it’s. It’s pretty old school, so like you’re kind of sat in the clubhouse and it’s. You know, there’s a couple of members, wasn’t there? A couple of sort of elderly lady members just kind of chatting away and I was like this is, this is exactly what I was expecting from ganton I don’t know what you saw about when I was taking the pictures.

Chris: 3:40

Oh, what you got nish. Nish got the daggers. Nish went in and, as Nish does in every clubhouse, he just gets his phone out and starts taking pictures of everything. So there’s like a Ryder Cup replica trophy. So Nish was straight into the corner and starts taking pictures. And there’s these two, like I said earlier, elderly ladies sat in the clubhouse having some lunch and one of them just looked at him and was like gave him an absolute daggers for having his phone out. He’s got one of them just looked at him and was like giving an absolute daggers for, like, having his phone out.

Nish: 4:05

He’s got one of those mobile telephones out with moving pictures whilst he was there eating a club sandwich with a stick through it actually to be fair, yeah, once I spoke to her, but actually, yeah, they were lovely, actually they were great yeah.

Chris: 4:17

I think we were kind of going there prepped for a little bit uncomfortable as a visitor and probably not being that welcomed. But actually maybe it was because it was a pairs event, but it didn’t feel like that at all it was a takeover of that club, and you could just kind of wander in and do what you wanted. Didn’t seem to be any kind of rules.

Nish: 4:35

I sort of thought somebody like myself who does geek out a little bit on the clubs and just a tiny bit history stuff, you know I’ll do the reading, reading all the plats and whatever, but we wouldn’t have got that access to the clubhouse because we wouldn’t have got into the Varden room to start, which was jacket and tie normally yeah, nish is walking through with his trainers and his mobile phone.

Chris: 5:00

Everything and a lot but it was.

Nish: 5:03

There’s a chap called John who’s the steward of the club and, uh, we’d ordered our lunch, which, by the way, you’ve got to ring within the clubhouse. You’ve got to ring to order your food.

Chris: 5:14

I mean that was that was a weird set up, wasn’t it? So, like glenn, eagles is brilliant, right, you’re out on course. Novelty you’ve got a telephone ring, the halfway hook made sense brilliant setup ganton clubhouse.

Chris: 5:22

You walk relatively small clubhouse, it’s not a big clubhouse but there’s just phones kind of all over the clubhouse and you’ve got someone at the bar, someone at the table and you’ve got to ring through to the kitchen and there’s literally a lady stood behind the other side of the wall so you can hear her talking back to you without the study with the rider yeah, whatever it is um, and then, they just I’m gonna say, you know, with the crowbar, but then they just kind of walk through the clubhouse just shouting everyone’s name with these plates of food.

Chris: 5:57

so it was a bit of a weird setup, but I guess maybe whilst the members are there they probably know most of the members anyway, so they maybe just walk, walk out and hand it to the members, maybe it works better.

Nish: 6:06

Chris had done his phone ordering for the lunch and then I went to go and get a drink. I mean they’ve got like Ganton-branded honey, they’ve got Ganton-branded ales, just everything you can think of it as all for sale.

Chris: 6:21

It’s really good.

Nish: 6:22

Yeah, yeah, it was good, I had a club sandwich as well, and it was, the bread was quite nice.

Nish: 6:29

Yeah, I mean, it’s relative, it’s relative, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s nice and inverted um, but we, so we, we did all that. And then, as I was stood there, I saw some really old posters up and I thought, great, I like this. You know almost wartime posters, like things. And a gentleman called John, the steward of the club, sort of. He started that sort of looking at it. He was oh, if you want to get a picture, there’s a really good list of players who’ve played at Ganson over here. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, great no-transcript golf courses and everybody’s like all right, okay, because I’ll tell you what, give me five minutes and I’ll come and show you around the clubhouse.

Chris: 7:17

I was like, oh well, like totally unexpected, wasn’t it in any way?

Nish: 7:20

and actually subsequently I have emailed ganson to email the general secretary just to say that John was amazing and the staff were great, and you know just the fact that he showed me around the Varden room which I could spend all day there, it was unbelievable. So they’ve got this whole wood panel Really beautiful, Isn’t it?

Chris: 7:38

Like I think sometimes we’ve kind of derided some of the old, the old school kind of bits of golf, but kind of derided some of the old school kind of bits of golf, but actually it feels like a real piece of golfing history, doesn’t it being?

Nish: 7:47

in there.

Chris: 7:47

It’s a pretty special place, isn’t?

Nish: 7:49

it. I think, that’s where this event was really good for me, because not only have you got access to the course, but actually a really good price middle of summer in the course in Great Nick. I mean, yeah, we’ll come back to that later, we’ll get to the course in Great Nick. I mean, yeah, we’ll come back to that later, we’ll get to the course. I’ll tease you a little bit here, jim. There is a shock revelation later on in the episode today about. Ganton Golf Course Shock revelation.

Chris: 8:17

Set your face to stun ready for it.

Nish: 8:19

But the fact that we got that access to the Varden Room kind of just really elevated that for me as well. You know perceived stuffiness that you’ve heard about some of the yeah, we didn’t.

Chris: 8:31

We didn’t experience any of that at all, did we know none?

Nish: 8:33

of that. So it’s a really nice way to actually go and experience a real top level club. Yeah, I’d be encouraged to, you know, go and do like sunningdales and things like that with the pairs. I think it’d be a great experience.

Chris: 8:44

Yeah, it’s a good point, but that Varden roommate.

Nish: 8:47

That was something else for me.

Chris: 8:48

Yeah, it was who’s who of golf memorabilia, wasn’t it? It’s pretty cool.

Nish: 8:53

They had. So Harry Varden used to make his own golf balls, so he had a press, call it or a mold or whatever, and and so john was telling me about it and he said that alone there is just doesn’t have a price. It’s that that artifact there is absolutely priceless in the golf world. I was like, right, okay, fair enough, no wonder you don’t allow the riffraff in there they have everything.

Nish: 9:18

You should be telling them this golf balls in there that I was like some of his old clubs and and then they had pictures of and he was quite proud of telling me this. So they had pictures of the 16th, 17th, 18th and he said that those three holes they basically haven’t touched and improved anything, they’re just as they were originally designed.

Chris: 9:39

I mean again, we’ll come back to that later but I mean it’s fair play.

Nish: 9:43

There’s no need to go into those holes, is there? I mean, maybe we should just talk about that. I mean, that was a heavenly stretch of holes, wasn’t it I?

Chris: 9:48

think one thing that we do need to just skip back to, because the story of Ganton doesn’t actually start on the day we played. Ganton does it okay it starts the day, the night had pre-Gantt, our first competitive round that we played. What was your preparation, mish? How many gin and tonics?

Nish: 10:08

do you have? I feel like sleeping out on your decking under your pergola when your wife has locked the door is underrated. I feel like it’s good prep for a round.

Chris: 10:18

I’m pretty sure, that’s what Rory does most evenings, yeah, and he starts the first four holes, scoring seven on each as well. Yeah, I haven’t seen or heard from Emma ever, since. She’s not talking to anyone.

Nish: 10:31

She’s not here today either. She’s not talking to anyone.

Chris: 10:33

Nish or anyone related to Nish. She’s not putting any messages on the group, Just waiting for the life insurance payment and then I can tell you what happened.

Nish: 10:44

I was not happy, let me put it that way, at 4.47, I think it was eventually when the door opened. At least it wasn’t that cold. It was surprisingly pleasant actually. And it was worth the money that I spent to be locked out. Oh mate, that was a nightmare. What time did you have to set up? Well, professionalism, we were supposed to set up before 10, weren’t we really? And then I woke up at 10 to 10, to because it’s messages.

Chris: 11:15

It’s weird because normally, like on the morning of one of these things, like I’ll text nish and he’s replied within like 30 seconds. He’s like so eager and so excited and I text him at like I don’t know like 7, 30 or something, and I saw that like last scene on whatsapp, whatever, like 4, 45, I was like all right, it was a late night and then like nothing came through.

Chris: 11:33

Nothing came through and it was about it must have been about quarter past 10. I was like we’d originally said we’d have about 10. It must be about quarter past 10 before I actually heard anything with nish. I was like do we need to go to go around next door and check he’s okay, still alive. I think you did at 4.45, mate.

Nish: 11:49

Well, as it happens, I told Chris that we were sat in the car and he was like I’ve been awake all night, mate.

Chris: 11:53

You could have just come round to mine. Yeah, put it on the wrong WhatsApp group, god damn it, not Emma’s finest hour.

Nish: 12:03

So we did all this and I’d been geeking out in the Varden room, which was unbelievable. All the pictures would be on the website. It took a lot, because that is lovely. But I went to a grammar school and kind of wood panelling and things like that it’s standard economy. But it was very, very classically done the whole place yeah, definitely. But then we met very, very classily done the whole place yeah, definitely. But then we met, didn’t bump into, we knew he was playing. We met Mark, who has been on podcasts before.

Chris: 12:29

We did.

Nish: 12:29

We talked about the competition In the flesh, which was nice, nice to meet him, met him in the flesh yeah, and he was with his friend Andrew, who he’s trying to play a lot of the courses with, so he’s played a long way for them to travel. And then we got an invitation during lunch which we both had to sit there and do the whole like play it cool trigger.

Chris: 12:53

play it cool we got, we got invited oh yeah.

Nish: 12:58

Well, it wasn’t that good. We got invited to go and play St Andrews next year by Andrew himself. Yeah, he’s the.

Chris: 13:12

St Andrews, I mean to us, he is the St Andrews to be fair, we were just like really okay, yeah, yeah, I think.

Nish: 13:20

When he said that, I think I.

Chris: 13:21

I thought I’d misheard him when he first said it. I was like that can’t be right, like my brain just didn’t compute it at all, and he was like he was such a nice guy as well, seriously like this is legit happening, because and I followed it up since with mark and he was like, yeah, andrew, will andrew getting on?

Nish: 13:35

and I was like you know, obviously we want, we’d love to play with both of you. That would be fantastic and we just had a great time.

Chris: 13:41

Yeah, we didn’t we, yeah, really nice boys, weren’t we?

Nish: 13:43

I feel like I know them quite well because we do messages quite a lot about the course we’ve played and stuff like that, but great to meet in person. That’s always nice to cement the relationship, isn’t it a little bit more? And then this this came up and we’re like okay, that’s like what’s top two, isn’t it? I think on the list, St Andrews is Old Course 2. I mean, Old Course is the top one, isn’t it right?

Chris: 14:04

It’s the one, isn’t it?

Nish: 14:06

And that’s where everyone wants to play.

Chris: 14:08

So you’re not doing it. Last course now, no.

Nish: 14:12

Take it when it comes, mate. Oh gosh, yeah, no, absolutely.

Chris: 14:16

That was the one thing that we discussed in one of the episodes.

Nish: 14:25

But we also did say that we would try and do it on like big birthdays and it is my 40th next year, so it’s timed quite well.

Nish: 14:28

Manifesting mate, you put it out there, yeah, and it’s happening. Incredible, but we, we did find out, so so as we were talking, so andrew’s family are from saint andrews, so they obviously are the people that own the course and everything. He’s well connected, clearly, and he must have had a saint in his family at some point, so so he did. He said another thing that was really interesting about St Andrews. That is, on Christmas Day you can play completely free, you just rock up.

Chris: 14:56

Yeah, people just rock up.

Nish: 14:56

There’s loads of people on the course playing in Santa outfits.

Chris: 15:02

It’s like a big tradition in St Andrews.

Nish: 15:05

I don’t know how we’ve never come across that.

Chris: 15:06

Why have we never heard of that In terms of, like you know, instagram and stuff like that. It must be an absolute field day for those kind of things, isn’t it?

Nish: 15:14

Those pictures on the old course? It was weird to not have ever, I mean, mind you when you told me that sick uni students get on like either do a Gbuffer. I was like why have you not?

Chris: 15:23

told me this oh, he was saying that they’re clamping down on that. He said they’re changing those rules a little bit to make it.

Nish: 15:28

But that’s where this, the invitation which has obviously come about through Mark. We need to name check Mark as much as possible. I think Andrew’s going to like that. How many times can we say it in a minute? But you know, the benefit of meeting the guys was finding stuff like this out. Also then finding out from Andrew is that it’s becoming going to become increasingly more difficult to get on to the course because of A popularity and B.

Nish: 15:56

They’re trying to keep it as democratic as possible. But also there are a lot of American tours come over and they probably do get it because they know it’s lucrative and whatever.

Chris: 16:05

We’ve always said it, haven’t we? If you can go and play with a member somewhere, someone who knows it, you just have such a.

Nish: 16:10

It just changes everything, isn’t it yeah?

Chris: 16:12

it’s such a better experience, don’t you?

Nish: 16:14

Yeah, I think, as we’re going through our rounds, that does make a big difference. Yeah, for sure, because, even though I don’t know had Wayne and Anne-Marie played Gansby, I don’t think Anne-Marie had played.

Chris: 16:26

No, he’d caddied there, I think. He said I think his son was a pretty good golfer, amateur golfer. So I think he said he’d caddied there, but I’m not sure he’d ever played there before.

Nish: 16:33

Yeah, I’ll Hello Anne-Marie. Yeah, it was, but he seemed to know a decent amount about the course though, didn’t he? Yeah?

Chris: 16:43

as I say, he’s kind of there in.

Nish: 16:45

Absolute bloodhound for a ball, wasn’t he? Yeah?

Chris: 16:46

he was yeah, yeah. I mean they were two proper golf nuts. They clearly just absolutely loved their golf, didn’t they? Yeah, clearly had a lot of fun doing it as well.

Nish: 17:10

As soon as we rocked up on the first and you don’t know who the person is or anything like that, you’re not gonna get somebody really serious. We’re gonna get chris, basically, or a paul. Yeah, who’s?

Chris: 17:14

stolen my uh imitation trophy, but we’ll get to that another time.

Nish: 17:15

We, yeah, you. Just you don’t know who you get and actually yeah on the night and the night, the 19th hole afterwards I. I think we had a good amount of fans with them going around. I was clearly in no fit state to play golf in that first five minutes.

Chris: 17:29

I’m not sure I saw you for more than about five minutes, and certainly in the front nine of that course.

Nish: 17:33

So there was no fit state to play whatsoever.

Chris: 17:35

However.

Nish: 17:36

I managed to rumble through some out and then we just kind of chatted away and I think it was kind of surface level, wasn’t it?

Chris: 17:43

yeah, I mean, it’s kind of it’s sometimes often a bit like that and you’re in the golf course and you can focus on your next shot or whatever, and you kind of you’re in the moment, of course, and yeah, I mean it demanded that, right, ganton, I mean every single shot. You have to be absolutely on the money thinking about it. You know very strategically about where you’re gonna hit your next shot, where you want to hit your next shot from oh yeah, it’s a strategy course.

Chris: 18:06

It really is inland links course, yeah, I mean it’s.

Nish: 18:11

There’s no such thing as inland links, but I think that’s there that’s how they build it which I think is probably about right, because there’s a good amount. Well, there was a lot of sand 120 bunkers, something like that. Should we was a lot of sand 120 bunkers, something like that.

Chris: 18:24

Yeah, yeah, should we have a bit of a chat about the bunkering, because I it’s always one of those things that I think when you read through like the the you know top 100 golf reviews people always talk about bunkering and I’ve never really kind of bought into that. I was like, well, yeah, you know, whatever bunkers are there and you know, sometimes you go in and sometimes you don’t, right, I’m fascinated to know what he’s going to say now. Well, no, and I know we shouldn’t be talking about bunkering because it’s it’s spanned on the podcast. But I think that was the first time that I’ve really fully appreciated what people are talking about when they’re talking about bunkering, because those bunkers were just absolutely on every hole, perfectly placed to influence your positions of the bunkers, like there’s not a single wasted bit of sand on that golf course.

Chris: 19:03

Like every single bunker there has a purpose. You know, sometimes you go and play and you go like play one of these big American courses and there’s a massive bunker like 120 yards down the fairway.

Nish: 19:13

It’s just totally wasted, yeah it doesn’t provide.

Chris: 19:15

Looks nice, looks nice. And Every single bunker around that course is in exactly the right place. I don’t think you’d move a single one of them.

Nish: 19:23

Yeah, and I know I mean I’m going to call you a geek for saying that.

Chris: 19:28

Thanks.

Nish: 19:29

But I do agree with you. Actually, we talked about this after we’d gone through like 15 minutes of just going St Andrews.

Chris: 19:38

We’re playing St Andrews.

Nish: 19:39

So there was that. Thanks again, mark. But we. So there was that. Thanks again, mark. Um, but we did that before he played. He told us this before we played because we didn’t play with mark mark’s team off later. But, um, yeah, it was. We did talk about like bunkers and stuff like, because I made my feelings on wood or spa perfectly clear in that it was overly penal and I think it was bunkers for the sake and I think when we played wall spa, I don’t think I thought that, but now I’ve played Ganton, I actually I’ve changed my mind.

Chris: 20:07

I think actually Woodall Spa is over the top in terms of his bunkering. I don’t think he needs to be that hard and penal. I think this is perfectly the right amount to make. Think about every single shot. If you hit a bad shot, you’re going to go in a bunker.

Nish: 20:19

You’re going to get punished. It’s not totally severely.

Chris: 20:22

It’s not impossible to get out. You’re going to have some difficult bunker shots but it’s not overly penal. I don’t think you need a ladder to go down into the sandpit.

Nish: 20:30

Yeah, there were some deep bunkers. Bless her Anne-Marie found quite a lot of them she was having. Of those have written it was baking hot that day full-on again, classic top 110 golf weather and we were all pretty sweaty and sticky. And then the fact that she kept ending up in this sand and it was flying up and, like it was all over, I’m stuck to a leg.

Chris: 20:58

This is like he was like oh, poor thing I think we’re becoming like the number one contributor to global warming.

Nish: 21:03

I think we are.

Chris: 21:04

Doing these top 100 courses, because every time we play it’s like 28 degrees.

Nish: 21:07

Or methane emissions or something, but it was A lot of hot air. I think, Touche, I think you can still play poorly and not hit that many bunkers, though, because I didn’t play well in that front line and I didn’t hit that many bunkers, though, because I didn’t play well in that front, yeah, and I didn’t hit that many bunkers during the whole round really, and I think they’re all.

Chris: 21:25

They almost make you think and strategize more than they actually like being overly penal. So I don’t think you’re not just in them all the time if you hit slightly off off track shot, but they’re always in the right place for you to go right, okay, I think I need to hit a certain shot tracers.

Nish: 21:40

I hit two bunkers and the annoying thing with that is both of those bunkers I hit. I hit a really good shot. So it was on that par three and it was a par four. That was drivable. Yeah, first one I stuck out of hand. The second one, I went and I absolutely cracked it yeah and if it had maybe two feet of right to left movement, I would have missed that bunker and it would have been on the green, perfect.

Chris: 22:04

Yeah, yeah.

Nish: 22:05

I was like that’s annoying.

Chris: 22:07

Yeah.

Nish: 22:07

But fine, I’ll take the strike. And then the other one was on the 17th, which is a brutally hard par three. It’s like 220 yards uphill.

Chris: 22:15

It’s longer than that, isn’t it? 240 yards, is it?

Nish: 22:17

It’s playing uphill and playing uphill and there’s a big one on the side and there’s massive sand scraped down the left-hand side.

Nish: 22:25

What do you play? I play something that if it lands short it might run up whatever, and I hit my three hybrid, which I hit really well yesterday when we were playing and it took off the club and I’m looking at it going like that’s. It was on the line of the flag and it was. It just clicked the edge of the like just before the bunker and then, yeah, it offered into the bunker.

Chris: 22:48

I was like oh so close I think that’s definitely the hardest par three we’ve played so far I mean it’s brilliant, it’s a beautiful hole and it’s a great hole.

Nish: 22:55

It was really hard, as I.

Chris: 22:56

Normally, when it’s that long, you get a bit of leeway when you get there.

Nish: 22:59

None of that upturned bowl. It’s got loads of undulation and I think there’d been a. No had there been another compound, I think the pin positions were pretty hard when we played.

Chris: 23:12

Yeah, I mean, the thing is, it was so hard, because it’s been so dry recently that everything was just rock hard. I mean, I think someone said the greens were like 14 on the stint meter, or 13 or 14 on the stint meter, were they? They were absolutely rapid, weren’t they?

Nish: 23:25

That might be why I’ve written here that it was quite and we said it was quite easy to rack up a seven, not withstanding hangovers, but it was quite easy. You could hit the green quite easily in something like me playing to my handicap on a par three. Get there in three and you could very easily three or four put because they were tough, really tough group, but kind of fair and fair. Sometimes you get on greens, not one ball bubbled no, not a single ball, a full four ball, not one ball bubbled it was that pristine by far and away.

Nish: 23:58

They’re the best greens we’ve played by far, and away the best greens.

Chris: 24:00

We played by far and away the best greens, I think by far and away the best um quality of golf course. Like you standing on the tees and you put in a tee peg and you’re like this is better than a lot of greens that I’ve played on like it was just immaculate another thing.

Nish: 24:14

I said in the email that it’s you know, bearing in mind the weather we’ve had, yeah, credit to you.

Chris: 24:18

You know, yeah, how they’ve kept it in that good condition.

Nish: 24:19

I’ve no idea yeah, so the course was absolutely magnificent. I’ve got a couple of notes here as well. There were a few sort of sneakily hidden bunkers, a few that we sort of you couldn’t see, could you? There’s a couple of shots. I hit what I thought was a beautiful shot.

Chris: 24:36

It was only short irons, 120 yards. I’d kind of laid up on one of the short par 4s and I’d hit what I thought was an absolute bob on spot right on the flag. It landed I don’t know a couple of yards short and then there’s just a big kind of cut out of the green but you can’t see it from back in the fairway so it kind of all slides away and all goes down into the bunker and then I I mean that was one of the that was the toughest shot I hit all day. So it went right into the back of the bunker. So there’s a downslope, it’s a really big bunker face and I probably only got about three or four paces from on the side of the green. You know to where the pin was. So yeah, I duly hit that about 50 yards over the green into a bush. So I passed that test.

Nish: 25:18

But. But you did say chip it in. Oh, chip it in, but after that, what happened, nish?

Chris: 25:22

so, yeah, I pitched another one which went through the green. I think Nish was on, for Nish must have been on for a five or something and he missed his putt, so he got a six. So I was just at the side of the green about to pick my ball up and he missed his tiny putt and I was like I fucking hate Nish that we weren’t doing anything.

Chris: 25:39

Yeah. So I was like, oh, I’ll just chip this one in the niche. And it was about what 25, 30 yard chip shot Like quite undulating around the corner. So I just like chipped it up onto the bank and just rolled it in the hole. That’s it for a point.

Nish: 25:53

It was a valuable point. We didn’t score many points that day.

Chris: 25:57

Yeah, if I could just do that every time, I’d be quite a good golfer.

Nish: 26:01

One of the things I have actually not mentioned when we were talking about the clubhouse was I don’t believe this, but we were told that the Ryder Cup replica that’s in the clubhouse is not solid gold.

Chris: 26:15

I think you were told a tall tale there, Nish.

Nish: 26:18

Was it to test out whether it makes it into the podcast? Yeah, probably yeah, let’s see what happens, but there’s a bit of a Moortown resemblance to that clubhouse. Well, I mean, because that’s what Moortown was, is that right?

Chris: 26:29

Yeah, so that’s what it was modelled on, right. So even the clubhouse looks pretty much the same as Ganton’s, doesn’t it Like Ganton’s is older and kind of a bit more traditional. I mean, I guess Mortown’s fairly traditional, but Ganton felt older, and more the lockers and stuff like that the lockers always looked identical, didn’t they? Yeah, it was a very, very similar feel, wasn’t?

Nish: 26:49

it. Yeah, it was great, very historic. So I think if you can get on, I would. This isn’t a plug necessarily for the event, but getting on something like that, giving you the full access, is worth it for Ganton, it’s worth it for a historic club. And again, one of the things that I mentioned in the preview was is it one of the best clubs golf clubs you’ve never heard of? Because I’d never heard of Ganton, the name had never, because it’s not on any open circuits or anything like that.

Chris: 27:20

It’s a funny one because I think, like I said last time, in the amateur world. It’s not on any open circuits or anything like that. It’s a funny one because I think, like I said last time, I think in the amateur world it’s probably like up there as, yeah, you know, one of the real top, the top courses, but I guess if you’ve not played kind of amateur golf, I thought it has held you know it’s held the rider cup it’s held the rider cup yeah absolutely, but I mean, I think you can.

Chris: 27:38

You can see why it’s historically has got lots of accolades and probably more recently doesn’t have, because it’s a traditional kind of test of golf, isn’t it? I think I probably only hit driver twice that day. Is it in irons off every tee? Because it’s not about distance, it’s all about keeping the ball in play and strategy and giving yourself the right shot into the green. So, yeah, it’s definitely kind of an old school test of golf, which I love, because I love those kind of short par four strategy holes. That’s my favorite thing. Yeah, I think there’s so many of them at ganton that I was just like a big.

Nish: 28:12

I was having a great time.

Chris: 28:13

Yes yeah, sandy, yes, it was.

Nish: 28:15

Yeah, it’s very strategic. It’s a purist’s goal, of course, that I think that’s how I’d describe it?

Chris: 28:23

I don’t know. I think anyone who plays there would.

Nish: 28:25

No, I think you’d enjoy it, but what I mean is you would, if you’re a golfing nut.

Chris: 28:30

Yeah.

Nish: 28:30

And you know, then in that case, you either played it all your life. Therefore, you do know about the amateur games. So you know about Gantor. Yeah, because all the people that I’ve sort of connected with through doing doing this on social media and whatever. Yeah, the second you mention, you’ve just played gant to that. Oh, what do you think? What do you think? You know it’s like everyone’s. Oh yeah, proper course you know, yeah, and I think that’s where the esteem and the reputation and the rankings come from.

Chris: 28:54

Yeah and it’s. It’s almost kind of hard to put your finger on sometimes, isn’t it, because it’s it’s sort of intangible, but you just come away with this feeling of it just being a really special thing that you’ve just done. Yeah, that’s definitely. It’s definitely the the biggest feeling that I’ve had of that so far. Coming up cancer and I kind of came away going that was that was just mega. I feel it’s time. Is it time? It’s time?

Nish: 29:15

yeah, I think so it’s time to let you know what this shocking revelation was. Oh, we will do the scores in a minute. That’s almost by the by shocking revelation there was a shock revelation. It will be on the full playing the course video because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. But I’m walking up and it must have been. I’m thinking we’re walking up something like maybe three quarters of the way through the round, so maybe talking to him at 14.50.

Chris: 29:47

Yeah, I think that’s about right.

Nish: 29:48

And Mr Gibbons from Cumbria turns around and says to me I think I like this better than Silith. It gets worse, jim. He won’t be allowed back in. He won’t be allowed back in Sorry Cumbria and I think it’s measurably better than Sillith, not just better measurably better than Sillith.

Chris: 30:13

But I mean, I’ve said this to you before and then like I had an absolute turnaround a couple of days after and gone. Actually do you know what? Maybe I was wrong. I take it back Scylla. Yeah, ganton was head and shoulders above Scylla. For me it was amazing. It was an amazing course it was. It was my praise indeed.

Nish: 30:32

It’s not my number one, it’s not no, no, it’s not my number one. My number one was still Queen’s Lakeland Eagles. Right, wow, that still had everything for me because it had experience, it had history, it had the fun element, the look at my level. Yeah, I mean, I’ve looked back at the the cut. Probably. Let’s do it, let’s, let’s quickly, let’s glance at the scores, let’s we won’t go dwell on it too much. But you know I’ve shot a 106. It’s my probably my third worst round, I think in this.

Nish: 31:03

This here didn’t. If the 106 is a lot of that, it’s due to I just didn’t show up the first six, seven holes. I didn’t do anything. And then it clicked around there’s a par three, wasn’t there, and suddenly I hit a good tee shot and then suddenly I started to be able to do something with my tee shots. But I don’t think it was overly penal, like my tee shots, but I don’t think it was overly penal like I didn’t land in many bunkers and I’ve learned actually from I’m taking something from each course I’m playing, so it’s from ganton. What I’ve picked up is you know they’re strategically placed, but some of those bunkers aren’t strategically placed for you in your game. So let’s like I average two, four, five with my driver. Yeah, there’s a bunker at 200, it’s not in play. Yeah, I’m clearing that. So ignore that. And I used that actually in the most recent round. We just played that.

Nish: 31:51

You know there’s bunkers there at 180 190 yeah, I’m aiming for them, because I’m going to clear that yeah so that has changed my sort of mentality as to how I view it. But it was with the kind of so I’ve shot a 94.

Chris: 32:10

Yeah because I didn’t play well either did.

Nish: 32:12

I really no, neither of us did.

Chris: 32:14

In fact we both played pretty poorly, I think, by our own standards. But I think even still and we’ve said before it’s quite hard to detach having a bad round from a good course, kind of thing.

Nish: 32:23

Yeah.

Chris: 32:28

But actually for G ganton, even though I played badly with a bad round, yeah, I absolutely just loved every single hole. I think it’s the first. It’s the first round that we played where I think every single one of those holes has got like a real you’ve got to hit the right shot in the right place like a real strategic there wasn’t really a dull hole on that.

Nish: 32:41

No, I think like the first three were kind of.

Chris: 32:43

Maybe the first three is probably relatively easy, opener, I think, beyond that once you get to the fourth. The fourth is that beautiful little par four, I think. After that it’s just glorious, I think all of the whole, yeah, and in terms of the holes, obviously, are there any that stand out as that you would consider including in?

Nish: 33:02

the top 18? Yeah, rick, we sort of mentioned it previously the 16, 17, 18 stretch is fantastic. The 18th is an interesting hole. Actually, it probably shouldn’t really feel that outstanding because you have to approach the green over the driveway that we just mentioned. It’s a long driveway and all that kind of thing and the 17th par 3, which is really long and brutal, teeing off over the driveway that we just mentioned it’s a long driveway and all that kind of thing.

Nish: 33:26

But and on the 17th that par three, which is really long and brutal. Yeah, teeing off over the road, usually roads kind of ruin that kind of thing, don’t they?

Chris: 33:30

but yeah, but it just adds to it because that little lane with the little white fence it just?

Nish: 33:35

it just adds to the feel, doesn’t?

Chris: 33:36

it kind of creates a bit more drama yeah, and it’s got this huge, massive sand scrape that kind of covers both those. The 18th you’re teeing off over this looks like a desert almost. It’s so big, doesn’t it? It’s just massive, yeah not actually that difficult a tee shot, but it looks really imposing go for it. It’s only an iron off the tee and a short and into the greens.

Nish: 33:51

It’s not a particularly difficult hole, but it just looks absolutely stunning yeah, but we, we did mention this, didn’t we, on the way back, like, are you, is there anything you’re putting onto us, dream18?

Chris: 34:03

So definitely the 18th, putting 18th and also the 12th, so the 12th, I can’t remember the 12th, so the 12th is it not. And I think the only reason I picked the 12th out is because I think it epitomises no, no, yeah, exactly that. I think it just epitomises Ganton and the way everything is thought of in terms of the way that course is set up. You’re teeing off and it’s an iron off the tee for me, and there’s a set of trees down the right-hand side and there’s a gap in the trees and then another lone tree and that’s exactly the route that you need to go down. If you want to go route one, you could go through that gap and you’ve got to aim for it. And if you go left, there’s a couple of bunkers left. If you go short there, the bunker beyond it. So you’ve literally got to hit the perfect.

Chris: 34:43

I think this is what they do really well. You’ve got to hit a really good shot. It’s not an overly difficult shot. So I think you hit like a five iron off the tee. You’re not having to get your driver out and find the spot, but you can get an iron out and find the right spot in the fairway and you’ve got an easy shot in. If you miss that, you’re going. 12 just absolutely optimizes the way that Gansony set up to provide that kind of challenge I’ve got my shot map on and I’m still struggling to visualize that hole actually.

Chris: 35:08

Obviously, it’s less memorable for me.

Nish: 35:10

Yes, I do remember now. Yes, yeah, because I hit my drive long didn’t.

Chris: 35:14

I.

Nish: 35:14

It went through the back. Yeah, yay, I hit a great drive and I was like it’s got two left.

Chris: 35:24

But that’s it though, isn’t it? And that’s it. That’s the challenge of it, isn’t it?

Nish: 35:28

you’ve got to hit the right shot at the right time yeah, 12th. Now I know, yeah, I’d put that up.

Chris: 35:35

I’m happy for it to be batted back from you, but for me, I think that was that just epitomised Ganton and the challenge that it sets yeah, reject.

Nish: 35:43

I thought do you know what I and the challenge that it sets yeah, reject, reject, geek. I thought, do you know what I thought for me personally out of those four? So we’re saying 16, 17, 18 were great and 12. The 16th really did it for me.

Nish: 35:59

I did actually play that really well. I absolutely cracked my drive right down the middle, caught a down slope and just rolled out and it was right down the middle but they had the bunkers with the vertical sleepers. But it was such a beautifully designed bunker. It’s not in play at all because it’s only like 80 yards ahead of you Visually. It’s just there to break the whole up.

Chris: 36:23

Sorry, jim, everything’s in play for me visually breaks it up, but it that to me felt like s&a took inspiration for their signature, just did it less well, or whatever it’s called.

Nish: 36:36

Yeah, built that, but just yeah, put it in either the wrong place or just yeah, just didn’t do it. I didn’t feel they did it right. Yeah, that’s just reminded me, actually, because we played matt yesterday, so that was like so, where does the sn a rank on you? I was like I don’t want to tell you, matt, maybe you don’t need to know.

Chris: 36:51

Yeah, I mean, the thing is about these rankings is they’re all great, right, so it’s yeah, every course is great yeah, but I mean for ganton, I think. I think there’s multiple holes that I could put in there. I could put yeah, four.

Nish: 37:01

Yeah, I think you were quite happy to.

Chris: 37:02

Yeah, I was going around and said do you know what, nish, I could put most of these holes in, but I think for me I could put four in there. It’s a great short par four. Fourteen, I love a short par four. I think they were two really good short par fours. Yeah, I like both of those. There was a really good set of holes we played, so I think 18 and 16. 18, 16.

Nish: 37:24

I agree on those I’ll go with 18, 16.

Chris: 37:26

I mean no, sam’s great so worth having him somewhere.

Nish: 37:29

Yeah, we are talking. It’s like 100 yards long, but also, curiously so, they’re called. What are they called now? Pand, like they call them pandies. I don’t know why they call them pandies, but whatever.

Chris: 37:44

Oh, do you know? No, no, I don’t know, but I was just saying have you gone back and looked at the course flyover since we played it? No, so I had just done that this morning to try and remind myself of all the holes. Yeah, and it’s completely different. They’re obviously pre the side you walk through that boardwalk. None of that’s there. It’s all gorse and trees and stuff. It’s completely changed.

Nish: 38:10

Yeah, the early part of the round.

Chris: 38:12

You didn’t even mention that in the early bit 8 and 9, because it’s like that bit where you walk through the boardwalk. It’s like a British seaside, don’t you?

Nish: 38:19

at the beach. Those pandas, interestingly, are not classed as bunkers, so you can’t go round your club in them. They’re classed as wasteland. So if anybody’s listening and they’re looking for some Judging, by Jim’s face.

Chris: 38:32

That wasn’t that interesting, I don’t think. No, he wasn’t that interested Talking about, course flyovers.

Nish: 38:39

Chris.

Chris: 38:40

No course map available no course map.

Nish: 38:43

That’s got to count against you, hasn’t it? How can you run out of course maps?

Chris: 38:46

yeah well they said they did have them, but they just didn’t run out well because they’re not getting any more.

Nish: 38:50

They’re not getting any more this year, yeah so anybody playing this year is not going to be able to get a course map there, which I find borderline scandalous especially as memorabilia.

Chris: 38:59

Well, st Andrew, who’s getting? Onto St Andrews he we do have to call him that from now on, we have to St Andrews. He has his, his collectible, yeah, he’s said the same thing I’ve driven all this way from Glasgow, I can’t get the collectible that I get yeah, we’ll have to write a nice letter to Ganton, so when they do get them back in, see if they can post one out to us.

Nish: 39:24

Post one out. Yeah, Maybe I’ve established contacts with the general secretary, so maybe I should mention that.

Chris: 39:29

So obviously as a Ryder Cup venue. In the past it was. Formal match play. Formal match play. Obviously, you were in a competition anyway, so just add something else into the mix there.

Nish: 39:43

I mean Chris clearly wiped the floor with me, but what are we on Level after the first? Chris goes one up after two, two up after three, three up after four.

Chris: 39:51

I won basically.

Nish: 39:55

Six, seven, eight, yeah, you would have won the match. What point would you have won the match?

Chris: 40:01

Because it doesn’t go right to the end, does it? Yeah, probably six up or something. Just by the time you sobered up I’ve gone. Yeah, I did click it.

Nish: 40:08

I sort of part that part three, and I just went.

Chris: 40:10

I’ve decided I’m gonna turn up now and actually I had a pretty good, you did actually had a little, a little run then, didn’t you?

Nish: 40:13

yeah, it’s good. It was 50 on the bat nine, so I was quite happy with that. You know would have set up okay, but yeah and then, and then with the side bet as well, which? Yeah, let’s have a look. Actually I’ve not checked this, jim, so I’ll do this live. So the first par three we both did in four.

Chris: 40:30

So just to clarify for everyone listening, it was the side bet was the lowest total score on all the threes, All the threes yes, we both got fours on that. It wasn’t my greatest day on the threes, actually, was it?

Nish: 40:41

No, a great day on the threes. Actually was it Second par three. I got a par, chris got four, so I’m one shot better off there and there’s only three par threes on this course. The last one, chris, was one shot better, so actually it was all square on the side there.

Chris: 40:54

Yeah, what are we doing now?

Nish: 40:57

Does that mean you have to do a forfeit, Jim?

Chris: 40:58

Does that mean you have to do a forfeit?

Nish: 41:04

You could do something. Like anybody who parred a par 3 wins it.

Chris: 41:10

You could do a back 9 playoff. We need to clarify all these rules in advance, because I know how competitive you two can be.

Nish: 41:18

I think we can have draws. We’re doing 100 of these. I think a draw is okay. A draw is fine.

Chris: 41:25

Signature hole was the 18th.

Nish: 41:27

Yeah, good Signature Hole, great Signature Hole. Yeah, good Signature Hole.

Chris: 41:35

We kind of we got wrapped up in the midst of competition and having fun and completely forgot to film it, didn’t we?

Nish: 41:38

What Didn’t film it? Didn’t film it. I think that’s. This is the thing. That problem isn’t it? It’s like when you’ve got so much going on.

Chris: 41:45

It’s a slight. It’s a different experience, isn’t it? I think when there’s just the two of us going round, we’re kind of like very much. We’re a bit under the pump as well.

Nish: 41:51

So I think, we’re probably a little bit behind the group ahead as well. So it was we were pretty hot and bothered by that point pretty sticky. So it was like just get a drink quickly. Yeah, I mean, you got four, did you, I think?

Chris: 42:08

I think. So yeah, on the last, maybe a five, yeah, five.

Nish: 42:11

Yeah, it was five my score, I think, doesn’t really reflect how I think reflects the size of the hangover, probably.

Chris: 42:21

Yeah, I think so. I think it’s very complex.

Nish: 42:22

I said before we came on that I’ve looked at my shop maps. I thought I had a bit of a rotter around my shop maps. It’s not actually that bad. So you just have to sometimes look at it in the fullness of time, don’t you, and think whether it’s good or not. But where did you rank stuff, chris? I mean, clubhouse for me is like right up there, definitely. Yeah, might actually be the best I think I’ve been in.

Chris: 42:50

I thought Glen Eagles would still be. I mean, glen Eagles is the hotel, yeah, so I think the actual Clubhouse is.

Nish: 42:57

Glen Eagles had all the big dog facilities, I think. This had like history.

Chris: 43:06

You know, know, you got all the pictures up everywhere.

Nish: 43:08

And yeah, picture gary, gary walson was there.

Chris: 43:11

Yeah, that was good. So I’d kind of I’d ranked it similar to more town and sna yeah, they were really good.

Nish: 43:17

Because they were really good maybe.

Chris: 43:18

Yeah, I could. I could be pushed to pop it up a little bit.

Nish: 43:21

That’s what I think yeah, seven, very generous of you. What about the course?

Chris: 43:26

I mean, yeah, like I said, I think it’s heading. I’m pretty sure that’s going to be in my top ten.

Nish: 43:31

Yeah, is it top ten, do you think?

Chris: 43:34

there’s going to be nine better than that there’s going to be some better than that.

Nish: 43:40

There’s some big courses. That’s a good golf course. I think it’s not as wood or spar, not for the faint-hearted, but I think you could go there even with a looser game you could probably still have a really good time, still have a nice time.

Chris: 43:57

Yeah, I think it’s the exact right level of challenge.

Nish: 44:00

It’s a good mix, isn’t it?

Chris: 44:01

I mean, you’d expect these courses to be tough, yeah and look, we’re going to go and play something that are really long and play hoi lake are going to be genuinely really hard golf courses to play, but I think that was the perfect level for for me, I, it was the perfect level of enjoyment.

Nish: 44:14

I couldn’t tell I didn’t score with that.

Chris: 44:15

Yeah, I think I’d agree with that yeah, so I’ve got nine and a half for the course, I think it’s wow, nine and a half.

Nish: 44:21

That is a big hitter. You’ve got to start getting into that. 9.6 9.6 oh nice, for me it probably gets into the top three. I think still, queen’s course at Gleneagles was great because it had all the elements of the clubhouse experience, the halfway hut stuff. I love all that novelty stuff it’s great.

Nish: 44:48

And then the course was immensely playable and it was fun as build and I come off it. That is a place you could go to, and even if you didn’t go to the clubhouse, you just play that again. We summed it up we want to play it again. It was that good. So I think that kind of gives you a major replacement.

Chris: 45:07

Yeah, I’d love to go back. I’d go back in a heartbeat. I’d play that anytime if you’re listening, mr General. Secretary, I guess it was quite a long day. It was a long day on the course, wasn’t it? I think we were out about five hours, weren’t we?

Nish: 45:19

it was, and I think that’s probably what led to us not being able to film the signature. Yeah, isn’t it strange, though, when the heat styles up, it just becomes difficult. Everything gets slower, doesn’t it everyone?

Chris: 45:33

just walks slower, plays slower like yeah, it just happens, it’s like um, royal st david’s um yeah, that day was really hot and that was a really slow day as well, wasn’t it? I think it just.

Nish: 45:43

Yeah, people just get slower yeah, hot weather, very, very hot it was that day. I think that kind of covers it really. I’m really glad we played this in the first year actually me personally- because I think it’s a really nice benchmark.

Chris: 45:58

I think that’s the benchmark to me.

Nish: 46:01

Very, very high praise for Gantler and what a wonderful treat we’ve got, that there are 24 better-ranked courses on our list. Which ones get better than Ganson, Jim? Would you like to know anything else about Ganson? No, I wouldn’t play it now you should. I think it’s one of those ones that you could go and play.

Chris: 46:20

You would have a tough day, but I think you’d have an enjoyable day for sure.