The Best Of The Signature Hole Challenge

Nish: 0:03

Every story has an ending. Does our quest to play the top 100 courses in 10 years have a good ending? I’m Nish and I’m here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast. So we’ve reached the end of our first full calendar year. We’ve done 18 golf courses, some of the most magnificent golf courses in the country, and we thought we’d love to round out the year by sharing with you something that we’ve been doing on every golf course that we’ve played. It’s called a signature hole challenge. Basically, we pick out if there is an is if there isn’t an official signature hole. But if there is one, obviously we we we play that, and we have the longest running match play known to humankind going on. So we started this after we’d played our first three courses, and we realised it’d be a really nice thing to kind of add a little bit of competition to our golf. We absolutely don’t do this challenge to be competitive. That’s not kind of where we’re at, and not our objective. However, it is nice to have one thing to really focus on. So usually Jim, our co-host, sets us the signature hole. And this today is a look back at the signature holes that we’ve played and the ones where we’ve been able to capture the footage. So it’s definitely an episode that is worth jumping onto our YouTube channel to watch. And while you’re on our YouTube channel, please do just give us a subscrip a subscribe. It just means that you don’t miss any videos. It helps us reach all of our subscriber targets for the following year, and it just helps us grow our channel so we can get better content. There are a couple of courses that we haven’t got signature hold challenges from because we were unable to get our cameras uh on tees and things like that. So uh being able to get extra clout does help us to be able to film absolutely everything that we do. So please enjoy our signature hold challenges. We’ve been doing this for a calendar year. I started off three down uh when we started playing our 15 courses, and we’ve ended up that Chris is now four up after these courses. So he’d streaked ahead at one point, I’d pulled it back, and this is basically the journey of our signature holes. So you’ll hear the best bits from our podcast with regards to that. They’re in order of when we played them. Uh, so you probably will notice that some of our production has been uh getting better and better, and I hope you agree with that anyway. But here’s a look back at our year in golf in 2025. Abdovie Golf Club. Uh okay, so sign you said signature, signature hole. So the the signature hole at Abadovie is the 12th. It’s a path three uphill. Yeah. There’s it’s a on the side of a hill, well, on the top of a hill, I suppose, it’s green. Anything short and left is just massive, massive drop-off, isn’t it?

Chris: 3:20

So I I actually asked Gareth after we played it, I said, Is that is that like an actual sand dune that they’ve kind of taken the top off and put a green on? He said, No, they’ve built it up, but it it feels like you’re playing almost the top of a sand dune, doesn’t it? Which is like a there’s like a bit of a plateau on the top of a big, uh big kind of dune-like mound.

Nish: 3:36

Uh it it they’ve built that up, they’ve built that up incredibly well because that does look exactly. It looks natural, doesn’t it? It looks really natural, yeah. Yeah, like they said, it was locked off the top of a exactly, yeah.

Chris: 3:46

It kind of felt like that, didn’t it?

Nish: 3:48

That’s incredibly good, a good coarse design, isn’t it? Then and then right, long, and right, right of the hole is become pocket.

Chris: 3:58

Yeah, you just basically see a load of sleepers. I mean, uh that’s one thing worth noting. The sleepers like the upright sleepers were used really beautifully around there. So you’re kind of walking along the path sometimes, there’s beautiful kind of C-shaped sleepers pointing out, which is a really nice touch.

Nish: 4:12

We’ve probably used the word a few times when we were stunning, but it was a stunningly beautiful golf course. Yeah, like a really pleasing on the eye. Yeah, for sure. Um so uh right, so our signature hole challenge, that’s me and you, and that is who’s who wins the hole, basically, between me and you. Uh-huh. Uh we didn’t really cover ourselves in glory, but it wasn’t as bad as Royal St. David’s. It wasn’t quite that bad. That was horrific. That was pretty horrendous. Embarrassing. It was. So I think we did better than that in that we got up on the up and around the green. Yeah.

Chris: 4:44

I got on the green one shot, and then just my standard three put to get in.

Nish: 4:47

Yeah, yeah. I mean, no, you could see that happening, couldn’t you? Uh and then yeah, I can’t what happened with you, Jim? Because I think we sort of lost you a little bit in amongst the trying to film things. I’m not part of the challenge, that’s made fun. Let’s gloss over it, shall we? What challenge? What side fell we are?

Chris: 5:06

I feel like we did lose you a little on the Sunday. I felt like we lost you a little bit, Jim, in the links.

Nish: 5:10

We we felt like you didn’t we, and we were like, I think Jim’s Jim’s ready for jacking it in now. Yeah, yeah.

Chris: 5:15

You look like you you look like you were done at one point. You had as as we the 14th or 15th, yeah. I think towards the back of the about the that’s around about how we said it, I think.

Nish: 5:23

Yeah, and that that that’s that as we said in the last episode, you had your 19th hole stance on at that point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s like get me back. Three hour drive to get back. Yeah, yeah. Would all spar Hotchkin course signature hole challenge. So we have already posted this on YouTube, so the uh eagle eared, is that even a phrase, amongst us might actually know what happened here. But par three, Chris’s speciality. Uh minute, it took him absolutely ages to set all his cameras up. I was like, for God’s sake, Chris, get on with it. Even I was getting annoyed, and it was it was me that he was recording. Um so we yeah, we set them all up. It was Chris’s honour uh because he’d won the previous uh signature hole challenge. So he hits his t-shot, spanks it, middle of the green. Always just has a knack of doing that. So I’m like, right, difficult act to follow here. So I really took some time to to to mentally prep myself for the kind of contact I wanted to get. Did a lot of visualisation, all that kind of stuff. Um, stepped up and I absolutely nailed my eight-iron, and it was online with the flag. And I’m looking at it in the air going, Oh, that that looks good. I think that’s inside Chris’s ball. That absolutely dead on inside Chris’s ball. It landed in a bunker short of the green.

Jim: 6:53

I was just like the 12-foot bunker as well.

Nish: 6:57

It’s not quite, so that wasn’t the uh it was the one that was on. So there was a bunker very short of the green, and then there’s one sort of short but right, and I went in that one that’s short but right. It was still when I got in there, it was still above my head height, but it wasn’t the really deep. Yeah, that was like that’s the deepest bunker on the course. We both missed that, but again, visually, that hole they’ve kind of built it up out of nothing, like it’s really flat on the 11th, and it’s really flat on the 13th going the other way. But that 12th has been built up a bit, so visually, daunting t-shirt. You see these bunkers everywhere, and the green is narrow, so you know it’s everything’s it’s gotta be straight, gotta be straight, gotta be straight. And even when I was straight, it just sort of drifted into that right. So I don’t know whether it was there was a bit of a breeze up there or whatever, but probably should have clubbed up. But even again, they’re clubbing up. Um you’ve got bunker long left, long right. So you don’t have that respite, you’ve got to kind of be on the number, really. So I was absolutely gutted, and like my reaction on the video, I was like, oh man, that was that was on the line that I wanted to, and and bearing in mind I badly had played the par three so far as that I was extra gutted about that, which then leaves me with a tough up and down to try because I know he’s he’s in for a par, he’s close enough, even with Chris’s putting. So I I get to the first bunker, out first time, hit a really, really good shot. Probably had half a yard too, it was half a yard too short, and it rolls along the lip of the next bunker and into that next bunker. Then that left me with a stance where it was in the left edge of the bunker, so I didn’t have a stance, I couldn’t really do anything with it, and it was alright. How do I how do I play it out? Hit it, click the top of the lip of the bunker, back in. Oh god, hit it again, click the top lip, back in. I’m like, oh man, I’ve had four shots already, what’s going on? So Chris is obviously recording all of this at the meantime, just like chuckling away like mutley to himself, and uh I’m like, right, come on, just just I don’t know, just I’ve got so fed up, I was like, I’m just gonna chip it out here. So just and just did a normal chip. And the bunker was like head high, just a normal chip, and it was the perfect shot, came out, just took the whole contour of the green and just kind of went out, and it probably left me about uh 15, maybe, yeah, maybe 15 footer, 16 footer to to get a six. By this point, by the way, Chris hasn’t had a second shot, it’s just me all the way. Um, but I nailed my putting one, so I was like, yes, and it was a left to right putt as well, so it’s pretty tricky. So I was pretty happy with that. Uh, but yeah, he had recovery. He had four puts to win the whole of the signature hole challenge. And dare I ask. Uh he didn’t do too well with his first put, actually. But if you know you’ve got the confidence of four holes to four putts, yeah, twitching. I think I need to start giving him some more beef before he steps up. Glen Eagles Queen’s course. Yeah, you don’t really want to know about signature holes are mate. Oh, yeah. No, it didn’t find it. I remember the movement. I remember the I don’t think we played the team. We were so happy at 17 minutes.

Chris: 10:27

Which we think is home. Queen’s hame, yeah. Queen’s which was a great finishing level, actually. Great finishing.

Nish: 10:35

Four, all the way downhill, 350 yards. 350 yards 379. 379 to the green, yeah. All the way downhill. It’s a very, very long drop. Yeah. Um yeah. What do we know?

Chris: 10:49

I think we should start finish. Where did it go? Left or right?

Nish: 10:55

It went straight. Oh, did it? Just straight not very far and into the which which, by the way, I didn’t know existed.

Chris: 11:05

Well, you must have known it existed because the stats on the first T. Well, to be fair, when you’re above, when you’re still on the T, you can’t see that at all. You can’t see that right down in a dip. Yeah, you can’t see it at all. It didn’t.

Nish: 11:16

It started rewards. No, we the only thing I got from him was he’s like, you need to go over that mound to ask the line that you’re going for, and I was like, okay, right. So when I stood on the T, it’s like that mound’s completed the wrong line. Um that didn’t impact my first T shot, to be fair. But then when I hit the second, um yeah, I was mound bound. Um I hit a very good recovery shot. What from the shot from the so we hit by the time we said three of the T. It actually hit a decent drive, I think about 260 yards, wasn’t it? Um hit a decent drive. It just ended up in the the sort of semi-roof on the right hand side. And then from there I clipped an iron iron, but that was good because it ended up in the green from there. So I think uh that was a good good recovery.

Chris: 12:04

It was longest drive, wasn’t it? So this should chopped it into the water, so I said, Does that mean I can just take an iron? And I was like, no, you gotta drive it. Yeah, you gotta drive it. I was like, yeah, fuck it. It’s got the two days matched. So I did two yards. 330 yards. Yeah, no, and to be honest, it must have been on fire. The only problem is though, is it like the bunker? But if it had been like two yards to the left, it would have got on the green. Someone is buttons. And I’ve been thinking about this. I’ve been thinking about the way that you can possibly get into winning this, and I think I’ve nailed it. So, what do you call a bunker when it’s this isn’t a joke, by the way. What do you call a bunker? When it’s in the rough. What do you call a bunker when it’s in the fairway? Bunker. But what kind of bunker? Fairway bunker. A fairway bunker. You can’t say hit the fairway. Well, I mean it’s a fairway bunker, isn’t it? Why would you call it a fairway bigger? Sorry, Chris.

Nish: 13:00

Sorry about the first dependent, you can’t have that. There’s no way in your digging in that.

Chris: 13:04

You can’t say it’s stuck on the fairway. You’ll show you hit a fairway bunker. So this is the bunker here, this one, yeah, C shaped. So there’s fairway, fairway, fairway, fairway all around the bunker, yeah. I’m just gonna say, I’m just gonna say that. You know, that’s the fairway.

Nish: 13:19

You know those bunkers that are by green, what are they called? They’re called green side bunkers. Does that mean you hit the green?

Chris: 13:24

Exactly. Exactly. How many bugs? So you listen to it.

Nish: 13:36

That’s not a longest drive. I’m not sure if that’s a long time. It’s gotta be in the fairway, it’s gotta be sat in the fairway. The fairway bunker. You clarify that. It’s gotta be sat in the fairway. You can’t hit the fairway and roll off into rubber, all the way hit the fairway. It’s got to sort of hit and sort of stop in the fairway. It’s got to stop in the fairway. I’m not giving that. That’s a tie. That’s a tie that. Yeah, there’s no way that’s a long drive. It was a long drive, sorry, but there’s no way that’s a winning long drive. I’m not having that. Yeah. Glen Eagles King’s Course 18. Signature hole challenge. What do you want to know? Someone got a birdie, didn’t they? Someone didn’t get a birdie, yeah? What do you want to know?

Jim: 14:24

Everything.

Nish: 14:26

Well, it was l least number of shots to the green, wasn’t it? Yes. So I hit my drive, it’s gone left. And I thought, well, okay, I still got a chance here. Go on, let’s get it, nudge it back into play. Nudge it back into play. Not very well, but it was alright. I had a hundred yards to go to the green. So Chris is in the middle of the fairway because he cracked a long drive and he hits his approach shot. And does it massive? And I’m thinking, oh hello, I think I could tie this here. Nice one. So it’s a hundred yards, it’s a bit downhill, and it’s this green is massive. I think the green is bigger than the footprint of our street. I think probably it’s pretty cricket picture there, right? It’s massive. Massive, like massive. So you can’t miss it. I did, but in a different way. So I went, okay, I can I should really be tying this signature hole challenge because he’s just tough it is, he’s gonna hit the green now, so it’s very huge. It’s even bigger than the fair weight that he’s missed, but he’s gonna hit that green, right? No chance he’s gonna miss it. I was like, this is it. This is my Martin McCutcheon moment. Right, get in there, seven iron comes out, and I’m just gonna punt it up there, I’m just gonna do a classic niche bump and run. And it was absolutely dead on pace, dead right, and then all of a sudden it went into this little dip and it disappeared out of sight, and I was like, oh what’s going on there? And then came out of the dip really slowly. And I was like, Oh, it’s slowing down, slowing down. Oh no, it slowed down too much. It was a bit short the green, a bit short the green. Uh it wasn’t that sure because I could put the next one, couldn’t I?

Chris: 16:24

Short enough to not be on the green.

Nish: 16:25

Yeah, and I was like, Oh I was like, oh, I can’t believe it. I should have tied that one. That should have been two times.

Chris: 16:33

I mean, you literally, I mean, I guess you obviously you you weren’t thinking of the challenge at that point, which is ridiculous, Nish, because like no one knew what the couple of things are. The pin was at the front when he was playing to it, but I mean behind it, literally, you could have hit I reckon you could there’s probably five five or six clubs you could have hit like full tilt.

Nish: 16:48

I knew what I was doing, I knew exactly what I was doing. My my intention was always to run it like that. I just did not know there was that. And when actually when I walked up to it, the dip was pretty big. I just you couldn’t see it.

Chris: 16:58

You just played you could have played four or five different clubs from that point because of the city. Oh, and his behind the pins at the back of the green. Yeah, you could have played.

Nish: 17:07

But it wasn’t it was downhill lie, and I was like, actually, this is the the percentage game was really the right shot to play. It was the right shot to play. I just got done over by the dip.

Jim: 17:16

So you lost.

Nish: 17:18

So I lost it.

Chris: 17:19

Yeah, two in a row. I lost that one. But long story short and all that.

Nish: 17:23

The good thing was it? So Chris nailed his approach shot, and then you nailed the putt, didn’t you?

Chris: 17:28

Did nice little birdie to finish with.

Nish: 17:30

Yeah, it was absolutely fantastic that. Yeah, it’s a good finish. West Lancashire Golf Club. So the signature. Well, let’s do it. Let’s cover the signature hole. Okay. It wasn’t really even a challenge, was it, in the end? But not really.

Chris: 17:42

Well, the only challenge was trying to film it, right? Because you stood up on the T and you went 40 yards left of the fairway.

Nish: 17:48

I was I was it was a fairway bunker, Chris. So technically I was in the fairway.

Chris: 17:53

Um I knew that would come back to the city.

Nish: 17:57

Okay. Then yours went off to the right, but then you you said you you got a really good lie, actually. So yeah, I mean too far right there.

Chris: 18:04

I was basically on the next next kind of thing.

Nish: 18:06

Nice bit of flat turf to play from. But um, we filmed our t-shots and we just went, yeah, I don’t think we’re gonna be able to film the rest of this. How do we follow each other around now? Now without it taking us an hour to film the hole. Yeah, so uh to the signature hole, we’ll get to we’ll do it now. It was the 13th hole. Uh we both had a shot at it because it’s a it’s a relatively tough hole. Because the green was pretty tricky on that one, wasn’t it?

Chris: 18:29

Yeah, I you know, and I think that was fairly typical of of a lot of the greens, wasn’t it? Like you’ve got it, you’ve got you’ve got to hit a really good shot into it because the runoffs are so severe, and I mean ultimately a lot of them are up on plateaus, aren’t they? The greens. Yeah, yeah. And there’s not there’s not really there’s no bailout, I don’t think, on many on a lot of those holes, which makes it really tough. And you’re not saying you’re not often hitting particularly short irons in either.

Nish: 18:55

No, I think you’re not.

Chris: 18:56

You’re usually a pretty pretty much a seven iron or a you know or a five iron sometimes. Yeah. So there’s some tricky, tricky holes in there.

Nish: 19:03

Yeah, I mean the green complexes, because the the cookie jargon podcasted say that they’re they are mostly all raised, it’s like they make a big thing in the green complex.

Chris: 19:11

Yeah, I think the first kind of handfuls for first sort of four or five holes are a bit flatter, weren’t they? And then beyond that, I think, yeah, then you kind of get into the um the territory of it being yeah, much more raised and definitely difficult approach shots.

Nish: 19:24

Sort of stand proud over the tur over the rest of the terrain, don’t they? But they there’s definitely a lot of that’s unique. I’ve not come across that so far. And even in the ones that we’re going to play the rest of this year, that hasn’t come across anywhere that might like consistently like that. No, yeah, so that there’s definitely some uniqueness on there, and I think that there is a lot of thought clearly has got into those green complex. I can’t believe we’re talking like that, nerding out on golf course. Because we can’t talk about our golf, it was so bad. We have to do this, but um that there is a there’s thought got into those green complex. I can totally understand that. Totally. Uh whether I agree with that or not, I suppose is a slightly different matter because but again that that’s separating bad golf from appreciating the golf course. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But we we saw so so Chris won the signature hole challenge, both got a stroke on it. He won he got five, I got a six. So um it’s a it’s a fairly hollow victory though after the after the tea shot, to be honest. It just felt awful really, didn’t it? It didn’t feel great. It was a beautiful hole though to look at because you’re high up gorgeous hole there. Look at it up on the raised T-box. Yeah, and you could see all that, you could see the ships going by and the farm and all that kind of stuff. So it was it was a beautiful tea box, and that little stretch of hold, that back nine, when you get to kind of 11, 12, 13, 12, 13.

Chris: 20:42

So 12 is a beautiful par three, isn’t it? Yeah. The start of West Lanks proper for me. That’s that’s the bit that I enjoyed the most. We liked that, didn’t we? We liked that. We really liked that. I think we engaged a bit more in the round. I thought 12 through 16 was a really nice stretch for me. Hindhead Golf Club.

Nish: 20:55

We should get our side-betting signature hole challenge out of the way. So we got Tony and Andrew involved in the signature hole challenge, which is a spectacular par three. It’s probably not the best par three here, I don’t think. So I think that third still did.

Chris: 21:08

I actually think that’s probably one of my least favourite par threes of the par threes we’ve done today.

Nish: 21:13

People like this drop in elevation and stuff, don’t they?

Tony: 21:16

Whereas for me. Yeah. I mean, ultimately, it’s not that difficult a whole if you choose the right chunk. Yeah. To be fair. I mean, it it’s you know, it isn’t really this. But I think even just like visually, I think some of the other par threes were much better looking for the thing.

Chris: 21:37

Spectacular. Which is the one that’s the really tricky the long, is it the six or six? Uh eighth. Eighth, the long one.

Tony: 21:46

I mean, that’s a just part three, but you drive it through instead. I did, yeah. That was a great shot. That was the one shot I hit all day. But you should hit a final one, not a four shot.

Nish: 21:55

I hit one side. But you know, for completeness sake, so what did you score on the on the sixth part three? What was what was your total score? There wasn’t one, was there? Must have been close to three. No, no, no.

Chris: 22:17

I don’t think it’s like part of it. I just spent it. I mean, I think I have probably spent more on lost couples today than I spent on the green thing.

Nish: 22:27

I think that’s that’s kind of uh you picked up to pick it up six proteins today. We’ve we’ve put down to the south. A lot of them.

Tony: 22:42

Yeah, three stripes of the guy.

Nish: 22:46

Yeah, we’ve we’ve put them down south and we’re just like cleaning up here. I’ve got a late box going just from doing what we have there.

Tony: 22:53

Just walk around the heather up there and you collect about 100 balls in the screen, is it? People just left a probing.

Nish: 22:58

This is amazing. Hankley Common Golf Club. Which was an amazing hole to golf.

Chris: 23:06

Which does it be like, I might throw it out there. Possibly my favourite hole we’ve played so far. Is that your best favourite par three?

Nish: 23:13

I think it might be. I mean, I’ve written what a hole. I’m not sure it’s my favourite par three, though. No, I really like that hole. What would beat it then? Question. Oh my goodness. Yeah, that is. I think my favourite spoiled, haven’t you? Have you been spoiled thus far as well? It’s my favourite signature hole we’ve done. It’s favourite signature hole. I think so. Interesting. Interesting. I really like that hole. Yeah. Good tests.

Chris: 23:34

Incredibly beautiful. I mean, you’ve got to be accurate on that. Yeah. You’ve got to hit reasonably long. Yeah. Yeah. It was about 180. I think it ended up being a bit less.

Nish: 23:42

I think it ended up being, I think uh T hole was like literally agreed. Yeah. But it was it was like uh I think we were on about 165 from our T was from T to hole. Was it? Yeah. Um something like that. 170, something like that.

Chris: 23:59

Must be more than that, because I hit a five at Punchy 5 iron. So it must have been 100, I reckon 185.

Nish: 24:04

No, I don’t think it was because my shot my shot went 173 and it was past the hole. My shot went from the T to one seven 173 yards. I mean I’ll call bullshit on that. I mean it is to be fair, it is Garmin and that could be absolute nonsense. You’re right. But um but anyway, we we absolutely nailed this far three as well. It felt so good doing it, didn’t it?

Chris: 24:27

Did stepped it up. I mean, I mean I’m so used to just be it being just me hitting a good shot into the par three. It was nice with Nish to turn first. I think Nish went first, actually.

Jim: 24:36

Put the pressure on, obviously not.

Chris: 24:38

Well I’d won the previous time.

Nish: 24:40

I’d won the hindhead signature hole challenge as well, you see. So so it was my honour to to go first. So um yeah, absolutely.

Chris: 24:48

You just you’re just bringing it out the the one signature hole challenge that you’ve actually won, you’re bringing it out there, are you? Just to say I just it was gonna he was gonna dine it up. So you know I won the hind head signature hole, so it was his honour. Did that one, yeah first first honour he’s had.

Nish: 25:01

Yeah, there’s been more of one since. Yeah, but that hasn’t happened. In the podcast world, yeah, that’s it. Um but hit Chris Chris to let you know already he hit a fire line. Like it was it was a it was a it was a punchy fire line. It was a bit windy, wasn’t it? So little low fire. I I buttoned my six, I absolutely buttoned it, and it was like it was they were both on the flag, weren’t they? Those those shots. We were just looking going. It was a strong possibility one of them was going to be very close to the hole. Um, yeah, that was it was good, wasn’t it? And then just you know, nailed our two putts and walked away with our pars. Looking at looking at the member, and he’s like, what’s going on?

Jim: 25:44

Because the other six holes were absolutely gash, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nish: 25:49

Jim, yes, gullen number one. We said about the third that was our signature hole. It was a part of five. It was a net competition on that one. Yes, it was didn’t need it. Chris actually just gross birded it. Gross birded, man. Straight up stood up there and birded it. And and you smashed a massive driver, nine iron in. We had a group of three Americans right behind us, all we’ll all with caddies when he did it, and it was like nah. Absolutely like that. Yeah, it was. I mean, my driver’s horrific, but we’ll we’ll we’ll move on from that. No, let’s not. That’s the signature of the driver. Yeah, I’ve got seven. Even with my shot, that was terrible. Um but you know, again, it was like there was nothing you could spray it there a little bit, and you’d have the chance to find a new ball and you’d have a shot after that. You could, yeah. It was uh it was fair, I think. It was a right side of the challenge.

Chris: 26:45

Yeah, definitely slightly more forgiving than some of the others you’ve played recently.

Nish: 26:49

Definitely, yeah.

Chris: 26:50

He didn’t at all like didn’t feel right at all. Like it felt completely opposite. You felt like you were encouraged all the way around, which was a nice feeling, I thought.

Nish: 26:58

Yeah, and we started well, didn’t we? Because I started at par, you started with a bogey, so it set us off. It was quite rare, actually, that we both set off well on the first hole. Yeah, usually one or the other is that we didn’t. Cruden Bay Golf Club number one, our signature hole challenge. So that was the fourth, it was a par three, and you teed off the village. The the kind of the inlet into the village was was to our left hand side, wasn’t it?

Chris: 27:20

Yeah, that was a beautiful hot little hole. That again, that’s one of the ones that you go, ooh, it’s just about to change, and then yeah, and we totally ballsed up our t-shots, didn’t we?

Nish: 27:29

But um, yeah, just for for technicality’s sake, I actually won that hole. So that was a signature hole challenge back for me. Yeah, what we on that was it like. I think you’re I think I’ve worked it out now that you’re you’re far four or five up after 15. Yeah, so it’s it’s I’m I’m crawling it back. I was eight eight down at one point. Yeah, okay. Yeah, which was getting a bit hairy. Um, and then the um the par three challenge, which was our little side bet. So I’ve got some graphics here, I might as well use them, which is a side bet. So it’s a it’s basically a par three challenge, gross. I don’t know, but it was net actually, this one. Um, and yeah, you you won that. You took it away in the last two holes. We were pretty level, I think. Yeah. I think I think net I was quite ahead. But I just messed up my last one. Oh, you did, yeah. There’s the back-to-back par threes, wasn’t there? Yeah, didn’t 1516. But um, but that was our sort of side bet and and signature hole challenge. But Trump um International Golf Links Aberdeen. Granddaddy of them now, hole 14. That’s the signature hole and Trump Abbey.

Chris: 28:34

And we’ve seen that quite a lot, haven’t we, on like social media and stuff like that. But actually just stood there on that tee is it’s fucking beautiful.

Nish: 28:43

It’s really and I I I think that was that was the most intimidating tee shot, I think. Yeah. Because up till now, you’d you’d kind of got used to the fact that you could say, actually, the fairway’s quite wide there. This looked narrow, and it probably was a little bit narrow as well, actually. Uh, and I think I was a pressure and signature whole challenge and all that kind of stuff, but it that was an intimidating tee shot, I thought. Uh the resort suggests that as well. Yeah, yeah, that’s it. But it uh it played alright, didn’t it? Yeah, and we were good with the wind, and and then you’ve got a really good view out to the North Sea, and it this is this is the archetypal contrast between the dark, the darker, natural colours of beach, sea dunes, and it’s just lush green fairway, all the way up, snaking up. Yeah, and and yeah, what a magnificent golf.

Chris: 29:38

Oh, yeah. Like I say, I defy any golfer to go there and not just come away going, that was unbelievable.

Nish: 29:43

It was so good, wasn’t it? Yeah, it was so good. Um Hollingwell Golf Club towards the 18th T. And you’ve not really you could look over them, but you haven’t really looked over at this point, and you head over towards the 18th T and you just sort of go, I can see that clubhouse, and I’m on the T, and it’s this hole that’s just all the way downhill taking you home. What a stunning hole of all that’s.

Harbs: 30:10

But you stand on that T-box as well, and it opens back up, doesn’t it? So you’ve got like the third hole coming in off your right up by the green, you’ve got the putting green over by the clubhouse, you’ve got the fourth hole all the way over to the back of the back of it, but it’s all back open again, and you’re no longer enclosed and enchanted by this course, and now you’re faced with this daunting 18, like you said, all the way downhill, and so cleverly placed bunkers. I I was like, even if I go with my my iron that would normally be this is at my fairway finder, it’s gonna get trapped. So I thought, sod it, I’m gonna go driver and I’m gonna try and clear that bunker. But of course, my drive went ping straight into the 260 bunker. So brilliant.

Nish: 30:54

Well, I mean, it was it was uh identified by Jim as the signature hole, so it was a signature hole challenge for us, and then also we’d asked David, the professional, to sort of tell us where we should do our longest drive. And he said, you know what, do it on 18 because it’s downhill first off, so get a bit of distance, but it’s a magnificent t-shot, so it’s a good one to sort of go for. And I I sort of went, Oh, I’m not sure we should do that on the 18th, because everyone’s shattered by the whole 18. You know, who’s gonna go for longest drive? I’m so glad he did that because I think it made an event for everybody, didn’t it? That last drive. I mean, look, yours truly, I bombed it three yards straight down the middle. I mean, it went about as middle as it can get on that fairway. Uh, and then you know, just I scooped the longest drive prize, you know. All that kind of thing. But it was again lovely, just watching like a hit you drive, and it just straight, you could just see this ball all the way down, you see it down, land it, all that kind of stuff, and it was just it’s a magnificent hole of golf. Water on the left, you’ve got bunkers on the right, you’ve got the road going back up. I think Chris needed hit a car with his drive.

Harbs: 32:02

Yeah, the only car around for about five miles, and Chris’s ball was making a beeline for it. Yeah.

Nish: 32:08

No, I think we got it on video. We’re like, oh god, he’s gonna hit the car, isn’t he?

Harbs: 32:12

Hell of a drive as well. If he’d have just put a bit of drawer on it, that was going for miles, but it was.

Nish: 32:17

It was a big one. It was a big one, but it you know, it uh didn’t count in the end because it didn’t stick on a fairway. And I won that one. But yeah, got a wonderful finishing hole. Uh really, really, and it’s such a contrast to the first hole. You know, you start off with this one, and uh I kind of almost appreciated the last hole a bit more because of that. I was like, what a way to finish at Hollinwell and and remember Dumbarnie Links. Nothing is epitomises that more than the eighth. You know, it’s a stunning par three, it’s really elevated, and I’m gonna just play a little clip before we talk about these two holes, just from Blair about his favourite stretch of holes at Dumbarnie.

Chris: 32:59

Have you got any favourite holes or favourite stretches of holes?

Blair: 33:02

My favourite stretch without a doubt is eight and nine. When I was talking about the hues on the plane the eighth and plane the ninth, the view from the halfway house probably bent through on bow code. Yeah, because we’ve got quite a bit of elevation looking right down towards the scene.

Nish: 33:16

So we’re obviously in what Blair thinks is the best part of the course here. So the eighth, like I said, it’s absolutely stunning. You’ve got to see our T shots, and it’s a bowl green, it’s got a couple of bunkers left and right, but it’s a really wide approach to the bunker, so you’re not thinking about hazards, and that’s the important thing here. You there’s very rare, very rarely are you actually thinking in your head, you know, don’t go there, don’t go there, don’t go there. Must you know, you’ve always got a bit of bailout. And this honestly, this was an absolutely fantastic hole. We came around as you come through the seventh, the the green complex of the seventh, you sort of just you come out and then you look right, and then this hole just appears, and it’s amazing. Um so what a stunning golf hole that was. Christopher, we hit hole number 18. It is is it one of the most famous eighteenths in golf?

Chris: 34:16

I think maybe, yeah, I think maybe. I mean, obviously the the old course is probably a more famous famous eighteenth, but I’d say this is probably a close number two.

Nish: 34:24

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s just everybody knows about it, don’t they?

Chris: 34:28

Yeah.

Nish: 34:29

Talk about t-shots. How did your t-shot go, Chris?

Chris: 34:33

Uh I don’t remember my t-shot actually, Nish. I think it must have been fairly steady, was it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Nish: 34:40

Nice, nice steady top, a few yards of it.

Chris: 34:42

I mean, there was a few steady tops that day. I don’t know where they came from, but they were they were back in the back in the mix, weren’t they?

Nish: 34:48

Yeah. I felt I felt it was a good strategy to keep out the wind, but that was that was a bit extreme, you know. But but but I I I I’m I’m being flippant about it, but actually, as always, Chris, and I’ve always said this, you’ve got a the great hallmark of your game is you do recover incredibly well. So you will always play a good second shot from a bit of trouble, and then that gets you back in the game, and then you’ve got a chance to score again. So you did that again. You did, but it didn’t make any fucking difference, did it? Signature hole challenge. Um now I did not hit, I would say, anything more than maybe three or four good t-shots in the preceding 17 holes, and then I got to 18, and I absolutely spanked my drive right down the middle. The only thing I’m gutted about is I only saw it about halfway and I didn’t see it land, and I really wanted to see that land, but boy did that feel good to hit that t-shot. Um, what also struck me was how far wide Mr. Vandervelde did actually go. Because that little spit of land that he ended in from his drive is very wide, right?

Chris: 36:01

Oh yeah. I mean it’s a pretty as far as Carnoustie goes, there’s a reasonably wide fairway coming up there, to be fair, isn’t it? Um so yeah, it was fucking miles out, isn’t it?

Nish: 36:10

Uh and then yeah, we sort of made our way up the fairway and all that kind of thing, and then yeah, had this moment where the the guys actually were really good again, and and we I wouldn’t have spotted it, but they pointed out to in the burn where Jean went into the burn to try and fish his ball out and and play it or whatever he was gonna try and do, whatever was going on in his mind. Um they’ve actually etched into the brick, they’ve etched his name into the brick, so you just know the exact spot. And I was like, honestly, I was like a pig in shit at this moment. This is the most wonderful thing ever. So I was like, right, get a picture of me pretending to take my shoes off. I mean, it was bloody freezing, so there’s no way I was gonna do it, but it was like, yeah, dear, yeah, go on, get a picture of me doing it, get a picture of me doing it. Or is it have the full experience, don’t you, Nish? Oh, I mean, that I almost could have just had my eight my first t-shot, played my eighteenth t-shot, and just gone and had that picture, and that would have been me done. But I but I actually genuinely think so so um no uh excuses given. This is an excuse. Um it probably excuses my foreput on the 18th green because I I think mentally at that point I’d finished like uh the round was done for me, the experience was done for me. I’d done everything I wanted to do at Carnoustie, and um yeah, I mean, how do you foreput from like within five feet? It’s ridiculous. I don’t know, whatever.

Jim: 37:40

Oh, I can tell you, it’s very easy.

Nish: 37:42

Yeah, it’s incredibly simple, isn’t it? Yeah, I mean it’s not even a tricky green, is it? It’s relatively flat. Concentrate on what you’re doing, and yeah, so so that was our signature hole challenge, and um you got a net five, I got a net seven. And then so you so you took the signature hole challenge. Well done, Chris. So that was it. Our year in signature hold challenges. Yeah. Well, we look forward to catching you in 2026 when we’ve got some amazing golf courses already planned. We’ve got 10 courses booked, including some really, really big hitters. So uh keep up to date with all of our journey. We’ve got an episode coming up next week that will outline what our plans are and some of the challenges that we’re facing, because that’s kind of part of the journey. It’s how we get on some of these courses. So uh please do join in for that. Uh, we hope you had a lovely Christmas and we wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. And until the new year on the top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast.