The Competition

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.

Chris: 0:11

I’m Chris.

Nish: 0:12

And we’re here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast Episode 18. The Competition

Nish: 0:22

Colin, or Colin as it should be. Powell once said, the healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort, which I think is quite apt for us, isn’t it with our golfing ability? Very much average people there’s not even any sugarcoating. It is there anymore. They’re just very average golfers, no frills here. So we are playing a competition in June. I think it is. Is it June or July? Something like that? Yeah.

Nish: 1:01

Should know this really shouldn’t I?

Chris: 1:03

We probably should. Yeah, we should be more prepared than this’t we?

Nish: 1:05

but um, we’re still not, yeah, and it’s one way of getting onto one of the kind of outlier courses which is ganton over in scarborough. There’s nothing, really anything anywhere near it in terms of golf courses, yeah, um, so I sort of wanted to talk to you uh, we’ve got a special guest on later on, uh, I’ll reveal why he’s a special guest. But I wanted to talk to you. Uh, we’ve got a special guest on. Later on, uh, I’ll reveal why he’s a special guest. But I wanted to discuss competitions in general. Now, as a as a real duffer and hacker and somebody who just plays social casual golf like a competition, feels pretty intimidating, even when they talk about members, comps and saturdays and things like that, because you don’t know what’s involved. So, chris, as our resident ex-pro, tell us about quite a lot there um, what is this to tell you about competitions?

Chris: 2:05

I mean, I mean it’s a long time since I’ve played in a competition, that’s for sure what 20, 22 years and counting, probably something along those lines, right. Um, but yeah, obviously competitions come in all kind of shapes and sizes really. Um, a lot of a lot of what I did at kind of a junior amateur level tended to be more match play. I did quite a lot of match play competitions. It’s only kind of county golf was mostly done at kind of match play. A lot of the kind of big amateur events are also kind of done in a match play format. But yeah, so they come in all shapes and sizes really. I mean, obviously you’ve got your classic Saturday medal down the golf course. Every golf course in the UK will probably have a little Saturday medal that they’ll play.

Nish: 2:53

So we’ve hit the first barrier for me. So what does that mean? Saturday medal competition Saturday medal competition.

Chris: 3:00

So that will be a standard. You know, um, playing with your handicap, uh, and you will mark every score and you will go around in a certain number. So whatever number you go around in and you’ll take your usually your full handicap. You’ll take your full handicap off that score and that will be your um. That will be your net score for the day. Um, so yeah, so there’s no. Generally the stable first medal will be um, there won’t be a stable for the day. So yeah, so there’s no. Generally the stable foot medal will be there will be a stable foot competition. So you’ll put your growth score in and take your handicap off and the winner at the end of that will be the winner. You’ll normally do it in categories, so you can often do it in handicap categories. So category one, two and three, and you’ll often have prize winners for each of those categories and then you’ll have an overall prize winner and then you’ll usually have a lowest scratch score as well.

Nish: 3:55

So process wise. You rock up on the Saturday for the members medal competition.

Chris: 4:04

You’d normally put your name down throughout the week, you’d put your name down on a specific tea time and you’d go out, usually with people that you you don’t normally play with. Um, you might play, you might play with a mate, but you’ll often play with people that you um, you don’t regularly play with, which is quite a nice way actually to go out and and meet other people in the club, uh, and, you know, play with different people with different abilities, that kind of thing. So it’s quite a nice social aspect as well, I think those Saturday medals for sure.

Chris: 4:30

I’m not saying they don’t get competitive. I mean, I’ve seen some things over the years some significant cheating happening, lots of arguments, yeah, lots of little petty fallings out.

Nish: 4:46

I don’t need to elaborate.

Chris: 4:47

Chris, it all goes on. I mean, I don’t know about any specifics, but there was certainly one guy that used to play at our club who was renowned for his fudging of the numbers. I think it’s fair to say.

Nish: 5:01

Wow.

Chris: 5:03

He’d come off the hole and he’d score like 7 or 8 shots and he’d be like, yeah, yeah, I was a 4 there and I was like, no, you definitely weren’t. But I mean to the point where I think he actually got banned from the club, I think eventually, because he was so prolific and everyone knew about it. But yeah, it used to really get people’s backs up so they used to be constantly, whoever had played with him that week, there’d be massive arguments in the car park, there’d be all sorts. It was a bit of a wild west. It’s a bit of a wild west.

Chris: 5:36

Those Saturday medals because of the handicap system as good as it is to get everyone playing on the same course at the same time and have competition it’s well and truly open for a term that you’ll hear a lot of. You know bandits there’s plenty of bandits. Every Saturday they come out, they’re playing off 22, 25, something like that, and then they’ll come in with a gross 77 or something ridiculous like that, and then we’ll come in with like a gross 77 or something ridiculous like that. Um, so you usually you usually do got to be scoring pretty well to win, win one of those medals so in terms of kind of you know, for junior, you’re handicapped to win club comps.

Nish: 6:18

Yeah, what is that? Is that because people are signing in, they’re playing significantly worse than they actually are to get a more advantageous hand?

Chris: 6:29

yeah, and maybe they’ve got a mate signing the cards and that kind of stuff, when they’re, when they’re not playing competitions, all that kind of stuff goes on. Uh, I’m sure it still does. I’m sure nothing has changed over the last 20 odd years. In fact, if anything, with the new egu app it’s probably even easier to do that. I mean, yeah, you, the only cards that we’ve done to that I’ve put in, you just kind of sign off, you know, yeah, it’s all virtual. I could put any score in.

Chris: 6:51

I could put like a 62 in and I’m sure if I just said, nish, you sign that off and they’d be like yeah, that’s fine.

Nish: 7:05

Yeah wow, yeah, definitely. Yeah, the system is definitely abused. Certainly was, I’m sure. I’m sure nothing’s changed there, so you’ve got it kind of there like your club competitions then, aren’t they? Yeah, and you said about categories, so is that like seniors, or is that? Is that age based, or is that?

Chris: 7:18

no, I don’t actually know if it’s still, if it’s still relevant, but it to be. So the category would be your handicap category, so it’d be like scratch to I think it was maybe like seven or something like that would be category one, right, and then category two would be. Maybe it was like well, maybe it was scratch to nine, maybe it was category one, I can’t quite remember what they are and then nine to sort of 18 was category two, and then anything beyond that would be categories. You’d have to play out your skin if you’re a scratch golfer to win a club competition, wouldn’t you? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. I mean you, you’d normally. So I, you know, when I was playing medals uh, you know club medals you’d be going for the lowest gross. That’d pretty much. That’d be the only thing you would normally win.

Chris: 7:58

Yeah, you just couldn’t win it on stage like two or three people in the club that would be competing for that, for that one prize, wow, it’d be unusual to win. Uh, to win a medal if you’re a lower handicap, for sure right, okay.

Nish: 8:11

62 63. You ain’t gonna win it if you play on scratch and kind of like when you, when you sort of obviously it’s your club and everybody’s a member there and all that kind of thing, yeah, what’s the? What’s the atmosphere like? Is it like? Usually is it quite friendly and just you know, everyone getting? Yeah, I’d say it’s it’s.

Chris: 8:30

It’s pretty casual for sure, yeah, for sure. Um, like I say I’m not not saying that people don’t. You know there is an added element of competition in there and I think when you get 50 or 60 blokes together and and put them into a, you know a competitive environment, and I think the you know 50 or 60 blokes together and put them into a, you know a competitive environment, then I think the you know the best and the worst side of people come out. I think at that point don’t they? Um? So yeah, I think it’s. You know it’s still fairly casual, but it’s definitely a notch up from just kind of rocking up and going for a round with your mates. Um, you know, everyone’s a little bit more serious. Everyone might take a bit more time over their shots, um, but generally speaking, they’re pretty casual events really so, obviously, our, our great game is one chock full of rules.

Nish: 9:18

Yeah, you know, even the pros don’t know all of them because they get rules officials over, don’t they in the middle of the tournament to adjudicate? Yep, um, yeah, I mean what? What are the other people that you’re playing with like with with the rules, then, are they?

Chris: 9:30

yeah, I think that is that is probably the one difference, the major difference from playing around with your mates, because normally you know be like oh, you know have that put, or you know just chuck a ball down there. Obviously that gets a little bit more serious and I think if you start start you know flouting the rules, people will pick up. Yeah, that’s understandable. You will get penalty shots and stuff like that?

Nish: 9:50

Yeah, that’s understandable.

Chris: 9:52

And I mean that’s going to be a bit of a learning curve for me this time around, because a lot of the rules not a lot of the rules, but certainly some of the rules have changed. So, even like dropping the ball, I used to drop a ball from like shoulder height yeah, it’s a weird little shimmy and drop it down from your knee height or something. Knee height, I think. Yeah, um, and then, like you, never, you, you wouldn’t, you weren’t allowed to put with the pinning, but obviously now you can do that. Yeah, um, that would have been a two-shot penalty back in my day.

Chris: 10:15

Um, was it yeah, yeah, if you put it if you put it with the pinning, that’s two-shot penalty, if you got it in um, yeah, I’m sure there’s a few other little tweaks that I need to do. I need to uh, yeah, get get the old uh rule book out and have a little uh study that before we play in in the summer um, okay, now obviously more specifically in at ganton we are playing a pairs competition, yeah, so what does that entail?

Chris: 10:44

so I think so the pairs competition that we’re playing is a four ball. Well, a two ball better ball effectively. But yeah, before ball, better ball between the four players that are playing, and it’s a stable for competition, isn’t it so essentially best stable for the score, uh, between me and you, on the whole will go down as our scoring right and that is that’s.

Nish: 11:05

That’s similar to what they would do at the rider cup with the pairs, except they’re doing gross, aren’t they? Because they’re all yeah I mean you’ve not got that, it’s not that direct competition element.

Chris: 11:17

You’re, you’re, you are, you know, you’re still um. You’re completing a total score throughout the 18 and you’re going to score in every hole and it’ll just be the lowest score between the two of us on that hole which will be the scoring.

Nish: 11:28

So does that mean that we’ll have awareness of what the other team are doing? Are we not actually playing the other team?

Chris: 11:38

No, so we won’t be playing the other team, we’ll be playing the rest of the field. Yeah, we’re trying to be the best player.

Chris: 11:42

Yeah, so it’ll be playing the rest of the field. Yeah, we’re trying to be the best. Yeah, so it’ll be the lowest stable for score. At the end of the day, we’ll win. I don’t know what category, I think it is just lowest wins. I think we won’t be able to pick up any of the prizes. I don’t think, I believe. I mean, you know, I love how we’re talking about this. Well, obviously, when we win yeah, when we win, yeah, yeah We’ll be stripped of our prizes before it’s even given to us. Nish.

Nish: 12:05

Is the only thing that’s entered my mind.

Chris: 12:07

Is it like eight competitions? I think Right In the current year, or something like that, or in the previous 12 months. So unless we sharpen our competition pencil now and get a few comps in down at Reddish Vale, I think they do one of these Mizuno pairs events at Reddish Vale.

Nish: 12:24

I saw that the other day, yeah.

Chris: 12:27

That’d feel a bit weird, though, wouldn’t it?

Nish: 12:29

Yeah Right, so we don’t have to try and psych our opponents out or anything like that.

Chris: 12:35

No, unfortunately, which I much prefer that. I prefer that kind of direct competition. I love that. That kind of gets me up in the morning, that kind of thing.

Nish: 12:44

Yeah, and I suppose we’ve picked uh, whatever, I think it’s 10 past three, we’re teeing off and I think we’ve picked that tea time because I think that was all one of the few earliest ones that was available. But yeah, I think somebody else will have picked that yeah, yeah, somebody else will have picked that tea time and it’s just potluck, isn’t it? I suppose who we’re paired with? Yeah, interesting, and what do we mark?

Chris: 13:03

their scorecard, and they mark yes, you swap scorecards at the start of the round and then they would mark yours and we’ll mark theirs and does that mean, do we both have to mark a scorecard?

Nish: 13:11

is it just?

Chris: 13:12

yes, and normally you would. All four players would mark a scorecard, right? Okay? Um, you can probably get away with mark in that format. You can probably get away with just marking. Yeah, uh, two scorecards, one eachcards for each pair. Because you only take your one score anyway.

Nish: 13:27

So what are you expecting from that day?

Chris: 13:30

What am I expecting from that day? The other major difference in playing competitions is obviously you’re playing off the whites. So normally in a casual round you would go and play off the yellow tees. But it does make a big difference playing off the white tees. It adds an extra couple of clubs on, usually to each of your approach shots, so it does change the profile of A the clubs you use and B the shots that you hit.

Chris: 13:54

That does change when you’re playing a competition, so it’s slightly different from that in this instance. Obviously, we’ve never played Ganton before, so it will just be our one and only experience of ganton, right? So it doesn’t really make any difference, other than we might feel like we’ve got to hit it a bit further. Yeah, um, but yeah, sorry, what was that? What was the question?

Nish: 14:14

it’s just what you were expecting. Yeah, expected on the day, yeah I don’t know.

Chris: 14:18

I don’t know how serious these events are. I don’t know, yeah, whether it’s just a load of people like us that are trying to tick off a load of top 100 courses, or whether people are going to be rocking up and taking it really seriously.

Nish: 14:29

I don’t, I don’t quite know um.

Chris: 14:33

So I know, I know me for sure I’m gonna be like I’m a nightmare in a competition niche. I’ll, I’ll give.

Nish: 14:39

I’ll give you that bit of information now like once yeah, are we traveling in separate cars?

Chris: 14:44

we might be on the way back. Yeah, it depends how badly.

Nish: 14:48

You play on the eighth hole. I cannot believe it. You have the perfect chance to score big on that hole in your mission. I’m, um, I’m probably a little bit less nervous about it. I was a bit nervous when you were like I’ll do a pairs comp. I was like like what, what does that? What does that mean? Never played anything competitive apart from with mates at the mission, invitational you know, and it really doesn’t matter at all. But um, yeah, I think. Um, yeah, I was probably feel a bit better about it now. I think.

Chris: 15:18

I mean, it’s one of those things. Ultimately, you’ve got to think you know there’s going to be I don’t know 100 or so people in the field. One of those, one of those players is going to win it. Right, but is it going to be you? It’s unlikely to. So you kind of got to remove that aspect of thinking, oh, I’ve got to win this competition, like, yeah, at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter, does it you?

Chris: 15:35

can go in there and just go even if we do, we don’t get the prize anyway, nish, so I think we’ll just go and enjoy the day imagine I mean I don’t even know how to cope with if we rock up, win this competition, and then it’s like what the fuck?

Nish: 15:52

we can’t win the actual prize, like we don’t know what the prizes are, but it’s like, uh, what I mean? I I see they’ve got holy one prizes and stuff like that, so I think we better go for that one. Then we can just sharpen up the game and the yeah, just throw some darts at the at the whole in one composition. Um, well, look that that pairs talk, talk about the pairs cup kind of leads me on nicely into introducing our special guest. So we spoke about this, uh, probably pre-christmas really, but just before christmas I got an email through our website. Um, so if anybody wants to reach out, they’re welcome to do that.

Nish: 16:24

And it was a listener from our podcast that he sort of sent a really, really nice message saying I’m really enjoying the, the content, and I’m really enjoying going through the journey with you because I’m actually doing something similar and he’s doing the top 100 challenges not in 10 years, because that’s insane um. So we got chatting just in general and exchanging messages and finding out where we’ve played and things like that. Um, and it turns out that our special guest is actually playing the very same pairs event in ganton. Uh, for exactly the same reason, he wants to play Ganton and it’s an outlier and he’s teeing off, I think, about 10-20 minutes before us. We’ve got to meet up, we’ve got to have a chat.

Chris: 17:18

We’re going to have a whole day at Ganton, right? If we’re not teeing off until 3 o’clock, we’re going to have four hours to kill during the day.

Nish: 17:23

Yeah, yeah, it’s a shame we’ve got to drive back, otherwise we get leathered. Yeah and I’m glad to say we’ve got got him in for a chat. So uh, his name’s mark, hello, mark, how are you yes?

Mark: 17:38

hi, hi, nish. How are you yes? And chris?

Nish: 17:41

so nice to meet you both. Yeah, very nice to meet you. And uh, we were just saying before thanks for thanks for listening and reaching out. Actually, it was that yours was the very first email I received off the website. Oh, good, good so excited.

Mark: 17:52

Yeah well, thank you so much for having me on the pod and I’m delighted to come on and talk all things golf, so it’s all good yeah, it’s our pleasure.

Nish: 18:01

Our favorite subject, as you probably guessed, um. So tell us, mark, how did you actually get into golf in the first place?

Mark: 18:08

yeah. So I started golf, sort of um, probably when I was about sort of 12, 13, um. I’m originally from ireland but I live up in glasgow now and our summers, I mean, as a family, we used to my brother and I we used to go up to the north coast of ireland in the summer and stay in a little town called Port Ballantrae, which is just geographically the north coast of Ireland, just about 20 minutes drive from Port Rush, port Sturt, which is an absolute golfing mecca area up at that north coast, and in the summertime we’d be up there for three or four weeks and mum and dad got us some golf lessons. There’s a wee power free course up there called Bally Ray and we had some lessons and my brother and I just got hooked. And then when we were back down because we’re from Cagfair, it’s our local course that we became members of with Whitehead and you know it’s like in the summertime you’re off for what? Eight, nine weeks?

Mark: 19:11

And what do you do every day? Just play golf. And at that age, when you’re 12, 13, 14, you’re not playing 18 holes, you play. Mum drops you off first thing in the morning. You have 36 holes with no bother, whereas nowadays you just about get around 18. Morning you had 36 holes with no bother, no, whereas nowadays you just about get around 18 in your package.

Chris: 19:27

So yeah, I think I need about a week a week to sleep. If I did 36 holes in a day now, but that was like you said, it was pretty much every day throughout my summer holidays at least 36 holes and then a bit of practice.

Mark: 19:36

That’s it. It was just just golf. That was the summer playing golf and that’s probably when it all started out. And then you know, life goes on. You go to university, so I was off, I was at Glasgow uni, so university life sort of takes over and student life as such, when you maybe you know you play half a dozen rounds of golf per year. Then.

Mark: 19:59

And then I lived over in Australia for a bit, so still I was travelling out there with a friend who I mean my friend Al. He was a scratch golfer at the time so he was always very into it, so he was very good as a sort of a buddy to go along with to say, look, do you want to go and play this top course, come along. So I always had that sort of interest and kept the golf up, but I probably got back into it. More seriously sort of interest and kept the golf up, but I probably got back into more seriously sort of COVID times whenever I mean there’s not much to do, so the driving range is open, so rather than go out for a walk, I’ll go to the driving range and hit 100 balls.

Mark: 20:39

And then myself and a couple of friends we joined well, my wife and I got married. We moved house, myself and a couple of friends we joined. Well, my wife and I got married, we moved house, and a couple of a couple of mates we joined a course just down the road from the house, sort of five minutes down the road, and that’s how, probably after covid, I started properly getting seriously back into golf and playing regularly again yeah, it’s um.

Nish: 21:00

It’s interesting. You said about um covid and I think a lot of people got straight back into it because I think all these numbers were coming out, weren’t they about how the game is exploding post-COVID? But yeah, it’s funny how you said about you could go for a walk or you could go to a driving range, but only one of them is going to get you massively frustrated at the end of it. So yeah that was it.

Mark: 21:22

You know what I mean. It was like there was nothing else going on, as you know. It was like but the driving room was open, so, and then, obviously, the course was open, so it was like let’s go out there and play again, so yeah, wonderful.

Nish: 21:34

Yeah, obviously you were. You know, when you’re younger and you just got, you’re just playing for the love of being out there with your brothers or your friends or or whatever. Was there ever a moment where you sort of went oh, do you know what? I’m all right at this game. You know, I could not see, if you know yeah, yeah, I think.

Mark: 21:57

So, growing up, when you’re sort of a teenager and you’re playing regularly, you’re naturally getting better, and my brother and I were a similar age, so we we were a similar sort of level of standard as well, so we were ultra competitive with playing all the competitions each week and trying to get that handicap knocked down.

Mark: 22:14

And I think back then you probably, you probably find it nowadays it’s a bit easier to get your handicap. I think back then it was like you had to play all the competitions to get the cards and to get the handicap, whereas nowadays, with the new system which I know there’s a lot of debate about the new system and some people like it and others aren’t so keen, but I actually really like it because it’s it’s sort of you don’t have that commitment that you have to. You can go out and just play a social game. As long as you put on the app beforehand that you’re going to put a card in, it’s easier to get the handicap and even work on it as well. So, um, but yeah, no, I never, I never had, I never had any aspirations that I was actually going to go go anywhere with golf. That would be a dream, obviously, but yeah, I mean I’ll stick to watching it on the tv.

Nish: 23:06

Watch mackerel on the tv, yeah I think it’s definitely made it more accessible, hasn’t it? I mean, you know, I was probably a little bit intimidated about getting my, getting my handicap and getting my cards in and all this kind of stuff, even though, though, actually in the last few years it’s been easier as well. But just that app makes it so easy, I suppose.

Chris: 23:29

I think especially as a junior as well, because I think that can be a real barrier, can’t it? If you need to get, ultimately, an adult to come around with you and sign the card and all that kind of stuff, it can make it much more difficult, just that first point into getting a handicap.

Mark: 23:43

So I think it is and even the sort of stroke index as well. It brings in the slope rating and that you can get. You get a shot or two back on the course as well at times, which I think helps because you play a lot. If you play a lot of different courses, some courses are a lot harder or easier than others.

Nish: 24:05

So yeah, I think it’s only a good thing yeah, yeah so so fast forward to well more recent times and you go. I want to do the top 100 horses in the UK and Ireland. What prompted that?

Mark: 24:23

we were playing up at the Glen Eagles at the Kings course and you know it’s like we’re playing these top courses. If you can play them shoulder season, like February, march, october, september, october it’s cheaper and sometimes you can get just as good a day or not a better day than playing it at the peak of the summer and obviously far cheaper as well. And we played February time in the Kings course are not a better day than playing it at the peak of the summer and obviously far cheaper as well. We played February time in the King’s Course, had an absolutely brilliant day For February time. The course was immaculate. A couple of us even had t-shirts on. It was so nice.

Mark: 25:08

I remember after the round my friend said to me where are we playing next?

Mark: 25:17

I was like, oh, I don’t know. And I remember that home that night, literally, I went home and I was on google looking up top golf courses in Scotland to play, which then led to all include Ireland as well. And then as the days went on, it was like let’s just look at UK and Ireland and see what I can do. And that led to looking at different lists, the top 100 lists, golf monthly, and the first list I came across was the golf monthly 2024 list and I just decided, look, I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna go with it. Like at that time I pretty much looked up to see and I know over the years I’ve played a few of these courses, so maybe I’ve done a few already and for every time last year after I played the kings, I think it was up to nine courses, right. So, and that led to just probably a bit like what you guys are I plotting out how can I tick off courses, like starting off maybe playing ones nearby and then organizing golf trips and just going from there.

Chris: 26:26

So I mean, you’re pretty, pretty handily placed in glasgow for a lot of the courses, aren’t you? You, you’re kind of right, right in the centre of all the Scottish ones, really aren’t you?

Mark: 26:35

Yeah, yeah, we’re pretty fortunate up here that Glasgow, I mean the Ayrshire coast, so Dundonald, troon, prestwick, western Gales, they’re about half an hour away from here. Turnberry’s, just down the coast, glen Eagles, and then obviously you’re up to st andrews and over to north berwick and edinburgh to the courses over there. So you are pretty, but you guys are pretty well placed as well, like you’re. Is it just outside? Is it near manchester? You guys are roughly yeah. So, um, I think I’ve looked around your area. There’s probably about 10 courses around that. Obviously a lot of ones sort of Merseyside in that sort of radar that I’ll obviously try and get down to at some point.

Chris: 27:24

So yeah, so what have you played so far? Mark, how many have you played? You said you’ve done nine.

Mark: 27:31

Yeah, so I’ve done nine. So after we played the kings in february, that was number nine. But up until then, now this is going back to sort of university days I played I’ve played turnberry and royal troon, so quite a funny story. When I played troon, um, I was in halls at uni at the time and it was a Sunday morning and my mate Al, who plays for the university team, I was lying in bed hungover in halls 8 o’clock in the morning. He phones me up and he was like do you want to play Real Trin today? And I was like what? I was like oh, the university team were one player short. Do you want to come play Trin? I was like oh, the university team, we’re one player short. Do you want to come play Trin? I was like uh, yeah, alright. So I was laying in bed. He was like how long will it be? He was like we’re actually sitting outside your halls right now in a minibus, so get changed, we’re going to go now.

Mark: 28:28

Because the tee off was like nine half nine and he was like have you got a jacket? I was like what do you mean a jacket? So you need a smart jacket. So I I didn’t.

Mark: 28:39

I was like 19 at the time I didn’t own a jacket, so I got my clubs out in the minibus and they phoned ahead to say we’ve got this, we’ve got this guy. Can he borrow a jacket to get into the clubhouse? So obviously we played against two of their members in a competition and then I borrowed a jacket from the clubhouse so I could get into the lounge and all. Afterwards it was a free day out, not me 18 holes in the championship course, free course meal afterwards and then another one of the guys was saying do you want to join us for some cigars and port in the drawing room and I was like what’s port? The guy was like it’s alcohol and I was like that’s fine. As a student it was like it’s free. So that was a great day out to play Troon. I remember actually I lipped out for a birdie on the postage stamp and it was just that literally sounds like the best hangover I’ve ever heard of in my entire life.

Mark: 29:43

I mean a poor student in first year hall and you get invited for a amazing full day out with wide in the field works at Royal Trin. That was a special memory.

Nish: 29:55

I love that. Have you got a smart jacket? No, I met you at University. For God’s sake.

Mark: 30:02

I went out last night.

Nish: 30:03

I just peeled Donna Kabab off my face to get ready to come and play. I’ve not got a smart jacket. Come on, brilliant.

Mark: 30:10

So that was where else. So Royal Port Rush was another course I played. Oh yeah, I took some of the mates over to Ireland again at university days because my parents owned a holiday home up in the north coast in a place called Bushmills. We had a tea time at Royal Port Rush on a Sunday morning after a heavy night out the night before and like three, three, three, three out of the four were like average golfers, like mid at the time, mid-teen handicappers.

Mark: 30:43

And again I mentioned the guy again who went travel, al, who played the university team. But like he was a scratch golfer, he was very good, took it very seriously, and that day on port rush I’ll always remember he had five birdies in the first 11 holes. So he was free, under free, under par gross on the donlis lengths of our port rush, whereas we were like. We were like if you hit the ball into, if you missed a fairway and you’re in the gorse, lost ball. You know what I mean. Whereas Al was just. Oh, he was just. I’ve never seen him play golf like that. I think he ended up, he finished, he had a few, he dropped a few shots towards the end and I think he finished one or two over par gross, which is still is an incredible story. But I just remember, like when we had a heavy night out the night before, including him, 10 o’clock on Royal Portrush and he’s got five birdies, three under par 311.

Chris: 31:40

It was just yeah it sounds like you set a bit of a precedent mark, for, uh, every time you play an open road, of course you’ve got to have a heavy night the night before yeah, that’s a level playing.

Mark: 31:51

You can see the theme going.

Nish: 31:53

I think, yeah, portland. I think doesn’t Darren Clark do that. That’s his pre-Match prep thing, yeah probably Like, yeah, like he’s.

Mark: 32:03

I think he actually lives in the Bahamas now, but he used to see him around up there a lot Like, obviously, when the Open was there in 2019, it was up at the first tee seeing Darren teed off there and I’m not sure. I assume he probably. Well, he’s won the Open before, so he’ll be there, I’m sure, this year coming, but I know he’s got a house up near Portrush and then I think he’s been located to the Bahamas now. But he’s obviously an icon of Irish golf.

Nish: 32:36

If there’s one golfer you can see in the bahamas, it’s darren clark, I think he’d be absolutely living it up there, wouldn’t he yeah, big cigar on the beach, just yeah so we obviously we’ve been talking about comps and stuff. I mean just further to you, that’s the sort of place that you’ve played, what you’ve got ganton booked and, as it turns out, your tea off is quite similar sort of time to us that’s right.

Mark: 32:57

Yeah, I think we’re half an hour away. Yeah, I think it’s near four o’clock, I think, which I think we’re probably one of the latest tea times in the mizuna. It’s. It’s in july, isn’t it? I’ve got it written down. Oh yeah, that’s ganton ganton’s in june, june, sorryune, sorry. Yeah, june, yeah, and but yeah, I think we’re about four o’clock in afternoon. So I think it’ll prove probably one of those days. Obviously I’ve marked out like, geographically, scarborough I don’t know what it is for you, but it’s about 180 miles from glasgow. So we might try and just, we might just do that in a day. If we, if we get over, if we get finished, we’ll see what happens, and I’m not sure what day of the week it is, but we might just do that in a day. If we get over, if we get finished, we’ll see what happens. I’m not sure what day of the week it is, but we might just like.

Nish: 33:39

Is it a Friday? I think it’s a Friday.

Mark: 33:40

Is it a Friday?

Chris: 33:41

Well, we’ll see what happens Friday night in Scarborough. Not only is it a Friday, it’s Friday the 13th.

Mark: 33:48

Friday the 13th, is it Right? Okay? Yeah, it’s all happened. Scarborough won’t know what’s in it, so we’ll see we might stay on that night. We’ll see what happens Friday the 13th in Scarborough. Nah, I’m quite looking forward to that. One night, Ganton.

Nish: 34:02

No disrespect to Scarborough. I’ve been a couple of times, but it’s telling that we’re all thinking of just doing it as a day trip and leaving Escape Indeed. Yeah, what else have you got booked, then, aside from so, apart from Ganton, blair Gowrie.

Mark: 34:21

So Blair Gowrie’s got two courses. It’s Perthshire, it’s a Parkland course, perthshire, it’s the Rosemount, which is in the top 100 of my list anyway, that’s in June. And Moortown is in the top 100 of my list anyway, and it’s that’s in june, and murtown, which I know you guys have played down in leeds yeah, yeah, so we’re playing that in july.

Mark: 34:44

Oh so that’s part of the there’s. You know, it’s like when you start looking at the top 100 and going on to Facebook and joining groups and all people give you tips and give you suggestions and all. And I obviously came across the Mizuna Pairs, which is what the Ganton is. But there’s NCG 100 National Club Golfers, so they run. I’ve not done any Mizuna pairs before or I’ve not done any NCGs, so my mate and I have booked through the NCG, which I’ve actually got a lot of.

Mark: 35:22

Basically it’s National Club Golfers top 100 courses. A lot of them are in England, and so Murrtown in July, that’s free NCG, right, so looking for. And Blair Gow in July that’s free NCG, so looking for. And Blair Gowrie, that’s free NCG as well. So that’s another avenue to potentially you might get some courses off that yourself. To tick off where a lot of these days out are peak season at good prices, yeah, and the NCG guys, they run a podcast as well, which is quite good, and I was listening to their, their latest pod the other day and I was talking about prices of golf and green fees going up and turnbird turnberry being a thousand pounds. Wow, peak season, yeah, in the summer that’s Trump, isn’t it?

Nish: 36:16

we need to pay for his lawsuits, yeah yeah, so there are other ones.

Nish: 36:21

And then later in the year Mizuno have got the Royal Aberdeen Trump International two day combo in October nice so that’ll be good yeah, we’re doing a triple header nice trump international, royal aberdeen and cruden bay oh yeah, nice towards the end of the year because uh chris knows somebody up there. So, yeah, that’s a good one, and we just yesterday got a confirmation of uh getting invited up to play carnoustie oh, fantastic, right, okay, yeah that’s somebody who listens as well oh great. Just reached out and said carnoustie great, yeah, they just said would you like to come and play? I was like yeah you know it was.

Nish: 37:13

It was so nice to kind of get that message yeah, it was lovely that, yeah um because I’ve had like, yeah, go ahead, sorry.

Mark: 37:21

No, no, sorry. Yeah, I’ve had one or two other people like reach out. Like a guy on one of the facebook groups was just said, look, because he knows I play in the north coast of ireland as well. And he said, look, if you’re up in Donegal, I’m a member of Ballyliffin, so, brilliant, more than welcome any time, so that could be another option to get up there sometime it’s really nice, isn’t it, when you connect with people that you’ve never met or anything like that.

Nish: 37:48

Everyone’s got a great story to tell, everyone’s very chatty, everybody wants to help out and it’s just this lovely. It’s not even a small community, it’s massive the number of people in the golf.

Mark: 37:59

but yeah, everybody wants to help everyone 100% and people are so like, why not if you’re a member and you’re quite happy to bring take someone on because you can see the golfs, golf as much as love golf. It’s not a cheap hobby. You see what the prices are if you just want to go and play one of these top open venues in the summer time, which is when people like to play golf.

Nish: 38:25

The prices even get a tee times hard, but the prices are extortionate and if you happen to be tapped enough in the head to go, I’m going to play 100 of these courses.

Mark: 38:35

Yeah, mad enough, yeah, I know, I mean more for the lottery.

Nish: 38:40

Who’s the idiot?

Mark: 38:42

Yeah, I know, fair play to your guys for, like I thought it was a great top 110, just 10 years, let’s see Fantastic.

Nish: 38:51

I pointed to the guys to blame. Chris is to blame. It’s like Chris, chris is to blame.

Chris: 38:56

Yeah, that’s definitely my fault.

Nish: 38:57

I don’t know, one too many bottles of wine.

Chris: 38:59

If we’d have had the conversation one bottle of wine earlier, there might not have been a 10-year cap on it. It would have made the whole thing easier.

Nish: 39:06

I know the 10-year cap really just, you know, sort of put the cat amongst the pigeons, didn’t it? I love it, it’s great. It’s great, I’m loving the challenge of doing it and same thing as you know you. Obviously you’ve listened, so you know I was going through the same thought process as well. But yeah, you just get onto google straight away, don’t?

Mark: 39:22

you and you do you just think next, where can we go next?

Nish: 39:25

absolutely how can I make this happen? Yeah, yeah it will happen. Definitely more town. You will absolutely love particularly playing in the summer. What a course that was. I think we actually played some half-decent golf there, chris, we did yeah for a change. We did yeah, we were good tea to green. You’ll have heard again, mark, so please forgive me I’m repeating myself here, but obviously Eddie, the assistant pro there is just an absolute top man.

Chris: 39:55

Good, good.

Nish: 39:56

Good, cool, and you get. You get your range balls for free.

Mark: 40:00

Yeah, I know, that’s it. You pay all this money these places and sometimes it’s like, oh, it’s still fiber for 30 balls.

Nish: 40:07

You’re like, really, I just I’ve just paid you guys, I don’t know 200, quid I’ve got a pen and fibre for 30 balls. But yeah, that’ll be good. It’s always nice, wonderful. So we’re doing a competition at Ganson, is that? Have you ever played a competition before?

Mark: 40:25

So I’ve obviously played like comps. Obviously at my own club you get your Saturday medals wherever that’s Stableford or stroke play and singles and match play comes. But I’ve not played one of these Mizuna pairs before and I think, like with me and Andy who’s playing with me, like we’re both pretty competitive. But I think probably a bit like you guys, when you go and play a top course like this, I’m not really going to be too bothered about how well I do. No, I mean I’m not going to be pushing set. I must break 80 today. I mean I won’t be good to get a good score, but I’m not really it’s. I mean it’s all about the experience of being and playing. Yeah, I want off. You’ll probably be there once playing these courses so what?

Nish: 41:10

what say you, chris? I saw you nodding, but I thought he doesn’t mean that.

Chris: 41:15

Yeah, I mean I yeah, theoretically that’s exactly the. That’s exactly the mindset I’m going in there with. But once I actually step foot on the course, whether or not I can control myself and actually get you know, keeping that in that mindset is another thing yeah, I’m not.

Mark: 41:31

I’ve not even looked to see what the prizes are different things. I think it’s obviously sponsored by Mizuno, so there’s probably some quite decent prizes, but at the same time, there’s probably I don’t know how popular these are, but you probably will get a lot of very, very good golfers that play these, that are on the tour or on the circuit playing these courses, very serious golfers, whereas I’m going to enjoy it and take off that I’ve played Murrtown, and wouldn’t it be nice if we turn up totally casual and deny somebody else the chance to take it seriously, perfect slow them up as long as possible taking film filming and all sorts.

Nish: 42:16

You know, don’t wait, just here to enjoy it, mate, don’t worry about it. Yeah, um, all right. Yeah, well, I think we we had, and before you came on, we we were talking about competitions and things that I’ve never played in anything competitive, so it’s a bit intimidating for me. But I think Chris has alleviated that a little bit until he’s trying to punch one of our opponents or something like that. That’s when it will change but hopefully as well.

Mark: 42:43

It’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon, t and off. Hopefully everyone will be away, so we’ll be the last few groups to go out, so hopefully it won’t be like a 9 o’clock 50 people watching.

Chris: 42:55

Yeah, it’s always one of those last groups in in the afternoon that always wins as well, isn’t it? Someone will come in with a ridiculous score yeah, 45 points or something.

Mark: 43:04

Yeah, what do you play off? I?

Nish: 43:09

love that we’re hovering around New Years and we did this in our um end of year award, special sort of thing, but do you have any golfing resolutions for the new year?

Mark: 43:22

yeah. So I think with renewing the membership again, it would be good to try and get my handicap a little bit lower this year and, like, I played quite a few competitions last year and I was pretty consistent, so it’d be nice to get it down slightly. I’m sitting at 9.3 at the minute so it’d be nice to. I think maybe we could try and get down to maybe seven around there, hopefully. I mean, would be good, but, um, that would be good, that would be good. But I think golf. I’ve just my wife and I just had a new baby there a couple of months ago, so I’ll be playing. Thank you, I’ll be playing golf, but as well I probably I can’t just like, always just like oh, nine holes on the way home from work tonight. I’ve got responsibilities, so but that would be good to try and get the hat and cap down a wee bit.

Nish: 44:16

The baby wants me to play nine holes tonight, wants me to come back relaxed and smelling of grass and all that sort of stuff.

Mark: 44:23

I’ve seen. I’ve seen you can get those pram slash, golf club trolley type things and be able to say you’re going to be one of those people where you’re pushing the pram with the clubs on the back of it.

Chris: 44:38

I was just going to ask that question before you said that, but I didn’t actually realise that was a genuine product that’s out there. I’ve never seen that. I’ve obviously seen the people running with the babies, but I’ve never seen. What a great idea though I mean just a three-hour walk with your baby, it’s perfect, yeah and he’s asleep the whole time, so nice.

Mark: 44:55

Just make sure there’s a shield around it in case people are hitting golf balls.

Nish: 44:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s where we’d fall flat with ours. There wouldn’t be asleep the whole time. Those two boys are just like they want to know everything that’s going on, particularly his golf, anyway that I, I mean, I went and played today and uh, they’re both just like crying at the front door, just like.

Nish: 45:14

I want to go and play golf. I mean, like you’re 7 and 3, for god’s sake, you can’t play. Just leave me alone, let me go off and play on my own. Yeah, I don’t think I’d get any change out of them for that. Do you have, like we’ve obviously got the 10-year target to complete this in? Do you have a time frame in mind or um sort of just taking as it comes?

Mark: 45:38

yeah, no, I think I’m going to take it as it comes. Like I think when I picked it up last year I was sitting at eight. I got six in last year, got six in, so we played glenn eagles, the king’s course, and then where else did I play after that? And don donald. So we did don donald, did western gales. I was up in st andrews in the summer, played the new course which is just next to the old, and that was in our class course up there, and then where else did I play? St Andrews PGA? So the Glen Eagles PGA. So obviously I still need to play the Queen’s course and there are a couple of friends have been talking about maybe March time, maybe playing the Queen’s Again. Sort of shoulder season would be good to get those free, because the free courses are on my list anyway.

Nish: 46:36

What was the PGA like? I came up to watch the Ryder Cup at the Eagles.

Mark: 46:42

That looked like a tough course a lot longer a lot longer than the Kings, and harder. I definitely prefer the Queens. Speaking to people, they say that the Queens is probably the best out of the three. Definitely prefer the Queens Speaking to people. They say that the Queens is probably the best out of the three, followed by the Queens. The PGA had been closed for a few months because it was getting a lot of work done. I’ve got a friend now who’s a member up there, so he got me on members rates last summer, which was really good. It’d be good to try and get the queens ticked off as well, because it’s not too far from home as well. It’s only about an hour up to persia and and our course I played last year was silica how did you do silica?

Mark: 47:25

yeah, so that’s how play we played at. We played that they. As you know, Silica is probably the best value top 100 course on the list. Yeah, I think so. Hands down and it’s one of those courses which doesn’t just scrape into the top 100. It’s sitting at about 40 or 50. It’s very, very high up the list, and deservedly so, but it’s such good value yeah, it is.

Chris: 47:56

I mean for less than 100 quid. It’s, it’s a lot, it’s a lot of golf course, isn’t it for that?

Mark: 48:01

and the facilities and all I mean the staff and all there and you got, we got food and all before we played it. I think it was the end of september time and an absolute bargain and and a great course to take off. Like obviously people talk about it’s quite hard like for for me, we it was about two and a half hour drive down from Glasgow, not too bad, but what a course. I absolutely loved. A lot of blind shots, but like the whole setup value for money. Uh, when you look at how much turnberry is to play, you’re just like, oh, you get 10, you get over 10, get like 12 rounds, it’s.

Nish: 48:37

So, yeah, membership, it’s so for that, yeah, is the golf course that got me in love with blind shots actually, yeah, I used to hate them. There’s the point of playing at something you can’t even see where you’re trying to go for, but yeah I don’t know what it is now. A blind shot is just. I’m good at them. Yeah, maybe it’s not see the target.

Mark: 48:58

Yes, and I remember whenever I played so like, I obviously was on instagram and one of the guys that you had on the pod the top 100 golf guru, so I follow, I follow him on instagram golf guru so I follow, I follow him on instagram and I think he had put a link to the top 100 in 10 and that’s how I discovered you guys. And then you put your first course and I was like I was there a couple of weeks ago they had obviously fallen your pod each week and it was like these guys are doing the same thing that I’m doing

Nish: 49:30

so i’m’m so good, it’s amazing.

Mark: 49:32

Yeah.

Nish: 49:33

So it’s just, it’s great, isn’t it? It’s totally consumed my life. Got everything I have. I’ve got like sweatshirts and hoodies and caps and all sorts of things. It’s just, yeah, anything I can. Obviously, you’ve got your list that’s right over your shoulders.

Mark: 49:50

It is indeed yeah.

Mark: 49:54

Tell us a little bit about that what’s? Uh, yeah, so I got that off so that, and so the list that I took was off gulf monthly. So that was probably one of the first lists. You obviously you go on google and there’s there’s the top 100 official website courses and I’d come across the golf monthly list for 2024. And I remember like asking people, like some of the Facebook groups and stuff you get to speak into various people, and they said, just pick, pick a list and go with it, because you know yourselves the top 50 aren’t going to really change. I mean, you’ve got what about 12 or 13 open venues that are always going to be there? Obviously there’s always new courses coming on and new ones come into the list and ones will drop out.

Mark: 50:37

But I just decided, look, I’m just going to go with that list and just work my way through it. I mean I’m just I’ve not really set myself a timeline. If I get half a dozen or so in a year, then maybe 15 years down the line I might get through it. Obviously, with time it’s going to get harder because you start looking at, like I can’t really do that. The day trip that’s going to be a four-day trip down to cornwall or whatever or down to the west coast of ireland. But like you guys, I’m up for the challenge. I’m just gonna go with it. So yeah, I’m at 14 at the minute and hopefully I’m hoping by the end of the year maybe to get, be good to get maybe 10 in this year.

Nish: 51:19

Maybe we’ll see I mean you’ve done five times more than we’ve done, but you know we’ve got a bloody podcast about it, yeah yeah, well that’s all good.

Mark: 51:31

But it’s interesting just seeing on your website to see ones you’ve got booked, because some of the ones that you guys have booked are maybe ones that I am going to line up and stuff as well. But you’ll probably find as well that some are more accessible than others and it will with time it probably will get a bit harder, but I think I’m just going to go with what’s sort of closer to home now and worry about that years down the line.

Chris: 52:02

Yeah, I think that’s our thought process. Isn’t it Just going to get the low-hanging fruit and then kind of see what we’ve got left and hone our blagging skills for those last sort of 10 courses that we need to try and get?

Nish: 52:14

on. I feel like we’ve got a plan and the plan is that we don’t have a plan and I like I kind of there’s this for me. There’s a bit of comfort in that, because I think I’m almost the opposite where if you put real rigorous plans in place and then they don’t come to fruition, yeah, don’t worry about it, it’s not going to keep me up at night, for god’s sake, but at least it it’s enough to go. Make me go. Oh god, you know, we didn’t quite reach like. We’ve not even said we want to play 10 courses a year. We’ve just sort of said let’s just see what we can do. Yeah, um, it’s great at the minute. What’s happening is so I’m not really doing anything in terms of getting courses, but it’s chris will just randomly message me and just going.

Nish: 52:53

Uh, yeah, I’ve just spoken to somebody at work and they could probably get us on jcb or just oh yeah they can get us on here and they can get us on there and it’s like, yeah, great, that’s it.

Mark: 53:02

That’s it you. You speak to people or you are contacts and stuff. I mean I’ve got a contact down towards living which is maybe Ron Livon might come up as an option. Down the line. You do build up it’s such and such knows such and such who’s a member, or whatever.

Mark: 53:21

Obviously if you had unlimited money you could just A lot of the green fees go up because it attracts the Americans. The Americans come over to Scotland, they play I mean they play the old course, they play Carnoustie, they play North Berwick, they have Trin. They have all these courses lined up and it’s thousands and thousands of pounds and they’ve got like they’ve got a taxi that takes them round in a minibus and money is not an option. So yeah, they’re obviously in a fortunate position, but for me it’s just, it’s more just enjoyment and I mean just just take them off slowly. I mean why, why rush right, rush through it?

Nish: 54:07

if you can get half a dozen in great yeah, chris said that actually and it sort of resonated quite a bit. It was like, you know, I don’t really want to, as this is coming from the man who sent the target of 10 years, but, um, you know, we don’t want to feel like we’re just playing somewhere to tick it off. Yeah, you want to enjoy the experience, right, um, and you can’t lose that, or we don’t want to anyway lose that. You turn up and you’re taking pictures of the signs and you’re just like I can’t wait to get out and play here because, yeah, I remember the 17th hole and seve played a really good shot there. I just want to see that, see that view. That’s wonderful, isn’t it?

Mark: 54:51

that’s that’s what this is all about yeah I think, and I think like it’s, it’s a treat day out. You know, I mean like family life, work life is busy. So you know, I mean if my wife couldn’t get a day out and I got a day out playing, I’m happy playing a golf course. That’s my idea of a great day out. So yeah, yeah, I mean it’s all worth it. I mean I’m obviously not so keen on spending 300 plus a round, but if you don’t mind paying 100, 150, I mean if it’s a great day, I mean you can’t beat it.

Nish: 55:25

Yeah, yeah, exactly, completely agree, mark. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Mark: 55:34

Well, mark, thank you for your time today. Uh, thanks for listening, thanks for having me.

Nish: 55:38

That means a lot, um, and you’ve been a great guest, so thank you, you know, thanks for having me on yeah, keep listening. There’s a bit of pressure to keep you entertained.

Nish: 55:46

But, um, now we now we know you as well. Yeah, absolutely yeah, I’m looking forward to a probably it’s pre-round, maybe, or maybe post-round, but a fresh orange and lemonade in the bar at Ganton. Well, that was a great chat with Mark. He’s an avid listener, you can tell. I really do hope we can keep him entertained now for the rest of the challenge. But how funny is it that we probably just crossed paths, didn’t we with Silloth? Look, anybody listening. If you want to get in touch, please do. We love hearing your stories.