The Most Under-Ranked In The UK? Hindhead Golf Club Review

Nish: 0:01

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: 0:07

I’m.

Nish: 0:07

Chris, we’re here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, episode 39, the Hindhead Golf Club Review. I’ve inserted in my script here that think of a name for the episode, but I thought we could do that as we would do the episode. So chris can’t play golf. That was a running theme of the day. Yeah, okay, chris can’t play golf. The hind head golf review perfect.

Nish: 0:36

Well, look, we’ve got a real treat for everyone today. So we’ve been out playing on a pretty amazing course actually I think we’re all agree on that which was hind head golf club. The club have been unbelievable with us. Yeah, we’ve been treated like royalty. We’re in the meeting room at the minute and we’ve got two. We played golf with two very special guests and they’ve got a fantastic story to tell which we’ll get to. They are andrew and tony, but we’ll also, later in the episode, hear from a gentleman called Jack Buchanan, who is the president, no less, of this fine golf club. Now, he was kind enough to be interviewed by us earlier today and we had a great time with him, didn’t we? He was a true gentleman.

Chris: 1:18

Yeah, he was, he was a top guy, he was.

Nish: 1:20

And the engagement we’ve had from the club has been unbelievable. We walked in and they said’ve had from the club has been unbelievable. We walked in and they said are you with the society? We said no. They went oh, you’re the podcast people.

Jack Buchanan: 1:29

Yeah, we are the podcast guys that’s us what gave it away, you know?

Nish: 1:33

But a shout out to Chris, who’s the general manager of the club, and he reached out himself after he’d found out that we were playing and sort of set everything up. So he’s been great, and obviously Andrew, who sat with us. So thank you for getting us on, andrew. Now we should do some intros. So we have got here Andrew and Tony, who’s his playing partner and fellow member at the golf club.

Nish: 1:54

Hello there how are you? Yeah, we’re going to start and we’ve been doing it as we’ve been going around, so massive thank you to you guys for getting us on in the first place. We really do appreciate that and it came out of the blue and, honestly, when I said in the preview the email, when it came in, I was like this is the greatest email I’ve ever received. It really wasn’t hyperbole, it was unbelievable. I was on holiday and I was like this is amazing.

Jack Buchanan: 2:16

This is so good.

Nish: 2:18

So thank you, and thank you for agreeing to be on the podcast with us. I don’t think you quite know what you let yourself in for, but that’s fine. Now, first question. We’ve got to get it out of the way. Don’t be too truthful, but what was your experience like playing with myself and Chris?

Chris: 2:30

Can we just keep it to you?

Nish: 2:34

Should we get the elephant in the room out of the way? Chris had a terrible round, by the way, but what was your experience like playing with us?

Andrew: 2:41

Yeah, I wish I’d been on your team, Nish. So do I, Of course I had an absolutely unbelievably great day.

Tony: 2:53

I mean me and Tony bossed it right, Smashed it. From the minute we were partnered up on the first tee, you just knew straight away that we were going to smash it. Do you know what? There was never any doubt.

Chris: 3:04

You stood up on the first tee and you were like this is the winning team we’ve got it, we’re going to take these two down today. And then I hit a golf ball and I was like what’s the phrase?

Tony: 3:15

you nearly made the fairway did.

Nish: 3:17

I, I don’t remember that pride comes before a fall, but no, no, no, I think we knew straight away.

Tony: 3:24

I’m not sure that we were ever behind, do?

Nish: 3:26

you know what?

Tony: 3:26

Maybe Andrew can enlighten us, but I don’t think we were ever, ever behind. I don’t think you were.

Chris: 3:33

I know for a fact you were, but you’re always within reach.

Andrew: 3:36

You’re always within reach.

Nish: 3:37

Well, interestingly so, we played an interesting format today actually. So we had our little side bets and things like that. We were doing all of that, but andrew introduced us to something which you’ve you straight away. You were like oh, it’s an aussie thing, oh god, you know, but it’s called 666 666, yeah.

Andrew: 3:54

So you play in pairs. The first six holes are best ball for each team, the second six are additions, you add the stable for the scores for both players, and the third, which is actually the last six holes, is when it all happens, you multiply it. So, of course, if you get a wipe, your team score is effectively zero, zero, yeah.

Nish: 4:21

And strangely we play it all the time. In Australia it happened quite a lot, withralia, didn’t it today?

Andrew: 4:26

not naming any names, but at the end of the day it’s amazing how many times you sit on the 18th tee and it’s still game on.

Tony: 4:32

Yeah, we’ve had lots of experiences when and we’re playing and there’s like one point in it going on to the 18th yeah and it’s you know it’s a tried and tested formula, isn’t it?

Chris: 4:40

I’ve just realized that it might actually be your fault. I played, played so badly today Like 666, the number of the devil? Yeah, I mean that can be the only explanation for my golf.

Tony: 4:48

You don’t want to look at the back of his head, is all I could say.

Nish: 4:52

Well, I think you’re probably all going to. On whichever version that you’re watching or listening, you’re going to get an idea. We’ve had a great day of kind of good golfing banter. Of kind of good golfing banter, good golf just generally.

Chris: 5:03

Anyway, Excuse me, Generally, Three of us had.

Nish: 5:07

Three of us had yeah, three of us had a fantastic day. Now we do actually have something in common with you guys, and that is you’re trying to play the top 100, and you’re much further down the line and we’re trying to play the top 100. So it wasn’t just a come and play Heimhead, there was actually a little bit of more backstory about it. So tell us how many courses you’ve played so far and how you’re kind of finding that experience, because we’re only 11 in now.

Andrew: 5:36

How many down the line. We’ve got to 61. We’ve done it fairly quickly, which is great, because the inflation and the prices of green fees is going up and up. So the quicker you can get them in, you make savings. But no no, I mean, I did stumble on when Tony and I had played the two North Wales courses, aberdovey and St David’s. I did find your podcast on the chat and I listened to it and I thought, well, these guys are enthusiastic.

Chris: 6:12

I mean, that’s about all that can be said for us After playing with us today. I love that these guys are enthusiastic.

Nish: 6:20

There’s no comment about the golf or anything like that. Oh, bless them, Aren’t they enthusiastic? Well, look, I mean in fairness.

Andrew: 6:27

Tony and I have bored everyone in Hampshire about the Top 100.

Jack Buchanan: 6:31

Challenge.

Andrew: 6:32

So we thought well, let’s see if we can bore some people from Manchester. I love it.

Chris: 6:38

They might be a bit more receptive to the Top 100.

Nish: 6:40

Challenge. Very true, how are you finding it? I mean, what number are you on now? 61. Some of us are on 61.

Tony: 6:48

Some of us are on 58. I didn’t manage to get to the last three, unfortunately.

Chris: 6:54

Tony picked a solidarity here. We’ve played the same number of courses.

Tony: 6:58

Although I actually have played 59 because I’ve actually done the old courses at Sunnyvale twice, instead of actually surrendering your second spot to me. I could have given my second go to Andrew, but I thought fuck him. I’ll just take it again and see if I can have a better round.

Nish: 7:16

No gimmies, my friend, no gimmies. I feel like there’s like a mirror with this, because I’ve played the course that shall remain nameless Irkdale Bay.

Chris: 7:27

I’ve played that twice and I’ve not passed one of those over to you either. Very true, actually, yeah.

Nish: 7:31

Yeah, what made you get into it? What made you start it? Do you?

Tony: 7:37

actually remember, because I remember. Well, you go first, all right.

Andrew: 7:41

I’ll correct you as you go along. Okay, you go first, all right, I’ll correct you as you go along.

Tony: 7:44

Okay, so I think we’ve been doing this for like two and a half years and I remember. But prior to that we were members here and we were loving this course and it was great. But occasionally we’d go and play another course, go to hailing island, or we go to nip hawk or whatever and I remember us both being really excited about playing a new course. It was like okay, excellent, what’s it going to be like? It was just an exciting time and I remember Andrew he’d obviously thought about it, been thinking about it a while, and one day came up to me and said how do you fancy doing the top 100 UK and Ireland? I went, yeah, let’s do it, let’s go for it, why not? So we just threw ourselves into, into that sort of you know endeavor. It was, you know that was. It was as simple as that really that’s my memory.

Chris: 8:31

Just an interesting question do you still have that same level of excitement now?

Andrew: 8:34

you’re going out to the 100 every time every time we play a new course yeah, it’s like driving into the car, exactly, you know you literally go let’s pop it.

Tony: 8:45

I don’t want to put, I just want to get on the course yeah yeah, and you it.

Tony: 8:49

You want to know what all these you know, you, you play these top 10 courses, top 20 courses, and you think, oh, what’s it going to be like? And sometimes you know, we have been disappointed, hence playing top 90 courses and being, you know, like, wow, aren’t they great? But it’s just the excitement, what’s this course going to give you, what’s, what’s it going to show you? And you sort of had that today, you guys, by coming to hind head and being quite enthusiastic about the nine, the first nine holes, and then going well, actually the back nine were also quite good as well, and it’s just that excitement about a new course. You know what’s it going to show you. And there’ll always be, there’ll always be a hole or two that that you, that you go wow, you had to think about that hole. There’ll be, always be a hole or two that you play unbelievably well, you’ll take away from that course.

Chris: 9:36

So I guess, just a single hole did I play well today, can we just? We just get that in there, not one well?

Tony: 9:42

I’m hoping that hasn’t like. Detracted from the. You know the call detracted at all, can I?

Nish: 9:49

call a point of order on this. Okay, it’s supposed to be me ripping you about your golf. You can’t do it to yourself. That’s not fair do self yeah yeah, you’re supposed to go. I was all right, I did okay, didn’t I know you didn’t, chris, it was terrible so is that what you?

Tony: 10:01

is that how you remember it?

Andrew: 10:03

Yeah, no, absolutely. I feel the same sort of excitement when you drive into a car park of a golf course that you haven’t played before. But I don’t know. I mean, I love Hindhead, but at the end of the day I stand at the tee.

Andrew: 10:17

I know exactly where I should put the ball, where my first shot’s going to be, where my second shot’s going to be Inoperative word ball, where my first shot’s going to be where my second shot’s going to be, whereas I love playing the new courses because you stand on the t-block and you’re actually sitting there for the first time and going how do I play this?

Tony: 10:35

yeah, yeah, I know, but your ball’s still going to go to the right of the fairway. I mean, it’s not going to change much. Well, okay.

Andrew: 10:43

Do I go a hard right or a soft right? Is it a power play?

Chris: 10:47

What degree of right?

Andrew: 10:48

am I going to play?

Chris: 10:49

Yeah, this whole.

Andrew: 10:51

Who won today?

Tony: 10:56

I know, but now you’ve got a shot or two of me now. So what can I say?

Nish: 10:59

I feel there’s good. I mean, it’s great. It’s encouraging, isn’t it, that the guys are on 60. They’ve still got the same enthusiasm as they did.

Andrew: 11:06

Oh, we’re starting to get apprehensive about what happens when we finish, yeah, we’re already going there.

Chris: 11:11

We’ve already done 10.

Tony: 11:13

I’m just waiting for Andrew to come up with another list that he’ll probably change every six months, but it doesn’t matter. At least it’ll be another list.

Nish: 11:20

Correct, it’s something to do.

Tony: 11:21

Fill the void Exactly. Which way do you go Do?

Chris: 11:24

you go up to the top 100 in the world or do you go down?

Tony: 11:27

It’s like the top 100 in the country. I think there might be some in Oz that I’d like to think that in the not too distant future I might go to Oz and play a few.

Andrew: 11:34

How far to go.

Tony: 11:36

I also think there’s some. I think we can knock off a few European courses, yeah, european courses yeah, but let’s face it, there aren’t that many. I think we worked out the other day.

Andrew: 11:44

Yeah, yeah, no, if you look at the top European clubs.

Tony: 11:47

UK.

Chris: 11:47

Yeah.

Tony: 11:48

Ireland, scotland. Yeah, I mean in Europe there’s a handful, there is only a handful, I mean. So Japan as well. There’s quite a few over there, yeah, so I’m not sure that I don’t know.

Andrew: 12:00

No, I think we’re going to do 200. 200. Are we the second 100. We’re not going to do the first 100 again, are we no? No no.

Tony: 12:08

The next 100.

Nish: 12:10

You’ve already had, so Do you play set 100s twice yeah?

Tony: 12:15

101 to 200. Correct, well, they’re all going to be shit compared to the first 100, aren’t they?

Andrew: 12:22

Well, we’re going to discuss this, aren’t we? But I mean, I must admit we’ve been quite surprised how some of our favorite courses have been at the upper end of the rankings rather than the lower end of the rankings in fact, some of my favorite courses been in the 90s southport nanesdale. I loved southport nanesdale, I just did play.

Andrew: 12:42

Well, it was a nice day, yeah, which is something we can also discuss about. How the weather and how well you play influences your impression of the golf course St Andrews Castle. Course Doak said he gave it zero out of ten. We loved it.

Nish: 13:00

Abomination of Scottish golf.

Tony: 13:02

Was it an abomination? He said yeah abomination of Scottish golf.

Andrew: 13:05

It should have been. It’s a bit harsh, strong Abomination of Scottish golf. Was it an abomination?

Nish: 13:06

he said yeah abomination of Scottish golf. Yeah, abomination it should have been. It was a bit harsh. Strong, isn’t it? Strong words.

Tony: 13:09

Yeah, and it wasn’t abomination, it was a great course, yeah.

Nish: 13:12

I mean, what do you feel has been your favourite course so far? Is that a question that’s difficult to answer?

Andrew: 13:19

I Tony and I have actually always found that we’ve been a bit disappointed by the highly rated courses. So you go there with expectations and maybe the expectations are the problem that it doesn’t live up to expectations. But we’ve absolutely loved some of the courses in the 90s. I mean I mentioned South Point Nays A Brawra is just a fabulous fabulous fabulous day and we’ve been disappointed. I’m going to single out Royal Dornock. Was it Royal?

Nish: 13:54

No.

Andrew: 13:54

Was it.

Nish: 13:54

Royal Dornock, it is Royal Dornock. It was so bad you can’t even remember the name anymore. It’s out of my memory.

Andrew: 14:00

It felt like a sort of sausage machine.

Tony: 14:04

We’re greeted nicely, but we’re put in a queue and but to be fair, that’s happened on a lot of those big scottish courses you end up it’s like a.

Tony: 14:13

It’s like a machine. You know you turn up there and you’re listening, you’re waiting and he’s the guy, the guy that’s helping. The guy you know the people see off is giving them the speech and you’re listening to the speech and you go, okay, and then you go up there and you get the same speech and it’s just like a, as andrew says, it’s like a machine and they don’t really care. There’s there’s nothing special, it’s just like. Here you go and all they’re trying to do is get. Let’s face it, it’s a money making thing. They just want to get as many people mainly Americans to be fair through as they can and they hike up. As Andrew said earlier on, the fees now have gone through the roof. When we started off, it was whatever, and in some instances it’s doubled. Now You’re playing twice.

Nish: 15:01

You guys have been going about what three, three and a half years? Is it Three, three and a half years? Something?

Andrew: 15:05

like that In 22, I think we said I mean that’s a crazy short time.

Nish: 15:09

for it to Inflation is crazy, isn’t it?

Tony: 15:12

Yeah, but there’s an interesting story about that. So there were some courses in Scotland that are not necessarily in the top 100, but are top, top, top courses, and they didn’t understand why they weren’t getting any punters in. You know, compared to the, the biggies were charging four or five hundred pounds around and someone just said to them put your prices up and they’ll flood in. Guess what? They put their prices up from maybe 200 pounds to three, four, five hundred pounds. Everyone flooded in, all the americans flooded in, because the americans, as far as I can say, just went. Sorry, I hope there’s no americans listening to this, but there’s plenty of americans I’m sorry I’m

Tony: 15:52

sorry to say this, but uh, in fact not ruining our golf they, they, they flooded in and and it was because people didn’t know any better. They went via price maybe, rather than anything else, which I think is a obviously a classic mistake.

Chris: 16:06

But obviously those courses were happy after that because they had all the people going but it’s interesting what you say about that, that kind of sausage factory, and we’ve not really experienced that in terms of those big clubs yet. But coming here today feels like it feels like a real golf club. It feels like it’s a real golf club, the real members who are just here for you know, here for the, who are just here for you know, here for the golf course and here for the you know the club that’s surrounding that as well. It doesn’t, it doesn’t fit, there’s nothing about it that feels kind of elevated in terms of.

Nish: 16:34

We had a bit of a chat about. We had a four and a half hour journey down so we’ve got to stand around for half an hour while it’s charging two percent. But we did actually seriously have a chat about our excitement level for today and of course, you guys are listening to a preview and hopefully people listen have listened to the preview now. The golf was getting us excited, the engagement for the club was getting us excited, but also just the general vibe that we got about coming to Hindhead. It all kind of led to us just being really giddy today and I think we’re there.

Nish: 17:15

It’s great to hear you have this excitement every single time you go and play. That’s wonderful because that bodes well for us. How much does it elevate it? As soon as you get somewhere, you just go. It’s really welcoming. This is great. All the bar staff have been amazing with us. Everyone has been really courteous. They’ll do anything to make sure that we’re welcome. I actually get the feeling it’s nothing to do with the fact that you know we’ve got one of these yeah, in front of us. I think they’re just.

Tony: 17:42

No, they treat you the same way they’re just all brilliant here, you know, yeah, and yeah yeah and I think just talking about that anticipation.

Chris: 17:50

So you’re saying earlier, some of those big courses, you go in there with high levels of excitement, anticipation we would probably think the most excited, like we looked at the course and we gone.

Jack Buchanan: 18:00

I think we’re both really excited about.

Nish: 18:01

Yeah, that was just a golf thing. You know, that was even before any club stuff like it’s been it’s.

Chris: 18:07

It’s exceeded our expectations, isn’t it today? I think?

Nish: 18:10

I said, I said to you toady didn’t. I was like it today has actually it’s. It’s hard to believe this but it has exceeded our expectation of what the day was going to be pretty good, which is pretty good going, isn’t it?

Chris: 18:19

Because our expectations were pretty high at the beginning.

Nish: 18:21

Can’t speak highly enough of the club and some of the members, not these two. They seem like nice people.

Tony: 18:29

I think, also when you go to these big sort of, you know, sausage factories, if you want to call them.

Nish: 18:34

What are we going to call them? We’ll call them like corporate golf clubs. Yeah. What are we going to call them? We’ll call them like corporate golf clubs.

Tony: 18:40

Yeah, but it’s also it’s like one foursome after another, after another, after another, and you’re looking in front of them, you’re looking behind you, you’re worried, oh, we’re playing a bit slow. And when you go to clubs that are maybe not so highly rated, it’s just a bit more relaxing. Yeah, you know, you don’t you, you you get, sometimes you’ll, you’ll have. I mean, I think we’ve had this haven’t, we have a haven’t. We had someone come around once saying hurry up I think that’s a donut, was it?

Chris: 19:06

we got hurried up and don’t know despite the fact you got a time schedule.

Andrew: 19:10

Well, yeah, because you’re right behind the group in front of us.

Tony: 19:13

I mean it was, I think he’s just paid to tell people to hurry up and and felt that he should Start your round, hurry up, get out so we can get the next load in, and you sort of, instantly you’re angst about it, you don’t. He’s just like I can’t be bothered with this, I’m not interested, Actually. So actually, going back to what you said earlier on the next 100, as in 101 to 200, could actually end up being a better experience.

Andrew: 19:41

No, I think there’s a lot to be said for that, because I mean we loved all the courses in the 90s.

Chris: 19:49

I think we’re the same that way. Some of our favourites have been like Queens Moortown here.

Nish: 19:54

That’s mostly what we’ve played, mate. No, no, I think experience that has definitely been a been a thing. So look, that’s not a criticism of the clubs at that top level, because ultimately they’ve got hundreds of people playing on that course every single day. You’ve got that many things going on and that many people. It’s difficult to keep that same energy with everybody, and if that’s happening every day, 365 days a year, that’s that’s hard. It’s always becomes a robotic it makes it about.

Tony: 20:29

It makes it about the money, though correct.

Nish: 20:31

That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? And then then it’s. It’s not now about golf and experience, it’s just how much money can we get in? Yeah, basically go and spend some money in the gift shop yeah get out. You know, make sure you pass that through on the way out, that kind of thing.

Chris: 20:44

But your experience of county down, which is number one on the list, was not, wasn’t like that?

Andrew: 20:48

that was refreshing, because I’ve got to admit that I’ve already sort of built up this view that the top rated courses were not going to be what I liked. But Royal County Down, I just thought, was head and shoulders above anything I’ve ever played. I mean I just the most beautiful course, challenging. I was sort of apprehensive before I actually hit any shot, but I just loved it. I mean I thought it was perfection as far as I was concerned.

Chris: 21:17

I watched a bit of it on the Irish Open last year and I was like that looks like a genuinely difficult goal to play.

Tony: 21:25

At any level. It was tough. I didn’t have the same experience.

Andrew: 21:32

How many points did you?

Tony: 21:32

get, we played. We played County Louth, then we played Royal louth. We then we played royal county louth, county louth, royal county down, followed by port rush. And actually this brings on to a quite an important point about why do you think a course is good. So you know you. Only there’s only one answer is about why he thought royal county down was good. I mean, it’s a course and I thought it was a great course. He played it quite well. I had played a terrible round.

Chris: 22:03

There were a lot of left-right doglegs on County Down. No I, the power feed came into play.

Tony: 22:10

Yeah, it was all left-right, All left-right, you know all left-right.

Andrew: 22:16

You’re alluding to my?

Tony: 22:17

slice. I don’t think I could pop that day. However, county love, we both played well. To be fair and raw, port rush, you know, 35 points off 10. I thought that was handy. They were building it at the time for the open. Yeah, it was nice walking down the 18th for the whole the stands there and parring the 18th. So, of course, I course. I think you know Port Rush is an absolutely superb course.

Andrew: 22:42

And better than Royal County Down. Tony beat me at Port Rush.

Jack Buchanan: 22:46

I hate.

Andrew: 22:46

Port.

Nish: 22:47

Rush.

Chris: 22:48

Port.

Andrew: 22:48

Rush is just a stain on my memory.

Tony: 22:53

Scores aside, I have to say that Royal County Down was a superb course. I can’t say I enjoyed it. Oh, right, okay.

Nish: 23:01

Because it was too difficult.

Tony: 23:03

No, it wasn’t too difficult, I just didn’t play very well, right, okay. So it was a great, it was a beautiful course. I can’t deny how beautiful and how wonderful the course is. But if you said, did you enjoy it, tony, I’d have to say not really.

Chris: 23:19

But then and it’s an interesting one, because when we first started this we had three or four rounds under our belt. We played a few well and we played a few really badly and I think at that point I was finding it difficult to disassociate the round with how I’ve played. But actually three of my favourite rounds that we’ve played so far are Ganton, here and Silith, and they’re the three, by far the three worst rounds that I’ve played. I mean today is, I mean it’s markedly above those two. It’s the worst round I’ve probably ever played in my entire life.

Nish: 23:48

I don’t know if it’s come up so far but Chris had an absolute fucking.

Tony: 23:55

I find that interesting because it you know, so you don’t necessarily judge the course on. I mean you can judge a course as a golf player, as in you can tell whether it’s a goodie or a baddie.

Chris: 24:07

Yeah.

Tony: 24:07

But then your enjoyment factor is surely I mean, I think we both think that the enjoyment factor is part of how you play the course.

Chris: 24:16

But I thought it’d be very difficult to kind of split those two things up. But actually when I look back at to kind of split those two things up, but actually when I look back at it, I’m so bad at golf I don’t find that difficult at all.

Nish: 24:26

You know, everywhere I play I don’t have a particularly good round, so I’m able to almost disassociate myself from that pretty easily.

Chris: 24:31

So you’re saying, I just need to be shit more consistent, really bad Play like it is today. Every time, yeah.

Nish: 24:37

so all of the bets that we’re doing inside, but just keep losing them, mate Okay.

Chris: 24:41

Yeah, you might catch up after the next night, absolutely.

Nish: 24:44

Okay, we’re going to get onto the golf that we played today and we’re going to talk about the course shortly, but before we do that, we’re going to listen to the gentleman we mentioned before, and that was Mr Jack Buchanan, who head golf club Now. He’s a very long time member. He’s been a past chairman, he’s been a past club captain, he’s been a past trustee and a past director. In addition to that, he served Surrey Golf as a volunteer and has been the chairman and president of the county. And then, on top of all of that, jack was a good friend of someone I think every British golf fan will know, the voice of golf himself, peter Alice. So hello, jack, we’re delighted to have you on the podcast.

Jack Buchanan: 25:25

Well, I’m delighted to be here. Gentlemen, you know, and welcome time. I noticed in your introduction there was a lot of past.

Nish: 25:36

I’m sorry about that, Jack.

Jack Buchanan: 25:38

That I think about sums it up. I’m sorry about that, jack, that I think about sums it up. Here we are, but I’m still here, so I’ll be delighted to have a chat with you wonderful.

Nish: 25:48

Now we’re in the clubhouse today and we’re in the Galahad room now, jack, I think we’re going to get down to some questions because I think we’ve got so much to ask you about this wonderful club. We’ve done the preview of the course and the history and finding out about things like sir arthur conan doyle and just kind of the the establishment of the club, and we’ve done our course preview and I think it’s fair to say we’re pretty excited about getting out there very excited.

Chris: 26:12

I think, yeah, I think we said in the preview that I think it’s one of those courses that we’ve both looked at and said that looks exactly up our street. It’s slightly unique in terms of its characteristics. It looks like it’s pretty beautiful out there, I think, to go around. I think, when we’re playing poor golf, I think it’s great to, like you were saying earlier, to be able to have a look at some nice vistas whilst we’re playing some terrible golf.

Jack Buchanan: 26:35

I look forward to your game boys. I look forward to your game boys. In my view, there’s not many better places to spend an August afternoon than Hindhead Golf Course. It really is. It’s a good track, good golf course, but it’s scenic and I really hope you enjoy it. My one piece of advice is keep out the heather, Okay, Fairways and greens. That’s my advice, and you’ll have a wonderful time.

Nish: 27:06

Jack, please don’t be offended if I don’t take that advice.

Jack Buchanan: 27:08

I think I’m going to be in there quite a lot.

Nish: 27:11

I mean, it just looks wonderful, doesn’t it? We actually were very complimentary about the club’s website in our preview because it’s always a pleasant surprise when you jump on somewhere and I love the fact that you get the view from the tee, the approach and the view of the green, and I feel like I’ve kind of visualized the course quite well already, and that front nine is just stunning.

Jack Buchanan: 27:34

Absolutely stunning. I totally agree with you. Well, it’s interesting because when this course was first built, the first golf course in the area was the Hindhead and Hinkley Common Golf Club. But that was away down the valley and a lot of the people who played golf at the time the wealthy people, if you like lived at the top of the hill here at Hindhead. Wealthy people, if you like, lived at the top of the hill here at Hindhead and there was a desire to find somewhere to play up here rather than have to go down there.

Jack Buchanan: 28:08

120-odd years ago. It was difficult to get from down there back up here with whatever type of transport you had available to you at the time. So the land was sort of put together and unfortunately we’re on top of a hill you know what you can do about that and there’s fissures going down. You know the course was laid out just over, over a couple of valleys and then a bit of a plateau. You know you play, you’ll find you play down one valley, yeah, play up another valley, and then you come up and you play some holes up the top here, but it’s 18 individual holes. There’s no two holes the same, really and each one has a different challenge that I hope you respond to and I hope you play well.

Chris: 29:00

Well, I’m not sure we’ll respond to it, but we’ll certainly enjoy it anyway, I think, chris has probably been a little bit modest.

Nish: 29:06

I mean, Chris is pretty good at golf, he’s just sporadic. That’s the only thing.

Jack Buchanan: 29:11

I was pretty good at golf. That’s very unusual for golf Just for a bit of context how long have you been a member at Hindhead?

Jack Buchanan: 29:21

Oh, I moved to Churt. I bought a house on the northern boundary of the course in 1976. Okay, and I immediately joined the golf club. The golf club, it was quite interesting in that I graduated, qualified as an engineer in 1966. Still lived in Scotland, still lived at home. So I applied for a few jobs away from home. I offered a couple of jobs in Canada and one in Weybridge in Surrey, and in the summer of 66, I thought well, I’ll come and have a look at Weybridge in Surrey and I came down here for a bit of a holiday. The weather was lovely and there was a football tournament going on.

Nish: 30:17

Oh yeah, pretty obviously.

Jack Buchanan: 30:20

Which we believe we won the first game.

Jack Buchanan: 30:23

Well, when I say we, england, won the first game, and won the second game won the third game and eventually won the final, as you know, in the 1966 World Cup, football World Cup and that was wonderful. I mean the whole place, the atmosphere, the attitude. Everybody was having a ball that year. So it was fantastic. So I was a decent golfer at the time, weybridge and Surrey. I went along to St George’s Hill Golf Club and inquired about membership and they said, well, I could get on the waiting list, which was about six or eight years estimated at the time, so not very good for a 23 year old, with a possibility of Canada looming. Went along to Burr Hill golf club and they offered me immediate membership. But the cost to join, you know the annual subscription and the joining fee, equated to the cost of a house in the village I’d just left in Scotland. So I couldn’t bring myself to do that and apart from that I didn’t have the funds anyway. So I didn’t join a golf club for 10 years.

Jack Buchanan: 31:42

But when I moved here, our company secretary was the captain of Lippook, which is only about five, six miles down the road here, another great golf course, good golf club. So he said, well, come and join Lippook. And I thought, well, thank you very much. But there’s a golf course at the end of my garden, so you know I might like to join that one. And anyway, eventually he capitulated and he invited me to lunch to meet someone that would get me into Hindhead Golf Club. In the event, I couldn’t go to the lunch, I had to go off on a business trip, came back from the trip and had a letter from the Hindhead Club inviting me for an interview. So I came along the office. Upstairs was the interview room Panel of about six or eight or something. Question number one how long have you known Mr Irwin Bryan? 24 hours or something?

Nish: 32:40

Question number one. How long have you known Mr Irwin Bryan?

Chris: 32:43

24 hours or so.

Jack Buchanan: 32:45

No, I didn’t know, mr Irwin.

Chris: 32:46

Bryan.

Jack Buchanan: 32:48

We hadn’t had that pleasure. So that was quite entertaining and we had a very good meeting. Eventually they offered me a membership subject to a playing in round etc. And you know, I’m really just so pleased to be a member of this golf club. It’s a very good, it’s a good track. You’ll find it’s lovely. It’s just a wonderful place to be, as I said previously, but it’s a good club. It really is said previously, um, but it’s a good club. It really is a good club. It’s a good membership here. It’s eclectic but it’s social, it’s friendly and you can always get a game at hindhead do you think?

Chris: 33:30

do you think that’s what separates it? Because obviously, like you just alluded to, there’s there’s lots of brilliant golf courses around this area. Isn’t there kind of Kind of west of London? What do you think separates Hindhead from those other clubs? Is it the kind of social aspect?

Jack Buchanan: 33:46

Yes, I think that we are living in this west side of Surrey. You know, if you just think of the golf courses and this, you know they’re fantastic golf courses. You know 20 of them and I couldn’t, you know, I couldn’t say one golf course is any better than another golf course. They’re different, they’ve all got their own quirks, but the clubs are different. The clubs can be very different, as you can understand that. The clubs can be very different, as you can understand that and this is, hindhead is probably one of the friendliest of the clubs. Some other clubs might not agree with me on that and there are other friendly golf clubs, but this does get a reputation of being friendly and it kind of sets it aside.

Nish: 34:36

And I think we sort of walked through the door and immediately somebody said oh, you must be the podcast guys. And I’m like yeah, well, yeah.

Nish: 34:45

But you can’t as a casual golfer, but as somebody who we’re visiting a lot of the best courses in the country. But that’s just a tiny little thing. That’s just somebody knowing who you are, acknowledging who you are and also knowing about that, you know. So there’s obviously been some kind of discussion somewhere for somebody at the bar to just go oh, you’re the podcast guys, so it just fills you with like a nice feeling about the club and I think that makes a big difference.

Jack Buchanan: 35:15

Well, it’s all about communication, isn, isn’t it? Good clubs, good communication, and if everybody’s aware of what’s going on, then that’s a good thing.

Chris: 35:27

Yeah, so obviously you hail from Scotland originally, so is that where you first took up golf?

Jack Buchanan: 35:34

Yes, I played golf. I was very fortunate in Scotland. I grew up in a village, a small village, but it had a golf course on its outskirts. In every Scottish family there’s probably two or three sets of golf clubs available. The golf course was there. Youngsters I’m probably talking 13, 14-year-olds you would do school holidays, you would go up and knock a ball around and that sort of thing, and it wasn’t until I was about 18 that I actually decided that I enjoyed golf, got on with a bunch of friends who were golfers, and Scotland’s a wonderful place to to play golf. I mean, there’s so many golf courses.

Jack Buchanan: 36:24

Um, and so you trip up over golf courses and you know we’d go and play each other’s golf courses and members guest rates in Scotland then certainly then I don’t know now, but they were very, very, very, very reasonable indeed.

Chris: 36:43

Very much looking forward to getting up to Scotland to play some more golf.

Jack Buchanan: 36:46

I hope the weather’s like this when you get there.

Chris: 36:49

Can you promise?

Jack Buchanan: 36:49

us that it’s quite magical. If you get good weather in Scotland, it’s magical.

Chris: 36:55

So we were talking earlier about. So obviously you were a friend of Peter Alice. I think we all feel like we know Peter just from listening to him on the commentary of TV. But what was he like as a man kind of behind the cameras?

Jack Buchanan: 37:06

I thought he was a good friend of mine. I really do and I really do miss him. He was a phenomenal person. I mean, you know his track record as a golfer. He only really played competitive golf for about 20 years but he was the top European golfer for those 20 years and he won. In that time he won 21 major competitions not what we call majors today, but you know Spanish opens and Italian opens and comps like that. And you know eight Ryder Cup appearances, but fantastic golfer, you know played with them all, played with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson. You know Watson, you know it’s heavy biased, you know and could play with them all.

Jack Buchanan: 38:06

He gave up golf and when he was 38 years of age, gave up competitive golf, 38 years of age and coincidentally, that’s when the BBC in particular, maybe, and other no, no, no, not in particular, because he worked for ABC television. He worked for television companies all over the world really, but they started televising golf and I think he must have been a natural for that. One of the things about, one of the most interesting things I found about Peter, was that no matter where he went, no matter who he came across, no matter who he met and no matter what the circumstances, his first words were always the most appropriate words you could think of. You know, yeah, he just had a gift, didn’t he?

Nish: 38:57

The way he described things and the way he, I think he just he drew you into the gulf. I mean, you know all my early gulf watching memories. There is one soundtrack and that is peter alice’s voice. That’s it and it was just, it was magical. I mean. I think we all will all echo you jackie. So we all miss him, because there’s some moments in commentary think oh god, what would p, would Peter Alice say right now? You know it was great.

Chris: 39:23

I mean, I think without that kind of coverage of the BBC on the open, I don’t think I would have ever played golf. I don’t think I would have picked a set of golf clubs up. So I think it’s probably, I think it’s partially Peter’s influence ultimately.

Jack Buchanan: 39:35

I believe the BBC audience. You know millions of people, but not all of them. In fact, only about 50% of them played golf, but there was a lot of people who watched it because it was entertaining.

Nish: 39:49

It was entertaining?

Jack Buchanan: 39:50

yeah, absolutely, and the pictures were not too shabby either. You know golf courses and sunsets and whatever. But he listened and he observed. You know he could see things that you know, or he would notice things that I wouldn’t notice. And he always listened and his retention, his brain, was phenomenal. I mean, you know he could retain stuff, but he could recall it, he could bring it out.

Nish: 40:21

Jack, what’s the best round of golf you’ve ever shot around Hindhead?

Jack Buchanan: 40:25

Around Hindhead Gosh? That’s a good question. I’ve won a couple of tournaments here over the years. I don’t remember the best round ever I shot a 73. The best round ever, I shot a 73 at Gillen once, but that’s when I was very young. I think round here maybe my best gross score would be I don’t know 76 or 77.

Nish: 40:55

Right, I think we’re in for a 20 today, then that’s 20 years ago.

Jack Buchanan: 40:59

You know, yeah, today, then that’s 20 years ago. Yeah, that’s at least 20 years ago.

Chris: 41:04

Do you have a favourite golfing memory of Hindhead over the years?

Jack Buchanan: 41:10

Golfing memory at Hindhead. Lots and lots of golfing memories at Hindhead. I remember Peter Allis going round here and we went round the front nine and from the third it went three, three, three, three, three, three.

Andrew: 41:29

Wow.

Nish: 41:31

Do you have a particular hole here? That’s your absolute favourite to play.

Jack Buchanan: 41:37

No, I think all the holes here I really do enjoy all the holes and your favourites tend to be the ones you play well. I don’t know if I’ve found any particular hole here that I play well consistently. I’ve probably buried most of them, but you know that’s over 50 years, very forgiving course. The front nine particularly, they’re valley holes, so if you’re slightly offline you get a nice kick down onto the fairway, you know if you’re super wild, then you know.

Nish: 42:18

Okay, you’re up in the air not looking at anybody, chris, just don’t go there. Well, that’s good to know If you’re super wild, then you know.

Jack Buchanan: 42:23

Okay, you’re up in the air Not looking at anybody, chris, just don’t go there. But it can be forgiving. The greens are lovely.

Chris: 42:29

I think you’ll find the greens are excellent yeah well, we’ve just walked in and just had a little look at the 18th.

Jack Buchanan: 42:37

They look absolutely spectacular, immaculate. But what you have to be careful of is there’s lots of slopes, the greens. There’s quite a few slopes and they’re not that obvious, so the greens might appear to be very fast. If you’ve got a downhill part here, then it can go. You can lose it, but it’s because of the slope as much as the speed of the green. The short holes, the third holes, are a lovely hole.

Nish: 43:03

They look spectacular, the power threes.

Jack Buchanan: 43:06

And our signature hole has become the sixth hole, which is the short downhill hole. Not really the best hole in the golf course, but people get a buzz playing downhill, don’t they, for some reason? The 10th hole is another very good hole, but I mean, they’re all good, They’ve all got their own characteristic. We don’t have. It’s not a long, long course. We don’t have. You know, length isn’t the important thing here.

Nish: 43:41

um, accuracy is what you should be looking for well, jack, look, we cannot thank you enough for your time. Thank you so much, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Um, and yeah, I think we will take a few of your tips out with us today on the course we’ll. We’ll try and stay out of the heather as much as we can. Um, I’ve got new golf shoes so I probably better not wreck them. That’s good motivation for doing that. But thank you for your time, jack, it’s been an absolute pleasure.

Jack Buchanan: 44:06

It’s been a pleasure talking to you boys and enjoy your game.

Nish: 44:10

Well, that was a great chat with Jack. Again, he was a true gentleman of golf, very generous with his free time today and you know what? He’s an absolute credit to the club and he’s been a good servant to the county as well, and he was giving us some information about how juniors are getting through in the county, because Surrey do quite well with that, and he served both with amazing distinction. So thank you to Jack, thank you to Chris for organising that, and I think it’s time that we actually turned onto the golf and what actually happened out there on the greens, which, by the way, were magnificent. We keep saying I think we’ve had three courses on the trot now where we sort of said they were the best greens ever. They were the best greens ever, but they were the best greens ever.

Chris: 44:51

I think yeah, between this and Ganton. I think yeah, they were carpets slick, but carpets slick.

Andrew: 44:58

Nish, did you cut off the green twice?

Chris: 45:00

more than that. I think it was at least three or four times. Yeah, your putter was quite hot today.

Tony: 45:07

It was good, though, wasn’t it? I was knocking in a few six to eight footers in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris: 45:12

I was never nervous. It was great, but I mean anything beyond 30 feet, and you were.

Tony: 45:15

I was never nervous when you were six, eight foot away. It’s in the hool.

Nish: 45:20

I’m doing, I’m going to live.

Chris: 45:21

Just took him four puts to get there.

Nish: 45:23

I’ve had like 24 puts today or something like that.

Tony: 45:27

So what’s the machine telling you?

Nish: 45:30

37 puts. There you go and what you’re on about 37 sorry it’s not bad, I’m good with that. It’s that two, two, oh, it’s fine anyway, let’s talk about uh, we should get our side bet and signature hole challenge out the way. So we got tony and andrew involved in the same side, their signature hole challenge, which is a spectacular par three. It’s probably not the best par three here, I don’t think.

Chris: 45:51

I think that third, still did it for me. I actually think that’s probably one of my least favourite par threes of the par threes we played today People like this drop in elevation and stuff don’t they, whereas that never, does

Andrew: 46:02

it for me.

Tony: 46:04

Yeah, I mean, ultimately it’s not that difficult to hold if you choose the right club. Yeah, to be fair, I mean it’s.

Chris: 46:12

You know it isn’t really it’s, but I think, even just like visually, I think some of the other par 3’s were. I think the third is beautiful, spectacular which is the one which is really tricky? Is it the fifth or sixth? No, it was the eighth, eighth, the long one, the tiny green.

Tony: 46:31

I mean, that’s a tough par three when you drove it through in fact I did.

Chris: 46:34

Yeah, I should have hit a good shot there. That was a great shot. That was the one shot I hit all day, but you should have hit a five iron, not a four iron I.

Nish: 46:43

For completeness sake. What did you score on the sixth par three? What was your total score?

Chris: 46:51

There wasn’t one was there?

Tony: 46:53

No, because you lost your ball, so I would say nothing, yeah nothing.

Chris: 46:58

Okay, yeah, one better than a Holy One.

Nish: 47:01

Only because I parred it. Hashtag winner Signature hole nailed.

Chris: 47:06

I think I have probably spent more on lost golf balls today than I spent on the green fee.

Andrew: 47:12

I think that’s kind of you made a profit, didn’t you? How many Pro-V ones did you pick up today?

Jack Buchanan: 47:18

I picked up six Pro-V ones today.

Chris: 47:21

You know there’s six. Listen, we’re Northern Boys, right?

Tony: 47:23

They’re all Tonys. We Twins in Listen, we’re northern boys, right, they’re all Tonys. So we’ve come down to the south. A lot of them are minors. If anyone’s with three stripes on them we can have them back.

Nish: 47:32

Yeah, we’ve come down south and we’re just like cleaning up here. Got a late ball business going just from doing one around at Hindhead.

Tony: 47:37

It’s great. Just walk around the heather at Hindhead, you collect about 100 balls people just left a Pro V1 in.

Nish: 47:43

This is amazing. So we also then had a side bet and we should talk about the front nine versus back nine thing. We made a big deal of it and the front nine when you look at all the pictures and videos and things like that looks spectacular and it was it genuinely was.

Chris: 48:02

It was genuinely spectacular. And I think one of the things that you don’t necessarily get from looking at the pictures and the images is just the wildlife there’s just kind of wild deer roaming around and the vastness of it. It genuinely is God’s country. It’s genuinely spectacular.

Nish: 48:20

I took a picture on every single tee on the front line.

Chris: 48:24

That’s pretty normal for you, isn’t it, nish? I mean it is, but I was also accompanied by wow.

Nish: 48:30

It was a visual feast. We were expecting that. We were expecting, certainly the front nine that we were going to be like this is right up our street Now. We had a side bet on that, which was the lowest net score. I don’t even know what it is, but I know I’ll wipe the floor with you, which is so, so good.

Chris: 48:48

I’m not sure I even scored on any of the holes on the front end.

Tony: 48:51

It feels so fucking good to say that I think you might have done them one Maybe one.

Chris: 48:55

Should we look at them? You should have put some money on it, shouldn’t we?

Nish: 49:00

You should have put some money on it. This is where the first hole you’ve outscored me. Yeah. Brutal, brutal day I’m afraid, Chris, Sorry to keep bringing it up, but I’m sorry, not sorry. And the interesting thing and then you guys picked up on it as well, because as avid listeners, you have picked up on the fact that we did do this whole front nine versus back nine thing.

Nish: 49:23

So, you did ask us a couple of times. You know we’re interested to know what your actual thoughts are. What do you think of the back nine? So I’ll tell you mine in a bit. But, chris, what were your thoughts of the back nine? Maybe not versus the front nine, we’ll do that in a minute, but just the back nine in general.

Chris: 49:38

I mean, I just thought I individually, I think every single hole out there at hind head is just a spectacular golf hole, whichever, whichever way you look at it, whether it’s in a valley or whether it’s up on the plateau. And I said this to you kind of you played about 14, 15, and I was like there is not a single bad hole we’ve played today, but not even close to that, I think. Normally when we’ve played you pick out a section or a segment of three, four, five holes and you go. I really enjoyed that stretch, yeah, that stretch, yeah, but every single hole today I’ve enjoyed almost equally, for different reasons.

Nish: 50:11

But there wasn’t a boring point and click hole anywhere no, no, there isn’t.

Nish: 50:17

There isn’t at all you know even the ones where you look at it and you go that’s a wide, open fairway and there were a couple of occasions where you look at it and you go like pretty much a 70 degree angle of vision, it’s just all fairway but actually that whole dog legs. So it is straight and like it’s a good, easy target visually but it so if you go too long it’s you’re in, you’re in some heather. So there’s something to still occupy your brain there and there’s something to plot around yeah there’s something to think about and I I really liked that.

Nish: 50:50

I’m going to use a big word here, the juxtaposition of this visually spectacular front nine, where you look at it and you go, god, keep it straight, keep it straight, keep it straight. If I don’t, you know I’ve had it but, then, also if you’re kind of a little bit left, it kicks in and gives you a fair crack at it.

Chris: 51:10

It did for you, I mean yeah. I mean.

Nish: 51:13

I’ve so many, you’ve got glue on your balls.

Chris: 51:15

So many bad shots you hit today that ended up like six feet from the pin, but anyway.

Nish: 51:27

I mean, is the thing with the back nine? Is you could that was an opportunity at that point to plot your way around the golf course and think about your golf a little bit more, rather than just I need to get it in the middle and then take it from there. So there were a lot of times where you went actually, if you end up left here, that’s the right side to then approach the green. If you’re right, you’ve got less of a view of it. That was fascinating to me and that’s interesting thinking golf.

Nish: 51:58

The only slight issue maybe I have with that is that because you’ve done this whole epic up and down, I mean it’s a calf buster, isn’t it? That front nine? It’s an absolute calf buster. Because you’ve done that in the front nine, I think you’re kind of like knackered by the time you get to the back nine and you go right. I’ve got to think about this now and I’ve got to actually engage my brain and decide what I’m going to do. There’s a lot of times you could probably just lay up and and then that would give you a good approach shot rather than just get your driver out.

Chris: 52:34

so I thought it was a really interesting course, exactly for that, and I think we compared. So we, we compared it off the pictures and videos that we’d seen to queens, didn’t we? And I think? I think it’s almost. It’s almost like Queens, but more grown up. So Queens was beautiful and it had the beauty and it had the that’s the phrase I used to Andrew. But yeah, it’s exactly that, it’s Queens, but it’s more of a grown up, so it’s more like a kind of a Ganton feel like it’s got that yeah, I feel like I don’t know prestige, kind of feel about it, I think that’s the word.

Nish: 53:01

It’s got like it’s.

Chris: 53:03

It’s a proper golf course yeah, like it’s a challenge, isn’t it?

Nish: 53:06

it’s a proper challenge, but it’s also so hinded is actually ranked 91 on our list and we both said that feels completely wrong, doesn’t? It completely wrong yeah, and I think obviously you know you guys coming from. Maybe it’s not really a bias point because you’ve done 68, uh 62 courses or 61 courses, so you have experienced them and you know where you’re at with that. Yeah, it feels it’s pitched wrong and you know, is that somebody getting the wrong end of the stick with the course? I’m not sure.

Tony: 53:37

Maybe they didn’t play it very well and they’re pissed off with it because it was too hard for them. Yeah, brain, you never know the six people, or whoever five or six people that tried to rate it went. Fucking. Hate this course it’s too difficult.

Jack Buchanan: 53:49

I’ve been in the heather all fucking day. I lost 10 25 balls.

Nish: 53:53

But yeah, I don’t like it and it’s as simple as that. Andrew’s beating me today. I hate this course. I hate this course, yeah, I think. I think like the. That golf was great today. It really like the not our golf, sorry, but like like the golf course. The golf it was brilliant. Yeah, really good fun.

Chris: 54:09

Start to finish. It was Serious.

Nish: 54:11

Yeah, visually stunning Couple that, with you’re made to feel like it Lots of deers. We did how many deers did we see? We saw lots today. Half a dozen.

Chris: 54:29

Yeah, today half a dozen, yeah, at least, yeah, yeah and they’re not.

Tony: 54:30

I saw mostly in the woods, but yeah, unfortunately he thinks they’re kangaroos because that’s what he thinks.

Nish: 54:35

Eventually he’ll get educated and we’ll he’ll find out it’s an interesting question for you too, actually, because you now played so many courses and we’ve spoken about this, so it’s kind of revisiting a chat that we’ve had while we’re playing golf. But you, what do you think about where hind head fits on that list?

Tony: 54:55

and also then, what like where in the top 100? Should it be correct as far as we’re concerned with what we’ve played so far? Yeah, you’re going first.

Andrew: 55:02

I’m going to go first because you stalled? I don’t know. I mean, I’m from Australia, really.

Tony: 55:10

No way.

Nish: 55:12

I love shock horror.

Andrew: 55:15

I mean, I just absolutely adore Lynx courses. So I actually think that the fact that Parkland Heathland courses shouldn’t be that high is fair. But when you actually look at some of the Heathland courses right above Hindhead I am scratching my head. The front nine is stunning Visually, sort of unique compared to what we’re seeing. We’ve not seen any courses where you get that sort of glacial sort of unique compared to what we’ve seen. We’ve not seen any courses where you get that sort of glacial sort of feel.

Tony: 55:51

No, they’re all flat and boring the other ones A lot of them, it should be higher.

Andrew: 55:56

But I also suspect that every club member is always going to promote his club as being better than what it’s rated.

Chris: 56:05

I think we agree with you.

Tony: 56:06

I think this feels like the most misplaced club that we’ve played but also you’ve got, you know, 60, 60, 65 out of the top 100, or links yeah, I think yeah, maybe nearly 70. Okay, um, you know that’s reasonably high percentage. So you know what does that mean. You know why are 65% to 70% of the courses in the top 100 NINX courses you know, that’s something that needs to be looked at, because you know why.

Nish: 56:38

That course out there today that had everything that I want in a golf course. It really did so. I love a golf course with trees Like trees. I want to hear birds and things like that. I think it lends itself to more interesting topography of a golf course. There’s more interesting stuff in your eye line and I think it was just. It was the right side of challenge that.

Nish: 57:02

I think you could go there. You could probably be a bit conservative if you wanted to and you could score really well, or you could just go for it and then just take it as it comes and then just experience an up and down round. Yeah, but you’d walk off that and go. That was brilliant.

Tony: 57:20

But if someone, if someone said, someone said to you prior to playing this course oh, by the way, heinhead is number 42. Would you have gone? Would you be sitting here today going 42? Are you having a laugh?

Nish: 57:35

Yeah, not at all.

Tony: 57:36

You’d just be going 42?.

Nish: 57:37

Yeah Right, all right yeah.

Tony: 57:39

You know, considering the other courses that you have to consider, that are, you know? I mean, let’s face it, there are circa 2 000 courses in the whole of uk and ireland and we’re playing the top 100, so we’re playing the top five percent. So, let’s face it, they’re all good courses, aren’t they? All of them are good courses. But you know, as I said earlier, you know, if you’d said it’s oh, by the way, it’s 42, 43 you go okay, fair enough, yeah, it’s not, it’s’s 90-whatever. Yeah, 91.

Chris: 58:06

And I think I’d quite happily put it in the top 20. I mean, obviously we’ve not played a lot of the top-rated courses yet, but it’s in the top one or two, possibly three, that we’ve played so far.

Nish: 58:17

Do you know what this is? Seismic this because? So what you’re saying is it’s in top one or two alongside Ganton.

Chris: 58:26

I think this and Ganton are probably my two favourites we’re talking to.

Nish: 58:30

This is a staunch Cumbrian and I genuinely don’t think.

Chris: 58:35

Silicon Solway would get knocked off that top two spot, silicon, is a great track, so you should come and play. We’ll all play Silicon together, because I’d love to play there again, but it was these are interesting times.

Nish: 58:46

We’ll come and play Cilith here at some point, because I’d love to play there again. Yeah, but it was. You know these are. These are like these are interesting times. You know, chris, all of your previous almost expectations. I think you admitted it.

Chris: 58:58

Yeah, I basically said it’s going to be number one, I don’t care what happens, it’s going to be in the top one. I think that was your attitude, almost, wasn’t it? Yeah, we wasted our time playing the 99.

Nish: 59:06

And we played 11 and two of them have jumped above.

Andrew: 59:10

You’ve actually got that in front of you. I mean, the top 100 is fabulous Every course. We’ve never walked off, arxton you have. Never walked off a course not actually thinking that was fabulous. Yeah, well, apart from no matter what they rated, I mean 99 rated, which was Moortown, I think is 99. It’s down there, yeah. Loved it Two of the best holes I’ve ever played the 10th and the 18th. I just thought what great holes yeah.

Tony: 59:45

And that’s 98. Like the old course, no, the castle course. I, I just thought what great holes, yeah. And that’s 98. Like the old course, no, the castle course. I mean at St Andrews, Like what a great course.

Andrew: 59:52

Yeah.

Tony: 59:52

Absolutely loved it.

Andrew: 59:53

So there’s nothing you’re going to actually play. That you’re not going to like Exactly.

Nish: 59:58

It’s good and good-er-er-er-er, or whatever you call it. You know.

Tony: 1:00:04

And then it comes down to did you enjoy the day? Yeah, and that can be certain factors, weather and basically your own personal experience.

Nish: 1:00:09

Some of us enjoyed it better than others.

Tony: 1:00:12

And that’s really what it comes down to, because, as I said earlier, let’s face it, they’re all good courses. Yeah, to be in the top 100 out of 2000 courses, you’ve got to be quite good. Yeah, whoever is rating them, they’ve got to be quite good. Whoever is rating them, they’ve got to be quite good. And then it comes down to personal experience.

Nish: 1:00:32

Simple as that. I feel like normally we get quite forensic with the golf courses and we’ll probably try and describe them in quite great detail. I feel like we’d probably, if somebody’s listening to this, thinking, yeah, maybe I will go and play. I feel like we’ll do them a disservice by being ultra descriptive of what we’ve just done, because I think that Voyager discovery on this course would be. I wouldn’t want to deny somebody that a little bit is that me doing a cop out for not having to describe the game. I think you’re right.

Chris: 1:01:06

I think it’s something you’ve got to experience, I think it’s so unique. I think you can look at the pictures and it looks beautiful and it’s stunning. But I think actually just walking through those valleys and walking down those you know, standing on those tees and walking down those fairways, is not something we are playing this top 100 at all.

Tony: 1:01:23

I think you’re right. I think you should let people listen to this and then play yeah, and then let them have. Let’s see what they think.

Nish: 1:01:32

And actually come and experience the club, because there is such a friendly atmosphere as soon as you walk in that I think it puts you at ease. You’re not going to feel like you’re in a snooty top 100 club. You’re not going to feel like you’re in a snooty top 100 club. You’re not going to feel like you’re out of place. Everybody said hello, everybody was kind, everybody was polite, everybody was courteous and it’s just. It just validated everything we were expecting from our day to day. And we’re not saying that because we’ve got two members sat with us who were actually bigger than us, so they could probably beat us up.

Chris: 1:02:06

Not as fast as us, though I reckon we could run away you could certainly outrun one of us we’ve had an amazing day today.

Nish: 1:02:17

We’ve said it a few times and we’ll keep saying it till we’re blue in the face. But thank you Andrew, thank you Tony you’ve been gems, and what a wonderful day it was today. And, andrew, we have the pleasure of your company tomorrow. We’re playing Hankley Commons, so correct, yeah.

Chris: 1:02:31

Andrew’s not playing after seeing me today, unless of course his knee goes off which goes on ready and ready to rock we’re going to do 666. He’s going to throw the ball to Ben Riggitt, so his team Exactly. Just put that one in the little thing I’m not playing with Chris again.

Tony: 1:02:47

Oh, I wonder what happened.

Nish: 1:02:48

It’s like not even thrown it. But yeah, thank you, gentlemen, that was absolutely wonderful. So before we sign off, we just wanted to maybe add a little bit more about Hindhead Golf Club, because we sat in Chris’s car at the end of our round at Hankley Common and we both during our round at Hankley Common and we both during our round, had a little moment where we thought maybe we should talk about the course a little bit more in depth yeah, I think we’d all had a few beers, I think, at the end of the round yesterday and we had a great chat with the guys it was.

Chris: 1:03:19

It was a wonderful chat. We felt like we didn’t necessarily do the course justice. Yeah, in terms of actually talking about the course and how we found our experience there.

Nish: 1:03:30

We basically had a bit of regret the next morning.

Chris: 1:03:32

We did, and we had a great chat about the Top 100 and their experience and where they’re up to and all that kind of stuff, but we didn’t feel like we really spoke about the course quite enough. Yeah, and it was a magnificent place to play golf, wasn’t it, I mean, the most magnificent place I’ve ever been, like it, it was so surreal, it was so beautiful and it was such a a unique experience like I don’t think.

Nish: 1:03:53

Well, I know we’re not going to have that experience anywhere else yeah, we sort of tried to fudge it a little bit by saying that, look, discover it for yourself.

Chris: 1:04:00

But actually we’re here to tell you about it.

Nish: 1:04:03

Yeah, exactly that’s our duty and that’s what we’re set out for and I think I said to you this morning, didn’t I?

Chris: 1:04:09

I came away and I said it’s like a fairy, it’s like something you would paint in a children’s book. It’s so stunningly beautiful and you can just imagine little fairies hanging around there at the bottom of the trees and like it’s just wildly beautiful I think.

Nish: 1:04:25

I get that. I get that, chris as well, and I think I suppose bringing it maybe a bit more technical little things like Don’t get technical on me, nick, I know, mate, I’m nerding out on bunkers now.

Jack Buchanan: 1:04:35

It’s so weird this.

Nish: 1:04:37

But little things that I noticed at Hindhead were things like bunkers. So they weren’t ridiculously deep, so you’re not going to go in a bunker. You think I can’t get out of this, but they’re no worse than your your regular down the road golf course. What they did have was they were all topped with a bit of heather and a bit of rough and that blended into the background really well but then also made the bunker stand out enough but also not visually be an intimidating bunker. So I think that was really nice. There weren’t a ridiculous amount of bunkers at hind anyway. They didn’t need them because because the nature of the course and I think the other thing that really hit home to me that I think we didn’t bring out initially was a lot of the times we were very fortunate, we were with two members and a lot of times they’d give us a little hint and they’d say you don’t want to go over the back here because it’s dead there.

Chris: 1:05:32

Yeah, I mean, they were absolutely invaluable, pretty much every green.

Nish: 1:05:34

They were telling us that. They were brilliant, so there’s something to avoid, or you want to be short and run up and things like that and I think it’s worth it.

Nish: 1:05:41

If you are playing and if you aren’t fortunate enough to be able to play with a member, I think it’s worth looking at the greens and it’s worth maybe consulting a few videos. I’m not listening to this. We’re not describing each green, but just getting an idea that where are the safe zones in the green? Because actually some of them. If you did go over the back, there was a lot of shit to get through.

Chris: 1:06:03

Yeah, and it’s interesting because I think on the 10 or 11 we’ve done so far, we both had slightly different views on whether it should be the challenge that we’re rating or the beauty and the scenery, and I just think hindhead had the absolute perfect combination, combination of both those things. The balance was right there yeah, like I think to queen’s course is. You know, it’s near the top of our list and it is absolutely beautiful. It’s a stunning location.

Chris: 1:06:27

I don’t necessarily think it had that challenge. It had the fun, but I don’t think it had that level of challenge and I think Hindhead has got the perfect blend for both of us to come away and go. Actually, do you know what? That was the most beautiful, but significantly challenging. But it was playable. It was playable, but if you hit a bad shot, I mean I lost, I mean I had a lot of bad shots, right, a lot of bad shots. Yeah, mostly bad shots. Yeah, we definitely need to bring that out.

Nish: 1:06:54

But certainly, things like, I mean, the front nine, which we eulogized about and we were just like this is going to be epic. But if you were a little bit offline because it was in a valley, it would, yeah, it was going to kick back, but if you were a little bit, offline because it was in a valley, it would kick back into the fairway.

Andrew: 1:07:08

Well, that never happened to me, never happened to you. It was so far away.

Nish: 1:07:10

Even the kickback ended up in pretty bad heather, but it was, I think, well. Actually, I brought the point up today while we were playing that on reflection I should say not in reflection, but on reflection even though in that front nine you’d invariably you’d end up somewhere in the middle, unless you were way wide. It was the approach you had to be a bit mindful of.

Chris: 1:07:35

Yeah, because those greens there’s a lot of on the aprons there’s like big drops just before the green, which you can’t see usually.

Nish: 1:07:41

So, like I say, without that course, knowledge from our playing partners, we would have been completely and we heard from Jack earlier and Jack said that you will find that sometimes these greens, there is a very subtle break, but it’s quite a big break. And actually that was noticeable, particularly, I think, after we played another golf course straight after today.

Chris: 1:08:00

I mean, I think that’s the most I’ve ever seen when we played together was putting off the green. Putting off the green I think probably five, six times.

Nish: 1:08:07

You were a little bit off, it was just like it’s gone yeah, you know, and I think that was great I mean, the greens were great, I love the greens there but like that kind of little bit of local knowledge did help, yeah, and yeah I mean, but yeah, maybe we didn’t bring it out enough, it was such a magnificent golf course I think again just on that kind of, on that reflection.

Chris: 1:08:28

I I think after the hunt we played all 100. I still think this is going to be one of the courses where, if somebody somebody comes up to me.

Nish: 1:08:37

It’s your hidden gem course no.

Chris: 1:08:39

But if somebody comes up to me and says, what, where should I go and play, I’m pretty certain that hind head is going to be either at the top or very, very near to the top.

Nish: 1:08:47

We chatted a lot at the Curry House afterwards and we did say all of us that Hindhead is ranked 91 on our list. It doesn’t feel like a 91.

Chris: 1:08:58

It doesn’t appear in all the other lists. I mean it just feels like total madness.

Nish: 1:09:03

I don’t know what were they on when they were doing it as 91? Like it didn’t feel like. I don’t know what were they on when they were doing it as 91, like it didn’t feel like it. I don’t know whether it’s just, I think it’s I think it, yeah, maybe a little bit that and maybe it’s just too quirky for some people and they go away going.

Chris: 1:09:13

I know that’s not real golf I think you just can’t.

Nish: 1:09:18

You can’t go there and not have a good time playing golf. I think you need to go with an open mind to it in terms of you are going to not get your standard momentum of golf course. I think there’s a lot of highlights in that golf course. You’re gonna you could almost see it as 18 individual highlight reels in a golf course. Yeah, and that that’s great isn’t it and the green fees aren’t extortionately high in head are they?

Chris: 1:09:50

Yeah, and I think everything else we’ve played. There’s been a stretch, there’s been three or four holes, or there’s been a nine, a front nine, a back nine or whatever and you’re going. Oh, I really enjoyed that, but there’s not a single hole on that, golf course, that I didn’t absolutely love.

Nish: 1:10:04

There was not a weak hole in that golf course at all, there was nothing there that you just went.

Nish: 1:10:07

Oh, this is pretty standard. I can see what I’m doing, that’s fine. All the par threes were magnificent, by the way, and the sixth gets the signature billing, and I think we were all saying it’s because it’s downhill and people like that. But all of the par threes were stunning to look at. They all had an out. There was some way you could lay up short or whatever, so it was playable. Yeah, I think we probably didn’t. I don’t know, we probably did actually, but I think it bears repeating again that that was a bloody good goal of course, yeah, and if you’re down south, make your way over there and go and play.

Chris: 1:10:45

It’s worth the effort was so worth the four and a half hour trip down amazing, it’s so worth sitting in a car now waiting for it to charge at a charging point and recording a few extra bits for the podcast.

Nish: 1:10:59

Is there anything else you want to pop on there, chris?

Chris: 1:11:02

I don’t think so other than I think for the minute, that is number one for me’t think so. I don’t think so, Other than I think for the minute.

Nish: 1:11:07

at the minute, Hindhead is number one for me of what we’ve played, I think so that’s a bombshell, number one of what we’ve played Interesting. Yeah, it’s up there, isn’t it? It really is up there, and how good is this that we’ve played it. We’ve finished. During the preview, we were expecting it to be a good place that we’re going to enjoy but if you would have seen that list before, that is not a course that we would have highlighted and said, oh, I’m really looking forward to playing that it would almost like let’s tick the box off and it’s done

Nish: 1:11:36

yeah, but amazing, and we’ve done it early, I feel. I feel really grateful we’ve done it early, because I think that might have got lost, maybe later on, who knows in, amongst other things, and but what a great golf course. I don’t, I don’t know the the visitor green fee at all. Um, because we’re lucky and fortunate enough to be invited by by members. But whatever it is, it’s got to be worth it. Absolute, valueute value for money that. So that was our little extra bit to add on. Next time, on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, we’ll be previewing Gullan no 1, which we’re playing as part of a little triple-header Scottish trip.