The NISH Invitational

Nish: 0:00

Every story has an ending. Does our quest to play the Top 100 courses in 10 years have a good ending? I’m Nish, I’m Chris, I’m Jim and we’re here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 110 Golf Podcast. Bonus episode Nish Invitational. So last week we played the Nish Invitational, which is an annual day we organise. I’m with my co-creator here, which is Jim. We’ve done five editions of this. Now I’ve done four. I couldn’t make it last year.

Harbs: 0:26

You couldn’t make it last year, of course.

Nish: 0:27

yeah, We’ve had varying degrees of participation. We had 12 players this year, which is the most we’ve ever had, so I’ve got the guys in. Chris is obviously here as well, and we’re going to just sort of discuss how the day went.

Chris: 0:47

Initial thoughts when initial thoughts bloody hot, it was very hot, it was singapore hot, it was just like it was like muggy, wasn’t, it was like that yeah, singapore is exactly spot.

Jim: 0:52

Singapore heat heavy heat, wet heat I I think I I probably dropped 30 percent of my body weight just by how much I I sweated. My shorts were falling down because I think I’ve lost some. I’ll tell you how hot it was.

Nish: 1:07

Mr Gibbons was wearing shorts. That is one of my key rules of golf.

Chris: 1:11

I cannot play golfy shorts. That was proved on the day the taxi arrived and picked us

Paul: 1:19

up.

Nish: 1:19

I was like he’ll get changed out.

Jim: 1:23

No, I’m wearing shorts.

Nish: 1:26

It’s two episodes in a row now as shocking revelations. To be fair, it was that hot.

Chris: 1:30

It was one of those days I said to myself I’ve literally just had to walk around my boxes all morning until the last point, the last point.

Nish: 1:35

I’m about to get out of the house and put my clothes on so I’m not just like dripping with adidas, you’re gonna be like it’s not. I don’t care about the golf course. Did they take me to the course in the buggy and all this sort of stuff.

Harbs: 1:54

It’s brilliant.

Nish: 1:55

So many, so many barriers you’re breaking down. Chris, the kind of guy I am this trailblazing trailblazing yeah, absolutely so. So look, I had the best day.

Jim: 2:06

It was absolutely it was the phrase that was used quite, quite a lot. Like a pig in like a pig in.

Nish: 2:12

I said that, yeah, a lot, even when it was raining like this. Is you?

Chris: 2:15

know, but you are just. You’re like when you’re organizing something, like you’re in your absolute element, aren’t you?

Nish: 2:20

I love you just love it.

Chris: 2:20

You absolutely love it. You take it to the. It doesn. Nothing like that bothers me, which makes it a great day, right Of course it does.

Nish: 2:26

I mean yeah.

Chris: 2:27

Well, that added extras that no one else would quite frankly have, the you know bother to do.

Nish: 2:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that makes it like you know, we’d spoken a preview of it many, many months ago. I was like I’m going gonna go to town on it this year. You know, we had nice tea signs and all this kind of stuff and yeah, that kind of stuff just, I think me and my think anyway, just just elevates it from oh, we’re there to play in golf to oh, I’m not just actually a proper thing.

Chris: 2:56

Yeah, all the little touches that you did yeah, it makes like a, an event in the day of it. Yeah, you know, you’ve got.

Jim: 3:01

You got the mementos from the day as well or misbranded, so yeah I think people who probably haven’t played competitions or had been participating in golf days like that. They weren’t aware of what it all entailed. They do know.

Chris: 3:22

I think they really appreciated it as well.

Jim: 3:24

We really appreciated it from all the efforts that you made to make it such a spectacular day right, that’s lovely to hear.

Nish: 3:33

I’ll give you your five minutes later. We should slag him off a little bit more.

Chris: 3:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m not comfortable with this now keep going, keep going massage that ego.

Nish: 3:44

We did everything we wanted to do it properly, so we all had bacon sandwiches. Unfortunately, we had tea and coffee when we first arrived, which wasn’t the ideal drink to have with our bacon sandwiches, not that coffee.

Jim: 3:52

I’m not impressed by that coffee, was it not good?

Nish: 3:57

it won’t be open. Interesting, interesting, well, we must say the venue which is. We played at Worsley Park Golf Club, so it’s a Marriott hotel or Delta hotels I think they’re called now but the venue is. We’ve played there now. The three of us have played a couple of well, three times now Three times yeah. And you did Miss last year. This is the third we did it twice, at the start. We’ve done this.

Chris: 4:25

The venue is purpose-built oh, it’s totally for that kind of day, isn’t it?

Nish: 4:30

yeah, and the course is great because it’s again probably a good mixture of challenge and actually you can. You can have a good yeah, it’s totally playable.

Chris: 4:39

I think any like any any ability golfer is going to go and have a good day, then you can go and have a hack around it. Okay, I think Tom still enjoyed his day.

Nish: 4:48

Oh, he had a great day. He did say he had a great day still, yeah. I think, yeah, he was a bit done over by his playing part. To be honest, he was a little bit yeah.

Jim: 4:59

Mike, he was playing with the purists, wasn’t he? The absolute purists, the purest, wasn’t he?

Nish: 5:03

The absolute purest. Yeah, there was a few, I fell for it, sorry.

Chris: 5:07

It was quite funny. To be fair, it was quite funny.

Nish: 5:09

Well, I’d say, probably for a few holes, and then after that you’re just like give me a break. It’s not challenging anybody here, so but yeah, it gives you a good feeling of a well-oiled machine for doing corporate golf days. Yeah, that place it just works, doesn’t it?

Chris: 5:27

because you don’t you know, people don’t have to come up and, you know, have a handicap certificate.

Nish: 5:31

There’s, no, there’s none of that kind of vibe is that they can just do it casually and like you can just go and easy check-in procedure have some beers when you go and play around, like, just enjoy yourself, like the, even a little bit so I’ve been to a few court courses and club hours and things like that where maybe the bar and the restaurant feel a bit disjointed away from it. It’s all just really well run and you just do that fantastically well. There’s little outside terrace If not. There’s loads of seating inside. There’s great practice facilities. We’ve got a grass range that we’ve got Everyone’s got range balls, so yeah, a grass driving range that you can use the wide open spaces around it.

Nish: 6:10

So even when everyone finished, it was great because we were sort of hung around the 18th green and we just stood there waiting for the other groups to come in and it wasn’t like we stood there and people can’t play their approach shot because we were right at the green. It was like there’s loads of room and that was nice. We just sort of stood there just watching the groups come in. It’s like how are you doing Everything? All right. So I think that added kind of for me anyway, added to the atmosphere of the day. That’s what I wanted to create. You know, loads of people hopefully genuinely said it was really nice to meet everybody and get involved fully and all that kind of thing. So I thought that went incredibly well and we’re going to be hearing from some of the various bits from the day as well, but we won’t dwell on the winner because I think he’s had enough air time, he who shall remain nameless.

Nish: 6:58

He’s also stolen my trophy, which he said he’s going to give me back when we play at West Lancs.

Chris: 7:08

I’d get that officially in my niche.

Nish: 7:10

Yeah, you’ve got to be on official filming duty to get that back. But we should mention that we were tempted to do Kangaroo Court with Paul, weren’t we? Because, yeah, he went and played a practice round that a week before the niche invitational, which is a friendly competition for the sake of having something there to give you some meaning to your round, and we put in 10 pounds each and you spent 60 pounds on a practice round and told you it was competitive, it was unbelievable it’s just amazing though you can see that getting worse and worse and worse every time that you meet it what

Nish: 7:49

was what was really funny, was there’s a couple of occasions. So we wouldn’t. Once we we’d said no gimmies, didn’t we? At the start of the the round? Yeah our group were grinding to a halt because none of us were putting particularly well yeah, yeah so we were like, look, we’re gonna have to do something here.

Nish: 8:07

Like we can’t, we gotta, we gotta get a rig along. So paul was advocating for gimmies very, very quickly and he was like, yeah, yeah, give me. So there was. There was a couple of occasions it is I get hold, give me thing. When you with somebody competitive, I find incredibly awkward, because when you’re gonna make them put and when you, when it’s like, oh, it’s a bit out of yeah, it’s not really gimme range.

Nish: 8:29

You know there’s a couple, I think it was the. It was the hole that we did the longest drive on, so it was like the 13th. So spanked a drive and then hit my approach, shot. I had an eagle putt yeah great. And just nestled it by the side of the hole. Birdie tapping, birdie, great, great.

Nish: 8:46

So he’s like oh, you can have that, yeah great yeah, paul had already done his and he’d done his birdie putt and he probably left it, probably about putter and up half a putter’s length away. So it’s definitely outside the grip. Yeah, yeah, right and he was really slowly walking up to the ball like waiting for me to go.

Paul: 9:04

You get up there, and I was just doing that whole like looking away don’t want to engage.

Harbs: 9:09

Don’t want to engage. Look at that phone. Carbs can say something if he wants to, but I’m not.

Nish: 9:13

I’m not saying anything so I was like just give me a minute did he miss? It no, he oh that’s a shame. Paul played really really well. Yeah, it sounds like it is. Yeah, I mean, if you haven’t figured it out, then he who shall remain remain nameless, as the winner was actually Paul. Can I change it, can I? I can just change the competition, I’ll just go whatever you want.

Chris: 9:31

Yeah, that was a bit of controversy, because, yeah, I think the format’s been quite worded there.

Nish: 9:36

I think next time round I’ll focus as much on all the fine touches and I’ll just put somebody else who knows what they’re doing in charge of the cups.

Chris: 9:44

Just put more nearest to the pins. I think that’s what you were going to say you were not happy with the lack of nearest to the pins were you. Nearest to the pin was good.

Nish: 9:51

That was interesting, wasn’t it? So, lead group, I knocked mine quite close. I knew somebody was going to get inside that, but I was quite happy to put my name down on the strap. It was 285 and it was right in the middle. I was like great name on them. And then, coming up behind, it was Lee Enright. He knocked his inside hand in. I think he turned around to your group. He did. He gave me some fingers.

Chris: 10:19

I think he put his shorts down over the nearest pin thing and then started pacing it out, and so we were stood in the tea watching this, and I was like to the group.

Nish: 10:25

I was like someone has got to get inside that, someone has to get inside that after that I’m surprised you didn’t fire the ball at him, and he shanked it as well, didn’t he?

Jim: 10:30

It wasn’t even a good shot. Oh, I know.

Nish: 10:34

That’s the thing I hit an. It was like that’s looking really good, that’s great yeah bit back to being all this sort of stuff. It was like I had the worst t-shirt and it was inside.

Chris: 10:42

It was like I hit a good one that they went six inches inside his but he said to me after I said he was watching it and he said he saw it coming in and he saw it land and he said, oh great, that’s gonna, that’s gonna go past mine. And then it just stopped and spun a bit back and just I mean he finished literally like six inches in front of his peg.

Harbs: 10:58

Oh, brilliant.

Chris: 10:58

Right on line with it, so like where the Cue the jokes I?

Nish: 11:03

think we’ve got a good picture of that as well, haven’t?

Chris: 11:05

we yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nish: 11:06

No, it was great. Yeah, those little bits are just. They’re just nice, aren’t they? But I think we’ll do In hindsight yeah, team total and team average was always going to be the same order, wasn’t it?

Paul: 11:19

That’s stupid, so don’t do that I think.

Nish: 11:21

actually it looks like I was talking to him later. So Harb’s seven golf was, I think he’s quite keen to do the comp element of it. So I think that’s leading to that he knows what he’s doing with that.

Jim: 11:32

Oh, I thought it worked really well on the squad bit as well.

Chris: 11:35

So sponsors, oh, sponsors, yeah that works really well for the day, doesn’t it? You can basically see everything there’s loads of stats and all sorts of stuff in there.

Nish: 11:42

And the other bit that worked really well is does the leaderboard suddenly disappear after hole 15 so nobody knows who’s won? I was like no, I think it just stays on. He’s like oh, you should see if you can do that, because otherwise there’s no surprise left at the.

Chris: 11:56

It was quite funny in our group because Mike was kind of up there with a chance of winning and then all of a sudden he was like oh, I don’t think the app’s working.

Jim: 12:03

I was so straight to him he was like ah, because I’ve hidden it, yeah, we’ve hidden it from 15. And then he was like hmm.

Chris: 12:08

So yeah, it did an extra element of drama in there. I think for sure Great.

Nish: 12:12

Wonderful. Well, look, we had a great day and we’ll fill you in with some of the audio from the event. So good morning everyone. Welcome to the fifth Niche Invitational. We’ve got a fellow founding member here, jim. Take a bow, jim. So welcome Now.

Nish: 12:31

In your packs, which you may open now, got you a few little presents. We’ve all got a few teas to help out. You can collect them every year as you go in. So we’ve got our Niche Invitational teas. We’ve got our Niche Invitational ball marker. We’ve got our Niche Invitational slash top 110 divot tool and that’s got a marker on the back of it as well. And then this here is your Niche Invitational golf ball. It’s a Tartness Pro V1, so no expense spared. It’s personalised, as you can see. It’s got your initials on it and if you obviously you play with this ball, if you bring this back at the end of the round, you get a share of a special prize. Last year nobody won it. So yeah, and I will be inspecting. I’ll be inspecting for signs of play and wear.

Nish: 13:19

So what we’re going to be doing today is we’re playing off the yellow tees 18 holes. We’ve obviously got all of our competitions that we’re doing, so the first group going out at one o’clock will be Jim Harves, myself and Paul. Second group going out at ten past one is Matt, lee, right steve-o and lee w. So that’s going to be lovely in that group and confusing. And the third group starting at 120 is tom, chris, rob and mike. While you’re playing in those groups they’re not actually your teams. The teams that we’ve got are team the uh, we’ve got team invitational, team 25 and team niche, which is the winners, clearly. So, uh, it will track everything on squabbit. All I need is one person in each four ball to enter the score. So I’ll do our group and then, if you can kind of have a chat between your little playing group as to who’s going to enter the scores, but then, if everyone’s got the app, you can see what’s going on with the live, with the live leaderboards, and that’s obviously courtesy of our sponsors.

Nish: 14:21

Squabbit. Everyone’s got range balls included. So when you finished here and you’re ready, just go to the pro shop and just ask them that you tell them you’re on the the golf day and pick up a bucket of range boards. There’s 50 balls in there and you can just head across and have a hit. If everybody could head back to the practice green around the first tee for 20 to 1 at the latest, please, because we’ve got a few picks and things to do before we head off and there’s a couple of other little surprises for everyone at the first tee. Have a great day, thanks for coming. May the best team man win, and then we’ll get leathered afterwards. Happy days. So we’re out on the course at the minute. Finished the tent walking up to the halfway hut. Absolutely stunning day. So far it’s been great. A few bouts of rain here and there, but it’s kind of been a very hot, muggy day so it’s pretty kept the humidity down for us. Just going to have the thoughts of my playing partners Got joint leader here, paul, how’s that?

Paul: 15:16

front ten gone for you, paul. Well, actually, yeah. How’s that front 10 gone for you, paul? Well, actually, yeah, happy with that. Lots of good irons. Terrible off the tee, uh, putting nothing too bad considering what it was last time.

Nish: 15:29

So overall, very happy, apart from that double bogey just then. You know now this famous practice round that you played yeah I’m still talking about it. Yeah, paul, paul came and did a practice round here, which is, which is quite funny, but no, well done, mate. Keep it going. You’re playing really well. Playing really well, jim. Co-creator. Hello, just walking off the tent with a par, actual gross par.

Jim: 15:50

That was great. Yeah, yeah, playing all right. Still got the same ball as well.

Jim: 15:55

So it’s yeah, it’s been a nice.

Nish: 16:02

Yeah, we’ve got two people in the group still with the original ball, but one of them is not mr harbour. Harb seven goal. How have you found the?

Harbs: 16:08

course, the course is great, but I’ve just been enjoying watching paul play, because that’s about the only enjoyment my games had today he’s been very good, actually, to be fair.

Nish: 16:17

So again, we’re not supposed to say this, are we like live to you, right, but you’ve been been good.

Paul: 16:22

You’ve been good, no, no well, that’s our halfway checkpoint.

Nish: 16:25

We’re going to grab a quick drink and carry on and hopefully we’ll catch up with what’s going on with everybody else. So first group, group one, have already finished and we’ll get some live reactions from JTC co-podder. What did you enjoy about that round? I’m enjoying this point Enough said, really enjoyed.

Jim: 16:47

That was playing okay and I still had the Nishinvitational ball at that particular point Then went to the 11th. He sliced it into the backwards basically, and it didn’t really improve from there, to be honest. But glorious day, great company. Weather’s been mainly okay A bit too hot for my liking, but the weather’s been mainly okay. A bit too hot for my liking, but yeah, no, it’s been a fantastic day and look forward to a couple of beers once the rest of the gang have finished. And we’re just sitting here at the 18th hole watching the second group coming in. I don’t think there’s many eagle or birdie putts at the moment.

Nish: 17:23

Let’s go and get some live reaction. Jim Harbs, you had a good day, Harbs. 7 Golf over here has been our hype man.

Harbs: 17:27

Yeah, I loved it, mate. It’s a fantastic course, I’ve got to say. All the way around, every hole’s been in fantastic condition and it’s a lush course. The greens were pretty rapid and really hard to read as well. But, yeah, fantastic Mish. Thanks for organising it, mate.

Nish: 17:42

You’re very welcome, my friend. You’re very welcome. I’ll get Paul’s reactions in a minute. The group are just about to finish. This is group two. Got Matt Lee Enright. Steve-o Lee W Bit of a putt off here.

Nish: 17:55

Is everybody still to putt? Oh, steve-o with a tiddler, compose yourself, steve-o. Yes. Well, hold Stephen, getting your live reaction off the course, we’ll just come around. How was that for you, mate? It was all right, a bit up and down. Really, you enjoyed yourself. Yeah, it’s been great. Thank you, it’s absolutely my pleasure. Here’s Matt with probably a 15-footer Lovely putting stroke, and he’s nailed it. Oh, that’s a beautiful putt, matt. Was that a birdie at the last? Oh, matthew, matthew. Here’s Lee Enright, probably same distance, but back down the hill. This is a tough putt. Has he done it? Oh, it’s rolled on a bit. Now we all played no gimmies, which was pretty brutal, wasn’t it at times. Here’s Lee W, brother-in-law to Steve-O. He’s got a lovely putting stance, takes the putter back, lines it up, oh, and it’s lipped out. Oh, and the game is brutal for that, lee, live reaction. Mate, that was an eagle putt.

Nish: 19:02

Are you happy with that birdie though?

Paul: 19:03

No, no, it was a par in the end. Oh, the par Putting for eagle and three putter par.

Nish: 19:08

Oh, I don’t need your reaction. Then I know what’s going to happen he’s going to swear a bit. Matt, did you have a good time?

Paul: 19:12

I had a great time.

Jim: 19:13

Thank you, brilliant, really enjoyed it Wouldn’t like to have played better.

Nish: 19:17

Wouldn’t we all?

Harbs: 19:27

And Lee Boy. Enright, how do you do? It was rubbish. Then steve-o gave me a shot of uh, something from his hip flask, and then I’ve got a birdie and a par.

Nish: 19:31

so, uh, I know what to do next time. Steve-o in our group would have been great. The hype man, I like it right, steve-o, steve-o’s in our group. I mean, if he’s handing out shots from his hip, flask, that is. That is the place to go, right? Well, we’re waiting for the third and final group to come through. I should get a reaction from Mr Ridgeway, mr Recovery, who’s been mentioned on the podcast a lot, paul, hello, how are you doing? How was that for you?

Paul: 19:56

It was good. I enjoyed it. It was a good game, very hot, but there’s crap up the sea. But some of those iron shots were pretty good, weren’t they?

Nish: 20:04

As usual, the recovery was amazing.

Paul: 20:07

I learned to drive the boat properly. I’ve got a new driver, a froggy old one. We’re not made friends yet. It’s going to be a good combination, I reckon.

Nish: 20:18

It’s a relationship, isn’t it, with your driver. I think, yeah, you’re absolutely right. Any closing thoughts?

Jim: 20:23

on the initial invitational.

Nish: 20:26

Can’t wait for next year, basically thanks very much for organising great day.

Jim: 20:30

I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. We’re going to make it a bigger event next year, I think more people involved less controversial in the games.

Chris: 20:37

I think this time I had lots of you need a bit of controversy, don’t you?

Nish: 20:41

it’s a bit interesting the thing is that it’s all fine, but I’m sat after having done all this stuff and I’m pretty much drained at this point of like. I just want to sit and have a drink now. I’ve just got lean one ear going. You penalised all the high handicappers.

Chris: 20:58

I don’t care mate.

Nish: 20:59

It’s £10. I’m not really that bothered. And then suddenly Mike had chirped up in this ear and he was like the scoreboard disappeared after, yeah, after 15. I was like right, and then other Lee was like I should have won that I got 36, but why didn’t you just you guys won prizes, like what’s your problem?

Nish: 21:17

you know, you got some money back, but yeah, it all part and parcel of the experience and I think we all enjoyed the drinks afterwards, so wonderful, okay, thank you very much, guys. Next time on the Top 110 Golf Podcast, we’ll tell you how we preview the open of our special guest in the house.