The Village Of Golf Gullane Golf Club No 1 Course 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, I’m Chris, I’m Jim and we’re here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, episode 44, the Village of Golf, Gullane Number 1 Review.

Nish: 0:19

The Village of Golf is how Gullane describe themselves, and I’m really not going to argue and disagree with that. The whole place was magical, with the golf club being the main stage for the dramas and tragedies that may unfold More tragedies. I think Everything about this place just feels like it was put there for the purpose of the golf course and it’s all the better for it. Now, before we carry on to tell you why we absolutely fell in love with this place, I’ve got to share that, when we do look at the back end stats of our podcast, that the majority of people listening to or watching the podcast haven’t actually clicked or hit the subscribe or follow buttons. So if you could do us a huge favor, hit the subscribe button. I can’t tell you how much it actually helps. It means we can expand our production, we can get better guests and we get better opportunities and we can continue doing this thing that we love.

Chris: 1:05

You mean you’re going to get a better guest than me and Jim? Are we guests, your hosts? Yeah, I can’t upgrade my hosts.

Jim: 1:12

I’m stuck with you, you’re stuck with us. I think it’s a bit of potting. You know he’s talking about the mystery. He’s like Beth, isn’t it?

Nish: 1:19

I’m stuck with my host.

Chris: 1:25

It’s stuck with my home. It’s committed to committed ink watch. This monday morning there’s an advert on the uh the top 100 instagram for uh two, two new co-hosts correct.

Nish: 1:30

Yeah, it’s good, I’ll block you guys first. You can’t see those ads going out, but if you could do that, that would be mean the world to us. But anyway, back to the episode. Uh, now I think I’ve just given a bit of a flavour of how we felt about Gullane. Now, chris, maybe you can give your overall impressions in a bit of a nutshell, to give Jim a bit of a flavour of what he missed out on.

Chris: 1:53

Yeah, and I think the story of Gullen starts on the drive in. I think, doesn’t it? Because I think it’s probably the most spectacular drive that we’ve done and possibly that we will do. I I think in this top 100, in terms of you’re driving just down a little country road and then you go past Lough Ness. There’s a golf course there, and then all of a sudden you’re in this little B road and you’ve just got a golf course either side. You’ve got golf, golf, golf, golf golf and you’re driving through.

Jim: 2:28

You just feel like you’re part of the golf course. Either side you got golf, golf, golf, golf golf. When you’re driving through and it’s just. You just feel like you’re part of the golf course straight away, don’t you?

Chris: 2:31

um, you took a wrong turn and actually we’re on the golf. Yeah, we were. We’re on the 17th green at this point.

Nish: 2:35

Um, we did do a bit of a magical mystery tour around the car parks, didn’t we?

Chris: 2:38

to finally get to where we needed to go, so we were confused a little bit yeah, but you’re just kind of immersed in it straight away because you’re basically just driving through the course, right, you’re driving right through the middle of gulland and you’re like, oh my god, this is like golfers paradise. It’s just golf course after golf course down the, down the coast someone had a word with you, chris, about what is you were.

Jim: 2:56

You were adamant and I’ve listened back to the, to the uh, to the review. That’s already the preview.

Chris: 3:00

Yeah, and you kept calling it gullain and you had a minute you were going to do that so did you get a telling off by dylan telling off, but we, we, we had got an introduction into, so we asked the question when we got there. Yeah, so we asked the question and we were um introduced to a couple of lady members, put in our place very much.

Nish: 3:18

Yeah, put in our place right pretty quickly yeah and there was no.

Chris: 3:23

There was no discussion of whether it was yeah, it was just Gullan, yeah, nothing else. Nothing else is acceptable.

Jim: 3:29

So it’s been drummed into you.

Nish: 3:30

now it’s been drummed into me now yeah, it’s Gullane, I’ve got it now. What I found interesting with that as well was that they sort of said oh, if you’re posh, it’s Gullane.

Chris: 3:39

Yeah.

Nish: 3:39

And and then they went. But it’s not a seagill, is it? It’s a seagull. I’m like yeah, you’re absolutely spot on it’s a seagull. But then I can’t. You know, I wasn’t going to argue at this point at all because they were lovely, those two ladies that they walked past us and they just, like you know, gave us the time of day and all this kind of stuff but I was like, but what about the a and e at the end? Like that e changes the a sound, doesn’t it in normal?

Chris: 4:01

but anyway, but anyway whatever I digress, we’re getting our children’s phonics lessons.

Nish: 4:05

now we’re .

Jim: 4:06

now that’s it, yeah, trigraphs and diagrams and all this sort of stuff.

Nish: 4:09

Well, done, ladies, well done.

Jim: 4:11

Yeah, I think so. You want to ingratiate yourselves, don’t you, with the members?

Nish: 4:18

Absolutely yeah, and Gareth Bale, who was playing two groups ahead of of us.

Chris: 4:22

that was that introduction to cullen was like you drive down this beautiful road through the golf courses. You get there, there’s these two amazing clubhouses right and you’re just like, and you’re in the village of golf, which genuinely has that exact feel. I think there’s absolutely got nail on the head. The village of golf feels perfect, doesn’t it? Because you’re just in like a little. It almost feels like a little kind of cricket ground. You know, you get like a village, village green kind of feel, hasn’t it? Because you’re just in like a little it almost feels like a little kind of cricket ground, you know you get like a village, village green.

Chris: 4:47

Yeah, I feel, hasn’t it village green? You’re right on the edge of the little, the little village and then you just the golf course. You just kind of run out from there, um and it just we said it didn’t, we got there. Like, occasionally, usually you go and oh, this feels special, but then occasionally you go and you think this feels really, really special, that was one of those. You just get out and you’re just like the hairs on the back of your neck kind of this is gonna be.

Nish: 5:10

This is gonna be something special and I think because we we knew that we were gonna meet dylan and have a chat with him and get shown around. Yeah, it just added to that extra little layer of like excitement but it’s funny, I know.

Jim: 5:23

I know exactly how, what you’re like.

Nish: 5:24

Yeah, I was like Chris, slow down. You’ve just gone past the Gulland sign. I need to take a picture of it.

Chris: 5:29

But then I don’t normally get like that, I’m normally a bit more kind of like you’re thinking about the round I’m preparing, I’m mentally preparing for the first T-shot.

Jim: 5:36

Chris has got his camera ready, ready to take photos of all these.

Nish: 5:51

Chris saw gareth bale. It was hilarious, uh. But you, you do just just the. The b road in to gulland is like the drive for the golf course, yeah, yeah, it’s weird, like you kind of get there and it’s like there’s a sign that comes up says gulland. So I’m like thinking, oh great, and all of a sudden it was like quick handbrake, turn, because that’s the turn off for the, the golf course, and it’s like, yeah, one clubhouse on the left of the road and one clubhouse on the right of the road.

Chris: 6:07

And you’ve got a little pro shop, which is just the first thing you see as you come in. Yeah, it’s a really unique and special place. I think Gullan it did it felt like it was like everything just screamed golf.

Nish: 6:18

Yeah In that whole place, yeah it. It was fantastic. The confusion about the clubhouses actually does kind of feed into one of the things that we wanted to make. So Dylan was the sales manager and he sort of showed us around. So we saw the original clubhouse, which is called the Members Clubhouse. So we drove up to that and then went oh I don’t think that’s where we’re supposed to go, let’s turn around. And then went across the other side of the road, which is much newer facility I think it’s only like 10 years old or something like that really really new, modern facility.

Chris: 6:51

But they’ve obviously invested a lot in that in that area. There haven’t they got a new driving range yeah clubhouse there and it’s really smart and a smart new start and stuff for all three courses.

Nish: 6:59

Here’s my first factoid from dylan, so I didn’t know this because we didn’t really put it up in our research. But they’re on a five-year or they’re in the middle of the five-year upgrading program, which was the new Links Clubhouse. So that was the one that we went to. That was the modern one that v number number one and Gullan number two. So if you’re playing either of those, courses Two and three, isn’t it?

Nish: 7:20

Two and three, isn’t it? Sorry, two and three, yeah, forgive me. Two and three. And if you’re playing at those two courses, that’s where you go and check in. Yeah, they also, then, off the back of that, have a brand new starters pavilion and I mean, this is like Swanky modern kind of like Top of full-on swank, wasn’t it yeah?

Nish: 7:39

And it was I interesting that because there’s a ton of history at this golf club yeah, absolutely, and they’ve got these two massive modern structures there, along with the driveway, which is a top tracer driving range as well, yeah, which you’ve got complimentary levels out. So that was that was one thing you do if you’re playing. That’s, that’s what you do. I thought that was really interesting, and I think we said in the preview as well that it feels like a club that’s not resting on its laurels they need to serve their visitors and members well, and they’re doing that, and I think they’ve done that incredibly well so well, yeah I think that’s that’s been money that’s been well spent, it’s been thought out and it’s been done properly and it just gives you.

Nish: 8:13

I think it’s that that just kind of gives you that special feel when you get there do you know, what I really liked, chris, is that when we were walking all the walkways were really springy. Didn’t really hurt your feet when you was like bouncing along.

Chris: 8:25

Is that not just your new pair of shoes for the day? Well, it could have been. Could have been. Actually, you were wearing new shoes the day. I kind of lost it.

Nish: 8:31

Yeah, yeah shoes became a bit of a theme, didn’t they?

Nish: 8:36

for the weekend, but it was quite a uh it’s, you know, just interesting. Getting that contrast between the two things and I think that was the range in the short game area were great, weren’t they? When he was showing us around, and actually one of the things that he did say was that their whole ethos towards their visitors are that they’re members for the day. Now a lot of clubs say that you don’t know what that’s actually like until you sort of almost meet somebody face to face. And this wasn’t a polished sales pitch that we got. You know we were being introduced to absolutely everybody and to a man.

Nish: 9:16

They were like friendly, good scottish.

Chris: 9:20

Everyone was a ladies man, which is interesting yeah, a lot of charmers on the uh, on the workforce at gulland.

Nish: 9:26

They were great, we got introduced to all the starters and yeah, it was just brilliant.

Chris: 9:29

Everyone was a ladies’ man, which is interesting.

Nish: 9:31

Yeah, a lot of charmers on the workforce at Gullen. They were great. We got to see all the starters. Yeah, it was brilliant, wasn’t it? It was such a friendly vibe and atmosphere. We absolutely loved it. So, just going back again to the two clubhouses, so the members’ clubhouse, in inverted commas, is actually the clubhouse that you do go and check in at if you’re playing Guller number one. So if you do do that road and approach and you’re playing number one, go left and there’s a car park behind Swipe left for Guller number one.

Chris: 9:54

Swipe right for two and three. Yeah.

Nish: 9:57

Now, we had a bit of a thing about one, two and three, didn’t we? And it’s like there’s no names in the course, they’re just one. There’s no names in the course, they just want to.

Jim: 10:03

They do have the holes, but not for the. Oh yeah, they do have names for the holes.

Nish: 10:05

Sorry, I didn’t realise what you were saying there for a second. But they have this thing where it’s like they call number one the championship course. Everybody knows it is. Number two was the champions course because it was designed by Willie Park Jr and he was the reigning Open champion at the time, and then number three they called the gem of the club and that’s a much shorter course, isn’t it? Yeah, like a fun Queen’s course type kind of vibe.

Chris: 10:34

Yeah, and like Dylan said, a lot of people come off that course and it ends up being their favourite, yeah, yeah, so they’re really, really lovely, yeah, and I think, as I came away from there a little bit regretful that we weren’t actually having the opportunity to play the other two, because it just I just and I I said this on the way and didn’t I was like I feel like every time we go to one of these, I’m just checking out where I’m going to retire to, yeah, and I think gullen is absolutely top of that list, like if I were looking to retire somewhere and go and play golf, that would be the absolute dream place to do it.

Nish: 11:04

Three incredible golf courses. Three incredible golf courses.

Chris: 11:06

You’ve got Muirfield around the corner like Lough Ness. Yeah, you’re just absolutely spoilt for choice.

Nish: 11:11

What was it? They called Muirfield as well. Golf number four. Golf number four, that was brilliant. Again, it was just that it gave you an idea of the kind of you know just humour that everybody had about it and everybody was just like golf course, golf course. You know, this is it. That’s our pride and joy.

Jim: 11:30

So do a lot of the members actually live in the village.

Chris: 11:32

Yeah, I think pretty much.

Nish: 11:33

Don’t know, I didn’t really ask that question.

Chris: 11:43

It’s a great question. We were asking that, weren’t we? We were saying which is pretty much like the village, green, and there’s just this little kids. Course you can just rock up and the kids can just go and have a little little hack around. But even that looked pretty stunning, didn’t it?

Nish: 11:52

yeah, and it’s like I think it’s free for the kids, isn’t it?

Chris: 12:00

whenever you don’t need to be a member or anything like that so you’re passing through friday night just and there’s a pub just right now. We saw that, didn’t we?

Nish: 12:07

yeah, the old clubhouse, yeah, it’s now a pub and it’s like but apparently if kids go and play there then they get a certificate at the end of it, so kind of get them excited about yeah and it’s like when he tells us that we haven’t picked that up on anything on our preview.

Jim: 12:20

It’s a great bit of info. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that was.

Nish: 12:23

That gave it a whole homely feel to it as well. You know you knew it was this uh big on the american rota golf course, yeah, but I’m not sure experience of that wasn’t it I’m not sure I’d appreciate that it was fully part of that thing.

Chris: 12:38

But it was definitely our first experience of like full-on, like just I’d say probably 60, 70 percent of the people playing there were american yeah, all playing with caddies and everything like that. So that was our first kind of feel of that big scottish yeah. So glenn eagles wasn’t like that, but it was a bit less bigger facility, wasn’t it?

Nish: 12:58

bigger facilities, there’s more people.

Chris: 12:59

Yeah you got the hotel and everything, so you didn’t. Yeah, it wasn’t quite as intense an experience, like there’s lots more people that weren’t playing golf there rather than there’s just people out for golf, lots of kind of american tourists on big buses kind of coming in.

Nish: 13:12

Yeah, the veto vans the mercedes veto vans all blacked out and they’ve all got like scottish golf tours written on the side and everything like that. I mean they just don’t mean bust around. So yeah, it was it. That for me. For me was a completely brand new experience. I’ve literally never experienced that anywhere else. It’s not a negative or a positive.

Chris: 13:30

in my book, the only thing that kind of made it feel a little bit more kind of special didn’t it.

Nish: 13:33

It was glamorous, wasn’t it yeah?

Chris: 13:34

You’re part of that big Scottish golf tour.

Nish: 13:37

Yeah, and I’d never seen I don’t think anywhere we’ve been so far. We’ve even seen that there is the option for caddies.

Chris: 13:44

So far, so that was the first time I saw. I mean, glene agles, you could have a caddy, I think Could you.

Nish: 13:48

Yeah, it was funny though, because you sort of just it’s like this gang of bibbed I thought there was more caddies than players isn’t there, they’re everywhere. I was like it was great. I really, really appreciated that, because it was just a different thing really. So we’ve got the kind of like feel of the club and also the facilities in the Links Clubhouse for two and three seconds. It was so nice. We had some food and drink afterwards as well, and it was really really good. A club sandwich, or did you not have one? What did you have, christ?

Chris: 14:25

you have a burger, I think you might have had a burger afterwards. Yeah, we all scraped in for food. We literally got there at like eight o’clock on. The dot kitchen’s been closed. I was like is there any chance we can get some food? He was like, go and we’ll put the order through and if we hear any swearing from there from the kitchens in the back, then you know it’s too late but again like that, like we’ve obviously been and played Gleneagles and it was like service, service, service.

Nish: 14:52

This was like such a Scottish slant on the service, wasn’t it? And it’s like we’re telling you the right message, but we’re going to do it in nice, humorous way, yeah, deliver it with a bit of humor.

Jim: 15:00

It was really casual and it was great.

Nish: 15:02

Now with the service thing. There is something that Dylan has sent me and I didn’t know this that come through, but there’s something called the 59 Club and they rate the level of service at golf clubs. Okay, and Gullen has won the gold flag for the fifth year running. Now, right, the gold flag for the fifth year running? Now, right, okay which makes it one of only 70 venues around the world yeah, to receive that award and that does not.

Chris: 15:27

I didn’t know that until now yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. No surprise by that at all what you’re saying earlier about you feel like a member for the day. I don’t think you really feel like a member for the day. I feel like you. You feel much more special than a member. You feel like I don’t know. You just feel like the red carpet’s been rolled out. Everyone’s just there to kind of make your day the best experience you can possibly have. Yeah, and to a man, I think that’s.

Nish: 15:46

That’s kind of the feel that we got yeah, even like we, because we I’d spoken to a few people on the phone and stuff like that and then after it was showing us around like everybody, like he got on really well with everybody anyway, and that’s his job, I suppose but, yeah, everybody, you know, head up for that two seconds, your special right now in my working day, and then I’ll carry on and do what I’m supposed to be doing.

Nish: 16:08

So there was that. That was like absolutely on point, but not like sickeningly over the top.

Chris: 16:15

No, yeah, yeah, just like you say in a kind of humorous, light-hearted kind of way, it was just yeah, it just felt nice and we’d have a long drive because that was our yeah drive up from answer that morning kind of thing.

Nish: 16:25

So you, know, we just all, we just got this surge of energy really for the excitement for the golf course.

Nish: 16:30

So, um, that was. You know a little bit about the tour, a couple of things that did come out on the tour, because we spoke about things like, uh, pace of play and stuff like that. So pace of play became a bit of a theme, didn’t it for the scottish courses when we were doing our previews? Yeah, yeah, so they have pace of play rangers out there. So the some of the starters that we saw, we did actually see around the course. Yeah, yeah, and they’re just keeping an eye on you for, um, keep it up basically yeah, and you’re to love this chip If it’s really bad.

Nish: 17:04

they actually have a drone that they send up to see who’s the guilty party.

Chris: 17:06

Hurry up drone. Now you hear that we better get a wriggle on.

Jim: 17:13

Luckily we didn’t hear the drone. That’s where you get your three-wood out. Try and smash it.

Nish: 17:19

You just get an automatic holding one if you hit the drone. But I thought that was wonderful and again they were having a good laugh and joke about it. They were saying, oh yeah, well, you know, if you see him on the course you’re in trouble, all this kind of stuff. It was, yeah, it was absolutely fantastic. And then another thing that I pulled out from what Dylan said was that and I didn’t appreciate this till we played the course and probably we obviously will get to the golf at some point while we’re eulogizing about the level of service and everything else about the club but he said something and he said that this is all natural land that predates golf and the golf course is almost just been laid upon the natural land and you will see that as you’re going round Now. We’re no golf architecture connoisseurs, speak for yourself. Okay, getting into bunkering.

Jim: 18:14

That’s what he did when he was a teenager. We were all out.

Chris: 18:17

Yeah, yeah. I was drawing I was sketching out bunker topunkers lovely.

Nish: 18:23

Well, you had a misspent youth, but it it totally made sense as soon as you got to the top of the hill. You play one and two that are this side of the hill, the Gullen side of the hill, yeah, and you hit Bernard Darwin’s most beautiful place in the world area, top of Glland hill.

Chris: 18:39

And then you look down and you go holy shit, that makes sense, that totally makes sense and I I know we’d come down the preview and we’d looked at it and I looked at it and even when we were driving through as I it’s just, it’s just like a little bit of a hill and like there’s a couple holes up in it, I was like it doesn’t look that appealing or exciting. And when he said, oh, it’s kind of natural, I was like, oh yeah, okay, fair enough, I’ll take your word for it. Proof will be in the pudding. But actually going out there, it was just I so so well done, like it was so simple.

Chris: 19:11

I didn’t feel like it was overly manufactured or overly manicured but just somehow the design of those holes has been there for hundreds of years was just absolutely perfect 1-18.

Nish: 19:23

It wasn’t a difficult course either, was it? It was really enjoyable to go and play wasn’t it.

Chris: 19:29

It was our first course on the triple header and we played our best golf there, I think, because it kind of gives you that feel that you can just have a little bit of a go at it. It’s not too penal or difficult to look at of the tee, but it’s just beautiful, stunning place to play golf, just non-stop.

Nish: 19:46

Well, we got. Dylan gave us a lot of like this tee, this tee, this tee. I defy you to get up there and not get your phone out to take pictures. And I’ll tell you now even Christopher Gibbons got his phone out.

Chris: 19:59

I did. I’ve got the picture to prove it. I’ve now got three pictures. I’ve now got three pictures on my phone now, jim, from the 13 golf courses we played. One of them is my child being born and the other one’s Golan Number one, which child? Which child? Just the first one.

Jim: 20:14

Second’s been ignored. Yeah, absolutely.

Nish: 20:34

Well, we’re focusing on Gulland number one, but just one further thing on how they are looking to serve the visitors and the members as they are and they’re not resting on their laurels is that this continuing program of investment that they’ve got. They’re now putting a new irrigation system on Gulland two and three. They’re obviously trying to make sure that it becomes, you know, dylan’s top tip. He’s a sales manager for Gulland Golf Club, so his top tip is going to be the right is going to be the obvious one, which is stay in the village of golf and play all three courses.

Chris: 20:47

But can you imagine if we’d have done that? We were gutted, weren’t we, because it was quite late.

Jim: 20:51

And we were like really what we want?

Nish: 21:03

to go and sit on a few drinks.

Chris: 21:04

Like walk back to your little airbnb or whatever in the village, like that’d be incredible. Next morning, play again some, repeat, yeah, like that’s a, that’s a that’s an amazing weekend, I mean it.

Nish: 21:08

Dylan’s been there for 13 months, like, and he was like it feels like this is the job was made for me and you could see just he’s just the enthusiasm’s there, isn’t it? You can see why, like he must come to work every single morning. Just go, this is a fantastic place, yeah, to work and and he’s obviously he’s created, or the club as well have kind of created a culture where everyone’s just proud of it, doing everything they can for their customers, that’s, their members and their and their visitors. And, yeah, I mean we can’t really speak more highly of the, the welcome that we got and just how they were treating everybody in general yeah, it was amazing, and the food as well, in the club house in Gullan.

Nish: 21:43

the one was an epic way to start the round Chowing down on a club sandwich while you’re watching Gareth Bale Stuff of dreams. Now, the other thing as well is we were talking a little bit about the layout kind of thing, but it is all just either side of the road, everything’s either side of the road. They’ve got one practice green that’s for number one, and they’ve got another practice green that’s for two and three. So it’s got this two halves almost to how they’ve done it. And I think that’s quite a nice thing as well that you’ve got this, because you know, number one is obviously the jeweled in the crown sort of thing.

Nish: 22:19

That’s a slightly different experience, like you go in and they ask you don’t, have you got a tea timer? Yeah, yeah, yeah and of course the morning like yeah, yeah of course they’ll sort of check it and and let you know. So, um, so yeah, I would. I mean you. You took the the majority of the following dylan around because I was just like taking pictures and videos and stuff like that so. I can’t believe that surprise surprise yeah, and what a shock horror um is there anything?

Jim: 22:44

20 minutes, weren’t you, I think, to take your photos, or was?

Nish: 22:47

that. Did you glean anything else from Dylan that you thought might be? There was lots of information.

Chris: 22:52

I mean he was talking a little bit about the Scottish Open. Wasn’t he saying that they obviously had the Scottish Open there a few years before they have the men’s and the women’s? Yeah, same year, which is quite rare, pretty incredible feat to kind of do that. And he was saying that they didn’t actually use the full 18 of Gullan 1. They’d used a couple of holes from Gullan 2.

Chris: 23:09

So that’s the benefit of having three courses at your mercy just to kind of make it the right length and challenge or whatever. Yeah, number two was the picket, number two was the first hole, wasn’t it? And I mean, that’s a tough opening hole to what like. I love that second hole, like it. Just it sets you up. So the first hole is quite, quite flat, straightforward. Part four, isn’t it? And the second hole. You just kind of go up, you go up the side of gullen gullen hill and it, just at that point, when you kind of finish the second and beautiful little tiny thin green on the second, perfect links start for me, yeah, boxes being ticked here, and then you get up onto the tee on the third and you’re like, ah, now I understand, it Makes sense. Yeah.

Nish: 23:51

I think we’ve probably teased everyone enough, haven’t we? Let’s get down to the golf. I think I’ve written here that it was a surprise course for us. I’ve written here that it was a surprise course for us and I think when we did the preview with you, jim, one of the things that kept coming out was like never heard of it, but it’s highly ranked, like it’s 58 or whatever it is. The green fee is punchy, it starts with a 3 sort of thing. So it’s right up there, it’s on this trail of Americans going and playing, and then you get there and you start playing the golf and then you go ah, now I understand and it really was a just a. Well, you said it, I’ve written it. I wrote the phrase down. I wrote it as we were going around and you said I’ve got, I’ve. Suddenly this course has got me excited about playing lynx golf again.

Chris: 24:38

Yeah, yeah definitely Like it was. Yeah, it was that perfect Lynx experience for me. It just reminded me of why I love playing Lynx golf. Yeah, like you could just hit so many different shots at every point. You’ve always got an option. You know you can play a little run up or whatever. There’s lots of options to kind of run up. We played I think West Lancs was the last links that we played, wasn’t it?

Nish: 25:00

Yeah, it was very flat.

Chris: 25:01

Which was it was just flat. And then there’s like these big green complexes and like big drop-offs and all that. That didn’t feel like proper links to me. This was like proper, proper links, Like you can hit the ball like was either uphill or downhill, isn’t it?

Nish: 25:17

You’re either going right up a hill or right down a hill.

Chris: 25:20

It was just so simple, wasn’t it? Because basically there’s one hill and there’s holes just kind of plotted around this hill, but they’ve used that land to such great effect. It’s mental, it’s so. I think it’s the simplest course we’ve played.

Nish: 25:34

Yeah, and actually I think in terms of the golfing challenge, it’s probably one of the more straightforward ones because, everything’s pretty much laid out in front of you you can see it.

Chris: 25:43

There’s not loads of high rough or anything. You can spray it a little bit, you can, which is quite nice yeah it gives you a bit of encouragement.

Jim: 25:48

Well, we’ll see that when we come to the scores from the doors. Really won’t we? Yeah, maybe.

Chris: 26:01

How was the weather in fact?

Nish: 26:02

the heat wave, wasn’t it? Uh, yeah, tail end, yeah, we just. I mean there wasn’t proper links. It was a scottish wave, it was top 100 in 10 rolls into town, jim, it’s like 35 degrees c.

Jim: 26:07

Everyone’s in clouds. Dissipate, dissipate yeah the wind dies down. You know the sea opens.

Nish: 26:12

The starters kept saying to us they were just like you, boys are lucky you’re playing today, yeah yeah I can get it and actually with that so the way it’s done is sort of again not quite giving the overt information. But you go up the hill the one’s quite flat actually, yeah. Two goes up the hill and then you hit the peak tee for three, yeah, and then that’s.

Chris: 26:31

That was actually on signature wind your way kind of down the side of it and then it’s and I’ve never experienced this either but you get to the top of that third tee and it’s like this is the whole golf course yeah yeah, because there’s a lot of places that you’ve been and you’re a bit like Royal Birkdale you’re secluded, you don’t see anybody else, but yet you get this one you can just see people around everywhere not only can you see the whole course and you vast expansive ocean, and then you’ve just got edinburgh in the background as well, so you can see like arthur’s seat and all that kind of stuff, and it’s just like we were, we were playing. What do we tear off? Like two issues.

Nish: 27:04

I think we say late in there, yeah, so by the time we’d kind of come back around.

Chris: 27:08

We’re coming to 5/6, like the sun was just kind of setting and it was just magical. It was very magical, wasn’t? It like it felt genuinely special, like like I said, I took a photograph. That’s how good it was, jim.

Nish: 27:18

It wasn’t a good one, but he took a photograph.

Chris: 27:21

It’s grainy as fuck and can’t be used for anything, but I took a photograph.

Nish: 27:25

His finger was a broken finger.

Chris: 27:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, my phone was upside down.

Nish: 27:28

The most stunning view was from then, from the 7th, wasn’t it? Because that was like farthest out reach. You could see the rest of the course. To the left, there was the sea, and then, on a clear day, definitely, you could see Edinburgh, no problem, yeah. And then look behind you and you can see the rest of the course and it was just like wow, this is absolutely amazing. I think, even if it was howling with wind and lashing down with rain, we’d still got the camera out and gone.

Chris: 27:59

We’ve got to take a picture of this, because it’s still a stunning view. Yeah, it was I mean, yeah, I think like we were pretty lucky, like the weather was like no wind, but I imagine if it gets windy there’s no luck involved now, mate. This is just good weather’s just following us around. There’s nowhere to hide. There is, it’s just a big fucking wind tunnel.

Nish: 28:13

Essentially, now, yeah, I mean I’ve, I’ve had written playable this course. Uh, it didn’t feel like it was a gobbler of your golf balls or anything like that. You don’t need to go and get like 30 before you go out to play?

Chris: 28:28

Yeah, because I think sometimes you stand on those tees and you just feel like you kind of get that nervousness inside you like shit, I’ve got to hit a really good shot. You never got that, If anything. It kind of just draws your eye and thinking, oh, actually I can hit a good shot here, yeah yeah. It makes you feel quite nice and kind of positive about your golf.

Jim: 28:44

Yeah, so it didn’t lure you into a false sense of security either. No, not at all, because you’re just looking at a course and there’s actually one thing when you no, yeah, not at all.

Chris: 28:51

I think it was a really good fair round of golf, Really enjoyable.

Nish: 28:56

Yeah, I think so, and so before we get to scorecards and stuff like that, we look at the overall flow of the round. You sort of hit that hill at 17. So you’ve done all of those holes from three through to 17. And then you’re back on the top of the hill and you look down, and then Dylan said this to us as well, and it’s again you don’t know until you experience it. And then it suddenly totally makes sense and and he goes. The whole. Our whole thing is you go out from the village, yeah, you go and have your little explore and your story that you’ve developed while you’re playing golf.

Nish: 29:29

Then you hit the top of the hill at 17 and the village welcomes you back home.

Chris: 29:33

Yeah, and it was like yeah yeah, that did exactly that at that time of day, like, say, the sun was setting behind us, so we kind of had this beautiful sunset on the sea behind us, and then you’re just kind of looking down onto the village, kind of playing right back down into it, and it was.

Nish: 29:45

He should work in sales, shouldn’t he, Dylan? He really should work in sales. Yeah, he’s got a good way with words.

Chris: 29:50

But I think the course sold itself to be fair, though Totally totally fell in love with it and I really really say that you’ll be doing Dylan out of a job.

Chris: 30:01

Yeah, yeah, sorry Dylan, yeah you’re done. One thing that I took away from it and it’s like it’s the village of golf and it’s been there for hundreds of years, right, but it it just felt like I could imagine back in the day, just like almost that’s how golf started, just like, oh, it’s just side of the village, we’re just gonna, like a kid, like a kid would make up a game. You just go, I’ll tell you what. Let’s just hit a ball to the top of that hill and we’ll just play. We’ll just make our own little game up and play around the hill. It just felt like little weirdos.

Nish: 30:24

But you know, yeah, I mean that’s what I did, yeah, with my childhood anyway, but it just felt like it just felt like you were kind of feeling the origins of golf, which was kind of weird. But yeah, I just titled the preview the cradle of golf, didn’t I? And it’s definitely that area itself, and everything just got.

Chris: 30:41

But you can just tell, imagine. You can just imagine how it would have started there yeah absolutely felt like it was ready made for that, didn’t it.

Nish: 30:47

And then it’s when it’s when you did stuff like you saw muirfield and again I mentioned the preview. But a lot of people I’ve spoken to in scotland have said muirfield is like the best scottish golf course. It’s the same parcel of land, it’s like literally next door you’ve got loughness, which is right there. And they all had that same thing. It was like loads of land, loads of wide open space and then there’s just this clubhouse plant and I’m like that’s the start of that, golf course and it was like wow, look, we’re sort of driving around.

Nish: 31:14

There’s more golf courses than people people, yeah, yeah, you know yeah, it was a stunning, magical place to play golf, so we probably should get to the golf, I suppose, shouldn’t we? Sure, we said about the third that was our signature hole. It was Challenge, that’s a par five and it was going to be net. It was a net competition on that one. Yes, it was, didn’t need it.

Nish: 31:37

Chris actually just gross, birdied it, gross birdied it straight up, stood up there and birdied it and and what was great was you smashed a massive drive. We had a group of three americans right behind us, all with all with caddies when he did it, and it was like yeah, yeah, it was I mean, my drive was horrific, but we’ll, we’ll, we’ll move on from that. No, let’s not that was a signature, yeah.

Nish: 32:02

I got seven Even with my shot. That was terrible, but you know, again it was like there was nothing. You could spray it there a little bit and you’d have a chance to find your ball and you’d have a shot after that you could. Yeah, it was fair. I think it was a right side of challenge.

Jim: 32:19

Definitely Slightly more forgiving than some of the others you’ve played recently.

Nish: 32:22

Definitely.

Chris: 32:23

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

Nish: 32:32

Yeah, and we started well, didn’t we? Because I started at the par, you started with a bogey off, which was quite rare actually, that we both set off well on the first hole.

Jim: 32:39

Yeah, usually one or the other is having a disaster uh and then uh, we hit the.

Nish: 32:44

So then that’s the. The side bet was par three challenges. It was on this one. What did you make of the par threes of this golf course, chris?

Jim: 32:52

um, you’re our resident par three expert question.

Chris: 32:54

I think probably not the the most spectacular set of par threes we’ve had, but equally they were all really good par threes.

Jim: 33:04

Were they all elevated greens or elevated?

Chris: 33:06

tees.

Nish: 33:08

Because obviously you are playing up that hill there were a couple that had big dips and they’re decent carry. We weren’t playing off any whites or anything we’re playing with yellow tees because it’s like there’s no point making this more difficult for us. It’s a stupid thing to do. We want to enjoy the golf, but there are a few that you had to carry dips and things like that, but there wasn’t really much by way of a huge amount of danger there.

Jim: 33:28

So if you did get a bit of dip.

Nish: 33:29

It’s like you just might be in a bunker or whatever. Oh, yeah, yeah, you weren’t. There weren’t loads of bunkers around greens and things like that, yeah, but I think, even off the yellows, it felt like you needed to give them a good clip to get them to the green?

Chris: 33:41

Yeah, I think so yeah.

Nish: 33:42

I mean we scored well on the par threes actually.

Jim: 33:44

So the first, one, I think, the par three.

Nish: 33:46

Both got pars on the very first one, yeah, on the second one, which was the ninth hole, we both got a four. That was a beautiful par 3, and that did have a few bunkers around it was really nice, like straight out into the ocean almost, and it was like the bunkers weren’t all just around the green, they were kind of at different angles and nothing more.

Chris: 34:03

So you went ooh yeah, nice little short par 3. Interesting one. I really enjoyed that one. It was my favourite of the pick that was a nice one, wasn’t it?

Nish: 34:08

And then the Stroke index 15, but you got a four, I got five. So I don’t even remember what happened on that one particularly, but no, I do know which one that was. That was the one that it was after the hole that Gareth Bale had eagled.

Chris: 34:27

Oh, yeah, that was the one where I fired one to the ladies’ tee, wasn’t it? Oh yeah, it was and then nailed one in. Did I make a three there or a four? You got a four, but you made a good recovery from that.

Nish: 34:39

Yeah, yeah, common theme. And then the last one was the 16. That was quite uphill. That was a 177 yards on the yellows all the way uphill. Yeah, that was a nice one. Actually. You hit a cracking tee shot on that one. Actually it was close at that point because I was only one shot to the worse off than Chris, but then he got a three.

Chris: 35:03

I got a six. Move on. I smashed him again. What’s?

Jim: 35:07

the scores on the doors for that by the way.

Nish: 35:09

So Chris did the par threes in 14 shots. Four par threes, I did them in 18. And on the side bets now for the overall.

Jim: 35:20

We don’t keep scoring the side bets.

Nish: 35:21

It’s a signature hole challenge. It’s a signature hole challenge. Yeah, I think this might have put Chris six up. I think, yeah, I think this put Chris six up. Yeah, in fact it did what?

Jim: 35:34

85 to play 30. 30, yeah, in fact it did what 85 to play 30.

Nish: 35:37

30, yeah. Do you have any holes in there that you would like to say might be a dream? 18 or not? Is there anything that jumps out at you?

Chris: 35:49

If not, why not, I think, the 17th. I think that playing the 17th back down the hill into the village is pretty.

Nish: 35:56

It’s an interesting hole as well, isn’t it?

Chris: 35:58

It’s an interesting hole, because it’s quite downhill. It is quite downhill, and then there’s three finger bunkers.

Nish: 36:04

I’ll call them. They’re just like fingers that just come right across the fairway before the green.

Chris: 36:09

And it probably wasn’t one of the best actual golf holes on the course, but just that view from up there where you look backwards and you’ve just got this beautiful yeah sea, you can see right over the ocean, and then you look down right into the village and it was just yeah and we played it.

Jim: 36:22

We would hit that at golden hour as well, yeah which is always a magical time to play golf, anyway, yeah, so it’s almost like it was perfect yeah, yeah, interesting.

Chris: 36:31

So yeah, I think that definitely goes in there for me.

Nish: 36:32

I’ve got the 17th down as a dream 18 yeah the minute, so I’d do that. Where do you? Maybe we could talk a little bit more about the golf. Actually, you played pretty well, chris, definitely my best golf of the weekend.

Chris: 36:46

Do you know what you shot? I don’t know what I shot, so you went out in 41.

Jim: 36:51

So you kind of yeah it was pretty stunning Out in 41, I went out in 48.

Nish: 36:56

And then you came back in in 46. Right, okay, Give you a total of 87, which is 16 over par. I thought it would have been better than that. Actually Interesting.

Chris: 37:05

Yeah, I think there might have been a couple. Yeah, I just lost a few shots, I think we sort of semi-switched off the last two holes, I think we did. I think when that sun started setting, we were like fuck this we kind of switched off the golf a little bit, didn’t we?

Nish: 37:15

this is special also we have to say, our thoughts did turn to. We really need to figure out where we’re going to eat because we were starving.

Chris: 37:24

At this point I reckon the kitchen’s going to close at 8. We need to crack on a bit, so don’t think.

Nish: 37:31

I’ve got a 5 and a 4. I’ve got a bogey to par, but that downhill helped me with that.

Chris: 37:37

17-18 was pretty awful. 6-6 last ones, but so it’s sort of see. But that downhill helped me with that. I finished terribly, didn’t I?

Nish: 37:39

17-18 was pretty awful for me. Yeah 66, not great what was your? I was 49 back so I was 97 total, 26 over. Now I think my handicap adjustment was Stableford points, so I got 29 points, chris got 30, so we’ve you know we’re there or thereabouts, aren’t we?

Chris: 37:57

Yeah, great weekend.

Nish: 37:58

Those fairways were amazing to hit off, weren’t they? They were just crisp, just lovely. Contact every time. Yeah, it was a lovely place. I think you’d have quite enjoyed that, jim. Yeah, I think it would have been a good one for you, jim, yeah.

Chris: 38:12

I know.

Jim: 38:13

But there you go.

Nish: 38:13

One thing I must say I’ll talk with you when you do number two and three.

Jim: 38:16

Yeah, Maybe not four because it might be a bit too challenging.

Nish: 38:19

Dylan was very kind to say. Any time you want to come up and play two and three, you’re more than welcome. So we will definitely take him up on that. Yeah, definitely, and we should look to try and stay in the village if we can before the Airbnbs there. For thought I was going a bit mad when I took the picture. And then I’ve listened up to the preview and and I was right to do so I’m glad I did so. Do you remember I pointed out that ballot box to you that Dirleton golf club ballot box? Yeah, so Dirleton golf club. We put in the preview it’s Dirleton castle golf club. Sorry, plays over the gulland links. That’s a club. So a lot of clubs placed in scotland do this. So we’re going to be playing carnoustie in October.

Nish: 38:56

Carnoustie Links is the course and there are a number of clubs that then play linked to that there so it’s the same thing with as well, but Dirleton Castle Golf Club is the oldest golf club in existence, so that I’m glad I got a picture of that ballot box, and it’s amazing that it was just in the corner on the floor and I was like I’m sure I’ve heard the name before, so I’m really glad I took that picture.

Chris: 39:22

I’ve been sending Dylan around to go and take a quick snap of it To be fair, nish I mean anything in that clubhouse has got a 95% chance of having you take a picture.

Nish: 39:29

Yeah, if it wasn’t nailed down. I was taking a picture of it, not stolen by the way, it just means take a picture. Yeah, it’s a nail down it is worth mentioning that old club, the members clubhouse, the number one clubhouse was beautiful it was.

Chris: 39:41

Yeah, yeah, right, the entrance is pretty grand, isn’t it like you? Just yeah, absolutely beautiful place yeah, have we?

Nish: 39:47

have we missed anything out there? I really want to do it justice. I think it deserves it.

Chris: 39:51

I think we just club and I think we went in there with reasonably not low expectations, but didn’t know no expectations. That’s much in the way of expectations. I think we just came away just totally like wowed when we were gobsmacked by how much we loved it, blown away by it, it was just such a good day, wasn’t it? Absolutely blown away by it.

Jim: 40:08

I think the key is really where it ranks.

Chris: 40:13

Yeah.

Jim: 40:14

On the courses played thus far.

Chris: 40:17

Yeah.

Nish: 40:17

As part of this challenge, I’ll let you go first, chris. What do you think? Where does that slide in? It’s getting more and more difficult, it’s very difficult.

Chris: 40:25

Even just to remember the ones that I’ve played, never mind where they rank against each other.

Jim: 40:30

This one seems to have stuck out quite a lot in terms of the overall experience.

Chris: 40:34

I think definitely up there. I think we’re grading it on kind of everything, the whole package it’s definitely. It’s up there for me, probably in the top five that we’ve done so far. You’re right, yeah, okay what are you?

Nish: 40:44

where are you saying? What you’re saying is around, maybe. Maybe. What’s good to say now is because this is 13, this course, yeah. What other courses, what? What courses is this keeping company with in your, in your informal rankings?

Chris: 41:01

I think there’s kind of there’s a batch of things that I was less impressed with yeah, four or five of them, yeah, it wasn’t didn’t come away going. I love that. There’s a couple that I came away going fully in love with those, and then there’s a batch of three or four, I think. In the middle that I was like, oh my god, I absolutely love them and they were just really really great courses. I think it’s in that batch there kind of like, yeah, common hind head, those kind of those courses in there that I just loved Silloth.

Nish: 41:30

I think he’s probably in that little batch because it is um, yeah, doesn’t want to lose his cumbrian tourism badge, does he? Just doesn’t want to lose his Cumbrian tourism badge, does he? He just doesn’t want to lose it, let me back into Kendall, please. Do you think they’ll tag your car or something? Have you been slating no?

Jim: 41:47

it’s just his ankle so it’s pretty high.

Chris: 41:52

I’ve not really kind of. Since we’ve done that little Scottish trip, I’ve not really gone away and digested it and sat down and actually kind of worked out our new rankings, which I probably need to do, but it’s definitely up there.

Nish: 42:03

What have we played? That’s proper links so far Silloth, Gullen, Aberdovey.

Chris: 42:09

Oh, aberdovey, I suppose, yeah, west Lancs.

Nish: 42:12

West Lancs. Yeah, you’re right S and A,

Jim: 42:14

So actually we’ve probably done six, haven’t we Six, seven, this is my favourite links course More than Silloth 100%.

Nish: 42:21

That for me is a better golf.

Chris: 42:22

This podcast is over. Yeah, why do you think I’m sat here now? That’s why we’ve got Jim between us. That’s my favourite, your favourite.

Nish: 42:30

Because it had a mix of a lot of things to it. So not just the golf, yeah, but I’ve got to look at this also from a point of view, and it was. This was prompted by a comment somebody made on tiktok, and you know, they sort of said but I’ve done a little like it was a minute review with all the pictures and it was about it’s about gulland, and somebody commented and they just went oh, you know, it’d be interesting to know if you think it’s worth paying the green fee. Like I said, it starts with the three. So you’ve got to look at it from that point of view. Having you just go, actually, I know we will be saying it’s great value for money, isn’t it? It’s always like the amount you’re paying for that. Now, yeah, more and more as you’re playing other places and paying the green fee, yeah, you go. Wow, that really was fantastic, yeah less than 100 quid mental, unbelievable.

Nish: 43:16

Yeah, but you get. You look at it from that kind of point. You go okay, if I’m spending that kind of money, like you kind of do want, the finer ease you do want yeah, pick up some teas. You do want to get a good starter. Who’s got a good bit of banter? Yeah, yeah yeah, a top tracer range. You want complimentary golf balls on the? Range you want showers that are amazing to go into.

Chris: 43:36

You want, you’re absolutely right, I think if we’re just looking at the course.

Nish: 43:42

I’d say, if you’re looking at the whole, package.

Chris: 43:45

I think Gullen sits above it, but I think it’s probably the second favourite course for me in terms of the links that we played, and a pretty close second to Silloth, to be fair, as well, and I think with everything else that surrounds it. It probably when push comes to shove, I think, with everything else that surrounds it, it probably when push comes to shove. I think it would probably sit above.

Nish: 44:01

Yeah, it’s a fact paper, between the two in terms of golf experience for you, right yeah? Okay, I mean, I think that’s yeah that’s fair. Yeah, I thought that like you said it was. At that time it would have been hard enough anyway, because we’ve seen what those golf balls are like and we’ve seen what those hickory clubs are like. Yeah, that’s hard enough as it is. We don’t need to trick it up with x, y and z.

Chris: 44:35

Yeah, and it was not needed. It wasn’t that at trick it up with X, Y and Z. It’s not needed. It wasn’t like that at all. It was very simple, natural, but just excellent you could have fun there, couldn’t you?

Nish: 44:42

You could go and have fun at that golf course. And you did, we did, we had a great time. And actually we scored well. I think 87 is a cracking score. I think that’s one of your best for a while. I think that About 87.

Jim: 44:55

Yeah he hadn’t played pretty Well. You didn’t cover yourself in glory at Hankley Common and HIndhead it was good to kind of consign that to the history books, wasn’t it it?

Nish: 45:04

was better than that crap. If you’re playing up there and playing some of the courses, you’d be mad to not go and play Golden, I think it’s got to be added to your list of places to go and play and, with the facilities that they’ve put there as well, you’re not going to go there and just go. I’m a bit disappointed. You will just come back and you will have had a great time, yeah, for sure, notwithstanding Gareth Bale playing in front of you.

Jim: 45:26

But yeah, and outscoring him probably quite considerably.

Nish: 45:38

Well, he, he didn’t sound like he was pretty slow.

Chris: 45:40

To be fair he was. He was holding everyone up the drone above him yeah, the drone was circling around gareth bale’s head. Do you know?

Nish: 45:46

I’ve got to say something as well about that.

Chris: 45:48

So just as a very, very short sign, like there are certain people who gareth bale’s pretty bloody famous yeah, we were saying it was saying weren’t we Like some people you spot in the street and you’re like, oh, I fucking know that person, are they from telly? Yeah, but like Gareth Bale, you just walk around the corner and it’s like fucking hell, gareth Bale’s there.

Nish: 46:05

We were just driving up to go to the car park and just glanced right and went. You know I’m sort of, but you also get a feeling for people, don’t you? Just by looking at them sometimes he just seemed like a nice bloke actually, yeah, I mean he was just with his mates, wasn’t he? They were always on a bit of a golfing tour like just having a bit of a laugh.

Chris: 46:25

Yeah, I don’t think he was having a beer, but they were having a few beers and obviously having a little Scottish golf tour.

Nish: 46:38

Did you drink? Of course we didn’t. We didn’t know.

Jim: 46:39

Just checking.

Nish: 46:39

We’re sticklers for rules, jim, and you know we respect that, unless it comes to using your mouth. I couldn’t Do you know what. I couldn’t do it to Dylan. He was such a nice guy I couldn’t do that. But we bumped into him on the court because he was going out a couple of groups after us. So he was like did you have a good time? I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Looking forward to hearing the review.

Chris: 47:01

What a top guy he was, yeah, he was, what a top guy so we will have on the video version.

Nish: 47:07

There’s a reason to watch it. We will have some footage interspersed of Chris’s backside going upstairs and stuff like that as of.

Chris: 47:15

I mean, if that’s not going to get the people in, then why isn’t it?

Nish: 47:17

Sex sells mate. Absolutely, that’s it. There’s only fans after that. I’ve already set it all up.

Jim: 47:28

Oh, and the concrete towers?

Nish: 47:31

Yeah, we saw the concrete World War II, was it? Yeah, we did see that, we saw them.

Chris: 47:36

But again, I’m so glad we did the. I told you it was an important fact, james. But if we wouldn’t have done that preview, you would have just walked past it right and you wouldn’t have thought anything of it. You’d have just gone. This is a bit weird. What have they got that there for?

Nish: 47:48

But actually it was like oh okay, you know, I some value, even if it’s just to us Wonderful. Thanks, gents. Next time on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, we’ll be previewing the Ryder Cup, which we’re all very excited about but also a tiny little bit worried about. Nah, we’re going to smash it. I think so, especially with Rory. Today he’s on form Go Europe, Go Europe, let’s have it.