........I haven't got the pictures back yet from my 25-year old Brownie with the 18-year old film, but I'll make a few general comments to whet your appetites........
1. Taking pictures is not a big part of my life these days, ever since my sprogs got too old and/or sophisticated to be caught with spears of broccoli hanging out of their nose, but....if I had had one of those digital babies that gives you 2500 images for the price of a free opinion, I could have burned out that chip over the 1st 12 holes at Paisnwick. As it was, being judicious, I ran out of film on the 8th or 9th.
2. I ran out of golf balls on the 12th. The pro looked at me strangely when I said I was an OK player and 4 balls would do me nicely. I got the "Painswick GC" logo Korean beauties, fully expecting to be able to send 2-3 of them to my closest friends for Xmas presents. Alas, I found myself sans pelotas and searching vainly around the periphery of the 12th green.....
3. It is amazing that while it is so easy to lose balls at Painswick, it is absoultely impossible to find them! On vurtually every other golf course I have played over my long life I have usually been able to find at leat as many as I have most. Not at Painswick. Part of the reason is that the edges of many fairways transition VERY abruptly from light rough to precipice. It is not a place to walk your children. There could be, however, more sinister reasons.......
4. And yet, it is a place to walk yourself. In the 17 holes I played (one was walked) I saw about 40 other people. Only 10 of these were golfers. The others included:
--about 20 "ramblers" (people out walking in groups of 3-7 with maps and thermoses of tea or Bovril)
--about 5 dog walkers (with dogs, not unsurprisingly)
--two horsewomen (cum horses)
--one guy riding a bicycle up the 9th fairway
--an old lady who nearly got decapitated by my tee shot on the 17th
--the pro standing by the 18th green with his stopwatch and clocking me in at 1 hr 52 minutes.
5 Even though I lost all my "Painswick GC" balls, I managed to finish the round with only the loss of one hole due to the
kindness of a two-ball I met walking to the 4th tee as I was walking off the 14th tee. I begged and one of the guys gave me 4 golf balls which looked like they had lain in the bottom of his bag since WWII but in fact included one Strate, one A10 and one Titlest 100 Surlyn ball! They refused all offers of payment, and I am proud to say that I returned all 4 to the pro at the end of my round.
6. Painswick is NOT a great golf course, and yet.......
--It has two "Dell" holes, each of which is better than the original (
?) at Lahinch.
--it's 9th as as good a par 4 as you will ever play (shame that they still call it a "par" 5.
--there is an area on the course in which the 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th greens co-exist in a space of no more than a few acres. Each of those greens has as much character as JakaB on a bad hair day. It is sensory overload in the most ecstatic sense. Just to make the whole thing surreal, 7, 8 and 9 are VERY good golf holes that are overshadowed by the neighboring cluster.
9. You finish at Painswick on a short par-3 that you were sure when you signed on was just part of the practice facility, as there is no tee in sight adn there is another practice gren adjacent to it. Part of the problem is that your direction to the 1st tee are, in effect: "You need to go back across the road behind the clubhouse. You can go left or go right out this door. I doesn't make much difference." Kinda like Yogi's directions to his house "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
10. And then you get to the 1st, which is a blind 237 yard par 4 up El Capitain which many people would have trouble climbing without oxygen and Tiger would have trouble hitting in one, particularly given the diabolical and seemingly bottomless pit which plummets from the front edge of the green. It is the mother of all Devil's Arseholes, and there is not a grain of sand in sight........
More to come
Rich
PS--Paul
I'll testify for you in your royalty case if you can help me post my pictures when I get them! I'll scan them into jpg. if that helps!