Painswick. The Ups and Downs

[Adrian_Stiff]

Bills comment on another thread made me think, you guys love this course, me too but.
I live 25 miles from Painswick and hardly anyone I know has ever played it, many have never heard of it and some that have think its terrible.
Trying to persuade someone the 1st, 5th, 10th and 11th are great holes is not easy and that coupled with crossing fairways, walkers, kite flyerr's, 4900 yards, three consective par 3s, the roads, the bone hard greens in the summer, the masses of weeds, the 50mm high fairway.. you are likely to get straight-jacketted.
Some can see the beauty of course and it does have some fans, but this course may not make the local top 30 (there are 43 courses in Gloucestershire) if you asked the masses. It really emphasises what a minority bracket we are in loving some of these hidden gems, we are ofcourse right and they are wrong !!!

[Bill_McBride]

Adrian, you have just put out a list of all the things that lovers of quirky golf treasure most!

#11 is one of the best short par 4s I've ever played, exciting when you come over the crest and see where the hell your tee shot finished!  

#6 was one of Henry Longhurst's greatest holes in Britain, incredible views up there from the Beacon and a crackerjack par 3 to boot.

It's true you might have to wait a few minutes for a party of dog walkers to clear the fairway, and you definitely have to beware of stray golf balls sailing around.  And excavating oneself from the various quarries is interesting too.

Sounds like many of your neighbors haven't bothered going up there to take a look.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Adrian, you have just put out a list of all the things that lovers of quirky golf treasure most!

#11 is one of the best short par 4s I've ever played, exciting when you come over the crest and see where the hell your tee shot finished!  

#6 was one of Henry Longhurst's greatest holes in Britain, incredible views up there from the Beacon and a crackerjack par 3 to boot.

It's true you might have to wait a few minutes for a party of dog walkers to clear the fairway, and you definitely have to beware of stray golf balls sailing around.  And excavating oneself from the various quarries is interesting too.

Sounds like many of your neighbors haven't bothered going up there to take a look.

Bill you dont need to convince me, I think I been going there since 1974. The ones I tempt to go there get put off, when they say they are going, someone tells them its a piece of sh**. Maybe Painswick should advertise, I have some great pics.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Painswick made me feel nostalgic for some of the primitive old courses I played as a teenager with my father (a man who would have shared interest with many on this site, although he would have loathed the confrontation) - silly old courses such as Welshpool, Church Stretton, Wrekin, Llanyhynech, Llandrindod Wells, Ardglass, Grange Fell, Old Colwyn, Portpatrick and a number round the west coast of Ireland (Donegal etc) that I now forget.  Each of these courses had a number of quaint holes or crazy moments.  Painswick summed them all up - mad but irresistible.  

Don't tell the others - if they start taking too much money in green fees they'll feel wealthy and bring in Rees Jones for a makeover.

[ed_getka]

Adrian,
   The percentage of golfers who would enjoy Painswick is so small, that I wouldn't even bother to mention it to most people. However, anyone who goes there and doesn't think #6 is one of the best par 3's around certainly should not be calling themselves a golfer. The only ranking Painswick will ever be up for is  most quirky category. Straight uphill opening drive. Blind shot up and over a rampart on #5. A couple of holes where the ground falls off (think small 1-2 foot cliff) onto the green, etc... An utter joy to play unless you obsess about course conditioning.

[ForkaB]

Adrian

I posted a link to an old (2001) post on here re: Painswick on the dual fairway thread.  I think you'd enjoy reading and seeing it.  See below.

Rich

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=11842;start=msg194594#msg194594

R

[Adrian_Stiff]

Adrian

I posted a link to an old (2001) post on here re: Painswick on the dual fairway thread.  I think you'd enjoy reading and seeing it.  See below.

Rich

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=11842;start=msg194594#msg194594

R

Rich, that was a lovely 30 minutes of reading. btw David Brown the architect won the Open in 1886 at Mussleburgh; Brown did well in many other Opens after that and although he was Scottish, he got a club pros job moving south to Malvern, which is about 50 miles away. The original design of Painswick had the 9th hole as the 1st and I think they played 9,10,11,12,4,5,6,7,8 as the original sequence of 9 holes. Im not sure if David Brown did the other holes. Painswick has hardly changed since except there was a the old 4th hole par 3 which was a great quirky hole played down into a quarry but with the green on a raised plateau, roughly left of the present 4th, then the course ended at 17. A new 18th was built which had one or two bunkers, it was a very non Painswick out of place hole, and more recently this has been replaced by the one today. In the area there are two other courses which are quite like Painswick; Minchinhampton old course, which has greens set amongst hollows, quarries, although the course has little overall contour change and few trees, Cleeve Cloud is another which is set out over Cleeve hill; this course is quite up and down and more like Painswick in that the slopes are quite oblique, it has outcrops of gorse and scrubby stuff. I dont think you think quite as highly as our beloved Painswick but they are worth a go. Typically all three get very forgotten.

[Paul_Turner]

Ah, nostalgia for when I could contribute something new and interesting to GCA.

I'm amazed the pics are still visible...one day that defunct AOL space hosting the pics will be wiped.

Adrian

Always wanted to have a good look at where that old 4th was.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Ah, nostalgia for when I could contribute something new and interesting to GCA.

I'm amazed the pics are still visible...one day that defunct AOL space hosting the pics will be wiped.

Adrian

Always wanted to have a good look at where that old 4th was.

I have a pic somewhere but its not digital, I think this hole got abolished in the mid-late 60s, you can still see the outline of the green, but in 30 years the trees have grown up quite a lot so you cant see the view from the tee. Painswick would have been nine out and nine in, with the old 4th in. I must get up there for a walk soon.. btw can someone tell me how to post a pic???

[Tony_Muldoon]

Adrian the way I do it ( IN NON TECHIE LANGUAGE)

Register with Photobucket.com and they will host them for free.  You then 'upload' from your computer to the site, one or more (they'll give you tips to speed up ding more).

Below each picture saved there will be 3 boxes which are all ways of accessing the picture.  Just copy and paste the lowest of these 3 into a GCA 'reply' and the text will magically transform into a picture when you post or preview.



IF anyone still doesn’t understand press ‘quote’ above and the picture will become text. It’s easy after the first one.

Good luck.  “Other hosting bodies are available.”

[Jeff Doerr]

Adrian,

Painswick looks like great fun! I wish I had something similar near Portland, Oregon!

Would you consider doing a "My Home Course" piece for us?

Thanks again, Jeff

[Bill_McBride]

Adrian,

Painswick looks like great fun! I wish I had something similar near Portland, Oregon!

Would you consider doing a "My Home Course" piece for us?

Thanks again, Jeff

Jeff, see my 'profile,' "The Pleasures of Pennard," from my 2005 visit, which I just bumped up to page 1.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Painswick is great fun. Fun being the key word. It is not a course to take seriously. I can see why people in the general area might not seek it out. It reminds me of my youth playing the local muni in Monroe, La with its quirky fun holes and odd shots. Painswicks takes those holes and puts them on steriods. Our country club was for serious golf and golfers. The muni was for the love of the game and shot making. The fat lazy guy in me will never love #1 at Painwick. Any hole that needs a tram to get up the fairway to the green is way to tough for me. lol Yet what an opener. The holes around the fortress are so cool. I do hope to go that way again one day.

[Darren_Kilfara]

Everyone who loves Painswick should RUN, not walk, to play Braid Hills #1 in Edinburgh. Just as kitsch quirky as Painswick, except it's a much better golf course - and the views of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth are to die for. I enjoyed Painswick a lot, but believe me, there's no comparison in the "courses GCA.com was created to celebrate" stakes...

Cheers,
Darren

[Adrian_Stiff]

Everyone who loves Painswick should RUN, not walk, to play Braid Hills #1 in Edinburgh. Just as kitsch quirky as Painswick, except it's a much better golf course - and the views of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth are to die for. I enjoyed Painswick a lot, but believe me, there's no comparison in the "courses GCA.com was created to celebrate" stakes...

Cheers,
Darren

Darren - I have heard great things about Braid Hills, are there a few courses? any pics?

[Darren_Kilfara]

There are 27 holes at the Braids, I think; I think the 18 original holes are split up between the main #1 course and the nine-hole #2 course, although I could be wrong about that. Anyway, there are two or three quite bad holes at the Braids, but the rest of it is really rather special - it's like taking the best qualities of Painswick, multiplying them by two and getting rid of most of the bad parts about it. I wish I'd remembered to bring my camera when I played out there the last two summers, but when I'm next out there I'll try my best to rectify that.

Cheers,
Darren