I had the pleasure of joining Sean for a game at Cleeve Cloud and came away with a pretty high estimation of the course, especially when compared to both Church Stretton and Kington.
Whilst not as hard a test of golf than either Church Stretton or Kington, Cleeve offered up an alternative challenge dictated on the whole by the amount of room available and numerous sidehill approaches, that I imagine in the summer would need plenty of skill and luck to find the necessary angle into the green sites.
I also found it an 'easy' walk despite the number of climbs that I felt were punctuated perfectly with descents which came as a welcome break throughout the round.
I took the liberty of taking a few photos during the round - some may be duplicated from Sean's collection so please forgive me.
No. 1 - A blind drive leads to an approach into a green best taken on from the left - this photo shows the view coming in over an approach bunker on the right.
From the right of the green you can see a small rise created to make an approach from this side more problematic.
No. 2 - A fantastic green site - and one of only a few on Cleeve Cloud that are more akin to those found on Church Stretton and particularly Kington. This photo also gives an indication of the steep slopes encountered at Cleeve.
And from the rear with a tricky greenside bunker set a good 3 or 4 feet above the green.
No. 3 - Another photo showing the topography of the site - this time just after the drive up onto a plateau which holds the green. My drive went right of the post and left a tricky chip into the green.
No. 4 - The view from behind the fourth green shows the openness of the course - from right to left are the fairways of the fourth, fifth and seventh.
No. 5 - An interesting green location set in between gorse bushes. Your drive wants to take the slope and leak to the right, leaving a blind second - however to be able to see the green requires a drive that flirts precariously with the gorse on the left, as I found out to my cost.
No. 6 - A hole with a certain 'wow' factor. Only a flick with a mid to short iron but anything coming up short or right is dead.
No. 7 - Another stunning greensite. From the fairway you get no indication of what lies immediately behind the green.
The green also slopes severely from back to front making any recovery from the rear ever so awkward.
No. 8 - A drive straight uphill - again giving indication to the space afforded to you when playing Cleeve.
No. 9 - As is the case on many of the holes at Cleeve finding the wrong side of the fairway can make your approach tricky. This photo is of the green from the 10th tee and suggests that coming in from the right is virtually impossible due to the steep slope and bunker.
