Painswick - THREE INCREDIBLE photographs (see Page 2)

[Kalen Braley]

From looking at the photo, one would think its just a gentle riser of no more than a few dozen feet...

I guess looks can be decieving!! 

[Scott Warren]

Kalen,

The fairway is so steep that the club cannot mow it at fairway height, as balls roll all the way back to the tee when the grass is too short on the hill.

The POP from Sean Arble's hip as he crested the hill when we played there is a testament to how steep it is!

[Kalen Braley]

Thanks Scott,

This may sound crazy, but the more I see/learn of this course the higher up the list it goes.

Right now its easily one of the top 5 courses I would like to see when/if I make it to the southern region of the UK.

[ed_getka]

Robin,
   Thanks for posting the photo, it brings back great memories of one of our early GCA adventures. The walk is invigorating and to see non-golfers out enjoying the same land is one of the cool aspects of golf over there.

[ed_getka]

Thanks Scott,

This may sound crazy, but the more I see/learn of this course the higher up the list it goes.

Right now its easily one of the top 5 courses I would like to see when/if I make it to the southern region of the UK.

Kalen,
    Not crazy at all. I doubt you'll play a quirkier course. Don't expect country club conditioning, but I guarantee you will have a GREAT time playing at Painswick.

[John Mayhugh]

If you can make it up the hill to the first green, a par 4 of about 220 yards, you be all right. That is probably the steepest golfing slope I've ever encountered. Quite ingenious really, if your going to have a heart attack it will happen within 200 yards of the clubhouse!

According to Google Earth, it's a rise of about 88 feet in 220 yards, so a rather healthy 13% slope.  Wouldn't want to do that for a 600 yard hole!


Kalen,
I took a similar photo.  The next time I'm there, I'll take one with the camera aimed straight ahead rather than following the slope up.  Also, be sure you put Kington on that list of places to see.

Here's another photo from behind the green looking back towards the tee.  You cannot see the clubhouse that's 250 yards away.



Ed,
I liked seeing the shared use of the land too.  These guys were having some fun.

[Kalen Braley]

John,

Good stuff...it looks like an absolute blast.  I love the seemingly teeny greens to counter the lack of the distance.

Ed,

"Country club" conditions would probably be a subtractive to the raw/whimsical/"we more or less left it how we found it" nature of the place.

[Robin_Hiseman]

Quite ingenious really, if your going to have a heart attack it will happen within 200 yards of the clubhouse!

And after you drop to the ground, you're likely to roll all the way back to the tee, next to the road where the ambulance can back up and load you in!

...or they can just cut out the middle man and drop you into a hole in the ground in the graveyard next door!!

[Robin_Hiseman]

Kalen,
I took a similar photo.  The next time I'm there, I'll take one with the camera aimed straight ahead rather than following the slope up.  Also, be sure you put Kington on that list of places to see.


[/quote]

John:

I think if you took a photo on the horizontal, you'd just have a view of the turf in front of your nose!  It is ski slope steep, don't you think?

[John Mayhugh]

John:

I think if you took a photo on the horizontal, you'd just have a view of the turf in front of your nose!  It is ski slope steep, don't you think?

Exactly.  Feels like you might get grass stains on the camera lens.

[Thomas Dai]

Bumping this old thread for two reasons -

1) because I played it again recently and the course was in quite superb condition with the rough long and lush and damn thick. Excellent green surfaces too, watered of course either by the hand of God or with a bowser, no sprinkler system here

and

2) because this picture, originally posted by Robin Hiseman, is just mega.

atb

[Bill_McBride]

That photograph, the first aerial I've seen of Painswick, just reinforces my feeling that it's one of the magical, mystic places I've ever been.   The fact that an amazing course is wrapped around and up on top of the Iron Age (800 BC-100 AD) fort just takes it all to a new level. 

I really wish every golfer could visit Painswick for a few rounds.  It will change how you think about golf. 

[Tom_Doak]

I tried to get that photograph for The Confidential Guide, but the photographer never answered, even after a couple of attempts.

[Robin_Hiseman]

Here are two more stunning photos gleaned from the interweb.
I'm taking the EGD designers there in a few weeks. Not sure how some of them will take it!

[Thomas Dai]

More terrific photos. Well found Robin. I hope you and the EGD designers have a great day when you visit. A 36-hole visit or just 18?

If I'd been a General within some yee olde army marching to try and capture the fort at Painswick, I think I might have got there, taken one look at the place, said "bugger it" and gone home again!

I reckon there's money to be made from an ice-cream or burger van positioned at the rear of the 8th green* or near the roadway just after the 4th tee on the way up/13th tee on the way down. A windscreen replacement van near the 16th/17th holes might do some trade as well!

atb

* although isn't there a pub in the village behind the 8th green?

[Bill_McBride]

There is a pub behind 8, unfortunately I've never visited. 

[Thomas Dai]

There is a pub behind 8, unfortunately I've never visited.  

Sounds like a spot for a potential pre-Buda meet-up, with perhaps a few holes as well

Edit - I just did some Googling. The pub's probably the Royal William. It's about 500 yds behind the 8th green - 9th tee, on the junction of the A46, which is the main road between Painswick village and Cheltenham, and the small lane that leads to the houses behind the 8th green - 9th tee.

atb

[James Bennett]

Robin

I would love to hear what they thought after 1 hole, then after they have been in and out of the fort, and then after the 14-15-16-17 run.

Plus a few flying balls on 3-13 and 8-9.