After playing Pennard, we headed back into the Cotswolds for a visit to the birthplace of quirk, lovely little Painswick, the 4800 yard par 67 hilly little rascal set in the steep hills which surround an Iron Age fort and quarry. I had a great time there in May 2004 while participating in the GCA Ryder Cup event, and wanted to show Kathleen what it was all about. We had a great couple of nights and a fun day at Painswick, with an opportunity to drink a couple of pints with a few members on the terrace a highlight.
The GCA event is well remembered and highly regarded at Painswick. Here's the Dali-esque clock which our captain, Rich Goodale, sent to Painswick after the match, and which now hangs proudly in the clubhouse.
The first hole looks really easy on the scorecard. 227 yard par 4. What the scorecard doesn't show, however, is that the greenskeeper has to mow the first fairway at first cut length, or else tee shots would roll back to your feet, the fairway is that steeply uphill! It is routine to stop for a blow half way up. The pitch shot approach must clear this grassy bunker area, typical of Painswick which has no sand bunkers.
This is the third hole, a par 4 of 285 yards. The temptation from this elevated tee is, of course, to grip and rip a manly drive onto the green. Bad plan unless perfectly executed; the fairway slopes sharply into those trees on the left, almost guaranteeing a lost ball. The guys in the background are on the 13th tee. Painswick is on probably the smallest piece of land of any 18-hole layout larger than mini-golf; almost every hole shares a fairway with an incoming hole. The incoming groups have the right of way. Both groups have to yield to the ever-present hikers. Painswick is on “common land,” so hikers, picnickers and dogwalkers get the right of way over everybody else!
Here's a closer view of the third green, which clearly shows how steep the fairway is and how sharply the left side of this tiny green falls away. Painswick requires a lot of patience and a lot of very creative short game shots to score well in spite of the obvious short yardage.
This is the world-class par 3 sixth, listed as one of the UK's best holes in many collections, and so named by Henry Longhurst. The natural features of this hole could not have been better designed by the leading architects to repel tee shots away from this 206 yard hole. The locals say it's possible to hit a high draw to the right and catch a slope down onto the green. Most of us tried to fade a shot around that knob in front. Very few were successful with any type of attempt.
Here's the unusual 12th hole, a straight downhill par 3 of 250 yards. The fairway is so steep the best play is a mid iron which lands short of the road and slightly right of center so as to roll down the hill and onto the surface. I can only imagine the results of a successful attempt to carry a wood onto that green!
#16 is a downhill par 4, only 299 yards, that plays over this abandoned quarry. The green is a narrow shelf benched into the falling away slope, so pitch shots into the green must again be played well short of the green. Pitch shots onto the green invariably went over the back. The only successful pitches were played from the left side, into the flatter angle of the green.
The home hole at Painswick is a short par 3, only 140 yards, but causes a lot of aggravation. The green falls away to the right very sharply. The large tree on the left does a lot of business. And the folks who just finished playing are sitting on the terrace of the clubhouse you can barely make out behind the tree, usually trying to bother the players teeing off on #18 by yelling and jeering. Luckily this tactic was not practiced during the GCA Ryder Cup, we might not have won the match!
There's the terrace in the distance!
The scene of the crime, and the criminals!
The afficiando of quirky golf will feel right at home at Painswick! It's not to everyone's taste, but it shouldn't be missed if you are even remotely in the vicinity.
Next stop, Dr. MacKenzie's home course, the all-world Allwoodley!