Painswick - THREE INCREDIBLE photographs (see Page 2)

[Robin_Hiseman]

As if you needed any persuasion...

[George Pazin]

Thanks.

Someone should resurrect one of the Painswick threads for the newer posters.

[James Boon]

Wow! A great photo Robin, thanks for posting.

From that angle the 5th looks even more of incredible than it does from the tee! 

George,

Do you mean this one? 
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,35805.0.html

Cheers,

James

[George Pazin]

Many thanks, James, that is awesome!

[Ronald Montesano]

I don't get it...it looks like a mannequin's lower abs...

[Bill_McBride]

The two greens you see are atop an Iron Age fort, with the tees perhaps fifty feet below.  The "abs" are crevasses I think.  The sides of the hills are light brown, so I'm guessing there hasn't been much if any rain in the Cotswolds lately!

[John Mayhugh]

Robin,
Thanks much for the photo.  Really an interesting view.

In Robin's photo, the 5th green is at the center of the photo.  The fourth green is at the bottom right, with the 5th tee sort of in the trees beyond the green.  If you had no course info prior to your round and no routing map, it would be damned tough figuring out where to hit.

Here's a more conventional look at the completely unconventional 5th hole.  First from the tee.


And at the top of the hill looking at the green.

[Kalen Braley]

John,

Thanks for posting those pics and explaining how that routing works.....good stuff to my eye, the very definition of true quirk.

Out of curiousity, whats the carry distance from the tee up over the ridge?

Thanks,

[John Mayhugh]

Out of curiousity, whats the carry distance from the tee up over the ridge?

Maybe 90 yards.  The hole is only about 110.

[Bruce Katona]

Sorry., but what is an "Iron Age Fort"?

[Kalen Braley]

Sorry., but what is an "Iron Age Fort"?

A fort that was built in the Iron Ages that appears to be NLE?   

[Ronald Montesano]

So it's a blind pitch over three ridges? That is tasty.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Sorry., but what is an "Iron Age Fort"?

Bruce - It is where people used to live and they defended their home by having people on watch and with the two or three moats and steep banks it meant invaders would be tired scaling them and so easily picked off with spears. It was an old fashioned way of gaining an advantage on the enemy. 5000 years on we have CCTV and alarm systems linked to broadband!!!

[Matt Day]

how cool is that   I was only joking to my wife last week watching Britain BC that Maiden Castle in Dorset would make a tricky golf hole

[Bruce Katona]

Adrian: Thanks.  The fort is a tremendous land form, but here in the US, we have some landforms of forts from the Revolutionary & Civil War but nothing quite that old....Most of the time these are required to be preserved, not modified foran entirely new purpose......very neat.

[Bill_McBride]

There are actually half a dozen holes within the boundary of the old fort, plus the beacon way on top, where you can see all the way to the Bristol Channel bridges.  The locals set signal fires up there - think back to the scene in the "Lord of the Rings!"

[Mark McKeever]

I feel like a similar hole could be created at a landfill -> golf course here in the US.  McCoullough's could have something similar if they so chose.

Mark

[Jason Topp]

I found this hole really deceptive off the tee.  Knowing the yardage I assumed the green was in one of the folds going up the hill.  I thought my ball flew into one of the folds and thought I was in trouble as I walked up the hill and did not see a green there.  It turned out my ball was on the green on the top of the hill.

I had a similar experience playing the par 3 at Prestwick over a dune.

Both of those holes resulted in memorable 3's.

[Anthony Gray]

  Looks like a reclaimed strip mine in West Virginia

[Jud_T]

The place looks very cool.  Is it a difficult walk?

[John Mayhugh]

I found this hole really deceptive off the tee.  Knowing the yardage I assumed the green was in one of the folds going up the hill.  I thought my ball flew into one of the folds and thought I was in trouble as I walked up the hill and did not see a green there.  It turned out my ball was on the green on the top of the hill.

That's your ball in the photo above.  I don't remember who was closer to the hole, though if I had to guess it wouldn't be me.


Jud,
Not a difficult walk overall.  The course is short - under 5,000 yards and you're not constantly climbing hills.  But when you do, you might want to pause to catch your breath.  Some really good holes considering the challenge of the property.

[Bill_McBride]

  Looks like a reclaimed strip mine in West Virginia

Not surprising, the whole place, with a few exceptions, was a former quarry site.

[Pete Lavallee]

The place looks very cool.  Is it a difficult walk?

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!

[Michael Whitaker]

The place looks very cool.  Is it a difficult walk?

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!

 

[Scott Warren]

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!