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Golf in the Cotswolds with Cotswoldgolfbreaks.com

Posted by under Buyers Guide, England, Golf Travel

The perfect combination - outstanding golf in an area of outstanding natural beauty complemented by access to world famous towns and cities, places of beauty and history, scenery that is quintessentially English and accommodation in hotels of character and quality. Why not visit the Cotswolds?

www.cotswoldgolfbreaks.com allow you make the choices. They arrange the accommodation and make the golfing reservations. You simply relax and enjoy.

Cotswold Golf Breaks can offer a number of packages starting at just £220 for one round of golf on all three courses and two nights stay in the Cotswolds; alternatively you can create your own golfing break from the list of their selected accommodation partners.

Whatever your holiday needs, they are able to offer a wide ranging choice from the intimate bed and breakfast to a country pub or one of the best spa hotels in the Cotswolds, their selection of accommodation partners will suit all your requirements and all budgets.

Broadway Golf Club

Par/SSS: 72/70 Yards:6228

Uniquely located 850 ft above sea level on a Cotswold escarpment with exceptional views over the Vale of Evesham, this inland links style golf course provides a challenge for golfers of all abilities. It offers holes that with their natural and artificial hazards require drives that are skillfully placed, approaches carefully judged and the greens expertly read. Characterised by rolling fairways intersected by Cotswold dry stone walls and with undulating greens, that will test the best of golfers.

The 5th hole stands out as the signature hole, designed by Dr Alistair McKenzie of Augusta fame in the 1920’s, this par 3 requires pin point accuracy onto a contoured green some 100ft below the tee. Normally a 7 iron but maybe even a driver when the elements are against you. The 19th hole is exceptional too, Broadway having won the 2007 Golf World, Whyte & Mackay award.

Chipping Sodbury Golf Club

Par/SSS: 73/72 Yards: 6786

Founded in 1905 and set at the foot of the Cotswold and close to the historic market town of Chipping Sodbury lies Chipping Sodbury Golf Club. The Beaufort Course was designed by Fred Hawtree and is widely acknowledged as a superb parkland course with views to rolling countryside.

It has hosted numerous championships across the years and presents a challenge to all levels of golfer.

Water hazards are a feature on many holes and the greens, though large, play smaller than their size, as many of them are raised slightly from the surrounding terrain.

Minchinhampton Golf Club

Par/SSS: 71/69 Yards: 6123

Set high on the Cotswolds both the Cherington and Avening courses offer scenic countryside and outstanding tests of golf. The Cherington designed by Martin Hawtree is a testing inland links course and an Open Qualifying venue. The Avening Course designed by Martin’s father, Fred, is a parkland course offering a different but no less challenging experience.

Alternatively, on the opposite side to the picturesque Cotswold market town of Minchinhampton lies the Old Course. Here golf began in 1889 and has continued without interruption to the present day. Played over open grassland on common land now owned by the National Trust it represents an original test of golfing skill.

The Cotswolds

There are famous cities such as Bath, well-known beautiful towns like Cheltenham and hundreds of delightful villages such as Burford and Castle Combe. Above all, the local honey-coloured limestone, used for everything from the stone floors in the houses to the tiles on the roof, has ensured that the area has a magical uniformity of architecture.

You will see ‘Drystone walls’ everywhere in the fields. Many were built in the 18th and 19th centuries, a matter of considerable skill as there is no cement to hold the walls together. They represent an important historical landscape and a major conservation feature – and are of course still used by farmers to enclose sheep and cattle.

During the 13-15th centuries, the medieval period, the native Cotswold sheep were famous throughout Europe for their heavy fleeces and high quality of wool. Cotswold wool commanded a high price and the wealth generated by the wool trade enabled wealthy traders to leave their mark by building fine houses and wonderful churches, known as “wool churches”. Even today, the sight of sheep on the hillside is still one of the classic Cotswold images.

Not all villages are well known, and today many still hold their secrets. Amongst the treasures to be found are perhaps a hidden village off the beaten track, perhaps Painswick, Biddestone, Winchcombe or Woodstock, or an unspoilt historic church, such as at Northleach often called the “Cathedral of the Cotswolds” – open the church door and you will discover a hidden world of history.

Today, the larger market towns and villages of the Cotswolds are famous for their shops, such as Stow-on-the-Wold, Cirencester, Chipping Norton and Tetbury.