COTSWOLDS GOLF HOLIDAYS
The best golf courses for Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire golfbreaks.

One of two very enjoyable courses a Minchinhampton Golf Club.  Both run across level terrain so easily walked and are broadly similar in style.  The Avening is arguably the tougher test of the two with narrower Fairways; albeit defined by single rows of trees and barely any rough, so an escape route is normally available should you stray from the straight and narrow!  The Avening also has some water in play on a few holes - from which there in no escape!  Good, clean, sensibly-priced, fun.

Minchinhampton's Cherington course is slightly more open than the Avening and consequently slightly more bunkered to provide sufficient challenges to the established golfer.  It's the sort of golf course where you get what you deserve (hard to believe we know!) and a layout that is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish in their welcoming Clubhouse.

A golf course that seemingly hasn't changed since the dawn of time.  Spreading across the Common Land of Minchinhampton, where sheep and cattle are free to roam, Minchinhampton Old Course is a leap back in course design.  This is Old School golf in a totally natural setting: some will appreciate a peep into the past; others won't we are sure.  One thing's for sure, you'll have plenty to discuss post-round in the pub beside the teeny Clubhouse.

As the name implies plenty of hills and dales at Stinchcombe Golf Club!  However the rewards are magnificent Cotswolds views from the high ground (and an 18th that is downhill all the way!).  More recognisable as a golf course than some of the other curiosities that abound in this part of England, so will be appreciated by all.  Plenty of buggies available if you think the hills may be too much of a test for you.

Another Cotswolds golf course that will expand your golfing horizons.  Cleeve Hill sweeps across the treeless plain where mountain sheep freely graze and ramblers freely roam.  It seems as though Old Tom just went out and hid 18 flags across the hillside - all you have to do is find them.  Cleeve Hill has a strange kind of magic about it: you may wonder what you are doing here as you stand on the 1st Tee, but we bet by the time you reach 18 you will be looking forward to teeing it up again.  Clubhouse is a very simple affair, where walkers (and their four-legged friends) are made most welcome - and the home-cooked food is delicious.

One of the strangest (and shortest) courses you will ever play!  A tumult of dunes, banks, hills, hollows, pathways, bushes, trees, criss-crossing Fairways, blind shots, tiny Greens and the odd flag here and there.  At Painswick you will need to suspend your notions of what a golf course should look like as little resembles any other course we have ever seen!  Holes haven't changed in 100 years or more (nobody really knows when golf started on Painswick Hill) and the land is Public, so you will most likely have an audience too.  If you can accept it for what it is you will have fun - and lots of stories!

Other courses to consider

Good quality parkland golf close to the pretty market town of Chippenham - very handy if you are staying in town.