CHURCH STRETTON

By Matt Cooper Last updated: 30th November 2009

The novelist EM Forster once likened the Shropshire hills around the small town of Church Stretton to Switzerland.

From a golfing perspective if the Shropshire hills are Switzerland, then Church Stretton Golf Club is Crans-sur-Sierre - it is quirky, it is hilly and there are glorious views in every direction.

The course is one of the oldest (and highest) in England and you approach it in a way that hints at the golfing test that awaits - your car has to negotiate tight hairpin bends before you find yourself looking at a wonderful chalet-style clubhouse which clings to the slopes of the Carding Mill Valley.

It was always said the course was a James Braid original and, although recent research by the golf historian Iain Cumming has thrown that into doubt, he has arguably uncovered a better story.

It seems that Braid's true involvement was as a re-designer, a role another great, Harry Vardon, also undertook.

When Cumming further discovered that, in addition to Braid and Vardon, JH Taylor also played the course, the club was able to say that is it one of the few courses in the UK that all three of the Great Triumvirate played (albeit at different times).

The course is probably little changed from when those three great Open Champions graced it which makes it all the more appealing as a quirky golfing destination.

You truly get the sense that you are playing golf as it was played 100 years ago, in an age when there were no huge machines to move vast chunks of land so the course designer had to use what nature had provided.

And what a piece of land the course designers (and re-designers) had to play with!

Effectively the course sits on the side and top of the lower slopes of the Long Mynd (Long Mountain in Welsh) and in order to get up onto the flatter (or less steep) slopes the course begins with three par threes.

The tee shot on the first is scary - hitting to a raised green some 181 yards distant. Slice it and it disappears into the town, miss the green left or short and you'll be pitching blind from the bottom of a steep slope.

The second requires a blind shot to a small green protected by a shoulder of the hill (and a dozen sheep).

The third requires a brave hit to a green that sits on a small saddle at the top of a rising valley with anything long disappearing into another valley altogether.

By the time you have climbed from the third green to the fourth tee, you've played 457 yards of golf course and probably climbed a lot more than that - it really tests the legs and lungs but it is worth it for the exhilarating views.

What follows is a series of cunning holes that sweep across the slopes - short par fours climbing steep hills and longer par fours dropping in elevation.

Add in blind shots and the wind (which is a given on these hills) and it's clear that this is a test of shot-making skills and golfing instinct, rather than a sterile examination of your ability to measure yardages.

It is a truly unique place, one where you really feel at one with both nature (every fifty yards you are presented with a different, yet still stunning, view of the surrounding hills and valleys) and with golfers from the past.

Looking across the course from the higher levels, you're aware that this is not a modern golf course - no bright white sand, clearly delineated fairways or facile water hazards.

Instead you see a course you have to feel to succeed on - you need to appreciate the lie of the land, to use its slopes, to think your way around the course.

There's no doubt that some wouldn't like the challenge - I have a friend who can't square it with his notion of a golf course - but I think to play Church Stretton GC is like playing Prestwick or Musselburgh Old Links; it's playing golf as it was meant to be played.

What's more, with its springy, fast-drying mountain turf, it never uses temporary greens making it a perfect winter destination - climb the hills to get your blood pumping, feast your eyes on the views, and enjoy a unique golfing test.

Church Stretton GC have some great winter deals. Green fees are £10 weekday & £15 weekends and Bank Holidays. They also have reduced winter memberships (e.g. £150 for full male membership). For more information go to the club website.

Matt Cooper