Gloucestershire's golf follows the shape of the land, and the land here does a lot of climbing. The Cotswold escarpment runs through the county like a spine, and several clubs are built right on top of it, which means wind, views and firm turf rather than the manicured calm you might expect from a county best known for its market towns. Nine of the 21 clubs are parkland, but the two downs courses and the one heathland layout are where Gloucestershire's golf gets genuinely distinctive.
The escarpment courses
Cleeve Hill, above Cheltenham, is the standout. Laid out by Old Tom Morris and later revised by Dr Alister MacKenzie, it sits on common land at the highest point of the Cotswolds, looking out towards the Severn Estuary and the Welsh mountains. Locals call it an inland links, and the description holds up: tight lies, constant wind and undulating fairways that owe nothing to irrigation systems. It has picked up national rankings from Golf.com and Golf World, including a place in the top three courses under £35 in Britain and Ireland. Stinchcombe Hill, near Dursley, offers something similar on the southern edge of the escarpment above the Severn Valley — opened as nine holes in 1889 and extended to eighteen by 1906, with later work from Fred Hawtree and James Braid. Henry Longhurst once called it one of the most scenic courses in Europe, and standing on the higher holes it's not hard to see why. Painswick, on Painswick Beacon, adds an odd layer of history: the course is laid out over the remains of an Iron Age fort more than 3,000 years old, and the rare limestone grassland has earned it Site of Special Scientific Interest status. Blind shots and shared fairways come with the territory on a course this old and this exposed.
Parkland around Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud
The majority of Gloucestershire's clubs are gentler parkland tracks, often carved through mature woodland with long views back towards the hills. Lilley Brook, on the southeast edge of Cheltenham, was designed by Dr Alister MacKenzie — the same architect behind Augusta National — and still plays through trees on every hole with the kind of strategic bunkering his courses are known for. Cotswold Hills, founded in 1902 and laid out by Morris Little, sits high above the town in mixed woodland and has hosted the English Ladies Amateur Championship among other county and national events. Minchinhampton, up on the common at Stroud, is unusual in offering three separate courses — the Cherington, the Avening and the Old Course — with the Old Course dating to 1889 and still without a single bunker; the club has run Open Championship Regional Qualifying repeatedly since 2002. Cirencester, designed by James Braid two miles outside the town, plays over limestone that drains well enough for year-round golf without artificial surfaces, and its environmental work with Duke of Burgundy butterfly habitat won a Golf Environment Award in 2022. Further out, Cotswold Edge at Wotton-under-Edge remains privately owned with no public footpaths crossing it, so the views over the Severn, the Brecon Beacons and the Malverns from the top of the escarpment are reserved for golfers.
Gloucester, the Forest of Dean and beyond
Around Gloucester itself, Brickhampton Court offers two courses across 200 acres and modern Trackman technology for practice, while Rodway Hill at Highnam has built a reputation for value, regularly voted the county's best-value course by FORE Magazine and handling more than 30,000 rounds a year. Tewkesbury Park's Deerpark course sits on the site of the 1471 Battle of Tewkesbury, 164 acres of parkland with a shorter Acorn course alongside it for a quicker round. Over towards the Welsh border, Forest Hills and Forest of Dean Golf Club both play through the woodland of the Forest of Dean, with Forest Hills recognised by the PGA for regional events and Gloucestershire county matches. Lydney, a nine-hole club founded in 1909, rebuilt entirely in 2011 to USGA construction standards and has since planted more than 3,500 trees along the Severn.
With green fees starting from around £22, Gloucestershire golf doesn't demand a big budget to sample its range — from wind-blown downland on the escarpment to sheltered parkland in the valleys below.