Fairway Files: Cleeve Hill - Golf on the Roof of the Cotswolds

Words by Jack Tranter

Perched high above Cheltenham on the tallest point in the Cotswolds, Cleeve Hill is an encounter with the land itself rather than just a round of golf. Designed by Old Tom Morris and with a later hand from Alister MacKenzie, it’s a place where golf and landscape blend so naturally you almost feel the game was always here, waiting to be found.

Cleeve will certainly divide opinion. It’s raw, exposed, and unapologetically itself. But for those who see beauty in imperfection and charm in authenticity, it’s unforgettable. The scale is staggering, over 1,000 acres of open commonland, where fairways tumble and climb across ancient ridges, and sheep roam freely as if to remind you this is their home first, ours second.

The opener eases you in, a par 5 that slides downhill to a postage-stamp green before the second climbs back alongside it, its stepped green tucked into the hillside. By the time you reach the 4th tee, the true vastness of the place hits you head on. You can spot the lone “Cleeve Tree” far on the horizon, a landmark that feels impossibly distant yet somehow still part of the round ahead.

From 4 through 9, the golf is superb. Wide fairways that invite driver, tempered by cunningly placed gorse and greens that are anything but straightforward. The first par 3 at the 6th is a gentle nod to what’s coming later in the round.

The routing climbs again to the famous Cleeve tree, twisted and gnarled by years of wind that sweep the hill, as unique as the land on which it stands. Queue the signature 13th, a par 5 hitting to a marker pole before dropping down towards Cheltenham. The green sits inside the remains of an Iron Age fort, fronted by a dry moat that swallows anything short.

The back nine keeps delivering, from the quarry carry at the short 15th to the amphitheatre like 16th, squeezed between steep grassy mounds. By the time you stand on the elevated 18th tee, looking down towards the clubhouse, you’ve not just played a round of golf. You’ve walked through centuries of history, across a landscape that feels both wild and timeless.

Cleeve Hill isn’t manicured perfection. It’s golf in its purest, most unpolished form. It’s wind in your face, livestock watching on, and the constant reminder that some of the game’s greatest joys come not from pristine conditions, but from places where the land and the sport simply belong together.