Golf Course Architecture - Issue 64, April 2021

51 passed into the care of Tewkesbury Borough Council. Golfing on Cleeve Hill is a grand experience. The course – though lengthened from that laid out by Tom, which measured less than 5,000 yards, with a longest hole of 330 yards (the back tees now stretch to 6,400 yards) – feels like a living connection to the past of the game. Among its more remarkable old features is the thirteenth green, still located where Tom put it, among the earthworks of an Iron Age hillfort. Last autumn, though, Cleeve was threatened with closure. In early September, the council revealed that the private company that leased the course had ended its tenancy early because it judged it to be financially unviable. After a review by an independent expert, the council echoed this view, saying that golf at Cleeve Hill “could not be financially sustainable without significant investment and an ongoing subsidy from the council”. It therefore resolved to revoke the licence for the use of Cleeve Common as a golf course from 31 March 2021. Tewkesbury’s decision prompted a storm of outrage. Members of the golf club immediately started a petition, which attracted thousands of signatures, a ‘Save Cleeve Hill Golf Course’ Facebook group sprung up and created a lot of noise, and generally the golf community made it known that it did not believe the course should be allowed to die. It soon became clear that the council’s decision might be overturned. The Golf has been played on Cleeve Hill in the Cotswolds since 1891. Following Tewkesbury Borough Council’s decision to revoke the licence for the use of Cleeve Common as a golf course, locals grouped together and are now in the process of taking over