The Players Club (Codrington)

The Players Club is certainly a big, bold and brash golf course that can play as long as 7,106 yards. However, size isn’t everything, as they say, and at least four tee placements at every hole help to cater for all handicaps.

Located just off the M4 to the east of Bristol, the course opened in 2002 and it’s the creation of Adrian Stiff, a local golf architect who has designed several other West Country courses, including the highly rated Cumberwell Park.

The course was constructed to a high standard, with USGA specification greens, a state of the art irrigation system and the use of over 4,000 railway sleepers to edge many of the ponds on the course. Water predominates at no fewer than fourteen holes on the card and combined with enormous, undulating greens, they give the course an American feel within the Gloucestershire countryside.

The front nine has undergone a major alteration program, which started in 2007. A new par three 2nd hole has come into play, using the existing 3rd green and the monster, par five 8th hole has been divided into two par fours, with the first (the new 7th) a relatively short 350 yards playing to a new green and the second (the new 8th) playing to the original 8th green. To complete the golfing makeover, the par four 9th and 11th holes have been stretched a few yards longer to become par fives.

A second 18-hole course at the Players Club, called the Stranahan, opened for play in 2010. This modest 5,500-yard par 68 layout is an able accompaniment to the Codrington course and the club hopes the Stranahan course will herald a return to the 3-hour round.