Faldo backs bid to save golfing ‘gem’
Licence for Cleeve Hill course ends next year
FORMER world number one golfer Sir Nick Faldo has supported calls to save a Gloucestershire golf club from being shut down.
Cleeve Hill Golf Club’s 25-year licence will end in March 2021.
Amateur podcasters produced a video to support the golf course and Sir Nick, 63, retweeted their public appeal.
He said: “Golf and golf rounds are on a dramatic rise, there must be a way to save this gem?!”
Sir Nick, who now works as a television commentator, was ranked the world’s number one professional golfer during his career in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Golf lovers Sam Williams, 34, and Tom Mills, 34, who host the Cookie Jar Golf Podcast, decided to make a video to see if they could change the outcome for the club.
Mr Williams, from Blackwell, said: “Nick Faldo is certainly the all-time greatest English golfer. He’s got over 300,000 Twitter followers. He’s a highly decorated golfer.” The podcaster went on to say response to the video had “gone down quite well”, with golf architect Mike Clayton also retweeting the video. He had rated the course as excellent and said it was worth a long journey to see it.
Mr Williams said he had a soft spot for the Cleeve Hill course and decided to nip down there one day with fellow podcaster and golfing buddy Mr Mills, who is also a professional videographer. Mr Williams said: “I played there when I was very very young and it’s kind of a bit of a cult golf course.
“Some of the real highbrow golf enthusiasts know of its beauty but most everyday golfers, they’d just think, ‘£15 [entry] for loads of sheep manure on the floor, this isn’t fun.’
“So we heard it was shutting and we do filming as part of our podcast. So Cookie Jar Golf is really about podcast, photography, film and ultimately uncovering the interesting stories from within golf.
“We don’t live far way, we thought let’s just jump in the car, fly round with a drone, play some golf and do a video and maybe we can put out a public appeal.”
The podcasters have also recorded a full episode dedicated to the course on Cleeve Hill. They have been hosting the podcast since January with friends Cal Wing and Bruce Fitzpatrick.