The_LHC
Head Pro
I never said I liked it, but it's certainly better than The Bristol.
Meh, given the choice between The Players and The Bristol, I'd probably play Thornbury! I'd be quite happy to play Thornbury every week if it was my home club, wouldn't have a problem with that (Woodlands is possibly just too short, there's too many holes that are a drive and chip for me, it's good for a quick evening round though).
I'd much rather play Thornbury or Woodlands though. Both alot shorter, but a better challenge IMO and like you say there are alot of holes that let you choose risk/reward.
Courses I like around Bristol are The Kendleshire (as mentioned previously), although for some reason whenever I turn up there I forget something. My swing usually! I only ever play terribly there, no idea why, although I've never been in the water on the 11th, which I'm quite pleased about.
I like the Crown course at The Park near Wick (Oh, looks like they've renamed it back to Tracy Park again!), lovely mature course that, although I hate the Cromwell course, actually that's not fair I only hate half of it, the newer bit over the fence in the other field, horrible set of holes there.
Henbury's a lovely urban parkland course, totally unsuited to my game as it's pretty tight (I'm a sprayer) but I still enjoyed, apart from the hike up the 10th fairway, that's just wrong!
Filton's not bad, I've only played it once and can't remember much about it, other than it was the middle of summer and the fairways were like reinforced concrete, boing!
Played Cumberwell Park last year, that was quite nice, not sure I'd pay £760 for 5 day membership though, it isn't THAT good! Nearly eagled the 9th there, the putt just grazed the edge of the hole, doubt I'll ever play that hole better in my life (561yds, drive, 4 iron to 12 feet, 2 putts, a disappointing birdie, if such a thing exists!), shame the rest of the round was largely bobbins.
Bristol and Clifton is a lovely course, excellent Alastair Mackenzie greens, you can really imagine you're playing at Augusta (apart from the p*ssing rain obviously...), bit difficult to get in though, I was a guest of a member, not sure if you can just roll up and play, slightly unusual layout with consecutive par 3s on the back 9.
On the subject of AM greens, Weston Super Mare is a lovely pocket sized links-style course on a tiny little plot of land, you wonder how they fit 18 holes in there (they don't in fact, you have to walk through a caravan park to get to two of the holes on the front 9!), some of the greens are brilliant though, huge borrows and lightning fast in the summer. Keep your eyes open though, near the clubhouse the fairways are packed tight together and balls can be coming at you from any direction. Exactly the sort of club I like, the clubhouse reeks of history, you can imagine bearded old chaps in tweed plus-fours cracking a feathery round there, fantastic!