Glamorganshire is a parkland course with huge trees and a couple of steep climbs. Relatively short by modern standards, this is still a great test of skill. And the views out over the Bristol Channel as you stand on the seventeenth tee are spectacular. The clubhouse looks just as it would have done at the turn of the nineteenth century, an atmospheric and enjoyable end to your day’s golf.
ROYAL PORTHCAWL GOLF CLUB
Arguably the most famous course in Wales, Royal Porthcawl has hosted many international events and championships – including the 1995 Walker Cup. Founded in 1891, this is a links course of real character, history, and tradition. Narrow fairways are guarded by gorse, tough marram grass and, as you would expect on a links course of this standard, deep bunkers. Play Royal Porthcawl on a fine summers day and it seems almost benign. But when the wind and rain hammer in off the Bristol Channel, this can prove to be one of the toughest tests of golf in Britain – as Tiger Woods and his compatriots discovered during their 14-10 defeat in the 1995 Walker Cup. A links course of just over 6,000 yards, Porthcawl is not long by modern standards yet the sea is ever-present and the Bristol Channel is in sight from every single hole. You can see it, smell it, sometimes even feel it when the waves crash in fury onto the rocks of Sker Point below you. With the first three holes closely bordering the coastline, any hooked ball runs the real danger of finishing up on the beach or in the water. The eighteenth – a downhill par four into the prevailing wind – is one of the finest finishing holes in Wales. It is difficult to hold a ball on the undulating green, but what you might lose in your score, you will undoubtedly make up in the panoramic view of the course. The clubhouse is atmospheric and wonderful, small rooms and lounges seeming to be set in a labyrinth that would perplex any Greek hero searching for the Minotaur. It is like
Golfers and caddies take on the rugged terrain at Porthcawl. 14