 WALES
"Links in the sky" near
Cardiff
 Where to play
Throughout Wales, there are more than 200 golf courses,
so wherever you go or stay, you are never far from a recent high standard course or one of
those old inspirational coastal links with paramount views over the sea. In the
surroundings of Cardiff and Swansea, you will have the choice between playing two of the
most exceptional links at Pennard and Royal Porthcawl or one of the most recent
world-class parkland courses at Vale of Glamorgan or the 2010 Ryder Cup course at Celtic
Manor Resort.
Even if Wales' links are not as well known as
Ballybunion, County Down, Portrush or, the Mecca of golf, the Old course of St Andrew's,
some of them can be ranked in the same category of exceptional places to be played once
(or more!) in a golfer's life like Pennard and Royal Porthcawl.
Founded in 1896, Pennard
Golf Club is located on the picturesque Gower
Peninsula (first place to become "Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty" in Britain ) at about 10kms West of Swansea
and 22kms West of Cardiff. It is one of the five testing Gower
courses and deserves its description by a golf writer as the
"Links in the sky".
First of all, the landscape is really outstanding made of
magnificent cliffs embracing superb beaches. Ruins of an old
castle emerge on a crest over the dunes grass and bushes of
broom. Birds are singing everywhere and black and white cows
and wild horses pasture quietly even on the golf courses where
golfers are kindly invited to respect walkers and animals!
There the real queen is Nature. And natural is the golf course
along tormented slopes, hills and valleys with superb view
points to the seashore or the inland. Out of the greens which
are in speedy conditions and the fairways where the dunes
grass is mown, the environment is as the nature made it and
roughs are rough.
The best views can be kept from the 5th and from the 16th green where it shows Three
Cliffs, Oxwich Point and Great Tor. The length is 6232 yards from the white, 6025 from the
yellow and 5363 from ladies tees.
Royal Porthcawl
Golf Club was founded in 1891 on the dunes
behind the long large beach and rocks of Rest Bay at 10kms
West from Cardiff. The landscape is not as tormented as the
Gower Peninsula but it is ranked in the world's best golf
courses.
The first three holes that run alongside the beach and rocks
seem to be part of the scalloped edges of Rest Bay. At first
glance the beach appears all rock and pebbles but waves run
over 300 yards of sand attracting a lot of surfers. As the
brochure says, it has no fancy light house, no high dunes,
no deep ditches and not even a tree. But it is never out of
sight of the sea or out of the winds that can be very troublesome
particularly on the first and last holes. The 18th is played
toward the sea!
The course length in yards is : white 6406, yellow 6162 and
red 5750. Pim's N°1 is the special drink to sip quietly on
the terraces of the club-house, open to the sea.
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Superb views at Pennard
where golfers play
and cows pasture
At Porthcawl, from hole n°1
to hole 18, the sea is
never out of sight
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