West Wales golf courses: highlights gallery
West Wales offers an excellent mix of golf from clifftop, hilltop and parkland to links courses both old and new
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There’s something for everyone when it comes to West Wales golf courses, from clifftop, hilltop or parkland layouts to links courses both old and new
Neath
This wonderful James Braid course perched high above the valley floors offers some wonderful panoramas and stirring holes, like the 15th that takes you from the upper level to the lower level in one fell swoop.
Langland Bay
There’s more of Braid’s handiwork to be found in this delightful clifftop course set above Langland and Caswell Bays on the Gower peninsula. There are sea views from 15 of the holes and a good mix of sterner tests and scoring chances.
Pennard
It’s long been labeled ‘The Links in the Sky’ and once you’ve played it, you’ll understand why, as it plays over the most natural of links terrain set high above Oxwich and Three Cliffs Bays on the Gower peninsula.
Machynys
This ten-year-old Nicklaus creation is a links with a difference as the main adversaries are lakes, large bunkers and testing greens rather than the dunes and pot bunkers of a traditional seaside course. Highlights the variety to be found among West Wales golf courses.
Ashburnham
Holes change direction constantly down the closing stretch. The final four head east, west, north and south in that order, with the 16th a delightful par 3 to a shallow green ably defended by a ring of front bunkers. One of very few courses to host the PGA Championship more than once.
Tenby
Tenby’s excellent links, which flanks the town’s South Beach, sets its stall out from the testing opener, before taking you on an immensely enjoyable ride through rolling fairways, tall dunes, pot bunkers and occasionally testing green complexes.
Trefloyne
Trefloyne is a lovely restored country manor with a wonderfully relaxed feel. It’s had its own 18-hole parkland course with views out over Tenby and Carmarthen Bay for the last 20 years, and makes a nice contrast with nearby Tenby.
Newport (Pembs)
Once a lovely little nine-hole links course created by James Braid back in 1925, Newport has grown into an 18-holer with its own four-star hotel in recent years.
Jeremy Ellwood has worked in the golf industry since 1993 and for Golf Monthly since 2002 when he started out as equipment editor. He is now a freelance journalist writing mainly for Golf Monthly across the whole spectrum from courses and Rules to equipment and instruction. He also edits The Golf Club Secretary Newsletter, a highly regarded trade publication for golf club secretaries and managers, and has authored or co-authored three books and written for a number of national papers including The Telegraph and The Independent. He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all of the Top 100 plus 91 of the Next 100, making him well-qualified when it comes to assessing and comparing our premier golf courses. He has now played well over 950 golf courses worldwide in 35 countries, right across the spectrum from the humblest of nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to the very grandest of international golf resorts, but put him on a links course anywhere and he will be blissfully content.
Jezz can be contacted via Twitter - @JezzEllwoodGolf
Jeremy is currently playing...
Driver: Ping G425 LST 10.5˚ (draw setting), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 55 S shaft
3 wood: Ping G425 Max 15˚ (set to flat +1), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 65 S shaft
Hybrid: Ping G425 17˚, Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 80 S shaft
Irons 3-PW: Ping i525, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 50˚ and 54˚, 12˚ bounce, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts
Putter: Ping Fetch 2021 model, 33in shaft (set flat 2)
Ball: Varies but mostly now TaylorMade Tour Response
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