The best places to play golf around Swansea and the Gower

Golf around Swansea just off the M4 offers up hilltop golf in the western Valleys, some links golf with a difference and the courses on the Gower Peninsula

Langland Bay

The approach to the 2^nd seemed a tad eccentric to me … until I realised I’d played to the wrong green - the 4^th! After my second crack at that green, the 5^th was then a magnificent hole sweeping down and gently round to the left.

But the two that followed must be among the toughest back-to-back par 4s anywhere at 456 yards uphill, then 461 yards round towards the cliff edge. A thoroughly enjoyable round set above Langland and Caswell Bays on Gower.

Pennard

James Braid’s Pennard plays over the most rumpled of links landscapes high above Three Cliffs and Oxwich Bays on Gower.

Drama and history come rolled into one on the 7^th, where the fairway is flanked by both a Norman castle, and the remains of an ancient church.

The back nine gradually heads towards the cliffs before turning for home on 17^, a wonderful double dogleg par 5 flanked by gorse, where discretion will often prove the better part of valour.

Neath

Neath, again the handiwork of Braid, offers a different golf around Swansea theme, set high above the valley floors with some magnificent panoramas.

The vista from the 10^th and 11^th is truly mesmerising as you gaze down towards normal life in the valley below.

The hole you will remember most though is the 15^th which plunges 80ft back down to the lower level in one fell swoop via more tee-shot hang time than you can possibly imagine.

Ashburnham

This highly regarded links, the work of Braid’s Triumvirate pal, JH Taylor, is one of very few clubs to have hosted the PGA Championship more than once.

The downhill opening par 3 is no pushover, set worryingly close to the OOB posts on the right, but after doubling back via the 2^nd, the course moves into a wonderful mid-section packed with many standout links holes.

Coming down the stretch the holes change direction constantly, with the final four heading east, west, north and south in that order.

Machynys

The Nicklaus-designed course at Machynys is a links with a difference – a modern take on the seaside theme with the main adversaries lakes, large bunkers and testing greens rather than the dunes and pot bunkers of a traditional seaside course.

But this point of difference merely adds to the appeal of a course that has already passed its 10^th birthday milestone.