West Cornwall Golf Club Course Review
West Cornwall Golf Club is home to a slightly different but hugely enjoyable links looking out over St Ives Bay and the Hayle estuary
West Cornwall Golf Club Course Review
GF Round: £50wd & Sun, £60 Sat
Par 69, 5,847 yards
Slope 125
GM Verdict – A delightful links course looking out over St Ives Bay where imagination and strategy are more important than length on many holes.
Favourite Hole – The 2nd, a mid-length par 4 where the approach is played through a narrow gap between some of the tallest dunes on the course.
The beach views from many parts of the course are highly therapeutic on a fine day!
It might be a long drive down to the far south-western tip of the UK, but for golfers craving a hidden gem or two and a sublime base for a spot of coastal holiday golf, it’s a journey well worth making. West Cornwall, just outside Lelant and near the famous artists’ town of St Ives with its narrow streets, is a real beauty of a links, with the courses at Perranporth and Mullion a mere half an hour away to the north-east and south-east respectively.
The par-3 opener plays towards a 15th century church
West Cornwall is the county’s oldest club and among the best golf courses in Cornwall, albeit shorter and much less well-known than the famous links duo at Trevose and St Enodoc a little further back up the county’s north coast. It was founded in 1889 and was the home club of four-time Major champion, ‘Long’ Jim Barnes, who was born in Lelant and claimed all three Majors available to him between 1916 and 1925 in those pre-Masters years.
The trio of holes bottom right across the railway is christened 'The Triangle' by members
The course, which enjoys fine views over St Ives Bay and the Hayle estuary, starts out with a mid-length par 3 towards the 15th-century church of St Uny’s before turning left for the excellent par-4 2nd, where the approach is played through a narrow gap in the dunes. There is a trio of holes across the railway from the 5th to the 7th - which the members know as ‘The Triangle’ - where the skeletal frame of an old warehouse regularly echoes to the sound of pulled or hooked drives on the short par-4 6th.
The green on the par-5 12th with the well-bunkered 10th green beyond
There are a good number of tempting par 4s on the card along with stronger tests in the longer 9th and 14th holes. There is also a degree of quirkiness in places - the shared fairway on 4 and 8, for example – and a few blind shots to contend with. But this is simply a lovely place to play golf, with the fine low-level views over the estuary early in the round surpassed late on when the course climbs to slightly higher ground that really magnifies the splendour of the vista.
