West Cornwall Golf Club Course Review

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.

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.

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 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.

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.