This South Wales beauty wends its way through ancient woodlands with lovely views throughout
Hidden Gem - Newport Golf Club
Par 72, 6,500 yards
Greenfee: £25-£50 on weekdays
Newport has arrived firmly on the golfing map in recent years, with the rapid rise of Celtic Manor yielding much top-level tour golf and, of course, that memorable Ryder Cup clash back in 2010.
Venture along the M4 a little further, though, and you’ll discover a club that has been offering excellent parkland golf for over a century on a lovely course that plays around and through Llwyni Wood, an ancient and extensive oak woodland.
The club was founded in 1903 at Ladyhill Farm, but moved to its current home in Rogerstone as long ago as 1912, so is a true golfing centenarian in every sense.
The course starts with an attractive, and relatively friendly, opener that plays down and up, doglegging gently round to the right.
The 2nd is then one of two beautiful-looking shortish par 3s – along with the 14th coming home – eagerly defended by a ring of seven bunkers.
There are many strong holes, among them the testing stroke-index-one 13th and the par-5 5th that plays down and up towards the distant hills – one of a trio of three-shotters in four holes.
The 11th must be a real test of accuracy and/or strategy when the trees are in leaf – a self-contained hole with woods either side that pinches in dramatically at the point where you would perhaps ideally like to hit it!
The 17th then epitomises what is best about Newport.
You know that you are barely a mile from the bustling M4, but the vista laid out before your eyes as you play down from the plateau fairway stretches from the adjacent fields, complete with sheep and the occasional playful horse, to the rolling hills beyond.
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