WALES

With a superb links course as good as any around world, Royal Porthcawl is seen by many as the best golf club in Wales. Its reputation for being top of the tree is backed up by an impressive list of championships the club has hosted including the Walker Cup, Ladies Open Championship, Curtis Cup and The Amateur Championship. Perhaps Royal Porthcawl’s biggest USP is its unbeatable setting that slopes down to Rest Bay. With not a sand hill in sight, golfers have unobstructed views of the sea from every hole. Such are the vistas south to Somerset and Exmoor, and northwest across Swansea Bay to the Gower Peninsula, it’s hard to keep your mind on the game.

https://www.royalporthcawl.com/

Committed to making every round of golf as much fun as possible, the Vale Resort has two championship courses that will put a big grin on your face. Located in the lush Vale of Glamorgan in south-east Wales, the duo of 18-hole courses cuts through mature woodland, has testing water features and alternates between wide and narrow fairways for a thrilling golfing experience. Don’t think The Vale Resort is a soft touch, though. Both the Wales National and Lake Course are a real challenge with the latter staying true to its name with no less than 13 holes featuring water hazards. For those staying over, the resort has 143 luxury bedrooms.

https://www.valeresort.com/

With its five-star accommodation and three championship golf courses, the Celtic Manor resort – located on 2,000 acres of parkland in the Usk Valley – is the sort of retreat you’ll return to more than once. Follow in the footsteps of the 2010 Ryder Cup players at Twenty Ten, the first course to be built specifically for the iconic team tournament. With water hazards on half of its holes, prepare to be faced with plenty of risk-reward conundrums. Named after the Via Julia Roman highway that ran through its fairways, the Roman Road course has, despite its name, some interesting twists and turns, while the Montgomerie was designed by Ryder Cup hero Colin Montgomerie, drawing on his experience of Scottish links golf.

https://www.celtic-manor.com/

Small but perfectly formed, Morgans boutique hotel offers 42 stylish rooms slap-bang in the middle of Swansea. You couldn’t pick a better spot to explore the city if you tried – the fascinating maritime quarter and the new Swansea Arena are on your doorstep. Not much further afield is the picture-perfect village of The Mumbles and the must-see Gower coastline. And, truth be told, Morgans could operate just as a restaurant – that’s how good the grub is here. Whether it’s local gin and juniper cured smoked salmon, rump of lamb or white forest meringue roulade, there’s a passion for fine dining at Morgans that will make you come back for seconds.

https://www.morganshotel.co.uk/

At Pyle & Kenfig, the hazards come naturally. Hillocks, valleys and dunes – as well as views of Bristol Channel, Sker House and the Welsh Mountains – are all part of the experience at a club affectionately known as ‘P&K’. Unusually for a links course, Pyle and Kenfig is divided in two loops of nine. The front nine, designed by Harry Colt, takes you slightly inland and might just lull golfers into the false sense that P&K is an easy ride. The back nine, designed by P. Mackenzie Ross, is a different story, though, and steers you out into the dunes where things get altogether more difficult, especially when the wind is howling.

https://www.pandkgolfclub.co.uk

Ashburnham has real pedigree – starting with the man who designed it. The course was created in 1894 by J H Taylor, five times Open Champion. If you need more convincing to pack your golfbag and go here, Harry Vardon, who won the Open six times, called Ashburnham his favourite Welsh course. And how’s this for an interesting slice of trivia – the three British and European Tour events held at Ashburnham were each won by winning Ryder Cup captains, Dai Rees, Bernard Gallacher and Sam Torrance. Another quirk is that holes that appear to be ‘out’ and ‘back’ vary slightly in direction. So, while 14th and 15th holes seem to be both downwind on the back nine, gust could actually be helping on the 14th and hindering on the 15th.

https://ashburnhamgolfclub.co.uk/

Sitting at about 200 feet above sea level, Pennard has earned itself the nickname ‘The Links in the Sky’. They’ve played golf at this spot near Swansea since 1896 with first James Braid and then to C.K. Cotton shaping the links course into what it is today. You can’t talk about Pennard without mentioning the view – dreamy vistas over the sands of Three Cliffs and Oxwich Bay on the Gower Peninsula, the UK’s first area of outstanding natural beauty. Adding to the course’s considerable charm are the ruins of a 12th-century Norman Castle that looms over the course and cattle that occasionally graze on the links. Winds whipping off the Bristol Channel and the hilly terrain make Pennard a tricky but wonderful golfing experience.

https://www.pennardgolfclub.com/