As someone who travels extensively to golf clubs all over the UK&I both for work and for pleasure, it's always exciting to receive an invitation to return to an old haunt to see something new and different. It was therefore with great interest that in early Spring I headed back to south-west Wales and to the lovely town of Tenby where the club has been reinventing itself in an excellent way.
Golf In South Pembrokeshire
With regular visits to Wales going back many years, I have increasingly felt that its many lesser-known courses are underrated and deserving of greater attention. I was therefore very much looking forward to my return to Tenby Golf Club, one of the nation's more prominent fixtures in the Next 100 of Golf Monthly's UK&I course rankings, as well as a couple of quite different courses not far from this lovely harbour town.
My home from home for this early-season trip was to be the newly refurbished and extended clubhouse at Tenby, some 70 miles west of the nation's leading course, Royal Porthcawl. Here, ten superior rooms, The Dunes, serve as a new and very enticing alternative to the established and very comfortable dormy house.
My spacious room, with a balcony staring right down the opening hole, was immediately above The Links, the club's excellent restaurant. I can very enthusiastically recommend both the delicious food and the friendliest service.
South Pembrokeshire
- Par 70, 6,086 yards
- GF : from £15
- W: southpembsgc.co.uk
Slightly further west are two interesting and quite unusual courses that border the wide Milford Haven Waterway. Oddly to me as a lover of the countryside, the industrial make-up of this shipping lane actually adds to the visual interest. My first port of call was for a game with Peter Rice, the president of South Pembrokeshire Golf Club.
The course opened as a nine-holer in 1969, at which time its home was a part of the very distinct Old Defensible Barracks, which were built in 1844. When a second nine was added nearly 30 years ago, the club moved to today's purpose-built clubhouse.
Standout holes are the excellent 5th, with its scary approach over a hidden valley, the 10th, which plays gently up to the barracks, and the outrageously tough par-4 15th – possibly the longest 400 yards in world golf. I very much enjoyed visiting this friendly and informal club.
Milford Haven
- Par 70, 6,067 yards
- GF: £35wd, £40we
- W: mhgc.co.uk
Five miles across the water, Milford Haven is the home of a surprisingly rural course packed with variety. The club is more than a century old, and while the holes close to the clubhouse are perfectly fine, it's those that cross the valley and lead down to Gelliswick Bay where the real adventure unfolds.
Here, there are fabulous views out over the estuary and of the surrounding docks and hills. If your game isn't quite on song, at least there is a new and different vista to savour around every corner.
Tenby
- Par 72, 6,530 yards
- GF: £90-£110
- W: tenbygolf.co.uk
Back at base, I was eager to play Tenby itself, one of the best golf courses in Wales. It is a cracking links with a unique twist near the end. The club was founded in 1888, and its links is a 1907 James Braid expansion and redesign on the same site as the original nine-holer. Tenby is Wales' oldest course and is just as packed with history, charm and character as the town itself. It opens with a rollercoaster par 5 that confoundingly plays way longer than its yardage.
There are then superb but demanding back-to-back par 4s from the 3rd. The former enjoys the prevailing wind but plays to a green with a vertiginous drop-off on the left, while the latter has a blind approach to a punchbowl green and may be unreachable in two. The 8th is a terrific two-shotter with plenty of room off the tee, before a long approach to its well-protected and quite severe two-tier green. And it's worth the climb to the back tee on the 9th to enjoy panoramic views over the course, the beach and out to sea.
As I began the back nine, the wind turned with the tide, so seemed to be against on virtually every hole! I was pleased with my regulation par on the short 12th, which has a beautiful green site, but for me required a full 5-iron from 140 yards – the challenge, and joy, of seaside golf. Not all are fans of the three very different holes over the railway (that unique twist) but I celebrate their contrast, and they set you up for a cracking final hole. Both on and off the course, Tenby is very much on the up.
