[Mark_Rowlinson]

Royal Porthcawl

This club has been featured with enthusiasm in recent posts on this site.  These photos were taken in the summer of 1995, probably a month after the Walker Cup Matches which featured Tiger Woods, Notah Begay, Padraig Harrington and one Gary Wolstenholme.  It's not enormously long, 6740 yards with a par of 72, and it doesn't have the space or infrastructure to be an Open Championship venue, but it has many quality holes and the sea is visible from at least some part of every single hole.


2nd - a 477-yard par 4 from the very back (450 from the medal plates) with a green hard against the beach.


3rd - a similar hole, slightly shorter at 420 yards, this time dog-legging slightly to the left where the 2nd swung to the right.


4th - 216-yard par 3 usually played with a following wind which makes it a very hard green to hit and hold.  


5th - an unusual par 5, climbing steadily first past a pond then alongside OOB wall.  513 yards from the back, 476 from the medal tee.


7th - 116-yard par 3 with long (36 yards), narrow green, 6 bunkers in front and at the sides, prevailing wind from 4 o'clock, as it were, and tricky borrows.


7th, again.


9th green from 6th tee, so the fairway is barely visible, but it starts on the right hand edge of the picture and sweeps in a long, slow left-handed arc.  In the background is the 490-yard par-5 8th with its spectacle bunkers 60 yards before the green and OOB all down the left.


9th green seen from right - very exposed on a rise and not the easiest target from distance.  Hole measures 371 yards.


10th green at the end of a super little descending par 4, only 337 yards from the very back, but the green is very narrow, raised up and angled left to right.


By now there was insufficient light for further photographs.

[Larry_Keltto]

Mark:

Thanks for the post and photos. Porthcawl was my second links experience -- P&K on the morning of the same day was my first. I thoroughly enjoyed Porthcawl -- the breezy clubhouse, the ancient mens' locker room, the fast and firm turf and the memorable holes.

I'm glad you included the ninth hole; it's not one that's mentioned often when discussing Porthcawl, but I think it's first-rate.

One thing you don't always hear about Porthcawl is the beauty of the beach; I was there on a very warm, sunny day, and the sounds of children playing added to the festive conditions.

[ed_getka]

Mark,
  Thanks for the post. It brings back fond memories from my trip in May.

[Andy Hughes]

Mark
May I just say a blanket thanks now for all the British courses you post about?  Just a wonderful asset to gca.com. I genuinely enjoy the commentary and pictures, many of courses I likely will never see.
Who knew there was such depth to quality British courses of?
Andy

[Mark_F]

Mark Rowlinson,

Lovely photos of one of the very best, and thrilling, links courses in the UK.

How long did it take you to add those skies in Photoshop, since we both know sunshine doesn't exist in Wales.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I've removed the odd spot of dirt.  Otherwise they are intact.  I have a rather feeble scanner so I always have to up the brightness and contrast and I often take out a bit of the sky so that I don't have to remove yet more dirt, otherwise they are virgin.

[Thomas_Brown]

Mark - I love your GB&I material, but I'm going to choose to defend Porthcawl from your photo taking choices.

Why shoot #2, #4, #9 from the side?
I didn't recognize the contours of #4 or #9.
(Please don't tell me you hit it there!)  

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Thomas,

I take your point, but sometimes it isn't possible to take the photos you want when others are playing and you are trying not to get in anyone's way.  I always make it clear that I won't take photos of other players, partners or others, as they play, so that rules out many potential shots (with the exception of one or two long-suffering friends and my sons), especially tee shots, aproach shots and on and around the greens.  So the 4th was taken while walking up the 5th fairway, the 9th, too, I guess.  I have to say that these sorts of photos are sometimes quite useful - a picture editor doesn't want the same kind of shot every time and sometimes they are quite glad to see a hole from a totally fresh angle.  There's usually something to be seen in it.

These are going to be a motley assortment, some good, some bad, some crystal clear, some dirty and scratched, some famous courses, some unknown, good weather, bad weather, winter, summer, but at the end of it those who perhaps will never have the chance to visit these courses will have more of a flavour of British golf than they'll get from the coffee table books or the whistle-stop tour.

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