Seeing the thread on Bull's Bay reminded me to show you these pictures.
Bull Bay is on the Isle of Anglesey, off the Welsh coast. It is the most northerly course in Wales. Although it overlooks the sea it is not a links, but its challenges are seaside in nature: gorse, rocky outcrops, severely undulating ground and wind – lots and lots and lots of it. I need not relate the history of the club, for it is well covered on the website, other than to say it is a WH Fowler design of 1913:
http://www.bullbaygc.co.uk/golfhome.php There are some beautiful photos on the website.
Tom Williamsen (who features in some of pictures) described it perfectly as knob-to-knob. There are some marvellous spots for tees, and there are some very testing uphill approaches to greens. Upkeep is not what you would find at an American country club, but the green fee is a reasonable £33 on a weekday, £38 at the weekend. Above all, it is a very friendly place – something I find at most Welsh clubs, despite my coming from the far side of Offa’s Dyke.
This could be a view on almost any part of the course. If you take a look beyond the course boundaries you see more of this same sort of countryside. Fowler could have laid out 72 holes, had they been wanted.
1. 370 yards par 4. An uphill opener to a typically bumpy fairway, followed by a pitch up to a ledge green.
2. 392 yards par 4. Another uphill drive, this time to a distant summit, on the far side of which the approach is played over a little lane to a green, slightly raised in a dell.
3. 220 yards par 3. A tough par three played over gorse and bumpy ground from a tee by the hut on the right of the top picture. The green is very unreceptive and there is plenty of trouble if you hit the side of the green and bounce wildly away.
4. 383 yards par 4. Looking back from the green (the tee is on the distant hill just above the flag) it is easy to see the general left-hand curve of the hole. The temptation is to go straight for it and, from a heavy lie in the rough, the approach is to a green angled sharply right-to-left, running down to the back of the green. Silly shot!
5. 175 yards par 3. Fun short hole played semi-blind over this shoulder of land. Tom getting in some sneaky practice!
6. 310 yards par 4. A lovely tee shot with reward for hitting it far. I doubt the bunkers are Fowler’s. If you don’t make it far enough over the bank you can find yourself with a difficult stance for the approach to what is the least interesting green on the course. It doesn’t look as if our practice was doing us much good!
7. 426 yards par 4. The hardest hole on the course. From the tee it is difficult to decide the right line to take. The approach is particularly tricky with that hut on the left, another mound on the right and a distinct step up to the putting surface.
8. 475 yards par 5. Another corker, with an exciting drive. The closer you get to the green the steeper the approach becomes.
9. 347 yards par 4. A wonderful hole. Although the downhill drive is welcoming it is easy to drive too far into gorse or a ditch, and if you lay up you may finish on a rough-covered mound on the left. The pitch is exquisite, up and over a rocky face to a deliciously sited green with no room for error on the right, and quite a slope on the putting surface.
10. 195 yards par 3. I’m not sure about the bunkers. This is a testing hole with slopes affecting play, the green having a distinct step and significant fall from back to front.
11. 505 yards par 5. Another exciting drive, with plenty of interest to follow as the fairway bumbles across rolling country towards the green, where the problems have not ended. Look how the putting surface races away at the back.
12. 197 yards par 3. This is so out of character with the rest of the course that I wonder if it is a Fowler hole. Straightforward.
13. 317 yards par 4. A risk/reward uphill hole curling left towards the green. I am not at all sure about that fairway bunker.
14. 425 yards par 4. A remarkable hole. As you look at the first photograph you need to know that the green is below that white house on the left of the picture. There is all sorts of temptation to cut off some of the dogleg, but as subsequent photos reveal the trouble on the left is severe. The climb to the green is steep, too.
15. 486 yards par 5. Yet another inviting drive followed by a climb to the green.
16. 174 yards par 3. A deceptive hole. You don’t really notice the depression in front of the green from the tee.
17. 433 yards par 4. Quite a tough hole, a climbing double dog-leg on which it is difficult to determine the best line as you play the shots.
18. 446 yards par 4. A friendly home hole, downhill all the way to the green. Keep out of the gorse!
