My day at Pennard was one of ups and down. Highs and lows. A dramatic ending to a glorious trip.
I slept in at the Porthcawl dormey that Saturday morning until the maid knocked at my door at five of ten. I jumped out of bed and then tripped over my golf bag on the way to the door to ask for a few minutes to gather my belongings. After a quick shower, I packed up my things and met my taxi driver, Chris, a pretty blonde gal from Bridgend who had ferried me from the Bridgend train station a couple of days prior upon my arrival from Tenby. I was feeling a bit pickled so I closed my eyes and semi-slept on the ride out to Pennard, waking to see the turn for the street that leads to the Mumbles. I wish I had seen that place. When I arrived at the golf club, still 3 hours before we were to play, I found the spike bar and ordered a bacon and egg sandwich, though when I asked him to add cheese, the barkeep looked at me a bit funny, but said he could manage that. When my roll arrived I quickly grabbed hold of it with both hands, as I was in desperate need of nourishment, and when I bit into it, the entire sandwich burst like Niagara Falls, with runny yolk spewing down each knuckle and onto the table! Ah, I'd forgotten they don't flip the eggs over here. And the cheese? It was shredded, cold, cheddar on top of the egg and bacon - not what you find at Hardees. No matter, it was delicious enough to help right the wrongs of the night before, namely the mixing of lots of beer, some port, quite a bit of gin and a good dose of late night bourbon. Why couldn't I have just stuck with, say, three of the four? In need of some fresh air, and to air out the essence of egg yolk that still permeated from my forehands, I parked myself on the wooden bench up on the back tee at the first and watched group after group play away over the big brown cow that was acting as a cross bunker.
What was really interesting is that all of these guys played their tee shots straight away, knowing that the fairway would feed their balls over and up the right side. They undoubtedly prefer to use all of the fairway when playing their second shots over the hill. I didn't see one tee shot in 20 start anywhere but down the middle and ending up on the far right of the fairway. Good players, happy players, all of them were. Still an hour or so to go, I decided I had to take a nap before we played. But where? I strolled over the putting green and walked a bit down the hillside facing the 18th and 10th fairways and found a perfect 'nest' of long bent grass dipped into the side of the hill just perfectly, like a big papasan. This would be my home for the next 50 minutes. I set the alarm on my phone, then tweeted my whereabouts, hoping that if my alarm failed, Mayhugh would see it and lead the search and rescue. I was probably only 50 feet or so from the clubhouse, but in a world all my own over this hill with a gentle breeze and the occasional moo to send me drifting off to lala land. That was the nap of champions. Too bad I didn't know how to play golf when I awoke. Poor Bill McBride has been paired with me twice now in these GCA events and both times I have played like a beginning chop. But it was a very good day on the links in the sky and so we fast forward to the round, starting at the 7th.
7 is crazy beautiful. The castle, the sea, the sky, the pill below, the cattle. Everything is mixed in and that's sort of the feel of the whole place imo. It's a lot of something and it is so different. I had a rough time with my swing, that day, so I made Pennard much tougher than it should have been.
I liked the bank along the left of 9 green so much I decide to play my nasty hook right into it on my second and sure enough it careened off of there just beautifully, leaving 20 feet for birdie and like that, two putts later with par in hand, Bill and I walked to 10 tee with our heads held high as Mo had arrived at Pennard just in time for the back 9 fireworks!
I must've hit my next tee shot about 350 and found the narrowest part of the pinched fairway among the heifers, but the uphill nature of the next shot makes you give it all back in a hurry as my second didn't have nearly enough on it to carry the mighty hill to the green. Still, we grabbed another win there and now only 1 down we rounded to the 11th.
11 was probably my favorite par 3 of the entire trip. Just a simple benched green, but with a mean as a snake false front that grabs your attention when on the back of the green and playing towards it. Wicked cool.
12 was a fun short 4. I drove it very long there, only had to putt over the ridge, though blind as a bat, but still, its a putt, and for eagle mind you!
My putt hit the electric fence post so I had to play again, yet I 3-putted for par and left thinking that hole was one I'd love to play every Saturday!
13. Bill made a helluva great par! We're all square - at last!!
The hole was visually just ideal. Very linksy looking.
The abrupt nature of the dunes causes me to have shaky chin when staring at them.
14. I know Bill found his tee shot in his bath tub again and I found a nasty sort of blow out bunker to the left of the fairway, littered with hoof prints. Extracting my ProV from that heap was taxing to say the least and I was beginning to feel defeated, in a bad way. Then Andy made birdie to go 1 UP on us and it wasn't my fault anymore!
15. 5 words. Andy chipped in for birdie! We're 2 down, next hole.
16. Heaven.
This hole (really all of Pennard, it just sort of comes to a head at this point I feel) is reason why we love and appreciate great golf courses. A hole, from the tee, where you have no idea whatsoever what to do with your tee shot! Thank heavens Bill was there to point us in the right direction. A marvelous piece of earth this hole is laid upon so beautifully. I couldn't help but wonder, 'why do I have to leave tonight?'
17. Well we lost our match on the 16th, 3 & 2 so this was a fun hole, no BUDA pressures, so typically I birdied it! A nice drive, a blind 150 yard pitch over a field of gorse and two putts. I sadly had to end my round here as I had a train to catch and still needed to pack my clubs away.
Pennard is the golf course that suits my tastes best. Porthcawl was grand. It was regal, it was stunning, it is a great links. Pennard is, in my opinion, what golf is mostly supposed to be, and that is FUN. Along with a good dose of mystery, eg blindness, to keep the pages turning. I loved it and I will return!
One tired dog...
A very memorable trip ends on a golf course that leaves me wishing I had her to do all over again.
Cheers
Eric