Sean,
The grass coverage, firmness and roll were fine. The speed was little on the slow side but quite acceptable given the early time of year. I would imagine that during a dry period they could get really firm, bouncy and rapid.
As to playing shots onto them, well generally they’re on the small side and some are, or could be complete rascals!
We were often tip-toeing approach shots landing them well short of the front-to-back ones (like 1, 5, 11), whilst we lacked enough guts to fly them all the way onto the table-top/pulpit/infinity/skyline ones (like 4, 13, 14). As to the evil ridgeback ones (like 8 and 17), we played them conservatively. I did notice that some of the greens had some really cunning little areas half-hidden away which looked really challenging to play into (like back-left on 2, 8 and 9).
I did observe that some of the greens, 5 and 17 immediately come to mind, seemed to be located within square shaped mound edged areas about 30 yds square in size, that looked like they were once perhaps fenced-off sheep pens. The mounding of the squares was quite slight on the ground, a few inches to maybe max a foot in height. They are just about visible in some of the above photos.
As an aside, I think someone once opinioned herein that James Braid must be one of, if not the, most underrated architect. He certainly did one hell of a job at Welshpool.
It’s definitely a course that architects, shapers and the like plus GCA enthusiasts should visit. Combined with a look at Kington and maybe Church Stretton, Llandrindod Wells and possibly Machynlleth too it would make a terrific trip.
Atb