Clyne GC - Harry Colt on the common near Swansea

[Thomas Dai]

Do you like golf courses to be green and lush and tree-lined with bright sand? If so, read no further, coz this is not what you get at Clyne.


Now if you like rural, rustic, rugged courses made by men with picks and shovels aided by horses and scoops on windy common land still roamed by animals where side hill lies are often the order well you ought to like Clyne, laid out by Harry Colt on a plateau type hilltop west of Swansea.


Here are a few photos to give you a flavour. Worth noting is that the course has only 3 full-time green staff.


Below - downhill par-5 3rd



Below - knob-to-knob like par-3 4th



Camera issues so photos of holes in the middle of the round are missing.


Below - par-3 12th



Below - par-4 13th with rather nicely used crossing gully



Below - the up-n-over a rise par-5 14th - bumpy/knobly fairway a-la Kington



Below - the par-4 15th



Below - the up-n-over a rise par-5 16th with views of Mumbles Head in the background



Below - the uphill par-3 17th - shades of Yelverton here



Below - the severely downhill back to the clubhouse 18th with views of Swansea in the distance



Some new friends happily grazing on the 10th tee (behind the 18th green)



So that's a few views of Clyne. Shades of Kington, Yelverton etc. Strong par-3's, well it is a Colt, and an interesting journey all the way around.


One other comment worth making is the helpfulness and efficiency of the staff and the friendliness of the membership. A few of us stayed in the nice onsite dormy accommodation eating in the clubhouse and had a thoroughly good time...including snooker with the members and plenty of golf-chat.

For long distance traveling visitors the desire to drive a few miles down the road and play Pennard will most likely be a priority. If you have the opportunity though, try and play Clyne. Indeed if you stay-n-play at Clyne the very obliging Secretary will fix you a game at both.

atb

[Tom_Doak]

Thomas:


Thanks for posting this.  We drove past Clyne on our way to and from Pennard last year and wished we'd had time to get out and have a look, but we couldn't do it because of our appointments.  It seems there's a bit more to it than what you can tell from the road!  And since Pennard is short of accommodation choices, Clyne's proximity could be quite handy for a visiting group.

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks for the kind words Tom.

I do wonder sometimes what somewhere like Clyne (or Kington, Cleeve, Minch' Old, Mulranny etc etc) would be like without the animals and with a budget sufficient for a bigger maintenance crew. The conditioning, which as was discussed on a recent thread seems so important to some these days, would probably be better but the unique atmosphere would probably go as well.

I would certainly recommend the accommodation at Clyne GC if anyone is heading to Pennard or the Gower generally.....good pricing and golf at Clyne included as well -http://www.clynegolfclub.com/on-course-accommodation/

atb

[Richard Fisher]

Thomas
Thanks so much for this - Clyne has long been on my own West Wales to-do list, along with Tenby, The Ash, and Machynys, and this looks emphatically like the real thing. Now I really must have a go!

[Paul Dolton]

There is some great golf on the south coast of Wales but didn't " discover " Clyne  for several years.
Thomas you are right Pennard just a few miles is the priority but Clyne should not be overlooked. Its natural golf at its best and only a stones throw away from Swansea.
Has anyone played the course you can see when leaving the M4 for Swansea? Looks some nice links holes on the left hand side
Is it Swansea Bay G C ?.

[Thomas Dai]

The course by the M4 junction and Swansea is indeed Swansea Bay GC Paul. And your right about not overlooking the on the face of it lessor courses such as Clyne when there's a bigger name nearby.

There's a lot of different types of interesting golf around the country if the eyes are kept open and prejucies kept in check and, as has been discussed in threads recently, many of the alleged lessor courses have a rather unique atmosphere. Pennard is pretty cool though.

The Swansea Bay GC course has been there a long-long time, circa early 1890, so before the expanse of industrialisation and roads that is these days the Swansea/Briton Ferry/Baglan/Port Talbot area. I've heard good things about the holes between the dual carriageway and the water.

Once-upon-time there must have been an incredible stretch of duneland all the way from Swansea to Porthcawl.

I've also heard good things about Neath GC just a few miles away up the valley too. A moorland/hilltop course by James Braid. I'm hoping to play Neath sometime soon.

Atb

[Terry Lavin]

Very beguiling. Thanks for posting this little gem of authenticity.

[jeffwarne]

Thanks for the kind words Tom.

I do wonder sometimes what somewhere like Clyne (or Kington, Cleeve, Minch' Old, Mulranny etc etc) would be like without the animals and with a budget sufficient for a bigger maintenance crew. The conditioning, which as was discussed on a recent thread seems so important to some these days, would probably be better but the unique atmosphere would probably go as well.

Great pictures Thomas.
I have fond memories of playing 9 holes with my son there late one evening after 18 at Pennard.
A very underrated course from what I saw.


To answer your question, the "conditioning" would be worse, and the atmosphere, golf, and the membership would surely be far less enteratining.

[Richard Fisher]

There was a pre-war time when Swansea Bay was unquestionably the second golf club in South Wales after Porthcawl, in terms of general prestige and pukka-ness, and the clubhouses share many similarities. But clearly the motorway has had a major impact on the overall playability of the course, even if some excellent duneland holes remain. The greatest golfing casualty of all on this coast was the celebrated links of The Barry Golf Club at The Leys, Aberthaw,  where Dai Rees's father was once the professional, and which disappeared under a new power station in the 1950s. There are some rather enticing plans and photographs of what we are missing here
http://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-64/296-barry-golf-club-the-leys-gileston-st-athan-vale-of-glamorgan

Jim Finegan is unquestionably right when he describes the whole stretch as one of the world's great - and relatively neglected - golfing destinations.

[Thomas Dai]

Great find Richard.
There used to be a 9-holer between Swansea and Mumbles at Blackpill. They now play foot-golf there!

Not that far away there was also once Aberavon/Port Talbot GC, again later lost to housing and industrialisation -http://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-65/aberavon-a-port-talbot-golf-club-neath - and probably a few more courses in the area as well - http://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-64
Prosperous area S Wales in the mid/late 1800's and golf development and prosperity have a tendency to go together....."follow the money" and all that.
Golfing archeology, great stuff.
atb

[Sean_A]

Thanks for the pix ATB. Its been too long since I played Clyne.  I did send some intrepid Pests to Clyne when Buda was held at Pennard/Porthcawl in 2010.  I don't think there was much love from that group. 

I think Swansea Bay is a decent course.  There are a few good holes on the non-links side of the property.  A par 5 playing under the exit ramp for the M4 is quite something.  If the Earlswood course up the hill from Swansea Bay could be snatched there would be a great opportunity for a course moving from hills to dunes. 

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Some more photos from Clyne -


Below - from the rear of the green at the uphill par-4 1st hole. Swansea Bay, the Clubhouse and the Dormy/b&b are in the background.



Below - from over the back of the green at par-5 3rd hole. The 3rd tee is at the top of the hill. The par-3 4th hole (tee visible in photo) plays out to the right.



Below - side view of the green of the par-4 13th which plays in from the right over the diagonal gully.



atb

[Noel Freeman]

Paul Turner "discovered" if  you like this course a long long time ago..  He, myself and Russell Talley checked it out while on a trip to Southerndown..


There truly is not much new on GCA, the archives have it all..


Next we'll be talking about how someone found Perranporth.


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=5545.10

[Sean_A]

Tuco

Discovered isn't quite accurate. I played Clyne years prior to 2003 and I would have learned about Clyne from somebody... and so it goes ..so that really isn't the point. It is cool to see the Clynes of the world get some love. Plus, many times old reports no longer have photo links.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Noel,
Thank you for your thoughts.
One of the reasons I initiated this particular new thread was because the photos on Pauls 2003 thread, the thread you highlighted, have disappeared.
As to "discovered", I guess nothing Columbus like by anyone really, as the course has been there for nearly a century and I myself recall it from the 1960's, as indeed I do the other course you mention.
Atb

[Noel Freeman]

All tongue and cheek was my post.. I think Paul is severely missed here and only known by a few.  If anyone on this board knows more about H.S. Colt I'll be damned.

[mike_malone]

I found Perranporth last summer,Noel. (After reading what you said about it).
It rained hard and I saw only one other group on the course. Of course they were from Philly just like us!