Harlech v Porthcawl
Inspired by the Silloth v Goswick challenge and by Sean’s various course matches over the years, I thought I would try the same thing for the two most famous links in Wales. Full disclaimer here – I have been a member of one (Harlech) for over fifty years, and the other for nearly a decade, although I had played at RPGC many times prior to becoming a member. I am utterly biased, but I do think that, in very different ways, both are great golf clubs as clubs, and present a memorable golfing experience at every level (fun, setting, atmosphere, and challenge), well worth their inclusion in Ran’s 147.
Porthcawl is generally regarded as ‘the best course in Wales’, although it’s worth stating that it’s only a decade or since the Golf World rankings (back when they were compiled rather differently from today) routinely placed Harlech a notch or two above Porthcawl, comfortably within the Top Forty in Britain (and indeed the Top Thirty, from time to time), and there were and are plenty of Welsh golfers, especially in the north of the principality, who would concur.
As for potential rivals, some GCA friends will know that I am not quite sound (in GCA terms) on Pennard, which I like but don’t love in the way Ran and others on this site do. And to me Aberdovey is a lovely, extremely enjoyable and historic links without quite the heft of its Merionethshire neighbour: Aberdovey (to use a poetic formulation of WH Auden that I have borrowed before) is a Great Minor Golf Course, but Harlech is a Minor Great Golf Course. I know that various GCA regulars will already be writing off this posting as the unbalanced ravings of a crazed man, but I shall have to learn to live with that.
It’s also fair to say in recent years both the rising water table (and consequent irrigation issues) and economic decline have hit Harlech hard, with the two derelict buildings behind the 16th spoiling what is otherwise one of the great golf-scapes in Britain. Their continued presence within a National Park is astonishing, and sad testimony to the very limited power (and resources) of local authorities.
Anyway, let’s begin (and not unimportantly we are playing this match off the white tees)
Hole One
Harlech starts with a stern 440 yard dogleg slightly right, with a fairway that (as Ran’s photographs in the GCA course profile suggest) is much more undulant that might be anticipated from the tee, but Porthcawl wins with one of the most beguiling opening holes in the UK: a drive and pitch beside the sea to a brilliant, and very tricky, green site. RPGC One Up.
Hole Two
Porthcawl’s second has long been lauded as perhaps the best second hole in Britain, again right by the sea with a testing drive over a cross-bunker and a spectacular dropping second shot to another challenging green site, right by the sea.
Against this Harlech’s flat 346-yard legger may not seem very much, although I have always thought this a particularly nicely balanced golf hole: in a perfect world the ditch that features in the rough about 100 yards out would be opened up right across the second fairway, not least to lend much greater strategic challenge to the drive, but for all sorts of reasons that is not going to happen. RPGC Two up.
Hole Three
This is where something like a contest begins to emerge. Porthcawl’s third is again hard by the sea, almost equally spectacular, and offers a not dissimilar but slightly shorter (and easier) challenge to its predecessor. Harlech’s third is a very clever, tough 468 yard par four (absolutely a Bogey Five), very well protected off the tee and with (as Sean Arble noticed some years ago) some extremely clever fairway bunkering about sixty yards out. The dangerous line here is down the right, guarded all the way down by OB, and this is also the correct line into the smallest green on the course, especially when the flag is in the medal position on the left-hand side of the green. This is a cracking hole and RStD wins its first of the day. RPGC one up.
Hole Four
Two very strong short holes compete, Porthcawl’s slightly dropping to a very long and sloping green on which four putts is quite legitimate, Harlech’s to a raised green with plenty of trouble behind. Both are tee shots to which the player always looks forward. Halved, and RPGC remains one up.
Hole Five
This is the first of Porthcawl’s par fives, heading inland and uphill. Nobody would claim, I think, that its three-shot holes are the special glory of Porthcawl, although this requires (for mid-handicap players like me) three careful shots to a sloping green that had to be remodelled to accommodate modern green speeds. Harlech’s fifth is a straight 380 yards with a tough, well-protected drive and a large, flattish green. This hole perfectly the sums up a key difference between the two courses: off the tee RStD is, I think, notably more demanding but from 100 yards in Porthcawl really shows its teeth. RPGC just has this, and goes two up.
Hole Six
Two holes of similar lengths, and the two most inland holes on both properties: both are much stronger holes than might superficially seem the case from the tee, with Porthcawl’s requiring the dangerous line to the right to gain access to most pins. Harlech’s sixth is, I think, one of the relatively unsung gems of Welsh golf – a very well protected drive requiring care and thought, and an attractive pitch to one of the best and most challenging green sites on the property. One back for Harlech, and RPGC back to one up.
Hole Seven
I think Harlech’s seventh is (in most winds) the best par-five on either course. Another demanding drive into the prevailing wind, a very strategic fairway bunker en route, and the only raised-up putting green on the links. Porthcawl’s little seventh is a very nice hole to a kidney-shaped green beset with bunkers, but Harlech takes this to get back to all square.
Hole Eight
Two shortish par fives compete, and Porthcawl wins with its provocative bunkering about 100 yards out, forcing the classic mid-handicap dilemma of laying up or going for the carry. To me this is the best of the RPGC three-shotters, and this wins to put RPGC one up again: prior to WW2 Harlech’s eighth was routed significantly to the right of the present fairway, over cross bunkers to a green thirty yards beyond the present one in what is now an OB area outside the property. That old version might have threatened Porthcawl’s eighth, and would also have changed the orientation of the hole that follows.
Hole Nine
Porthcawl’s celebrated ninth is one of the best mid-length par fours anywhere, with an amazing green site (recently modified, for similar reasons to the fifth) and sees off Harlech’s short ninth – perfectly decent and showing the golfer the big sandhills for the first time, with the most sloping green on the entire course, but (post-war) too similar a stroke in both length and direction to the fourth for absolutely perfection. Porthcawl wins and RPGC goes to the turn two up.
Hole Ten
Famously the game is really on with the back nine at Harlech, which shows its teeth straightaway with a demanding drive into the prevailing wind, and another strong second to a huge green in the lee of a sandhill. Porthcawl’s tenth is a cunning drive-and-pitch with another exposed green site, but I think Harlech wins this and RPGC is brought back to one up.
Hole Eleven
Two enticing short holes and Porthcawl’s (‘superb’ – Tom Simpson) beats Harlech’s (‘nice little hole – Frank Pennink). RPGC back to two up.
Hole Twelve
One of two uphill three-shotters on the back nine at Porthcawl, to a newish and demanding green about 100 yards further on from its previous site, but I vote for Harlech’s two-shot twelth, 436 yards from an elevated tee in the sandhills driving directly towards Harlech castle, and a deceptive second to a green that runs away from the player. Harlech wins and RPGC one up again.
Hole Thirteen
Two splendid longish par-fours compete. Porthcawl’s has a wonderful second shot, downhill back towards the sea, but so does Harlech’s, much flatter but no less compelling (‘a beauty’ – Jim Finegan) and (as the 2nd) this is an exceptionally well balanced golf hole. A very classy half. RPGC still one up.
Hole Fourteen
Two strong short holes compete again. Porthcawl’s dropping 150-yarder is rightly acclaimed, and some people revere Harlech’s very tough, semi-blind bunkerless 220-yarder through the dunes: others preferred it when it was a fully blind shot over Prestwickian sleepers. RPGC wins to go back to two up.
Hole Fifteen
Two exceptional par fours, but Porthcawl’s (one of the best in Wales, with one of the toughest drives on the course) is beaten by Harlech’s (one of the best in the world, and also one of the best bunkerless holes in the world), with another very demanding carry off the tee into the prevailing wind and a long, dropping semi-blind second. Harlech wins and RPGC is back to one up.
Hole Sixteen
Tricky. The aforementioned backdrop of ruined buildings behind Harlech’s sixteenth spoils the vista of what is a lovely shortish par four, with yet another demanding drive towards one of the most bunkered targets on the links. The new back tee at 16 has restored the view of the sea that was (when Patric Dickinson was writing in the early 1950s) an important aspect of this hole. Porthcawl’s 16th has a tough uphill carry over a sandy ridge for most people’s second shot, but Harlech wins to get back to all square.
Hole Seventeen
Twenty years or so ago this would have been no contest. The old straight routing of the 17th at Harlech, with a famous set of cross-bunkers at exactly the right point 40 yards from the target, was much admired, and would have seen off Porthcawl’s uphill par five 17th, although the latter (as so often at RPGC) requires much more careful shot placement than might be immediately apparent. However, the need to extend the practice ground at Harlech for championship purposes, and subsequent re-routing of this fairway to the left, has changed the orientation of what is still a very demanding hole, and the cross bunkers have gone. Not everybody approves. Nonetheless this 17th still edges it for me and so, rather surprisingly, Harlech is now one up.
Hole Eighteen
But, to nobody’s great surprise, RPGC comes back very strongly at the last to halve the contest. The exhilarating Porthcawl eighteenth (‘one of the best sloping holes I know’– F Pennink) with a huge contoured green sloping down to the sea vanquishes Harlech’s flat 200-yard finisher: the latter is always a good match-play hole but arguably the weakest of Harlech’s set of shorties, and probably a better green site when (as in aerial photographs of the 1940s) almost completely surrounded by sand.
So an honourable half results. And not just because I have many very good friends at both institutions! As I say, I am conscious that such an outcome is not one that many will necessarily agree with, and it may be that were this (say) a Stableford contest Porthcawl’s greater consistency would win out. But I do think this a very defensible outcome and will, to quote the greatest fan of Merionethshire golf of all, ‘defend the same with my body’.
Come what may, both remain wonderful places for a game of golf.