I know many generally hate rankings, but how is it that Royal Porthcawl has escaped being in the top echelon?
If Swinley Forest and Rye have the best set of par threes in the UK, they must really be something, because I thought the four at Porthcawl were the best set I've yet paid. Two of them are of reasonable length, one, the 7th, a mere hundred yards or so yet requiring a solid 4-iron in the howling wind and rain that laughably passes itself off as summer in this part of the world.
There are a good mixture of greens, some, like the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 18th particularly, full of rolling contours, others more subtle.
There are a terrific range of inspiring teeshots, some, like the 13th and 18th semi-blind or blind, and, because many of the greens are tucked away on ledges with hollows and swales grasping at their very edges, you need to be spot on with your irons too.
The course was in exquisite condition,the club having just finished hosting a prominent women's event, with sufficient rough around to ensure you daren't stray from the straight and narrow.
With the exception of the 5th, a par five with OB left, what looks to be an impossible carry from the tee, and a green that slides calamatinously from the top of the hill upon which it is perched, the par fives were fairly ordinary, being little more than longish par fours.
Best Holes - 2 and 3, which both feature fine drives and seconds over classic rolling linksland to greens nestled dangerously near the beach fence, all par threes, and the par five 5th, aas well as the 9th, a medium par four along the more upland parts of the course, with a frightening drop into purgatory on the left, and the run home from the 13th.
Best thing about the course as a whole - The first tee isn't immediately adjacent to the clubhouse window, unlike every other club I've played so far.