What a spectacular piece of land

[Tony_Muldoon]

THE MUMBLES near Swansea

[jeffwarne]

What's the nicest seaside village / hotel to stay in the area?... Within short striking distance of Pennard and Southerndown... Think I need to make a trip back because I've only seen Porthcawl and I feel left out when Sean et al go on a Pennard diatribe...

The Mumbles is nice, but nowhere near Southerndown(50 minutes)
I stayed in the Rose and Crown in Nottage, just outside Porthcawl.
nice pub and restaurant and great value.
Room 11 is the best.

[Thomas Dai]

What's the nicest seaside village / hotel to stay in the area?... Within short striking distance of Pennard and Southerndown... Think I need to make a trip back because I've only seen Porthcawl and I feel left out when Sean et al go on a Pennard diatribe...

The Mumbles is nice, but nowhere near Southerndown(50 minutes)
I stayed in the Rose and Crown in No trace, just outside Porthcawl.
nice pub and restaurant and great value.
Room 11 is the best.

The 'Rose & Crown' is in the village of Nottage, about 2 miles from Porthcawl. Nice place.

atb

[jeffwarne]

What's the nicest seaside village / hotel to stay in the area?... Within short striking distance of Pennard and Southerndown... Think I need to make a trip back because I've only seen Porthcawl and I feel left out when Sean et al go on a Pennard diatribe...

The Mumbles is nice, but nowhere near Southerndown(50 minutes)
I stayed in the Rose and Crown in No trace, just outside Porthcawl.
nice pub and restaurant and great value.
Room 11 is the best.

The 'Rose & Crown' is in the village of Nottage, about 2 miles from Porthcawl. Nice place.

atb

auto correct grrrrrr

[Sean_A]

What's the nicest seaside village / hotel to stay in the area?... Within short striking distance of Pennard and Southerndown... Think I need to make a trip back because I've only seen Porthcawl and I feel left out when Sean et al go on a Pennard diatribe...

The Mumbles is nice, but nowhere near Southerndown(50 minutes)
I stayed in the Rose and Crown in Nottage, just outside Porthcawl.
nice pub and restaurant and great value.
Room 11 is the best.

I spose the same could be said of the distance from Nottage to Pennard 

If you want a wee village hard on the beach, try Port Eynon in the Gower...if you are out of season.  Its out of the way, but I notice you keep mentioning the beach....which you won't get at Nottage.  Culver House has renovated the place into rental apartments and its about a 1 mnute walk to the beach.  Not much else in the village except a pub and fish n' chips - very laid back and perfect for a group of guys if they don't care about making some lame scene in a dodgy town pub.

Ciao

[jeffwarne]

What's the nicest seaside village / hotel to stay in the area?... Within short striking distance of Pennard and Southerndown... Think I need to make a trip back because I've only seen Porthcawl and I feel left out when Sean et al go on a Pennard diatribe...

The Mumbles is nice, but nowhere near Southerndown(50 minutes)
I stayed in the Rose and Crown in Nottage, just outside Porthcawl.
nice pub and restaurant and great value.
Room 11 is the best.

I spose the same could be said of the distance from Nottage to Pennard 

If you want a wee village hard on the beach, try Port Eynon in the Gower...if you are out of season.  Its out of the way, but I notice you keep mentioning the beach....which you won't get at Nottage.  Culver House has renovated the place into rental apartments and its about a 1 mnute walk to the beach.  Not much else in the village except a pub and fish n' chips - very laid back and perfect for a group of guys if they don't care about making some lame scene in a dodgy town pub.

Ciao

Definitely true Sean.
The Mumbles or Gower are beautiful.
Additionally I'd take 2 rounds at Pennard over 1 at Pennard and one at Southerndown (maybe the scars are too fresh )
If you have the urge for similar hillside downland golf, there's always Clyne right there near Pennard.
Nottage or Porthcawl as a base only work if your trip involves Royal Porthcawl, Southerndown, or Pyle and Kenfig (which absolutely dodn't bowl me over)

[Wayne Freeman]

Tony-   I used Swansea as my base (we stayed at the Marriott), and had read about Ashburnham.. also it was relatively close to all the
  others and I had an extra day to play anyway.  It is a very nice, unassuming club.  Got hooked up with a couple of members who were
  very helpful.  Starts with a sturdy par 3 and has a lot of quirk along the way.  Really enjoyed the layout and the wonderful elevated
  green on the finishing hole.  It's not as good as the others I played, but definitely worth a visit if you have time.

      p.s.   right next to the hotel in Swansea was a large condo complex with the Grape and the Olive restaurant on about the 20th
  floor..  Has an incredible view of the water.   Excellent food and a beautiful bar area.  Highly recommended and not too expensive.  Mumbles is a cool town to visit nearby and would recommend The Mermaid restaurant..  solid and reasonably priced.   Awesome view at
 Castellamare at the very end of the town with good Italian food. 

[Ally Mcintosh]

What's the nicest seaside village / hotel to stay in the area?... Within short striking distance of Pennard and Southerndown... Think I need to make a trip back because I've only seen Porthcawl and I feel left out when Sean et al go on a Pennard diatribe...

The Mumbles is nice, but nowhere near Southerndown(50 minutes)
I stayed in the Rose and Crown in Nottage, just outside Porthcawl.
nice pub and restaurant and great value.
Room 11 is the best.

I spose the same could be said of the distance from Nottage to Pennard 

If you want a wee village hard on the beach, try Port Eynon in the Gower...if you are out of season.  Its out of the way, but I notice you keep mentioning the beach....which you won't get at Nottage.  Culver House has renovated the place into rental apartments and its about a 1 mnute walk to the beach.  Not much else in the village except a pub and fish n' chips - very laid back and perfect for a group of guys if they don't care about making some lame scene in a dodgy town pub.

Ciao

This sounds good, Sean...

Yes - the beach adds a little je ne sais quoi for my group... Given that it's only one round per day, some beach cricket is usually the order of the day one morning and a decent pub and fish and chips as the sun sets is another nice add...

We do year about Scotland / away and after giving them heathland trips in 2009 (Surrey), 2011 (Leeds) and 2013 (Sussex) I need to get some seaside golf back on the agenda next year... The Scottish trips have been easy with the even years since 2006 being St.Andrews, North Berwick, Dornoch, Machrihanish and Nairn...

Actually I thought I had Le Strange Arms / Hunstanton / Brancaster sorted out but one element fell through for the weekend we wanted...

Anyway - apologies for derailing... Back to this spectacular piece of land... There's an even more spectacular piece further west on the Gower Peninsula at Oxwich

[Sean_A]

Ally

Just so its clear, Port Eynon is out of the way and better suited for Pennard, Clyne & Tenby.  Although, if you are flying from Dublin to Cardiff then picking up S'down to/from the airport is easy.

Ciao

[Tony_Muldoon]

What's the nicest seaside village / hotel to stay in the area?... Within short striking distance of Pennard and Southerndown... Think I need to make a trip back because I've only seen Porthcawl and I feel left out when Sean et al go on a Pennard diatribe...

The Mumbles is nice, but nowhere near Southerndown(50 minutes)
I stayed in the Rose and Crown in Nottage, just outside Porthcawl.
nice pub and restaurant and great value.
Room 11 is the best.

I spose the same could be said of the distance from Nottage to Pennard 

If you want a wee village hard on the beach, try Port Eynon in the Gower...if you are out of season.  Its out of the way, but I notice you keep mentioning the beach....which you won't get at Nottage.  Culver House has renovated the place into rental apartments and its about a 1 mnute walk to the beach.  Not much else in the village except a pub and fish n' chips - very laid back and perfect for a group of guys if they don't care about making some lame scene in a dodgy town pub.

Ciao

This sounds good, Sean...

Yes - the beach adds a little je ne sais quoi for my group... Given that it's only one round per day, some beach cricket is usually the order of the day one morning and a decent pub and fish and chips as the sun sets is another nice add...

We do year about Scotland / away and after giving them heathland trips in 2009 (Surrey), 2011 (Leeds) and 2013 (Sussex) I need to get some seaside golf back on the agenda next year... The Scottish trips have been easy with the even years since 2006 being St.Andrews, North Berwick, Dornoch, Machrihanish and Nairn...

Actually I thought I had Le Strange Arms / Hunstanton / Brancaster sorted out but one element fell through for the weekend we wanted...

Anyway - apologies for derailing... Back to this spectacular piece of land... There's an even more spectacular piece further west on the Gower Peninsula at Oxwich

It's a small point but Southerndown is not seaside or linksy. Played reasonably F&F when we were there.   Pennard has wonderful views but never gets closer to the sea than 150' in the air, but IMO fully justifies the description of "links in the sky".

[Thomas Dai]

....Ashburnham, it always seems to get skipped and never mentioned on here?

prompted me to search engine for this photo tour of Ashburnham - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,34952.0.html - very nice.

I also found this interesting old thread about golf in Wales - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,32343.0.html

atb

[Paul Dolton]

Played at Southerndown and Pennard last week and many times before. A few years ago people were mentioming Donald Steele and this piece of land.
Its a great area for golf and as mentioned by Sean, Clyne is worth a look.
Never played the course you drive past when you come off the motorway at Swansea. Is it Swansea Bay Golf Club? Looks like there are some nice holes.

[Thomas Dai]

Never played the course you drive past when you come off the motorway at Swansea. Is it Swansea Bay Golf Club? Looks like there are some nice holes.

I understand that Swansea Bay GC is the original/first golf course in the Swansea area. Late 1800's I believe. Built on low lying linksland-come-estuary area close to where the River Neath joins the sea. Numerous industrial development, some now gone, progressed east of Swansea Docks in the 19thC and around Briton Ferry/Baglan etc too plus later the (now gone) oil refinery at Llandarcy. Now there's the motorway bridges and the dual-carriageway that splits the course in two. Must have been a nice spot once-upon-a-time, but now it kind of reminds me of the opening credits to the Soprano's where Tony's driving his car along the freeway with heavy industrialisation in the background. See http://www.swanseabaygolfclub.co.uk/ - for more about SBGC.

Not far away, inland, is Neath GC, a 1930's James Braid course, hilltop in style I believe, that I've not played but have heard good reports about.
Anyone played Neath? See http://www.neathgolfclub.co.uk/ for more.

There's also a yee olde 1906 hilltop course close to the Heads of the Valleys Road at Brynmawr/Nantyglo called West Monmouthshire GC which is supposed to be the highest altitude golf club in Wales, at over 1,500ft above sea level (how high is Kington BTW and are the measurements from consistent reference points like the Clubhouse or from the course highest point on the course? Who knows, who really cares!). I've not played WMGC myself, would like to I think, but am told it's extremely quirky. See - http://www.westmongolfclub.co.uk/ - for more. Anyone played it?

atb