# North Wales golf trip 2011



## Junior (Oct 26, 2011)

I'm no literary genius, and please forgive the grammatical errors, but I wanted to share this short trip with you all and I hope you get a feel for how good the courses were.     It was actually a last minute decision to take a short jaunt over to the Llyn Peninsular in North Wales and we decided to play a couple of vfm courses given that Christmas is fast approaching and purse strings are beginning to tighten.  This ruled out Royal St Davids and Nefyn, but we dropped on 2 good deals for Pwllheli and Portmadog.  Pwllheli being Â£100 for the 4 of us and Portmadog being Â£140.  If the dates would have fallen kinder to us then these would have been reduced further in November, when the winter rates come into effect.  Even in Autumn, there was a Â£17.50 green fee offer at Pwllheli but you would have to be prepared to tee off very early !! The trip was christened on Sunday evening as the "Portmadog Poo Challenge".   Curry house exploits on the Sunday night were the reason for the name, but its best I don't go into detail why !!!!  

Pwllheli first off was a great course with a very warm welcome from the steward.  4 mugs of coffee (for free) appeared from nowhere when we entered the club house and the bacon butties soon followed.  It had rained really heavily the night before so the course was empty and pretty wet, but it seemed to be draining fast, so there were no delays on our tee time which came as a nice surprise.  

The first 7 holes at Pwllheli are parkland and a pretty easy test, no real holes stood out in particular, and straight hitters will fancy their chances of making a great score.  However,  from the 8th onwards is where Pwllheli really bares its teeth, especially when the ocean wind hits you as you walk up onto the steps of the tee box.    The 8th is a short part 4 links hole, no more than a hybrid and an 8 iron if there was no wind, however, wind into and from the left with 40 mph gust made for a different animal.  I was 1 over gross stood on the 8th, and was a couple more than that walking off the 8th green.   Although , I was semi-satified with a 6 given I was the only one in our  group who scored and didnt have to reload on the tee.......silver lining and all that.  

The par 3 10 th is another stand out links hole with views over the ocean, and can play anything between an 8 iron and a 3 wood depending on the wind, a bogey was a good score having missed the green 20 yards right with what I thought was a solid 4 iron until the wind hit it.   11th is a good risk and reward par 4 , drivable but with bunker trouble in front of the green and trees to the right to catch a wayward hit.  For me it was an easy par on the day, but if the wind hadn't have been howling, i'd have fancied a crack with the big dog and hopefully faired better.  I wont give you blow by blow of my 34 point total, but the rest of the course was lovely,   the 12th, 14th, 17th and 18th are really nice park land holes and the other holes on the back 9  were links.   If there was no wind, its definately a course that you can score well on, and a course that accuracy is more important than power.  The greens were excellent, even though they had been tined and sanded in the week. They still ran true and were a lot slicker than I expected.  

So the morning after the night before in Portmadog, we arrived at the golf club to a pretty empty carpark and overcast skies.  The previous evening had seen torrential rain and we were
half expecting to have to find another course to play.  However, we were told by the pro that the course was draining well and the forecast was for no more rain, although the wind would be a strong southerly once again !!!  So hangover in hand, we made it to the first tee and away we went.  Portmadog has 2 very distinct 9's , the first being a parkland and the 2nd 9 being links.  The first 4 holes passed pretty unassumingly,  and after a par at the 1st, bogey golf seemed to be the order of the day.  The 5th is a nice par 4 with water coming into play at driving distance.  Take on the narrow fairway where the water cuts in and your left with a mid iron, however, play more cautiously and lay up before the water, and you will have to hit a bit of timber to get it up the the raised green.  I was happy with my 5 having hit my drive into the drink, My hybrid to 25 feet from 215 yards was probably the best shot i'd hit all day !!!  The 6th is a cracking short par 3, only a 9 iron or a wedge, but its an island green completely surrounded by water.  The 8th and the 9th are a really nice finish to the back 9. Into the wind , the 8th is a par 5 with a green raised some 30 feet up. The 9th was a 160 yard par 3 with a big green, and a plays massively down hill.  With the wind gusting, it was a really difficult to choose the right club, although after hitting my 8 iron to 20 feet , 3 feckin putts were sole destroying !!!!  

The back 9 at Portmadog provided a fantastic finish to the short trip.   A brilliant stretch of links with some amazing views over the peninsula to the Snowdonia national park.  Again with strong winds a few of the holes were really tough, and the greens hard to hit.   The 10th is a straight par 4 with the green surrounded by dunes, however , into the wind a decent drive and 5 iron saw the front fringe and another 3 putt bogey was disappointing. The 190 yard par 3 11th was tough, even though the green is quite large.  My 3 wood short right straight into a headwind wasn't a bad result considering anything left is OOB !!  The 12th is one of the most photogenic holes on the course,  my words or photo below don't do it justice.  It's a short part 4, no more than a 5 iron and a 9 iron,  but a driver dead aim over the beach to a raised green was tempting !!!   The stroke index is quite high, probably because not many take it on, but with the wind hard from the left, and despite peer pressure at its best, i shit out and hit the two irons and made my par.   Incidentally, the nine iron was a full hit, to a green only 90 yards away, and I still only just made the front of the green.  The  13th is a great par 3 and was playing about 175 yards.  It's and blind shot all down hill over the dunes to a green with a lot of undulations, a solid 7 iron to the back made for a  good par.  The SI 1 14th was actually playing one of the easiest holes on the course. Dspite being a tight driving hole its was straight down wind and the 3 wood of my life left a 160 yard 9 iron to the back of the green. However ,into the wind, it would be a different hole.  The 15th SI 3 was of equal length, but playing right into the teeth of the wind.   After my SI1 par. my smugness took over and  after a decent drive I took on a hero shot with a rescue to the raised, narrow  green with very tight enterence.......... Que a reload and a lay up for my only blob of the weekend.  A nice 3 point birdie on the next and a text book par on the par 5 17th , recovered the card a little and a solid bogey on 18 having hit 2 good shots short finished my card with 34 points again.  A tidier short-game would have seen me with a much better score, but I reckon I've not had many better ball striking rounds.    

Pictures are below , I certainly recommend the courses if your visiting the area.....hope you enjoy !!!

Pwllheli 8th 






Portmadog 12th tee, green top left






Portmadog 12th






Portmadog 13th tee shot downhill par 3






Portmadog 14th






Portmadog 15th - the green is between teh two dunes in the background


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## Monty_Brown (Oct 26, 2011)

Nice review and good to hear how welcoming the clubs there were. Seems a good value trip for some nice links golf. Thanks for sharing.


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## Huwmawr91 (Jan 1, 2012)

Ive played Porthmadog last year and i had my best round of the year there. beautiful course made by the back 9. Played it in April and was bout 22degees so a great day. Highly recomended and thanks for the review


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## Liverbirdie (Jan 2, 2012)

Glad you enjoyed it. 

We did a similar trip for my mate's 50th in June. We played Porthmadog, nefyn and ST Davids twice. The green fees for all 4 where about Â£90 odd pound, due to the St david's being in opens, the others were on the open fairways deals.

Did you play the 12th at Porthmadof off the whites? We played off the yellow, which is a lot shorter. Great hole though (I landed on the beach).


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## RGDave (Jan 2, 2012)

Nice! Good write up. I shall being getting around to both these two in due course.
I go over there a lot!


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## Liverbirdie (Jan 2, 2012)

RGDave said:



			Nice! Good write up. I shall being getting around to both these two in due course.
I go over there a lot!
		
Click to expand...

If your further north, go to Llanymynech near Oswestry. You'll like it there, fantastic views and a good golf course.


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