Pennard Golf Club

The course of choice for the first day of this year’s UK golf holiday was Pennard. A championship quality course, par 71, 6225 yards, although it feels much longer, surrounded by gorse and heather and with some beautiful views and challenging holes.

We arrived at Pennard to find a beautiful links course bathed in glorious October sunshine – glorious enough that three of the golfing break party played in shorts.

I know October, Wales, Shorts. Not three words you would ever expect to see in the same sentence, unless it was one of those “endurance” style reality TV programmes.

At my level, 24 handicap, arbitrarily reduced to 22 (I said I’m not bitter) Pennard is a difficult course. Not least because you can seldom see the ball’s final resting place from the tee, even if you hit a great shot straight down the middle, which on occasion I did. I think this is a downside of links golf, with players who can play claiming that you need to place the ball accurately to ensure a good round. At Pennard, you do need to be able to carry a good distance to have a half decent score, but there are some spectacular views from most parts of the course. There are a couple of particularly challenging Par 3′s, one of which feels just like you are driving across a chasm, but in fact, if you can hit the ball 160 – 170 yards it’s an easy par. Just don’t go short.

The weather played a great part on that day, with just a light breeze and beautiful sunshine adding to the fabulous scenery. Had I been allowed my full handicap, I would have scored a nice 36 points and been very happy with the day. As it was I had to make do with 32 points and slight sunburn. I don’t go out of my way to play links golf, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, but Pennard is as nice a links course as you could wish to play. The pro, Mike Bennett,  was very welcoming, as were some of the local club players and there is a nice putting green and driving/practice area just behind the first tee.

The club’s website is extremely well laid out and if you are thinkling of visiting, take a look at the video tour and the course distance maps that are all available via the website.