Pennard Golf Course Review: Playing a round at Wales' "The Links in the Sky"

Pennard Golf Club Fact File

• Location: South Wales, less than 10 miles from Swansea
• Year Established: 1896
• Par: 71
• Length (yards): W: 6267   Y: 6017  R: 5375
• Green Fees (weekdays): £110
• Signature Hole: Take your pick, the 7th and all that involves is epic
• Pros:
• Cons: A genuine cliff-top links, what’s not to love?
• Website: pennardgolfclub.com

Pennard is like nowhere else I've ever played golf. This is an easy statement to trot out but I would back it up. If you have played Pennard, where else does it compare to? The Gower Peninsula is a genuinely spectacular part of the world and this takes things, golfing wise, to another level.

South Wales is blessed with some incredible golf, we all like to talk about Royal Porthcawl but, for years, Pennard flew under the radar. The first time I played here was on the Thursday of the 2010 Ryder Cup, to that point I knew just the name and, 15 years on, the majority of our shots still quickly come back to me.

The club was founded in 1896 and sits eight miles from Swansea and an hour west of Porthcawl. James Braid had a big hand in shaping the course before Ken Cotton added to it and we now have a course that is known as 'The Links In The Sky'.

If you've not been this almost sounds a bit gimmicky and your mind will switch to a classic but run-of-the-mill clifftop layout but this truly is, as it's described, a pure links but just, somehow, 200 feet above sea level.

Harry Colt also played a role in Pennard’s design, when Braid and he submitted plans and parts of Colt's input were used and, far more recently, Doak has been involved in the rebuilding of the bunkers that we play today.

Pennard Golf Club Course Review

Expect rumpled, crumpled fairways, revetted bunkers, pot bunkers, fast-running turf and exceptional greens; all of which might well destroy you if the wind gets up but all of which make it a remarkable experience.

Legendary architect Tom Doak has long been an admirer of Pennard which has certainly helped its cause in moving up the rankings and attracting more visitors but it's all justified. Our overall feeling leaving here in 2010 was that it deserved far more plaudits and, now, it's getting it.

The opening holes certainly draw you in but we move up a level at the par-5 4th as the views of the famous Three Cliffs Bay begin to emerge. The 6th is superb and the 7th is an incredible par 4, featuring a tee shot that is stunning in itself but then you have a rippled fairway that is genuinely ridiculous. To the right is a 12th century church ruin and the remnants of Pennard Castle, and more stunning views, and an approach to a punchbowl green.

It almost seems feasible, with a helping wind, to take on this green but, should you not get the tee shot quite right, you might well have an 80-yard pitch from the fairway where you will have no idea of the right line.

The back nine is the star of the show though, with three 3s, 4s and 5s. From the white tees all the par 5s measure under 500 yards, the 'short' 13th is a great one-shotter behind a dune and the theme of humps and hollows continues but at a more dramatic pace.

Braid's original holes are 7, 8, 9, 13, 14 and 15 and he would lend his name to the 14th, a sweeping dogleg left. 

By the 16th tee you almost feel like you're done, and all your senses are satisfied, but then comes back-to-back 5s and a gentler finishing hole. The 16th is the pick of the 5s with a sharp dogleg to the right with the green perched tantalisingly on the edge of the cliffs before the penultimate hole where you really should use your three shots. Here gorse lines the double dogleg hole and the smart/only play is to lay up with the second shot.

American author James Finegan was possibly even more gushing about Pennard than Doak.

“Only two or three times in a lifelong pursuit of the best golf this world has to offer, will an unknown course surface that is so superlative it would compel us not simply to cross an ocean but, if necessary to circumnavigate the globe. Such a course is Pennard.”

There are some wonderful holes here, of all shapes and sizes and in all directions, and the club remains a haven of huge normality. 

Final Verdict 

There is a chance that some of you won't have heard of Pennard and a better chance that many of you won't have played it. To give you a good idea of quite how brilliant it is, Golf World have it as the third best course in Wales, sandwiched between Aberdovey and Royal St David's. The Top 100 Golf Courses website has it in second place, ahead of St David's and behind only Royal Porthcawl.

Pennard has also now made its way into the Top 100 GB&I rankings which tends to wake up a lot of us.

It's easy to jump on the Doak bandwagon and we can all be guilty of listening to the greats on such matters but Pennard is so good and so unique that it rightly deserves its praise. When we played here in 2010 the green fee was something like £30 and they've hiked up their prices accordingly but you could very easily include it in a great-value trip to South Wales and come away feeling very pleased with yourself as well as ticking off some of the best courses on the planet.

Former Open champion Max Faulkner thought Pennard to be the best course in Britain and many would have it as their No. 1 in Wales. It's consistently brilliant, there are no weak holes nor are there two holes the same, and it almost has to be seen to be believed.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For more information, please visit the club's website here