Links ClassicHidden Gem

Pennard Golf Club

Southgate, Gower, Swansea · Designed by James Braid (1919); later revisions by C. K. Cotton · Est. 1896

Golf has been played at Pennard since January 1896, on a clifftop shelf eight miles west of Swansea on the Gower Peninsula — the first place in Britain ever designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is the famous "Links in the Sky": a genuine links, with firm turf, sea wind and wild rough, but carried 200 feet above the beach rather than laid out in low dunes. There is nowhere quite like it.

James Braid gave the course its enduring shape. When Braid and Harry Colt both submitted plans in 1919, the committee approved Braid's — noting that it "embodied some of Colt's suggestions" — and C. K. Cotton later revised it. The result is quirky, exhilarating and utterly of its place: blind shots, tumbling ground and greens perched on the cliff edge.

The course looks down over Three Cliffs Bay, one of the most photographed views in Wales, and the ruins of Pennard Castle and an old church stand among the holes. Sheep and wild ponies graze the common land it shares, the views change with every step, and on a clear day you can see across the Bristol Channel to Devon.

It is not long and it is not manicured, and that is precisely the point. Pennard is golf at its most natural and free-spirited, routinely named among the finest hidden gems in the world game. Bring your imagination — the blind lines and clifftop drama reward it.

Holes worth knowing

1The clifftop holes past Pennard Castle — the stretch overlooking Three Cliffs Bay, played beneath a ruined medieval castle with the beach far below, is the reason golfers fall for Pennard.
2The blind and semi-blind shots across the high ground — Pennard asks you to trust the line over ridges you cannot see beyond; pure old-fashioned links adventure.

Highlights

Clifftop "Links in the Sky" above Three Cliffs Bay
James Braid design (1919), revised by C. K. Cotton
Ruined medieval castle and church among the holes
One of the great hidden gems in world golf

Good to know

→Three Cliffs Bay below the course is regularly voted one of Britain's most beautiful beaches; the walk down from the links is worth an afternoon, and the ruined Pennard Castle above it is free to explore.
→The Gower was the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Pennard shares common grazing land, so expect sheep and wild ponies to wander the fairways — they have right of way.
→It is short by championship standards and all the better for it: leave the driver in the bag on the tight clifftop holes, trust the blind lines over the ridges, and let the wind — always a factor up here — do the rest.
→Elsewhere on the Gower, Rhossili Bay and Worm's Head and the sweep of Oxwich Bay are among the finest beaches in Wales; the King Arthur Hotel at Reynoldston is a well-known spot for a post-round meal.
→Visitors play Monday to Friday and Sunday (not Saturdays); it is only 20 minutes from Swansea, whose Mumbles seafront makes an easy, lively base.