A golf weekend in South Wales

The thing that surprises people about South Wales is the value. A cluster of genuine championship links sits within a short drive of Cardiff and Swansea, at green fees that would look like a misprint across the Severn Bridge. You can play a top-100 links on the Saturday and a big-dune classic on the Sunday for less than a single round at the equivalent course in England. Base yourself around Porthcawl and the driving is minimal.

Royal Porthcawlis the finest course in Wales and a top-100 links anywhere — unusual in that you can see the sea from every hole, and there is not a tree on it, so the wind is the whole examination. It hosted the 1995 Walker Cup (Tiger Woods played his only Walker Cup here, going 2-2 with food poisoning) and has staged the Senior Open more than once. It is exposed, honest and gettable for a weekend in a way its English peers simply aren't. Make it the Saturday.

Right next to Porthcawl, Pyle & Kenfig (about £95) runs its back nine through some of the biggest dunes in the country and is badly underrated. A few miles east, Southerndown (about £85) is a glorious downland-links hybrid up on the cliffs above the Glamorgan coast, with sheep still grazing the fairways to keep the rough down. Either makes a strong second round.

If you would rather trade convenience for drama, drive onto the Gower Peninsula for Pennard(about £120), the “links in the sky” — a course perched on the clifftops two hundred feet above Three Cliffs Bay, with a ruined castle on the course and one of the great views in British golf. It is not long and not manicured, but you will not forget it. The modern Machynys near Llanelli is the easy-to-book, good-value alternative if the tide of a links weekend has worn you out.

Porthcawl keeps you central to the main links. For a livelier evening, Cardiff and Swansea are both within easy reach — Swansea being the natural base if Pennard and the Gower are your priority. Our full South Wales golf guide has more, and the planner will set the weekend against your dates.