Away Game
Mind Your Manors
No. 18 at Royal Porthcawl, with the first hole on the right.
From the Romans to the Saxons, Picts, Vikings and Normans, Wales has a long history of being pillaged for its resources. The next wave of invaders might just be avid American golfers, wielding rescue clubs and wearing baseball caps, always in search of affordable and authentic golf. The Ryder Cup is coming to Wales in October, at Celtic Manor's Twenty Ten Course. It isn't exactly authentic, and affordable is relative, but I didn't mind the layout. Just make sure you play it at the beginning or end of your trip. You wouldn't want to wedge a three-year-old American-style course between two links that are more than 100 years old. But the real reason I can't wait to get back to Wales is for my latest crush: Royal Porthcawl.
Map: Kagan McLeod & Jonathon Rivait
I took the overnight flight from New York to London and hired a car service ($375) from Heathrow to Swansea in Wales, which is a straight shot for 175 miles west on the M4. Then I worked my way back to London over five days, getting in six rounds on five courses.
About the size of Massachusetts, Wales has a reputation for coal mines and smokestacks, but it's actually rather bucolic along the southern coast. Wales is home to more castles per square mile than any other country in Western Europe, there are almost four times more sheep than people (11 million and three million), and I had no idea I'd see so many surfers.
I suggest staying in Cardiff, the capital, which is centrally located near all the golf in southern Wales and social activities. Room rates at the Park Plaza in the summer season are $150 to $250 a night (parkplazacardiff.com). Set within walking distance of Cardiff Castle, the Millennium Stadium and the National Museum of Wales, the hotel is across the street from two sports bars and a block or two from a few good nightclubs.
Throughout Wales I never had a hard time finding a decent meal -- I stuck to fish, lamb or ham -- and many of the Welsh banks have been converted to bars, so I never struggled to find a spot for a post-round pint.
The only course I played twice was Royal Porthcawl, No. 1 in Wales, according to Golf Digest's Planet Golf rankings, and No. 44 among our 100 Best Courses Outside the United States.
Just beyond the rock wall that separates pure links from the die-hard surfers riding the wind swell of Rest Bay, Royal Porthcawl has been the site of several major events, including six British Amateur championships. In 1995, it was the venue for the Walker Cup, which is where a young Tiger Woods, hitting driver-wedge on the downwind par 5s, lost his Saturday singles match to Gary Wolstenholme, a decorated English amateur. (In a practice round, Woods made an albatross -- a 2 -- on the 504-yard 17th.) The locker room at Porthcawl is one of the more peaceful places to put on a pair of golf shoes. (No changing in the parking lot, and be sure to remove your hat when you're indoors.)
I put Royal Porthcawl, established in the late 1800s, in the same class as Turnberry, Tralee, Lahinch and North Berwick, some of my favorites in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Porthcawl protects par with wind and deep, sod-faced bunkers that can be more penal than a pond. Porthcawl has five sets of tees, but unless you're used to playing from tight lies, soft sand and tough rough, I wouldn't suggest going farther back than the 6,578-yard whites.
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