a Best-kept secret of British golf destinations.

CONWY GOLF CLUB

A Classic Links with an Explosive History on the North Coast of Wales.

Conwy (Caernarvonshire) Golf Club
Morfa, Conwy, Northwestern Wales LL32 8ER
Tel: +44 (0)1492 592 423
Fax: +44 (0)1492 593 363
e-mail: secretary@conwygolfclub.co.uk
Web Site: http://www.conwygolfclub.co.uk

HISTORY AND SCENERY, WRAPPED IN A WELSH WELCOME
        There are lots of reasons to visit the walled town of Conwy in Northwestern Wales. There’s an ogre of a medieval castle hulking over its nearly complete town walls. The entrance road into town parallels a chain suspended railway bridge that runs past the castle like a medieval draw bridge complete with portcullis. Held captive by its thick stone walls, Conwy carries its half-timbered self easily in the 21^st century, and is easily walkable and mostly traffic free. We confess a certain weakness for such preserved curiosities, like flies in aspic or butterflies stuck with hatpins. The "Smallest House in Britain" and "Teapot World" museum are typical of the kitsch-that-works in Conwy, or, at least, works for me.
         Golfers have good grounds to come to Conwy. Across the River Conwy from the town, settled among the sand wastes of the river delta, by the marina and Conwy Bay, lies a classic Victorian golf links that remains a grand challenge even in this day of long drivers and longer balls.

LENGTH & PAR: 18 Holes
        White Tees: Par 72, 6,647 yards, SSS 72
        Yellow Tees: Par 72, 6,394 yards
        Red (Ladies') Tees: Par 74, 5,822 yards

FACILITIES:
    • Pull Cart (Trolley) Rental
    • Motorized carts (Buggy) Rental
    • Clubhouse with bar & restaurant
    • Pro Shop
 
GREENS FEES:
    Weekdays (Mo–Fr): £43/day or £38/round
    Weekends/Holidays: £48/day or £42/round

VISITORS welcome every day, with some restrictions when the club is having outings and competitions.
Weekdays: after 10AM
Saturday: after 2PM
Sunday: after 10:30AM

Handicap Certificate and Proof of Club Membership Required

RESERVATIONS: Advanced reservations required.
    Tel: +44 (0)1492 592 423
    Tel: +44 (0)1492 593 225
    e-mail: info@builthwellsgolf.co.uk

Nearest Home at First Lodgings are located 15 miles (25 minutes) south in and near Betws-y-coed.
More information on travel with Home at First to: NORTHWESTERN WALES

DIRECTIONS: From Betws-y-coed, take the A470 north to the A55 west. Go past the first Conwy exit, and proceed through the tunnel, taking the first exit (slip road A547) immediately after the tunnel. Turn right off this slip road and follow road to mini-roundabout, turn left then immediately left into the golf club car park.

LET HOME AT FIRST BOOK YOUR TEE-TIME AT CONWY GOLF CLUB as part of your Welsh travel plans. There is no service charge for making your booking.

BRIDGES ENTERING CONWY AT THE CASTLE 

HISTORY: In Britain, where the age of a golf course seems to help rank its quality, Conwy’s course claims golf has been played among these delta dunes since a few visiting Scots brandished their niblicks here in 1869. By 1875 the dunes land offered an unofficial 12-hole course. In 1890 the Conway Golf Club had formed and taken over what was recognized as one of the finest courses in Wales.
        During World War I the British Army took over this marginal land to train troops for the front in Belgium and France, destroying the golf course in the process. Between the wars the course came back, only to find itself caught up in preparations for D-Day in 1943, when the beachfront holes witnessed the construction preparations of the portable Mulberry Harbour that would turn the Normandy beachheads into instant ports delivering men and materiel to the Western Front of World War II.
        If the course has seen a lot of changes in its 14 decades, its fundamental nature remains thankfully in place. A classic seaside links course, Conwy Golf Club is subject to the challenges of wind, rain, sand, and thick vegetation such courses usually provide. Its inland holes—particularly its last five holes—may be sheltered somewhat from the weather, but thickets of gorse make these closing hole the hardest grouping on the Morfa course.
        It comes, therefore, as no surprise that Conwy Golf Club continues to host numerous major competitions and minor championships to this day, including the Welsh Amateur and Stroke Play, the British Ladies Open Amateur and Stroke Play, World One Armed, the European Boys Team Championship, the Home Internationals and Boys Home Internationals, the Martini Professional, and the Welsh Professional Championships.
         Most recently, Conwy Golf Club is being used as a qualifying course for the 2006 British Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. As such, the venerable links on the Morfa dunes land becomes the first course in Wales so honored—no Welsh course has hosted The Open or even an Open qualifying event. Until now.

THE COURSE & SOME MEMORABLE HOLES: The Conwy River delta merges into the Irish Sea at the shifting quicksand of Morfa across the tidal river from the famous walled town of Conwy. The river, the sea, the sand wastes, the headland, and, especially, the exposure to driving wind and rain made Conwy Golf Club’s Morfa course a great challenge in 1890, and keep it one even with today’s long-ball technology. Traditionally, Morfa has two Par-3’s on the front and two more Par-3’s on the back. Untraditionally, the courses four Par-5’s cluster together at holes 9, 10, 12, and 14.
        Conwy is not an out-and-back links, but, oddly, the clubhouse turn occurs after hole 10, discouraging slow play. The course’s open exposure to the sea and the weather coming across from Ireland also discourages slow play. Fortunately, some memorable sea views on the front nine and mountain views from various holes lift your spirits among the thick gorse rough and often unwelcoming weather. Located on the coast of North Wales, the Conwy Golf Club provides views of the resort towns of Conwy and Llandudno, across the sea to the isle of Anglesey, and inland to the mountains of Snowdonia, Britain’s highest peaks south of Scotland. Some notable holes include:

HOLE #2, PAR 3, 147 YARDS: This shorty requires much accuracy to safely find the green among a phalanx of bunkers that flank its front and sides and the trees that protect its back.

HOLE #7, PAR 4, 441 YARDS: Plays long in the frequent windy conditions at Morfa. Difficult rough lines the left side of the fairway. The ocean lurks beyond the green.

HOLE #9, PAR 5, 523 YARDS: It’s not just the length that’s the challenge here. Numerous bunkers line and even cross the fairway. Leave the fairway at your peril: thick gorse and the Irish Sea await mis-hits here.

HOLE #12, PAR 5, 503 YARDS: Prevailing winds here mean this regulation length par-5 usually plays much longer. Lots of gorse along the left side of the fairway encourages you to keep the ball low and straight.

HOLE #16, PAR 4, 363 YARDS: Minefields of gorse bushes line both sides of this short, narrow fairway. Good luck.

HOLE #17, PAR 4, 389 YARDS: More gorse and an even narrower, longer fairway. Yikes!

THE REGION: Coastal north Wales is rimmed with curious old-fashioned British seaside resorts that are struggling for relevance in this day and age of low-cost weekend jetaways to Tenerife. While the resorts (Conwy, Llandudno, Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, and Prestatyn, and others) struggle to revise their legacy as slow, damp, cold, and Victorian, Northwestern Wales offers some of the most extraordinary history and nature in all of Britain. The region is one of the most densely castellated parts of Europe. Among its many castles in all states of repair are the four great castles of King Edward I: Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech, and Beaumaris, in concert a defensive chain that pinned Wales to England’s back. Less than a score of miles inland are the great uplands of Gwynedd, a playground for hikers, fishers, climbers, railfans, and appreciators of wildly uncivilized scenery speckled with neat villages accented in tongue-twisting Welsh. The region is protected today as the Snowdonia National Park, as beautiful, varied and interesting as any isolated corner of Britain.

CONWY TOWN, WITH TEAPOT WORLD (LEFT)
AND THE GREAT CASTLE IN THE BACKGROUND

More information on travel to: NORTHWESTERN WALES

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