A good news story after disaster.

At the same time as the Ryder Cup last year was taking place in the soggy Usk valley at Celtic Manor, little was heard of a vicious crime just down the road at one of my favourite courses, Pennard on the South Wales Gower Peninsular.

This club with the most wonderful natural moorland/linksey golfing ground have been following Jim Arthur greenkeeping practices and the greens are a beautiful patch work of bents and fescue grasses that are firm and true in the running game tradition.

A Blue Tee overlooking Three Cliffs Bay

Some new back blue tees have just come into play extending the course to 6800 yards (par 72 SSS 74) and makes this course even more of a test for the longer hitters and will doubtless attract championships and even more category one roving golfers.

The rest of us are quite happy enjoying the breath taking views of the sea bays and three Cliffs Valley from the new 14th and 17th tees being the high points of the course.

Disastrously eleven of the greens and some tees were very badly damaged by a malicious attack with Round-up, killing the grass down to their deep roots.

The keen greenkeeping team led by Dean Thomas were lucky to be able to use the short window of good weather in October and early November before last years freezing snow arrived and they intensively hollow cored, seeded and dressed and with the aid of grow sheets, some borrowed from very obliging neighbours and some purchased hurriedly, all the greens remarkably were back in play this spring.

John Beynon, the hard working Chairman of green reports that they did have to endure some annual meadow grass (Poa Annua) invasion taking advantage of the bare soil initially but most of this has been eliminated through the summer.

I had the privilege of spending a weekend with friends on the Gower this September and Mike Bennett, the Pro of 37 years standing here who loves FineGolf, warmly welcomed us with his soft lilting Welsh accent and I can confirm there was no evidence of damage and the fescues are becoming dominant again, giving thrilling putting performance. 

Click here to read the full FineGolf review of Pennard.