Royal St David’s

Only from the 16th tee can one see the sea at Royal St David’s; nevertheless, there is a romanticism to the Morfa under Harlech Castle ‘brooding massively’ over the links that adds to the “joy to be alive” feeling  which continues to bring friends back year after year to this Championship course.

In an early piece of clever branding the founding fathers in 1894, following St Andrews in Scotland and Royal St George’s in England, called this Welsh course St David’s rather than Harlech.

With considerable Royal involvement in the Club, it was natural that it became Royal St David’s.

clubhouse below Harlech Castle

Your experience starts with a rather quaint walk over the old Aberdovey railway line to the functional one-storey Club house with the mountains of Snowdonia on one side and the huge sandhills screening the sea on the other.

In between, the first 13 holes are on level links land with a profusion and variety of wild orchids in the rough. Many is the change in direction of the holes and with new tighter bunkering on several, they are a severe test.

Indeed, 6629 yards Par 69 SSS 73, one realises that others also struggle to play to par! The only other fine course in the British Isles with an SSS of plus 4 to my knowledge is Southerness.

One needs to biff the ball but one never gets the feeling that slogging it will help in any way.

I would not say there are any great holes on the first part of the course, just consistent fineness and challenge, off dry running turf, while the short 5th and 9th require very solid long irons both to raised greens made fascinating by the wind.

the 14th amongst the tumbling dunes

At the 14th we disappear into the sand dunes which do hold three great holes. The 220 yard 14th, to be sought out among the dunes, is now a little easier and some might say fairer with a slightly raised tee.

The best hole is the 15th with a drive over tangled dunes to a flat fairway at 45 degrees giving a strategic choice for your second, a long iron again over tumbling mounds to an obscured green.

It has everything in beauty and design to allow the high handicapper to hit six good shots and be happy with his double bogey while two exact and crafted shots from the expert gives him his tingle of joy.

from behind the 15th green

The 16th from a high tee, with views of Tremadog Bay and often strongly downwind, in a dry summer can be fun as a matchplay hole to try to run between the many greenside bunkers.

The last time I visited, this tee, perched on top of the dunes bordering the beach, was suffering from blown sand submerging the turf. A perennial problem of this gorgeous type of links country.

The 17th requires a long accurate drive to set up the possibility of flying the cross bunkers to the green, a choice that comes at the right time in the round.

Similar to the Red at The Berkshire, the round simpers to a finish with an ordinary 200 yarder. What a pity one further great 2 shotter could not have been conjured up to give the climax to a course that, even as it is, many professional and amateur champions have raved over.

The Club has been lucky enough to have employed a series of greenkeepers and secretaries who have known their jobs.

the 14th green

The following quote from Alistair Beggs, of the world renowned Sports Turf Research Institute(STRI) in Bingley, in March 2006 gave credit to their efforts:

“It is an exemplar site in respect of best practice. Turf on all playing surfaces is dominated by finer bent and fescue turf types and the benefits they convey are very apparent at this time. Putting surfaces are firm, smooth and incredibly fast for late March. They showed a Stimpmeter reading of 12 at a height of 6mm! The current management programme and the results it is bringing with it is the perfect demonstration that greenkeeping is a study of infertility and that the best possible year round results are produced by promoting the finer grasses within a supportive and consistent club framework”.

There is a lovely story of an early greenkeeper who was often found comatose from drink, stretched out on various parts of the course. A local rule was created that a ball coming to rest near his figure could be dropped two clubs’ length away without penalty.

If only every problem was so easily circumscribed!

The course can suffer in wet weather from a high water table. Also Parsley Peart, one of the downsides to the pursuit of austere greenkeeping, has appeared in some greens. The fact that the Club is quite open in its discussion of the eradication of these problems reflects an enlightened Club leadership.

Review by Lorne Smith 2008.        Leave us a comment below

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