Royal Porthcawl Golf Club

Overview: The entry for Royal Porthcawl Golf Club lists 7065 yards and par 72 for its links layout. Sea views appear from every hole, but the layout is not a simple out-and-back course: the front nine moves in a crescent and the back nine runs inside it, creating changing wind angles over relatively open ground. The first holes sit closest to the Bristol Channel, while the inland rises still feel the sea through light, wind and distant horizon. Naturalised bunkering, firm greens and the boardwalk beside the beach give the course a direct coastal identity without relying on giant dunes.

History: The club was formed in 1891 and Charles Gibson laid out the first nine holes on Lock's Common in 1892. The club moved to Rest Bay in 1895, where the course was expanded and subsequently shaped by Ramsay Hunter, Harry Colt, James Braid, Hawtree and J.H. Taylor, Tom Simpson and later architects. Martin Ebert's recent work has restored elements of Hunter's naturalised bunkering while preserving the established routing. Royal Porthcawl has hosted the Walker Cup, Curtis Cup, several Amateur Championships and the Senior Open, and in 2025 it hosted the AIG Women's Open. The course's long history is therefore a sequence of careful adaptations rather than one unchanged drawing.

Did You Know? Royal Porthcawl has no conventional out-and-back routing, and the sea can be seen from every hole. The timber clubhouse sits unusually close to the coast, while the boardwalk alongside the early holes also forms part of the Wales Coast Path.