Pyle & Kenfig Golf Club

Pyle & Kenfig os a picturesque parkland and links combo mix of styles located near Porthcawk, South Wales. It is located close to its more illustrious neighbour Royal Porthcawl; an Open Championship quality course that does not have the infrastructure needed to stage The Open.

P&K is two distinct 9s; ie the front 9 being a more straightforward set of holes; albeit with it's own set of difficulties if you drive offline; and a back 9 holes 'over the road' which contains the links style feel; of which holes 12-15 are the most challenging.

The stroke indices for a number of the holes did not reflect the actual difficulties of the holes; eg the 190 yard par 3 12th into the wind was index 17. Ridiculous! However, the re-indexing on my home club Cherry Lodge also falls into this conundrum with some of its holes.

The P&K course was generally in good condition but a number of fairways hadn't fully recovered from hollow-tine maintenance and lift and place was in play on some holes.

Driving accuracy was is essential on this type of course; anything driven to the rough can be considered unlikely to be found and provisional balls being the order of the day. On the day I lost 3 balls off the tee though ironically this was due to wild pulls on holes with generous landing areas.

The greens were generally large; undulating and very tricky to judge line and pace.

P&K has a lovely clubhouse and members and staff were very welcoming. I played the course by entering a Seniors Open Stableford Competition. The competition entry fee was only £20 for golf only; excellent VFM if you ignore the cost of petrol spent getting there.

I had heard good things about the course on my travels through South Wales whilst travelling to/from Ireland and was determined to find an opportunity to play it. While the quality of the course is not of the 'highest order' it is nevertheless an enjoyable course to play. Include it in an itenary of South Wales courses if you can.