Pontypridd

Think of Pontypridd’s association with sport and, of course, rugby union immediately springs to mind. The oval ball game was played in the area a good number of years before golf came along but the Pontypridd Golf Club is not that recent an institution as it celebrated its centenary in 2006.

Laid out on The Common, over 400 feet above sea level, and sharing the same site as a prehistoric stone circle featuring Y Garreg Signo (the “Rocking Stone”), the course overlooks the valley where those two great Welsh rivers, the Rhondda and Taff, meet. It’s a tough par 69, no nonsense course, where you have to retain your concentration throughout the round.

Classed as a wooded, mountain course, Pontypridd has plenty to keep golfers on their toes; from awkward stances on fairways to subtle borrows on greens. This is a character forming 18-hole layout – one that has gone a long way to shaping its most famous former member, Ryder Cup man, Philip Price.