Swansea Bay

Founded in 1892, Swansea Bay Golf Club moved from its original location seven years after its formation (when it did not have “Bay” in the club title) to a site where club professional W,H. booth laid out eighteen holes for the members.

“In the autumn of 1907 James Braid was called in,” write John F. Moreton & Iain Cumming in their book James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses. “He planned nine new holes mostly on the lowlands, the new course totalling 5687 yards.

Since Braid’s time, the course remained fairly intact until the mid-1950s when the A483 cut the course in two. Two further structural rather than geographical changes followed. Presumably, Braid would recognise the land but only some of the holes.

The present owner confirmed that all the records of the club, financial and historical, were destroyed before he bought it in 1981.”

In The Golfer’s Guide to Wales by John Pinner, the author comments: “the links is exceptionally flat (but) this does not mean the course is a ‘soft touch’. Far from it, because there are some great and exciting holes to be found here.

Just over a third of the holes run close to the sea and are quite testing, even without the wind that often blows in off the bay. The course also has a burn crossing through it to further tease and test one’s ability to negotiate a links course with some satisfaction.”