Welshpool - Mid Wales - Wales

I was blown away by the course, and would possibly put it high on the list of Braid courses I have played to date, amazing views, amazing condition, quirky holes, blind tee shots at a very reasonable green fee, amazing value and definite one to play with a member to understand the aim lines and bounces.

Rugged is the word I would use to describe Welshpool. The £12 twilight green fee is an absolute bargain, and the staff were very obliging. Unfortunately I didn't have time to play the whole course, but I would compare it to Church Stretton and Kington, but more rugged with tougher walking, more severe slopes, dodgier lies and a bigger chance of losing golf balls. Of the holes I played I thought some were not good golf holes (1, 3, 4) but equally some were good, including the par 5 2nd. The 5th, a dog-leg par 4 from a raised tee was an interesting hole, with judgement of the line for the tee shot into the wind particularly tricky. Quirky, natural and quiet and worth playing if in the area, especially if you like traditional courses (hopefully I can get back one day to play the whole course !)

The guy behind the bar who I handed my £12 twilight green-fee to simply laughed after he asked if I had played the course before and I replied, “No, Why?”.

I tend to get that quite often due to the nature of courses I visit and I therefore immediately knew I was going to have a fun round. And after the monstrosity of the first hole Welshpool is a cracking little hilltop golf course.

Less said about the blind, hogged-back, 360-yard opener the better. I’m still not sure if my perfectly struck drive, just to the right of the marker post with a hint of draw on a tail wind, was lost to the left, to the right or if it simply ran into the farmers field behind the hole that the fairway unfairly plummets towards from 100 yards out with little to stop it except sheep dung. Before you ask I did check in the hole and even if I’d made an albatross I’d still be cursing this rotten par four.

On a more positive note The Club moved to its present location on Golfa Hill in 1930 and was designed by the talented James Braid. Voted Club of the Year in 2012 by the Golf Union of Wales Bernard Darwin once wrote of it, “The fact is that it is almost as impossible to describe the course as to describe the view; it is so unexpected, so unlike anything else, perched on the roof of the world. It is a beautiful place and I realised how incomplete had been my golfing education until I had seen it”.

I’d already played Church Stretton and Kington earlier in the day and was expecting more of the same at Welshpool and it certainly didn’t disappoint in this regard.

Ed is the founder of Golf Empire – click the link to read his full review.

i absolutely loved this course as we had the whole course to ourselves, i would have believed it if somebody had told me that it was a championship course as it was so goodthe only downside, was the fact that there were sheep fences round every green and the lack of atmosphere at the club,but the course was still fantastic