Top 20 Golf Courses in North Wales 2015

North Wales Best in Region rankings updated

North Wales – or the Kingdom of Gwynned as it was known from the 5th to 13th centuries – is a bastion of nationalistic pride, where the Welsh language is still widely in use and cultural identity remains an important facet of everyday living.

The region is largely rural, with many of its population of three quarters of a million people living in small settlements along the coastline with the Irish Sea, stretching from Connah’s Quay in the northeast to Aberdovey in the southwest.

Just less than fifty clubs operate within the jurisdiction of the North Wales Counties Golf Association and we maintain a ranking chart of what we consider to be the best twenty courses in the district. After reaching out earlier this year to local clubs and professionals for their thoughts, we’ve now updated our Top 20 and present the new chart for your perusal.

The top five places in the North Wales chart all remain the same, headed by the Royal St David’s course at Harlech. Described in recent reviews as “a challenging course which requires all the clubs in your bag” and “a serious golf course with a tough back nine and a par of only 69”, Royal St David’s is also prominently positioned in both the national rankings and the Great Britain & Ireland Top 100.

Three courses make upward moves in the North Wales Top 10 chart: Bull Bay, the most northerly course in Wales, rises one place to number 6, Porthmadog, which James Braid extended to 18 holes in 1911, advances one spot to number 7 and Vale of Llangollen, where three of the holes are laid out on the banks of the River Dee, climbs two places to number 8.

In the lower half of the chart, another three courses make positive moves to positions just outside the Top 10. The first of these is the links at Prestatyn (up four to 11), which offers a solid seaside test of golf and it’s followed by the parkland track at Llandudno, situated 25 miles further west (up five to 12) then by Wrexham (up three to 13), which James Braid designed in the early 1920s.

There’s one new entry in our Top 20 at number 16 and it belongs to the lovely parkland course at Abergele, established in the late 1960s close to Gwyrch Castle, where architect David Williams of Golf Design reconstructed all of its greens to USGA standard at the start of the new millennium.

Many thanks are due to those who helped with our re-ranking process for this region. To view details of all the courses in our North Wales Top 20 rankings click this link. If you’ve played extensively across this region and would like to assist when we next update the rankings then please email Editor-in-Chief Keith Baxter at keith@top100golfcourses.com.

Jim McCann
Editor
Top 100 Golf Courses