Trans-Atlantic Tee Time

Golf As It Should Be web editor Huw Thomas meets some keen golfers from across the pond.

At the beginning of last month, Visit Wales flew a group of journalists over from North America for a whistle-stop tour of some of Wales’s golfing highlights. Over the course of five days, the visitors played a selection of the best courses in South Wales, including Southerndown, Royal Porthcawl and Celtic Manor Resort, as well as sampling our famous Welsh hospitality.

I caught up with the party on an unusually warm October morning at Celtic Manor’s new Adventure Golf course to find out how the trip was going.

For Michael Woody of American Airlines Publishing, his first time in Wales certainly lived up to expectations. “So often the glamour shots presented in promotional material and those used on websites paint a prettier picture than what we experience in person,” he told me. “I am happy to report that each course that we either played or visited was not only challenging, but absolutely breathtaking.”

Even though freelance journalist Toby Saltzman had played in Wales before, the country still had the power to surprise. “Golfing in Wales feels like a fresh sport,” she said. “It's tantalising to be here and play here, especially knowing that at the end of the day you will mingle with cheery Welsh characters. Playing Royal Porthcawl on a day of constant drizzle and wind is magical – you must do this to appreciate it.”

Michael Shiels, a Michigan-based writer and broadcaster, echoed this enthusiasm for one of Wales’s best-loved links courses. “Royal Porthcawl was brilliant,” he said. “It’s what Americans come across the pond for.”

But it wasn’t just on our famous 18-hole courses where the visitors were able to test their skills. Celtic Manor’s new Adventure Golf course provided them with a very different challenge, as they attempted to negotiate nine miniature versions of the world’s most famous holes, including the 17th at Sawgrass and the 14th of Celtic Manor’s own Twenty Ten Course. Despite their diminutive stature, the holes proved quite a test, albeit one that the players met with very good humour.

“I don’t believe that my score was much better than out on the actual course,” said Michael Woody. “It’s pleasantly challenging and a great laugh. So long as you can laugh at yourself.”