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Nigel Edwards, Captain of the 2011 Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team, tells us about the competition and his Welsh golf experiences.

The Walker Cup is a biennial match play team event consisting of 10 players from the USA and 10 from Great Britain and Ireland. This year it takes place at Royal Aberdeen on 10/11 September. In essence it’s the amateur version of the Ryder Cup.

Some of golf’s greatest players have taken part at previous Walker Cups: Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and more recently Wales’s Rhys Davies. This year the team features Rhys Pugh, a very promising young Welsh player.

Through my career, I’ve been fortunate enough to play at some of the best courses in the world. One of the best things about playing golf in Wales is the choice of great courses. I have so many favourites that it’s impossible to pick just one. My home club of Whitchurch in Cardiff is fantastic, while Royal Porthcawl is a great course as it’s always a challenge and you have views of the sea from every hole. Royal St David’s, sitting in the shadow of the castle and Mount Snowdon, is spectacular in any weather.

I love Aberdovey from the days when I used to run the Welsh Seniors Championship there. I still get a special welcome every time I visit. Finally, I have to mention Llanyrafon near Cwmbran. I used to play there many years ago with friends and had great fun. It’s a short course with good greens that runs alongside the Afon Llwyd. If every town had a course like it, many more people would take up the game.

Wales offers all kinds of golfing opportunities.  There are handy clusters of courses that allow you to spend a few days playing in very different places. A very special cluster would be to stay in Aberdovey as your base and play Porthmadog, Royal St David’s at Harlech, Aberdovey, Borth & Ynyslas and Nefyn. For some of these, you can even leave the car at home and travel by train – awesome, every golfer should make a special effort to do this.

Nigel Edwards is Director of Player Development & Coaching at the Golf Union of Wales. He is Wales’ most capped St Andrews Trophy player and highest Walker Cup scorer.