Finishing the Scotland tour

Dear friends,

This will be the second last report from our Scotland tour.

Though this tour, due to circumstances, also included Royal Liverpool from which we have already posted a report.

The original plan was to go from Glasgow to Dublin in Ireland but due to Covid 19, going to Ireland would require a 14 days quarantine.

Not very attractive. So we decided to go south from Glasgow to Liverpool, playing Royal Liverpool and continue to Wales. And then from the south of Wales directly to Bristol, where Ryanair are still operating flights to Girona.

The departing day was set to be the 17^th of October and our tickets were purchased. That date would give us about a month to explore golf, people and culture in Wales. So off we went for a Wales tour.

On our initial Tour Map, I had noted some interesting Wales courses to visit. See picture.

On my original list of Scotland courses south of Glasgow, I had names like Prestwick, Troon, Western Gailes, Glasgow Gailes and the like, but to give us enough time to explore Wales we decided to head directly to Royal Liverpool and from there to Wales.

After our Royal Liverpool experience we headed toward Conway bay to visit and play The Old Conway Golf Club.

See the yellow spot with a number 3 on the Google map below.

Also on my list in this area was the Holy Head G. C. (marked with an x on the map) and from there we wanted to continue to the area of Aberdovey Golf Links (marked #4).

The day of our arrival at Conway we decided to take a look at the Conway golf course.

It looked very promising, but to our surprise no tee times, except for the very early morning and late evening. We decided to stay a couple of days and then go to Holyhead golf course – along the coast to the west.

We learned that Conway is a very touristed town.

Miles along the coast it is one hotel after each other. The majority of the visitors were pensioners from England brought into the town by travel companies by coaches.

We learned that this inflow of tourist were not due to the Covid19, but have been a tradition for many years.

We talked to a male widower who was used to go to Conway with his wife. His guess was that this was his stay number 17.

From Wikipedia we also learned that:

“UNESCO considers Conwy to be one of “the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe”, and it is classed as a World Heritage site.^[1] The rectangular castle is built from local and imported stone and occupies a coastal ridge, originally overlooking an important crossing point over the River Conwy.”

The heritage is understandable when you see the pictures of the Castle.

Thanks to Wikipedia this is what we learned about the Castle:

“Conwy Castle (Welsh: Castell Conwy) is a fortification in Conwy, located in North Wales. It was built by Edward I, during his conquest of Wales, between 1283 and 1289. Constructed as part of a wider project to create the walled town of Conwy, the combined defences cost around £15,000, a huge sum for the period. Over the next few centuries, the castle played an important part in several wars. It withstood the siege of Madog ap Llywelyn in the winter of 1294–95, acted as a temporary haven for Richard II in 1399 and was held for several months by forces loyal to Owain Glyndŵr in 1401.”

Interesting.

For those of you who have followed us on our Scotland tour on this blog, you will know that we have seen and reported about many castles and fortresses from the very north to the very south.

It makes me think of and makes me conscious of the many wars and conflicts human beings have experienced and have lived through for hundreds of years. And the energy and money and human lives spent to get into power or to stay in power.

And we are still spending an unimaginable amount of money to stay safe and in power. Like we never learn.

Anyway, this is not a blog about history but about golf.

So we phoned Holyhead golf club a couple of times and got the same answer.

No tee times. It was like the whole of the Welsh golfing population these days had chosen to play golf. What else can a golfer do in this Corona-time?

We had a lot of other courses on the map in the mid and south Wales, so we headed toward a little town named Tywyn.

The idea was to stay there and play 2 or 3 courses in that area, among other the Aberdovey Golf Course.

On the Top Hundred Golf Courses web site Aberdovey is ranked as number 3 in Wales and number 73 in Great Brittan.

Aberdovey is a true links course created by architects like James Braid and Henry Cotton. It is situated on the north of the mouth of River Dyfi. See map next picture. Looks very inviting, but yet again; no tee times.

Besides the green fee guests they had a Senior Tour tournament going on for 2 days. So no golf on that course for the next 3 days.

But that’s life if you want to have a flexible plan.

We called other courses within an hour and a half drive from Tywyn. With the same result.

Then again we spent 3 days being tourists.

We have learned a lot about the people, the culture and history during our trip. My plan is to tell you about that later.

The idea here is to focus on golf.

Being tourist for a time is ok, but walking around sightseeing without a golf ball in front of me is not really me, so we moved toward the south of Wales.

Here the Tenby golf course was the goal.

Tenby is yet another historical coastal town.

And again we found a golf course made by famous architects and with a long tradition and history.

The course is laid out in a fantastic landscape.

With a view to yet another Castle.

From Wikipedia we learned:

“Tenby was taken by the Normans, when they invaded West Wales in the early 12th century. The town’s first stone-wall fortification was on Castle Hill. Tenby’s mercantile trade grew as it developed as a major seaport in Norman controlled Little England beyond Wales.”

So now we know that.

Our game at Tenby golf course

Sorry folks, I’m not going to write a lot about the golf course and our visit.

It is a very interesting layout with many exciting holes, though the course, fairways and greens was not in the highest standard when it comes to maintenance. But the view over the sea and toward the town is fantastic.

The course was very crowded, so we got a late tee time.

Anyway, we were really looking forward playing the course. Though we got disappointed. Not because of the maintenance but because of slow play – very slow play.

There were obvious players on the course with very little or no golfing experience.

After 8 holes a local experienced player joined us – but only for 2 holes, then he headed for the club house. One hole later we did the same. Even in daylight we wouldn’t have made the round in 5 hours.

On our walk towards the club house, along the 17 hole, we discovered one of the reasons for the slow play. A fourball in 2 buggies, 4 men in their thirties who obviously had no experience of the game, but a lot of muscles whom were hitting the ball all over the place and sometimes they didn’t hit the little ball but a big hole.

Sorry for us and for a lot of other players on the course and for the reputation of Tenby Golf Club.

Now what next?

It was our plan to go from here to Celtic Manor and some of the other courses in the area of Cardiff and Swansea.

But then Ryanair cancelled our flight from Bristol scheduled the 17^th of October and moved it to the 10^th of October.

Then we looked at our plan about Celtic Manor and, at the same time, from Golf Travel, we got an offer for staying and playing St. Pierre golf course. 3 nights and 3 rounds of golf on their 2 courses all-inclusive.

In the mid 90ties my company had an office in Bristol. When working from that office, I used to stay at the St. Pierre hotel and play the course.

Therefore, from the beginning, it was my plan to make St. Pierre the last stay before Bristol Airport.

So the offer came at a perfect time and we decided to take advantage of it and to move our ticket from Bristol to Girona from the 10^th to the 30th September.

And so we did. We played the St. Pierre’s Old course 3 times.

Had a great stay and a great conclusion on our Scotland, Liverpool and Wales part of our Golf Around the Globe.

Next blog will be about our stay at St. Pierre.