St. Pierre Country Club played on 27, 28 and 29 September 2020

As informed on our previous blog post we went, a bit disappointed, from Tenby on the west coast of Wales, to the St. Pierre Country club golf course where we planned to stay for 3 days before our scheduled departure from Bristol to Girona.

We were looking forward to a nice and comfortable stay in the Marriott Hotel and to play 3 relaxing rounds of golf, 2 at the Old course and 1 at the new course (Mathern). The Old course opened in 1962 and the New in 1975.

And I can say we were not disappointed. Room, service, food and golf course were high class.

If you are interested in history, you can spend hours reading about St. Pierre, the manor and the church, the generation of owners and all the wars in which the place have been involved in since the first part of the castle was build.

The origin of the name St. Pierre goes back to at least 1239. On Wikipedia you can read:

“It has been suggested that the church may be of Saxon origin. It has a Norman doorway and windows, but was largely rebuilt in later centuries. In the chancel are two ancient stone coffin lids, each bearing an inscription in Norman French, one to Urien de St Pierre, lord of the manor, who died in 1239 and the other to a contemporary cleric of the church, Rector Benet. There are also numerous wall-mounted monuments to members of the Lewis family.”

The walk from the golf shop and restaurant terrasse was a bit unusual. It is a path across the little and very old grave yard mentioned in the Wikipedia quote above.

The hotel as it is now, was converted from a 14th-century manor house located on 400 acres of lush parkland in the Wye Valley and where these 2 golf course are now laid out.

As mentioned in a previous blog post, I stayed at St. Pierre a few times in the mid 1990’s and played what they now are calling the Old Course.

And of course I was now looking forward to see the place after more than 20 years.

Things have been added and modernized.

Atmosphere has changed from what you may call a local hotel to what you will expect of an international hotel chain.

The golfing authenticity is not the same.

I will add – idiosyncrasy from my side perhaps – (that is a mode of behaviour or way of thought peculiar to an individual – in this case; that is me), it seems that the business side of the golf have repressed the ambience you expect from or in a golf club managed by members for members.

We met only a few local members. The vast majority of players were tourists, golfing societies and groups.

Nothing wrong with that, it just change the ambience and the access to information, stories and impression of the local life. Anyway – here we were.

They are doing a good job. Most probably it is the business approach that have kept the two golf course alive and in the good condition they are in.

Although, as you can see from the next picture, that traditions were alive at least until 2008.

The course is laid out in a landscape with trees that are over 300 years old. It’s beautiful and add to a very memorable atmosphere.

Three rounds of golf at the Old course

On the first round on the Old course, I started to get memories (internal pictures in my head) of especially hole 10, 15, 17 and 18.

From the 10th tee, if you hit your drive to the dogleg (left) where the fairway slopes to the left down towards the green, you will have a good chance for hitting green in regulation. Don’t go left, then you will be in water. On the first round I made a quick hook into the trees on the left. Great man! On the third round, I hit a perfect drive and duffed my ni iron approach into a tree on the edge of the water hazard to the left. Fantastic!

Hole 15, is more or less the same layout, but longer and here half of the back of the green is surrounded by a lake. So don’t be too long. See next picture.

I also remember 17 as a great golf hole. Only about 300 meter, a little dogleg to the left and about 100 meter before the green the fairway slopes down towards the green.

The last round we played, I hit a perfect shot and was only about 45 meter from the green. But didn’t make the birdie. Though, when standing on the green a ball came rolling in between us to the back of the green. A youngster behind us – who could hit the ball a mile – used a 3-wood. Maybe not good etiquette, but a great golf shot. He did apologized. He missed a 3 meter put for his eagle.

Also the 18th is a hole you won’t forget that easy.

The tee is set high over a valley and water to a green on the same altitude. The days we played the course (that is 3 times) my tee shot was 217 meter from the flag. Kind of scaring. I didn’t hit the green in any of the rounds. Was short 2 times and in a bunker – pind high – on the last round.

As indicated above, after the first round we decided to play the Old course all 3 days.

Sporting wise it is more fun – you expect a better score on day 2 and 3.

Whether that, for me, was the case you can see at the score reported later on this blog.

Facts about the course

Course record

Sorry, no information

My game

Tjaaa, as you can see – no improvement in the score. With the new world handicap system, I will most probably soon be playing from a higher handicap.

Finally, I will have to add. On most of our rounds Eza and I have had an competition going on.

And I can confirm that adding the points from the 3 rounds Eza won. In total she made 107 point vs. mine 98. Congratulation to Eza.

Evaluation of the St Pierre Country Club

Your comments, questions and recommendations are welcome !