Royal Porthcawl Golf Club — Attraction in Porthcawl

I played this beautiful course Today. The last time I played it was around 3 years ago. The new bunkers have made the course significantly more challenging. The new walk ways from tee to fairways are a touch of class, they add that magical touch. I play countless golf courses that have rubber paths and these rye grass walk ways add so much more of a natural touch to the course. They must take some serious maintenance and effort to keep them in good shape. 👏 The heather regeneration on some holes was also a pleasure to see. With Bracken/gorse and weed grasses being removed, you can really start to see the beautiful heather. The green keeping staff have been very busy. The bunkers were also a real challenge!! I was in quite a few! Every bunker was consistent though, which was great. I hate playing courses that have different amounts of sand in each bunkers. You know you are playing a top course when you get that consistency.

I see some reviews on here are knocking the quality of the greens and the maintenance carried out at certain times… this annoys me. I have worked at courses such as Wentworth, The Berkshire, Sunningdale, Swinley and every one of those courses carries out maintenance, how are greenkeepers expected to improve the playing surfaces without aeration, coring etc.. this is vital on aprons and greens (esp on links courses where they are more exposed to the elements). Yes you may be unfortunate to play the course straight after this has taken place but to leave a negative review is disrespectful to the course staff who work there hardest to get the best possible surfaces. Unfortunately this is part of playing these courses. So much time and effort is spent with agronomists and experts to work out how best to tackle the environmental challenges the course face. Plans are then implemented. Golfers who turn up and expect the course to be tournament standard 365 days of the year are clueless. The greens do have a slight issue with Fairy Rings, and do look a bit unsightly but these are extremely difficult to eradicate. It takes years to rid this problem. Unfortunately this happens on old surfaces. It’s a fungal problem that occurs in the soil. The only guaranteed fix is to dig the greens up and lay new ones, which is not an option. Fairy rings are only visual they do not effect the roll. The greens were like lighting for us today. They were consistent and true.

The one thing I wasn’t to impressed with was the club house. I appreciate the club are trying to hold onto the heritage of the building but in my opinion it lacks class. To not provide towels in the changing rooms is a shame. The toilet is small and cramped. Again no hand towels just cheap paper towels. No nice soap. It looks like the club are hanging onto to the past to much, a new club house would future proof the club. Incorporating the heritage into a new building. At the moment it’s stuck in the past. When I play at the Berkshire for example there are towels, hand towels nice soap. Nice lounges etc. These are what golfers want after playing 18 holes. Or am I wrong? Have I missed something here? No shade provided outside is also a bit of a let down. Lastly the half way hut should be opened during the week? I’m baffled as to why it wasn’t today? 34 degrees. Surely it doesn’t take much to provide drinks and snacks? The course was extremely busy today.

Overall a beautiful magical course and the best in Wales by a long way. Just the little touches could make it even better.

Course 5 starts minus 1 star for what I mention about the clubhouse and...

Following reading and hearing a lot of good reviews about this course, I booked and paid for a round at Royal Porthcawl with my girlfriend.

The excitement of playing such a well thought of course was extremely short lived however, as whilst the scenery was simply stunning and the majority of the course was in decent condition, the greens and surrounding areas were simply awful.

The greens were diseased, and were very bobbly as a result of these patches. Also, the grass on the greens was extremely long, due to the club letting them grow out to recover from heavy green maintenance which was carried out some 2 weeks prior to our visit. As a result, the greens were beyond slow and it was almost like putting on a fairway.

Additionally to this, all of the fringes, up to the green edge had been heavily and intrusively spiked, which offered nothing except more disappointment, as any putt or chip from green side would just bounce all over the place and go nowhere, and after a while it became a bit of a pointless exercise, as I would have had more joy putting across a cobbled pavement. Below is a photo of one of the greens showing this.

I sent the club an email to question this once I had returned home, which was completely ignored for 5 days. It was only when I followed up on this, did I receive a blunt response of “Thank you for your email and feedback which has been taken on board”.

This response, as well other replies from the club to various follow up emails was as much of a surprise as the course condition, in that there was virtually zero empathy to the fact I had paid £150 for a green fee, and had driven over 200+ miles from Kent to play this course, only to find the greens and fringes in this condition. I also asked the question of why I wasn’t contacted prior to my visit to advise of the current condition of the course and informed that it had not recovered, however, I got nothing in the way of an answer on this.

There was also zero appreciation from the club that £150 for a green fee is a lot of money and does not provide value for money, as I was quickly shooed off with a response of "I believe the green fee of £150 options very good value for money especially when you compare our rates with other top 100 golf courses”. This may be true when the course is in normal condition, but based on what we received it was a ludicrous statement from the club.

Royal Porthcawl Golf Club are obviously more than willing to take your money, and then serve up whatever they like with no warning. If you then dare to question this, you are met with a “tough luck” attitude.

Hopefully I am the only unlucky visitor to this club, but as for a potential return…….not a chance, as I don’t fancy being ripped...

I genuinely wish that it was possible to rate less than one star on google review. Me and my husband visited Royal Porthcawl Golf Club to have a look around due to his love of golf. In the shop we were met by a very polite young man behind the till who was very helpful and courteous, we then made our way over to the clubhouse and were met almost immediately by a woman who initially asked if she could help with anything, I explained that we were having a look around as we’d heard good things about the golf club and due to my husband’s love of golf. Once I said this she took one look at us and told us that we shouldn’t have been let in through the gate and that we weren’t welcome there. We explained that we had phoned up ahead to see if the golf club was open to receiving visitors, we were assured that it was, hence why we went there. Despite this she responded saying that we shouldn’t have been told that and repeated that we were not welcome to be there and she ushered us out and shut the door in our faces. We have never been made to feel so unwelcome in any Golf Club we have gone into, and we have visited various Golf Clubs throughout the UK. We will never be visiting the Golf Club again and we will be sure to inform friends / family that unless they want to be greeted by rudeness and to feel very unwelcome they shouldn’t make a visit. I have never experienced such rude behaviour when visiting anywhere, especially in an establishment where we could have spent a considerable amount of money on food, drink, memorabilia, etc but I would honestly rather keep our hard earned money to spend in places where our custom is valued. You honestly couldn’t pay me to visit Royal Porthcawl Golf Club - a...