Monday, July 29, 2019

Becoming Enchanted From Afar - Royal Porthcawl

I travel a few times a year chasing golf courses and as part of my travels I do a ton of research, often on areas of the world I might never travel to. I often create itineraries in my head, "well if I ever DO make it to the Caribbean, here are the courses I am going to play" and I always tune in to the TV if a professional tournament is playing at one of those far-flung areas I've been researching.

There are a thousands golf courses in the world each offering their own variation on the fantastic game of golf. Golf can be set amongst the pines, or the desert or beautiful parklands.

For me, the ultimate golf course has to involve the sea. I love salt air, really enjoy wind and don't mind the rain (what am I made of sugar?). Given all of those elements, links golf is the ultimate golf for me.

In all of my research, there is one golf course I keep coming back to time after time and that is Royal Porthcawl in Wales, UK. Every so often I stumble across something on the web that reminds me about RP and then I fall down an internet rabbit hole and research the course all over again. This time around it was Mark Crossfield's excellent video about playing the course


The more I think about it, the more RP checks all the boxes I am interested in for a golf course. It is nestled right up on the coastline of Wales assuring me all the salt air and wind I can handle and sea views on every hole. It is also ranked in the Top 100 in the world by Top100 which is no small feat. Watching it on TV it looks like it has a great variety of architectural features that are fun and could keep me interested during repeated play of the course.

It is also drop-dead gorgeous


(picture via Links Magazine: https://www.linksmagazine.com/links100_royal_porthcawl_golf_club/)

It is also under the radar and seems very chill for a Top 100 course. After watching The Open last week, of course I want to play Royal Portrush but the shoulders slump a bit when hearing the news that they are booked up on visitor play seemingly through the next year (!?!).  Porthcawl has a great pedigree with tourneys (hosting several Amateurs, a Walker and Curtis Cup along with a British Senior Open) but doesn't have the looming capacity issues that Portrush has.

Of course, my mind also wanders to the thought, well what if you play it, fall in love and then want to play it every year? If it really does live up to the hype that I am seeing through my screen is there any world which my mania would extend into membership?

Aside from being a 13 hour flight from LA, there is a lot of mystery about the club (and clubs that have a "royal" in them). Unlike private clubs in the US, the "private" clubs of the UK/Ireland are upfront about their membership requirements and fees. Often these clubs offer a very reasonable membership since they are heavily subsidized by foreign visitors. The royal clubs including RP play all of this close to the vest which makes the starry-eyed golf researcher who has dreams of an overseas membership wonder if there is even a chance of membership happening.

First things first, I want to play the course. When am I going to go to Wales? I have zero idea. When I get there, do I just play RP for like 7 straight days or do I also wander over to P&K, Southerndown, Royal St. David's, etc. that Visit Wales suggests to make it a proper Welsh getaway? Probably, although I would want to earmark at least 2 rounds if not more at RP (considering I am devoting an entire blog post to the club).

There are some golf "breaks" for a Welsh tour that look interesting via Wales Golf Holidays:

http://www.walesgolfholidays.com/south-wales-golf-holidays.html

Since I don't know the hows or whys or whens for now I just check out RP's course via their awesome first tee webcam.

Do you have any courses you are enchanted by but have never played? Let me know in the comments!

For more information about Royal Porthcawl check out this link: https://www.royalporthcawl.com/

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Airlane Golf Club Review



There are tons of good golf courses in Nova Scotia. Some public, some private but all ones I want to play some day. If you are going on a golf trip to Cabot and fly into Halifax you may be tempted to play some of these other tracks but you may not have the time to do so.

Enter Airlane Golf Club, a passion project of two friends in the 1960s and makes for a great warmup to your Cabot adventure. Located about 10 minutes on the East side of the Halifax airport, Airlane has 9 holes with some great doglegs but is not too taxing on you as prepare for the other courses in the province.


One of my favourite (Canadian spelling) holes has to be this par that is an uphill dogleg right that leads to this awesome green framed by Canadian pine trees.


The course doesn't have a lot of water but where there is H2O it makes for some challenging decisions. The course has a lot of width so you can swing it out wide to the left, like I have done here or challenge the water with a shorter approach to the green to the right. Either way this is a fun hole.


There are plenty of straight ahead holes as well but with the greens being as large as they are, there are multiple pin positions that are possible.

I am not trying to build up this course more than it is, it is an unevenly mowed, parkland-style golf track with not the best POP on a Saturday afternoon but it is affordable and was clearly grown from the passion of two guys and their families which I totally dig.

You are already going to spending an arm and a leg playing at Cabot, why not get some golf kicks for appreciably less at Airlane?


For more information on Airlane check out this link: https://www.airlanegolfclub.com/

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Cypress Point Quest - Day 1581


And so the grind continues. Here we are, well on our way to 2,000 days of actively trying to play Cypress but no luck thus far. I haven't been super aggressive over the last few months, just hoping the universe places some people in my path that can help me out.

I did decide to shake a few things up in the karma department though. On eBay, there was a sale of Titleist golf balls branded with the Cypress Point logo.


I took this as a sign and a challenge. I am going to fill my golf bag with these balls (phrasing) and I am going to play with them until they run out. My goal? To play Cypress Point before the balls run out. I figure the golf balls will act as a defacto hourglass to help me get my butt in gear.


Part of that is I have to start getting back up to the NorCal area. I had a trip to Pasa which needed to be rescheduled due to weather and I am hoping to take a quick jaunt up there in the Fall to play a few private courses in SanFran. The closer I can get to Cypress, I feel the odds of me meeting someone with a connection there will increase.

If you spend any time in Monterey you start to wonder how they could accommodate all the people attending the Pro Am. 17 Mile Drive is often blocked off for shuttle buses and there isn't a lot of parking for the attendees. This problem had to been doubled for the recent US Open there. It sounds like though a lucky few got their fill of Cypress while parking! https://golfweek.com/2019/06/17/u-s-open-hot-spot-parking-lot-next-to-18th-tee-at-cypress-point-club/

Monday, July 8, 2019

Cabot Resort Review


Let's face it, getting to Inverness Nova Scotia takes some effort. The closest major airport is Halifax which still puts you at a 3-plus-hour hour drive to Cabot Links (you could fly into Sydney which puts you 2 hours out but from what I hear Halifax is the better option). So if you are coming from anywhere other than Boston, you are going to have expend time and effort getting there.

Once you get there though...whoa doggy is it worth it! I have not stayed at Pinehurst or Streamsong but having stayed at Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley, I can confidently say that Cabot is the best golf resort I have stayed at so far!

The people there are very friendly and helpful. Big shoutout to Tyler and Jeremy in the golf department and all the friendly staff I met along the way. They bent over backwards to accommodate my group (as they would for any guest) and that type of service goes a long way.

Also, perhaps the best caddie I ever came across was Stephen at the resort. The guy is amiable and even though he wasn't my caddy, I considered the guy one of the gang and highly recommend him to anyone looking to head to Cabot.

First let's talk about the rooms.





The Golf Villas are definitely the best I ever stayed in. They combine the elegance of Sand Valley with a very Scandinavian feng shui with some inspired design choices like a great kitchen, fantastic porch and killer individual bathrooms. The villas where I stayed could easily accommodate a guys group, a couples trip or just the single golfer. All the lodging is currently laid out at the Links course but that is changing with major construction happening near the Cliffs course to really put in a ton more infrastructure in the next 2 years.

Next, let's talk about food. The Links has 2 restaurants (an upstairs, sightly more formal dining area and the downstairs pub area) and also owns the Cabot Public House where you can get some similar food and some different dishes as well.

All the food is excellent, from the lobster rolls,



to the seafood chowder



to the poutine.

Almost all of the beers they serve are local to Cape Breton-Nova Scotia and I tried most of them, particularly liking the beer made specifically for the resort, the Cabot Ale made by Garrison.

If you are traveling to Nova Scotia, get yourself some seafood and local spirits!

The Cliffs course is still in its infancy regarding amenities. There are two yurts which act as gift shop and small cafeteria (with new permanent buildings opening this summer) but the reality is you are going to be spending most of your time back at the main lodge at Links.

My major overall impression is that Cabot is a low-key Bandon (in the best possible way). The rooms were booked at Cabot but you never felt overwhelmed by the amount of guests crowding the fairways or the eating places. It wasn't nearly as "bro-y" as Bandon can sometimes get (I saw women, old people, every different type of category at Cabot which was great). Everything felt much more laid back and less resort-y. While the resort lacks some infrastructure in a few areas (especially over on the Cliffs side, where construction is ongoing as they build a short course and full, permanent clubhouse facilities) Cabot it is already one of my favorite places to stay on the planet - and I imagine it will be even more so once Phase II of the building takes place.

Staying at Cabot is WORTH the energy to get there. The resort, people and food are all top notch and you couldn't ask for anything more then what Cabot gives you!

For more information on the Cabot resort, check out this link: https://www.cabotlinks.com/resort/


Monday, July 1, 2019

Cabot Cliffs


Cabot Cliffs is jaw-droppingly beautiful. If you want to check out my full report, be sure to click the link to my sister site!

https://www.coorecrenshawquest.com/2019/07/cabot-cliffs.html