Interesting choice. James struck me as the type of fellow that would insult Ginella and Shipnuck on Twitter. 'Twas cool to that Corrigan traveled by RV to The Open.
A little disappointed you didn’t effort (to my knowledge) Joe Calzaghe, @Randy. 
I feel the TrapDraw is never one to shy away from controversy, so I was disappointed the Prince of Wales wasn’t efforted. Also would have been fun to get at least a clip from an actual whale.
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After listening to the pod I spent a solid 90 minutes on google maps looking at many of the courses along the coast. Biggest take away was the land many of the courses sit on look incredible and they appear to be accessible visitors. I am not sure how Wales isn’t a bigger golf destination considering how affordable and accessible golf is there. Many of these courses had guest rates of less than 70 GBP, and just about all of the websites had the ability for visitors to book tee times. Golf sickos will travel just about anywhere for great golf, which makes it a little more head scratching that you don’t hear more about golf trips to Wales.
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There’s no Open rota venue there as an anchor site like Scotland/England, and there’s not the well publicized tourist industry that Ireland has. Travel is also a bit more complicated from the states compared to Scotland, England, and Ireland.
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To play devils advocate on the travel…it is only a two hour train ride from London. Getting to Bandon from the East coast is probably longer/harder than getting to Wales.
Good points on the lack of Open rota venue and general tourism industry lacking behind the rest of the UK. The ease of planning trips through golf travel companies probably plays a huge role in what courses see more visitor traffic.
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But it’s still easier for the that East coast person to get to Ireland, Scotland or England than Wales. There’s direct flights to Edinburgh, Heathrow, Dublin, Glasgow, and Shannon from the US, while there aren’t direct flights to Cardiff. It is only a two hour train ride, but you’ll need a rental car after that going course to course. You need a car (or tour bus) elsewhere, but you can be on the first tee of an awesome course right off the plane in the other countries. Basically, a Welsh golf trip is probably just as good as an English, Irish, or Scottish trip, but no one from the US is going there before the other three for bucket list course and convenience reasons.
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This is true, for a bunch of reasons. Most US golf sickos have a certain number of GB&I golf trips in them, and Wales is just too far down the list behind Fife, SW Ireland, Lothian, Northern Ireland, Ayr, Highlands, and even the NW of England. I think ease of travel is a bit of an issue, but honestly, you guys drive 4 million miles a year, so I think if it had a higher profile that wouldn’t be a problem.
It’s a shame though. Some cracking courses there and the country itself is as beautiful as Ireland or Scotland. I’m actually going camping there next week with the family for 2 weeks. And the RACDG chapter over here has our Shut at Pennard and Royal Porthcawl in October. We have a couple of Porthcawl members too.
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Really enjoyed this, I have some Welsh heritage and have always wanted to make a trip there but this solidified it, sounds like the clubs will be coming too!
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A little too much golf talk for the trapdraw…but definitely made me want to go to Wales now
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I’ve wanted to visit Wales ever since watching Hinterland. Even more than ever after listening to the pod and learning more about the golf.
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Just saw this. Thought I would rejuvenate a discussion re Wales golf. Its great — its less busy, less expensive and the courses are superb.
This is Royal Porthcawl.
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Couldnt agree more.
You can fly direct to Manchester from NYC.
From there, with a 90 min drive, you could be visiting Conwy, North Wales Golf Club and a few others. You would be driving past Royal Liverpool, Wallasey and Delamere Forest on the way too.
Just back two hours ago from southern Wales. Porthcawl is fucking majestic!
And Pennard:
Pyle & Kenfig:
It’s low key spectacular along that southern coast and does not deserve to be ignored.
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Killing me.
With a great dormy as well.
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