Porthmadog Golf Club

Very pleasant course. Well worth a visit. I have never played a course like it for contrast between the front and back 9. Very helpful and friendly pro. Superb.

I thoroughly enjoyed the open event on 1st July the front nine gives a gentle introduction with a good test yet opportunity to score well before a superb back nine along the coastline the views and course were superb with a challenge rarely bettered . I've played several open and ryder cup courses and this nine was as good .

Played here on 21/6/2010. This is a very good golf course that has two distinct halves. The front nine is away from the sea and is a mix of links and parkland (the first 2 holes before you cross the road are links) although it was that dry that all the holes played like a links course. A nice touch as you cross back over the road towards the clubhouse where a rear serving door allows you to buy refreshments (just what was needed on a baking hot day). As others have said this is where it then gets interesting! A superb 9 holes of links golf that would test players of any ability. This first time I have played a blind tee shot to a par 3 on the 11th and then a great golf hole, a par 4 of 290 yards tucked into a corner running alongside a stretch of beach. A real risk or reward shot with stunning views. The famous 14th, the Himalayas lived up to its name, especially on such a dry, hard running surface as it currently is. The 17th is a lovely dogleg par 5 running between two expanses of gorse with a ditch at the front of the green. The clubhouse and pro shop was very friendly, which always helps. This is a wonderful golf course. It is easy to criticise the front 9 but that is because the back 9 is so good. Links golf at its best.

Played Porthmadog on 13/07/09. As others have said the first 10 holes are very ordinary parkland with holes 3 to 9 in very poor condition (apart from the greens which were good). The fairways were playable but very bare and tatty in places. When you turn into the dunes you face 7 of the most dramatic links holes I have ever experienced. The hills are much higher than at most courses. I missed one of the greens by 30 yards and had to hit a sand wedge over a 30ft high dune to get back onto it. If this course had 18 holes like those 7 it would probably be world famous. As it is I would strongly advise any reasonable striker of a ball to experience it. Those 7 holes are not for the long handicapper or the faint-hearted but they are wild and exciting. My rating for difficulty below is based on the 18 holes. Those 7 links holes would rate over 10.

I played this course last week and can throroughly recommend Porthmadog to golfers of all abilities.I played on the Wednesday for £20 which was superb value for the quality of the course . The pro shop is well stocked and the people who work for the club are very friendly indeed. I was made to feel very welcome and the pro even offered me a free tube of balls to warm up on the practise range as well as a (long) chat about the course and other courses in the area.The front 9 here is traditional parkland. Many of the holes are on the short side and there are good opportunties to make birdie or par on mant of the first 9 holes. I was very impressed with the condition of the course. Considering the winter that we have had, and the amount of rain that had fallen the day before, the course was in frankly great shape. In particular, the fairways were lush, green and divot free. All of the greens were in use and mats only in use on 3 tees. For those of us who have suffered a winter of mats, temporary greens and tees this came as a very pleasant surprise.The stand out holes on the front 9 are the 4th (a 436 yard par 4) which is a great driving hole and encourages you to give it a rip off the tee, and also the par 3 158 yard 9th which has a fantastic view over the town and course from the tee. It also features a deceptively hard green at which I, and others I saw play the hole, take a club less than what was required. The rest of the front 9 is good quality golf on a well maintained course. For the money it represents excellent value. After playing the front 9 you could be forgiven for thinking that Porthmadog is a nice enough course but unchallenging. To play the back 9 you cross a road (and have the chance to have a drink or a bacon roll once you have) and once these you quickly realise how wrong you were to underestimate this course!The back 9 is links golf and the battle really commences from 10 onwards. The contrast with the front 9 is stunning and if you quickly realise if you haven't made good scores on the front 9 then you are not going to be shooting a low score!Being new to links golf I was totally unprepared to see my straight drive on the 369 yard par 4 10th roll off the fairway into the thickest gorse you will ever see. I dread to think what its like when its really 'up'! The 275 yard par 4 12th has the sea running along the left to catch any hooks. There is a landing area about 150 yards from the tee and the green - the rest is huge sand dunes and penal rough! I took an 8 here by trying to drive the green and getting into real trouble, so my advice is to play safe and lay up if you get to play it!If anything the 13th is harder. A 187 yard par 3 with a hidden green surrounded by dunes, gorse and very penal rough. It is made harder by the distraction of the surroundings as the 13th tee has wonderful views of the sea, quiet beaches and the Snowdon Mountain range. I can't think of much better places to be if I am honest.The test continues on the par 4 14th (378 yards) with a blind shot to a narrow fairway with only a direction stick to aim at! Whilst the hole is short you just have to get your drive over 160 yards and straight. If you are short you are in real trouble and if you are not straight you are unlikely to see your ball again! Golf doesn't get much better than this in my view, and I found that if you keep is straight and respect the course that you can survive these tests.All along the back 9 the views are stunning, with sublime coastal views and tranquil beauty to be found on 11-14 in particular. Also noticeable was just how friendly the members are. Without exeption eveyone I encountered was friendly and stopped for a quick chat,Form 15 the course goes back inland again and the highlight is the 464 yard par 5 17th which is a great risk and reward hole. Reachable in two, the green is protected by a stream to the right and a horrible bunker on the left (which I found myself in). The straight and wide fairways of the 18th are a bit of a let down, although by then you might be glad of the respite (15 and 16 to be fair are also chances to get some shots back).After the round, I was invited for a drink in the comfortable and cosy bar. I got talking to a member who told me that 7 day membership of the club is significantly less than £400 per year. He must have thought I was deaf as I asked him to repeat the figure twice. Living in London I couldn't help but feel jealous that golfers have this quality and beauty on their doorstep and don't have to pay much to enjoy it all year round!There are a number of other great courses within a few miles of Porthmadog and the town also has the friendliest driving range I have ever been to (If you get the chance have a basket and enjoy the free coffee/tea and warm chat with the guys who work there).North Wales is clearly not just a stunning area of natural beauty it also has some wonderful golf. I heartily recommend this course to anyone on the area and loking for a game

If you have played and liked Trallee you definitely like Porthmadog as well. As fellow reviewers already stated this is a course of two halves. I liked the holes 1,2 & 18 which are flat seaside holes very much. 3 to 9 are Parkland in layout and 10 to 17 are 8 of the most marvelous links holes you can imagine. Blind shots, giant dunes, deep bunkers what more will you ask for. Hole #12 was a bit confusing because I think the fairway is closer to the teebox then denoted in the strokesaver, very fortunate that I mishit my 3 iron completely and remember to put your ball on a tee peg once you reached the fairway :)

We played Porthmadog as part of a 5 course tour, taking in Caernarfon, Neffyn, Abersoch and Harlech. This was the Weds course, and it did not get off to a good start after an argument with the Pro over wheteher or not our Hotel (The Royal Goat at Beddgelert - thouroughly reccommended), had paid our green fees, and we were who we said we were, eh !!. Anyway on to the golf, the front nine was a typical parkland set up, the third and fourth fairways were a bit `tatty` but perfectly playable, the greens however were excellent and we enjoyed the outward. Then we hit the back nine, superb golf through high sand dunes, gorse, sandy fairways and unique challenging holes at every turn. You must play `Himalayas`, four perfectly hit drives, four lost balls, four provisionals, one ball found! The back nine alone,(along with the superb greens), made this our favourite course of the week, mind you the sun coming out for the first time helped also. All in all a great day out, but one word of advice to the club committee, if you want visitors to come back, send your guy in the pro shop off on an interpersonal skills course !

It's easy this course!! thats what i was thinking after i parred the first three holes. Little did i know! A gentle potter round some pretty untaxing holes round the front nine to the turn and then hold on to your hats boys, things start to get a little bit mental. It all starts getting a bit dodgy at the tenth, a bit of a lumpy links fairway leading to a nicely tucked in green. As your walking it you start to see other parts of the back nine and get a bit of a clue of the barminess to come. Things really start kicking in at the twelfth though... its a slight dogleg left with the remarkable distinction of having no fairway at all. ( its even marked as rough on the course planner ) 13 starts with an elevated tee off the tip of the mini peninsular to a blind green which leaves tricky club selection ( pete and I both picked the wrong clubs and paid dearly ) Hole 14 is ludicrous. Its called "sand hills" people who cant hit a high ball bring the game to an abrupt halt here as they plug the ball into the face of some pretty monstrous sand dunes. ( my dad played a shot here 30 yrs ago that hit near the top of the dune. he tried to climb it and retrieve his ball, but just kept slithering down loose sand. the ball is still there to this day ) I hit a perfect tee shot straight over the top of the marker pole and was rewarded with a dodgy bounce into the rough. As for the 15th....... lumpiest fairway in the world!!! I'll finish this by quoting my playing partner pete who said "that back nine has just taken my scorecard and chewed it up and spat it out in little pieces, and it didnt even say thanks" Porthmadog is a unique golfing experience. I'd recommend it to anyone.

The final day of North Wales 2005. For Baz, Boof and Young P, the week had been a crash course in Welsh golf: North Wales, Pwllheli, Royal St David's, Nefyn and now Porthmadog. 36 holes at each course, except Royal St David's - although the 18 there had actually felt like 180. We were all pretty exhausted. So it wasn't the best start of the day to be greeted by a pro who acted like he'd just swallowed a wasp or ten. Thank heavens, though, for a more pleasant reception on the course where FOR ONCE the wind was beneath 30mph, in fact barely existent at all - eureka! Porthmadog is even more of a course of two halves than Pwllheli, and that's saying something. By and large, the front nine is a flat, uninspiring – and in places even facile – parkland layout. Halfway round and this was starting to look like a serious anticlimax to the week. However, the word on the street was that the back nine was an entirely different animal, and so it proved. Walking to the other half of the course was like emerging from a golfing desert into an oasis, as we were greeted with some lovely links terrain, gently rippling at first but which rapidly became lunar-like. The 10th (377 yards, par 4) is a lovely start to the back nine, with an inviting, undulating fairway and the green nestling between dunes. And from there, the good holes just keep coming. There's a great view from the tee of the short par 4 12th (only 275 yards off the yellows) and it's even better when you reach the tee of the semi-blind par 3 13th (202 yards). But it's not just about the scenery, far from it: this is challenging links golf. The tee shot on the 14th (387 yards, par 4) is completely blind over a small mountain of dunes and only the fields along the left hand side near the green detract from the hole's pure links feel. The course loses impetus towards the end as it moves away from the dunes, although the 17th (489 yards) is a good dogleg par 5 with gorse on both sides and, at the end of it all, a green that's cleverly tucked away. Overall, the back 9 puts the front half even more in the shade, although Boof was doing the damage all the way round as he shot his handicap. It certainly wasn't an epic end to the week, in the way that Machrihanish was in Scotland 2002 – although arrangements were stymied by the 4-day Welsh Amateur Strokeplay taking place at Royal St David's. But after 162 holes in five days, and some of the worst weather that nature could throw of us, we were just thinking of one thing: get thee to the curry house! See you next year when, possibly, Ireland 2006 awaits... 7.25/10 'Young P'

Went on a North Wales golf trip (Caernarfon, Anglesey and Porthmadog golf courses) and this was definitely the best one. Comments below are all very accurate, except for the fact that the tees were clearly signalled, and we bought a course plan for £2.50 which meant it was easy to drive in the right direction. A few absolutely beautiful views on the back 9, and a proper test I would say for 20 h'cap or lower. Thouroghly enjoyable.

I played this course during August (27 handicap). Perfectly manageable front nine albeit not particularly interesting. The back nine is pure links and very difficult for the high handicapper. Take lots of golf balls. Not easy to find your way around the back nine. The club has a course planner. but what you need is a set of aerial photgraphs with "you are here" arrows on them. Lovely clubhouse, super food and very pleasant people.

Played here in July with a mixed ability group. The low handicap boys thoroughly enjoyed the back 9 challenges, but for the rest of us there were too many blind shots over scrub and sand dunes to hidden greens that were in superb condition. Defiantly a course that requires several visits to learn the way round to gain maximum enjoyment. A few signs directing the way to the next tee would not go a miss either. Some the locals were not all that friendly, but you cant visit this corner of Wales without playing here if only to play real links golf.

Visited in May 2001. The course is a real game of 2 halves.The front 9 are parkland and I thought a little boring .3 par 5's on the front nine 2 of which are easiliy reachable in 2 lull you into a false sense of security for what is to come!The back 9 is a real Gem - True Links with 3/4 superb holes.Superb Greens all over the course. The pro was exceptionally friendly despite being a Port Vale supporter.The catering and hospitality were amongst the best i've had any where.Strongly recommend the welsh lamb rogan josh!

We stayed at the Royal Goat Hotel in Beddgelert where the owners challenged us to a game at Porthmadog and so as a result ended up playing it a couple of days after Harlech for £12! This course is just as good as Harlech, particularly the back 9 which in any wind is evil! A 267yd par 4 sounds pretty easy but with the sea on one side and huge dunes to the other, playing into a stiff breeze to a green perched on top of a dune it becomes a card-wrecker. Two holes later, the SI1 par 4, aptly named Himalayas, is probably the most intimidating drive I have ever seen - trouble left and right and not a fairway in sight! This is a great course and an absolute bargain for £12. Stay at the Goat and challange your hosts to a game - they'll probably take some money off you but who cares?!

WE PLAYED THE COURSE ON 16TH MAY 2001.....A DAY AFTER PLAYING ROYAL ST.DAVIDS. THE STAFF,SHOP,PRO AND MEMBERS WERE ALL HELPFUL....THIS IS THE BEST COURSE IVE PLAYED FOR A LONG TIME....I WAS MORE IMPRESSED WITH THIS COURSE THAN HARLECH.....THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK........ IF YOU ARE A SERIOUS GOLFER A VISIT AT THIS COURSE IS A MUST....THE FRONT 9 ARE WIDE OPEN BUT THE BACK NINE ....HA ITS A DIFFERENT KETTLE OF FISH ALTOGETHER.......ILL NOT SPOIL IT.......

A lovely course - friendly pro and well-stocked shop (handy given the weather and need for extra waterproofing !!). Front nine are parkland(ish) but sufficiently configured to keep you interested. The back nine are fabulous (we all preferred them to the last five at Harlech) as you wend your way thru' dunes - watch out for the hole by the beach: a fisherman nearly caught a high velocity Titleist to the nether regions. Closing couple of holes take you back inland but are tidy enough - bar was closing as we finished at 9pm so can't comment on vittles. PLAY THIS COURSE !!