Royal St David’s Golf Club’s feature 15th hole reopened by Welsh rugby star

Former Wales and British and Irish Lions rugby star, Scott Quinnell has officially reopened a feature 15^th hole at one of the top links golf courses in Wales, following work over the winter.

Royal St David’s Golf Club in Harlech aptly chose St David’s Day to reveal the new, uplifted green and approach fairway – closed since last October – which have both been raised by more than one metre at a cost of £125,000.

This work will future proof the hole from a rising water table and progressively wetter winters. Ironically, the club spent £750,000 on irrigation three years ago!

Quinnell, a star of rugby union with Llanelli and rugby league with Wigan, is a Royal St David’s Golf Club’s ambassador and performed the reopening ceremony with club president Bryan John and captains David Barr and Shuna Sweeting.

The club’s other ambassadors are BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty, former Formula One champion Nigel Mansell and former snooker star Denis Taylor.

Construction work on the raised 15^th hole and fairway was carried out by Shaperight Services and the club’s links team in partnership with world renowned course architects Mackenzie and Ebert and Natural Resources Wales.

The work marks the first phase of a new drainage programme at the famous championship course. A Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area has also been created by moving 4,000 tonnes of sand onto the course.

Club manager Peter Rees said: “The partnership has future-proofed the 15^th hole by addressing problems caused by the continually rising water table. The hole has been sympathetically designed true to its original form and is an excellent addition to our championship course.

“The Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area is a beautiful and ecologically sustainable site for natural flora and fauna.

“My thanks go to all involved in the project, but special thanks go to the board at Royal St David’s for their support, our links team, led by Rhys Butler, for all their hard work and our members for their patience and trust throughout.”

Established in 1894, the Harlech links has long been ranked within the top 50 British golf courses, ranked second in Wales by Golf World and within the world’s Top 100 courses by Golf Digest. 

The picturesque course setting is superb, sandwiched between Harlech Castle, a World Heritage Site and Cardigan Bay. Over the years, nearly 80 national and international championships have been played on the course, which is magnet for visiting golfers.

Offering a great test of championship golf for men and women, Royal St David’s is noted for its large greens, punishing rough and spectacular homecoming through imposing dunescape.

Unlike many links courses, Harlech’s intricate routing exposes golfers to different wind directions constantly, requiring mastery of every club in the bag. Every hole offers fabulous views both of Harlech Castle and of the distant Eryri mountain range.

Princes, Prime Ministers, poets have all played on the course, as have some of the greatest names in golf history – five Open Champions and five Amateur Champions are named on honours boards in the historic clubhouse.

Royal St David’s Golf Club is a member of MWT Cymru (Mid Wales Tourism), an independent organisation representing more than 600 tourism and hospitality businesses across Powys, Ceredigion and Meirionnydd.

For more information about the club and course, visit https://www.royalstdavids.co.uk/ .