The Missing Links: West Cornwall

Saturday 27 September 2014

West Cornwall

www.westcornwallgolfclub.co.uk

SSS white tees 69
SSS red tees 73

The start of the Cornish swing! We have come down here with Rosie and Martin Dennis to play the six true links courses in Cornwall. The oldest club in Cornwall, West Cornwall is in Lelant near St Ives. We played it on a sunny day with clear blue skies and a light breeze. Set around the magnificent sweep of Porthkidney sands at the mouth of the Hayle estuary there are stunning views to St Ives in the west and Godrevy lighthouse to the north east. A single gauge railway line runs along the sea side of the course but does not obstruct the views.

The course is quirky and fun. The first nine is tight with shared fairways and a number of crossing holes so make sure your golf insurance is paid up! The second nine goes up the hill around the bay - the panoramic views may well distract you from your game. This is a real links course with hard, fast running fairways and true but small greens. A lovely, fun holiday course with a warm and friendly welcome.

The view to St Ives

Worth playing? Definitely for the fun course, views and friendly welcome.

The 4th green

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The Links Project

There are 246 true links golf courses in the world and this blog is a record of our attempt to play all of them. My husband Ron and I are keen golfers and I came up with the idea of this project after he gave me the book by George Peper and Malcolm Campbell 'True Links' which lists them all.

The commonest question we are asked about our project is 'How do you define a true links course?' This will be debated by aficionados for long after we have (hopefully) completed our quest and there will never be a correct answer. The strict definition is from the British Golf Museum:

1. The course must be beside a river estuary

2. It must offer partial or occasional views of the sea

3. It must have few trees

4. It must have numerous bunkers

5. It must have nines that run out and back, the front heading to a far point and the back returning to the clubhouse

Peper and Campbell defined their list as follows:

Terrain - how close is the course to the sea? Do the fairways run fast and hard? Do the greens favour a run-on approach? How open is the site? How natural? Is there a freedom from trees? Is the invasion of gorse and brush controlled? How light is the environmental footprint on the land?

Turf - is there a sand base? What grasses are dominant on the fairways and greens? Is the rough managed ( creating biodiversity for flora and fauna)? How well does the course drain?

Weather - how exposed is the site to the elements? What are the typical wind conditions? Does the course play hard and fast all year round? Must temporary greens and tees be used in winter? Is the course susceptible to winter closure?

Peper and Campbell included courses which supplied the correct answers to most of these questions. But however defined, to me the poem by Sir John Betjeman encapsulates the feeling of links golf.