Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England

 https://www.westonsupermaregolfclub.com/

Black tees par 70, slope 123, 6169 yards
Green tees (ladies) par 72, slope 115, 5543 yards

Lying on the Bristol Channel, golf was first played on Weston-super-Mare in 1892 after a nine hole course was designed by Tom Dunn, a Scottish professional golfer and golf architect.  At the club's inception a proposal to allow ladies to play over the men's course was heavily defeated and a separate ladies' course was also laid out.   Only four years later another nine holes were added.  In 1922 the course was modernised under the direction of Dr Alister McKenzie who is probably best known as the architect of Augusta National.

Weston-super-Mare is in a good position for a true links course but lacks enough attributes to be described as such.  It lies on flat ground on which we could see no evidence of sandy soil, lacks hard and fast running fairways, has no dunes and quite a few trees.  After a friendly welcome, we played on a sunny, windy day in November when you would not expect almost all the bunkers to be flooded and sodden ground on the fairways, even allowing for recent heavy rain, but that is what we found.  The greens were in reasonable condition but the fairways were poor. 

The 4th hole has a wall across the fairway. 
 Scrub blocks views of the sea

Heading in a south west direction, the first four holes, three par 4s and a par 3, run along the beach but it and the sea are obscured from view by a high barrier of scrub.  The most memorable of these is the fourth which has a dry stone wall across the fairway.  The fifth and sixth holes are two par 4s separated from the rest of the course by a road and are the only holes with a view of the Bristol Channel.  The seventh is a par 3 named 'Four Eyes' after the bunkers which guard the green.  The next memorable hole is the fifteenth because of its name - 'Road Hole'.  We assumed this was because of the positioning of the greenside bunker likening the hole to the famous seventeenth at St Andrews Old Course.  A nondescript flat short hole follows and then a par 5 dogleg left to right which tempts the player to take a shortcut over an area of out of bounds. 

 

The 14th green is overlooked by 
the Old Church of St Nicholas  

Worth playing?  Not if you want a true links experience.