Bull Bay Golf Club

Bull Bay Golf Club: set back a couple of hundred yards from the sea, the expansive out-and-back layout here at Bull Bay contains all the fun and challenge you'd want from a terrific seaside links course. Like many a coastal links, you'll enjoy wonderful sea and inland views as you journey round this testing and well-presented championship course.

With its mix of straightaway and dog-legging holes, the ever-undulating terrain doesn't, as you might expect, feature classic links-style sand dunes. In their place, the rolling landscape of pristine, crisp-turf fairways is punctuated by rocky outcrops, and sizeable ridges and hollows. Gorse bushes are also much in evidence, and on a few holes, pine trees. Except for the downhill par-3 12th (Bryn Teg) and the closing par-4 18th (Teg Edrych), the "business-end" of virtually all the holes is played uphill to elevated greens.

There's no water hazards to worry about here, and only one or two relatively small revetted bunkers that defend each of the excellent greens. Renowned designer Herbert Fowler knew that the layout's inherent and constant elevation changes, and frequent windy conditions hereabouts, was defence enough for this testing layout. He also had no qualms in asking the golfer to take on a range of blind tee and approach shots, with a few significant carries from the teen the mix .

Pick of the holes: the par-4 9th (Dyffryn) is a perfect exemplar for Bull Bay. Played from an elevated tee, the hole doglegs from right-to-left as it wriggles past rocky outcrops and gorse bushes, en route to an elevated green. Also worth a special mentioned is the par-3 16th (Yr Ynys). The clubhouse and Bull Bay beyond, give this hole its impressively scenic backdrop.