Play Competitive Golf in Wales

Wales hosts a wide range of amateur golf open competitions each year, with singles, pairs and team events played across outstanding links, parkland and upland courses. August 2025 brought a historic moment when Royal Porthcawl hosted the AIG Women's Open — the first women's major championship ever staged in Wales — with Japan's Miyu Yamashita lifting the trophy ahead of Charley Hull. That occasion underlined what serious golfers have known for years: Wales offers championship-grade venues at the very top end and a wealth of welcoming members' clubs underneath. Whether you're searching by region or planning a golfing break, our 2026 calendar helps you find the right event in Wales.

For amateur golfers searching for a competitive experience that blends dramatic scenery, championship pedigree and warm Welsh hospitality, Wales is genuinely outstanding. The country's two Royal clubs — Royal Porthcawl on the Bristol Channel and Royal St David's beneath Harlech Castle — sit comfortably among the best courses in Britain and Ireland, while Conwy is the only Welsh course ever to host Open Championship Final Qualifying. Add an architectural roll call that includes Harry Vardon, James Braid, J.H. Taylor, Harry Colt and Jack Morris (nephew of Old Tom Morris) and Welsh golf bears comparison with anywhere in the British Isles. Open competitions across Wales welcome players of every handicap, with the chance to test your game on true links, classic upland turf, and mature parkland — all wrapped in a country small enough to make multi-day golfing trips genuinely practical.

Royal Porthcawl Golf Club is the undisputed championship heavyweight of Welsh golf and the only club in Wales from which the sea is visible from every hole. Founded in 1891 by a group of Cardiff businessmen, with the original nine on Lock's Common laid out by Charles Gibson in 1892 before the club moved to its present site in 1895, Royal Porthcawl was granted Royal status by Edward VII in 1909. The 7,137-yard par-72 links has hosted The Amateur Championship seven times (most recently 2016, jointly with Pyle & Kenfig), the 1995 Walker Cup — famously remembered for Gary Wolstenholme's victory over a young Tiger Woods, the 1964 Curtis Cup, the 1961 British Masters, three Senior Opens (2014, 2017, 2023) with Bernhard Langer winning the first two, and crucially the 2025 AIG Women's Open won by Miyu Yamashita — the first women's major championship ever staged in Wales. There are no trees and no water hazards: just gorse, pot bunkers and Atlantic wind funnelling up the Bristol Channel. As the Sky commentary team put it on opening their 2014 coverage: "Welcome to paradise."

Royal St David's Golf Club — universally known as Harlech — was founded in 1894 by the Hon. Harold Finch-Hatton (fourth son of the Earl of Winchilsea, who reputedly identified the linksland while practising his boomerang skills on his return from Australia) and William Henry More, then Crown Agent for Wales. The club held its first Open Meeting in November 1894, with eight-time Amateur Champion John Ball in the field. Harry Colt revised the bunkering in 1925 and Fred Hawtree extended the layout later in the century. Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales, was club Captain in 1934 before granting Royal patronage shortly afterwards. Played beneath the towering 13th-century Harlech Castle (built by Edward I in 1283) with the peaks of Snowdonia to the north and the sweep of Tremadog Bay to the west, Royal St David's is widely regarded as the world's toughest par 69. Bernard Darwin put it best: "Small wonder if the visitor falls in love with Harlech at first sight, for no golf course in the world has a more splendid background." Nearly eighty championships of national or international stature have been played here, including the Jacques Léglise Trophy and the British Senior Women's Amateur Championship.

Conwy Golf Club, founded officially on 30 June 1890, is one of the oldest clubs in Wales (third after Tenby and Rhyl). Golf may first have been played on its Morfa peninsula in 1869 when visiting Scotsmen dug impromptu holes, and the first proper 12-hole layout was designed in 1875 by Jack Morris, nephew of Old Tom Morris and Royal Liverpool's club professional. Extended to 18 holes in 1895, the course survived appropriation by the military during both World Wars — in WWII the prefabricated Mulberry Harbours used for the D-Day landings were built directly on what is now the back of the second green. The 6,901-yard par-72 layout was revised by Frank Pennink on the front nine in the mid-1970s and by Brian Huggett and Neil Coles on the back nine in the early 1980s to accommodate the A55 tunnel. Conwy became the first club in Wales to host Open Championship Final Qualifying in 2006 ahead of the Open at Royal Liverpool, hosted the postponed 2021 Curtis Cup, and offers spectacular views across the estuary to the UNESCO World Heritage Conwy Castle and onward to Snowdonia. George Duncan, the 1920 Open Champion, was club professional from 1903 to 1905.

Llandrindod Wells Golf Club, perched at 1,000 feet above sea level in the Cambrian Mountains of Powys, is a true Mid-Wales treasure with a remarkable architectural pedigree. After the original 1890 nine-hole course was closed in 1905 because it had become too dangerous for visitors on common ground, 140 acres at Little Hill were acquired and Harry Vardon — then a four-time Open Champion — was commissioned to design the new 18-hole layout. The grand opening in May 1907 was attended by all three of the Great Triumvirate — Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor — alongside local professional George Humble. James Braid returned in the mid-1930s to upgrade the course, submitting an invoice for eleven guineas. Sculpted by men with picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and horse-drawn carts, the 5,759-yard par-69 upland course remains essentially as Vardon left it. The closing 297-yard par-4 18th was named "Death or Glory" by Vardon himself, and red kites and buzzards patrol the skies above. Don't be fooled by the modest yardage — the course record stands at just 65.

Vale of Llangollen Golf Club, founded in 1908 on the valley floor of the River Dee beside Llangollen, sits within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and lies within the designated area of the UNESCO World Heritage Pontcysyllte Aqueduct — a unique pedigree for any golf club. Overlooked by the ruins of the 13th-century Dinas Bran castle on its towering crag, the 6,679-yard par-72 parkland weaves between mature tree-lined fairways and the river itself. The 9th hole is widely regarded as one of the best in British golf, while the river holes at 15 and 16 are also outstanding. Awarded HSBC Gold Status and consistently rated the top inland course in North Wales, the Vale of Llangollen has hosted numerous Welsh national and county championships, Senior European Tour events and Welsh Ladies Open competitions. Add Llangollen's International Musical Eisteddfod, the Llangollen Railway and Telford's aqueduct above, and few golf clubs anywhere combine sport and setting so completely.

Creigiau Golf Club, founded in 1921 by a group of Cardiff business and professional men on land leased from the Wingfield Estate (with Colonel Mervyn Wingfield serving as the club's first President for 30 years), is an easy-walking parkland course five miles north-west of the Welsh capital. The original nine holes were carved from farmland with hand tools alone, and the layout was extended to a full 18 holes in July 1986. Three early club professionals won National Championships — Bob Kenyon took the Irish Open in 1931 and 1933, Charlie Picket won the Welsh Open in 1934, and Frank Hill was Welsh Champion in 1935 and 1937. In recent decades the club has gone from strength to strength: 1998 Mail National Golf Club Champions and 2018 Annodata National Champions, beating Wentworth in the final. The signature par-3 16th, 190 yards over water on both sides of the green, asks the toughest question of the round.

Wales offers far more than outstanding golf. From the dramatic Pembrokeshire coastline and the peaks of Snowdonia (Eryri) to the vibrant capital city of Cardiff and the unique Welsh language and rugby culture, visitors can immerse themselves in landscape, history and hospitality between rounds. Harlech, Conwy, Caernarfon and Beaumaris together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Edward I's castles — and Royal St David's plays directly beneath one of them. Coastal towns deliver fresh seafood, valley villages keep their slate and chapel heritage alive, and the country's relatively compact size makes a multi-venue golfing trip genuinely manageable.

Whether you pair tournament golf with hiking in the national parks, exploring castle ruins, sampling the food and music of Cardiff, or simply enjoying panoramic sea views after your round, playing open competitions in Wales delivers more than a scorecard challenge — it offers a complete and unforgettable golfing adventure in one of the most distinctive corners of Britain.