Best golf courses in South Wales

The area around the two biggest cities in Wales - Cardiff and Swansea - is littered with glorious golf courses, and with something for everyone at that. From resort courses to some of the best links layouts in the United Kingdom, there is something for everyone in South Wales.

As the two largest cities in the country, there are plenty of places to stay in both Swansea and Cardiff, if that is where you want to base yourself. Move further west, and you will come to two of the best golf courses in Wales. Royal Porthcawl is one of the best links courses anywhere in the country, and the host of the Senior Open Championship and AIG Women's Open in back-to-back years.

Almost within a stone's throw from Porthcawl is the glorious Pyle & Kenfig, with Harry Colt and Philip MacKenzie Ross being the two men to have laid out the course among the dunes of South Wales. Colt was also influential at Southerndown, another of the stunning links courses in the region.

If you take a trip in the other direction, west of Swansea, then you will be lost in a world of epic links golf. Starting at the top, both physically and metaphorically, with the 'Links in the Sky' - Pennard. That is one of three cracking layouts on the Gower Peninsula, along with Langland Bay and Clyne. Further along, you will come to the likes of Ashburnham, Tenby, and the newest of them all, the Jack Nicklaus-designed Machynys Peninsula. 

The region also has some incredible stay-and-play resorts, none bigger or better than the Celtic Manor Resort. With a massive hotel and three stunning 18-hole layouts, there is all you could need from a trip to this part of the world. The Twenty Ten Course became the first Welsh host of the Ryder Cup in 2010, while the resort is also the home of the Montgomerie Course and the Roman Road Course as well, providing guests with 54 holes of golfing pleasure.

Celtic Manor is not the only stay-and-play option in the region, though. The Vale Resort has two courses - the Wales National and the Lake Course - while the St Pierre Country Club, the closest venue to the English border in the east, has the glorious Old Course along with its fantastic accommodation. 

How we compiled our South Wales list
We updated our South Wales list when we created our NCG Top 100s list of the best golf courses in Wales. If one course in the south of Wales is above another in our Wales list, then it will also be above it in our South Wales list.