5 TRAVELT+food April 27 2008 sunday T'imes

COOL SPOT

HxtrernePicture: JOHN YoUNG

golfi ng,

Golfinrg in Wales separates themen from the boys, and thesheep from the sheepish, writesJ*hlr Yeiilt'lg

r Johnson said that when aman is tted of London heis tired of life. He also said,"By seeing London, I have

seen as much of life as the worldcan show." \4/hich is two parts trueand eight parts complete rubbish,as so many famous sayings are,The old cynic once wrote that hewas "weary of being at home, andweary of being abroad" and he wasa famous hater of "Scotchmen" andthings Scottish. Ile had opinions onfurther flung places too. When aJamaican died, Johnsoncomhented, "He will not, whitherhe is now gone, lind muchdifference, I believe, either in theclimate or the companv."

Having sorted out Johnson, I cannow om up. I once grew tired ofLondon, but I found the ldealantidote to the strain of life in a

megalopolis - a round of golf atthe top of a mountain in Wales,Johnson's views on the principalityare not known, but the person whointroduced him l"o Boswell, Lhe manwho made the doctor's utterings sofamous, was Thomas Davies, whomust have been Welsh. In anyevent, Wales is a wonderful placeto visit afier the huly-burly ofLondon.

'Ihe first Welsh brochue I sawafter a sleepy train-ride acrossEngland promised "Peace andTranquillity" in the rolling hiusthat sunound the town ofWelshpool. This was a bit of asurprise to me as I was intendingto try out the golf course atLlanftindod Wells, many miles tothe south. No matier, I ihought,they must have a golf course atWelshpool.

Ye Gods, do they have a golfcourse in Welshpool! Eighteenmountain-top holes are set mongstimpenetrable gorse and bracken,punctuated by steep ravines anddeep gorges. It is a fearsome thing,the very antithesis of peace andtranquillity, especially when aForce Nrne gale is blowing slrajghroff the distant irish Sea, via themountains of Snowdonia, as it wason the day of my visit.

I borrowed a set of clubs fromthe friendly barman, admired thespectacular view from lhe first teeand hit a respectable six iron shotnot far from the green. Not far fromthe green but lost forever incenturies-old undergrowth! It wasclear that this was going to be abattle for survival.

It is entirely appropriate thatChilles Darwirfs grandson haswritten extensively about goll atWelshpool - only the very fittestwoulal survive a full round there.Bernard Dtrwin was a renownedgolf writer and he called Welshpo0l"A Golf Course of Dreams". Johr

Stutt of Paisle-Y, who buili thecourse, comptred it to the iconicGleneagles in Scotland and DarwinIoved it, "There is nothing like it inthe country."

Damin \ilanted to avoid casting a"covert slur" on the quality of ihegolf by wririn8, about the yiew, bulhe made an exception for thiscourse because "it would be absurdnot to mention this view ... it takesihe breath away". The greatmountains of North West Walesand the smaller hills of distantEnglish counties can be seen lrom

'So unlil<eanything else,so perched onthe roof of theworlc{ ... a trulytrreautiful place'

almost every tee-box. The 10th holeis called Five Counties because ofbhe panorama.

The second hole is omilouslycalled "The Graveyard". It was herethat I had my first eicounter withWelshpool's malevolent sheep. Sixof them were huddled in a woollybunch beneath a huge oak tree,cuddled up end to end to avoid theicy wind whistling up the longuphill fairway. Local farmers'ancient rights tq graze their sheepon Golfa Hill were not distubedwhen the golf course was laid outin 1928. A recent concession togolfers' rights has seen the erectionof low electric wires to protect thegreens lrom nibbling sheep.

There are no sheep iI rhe worldless sheep{ike in their behaviour

than the Welshpool sheep. Perhapsthey have inherited some sense oftheir rights to the land from theirancestors. Perhaps the dark cloudsand howling wind had me thinkingia Wutheritlg Heights terlins.Whatever the eause, I found theway one sheep sniffed at my baUwhen it came to rest nearby quitecreepy. And when I hit what ithought was a fairly decent mid-iron back towards the clubhouse onthe next hole, another one let out amuffled snort, as lf to say, "Whatsort of shot is that?"

When one s game is as fragile asmine, one can do without a galleryof furry quadrupeds giving theirverdict. And then there was thewind.

Having tapped in for a rare pilon the short third hole. I returnedto where I had left my bag, only iodiscover that the wind had shiftedit about 10m down the hill. Later, inthe bar, I was told that the windhad once lifted a mm off his teet onthe 18ih green. I believe it. Neveragain will I complain aboui thebreezes that pass over the golfcourse at Milnerl,on in lhe WcsternCape or Humewood's coolhgzephyrs in Port Elizabeth.

Somewhere between the eighthand ninth holes I got lost, emergingquite by chance on the tee of the18th. I decided this was a signal totake a short-cut to the clubhouse,and a bracing tot of whisky. TheLinks at Fancourt has somedauilting tee-shots btrt nothing tocompile with Welshpool's finalhole. It hasn't chmged a bit tuomwhen Darwin played it m the'ls30s,"Between me and the clubhouseyawned one of the most stupendousravines that ever produced a joyshot lrom the tee." Somehow, Ipropelled the ball over the brackenand negotiated the precipitousdown slope. The same sheep thathad glared at me on the fifth were

AGAINST THE WIND: Don't expect balmy breezes on this rugged golf course set amid rolling green hills

Sunday limes

now glowering near the final green.Or was it their cousins? I linishedas quickly as I could.

Despite the wind and the cold,the ravines and the animosity ofthe animals, golf at Welshpool is abracirg and unique experience. Thecourse ls, as Darwin wrote, "sounlike anything else, so perched onthe roof of the world ... a irulybcaul.iful place". The exrremities ofweather and topography arequickly forgotten in ihe cosyclubhouse pub, where the barmanunderstands what's needed after anextended walk on an exposedmountain top.

In Dave Evans, Welshpool GolfCIub also has a barmm who knowsmore than most about the battle ollsandlwana. Anyone wmting toknow eYen more about that lamousZulu triumph can travel about 80kmsouth along the A483 to tsrecon andthe regimental museum of T'heSouth Wales Borderers. Theemphasis is more on B,orke's Ilriftthan nsandlwana, but among thedisplays are wooden ammunitionboxes still bearing the desperatescratch marks oi the Britishsoldiers (most of them hailed fromBirmingham), who tried to claw thecontainers open at the height of thebattle.

Brecon is a quiet town on thenorthern edge of the BreconBeacons National Park andLlandrindod Wells, where I wouldhave played golf had I not fallenasleep on the train, is abouthaifway between Brecon andWelshpool-

As one would expect in a small(own. the lo|rls at rhc goll (,lub barquickly recommended a good placeto stay and rustled up a taxi to takeme to Severn Farm Bed andBreakfast. Alun Jones showed memy room and recommended theRoyal Oak Hotel, about fiveminutes' walk away, tbr dinner.

When it came to cltoosing a maincourse, there really was no choice.After my encounters on the golfcourse, it had to be "Rack of WelshLamb" and X can confim ThomasPeacock's opinion liom almosi 200years ago: like revenge, "Themountain sheep are sweeter."

I only had one nighi in Welshpoolbut the area has many attractionsapart from the spectacular golfcourse. Powys Castle is acommanding 500-year-old presence,trips can be arranged on Victoriansteam engines or canal boats - andJulie Christie lives in the area. or soI was told in the bar. If she farmssheep (as everyone else seems todo), then shc will be a regular atthe Monday sales, the biggest'one-day sheep market in Europe.

I did not have time for breakfastbetbre I left Welshpool. Because

April?T 2OOB

Bdtain's privatised railway systemis not always co-ordinated, I had toleave very early to get from Walcsto the nearest English town,Shrewsbury. This is CharlesDarwir's birthplace and the settingtbr Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfelnovels, but this wasn't much use tome. Although I had to wait a longtime on the platform for the lirstsouth-bound lrain, run by adiflerent company, thele wasn'tenough time to make sightseeing

TRAVE[8Food 7

EASIESWelshpool js in Montgomeryshire, Wales, about 30km west of Shrewsbury onthe A458. A good, general website is www.welshpool.org.uk. Accomniodat;onfrom t30 (abut R465) is available at the Royal oak Hotel (Tel: 019 38 5522lZ www.royaloakhotel.info/) ard Severn Farm Bed and Breakfast (019 38555 999; www.severnfarm.co.uk) charges 125 (about R3B0).

There are more than 200 golf courses in Wales, many of themoutstandingly good. They are also cheaper to play and less crowded thanmany courses in other parts of Britajn. Wales will host the Ryder Cup in2010. The Welsh tourist authority website is wuiwvisitwales.com anci theyhave a link to a website offerinq special golfing deals;www. golfasitshouldbe.com.

worthwhlle.1 was sorry to leave Wales. My

host Alan drove me to the stationand only took my money as thetrain started moving off, which iswhen I remembered that I had notyet paid lor my bed. It is diificult toimagine something similarhappening in London. By sceing apart of friendly Wales, I had seenmore of trhat the world can show -and was happy to have proved f)r'Johnson wrong.

FRIENDLY NATIVES: Helpful locals will direct freezing golfers towards the nearest fire

W0|-VES IN W00L: The bunkers are as hostile as the hardy Welsh sheep

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