Machynys Peninsula named Best New Course

Travel + Leisure Golf features Gary Nicklaus-design in its 2005 British Isles Report

Courtesy of Travel + Leisure Golf

After a year of premature promises, uncertainty and the vagaries of the weather on Wales's southern coast, as of mid-May, golf will finally be played on Gary Nicklaus's new course on the Machynys Peninsula. For those who have waited patiently, especially those concerned that a rush to open would end in a destructive soft-spike stampede on a far-from-mature course, the reward is certain to be worth the sacrifice.

The 7,100-yard par-seventy-two design nods in homage to the links tradition, but it is nevertheless a thoroughly modern layout: Sixteen of the eighteen holes involve shots over or alongside water. Still, it is the stunning setting of Machynys, overlooking Carmarthen Bay and out over the Gower Peninsula, that will most quickly put this course on the map. The salt marshes and the Loughor Estuary that are the natural neighbors of the course are both quietly beautiful; the wide, sandy beaches along the bay add to the sense of escape.

The star holes of the front nine, lying west of the salt marshes, are numbers four and five, two strategy-driven par fours. However, it's unnecessary at Machynys to look for signature holes. And although young Mr. Nicklaus has delivered a spectacular terrain of rolling fairways, fescue-strewn rough and ponds aplenty, he probably knew it would be the feel and the setting of Machynys that would complete the sense of being somewhere special.

That feeling comes into its own on the back nine, especially from fifteen onward. If you need natural-distraction therapy, come to this stretch of holes: This is the point of the big-picture, big-impact views right across the bay. How you switch back to the task at hand‹because you need a skillful shot over the lake at the 503-yard closing par five‹will be part of the challenge.

The clubhouse, with an upmarket brasserie and an extensive spa, resembles a mini resort. The developers would like to see a hotel built in the future. But for now we should be thankful that golf balls will finally be flying at Machynys. It seems a minor matter that establishing room service will take a bit longer.