"Arrive by train — the station is beside the links, just as in Darwin's essays; Cader's blind tee shot over the sandhill is Welsh golf's oldest thrill."

Colonel Arthur Ruck laid out holes here in the 1880s using flower pots for cups, and the club was formally founded in 1892. Its patron saint is Bernard Darwin, the greatest golf writer who ever lived, whose family founded the club and who confessed: 'About this one course in the world I am a hopeless and shameful sentimentalist.' Darwin brought in Harry Colt before WWI; Herbert Fowler's 1920 work shaped the present layout; James Braid's 1931 changes were voted undone by the members two years later — a very Aberdovey move.

Golf romantics and Darwin readers. Anyone touring Wales who wants a true links with more history per pound than almost anywhere in Britain.

The 3rd, 'Cader,' is the famous one — a blind par 3 over a great sandhill to a hidden green, a Victorian thrill that survives because it works. The stretch turning for home along the Dyfi estuary shows off the ground game at its best.

Classic out-and-back Welsh links: mostly playable ground with a few blind shots and dune carries. Wind is the real examiner. A cheerful, unpretentious place to learn links golf.

Not confirmed in the GSPro community catalogs. For a similarly old-school, wind-blown UK links in a Clubhouse bay, load Royal Dornoch and play it along the ground.

Welcoming visitor policy and modest green fees by top-100 standards. Best arrival in golf: the Cambrian Coast railway stops essentially beside the links — you can play Aberdovey by train.