"Members point first-time visitors to the closing links stretch, and the 11th in particular, as the real test of the round."

Founded on Boxing Day 1907, with Harry Vardon laying out the original nine — roughly today's holes 4 through 12 — playable by 1908. It grew to a par-69, 5,847-yard eighteen that is really two courses: a fast-running dunes links along Cardigan Bay with gorse, blind shots and marker posts, plus a later inland parkland block that even fans admit is the breather. Views run across the bay to Snowdonia, and Your Golfer Magazine named it Welsh Golf Course of the Year in 2018.

Links-curious members who enjoy quirk — blind tee shots, dell greens, holiday-golf charm — and Vardon completists who want to walk (virtually) in the six-time Open champion's routing.

The 3rd, 'Fron Grin' (246-yard par 3), drops from an elevated tee toward the bay — the signature. The 11th, 'Tan y Bwlch' (440 yards), was praised by Peter Alliss as one of the best links par 4s he'd played, and the 5th-10th coastal stretch is where the magic lives.

Short on the card and genuinely welcoming, but the dune holes are narrow and snaking, the wind is ever-present, and gorse eats offline balls. Keep it in play and the length asks little of you.

Fittingly for a sim library, the real club runs its own indoor simulator room; the inland holes around 13-17 are the acknowledged quiet stretch.

At under 5,900 yards it's a quick, sociable bay session — but crank the wind, because calm conditions flatter it. Several blind tee shots mean leaning on the minimap.

A members' club that genuinely welcomes visitors: book online via BRS Golf, roughly £47-49 in prime summer and much less in shoulder season and winter.