Golf


Every golf course has its selling features and its resources. At the only golf course in the Welsh village of Betws-yn-Rhos, for example, there is wind - lots and lots of wind. A battered and windswept Jake Barrow met the club’s founder Thomas ‘Bryn’ Jones and Head Greenkeeper Elfed Davies


Silver Birch Golf Club


Bryn there, done that!


S


tanding on the 10th tee at Silver Birch Golf Club, I found it difficult to face west, as the speed of the air seemed to hold my eyelids open, leaving me unable to blink. I was whipped in the face by an amount of hail which would have been negligible on a less gusty day.


This is due to the valley which forms between the Snowdonian mountains to the south and the sea‐edge hills just to the north; Betws‐yn‐Rhos lies just a couple of miles south of Abergele and Colwyn on the North Wales coastline.


One can also peer through another valley to view the sea from this highest point on the course, and all these factors make for a golfing experience which is more about sensations above ground than it is about the science below.


40 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018


In summer, the icy winds become a refreshing, strong breeze which nicely counteract the hot sun, and the course’s slight elevation, at around 200ft above sea level, make this equally strong. The ground is prone to cracking from the rays at the hottest times.


Thomas Bryn Jones, known to all as ‘Bryn’, started Silver Birch in the mid‐1990s with his wife Menna, who had moved to the area just a few years earlier. He, by contrast, has lived in the village for over sixty years, since he was around eighteen months old. Their backgrounds, in one manner or another, are both in farming, but for much of their time together they ran a small shop in the village, which they still own remotely. With his agricultural pedigree, Bryn has the knowledge to get involved in all aspects of the grounds maintenance. He gives his


Head Greenkeeper advice on agronomic and technical issues, as these are not his speciality.


This greenkeeper, Elfed Davies, is related to Bryn via the marriage of their children, although this is a complete coincidence with their working link, and is a quaint demonstration of the population density in the area.


The couple have a 15‐acre plot of farmland immediately next to Elfed’s, about three miles outside of the village. Elfed worked for thirty years as a mechanic just across the road and, when offered the chance to “get out from under wagon engines”, he jumped at the chance. He has now worked at the club for around twelve years, and maintains the 18‐hole course as well as the footgolf course which accompanies it.


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