We Played Conwy Golf Club in 40mph Winds… and Loved It (Beyond the Top 100 #1)

Nish: 0:00

We’ve just played Conwy in proper, brutal Welsh weather, driving rain, sleet and 40 plus mile an hour winds, and we absolutely loved it. I’m telling you now, this is exactly why Beyond the Top 100 exists. Welcome to the Top in 100 in 10 Golf Podcast. This is a new series within our journey where we shine the light on the clubs that might not be plastered across every ranking list, but absolutely deserve attention. Because if you only chase the obvious names, you miss places like this. And Conwy Golf Club is the first one. Conwy sits at the mouth of the River Conwy under the shadow of the Great Orme. It’s a proper links course. No shelter, no trees to hide behind, nothing between you and the elements, but your sheer golfing instinct. And today, certainly for the first half of our round, the elements were definitely in charge. But here’s what struck me first. It wasn’t the golf. It was the place. The welcome at Conwy is absolutely spot on. You’ve got smiling faces everywhere, proper handshakes, and people in the club who just looked pleased to see you. It feels like a club that belongs to its town. It’s not a resort trying to impress strangers. You turn into the car park through residential streets and you immediately get a sense of community. Conwy is definitely woven into local life. And then you make that walk into the clubhouse. The first thing that strikes you is that there are honours boards absolutely everywhere. A bulging trophy cabinet that genuinely stops you in your tracks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. There’s pride in hosting the Curtis Cup. And there’s a sense that history it isn’t decorative, it’s lived. And bragging rights are regularly claimed. Nick, my playing partner, he used to be a member here. He located his name on an honors board, and he made sure that I saw it. And that tells you everything about what this place means to the people who play here. Out on the course, Conwy is a course of thirds. The opening stretch smacks you in the face. You’re at the mercy of the wind, you’re completely exposed, and you’re very quickly reminded that Links Golf doesn’t care about that number on your handicap. And then it opens up. The middle stretch, it gives you some chances. It tempts you into thinking you’ve worked it out. There’s a bit of strategy, but there’s width, but there’s opportunity if you give it some respect. And then that warms you up for the closing stretch. You’ve got tight gullies of the gorse, you’ve got fairway or bust, you’ve got decisions that suddenly feel heavier because you’ve got a card in your hand and nowhere to hide. There are very few finishing stretches I’ve played like the last three holes at Conwy. They absolutely demand your attention. You’ve got walls of gorse either side of you. It has to be patience. But when you hit a proper golf shot under that amount of pressure, my goodness, it feels amazing. And then there’s the eighty. It almost juts out into the estuary. There’s mountains behind you, water alongside you, you stop, you look, you take your phone out to get a panoramic shot. It’s one of those moments where you realise how lucky you are to be playing golf in places like this. Even in weather that on that front line would normally send me back into the clubhouse, I could see the quality of the course. The greens roll true and subtly, like all good links greens should. The bunkering has natural character, and the layout just makes sense. It’s tough, but it’s fair. It’s a word that many golfers use to describe a Conwy. And I think that word fair really matters. Because that Conwy, it doesn’t feel like they’re trying to beat you up just for the sake of it. It’s trying to ask you some good questions about your overall ability. So I wanted to understand a little bit more about the Conwy Golf Club. What gives this club its identity? How has it evolved? And what did hosting the Curtis Cup actually change? But where does a Conwy also see itself in five years’ time? Because if beyond the top 100 is about anything, it’s about understanding what makes a club matter. Not just where it sits on a list. Matthew Parsley, the general manager, explains the Conwy story far better than I ever could. So let’s hear from him. So, Matt, if I were to drop a golfer here who knows nothing about Conwy, what would you want them to notice in the first five minutes?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 4:48

I I’d like them to notice first of all, happy, happy smiling faces and welcoming staff, really, who are happy in the workplace and delighted to see people. And then I suppose as you got through that initial sort of welcoming, maybe the Pro Shop, most people go to Pro Shop first. So yeah, that that sort of initial introduction would be would be happy people. And then then it then it then it becomes for me about the standards. So I’d want people to be walking around and saying, Do you know what these this these guys do this well, this place, this place does it well. And then you’d want them to see and and you know, probably come upstairs and see the boards and the history. So you’d want them the sense of, yeah, do you know what? This is a really nice place to be. There’s a lot gone on here. There’s a the club stands for a lot. Um, and then and then by time they’ve come round the front and and and got the picture of the the clubhouse, either from the balcony or they’ve walked out into the putting green or something. Um, I think the amazing scenery, uh, you know, that what we have got, we’re flanked by mountains and we’ve got the sea. So we everything the Lynx course wants and needs, we’ve got from a visual. Um, so yeah, that backdrop to the course would be, yeah, you you’d love that to be the first five minutes, really.

Nish: 6:06

So I mean, Conwy is it’s got some real history here, hasn’t it? Yeah. So yeah, tell I mean, yeah, tell me a little bit about you know golf here. What’s the if somebody was to say, you know, how did golf end up here? Okay, what how did that happen?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 6:20

It’s a really interesting story, and it and and and we’re we’re finding more about it even recently. Um, so members of Royal Liverpool Golf Club founded the the Lynx. The story is that two members from Hoylake who were residing in Tlandinno uh had travelled over by boat and they they they noticed well well they were when they were residing in Tlandino, they noticed what they call Conwy Marsh might be a great area for play for golf. This is back in the 1870s, and then they’ve then come back, so they’ve laid a few holes out, and then they’ve come back with members of the of the club. Some traveled by boat, some some have travelled elsewhere, and they’ve they’ve ended up in the Castle Hotel in Conwy, and they’ve laid out, they’ve got uh Jack Morris, who was the club pro at the time, related to old Tom Morris. So uh Jack Morris laid out the first six holes that became 12 and then it became 18. Um, so there’s a real great story for you know how the how the club how the course was founded. Yeah, um I’m from the world myself and I used to be a member of Royal Liverpool. So for me, it’s there’s a there’s a real love story there, really. That you know, I’ve I’ve come over, I’ve not come over by boat, but I’ve come over this way. So um, yeah, I feel like it’s uh it’s it’s it’s how Lynx courses were founded. It was done in the 1880s, 1780s, and then originally formed in 1890. So so much history, so many golf courses were were founded then, so many great Lynx courses were founded then by people who’ve who, you know, one of the oldest courses in the land and and one of the clubs with the most history of of all at Hoylake, um, have come over here and been uh been linked and synonymous with Conwy. So yeah, we’re really proud of that. Um so that’s something we’re yeah, it’s that’s where it has how far it goes back to.

Nish: 8:10

Is there anything about the history? And and it is it there’s so much history around this place, but is there anything that even people from Wales and Welsh golfers who come here they go, I did not know that. That’s an interesting one.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 8:23

Yeah, I I suppose the biggest thing is um that there’s there’s three paintings of the course. Uh Douglas Adams uh was an artist, uh I think it was 1893, 95, um, who visited Conwy and it inspired him to do three fo three golfing photographs: The Drive, the Putin Green, and the Difficult Bunker. Um, and and they’re really well-known pictures of golf, and they’re around clubs around the world. They’re not unfortunately nobody knows it’s Conwy. Right. Um, so they’re gonna be lovely to get a name check. They’re so recognizable, these pictures, uh, and and we’ve seen them, and and one of our members, uh David Williams, has uh he’s put a board in down the clubhouse and he’s done so much research on where these pictures are. Um, and and even most recently, we when the Curtis Cup was held at Merion um in 2023, uh, we were there, and all three pictures are in the in the foyer at Merrick. Yeah, so there’s so many places in got in golf in uh over in the States. Everyone thinks it’s Scotland, they just think it’s somewhere in Scotland. Yeah, um, unfortunately, Mr. Adams never put the drive at Conwy. Um, but it’s been documented that that’s where it is and that’s where it was. And uh there’s a little bit of artistic license to them, but I I think that that’s what people would, if they saw that picture, would go, all right, I never realized that. Yeah, so uh so yeah, fabulous. I gather as well from the website that you’re you’re doing a bit of a I think where you’re trying to gather up all of the clubs where they’ve we are, we’re trying to link, we’re trying to get people to engage and say we’ve got this and send a picture in and try and get a list of the clubs, and and then we’re we’re gonna try and maybe we’re not quite sure how to do it to get sort of like a plinth out there to say this is this is where it is. Yeah. Uh David Williams, who did the original one, he’s done sort of a before and after. Um, and it’s really interesting. You can when you’re out there, you can see it. Yeah. So it’s something we wanna, we’re not quite sure how to get there with it, but it’s it’s something the more it goes on, the more it’s it’s growing arms and legs, really. So uh yeah, yeah, really interesting.

Nish: 10:29

I mean the you mentioned the Curtis Cup there, and you know, what what does something like that do for a course like Homer?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 10:36

Oh, I do know what it’s it’s been huge, really. It’s been huge in in what’s happened over the last sort of eight, nine years. Um, all credit to the group of members who had the foresight to try and to try and get the event. It was a ladies’ golf union event at the time, and you had to bid for it. Um, and and the ladies’ golf union, I think, contacted, they had an idea of the types of clubs that they wanted, yeah. Um, and you had to put a bid in and you needed government support um and backing. So, I mean, we it was meant to be held in 2020. It was announced in 20, I’d say, 15, 2015, 2016, we were gonna hold it. So, yeah, that work that’s gone on previous to that with all the predecessors to me. I mean, I mean, all credit to them and the foresight they had, they knew it was going to be good for the club. Um, how good, I don’t, I’m not sure if that if they did, but it it certainly it certainly changed us in a way. I mean, my my role was created with that in mind because when I came in, that was the brief to get the place ready for Curtis Cup. Yeah, uh, that was the short-term goal. So that and what that did to us, the the exposure we were going to get. Um, fact the RA then took the event on, the event then uh grew on it snowballed, I suppose, into into what it is. I’d been I I was aware of the Curtis Cup, obviously, been a golfer all my life. Yeah um did I appreciate that the the event? No, I didn’t. Um I I’m proud to say I’m part of the Curtis Cup family now. You know, we’ve hosted an event and the people I’ve met through it and the people I’m still in contact with, I’ll forever be grateful for the Curtis Cup. Yeah, and I’ve got a respect for that event that I didn’t have before. And it and honestly, the people involved in it, the the people you meet and and the quality of golf and the golfers that have come through that that team. Um, yeah, for Conwy to be a host venue, and we always will be, with the list of clubs that are on it, um, it’s a who’s who of golf. Yeah, so yeah, very grateful to those people. But it I’d say the club have done a very good job with it as well. Um, we I think we’ve used it right, we’ve not overdone it, but we’ve we we’ve we’ve done it in a way that is respectful to the event. Yeah. Um, and and we’ve our strategy is built around women in golf. We’re trying to really improve that. We’ve got joint captains now, we’ll we’ve got really inclusive T-sheets, and I have to say, you know, that’s on the back of a major women’s event. So and we’ve had more since then. So yeah, we’re really finding that women’s events, high-profile amateur events, uh yeah, really, really suit us, yeah, and we enjoy it. So yeah, uh huge, huge respect for the event, and um yeah, can’t say can’t say enough about the Curtis Cup. So yeah, the Curtis Cup is a platform that you can use and and and major events. I mean, the events boards and the foyer and and it goes back to to late early 1890s where the golf club has hosted championship golf all through its all through its history, it’s part of its DNA. I couldn’t film enough. No, no, take a look at pictures. I mean, you know, you can’t do it justice. It’s uh it’s incredible. Yeah, so it’s championship golf is what it’s about, uh, and it’s to make sure we keep having championship golf here to keep to keep that tradition going. Um, but the standards now that you need to attract championship golf and to make people when they come here to really enjoy it um are different now. You’ve got to get the golf course to a really, really high standard. Expectations are high from whether that’s just members playing golf socially, competitively, domestically, or whether it’s an international match, you know, that those standards are really high. So having events at the Curtis Cup and what we do has been part of what we’re trying to do is to get everyone to work to a higher standard. And we’re always trying to raise the bar. Um, and and and you know what, to have those on the horizon, those events on the horizon, really make sure you get on your on your metal and deliver the best of what you’re trying to do, whichever department you’re in. The mission is to is to achieve the standards that are achieved by the top links golf courses in the UK, um, the top links championship links courses. So that’s what we’re trying to do every time we try and do something. Well, is that to the standard of a leading UK Lynx Championship course? Um, and we all go and play those courses that we aspire to be like. Um, so that’s the question we ask ourselves, and that’s what everyone’s trying to do.

Nish: 15:06

That was a fabulous golf course. It really, really was. I was lucky enough I played with a gentleman called Nick, who’s our playing partner. He’s been a member here previously. Okay. So he he was adamant. As soon as we said we were gonna do the beyond top 100, he said we need to go to Conwy first. He’s actually, and he he wants me to mention this, he’s on the honours board. Right. So he entire, he won the Len Davis Cup. Oh wow. Looking for his name, so he’s fine. I know. So I mean that’s the thing, it’s never going to disappear, is it? And that’s wonderful thing.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 15:34

And you know what? Only certain people get on that board, it’s it’s there, it’s there for history.

Nish: 15:37

And I mean he didn’t play very well today, but it’s fine. We’ll we’ll let him off. But he did have a he had a question for me, and and one of the things he noticed very starkly was from his time playing it, so I think he’s the last time he played was about 10 years ago. The bunkering was very manicure, it’s deliberate. You knew it was there, and they were they were well-shaped, all that kind of thing. Yeah, there’s more of a natural bunkering now. Yeah, is that a move now that the club is taking and and a direction that the club is taking with how it’s looking after the course?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 16:06

Yeah, it’s a big part of it. Um, and and because we’re on camera, I do play a lot of golf. I’m a golf nut. Wonderful. Even though I work a lot, I do have when I’m not working, I’m golfing and golfing family and everything like that. So I get out there a lot, which helps me with my job. We commissioned um Mackenzie Ebert to work with us as architects back in 2018. Um, and bunkering was was was the weak, one of the weaknesses of the course, really. Uh, and and we’re we’re we’re still on a bunker program. What exactly what you said, and I’m glad you’ve seen it. We’ve tried to we’ve tried to naturalise our fairway bunkers. So we like the rivetted style around the greens and that that pure links revet around the greens, but we like the idea of naturalized furway bunkers, pretty much going back to how they might have been back in the day. They were they were rough, it was rough ground. It was, you know, they it was it was rough, that’s what a bunker was. It was either scraped by an animal, wasn’t it? Yeah, and and they ended up getting down to the sand. Um, and then it was just a rough area around it. So we want to go back to that, keeping some keeping the standards and the expectations of golfers, but that naturalized feel is is what we’re looking for. It suits us. We’re a very dry site, we’ve we’ve got no protection um from the wind. But no that the the prevailing the prevailing wind comes right between those two mountains. Um, so we’ve got parts of the golf course where it’s very difficult on exposed areas to get some growth on the on on the on the on the tops of the bunkers. So course manager Mark has really struggled with it to try and get some growth. The naturalized feel really helps us because it just lets the natural finer marrow grasses grow. Um and it and it gives you that look and it and it’s a it’s a peeling off the teeth. So I’d say Mackenzie Ebert came in, Martin Ebert, who we work with, and his assistant Mike, they’ve come and designed some great bunkers for us. And um we we did a test, we started on holes three, three, and seven, really. Um so we’ve we’ve we’ve done that and we’ve done some scrapes. So um next winter we’re looking to get the whole front nine completed of all the fairway bunkers naturalized, and then we’ll move on to the back nine.

Nish: 18:15

So I think it was hole seven that where Nick noticed it. Yeah, set seven.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 18:19

There’s three on three on the right are seven, and they used to be quite low-lying, uh quite unassuming bunkers. Just the old sort of how bunkers were back in the day in the 80s, where they were just they were dotted and they were meant to be uniform and they were meant to be neat. So those three now are bigger, um, and they really stand out and they they’ve got natural faces to them. So yeah, that the seven and seven and three were were the first ones we did, and yeah, and that they stand out. So we’re trying to just get the other holes to follow.

Nish: 18:46

There were definitely some areas that were reminiscent of uh Ganton with the natural, the way the natural they had the pandies at Ganton, and yeah, there were some areas that were very much like that.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 18:57

I’m glad you said that because that’s what we’re trying to create. That’s what Martin’s trying to create with the scrapes um and the bunkers, and and it’s not just the holes you’re playing. So when you the there was a there’s a whole when you’re on the third green and you look back to the second second green, um, there’s some scrapes there that you don’t necessarily see when you’re playing three off the T, but when you’re looking back, you see these the scrapes looking back at this, and it’s fantastic. So it’s he’s created some areas that that are even out of play, but they catch your eye wherever you are, and that was really clearing a lot of vegetation, exposing the sand, exposing the natural, the natural land, really. Um, and there was the we had a lot of overgrown gorse on the golf course, which which took the view away from you. Um, so and and a lot of people thought it was strategic back in the day, but it was it was just overgrown. I think it just got unmanageable, so it was left to grow. So we’re we’re still trying to get on top of that, really. Um, but we’ve we’ve replaced some of those areas with really nice scrapes and and and and the and the bunkers. So yeah, bunkers are definitely the priority, and I will be a happy man when we finish that bunker programme. We’ll probably have to start again then, but uh it’s it it’s one of those things that’s uh painting the fourth bridge, you carry on that.

Nish: 20:10

Absolutely absolutely and we talk about the course. Is there a common consensus among the the representatives of the club or the members of the Conwy moment when you go, ah, all of this would completely make sense to me now?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 20:24

I think yeah, I think there’s the Conwy moment, there’s the there’s the there’s the the place where all the golfers like to be, and I and I think that’s the eighth T. So the eighth T is out on the point. Um, you you you you’re just you’re looking at the mountains. You’ve got if the tide’s in, um the Conwy estuary is a fast-running estuary. So when that tide’s in and you’re still on that eighth, you you you you’ve got a chance to look back, look over the course. Um, and and that’s where I think you get the feel for Conwy. You’re looking directly at Conwy Mountain. Um, you’ve got the horn behind you, and you’ve got the C. If it’s lapping against the rocks, then do you know what you’re in a good place? Yeah. Um you’re looking over to angle C. So it’s you’ve got so much to see from that eighth T. You’ve also strategically on the golf course, you’ve just played the hardest part of the course. You’ve just got the first seven out of the way with. And if the course opens up for you, it opens up between eight and fourteen. So you’ve now got a run where you’re probably being beat up, you’re probably over your handicap allowance, you’ve probably had more shots. Have you been out there yesterday? And you’re probably thinking, oh my god, this is this is really tough. And then and then you’ve got a nice eight goes back to the mountain. Um, it’s not a heavily bunkered hole, there’s only three bunkers on the whole hole. Um, and and it and it’s sort of a change of feel, really. You feel like, all right, this is this is a bit different, it’s a different angle. Um, and then after eight, you’ve that you’ve then got off the red T’s uh eight to par five. And then so you’ve got nine through to 14, where you’ve got three more par. Five, so including eight, you’ve got four par fives in sort of six holes. Um, and then then you get to 14, which is a downwind par five, par four, par five. Sorry. Um, so all of a sudden you’ve scored them between eight and fourteen, you’ve really had a chance to score. So I think it’s a pivotal moment, eight, yeah, for for strategically for your game, but also for what you see. Uh, so that’s yeah, I’d probably say I’d probably say the it was it was amazing.

Nish: 22:25

I mean, Nick told us because he he used to play with his dad quite a lot, and he said dad used to always stand on that 80 and go, that’s priceless. Yeah, this is absolutely priceless, and I can totally see it now. Yeah, so we very much took our chance to drink it all in.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 22:38

Yeah, you’ve got to be, and that’s where you realise how lucky you are to be in such a wonderful place, really. It’s uh yeah, it is a special place.

Nish: 22:45

Fantastic. Um now we faced Conwy today as an mix of weather. But if you were to describe it as a test in one word, like what what what’s the test at Conwy?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 22:59

I I think the test is I think the test is fair. I think it’s fair. Um, but if you say to people oh tough, yeah, tough in the wind, you know, tough tough links golf course. Um so I’d say I you know it’s a it’s a cliche for links golf, you know, um harsh but fair. Um but but I’d say Conwy is like that because if you’re not on your game and if the rough is up, um it’s gonna test you and you can you can have a tough time out there. And people come and say it’s very tough. But what we like is people come, particularly in open week, people come off the course with beaming smiles and they go, God, that’s beat me up that has today. That’s a proper beat me today. Yeah, so but people enjoy it. So I think there’s there’s when a course does that to you, it’s doing something right, it’s showing you that, well, the golfers saying, Yeah, I didn’t play well there. Um, and it’s really it’s really got got me. Um, but I do think you you play that golf course right if you if you play it and strategically play play your way around it.

Nish: 23:59

We’ve got two types of golfers. Put me right in front of you. We’ve got a bomber and a plotter.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 24:05

Okay.

Nish: 24:05

Who’s doing better than Conwy?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 24:07

Okay, really good question because the bomber is the is the modern day, is the modern day sort of game.

Nish: 24:13

We’ll call them, we’ll give them a name, we’ll call them Bryson, you know, and then your plotter, who’s your plotter, though, anyway.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 24:19

Justin Rose, justin Rose, McDonald, that that sort of golfer. Um, yeah, I think I think a Conwy, if you took Conwy with the rough up um and a little bit and a good strong wind, um your bomber’s gonna have some great opportunities, which I think again the balance of the course is fair. So I think I think the bomber can play, uh, which is a which is a testament to how the clubs have the course has evolved, really. Um, but overall, I think the plotter would win out because um there’s some furway bunkers out there, there’s certainly parts of the rough where uh you can’t access greens from. Um so that yeah, I I’d back the plotter. I’d back the plotter, and certainly when it comes to our last few holes, um you all have experienced it when you you know it’s very it’s very open for the first sort of 12, 13, and then you then you hit the gorse. There’s a real contrast, as well. There is, yeah, and that’s what we tried to create. So there were there was there was a lot of gorse on the front nine, which was never meant to be there, really. So we’re trying to clear that, but we don’t want to lose the the the gorse holes really. So 14 through to 18. Yeah, um, and particularly when you stand on 16, I think when we host tournaments and and members can’t went where they’ve got that card in the hand. Um 16 and 17.

Nish: 25:34

16, 17. I have to say, in our travels, I don’t think I’ve experienced golf holes quite like that. It is um the phrase I used to nick was it’s fairway or gorse. That’s it.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 25:44

Yes, yeah, absolutely. And that’s where I think you know the bomber then has got nowhere to go. They can they well they can try and go for the green, but that you know, good luck with that. So um we do see then that the people who win out are the patient golfers, the ones who’ve plotted their way around, and then that you can still score them. That you know, 16 is not a long hole, um, and generally prevailing winds is behind. So um it’s about finding the fairway, and then it’s only a mid-eye, a short mid-iron to a bunkerless green. So it doesn’t sound it sounds quite simple. Uh 17 is a different beast, 17 is I class our signature hole. Um, it’s it’s over 400 yards, it’s it’s it’s an alley of gorse either side of you, uh, and it’s generally into a slightly off into off the left wind. So it it’s so so tough. It is, and I’ve seen the best golfers, the best golfers, you know, they get their four-iron out and they they they drill a four-eye and then they then they drill another one.

Nish: 26:41

It’s a strange one because it’s it’s still quite wide, it is just that you’ve got all fairway and then this two walls of gorse either side.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 26:51

And we’ve tried to we’ve tried again going back to being fair, we’ve tried to get a semi-rough cut going down the side. So we have taken gorse back. Um, it was over starting to overhang. Yeah, it’s too tight. So, but we don’t want to lose that. Um, so yeah, I think I think the bomber might be. Do you know what? Through the first through the first 12, the bomber might be a couple up, maybe to maybe two up with five or six to play. But I’d fancy the plotter to just win on the last.

Nish: 27:18

That tells me that these the numerous cups that we’ve got in the competitions must be very hotly contested because you’ve got different standards of players and all the you’ve got your little moment on the course in the 18 where you have your little purple patch. That’s it. Fantastic.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 27:31

But everyone’s always thinking I’ve got 16, 17, 18 to play. It’s just always in the back of the phone. It’s always there. It’s always there.

Nish: 27:37

Fabulous, fabulous golf course. Fabulous golf course. Is there anything that you feel that you know you’re absolutely deliberately not going to change because that is archetypal can’t we?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 27:50

Um, yeah, I think I I think the competitive nature of the club. So uh, you know, we’re we’re a very competitive golf club. We have a lot of competitions. Uh you can see from the boards, that there’s a lot that’s gone on. So, you know, I I think there’s a there’s a there’s a lot of talk with clubs now, and you know, different T’s, different genders playing golf, all this. We where should it, where’s it all going to end up? Um I think we’ve gone at it from the pace of where we’re now saying, yeah, okay, you know, Saturday is a is a real big golfing day of the week. It’s sport day. So we’ve got juniors, women, men, everybody can play golf on Saturday. So that that sort of aim is where we’re going to make sure everyone can get the the playing opportunities. Um I think the soul of the club is in the people. I think the soul of the club is in the location of where we are. We’re in a we’re it we’re a town club, um, less than a mile from the town. Um, and it’s a fantastic town, it’s a walled town with an amazing castle. So um there’s a real big story to tell about the location of the club, and like anything, it’s as you’re as good as the people that you’re with, and the people who founded the club, it was an artisan club. So it’s it’s very much built around the people in the town, the local people. Um, and I think and I’m certainly respectful of that coming in as a as someone who’s come from away, um, and and and but maintaining that really. So I think, yeah, I think I think we’d never we will never lose that. We would never want to lose that, but we will never lose that um local competitive nature of golf and making sure golf’s accessible for for for the local community, really. So I I think that’s that that’s the that’s what we go we always go back to.

Nish: 29:34

I mean, there’s certainly a lot of competitions. I’ve just seen that trophy cabinet, and uh I mean you almost can’t distinguish one trophy from the other. It’s amazing, yeah. Absolutely amazing. No, we’re very good, very lucky. I mean, there’s clearly you you mentioned the word soul, and there is a soul to the to the club, you can feel it. It’s not been particularly busy today because the weather’s been terrible, but you know, everybody has been very friendly. Hello, how you doing? Yeah, you know, what are you doing here? Have you played before? All that kind of thing. You just get a nice feeling of the the the kind of atmosphere and vibe of the club from that.

Matthew Parsley, GM: 30:05

Yeah, so I think we’ve always been um we’ve always been a club that’s that’s taken a lot of visitors. We’re we’re a holiday destination, I didn’t know just around the corner. Uh so we’re a great three day three to five day trip destination for golf. So the club has always had visitors coming through the place, always been proud of that. So members are used to having visitors and chatting to people and things like that. So really friendly membership. Um, and and and that that adds to it, and I say so many local people, uh, the the local community, the the artisan link, and we’ve got a lot of a lot of members who’ve been here an awful long time. Uh so so you know, you don’t you you don’t lose that. That one of our oldest members was a secretary here, and he comes on a Tuesday and a Thursday for his coffee, and he’s in his 90s, and and you know what, to have to have Cyril around and to be able to just chat to uh you know that that that’s brilliant. You you you ever keep you keep learning then you keep you taking all that information off those people and then uh yeah and then you you’re never gonna move away from from from the soul of it when you’ve got people like Cyril and people around who are who are always telling the people who are coming through what it was like. So that just uh that’s great. I love to live off that.

Nish: 31:19

Um where where do you feel Conwy Golf Club is gonna be in five years’ time?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 31:24

I think Conwy Golf Club’s gonna be in a great place in five years’ time. Um I think the golf course will have will have completed when we first started back in 2018. We had a master plan. Um, and and five years’ time for me now, you know that that’s sort of 2030, 2031 was always the was always where we’re gonna be, and that so many things will have been completed by then, and they will have bed in and we’ll be actually you know benefiting from them. So new irrigation systems going in or an upgraded systems going in at the moment, um, that was always part of the plan. Course manager always tells me, you know, no quick results from this, this takes time. So, in all the planning of all the capital projects we’ve done and then the programs, the bunkers, the pathways, all takes time, right? It all takes time to bed in and get going. I know it’s a bit cliche, but 2030 has always been out there, you know, a long way away. But oh, that’s when we’re gonna be in a great spot. Yeah. Um, we’ll have built the team, um, you know, people coming and and and the standards and everything, that’s been a bit new. Um, so yeah, I’m really excited for five years’ time because I think I think I hopefully we’ll be able to look at it and say, do you know what that’s been a good 10-year plan, which has been modified and reviewed as we’ve gone on. But after 10 years of a of a plan and trying to do it, you should be able to look back and see something that looks different but a lot better. Yeah. Um, and hopefully we’ve still kept all those those local ties and um and and traditions really. But people would turn up and go, wow, Conwy’s done a good job on itself there. It’s it’s it’s improved.

Nish: 33:05

So if Conwy Golf Club disappears tomorrow, this part of Wales, what is it gonna lose?

Matthew Parsley, GM: 33:12

Oh gosh, yeah. Um, tingles down with spy on your time. Oh yeah, I’m so sorry. Um I I mean history, uh your first thing you think about is just the golfing history. Um in Wales, the the the the the the events and the the history it’s got with golf in Wales. Uh it’s such a it’s such a it’s such a club that has had done so much for the game um and had so many great players come through it, the champions that we’ve had, and the events we’ve had, the members we’ve had. And I think I think what golf clubs do for people, I mean, they’re just great places to be, aren’t they? The it’s been such part of people’s lives who’ve come through it. So um, and to think that there’s people that wouldn’t then have that, wouldn’t have that experience that people have had, and it’s given them so much. Um, it gives us all so much. So yeah, it it it it it wouldn’t be right, and I hope it never happens. Um, but yeah, that I think just all around all around that that that that what it does for people in the game of golf, really.

Nish: 34:13

So that was the wonderful Matthew Parsley from the equally wonderful Conwy Golf Club. This club merits your attention. If you’re in the area, you’re passing, it’s a very popular holiday destination in North Wales. It absolutely demands that you consider it for a place to play golf. You will not be disappointed. I felt although it was a tough course, there were absolutely places that you could strategically plot your way around. And Matthew alluded to that in his interview as well. So take advantage of that. We’re looking at a top quality golf course, you’re gonna feel like you are in a place where you’re welcomed. So Conwy was club number one in our Beyond the Top 100 series. If you’re in a club and want us to come and feature you, or you’re a member of a club and you would like us to feature your club, please get in touch. We’d be absolutely delighted to hear from you. There are so many wonderful golf courses on these fair aisles of ours, and we are relishing and licking our lips at the chance to play some of them. Until next time, on the top 100 in 10 golf podcast.