St Pierre Country Club

St Pierre Country Club stands in parkland just outside Chepstow, in Monmouthshire, a few miles inside the Welsh border and close to the Severn Estuary. Its full trading name today is Delta Hotels St. Pierre Country Club: a hotel resort with a spa, built around an old manor house, at St Pierre Park, Chepstow, NP16 6YA. It has 36 holes on two eighteen-hole courses. The Old Course, the championship layout, opened in 1962 to a design by C. K. Cotton (Ken Cotton) and was remodelled in 2008 by Ross McMurray of European Golf Design; the resort’s website gives it as par 72 and 7,028 yards. The Mathern Course, the shorter second course, is par 68 and 5,730 yards on the same website, and was also reworked by Ross McMurray in the same programme of works.

St Pierre is best known for what happened on the Old Course between 1971 and 1996. It staged the British Masters eight times, the Epson Grand Prix of Europe six years running, the Curtis Cup in 1980 and the Solheim Cup in 1996. It no longer hosts events of that rank, and in the national rankings we consulted it now sits in the lower half of the Welsh lists: Top 100 Golf Courses places the Old Course 23rd in Wales, and National Club Golfer 21st. What it offers today is a resort course with a long tournament past, a large lake that decides the finish, and a second, gentler course next door.

From a medieval manor to a tournament venue

The house came first. The English Wikipedia article on St Pierre, the former parish and hamlet in which the club stands, says the manor was owned around 1380 by Sir David ap Philip, whose son Lewis gave his name to the Lewis family, who held the estate for centuries. The same article says the Lewis family developed the New Passage ferry across the Severn, that Daniel Lysaght bought the mansion and its deer park in 1925, that the sixteenth-century gatehouse is listed Grade II*, and that most of the rest of the house dates from the nineteenth century. The resort itself goes further: its venue page dates the manor house to 1380 and says it once served as a treasury for the crown jewels, while Marriott’s golf page speaks of a history dating back to 1065. We have found no independent source for either of those claims and report them as the resort’s own.

The golf began in the early 1960s. According to the English Wikipedia article, Bill Graham bought the property in 1960 with the idea of creating a golf and country club, which the article describes as Britain’s first American-style golf and country club, with a swimming pool, restaurants, bars and bedrooms in the former stables. The Wikishire article on St Pierre says instead that the property was bought by Tintern Abbey Hotels in 1961. Both sources agree that the first course, now called the Old Course, opened in 1962, and that a second course followed in 1975. Marriott’s golf page says Ken Cotton designed the Old Course in 1961, the year before it opened. Top 100 Golf Courses credits C. K. Cotton with assistance from Frank Pennink. None of the sources we read names the designer of the original second course.

The tournament years

Within a decade the Old Course was one of the main venues of the European circuit. The Wikipedia list of British Masters winners shows the event at St Pierre in 1971, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1983, played as the Dunlop Masters until 1982 and as the Silk Cut Masters in 1983. The winners there were Maurice Bembridge, Tony Jacklin, Bernard Gallacher (after a play-off), Baldovino Dassù, Tommy Horton, Bernhard Langer, Greg Norman and, in 1983, the Welshman Ian Woosnam. Top 100 Golf Courses recalls that Norman reached the green of the 10th, a hole of 362 yards on its description, with a three wood on his way to victory in 1982.

The Epson Grand Prix of Europe followed from 1986 to 1991. Wikipedia records that it was a match play event for its first four editions and a stroke play event for the last two, with Ove Sellberg, Mats Lanner, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros winning the match play years, and Ian Woosnam (1990) and José María Olazábal (1991) the stroke play years; Olazábal’s total of 265, nineteen under par, is listed as the tournament record. The resort says that six Ryder Cup captains are among its past champions, and the winners’ lists bear that out: Jacklin, Gallacher, Langer, Ballesteros, Woosnam and Olazábal all went on to captain Europe.

The club also staged two of the main team events in women’s amateur and professional golf. According to Wikipedia, the 1980 Curtis Cup at St Pierre was won by the United States, 13 to 5 against Great Britain and Ireland. The Solheim Cup came in 1996, from 20 to 22 September, with Mickey Walker captaining Europe and Judy Rankin the United States; the Americans won 17 to 11 and kept the trophy. National Club Golfer notes that St Pierre was only the second European venue to host the Solheim Cup. Wikipedia also lists the Wales Seniors Open in 1993 and the PGA Welsh Masters in 2000 among the events held there.

How many European Tour events in all is a question on which the sources disagree. The eight Masters and six Epson Grand Prix add up to fourteen, which is the figure National Club Golfer gives for visits by what is now the DP World Tour. The resort’s golf page and Marriott’s golf page both say twelve European Tour events, while the venue page of the same resort website says eleven. We report the dates and winners, which are well documented, and leave the total open.

The 2008 remodel and the change of owner

Both courses were reworked in 2007 and 2008. Golf Business News reported on 24 April 2008 that all the design changes were by Ross McMurray of European Golf Design and the construction by Delta Golf. On the Old Course, the 7th was rebuilt from a par 4 into a par 5 that doglegs to the right, which took the course past 7,000 yards; two new greens were to be built as the course reopened, with two more replaced each year over the following two years. Top 100 Golf Courses sums up the remodel of the Old Course as eighteen new tee complexes, repositioned bunkers and four new greens. On both courses, the same report lists redesigned teeing areas, renovated, reshaped and additional bunkers, a new automatic irrigation system on greens, approaches and tees, new paths, and new bridges over the waterways. The Mathern Course, the report says, had already reopened after work through the summer of 2007, and the Old Course was due to reopen fully in June 2008.

The ownership has changed recently. On 20 May 2026 The Caterer reported that Select Group, an investor based in Dubai, had bought three Delta Hotels by Marriott golf and country club resorts in Britain: Breadsall Priory near Derby, Tudor Park near Maidstone and St Pierre. According to that report, Marriott International continues to operate the resorts, and the new owner plans a programme of improvements covering the guest experience, leisure facilities, golf operations and wellness. The three resorts are now presented together as the Country Golf Collection, part of Select Group, and the St Pierre golf pages and tee booking have moved to that collection’s website. Marriott’s old golf site for the club, marriottgolf.co.uk, now redirects to a page about another resort. We found no announcement of changes to either course since the sale.

What the course asks of you

The Old Course

The Old Course is a parkland layout laid out through what Top 100 Golf Courses describes as a mature former deer park, within an estate the resort puts at 400 acres. The resort’s website gives it 7,028 yards and par 72 from the back tees. GolfNow, the booking site, publishes a tee table with four sets of tees, all par 72 for men: 7,028 yards from the black tees (course rating 74.4, slope 141), 6,739 from the white (72.9 and 134), 6,382 from the yellow (71.3 and 130) and 5,860 from the red (74.5 and 128). Other sites give different figures for the forward tees, and one page of the resort’s own website calls the Old Course par 71 while the golf page of the same site says par 72; we have used par 72, which the club, Marriott, GolfNow, Top 100 Golf Courses and National Club Golfer all give.

The dominant feature is water. Top 100 Golf Courses describes mature trees and a lake of more than ten acres coming into play, and a layout that rewards accurate placement from the tee rather than raw length. Marriott and GolfNow put the lake at eleven acres. National Club Golfer’s hole-by-hole guide, written from the back tees, notes water on the 10th, 15th, 17th and 18th, and dog-legs and trees that punish a tee shot on the wrong side of the fairway.

The round opens hard. The 1st is a par 5, which National Club Golfer gives as the longest hole on the course at 580 yards. On the 2nd, according to GolfNow and National Club Golfer, an old chestnut tree, put at four hundred years old, stands in the middle of the fairway. The 3rd is the first par 3; the 5th, a par 4 doglegging right around trees, is called the harder of the two opening par 4s; and the 6th, a par 3 played slightly downhill to a green ringed by three large bunkers, is said to play shorter than its yardage. The 7th is the hole that the 2008 remodel turned into a par 5, now bending right after the drive. National Club Golfer calls the 9th, at more than 460 yards, a hole where par is a fine score.

The back nine begins with the 10th, the short par 4 that doglegs left around water and that Greg Norman drove in 1982, according to Top 100 Golf Courses. The 12th is a par 5 with bunkers on both sides of the green, the 13th a long par 3 of almost 220 yards, and the 14th, the last of the par 5s, the best birdie chance on the inward half according to National Club Golfer. The 16th is another par 4 of more than 460 yards.

The finish is what St Pierre is known for. The 15th and the 17th, says National Club Golfer, both have water on three sides of the green, and Your Golf Travel describes the 17th green as almost surrounded by a large water hazard. Then comes the 18th, a par 3, which is rare for a course of championship length. The resort calls it the signature hole: a precision shot of 235 yards across the edge of the lake to a raised green. Top 100 Golf Courses gives the hole as 230 yards and describes it as treeless, played across the lake from an elevated tee; National Club Golfer says more than 230 yards, over water, with buildings close behind the green, so that a shot hit too long can finish out of bounds.

The Mathern Course

The second course is named after Mathern, the neighbouring village and parish with which, according to Wikipedia, St Pierre was combined for civil purposes. The resort’s website gives it eighteen holes, par 68 and 5,730 yards, and describes it as ideal for a morning game or the end of a day of sightseeing, with landscaped paths and bridges. Its signature hole, the resort says, is the 14th, a par 4 of 445 yards played across two separate stretches of water, where a confident and accurate tee shot leaves a mid iron for the second.

The sources do not agree on the Mathern Course’s history. Wikipedia and Wikishire say a second course opened at St Pierre in 1975; Your Golf Travel gives both 1975 and 2008 as opening dates on the same page; Golf Business News reported in 2008 that the Mathern had reopened after work through the summer of 2007; and the resort, Marriott, GolfNow and National Club Golfer all say it was remodelled or redesigned by Ross McMurray in 2008. The most consistent reading is a course from the 1970s, remodelled in 2007 and 2008; we have found no source naming its original designer.

Its yardage also varies by source. Besides the resort’s 5,730 yards, Golf Business News gave 5,748 yards in 2008, National Club Golfer says under 5,800 yards, and Your Golf Travel lists 5,748 yards from the white tees, 5,606 from the yellow and 5,225 from the red. All agree on par 68. Top 100 Golf Courses describes it as the shorter course, pleasantly challenging, a complement to the Old; National Club Golfer, which places it on the east side of the resort, warns that despite its length it can trouble players of every standard. Your Golf Travel calls it more relaxed than the Old Course, a parkland layout where mature trees stand in the way on many holes, with views over the Monmouthshire countryside.

What golfers say

The points below summarise the golfer reviews of the Old Course published on Top 100 Golf Courses, dated from 2016 to 2025, and the customer reviews of the resort’s golf shown on Your Golf Travel, which cover both courses. Top 100 Golf Courses gives the Old Course an average of three and a half out of five from 23 ratings. GolfPass refused us access to its review page, so we have not used its reviews. These are other people’s opinions, not ours. Nobody from Panxis has played either course, and we name no reviewer.

What comes up in its favour

• The history. Reviewers are drawn by the tournament past of the Old Course, and the Masters and Solheim Cup years are a large part of the appeal.
• The finish. The closing stretch from the 15th to the 18th, with the water and the long par 3 to end, is singled out as the strongest part of the course.
• The setting. Mature parkland with big old trees and a good variety of holes comes up repeatedly.
• Conditioning at its best. Several reviewers found good fairways and, on some visits, greens in good order; on Your Golf Travel the greens are the feature most often praised.
• Practice and a base for groups. The practice facilities, which the resort describes as a twelve-bay floodlit academy with a grass range, putting and chipping greens and a bunker, and the hotel on site are seen as well suited to golf trips and societies.
• Two courses. The Mathern is welcomed as a looser, easier round alongside the Old.

What comes up against

• A sense of decline. Several reviewers describe the Old Course as once among the best in Wales and ask whether it has slipped since its tournament days; Top 100 Golf Courses itself says it fell three places to 23rd in its latest Welsh ranking, from 14th in 2018.
• Bland stretches. Some find much of the course average apart from the finish and a few standout holes.
• Uneven greens. Reviews mention greens that were slow, very firm, unevenly conditioned or diseased on different visits.
• Worn tees and dry ground. Tired or muddy tee boxes, burnt fairways in dry spells and little distinction between fairway, first cut and rough come up on both review sites.
• Resort traffic. Busy buggy groups, slow rounds and a lack of marshalling are recurring complaints, along with a practice area some way from the first tee and, on one visit, a booking missing from the start sheet.
• Tight holes. Tree-lined doglegs that force a lay-up and wide rough that punishes a miss are not to every taste.

Getting there and when to go

St Pierre is about three miles south-west of Chepstow, according to Wikipedia, beside the Severn Estuary and close to the motorway crossings into England. Visit Wales describes the resort as just off junction 21 of the M4, and the resort itself says it is minutes from the M4, easily reached from Bristol, Cardiff and Birmingham, and about two hours by road from London. The resort’s venue page gives the nearest railway stations as Chepstow, 2.33 miles away, Caldicot, 3.14 miles, and Severn Tunnel Junction, 3.72 miles, and Bristol Airport as 15.55 miles away; those look like straight-line distances, since National Club Golfer puts Bristol Airport about 25 miles away. Newport is about fifteen miles to the west. The resort has around 400 parking spaces, according to its website.

St Pierre is a resort club: it sells individual and corporate membership, but visitors are welcome on both courses and tee times can be booked online through the resort’s tee booking page, where the Old and Mathern courses are listed separately, or through the pro shop. The resort’s golf page also deals with golf days, society outings and charity events across the 36 holes. Buggies, clubs, shoes and trolleys can be hired; Marriott’s golf page advises calling the pro shop first, because the weather can affect availability. Juniors aged 15 and under can practise without charge after 3pm when accompanied by a paying adult, under the resort’s Kids Golf-4-Free scheme. The clubhouse has a bar serving snacks before and after a round and a restaurant, and the hotel, the spa and the pool are on the same site.

GolfNow lists the Old Course as open all year, and Marriott’s page describes the Mathern as playable all year round. The two courses are parkland on low ground by the estuary, so expect softer conditions in winter and firm, dry ground in a hot summer, as some reviewers found in August 2025. For the Old Course at its best, late spring to early autumn is the obvious window, and the lake on the closing holes is a factor in any wind.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources, read in October 2026: OpenStreetMap for the location of the course; the Country Golf Collection website, where the resort now publishes its golf page, its venue page and its tee booking page, for the courses, their par and length, the signature holes, the practice facilities, membership, juniors and access; Marriott’s golf page for the resort, for the architects, the 2008 remodel, the signature holes and equipment hire; GolfNow for the Old Course tee table with its ratings and slopes; Top 100 Golf Courses for its course description, its Welsh ranking and its golfer reviews; National Club Golfer for its hole-by-hole guide and ranking; Your Golf Travel for course details and customer reviews; Golf Business News (24 April 2008) for the remodel; The Caterer (20 May 2026) for the sale to Select Group; Visit Wales for access; the English Wikipedia articles on St Pierre, the British Masters, the Epson Grand Prix of Europe, the 1996 Solheim Cup and the Curtis Cup; and Wikishire. Wikidata identifies the club as Q105452807.

Where sources disagree, we say so. The resort’s website gives the Old Course as par 72 on its golf page and par 71 on its venue page; we report 72. It says twelve European Tour events in one place and eleven in another, against fourteen in National Club Golfer, which matches the list of events. Wikipedia says Bill Graham bought the property in 1960, Wikishire says Tintern Abbey Hotels in 1961. The 18th of the Old Course is 235 yards for the resort and 230 for Top 100 Golf Courses. The opening year and the length of the Mathern Course vary from source to source, as set out above, and no source we read names its original designer. Scorecard sites disagree with one another and sometimes swap the names of the two courses, so we have not reproduced a hole-by-hole card. The resort’s claims about the age of the manor house and the crown jewels are its own, and the Dutch Wikipedia article, which lists a Ryder Cup at St Pierre in 2010, is wrong on that point: the 2010 Ryder Cup was played at Celtic Manor, near Newport.

The old club website given by Marriott, marriottgolf.co.uk, now redirects elsewhere; GolfPass refused access to its reviews (HTTP 403) and Today’s Golfer was behind a paywall, so neither has been used.

The opinion section summarises the golfer reviews on Top 100 Golf Courses and Your Golf Travel, read in October 2026. We report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we reproduce no quotations from reviewers. Nobody from Panxis has played or visited these courses, and this page is no substitute for a round.

The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say over its content. This page contains no commercial link and earns us no commission. If you know the club and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.

Other courses nearby

Closest to this one in our British directory:

• Cardiff Golf Club — 20 mi
• Glamorganshire Golf Club — 25 mi
• Burnham & Berrow Golf Club — 27 mi
• The West Berkshire Golf Club — 56 mi