Bryn Meadows Golf Club

This challenging course will forever be the epitaph of Brian Mayo, the remarkable Welshman who created it. After he had started to build this impressive hotel and leisure complex in the heart of the Rhymney Valley, Brian suffered an appalling freakish calamity when he contracted meningitis through licking a golf ball contaminated by weed killer. Both his legs had to be amputated as a result and his life as an entrepreneur, as well as a golfer playing off a single-figure handicap, looked to be over. But Brian swore he would play golf again and, despite his artificial legs, battled his way back down to a handicap of eight.

His pledge to continue to develop Bryn Meadows was fulfilled with similar determination and the result is a complex that has earned a reputation for quality and friendliness and is run with the personal touch by the Mayo family.

The course, home of the British Amputees Championships, contains numerous distinctive ideas Brian collected on his many visits overseas and he was proud that it was chosen as one of the venues for the 1999 Rugby World Cup Amateur Golf Tournament. Sadly, Brian died suddenly while on holiday in Florida in January 1999.