Former Wales and British and Irish Lions rugby star, Scott Quinnell has been spotted in Harlech, where he officially reopened a feature 15th hole at Royal St David’s Golf Club.

The club chose St David’s Day to reveal the new, uplifted green and approach fairway - closed since last October - which have both been raised by more than one metre at a cost of £125,000.

This work future proofs the hole from a rising water table and progressively wetter winters.

Quinnell, a star of rugby union with Llanelli and rugby league with Wigan, is a Royal St David’s Golf Club’s ambassador and performed the reopening ceremony with club president Bryan John and captains David Barr and Shuna Sweeting.

The club’s other ambassadors are BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty, former Formula One champion Nigel Mansell and former snooker star Denis Taylor.

Construction work on the raised 15th hole and fairway was carried out by Shaperight Services and the club’s links team in partnership with world renowned course architects Mackenzie and Ebert and Natural Resources Wales.

The work marks the first phase of a new drainage programme at the famous championship course. A Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area has also been created by moving 4,000 tonnes of sand onto the course.

Club manager Peter Rees said: “The partnership has future-proofed the 15th hole by addressing problems caused by the continually rising water table. The hole has been sympathetically designed true to its original form and is an excellent addition to our championship course.

“The Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area is a beautiful and ecologically sustainable site for natural flora and fauna.

“My thanks go to all involved in the project, but special thanks go to the board at Royal St David’s for their support, our links team, led by Rhys Butler, for all their hard work and our members for their patience and trust throughout.”

Established in 1894, the Harlech links has long been ranked within the top 50 British golf courses, ranked second in Wales by Golf World and within the world’s Top 100 courses by Golf Digest.

The picturesque course is sandwiched between Harlech Castle, a World Heritage Site and Cardigan Bay. Over the years, nearly 80 national and international championships have been played on the course, which is a magnet for visiting golfers.

Unlike many links courses, Harlech’s intricate routing exposes golfers to different wind directions constantly, requiring mastery of every club in the bag. Every hole offers fabulous views both of Harlech Castle and of the distant Eryri mountain range.

Princes, Prime Ministers, poets have all played on the course, as have some of the greatest names in golf history - five Open Champions and five Amateur Champions are named on honours boards in the historic clubhouse.

Royal St David’s Golf Club is a member of MWT Cymru (Mid Wales Tourism), an independent organisation representing more than 600 tourism and hospitality businesses across Powys, Ceredigion and Meirionnydd.

For more information about the club and course, visit https://www.royalstdavids.co.uk/.