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The Courses
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| Princes Golf Club - Sandwich
Length : 7275 yards
Par : 72
Details :
Princes Golf Club is made up of three nine hole courses – the Shore, Dunes and Himalayas.
The club was established in 1904 but given its location was severely disrupted by the two World Wars. In 1914 during the Great War the foreshore and links were turned into a coastal defence area and a training ground. At the beginning of WW II the course was requisitioned by the military as a battle training ground. Although the Royal Marines wanted to retain it permanently the courses were derequisitioned in 1949.
Percy ‘Laddie’ Lucas was the son of the first secretary of the club, and was actually born in the clubhouse. He used his local knowledge to great effect one day during WWII when he managed to land his stricken Spitfire safely on the course. There is a plaque on the 4th tee on The Himalayas to commemorate the landing.
Between the Wars the club hosted it’s only Open Championship in 1932, won by Gene Sarazen. Gene had invented the sand wedge shortly before that Open and played with it for the first time in the Championship. The original club now resides in the clubhouse. Percy Alliss, father of Peter, was fourth that year.
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| Royal St Georges
Length : 7070 yards
Par : 70
Details :
Ranked number 16 in the UK, Royal St Georges will be host to the Open Championship again in 2011. It last hosted the event in 2003 when Ben Curtis won.
The club was established in 1887 and hosted the Open for the first time only seven years later, the first English course to host it.
The 1934 Open was won by Henry Cotton. In his second round he created a new Open record low with a round of 65. He was playing with a Dunlop ball, who in recognition of the feat renamed their balls ‘Dunlop 65’.
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was captain elect of the club when he died in 1964. The professionals at St Georges between 1911 and 1989 were from the same family – Fred, Albert and Cyril Whiting. Fleming used a variation on the Whiting name (Albert Blacking) for the name of the professional who set up the golfing dual between Bond and Goldfinger. The legendary match was played at Royal St Marks, another obvious variation on Royal St Georges.
St Georges was itself a derived name. An English rival to Scotland’s home of golf, St Andrews.
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| Royal Cinque Ports
Length : 6960 yards
Par : 71
Details :
A group of men met in February 1892 with the purpose of setting up a golf course at Deal. A local man, Henry Hunter, was appointed and 15 weeks later had nine holes open for play. They then had to buy more land, which happened 4 years later when the course was extended to eighteen holes.
Ranked number 39 in the UK Royal Cinque Ports has hosted the Open twice, in 1909 and 1920. It is unlucky to have only hosted it twice. The course was awarded the championship in 1915 but the event was cancelled due to the Great War. Cinque Ports was also awarded the Open in 1938 and 1949 but both times it was moved elsewhere due to a high tide and easterly winds leading to the sea being swept over the course – on both occasions next door neighbour St Georges came to the rescue and hosted the Championship.
Since 1925 Deal has hosted the Halford Hewitt the World’s largest amateur competition. Sixty four teams from British public schools compete annually, each with a team of ten (five foursomes teams)
The members bought the land for the club in 1967 from the estate of Sir Aynsley Bridgeland for £38,000. Sir Aynsley owned both Princes and Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club. He was originally a tile maker who went on to make a fortune in property. Sir Aynsley had been refused membership of Deal in 1935 because he was seen as being ‘in trade’, a restriction to membership at the time.
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| Royal Liverpool
Length : 6921 yards
Par : 72
Details :
Built in 1869 Royal Liverpool is the second oldest seaside course in England after Westward Ho! The club has a number of firsts to its name – it hosted the first Amateur Championship which was held in 1885, the first international golf match (between England and Scotland) in 1902, and the first US v UK match, which later became the Walker Cup.
In 1930 Bobby Jones won the Open at Royal Liverpool, which became the second leg of his Grand Slam.
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| Royal Birkdale
Length : 6817 yards
Par : 70
Details :
The course is the highest ranked course in England – 7th in Britain and 16th in the World. It was opened in 1897 but was added to the Open roster relatively recently, with its first Open Championship played in 1954. The club had been awarded the Open in 1940 but WWII got in the way. Peter Thomson won that first Open, which was also his first. He also won his fifth and last Open at Birkdale in 1965. Arnold Palmer also won his first Open there in 1961 (there is a plaque to commemorate a typically outrageous Palmer shot on the 16th)
In 1969 the Ryder Cup was held at Royal Birkdale for the second time and became one of the greatest sporting events ever held in Britain. Britain and Northern Ireland were 4 to 1 against to win, but they played well and the match result came down to the final game between Tony Jacklin and Jack Nicklaus. Jacklin had an eagle on the 17th to draw level. On the last green Nicklaus then conceded a 3 foot putt to Jacklin for a half in their game, and therefore a half in the overall match. That gesture is still seen as one of the greatest acts of sportsmanship in international sport.
In 1983 Tom Watson won by one shot from Hale Irwin and Andy Bean. Hale Irwin had an air shot while trying to tap in a 2 inch putt on the 14th green in the third round.
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| Royal Lytham St Annes
Length : 6630 yards
Par : 71
Details :
Established in 1886 the club has hosted ten Open championships and two Ryder cups. It will host the Ladies British Open championship this year.
The course was the scene of Bobby Jones’s first Open victory in 1926. That year he was level with compatriot Al Watrous with two holes to go. On the 17th tee he pulled his drive into a horrible sandy scrub. Watrous hit his second to the middle of the green believing that would be good enough. Jones however managed to connect brilliantly, and flew his ball over rough, bushes, and bunkers and ended up closer than his opponent, a huge psychological blow from which Watrous could not recover. A plaque now sits where the shot was hit from. Jones played in 21 major championships and won 13 of them before retiring aged 28.
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