Royal St George’s – Golf Course Review

Golfer’s Tips

• The 1st fairway is not visible from the tee, yet you can see the green. This is not a straight hole, however, so you must aim your drive considerably further left than you might expect.
• The drop off to left side of the green on the 2nd is incredibly steep and penal. The approach shot, which shouldn’t be too terribly long if you’ve got a decent tee shot away, needs to be reasonably accurate but front is the leave if you do miss the putting surface.
• Take enough club on the par 3 16th, as the back half of the green is only guarded by one of the perilous pot bunkers (which cost Thomas Bjorn an Open all of those years ago). Even if you pull your tee shot a little left then there is the chance you end up on a relatively friendly (puttable) bank between the bunkers (as the author did!).

Signature Holes

• 4th – one of the more famous Open holes, with a tee shot around a huge cavernous bunker cut into the side of a giant sand dune, leaving an approach from a snaking fairway up to a significantly sloped green up in the far corner of the property.
• 5th – a beautiful challenging links hole. Teeing off towards the sea from an elevated tee, the fairway curves left, and get a good tee shot away you then play your approach between two large dunes that obscure your view to a flat-topped green with run-offs each side.

Review:

As you would expect for a course to host the Open many times, Royal St George’s is a fantastic yet tough links course on the rich golfing stretch of Kent coastline near Sandwich.

A modest and slightly stuffy clubhouse does not detract from what is a beautifully mature and classic links setup. The quality of fairways and greens are unrivalled, and there is interest and challenges on all but a couple of holes, making this a fantastic experience for the purist golfer.

The best stretch has to be holes 4 to 6, 4th with its towering bunker facing your drive and the snaking fairway beyond, followed by the downhill dogleg 5th, playing around a huge dune, and then the shorter 6th is a classic par 3 with bunkers dotted all around.

The par-5 14th is another great hole which runs back towards the clubhouse with OB and a road running up the right. If you do manage to keep your ball in the middle of a fairly generous fairway, it’s a rare chance to outdo Dustin Johnson who stuffed his 3-wood approach (OB right) and therefore his chances of gaining the claret jug in 2011!

For sheer space and timeless class then Royal St George’s rightly sits right at the pinnacle of English golf, but in a region rich in golfing quality I would just edge for Royal Cinque Ports just down the coast from a tradition and golfing purity perspective.

• “Top 100” Ranking: 1st (England), 8th (GB & I), 19th (World)
• Golfer View Rating: 87%

https://www.royalstgeorges.com

Back to Reviews