Royal St George's Golf Club

The Royal St George's Golf Club located in Sandwich, Kent, England, is a golf club in the United Kingdom and one of the courses on The Open Championship rotation and is the only Open rota golf course to be located in Southern England. It has hosted 13 Open championships since 1894, when it became the first club outside Scotland to host the championship. Past champions include Darren Clarke, Ben Curtis, Greg Norman, Sandy Lyle, Bill Rogers, Bobby Locke, Reg Whitcombe, Henry Cotton, Walter Hagen (on two occasions), Harry Vardon (on two occasions), Jack White and John Henry Taylor. It has also hosted The Amateur Championship on 13 occasions.

Royal St George's Golf Club
Clubhouse in 2007
Club information
Map showing the location of Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent, England
LocationSandwich, Kent, England
Established1887
Typeprivate
Total holes18
Tournaments hostedThe Open Championship (14 times)
Websiteroyalstgeorges.com
Designed byLaidlaw Purves
Par70
Length7,204 yards (6,587 m)[1]
The starters hut at the 1st hole

The club was founded by the surgeon Laidlaw Purves in 1887 in a setting of wild duneland. Many holes feature blind or partially blind shots, although the unfairness element has been reduced somewhat, after several 20th century modifications. The course also possesses the deepest bunker in championship golf, located on its fourth hole.[2]

The Club's Challenge Cup dates from 1888 and is one of the oldest amateur events in golf. It has been contested annually over 36 holes except during the war years. An 19-year-old Jack Nicklaus won the tournament in 1959 shortly before going on to win the first of his two U.S. Amateur titles. [3]

Author Ian Fleming used the Royal St George's course under the name "Royal St. Marks" in his 1959 novel Goldfinger. When he died, Fleming was the Captain-elect of the Club.

Environmental awareness

Royal St George's is situated on the same stretch of coastline as Royal Cinque Ports Club and neighbouring Prince's Golf Club, both former Open Championship venues.

The course has been involved in a research informed study undertaken by Dr Graham Earl since 2011, on behalf of Natural England and Canterbury Christ Church University.

The intensive study undertaken between 2011 - 2015 at Sandwich Bay, incorporated all three links golf courses located at Sandwich Bay, including Royal Cinque Ports golf club and Princes golf club. These courses were involved in an Eco-hydrological study, focusing upon the chemical composition of the groundwater, historical analysis of vegetation composition and management trials looking at site-specific management regimes which encourage native sward development.

Management trials indicated that burning as a management regime promoted an increase in native swards. A combination of the research informed outcomes and enthusiasm for the study by Head Greenkeeper Paul Larsen, has helped to revert in a positive way the SSSI status at Royal St Georges golf club, in an unprecedented three-year period.

This burning management regime provides a fast quick burn, therefore not affecting the rooting zone, (in particular the rare orchids which reside predominantly at Sandwich Bay), but does remove the thatch layer removing generalist competitive plant/grass species. The burning treatment, which can be viewed between October and February, was undertaken to reduce the sward thatch and encourage native grey dune plant species and has been very successful. The site now hosts one of the largest abundance of orchids in a single site, managed for amenity.

The Open Championship

Royal St George's has hosted The Open Championship on 14 occasions since 1894 and is due to hold the Open in 2021.


  Year  WinnerScoreWinner's
share (£)
R1R2R3R4Total
1894 J.H. Taylor 1st8480818132630
1899 Harry Vardon 3rd7676817731030
1904 Jack White8075726929650
1911 Harry Vardon 5th74747580303 PO50
1922 Walter Hagen 1st7673797230075
1928 Walter Hagen 3rd75737272292100
1934 Henry Cotton 1st67657279283100
1938 Reg Whitcombe71717578295100
1949 Bobby Locke 1st69766870283 (−5)300
1981 Bill Rogers72666771276 (−4)25,000
1985 Sandy Lyle68717370282 (+2)65,000
1993 Greg Norman 2nd66686964267 (−13)100,000
2003 Ben Curtis72727069283 (−1)700,000
2011 Darren Clarke68686970275 (−5)900,000
202115–18 July1,935,000
  • Note: For multiple winners of The Open Championship, superscript ordinal identifies which in their respective careers.

Scorecard
Royal St. George's Golf Club[1]
Tee Rating/Slope 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In Total
Championship 4424262394964161765734574103635 41224237945754549316142445635697204
Par 44344354435 4344543443570
Medal 4113851954154161524904193733256 37121536144253343616141843733746630
Weekday 3993501804124061424643953663114 35120234042050743515039242932266340
Handicap 10616281814412 9715313117511

References
  1. "Scorecard". Royal St. George's Golf Club. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  2. The World Atlas of Golf, second, revised edition, by Herbert Warren Wind, Charles Price, and Peter Thomson, London 1988, Mitchell Beazley publishers.
  3. "Royal St George's Golf Club, Sandwich, Facts and Figures, Golf Today, 2011".

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