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 South East England. It has hosted 15 Open championships, the first in 1894 when it became the first club outside Scotland to host the championship. Past champions include Collin Morikawa, 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 14 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
Location	Sandwich, Kent, England
Established	1887
Type	private
Total holes	18
Events hosted	The Open Championship (15 times)
Website	royalstgeorges.com
Designed by	Laidlaw Purves
Par	70
Length	7,204 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. A 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 15 occasions since 1894.

Year	Winner	Score					Winners share (£)
		R1	R2	R3	R4	Total
1894	J.H. Taylor 1st	84	80	81	81	326	30
1899	Harry Vardon 3rd	76	76	81	77	310	30
1904	Jack White	80	75	72	69	296	50
1911	Harry Vardon 5th	74	74	75	80	303 PO	50
1922	Walter Hagen 1st	76	73	79	72	300	75
1928	Walter Hagen 3rd	75	73	72	72	292	100
1934	Henry Cotton 1st	67	65	72	79	283	100
1938	Reg Whitcombe	71	71	75	78	295	100
1949	Bobby Locke 1st	69	76	68	70	283 (−5)	300
1981	Bill Rogers	72	66	67	71	276 (−4)	25,000
1985	Sandy Lyle	68	71	73	70	282 (+2)	65,000
1993	Greg Norman 2nd	66	68	69	64	267 (−13)	100,000
2003	Ben Curtis	72	72	70	69	283 (−1)	700,000
2011	Darren Clarke	68	68	69	70	275 (−5)	900,000
2021	Collin Morikawa	67	64	68	66	265 (−15)	$2,070,000

• 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		442	426	239	496	416	176	573	457	410	3635	412	242	379	457	545	493	161	424	456	3569	7204
Par		4	4	3	4	4	3	5	4	4	35	4	3	4	4	5	4	3	4	4	35	70
Medal		411	385	195	415	416	152	490	419	373	3256	371	215	361	442	533	436	161	418	437	3374	6630
Weekday		399	350	180	412	406	142	464	395	366	3114	351	202	340	420	507	435	150	392	429	3226	6340
SI		10	6	16	2	8	18	14	4	12		9	7	15	3	13	1	17	5	11

See also

• List of golf clubs granted Royal status

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".

External links

• Official website
• Golf Club Atlas Guide
• Course Guide at Opengolf
• Coverage of 2011 Open on PGA.com
• Eco-hydrological interactions within a sand dune system in South East England, CReaTE

51.274°N 1.367°E / 51.274; 1.367