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, Harry Vardon, Jack White and John Henry Taylor. It has also hosted The Amateur Championship on 13 occasions.
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.
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.
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,, 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.