Ten things you need to know about Royal St George’s

Ten things to know about Royal St George’s Golf Club ahead of the 149th Open Championship.

Today’s Golfer’s 2021 Major coverage is brought to you in association with TaylorMade.

This year marks the 15th time the Open Championship has been played at Royal St George’s in Sandwich, Kent. The first was way back in 1894 when it became the first club outside Scotland to host the Championship. It remains the only Open rota golf course to be located in southern England and is the third-most used of the current venues, behind St Andrews and Muirfield.

THE OPEN 2021: Live leaderboard and videos

…And our English No.1

Known colloquially as Sandwich, Royal St George’s was founded by Dr William Purves in 1887 to be a rival to St Andrew’s. No successive holes play in the same direction and it is currently ranked sixth in our Golf World Top 100 Links Golf Courses in Great Britain and Ireland and 1st in our ranking of England’s Top 100 courses.

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Nicklaus’ worst round

Jack Nicklaus never won as a professional at Royal St George’s. In fact, his worst round as a pro came at Sandwich when he shot a 13-over-par 83 in the first round of the 1981 Open, including a run of 6-5-6-5-7 from the 10th to the 14th. He did, however, win the St George’s Grand Challenge Cup as an amateur in 1959.

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Big names and big odds

The first Open winner at Royal St. George’s was England’s J.H. Taylor who won £30 after rounds of 84-80-81-81 in 1894. The Kent links has seen some of golf’s biggest names win The Open, with Harry Vardon winning in 1899 and 1911, Walter Hagen victorious in 1922 and 1928, Sir Henry Cotton winning the first of his three Opens on the Sandwich links in 1934 and South African Bobby Locke winning the first of his four Open Championships in 1949. Greg Norman won his second Open here in 1993, but more on that later.

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But the last two Opens played across this famous turf were far bigger shocks. Ben Curtis was ranked 396th in the world and was playing his first Major when he won in 2003. The American had only entered the world’s top 500 players the week before the tournament. Read the inside story of Curtis incredible win, here.

The last time Royal St George’s staged The Open in 2011, Darren Clarke became the first British winner since Paul Lawrie had been victorious in Carnoustie in 1999. Clarke, then 42 years old, entered the week a 200-1 shot and saw off Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to win his first Major.

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Reverted bunkers

The course has undergone significant bunker work since it last hosted The Open with the infamous Himalayas bunker on the 4th hole restored to its older look.

Martin Ebert also restored a bare, sandy area to the left of the 5th hole, and reconfigured the two cross bunkers (there were previously three) on the 18th hole to produce more options from the tee.

Ebert said, “Now there is a dangerous opportunity to take the tee shot on and that, in turn, will allow the flag position to be tucked away at the front left if the R&A want to set the hole up that way.

“The right-hand bunker is still in place but the left hand one has been moved on and to the left to provide a temptation for long drives if the conditions are right. So I hope that there will be more variation of strategy adopted for this key hole.”

THE OPEN 2021: Royal St George’s 18-hole course guide

Tiger’s lost ball

Royal St George’s was the scene of the first lost golf ball of Tiger Woods’ professional career. Woods’ opening tee shot of the 2003 Open found the right rough and despite the help of marshalls and the crowd, the ball was never found. Reloading, Woods again found the right rough and ended up making a triple-bogey 7. He finished two shots behind Ben Curtis.

The name’s Bond

Sir Ian Fleming, creator of the famous M16 special agent James Bond, was a member here and based one of 007’s most famous scenes, here.

In the 1959 novel “Goldfinger,” Fleming sets a match between Bond and the villainous Goldfinger at Royal St. Marks, based on RSG, with the pair playing for a massive $10,000.

“The first hole of the Royal St. Marks is 450 yards long – 450 yards of undulating fairway with one central bunker to trap a mis-hit second shot and a chain of bunkers guarding three-quarters of the green to trap a well-hit one,” Fleming writes. “You can slip through the unguarded quarter, but the fairway slopes to the right there and you are more likely to end up with a nasty first-chip-of-the-day out of the rough.”

If you’ve been living under a rock, Bond overcomes Goldfinger’s cheating by switching balls to win on the final hole.

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A host for all occassions

In addition to The Open Championship, the club has hosted the British Amateur Championship 13 times, the British PGA Championship on five occasions and the Walker Cup twice. Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros both tasted victory in the PGA Championship at Royal St George’s, while Walter Hagen and Bobby Locke won the first of four Claret Jugs here.

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Norman’s record round

In 1993, Greg Norman clinched his second Open Championship and set a new record for the lowest round to win the Claret Jug. Gary Player called Norman’s final-round 64 at Royal St George’s “the best golf I ever saw played at the British Open,” while Bernhard Langer told Norman that it  was “the greatest golf I’ve ever seen in my life”.

Gene Sarazen called it “the greatest championship in all my 70 years in golf,” while Norman said it “means more to me knowing I have beaten great players.”

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83 years of hurt

Royal St George’s hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds for English golfers in recent times. Reg Whitcombe was the last home player to win The Open in Kent way back in 1938.

And it’s 52 years since an Englishman lifted the Claret Jug anywhere south of Hadrian’s Wall with Tony Jacklin the last to do so at Royal Lytham in 1969.

In fact, it’s been 29 years since Nick Faldo at Muirfield became the last Englishman to win The Open. No pressure for Tyrrell and Tommy, then!

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