Royal St. George's

While the links plays over much of its initial layout, that’s not to say St. George’s has been without its share of changes. In fact, no course on The Open rota - save the recent transformation of Turnberry - has evolved more through the decades than Royal St. George’s. When blind shots fell out of favor with many golfers, so too did St. George’s with the powers that be. Over 30 years passed between visits from the Claret Jug, and in that time the club fought its way back into the good graces of the R&A with a series of tweaks to eliminate the “unfairness” presented by its host of blind shots. Naturally, we feel compelled to point out that a shot is only blind the first time you play it.

And yet both before and after these changes, one could make a strong case for Royal St. George’s as the finest links in all of England. Of course, those finding the enormous bunker on the 4th hole - the deepest in all of England - may tend to disagree. Someone who wouldn’t have found fault with the notion, however, was author Ian Fleming. He based the venue for James Bond’s famous match with Goldfinger on Sandwich, though he changed the name to “Royal St. Mark’s” in an attempt to deter fans from flocking to his cherished links.

On the whole, Royal St. George’s presents as pure and natural of a links experience as you’re likely to find and is an obvious choice for golf trips to southeast England and the Channel Coast. The intriguing green complexes and sweeping fairways - where rarely a level stance is found - paired with the previously mentioned wind, make for a stern but enjoyable test of golf. It’s difficult to imagine what Dr. Purves would think of his dream course today, but the scenes from The Open’s return in 2021 for the 15th time surely made him proud.