Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England, will host its 15th British Open this week, presenting the kind of wild, undulating and hopefully bouncy test that tends to drive some of the best players in the game a little crazy. That craziness is in part fueled by numerous blind shots as players must hoist balls into the sky over the dunes.
The club, on the coast of the English Channel about 80 miles southeast of London, has seen such varied and sometimes unexpected winners as Darren Clarke (2011), Ben Curtis (2003), Bill Rogers (1981) and Reg Whitcombe (1938), for example. But it hasn’t been all surprises, as Greg Norman won there in 1993 and Walter Haden triumphed there twice (1922 and ’28). The first Open held at Royal St. George’s was won by J.H. Taylor in 1894.
Royal St. George’s opened in 1887 with a Laidlaw Purves layout that has been renovated and restored several times, most recently by Martin Ebert, who has worked on several British Open layouts including Royal Portrush before the 2019 Open. Royal St. George’s ranks No. 9 on Golfweek’s Best list of top courses in Great Britain and Ireland.
The course will be set up at 7,189 yards with a par of 70 for this year’s Open.
Thanks to yardage books provided by Puttview – the maker of detailed yardage books for more than 30,000 courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges that players will face this week. Check out each hole below.
