The way to look at Royal St George’s is, it’s really Much Ado About Nothing.
That’s not an insult, even if Sandwich generally gets a bad rap when it comes to Open venues, being most people’s least favourite.
Gary Player once even advocated moving it off the “rota” of Open venues, such was his disdain for the place. Sandwich was the main source of Jack Nicklaus’ rather flippant but famous observation, “The Open venues get worse the further you go south”.
Three great old tracks on a vast expanse of linksland
You certainly don’t get much further south in the UK than here. The White Cliffs of Dover are a short drive down through Deal and Kingswold. As they end, they give way to shale and sand beaches stretching north to Pegwell Bay, and a vast expanse of linksland.
Royal St George’s is the most prominent of three celebrated links courses on this land, with Prince’s and Royal Cinque Ports to the north and south respectively.
All date from the late 1800s, and all are of that time. They’re even – in the world of entitled elite golfers who think everything should be set up for them – “unfair”.
At St George’s this manifests itself in the odd blind shot. Or rippling and sloping fairways where the ball won’t hold in dry conditions. Or run-offs on the greens which draw the ball away from pin leaving tricky recovery shots from the fringes.
This gets a reaction from many players who don’t understand the ethos of links golf. It’s actually okay for it to sometimes be unfair. Some great links courses, like Royal Birkdale, Carnoustie, and Royal Dornoch, are “right there in front of you”; there’s little or no hidden trickery.
But equally part of links golf’s precious tradition are the places like the Old Course, or St George’s, or Prestwick. Blind shots, cavernous bunkers and capricious bounces are all part of the challenge.
‘Purists’ are the snobs when it comes to Sandwich
Really, St George’s – ironically given the membership – is often the victim of links snobbery from the so-called purists.
There’s a good number of first class holes – the first, which has one of the rota’s most challenging opening tee shots, the brawny fourth, the short sixth Maiden, the long 14th with the Suez Canal and looming out of bounds right, the 15th, usually back into the wind with the massive cross bunkers, and the 18th, one of the Open’s finest finishes.
But while they’re all good holes, there’s nothing that leaps out at you like the Postage Stamp at Troon, or the first at Birkdale, or 16-17-18 at Carnoustie, the Murder Mile at Lytham or, well, just about everything at the Old Course.
There’s also precious little on the skyline to beguile you, like at Turnberry or St Andrews. Even the brutalist three towers of Richborough Power Station were demolished a year after the Open last visited, in 2011.
Because it’s the “token” southern English course, it doesn’t get nearly the love that the other eight Open venues do. It doesn’t deserve to be dismissed like that.
Hence the reference to Much Ado About Nothing. I saw a list that placed that fine and brilliant comedy ninth of a list of William Shakespeare’s greatest plays.
That’s perfect for Sandwich – it’s actually pretty great to be ninth on a list of masterpieces.