Founded in 1887 and intended by its founder, Dr William Laidlaw Purves, to seek to emulate the ethos and traditions of St Andrews in the South of England, St George’s is consistently ranked amongst the leading courses in the World.
The Club occupies a unique place in the history of golf, for it was here in 1894, that the Open Championship was first played outside Scotland.
In all there have been 15 Open Championships played at St George’s, more than any course outside of Scotland.
Collin Morikawa was crowned ‘The Champion Golfer of the Year’ in July 2021, winning his first Open and second major championship since turning professional in 2019.
Visitors are greeted with a warm, friendly welcome in the historic clubhouse. The undulating fairways and fast, true greens will prove a test to all amateur and professional golfers alike.
At Royal St George’s our members and visitors enjoy a full range of practice facilities including an open air driving range, pitching area, practice nets and practice putting green with bunkers. The Pro Shop offers a well stocked variety of golf products as well as expert advice and tuition.
In 2011, Sandwich hosted the Open for the fourteenth time. The champion, winning by three strokes from Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickleson, was Darren Clarke.
Clarke, who became only the second Northern Irishman after Fred Daly (1947) to win the Open, started the final round one shot ahead of Johnson but it was Mickleson who made the first charge, taking 30 shots for the first nine to get within two of Clarke, who had a huge slice of luck when his thinned second shot at the 9th ran between the two fairway bunkers and finished within a yard of the hole. Mickelson then faded, dropping four shots in six holes, leaving it to Johnson to take up the challenge. He got within two shots of Clarke but then went out of bounds with his second to the 14th, leaving the Ulsterman with a four shot cushion. Thoughts of Thomas Bjorn, who squandered a three shot lead over the closing holes in 2003 did not seem to bother Clarke as he smiled his way through the closing holes to seal a popular victory.
The course, which played as a Par 71 in 2003, reverted to a Par 70 and was lengthened by just over 105 yards to 7204.
From the first Open Championship in 1894 which was won by J.H Taylor, many golfing legends have graced the course, going on to become the Open Champion including:
- Harry Vardon
- Walter Hagen
- Henry Cotton
- Bobby Locke
- Sandy Lyle
- Greg Norman
