Mark,
I'll speak on the record, briefly, about three courses I was fortunate to play on the Deal/Sandwich coast.
Comparing Deal to Princes and allowing for the fact that my strongest winds of the week were on Wednesday at Princes I'll say that I found Royal Cinque Ports to suit my game better. I can't totally separate out how much of that was due to the rough at Princes seeming to be about a month "ahead" of Deal in terms of thickness and length. But there also seems to be an effect that the northerly wind had an unfavorable angle on more shots for a lefty slicer at Princes than at Royal Cinque Ports which seems to vary the hole orientation a bit more.
But aside from my personal experience under one specific set of weather conditions, I'd say the advantage that Royal Cinque Ports holds over Princes comes down to a few totally world-class, highly memorable holes at the former. There are not equivalents to the sixth and tenth holes at Deal at Princes (those are my personal faves) and a couple others are great individual holes as well. That said, I think there may not be as sustained a stretch of fine, challenging holes at Royal Cinque Ports as the first five holes on the Dunes nine at Princes. Plus I have a lot of time (as Sean Arble would say) for 27-hole clubs, although given the uncomfortable wind Jamie and I did not sample the third nine on this particular day. And now I'll add one more comment that may label me a heretic and a whiner...
Princes does not have as unpleasantly difficult and discomfiting back-to-back pair as the sixteenth and seventeenth at Deal. I know it's usually considered a fine thing to have some of the most difficult holes at the close of a round (and lord knows the eighteenth is no pushover itself) but in a perfect world any course with two holes that "quirky" would spread them out a bit. I'm not talking about an "eighteenth at Cypress Point" kind of letdown but the difficulty of finding and executing any sort of safe tee shot to a playable landing area on those two holes in a row (especially in a breeze, even an downwind notherly) can leave one feeling more frustrated than exhilarated. By comparison the final hole at Princes' Dunes course is tricky, occasionally frustrating but can be played conservatively with two solid and well-chosen shots.
Note to Tony Muldoon. I'm not making the above comments based on my last-three-hole collapse on Saturday. You stole that match from me honestly
by buckling down and doing what needed to be done the final six or so holes. Although in retrospect I'm no longer sure that was actually your ball I found sitting right by the green when we thought it was lost...
Now on to the comparison of Royal Cinque Ports to Royal St. Georges. I thought about trying to phrase this in a more considered and even-handed style but that would not be honest. I like Royal St. Georges better than Deal or Princes, although I would not turn down a round at any of the three if offered. In fact, I like Royal St. Georges better than most of the golf courses I've ever seen. I put Cypress Point Club in a class all its own but leaving that heavenly experience aside, the quality of the course at Sandwich sits right along side the Ocean Course at Kiawah or Royal Dornoch or any other course you'd care to name. And Kiawah is the only one that comes to mind as being the equal of Royal St. Georges in both "course which can challenge the best players in the world" and "course I could love playing every day" categories.
I can't say all that exactly why I found Royal St. Georges superior to Royal Cinque Ports specifically. It also has some extremely memorable holes. I'd consider the tenth at Sandwich nearly the equal to the sixth at Deal (with a scarier green and more effective bunkering at the former) and the fourth at Sandwich is only a tiny increment less fun and gorgeously contoured than the tenth at Deal (once again RSG has a superior green). Keep in mind I consider the tenth at Royal Cinque Ports one of the finest in the world. Then there's the obvious comparison of the eighth at RSG to the third at RCP (no contest, the eighth at Sandwich tops my personal list of punchbowl greens). I am in awe of the set of Par 3's at Sandwich, although the set of one-shotters at Deal are better than the vast majority of courses I've played. And the closing stretch is solid at Royal St. Georges while perhaps not quite as bracing in match play as the Royal Cinque Ports finale it is more suited to a medal game. Then there's the conditioning...which I know puts me on shaky ground in this forum...but while RCP was in absolutely top-notch condition and the greens were excellent (weren't they Tony? especially the first green?) the greens, fairways, rough and everything about the grooming and preparation at Royal St. Georges speaks to much money, very well spent. The exception was a few bunkers which have recently been rebuilt and whose sand has yet to settle (like at Princes by the way).
So there it is Mark, warts and all. None of this is meant to damn your club's course with faint praise. I returned there this year considering Royal Cinque Ports one of my very favorite places to play golf and that has not changed. But now that I've seen its two nearest neighbors I must say that with rough comparable to that at Deal (and wind comparable to my days at deal later in the week
) I don't know that Princes gives up a whole hell of a lot in comparison. It really does come down to how much weight you grant to the very best holes (which are awesome at Deal) and how much downgrading you do for extra time spent searching for potentially lost golf balls at Princes. And I am now fully convinced that Royal St. Georges is at least the equal of any course on the Open rota and superior to most of them. I will return for a two-round "Day" ticket at Sandwich upon my earliest opportunity. I can't wait to play there again, which of course has been true of Deal for four years now.