The Royal St. Georges Golf Club (with pictures)

[Ben Stephens]

Dear GCA,

I recently went on my local golf society's annual day trip pilgrimage to an Open Venue. This year we went to Royal St.Georges Golf Club - venue of the 2011 Open. The weather was a perfect early spring sunny weather. The wind direction was unusual South East Easterly.

Here are pics and images for all, enjoy them



RSG Clubhouse



Course Map and Scorecard



Hole 1 - map



Hole 1 - tee from clubhouse



Hole 1 - starter huts with traditional thatch roofs



Hole 1 - 100 yards from green



Hole 1 - front of green



Hole 1 - green from 2nd tee



Hole 2 - map



Hole 2 - from tee



Hole 2 - fairway bunkers



Hole 2 - 100 yards from green



Hole 2 - front of green



Hole 2 - from 3rd tee



Hole 3 - map



Hole 3 - from tee



Hole 3 - 50 yards from green



Hole 3 - front of green



Hole 3 - greenside



Hole 4 - map



Hole 4 - from tee



Hole 4 - green from 5th tee



Hole 5 - map



Hole 5 - from tee



Hole 5 - fairway (green is visible through gap between mounds)



Hole 5 - 50 yards from green (new turf on subtle mounding front right before green)



Hole 6 - map



Hole 6 - from tee



Hole 6 - front of green



Hole 6 - greenside (bunkers restoration work)



Hole 7 - map



Hole 7 - from tee



Hole 7 - fairway bunker



Hole 7 - fairway



Hole 8 - map



Hole 8 - greenside



Hole 8 - view from 3rd tee



Hole 9 - map



Hole 9 - fairway



Hole 9 - cross bunkers



Hole 9 - front of green



Hole 9 - green from 10th tee



Hole 9 - view from 17th tee



Hole 10 - map



Hole 10 - from tee



Hole 10 - view from 11th tee



Hole 11 - map



Hole 11 - from tee



Hole 11 - 50 yards from green



Hole 11 - greenside



Hole 12 - map



Hole 12 - from tee



Hole 12 - 50 yards from green



Hole 12 - rear of green



Hole 13 - map



Hole 13 - from tee



Hole 13 - 100 yards from green



Hole 13 - old Princes clubhouse



Hole 13 - rear of green



Hole 14 - map



Hole 14 - from tee



Hole 14 - from fairway 'cross' water hazard



Hole 14 - 50 yards from green



Hole 14 - view from 15th tee



Hole 15 - map



Hole 15 - from tee



Hole 15 - 50 yards from green



Hole 15 - front of green



Hole 15 - rear of green



Hole 15 - view from 16th tee



Hole 16 - map



Hole 16 - from tee



Hole 16 - Bjorn bunker



Hole 16 - view from 17th tee



Hole 17 - map



Hole 17 - from tee



Hole 17 - 100 yards from green



Hole 17 - 50 yards from green



Hole 17 - front of green



Hole 17 - view from 18th green



Hole 18 - map



Hole 18 - from tee



Hole 18 - closer look from tee



Hole 18 - new bunker added 20/30 yards further up from existing left bunker



Hole 18 - cross bunkers



Hole 18 - view from 1st tee



Hole 18 - front of green



Hole 18 - front left bunker + Duncan's hollow



Hole 18 - Duncan's hollow

[John Mayhugh]

Thanks for posting these.  Looks like they are getting things ready for the BUDA event in Sept. 

[Ben Stephens]

All pictures now updated.

[Scott Warren]

Great pics, Ben. Thanks for sharing. The Buda excitement is hitting fever pitch.

[Anthony Gray]

  Ben,

 Thank You. That took much effort and we appreciate it. Well Done.

  BUDA! BUDA! BUDA!

  I'm not scared...... but should be.

  Anthony

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks much, Ben.
Lovely. And that golfy, turfy turf...
They filmed the "Goldfinger" golf match at Stoke Poges, but the 2 or 3 chapters of
Fleming's book describe/are played over the holes at RSG (where Fleming was captain-elect
just before he died). It's gonna be more fun now reading those chapters with these pics in mind.

Peter

[Jamie Barber]

Nice photos - it's amazing how the photos "flatten" the course; it's much more undulating than it appears from the pictures.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Hole 16 - Bjorn bunker

"Still Bjorn?"




Now that's the kind of society I would join. Echoing Jamie's thought's, if you think the place looks good in pictures just wait until you see it.  Thanks Ben

[Andrew Mitchell]

Thanks for posting these Ben.

That's the most I've seen of Sandwich.  I'll certainly be bookmarking this thread for revisiting before September

[Michael Whitaker]

Ben - This is the best photo essay of a course I  have seen on this site! GCA.com could be THE resource for photo tours of golf courses if more participants produced this kind of work. Maybe Ran will consider a separate section to house these tours.

You have inspired me, Ben!!! I am going to create some of these tours myself and share them with world!

I can't wait to see RSG in September at the Buda Cup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ben Stephens]

Michael

Thanks for your comments. I reckon RSG will be in a good condition for the BUDA cup and much firmer conditions. Unfortunately I am too late to enter the BUDA cup.


Jamie,

You are right that the photos do 'flatten' the course. The run off were some of the biggest I have seen. There are so many uneven lies on the fairways. The photos of the front of the 2nd is typical of RSG fairways.


I tried a Greg Norman style 'half shot' with a 8 iron from 90 yds on 10 which was a fraction too much and my shock and horror to see my ball 40 ft below the green at the back!


Cheers

Ben

 

[John Mayhugh]

Ben - This is the best photo essay of a course I  have seen on this site! GCA.com could be THE resource for photo tours of golf courses if more participants produced this kind of work. Maybe Ran will consider a separate section to house these tours.

This was a great post by Ben.  Thanks Ben.  My only complaint (if you could call it that) is that my laptop monitor just isn't large enough to view the pics and firefox doesn't resize them very well.  I ended up looking at the pics on a projector in a conference room at lunch.....

But I think he has some strong competition from Tim Bert (e.g. Pacific Dunes, Kingsley).

[James Boon]

Ben,

A great set of pictures here! Many thanks for these!

Maybe some of the wider format pictures should be reduced down a bit or maybe there is some way that they could be made smaller and linked to a pop up at full size? Its just that as John says, they are a bit too large to view on most screens? I also like that you have added a scan of the yardage book to help give a fuller picture. On the few photo tours I've done I've always added a link to the courses website so people can get the bigger picture if they want, but the yardage scans pull it all together well.

GCA.com could be THE resource for photo tours of golf courses if more participants produced this kind of work. Maybe Ran will consider a separate section to house these tours.

Michael, try this link...
http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas
Most of the photo tours are on here. Some are the full Monty like this one of Bens, and others only have a few photos, but I believe they ahve all been pulled together

Though I've only walked the course at an Open and not played it, I agree with Jamie that the photos really flatten the course in places. And this is something I've often noticed with my own pictures or those of others (our recent trip to Beau Desert being a good example as I hadn't expected that degree of undulation on their greens, having seen Sean Arble's photos on here). Do we have any photography experts on here who could point us in the right direction for trying to show undulations better?

Thanks again Ben!

Cheers,

James

[Jamie Barber]

The one I really noticed it on is the dip in front on the 4th green. It looks barely anything in the photo, but is a lot more daunting putting from there! Also the 10th (my favourite hole) feels a lot more "uphill" then the photo shows. I also noticed it on Scott's photos of Prince's. Although that is much flatter, the photos really don't capture the undulations that are there.

[Mark Chaplin]

The definition of frustration......I'm due to be playing Sandwich on a courtesy Saturday week and cannot get the day off work!!

[Jamie Barber]

Pull a sickie

[Sean_A]

Ben

Thanks for post.  I never tire of looking at pix of Sandwich for I don't think there is a better course in all of the UK. 

Ciao

[Joe Hancock]

Ben,

I very much enjoyed the pictorial. Outstanding.

Thank you,

Joe

[Mark Chaplin]

Jamie,

I managed to swap the visit with one in June so no sickie and a day at George's, win double!

[Scott Warren]

Timely bump for Buda!

[Jamie Barber]

Had a little look on the way past this week. The greens are very green and have been well watered (they hosted the Boys Amateur a couple of weeks ago) but after the dry weather here it's looking very brown and firm. It should be lots of fun

[Ben Stephens]

Bump! In preparatation for the 2011 Open here is Sandwich all over again!

The bunkers were restored and 1 or 2 added two years ago by Mackenzie+Ebert