GolfClubAtlas.com > Golf Course Architecture Discussion Group
Sandwich vs. Deal
Noel Freeman:
Okay, critique me.. What other event is bigger than that (other than the Amateur) that brings so many great club players around. Most of the low markers there are some of the best Amateurs in GBI b/c they played for Oxford or Cambridge. Besides, I can quote Frank Pennick or Darwin if you want on the importance of the HH.
What about my other points? on trains etc
Noel Freeman:
Come April the thoughts of most of Britain's 3 million golfers will turn to The Masters at Augusta National. It is one of the world's most prestigious events with a TV audience which is numbered in millions but it is still something of a sideshow as far as one group of committed golfers is concerned.
As far as the 640 golfers who compete in the annual Halford Hewitt tournament at Royal Cinque Ports and Royal St George's are concerned, the Halford Hewitt is altogether more meaningful than The Masters. Watching The Masters on TV might be a welcome interlude after dinner with one's teammates but, during daylight hours, it is an irrelevance when pitted against the much more important task of winning matches for one's school.
The Halford Hewitt - or Hewitt as it is called - is considered to be something rather special by all those former public school boys fortunate enough to have represented their old schools team in this match play foursomes tournament. Each year, potential competitors sweat it out for months on end until a letter arrives to tell them that their Captain has selected them for his 10 man side. Most treat omission from the side as something akin to a disaster but, even if not selected, many will still make the pilgrimage to this corner of Kent in order to lend their support to their side and to pontificate with colleagues about triumphs old and new.
A total of 640 competitors start out Hewitt week but that sizeable number is swelled by the considerable cadre of supporters who come from far and wide to witness the spectacle. Virtually all the hotels and hostelries in the area are booked up a year in advance as each team guards its precious home for the week. It represents a financial bonanza for all the local hotel owners and a boon for the breweries whose production capacity is tested to the limit.
The tournament is enormous fun but it is also serious sport and never more so than when a match is tied and one unfortunate pair from each side has to go down the dreaded 19th. Royal Cinque Ports - or Deal as it is called more often - is the Hewitt's spiritual home and it has a 1st hole which is ideal for such deciders. There is something utterly compelling about watching from the clubhouse balcony as two hapless pairs battle it out to remain in bounds from the tee and then clear the burn in front of the green. It is even more tremulous to be involved in such a finale to a match and knowing that one small slip can mean the end for your side.
Golfers only have to witness a Hewitt match go into extra time to realise just how special the tournament is. It is no coincidence that the last side to drop out of the tournament was Beaumont back in 1968 (they amalgamated with another school) and no surprise either that the waiting list to get in to the event is as long as your arm. The simple fact of the matter is that the Hewitt elicits more emotion than any other tournament I know, with the possible exception of the Ryder Cup and Walker Cup. It is a tournament which brings together more true amateurs than any other and then scares the life out of them all. It is a celebration of how golf once was and a reminder how pure it still can be. It's unique. Forget The Masters. The Hewitt is the true Rite of Spring.
Colin Callander is the Editor of Golf Monthly and a regular member of the Fettes side at the Halford Hewitt.
Mark Pearce:
Noel, stop digging. It's a competition for posh public school kids. It represents a lot of what makes golf a hard sell to the majority of the population. It isn't open, it's based on privilege and it matters not to the vast majority of golfers. More people run in the Great North Run than the Olympic marathon. That doesn't make the GNR a more important and bigger event.
I'm sure it's great fun and there's some really good golf played. That doesn't make it matter. And quoting an ex-Fettesian doesn't help persuade me, even though my wife went to Fettes.
Scott Warren:
The Hewitt? We're hosting the bloody British Amateur in 2013.
Noel Freeman:
Peter McEvoy is one of the GREATEST amateurs the UK produced and a Walker Cup Captain to boot..
"Peter McEvoy once said in an interview that the only thing he regretted in his golfing career was not going to a school that entitled him to play in the Halford Hewitt."
Now you could argue that either way, but I met Peter McEvoy and if ever there was a person who could talk more about amateur golf in GBI, it is him..
The Brabazon is probably the 2nd best amateur event in England and considering in 2002 Deal held it and Charl Schwartzel won it, not too shabby.
I am not a hearty english public school boy Mark, far from it and I'm not digging but that is a ton of amateurs to school in one place (remember it co-hosts with Sandwich as well) and I'm sure a ton of Walker Cuppers have played there and have from the stories I know.
With 640 people competing, no one can question it is the biggest amateur event, but the meaning is debatable and I mean this in good fun even if Sean Arble is an evil man. ;)
Arbs-- any bid to join me at Wallasey Friday late PM this week? I
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