Sandy SAUNTON GC EAST COURSE: 2018-19 Winter Tour

[Thomas Dai]

The East is imo simply a super course. From the tee it's maybe a bit less demanding than the West but it has some heavily rolling putting surfaces that perhaps make up for it. Being routed in a non out-n-back fashion, as is the West too, means that the wind direction changes more with the holes than do some other links.

There have been numerous changes to the East since it first came into being. To find out more how the East has evolved over the decades there is in the Clubhouse an A3 size book showing in great detail the changes to the East course which contains overheads and aerial photos of the the whole area used during WWII. All sorts of WWII training areas were included such as flame thrower ranges, hedgehog areas etc. Indeed the area used seems to have covered the whole of Saunton Burrows not just the area now occupied by the East and West courses. If you're in the Clubhouse enquire after the book, which is by MacKenzie and Ebert, as it contains quite a bit of information about Saunton generally including all the alterations that have happened on the East course over the decades plus details about Herbert Fowler, club/course timelines etc.
atb

Later edit - a recent photo taken from behind the 18th East green

[Thomas Dai]

Here is a link (from within the SGC website) detailing the changes made particularly to the East course during it’s history and also showing the various WWII activities all as shown in the M&E book mentioned above.
Very comprehensive and well worth a look - https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/60040459/saunton-historic-report-2017-07
Atb


Edit - old photos from the original pre-WW2 East course later added.


The exact location in the first photo is unclear. Wonderful view of the general aspect and terrain though.
The second photo is of the then 18th green - the hole played in from the right. This green is now in approx the same location as the current short-game practice area