Last week I returned from a 7 day golf tour to the South East of England with a friend of mine who happens to be the captain of the Hurlingham Club in Argentina. He just turned 50 and that was the perfect excuse to leave wifes and kids back at home. We played (in this order) at Royal St. George's, Littlestone, Canterbury, Royal Cinque Ports, Prince's, Rye and Sunningdale. This is just a report on my personal views of the courses and clubs we played and a few photos, but I am afraid you won't find any novelty in this thread.
We arrived at Heathrow on Thursday morning, picked up the car and headed for London to make a "de rigueur" visit to the Hurlingham Club (which is a beautiful oldfashioned club in the heart of London, but unfortunately no golf since they lost part of the grounds to the city back in the 40s). After a business meeting in London (somebody has to pay the bills), we drove to Sandwich, to the Bell Hotel which would be our base for the next week.
On Thursday we were scheduled to play at Royal St. George's. It was my friend's first encounter with an Open venue and unfortunately also his first encounter with typical English sunshine: it started raining when we were on the 3rd tee and lasted until we completed the 14th hole. It would not be the last close encounter with rain.
I have played RSG twice a year for the past 6 years. I love the atmosphere, the fact that it is an Open venue and the succession of blind shots, but I find the course a bit unfair (and a realize that golf is not supposed to be a fair game). There are certain holes in which you just have to hit it into one spot and a few yards right or left means you are dead. Nice to play once a year, but not every weekend.
A few pics, but again nothing that you have not seen before:
A view of the first tee:
The hut on the first tee and at the back you can see the 18th green:
My friend posing on the first tee (when it seemed that the weather would be nice to us). The putting green and the clubhouse can be seen at the far right.
That's me on the putting green:
The clubhouse seen from the putting green:
The first green:
Putting on the 14th, after the rain:
My friend putting on the same green:
The bunker on the left of the 17th green (the player in the bunker is the Argentine junior champion who played at the Duke of York Junior Champions Tournament while we were in the area):
After the round, trying to recover from the rigors of the weather: