Report on a trip to South East England

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

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:

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Thank you for sharing this with us. I look forward to more.

[Brent Hutto]

I agree with the "unfair" comment about Royal St. Georges. That element is part of its charm but I can imagine it could mean a struggle to contain ones emotions if taken in large, steady doses.

The tee shot on the thirteen in any sort of breeze at all is extremely vexing, for instance.

[Bill_McBride]

Ricardo, a great week of golf!   I think of that run of courses along the coast - Rye, Littlestone, Royal Cinque Ports, Royal St George's, Princes - as a necklace with five jewels!  Each course is a bit different, all are great fun to play.   Staying in the dormy house at either Rye or Deal is a treat.  I haven't played either course at Sunningdale so look forward to your thoughts about playing there.  

Cheers,
Bill

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

On our second day, we headed to Littlestone. We knew that this is a different type of club, less "fancy" than RSG. However, it is true links golf. Very warm atmosphere. The guys both at the bar and at the proshop were extremely nice. Apart from the length and maintenance (bear in mind that Littlestone has no irrigation system), the main difference that you would point out with RSG is that Littlestone is generally flat. Not that there no elevations at all, but in general there are no huge sandhills like in RSG or perhaps Rye. Littlestone has its share of few blind shots, but they are few. Fairways and greens also tend to be flatter or have less undulations than for example Royal Cinque Ports. You could say that at Littlestone pretty much you get what you see. It is a fun course to play, although not a championship course.

The weather was much nicer and we even saw something resembling the sun  . Here are a few pics.

On the first tee, with the clubhouse behind:


A view from the clubhouse towards the putting green and the 18th green.


A general view of part of the links:

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

On Sunday we had a break on links courses and we headed to Canterbury, following a suggestion by some GCAs admirers. I must say that was a great suggestion! Beautiful layout, great fun to play. The course is full of hills, ups and downs, doglegs, surrounded by trees. There are some spectacular holes. It is really worth the trip. The only hole we didn't like is the 8th, a short par 3 which in the middle of the fairway has square-trimmed trees. They look awful and unnatural. The hole would do much better without them.

A few pics, starting with the Cathedral:



On the first tee:





Some of the holes at Canterbury:

[Mark Chaplin]

Ricardo - you got unlucky with the weather, Kevin Cahoon from Flossmoor is here this week and it's 18-20 degrees, sunny and very light breezes! He's still in 100 hole hike mode - running first thing, then between 36 and 45 holes a day.....

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

Mark,

Why is it that all my English friends always tell me that every time I go to the UK (and I'm there quite often), it's the only rainy week in the entire year? Is it that the cloud follows me and the rest of the year England is a sunny, almost Caribbean like country?  
Wait until you read my report on my first round at Deal.

PS: you can be sure that Deal is a terrific course, because after all the water we received on Monday, we woke up at 6 am on Wednesday to be able to play another round in the morning, before moving to Rye to play another 18 holes. And I can't wait till my next visit.

[Bill_McBride]

Those Canterbury holes look claustrophobic!

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

Those Canterbury holes look claustrophobic!

Bill,

It's a fantastic course. It looks narrower than it really is, although you're better off being straight, but that's more or less the point everywhere, isn't it?

[Mark Bourgeois]

I love these travelogue posts. Thank you for sharing, Ricardo. Perhaps the English weather seems even worse coming from the sunny climes of Argentina?

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

Fourth day, Monday, and we headed towards the Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club, of which I recently became an overseas member. It would be my first time there. If the Club wanted to test if I am a serious golfer, they couldn't have made it better. The worst storm in months and it had to be precisely on that day! Miserable is an understatement. All the groups behind us went back to the Club. The guys at the proshop thought there was nobody left on the course (who would be so mad to play under those conditions) and even called the guy at the halfway bar and told him to leave. But the two Argies proudly resisted and played the full 18 holes. We couldn't find a better way to test our DryJoys rainsuits and discover that they are absolutely useless. It was like wearing nothing at all. Not a single part of my body stayed dry, not even humid: completely soaked from tip to toe.

But first things first. We arrived as in all other Clubs more than 2 hours before our tee time, to have plenty of time to browse the proshop and visit the bar. In this case we had more reasons, since it was my first time in my new Club. Very charming clubhouse, good food, very lively indeed for a Monday. In the proshop they told us that it was supposed to stop raining around 2 pm. But it seems they were talking about France. After having lunch in the clubhouse, it was our time and we headed to the course: windy, rainy, cold. Despite all that, we played each and every hole and we couldn't enjoy it more. What a terrific course. The undulations in the fairways and those greens. They are absolutely perfect. I can't understand how is it that the Open has not returned to Deal yet. I know all that junk about the space needed for modern Opens, but I am sure the R&A can do better and manage it. The course certainly deserves it. We were absolutely fascinated by the course. So much that we thought that it deserved to be played under better conditions, and we returned on the following Wednesday, very early in the morning, although we had to play Rye in the afternoon. But it was worth the effort.

Here some pics:

The clubhouse


The view from the balcony:







The interior:

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

And now to the pics of the real thing (some were taken in the second round, with no rain and new rainsuits):

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

I love these travelogue posts. Thank you for sharing, Ricardo. Perhaps the English weather seems even worse coming from the sunny climes of Argentina?

It's not always sunny down here, but compared to England, even my shower seems dryer.  

I am now more inclined to believe the Irish when they told me that it never rains in Ireland; it blows in from England.

[Sean_A]

...we headed towards the Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club, of which I recently became an overseas member...

Chappers strikes again.

Ricardo - thanks for the quick rundown.

Ciao

[Scott Warren]

Ricardo,

I'm glad you made time to play at Canterbury. It's a great course, especially its set of par threes.

I agree the tpiary bushes on the 8th are a bit silly, but that hole has a fantastic green.

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

Ricardo,

I agree the tpiary bushes on the 8th are a bit silly, but that hole has a fantastic green.

Scott,

I completely agree with you. The 8th has a fantastic green and would be an excellent hole without the bushes.

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

Ricardo,

Did you manage to get any more snaps of the honours boards? Would be particularly keen to see one of recent Royal Marine's Cup champions  

Bummer about the weather but I know you had a blast. Looking forward to seeing you down there on your next trip - keep us posted.

Cheers,
B.

Come on Brian, you are English, irony is part of your way of life as much as tea. Apart from that, you have such a beautiful country that we don't get many opportunities to tease the English. You have to take every opportunity you get!

We were about to take a picture of the honor board of the Royal Marines Cup until we heard a voice saying: "don't bother sir, that's not an important tournament".  

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

Ricardo et al, what's your view on those big green bushes to the right of 13 at Deal? I would love to see them cleared, they are unsightly and entail instant lost ball!

Strange comment, Brian. Did anybody tell you that I lost a ball in the first round in those $%&ing bushes? Or are you retaliating on my remarks on English weather?

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

After our round at Deal, Mark Chaplin was kind enough to come to the Club to have some drinks. We had a nice time and I got the club's tie!

On Tuesday it was Prince's turn. We played its 27 holes but didn't find the course of any particular interest. It is not a bad course, but in my view lacks the greatness of RCP or RSG. To be honest, I wouldn't include Prince's in any golfing tour.

A few pictures of the course:














A nice view of the White Cliffs at Ramsgate:

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

Ricardo: there are few worse insults than calling an Irishman English!

Ups, sorry about that! You can call me Brazilian in return.

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

I've only played there twice and my judgment can be considered biased because those bushes caused me to lose a ball, but if that makes you forget me calling you English, I'll certainly go with you on that one.

[Thomas Dai]

Ricardo,

This is a very nice report. Thank you for sharing it with us.

You mentioned some other courses you played on this trip.

Which other courses have you played on your previous visits and what did you think of them?

All the best.

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

Thomas,

In this trip we played another round in Deal and we played Rye and Sunningdale Old. I will complete the report in the next few days (work permitting).

I havenīt played that many courses in England, I go mainly on business to London. I do play Royal St. George's every year. I played once at Roehampton, which is just an average course. In GB&I I played the European Club, the K Club Palmer course, Portmarnock and Loch Earne. The European Club is a fantastic course. I like more Royal Cinque Ports and Royal St. George's, but the European is terrific course.

The K Club Palmer is more an American type of course. Nice, but nothing that blew my head. I expected more about Portmarnock, because it has such a great fame. In my view it is a very good course, but I wouldn't play there again. Loch Earne is a very scenic course and that gives it additional points. The views of the lake are fantastic and I had a great time there. I would definitely play there again if I had the chance.

[Mark Chaplin]

Brian the bush is original to the course, there used to be a massive farmhouse hard to the right of the bush. There's 60 yards of in play land left of the bush so aim a little left and enjoy and a little historical timber from a distance! You defending the Royal Marines?

Ricardo it was a pleasure to welcome you to Deal and look forward to catching up before too long.