Aerial of the Day #272 - 16 Dec 2002 (Royal St. George's)

[Scott_Burroughs]

Back to England or Wales again.

You see pics like this and thank G@d for land unfit for farming.

Looks like the wind and topography could eat your lunch if
your game's off a bit.

[John Morrissett]

Scott--

Do you know what the date is for this aerial?

I am curious about what appears to be central fairway bunkers on the 14th -- something new.  Has anyone here played the courses with these changes?

Thanks.
John

[Scott_Burroughs]

John,

I don't know the date of the aerial, as the source I use for
the England/Wales aerials, Multimap.com, does not put dates
on them, which is the same with mapquest.com, my source
for the color U.S. aerials.  Terraserver, my source for most of
the black & white aerials in the U.S. I use, does date
their aerials, which is a very nice feature.

I guess we'll see next summer  re: the new bunkers.  Is the
right side of #14 O.B.?  Because that would certainly help
make one's choice as to which side of the bunkers you would
choose to hit your approach shot.

BTW, how many par 5's are there here besides #14?  I don't
see too many other potential par 5's and they would be on
the short side.  Perhaps #7, 13, or 15?  Maybe #4?

[yogi_barry]

Did anyone brown-bag it today...?  For me, its Peanut Butter and Jelly...

[Chris_Hunt]

This is definitely one of my top 4 in the South.

The 7th is also a par-5.

Here is a look at the new central bunkering on #14...tightens up the layup for sure, and OB right is certainly brought into play more.



I love the contours on the 9th hole like a new born child.

[John Morrissett]

Scott--

Thanks.

The 7th is the only other par 5, and, yes, right of 14 is OB.  The 4th is 470 and all-world.

[Craig Disher]

Finally, one I've played.

#4 a par 5? In the prevailing SW wind, 5 is a good score for this absolutely fabulous par 4. The aerial doesn't show the 20-30' dunes that shape the hole.

The new bunkers on 14 look like they were always there - and should have been. I can't say I like the vertical rakes (a borrow from Rye?). They could have signs on them saying "don't hit here."

[Scott_Burroughs]

Next summer we will see who hits the hero-ic shots, gets on
a roll, and wins lots of dough.

If the U.S. gets Bin Laden, will our prez become an honorary
member here?

Another internet golf message board has the same initials as
this course.  There's even a few here who participate over
there.

Are those vertical rakes or just early-opening indicators that
there are new bunkers there ?

Thanks for the pic, Chris!

[ForkaB]

What amazes me is the incredible amount of space.  It is not something that I noticed when I played there.  You could easily build another great golf course in the middle of the old one.  But...........why?

[Tiny Tim]

14th green remodeled by Donald Steele (& team) about 2 years ago; presumably they added the cross bunkers?

[Eric Pevoto]

Where was the old sixth hole/green in relation to the current?

[David_Tepper]

This is the course named after a dragonslayer!
Question- What are the dark areas in the large light brown section at the bottom of the picture? Are those ponds?

[David_Tepper]

P.S. I believe that this is J. Nicklaus' least favorite course in the Open rota.

[Craig Disher]

The dark areas are ponds. Most of the links courses along this coast have them. An old-timer at one of the other courses told me they were caused by stray aerial bombs during WWII. I don't know if he was jerking me around or actually believed it. They are a natural feature. Until last year, with the low water table many were nearly dry.

Donald Steele did the bunker remodeling on #14.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Yet another British course with a 'sub'stitute name,
commonly known by the town it resides in.

Is this course fit for a king?

This one is not far from a prevous AOTD, just up the road.

Nothing like waking up to Peter Alliss on a mid-July weekend morning...

[yogi_barry]

By George I think I've got it!

[Scott_Burroughs]

This is Royal St. George's, in Sandwich, England.  Honestly,
I'm not quite sure who the architect is.  I didn't do that
research, as RSG doesn't have a web site (that I could find).  
Fowler?  Colt?  OTM?

Anyways, RSG is also commonly known by the tow name,
Sandwich.  Sandwich hosts the Open Championship in 2003.


other clues include:

"eat your lunch", "sub", "roll", "dough", "hero", "brown-
bag", "PB&J" all refer to sandwiches.

"we'll set next summer", "Peter Alliss next July", "Open" refer
to next year's Open.

"our prez" "an honorary member" = Royal St. "George"

"king" George

"By George"

"previous AOTD just up the road" = "Royal Cinque Ports"
aka "Deal''

[Robert Kimball]

Here is the GCA review (it has a good picture of the 4th hole bunker complex):

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/royalstgeorges1.html

[Paul Turner]

Sandwich, my fave!

The central bunkers on the Suez hole should work well.

Getmapping have a book of UK golf course aerials (using the multimap maps) and include some Scottish courses which aren't available yet on Multimap.  Unfortunately, the editing is appalling and at least 3 of the aerials are wrong.  Funniest of all being Cruden Bay, where they have an aerial of a course surrounded by housing and staked trees!  Has it been through a major redesign recently

Still there are some good aerials:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/000714413X/ref=sr_aps_books_1_3/202-6167980-5908653

[Scott_Burroughs]

Rob,

Thanks for posting the GCA write-up link.  I forgot to look if
there was one.  An interesting disparity is the difference in
the fairway leading up to the two fairway bunkers on #4 here:



vs. the apparent non-fairway in the aerial above (near the
lower right).  Or it's just soaked and dark.

[Craig Disher]

Scott,
RSG was designed by W. Laidlaw Purves in the late 1880s. He is most famous for being one of the founders and architect of Littlestone GC, just down the coast.  

[Scott_Burroughs]

bringing this back up as an accompaniment for Open week.