Chart Hills Golf Club is a championship
golf club
A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety ...
in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, located in
Biddenden
Biddenden is a large, mostly agricultural and wooded village and civil parish in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. The village lies on the Weald of Kent, some north of Tenterden. It was a centre for the Wealden iron industry and also of ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
.
History
The golf course at Chart Hills was designed by English golf great Sir
Nick Faldo and Steve Smyers. They created a big and attractive golf course, with acres of water and sand designed to challenge the very best of golfers. Smyers said: "You feel a great course, it thrills you and sometimes frightens you. But in the end, it will challenge the best in you." Opened in 1993, while Faldo was still an active player, it was his first design in Europe.
Chart Hills has regularly played host to a number of high-profile golf events. It is a
European Tour Qualifying School venue and has hosted
Ladies European Tour (LET) events, the
Ladies English Open (
2004–
07) and
Ford Golf Classic (
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
).
In between in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
, the club hosted the Kronenbourg 1664 Chart Hills Classic, a 54-hole LET event in late summer; Gina Marie Scott of New Zealand won in a playoff, over Isabella Maconi of Italy.
Ownership
Chart Hills was purchased by
Paul Gibbons in 1999 through his Leaderboard company, which also owned several other golf venues.
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In 2016, rapidly expanding hotel group, Kings Resorts completed the take over of Chart Hills for an undisclosed fee.
In 2019, Chart Hills was bought by Raymac Group; after undertaking substantial renovations led by golf architect Steve Smyers and Nick Faldo, it reopened in 2021.
References
External links
*
Faldo Design
– Chart Hills Golf Club
– Acquisition of Chart Hills
Golf clubs and courses in Kent
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