Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich is a links

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

course located in

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

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 ...

in South East

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 ...

. Prince's is immediately adjacent to the more famous

Royal St George's The Royal St George's Golf Club located in Sandwich, Kent, England, is a golf club in the United Kingdom and one of the courses on The Open Championship rotation and is the only Open rota golf course to be located in South East England. It has ...

golf club, and both clubs lie on the same stretch of coastline as nearby

Royal Cinque Ports Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club is an 18-hole links golf course in southeastern England, in the town of Deal in the County of Kent (the course is often known simply as "Deal"). Founded in 1892, its name derives from Deal's membership of an ancient ...

Golf Club. It is notable for hosting the 1932 Open Championship.

History

Prince's was financed by Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley, Bt and designed by Charles Hutchings, the 1902 Amateur Champion on land donated by the Earl of Guilford. It was completed late in 1906 as an 18-hole course, and was the first course designed to counter the significantly longer

Haskell Haskell () is a general-purpose, statically-typed, purely functional programming language with type inference and lazy evaluation. Designed for teaching, research and industrial applications, Haskell has pioneered a number of programming lan ...

ball. Club captain

A.J. Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the L ...

, a former

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...

, drove the first ball in the Founder's Vase in June 1907. The present-day 27-hole layout is the result of a 1950 re-design following war-time damage to the original course.

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

was very hard on Prince's, but Australian entrepreneur Sir Aynsley Bridgland intervened, engaging Sir Guy Campbell and John Morrison to re-design and restore the course. The new layout incorporated 17 of the original greens (but with most played from different directions to the original course), and eliminated any blind tee or approach shots. The re-design always envisaged a centrally located clubhouse, and this was finally opened in 1985 by

Peter Alliss Peter Alliss (28 February 1931 – 5 December 2020) was an English professional golfer, television presenter, commentator, author and golf course designer. Following the death of Henry Longhurst in 1978, he was regarded by many as the "Voice of g ...

, allowing the 27 holes to be played in three loops of nine holes, known as “Shore”, “Dunes” and “Himalayas”, each starting and finishing beside the new clubhouse. The original clubhouse still stands at the entrance to the course and adjacent to the 14th tee of Royal St. George's. It no longer serves as the clubhouse but instead has been completely renovated, called the Lodge, it opened in May 2012, with two adjoining buildings, which house 38 bedrooms, a brasserie and lodge. Prince's is notable for hosting the 1932 Open Championship, which was won by the American

Gene Sarazen Gene Sarazen (; born Eugenio Saraceni, February 27, 1902 – May 13, 1999) was an American professional golfer, one of the world's top players in the 1920s and 1930s, and the winner of seven major championships. He is one of five players (along ...

. Sarazen debuted his newly invented sand iron at the Championship, and his original club was on display at Prince's for many years, until insurance costs became prohibitively expensive. The greenside bunker beside the 9th green on the Himalayas course, a bunker he played from on his way to victory, was unveiled as The Sarazen Bunker in his honour by

Pádraig Harrington Pádraig Peter Harrington (born 31 August 1971) is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has won three major championships: The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Champ ...

in June 2011. Prince's is the only club to host The Open just once. The club remains an Open Championship Local Final Qualifying course, and hosted qualifying again in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

when The Open returned to Royal St. George's; Prince's professional golfer Francis McGuirk finished tied second to claim one of the three available spaces. Prince's has also hosted various other senior and minor professional tournaments, and a number of tournaments for amateurs, including the 1956

Curtis Cup The Curtis Cup is the best known team trophy for women amateur golfers, awarded in the biennial Curtis Cup Match. It is co-organised by the United States Golf Association and The R&A and is contested by teams representing the United States and ...

, the 2006

Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

(co-hosted with

), the 2006 Ladies' British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship, the 2008 Senior Open Amateur Championship (co-hosted with

Golf Club) and the 2013 Amateur Championship (co-hosted with Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club). Shelter, Princes Golf Course - geograph

The late WWII ace, Member of Parliament and 1949

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

captain Percy Belgrave "Laddie" Lucas was born in the old clubhouse at Prince's, his father being the first club secretary. During WWII, Lucas used his knowledge of the course to make an emergency landing after his

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...

was crippled over northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Today, a commemorative plaque by the 4th tee on the Himalayas course marks the spot where he landed. In memory of Lucas, Prince's hosts an annual golf tournament, the Laddie Lucas Spoon, for boys and girls aged 8–13 years.

Phil Mickelson Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer who plays for LIV Golf. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six Men's major golf championships, major championships: three Masters To ...

and

Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...

are both honorary life members of Prince's Golf Club. Ladies European Tour player

Helen Wadsworth Helen Wadsworth (born 7 April 1964) is a former Welsh professional golfer on the Ladies European Tour. Career Prior to turning professional, Wadsworth was runner-up in the 1990 Welsh Ladies' Amateur Championship, runner-up to Julie Wade in the ...

is a former member and played at Prince's as a junior. In August 2009 Troon Golf announced an agreement to take over course management at Prince's and the club has undertaken a number of renovations to the course.

Scorecard

Princes Golf Club Scorecard, Blue TeesSource:

The Open Championship

Prince's Golf Club hosted

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

in 1932. *Note: Superscript number besides the player's name is the number of the Open Championship in their respective careers.

References

External links

*
Official siteThe Open Championship 1932
{{coord, 51.2911, 1.3729, display=title Sandwich, Kent Golf clubs and courses in Kent The Open Championship venues Curtis Cup venues Dover District