It's one thing being able to play one of these courses once, but being offered the chance to play the same one 3 times... in 3 days... for free... well, that is a great opportunity.
The course is quirky, bumpy, but a true test of golf. The course will test every shot in your bag by the time you stand on the 6th tee. Great mix of straight holes, slight doglegs and strategically challenge shots. A lot of people feel the humps and bumps make the course quite unplayable, which I can understand but as I enjoy creative, testing courses, I really enjoyed the challenge.
Look down the long, tough 15th hole
Best Hole:
4th. Unfortunately, the best hole may also be the toughest hole. The 4th hole welcomes you to the tee by dropping a sand-filled crater directly in your eye line (recently named the deepest bunker in championship golf). A blind tee shot is required to carry this bunker that positions itself like a overweight, stubborn child trying to take pride of place in a family picture. Once you tee shot is away, the hole only just begins. The green complex is the most extreme on the course and will happily reject any shot not up to par. Out of bounds is 5 yards over the green, and short will leave you a putt that will make the Valley of Sin (St. Andrews Old Course) look like a minor pitch-mark on a green. Make par here and feel free to boast about it for the rest of the day!
Worst Hole:
5th. To be specific the second half of the 5th. After a dramatic and testing start, you are severely tested off the tee at the 5th to then be presented with a bland, blind, boring second shot. No real trouble protecting a relatively flat, square green. Walking to the green has the feel of a practice area. Slight let-down after the opening holes, but seen as it is really only half of one hole, I will forgive Dr. William Laidlaw Purves (RSG's course designer)
Best Moment:
Tee Shot on 14. Out of Bounds down the entire right side of the hole... deep rough left... typically a strong left to right wind. Do whatever you need to do to safely send you ball fairway bound.
Unique Feature:
Thatched huts. One of the first thing you notice and one of the staples of the course is the thatched roof starter huts (see above). As with the entire Royal St. George's experience, these huts give you a polite welcome and a glimpse at how golf was played in the early days. The hut on the 13th tee is like nothing I have ever seen. A room in the middle of nowhere, you walk into what must be a 6 metre-squared room that looks and feels like a 19th century pub. The smell of the freshly baked sausage rolls is enough to make you rush your putts on the 12th green, and the members typically choose to accompany this delicacy with a warm Bovril and Sherry. Of course they do!
- The 8th hole played as the hardest hole on Tour in 2003 when the Open was here. Play this behemoth into the wind, and you will understand exactly why that was.
- Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books, was a member at Royal St. George's and until recently you could sit and read the first editions of his Bond books in the clubhouse. Following his death they were removed and put into a museum.
The unmistakable starter's huts by the 1st tee
Luckily I was granted that opportunity when my former high/senior school invited me to join the school's former-pupil team to compete in one of the longest running amateur events in the golfing calender, the Halford Hewitt. The Hewitt is a 4-day, 64 team knockout competition in which teams field 5 teams of foursomes (i.e. 10 players). The first rounds are split over Royal St. George's and Royal Cinque Ports (a fantastic links course in it's own merit and host to the 1909 and 1920 Open Championship), with the remaining 3 rounds taking place solely on the links at Deal (i.e. Royal Cinque Ports). 
The iconic Royal St. George's flag with the clubhouse in the background
Getting to Royal St. George's is a challenge on it's own merit. In the far south-east of England, about 1.5 hours from London, the drive takes you past the White Cliffs of Dover and from that point on, you feel you have stepped back in history. The long, winding, single-lane roads that lead to Royal St. George's only add to your anticipation of the course and pulling into the club is like pulling into a countryside residence of the Royals. The clubhouse has a homely appearance and feel to it and it is not until you walk around the back of the clubhouse that you get your first glimpse of those English flags (Royal St. George's is the only course that use the Royal St. George's flag on its greens).
Tee shot on the 5th hole
As with many Open Championship courses I have played, you arrive expecting to marvel at the galleries of mounds surrounding the course and pick out holes from one vantage point. Royal St. George's is not like that, in fact few courses really are. Although this is probably the only part of the experience that borders on disappointment.The course is quirky, bumpy, but a true test of golf. The course will test every shot in your bag by the time you stand on the 6th tee. Great mix of straight holes, slight doglegs and strategically challenge shots. A lot of people feel the humps and bumps make the course quite unplayable, which I can understand but as I enjoy creative, testing courses, I really enjoyed the challenge.
Look down the long, tough 15th hole
4th. Unfortunately, the best hole may also be the toughest hole. The 4th hole welcomes you to the tee by dropping a sand-filled crater directly in your eye line (recently named the deepest bunker in championship golf). A blind tee shot is required to carry this bunker that positions itself like a overweight, stubborn child trying to take pride of place in a family picture. Once you tee shot is away, the hole only just begins. The green complex is the most extreme on the course and will happily reject any shot not up to par. Out of bounds is 5 yards over the green, and short will leave you a putt that will make the Valley of Sin (St. Andrews Old Course) look like a minor pitch-mark on a green. Make par here and feel free to boast about it for the rest of the day!
Worst Hole:
5th. To be specific the second half of the 5th. After a dramatic and testing start, you are severely tested off the tee at the 5th to then be presented with a bland, blind, boring second shot. No real trouble protecting a relatively flat, square green. Walking to the green has the feel of a practice area. Slight let-down after the opening holes, but seen as it is really only half of one hole, I will forgive Dr. William Laidlaw Purves (RSG's course designer)
Best Moment:
Tee Shot on 14. Out of Bounds down the entire right side of the hole... deep rough left... typically a strong left to right wind. Do whatever you need to do to safely send you ball fairway bound.
Unique Feature:
Thatched huts. One of the first thing you notice and one of the staples of the course is the thatched roof starter huts (see above). As with the entire Royal St. George's experience, these huts give you a polite welcome and a glimpse at how golf was played in the early days. The hut on the 13th tee is like nothing I have ever seen. A room in the middle of nowhere, you walk into what must be a 6 metre-squared room that looks and feels like a 19th century pub. The smell of the freshly baked sausage rolls is enough to make you rush your putts on the 12th green, and the members typically choose to accompany this delicacy with a warm Bovril and Sherry. Of course they do!
The race for sausage rolls on the 13th tee
Trivia:
- The 8th hole played as the hardest hole on Tour in 2003 when the Open was here. Play this behemoth into the wind, and you will understand exactly why that was.
- Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books, was a member at Royal St. George's and until recently you could sit and read the first editions of his Bond books in the clubhouse. Following his death they were removed and put into a museum.
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