Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich is in Sandwich in Kent in South East England, on the same stretch of coastline as the more famous Royal St George's and Royal Cinque Ports clubs. It is a links style course with three sets of nine holes known as "Himalayas", "Shore" and "Dunes". The original 18 hole course was completed late in 1906, and club captain A.J. Balfour, a former British Prime Minister, 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.
Prince's is principally notable for hosting the 1932 Open Championship, which was won by the American Gene Sarazen. It is one of only two clubs to host The Open just once, the other being Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. The club remains an Open Championship Final Qualifying course (most recently in 2003). The club has also hosted various other senior and minor professional tournaments, and a number of tournaments for amateurs, including the 1956 Curtis Cup, the 2006 Amateur Championship (co-hosted with Royal St George's) and the 2006 Ladies' British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship.
The late WWII ace, Member of Parliament and 1949 Walker Cup captain Percy Belgrave "Laddie" Lucas was one of the most famous sons of Prince's and was actually born in the old clubhouse. There is even a commemorative plaque by the 4th tee on the Himalayas course which marks the spot where he used his local knowledge of the course to make an emergency landing after his Spitfire was crippled over northern France during WWII. Today an annual golf tournament, the Laddie Lucas Spoon, is held each year at Prince's for boys and girls aged 8-13 years.
[edit] External links
 |
This golf club or course-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
