Royal St George's: the visitor's guide

What it is

Royal St George's is a members' links club on the edge of Sandwich, Kent, founded in 1887 by the surgeon Dr William Laidlaw Purves, who set out to build an English equal to St Andrews. Seven years later, in 1894, it became the first club outside Scotland to host The Open. It has staged the Championship 15 times since, more than any course outside Scotland, most recently in 2021 when Collin Morikawa won his first Open. It is ranked 6th in the UK and Ireland by NCG and 11th by Golf Monthly.

How the course plays

The course is par 70 and, adding up the single published yardage for each hole on the club's own site, plays to 7,204 yards, a total close to what the course has measured for recent Opens. Golf Monthly separately reports a course rating of 75.2 off the back tees, a stiff figure against that par.

The round sets out its stall from the first: a drive has to clear a valley known as the Kitchen before an approach to a green guarded on three sides by bunkers. The 4th plays past the Himalaya, a bunker reported to be one of the tallest in Championship golf, before a green squeezed by out-of-bounds. The par-5 14th, Suez Canal, has out-of-bounds down the right and a stream cutting across the fairway. The course is built across open dune land exposed to wind off the Channel from most directions, which is as much a factor in how it plays as any hazard.

Diagram to followSimple diagram of the par-5 14th, Suez Canal, showing out-of-bounds down the right and the stream crossing the fairway

History and a few facts

Fifteen Opens have been played at St George's since 1894, won by names including J.H. Taylor, Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Sandy Lyle and Greg Norman. Darren Clarke won at Sandwich in 2011 and Collin Morikawa in 2021, the club's most recent Open. No future Open at Royal St George's has been announced; the R&A's confirmed hosts for the next two Opens are St Andrews and Royal Lytham & St Annes. The club has, though, confirmed a first for itself: it will host the AIG Women's Open for the first time in 2027, having never staged a women's major before.

The club describes itself as intending to be an English equivalent of St Andrews when Purves founded it, and the cross of St George still flies from every hole outside Open week, a detail the club itself points to as a mark of how little the place has changed in character since. Along with the men's and women's Opens, the club has also run the Amateur Championship and other national events over the years, though it does not publish a full list of every championship played there.

Playing it as a visitor

Royal St George's takes visitors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You need a handicap index of 18.4 or less, checked when you arrive. The 2026 green fee is £400 a person in September, dropping to £215 from October to December; the club has already published rates for 2027 (£235 in March and in October-November, £430 from April to September and on Tuesdays in August) and for 2028. Every green fee includes lunch in the Dining Room.

Bookings for 3-balls and 4-balls go through the club's own online system; for a single golfer or a 2-ball, you email the club directly. Payment is taken in full when you book, and cancellations are only partially refundable, and only up to six months before your date. The club runs a Caddiemaster service and recommends a caddie, both to carry and to read the wind on an exposed course, though no fee is published on the visitor pages. Dress is more formal than many links clubs: golfing attire is fine in the clubhouse before 11:00, but after that gentlemen need a jacket, collared shirt and tie, and shorts on the course require knee-length socks.

Getting there

The club sits on the edge of Sandwich, reached off the A256 towards Ramsgate or the A257 towards Canterbury and Dover. Sandwich's own railway station, on Southeastern's Kent Coast line, is about 1.1 miles from the clubhouse. Kent has no major airport of its own: Lydd, a small general aviation field, is the closest at around 29 miles away, but has very limited scheduled service; London City, at around 59 miles, is the nearest airport most visitors flying in would actually use.

Where to stay

The Bell Hotel and The Lodge at Prince's, at the neighbouring Prince's Golf Club, are both a little over a mile from the clubhouse. The Blue Pigeons, in the village of Worth, is a short drive away, and The Five Bells in Eastry and Knowlton Court, further out towards Canterbury, are both listed on the club's own recommended accommodation page.

When to go

Royal St George's is priced by season rather than by month-by-month demand: the 2026 rate is highest in September and drops for the October-to-December window, and the published 2027 and 2028 rates follow the same shape, cheapest either side of the main April-to-September season. As with any exposed links on the Kent coast, wind is the biggest variable in how firm and how testing the course plays on any given day.

Events

Royal St George's will host the AIG Women's Open for the first time from 28 July to 1 August 2027, its first women's major after 15 men's Opens. Details of tickets and volunteering are still to be released by the R&A; see the club's AIG Women's Open page or aigwomensopen.com for updates. No other competitions or Open dates are currently listed beyond the regular visitor timetable on the club's green fees page.