ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

Jeremy Ellwood heads back down to one-time Open venue Prince's on the Kent coast to check out the fruits of five years' hard work

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My ‘Open career’ started out unwittingly in the mid-1980s when my two golfing pals and I ventured down to Sandwich to take advantage of a ’27 holes and brunch’ offer at Prince’s Golf Club. I knew very little about golf history back then and certainly had no idea about the club’s 1932 Open Championship heritage. I have since played its three nines – Shore,

Dunes and Himalayas – scores of times and stayed in the Lodge, which opened a decade ago, on many occasions. Even those with a half-decent knowledge of Open history sometimes forget that Prince’s too is an Open venue along with neighbouring Royal St George’s and Royal Cinque Ports. Gene Sarazen introduced his new-fangled sand wedge to the world here en route to lifting the Claret Jug 90 years ago but today’s Prince’s bears little resemblance to the course over which he triumphed. Following extensive damage during World War II, the layout was redesigned and extended to 27 holes in the 1950s under the direction of Australian Sir Aynesley Bridgland. Although the majority of the original greens were incorporated into the three new loops, nearly all were approached from different directions.

Part of a very select group