It is fine golf that is to be had now on Kent’s eastern seaboard, and
each time one comes down into this neighbourhood with one’s bag of
clubs, the more one is strengthened in the conviction as to its equal
excellence with any other golfing district in the world, and the
abundance of its fine prospects for the future. The magnificent
character of the golf, chiefly that which is enjoyed under the
authority of the Cinque Ports Club at Deal, is becoming better known and
appreciated year by year, and even now the feeling is general that here
is one of the finest links that were ever made for a championship to be
played upon. The sister course of the Royal St. George’s Club is
practically joined up to it, and now a little farther along the bay in
the direction of Ramsgate is the new course of the Prince’s Club, and a
very fine course too. So here we have stringed together along a small
stretch of coast three of the very best courses that are to be found in
the whole world of golf--one which is actually a championship course, a
second which is perhaps by way of being so, and a third which may soon
be mentioned in the same connection. There is enough good golfing land
left in Pegwell Bay to make a fourth course, and some day not very far
distant it may be made. Nature has here given to the golfer every
natural advantage that it is possible to afford him in the preparation
of those seaside links, the contemplation of which brings the light of
pleasure into his eyes. Golf is great in our modern scheme of things,
and some have said, without irreverence, that they see the shaping hand
of Providence in short holes of such sporting quality as the Maiden and
the Sandy Parlour, in those glorious last four holes at Deal, and in all
that bumpy ground to be covered in approach play which calls for such an
abundant exercise of the wits of the thoughtful golfer, and inevitably
recalls to him some of the best characteristics of St. Andrews. So much,
indeed, does all this place look as if it were made for golf, and
intended to be a capital of golf, that a man with whom I played there
once was led, while we were waiting at one of the tees, to the remark
that if golf had never been invented it would surely have come to be so
as soon as intelligent men had wandered hereabouts, so direct is the
suggestion that is made by the nature and the contour of the land. One
finds it difficult--nay, even impossible--to think of a better stretch
of golfing land in the whole of England or Scotland, or anywhere where
there are three links of this quality joined up to each other, so that,
if so whimsically disposed, a golfer might play on from one to the
other, and make a triple round of fifty-four holes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account