Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club

Royal Cinque Ports est. 1892 is also a course with a lot of traditions, just like it's next door neighbour Royal St. Georges. Like the yearly Halford Hewitt tournament, the largest public schools championship in the world (648 players this year) where they even need to 'borrow' Royal St. Georges course to get the tournament done in time.

The clubhouse is very stately but still warm from atmosphere, where you feel welcome straight away, there are huge windows where you can see the players coming in and there is a wall with all the shields of the school from the Halford Hewitt tournament. There is a nice driving range from grass and a separate pro-shop building with great clothing. We also asked there for our pre-booked caddies Matt and Vince who where excellent! they saved us at least 10 strokes each, had great tips to improve and knew a lot about the course to make our experience even better.

The first hole starts a bit left of the clubhouse and plays right in front of it, it is the designated play-off hole with the members watching from the balcony. The 2nd - 9 holes you play like a typical links out with the sea on your right. Unfortunately they had to up the dyke so you don't really see the water anymore unless you are on one of the mounted back-tees. The 3rd hole is an amazing par 5 where you can see that most of the hole was already created by nature most impressive is the punchbowl shaped green that looks easy but can be really tricky. The fourth hole is a short par 3 where the right club selection is essential. Hole 6 is a relatively short par 4, in the right conditions drive-able if manage to hot the smallest green of the course. The 8th hole is my favourite par 3. A green surrounded by 6(!) pot hole bunkers makes this a shot not for the fainthearted, very beautiful!

On the tee of the 9th hole you can see the sea as you play back inland again. Left of the green is a halfway house to stock up on calories. The 10th plays back to the sea again where there is an other excellent view on the tee of 11. on the 11th about a 100 meters before the green you cross and old road, this was the Roman 'highway' to London, great that you can still see that. From hole 12 a potential brutal 7 holes start, normally these go straight into the prevailing wind. The 14th par 3 plays 200 yards from the members tee into a not so wide green, take an extra club! The 16th was my favourite hole on the course amazing green complex and very challenging your second shot needs to be exactly right otherwise you're in trouble. 18 doesn't look to complicated but the challenge is in the green that's far more undulated then you think.

So to conclude; Royal Cinque Ports is an amazing True Links course, only an hour away from the Chunnel/train to the continent super nice staff, great caddies and a super combination with Royal St. Georges and Prince's.

Deze baan behoort bij de absolute top qua linkscourses in Groot Brittannië.

Uitstekend onderhouden baan met zeer uitdagende holes.

Het is dat de toegangsweg smal is en weinig verkeer aan kan, anders zou Royal Cinque Ports, of Deal zoals de meeste Engelsen hem noemen, ongetwijfeld op de lijst van banen staan waar The Open kan worden gespeeld. Het is een links van het kaliber championship course. Er is afwisseling tussen de holes, er is ruimte, het ontwerp van de greens is geweldig en de finishing holes pal tegen de heersende windrichting zijn geschikt om de beste golfers van de wereld op de proef te stellen, met de 16e hole recent omgebouwd tot schitterende par 5. Het clubhuis heeft een sfeer die typisch Brits is en ademt aan alle kanten historie uit. Bestel als je 's ochtends speelt eerst een full English breakfast, dan heb je de rest van de dag geen honger meer. Op Deal kun je spelen als greenfeegast, maar beter is als je iemand kent die op een bekende kostschool heeft gezeten. Zij worden tegen lage kosten lid en blijven dat de rest van hun leven.

En gammel klassisk links bane og med de gamle dyder. Ville man spille i shorts så skulle man have lange strømer på op til knæene. For mange blinde teeslag hvor man skal kende banen for at vide hvor der er plads.

Gode greens.

A true links with all the british feeling I wanted to play since I first heard about it.

The whole experience is really worth, great course and magnificent club house.