The Demands of Deal - Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club

There's no grand drive or sweeping approach to Royal Cinque Ports. You turn off the coastal road into a quiet cul-de-sac, thread past a few houses and then almost apologetically the clubhouse appears. no fanfare, no gates, no hint that one of England's great championship links lies just beyond the dunes. It feels secret and perhaps that's the point. 

Few Courses have given the Open such dram, or endured such misfortune. When Royal Cinque Ports first hosted in 1909, the game was still young enough to believe that fairness and wind could coexist. J.H Taylor mastered both. His precision and patience earned him a fifth Claret Jug and confirmed Deal's reputation as a course that exposes any lapse in control. 

The open returned in 1920 and hosted one of the most improbable comebacks in Open History. George Duncan a mere thirteen shots behind after two rounds produced two stunning rounds on Saturday and Sunday to defat Sandy Heard. 

In the decades that followed it's become one of the most trusted qualifying venues, a place that launches careers, or potentially stops them in their tracks. It's not been without it's own challenges and has suffered at the hands of the sea at times making it unplayable in the past but those days are behind them now and this course is a delight, one with might but one that delivers a stunning challenge, doused in elegance provided by the clubhouse.