Since 1894 fourteen golfers have raised The Claret Jug at Royal St George’s. J.H Taylor won the first championship outside of Scotland.  It is also a site that has seen both Harry Vardon and Walter Hagen win twice – Harry in a 36 hole play-off back in 1911. Then the rare sight of the opponent, Arnaud Massy gave up at the 35th hole. During the years the links country Sandwich have offered several stunning shows. 1934 Henry Cotton shot a 65 in the second round, and thus got a golf ball named after him, Dunlop 65. 1938 was the year of the big storm which did not only bring all the tents with it it also affected the scores. The victor, Reg Whitcombe’s last round was 78 shots. 1949 Harry Bradshaw Decided to hit the ball from a broken beer can on the fifth hole in the second round. By this he paid back dearly as he lost a shot on that and the lost the play-off against Bobby Locke. Not until 1982 did the championship return to Sandwich. Then the course had had several changes. One thing was that they had balanced the first and second nine, earlier there was a 500 yard difference. 1985 Sandy Lyle won after doing birdies on the 14 & 15th holes during the last round. 1993 the rain had made the course softer than usual and Greg Norman set a difficult record, when in the final round he went 13 under par. 2003 we remember Thomas Björn who the same as Jesper Parnevik had the chance to get the first Scandinavian title in a major. Thomas was however forced to strike 3 shots in the bunker at the 16th. 2011 was the year of rain and wind, the only one to master the course then was Darren Clarke.

Out out bounds

We search after balls in gardens, workplaces and in public places.
Theoretically, how crooked can you hit. We try out and are crasy off – and finish off with a birdie – how right can it be.
Out of bounds – ball and owner. In many cases the ball is ok but the one who hits the ball should be exchanged – immediately. Who decides? A paragraph, a secretary or common sense?
Sometimes the only thing that needs is a simple sign.

In hard wind, against a distant aim, with its low ball flight iron 3 is the perfect weapon for links. It is a weapon of precision, in the right hands… It was Seve Ballesteros first club. as a 10 year old he spent his days with the club down at the beach. There he learned shots no one ever had thought of. Phil Mickelson said that the first time he played with Seve was at Torrey Pines. At the 11th hole usually an iron 6 but in this case Seve decided to make a slice of 45 yards with the 3 iron before it landed on green and spun up against the flag. Mickelson loved what he saw, after that game the friendship between two geniuses were a fact. Seve even named his dog after Mickelson – Phil. With this memory braided in our head we place the 3 iron in the bag.

Gorse… They are in full bloom between Mars and June, with their charasteristic scent. Gorse is found in 20 different species, it is all in the legume family. Common gorse is what we are dealing with. It is not only there to hide pushed iron 2s, it is also extremely flamable. They might however be useful, a substance created from the gorse is used to identify people with the rare blood-type Hh, also called “Bombay blood group”. This specimen descend from Hayling GC and is part of the defence of the 15th hole. It was right at this hole that one of our ambassaders succesfully got a hybrid up on the green and from there make a gorse-birdie. Touché!