At the beginning of the last century, Sir Harry Mallaby – Deeley, founder and first president of Prince’s Mitcham and a regular golfing visitor to East Kent, decided to establish a new links at Sandwich that would, in particular, welcome lady, junior and family golfers. With his Cambridge University friend Percy Montague Lucas he put up most of the capital for the enterprise, the land being donated by the Earl of Guilford. Charles Hutchings, the 1902 Amateur Champion, was engaged as architect and he and Percy laid out the course in 1904. It was completed late in 1906, P M Lucas became the club’s first secretary and A.J. Balfour (Prime minister 1902-05) drove the first ball as club captain in the Founder’s Vase in the following June. The new course was the first designed to counter the new Haskell ball and at just under 7000 yards was enthusiastically received by the golfing fraternity. Just five years later it hosted the 1912 English Ladies Open, won by Miss M Gardner.
In 1950 Sir Guy Campbell and John Morrison were engaged to redesign and restore the course. Despite the wartime damage it was found possible to incorporate 17 of the original greens into a new layout of 27 holes plus two practice holes. The 1954 Dunlop Masters, won by Bobby Locke, was the first major event to be staged over the new layout whose modern redesign eliminated any blind tee or approach shots. The course was again well received except by a few who had particularly fond memories of the original layout. Through the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s leading amateur and professional championships were held at Prince’s including the Curtis Cup, British Ladies Open and the PGA championship, with Peter Alliss claiming two tournament victories.
The Open Championship returned to Royal St Georges in 1981 and Prince’s was chosen for final qualifying, as it was in 1985, 1993 and 2003. 1993 Final Qualifying was won by Howard Clark, while in 2003, Ian Woosnam chipped in for a birdie at the first hole of a five-way play off to secure a start in the Championship.
The 1950 redesign always envisaged a new, centrally located, clubhouse and this was finally opened by Peter Alliss during the 1985 Open. With the construction of just one new green this enabled the 27 holes to be played in three loops of 9 holes, known as the “Shore”, “Dunes” and “Himalayas” courses, each starting and finishing beside the clubhouse. Competitions and championships can be played over any of the three combinations, though several further permutations of course are possible. 2003 Final Qualifying was played over the “Shore / Dunes” combination which measured 7145 yards without the addition of any new tees.
Two years ago the watering system was completely upgraded to include a large capacity reservoir, automatic weather station and a thousand sprinklers. Over the twelve months preceding the 2003 Open Championship, the “new” clubhouse was considerably extended and totally refurbished. It now offers facilities of a standard to complement the quality of the golf course, which was considered “the finest links course” by Henry Cotton and “Britain’s finest course” by Gene Sarazen.
Only 14 courses have ever had the honour of staging an Open Championship. Three of the five “Grand Slam Winners” have walked Prince’s fairways and all those who wish to follow in their footsteps will be assured of a warm welcome.
