Golfbymiss.com accepted an invitation from the R & A to play Royal St. George’s and host for this year’s Open Championship.

To coincide with the visit, two other golf clubs in Royal Cinque Ports and Princess, and lying at opposite sides to Royal St. George’s, also invited the media to play their courses.

It was three days of excellent weather on three super golf courses on the south-east England coastline in Kent.

Firstly, we took to Royal Cinque Ports located on the outskirts of Deal where www.golfbytourmiss.com was based for the three days.

Royal Cinque Ports was founded in 1892 and hosted the Open Championship in 1909 when J H Taylor won and then again in 1920 when George Duncan was presented with the claret jug.

However had it not been for World War 1 and 11 Royal Cinque Ports would have hosted the Open in 1915 and 1942 while strong seas flooded the course in 1938 and 1949 that saw the Open moved to Royal St. Georges.

If visiting the club, look for the photograph taken in 2002 of a young South African wearing a green jacket who captured the Brabazon Trophy that year. 

The same player was also fitted with a green jacket earlier this month.  His name is Charl Schwartzel.

Trevor Peake was not fitted with a green jacket but on this day, his 39 stableford points was good enough to win the AGW’s Ron Moseley Memorial Trophy for a second time in four years.

The sun was still shining brightly when Lynn Wallace from the R & A greeted us when we arrived at Royal St. Georges.

Royal St. George’s was the first course outside of Scotland to host the Open and it was named as the England rival to St. Andrews.

This year will mark the 13^th staging of golf’s oldest Major at Royal St. George’s since 1994 when J H Taylor won by five shots with a 326 total.

It’s simply amazing how well Greg Norman then played to win the Open at Royal St. George’s in 1993 with a final round 64 for a record-setting 267 total.

AGW Chairman, Bill Elloitt had just one point in 10 holes the day before but his 35 points was good enough to be presented with the prize later that night at a splendid dinner hosted by Royal St. Georges.

The R & A hosted its now annual pre-Open press conference early on Tuesday morning.

Peter Dawson, CEO of the R & A revealed this year’s Open Championship will play 100-yards longer than it did in 2003 while par for the course will be 70 compared to 71 when Ben Curtis won eight years ago.

A dozen hearty souls then headed off to Princes that adjoins the northern side of Royal St. Andrews as Bernhard Langer knows only too well when he put a ball out-of-bounds and onto Princess from the 14^th tee.

Princess boast three nines – Dunes, Shore and Himalaya’s – and those playing on Tuesday played the Himalaya/Shore combination.

Princess opened in 1906 and it was in 1932 when the club played host to the Open and won by American Gene Sarazen after being runner-up to Walter Hagen four years earlier at Royal St. Georges.

Unfortunately, the outbreak of World War 11 meant Princess never again staged the Open but it continues to host pre-qualifying for the Open as it will in July.

Many thanks to Andy Farrell and the AGW, Lynn and Malcolm from the R & A, Kent County Tourism, and three wonderful Kent golf courses in Royal Cinque Ports, Royal St. Georges and Princess for hosting us.

We now eagerly await the July 14th start to the 140th Open Championship.

Now enjoy some photographs from the visit to Kent’s ‘Regal Golf Coast’.