(This series is neither well planned or coherent. What it is, though, is the result of spending a few spare hours at Christmas 2021 looking through some recently located files of pictures, and thinking about my golfing journey to this point. I’ve been lucky to have played in some pretty special places, and made some lasting connections along the way, and year end seems as good a time to reflect back on a dozen of these as any. Who knows, it might inspire me to plan a few more exploratory trips for 2022…)
Later today, I will jump into the car, and drive west for a couple of hours to visit a course that has been recommended for both architectural integrity and charm, and these initial visits are what this reflective series is really all about - remembering the anticipation that builds when golfing a new venue, and using that as a motivator for finding new experiences in the world of golf, and building some more memories.
Just as the holes on some courses seem to blend into one, so with others the visits themselves do the same, but I will always recall when I first made it down to Royal Cinque Ports (“Deal” hereafter), in the summer of 2006, and it might as well have been this morning. I can almost smell the salty air, hear the ascending skylarks, as I climbed from the driver’s seat and looked for my host. We met, had a quick coffee (most things are done quickly at Deal, except lunch), and headed to the 1st tee, his guidance, and intimate knowledge of the links, built up over a couple of decades, an invaluable part of my initial, powerful attraction to the course.
It is sometimes a nervy experience, playing with a new golfing partner, and after he split the first fairway, seemingly oblivious to the right hand clubhouse, I took a safer line, at least in terms of glazing bills. A violent duck-hook was located within the clingy marram grass separating the 1st and 2nd carries, and from there a duffed recovery and a straight pull left me embarrassed and in trouble, ten yards left of a green with a dozen humps and hollows between me and the cup.
I holed it, of course, and can still see that “4” on the card today, and the look from my new golfing friend might as well be on the card too - it is so vivid. He missed, we halved, and shared the first of a thousand hearty laughs together. And that humour, that friendship, that acute sense of the absurdity of the game is never far away on the links at Deal, where our weaknesses and foibles are so exposed to the elements.
Later, we would head to the bar for a well-earned lunch, the sea air as always building a healthy appetite, and I would discover, after devouring the locally caught fish & chips, that my wallet was still on the bed at my parents’ place, half an hour up the coast. If these golden memories of that first encounter with Deal were ever to fade, I needn’t worry. The gentleman who bought my lunch is showing no signs of forgetting this detail, and he remains happy to fill in the gaps for anyone who will listen.
The course maintains a rough “out & in” routing, with a little loop to take in the delights of the halfway hut (from where an essential winter warmer, Shovril, can be ordered); yet the early holes manage to wriggle around, subtly changing direction until you reach the 12th tee, which is, when the prevailing wind is in town, where the golf course really starts.
From here, not only are you hitting balls into a south-westerly wind that can blow your bag over as you swing, but you face a number of holes that would feel long and tough played if played downwind (which I have done once in 15 years). Expect to hit a lot of very long second shots down this stretch, to greens that seem as if they were carved into the landscape by someone with a wicked need for revenge. Not that you are permitted to really comment on the gale force winds, though - the locals will dismiss any such talk from an “out-of-Townes” by suggesting that these are just light breezes rather than vengeful, additional opponents. Zephyrs, perhaps.
Like many clubs of this vintage, Deal is host to quite a bit of matchplay, and the drama of the back nine holes builds accordingly. Every year the Halford Hewitt crowd descends, for the world’s largest golf tournament, and the gentle 1st becomes a regular 19th, too, while the gallery watch from the balcony behind a battered and active flag. The Members play a lot of matches, too - weekend events like the Willingdon Foursomes a staple date in the annual diary for many.
I played in that once, and managed to avoid a first round defeat, if not a second round one, but there is of course a Consolation Foursomes for those sober enough to hear their alarm clock after a late night in town. Goodness knows what the locals make of being descended upon by this army of golf nuts, dressed in lurid blazers with the Club’s colours running across them, but one thing is certain. They will put some money into the coffers of any hostelries that accept them, severely depleting the claret stocks of the local area in the process.
The large honours boards throughout the clubhouse tell a thousand stories, but I note they are yet to create one for the Christmas 2009 Cross Country golf event, which my partner and I won, of course. To date, no-one has been harsh enough to suggest that, by regularly hitting the wrong fairways, I was effectively practising for that very event. Maybe I’ll buy my own board.
In the 15 years since that debut, and the infamous wallet issue, some of the happy times I’ve had at Deal have started to merge, our memories painting a fluid, impressionist landscape at times, but there are certain, recurrent themes that make me smile whenever the Club or the course are mentioned.
That sense of leaving your ego at the front door, for the great and the good must be humble in the face of the golf course, the weather, and the ever-present sense of humour that must form part of the Member-selection process.
The importance of story-telling in this as in all great Club environments, and here there are enough tales to last anyone out. With those greens, that wind, and these people for golfing company, no-one gets out alive, and it is in this history and all these traditions that a strong sense of community is built, and retained.
Then there is the conditioning. In that time, the Club has modernised, and as a result of good governance and recruitment the whole place has sharpened up while not losing all that is special about it. It is now in wonderful condition, whilst retaining the very natural feel of a traditional links within a SSSI.
It is so good to see this old place in such great shape, and I look forward to the next trip to my beloved Deal even more than I did that first one, but first, I have another journey to embark upon, another debut to make, and another batch of memories to create and cherish.
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Wonderful! This really captures the atmosphere at Deal, great read