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Playing history
North Devon is home to two of the UK’s most historic - and beautiful - golf courses, including the oldest course in the country. Jo Rees donned her spikes to investigate.
‘I am a huge fan of Saunton’ said Nick Faldo in a recent testimonial for Saunton Golf Club. ‘Framed by magnifi cent sand hills, it is a classic links course where the character of the terrain and the vagaries of a near ever-present wind combine to create a wonderfully absorbing challenge.‘
Praise indeed from one of golf’s biggest ever stars, but it doesn’t surprise Brian Perks, Saunton Sands Hotel’s golf coordinator who says, ‘We’ve seen some of the best players in the world here at Saunton over the years, because it’s a fantastic course in a spectacular natural environment.’
The club, which is right next door to the hotel and the setting for the English Amateur Championship in 2014, has two eighteen hole courses – the East which is the more challenging and longer of the two (‘a true links course’, says Brian), and the West with its even more spectacular scenery.
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www.sauntonsands.com 01271 890212
The club was fi rst established on the site in the 1890s and the clubhouse that’s still in use today was opened in 1929, when the site was beginning to gain a reputation as one of the fi nest links courses in the country. If you like a side order of history with your golf, then Saunton Sands Hotel also makes a good base for a trip to the Royal North Devon Course at Westward Ho!. It’s the oldest golf course in the country, with a fantastic clubhouse fi lled with original memorabilia, making it a Mecca for enthusiasts of the game.
‘People travel from all over the world to play in North Devon for the history as well as the quality of the golf, says Brian. ‘It’s home to three of the world’s great mature links golf courses. And whatever standard people play at, we can customise the golf to suit. Saunton has got a good practice range, chipping area, bunker area, putting greens – all the facilities you’d expect to fi nd at such a historic club.’
Of course at the end of a day on the fairways, what every golfer wants is a good meal and comfortable bed, and the hotel provides that in spades. Plus there’s the opportunity for a relaxing swim in the pool, the chance to unwind in the large new aroma sauna or to get a professional massage ready to get you ‘tee-d up’ for another day’s play.
‘People travel from all over the world to play in North Devon for the history as well as the quality of the golf.’
Photograph by Neville Stanikk
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