Littlestone Golf Club

Overview: On the Kent coast near New Romney, Littlestone is a classic links with firm sandy ground, wide horizons, and a mixture of running holes and strategic cross-bunkering. The course can look open from the tee, but the best route is shaped by the direction of the wind, the angle into its greens, and the placement of hazards across the fairway. It is a par-71 layout where the putting surfaces and their approaches carry unusual importance. The club describes a course that has remained close to its traditional character, with later tees adding length without replacing the older ground. The Romney Marsh setting gives the round a broad, exposed feel, while the individual holes gain definition from the work of Purves, Braid, and MacKenzie.

History: Golf has been played at Littlestone since 1888. The club's official history credits first captain William Laidlaw Purves and professional David Herd with designing a course across much of the same ground as today's links. James Braid later added bunkers, and Alister MacKenzie supplied an extensive programme of improvements in 1924, including work associated with several of the course's notable holes. Tee additions in 1997 increased the challenge for stronger players, but the club says the layout has otherwise remained nearly unchanged since MacKenzie's time.

Did You Know? Charles Blair Macdonald visited Littlestone in the early twentieth century, and the club records that its sixteenth hole influenced the famous fourth at The Lido. A surviving section of a Mulberry Harbour can also be seen from the seventeenth tee, linking the links to the wartime history of the Kent coast.