Royal North Devon Golf Course

Overview: At Royal North Devon Golf Course, the links profile for Royal North Devon Golf Course is listed at 7000 yards and par 72. Old Tom Morris’s course is raw, open and unusually close to the conditions in which early links golf developed. The holes run through sand hills, sea rushes and rough with sheep and horses part of the landscape, while the wind and firm turf encourage low, creative shots. Sleepered bunkers and natural hollows create the main strategic questions. The course is less about polished uniformity than about reading a living coastal landscape and responding to its changing ground.

History: Royal North Devon dates to 1864, when Old Tom Morris designed the course for what was then called the North Devon and West of England Golf Club. The club received the Royal title in 1867 through the patronage of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, and adopted its current shorter name in 1910. The course remains played over the 650-acre Northam Burrows, with approximately 170 acres used for golf. Its long continuity makes it an important record of the nineteenth-century links tradition.

Did You Know? The clubhouse preserves a museum and the locker associated with J.H. Taylor, the three-time Open champion who grew up in the Westward Ho! area. The personal connection helps explain why Royal North Devon occupies such an important place in English golf history.