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Royal North Devon Golf Club (Westward Ho!)

Westward Ho!, Devon · Designed by Old Tom Morris (1864); revised by Herbert Fowler (1908) · Est. 1864

Royal North Devon, universally known by the name of its village — Westward Ho! — is the oldest golf course in England, founded in 1864, and the oldest links anywhere outside Scotland. It is often called “the St Andrews of the south,” and like the Old Course it is laid out on common land: the great open expanse of Northam Burrows, where local commoners still graze sheep and horses that wander the fairways to this day.

Old Tom Morris laid out the original links, and Herbert Fowler revised it in 1908. The course is a genuine piece of living history — flat, windswept and defended by two things you will find nowhere else: the enormous “great sea rushes,” fields of spiky reeds tall enough to swallow a wayward shot, and the famous Cape bunker. It plays to around 6,650 yards, par 72.

The club gave the world J.H. Taylor, the local boy who caddied here and went on to win five Opens. For a course of such staggering historical importance the green fee is remarkably modest — this is one of the great value rounds in British golf, and an essential pilgrimage.

Holes worth knowing

14th “Cape” — the drive must carry the famous Cape bunker, a huge sleepered hazard; one of the oldest and most storied holes in English golf.
2The great sea rushes — several holes are guarded by fields of towering spiky reeds unique to Westward Ho!; find them and your ball is simply gone.

Highlights

The oldest golf course in England (1864)
Old Tom Morris links on common grazing land
The unique “great sea rushes” and Cape bunker
Astonishing value for its historical importance

Good to know

→It is common land: sheep and horses graze the links under ancient commoners' rights and have right of way — play around them, and mind where they have been.
→The club produced J.H. Taylor, a Westward Ho! caddie who became a five-time Open champion; the clubhouse museum, one of the finest golf collections in Britain, is worth an hour.
→It is flat and open, so the wind is everything: keep the ball low, steer clear of the great sea rushes (a lost-ball hazard found nowhere else), and carry the Cape bunker at the 4th.
→The village of Westward Ho! — named after Charles Kingsley's novel, the only British place name with an exclamation mark — has a huge beach and a pebble ridge; Rudyard Kipling went to school here.
→For a course this historic the green fee is a genuine bargain; pair it with Saunton next door and Burnham & Berrow up the coast for a West Country links trip.