Royal North Devon Golf Club

Royal North Devon at Westward Ho! is the oldest golf course in England, founded in 1864 and granted royal patronage in 1865. As Dan Davies, a member and golf writer, told the Cookie Jar Golf Podcast (Ep. 135, Jun 2022): "It's a cradle of English golf. It's the most unique club in the sense it's the friendliest place to ever go." The club's historian Robert Fowler joined Sam Williams and Bruce Critchley on Episode 154 (Sep 2022) to discuss its singular character—from the oldest club silver medal honours board in English golf to Taylor's Locker and the course's defining rushes.

Those rushes are inseparable from the experience. "If your ball goes anywhere near it, there is no way you can play out of it," the podcast notes. "It's essentially a localised water hazard." Yet the openness elsewhere creates a different thrill. Davies captured it: "You walk up to the green most of the time thinking, I hope I can lay putter on that. That's why I love playing at Royal North Devon—I can lay putter on that. Everywhere. I literally putt from rushes." The contrast between generous fairways and those penal rushes, plus council-owned land that prevents their removal, makes Westward Ho! unlike any other links.

The 13th hole—a ridiculously wide par five with a severely contoured green—has undone many in the historic Cashmere Cup. The club sits on flat land where "all you can see is one and eighteen, and then it all just disappears into the horizon." When the wind blows and the greens get shiny, it becomes a stern test. As one guest put it: "It nerves you back. I drove away thinking I really wanna get back down there again because I feel like I could play it differently."