Like a few other courses that I saw during my time in the UK, Royal North Devon, a.k.a. Westward Ho! (the ! is the town’s name and is obligatory), has undergone some changes since my visit in the summer of 2016. While changes at other courses like Swinley Forest and Liphook were discretionary, those at Royal North Devon have been necessitated by the ever shifting coastline, which has started to consume the dunes around the seventh green and the flat lowland of the eighth hole. Many have lamented the coming loss of the seventh green and especially the ninth in its current form (there doesn’t seem to be much grief for the eighth), but golf courses are a part of nature and the seas and coastline are ever-shifting, even before our present era of climate change.
I won’t comment on the proposed new holes but I don’t believe that they will change the spirit of this place, which, even though I only played it one time, is one of the closest to my heart of any that I’ve seen. It’s a bit hard to explain; it’s certainly a links course, being on poor sandy soil next to the see that’s unusable for farming. But with a few very notable exceptions, it has some of the flattest fairway not only of any links course, but of any course. And if you’ve read my review of Saunton’s East Course, you know that I’m not a fan of flat fairways on a links course. But unlike the two Saunton courses in July 2016 after a wet spring and early summer in the southwest of England, the flat fairways of Royal North Devon played like an airport runway. It was my first experience with truly firm and fast fairways.
So I think that that was part of my fondness for the course. But more than that, I think that it’s about the way that this course sits on the land and is part of its surroundings. I don’t think that I’ve seen another course that’s so perfectly in sync with its surroundings. Like many other courses in the west, much of it is on common land, so the sheep are ever-present. But it’s the architecture that sticks with me the most. Everything is so simple. I’m amazed by a hole like the thirteenth, which is on I think the flattest piece of land that I’ve ever seen for a golf hole but with a few scoops of dirt for some bunkers and a mound on which to build a green, manages to be as interesting as many holes on the most dramatic terrain. I’ve never seen a course that gets so much out of so little. I’ve never seen a course that imposes so little on its surroundings. Like Cleeve Hill, if they stopped maintaining the golf course, it’d probably still be recognizable and playable in 25 years (if the sea hasn't devoured it by then).
Royal North Devon is also the oldest course in England, operating since 1864. The clubhouse has a library appropriate for such a storied place and a true lover of the game could spend a weekend here, not set foot on the golf course, and still be completely satisfied. But if you do go out on the golf course, golf course aside, you’ll experience yet another thing that endeared this place to me: a course packed with four balls where the pace of play will still be under four hours and with which your two ball of Americans will struggle to keep up.
Someone visiting Royal North Devon for the first time who’s seen the course’s lofty place in the English course rankings will probably stand on the first tee, look out over the first fairway, and think ‘What the hell is this? This isn’t a golf course, let alone a great golf course. It’s grazing land for some sheep.’ While the drive on this ~500 yard par 5 is easy, the hole gets more interesting near the green. The burn that runs up the right side crosses the fairway at a diagonal starting at 85 yards from the middle of the green and running just short and left of it. For someone who’s hit a good drive and can go for the green, it really gives you something to think about. When I played, the hole played into the wind and it gave be something to think about on my 8-iron third shot.
I won’t comment on the proposed new holes but I don’t believe that they will change the spirit of this place, which, even though I only played it one time, is one of the closest to my heart of any that I’ve seen. It’s a bit hard to explain; it’s certainly a links course, being on poor sandy soil next to the see that’s unusable for farming. But with a few very notable exceptions, it has some of the flattest fairway not only of any links course, but of any course. And if you’ve read my review of Saunton’s East Course, you know that I’m not a fan of flat fairways on a links course. But unlike the two Saunton courses in July 2016 after a wet spring and early summer in the southwest of England, the flat fairways of Royal North Devon played like an airport runway. It was my first experience with truly firm and fast fairways.
So I think that that was part of my fondness for the course. But more than that, I think that it’s about the way that this course sits on the land and is part of its surroundings. I don’t think that I’ve seen another course that’s so perfectly in sync with its surroundings. Like many other courses in the west, much of it is on common land, so the sheep are ever-present. But it’s the architecture that sticks with me the most. Everything is so simple. I’m amazed by a hole like the thirteenth, which is on I think the flattest piece of land that I’ve ever seen for a golf hole but with a few scoops of dirt for some bunkers and a mound on which to build a green, manages to be as interesting as many holes on the most dramatic terrain. I’ve never seen a course that gets so much out of so little. I’ve never seen a course that imposes so little on its surroundings. Like Cleeve Hill, if they stopped maintaining the golf course, it’d probably still be recognizable and playable in 25 years (if the sea hasn't devoured it by then).
Royal North Devon is also the oldest course in England, operating since 1864. The clubhouse has a library appropriate for such a storied place and a true lover of the game could spend a weekend here, not set foot on the golf course, and still be completely satisfied. But if you do go out on the golf course, golf course aside, you’ll experience yet another thing that endeared this place to me: a course packed with four balls where the pace of play will still be under four hours and with which your two ball of Americans will struggle to keep up.
Someone visiting Royal North Devon for the first time who’s seen the course’s lofty place in the English course rankings will probably stand on the first tee, look out over the first fairway, and think ‘What the hell is this? This isn’t a golf course, let alone a great golf course. It’s grazing land for some sheep.’ While the drive on this ~500 yard par 5 is easy, the hole gets more interesting near the green. The burn that runs up the right side crosses the fairway at a diagonal starting at 85 yards from the middle of the green and running just short and left of it. For someone who’s hit a good drive and can go for the green, it really gives you something to think about. When I played, the hole played into the wind and it gave be something to think about on my 8-iron third shot.

Over a fence into a mundane landscape. But there are many subtleties and you'll be rewarded if you try to notice and appreciate them. Though there were four of them and three/two (third ended his round early), we had a difficult time keeping up to the four 70+ year olds in front of us. So did the dog.
The long par 4 second is one of Royal North Devon’s toughest. It doglegs gently to the left and a burn/road run along the right side of the fairway up to just short of the green. If you try to cut the corner, there’s marshy junk up the left side. This hole was made especially difficult by the into wind quartering from the left. I thought that the green was excellent—slightly elevated with much subtle contour.
The drive on the medium-long par 4 third is a very English experience, over a busy road that leads to a beach just left of the fairway. It’s also one that presents a big decision; there are two bunkers that bisect the fairway at about 260 yard. If you can’t carry them, you’ll have a mid-iron approach to a large green with flanking bunkers front-right and left.
One thing that I haven’t mentioned about Royal North Devon is that while the course fits with its surroundings better than almost any I can think of, there are a very memorable manmade impositions--none more than the bunker off the 380 yard par 4 fourth tee. It’s only about a 165 yard carry from the regular tees but that was enough to get both of my playing partners to aim right of it…one not so successfully as we can see below.
While I went on about the flatness of the course in my introduction, this and the next few holes are quite bumpy. The undulating green sits below the fairway and is well-guarded in front by several bunkers. It’s a pretty easy hole for most as you can just bomb away off the tee without consequence, but it’s certainly not one without its charms.
The routing does a switchback with the short par 3 fifth to bring us into the course’s short but glorious stretch in the dunes. This hole played directly into a good two club wind and with the green being elevated and surrounded by bunkers, it was among the more treacherous 130 yards of golf hole that I’ve played.
Then we come to the mid-length par 4 sixth, which is just as good a golf hole as I’ve ever seen. This may be best 400 yards of golfing terrain in the world. It’s the bumpiest fairway that I’ve ever seen. Have a look at this hole (and all the others on the course) on YouTube.
But it’s also not just about the greatness of the land. This is strategically one of the best holes that I’ve ever played. While it appears that you can hit it anywhere off the tee, the fairway has just enough bunkers demanding much care. There are two barely visible pot bunkers about 210 yards out just left of the fairway, then another ~275 out in the left center, then two more that bisect the fairway at about 310.
Ok, but there’s nothing between the bunkers on the left at 210 and that at 275. That’s the direct line to the green, so lets’ just drive it there. Well, look a bit further to the green. What do you see? It’s higher on the left than it is on the right. If you play up the left side of the fairway, you’ll be playing down the slope of the ground which, because the course is firm, is not a good idea. So you should drive it up the right side of the fairway to play your approach more into the slope. And this is more true than you can realize from the tee because the green is deep and narrow and the low ground to its right is actually a steep drop-off—the green is built up on a plateau. Right-center is what you want here.
Actually the strategy creates a bit of a moral hazard here because the optimal landing area is very close to the tenth green, about 270 out from the tee. They should put something nasty over there which would both discourage that and create an additional challenge for those trying to find the optimal spot in the fairway.
But it’s also not just about the greatness of the land. This is strategically one of the best holes that I’ve ever played. While it appears that you can hit it anywhere off the tee, the fairway has just enough bunkers demanding much care. There are two barely visible pot bunkers about 210 yards out just left of the fairway, then another ~275 out in the left center, then two more that bisect the fairway at about 310.
Ok, but there’s nothing between the bunkers on the left at 210 and that at 275. That’s the direct line to the green, so lets’ just drive it there. Well, look a bit further to the green. What do you see? It’s higher on the left than it is on the right. If you play up the left side of the fairway, you’ll be playing down the slope of the ground which, because the course is firm, is not a good idea. So you should drive it up the right side of the fairway to play your approach more into the slope. And this is more true than you can realize from the tee because the green is deep and narrow and the low ground to its right is actually a steep drop-off—the green is built up on a plateau. Right-center is what you want here.
Actually the strategy creates a bit of a moral hazard here because the optimal landing area is very close to the tenth green, about 270 out from the tee. They should put something nasty over there which would both discourage that and create an additional challenge for those trying to find the optimal spot in the fairway.

Here's an overview, with the tee on the left and the green on the right. While the angle of the green suggests that the optimal angle in is from the left side, the land around it generally slopes left-to-right, so right off the tee is better. The land is so good that you can even see it on Google Earth.

The land leading into the green is outstanding. I had a poor angle from the left side of the fairway and pushed my wedge, but I actually got an odd kick off the ridge short-right of the green left and onto the green. I would not try to play for this. There's a deep pit just over that ridge, right of the green.
Now we come to the first of the three holes that are being changed. The seventh was a medium-length par 4 where you drove it into a vast open area and the played to the left across some sea rushes to a green tucked in the dunes. The new seventh will play up the first part of the current fairway corridor, but the sea is reclaiming the dunes around the seventh green and will, within a few years, reclaim this green too. I remembered the green as having some interesting contours but I didn’t think that this was one of the course’s strongest holes and the plans that I’ve seen for the new seventh suggest that it’ll be a better hole.
The eighth was a flat par 3 of about 185 yards and wasn’t a particularly interesting hole but was the site of one of my more memorable experiences which also illustrates something about the course. The hole was playing down a wind quartering from the left so I took an 8-iron, about two clubs less than I normally would for this distance. I hit about two inches behind the ball and it looked like it flew about 120 in the air. When I got to the other side of the sea rushes in front of the tee, I couldn’t find my ball. As I got nearer to the green, I saw that there were three balls there and my playing partners were at theirs, leaving one in the back. I walked up to it and there it was, my ball. The ground was so firm that my chunked 8-iron rolled about 60-70 yards onto the green. Actually, I wasn’t sure that this was what had happened until we were standing on the next tee watching the following group hit their tee shots. One guy took a partial swing and landed his ball a few dozen yards short of the green only to have it roll all the way to the front. The beauty of links golf.
Of the three holes that are being reworked, the plans for the ninth have been the most controversial. Back in the yellow Confidential Guide, Tom Doak noted that this was one of his favorite par 5s in the world because of the shallow green that required a careful use of the bumpy ground short and right of the green if one was to hit it from long range. I have to admit, as much as I usually agree with Doak’s opinions, I didn’t really see the magic in this one. The landing area was massive and while the green and its surroundings are among the course’s best and I could see what Doak was talking about, it didn’t leave as much of an impression on me as it did on him or as some of the other holes at Royal North Devon did on my. Still, I thought that it was very good par 5 and it would have been nice if they didn’t have to change it. Hopefully they’ve put some thought into the new version to retain some of the strengths of the old one.
The character of the course changes quite a bit for the next two holes, going from wide open to very constricted as we play through a field of sea rush grass. This spiky grass is common around the UK in marshy areas but you usually find it in discrete clumps. Here it’s a thicket. Not only can you not play out of this stuff, you shouldn’t even walk into (especially if you’re wearing shorts) because the edges are serrated and the tips are spiked. If you go looking for your golf ball, you may lose it and an eyeball too.
The rushes make for an excellent diagonal driving hazard up the left side on the medium-length par 4 tenth. There are also three bunker out to 230 on the right, making this a very tough driving hole. You’ll get a better view of the green if you can keep it near the rushes but the safest drive is something up the right side that goes ~250.
The rushes make for an excellent diagonal driving hazard up the left side on the medium-length par 4 tenth. There are also three bunker out to 230 on the right, making this a very tough driving hole. You’ll get a better view of the green if you can keep it near the rushes but the safest drive is something up the right side that goes ~250.
The eleventh is a 400 yard par 4 with rushes everywhere. Although it played straight downwind, the tee shot with my 2-hybrid was one of the most butt-puckering that I’ve played. While I managed to make a smooth swing and hit the fairway, the entrance to the green is blocked by bunkers and even though I was hitting a wedge, I wasn’t able to keep the ball from running through the green. Looking from above with Google Earth, I see that the hole is more open that it appears in the driving zone and it probably would have been best for me to just hit driver and try to get close enough to have a short wedge to the green.
Twelve is a much easier version of eleven as the rushes recede once you cross the clump in front of the tee. While there’s tons of room to the right, it’s best to hit your drive up the left side because there are three bunkers that guard the last 60 yards short and right of the green and anything coming from the right side will have to carry these bunkers then stop the ball down wind. The front of the green is open.
Now to the aforementioned par 5 thirteenth, only about 450 from the regular tees and with one of the widest, flattest fairways that you’ll ever see. Two bunkers cross the fairway about 170 yards from the tee and there’s another about 215 on the right. As we’ve seen, these short bunkers cause some golfers a lot of trouble and into the teeth of the wind as on this day, 170 is a plenty challenging carry for many.
The green and its surroundings are among my favorite on the course. The green is gently pushed up from its surroundings and the last 50 yards feature small but deep bunkers on both sides. There’s ample room to run the ball up onto the green but it’s very hard to hit and if you’re a bit wayward, you can find yourself with some very difficult shots. This hole gets a lot out of little and represents the course well.
The fourteenth is a long par 3 to a green with five bunkers at its front left and right. While the green is large, it’s a very tough hole. While there’s a little bit of uneasiness for the first-time player on the long par 4 fifteenth with the drive over rushes, this is probably the course’s widest fairway and you should bomb away. Still, it’s best to keep it a bit to the left as undulating ground up the right creates a blind shot. But the hole also doglegs slightly right and too far left will leave a very long approach. The green is very well protected with a center line bunker about 30 yards short and one each front left and right. It’s narrow in front but widens at the back.
Sixteen is a short par 3 that has received quite a few accolades for its well-guarded plateau green, but I think it’s the hole that I remember the least on the course. Seventeen is a long par 5 (~550) with very little trouble…until you get to the green. There’s a road that crosses the hole diagonally from short right to long left starting about 75 yards from the middle of the green. This would make the hole very interesting if you’re long enough to reach it in two but also makes it very interesting for most of the rest of us on our third if we’ve missed our drive by a bit.
The long par 4 eighteenth plays back across very flat land similar to its next door neighbor, the first. There’s a burn and rushes up the right side but plenty of room to the left. While the drive isn’t the most exciting, the approach is very tough and very good with a second, wider burn crossing the entire front of the green. This was an especially difficult shot to play downwind as it’s tough to carry the burn and keep the ball on the green.
While there isn’t much about the course history on the club’s website, I learned through a little searching around the internet that the original course was laid out by Old Tom Morris but the current version is largely the work of Herbert Fowler. I should have figured this. Like Walton Heath, the course gets an incredible amount out of mostly modest terrain because Fowler was a master at design efficiency, using a few small scale elements to create great interest. He used bunkers a bit more liberally here on several holes than at Walton Heath but this course doesn’t have a natural secondary hazard like heather, which is in such abundance there (the rushes aren't a good secondary hazard the same way a pit of spikes wouldn't be a good hazard on a golf course). The greens construction is almost always the minimum necessary but as we’ve seen, this can produce some fantastic greens.
There can’t be too many places today that are closer to the original spirit of the game than Royal North Devon. There was some land that wasn’t useful for much of anything except grazing some sheep, so some guys decided to go out there and whack a ball around. That’s pretty much how it still feels today, especially on the first and last few holes. It doesn’t look like what anyone today would think of as a golf course and it doesn’t play like another course I’ve seen. The hand of man is certainly here as there are a lot of bunkers and some greens shaping. But because those hands belonged to Herbert Fowler, it all blends in so well that you don’t even notice that much of it is there.
Apart from my concern about the future existence of the course in light of climate change, I’m a bit concerned about how the course would play in the winter months. It’s very low lying and apparently the opening and closing holes are on clay. I suspect that these holes might be substantially less enjoyable and borderline unplayable if it’s been very wet. I wonder if I would have enjoyed the course as much if I had played it in the winter. And with the rising sea levels, this is only going to become more of a problem. The club recently celebrated the 150th birthday of the course but within a few years already had to make changes to accommodate this. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to make a few more before the course reaches 200.
To me, Royal North Devon resides in a place near the true soul of golf. It may not be the best course that I played in my three years in the UK, but it's the one to which I'd most like to return. I hope it will remain for many generations.
There can’t be too many places today that are closer to the original spirit of the game than Royal North Devon. There was some land that wasn’t useful for much of anything except grazing some sheep, so some guys decided to go out there and whack a ball around. That’s pretty much how it still feels today, especially on the first and last few holes. It doesn’t look like what anyone today would think of as a golf course and it doesn’t play like another course I’ve seen. The hand of man is certainly here as there are a lot of bunkers and some greens shaping. But because those hands belonged to Herbert Fowler, it all blends in so well that you don’t even notice that much of it is there.
Apart from my concern about the future existence of the course in light of climate change, I’m a bit concerned about how the course would play in the winter months. It’s very low lying and apparently the opening and closing holes are on clay. I suspect that these holes might be substantially less enjoyable and borderline unplayable if it’s been very wet. I wonder if I would have enjoyed the course as much if I had played it in the winter. And with the rising sea levels, this is only going to become more of a problem. The club recently celebrated the 150th birthday of the course but within a few years already had to make changes to accommodate this. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to make a few more before the course reaches 200.
To me, Royal North Devon resides in a place near the true soul of golf. It may not be the best course that I played in my three years in the UK, but it's the one to which I'd most like to return. I hope it will remain for many generations.