Rye was a bit of an unusual cultural experience for this generic suburban American. The club is relatively private as far as British courses go and you have to make advanced arrangements to play here. But the club secretary was very warm and welcoming and despite some issues arranging a date due to strikes in Spring 2016 on the Southern Railway, I was able to play on a lovely, early May day.
Knowing about its relative privacy and the fact that Rye is the home of the prestigious President’s Putter competition in January between the golfers of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, I knew that this was a fairly aristocratic place. And I’m pretty sure that I was right about that. But it didn’t mean what I thought it meant. When Americans hear the term ‘aristocratic,’ they think that the place will be posh, opulent. No one would describe Rye with those terms. While almost all British clubhouses are small, this was was particularly modest in its furnishings—although still quite comfortable, especially the bar and lounge with its wonderful assortment of golf books.
And the customs seemed to be an odd fit given the surroundings. A jacket is required in the clubhouse until after 4 PM—again, jacket-required is something that I associate with posh, decidedly not-relaxed restaurants and the Rye clubhouse didn’t feel like any jacket-required restaurants that I’ve been to. I had heard that there’s a certain relaxed modesty associated with aristocracy in the UK but it’s different to hear about something and experience. Without getting into the details, I also had an interaction where the answer to a question of mine was ‘no’ but as I’ve experienced interacting with similar types since, ‘no’ is not part of the Oxbridge vocabulary, substituted with any of a variety of more complicated euphemisms.
There’s another aspect of the club’s culture which was foreign to me but which I wholeheartedly endorse (not that I minded any of the above): here you play as at most a two-ball and you play in 3 hr. 15 min. or less. Any more than two balls requires special permission with which I imagine they aren’t too liberal.
So how about the course? Along with Royal St. George’s, this was the course that I was most interested in seeing. And it didn’t disappoint—this is a great golf course with several holes that must belong on a list of best links holes. The par 3s are justifiably famous—and also earn their notorious reputation that “the hardest shots are Rye are the second shots on the par 3s” (it sounds like a joke—it isn’t).
But Tom Doak certainly wasn’t kidding when he called this one of the toughest courses that he had seen relative to par. Like many of the best English courses, Rye is less-than par 70 (par 68)—but this just means that all of the long holes are par 4s, even if a few of them are almost long enough to be par 5s. In fact the one par 5—the first hole—is only about 485 and now could just be called a par 4. Given that several of the holes on the front nine play along narrow dune ridges and that there often isn’t a lot of room to play, I’m hard-pressed to think of a course that’s harder. I played this course in early May when the ground was only just starting to firm up and the wind at worst got up to about 10-15 mph. It was plenty hard enough under those ideal conditions. I couldn’t imagine playing it with burnt-out summer fairways or in a cold January wind with the Oxbridge crowd.
So long as they continue to call it a par 5, the first hole is probably the easiest at Rye. It’s not friendly to slicers with the dune ridge up the right side but there’s no real trouble between the tee and the green. I thought that the green had a lot of wonderful little contours and was slightly convex, with tricky (but not hard) little shots all around.
Knowing about its relative privacy and the fact that Rye is the home of the prestigious President’s Putter competition in January between the golfers of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, I knew that this was a fairly aristocratic place. And I’m pretty sure that I was right about that. But it didn’t mean what I thought it meant. When Americans hear the term ‘aristocratic,’ they think that the place will be posh, opulent. No one would describe Rye with those terms. While almost all British clubhouses are small, this was was particularly modest in its furnishings—although still quite comfortable, especially the bar and lounge with its wonderful assortment of golf books.
And the customs seemed to be an odd fit given the surroundings. A jacket is required in the clubhouse until after 4 PM—again, jacket-required is something that I associate with posh, decidedly not-relaxed restaurants and the Rye clubhouse didn’t feel like any jacket-required restaurants that I’ve been to. I had heard that there’s a certain relaxed modesty associated with aristocracy in the UK but it’s different to hear about something and experience. Without getting into the details, I also had an interaction where the answer to a question of mine was ‘no’ but as I’ve experienced interacting with similar types since, ‘no’ is not part of the Oxbridge vocabulary, substituted with any of a variety of more complicated euphemisms.
There’s another aspect of the club’s culture which was foreign to me but which I wholeheartedly endorse (not that I minded any of the above): here you play as at most a two-ball and you play in 3 hr. 15 min. or less. Any more than two balls requires special permission with which I imagine they aren’t too liberal.
So how about the course? Along with Royal St. George’s, this was the course that I was most interested in seeing. And it didn’t disappoint—this is a great golf course with several holes that must belong on a list of best links holes. The par 3s are justifiably famous—and also earn their notorious reputation that “the hardest shots are Rye are the second shots on the par 3s” (it sounds like a joke—it isn’t).
But Tom Doak certainly wasn’t kidding when he called this one of the toughest courses that he had seen relative to par. Like many of the best English courses, Rye is less-than par 70 (par 68)—but this just means that all of the long holes are par 4s, even if a few of them are almost long enough to be par 5s. In fact the one par 5—the first hole—is only about 485 and now could just be called a par 4. Given that several of the holes on the front nine play along narrow dune ridges and that there often isn’t a lot of room to play, I’m hard-pressed to think of a course that’s harder. I played this course in early May when the ground was only just starting to firm up and the wind at worst got up to about 10-15 mph. It was plenty hard enough under those ideal conditions. I couldn’t imagine playing it with burnt-out summer fairways or in a cold January wind with the Oxbridge crowd.
So long as they continue to call it a par 5, the first hole is probably the easiest at Rye. It’s not friendly to slicers with the dune ridge up the right side but there’s no real trouble between the tee and the green. I thought that the green had a lot of wonderful little contours and was slightly convex, with tricky (but not hard) little shots all around.
While we get none of the Rye difficulty on the first hole, we get plenty of it on the ~180 yard second. The green is protected by several bunkers on both sides and there’s a diagonal ridge short of the green that can deflect run-ups. You pretty much have to hit and hold the green here which will be tough to do if the ground is firm because like most of the greens here, it’s small. A cut into the right-to-left wind is the play (or just a layup).
Three is another flat hole similar to one except about 40 yards shorter and a par 4. There’s a bunker in the right-center of the fairway about 300 from the back tees. The green is elevated, but there’s plenty of room to run the ball on.
The ~410 fourth is one of the most famous holes at Rye. It’s a favorite of Tom Doak because of its unusual routing along the dune ridge that separates the first three holes from holes 6-8. I appreciate the novelty but my God…this is a hard hole. I was playing the back tees but moved up to ~375 on this one because even with a ~10 mph. wind from the left, I didn’t feel there was any way that I could hit the fairway. The convex fairway runs off into junk on both sides and if you get one riding the wind, you could end up 20 or so feet back down the dune ridge to the right near the third fairway.
While the drive is a bit much for me, the second shot is a beauty. We play past an old WWII gun turret on the left to a green that rests perfectly on the land, falling gently to the front-left. And this is where you want to hedge your miss because a miss right goes 20 ft. down the hill onto the second hole.
In short, this hole has some real merits but was a bit too severe to be one of my favorites. Maybe I’d get more comfortable with it if I played it again.
In short, this hole has some real merits but was a bit too severe to be one of my favorites. Maybe I’d get more comfortable with it if I played it again.
The fifth is the second of Rye’s famous par 3s and it’s a great one. We shoot over broken ground to a fairly large plateau green. Well, the plateau is large in the front…not so much in the back. The deeper you go, the narrower it becomes and because we’re still on the same dune ridge from the previous hole, a miss wide will send you off onto another hole and make you realize that the famous phrase about Rye isn’t a joke.
Another unexpected aspect of Rye is how much of a shooting gallery it is at times. Especially on the front nine, the holes are very close together (I’d be surprised if the whole front nine takes up 50 acres) and you’re often shooting very close to golfers on other holes. That’s especially the case on the blind, dogleg left, long par 4 sixth, where you thread your drive between golfers teeing off on the fifth to the left and on the ninth to the right.
This hole is a really strong competitor with the fourth in terms of difficulty. If you miss the aiming pole right, you have an extremely long second and may have a difficult time figuring out where to even search for your ball… But like the fourth, the approach into the green and the green itself are beautiful although in this case quite narrow with double bunkers on both sides of the approach.
This hole is a really strong competitor with the fourth in terms of difficulty. If you miss the aiming pole right, you have an extremely long second and may have a difficult time figuring out where to even search for your ball… But like the fourth, the approach into the green and the green itself are beautiful although in this case quite narrow with double bunkers on both sides of the approach.
The other most famous hole at Rye is the par 3 seventh and while most misses are quite severe, I liked it. It reminded me a lot of the notorious second hole at the Kingsley club with its severe hazards around the front of the green. But I liked this hole a bit more because while short and right are dead, a miss left isn’t so bad and a miss deep isn’t bad at all. The green is large enough for the 160 yard shot and has excellent interior contours.
We walk down to the edge of the dunes to tee off on the long par 4 eighth, which plays out to flatter land more reminiscent of the relief course next door. While the hole doglegs right, you want to be on the left side of the fairway because there are awkward mounds in the corner of the dogleg and a shot from the right side leaves a shot over bushes to a shallower aspect of the green. The green is wide-open from the left.
Nine is an excellent short par 4 which at 300 from the tips will be drivable for many. The main task here is to avoid the bunkers left of the fairway between about 230 and 260. But this shouldn’t be too difficult with the standard left-to-right wind. In fact, the wind made this hole feel quite easy as it seems to blow your ball right at the green. Although I’m not a long hitter, I was able to get my drive just in front of the green…and then screw up the rest.
Ten is a ~440 yard dogleg right and while there are big dunes next to the tee, it plays over tame ground. The hole isn’t very interesting from tee to green (unless you pump one right into the gorse) but I really liked the green; lay-of-the-land but with a very pleasing slight convexity that requires precision iron play and makes for tricky chips. And there is some strategy because like the eighth, the green is more open from the outside of the fairway and being in the right rough leaves a semi-blind shot over the gorse to a shallower aspect of the green.
The short par 4 eleventh is aesthetically jarring with a pond (complete with two fountains) up the right side of the fairway and a warehouse in the background. It reminded me of playing golf in an industrial landscape in south Detroit (the kind of place that people write songs about escaping from).
But incongruent aesthetics aside, it’s a good hole. A longer can get close to the green (~300 yards out) if they challenge the water. If you bail out too far left, you can run through the fairway into gorse. The green is large and not particularly interesting but while it maybe doesn’t fit with the rest of this course, it’s an excellent driving hole.
But incongruent aesthetics aside, it’s a good hole. A longer can get close to the green (~300 yards out) if they challenge the water. If you bail out too far left, you can run through the fairway into gorse. The green is large and not particularly interesting but while it maybe doesn’t fit with the rest of this course, it’s an excellent driving hole.
Twelve is another long par 4 playing across tame ground but this time there are seven bunkers to augment the challenge. Fortunately the front of the green is open and it’s easy to run one on here.
Thirteen, another long par 4, begins a closing stretch that is one of the most difficult, but also one of the best that I’ve seen. While it seems that the front nine and holes like 4, 5, and 7 get most of the attention, I actually thought that the closing six holes were the strongest part of the course. Thirteen in particular is a standout—one of the best holes with a completely blind shot that I’ve seen.
We drive over the corner of the twelfth green. It’s a diagonal drive from short-right to long-left over low dunes and long grass. While there’s plenty of room right, you want to be up the left side to shorten the approach…which is really important because no matter what you do, it’s completely blind. There’s also an odd rise (I think a buried pipe) that crosses the fairway at a short-left to long-right diagonal and while it’s only about a 195 yard carry up the left side, it’s 230 if you go right.
We drive over the corner of the twelfth green. It’s a diagonal drive from short-right to long-left over low dunes and long grass. While there’s plenty of room right, you want to be up the left side to shorten the approach…which is really important because no matter what you do, it’s completely blind. There’s also an odd rise (I think a buried pipe) that crosses the fairway at a short-left to long-right diagonal and while it’s only about a 195 yard carry up the left side, it’s 230 if you go right.
The approach is my favorite blind shot that I’ve encountered in the game. Notice that the dune ridge runs from short-right to long-left. It’s reasonable to assume that this is going to run up the left side of the green and because of this, you don’t want to miss left. Not only is that correct, but short and right of the green is flat and a miss over here leaves a simple pitch. It also shortens the carry; if you go at the green, you must carry it all the way there but if you bail a little right, you can be 50 yards short of the green and still clear the dune ridge. If you miss wide right pin high though, there’s long grass and bushes.
To me, the approach here is the perfect blind shot—there’s a lot of trouble if you’re aggressive and don’t execute but there’s a reasonable option to take risk off the table. This is one of the best holes in southeast England.
As difficult as the par 3s have been so far, the ~210 yard fourteenth might be the most difficult. The green is about the size of one that you might find on a pitch-and-putt course. It’s also built up above one of Rye’s infamous wooden board walls on the right and has three bunkers left. The only sensible play here is to try and just carry the bunker about 25 yards short of the green but even if you pull the shot off, the odds of hitting this green are low.
Fifteen, another 450+ yard par 4, is just one of the purest holes that you’ll see. There are no fairway bunkers and the fairway is pretty wide, but it has some of the most interesting small scale contours that you’ll ever see. The green sits on the land as simply as a green could. There’s nothing complicated about this hole, no real strategy. Yet it’s still about as satisfying a hole as I could want.
There appears to be quite a bit more design in the sixteenth hole, with is blessed with the same excellent terrain as fifteen. The bunker on the left is about a 240 yard carry from the back tees although it’s best if you skirt the right edge rather than carry it. The green is small, very undulating, and something of an L-shape. I know that Colt played a major role in the design of this course and while it’s a little more undulating than usual for him, I suspect that this green is his because the mounding around the green is very reminiscent of what you see on some of his other courses.
No one seems to consider the almost 250 yard par 3 seventeenth among the course’s great par 3s but I thought that it was an excellent hole that nicely complemented the other four. While the other four had small greens with severe drop-offs around the edges, this one is wide open in front and fairly flat around the edges, save for two bunkers at the front-left.
But I thought that there was a subtle brilliance to this hole. There’s something of a diagonal ridge from short-left to long-right in front of the green. If you pull your tee shot, this will likely deflect it into one of the green side bunkers. But if you play your shot at the right side of the green, it will feed the ball into the middle of the green. It’s almost the complete opposite of the other par 3s which are all very target-oriented…but all the better for it.
But I thought that there was a subtle brilliance to this hole. There’s something of a diagonal ridge from short-left to long-right in front of the green. If you pull your tee shot, this will likely deflect it into one of the green side bunkers. But if you play your shot at the right side of the green, it will feed the ball into the middle of the green. It’s almost the complete opposite of the other par 3s which are all very target-oriented…but all the better for it.

Here's the view from short and a bit left of the subtle but brilliant green. A weak shot may get held up by the gentle ridge. This ridge will direct a slight pull further left toward the bunkers. But if you keep your tee shot up the right side and judge the distance well, the ball should feed into the middle of the narrow but deep green.
Eighteen, yet another ~440 yard par 4, is a worthy inclusion on many ‘best finishing holes in England’ lists. There’s lots of trouble to the right of the fairway in long grass-covered dunes. The approach, past the back of the clubhouse (don’t hit a hook…) plays over beautiful, rumpled ground that gradually descends to the simple, lay-of-the-land green in a manner very similar to the fifteenth hole.
Rye was comfortably in my southern England top 5 with Sunningdale Old, Royal St. George’s, West Sussex, and Swinley Forest. But it has a very different feel from all of those courses. Those are all big, majestic courses with towering pines, open expanses of heather, and in the case of Royal St. George’s, massive sand dunes. Rye feels like it occupies the space of about six holes at Royal St. George’s, with many drives playing over the edge of other greens or tees. While not every green is small, most are and they have some of the steepest drop-offs of any course that I’ve seen. Like the clubhouse, it’s not what you expect an feels a bit eccentric at times.
But I love an English eccentric. And as we saw with the last few holes, it isn’t all like that. There’s tremendous variety here and while the front nine is downright severe at times, the back nine opens up a bit and gives you an opportunity to play some different kinds of shots (especially if you’re missing greens). The closing stretch is about as pure of links golf as you could want. In fact, I probably like the back nine almost as much as the more famous front nine. And it’d be a lot easier to play in difficult conditions.
Rye also has a relief nine, the Jubilee Course, that consists of about 12 holes with a standard 9-hole loop but then a few fairways and greens in the center where to play to from. Unless we consider the third nine at St. George’s Hill to be a relief nine, this is easily the strongest of the relief courses that I played in the UK (I preferred it to the less consistent Channel Course at Burnham and Berrow). Interestingly this course is only a few decades old because when the main course was built, this land was marsh. In contrast to many other places around the UK, the sea has been receding in this area and has left an area of land almost as big as the main course.
Although the fairways are much flatter and the course lacks the nuance of its older brother, there’s a lot of good design work out here and some interesting holes. The shaping of the second green and its bunkering reminded me of the last few holes on the big course. The fourth is a beauty, curving around the dunes that separate it from the front nine on the big course and playing to a green nestled into the dunes. This green would be a welcome addition on the big course.
But I love an English eccentric. And as we saw with the last few holes, it isn’t all like that. There’s tremendous variety here and while the front nine is downright severe at times, the back nine opens up a bit and gives you an opportunity to play some different kinds of shots (especially if you’re missing greens). The closing stretch is about as pure of links golf as you could want. In fact, I probably like the back nine almost as much as the more famous front nine. And it’d be a lot easier to play in difficult conditions.
Rye also has a relief nine, the Jubilee Course, that consists of about 12 holes with a standard 9-hole loop but then a few fairways and greens in the center where to play to from. Unless we consider the third nine at St. George’s Hill to be a relief nine, this is easily the strongest of the relief courses that I played in the UK (I preferred it to the less consistent Channel Course at Burnham and Berrow). Interestingly this course is only a few decades old because when the main course was built, this land was marsh. In contrast to many other places around the UK, the sea has been receding in this area and has left an area of land almost as big as the main course.
Although the fairways are much flatter and the course lacks the nuance of its older brother, there’s a lot of good design work out here and some interesting holes. The shaping of the second green and its bunkering reminded me of the last few holes on the big course. The fourth is a beauty, curving around the dunes that separate it from the front nine on the big course and playing to a green nestled into the dunes. This green would be a welcome addition on the big course.
Other highlights include the par 5 sixth with its approach winding up through the dunes to the ridge top green and the following hole, a drop shot par 3 that plays to a green near the seashore with two bunkers right. This hole would also be at home among the prestigious par 3s next door.