Royal St George's Golf Club

The Open Championship will return to Kent and Royal St George's Golf Club in July 2011, the only venue in southern England for golf's most prestigious major championship. It is a wonderful venue from a visitor's point of view due to the layout of the course and the many natural vantage points affording great views of the action.

It will be the 14th occasion the historic links at Sandwich has welcomed The Open - it was the first venue outside of Scotland to host an Open, in 1894 - placing Kent, known as 'The Garden of England', in the world golfing spotlight.

Previous winners of The Open Championship at Royal St George's include Greg Norman (1993), Sandy Lyle (1985) and golfing legend Walter Hagen (1922 and 1928). American Ben Curtis was the winner of the most recent Open Championship at Sandwich, in 2003.

The club, which has made changes to the bunkering on its 18th hole to make it more demanding for The Open Championship, as well as adding five new tees and 100 yards additional length to the course, is part of Kent's 'Regal Golf Coast,' which includes Royal Cinque Ports (venue of The Open Championship in 1909 and 1920), Prince's (the Open venue in 1932), Littlestone (a Final Qualifying course for the 2011 Open) and North Foreland.

With new fast train services to London, the Channel Tunnel rail link to Continental Europe, plus improvements to roads, more than 200,000 spectators are expected to descend on the Kent coast during Open week, with tens of thousands more from the UK and nearby European countries anticipated to take golf breaks in the county in the months before and after the event.