Royal Cromer Golf Club

Royal Cromer is the second oldest golf club in Norfolk, predated only by Great Yarmouth & Caister, which was inaugurated six years earlier. “The Club owes much in its origins and early days of difficulty to the Harbord family, led by successive Lords Suffield.” Wrote Sir Peter Allen in The Sunley Book of Royal Golf. “At the time of the formation of the Club in 1888, thanks to the efforts of Henry Broadhurst MP, Lord Suffield became the Club’s first President. As he was a friend and sometimes host to the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, HRH was asked and agreed to become the Club’s first Patron and grant the royal title.”

“Cromer, like Felixstowe, makes me feel a very old golfer,” wrote Bernard Darwin, “because, when I first played there, there was a little ladies’ course along the edge of the cliff, which has many, many years since toppled peacefully into the German Ocean. Later on, I saw an excellent seventeenth hole share the same fate, and the poor old first hole has for practical purposes gone the same way.”

Originally designed by Old Tom Morris, the cliff top Royal Cromer has had to make significant changes over the years due to coastal erosion, with architects JH Taylor, James Braid, Frank Pennink and Donald Steel involved in keeping eighteen holes in play.

The 14th is Royal Cromer’s signature hole, which heads to the lighthouse. The North Sea lurks ominously to the right and prickly gorse to the left. Take aim at the lighthouse if you’re feeling brave, but don’t go through the green with your approach shot as it’s out of bounds beyond the dance floor.

“The greatest claim to fame for Royal Cromer is without doubt its organisation of the first international golf match ever played – that of the ladies of Great Britain against America as a preliminary to the British Ladies’ Championship in 1905.” Wrote Sir Peter Allen. “Matches between the ladies of England, Scotland and Ireland had been played before, but this was the first outside national boundaries… As a result of this match, the Curtis sisters presented the now famous Curtis Cup… In 1988 the two Curtis Cup teams played a match at Cromer in period dress.”