What was your Open experience like?

[MarkT]

Have seen a few comments but, if you were lucky enough to get to Sandwich this year, what was it like?
Transport/shuttles/food/Sandwich as a venue.. cheers

And if you didn’t, but normal would, why not?

 

[Deleted member 3432]

Sadly I didn't qualify but will work harder on my game and be there at St Andrews next year ?

 

[JamesR]

Found a fairly cheap Airbnb in Deal. A cracking little seaside town, good first couple of nights on the front eating and drinking well. Nice to catch up with @MikeH on Wednesday. Then a good curry on Thursday.

6 min train from Deal to Sandwich
25 min walk from Sandwich station to the golf course. All well organised and easy to follow.

Not the best viewing course, Carnoustie holds that honour for me.

Great course though, and some fantastic play.

 

[pauljames87]

Found a fairly cheap Airbnb in Deal. A cracking little seaside town, good first couple of nights on the front eating and drinking well. Nice to catch up with @MikeH on Wednesday. Then a good curry on Thursday.

6 min train from Deal to Sandwich
25 min walk from Sandwich station to the golf course. All well organised and easy to follow.

Not the best viewing course, Carnoustie holds that honour for me.

Great course though, and some fantastic play.

I'm glad someone else said it's 25 min walk! 15-20 mins they said I thought who the heck could do that walking in 15 mins.


For the original post

Really enjoyed the trip down

Picked the train up from Stratford ,1 hour and 30 mins into sandwich got there about 09:15 .. walked down.. after check in etc was almost 10 o clock

Enjoyed the day .. plenty of stuff to see and do, ample toilets and food choices for the day

Sandwich as a venue was great , we need more opens down south but I did have my mates banging on every hole how they had got on there when they played lol

The free water was brilliant idea to save on single use plastic

However the metal bottles I feel should have had a stall as you walked in to buy one, had stalls for programmes and phone chargers why not just stick them in one of them rather than have to queue for the bar to get one

Train back was brilliant, well run queue system , we joined the queue for London via Dover and when was our train we were let onto platform , seat on train straight home

 

[barry23]

Really enjoyed the day there on Friday. Seemed very well run and with a smaller crowd allowed you to get to see lots of the players up close and personal. Food and drink wasnt cheap but not as extortionate as I was expecting. Only negative was when the big groups came through the entourage on the other side of the ropes obscured the view of the fans waiting patiently to see them play. Ducking or sitting down wouldn't have been top much of a hardship for them.
That said it was a great experience and the weather was perfect. Really was an eye opener seeing how undulating the fairways were and how many blind shots they have. The TV really doesn't do it justice. Really wouldn't fancy playing that course with the wind up, rain lashing down and no-one to spot my ball for me!

 

[Bazzatron]

Excellent from start to finish, I think the weather helped.
The organisation of the transfers and gaining entry after showing covid certs and all that was all seamless.

 

[pauljames87]

Excellent from start to finish, I think the weather helped.
The organisation of the transfers and gaining entry after showing covid certs and all that was all seamless.

Wasn't impressed with the covid checks tbh .. might just have been my guy but for one didn't scan them which i thought was off

Just looked at it and let us in

Could have shown him a screen shot of someone else's

 

[Bazzatron]

Wasn't impressed with the covid checks tbh .. might just have been my guy but for one didn't scan them which i thought was off

Just looked at it and let us in

Could have shown him a screen shot of someone else's

Now you've mentioned it I'm not sure he scanned mine ?

 

[pauljames87]

Now you've mentioned it I'm not sure he scanned mine ?

I'm sure it's fine because anyone who had symptoms etc was offered a full refund so I doubt anyone would risk it (you would hope). But still

 

[JamesR]

It was good to see the vaccination tent being used ?

 

[chrisd]

From the moment i left home to the moment I arrived back home I enjoyed every moment.

The car parking was easy and a speedy shuttle to the course with easy entry - perfect!
With a much reduced capacity viewing was really good. The weather was fine, the golf superb, and everyone seemed to be Covid careful. The queue for food was longer than ideal but the food, whilst not cheap, was quite good for mass catering.

At the finish we left as the final group was on the 17th and we waited about 5 minutes for the bus back to the car park

Most of all though- the golf was great to watch and i managed to spend a day with my son

 

[sunshine]

I'm sure it's fine because anyone who had symptoms etc was offered a full refund so I doubt anyone would risk it (you would hope). But still

A full refund isn't much compensation if you are going to have to wait another 10 years until the Open returns to the south of England. I'm sure many just went anyway. Just like those with tickets for the semi final or final of the Euros, most people would have dragged themselves off their death bed for a once in a lifetime experience to see England in a final.

We already have the Wembley variant. Sandwich variant next?

 

[Sats]

Great time - Marshalling wasn't a chore and had a laugh with Bryson when I found his ball in the rough and he asked if it was Bridgestone and I said, no it's a dunlop He went up in my estimation after the Open. Nearly got hit by a stray ball by Rickie Fowler. Wonderful watching the pros play if I'm honest so glad I went.
Food was good, expensive but expected at these events. Queues for them however, were horrendously long!

 

[pauljames87]

A full refund isn't much compensation if you are going to have to wait another 10 years until the Open returns to the south of England. I'm sure many just went anyway. Just like those with tickets for the semi final or final of the Euros, most people would have dragged themselves off their death bed for a once in a lifetime experience to see England in a final.

We already have the Wembley variant. Sandwich variant next?

At least it was outside and behaviour was a lot better

 

[pauljames87]

Great time - Marshalling wasn't a chore and had a laugh with Bryson when I found his ball in the rough and he asked if it was Bridgestone and I said, no it's a dunlop He went up in my estimation after the Open. Nearly got hit by a stray ball by Rickie Fowler. Wonderful watching the pros play if I'm honest so glad I went.
Food was good, expensive but expected at these events. Queues for them however, were horrendously long!

Queues were stupidly long

Wasn't that hungry when started but when got there was starving lol

 

[sunshine]

At least it was outside and behaviour was a lot better

This is true. I'd hope a golf crowd to be more considerate.

Also no anthems or taking the knee so less booing.

And no black players to racially abuse.

 

[Sats]

Queues were stupidly long

Wasn't that hungry when started but when got there was starving lol

Must admit that the cheeky burgers were very nice and the fish and chip van did a good job. I did see why the R&A gave us £15 food vouchers as you didn't get much change from that!

 

[orangepip]

I thought it was a great experience with one exception ... the park and ride was woeful - which to be fair is all down to the roads of Sandwich and not really in their control but still a long wait in and out to get a relatively short distance.

 

[Bazzatron]

I thought it was a great experience with one exception ... the park and ride was woeful - which to be fair is all down to the roads of Sandwich and not really in their control but still a long wait in and out to get a relatively short distance.

What time did you get there to use it?
It was empty for us at 7.30am and 18.30 on Saturday.

 

[orangepip]

What time did you get there to use it?
It was empty for us at 7.30am and 18.30 on Saturday.

They must have done something to improve it then as it was awful on the Friday - and those times were almost exactly when we left! Got on buses absolutely fine at both ends but we were immediately stuck in a jam when we got into Sandwich.