5. All roads lead to June 7th
Course plans revealed for 2025 RNGC Invitational, plus pointers on playing (yard-for-yard) golf's most unforgiving test
Since first clapping eyes on the orchard, the aim has been to create a golf course and get it into the best possible condition for one weekend each year. On Saturday July 11th 2022, exactly 333 days after the first green sites were identified in the jungle, that ambition was realised as 31 golfers assembled for the inaugural RNGC Invitational.
The format of the event is pairs playing greensomes. Groups play in eight balls and must be accompanied by ball spotters and beer caddies. Heckling is positively encouraged but criticism of the course will result in a one-shot penalty or immediate loss of hole.
Each pair plays two rounds of nine holes with their best 9-hole net score to count. The top eight teams then go through to the knockout stage. Oh yes, and there’s a strict dress code.
In year one, the theme was ‘Sporting Heroes’. ‘Happy Gilmore’ was the theme in year two and last year, ‘World Leaders’ produced an extraordinary golfing summit that climaxed in a final shootout between Anthony and Cleopatra on one side and Jesus and Pope Francis (the defending champions) on the other. You can watch highlights below.
There are 132 days until the 2025 edition. The Sacred Acre is currently being lashed by squalls, gales and storms and there’s standing water everywhere. The middle of the course, the giant pine straw bunker where the rushes once grew, is currently a swamp. Not much more can be done than wait for the arrival of Spring when the work will begin in earnest.
There are so many things to do – hollow-tining and reseeding the greens, top-dressing them with sand to fill in the dips, enlarging surrounds, clearing the weeds from Ray’s Creek, strimming down the rushes trying to colonise the middle of the course, seeding the new tee I’ve built with soil from the neighbouring building site — in order to deliver the course in the condition that club patrons now expect. For now though all I can do is dig trenches for the rainwater and allow winter to do its worst.
Thankfully, there’s this year’s course routing to ponder. The tournament routing changes every year, although there is a core of classic holes that have featured in all three editions of the tournament. This is what I’m considering for the 2025 RNGC Invitational.
The image was created by the brilliant Joe McDonnell and is available as a print.
Hole 1: Apple, 55 yards (apx)
This is a new hole, playing from a raised tee that is still under construction to Apple green in the centre of the course. A perfectly flighted tee shot is required to find the small upslope at the front of the green that offers the only hope of keeping your ball on a putting surface that is around five paces wide. Anything mishit or short will find the new Swamp Bunker or thick bund to the right. More thick stuff awaits anything long.
Here’s Goldfinger, aka Jimmy Nicolson, holing out last year in a playoff to make it into the matchplay stages.
Hole 2: Bell, 33 yards
This will be the third consecutive year that RNGC’s tribute to ‘Golden Bell’, the par-3 12th at Augusta National, has featured in the tournament routing. This fiendish short hole plays downhill from the holly bush to a tiny target. A bed of rushes, Ray’s Creek and a false front will punish anything short, and out of bounds will account for anything long. Dry and findable from the tee is always good, and threes (remember, there is no par at RNGC) are to be treasured.
You’ll struggle to see a better shot than this, played by James ‘Chappelle’ Chappell in the final of the 2024 Club Championship:
Hole 3: Molehill, 54 yards
The uphill 3rd, which made its debut in last year’s Invitational, has been recently renamed to commemorate the ongoing conflict with the subterranean militia that rages around its green. The putting surface has been enlarged over the winter and the patch of thick bund has been removed at the front. If the moles can be defeated, the plan is tightly mow the slope on the approach so that anything coming up short will trickle down the incline, ideally into an unplayable lie.
Here’s RNGC Hall of Famer Scott Margetts taking on the tee shot in the practice round before last year’s tournament:
Hole 4: Top, 52 yards
Played across the highest part of the course, Top tees off from the top left corner and plays along the boundary hedge to a viciously sloping green designed to repel every type of shot. With OB left, the holly bush awaiting anything short and right, and the grass pile ready to swallow anything long, this is one of RNGC’s signature holes and has featured in every edition of The Invitational.
Hole 5: Coffin, 56 yards
Another RNGC classic, Coffin plays downhill from the back hedge to a green that is only three-feet deep and protected by trouble on all sides. Players must decide whether to take on the green, which requires serious intestinal fortitude, play long and hope for a lucky bounce, or aim well to the right in order to leave a chip down the length of a sloping slither of green that runs away to Ray’s Creek. All three are extremely high tariff options, which makes this consistently the hardest hole on the course.
Hole 6: Gerry’s, 59 yards
There’s no respite as players take in the view from the tee situated in the lowest corner of the property. The approach shot is played uphill to one of the bigger greens on the course but anything less than a perfectly struck ball will find rushes, an apple tree or the top of a concrete well. The hedgerow behind the green is out of bounds while the front is guarded by the ‘Plectrum of Doom’, a triangle of nuclear-grade bund.
Here’s the late Peter Alliss describing the scene on the approach to Gerry’s from his commentary position in the Goodyear blimp many miles above the course:
Hole 7: White Apple, 57 yards
This green was rested for the second RNGC Invitational but brought back last year amid much fanfair. Playing from the same high tee as the 2nd hole, the tee shot must clear the new Swamp Bunker (not shown here) and the remaining rushes to find a landing area short of the green. Some RNGC members argue this landing area is counter to the ethos of the overall test, but how the ball reacts when it hits the ground is anyone’s guess. The green is on a wicked tilt and Ray’s Creek is waiting to drown anything leaking left.
Hole 8: Calcutta, 74 yards
The longest hole on the course requires a laser-accurate tee shot to a small and unreceptive green at the mouth of a wooded dell. A shot coming up short will find thick bund or worse, while anything long will be dead in the pond or the bushes at the back. Miss left and you will be under the apple tree or in some of the thickest bund on the course. Miss right and you will be lucky to find it in the rushes or Ray’s Creek. Regularly the scene of high drama.
Hole 9: Home, 63 yards
One of only three holes to have featured in all three editions of the Invitational, Home provides the fitting climax to a round in The Scared Acre. If the tee shot clears all the rubbish in the middle, the player must still rely on the luck of the bounce. What they will want to hear is the tell tale ‘tump’ of ball hitting firm ground rather than the sigh of it disappearing into long grass. The green is angled with a new concealed tongue back left that could well be in play this year.
Peter Alliss is again on commentary duties as we see David Ford chipping in to win the final of the 2023 RNGC Invitational.
Let us know what you think below.
Looks a good routing with not to many crossover points. Looking forward to it!
Sounds like fun