Staff WriterChart Hills Golf Club has been handed a rather splendid summer assignment: hosting Regional Qualifying for The 154th Open, giving the Faldo-designed Kent course a prime chance to bare its teeth in front of golfers chasing a route to Royal Birkdale.
There are gentle golf courses, friendly golf courses, the sort that pat you on the back and suggest another sausage roll at the halfway hut. Chart Hills has never quite been that creature. Designed by Sir Nick Faldo, it is a layout with opinions: undulating fairways, strategic bunkering and enough nerve-testing moments to make even a tidy player start negotiating with the heavens.
Now The R&A has selected Chart Hills as one of sixteen venues across Great Britain and Ireland to stage Regional Qualifying, with amateur and professional golfers due to compete on 22 June 2026 for a place in Final Qualifying — and, beyond that, the more intoxicating possibility of earning a coveted place in The Open at Royal Birkdale.
A Serious Test With A Very Kentish Bite
Chart Hills has long had the ingredients of a championship venue: scale, drama, trouble in the right places and just enough menace to separate the brave from the merely well-dressed.
The course is best known for holes that refuse to be anonymous. The par-five 5th, famously named the ‘Anaconda’, coils its way through the round with all the warmth and hospitality of a tax inspector. Then there is the island-green par-three 17th, the kind of late-round examination that can make a scorecard look as if it has been edited by a vandal.
For Open Regional Qualifying, that matters. This is not meant to be a decorative day out. It is golf’s great filtering system: part opportunity, part ordeal, part public audition. Those who arrive in Kent will know exactly what is at stake. The successful will move on to Final Qualifying. The rest will be left with the usual golfer’s consolation prize: a long drive home and several perfectly plausible explanations.
Why The R&A Selection Matters
The R&A’s decision is a significant marker for Chart Hills Golf Club, particularly after its return to Golf World’s Top 100 Courses in England ranking following a programme of continued investment over recent years.
That kind of recognition is not built on wallpaper and wishful thinking. Championship golf venues require conditioning, strategy, operational confidence and a course that can withstand good players attempting to dismantle it. Chart Hills now finds itself placed among a select group of Regional Qualifying hosts, which underlines how far the Kent club’s reputation has travelled.
It also sharpens the club’s profile at a useful moment. Golfers increasingly look for courses with pedigree, distinctiveness and a story worth repeating in the clubhouse afterwards. Chart Hills has all three, plus a few bunkers that may require emotional aftercare.
The Club’s Reaction
Anthony Tarchetti, General Manager at Chart Hills, said: “We’re incredibly proud to have been selected by The R&A as a Regional Qualifying venue for The 154th Open. To host one of golf’s most prestigious qualifying events is a testament to the quality of the golf course and the hard work of the entire team at Chart Hills.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming competitors from across Great Britain and Ireland and showcasing Chart Hills to some of the game’s most talented amateur and professional golfers.”
It is the sort of quote one expects from a general manager on a good day, but the substance behind it is clear enough. Hosting Open qualifying is not ceremonial. It puts a course under scrutiny from players, officials, spectators and the wider golf audience. There is nowhere to hide — particularly not behind a bunker designed by Faldo.
A Big Summer For Golf In Kent
The Open qualifying announcement is not arriving in isolation. Later in the summer, Chart Hills will also host the English Legends on the Staysure Legends Tour from 28 to 30 August, bringing some of the game’s most recognisable names to Kent.
That gives the club a neatly stacked championship calendar: ambitious hopefuls in June, established names in August, and the course itself playing the recurring character with the best lines.
For Kent golf, it adds another point of interest in a county already rich with golfing heritage and coastal pull. For travelling golfers, Chart Hills offers the sort of inland test that feels less like a gentle ramble and more like a conversation with consequences. It asks for thought off the tee, commitment into greens and, at times, a sense of humour strong enough to survive a crooked bounce.
The Open Road Begins At Places Like This
The beauty of Regional Qualifying is that it keeps The Open connected to golf’s wider ecosystem. Before the grandstands, television pictures and Royal Birkdale drama, there are days like this: scorecards, yardage books, early nerves, quiet ambition and players trying to turn possibility into something more solid.
Chart Hills Golf Club now gets to stage one of those days.
And that feels appropriate. The course has presence, personality and enough strategic mischief to make qualification feel properly earned. In a game that too often confuses polish with character, Chart Hills has both — plus an Anaconda waiting in the long grass, doing what an Anaconda does best.
