Staff WriterPrince’s Golf Club has taken a rather bold stride into its next championship chapter with the unveiling of The Laddie, a new 18-hole composite course created in collaboration with The R&A and the architectural firm Mackenzie & Ebert.
This is not some ornamental reshuffle designed to look handsome on a brochure while frightening nobody. The Laddie pulls together selected holes from Prince’s three established nines — The Himalayas, Shore and Dunes — to form a championship routing intended for select future events at the Kent links.
For a club that hosted the 1932 Open Championship and is due to stage the 2030 Walker Cup, that matters. Prince’s has never exactly lacked history. Now it has given that history a sharper pair of elbows.
A New Championship Routing On Historic Links
The Laddie will be made available to golfers at select times of the year, allowing visitors to experience a layout that gathers what the club sees as the finest elements of its three nine-hole loops.
The composition is precise: five holes from The Himalayas, six from The Shore and seven from The Dunes. That blend gives the course variety, but also purpose. The routing is defined by a sequence of demanding par 4s, the sort that tend to ask searching questions from the tee before delivering a second examination into the green.
In plain terms, this is a course designed to identify proper golf. Not merely long golf. Not merely tidy golf. Proper golf — the kind played with imagination, nerve and the occasional whispered apology to one’s scorecard.
Why The Laddie Name Matters
The course takes its name from P B “Laddie” Lucas, one of the most significant figures in the history of Prince’s Golf Club.
Born at Prince’s and raised on the Kent links, Lucas became both a distinguished amateur golfer and an RAF pilot. His story has the quality of something that would sound too neat if it had been invented. During World War II, after his Spitfire sustained heavy damage, Lucas used his knowledge of the coastline and course to navigate back to Prince’s, landing safely on the links.
Golf clubs often speak of legacy. Here, it is not simply stitched into a crest or printed on a menu. It is buried in the dunes, carried in the wind and now written into the routing of a championship course.
A Links Course With Firmer, Faster Intentions
The creation of The Laddie follows a broader programme of work at Prince’s, including restored natural sandscrapes, extended fairways and surrounds, and more refined rough management.
The aim is clear enough: firmer, faster links conditions that nod towards the club’s pre-war heritage rather than smoothing it into something polite and forgettable. Links golf, at its best, should have a little mischief in it. Prince’s appears to understand that.
That restoration work also helped the club receive England’s “Golf Course of the Year” award in 2025, a useful reminder that this is not just a venue leaning on sepia-tinted photographs and an old Open Championship entry in the ledger.
“The goal of ‘The Laddie’ is to create a home for championship golf at Prince’s while maintaining the essence of the whole property,” says Rob McGuirk, general manager of Prince’s Golf Club. “We believe we created something very special here and this specific routing will not only look to be among the best in the United Kingdom, but across the world.”
More Than A Golf Course
A serious golf destination can no longer rely on the course alone, however magnificent the dunes may look at sunset. Modern travelling golfers want the full apparatus: practice, accommodation, food, comfort, convenience and the quiet reassurance that someone has thought about the day beyond the first tee.
Prince’s has been busy there too.
The club has recently completed an extensive clubhouse refurbishment, improving the arrival and hospitality experience for members and guests. Across the wider venue, the investment includes Toptracer technology on the driving range, an Odyssey putting studio, and the planned revitalisation of The Lodge at Prince’s.
The Lodge offers 38 en-suite bedrooms and supports the club’s stay-and-play appeal, which is no small detail for travelling golfers looking to turn a Kent links pilgrimage into a proper short break rather than a dawn raid with a bacon roll and a stiff lower back.
“We believe the creation of ‘The Laddie’ is another crucial step towards Prince’s reaching its true potential as a golf destination,” continues McGuirk. “Over the past decade, we have transformed our facility into a well-rounded escape for golf aficionados and travellers alike.”
Why Prince’s Is Strengthening Its Place In UK Golf
Prince’s Golf Club is already recognised across major Top 100 rankings in Great Britain and Ireland, and its reputation as one of England’s finest links venues has been building with intent.
The arrival of The Laddie gives that reputation a more defined championship edge. It provides a tournament-ready stage, a stronger travel proposition and a clearer identity for golfers who want heritage without the museum ropes.
There is something fitting about a club with Prince’s past choosing not to stand still. The great links venues survive by respecting the old bones while allowing the turf to breathe, shift and occasionally bite back.
The Laddie sounds like exactly that sort of creature: historic, strategic, wind-brushed and just troublesome enough to be memorable.
For more information on Prince’s Golf Club, visit www.princesgolfclub.co.uk.
