England’s oldest golf course ‘abandoned to the ocean’ after Storm Eleanor cliff collapse

In a blow for golf lovers around the UK, England’s oldest course has been badly damaged by Storm Eleanor.

The Royal North Devon Golf Club lost part of its eighth tee last month after extreme weather prompted part of the badly eroded coastal area at the mouth of the Taw-Torridge Estuary to crumble – taking some of the course with it.

The course, which was recently placed in Golf World’s Top 100 Courses in the World, was founded in 1864 and is believed to be largely unchanged from its original design.

Now, the club is worried that more of the course is at risk from what was allegedly a ‘preventable’ collapse.

Mark Evans, general manager of the club, said: “By allowing this collapse, we are tampering with history.”

Protecting the club from further damage would involve installing expensive ‘rock armour’ along the coast.
  

Natural England, the body responsible for the stretch of coast, has encouraged the club to build two new greens in exchange for relinquishing the ones threatened by erosion.

But Mark Evans insists that this move would make the course ‘not anything like as interesting’ as its renowned current design.

Torridge District Council has since released a statement with the Environment Agency and Natural England pledging to find a long-term solution to the erosion, which is also threatening a nearby landfill site as well as the course’s seventh, eighth and ninth holes.