| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Cornwall, UK |
| Established | 1976 |
| Type | Private |
| Owned by | Crown Golf |
| Total holes | 36 |
| Tournaments hosted | English Open |
| Website | www.st-mellion.co.uk |
| The Nicklaus Course | |
| Designed by | Jack Nicklaus |
| Par | 72 |
| Length | 7,054 |
| The Old Course | |
| Par | 68 |
| Length | 5,782 |
The St. Mellion International Resort is a golf centred hotel and recreation complex near Saltash, Cornwall in the South West of England. The resort comprises a hotel, conference facilities, health club, spa and two championship golf courses.
The St. Mellion resort is owned and operated by Crown Golf, who acquired it as part of their purchase of American Golf (UK) from American Golf Corporation in 2004.[1] American Golf had themselves purchased the resort in 1998.[2]
St. Mellion has two golf courses, the Old Course and the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course, which, having hosted the Benson & Hedges International Open on six occasions in the early 1990s, is now the venue of the revived English Open, which was due to return to the European Tour in 2009 following a seven year hiatus. The resort, including the golf courses, is undergoing a £100 million redevelopment programme in preparation for the event.[3] However the tournament had to be postponed for at least two years after the developers ran into financial difficulties as a result of the credit crunch.[4]
The Jack Nicklaus Signature Course was designed by Nicklaus himself, and opened in 1988. Among the winners of the Benson & Hedges International were some of Europes most successful players, including multiple major winners José María Olazábal, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros.
The Old Course, as the name suggests, was the first course at the resort. Built on their potato farm by brothers Hermon and Martin Bond, it opened in 1976.[2]