Royal Malta Golf Club

The Royal Malta Golf Club is the historic home of golf on the island, a quiet green oasis at Marsa just outside the capital, Valletta. Founded in 1888, it plays its 18 holes over flat parkland laid on the silted-up remains of an ancient harbour and river estuary; Marsa is the Phoenician word for harbour.

The course is not long, measuring 5,670 yards to a par of 69 from the back tees, with a slope of 126 for men and 135 for women; the shortest set of tees plays 4,141 yards. Do not be fooled by the yardage. Fairways are tight and well defined, so accuracy from the tee matters more than power, and the 18 upgraded USGA-specification greens have subtle undulations that reward careful approach play. A new layout opened in September 2025 and has already hosted international team golf.

Course features include a lagoon on the 8th, a storm ditch between the 17th and 18th, stone boundary walls, and history all around: an old Turkish cemetery sits across the road from the 9th tee, and the 15th-century chapel of Santa Maria ta’ Ceppuna stands beside the 10th green.

The modern clubhouse, opened in 2013, has a lounge and the Fairway Terrace & Restaurant overlooking the course, a conference room, and a pro shop stocking more than 20 brands. Practice facilities, open daily, include a covered driving range with a bunker and pitching and putting areas, two more putting greens and two driving cages near the 1st tee. PGA professional Henning Schulze-Doering runs lessons for members and visitors, and the junior academy caters for children aged 4 to 18.

Lieutenant-General Sir Henry D’Oyley Torrens founded the club within a month of arriving as Governor of Malta in 1888. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, then commanding the Mediterranean Fleet, was a founder member, which is where the Royal title comes from. The first nine holes were squeezed around the bastions of Valletta, with sand-covered concrete greens and stone walls lining narrow fairways.

The club moved to Marsa around 1904, sharing the land with tennis, cricket and a horse-racing track that crossed seven holes until the track was absorbed in the late 1980s. Floods destroyed much of the course in 1988 during a major upgrade, and a stray firework from local festivities set the clubhouse ablaze in July 2009, leading to the new clubhouse. Former club pro David Llewellyn, who later won a world title for Wales with Ian Woosnam in 1987, designed the bunkers of the upgraded course.