As were on a BoB theme at the moment, i found this posting on another forces site. Thought you might appreciate it so I have copied it here.
"My golf club, Prince's in Sandwich, Kent celebrated it's centenery this year and the son of it's designer and first secretary was a famous WW 2 fighter ace and Walker Cup player, Wing Commander "Laddie Lucas"
A plaque has been placed on the course nearto the location where Laddie crash landed his spitfire after being damaged during an engagement over France.
Briefly, he was returning from a mission to Lille in France and heading back to RAF Manston near Ramsgate. He had been hit in the engine and wing by a Messerschmit 109 at 17,000 feet over Le'Touquet. He had smoke in the cockpit and the Merlin engine sounding extremely rough! Half way accross the Straits of Dover, his engine packed in and he thought that he might have to ditch.
He saw the outline of the Guilford Hotel in Sandwich Bay and then the club house of Prince's Golf Club where he was born and grew up. He decided that he had enough height to carry out a forced landing and knowing the course picked his spot and landed smoothly "just out of bounds" in a marsh at the back of the old ninth green!
This feat prompted the golf commentator Henry Longhurst to telegram Laddie congratulating him for his flying skills but not his golf as he had landed out of bounds!
Laddie went onto fly througout the war, particularly in the defence of Malta."