If you would like to squeeze a round or two of golf into your visit to the Northwest then you will be spoilt for choice. A number of courses steeped in history and accolades can be found within an hour’s drive of the Championships venue.
Royal Birkdale UK Rank: 1 Great Britain Rank: 7th World Rank: 16th
Distance from the World Championships 52 miles
(1 hour)
Currently ranked 16th in the world, Royal Birkdale Golf Club is the highest placed English golf course and it’s a brute.
The Birkdale (as it was originally called) was a nine hole golf course located at Shaw Hills and it opened for play in October 1889. In 1894, the committee decided to extend the course to 18 holes and move it to its current home at Birkdale Hills. Designed by George Low, the course was ready in 1897. In the 1930’s the course was remodelled and upgraded to championship standard by FH Hawtree and JH Taylor.
The club was simply known as the Birkdale until 1951 when King George VI bestowed the royal character on the club. Royal Birkdale has hosted all the important events- the Ryder Cup, Walker Cup, Curtis Cup, and Ladies British Open Championship. The British Championship has been hosted at Birkdale no fewer than eight times (most recently in 1998).
It truly is a famous links and widely recognised for its fairness. If you hit the fairways, rarely will the ball be thrown of course. The fairways are laid out in the flat-bottomed valleys between the towering dunes. These dunes, in turn, provide superb viewing platforms for spectators. Invariably in immaculate condition, Royal Birkdale is a very tough cookie to master. The greens were re built prior to the 1998 Open and despite their youth are extremely difficult to read.
Birkdale has a superfluity of great holes. The 12th, a 183 yard par three is a classic hole and as natural as you can get. From a raised tee, the ball must carry across a hollow, whilst avoiding four deep pot bunkers before coming to rest on a narrow, raised green that is nestled at the feet of tussocky sand dunes. The par five 15th is Birkdale’s longest hole and one of the most heavily bunkered on the course; knock it straight down the middle of the tee and then using a long iron or a fairway wood, avoid the bunkers spread eagled across the fairway; chip it on and bingo, an easy five! The monstrous 18th has seen drama over the years, a heavily bunkered par four measuring 476 yards. Only our best shots in the bag will see us putting for a birdie.
Royal Birkdale can be a torrid experience when the wind is up, with white horses kicking and rearing their heads in the Irish Sea, crashing like kamikazes onto the beach. In these conditions, many of the carries from tees to fairways into the prevailing wind can be too much for the average golfer. But whatever the weather, Royal Birkdale is a provocative place to play golf.
Royal Liverpool UK Rank: 3rd Great Britain Rank: 16th World Rank: 49th
Distance from the World Championships 54 miles
(1 hour)
The Open Championship finally returned to Royal Liverpool after a 39 year gap. Hoylake, as it is called by those in the know, has a long and illustrious history of playing host to the Open, and has now hosted eleven, its first in 1897.
Founded in 1869, Hoylake is the second oldest seaside links course in England – only Royal North Devon is the more senior.
George Morris, the brother of Old Tom, originally laid out a 9 hole course on the site of a racecourse and for the first seven years, golfers shared the land with members of the Liverpool Hunt Club. Three extra holes were soon added and in 1871, the course was extended to 18 holes. In 1872, the club received royal patronage from Price Arthur Duke of Connaught.
Donald Steel was commissioned to make alterations to the course; these changes included a number of new greens, tees and bunkers. The work was completed in 2001 and the course now stretches out in excess of 7,000 yards.
The land is usually flat, offering little in the way of definition – three sides of the course are bordered by houses and the Dee Estuary lies on the Western side. When you get onto the course, the undulations become more pronounced an, as you move away from the houses, the overall experience improves. The holes alongside the shore (9th, 10th, 11th and 12th) are the most visually appealing and very challenging.
Without doubt, Royal Liverpool is a tough links. Only a couple of holes are in the dunes- otherwise there is little protection from the ever changing wind. There is nothing artificial about the course. It represents a traditional genuine test of golf and it was heart warming to see that Hoylake examined the very best players in 2006. They came, they saw and Tiger conquered!
Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club UK Rank:6th Great Britain Rank:20th World Rank:56th
Distance from the World Championships 57 miles
(1 hour 12 mins)
Royal Lytham & St Annes is the most northerly of the English Championship links course situated 10 miles, as the seagull flies, from its illustrious neighbour, Royal Birkdale. This monster links opened for play in 1886, fashioned by George Lowe, the club’s first professional. In the early part of the 20th century three great architects joined forces to remodel the course – Harry Colt, Herbert Fowler and Tom Simpson. CK Cotton later modified the layout.
This is definitely a links course, but is no longer beside the sea. It now lies about one mile inland but there is evidence that the sea is nearby because you can spot Blackpool Tower in the distance. The links is positioned – rather unusually – surrounded by red brick houses and flanked on the west by the railway line while the Guardian Victorian clubhouse watches sternly over the course. The conditioning of the course is exceptional and not as rough and ready as many of its contemporaries. The ground is relatively even, except perhaps on a couple of holes where the land is slightly wrinkled.
The course itself is extremely tough, only Carnoustie is thought to be tougher. The greens are firm, fast and true. The 1st is unique because this is the only par three starting hole on the Open Championship circuit and it’s a long one, measuring 206 yards from the back tees. Ian Woosnam hit a fine tee shot here in the 2001 Open and then sank the putt, thinking he’d made a birdie, only to find that he had 15 clubs in his bag. This cost Woosnam £225,000 and possibly the Open Championship title; it also cost his caddy around £20,000 and his job.
Royal Lytham and St Annes could never be described as a “classical” links course. It doesn’t have any giant shaggy dunes, nor does it have undulating roller coaster fairways or pretty sea views. But it does have honesty and character by the bucket and spade load, and bags and bags of history.
Cavendish UK Rank: 116th
Distance from the World Championships 24 miles (42 mins)
Dr Alister MacKenzie, the celebrated designer, was commissioned by the Duke of Devonshire in 1923 to lay out a new 18 hole course, replacing a 9 hole course in nearby Buxton. The course at Cavendish Golf Club was ready for play two years later and it has remained virtually unchanged in character for more than three quarters of a century.
With an overall length a modest 5,721 yards and a par of 68, Cavendish holds true to a couple of MacKenzie’s design principles- that a golf course should look as natural as possible and, above all, be interesting to players of all abilities.
Cavendish has plenty to arouse the golfer – whether it be the elevated tee position of the short par three 4th hole, the blind drive at the 8th hole, the two – tiered green on the 9th or the crescent shaped putting surface on the 13th – there’s many stimulating features to enjoy during the round where accurate approach play is essential in making a reasonable score around here.
