Golf Destination Report: Liverpool

Liverpool is more likely to be known as a destination for boozy nights out and soccer trips, but its golf history is significant.

It has held a great many Majors on its various courses, and although its residents are more interested in the Liverpool FC and Everton FC, it’s a great city to visit for golf, with a mixture of high profile, internationally renowned courses, and some more affordable (and even municipal) courses.

Moreover, Liverpool is an easy city to get to these days. Due to the great demand for flights on the weekend (and you should keep one eye to the football calendar and avoid flights late at night on a Friday or early on a Saturday when Everton and, in particular, Liverpool are at home).

Ryanair fly regularly and cheaply from Shannon, Cork and Dublin. Aer Lingus don’t, but they do fly to Manchester, which is just short distance from Liverpool.

As a city, Liverpool is probably more popular as a drinking venue than a cultural hub, and you can probably see all it has to offer in a weekend with plenty of time to stop for pints. Hotels are of a reasonable standard and cheap.

Still, the golf courses are worth the trip and the ones described below are just a small selection of some of the best Liverpool has to offer.

Royal Liverpool (Hoylake)

Royal Liverpool golf course is, as the name would suggest, golf course royalty. It has hosted 11 Open Championships (though only once since 1967, with Tiger Woods grabbing his third Open victory in the 2006 competition). It seems fairly flat on first sight, but this is an optical illusion, and the course is actually one of the most difficult links courses in England.

The club welcomes visitors in both summer and winter, with only the green fees changing from season to season.

As you’d expect, in a course that has hosted 11 Open Championships, it has a rather stuffy attitude to golf attire on course and off: according to the club: “conventional golf wears is required and shirts should be tucked in. Shorts should be tailored, knee-length and, for gentlemen, worn with knee-length long socks”. However, for all you summer-clothes-wearing oiks, “shorts should not be worn upstairs at any time. Thereafter, a jacket and tie (or equivalent dress for ladies) is required upstairs”. And, of course, no denim need apply.

More importantly, all visitors are expected to be competent golfers and a club or society handicap must be held. Maximum handicap for men is -21 and -32 for the ladies.

In winter, it’ll cost you between £75 (€110) and £95 (€140) to play, while during the summer it’ll cost you between £135 (€200) and £185 (€272) to play - which all seems quite reasonable to play on one of England’s most famous courses.

Wallasey

Wallasey is a rather unprepossessing suburb of Liverpool, but in it sits a piece of golfing history. Dr Frank Barney Gorton Stableford invented the scoring system that bears his name at the course (incidentally, inspired by the high winds at the course, which any prospective visitor should be aware of).

And Wallasey plays on its association with Stableford and the famous amateur player Bobby Jones. According to the club, Stableford’s scoring system was perfected on the course’s second hole, described as a: “formidable par four, requiring a good drive tight to the fairway bunker, followed by a long second to a small green. The large bunker in the centre of the fairway shouldn’t give trouble, unless the wind is up”.

The course has real quality, though, and in 1995 and 2000 it hosted the preliminary rounds of the Amateur Championship, while in 2006 it held the final qualifying for the Open Championship.

Green fees in summer will be between £70 (€103) and £80 (€118) a round on weekdays and £85 (€125) and £95 (€140) a round on weekends. The fees rate drops to a flat £40 (€60) a day during the winter and all golfers must provide evidence of their handicap on the day they intend to play.

Eastham Lodge

Eastham Lodge Golf Course is a picturesque course, not as challenging as the previous two, but set in some beautiful parkland that should provide sufficient distraction if your golf game is breaking your heart.

The course overlooks the Mersey, and it has plenty of natural hazards, with some well guarded greens.

Visitors can expect to pay £24 (€35) for a weekday - unless you know a member, when you can get in for £12.50 (€18.30). During the weekends, you can only get access to the course if you know a member, but the price stays at £12.50 (€18.30).

Royal Birkdale

Royal Birkdale is one of the finest courses in the UK and has been ranked as one of the 30 best courses in the world. Like most Liverpool golf courses, if there’s a wind, it can cause havoc with one’s game, but it all adds to the challenge. And the first every Ryder Cup match to be halved was at Royal Birkdale, when Jack Nicklaus memorably conceded Tony Jacklins' final putt on the 18th green. (It has held the Open Championship eight times, two Ryder Cups.)

The club is located just outside the resort town of Southport, which would probably provide a nice base from which to visit the other courses, while avoiding some of the grottier suburbs of Liverpool, and the raucous nature of the city centre.

If you don’t know an existing member of the club personally, you’ll have to make a reservation and get a starting time before you arrive at the club and, for a course with its history, you’ll have to have your handicap certificate on you.

If you’d like to send a friend to Liverpool to play this course, you can buy a voucher for a round of golf, and they can get tuition from the club professional or his assistant.

As you’d expect, this won’t be a cheap round of golf. Until the end of April, you can expect to spend £120 (€177) for a day’s golf during the week, and £150 (€220) for a round on the weekend. In the summer, from May onwards, you’ll fork out £165 (€243) and £195 (€287) respectively, and the prices won’t revert back to pre-summer prices until October. The course closes in December.