Hesketh’s history is deeply woven into the fabric of English golf. The English Golf Union was founded here, and legends like Henry Cotton have graced its fairways. The club is also home to the unique ‘Hitler Trophy’ from the 1936 Berlin Olympics, won by Hesketh’s own Arnold Bentley.

The course itself offers a fair yet demanding test. Half the holes weave through dunes, the rest run alongside the Ribble Estuary, with a dramatic closing stretch from the 14th to 18th framed by the clubhouse. 

Despite its, at first glance, flat and benign appearance, Hoylake makes the trickiest demands of a player’s shot selection, distance control and accuracy. When Open Championships are hosted here only the ultimate masters of these elements emerge victorious as Champion Golfer of the Year. Royal Liverpool’s 13 Opens have delivered 13 different Champions, comprising an array of amateur stars, history makers and modern-day giants - with many of them claiming wins of huge historical significance.

Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club is one of the premier links courses in the World, host to eleven Open Championships, two Ryder Cups and numerous other major tournaments including The Women’s Open, The Senior Open, The Amateur Championship and The Walker Cup. It is renowned as one of the best designed links courses in the world with 174 strategically positioned pot bunkers peppering the fairways and surrounding the greens, lying in wait for errant shots.

The Course has a charm all of its own, flanked by a railway line and surrounded by suburban housing. It is a Links Course that is away from the sea yet close enough for the sea breeze to have an effect on one’s game and was aptly described by Bernard Darwin, the leading golf writer of the thirties, as ‘a beast of a Course, but a just beast’.  He went on to say that ‘no one could fail to be impressed by its difficulties, which sets a golfer just about as ruthless as an examination as any Course of my acquaintance’.

The course was designed by C K Cotton and is laid out on some 200 acres of land and succeeds in carrying out the ideal layout of a golf course – two loops of nine holes with the 9th and 18th greens in front of the clubhouse.  The course starts with a demanding dogleg par-4 and keeps you challenged throughout with a great run from the 7th to 9th. After the demanding par 3 12th, you climb up to a splendid view from the elevated 13th tee. From here on in it is one quality links hole after another – the challenge is non-stop and will keep you on your toes from start to finish.