by Scott Simpson

This is the third and final part in the series.

        As we first approached Southport in the fading light of early evening, we suddenly found ourselves driving through spectacular dunes comparable to the dramatic dunes of Western Ireland (sufficiently distracting that my wife felt compelled to remind me to keep my eyes on the road).  These were the Ainsdale Sand Dunes, a National Nature Reserve and home to our three favorite courses of the trip.  First amongst this memorable troika is Royal Birkdale, universally and deservedly considered the finest of England's British Open venues.  Birkdale is an extremely fair test of golf, with surprisingly flat fairways winding amidst the tall dunes.  It has many memorable driving holes, where the player has alternative lines available to avoid the strategically placed fairway bunkers.

        Birkdale has some great holes, but perhaps more notably one never senses a weak hole or a compromise in the routing.  My personal favorite was probably the 12^th, a one-shotter requiring a long iron or hybrid to an elevated plateau green.  The green is protected in front by four clearly visible bunkers and, for most of the length of the green, by sandy dunes covered in scrub grass on either side.  The green is fairly sized for the length of shot and is actually wider than it appears from the tee, yet the penalties for a crooked shot are quite evident.

 

Top, the Par 3 12th hole at Royal Birkdale. Below, the view from the front left bunker on the 12th at Birkdale.  While not many players will leave a shot this short, the bunkers abutting the front of the green are also no bargain, especially when playing to a back pin.

        Birkdale immediately vaults into my Top 10 links courses and warrants only a couple of demerits on its scorecard, the most significant of which is temporary.   Birkdale is not particularly close to the water, with the Irish Sea visible from only a couple of the elevated tee boxes.  Therefore, the delightful sense of the sea as a constant companion during a round, such as at a Royal Dornoch or Ballybunion, is missing.  As for the clubhouse, built in the 1930s and designed to evoke an ocean liner, we’ll consider that an acquired taste.

 

The 18^th green and clubhouse at Royal Birkdale, with the author’s ball on the front collar.  The hole plays as a par 5 for mortal beings, but as a backbreaking par 4 in the Open Championship.  Draw your own conclusions about the clubhouse; I’ll choose to remember the two-putt birdie on the last hole of our trip.

 

        The one significant malady at Birkdale is to be shortly remedied.  The 17^th hole is a perfectly fine golf hole for most of us, but has evolved over time into a short par 5 that no longer provides a sufficient test for the best players in the world.  Accordingly, its green was redesigned to increase the difficulty of the hole in anticipation of the 2008 Open Championship and it provided the signature moment from that competition, Padraig Harrington’s 5-wood that landed short of the green and bounced towards the pin for a kick-in eagle that secured him the title.  But as many have noted, the green is just wrong in so many ways, completely out of character with the rest of the golf course and needlessly prone to wacky bounces and unfair putts.  We were fortunate to play it to a front pin position that took the worst of the green out of play, though our caddies had us try some putts from the back of the green for a chuckle.  Fortunately, the green is to be dug up over the winter and rebuilt in a manner, one presumes, more consistent with the golf course and rational thought.

 

The notorious 17^th green at Royal Birkdale.  The camera does not adequately capture the bizarre and unnecessary slopes on the green, and few will mourn its demise.

 

        Birkdale’s neighbors in the Ainsdale Dunes, Hillside Golf Club and Southport & Ainsdale Golf Club, typically shortened to S&A, should not be relegated to anyone’s back seat.  Separated only by the local commuter rail line, both of these delightful tracks are routed imaginatively through the dunes.  We almost didn’t play Hillside, as the pro shop staff had warned us off because of course maintenance.  Fortunately, our caddies at S&A insisted that we shouldn’t be deterred, and we were able to fit in a round.  The inbound nine runs through the best of the dunes and may well be the best nine holes of links golf in England.

 

The 10th green at Hillside Golf Club, the start of an exhilarating stretch of golf.  The hole plays into the prevailing wind and the player needs to be wary of the false front.

 

        S&A is almost as pleasant a jaunt, a little shorter and a little tighter than its neighbors.  As is often the case in this part of the world, and while largely unknown to U.S. golfers, S&A has its own impressive pedigree, having hosted two Ryder Cups in the 1930s.  Its best-known hole is the 16^th, a three-shotter called Gumbley’s, where the second shot is played blindly over railroad sleepers, very reminiscent of Prestwick.  Your humble correspondent can’t offer an opinion on the merit of this golf hole, as I was unfortunately so out of position off the tee that I blasted a sand wedge over the mound from the dune on the right and ended up with a very crooked number on my scorecard.  S&A, like Royal Lytham & St Anne, has a mid-iron par 3 as its opening hole, leading one to conclude that it must have something to do with the ampersands.

 

The blind carry required on the second shot of the 16^th hole at S&A, assuming that, unlike the author, you find the fairway with your drive (taken from across the commuter rail line on the first nine at Hillside Golf Club).

 

        The list of must-plays in the area also includes Formby Golf Club, host of the 2009 British Amateur won by Italian phenom Matteo Manassera (a very nice boy, the club receptionist assured me as she swiped my credit card).  Formby is an anomaly, a tree-lined links with a unique circular routing reminiscent of Muirfield.  Contained entirely within the grounds is the Formby Women’s Club, a separate entity, which was recommended to us more than once and described as being “5,000 yards long and a yard wide.”  We also made it down to Wallasey Golf Club, an historic Liverpool club best known as the club at which the Stableford scoring system originated.

        Theresa and I greatly enjoyed our time in Southport, particularly the wealth of great golf on one’s virtual doorstep.  Guilty of spreading ourselves too thin and spending far too much time on the road on prior trips, we delighted in the ability to unpack and settle in for such an extended stay in one hotel.  The biggest negative in our reckoning is that it’s a densely populated area, with all the attendant inconveniences inherent in civilization, such as the traffic congestion earlier.  At one point in the trip, Theresa lamented the absence of sheep on the roads, typically in such abundance in Scotland and Ireland.  We joked between ourselves about the difference between Scottish and English traffic jams, the former involving cattle and sheep and the latter related to school buses and construction on the dreaded M25.

        I recommend Southport highly to anyone who, like us, has sampled the great Scottish and Irish links, or who take particular pleasure in playing major tournament venues.  However, for those contemplating a first trip to experience links golf -- and what are you waiting for? -- Scotland or Ireland will likely provide the more satisfying travel experience.

 

Editor’s Note:  Golf Community Reviews reader Scott Simpson has made repeated visits to the British Isles to play links golf.  After a recent trip, I asked him to contribute some thoughts about the glories of golf by the sea and to describe his recent rounds in the Isles.  We thank Scott for his illuminating and entertaining articles.

Text and photos by Scott Simpson

 

The second part of a review of some of England’s great courses by one of our readers, a lover of the links courses of the British Isles.

 

        Because of the wide variety of golf available in the Merseyside area, we were able to park ourselves for an unusually extended period, 11 restful nights, at the comfortable and welcoming Waterford Hotel in the seaside resort of Southport.  An attractive town of approximately 100,000 permanent residents, Southport is best known for its Victorian architecture, extensive tree plantings and tony shopping, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that it is also home to the famed British Lawn Mower Museum.

        Located some 15 miles north of Liverpool, Southport offers some obviously compelling attributes for the traveling golfer, including ease of access (it’s some 90 minutes form Manchester Airport), a wide range of lodging and dining options and, perhaps, the largest cluster of top-tier links course within driving distance of each other (though both the Ayrshire Coast and East Lothian regions of Scotland have compelling cases as well).

        Any discussion of golf in the Southport area starts with the three Royals -- Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool (more colloquially referred to as Hoylake) and Royal Lytham & St. Anne.  Each are currently in the British Open rota.  While both Hoylake and Lytham

are no more than 15 to 20 miles from Southport, both require a full 90-minute drive during a typical weekday morning, as the routes are mostly on local roads, a fair portion of which is spent in neutral watching children board school busses.  Hoylake and Lytham are similar in many respects, both built on essentially flat land, with the most interesting holes located at the outer reaches of the courses as they all-too briefly enter the dunes at the nearest point to the Irish Sea.  They remain stern tests of golf due to, principally, the strategic placement of deep pot bunkers and the ever-present wind, but they lack the visual eye candy of the great courses of Scotland and Ireland.  They are both also victims of the encroachment of civilization, as their aesthetics are marred by none-too-attractive red brick housing and other structures close to the field of play.

        Hoylake includes an unusual feature that will surprise and likely annoy the first-time visitor, the existence of internal out-of bounds.  Interestingly, the severity of Hoylake has been significantly tempered over the years as the two most severe, and potentially unfair, conditions have been eliminated.  Hoylake’s 7^th hole, Dowie, one of the most famous one-shotters in the world, is named for the club’s first captain and used to feature out-of-bounds just to the left of the triangular green.  Because a ball pulled even the slightest bit left could readily hop over the cop, a low grass wall demarcating the boundary, most players would inevitably bail out far to the right.  It was decided to consider this area in play for the 1967 Open and has remained so since.

The Royal Liverpool clubhouse looking back from the first fairway.  At left is the cop, a low grass wall demarcating the internal out-of-bounds.

 

        The second hole that has been changed is the 17^th, known as Royal (the Royal Hotel sits right across the road), where the green originally sat at the corner of the property, resulting in many approach shots leaving the yard.  Due to the club’s concerns regarding liability, architect Donald Steel was hired to site a new green some 30 yards from the property line.  Notwithstanding the changes above, there remain several holes affected by the internal out-of bounds.  The most interesting of these may be the 16^th, a potentially reachable par 5 where the most direct line off the tee will require the second shot to be played over the out-of-bounds practice ground.  Hoylake disappeared from the Open rota after the 1967 tournament due to the lack of space for parking and amenities, but it returned in 2006 after the club was able to acquire an adjacent parcel.  Hoylake will again host the Open in 2014.

Top, the author’s dilemma on the short Par 4 9^th (Punch Bowl) at Hoylake (Royal Liverpool), where a great drive has left him with only bad options.  He can either try to hit a soft pitch from the incredibly firm turf, and inevitably skull it, or putt safely to the right and leave himself a 12-15 footer for birdie.  Welcome to links golf!  Below, the beautiful 11th green at Hoylake (the hole is named Alps).  This stretch of holes through the dunes, at the far end of the property closest to the Irish Sea, is quite beautiful but is out of character with the flat terrain of the bulk of the course.

 

        Lytham is the more straightforward of the two, and to our mind the more charming.  But links golf is never without its eccentricities, and Lytham is no exception.  The course starts with an opening par 3, and in its most recent Open in 2001, this eccentricity facilitated Ian Woosnam’s unfortunate two-shot penalty for having a second driver in his bag.  Had the opener been a more traditional driving hole, the oversight would inevitably have been noticed before the penalty was assessed.

The short but treacherous 9th at Royal Lytham, playing only 165 yards from the tips.  With a wedge or 9 iron in hand, the player merely has to hit the ball straight and on the exact number (merely).  The hole offers the classic links dilemma:  Put the ball in the air and challenge the wind, or flight it low with the knowledge that you must carry it the precise distance to stop it on the firm turf.  Unfortunately, most of the structures adjoining the rest of the course are not as attractive as the one behind #9.

 

        The other notable quirk at Lytham is that the clubhouse, which abuts the back of the extremely deep 18^th green, is in play -- i.e. no relief is granted for stance or swing.  In playing to a back pin, the player must be extremely careful not to overclub (or, dare I say out loud, thin it).  Gary Player famously hit his approach shot through the green and played his third backhanded while facing the clubhouse in closing out his Open victory in 1974.  The Open will return to Lytham in 2012.

The author's bride and her caddy approaching her ball just short of the 18^th green at Lytham.  Because of the firm turf, it is very easy to run a ball through the green and have the clubhouse, which is in play, affect your next shot.

 

         Lytham and Hoylake also share a connection to Bobby Jones.  Jones won the first of his three Open Championships at Lytham in 1926 by virtue of a dramatic shot on the 17^th hole in the final round.  Tied for the lead, his tee shot found an unkempt bunker to the left of the fairway some 175 yards from the green.  The shot played into the wind and he was unable to see the green due to large gorse bushes that ran the entire distance.  With his opponent already on the front of the putting surface, Jones gambled and played a remarkable mashie (equivalent to a 3 or 4 iron, but remember they were still in the era of hickory shafts), making the green and rattling his opponent into a three-putt.  The club he used is on display in the Lytham clubhouse and it looks more like something you’d toss on the beach for your dog to fetch.  Jones also won the Open at Hoylake in 1930, the second leg that year of his historic Grand Slam.

Next:  Royal Birkdale and other Southport gems