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Written by Ted O'Rourke
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Tuesday, 14 April 2009 |
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Recently I spent a week playing golf in northwest England as a guest of the local tourism industry and Haversham & Baker Golfing Expeditions, a company that specializes in providing international travel arrangements to the members of American country clubs. The experience exceeded my expectations in almost every way possible. If you’ve never been on the golf trip there, you need to put one on your personal bucket list. It’s simply one of the very best destinations for links golf—every bit as good as what you find in Scotland and Ireland with a lot more convenience.
The courses are outstanding. We visited seven different championship quality courses, including three which host the British Open—Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Hillside Golf Club, adjacent to Birkdale, has one of the most attractive back nines I’ve ever seen. Southport & Ainsdale, adjacent to Hillside, hosted two Ryder Cups.
The convenience is hard to beat. In a sixty mile stretch along the Irish Sea north from Liverpool there are at least a dozen courses worth playing. If you stay in Southport in the center of the stretch, five of the championship courses are within a 15 minute drive and the other two are only about an hour. More time on the courses and in the pubs…less time on the bus.
Staying in Southport a couple of nights gave us plenty to do with our extra time. It has a casino and lots of restaurants and bars within an easy walk of the downtown hotels. We ate one night in a particularly good restaurant that specialized in seafood.
If you stay in Southport, you can choose between a funky, chic hotel on the main street and brand new Ramada on the seafront. Nearby there is a golf resort with 27 holes, covered driving bays, an indoor pool and spa. Royal Lytham has an appealing Dormy House with 16 single rooms. And our last night we stayed in one of those elegant English manor houses near Royal Liverpool. The husband and wife who own the place drove us from the golf course to their hotel in vintage Rolls Royces.
The luxury car chauffeur drive is only one example of the warm hospitality we experienced everywhere we went. Know how in some Scottish and Irish clubhouses you are confined to “visitors” rooms? Not so in England. We were greeted by members at every club we visited and the three Royals even designate you as a “temporary member” with full privileges rather than a visitor. Before this trip, I thought the English were stuffy. Boy was I wrong!
Great week! You should do it when you get a chance.
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