Hidden Gem British Open Courses: One Of The World's Best Golf Trips

Forbes

18-07-2025

Rory McIlroy is one of only six male goflers to win the career Grand Slam, and his sole British Open ... More victory was at Royal Liverpool. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)
Since the pandemic, interest in both outdoor recreation and epic 'Bucket List' type trips has spiked, and golf in the British Isles sits at the nexus of these two hot trends. As a result, it has gotten much harder to arrange trips and get tee times at the most famous and desirable courses of Scotland and Ireland, the places most golf travelers immediately think of when they think of links golf in the Old Country. But shockingly, there are still some lesser-known clusters that include British Open venues and multiple courses on all the 'World's Best' lists, along with great food, lodging, non-golf activities and ease of access, that are much easier—and less expensive—to do a trip to. To me the top example is the off-the-radar Liverpool region, home to three of the four British Open courses in England, and simply one of the world's best golf trips.
Experts Agree: Links Golf Is The Best Golf
As Ernie Els demonstrated at The 151st Open Championship, it's best to avoid the bunkers at Royal ... More Liverpool. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)
Links golf, on the sandy coastal settings and the kind of geology found along the perimeter of Britain and Ireland, is widely considered the best kind of golf, period. Other spots conducive to building true links courses have been discovered by eager developers in a frenzied search around the world, from the coast of Oregon and remote northeastern Canada to New Zealand, but the British Isles remains by far the hotbed with the greatest concentration. As I noted in a different recent golf travel article here at Forbes on several important new luxury golf hotels across the pond, on the current 2024-2025 Golf Digest World's 100 Greatest Golf Courses list, the top four and nine of Top Ten are links courses, all but one in the British Isles. Nine out of ten!
While overall, links courses represent a very small percentage of all golf courses, at best maybe two percent, there's another half dozen links in the World's Best second ten, for 15 of the Top 20 spots, including Royal Birkdale, just outside Liverpool. At Number 19 in the World, Birkdale will host next year's 2026 British Open, the eleventh held on the storied course where, in just one part of its ultra-rich history, Arnold Palmer won both the Open, and as Captain, the Ryder Cup.
The par 3 14th hole at Royal Birkdale Golf Club (Photo by)
To put this in perspective, if Royal Birkdale, a World Top 20 links course that has hosted 10- Open Championships (what we call the British Open), as well as the Ryder Cup (twice) Women's Open, and Curtis Cup, was the only great course here, it would be worth the trip. It's ranked ahead of courses many golf travelers go much further afield to play on pilgrimages, from Scotland's Kingsbarns to Australia's famed New South Wales Golf Club to Spain's top course Valderrama and Japan's best, Hirono. But it's not just Birkdale.
This concise stretch of coastal golf paradise is home to more than a dozen exceptional courses, including three World Top 100s that between them have hosted nearly three dozen British Open Championships, several Ryder Cups, Senior Opens, British Amateurs, and just about very important event that could possibly have been held in the UK. All are within easy commuting distance of downtown Liverpool, a city that has enjoyed its own recent urban renaissance and is chock full of great attractions and plenty of good bars and restaurants. You can play one of the world's best courses in the morning and tour the Beatles museum in the afternoon, then have one of the tastiest steaks in the country and cap it off with live music, cocktails and even tableside magicians. You don't even need a car and could do it all by ride share if that's your thing. This type of golf vacation is a far cry from the rural B&Bs that comprise lodging and nightlife at some other more far-flung top links destinations in the British Isles.
Lytham & St Annes Golf Club has a setting betwen town and the sea very reminiscent of the Old Course ... More at St. Andrews. (Photo by David Cannon/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)
With ten Opens under its belt, Royal Birkdale is a relative newbie in the region. Down the road, Royal Liverpool (ranked 63rd in the world by Golf Digest) is England's second oldest course and has held the longest-running Major 13-times. This is where Bobby Jones won the Open in his famous 1930 Grand Slam season, and since this feat has never been replicated since, it makes Liverpool almost a guaranteed shoe in to host its 14th open for the 2030 centennial. Lytham & St. Annes is currently ranked 33rd, far ahead of legends such as Ireland's Waterville, Scotland's Machrihanish or the Dominican Republic's Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo. It has hosted eleven Opens, five Women's Opens, five Senior Opens, two Ryder Cups, the Curtis Cup and the Walker Cup. Annika Sorenstam won the Open here enroute to her own career Grand Slam while Jones took home another Liverpool-area Claret Jug to match his Grand Slam trophy from neighboring Royal Liverpool. It is as nefarious as it is historic, and visitors making travel plans should bear in mind that it is widely considered the toughest layout in this area, with 174 bunkers—after a couple of dozen were removed.
'As the crow flies, just 25 miles separate the three Open Championship venues,' says Sam Baker, founder of top golf travel tour operator Haversham & Baker, and like me, a big fan of this region. 'England's Golf Coast is often seen by golfers as a destination for after they've checked the marquee spots in Scotland and Ireland off, but it really deserves more attention for its outstanding collection of links courses. Even better, the region provides significant value compared to other areas in the UK and Ireland, requires less advance planning, and allows you to play its top courses without the hassle of changing hotels.'
Royal Liverpool and its neighbors are the epitome of world class links courses. (Photo by David ...)
I did a quick online comparison of top tour operators offering the most popular packages in the British Isles, with golf, lodging and transport (most Americans opt to splurge on a driver and van or mini-bus so they don't have to rent cars, navigate the 'wrong' side of the road and can enjoy post-round clubhouse libations). Weeklong packages around Liverpool run about two-thirds the price (33% less) of a similarly rated slate of courses in Scotland. And it is easier to get to, with Liverpool under an hour from the Manchester international airport, with non-stops from the U.S. (it also has its own small airport with limited intra-UK connections and is a non-stop two-and-a-half-hour train ride from London).
These three Top 70 Open Championship venues are the anchor and main draw, but there is more great links golf, and my personal favorite hidden gem within this hidden gem destination was Wallasey. If you had never played a links course before and showed up here you might well think it was the best golf course in the world, and its main claim to fame is as 'the birthplace of Stableford scoring,' a now uncommon form of golf competition invented by a member here and once used even in PGA Tour events. It's beautiful, quirky in the blind shot style of Prestwick, another personal favorite of mine, and has exposed coastal holes in the style of Royal Portrush where the Open is being played as I write this. Throw in large elevation changes and towering dunes—from the fourth tee you can see across the water to Wales—and this design by legendary architect Old Tom Morris, renewed by another legend, James Braid, has a little of everything great about golf. It is also the closest to the city, less than seven miles from downtown, and near Royal Liverpool.
Not unexpectedly for a little-known, laid-back club like Wallasey, the staff and members are super friendly, welcoming and glad to see foreigners paying attention to them and bothering to make the trip. They are justifiably proud of their course, eager to chat, and a pint here is a warm experience. What is more surprising is that even in the much grander club houses of the Royal layouts and Open venues, stuffed to the gills with trophies and memorable and history, the vibe is exactly the same. Ther are many great courses in Scotland where visitors are barely tolerated, and only then because their top dollar fees subsidize cheap memberships. If you like warm and friendly over stuffy and cold, go to the Lancashire Coast outside Liverpool on a golf trip. One member at Royal Liverpool made a big deal of pointing out to us that the parking lot had no spots reserved for the Captain or Secretary or other honorees as is the case at almost every other famous course in the UK. He emphasized the democratic nature and noted that they 'had to find a parking spot just like everybody else.'
A hidden gem surrounded by famous neighbors, visitors love the Wallasey Golf Club (Photo by David ...)
The other standouts you'd round out a week of golf with include Southport & Ainsdale, Formby and Hillside. Members and locals just call the former 'S and A,' and it was the first place the U.S. ever won the Ryder Cup on foreign soil, and the first course to host the event twice, along with the British Amateur. The James Braid design is said to be the least changed and thus most original in the region, with oddities such as par-3s opening both nines and a blind shot over a gigantic and seemingly unclearable (you can do it) dune that completely blocks the fairway.
Formby, also a British Amateur host, has 36-holes, unusual for the region, and both have a very different barely inland feel that melds links topography with pine forests otherwise absent in the area and the heather of heathland golf. The now co-ed Formby's Women's Golf Club course was described by the pro as '5,500 yards long with fairways five yards wide,' and many members find it more difficult and tougher to score on than the more prestigious and much longer championship eighteen. It's worth playing both and is the easiest place to get in 36.
Hillside is so close to Royal Birkdale—divided by just a property line—that its excellent practice facilities were paid for by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club so they could use it for the Open as Birkdale didn't have room. Hillside is the most dramatic style of links golf, especially on its back, with rolling fairways flanked by towering dunes and raw coastal exposure. All six of these clubs, as well as nearby West Lancashire and St. Annes Links, have been ranked in the Top 100 in the UK and Ireland. If you stay longer and need to play more than eight locales, without repeating, other standouts include Hesketh and a heathland stunner, Delamere Forest. A local tourism site, England's Golf Coast, has details on all the courses, accommodations, dining and transportation in the area.
Liverpool has enjoyed an urban renaissance in recent years, especially its waterfront.
Excluding totally private clubs, the kind that proliferate around New York and San Francisco, there are only a handful of exceptional urban golf trips in the world where you can stay in a big city, take advantage of what a city offers and play great golf. These include Scottsdale, Dublin, Melbourne, Las Vegas, and to some extent London, though the courses require a long commute with plenty of traffic. With the arguable exception of Melbourne, Liverpool has the best golf, and it's a lot closer than Australia. You could jump on a non-stop flight tonight to Manchester from several major U.S. cities and be on the tee at one of these stellar golf courses tomorrow morning.
Liverpool is known as one of the UK's friendliest cities, and we were greeted with smiling staff just about everywhere. It has extensive pedestrianized areas downtown, which makes strolling fun and lively, plus a revitalized waterfront that includes major attractions including several museums. There is no top-tier luxury hotel such as a Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton, but there are several good upscale options including the Hope Street Hotel, with a surprisingly extensive spa and thermal area underneath it, just northeast of the city center in lively upscale neighborhood; The Municipal, set in a beautiful and architecturally significant former government building with grand lobby and another large spa, in a central location in the heart of the city; and the modern Malmaison, part of a British chain, on the waterfront.
My favorite meal of the trip was at Hawksmoor, the city's top steakhouse and an outpost of a London-classic that has become so popular it now has locations in New York and Chicago, as well as Dublin. Hawksmoor has won major international awards for its excellent cocktail program, but to me the highlight is the meat, all drug-free, grass-fed heirloom beef from small British farms that is then dry aged onsite. My friend and playing partner liked it so much that as soon as we got home he went to the Chicago location while traveling for work.
Extensive araes of donwtown Liverpool are pedestrianized, making for great strolling
Another higher end Liverpool culinary highlight is Nord, a fine dining spot that fuses local farm-to-table British produce, seafood and ingredients with Scandinavian techniques in multi-course tasting menus with wine paring options. A more casual choice that you could visit more than once is the locally beloved Duke Street Food & Drink Market with several independent restaurant concepts and a central bar. You can sit anywhere in the resorted historic building and order from any of the spots, from tapas to Pacific Rim to gastro pub. For upscale classic English food such as Sunday roasts, there's the London Carriage Works in The Hope Street Hotel. Whiskey lovers should visit the Puffin Rooms, with more than 300 labels on pour—and an excellent retail shop. I am personally a huge fan of live magic, and Liverpool has an exceptional, if hard to find venue, The Oracle, a classy throwback cocktail parlor with tableside magicians.
Outside of golf and magic, Liverpool's top attractions are the Beatles Story museum, the World Museum, Museum of Liverpool, Maritime Museum, British Music Experience and an outpost of London's famed Tate art museum. Live music is still going strong where the Fab Four made their start, at the famous Cavern Club. If soccer is your thing, Liverpool FC is big draw, and Manchester United not far away.
Besides golf, The Beatles are a big Liverpool attraction.
Hillside, Southport & Ainsdale and Royal Birkdale are all next to each other in a coastal enclave just outside Southport, a summer-focused resort town with beach, promenade and myriad family attractions such as amusement pier, rides and arcades. While you can certainly do the entire trip from Liverpool (just 13 miles), many tour operators recommend staying in Southport for a couple of nights to be very close to these three and for a change of pace. The top choice is a boutique hotel called the Vincent in the heart of the town's Main Street, with rooftop bar and easy walk to shops and bars. giving you pedestrian access to shopping, dining and drinking, all within five minutes' drive of the three courses.
While these courses are easier to access than many similar quality links, each has its own days open or not open to the public, tournament and event closures, and it is always a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. The top golf tour operators have direct relationships with the clubs and often access to pre-blocked times, so in order to fully enjoy one of the world's best golf trips, it's still easiest to let an expert put the itinerary together, especially if you want a driver or to play 36 on one or more days. I used Haversham & Baker Golf Expeditions but other top options specializing in this region would include Premier Golf and Fairways To Heaven. The climate is a tad milder than Scotland and these courses are open year-round, but peak season is mid-April to mid-October and very few foreigners visit outside these times, while locals play when weather allows. If you want to go in winter, you will find this truly one of the easiest trips to great courses to book, but it helps to be hardy.