British Courses 12

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Wallasey


Paul Turner posted some wonderful old pictures of Wallasey some time back.  These were taken in 1986 - some of them not very good, but I thought to include them just for atmosphere.  The club dates from 1891 and the course is attributed to Tom Morris.  His brother Jack was professional just down the road at Hoylake, so it is possible.  Bobby Jones came here in 1930 to qualify for the Open at Hoylake, the last leg of his 'Impregnable Quadrilateral'.  I seem to recall that there have been alterations to the course since last I was there.  There are some plain holes on flatter ground inland.  The dunes, though, are as good as any and Ballybunion is occasionally brought to mind in the way in which the holes often climb onto them.  It was, when last I played there, 6607 yards with a par of 72.


3rd green.  There is quite a steep climb to this green from the tumbling fairway you can see on the left.  


3rd green from the side.  There are fine views along the North Wales and Lancashire coasts from the higher parts of the course.


4th tee.  Terrible picture, but you can just about make out the big drop to the fairway (the one on the right - the one on the left is the 17th).  Please imagine spectacular vistas from this lofty spot.  504 yards, par 5.


11th tee.  I'm reminded Silloth on several drives in that sometimes you cannot see the fairway, yet it's perfectly possible to deduce where it is.  Follow the path over the ridge and you'll discover a fairway whence you pitch uphill to the green - 371 yards in all.


16th green.  This is a tough hole, played slightly uphill from a tee off to the left of the photograph.  The green is raised sufficiently to make it very difficult to hit in the wind.  Neither of these players made the distance, 200 yards from the back tee.


18th tee.  I am standing on one of the men's tees, from which the drive is made more or less on a line with the church tower.  It is then a slight right dog-leg.  The ladies play it as a straight hole.  The fairway is marvellously rippled.  441-yard par 4.


18th green - looking back up the 'marvellously rippled' fairway.

[Philip Gawith]

where is wallasey mark? how far from hoylake?

[Mike Nuzzo]

All those pictures are very good to me.
If only they were bigger.
Thank you.

[RJ_Daley]

Mark, thanks for all you have been doing to bring more variety and attention to courses and archies and history than we generally get, as I have said on another thread.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Wallasey is just 5 miles from Hoylake.  They're both on a peninsula called the Wirral which lies between the estuaries of the Mersey and the Dee.  This used to be part of Cheshire, but for some reason the bureaucrats have decided to lump it in with the rest of Merseyside (once part of Lancashire).  Wallasey is just across the ferry or under the Mersey Tunnel from central Liverpool.  Between Hoylake and Wallasey there is another links course, Leasowe, but it's not great.  There's also a genuine links municipal 18-hole course at Hoylake (Braid) and a 9-hole links at Wallasey (Warren Park) which could be brilliant but when last I played there it was in abominable condition.  Prenton is a part-Mackenzie parkland course in the same area, Bidston a low-lying windswept semi-links near Wallasey, Wirral Ladies' is a brilliant little course.  Caldy on the Dee Estuary is a happy mix of links, downland and parkland and Heswall is a testing and attractive parkland course overlooking the Dee Estuary.  There are other (parkland) municipals at Brackenwood, Ellesmere Port and Arrowe Park, a longish and testing parkland layout at Bromborough and a very compact layout (Hawtree) at Eastham Lodge.   All this in a matter of minutes from each other.  The Wirral is well provided with golf courses.

Sorry about the size of the pictures - I've only just discovered how to get them on here and at the moment Mystic Color seems happy to host them for nothing - that's as big as they do.  In truth, these are 35mm colour slides and some of them are pretty grainy (not to mention scratched and fading) and I have to force my recalcitrant scanner to get enough light out of them to post.  That's why so many look washed out.  I doubt if they'd benefit from being much bigger - you'd see all the blemishes even more!