From Texas to Liverpool - Hoylake anyone? Liverpool area courses?

[Tyler Ince]

I am headed for a Scottish golf trip starting August 20th but will be in Liverpool visiting a few friends the 15th-19th.  My Scottish trip consists of Musselburgh, Royal Aberdeen, Carnoustie, Muirfield, North Berwick, St. Andrews (fingers crossed on a time), Prestwick and Turnberry with my father and 18 friends from the States. 

Hoping to play 5 of the 9 rota courses I wanted to see if anyone can get on Hoylake.  If not, anyone recommend another course in the Liverpool area?

'til the Road Hole

Tyler

[David_Tepper]

Tyler -

The stretch from Liverpool north along the Lancashire coast to Southport and on to Lytham/St. Anne's could be the strongest stretch of links golf in the world. Heading north from Hoylake, there is West Lancs, Formby, Southport-Ainsdale, Birkdale, Hillside, Hesketh and on to Lytham-St. Anne's. I think you would enjoy any and all of those courses.

DT   

[Bill_McBride]

Tyler, I think you can play Hoylake, like most top rank British courses, by emailing the secretary an inquiry. It's a great and historic links and lots of fun to play. 

Right down the road is Wallasey, less known but equally entertaining.  That was the second qualifying course when Bobby Jones won the 1930 Open during the Grand Slam year of 1930.  Both clubhouses have beautiful oil paintings of Jones. 

[Mark_Rowlinson]

David and Bill have given you sound information - just try. You may get lucky. If you want to break the journey north for some golf, don't forget Silloth-on-Solway a few miles west of Carlisle. It's a wonderfully old-fashioned links.

[Bill_McBride]

Also Tyler, there have been glowing reports on GCA.com about staying in the Formby dormie house, which is open to visitors on a stay-and-play basis.  Staying in a dormie house is a very fun UK golf experience. 

[Tony_Muldoon]

Also Tyler, there have been glowing reports on GCA.com about staying in the Formby dormie house, which is open to visitors on a stay-and-play basis.  Staying in a dormie house is a very fun UK golf experience. 

All of Bills' thoughts are on the money.

Of the open rota courses in the area I might split my next 10 returns to

Hoylake  5
Birkdale 3
Lytham 2


Although the first and last have Opens coming up. So if that’s important to you, it  might depend on how often you’ll get back.

But if I had 20 games to plan in the area based only on courses I’d played it might be

Lytham     1
Birkdale    2
Wallesay   3
Hoylake    4
Formby                10

It really is unique and here’s the thread.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,32146.0.html


Enjoy the trip.

[Tom Kelly]

http://www.royal-liverpool-golf.com/index.lasso?pg=4a325bf6ac1069c3&mp=f1c3d806dd826322

Info on visitors at Hoylake/Royal Liverpool, it seems like that accept visitors whenever though not cheaply.....

Enjoy the trip, I am massively jealous!

[Bill_McBride]

http://www.royal-liverpool-golf.com/index.lasso?pg=4a325bf6ac1069c3&mp=f1c3d806dd826322

Info on visitors at Hoylake/Royal Liverpool, it seems like that accept visitors whenever though not cheaply.....

Enjoy the trip, I am massively jealous!

Those are very low rates for an Open Rota course.  The Old Course is £115 (could be more), Sandwich is a bundle, Walton Heath is £115.   £65 on a weekday is a really good deal for that level course. 

[Sean_A]

http://www.royal-liverpool-golf.com/index.lasso?pg=4a325bf6ac1069c3&mp=f1c3d806dd826322

Info on visitors at Hoylake/Royal Liverpool, it seems like that accept visitors whenever though not cheaply.....

Enjoy the trip, I am massively jealous!

Those are very low rates for an Open Rota course.  The Old Course is £115 (could be more), Sandwich is a bundle, Walton Heath is £115.   £65 on a weekday is a really good deal for that level course. 

Ace

£65 isn't terribly cheap for a winter rate. 

I think Formby is every bit the course Hoylake is and indeed I prefer Formby.  Wallasey is a step down in quality from Hoylake and Formby, but it is still very good and again, I prefer it to Hoylake.  Both Formby and Wallasey move through better terrain than Hoylake and are considerably cheaper. 

10 plays for me

Formby x 5
Wallasey x 3
Hoylake x 2

I couldn't in earnest recommend any of the area's other well known links over these three unless one is hung up on seeing the Open rota, in which case I would reco

Formby x 4
Wallasey x 2
Hoylake x 2
Birkdale x 1
Lytham x 1

All that said, I quite like West Lancs, but its about the same price as Wallasey and not up to that standard. I wouldn't reco Hillside or Southport & Ainsdale unless one fails to get on all of the above courses.  Good courses for sure, but nothing in the least bit special.

Ciao

[Tyler Ince]

Thanks everyone. I knew I would receive some excellent feedback from GCA on this. I am excited about getting some new rounds in over there and will put in my due diligence based on all the feedback you guys have given.  I will see about Hoylake and Formby.  Also thinking I might hit up Musselburgh in the morning in Edinburgh before my group flies in....any thoughts on that?

David - too bad I am not making up to the highlands and Dornoch again but my group doesn't have 2 months of vacation like I have so we had to stick to the lowlands this time and do as much as we could in a week. Look forward to meeting up sometime.

Bill see you at Ballyneal again in 2012?

[Bill_McBride]

Bill see you at Ballyneal again in 2012?

Well, it depends on the economic recovery.  What's your forecast?   

[Tyler Ince]

Bill,

My thoughts are the hype behind today's downturn is not based on all the poor financials we had in 2008. Oil was $150, banks were using poor accounting and reporting....and now overall companies are fairly liquid and look in much better shape than 2008 with better financial instruments in place.  I read the other day where Apple has like $73 billion in cash more than the US Gov.  So a gambling man would buy during the fear when many of the indicators point to the market being oversold.

Me, I think the best thing to do is either spend it before you lose it or spend it before you croak! Hence my epic vacation coming up with England, Scotland, climbing Kilimanjaro and a safari followed with Oktoberfest in Munich and a week in NYC to relax before going back to Texas then work in the Caribbean!

So see you at Ballyneal 2012 then?

[Bill_McBride]

Bill,

My thoughts are the hype behind today's downturn is not based on all the poor financials we had in 2008. Oil was $150, banks were using poor accounting and reporting....and now overall companies are fairly liquid and look in much better shape than 2008 with better financial instruments in place.  I read the other day where Apple has like $73 billion in cash more than the US Gov.  So a gambling man would buy during the fear when many of the indicators point to the market being oversold.

Me, I think the best thing to do is either spend it before you lose it or spend it before you croak! Hence my epic vacation coming up with England, Scotland, climbing Kilimanjaro and a safari followed with Oktoberfest in Munich and a week in NYC to relax before going back to Texas then work in the Caribbean!

So see you at Ballyneal 2012 then?

Let me know when!