As already mentioned, Philip Gawith and I are going to tour potential host courses to complement Royal Liverpool on 30th September. Philip is in charge and he will be negotiating with Royal Liverpool and for the purposes of this post I am assuming that they say yes and that we are talking about October 2006. I should welcome your suggestions of what other courses or types of courses you might like to play if we make it a three-day event.
Assuming we have to pay full green fees we are looking at £100-150 for the big name links, £50 for the better local private clubs and £30-35 for the lesser-known courses.
It would be helpful to know whether you would prefer to stay in accommodation close to Royal Liverpool and not travel more than a few miles to the other host courses, or whether you might like to move between several centres bringing contrasting styles of course into the reckoning such as hilly courses, heathland etc.
One or two of you have expressed a desire to visit Beau Desert on this trip. It is about a 2-hour drive from Hoylake. We could make it a 2-centre event if you so desire, perhaps also involving Whittington Heath (Colt) which is only a mile or two from Beau D.
I shall explore the possibility of Alwoodley, also. It, too, is a couple of hours from Hoylake, and it brings another dimension into the possibilities.
Once the courses have been identified I can point you in the direction of various kinds (and prices) of accommodation and, unless you have other reasons, the sensible thing for overseas visitors is to fly into Manchester (many US airlines fly in overnight from most of the East Coast hubs plus Chicago and BA and/or British Midland operate direct flights to most major East Coast cities). Hoylake is a 40-minute drive from Manchester airport.
The main protagonists are:
Lancashire coast: West Lancs, Formby, Southport and Ainsdale, Hillside, Royal Birkdale (all links).
Wirral: Wallasey (links), Caldy (mix of links, downland and parkland), Heswall (parkland overlooking the sea), Wirral Ladies (parkland, short but fascinating especially around the greens).
Cheshire: Delamere Forest (high ground, few trees, Fowler design), Sandiway (slightly heathland/wooded parkland, Ray/Colt, tough course), Prestbury (well presented Colt, beautifully maintained, lovely course), Reddish Vale (largely unaltered MacKenzie, quite rugged in rather run-down region of Stockport, very friendly), Cavendish (late Mackenzie rebuild of a hilly Peak District course with as extreme a set of surviving greens as I can think of).
Further afield: Alwoodley (first MacKenzie course in great condition - we'd probably get a great welcome. Centenary is Jan 2007). Beau Desert (great Fowler course on heathland [Cannock Chase] north of Birmingham on Ran's must visit list).
Feel free to reply on GCA or, if you want to say something privately, E-mail me.
Your input at this stage would be greatly welcomed. A reply won't be taken as a full commitment but it will also give us a flavour of how many people might want to particpate.