Funnily enough my response to Lytham from likewise walking round during the 2015 Walker Cup (and it may have been influenced by the outcome!) was very positive indeed: having watched only one round of an Open there previously, and never having played the course (despite having close family, and a flat, in Lytham), I was really impressed by the variety of the challenge, the endless points at which the player had to think hard, and the overall flow. Unlike Jim McCann I emphatically don't think from this experience that Lytham is miles better than Hoylake - indeed I would still go for RLGC, of the two - but it is a cracking golf course and, importantly, forces the good golfer to hit a real mixture of different types of shots, and to shape the ball properly, in order to score well. So, to answer the question posed, a great deal.