[Tom]

I noticed another thread about the top 100 but I would like an opinion if you have the time on one particular review in the issue - namely Royal Liverpool.

The course is ranked at number 24 which seems reasonable enough - I might personally have gone a little higher but that is just opinion.  However, what irks me is this paragraph:

"Somewhat spoiled by the buildings all around, its not the most attractive of seaside courses".

Well firstly holes 9 through 12 border the coastline so that isn't true but more importantly when did the fact that a course has buildings around parts of it mean that it is a bad course?  Does all golf have to be played with panoramic views?

I seem to remember the Old Course being flanked by an enormous hotel and buildings around 1 and 18 and what about Royal Lytham.

I actually quite like the Edwardian buildings flanking Royal Liverpool, I like the fact that 3rd, 6th 7th and 8th border people's back gardens - to me this is a very "British" part of the game which you get in very few other places.  I love the idea that a little old lady will be making herself a cup of tea in her kitchen only yards from where the Oldest Championship will be played in a couple of years time (and she will probably be completely oblivious to the fact wondering what all the cheering is about!!!).  As I say to me it is a very British part of the game of golf and should be celebrated by Golf World not criticised !!

Rant over !!

[Rich Goodale (Guest)]

Tom

I suspect that the old lady will rent out her house for the week to the Garcias (Mommy and Son) for about 20 thousand quid, and will be lucky to break even after she sees the restoration bill for the carpet in her lounge that her great uncle brought back form the Khyber Pass and Sergio used to practice his victory leaps with his spikes on.......

PS--love Hoylake and also love the fact that it is "in town", just like Prestwick.  To me, driving down some non-descript street and then turning and finding the magnificence of a golf course laid out before you is much better than the long and winding roads leading to some of the more pretentious venues.

[Bob_Huntley]

Rich.
I know you to be a contrarian, but do you really like that awful first hole at Hoylake?

[Fred Ruttenberg]

I played this course 3 weeks ago along with most others in the area. If the British Open was not played there, and it did not have a wonderful clubhouse, I doubt it would be rated in the top 100. I have played 76 out of the 100 in the most recent Golf World list. I cannot think of another course where the holes and the surroundings lack any interest. The greens are the course's only redeeming feature.

[Jack Marr]

Fred

With your wide experience of golf in Britain and Ireland, are there any glaring omissions from the list?

Not that it really matters, now that I think of it. The courses don't change...

Jack

[Rich Goodale (Guest)]

Bob

What BIAS did you see in my previous post!!!!!!

....Oops, wrong thread......

I'm not a real fan of #1 at Hoylake, but it is hardly the worst opening hole in championship golf.  Like Westward Ho and a few others (e.g. Rye) it suffers from having it's early holes being laid out on some of least interesting pieces of land.  The thrill I get from coming into a place like Hoylake that is in he middle of a town is the same one I get walking though the bowels of an old baseball stadium into the open air and green fields of play.

[Paul_Turner]

Yes being in town is all part of it's charm.  Although I can see why many find the course difficult to love, it's pretty bleak in many places, but it has great change of pace when the course goes through the dunes around the turn.  

Few links now play as fast as Hoylake and it's a course that makes you think much more than most-interesting angles on many holes.

[Paul Richards]

Tom:

I agree with your assessment.  Hoylake is hardly
>"Somewhat spoiled by the buildings all around, its not the most attractive of seaside courses".

For the record, Lytham is also a wonderful course, but it is just as intruded by the neighborhood it resides in, and, is hardly "hard by the sea."

The only part of Hoylake that may be "spoiled" is the entrance.

But then, again, so is Augusta.

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