Events
The golf clubs within England's Golf Coast can rightly claim to have held pretty much every major golf event, both professional and amateur, that can be held in England.
The three royal links of Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham & St. Annes have hosted the Open Championship an impressive 34 times between them. The Open will next visit England's Golf Coast in 2026, when the championship will be contested at Royal Birkdale for the 11th time in the club's rich history.
In the professional game, three of our clubs, Royal Birkdale, Royal Lytham & St. Annes and Southport & Ainsdale, have hosted the Ryder Cup. Southport & Ainsdale has the distinction of being the first club on either side of the Atlantic to host the Ryder Cup twice.
Outside of the Open Championship, the clubs within England’s Golf Coast also have great experience in hosting some of golf’s other major championships. Royal Birkdale hosted the Senior British Open for the first time in 2013, an event that Royal Lytham & St. Annes has hosted four times previously. Four of the clubs within England’s Golf Coast have also hosted the AIG Women’s Open, most recently in 2018 at Royal Lytham & St Annes when Georgia Hall was victorious.
As much as the clubs within England’s Golf Coast can claim to have an impressive resume of hosting professional competitions, it is in the amateur game where many of our clubs have left their mark. The first British Amateur Championship was held at Royal Liverpool in 1885. The Amateur Championship trophy was commissioned in 1886 and funded by 24 golf clubs, including three England’s Golf Coast members in Formby, Royal Liverpool and West Lancashire. Five clubs within England’s Golf Coast have hosted The Amateur Championship, with Royal Liverpool having hosted the event more than any other club in the history of the competition (18 times).
Within the English Amateur game five of our clubs have hosted the English Amateur Championships while six clubs within England’s Golf Coast have hosted the English Men’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship for the Brabazon Trophy.
Royal Liverpool was the first club to host an international match, between England and Scotland in 1902. In 1921, the club hosted the first international amateur match between Great Britain & Ireland and the United States, an event now known as The Walker Cup. In 2015, Royal Lytham hosted the Walker Cup for the first time, joining an illustrious list of venues that includes Royal Birkdale and Royal Liverpool. Four of our member clubs, Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool, Royal Lytham & St. Annes and Formby have also hosted The Curtis Cup, the women’s equivalent of The Walker Cup.