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Royal Birkdale Golf Club

Southport, Merseyside · Designed by Founded 1889; George Low & Fred Hawtree · Est. 1889

Royal Birkdale is, by common consent, the finest links in England and one of the greatest in the world. The club was founded in 1889, moved to its present ground in the Birkdale Hills in 1894, and was granted the royal title in 1951; its low, white, art-deco clubhouse of 1935 is as famous a landmark as any in the game.

What sets Birkdale apart is the routing. The fairways run through flat-bottomed valleys between towering sandhills, so the holes sit in natural amphitheatres and the dunes frame the line rather than throwing good shots off it. The result is a course universally admired as the fairest of the great championship links — a stern but honest test of 7,156 yards, par 70, where the wind and the revetted bunkers, not blind luck, decide the day.

The Open Championship has been played here ten times between 1954 and 2017, with an eleventh to come in 2026, and the roll of champions reads like a history of the game: Peter Thomson (twice), Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Ian Baker-Finch, Mark O'Meara, Pádraig Harrington and, in 2017, Jordan Spieth. Ryder Cups and Women's British Opens have come here too.

Birkdale welcomes visitors on selected weekdays. It is the jewel of Southport's “England’s Golf Coast” — a stretch of Lancashire shore holding the densest cluster of great links anywhere in England.

Holes worth knowing

116th — a plaque beside the fairway marks the spot from which Arnold Palmer, in the 1961 Open, gouged a miraculous shot out of deep rough on his way to the title; one of the game's hallowed places.
218th (par-4) — a classic links finish into the amphitheatre beneath the white art-deco clubhouse, where the Claret Jug has been decided time and again.

Highlights

The finest links in England
Ten-time Open host; the Open returns in 2026
Fairways in valleys between towering dunes
Iconic 1935 art-deco clubhouse

Good to know

→Birkdale anchors “England’s Golf Coast”: Hillside is next door, with Southport & Ainsdale and Formby close by — the densest run of great links in England, all within a few miles.
→The valleys between the dunes funnel the wind unpredictably — trust your yardages, keep the ball flighted low, and take the safe side of the pins on the exposed holes.
→Southport is a fine base: Victorian Lord Street (said to have inspired the boulevards of Paris), a pier and miles of sand, with the Ainsdale nature reserve and its red squirrels next door.
→For a day off the course, Liverpool — the Albert Dock, the Beatles trail and two cathedrals — is 30–40 minutes down the coast.
→Visitors play Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; book months ahead, bring a handicap certificate, and expect a premium green fee for a premium experience.