Championship VenueBucket ListLinks Classic

Royal Liverpool Golf Club (Hoylake)

Hoylake, Wirral · Designed by Robert Chambers & George Morris (1869); later Harry Colt · Est. 1869

Royal Liverpool — known to everyone as Hoylake — is one of the cradles of the game. Founded in 1869 on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club, and granted royal status in 1871, it is among the oldest of all English seaside clubs and sits at the very heart of golf's history: it staged the first Amateur Championship in 1885 and the first international match, and its members John Ball and Harold Hilton were the finest amateurs of their age.

The links lies on flat ground beside the Dee estuary, laid out by Robert Chambers and George Morris and later refined by Harry Colt. It looks gentle and reveals its teeth slowly. Hoylake's signature defence is the internal out-of-bounds — the turf banks known as “cops” that bring out-of-bounds into play inside the course itself, nowhere more cruelly than on the closing holes. In championship trim it stretches to 7,341 yards, par 72.

The Open Championship has been held here thirteen times. Bobby Jones won in 1930 as part of his Grand Slam; the modern era brought Tiger Woods in 2006, cannily playing irons off the baked fairways, Rory McIlroy in 2014, and Brian Harman in 2023. Visitors are made “members for the day,” with the run of the historic clubhouse.

Holes worth knowing

1The internal out-of-bounds — Hoylake's turf banks (“cops”) bring out-of-bounds into play inside the course, a hazard almost unique in championship golf and a defining test of nerve on the closing holes.
21st “Course” — the opener runs alongside the practice ground with out-of-bounds tight along the right; a searching first drive that has wrecked many a card.

Highlights

13-time Open host; Tiger Woods 2006, Rory McIlroy 2014
Home of the first Amateur Championship (1885)
Famous internal out-of-bounds “cops”
Visitors are members for the day

Good to know

→Visitors are treated as “members for the day,” with the run of one of the game's great historic clubhouses — allow time to enjoy it.
→The internal out-of-bounds (“cops”) is Hoylake's signature trap: know where the turf banks lurk on the 1st and the closing holes, and play to the safe side.
→Bobby Jones won the 1930 Open here on the way to the Grand Slam; Tiger's iron-off-the-tee win in 2006, on baked fairways, is Hoylake legend — the clubhouse is full of it.
→It sits on the Wirral: West Kirby's marine lake and the Dee estuary sunsets are lovely, and the Wirral Way coastal path runs nearby.
→It pairs naturally with the Southport links across the Mersey (via the tunnels), and Liverpool's waterfront is 30–40 minutes away.