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First class golf is only one of the attractions of Lytham St Anne’s. To visit this quintessentially English resort on the Lancashire coast is to experience the best of domestic tourism. It wants for nothing in terms of facilities, services and ambience. Solid, peaceful and unchanging, it is easy to imagine life here in a pre-war era, when families and golfers would arrive by train for their annual holidays by the seaside.
Largely Victorian in origins, its architecture is a delight to behold. Handsome, pristine villas line the broad pavements, interspersed with venerable hotels that have pumped the economic lifeblood into the community for a century or more. Tradition and quality are evident at every turn, and they go hand in hand with good value at Lytham St Anne’s.
In fact they are twin towns, with separate identities, although you’d be hard pressed to find the join. The locals say Lytham is the resort and St Anne’s is where they live but like a good marriage the union becomes stronger with each passing decade.
As its name implies, the Royal Lytham & St Anne’s Golf Club has bridged the imaginary divide since 1886, making a major contribution to the community’s prosperity as the frequent stage for the Open Championship, first played here in 1926. Every seven years or so a torrent of wealth cascades into the town as the golfing world beats a path to its door but the spin-off is perpetual as visiting golfers make the pilgrimage, to play the great links and the three nearby courses whose names have become synonymous with the Open.
Fairhaven, St Anne’s Old Links and Lytham Green Drive have all been venues for final qualifying and although the latter is no longer suitable (it’s deemed too short for modern championship play) it remains a major attraction, not least for its superb presentation and facilities.
Unlike its links land neighbours, the Green Drive course is a tapestry of emerald, as lush as could be imagined and heavily wooded in parts. Trees influence play on most holes and they also protect the course from the wind that is a major factor on the adjoining links.
It’s a fine club course, easy walking and tight but fair, with rough that will cost half a shot. At 6,194 yards to par 70, it has some short and tempting two shotters but the big hitters should think twice before chancing their arm. Sound course management is an imperative here.
You’ll not find a prettier course in a long day’s drive and when you see those greens you’ll want to roll them up and take them home!
There’s a cracking clubhouse too and you’ll be made most welcome, in true Lancashire fashion.
The club was founded in 1913, which was 12 years after St Anne’s Old Links first saw play.
This grand old course was laid out by Alex Herd, hard by the sand dunes that overlook the Irish Sea at the north end of town. So the wind is a major factor here in fact it holds the key on most days.
With the exception of three one shotters, all the holes run roughly north to south or the reverse and the prevailing wind is a westerly, or variations thereof. Consider that sometimes it comes off the Irish Sea with lumps in it and you’ll get the picture.
To exacerbate those problems and unusually for a links, this one has four ponds that influence play on six holes. This compounds the interest in high summer when the fairways produce some fiery bounces. It offers pure links golf, traditional, demanding, exhilarating, the very essence of the game.
The course has been used for final qualifying for the Open since 1926 and a further measure of its quality is the number of national events it has hosted, the English Amateur, the British Ladies’ and the World Seniors’ Championship among them. Plainly, this is one not to be missed. It’s a class act.
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