Founded in 1873, WEST LANCASHIRE is the oldest golf club surviving in the county of Lancashire and is among the top ten oldest golf clubs in England.

The club was founded by members of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club and some became members of both clubs.

WEST LANCASHIRE is twinned with Royal Montreal Golf Club, Canada's oldest golf club, also founded in 1873.

In 1885 the Royal Liverpool Golf Club organised a Grand Tournament for amateurs which became, in 1886, The Amateur Championship. WEST LANCASHIRE was one of twenty four clubs that contributed to the cost of the trophy which bears their names. The first winner was ALAN MACFIE who was also a member of WEST LANCASHIRE.

In 1901, our Secretary, HAROLD HILTON, 'the greatest amateur score player England has ever produced', the verdict of golfing critics on his long career, won The Amateur Championship at St. Andrews. In all he made a record thirty three appearances in the Championship. He reached seven finals and won four of them. His 'annus mirabilis' was in 1911 when he become the first person to win The Amateur and The US Amateur in the some year, at Prestwick and at Apawamis,NY.

HAROLD HILTON also won The Open Championship, first in 1892 at Muirfield and again in 1897 at Hoylake.

SANDY HERD was professional at WEST LANCASHIRE from 1891 -1892. He won The Open Championship at Hoylake in 1902, the first Open Champion to use the Haskell rubber cored ball, which he hated as a 'foreign' invention!

ARTHUR HAVERS was professional at WEST LANCASHIRE from 1920-1923 and in 1923 he won The Open Championship at Troon by a single stroke from the holder, WALTER HAGEN.MACDONALD SMITH (US) was third. As champion, HAVERS went over to the United States where he managed to beat BOBBY JONES and GENE SARAZEN in challenge matches.He represented Great Britain against the United States five times. He played in three Ryder Cup matches at Worcester, Mass, in 1927, at Columbus, Ohio, in 1931 and at Southport and Ainsdale in 1933.

 

Another WEST LANCASHIRE professional, EW (Ted) JARMAN played in the Ryder Cup in Ridgewood, NJ in 1935.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EW (Bob) KENYON was professional at WEST LANCASHIRE from 1929-1935. He won The Irish Open Championship at Royal Dublin in 1931 and at Malone in 1933. He was World Senior Champion at Prenton in 1963.

WEST LANCASHIRE has been a Final Qualifying course for The Open Championship on many occasions. It is interesting to note that in the Final Open Qualifier of 1976, four young professionals in particular, competed at WEST LANCASHIRE. SANDY LYLE, NICK FALDO, BERNARD LANGER and IAN WOOSNAM. All four went on to win The US Masters Championship and the coveted green jacket.

The longest hole in one in the British Isles (Guinness Book of Records) and 'one of the most stupendous shots ever hit in golf' (Golf World, November 2002) is at the seventh (par 4, 393y) at WEST LANCASHIRE by PETER RICHARD PARKINSON (assistant professional at WEST LANCASHIRE) on 6 June 1972.

Of the golf links, BERNARD DARWIN wrote in 1922

'The WEST LANCASHIRE Golf Club of Blundellsands is decidedly one of the more venerable of English clubs. The course lies on a noble stretch of golfing ground which is second to none, not even to the East Lothian or to the country around Troon or Prestwick'

DONALD STEEL wrote after several visits in the 1990s

'Only in Britain can one sample the true flavour of seaside golf of which WEST LANCASHIRE is a perfect example. Within the framework of the coastal dunes and the railway, a glorious balance unfurls. There are humps and hollows, greens on plateaux and greens in dells, contrast and comparative shelter in the inland holes and everywhere a sea of rough sandy wilderness to punish the wrongdoer. On summer evenings, as the sun casts its shadows on the links, the shipping slips quietly by on the Mersey and there is time to reflect the distant beauty, the realisation occurs that the WEST LANCASHIRE enjoys the best of all worlds.'

GOLF WORLD, November 2002

Refers to the larks, plovers and oystercatchers confirming the course's natural setting. It is generally agreed that if you can play well at WEST LANCASHIRE, you can play well anywhere!