Free Golf Swing Tips

When you are planning your European golf vacations, take a moment to think about playing golf at some world renowned golf courses in England. As Scotland is the home of golf, and me being Scottish, I would advocate that you try the famous and historic courses in Scotland first. Because of the world wide coverage of The Open, the Championship golf courses in England are becoming almost as famous as the like of St. Andrews. Below is a resume of the Championship courses that hold or have held the event.

Strangely, the top golf courses in England, where The Open Championship has been held, are located in only two regions of England. The first area is the county of Kent on the south-east corner of the country, just south of London. The other area is up in the north-west, between Blackpool and Liverpool.

Golf Courses In England - The North-West

Between Scotland in the north and Wales in the south is the coastline of the northwest region of England. The links of three of The Open golf courses are to be found here. You can easily reach this area by flying to either Manchester or Liverpool airports, which are both about an hours drive from the golf courses. Why not make Liverpool a base for playing the three courses as it is a beautiful city - as well as being home to The Beatles.

Royal Liverpool, known as Hoylake, was the first course in the north west to hold The Open and it also happens to be the second oldest links golf course in England. Starting from 1897 it has held the event a total of 11 times, about once every decade until 1967. After several decades, the event was again held at Royal Liverpool in 2006 and Tiger Woods was the champion. The US amateur, Bobby Jones won here in 1930 and was to go on to complete an unmatched grand slam of golf.

Royal Lytham & St. Annes was founded in 1897 but didn’t hold its first Open until 1926. It is one of the finest and most challenging links courses in Britain with over 200 bunkers to negotiate. It has seen its share of legendary golfers winning the Championship; Bobby Jones in 1926, Englishman Tony Jacklin in 1969, South African Gary Player in 1974, Spaniard Seve Ballesteros in 1979 and 1988, amongst others.

Royal Birkdale is the newest of the courses in England to hold The Open. Since 1954 it has held the event regularly, nearly twice a decade, up to 2008. With its towering sand dunes, it is a popular golf course and, you could say, a lucky golf course for the US golfers. Even though Peter Thompson won here in 1954 and 1965, and Ian Baker-Finch in 1991, Americans have taken top spots in the other 5 events.

Golf Courses In England - The South East

The southeast of the country is home to three Championship courses all located on the south coast of Kent, just to the south of London. This close proximity to London makes the area easy to reach for the visitor. To enjoy playing the three courses here, you would do well to stay in one of the charming villages and make the beautiful countryside of Kent as your base.

Royal St. Georges, as I said, was the first English course to hold The Open in 1894 and has held it 13 times in total. As such, this course should be on your priority list when on your European golf vacations. The course has had legendary golfers Harry Vardon and Walter Hagan win here twice each. More recently, Greg Norman won in 1993 with a perfect final round of 64, fighting off Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer.

Royal Cinque Ports or Deal is less well known as it as only held The Open twice, in 1909 and 1920. Other events were planned, but due to bad luck, the events were canceled in 1915 due to the War and in 1938 and 1949 due to storms and high tides. As it is a very challenging golf course it is still worth playing though.

Prince’s is an other unknown Championship course as it only held the event once in 1932. The winner was Gene Sarazen who played flawless golf and scored a total of 283, a Championship record which he kept for 18 years. Unbelievably, Prince’s golf course was utilized by the RAF for bombing practice during World War II. In the 1950’s, restoration work was carried out which made different fairways but incorporated 17 of the original greens which had somehow escaped damage.

These are the six Championship golf courses in England that you can play; your only problem might be fitting in the six in one trip as they are at opposite corners of England. Remember that you will have to book tee times in advance and you should visit each course’s website to find out about the dress code for each course and clubhouse.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Golf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.