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.



For some reason, the golf courses in England that have held The Open golf tournament are situated in only two locations of England. First, is the area in the north-west of the country between Liverpool and Blackpool. Second, is the south eastern county of Kent situated below London.

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, or Hoylake, has the honor of being the first in the northwest to host The Open and is also the second oldest of the links golf courses in England. It has now held the event 11 times, starting from 1897 and has regularly held the event every decade until 1967. It was not held again until 2006, the year that Tiger Woods won. In 1930, Bobby Jones won here on his historic way to winning the grand slam of golf.

Royal Lytham & St. Annes was established in 1897 but had to wait until 1926 to host its first Open. You will find that it is a fantastic and very challenging links course with its more than 200 bunkers to navigate. Several golfing legends have won here: The US amateur Bobby Jones in 1926, the Englishman Tony Jacklin in 1969, the South African Gary Player in 1974, the Spaniard Seve Ballesteros in 1979 and 1988, and others.

Royal Birkdale is the newest English course to host The Open; starting in 1954 it has held the event almost twice a decade since with 2008 being the latest. The course features towering sand dunes and has been a popular venue and a lucky course for American golfers. Apart from Australian golfers, Peter Thompson who won here in 1954 and 1965, and Ian Baker-Finch in 1991, Americans have dominated here with 5 wins out of 8.

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, known as Deal, held The Open only twice back in 1909 and 1920 and so is less well known. Unfortunately, further events were canceled here because of the War in 1915 and because of very high tides in 1938 and 1949 which rendered the course unplayable. As it is close to Royal St. Georges, it is worth your while to play a round here; you will find it a very challenging course.

Prince's is a Championship course which you have probably not heard of before because it was only used once in 1932 to hold The Open. Golf legend Gene Sarazen won that year with a faultless display of golf and scored 283, which was a Championship record that was unbeaten for 18 years. Incredibly, the beautiful Prince's course was used by the Royal Air Force for bombing practice during WW II. Renovation of the course was carried out in the 50's which managed to include the use of 17 of the original greens which stood undamaged by the bombs.

There you have the only six Championship courses in England that you should consider playing - the only difficulty might be playing all six as the north west is quite far from the south east. You will need to book your tee times in advance and you should check each of their websites for information on dress code for the golf courses and the clubhouses.