Royal Birkdale Golf Club

Waterloo Rd, Birkdale,

Southport, Merseyside PR8 2LX

  • Office

    +44 (0)1704 552 020
  • Pro shop

    +44 (0)1704 552 030
  • Fax

    +44 (0)1704 552 021
  • Golf pro

    Gregg Pettersen (Head Professional)

About the course

  • The Course:

    18 holes. Seaside links. Gently undulating terrain - easy to walk.

  • Surroundings:

    Coastal duneland.

  • Designer:

    Original design by George Lowe (1889). Major revisions by Frederick G. "Fred" Hawtree & J.H. Taylor (1931). Subsequent modifications by Hawtree's son, Frederick W. "Fred" Hawtree (1960s), and by his son Martin G. Hawtree (1993).

Back
tees
Club
tees
Front
tees
Yards
7156
6381
5793
Par
70
72
75
SSS or slope
75
72
75

Location

Latitude:

53.622316

Longitude:

-3.032226

How to get there:

17 miles N of Liverpool

From the centre of Southport, head south on the A565 direction Liverpool. After 1.8 miles Royal Birkdale entrance is on your right.

Royal Birkdale Golf Club

5-star: Fabulous – courses don’t get much better than this.

Est. 1889

Royal Birkdale Golf Club: Located just north of Liverpool, the seaside towns of Southport and Formby are separated by a five-mile stretch of stunning coastal duneland. Lying within these naturally created sand-hills are four of England's top rated links golf courses. Good as Formby, Hillside and Southport & Ainsdale are, the most revered of the quartet is Royal Birkdale, one of the finest links golf courses in the world.

A visit to Royal Birkdale offers the opportunity to dip into golfing history and muse on the many top level championships and matches that have been hosted here. However, it is more likely that your main objective will be to sample the real-time pleasures of playing these revered links.

With few blind shots required from either tee-box or fairway, the hazards are clear enough to see, notably in the form of towering dunes and superb pot bunkering. Admiring Birkdale's wonderful array of revetted bunkers is all well and good, but staying out of them is another matter. Adept course management and good shot-making is required to stay out of the deep fescues, small bushes and other assorted rough that awaits anything hit too far offline.

If you’ve scored well up to the par-3 14th, it's time to take a deep breath and prepare for the closing par 5-4-5-5 stretch. There's an average of ten bunkers per hole on this final "fab four", and out-of-bounds on the rightside of the last two holes.

At Royal Birkdale you can occasionally glimpse the Irish Sea in the distance, but you won't be playing directly alongside it. No matter. Few can resist the undoubted charms of this wonderfully natural collection of sand dunes .... and the thoroughly absorbing golf links laid out within them.

List of courses: England - Lancs / Cheshire

Visitors

Who can play and when?

Visitors welcome on weekdays; outside visitor play is very restricted on weekends.

Must book in advance. Proof of handicap required.

Green fees

Visitor fee, 18-holes in high season (April thru' Sept): weekdays £295; very restricted on weekends.

Contact club for full details, discounts, packages, etc. [Last updated: 2023].

Other information

This is a walking-only course. If genuinely unable to walk the course, players can apply for permission to hire a golf cart.

Practice facilities

Good

Did you know?

Royal Birkdale has played host to many major championships and top-level tournaments. Included amongst these are Open Championships and the Women's British Open, as well as some of the biggest team competitions in golf, not least Ryder, Walker and Curtis Cups (see our Tournaments section >by Venue >Royal Birkdale).

George VI conferred the Royal prefix on Birkdale GC in 1951. By royal prerogative, 19 English golf clubs use the "Royal" title, namely: Ascot, Ashdown Forest, Birkdale, Blackheath, Cinque Ports, Cromer, Eastbourne, Epping Forest, Household (Windsor Castle), Liverpool (Hoylake), Lytham & St Annes, Mid-Surrey, North Devon (Westward Ho!), Norwich, St George's, West Norfolk (Brancaster), Wimbledon, Winchester, Worlington & Newmarket.

Published ranking

England's 3rd best course (Golf World, 2023).
Britain & Ireland's 9th best course (Golf World, 2024).
World's 42nd best course (GOLF Magazine, 2023/24) and 17th best public access course (Golf World, 2023).

Where2Stay

  • Royal Clifton Hotel & Spa3-star

    The Promenade, Southport, Merseyside PR8 1RB

    +44 (0)1704 533 771

    Visit website

    The Best Western Royal Clifton Hotel & Spa is noted for its excellent range of facilities and standards of service. Over recent years the hotel has been refurbished to offer guests the comfort expected from one of the best located hotels in Southport.

    • Golf at this hotel:

      No

    • Golf within 5 miles:

      Hesketh; Royal Birkdale; Hillside

    • Golf within 20 miles:

      Southport & Ainsdale; Formby; West Lancashire

  • The Vincent Hotel4-star

    98 Lord Street, Southport PR8 1JR

    +44 (0)1704 883 800

    Visit website

    Located on Lord Street, Southport’s main boulevard and opening in 2008, The Vincent Hotel is a contemporary boutique hotel. 60 guest rooms, suites and a penthouse occupy the six floors in this award winning design. The hotel's facilities include a Cafe & Sushi Bar, Spa, gym and Galleria Suites for weddings & corporate events.

    • Golf at this hotel:

      No

    • Golf within 5 miles:

      Hesketh; Royal Birkdale; Hillside

    • Golf within 20 miles:

      Southport & Ainsdale; Formby; Formby Hall; West Lancashire

Find a course

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Tournaments

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Tournament of Champions: the LPGA Tour’s 2025 season is launched at Lake Nona with the their Tournament of Champions (Jan 30-Feb 2). The 2024 edition gave Lydia Ko her 20th LPGA Tour title.

Who's Who

Attahya Thitikul: also known as “Jeeno”, the Thai golfer won the LPGA Tour’s 2024 CME Group Tour Championship … and an eye-watering $4 million, the richest first-prize in women’s golf.

Rory McIlroy: scooped the 2024 European (DP World) Tour season-long Order of Merit title, joining Seve Ballesteros as a six-time winner of this prestigious award.

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club: With a clubhouse that might befit a Roman Emperor, and a golf course to match, you can be sure of a memorable outing at Rome's most talked about golf facility.

Jim Fazio's original layout was much changed to create a modern Ryder Cup course ... now one of the Eternal City's (and Italy's) most revered.

Prince's Golf Club, Kent (UK)

Here at Prince’s Golf Club you'll find 27 excellent holes of links golf. Just over the fence and sharing similar terrain is Royal St George’s; but Prince’s is far from overshadowed by its venerable neighbour. The three nine-hole loops at Prince's, laid out over gently undulating terrain, are sure to bring a smile of satisfaction to all lovers of links golf.

Stay&Play at Prince's: excellent onsite Lodge accommodation available

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