Royal Lytham & St Annes Course Review: An English links gem worth travelling for

Royal Lytham & St Annes Fact File

• Location: Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, south of Blackpool
• Year Established: 1886
• Par: 70
• Length (yards from tips): 7,091
• Green Fees (weekdays): £350
• Signature Hole: The 17th is a fantastic par 4 with plenty of history, bunkers and movement
• Website: royallytham.org

The last time the Ryder Cup was held on a genuine seaside links in the UK came in 1977 when Lytham was the stage. This was the second time that the Lancashire layout had held the team event and this came just before the might of the Europeans were added to try and even up the competition.

We've also been to Southport & Ainsdale and Royal Birkdale two times apiece, as well as Muirfield, but all these have come in the former life of the Ryder Cup – how good would it be to bring it back to the very best courses that the UK has to offer?

You could take it to any of them but let's go with Lytham which has fallen out of favour with the Open roster. Lytham was laid out by the club's first professional, George Lowe, and Harry Colt would make further changes. In more recent times Mackenzie & Ebert took out something like 40 bunkers among, as well as other modifications, but there still remain 174 of them.

It's a links where you don't get to see the sea, instead it is flanked by red-brick houses and a railway line but there is so much to enjoy about Lytham. Logistics have got in the way of its Open hosting duties though the Women's Open will be back here in 2026 but we're only interested in what the course provides and that is something very different here.

Royal Lytham & St Annes Review

Imagine a Ryder Cup that opens up with a par 3? You would never get the huge grandstands in to decorate the opening shot but it would be something different and pretty special. The next two holes are outstanding, running adjacent to the railway line, and it's hard to pinpoint a poor hole on the course.

The 11th has now been moved to run parallel to the 7th but still playing to the original green and where the old fairway used to sit, remember Graeme McDowell's horrible hoiked second shot here in 2012, will now be the practice ground which will add weight to bringing back the huge tournaments.

Otherwise a new waste area sits to the left of 10, which was maybe one of the blander holes, but it then goes up several notches. The 13th is one of the great short 4s, 14 and 15 are two brutal holes, and then we come to where all the pre-tournament headlines would be made. The 16th is famous for what Seve Ballesteros did here in both his Open victories at Lytham, the first of which helped tag him the 'Car Park Champion'.

Bobby Jones would capture the first of 11 Opens held at Lytham and his recovery from a sandy scrub area with a mashie would become one of the iconic shots in the Championship's history. Then you have Tony Jacklin being a winner here in 1969 so the links with the Ryder Cup are easy to imagine.

As for the two matches they ended in trademark American victories on British soil. In 1961, instead of 12 matches of 36 holes there were 24 matches of 18 holes. No matter what the format was the result, 14.5-9.5, followed a similar route with Arnold Palmer not losing a match.

Sixteen years later 20-year-old rookie Nick Faldo would win all three of his matches but he couldn't prevent a 12.5-7.5 loss. During the week conversations were held about the prospect of introducing European players and this would be the last time that a Great Britain and Ireland would contest the Ryder Cup.

For some reason some observers seem to have forgotten quite how good a course Lytham is. It comfortably ranks above plenty of the equally big names, including fellow Royals Troon and Porthcawl and Portmarnock, and this is without a recent Open to add weight to our perceptions.

Any Open venue can boast a roll call of exceptional champions, Muirfield for example is off the charts, but Lytham stacks up brilliantly: Jones (a), Locke, Thomson, Charles, Jacklin, Player, Ballesteros (2), Lehman, Duval and Els.

You're not getting away with much at Lytham, from severe run-offs and all those bunkers which average just under 10 per hole. But it is a fantastic layout with a beginning and end that always deliver.

Final Verdict

Though it adds nothing to the quality of the course, the clubhouse at Lytham is exceptional. The giant portraits of the likes of Ballesteros and Jones genuinely whet the appetite and the fact that it sits right behind the 18th adds to whole ambience of the place.

One of my happiest memories would be watching David Duval come up the 18th in the 2001 Open and managing to watch it from the members’ room. Another great aspect of the club is that it has a great feel to the place – I once interviewed Peter Alliss about his favourite Open clubhouses and he immediately piped up with Lytham.

Why? Because it was the most likely club where the members might start a food fight!

If you are lucky enough to play Lytham, you can stay in the dormy house which sits behind the putting green.  

It hasn’t got the structure to house a Ryder Cup, we all know that, but it would be so much better than where we’ve been in recent years. The hope would be that the Women's Open is the beginning of the road back for the Claret Jug to re-visit this corner of Blackpool where there is some fantastic golf to be enjoyed, all within a few miles, but Lytham remains the stand-out course and one that will hopefully be tackled on a windless day.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For more information, please visit the club's website here