The West Lancashire Golf Club

Two Loops Beside the Mersey

The golf course at The West Lancashire Golf Club belongs to a club founded in 1873 by seven members of Royal Liverpool who wanted to bring golf across the Mersey. The architect of the first 1874 layout is unknown, and Tom Dunn, Harold Hilton, and James Braid later contributed to its development. The present course opened in 1961 from a design by C.K. Cotton.

Cotton arranged the links as two loops of nine, with both the ninth and eighteenth returning near the clubhouse. The routing crosses natural coastal ground beside the Mersey Estuary, where dunes, firm turf, and exposed playing lines allow the wind to change the required shot from one day to the next.

The par-three 12th, called "Valley," asks for a full carry over two bunkers. At the par-five 16th, the fairway slopes from right to left before the second shot must pass between another set of bunkers. These holes show how the course uses angles, contours, and sand rather than artificial features to defend its scorecard.