Thirteen Opens on an old racecourse, with Hilbre Island and the Dee estuary beyond.
Royal Liverpool fills the flat ground between Hoylake and West Kirby on the north-west tip of the Wirral, with the Dee estuary and the Welsh hills across the water. It has staged the Open thirteen times, most recently in 2023, and the club treats each visitor as a member for the day, with the run of the clubhouse and what it calls probably the finest collection of golf memorabilia outside St Andrews. Hoylake asks for patience off the tee and a clear head in the wind, and it rewards both.
Visitor times are offered on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays in normal weeks, subject to availability. Weekend visitor play is not normally allowed, and Thursday is Ladies’ Day. The 2027 visiting golfer diary is open: call the visitor contact, Andrew Leadbetter, on 0151 632 7772, or the bookings department on 0151 632 3101. There is no online visitor tee sheet, and the club does not publish a booking window, so ask early for summer dates. The club expects every visitor to hold a current club or society handicap but does not publish a numerical limit. All starts are from the 1st tee under the eye of the official starter, and the club may insist on two-ball or three-ball play. Visitors play from the tees of the day, set between the green tees at about 6,800 yards, the yellows at 6,300 and the blacks at 5,900.
2027 visitor green fee in March. £420 from April to September and £370 in October; visitor golf is not offered from November 2026 to February 2027.
| March 2027 | £320 |
|---|---|
| April to September 2027 | £420 |
| October 2027 | £370 |
| Golf and lunch, Tuesdays, April to September 2027 | £480 |
| Junior with a playing adult, April to September 2027 | £140 |
The club was formed in 1869 on the old Liverpool Hunt Club racecourse, and for its first seven years horses and golfers shared the ground. The 1st and 18th are still called Course and Stand, and the saddling bell hangs in the clubhouse. Robert Chambers and George Morris, brother of Old Tom, laid out nine holes that grew to 18 in 1871, and Harry Colt redesigned the course early in the 20th century. Much of the land is level, so internal out-of-bounds and wind do the defending, while the holes nearest the shore climb into sandhills. The 12th is named Hilbre, after the tidal island just offshore. The opening hole doglegs hard right around the practice ground with out-of-bounds all the way. In 2006 Tiger Woods won here hitting driver just once on a baked course; a new par three was added for the 2023 Open, played as the 17th that week.
Choose a Tuesday from April to September if you want lunch built in: the £480 package adds a meal in the Dining Room, where pre-arranged lunches run from 12.30pm to 2.30pm. Otherwise the bar menu serves from 9.30am to 5.30pm. Clubhouse dress relaxes until 6pm, after which jacket and tie are required upstairs, except in the Snooker Room, and shorts are never worn upstairs. Leave time to look around the clubhouse collection. Hoylake produced John Ball, the first amateur and first Englishman to win the Open, in 1890, and Harold Hilton, who won it twice; Bobby Jones won the 1930 Open here on his way to the Grand Slam.
Liverpool John Lennon Airport is roughly 45 minutes away by road through the Mersey tunnels, and Manchester Airport about an hour and a quarter. Merseyrail’s West Kirby line stops at Hoylake, a short walk from the clubhouse on Meols Drive, with frequent trains from Liverpool city centre taking around half an hour. Chester is about 40 minutes by car.
Nearby: 1. Wallasey Golf Club (9 km) · 2. West Lancashire Golf Club (15 km) · 3. Formby Golf Club (21 km) · 4. Southport & Ainsdale Golf Club (26 km) · 5. Hillside Golf Club (28 km) · 6. Royal Birkdale Golf Club (28 km) · Compare all England’s Golf Coast tee times
Hoylake and West Kirby both have small hotels, guest houses and seafront flats within a few minutes of the course, which suits a group that wants to walk to dinner. Hillbark, a country-house hotel in Royden Park at Frankby, is about ten minutes inland. Many visitors stay in Liverpool instead: the Hard Days Night Hotel and the hotels around the Albert Dock keep you close to the city’s restaurants, with the Merseyrail line running straight out to Hoylake in the morning.
Wallasey, at the other end of the Wirral’s north coast, is a natural second round about 20 minutes away. The Sefton links, Royal Birkdale, Hillside, Formby and Southport & Ainsdale, are roughly an hour away through the tunnel, which makes a Liverpool-based week of championship golf straightforward. Away from golf, Hilbre Island can be reached on foot from West Kirby at low tide if you check the tide tables first, and the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight village is half an hour’s drive.
These packages have a confirmed round at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in the itinerary, with the other courses, nights and hotels listed so you can compare like with like.
7 nights B&B, 5 rounds
Rounds: Royal Liverpool · Royal Birkdale · Royal Lytham & St Annes · Formby · Hillside
Stay: England’s Golf Coast between Liverpool and Lytham
Three Open venues within an hour of each other, with Formby and Hillside as the rounds locals rate just as highly.
Prices are Golfbreaks’ published per-person guide prices in US dollars, checked November 2026; your quote depends on dates and group size. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How we work
Visitor golf runs from March to October, with no visitor times from November to February. The March rate is the lowest of the year, and October drops back to £370. Hoylake is famous for its winds off the Irish Sea and the Dee, so a calm summer day changes the course as much as a gale does.
Explore golf by monthYes. The club keeps a visiting golfer allocation on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays in normal weeks, from March to October. You book by phone or email with the reservations team rather than online, and the 2027 diary is already open.
The visitor green fee is £320 in March, £420 from April to September and £370 in October. A Tuesday golf-and-lunch package costs £480 in the summer months, and juniors playing with an adult pay between £110 and £140 depending on the month.
Yes. Hoylake station on the Merseyrail West Kirby line is a short walk from the club, and trains run often from Liverpool Central and the other city-centre stations. It is one of the easiest Open venues in England to reach without a car.
Yes. Royal Liverpool Golf Club is in the town of Hoylake, and golfers use the two names interchangeably. The club’s Open history includes wins by J.H. Taylor, Walter Hagen, Peter Thomson, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Last checked 10 November 2026. This is an independent planning guide, not a first-hand review or a booking service. Check live availability, access, fees and travel details with the operator before booking. Airport suggestions are starting points for route planning.
How we research our guidesPhoto credits and licencesFlat fairways in deep dune valleys, an Art Deco clubhouse and eleven Opens.
Heather, pine and two classic courses, a short train ride from Waterloo.
A par-three opener, 166 bunkers and a Dormy House beside the first tee.
