Formby Golf Club

This is a links with pine trees standing over it. The club was founded in 1884 on the Merseyside coast; Willie Park Jr redesigned the course in 1912 and James Braid altered it again in 1922. The Amateur Championship has been decided here four times — 1957, 1967, 1984 and 2009 — and the Curtis Cup was played here in 2004. Formby has served three times as a qualifying venue for the Open, in 1924, 1971 and 1996, and it held the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship in 2021 and 2022. The club's own name for itself is the Hidden Gem.

The scorecard is lopsided. From the blue tees the course is 7,128 yards and par 72, but the front nine is 3,685 yards and par 37 while the back is 3,443 and par 35, so the harder par is on the way home. Rating and slope from those tees are 76.6 and 142. The club's own description is mature dunes, undulating fairways and greens, well-guarded putting surfaces and views of the Irish Sea, with doglegs and blind shots along the way. Formby Ladies' plays its own course inside this one: an independent club since 1896, its holes carved from the same dunes and extended to eighteen by Douglas McEwan in 1907.