Our PGA Guided Golf Tours: Lets review Royal Lytham and St Anne’s Golf Course

Here’s a quick look at the first of England’s championship golf courses that we play on our Open 2020 Golf Tour. Find out more here.

Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club was founded in 1886 and the present Course constructed in 1897. The Clubhouse celebrated its Centenary in 1998. It is one of the premier links courses in the world, host to eleven Open Championships, two Ryder Cups and numerous other major tournaments including the Women’s and Seniors Open Championships and the Walker Cup in 2015. Northern hospitality has always been famous and Royal Lytham leads the way.

Here are some facts about Royal Lytham andSt Anne’s Golf Course

Source: excerpts taken from UK Golf Guide

1) Bobby Jones won his first ever Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes in 1926. His achievement is marked in the clubhouse and also on a plaque on the 17th hole.

2) The scoring record for tournament play was set in 2004 by James Heath. His four-round score of 266 was enough to claim victory in the Lytham Trophy. The score was 5 shots better than the 271 set by 1996 Open Champion Tom Lehman.

3) The opening hole is a 205 yard par-3, the only course on the Open Rota to start with a short hole. The course closes with 6 straight par-4s.

4) Royal Lytham has held 10 Open Championships (excluding 2012). The winners are as follows;
Bobby Jones – 1926
Bobby Locke – 1952
Peter Thomson – 1958
Sir Bob Charles – 1963
Tony Jacklin – 1969
Gary Player – 1974
Seve Ballesteros – 1979
Seve Ballesteros – 1988
Tom Lehman – 1996
David Duval – 2001

5) Although Seve Ballesteros was famed for his swashbuckling style around Royal Lytham in claiming the 1979 Claret Jug, it was actually Roberto de Vicenzo who put together the plan of attack around the seaside links. De Vicenzo noted that distance was the key to avoiding the rough, in hitting numerous drivers Ballesteros was able to reach the thin and more sparse rough rather than the tougher stuff located nearer the tee.

6) The 2012 Open Championship scorecard tips the scales at 7,086 yards for its par of 70. The course does however measure a total of 7,118 yards from its championship markers.

7) There are currently 205 bunkers on the course. The 17th hole is protected by no less than 20!

8) Although the course is famed for hosting Open Championship it has also hosted numerous important tournaments including the annual amateur event in The Lytham Trophy which can count the likes of Paul Broadhurst, Roger Chapman, Peter McEvoy and Sir Michael Bonnallack as past champions. The course has also hosted four Women’s British Opens in 1998, 2003, 2006 and 2009.

9) The club was founded in 1886 with the original course designed by George Lowe. However it wasn’t until Harry Colt undertook a redesign of the course that it joined the Open Rota.

10) There has been just one left handed Open Champion, Sir Bob Charles when he claimed victory in the 1963 championships – perhaps this will be a good omen for the likes of Phil Mickelson or Bubba Watson?

Read more about Royal Lytham and St Anne’s here.

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If you’d like to play Royal Lytham and St Anne’s, as well as  other Championship golf courses in England, check out our upcoming UK Golf Tours here.