Southport Regional Overview

A brief insight into the North West and England's famous 'Golf Coast'. Read up or listen to us discuss this stunning pocket of golf...;

The Northwest of England is rich in golfing heritage, especially around Blackpool, Southport and Cheshire. Within this short stretch are three of the best courses in Europe, each of which is used to host The Open Championship.

If you want to try your hand at links golf, where better than at Royal Birkdale, Royal Lytham and Royal Liverpool? Throw in Hillside and Formby for good measure and you have the perfect golf tour.

Five of the best courses in the world in one package may seem too good to be true, but the accommodation is also top quality. Stay in luxury accommodation including the Vincent, a four-star hotel in Southport. The Vincent is a medium-sized hotel with comfortable rooms, an excellent restaurant and bar, and a spa that offers various treatments.

Royal Birkdale (shown below), Hillside and Formby are all within a Dustin Johnson drive of Southport. You will know the Open venues from TV, but Hillside and Formby are qualifying courses for the world's oldest major championship and are magnificent tests in their own right.

We will, of course, get to the courses soon enough, but if you are going to visit the Northwest of England then you should know a bit about it before heading there.

It is a small town on the northwest coast of England, and it is probably most famous for being the place where a horse called Red Rum was taken for training runs on the vast sandy beaches that stretch for miles. Red Rum won the Grand National, the world's most famous steeplechase held annually at nearby Aintree, on three occasions. There is even a pub named after him in Southport, complete with his hoof print embedded in the threshold.

Southport has a fairly elderly population, so the pace of life is sedate, with a delightful shopping thoroughfare called Lord Street that features everything from fashion boutiques to sports shops, coffee houses to shoe shops. The Vincent, is perfectly located in the heart of Lord Street.

The town is a different story in the evening, when the pubs, restaurants and clubs spring to life.

If the pace of life really is too genteel for you here, hop on a local train going south and in 20 minutes you will be in the heart of Liverpool, birthplace of The Beatles and, if you believe the locals, soccer.

Liverpool is a fantastic city, and its people are among the friendliest (and most streetwise) you will ever meet. They love to talk, they enjoy meeting strangers, they live to laugh and they burst with pride when talking about their home city. It sits on the River Mersey, which was once filled with ships taking goods all around the world. Many of the population have their roots in Ireland, which could explain the need for laughter - no people on earth enjoy having fun more than the Irish.

If you want to know anything about The Fab Four, this is the city to visit and no trip is complete without a visit to The Beatles Museum. But there is so much more to it. The city really comes alive at night, with a fabulous choice of bars, restaurants, music venues and clubs. You simply must visit Chinatown, where the choice of food is to die for. And if you are a night bird you will find a club to suit your taste.

Royal Lytham is just down the road from Blackpool, a town built for tourists and holidaymakers. Here, you will find donkeys on the beach, Kiss Me Quick hats, the Pleasurebeach, which boasts every fairground ride known to man, fish and chips served in newspaper (it's the only way to eat it) and the world-famous Blackpool Tower - standing 158 meters from tip to toe, it is a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower, complete with ballroom, circus, live shows, bars and restaurants.

Many experts reckon that this stretch of golf courses on the northwest coast is among the best you will find anywhere in UK. It is difficult to disagree.

Read my course reviews of the spectacular 5 courses that make up the unforgettable Royal Liverpool, Royal Birkdale and Royal Lytham Vacation to the North West coast of England:

Find out more detail about the region by calling one of Golfbreaks.com golf travel experts TOLL FREE on 1-855-699-5853.

Derek Clements

Derek Clements is a golf journalist - he has covered many Open Championships and European Tour events, as well as The Masters. Born in Glasgow, he writes for The Sunday Times and Golfshake, and has also written for Today's Golfer, the Daily Mail, Swing by Swing and many other golf websites, magazines and newspapers. He has played golf all over the world and numbers Gleneagles, Kingsbarns and Aldeburgh as his three favourite golf courses in the United Kingdom. He lives in Suffolk, is a member of Waldringfield Golf Club and has a handicap of nine. He had lessons from the late Bob Torrance and has worked with Jean-Jacques Rivet, one of the world's leading golf biomechanists.