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Golf
The United Kingdom has the oldest and some of the best golf courses in the World, many of them regularly used for international tournaments. We have selected only a few to whet your appetite, together with a recommended campsite nearby. You will find links to many more courses on our links page.
Don't forget, if you hire your motorhome through us we can design a tour for you and book your sites along the way. This booking service is completely FREE - just email us with what you'd like to see and we'll do the rest. Have a look at our Holidays page for other places to see and things to do while you are touring this wonderful island of ours.
Hoylake
The Belfry
St Andrews
Gleneagles
Carnoustie
Lytham St Annes
| Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, England
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Royal Liverpool Golf Club at Hoylake has staged major tournaments throughout its long history including eleven Open Championships and many amateur events, most recently the British Open Championship in 2006
Built in 1869, on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club, Hoylake is the oldest of all the English seaside courses with the exception of Westward Ho! in Devon, which was established just a few years earlier. Robert Chambers and George Morris were commissioned to lay out the original Hoylake course, which was extended to 18 holes in 1871. This was also the year in which the Club was granted its Royal designation thanks to the patronage of His Royal Highness The Duke of Connaught.
The Hoylake links, despite their at first glance flat and benign appearance, are still very much among the toughest and most demanding tests of golf. In recent years, under the guidance of renowned course architect, Donald Steel, the course has been lengthened and upgraded to take on twenty-first century technology and increasingly athletic big hitters.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Wirral Country Park (CC site)
Distance to course: 3-4 miles
Notes: Located in a country park of 2000 acres of unspoilt natural landscape, with some pitches overlooking the Dee estuary. Loved by reviewers:
"What a beautiful, well set out site"
"toilets and showers were exceptional"
Usual CC high standards
Reviews |
| The Belfry, Wishaw, England
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Home to the Quinn Direct British Masters, and has hosted the Ryder Cup, the Benson & Hedges International Open and the PGA Seniors' Championship. It is also home to the headquarters of The PGA of Great Britain & Ireland, The PGA of Europe, and the PGA National Training Academy.
Three courses - the famous Brabazon Course, venue for four Ryder Cup matches,The Derby, suitable for every standard of golfer, and the more challenging PGA National, which is the only PGA National branded course in Europe.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Kingsbury Water Park (C & CC site)
Distance to course: 2.2 miles
Notes: This C & CC site at Kingsbury Water Park was completely refurbished in 2003. The country's second city, Birmingham, is only 12 miles away, and this is an unexpectedly peaceful haven in the 600-acre Water Park, which is now home to one of Britain's rarest mammals, the water vole. Adjoining the Site there are lakes and countryside to explore, and the area is ideal for walking, cycling, birdwatching and fishing - and golf, of course.
Usual C & CC high standards
Reviews |
| Royal & Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews, Scotland
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This is where it all started - the undoubted Home of Golf. Fittingly, the venue for the 2000 Open Championship, this traditional links course is the oldest in the world. Its layout is unique and challenging and the sense of history is overwhelming. To tread the turf of St Andrews, where in the 13th century shepherds played a form of golf, is a marvellous experience. Over 600 years, one simple track hacked through the bushes and heather has developed into six golf courses - the world-famous Old Course and its sister courses, The New, The Jubilee, The Eden, The Strathtyrum and The Balgove, all run by the St Andrews Links Trust. The Old Course and its sisters are in effect public courses with several clubs allowed to play over them - the most famous of which is the Royal and Ancient, which was founded in 1754 and now governs the rules of golf everywhere except the United States. St Andrews is now the largest golf complex in Europe covering 700 acres and including two turf nurseries, two greenkeeping centres, an extensive driving range and practice area, two clubhouses and three shops.
18 holes, 7,125 yards (championship), 6,566 yards (medal), par 72 (SSS 72). Course record 62.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Craigtoun Meadows
Distance to course: 1.5 miles
Notes: Scottish Tourist Board 5 Star site, and twice winners of the AA's prestigious 'Best Scottish Campsite' award.
Reviews |
| Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Scotland
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The five-star Gleneagles golf resort in Perthshire is home to three championship golf courses. These were the inspiration of two of the world's most famous golfers, James Braid, five times winner of the Open Championship who designed the King's and Queen's, and Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers of the 20th Century, who created the PGA Centenary Course.
The King's course features heavy bunkering and a challenging layout. Blind shots are in play at times, as are elevated greens. Fairways are moderately generous, but where there's one bunker there's usually others. This parkland course is set in high ground in many parts and the wind can be a factor. There's a great mix of long and short par 4s, including the exciting 260-yard 14th, which is drivable but heavily bunkered.
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| Recommended campsite:
Auchterarder Caravan Park
Distance to course: 4 miles
Notes: Very little info, even on the park website.
No Reviews |
| Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland
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After almost quarter of a century, the Open Championship returned to Carnoustie in 1999 and lived up to its reputation as the toughest links course in the world. Most of the world`s top players struggled to tame the 7,361-yard monster. Not since 1975 had the Open been held at Carnoustie. In that year, Tom Watson came from nowhere to win. On its return it was perhaps fitting that a local hero, Paul Lawrie from Aberdeen, should win after a four-hole play-off with American Justin Leonard and France`s Jean Van de Velde. Lawrie`s winning score of 290 -- six over par -- is testament to the degree of difficulty. Carnoustie has been called the killer links and Walter Hagen described it as the greatest course in the British Isles. When the wind blows, it changes from a sleeping giant into a terror. Even from the club`s medal tees, 6,941 yards, it is still formidable. Carnoustie will host the Open Championship again in 2007.
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| Recommended campsite:
Woodlands Caravan Park
Distance to course: 1 mile
Notes: Angus Council operated, Woodlands Caravan Park is situated in the grounds of a former mansion house in the historic Angus burgh of Carnoustie, on the NE coast of Scotland.
Reviews |
| Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lytham St Annes, England
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Nestling between two seaside resorts, the Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Course is one of the most unique courses in the rotation of The Open Championship. It is a links in every sense of the word, with sandy soil and the wind blowing in from the Irish Sea.
In 1926 the club hosted its first Open and King George V gave his permission to add the word 'Royal' to the club's title just in time for the Championship to start.
Bobby Jones, one of the most talented and successful amateur golfers of all time, won the 1926 Open. Trailing a fellow American, A.L. Watrous, with two holes to play, Jones played perhaps the greatest shot in Open history, hitting a mashie second shot from the sand on the left of the 17th. He than parred the 18th to win his first title. He went on to win The Open twice more and also claim the amateur title.
The course is well designed, with holes to test every level of player. It is the only major championship course to open with Par 3. The first four and last five holes are said to be amongst the trickiest in Britain, but some respite is offered in between with holes which are within everyone's range.
Holes 16 to 18 have produced some of the most memorable moments in major championship history - 16 is the scene of Seve's famous 'car park' shot in 1979.
The Grand Victorian clubhouse, with its oak-panelled dining room, offers a haven from the elements - a place to soak up the history of previous championships and admire the skill of past and present golfing heroes.
The Club welcomes club golfers just as warmly and the course is always set up to Championship standards, so it is possible to play it in the footsteps of the golfing legends.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Oaklands Caravan Park
Distance to course: 6.4 miles
Notes: Site is set back off the road in the countryside and is surrounded by farmland, with an onsite camping and caravaning accessory shop.
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