Fifteen minutes up the coast, Wallasey is the round that proves the Wirral deserved two days. Old Tom Morris laid it out in 1891 through what Bernard Darwin called mighty hills, and the dunes here are genuinely mighty: whole fairways pitch and heave between them while the mouth of the Mersey and Liverpool Bay fill the horizon. James Braid added some fifty bunkers, Donald Steel added three holes in 2003, and the club has spent recent years quietly restoring the place, returning shale paths to grass and rebuilding bunkers into the natural land. Golf owes Wallasey a debt beyond the scenery. Dr Frank Stableford, a member here, worked out his points system after turning the problem over on the 2nd fairway, and the first Stableford competition in golf was played on this course in 1932. Every blowout hole you have ever shrugged off scored its first shrug here.

Formby is the coast's great outlier: a links wrapped on three sides by pines, so the sea wind arrives filtered through a red squirrel reserve. Willie Park Jr laid out the full eighteen, Braid and Colt refined it between the wars, and when the Irish Sea began eating the shoreline in the 1980s Donald Steel built replacement holes deeper in the dunes that stretched the course past 7,000 yards. Mackenzie and Ebert have been restoring it since 2020, re-bunkering, realigning and reopening the sandy dune slacks that give the place its character. The championship pedigree is real: the Amateur has been settled here repeatedly, by Jose Maria Olazabal in 1984 and by a sixteen year old Matteo Manassero in 2009, and the 2004 Curtis Cup was decided on these fairways too. Book midweek, bring your handicap certificate, and give the pines a long minute from the high ground before you play down out of them.

Southport and Ainsdale is the trip's history lesson. James Braid rebuilt S and A in 1924 after the council cut a road through the original links, and his rebuilt course promptly hosted the Ryder Cup twice: in 1933, when the Prince of Wales watched Great Britain win by a point, and in 1937, when the Americans took their first victory on foreign soil. Only Royal Birkdale next door shares that double among England's links. The golf is proper duneland with a touch of heath, gorse and pine threading the sandhills, and its most famous question comes late: Gumbleys, the par five 16th, where a blind second shot must carry a vast bunker faced with railway sleepers set into a tussocky ridge. Green fees float with demand in the club's booking portal, the fee has traditionally included a clubhouse meal, and the summer diary fills fast. It is the friendliest door on the strip and nobody leaves disappointed.

The closer needs no argument. Royal Birkdale has staged ten Opens and hosts its eleventh in July 2026; Palmer, Trevino, Miller, Watson and Spieth are already on the honours board, and Branden Grace shot 62 here in 2017, the first sub 63 round in men's major history. The 1932 Hawtree and Taylor design routes its fairways along flat valley floors between enormous dunes, which is why players call it the fairest of the Open venues: the bounce is honest, the trouble is visible, and the wind does the rest. A stone plaque off the 16th marks where Arnold Palmer slashed a 6 iron from a buried lie in 1961 to secure his first Claret Jug, and the white art deco clubhouse behind the 18th green is the most recognisable building in English golf. Visitors play Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at £495 in season, paid in full 60 days out, and the course closes entirely from 22 June to 26 July 2026 for the Open. Plan around it, or plan it for 2027.