Page 3 - Royal Lytham & St Anne's

The Course
The peerless golf course architect Harry Colt asked one question of courses he constructed: Will it live? Perhaps beyond all others, the links at Royal Lytham answers his question with a resounding Yes... Since his major remodelling in the 1920's the links has repeatedly adapted to the times, so that it offers the same total challenge to players of every level that it did all those decades ago.
Unashamedly eccentric, it opens with a par 3, saying why not? A score must be put together on the front nine, before turning and facing the attritional journey home. Time and again there are reminders of past glories - the Ballesteros car park shot at the sixteenth, the Jacklin drive at the eighteenth, the battle between Nick Price and Seve Ballesteros highlighted by their halving the seventh in eagle threes where both nearly holed their second shots.
The 12th hole has consistently shown itself to be the most difficult par 3 on all the Open courses.The fifteenth is a majestic par four that calls for shots of the highest order.The dramatic dog-leg seventeenth was the setting for one of the greatest golf shots ever played by Bobby Jones as he won the Open of 1926 and still provides the total examination of a player's game at every level of ability.
If other golf courses set an examination that might be likened to an O-level or perhaps an A-level, the course at Royal Lytham comes in somewhere between a Masters and a PhD. On each tee the golfer is given the challenge of avoiding thick rough and Lytham’s famous 206 bunkers.The greens are delightfully true but the soft contours mean only the good putter will prevail.
Above many other courses, the links at Royal Lytham have a superb rhythm, which toss the emotions this way and that, before the crescendo finish of the last five holes.The diagonal bunkering at the last hole is a favoured Colt feature and dominate one the great finishing holes in the world of golf. Battle over you can now enjoy a well deserved refresher.