St Annes Old Links Golf Club
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St Annes Old Links Golf Club was officially opened in 1901. Here on these links up until the 1890's, THE ST ANNES GOLF CLUB had been playing for two decades before encroaching building imposed upon the members the necessity of seeking an area less vulnerable to development. The Club then, after much deliberation, moved two miles away to the South side of the town to what is now the present Championship Course of Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club
Within just nine years the new and present Club House had been built, the Course extended from nine to eighteen holes of 6,046 yards to Championship Standard. Championship Officials from the very beginning have looked to The Old Links to host their tournaments. The English Ladies Amateur Championship was played here in as early as 1919 and again in 1951.
In conjunction with Royal Lytham it has been a qualifying course for The Open since 1926 and has now been extended to 6,684 yards.
A number of other National Championship competitions have been held here regularly ever since.
The general pure links character of the Course has changed little over the years although building development is now surrounding most of the perimeter. Every hole has individual characteristics of which the 9th, par three 171 yards is, perhaps the best known. Bobby Jones, when playing here during the 1926 Open, was so impressed that according to reports of the day, took detailed measurements in order to reproduce a hole of similar nature in America and perhaps at Augusta National there is a hole which owes something in character to the 9th at St.Annes Old Links.
Visitors will notice the hole names on their card even before commencement of play. The names, some quaint, others descriptive, all have a close relationship either with the history of the course, or the hole itself and some - Tower,Fair, Canon come from the very start of golf. Others go back to the earliest recorded history of the region when the Culdee Monks, whose Monastery was established here in 661 which legend has, was destroyed in the ninth century on an Easter Sunday by a great inroad of the sea.
The history of the locality and the history of the game of golf itself is closely entwined and for the many who come from far afield to play, The St Annes Old Links Golf Club during its 100 years existence has always provided its guests with a warm and hearty welcome. Nothing better can describe this than the following quotation - " There is a subtle magnetism about St. Annes Old Links which most golfers have felt and acknowledged. Perhaps in the first place the name has something to do with it, the very title instinctively prompts reverence and respect, perhaps the real explanation is the atmosphere of the hospitality that presides over the whole club like a good humored giant which seizes you warmly by the hand as soon as you arrive"……… Quoted from 'Golf Gossip' - August 1910 - and although the times have changed the welcome remains the same as ever, to all who come here to play
Link to the Official Site
