Scan the itinerary of any golfer on a pilgrimage to the British
Isles and the chances are Formby Golf Club will be somewhere near the bottom,
next to the reminder about buying presents for the family at the airport on the
way home.
There is one reason for this oversight and it has nothing to do
with the quality of the course, which is an absolute gem. Indeed, even on a
winter’s day, when the breeze is bumpy, the greens bumpier and the workmen
working on the 10th green look like Arctic explorers who have mislaid their
Huskies, it is easy to argue that Formby is the best links in England never to
have staged an Open Championship.
Which brings us to the explanation for Formby’s relative
obscurity: It is surrounded by three links that actually have staged the Open.
Royal Birkdale is a five-minute drive along the Lancashire coast. Royal Lytham
& St. Annes is just along the M52. And Royal Liverpool is south, just
through the Mersey Tunnel.
The club was founded in 1884 as a nine-hole course open for just
the winter months. Willie Park extended it to 18 holes around the turn of the
century. The closing four holes were lengthened in the 1920s under the
supervision of James Braid.
More recently, like every other course on the planet, Formby has
not been immune to the impact of modern technology. In addition, the club also
has had to cope with coastal erosion. The sea is encroaching at a rate of two
meters a year—a miserable fact of life for Burgess and his predecessors, who
have been forced into some radical surgery. In the early 1970s, Donald Steel
laid out new 7th, 8th and 9th holes away from the shoreline and put in a new tee
at the 10th, turning it into a par 3.
