Geography dictates that Formby be called a links. It’s close to the sea. It has dunes and beautiful, sandy turf. Yet stand on the 1st tee and you could be fooled into thinking you are looking out on one of England’s great heathland courses, with tree-lined fairways and gnarly heather just off the fairways.

Like most great courses, the opening hole offers a gentle introduction. The real business of the day begins on the 538-yard 3rd, a gentle dogleg; a definite birdie chance, this hole, provided you can hang on to the rock-hard fairway, avoid the trees, rough and steep-faced bunkers, then hole a snaking 60-footer across a green that holds more secrets than a CIA operative.

The back nine is almost a different course, as the pines give way to a more open, traditional linksland. But it isn’t any easier than what has gone before. The wind comes into play; so does the bunkering. Take the 12th hole, 421 fearsome yards into the breeze. The green is guarded by a solitary bunker that, although relatively modest in size, seems to have a catchment area roughly the size of Greater Merseyside. It is a place where hopes of reviving the round go to rest in peace.

Unlike Royal Liverpool, which has some great holes but also a few bad ones, Formby is without a weakness. But apparently, the R&A believes the place has a few infrastructure problems. Finding the course is an ordeal, even with the help of a map, satellite navigation and a friendly local. There is nowhere to park 10,000 cars a day and no room for the ubiquitous tented village.

Still, the club doesn’t seem too bothered, and the it will hold its fourth British Amateur in 2009.