Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club

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Par/SSS: 72/73	Weekday Round: ££££
Yards: 6703	Day Ticket: ££££
Type: Links	Weekend Round: ££££
Holes: 18	Day Ticket: ££££

Hole	White Yards	Par	Yellow Yards	Stroke Index	Ladies Yards	Par	Stroke Index
1	204	3	180		142	3
2	520	5	505		423	5
3	430	4	385		307	4
4	395	4	318		273	4
5	448	4	400		361	4
6	386	4	362		340	4
7	490	5/4	462		452	5
8	153	3	147		128	3
9	490	5/4	447		435	5
	3516	35/37			2861	37
10	183	3	158		125	3
11	442	4	427		410	5
12	403	4	387		361	4
13	155	3	145		132	3
14	396	4	370		318	4
15	343	4	333		291	4
16	508	5	490		435	5
17	443	4	430		422	5
18	350	4	339		328	4
	3223	35			2822	37
	6739	70/72			5683	74

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Southport & Ainsdale Golf Club was originally founded in 1907. At that time, golf was played across a stretch of links land between the railway line and the main Liverpool road.  In 1922, the council decided to build another road into Southport and they decided to route it across the links, splitting the course in two. Fortunately, some new land was identified and James Braid, the greatest golf course revisionist of all time, was called in to sort things out. By 1924, Braid had built six new holes and updated the remaining twelve.

So, in the scheme of things, Southport & Ainsdale is a relative youngster and it is set amongst exhilarating dunes and tangly heather.  S&A has a very natural feel to the layout, although it is somewhat old-fashioned with some blind drives and obscured approach shots. This is not your traditional out-and-back layout. In broad terms, the course is laid out in two loops, the first seven holes forming the inner loop. The fairways wind their way through gaps and valleys between the dunes and many of the greens are raised on tricky-to-hold plateaux.  S&A is a serious golfing test, the layout measures over 6,600 from the back tees with par set at 72 and from the yellow tees, the length drops to 6,250 yards, but the par also drops down to 70.  

The sleepers at the 16th - GumbleysThere are many memorable holes at S&A and the 8th is a bunkerless par three, measuring 157 yards. The green is sited on a raised table and only the best tee shot will stay on the putting surface. The 16th, measuring 506 yards, plays directly into the prevailing wind and when the wind’s up, three solid strikes will be required to reach the green. The hole is called “Gumbley’s” and it has a fine example of a sleeper-faced bunker. It’s a monster, set into the face of a large, tussocky sand ridge. Avoid this one like the plague.

Southport & Ainsdale has hosted many important amateur events over the years and the good old Dunlop Southport and Swallow Penfold professional competitions were held here in the 1940s and 1950s with Max Faulkner, Fred Daly and Christy O’Connor emerging victorious.  But S&A will be remembered for the 1933 and 1937 Ryder Cups. The 1933 event went down to the very last match between Easterbrook and Shute and it turned out to be a putting contest on the final green. Shute had a six-footer for the USA to retain the Ryder Cup, but he missed. The 1937 Ryder Cup was less eventful: the score was USA 8 GB&I 4. 1937 was the first American Ryder Cup victory in the British Isles, but it wasn’t their last because the USA retained the Ryder Cup for the next 20 years.

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