Getting There
Take off on your flights across the pond to the UK, leaving home in the evening and arriving in either Manchester or Liverpool in the mid-morning.
Day 1 – Arrival & Hillside
1:00pm Tee time at Hillside Golf Club
On arrival in Manchester or Liverpool, you’ll be met by your driver for the trip, along with a mini-coach. From here you will drive straight for the coast, with your ultimate destination being Hillside Golf Club. You should have time for a nice bite to eat before before stepping into the tee box at #1.
After the round, you’ll have a 45-minute drive back south into Liverpool and check into your home for the duration of the trip, The Hard Days Night Hotel. Get settled in and cleaned up – there are some fantastic options for dinner this evening.
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Hillside Golf ClubA true championship links, overhauled in the 1960’s by renowned architect Fred Hawtree, Hillside is regarded as amongst the finest links golf courses not to have hosted the Open Championship. Jack Nicklaus described the course as ‘…a wild looking links’ and added that ‘…within the second nine are some of my favourite holes’. Double Open Champion Australian Greg Norman, meanwhile, graciously wrote an unsolicited note to the Club after playing in the PGA tournament at Hillside in 1982 stating the: ‘the back nine holes are the Best in Britain.’
The layout of the course is balanced in two halves with the opening holes heading south westward along flat ground beside the railway line. The flatter nine holes of the opening half whet the golfer’s appetite for the contrast that awaits on second nine. Here you will find valleyed corridors through some of the highest and wildest dunes found anywhere. Each hole occupying its own unique site never shared with another.
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Your Hotel:
A ‘Fab Four’ star Liverpool hotel. Hard Days Night Hotel is the world’s only Beatles inspired hotel, combining the highest quality facilities in a truly unique environment. Located at the heart of Liverpool’s ‘Beatles Quarter’ offering luxurious accommodation and exclusive event space with a twist. Housed in the magnificent Grade II listed Central Buildings, dating back to 1884, the beautifully restored hotel is steeped in history.
All 110 rooms are individually designed around the contours of the original building and elegantly furnished with specially commissioned Beatles-inspired artwork adorning the walls.
Sitting adjacent to the world famous Cavern Club where the Beatles rose to fame, and an array of the city’s famous Beatles landmarks, the hotel not only offers the perfect getaway for visitors, but is much loved by art lovers, music lovers, and food lovers alike.
You will be staying here for the entire trip.
Day 2 – Royal Lytham & St. Annes
10:10am Tee time at Royal Lytham & St. Annes
Today, you’ll head north, about an hour to the first of the three courses on the Royal Rota. Today, it’s “Lytham.” What is normal on a trip in Scotland, your one hour drive today is the longest day of the trip – everything else is rather close, which allows you to unpack once and not move hotels. Your tee time is at 10:10am.
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Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Course
Renowned as a course in which it is hard to scramble a good score, Royal Lytham & St. Annes has just the 174 bunkers peppering the fairways and surrounding the greens. Although the not the longest of Championship courses, it is one where careful thought and accurate shots are essential.
It is not a conventionally beautiful golf course as it is surrounded by suburban housing and flanked by a railway line, but it has a charm all of its own. That said, the course is very well designed, with holes that offer a wide range of difficulty and assortment of challenges.
It is a Links Course that is a long way from the sea yet close enough for the sea breeze to have an effect on one’s game and was aptly described by Bernard Darwin, the leading golf writer of the thirties, as ‘a beast of a Course, but a just beast’. He went on to say that ‘no one could fail to be impressed by its difficulties, which sets a golfer just about as ruthless as an examination as any Course of my acquaintance’.
Day 3 – Royal Liverpool
11:04am Tee time at Royal Liverpool
This morning you’ll have a short 25-minute drive to play the second Royal Rota course of the trip, the Royal Liverpool. Tee time is 11:04am.
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Founded in 1869, in the small coastal town of Wirral, England, lies the stories Open Championship venue of Royal Liverpool Golf Club. Its architects are amongst the golf worlds most famed, as Robert Chambers and George Morris – younger brother to Old Tom Morris – were those originally commissioned to lay the course. In the succeeding century, Royal Liverpool was redesigned by one of histories leading golf course architects, Harry Colt. More recently, Donald Steel took on the project of lengthening the course, also upgrading the links to 21st-century technology.
The land surrounding the course is very flat – unusually so for the British Isles – with the Dee Estuary lying on its western side. Once you get into your round, however, the undulations of the course – like those seen in the photo to the right – appear and before more pronounced.
Look out for the holes at the turn (starting with #9) as the most scenic along the shore, though make sure not to become awestruck, as they’re also known to be the most difficult on the course. In fact as a whole, there is no doubt that Royal Liverpool is a tough course, largely at the mercy of the wind and immensely natural in its terrain.
Day 4 – Royal Birkdale
11:00am Tee time at Royal Birkdale
Today, you’ll play what might be your favourite round of the trip, Royal Birkdale, which is known as one of the funnest courses in the world. It will be especially fun to play after watching highlights of Jordan Speith’s win at the Open in 2017. Your tee time is 11:00am.
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Royal Birkdale The stunning coastal resort of Southport is host to some of the finest links courses in England, amongst them being Royal Birkdale, the course that, for many golfers, quite simply, one of the best of all the great golf courses to have staged The Open Championship.
The Royal Birkdale Golf Club was formed in 1889, starting off – like many courses in the British Isles – as a 9-hole layout, though its expansion to a full 18 came less than a decade later, in 1897.
Unlike many other courses of the age and pristine of Royal Birkdale, there has been a relatively recent redesign. Considerable investment was made into course improvement and design changes in 1991, which by many was seen as an important step to the course maintaining its position amongst the finest links courses in the British Isles.
Royal Birkdale has hosted a number of major tournaments, including the Open Championship ten times, most recently in 2017, to go along with the Ryder Cup (x2), the Women’s British Open (x6), and the Walker Cup, amongst others.
Day 5 – Formby & the Beatles
9:36am Tee time at Formby Golf Club
3:30pm Beatles Tour of Liverpool
A relatively early start today, your last day of golf on the trip, as you’ll have a 30-minute drive to a 9:36am tee time at Formby Golf Club.
After the round, you have the option of eating lunch at the club, or upon return into Liverpool. Your only remaining plans for the day at at 3:30pm, when you’ll meet our good friend Jackie.
Jackie is an expert is all things Beatles, and specifically their history in, and relationship with the city of Liverpool. You’ll visit landmarks of significance to the group across the city and learn about the start of their unrivalled career in music.
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Formby Golf ClubFormby is one of the top links courses in the world and boasts amazing scenery, surprising tranquillity and a charming clubhouse; just some of the reasons why many visitors return year after year.
The original 18 hole course was redesigned by the famous Willie Park and a plan of the course (dated 1912). James Braid changed the original 15th – 18th layout in 1922 to provide extra length and to move the 17th when it was realised that Shireburn Road and the houses were to be constructed to its right. A stand of conifers was planted, some of which remain today.
Few golfing destinations can rival Formby for the beauty of the course, the variety of the holes and its all year round playability. Formby is truly one of the world’s finest Championship links golf courses. Throw in spectacular scenery, a historic clubhouse, a wonderful restaurant with stunning panoramic views over the course and warm, welcoming bar, it’s little wonder this fabulous golf club seduces so easily.
Day 6 – Liverpool FC
Today, the final day of your trip, will be devoted to attending one of the premier (no pun intended) seasoned sporting events in the world, English Premier League soccer – or, of course, football to the locals.
Depending on your preferred match up and game times, you’ll have the option to see a match at either Anfield (home to Liverpool FC), the famous Old Trafford (home to Manchester United) or the City of Manchester Stadium (home to Manchester City FC).
Whichever match you prefer to attend, we’ll be able to access hospitality game tickets for you, which along with game tickets will include a lunch before kick-off, lounge access before, during and after the match, and more.
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The English Premier League is the top level of soccer in the UK. Created in 1992, this league includes some of the most recognized clubs and many world-class players.
You will have the chance to see either Liverpool FC, Manchester United or Manchester City – three of the league’s best teams – at home, depending on fixture dates released in June.
All have hospitality packages available, which along with game tickets will include a lunch before kick-off, lounge access before, during and after the match, and more.
Day 7 – Departure Day
Depart Liverpool Airport for your trans-Atlantic flight home.
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What’s Included
- 6 nights single room accommodation at Hard Day’s Night
- Breakfast each morning
- 5 rounds of golf
- Hillside
- Royal Lytham & St Annes
- Royal Liverpool “Hoylake”
- Royal Birkdale
- Formby
- Private Beatles Tour in Liverpool
- English Premier League tickets
- Including hospitality package with lounge access
- Chauffeur driven luxury mini coach
- Services of Travel Impresarios Golf
