The Sefton Coast in Five Courses: A Golf Itinerary Worth Planning

I have played all five of the main Sefton Coast courses multiple times. If I was showing someone the circuit for the first time, this is the order I would sequence them and what I would tell them before each round.

Day One: Hillside

Start at Hillside. Not Birkdale, even though Birkdale is the headline name. Hillside is a better introduction to what the Sefton Coast is. More accessible as a visitor, similarly demanding as a course, and the dune landscape is spectacular in a way that even experienced links golfers notice on the first tee.

The greens reward accurate approaches and punish anything short. Get a feel for the wind on the first five holes: it will set your scoring expectations for the week. Hillside in a westerly is a completely different course to Hillside on a calm morning.

Day Two: Royal Birkdale (or the Best Available Alternative)

If you have booked a visitor round at Birkdale, day two is when you play it. The course rewards everything you learned at Hillside on day one and adds its own challenges. The willow scrub rough is more penalising than it looks from the fairway. The greens run faster than you expect.

If Birkdale is not available, use day two for Southport and Ainsdale. Different character, Ryder Cup history, and in a south-westerly it is the hardest course on the coast. Not a consolation prize.

Day Three: Formby Golf Club

Formby is twenty minutes south of Birkdale village and a completely different experience. More tree-lined than the dune courses, a traditional club atmosphere, excellent greens. The transition from Birkdale-type courses to Formby sharpens your game in ways that playing one course type repeatedly does not.

Stay for lunch. The clubhouse does a proper meal and Formby Golf Club is the kind of place where that is part of the experience.

Day Four: Southport and Ainsdale

If you played S&A on day two as a Birkdale substitute, swap day four to Southport Old Links for something more affordable. If not, Southport and Ainsdale is the anchor for day four. The 18th is one of the most dramatic closing holes on the Sefton Coast. By day four you will be reading links greens properly and scoring accordingly.

Day Five: West Lancashire

Finish at West Lancashire. It is at Blundellsands, about six miles south of Birkdale. The nearest Merseyrail station is Hall Road. Most visitors doing the Sefton circuit skip it or leave it as an afterthought. That is a mistake.

West Lancashire is the most elemental of the five. No shelter from the coast. When the wind is up from the Irish Sea, the course plays harder than anything else on this list. It is also the most underrated. Finishing the Sefton circuit here sets the benchmark correctly.

Logistics

Stay in Southport or Birkdale village. Every course on this itinerary is within a 30-minute drive. You do not need to change base.

Hiring a car is the sensible option unless you are using the train. Hall Road station is close to West Lancs. Formby station is close to Formby Golf Club. Birkdale station is the right stop for the Birkdale corridor courses.

When to Do This

June is the best month for this itinerary: firm fairways, long evenings, courses in peak condition, and better green fee value than July. April, May, September and October are good alternatives.

July works if you are combining with The Open. Availability at the top courses is tighter and green fees are higher, but the atmosphere around the Birkdale corridor in Open week is something you only get every few years. Worth building the trip around it.