The Royal Liverpool could take over Hoylake Municipal course

The Royal Liverpool Golf Club wants to take over another course nearby to boost the Open Championship venue.

Hoylake’s Open Championship hosting golf club wants to take over Hoylake Municipal to help it provide better facilities for golf’s most prestigious competition.

The Royal Liverpool Golf Club is seeking to acquire the public course, one of two which closed on April 1 after Wirral Council withdrew its funding.

The golf club’s bid would see it manage a short course of up to nine holes and a driving range which would be available to grassroots golfers and elite players alike.

The Royal Liverpool would use Hoylake Municipal’s clubhouse for a golf shop, which would sell food and drinks, and wildlife habitats and nature trails accessible to the local community would also be created on the land currently occupied by the public course.

The Royal Liverpool said Wirral Council Hoylake Municipal is a key part of The Open Championship infrastructure, providing practice facilities and the ‘tented village’ among other things, and that without it they cannot stage this global event in the town.

The tournament is worth approximately £100m to the economy of Wirral and the Liverpool City Region as a whole. But The Royal Liverpool must gain approval from Wirral Council for its plans.

On June 16, the authority’s Tourism and Leisure Committee will choose whether to approve the club’s plan and take it forward to the next stage. The Royal Liverpool’s plan is not the only one on the table.

Two bids to operate Hoylake Municipal as an 18-hole course on a not-for-profit basis and develop grassroots golf in the area have also been received.

Both bids seek to use the clubhouse to sell food and drink and host community events.

But The Royal Liverpool’s bid is the highest scoring based on Wirral Council’s criteria and the committee is recommended to take its offer forward to the next stage.

George Morgan – Local Democracy Reporter