The layout of Royal Lytham & St Annes has
remained faithful to the original created by the
Club's first Professional, George Lowe, over a
century ago. The only significant changes were
made in 1919 when the club asked Harry Colt,
the pre-eminent Course Designer of the time to
make recommendations for improvement.
Over the next four years he repositioned some
of the Greens and Tees added numerous
bunkers and lengthened the course.
It is not a conventionally beautiful golf course,
surrounded as it is by suburban housing and
flanked by a railway line, but it has a charm all
of its own. 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'. (Courtesy Royal Lytham & St.
Anne's Golf Club)