Lancashire doesn't announce itself as a golfing county the way Surrey or Kent might, but with 51 clubs spread from the Fylde coast to the Pennine fringes, it has as much variety as anywhere in England. Parkland courses dominate, twenty of them scattered through towns like Preston, Chorley and Accrington, but the county's character really shows in its moorland golf. Seven clubs sit up on exposed hillside, and a handful of proper links courses cling to the coast around Blackpool, Fleetwood and Lytham. Add a couple of heathland courses and a downs layout into the mix, and you have a county that rewards a bit of exploring rather than a single obvious destination.
James Braid's fingerprints are all over Lancashire golf. He redesigned Accrington & District's course in 1928 to, in the club's own words, tighten it up, having moved the club to its current tree-lined site back in 1908. He worked on Burnley Golf Club too, adding three new holes and more than thirty bunkers in 1929 to a layout on the fringe of the Habergham Eaves moors, with views across the Ribble Valley to Pendle Hill. Burnley has since been recognised as one of the top 100 courses in Great Britain and Ireland for value under £35, and was named the friendliest golf club in England by The Wandering Golfer, which says something about the welcome as much as the golf. Braid also laid out Clitheroe, Dean Wood, Lancaster and Fairhaven, the last alongside J.A. Steer, and his influence on Lancashire's inland game is hard to overstate.
Moorland golf with a view
The moorland courses are where Lancashire feels most distinctive. Bacup Golf Club sits over 1,000 feet above the Rossendale Valley, one of the oldest clubs in the North West, with narrow fairways threading between natural streams and hills. Lobden, up at Whitworth, goes even higher at 298 metres, exposed to strong westerly winds, and from the sixth tee on a clear day you can apparently pick out the Peak District and Jodrell Bank telescope. Chorley Golf Club, designed by J.A. Steer across 127 acres of rolling moorland, offers views stretching from the South Lakes to North Wales. These aren't gentle rounds. The wind and elevation change how the ball behaves, and clubs like Green Haworth in Accrington, with its signature Bedlam hole, and Baxenden nearby, looking out over the Ribble Estuary and Pendle Hill, share that same exposed, big-sky character.
Links and coast
For proper seaside golf, Fleetwood Golf Club is the one to seek out, the only true links on the Fylde coast, founded in 1861 and running to 6,521 yards. Fairhaven, near Lytham, blends dunes and fescue grassland with parkland touches and shares its grounds with the historic Lytham Hall; it's been listed among the best Open Championship qualifying courses in the country, and Justin Leonard shot a 64 there in 1996. Lytham Green Drive has done Open qualifying duty of its own, in 1974, 1979 and 1988. Further north, Knott End Golf Club sits on the Fylde Coast between Blackpool and Lancaster, its front nine running along the Wyre estuary with views to Morecambe Bay before the back nine turns inland through a tree-lined valley.
Parkland variety and where to start
The parkland clubs give Lancashire its everyday golf, and there's real quality among them. Hurlston Hall, near Ormskirk, was laid out by Donald Steel in 1994 on the 200-acre Hurlston Hall Estate, with holes refined in 2011 by Tom MacKenzie and Martin Ebert; the estate's origins go back to the 16th century. Lancaster Golf Club, another Braid design, opens with holes through Lakeland scenery before turning towards the Lune Estuary and open bay. For shorter rounds, Colne's nine-hole course is reckoned among the toughest of its kind locally, tree-lined with a Pendle Hill backdrop. With green fees starting from as little as £7 somewhere in the county, and courses ranging from full Open qualifiers to quiet nine-hole moorland tracks, Lancashire suits golfers who want to build a varied week rather than settle on one club for every round.