Fairhaven: One of England Golf Coast’s real hidden gems
Why we would rather be playing this North West wonder
Fairhaven Golf Club is recognised as one of the best tracks in the north west of England and features an unusual but impressive blend of links and parkland.
It is home to many risk and reward holes and several punishing bunkers that can ruin your scorecard. The course is maintained and presented to the highest standards, featuring a sandy sub-soil to make play possible all year round.
History
Originally founded in 1895, the course was situated on what is now Fairhaven Boating Lake.
The club moved to its present site in the early 1920s and James Albert (Jack) Steer, the professional at Blackpool South Shore club from 1908 until its closure in 1940, designed the new course with advice and guidance from the great James Braid.
“The new course at Fairhaven Club, an inland course in a pretty park with something attractively secret about it”, wrote Bernard Darwin in The Golf Courses of Great Britain.
“We walk through a wood and suddenly and surprisingly find ourselves in a big tract of country, very peaceful and remote, which gives the impression of being a hidden valley. The soil is good too, and the holes are interesting”.
What makes Fairhaven Golf Club special?
There are so many fine courses on Lancashire’s “Golf Coast” and Fairhaven might not be a natural choice for those seeking out the big names. But you really will be missing something, something really special if you overlook Fairhaven.
It’s a delightful course and one of the area’s real hidden gems.
Where does it rank?
297th in GB&I, 121st in England, 11th in North West Coast
Where is it?
Fairhaven is situated in between the towns of Lytham and Ansdell on England’s Golf Coast, a short drive south from Blackpool. St Anne’s Old Links and Royal Lytham & St Anne’s are within a mile or two from Fairhaven.
Get in touch with Fairhaven Golf Club
For more information about the club and course, visit their website or call them on 01253 736741.
You can play Fairhaven Golf Club on the NCG Top 100s Tour this year!
- Register now to play in our 2024 Fairhaven event on July 2nd here.
Now have your say
Have you ever had the pleasure of playing at Fairhaven Golf Club? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!
Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
