The 2006 Open Golf Championship

Mighty Winds... Mighty Champions:
The History of The Royal Liverpool Golf Club

Foreword by His Royal Highness Prince Andrew

The world famous golf tournament The Open returned to Hoylake on the Wirral in the UK in July 2006, after an absence of 37 years.

In collaboration with The Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Cities500 has published what is already being hailed as the finest ever tribute to the club; a lavish book crammed with glorious and often historic photographs supported by a fascinating and well-researched history.

This superb book marks the return of The Open Championship to the links of The Royal Liverpool Golf Club, a competition last won at Hoylake by the great Argentinean golfer Roberto de Vicenzo who was presented with the much sought after Claret Jug in the 1967.

The Royal Liverpool Golf Club is the second oldest course of its kind in England and is one of only eight courses from amongst thirty 'royal' golf courses in the UK to stage The Open. Other distinguished clubs that have hosted the event in the last five years include Lytham St Anne's in Lancashire and Sandwich in Kent in England, and in Scotland St Andrews, Muirfield and Troon.

In the years since it was founded - and certainly in the last 70 - social attitudes and standards of living have changed dramatically, as has golf in terms of technology and worldwide exposure.

Yet, like the nature of the game itself, the links course and the flat fields of Hoylake on the wonderful Wirral Peninsula have changed little in the last 100 years - and golf remains essentially the sport first played over 500 years ago in Scotland.

In this book we trace the development of golf at Hoylake and interpose the history of the golf club with that of the great maritime city of Liverpool.

The club was established by Liverpool businessmen and by 1869 had 30 members, quite remarkable for such a relatively new sport in England. Today the club has 1,000 members and its honorary president is HRH Prince Andrew who has kindly written a forward in the book.

After a Victorian hey-day, in the latter part of the 20th century the club went through a downturn period but has enjoyed a renaissance since the late 1980s, mirrored by a remarkable regeneration of Liverpool's fortunes; winning the European Capital of Culture title for 2008 and awarded UNESCO World Heritage status for its wonderful waterfront and architecture.

This exciting focus on the Royal Liverpool updates the marvellous early history penned by Guy Farrar in 1932 and is a fitting tribute to the club, the game of golf and The Open.