Royal Lytham & St Annes Facts: 9 Things To Know About The AIG Women’s Open Venue
The best players in the world will battle it out on one of the most demanding links courses in the world this summer
A top-20 regular in Golf Monthly’s Top 100 Golf Courses UK&I Rankings, Royal Lytham & St Annes, part of ‘England’s Golf Coast’, is one of the country’s most prestigious venues.
Originally designed by the club’s first pro, George Lowe, the course has seen few changes since Harry Colt was employed to oversee some alterations in 1919.
There have, of course, been several subtle tweaks to the layout in the years since, but the routing has stood the test of time and remains one of the finest tests of golf in the British Isles.
Packed with history and home to a brilliant old clubhouse, golf fans are in for a treat this year, when the AIG Women’s Open visits the famous Fylde links for the sixth time.
Ahead of the final Major Championship of the season, and the 50th staging of the Women’s Open, here are a few interesting facts about one of the most challenging courses on the Open rota.
SIX AND COUNTING
Georgia Hall lifted the trophy at Royal Lytham in 2018
This year marks the sixth time that Royal Lytham & St Annes will have hosted the Women’s British Open.
It was in 1998 that the best players in the world first competed for the title at Lytham - a year in which Sherri Steinhauer triumphed.
Five years later, the great Annika Sorenstam prevailed, completing the Career Grand Slam, before Steinhauer won her second Open on the famous links in 2006 (the American also victorious at Woburn in 1999).
In 2009, Scotland’s Catriona Matthew got her hands on the trophy, and then, after a nine-year break from visiting the venue, Georgia Hall of England took the title in 2018.
BOBBY’S FIRST
Bobby Jones en route to victory at Lytham in 1926
Was Bobby Jones the best golfer that ever lived? Quite possibly.
The three-time Champion Golfer, co-founder of the Masters, and the first player to achieve the game's single-year Grand Slam won the first of his three Claret Jugs at Royal Lytham on 25 June 1926.
The great American got the better of compatriot Al Watrous down the final stretch of holes, and his final-round 74 was good enough for a two-shot victory.
There’s a plaque on the 17th that commemorates the famous second shot of Jones in the final round.
A RYDER CUP VENUE
Arnold Palmer in Ryder Cup action at the Lancashire venue in 1961
The Open, The Women’s Open, The Senior Open, the Walker Cup, the Curtis Cup, the Amateur Championship… and the Ryder Cup. Royal Lytham has hosted them all.
On the two previous occasions the Ryder Cup came to Lytham, the United States prevailed.
Arnold Palmer made his debut in 1961 as the Americans ran out 14½-9½ winners over GB & Ireland, and the margin of victory was five points again in 1977.
HEAVILY BUNKERED
The bunkers at Royal Lytham are genuine hazards
Rarely will someone leave Royal Lytham & St Annes without having visited several of its famous (maybe infamous) pot bunkers.
The official number of these traps, according to the club’s website, stands at 174 - and they pepper the fairways and surround the putting surfaces.
Bernard Darwin, a pioneering English golf writer, described Lytham as “a beast of a Course, but a just beast”.
SEVE’S PLACE
Seve Ballesteros never failed to thrill the galleries at Royal Lytham
The late, great Spaniard won two of his three Open Championships at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
The first came in 1979, when he displayed his full range of short-game skills, including that chip and putt from a temporary car park, which earned him the nickname the ‘Car Park Champion’.
In 1988, because Saturday’s play was washed out, the Championship was decided in regulation play on a Monday for the first time in its history.
Seve was at his sparkling best, shooting 65 to claim his fifth and final Major.
AN OPENING PAR 3
The par-3 1st hole at Royal Lytham is heavily bunkered
It’s unusual for a golf course to start with a par 3, but that’s what the players face at Lytham, which requires anything from a mid iron to a wood.
Off the tips, it can play over 200 yards, so this is no gentle opener. There are several nasty bunkers to contend with, too, and the trees to the right of the tee make club selection difficult.
Tough enough for the pros, let alone your average club golfer.
A CLASSIC (HARD) FINISH
One final test awaits on Royal Lytham's 18th hole, which demands an accurate tee shot
And then there’s the 18th, a classic finishing hole with two lines of bunkers across the fairway at an angle from the tee.
Standing on the tee, it’s one of the most daunting finishing holes on the Open rota, and guarantees tension and no shortage of drama right to the very end.
In 1969, Tony Jacklin held his nerve with a perfect drive down the middle, from where he nailed his approach to 15 feet and two-putted for par to win the Claret Jug.
HOME OF THE LYTHAM TROPHY
Matthew Jordan is a former winner of the Lytham Trophy
In the 1960s, with many of the leading amateur tournaments held in the south of England, the club’s members felt that the game would benefit from having an amateur strokeplay event in the North West.
The first Lytham Trophy was played at Royal Lytham in 1965, and it produced a tie between Clive Clark and M.F. Bonallack.
The tournament is held each year at the beginning of May, and because it’s the first major event in the amateur golf calendar, it attracts attention from all the national selectors.
In 2026, it was won by Lauri Rosendahl of Finland.
ROYAL NEIGHBORS
Royal Birkdale is a short distance away from Royal Lytham
Royal Lytham is actually only 10 miles away from its illustrious royal neighbor, Royal Birkdale, which hosted the 2026 Open.
However, as anyone who has combined these two famous links courses in one golf trip (lucky you), they’re separated by a little over an hour’s drive.
Despite needing to take a 30-odd mile detour around the River Ribble estuary, they’re still considered royal neighbors - as is Royal Liverpool (Hoylake), which is approximately 50 miles away from Lytham.
