The North West links trail: Hoylake to Lytham

The order

Driving north from the Wirral to the Fylde coast, in the order the roads actually take you, is Royal Liverpool, West Lancashire, Formby, Hillside, Royal Birkdale, Southport and Ainsdale, St Annes Old Links, Royal Lytham and St Annes, then Fairhaven. All nine are links courses (built on sandy ground by the sea), and all nine are members' clubs that take visitors by booking rather than on the day.

Door to door, that's around 79 miles of driving, not counting anything you do once you get to each car park. It isn't an even spread: the Southport cluster of Hillside, Royal Birkdale and Southport and Ainsdale sit inside 3 miles of each other, while the two crossings either side of that cluster account for most of the mileage.

Two crossings make the trail longer than the map suggests

There's no bridge between Hoylake and the Sefton coast, and the Mersey Ferry doesn't carry cars, so the fastest route from Royal Liverpool to West Lancashire goes through a tolled Mersey tunnel: 18 miles and about 42 minutes on Google Maps' fastest route, against a straight-line distance of under 5 miles across the water. Check the current toll with Mersey Tunnels before you travel.

Photo to followThe clubhouse and coastline at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, the first stop on the trail

The bigger detour comes between the Southport cluster and Lytham St Annes. The Ribble estuary sits between the two, and there's no coast road across it, so the fastest route on Google Maps runs inland via the M55: 41 miles and over an hour, more than half the trail's total mileage for what looks like a short hop up the coast on a map.

Where to base yourself

Three towns cover the nine stops sensibly rather than one hotel for the whole trip:

• Hoylake or West Kirby, Wirral, for Royal Liverpool on its own before crossing the water.
• Southport, for West Lancashire, Formby, Hillside, Royal Birkdale and Southport and Ainsdale, five courses within about a 20-minute drive of the town.
• Lytham St Annes, for St Annes Old Links, Royal Lytham and St Annes and Fairhaven, all inside 2 miles of the town centre.

That's a three-base trip even though it's five separate golf clubs staying in the middle base; Southport itself sits roughly in the middle of that cluster, so a hotel there keeps every drive in that stretch under 20 minutes.

Photo to followDune ground on the Southport coast, where three of the trail's nine courses sit within 3 miles of each other

When to go

This coast plays firmest, calmest and longest-lit from around May to July, and the same clubs tend to charge the most for it; see the best time of year for links golf for the Met Office figures and real club prices behind that. If you'd rather save money than chase perfect conditions, autumn is the usual middle ground, and several of these clubs cut their green fees hardest over winter, when you're also more likely to meet a temporary green or a trolley ban; see temporary greens, trolley bans and preferred lies for what that means on the day.

For juniors and older golfers

A trail like this is a lot of driving and a lot of walking across several consecutive days. Building in a rest day, or dropping to one course every other day, keeps it enjoyable rather than a route march, particularly for younger legs still building stamina or older golfers managing their own pace over 18 holes of dune country.