Who runs golf in the North West

England Golf

England Golf is the governing body for amateur golf in England, formed in 2012 when the English Golf Union (the men's body) and the English Women's Golf Association merged into one organisation. It runs the national handicapping system, affiliates clubs, and organises national and county competitions. England Golf is itself affiliated to The R&A, below, and sits on the Council of National Golf Unions.

Lancashire Golf and Cheshire Golf

Golf administration in this region still runs along the old county lines rather than the modern metropolitan county of Merseyside, so there's no separate Merseyside union to point you to. It catches a lot of people out, including some who've played the game here for years.

Lancashire Golf covers clubs across Lancashire itself and the Southport and Liverpool clubs that sit in modern-day Merseyside, including Formby, Hillside, Royal Birkdale, Southport & Ainsdale, West Lancashire, Allerton Manor, Bootle and Lee Park. It became a single body, Lancashire Golf Ltd, on 5 March 2024, when the former Lancashire Union of Golf Clubs and the Lancashire Ladies' County Golf Association unified.

Cheshire Golf covers clubs across Cheshire and the Wirral clubs that also sit in modern-day Merseyside, including Royal Liverpool at Hoylake and Heswall. It unified in the same way, becoming Cheshire Golf Ltd on 23 September 2024 when the Cheshire Union of Golf Clubs and the Cheshire County Ladies Golf Association merged. It now runs 13 county championships a year across the unified membership.

Photo to followPlayers and a scoreboard at a Lancashire Golf or Cheshire Golf county championship at a North West club

Both bodies publish their fixtures and championship dates on their own sites: see our events page for what's confirmed so far.

The PGA

The Professional Golfers' Association represents club and touring professionals rather than amateur golfers, and is organised into seven regions: East, Ireland, Midlands, North, Scotland, South and South West. The North region covers Northern England, North Wales and the Isle of Man, and within it, Lancashire and Cheshire & NW each run their own section, with local tournaments, an order of merit and a committee of PGA members.

Diagram to followA map of the PGA's seven regions, with the North region highlighted and its Lancashire and Cheshire and NW sections marked

If you're looking for a qualified PGA professional or coach locally, these are the bodies behind the club pros you'll find at North West courses.

The R&A

The R&A grew out of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and, in 2004, took over responsibility for the sport's global governance outside the United States and Mexico, working jointly with the USGA on the Rules of Golf, Rules of Amateur Status, equipment standards and the World Amateur Golf Rankings. It stages The Open and, since merging with the Ladies' Golf Union in 2017, the AIG Women's Open and the amateur championships and international matches for women and girls too. Proceeds from The Open get reinvested into growing the game, including funding to the DP World Tour, the Ladies' European Tour, EDGA and the Golf Foundation, both covered below.

Disability golf: England Golf and EDGA

England Golf's Disability Golf Plan, running 2025 to 2030, is the current framework for disabled golf in England, covering elite performance, classification and club-level inclusion; see our UK golf news roundup for the numbers behind it. For competition classification itself, England Golf works with the European Disability Golf Association (EDGA), a not-for-profit founded in 2000 that advises golf federations worldwide and runs the WR4GD Pass system used to enter EDGA-badged tournaments.

Junior golf: England Golf and the Golf Foundation

The Golf Foundation is the UK's junior golf charity, delivering Tri-Golf in primary schools and the HSBC Golf Roots and Golf Xtreme programmes for older children through clubs, schools and community projects. England Golf's own junior strategy, built with the Golf Foundation, picks up once a young player is attached to a club. Our junior golf in the North West page covers how that works locally, club by club.

BIGGA

The British and International Golf Greenkeepers' Association, formed in 1987, represents the people who maintain the courses rather than the people who play them: over 6,000 greenkeepers across the UK, Europe and beyond. It runs training and continuing education for the profession, publishes Greenkeeper International magazine, and holds its BTME trade exhibition at Harrogate Convention Centre every January, worth knowing if you've ever wondered who keeps your home course in the condition it's in.