Hillside Golf Club

Sitting on the coast in Southport are three fabulous courses that are laid out almost continuously: Royal Birkdale, Hillside and Southport and Ainsdale. Birkdale gets the attention as the Open venue, but many consider Hillside to be the true gem of Southport—Nicklaus cited the back nine as some of his favorite holes in the U.K. Fred Hawtree, the premier architect in Europe in the 60s and 70s, refashioned Hillside in 1967, particularly the terrific inward nine Nicklaus raved about, after Hawtree worked at Royal Birkdale after the 1965 Open, the fifth time Peter Thomson lifted the claret jug. More recently, one of the best architects in Europe of our time, Martin Ebert, has worked at Hillside over the past few years to refresh the front nine.