You may feel you need an extra 30 yards off the tee to have any chance of making an impression on this course. The fairways are very narrow and the greens nothing short of deadly. On a bad day you could envisage a cricket score, but the difficulty of the course is definitely reduced by the condition of the fairways and the greens, which are nothing short of pristine!

The all white club house stands out like a state of the art lighthouse and is actually quite an imposing and striking landmark. We played there shortly after the 2008 Open Championship when the stands were still up and the wind literally whistled round the empty seats in a rather intimidating fashion.

It was a good job we had a caddies because they saw borrows on greens that we still didn't spot even when they pointed them out. As with many links courses, there were also a number of blind shots over the dunes and another chance for the caddies to earn their money.

There are many great courses on the North West coast and Birkdale is a perfect example of links golf. It has for years been voted the number one in England and it doesn't take long to understand why.