Club has close links with Birkdale

SOUTHPORT RFC is delighted to assist its neighbours from ‘over the tracks’ as Royal Birkdale Golf Club has the honour of hosting the 146th Open Championship.

The two clubs located within a few hundred yards of each other either side of Hillside Railway Station have a long and fascinating and on occasion shared histories even taking in the Open.

The Claret Jug, one of the most iconic trophies in sport, was first presented in 1893 the year after the rugby club in Southport was formed.

Built in the mid 1920s through virgin sand dunes, Waterloo Road provides frontage to both clubs although Birkdale Golf Club which dates from the 1880s was already in situ having moved there in 1894. The rugby club relocated from Victoria Park (site of The Open Camp Site) 30 years afterwards following completion of the road.

The golf club built its distinctive Art Deco clubhouse in 1935, said to represent a liner sailing through the dunes, a year before the rugby club unveiled its own architectural masterpiece in form of the timber grandstand still standing proudly today although it has to be said somewhat less salubrious!

Birkdale was awarded “Royal” status in 1951 and members of both clubs, and Hillside GC betwixt, have built a convivial relationship over the years.

Indeed folklore now suggests that on the rugby club erecting the tallest set of posts in the country on the main pitch a couple of seasons ago some wayward golfers now use them as markers as they fight their way through the towering dunes.

Southport born and bred golfer Tommy Fleetwood now establishing himself as one of the leading players in the game is a former pupil of Scarisbrick Hall School with whom Southport RFC has an excellent relationship.