What a superb week for town

WOW – what a week that was!

How fantastic was it to see Royal Birkdale set a new record for the highest number of golf fans watching The Open?

More than 235,000 people flooded into the course to watch a truly exciting tournament – many of them also enjoying the hospitality of hotels, shops, bars, restaurants, and other local businesses while they were here.

Huge credit must go to Sefton Council and Southport BID to bring more visitors into town to spend their hard-earned cash – and encourage them to make return visits to Britain’s “Golf Coast”.

The shuttle buses between the course and the town centre were a great idea. Employing ambassadors to point visitors in the right direction was also good.

The very eye-catching golf ball sculpture in front of The Atkinson was inspired.

And the Summer of Golf attraction in the Town Hall Gardens was a massive hit with families. Thousands of people visited the venue over the past few days, enjoying free attractions including crazy golf, golf coaching, a bunker challenge, longest putt, and more besides.

Lots of people sat outside listening to music, enjoying an ice cream from the Town Hall Gardens, or sipping a gin from Remedy.

Asking local firm Envirolawn to cover the whole area with astroturf was genius.

It made for a really fun atmosphere in town and made the potential of great event spaces like the Town Hall Gardens, Chapel Street and the plaza area at The Waterfront, endless.

What other brilliant, creative, imaginative, pop-up events like this can we stage in our town?