Hillside Golf Club

Hillside is widely regarded as the finest British golf course not to have staged an Open Championship and there are those who believe that it presents a tougher challenge than many of the courses on the current rota.

None other than two-time Open champion, Greg Norman, once opined that Hillside's back nine was "the best in Britain" and, in similar vein, compatriot Rodney Pampling described it as "the toughest course I have ever played" after competing over the Open qualifying course in 1998. Hillside lies a stone's throw from Royal Birkdale, amid a stretch of sand hills on the outskirts of Southport, and has many of the attributes of its neighbour. The start, like Formby, is dominated by the railway line that runs parallel to the opening holes. The back nine was re-designed in the 1960s and features a series of holes that linger in the mind long after a visit is over.

Since the re-design, Hillside has hosted several major amateur events, including the Amateur Championship in 2011 which saw Australia's Bryden Macpherson triumph over a field of 288 of the world's best amateurs. On the back of that hugely successful event The R&A has granted Hillside the honour of being one of only 4 courses in the UK to host Open Championship Final Qualifying each year from 2014.

Alan Hansen, the former Liverpool and Scotland defender and a low handicap golfer, puts Hillside alongside Augusta National as his favourite course in the world. "I can't think of a better course," he said. "I might be biased, being a member, but it really is a fantastic lay-out and its back nine is second to none.

"I don't play golf for fun," he added, "I'm too competitive for that”. Hillside really is a stern test and I love that."