Professional golf at Fairhaven started back in 1934 when the course played host to the Penfold Tournament.
The Club has since hosted many Open Championship Final Qualifying Competitions when the Open Championship was played at neighbouring Royal Lytham & St.Annes Golf Club. The Professionals course record of 64 was achieved by Justin Leonard in 1996, while he was playing in and leading the final qualifying rounds.
The Club is supported by an excellent Professional’s shop and traditional clubhouse and bar, which offers visitors a variety of catering options. All visitors and visiting parties are welcomed on arrival, ensuring they get the most out of their day and leave feeling they have enjoyed a very special golfing experience.
Originally a 12-hole course adjacent to Fairhaven Lake in 1892 and founded as a club in 1895, Fairhaven Golf Club moved half a mile inland to its current location, in what was then Lytham Hall Park, in 1924. As the course was then very flat and without trees J.A. Steer, the then professional at Blackpool Golf Club and later of Lytham Green Drive Golf Club, and James Braid, three times winner of the Open Championship, landscaped the course by creating the hills, hollow and bunkers that have since characterised the layout. Contrary to fable there have never been 365 bunkers but there were certainly more than the present 118, as the original hollows were filled with sand which and raked until 1939.
In 1931 some re-modelling of the course was carried out by J.A. Steer to raise the standards of the course nearer to those of a championship course.
Dave Thomas, a big-hitting Ryder Cup player, was commissioned to review the course in 1977 and to make recommendations for improvement. The results of that work remain evident today in the raised profile of the bunkers, the altered shapes of the greens, the general tightening up of the course, and the planting of numerous spinneys and the spread of the rhododendrons.
Whilst consistently aiming to improve and enhance throughout its history, since 2003 the club has incorporated new bunkering and subtle course development recommended by internationally renowned architect, Donald Steel. This work has ensured the course remains a genuine test of golf in the face of advancing equipment technology and for all playing abilities.
