Play golf in Ireland. Sleep in Wales. Watch golf in England. The Faraway Fairways golf with Hoylake Open 2022 is quite an ambitious little programme, but it’s routed in pragmatism. We won’t be able to play the likes of Royal Birkdale, Royal Lytham, or Formby during Open week so we’re looking elsewhere.
Dublin has long been recognised as the cheapest gateway into Europe if coming from North America. It just so happens that within 20 minutes of the airport we have the world class links of Portmarnock. We use the Portmarnock resort to book-end the golf, starting off at the Island Club and picking up the Portmarnock Links course the next morning before taking the ferry to Holyhead (North Wales). We then make the journey by road from the Isle of Anglesey into the mountains of Snowdonia and spend the night at Portmeirion. The hotel is part of the experience. Anyone who has ever caught the 1960’s cult classic show, ‘The Prisoner’, will immediately recognise this place as ‘The Village’. It’s a genuine architectural masterpiece. It might seem appropriately surreal, but the village is actually a hotel. When the paying public leave, the hotel guests have the place to themselves.
We make our first visit to Hoylake the next morning, but rather than returning to Portmeirion that evening (it would become expensive and begin to stretch what we might describe as an unacceptable daily mileage) we’ve decided to bite the bullet and stay in Liverpool, a vibrant city where you will find things to entertain yourself with in the evening
We need to return to Dublin after it’s all over, but might as well sneak a crafty 18 in at nearby Conwy, host of 2020 Curtis Cup, before we take the ferry from Holyhead back to Portmarnock. Our finale is the world top-25 ranked links at Portmarnock to round off the golf with Hoylake Open 2023 package
Under normal circumstances the Liverpool hotel market isn’t that expensive so begins from a low base but we know that when the city hosts major sporting events hoteliers will seek to cash in. For this reason could also offer a shorter alternative itinerary that bases in the city and concentrates purely on the Open. The shorter version would have less va-voom about it, and would simply involve flying into Manchester and then driving over to Liverpool.
al@farawayfairways.com
