Ganton Golf Club - England

Ganton Golf Club is one of the great English inland courses, although it also possesses the most attractive attributes of a seaside links. Located nine miles from Scarborough and the coast, the course lies at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the fertile valley of the River Derwent. Ganton is renowned for the deep green purity of its fairways and its seemingly bottomless bunkers of natural golden sand bearded with gorse. As Patric Dickinson described it: "There are grades of rough from piano to fortissimo, and a great deal of close-growing and not unobtrusive gorse: gold-red-gold of bunker, yellow-gold of gorse bloom, and olive­green of gorse prickle, and in between all shades and preciosities of green: jade, emerald, sea-green." Harry Vardon, who went on to win six British Opens, was hired as Ganton's professional in 1896, five years after the course was founded. It was here on July 22, 1899 that Vardon famously thrashed Willie Park, Jr. in the last 36 holes of their 72-hole home and away match at North Berwick and Ganton to win by 11 and 10. Ganton hosted the 1949 Ryder Cup, as well as the 2000 Curtis Cup and 2003 Walker Cup matches.

Royal Birkdale Golf Club - England

The Lancashire coast of northwest England running north from Liverpool to the town of Southport offers an abundance of outstanding links courses, including Southport & Ainsdale, Formby, Hillside, and West Lancashire, but none feature more majestic dunes than Royal Birkdale. Birkdale is also considered an excep­tionally fair links, which helps to explain its popularity for championship events, having hosted eight British Opens since it became part of the "rota" in 1954, as well as two Ryder Cup Matches and the Walker Cup. The original course opened in 1889 but the club moved to its present site in 1897, and the course was revamped by Fred Hawtree and J.H. Taylor in 1931. The futuristic clubhouse, resembling a white, curvilinear ocean liner, was also built in 1931. The holes ripple through the sandhills, with the greens sequestered between the dunes. Birkdale has had an illustrious list of Open champions. Arnold Palmer won his first British Open title at Birkdale in 1961, overcoming a gale that ripped through the course on the second day of the tournament, while Peter Thomson, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Ian Baker-Finch, and Mark O'Meara have also won at Birkdale.