Royal Liverpool has been chosen to host the 2022 Open Championship with the Hoylake links set to stage the major for the 13th time.
The R&A announced on Tuesday that the rotation of the Open venues will see Royal Liverpool return to the calendar in three years’ time to stage the major once again.
Royal Liverpool Golf Club, which is also known as Hoylake—the place where the course is situated, last hosted the Open Championship in 2014 when Rory McIlroy lifted the famous Claret Jug for the first time.
The 2022 event will be the 151st Open Championship as another chapter is written into the history of golf’s most renowned tournament.
“We know that there will be tremendous excitement among golf fans at the prospect of its return to Royal Liverpool,” said Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A which organisers the Open Championship.
“Its famous links has a cherished history and has produced a revered group of champion golfers, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy most recently.”
He added: “The Open shares a strong affinity with England’s Golf Coast and following the success of the Championship at Royal Birkdale two years ago we know that there will be tremendous excitement among golf fans at its return to Royal Liverpool.
“Its famous links has a cherished history and has produced a revered group of Champion Golfers, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy most recently. It will be fascinating to see who will emerge from the world-class field to lift the Claret Jug in 2022.”
A then record attendance for an Open played away from St Andrews witnessed Tiger Woods lift the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool in 2006 when 230,000 golf fans made their way through the turnstiles across the four days. The figure was since surpassed at Royal Birkdale in 2017.
The Open was first held at Royal Liverpool in 1897 when English amateur Harold Hilton won, while Scotland’s Sandy Herd (1902) and Frenchman Arnaud Massey (1907) also collected the £30 first prize when winning.
England’s JH Taylor was the 1913 Open winner at Royal Liverpool before a pair of Americans won when the event returned to the course in 1924 and 1930 with Walter Hagen and then amateur Bobby Jones victorious.
England’s Alf Padgham won in 1936 and was followed as a Royal Liverpool winner by Northern Ireland’s Fred Daly 11 years later in 1947. Australia’s Peter Thomson lifted the trophy in 1956 before Argentine Roberto De Vicenzo triumphed in 1967.
It was 39 years before the event returned to Royal Liverpool in 2006 when Woods won the Open for a third time and McIlroy then added his name onto the Claret Jug in 2014.
Royal Liverpool will follow this year’s host Royal Portrush, which stages the Open for only the second time, Royal St George’s in 2020 and St Andrews in 2021.
The home of golf would traditionally have staged the Open in 2020 on its five-year rotation, but that was pushed back one year so that St Andrews gets the honour of hosting the 150th Open Championship in 2021.