18 months to go - but already Wirral's Open Golf spectacular is creating a stir (From Wirral Globe)

18 months to go but already Wirral's Open Golf spectacular is creating a stir

12:41pm Monday 4th February 2013 in News By Geoff Barnes

VIP reservations for the Open Golf Championship at Royal Liverpool have opened online – 18 months in advance of the event.

Customer demand has prompted the move by the golf’s governing body the R&A.

The biggest names in golf will once again be testing their highly-tuned skills against the Hoylake links when the Open gets underway on July 13 to July 20 next year.

And demand for corporate hospitality has already begun.

Announcing the opening of VIP reservations, The R&A’s director of marketing, Robin Bell, said: “Our official hospitality programme gives our corporate customers the location they want, on course, close to the action."

Two restaurants at the Royal Liverpool will be housed in a new £2m double-deck pavilion close to a fairway and will share the prime viewing location with a complex of exclusive suites.

Another restaurant will be in the tented village for smaller businesses and golf fans treating themselves to a packaged day out at golf’s oldest major.

For those who can afford it, the Official Hospitality Programme packages include priority parking, fast track entry, Open Championship TV with rolling leaderboard information, golf simulator access, air-conditioning and private washroom facilities.

The Open Championship was last held at Royal Liverpool in 2006 when Tiger Woods secured his third Open Championship victory in near-record high temperatures for the North West.

An official attendance of 230,000 spectators was recorded, the second highest total in Open Championship history.