The Beatles have a secret home golf course (and I played it)
At the intersection of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, there is a golf course.
A terrible one.
Allerton Manor golf course may one day be a destination for golf in the English port city of Liverpool, but today it is not. The grass is brown. The fairways are flat. The greens are often submerged in water. Not even the regulars can escape Allerton’s striking underwhelmingness.
“My favorite part about playing here?” one golfer said, deadpan, on the day I visited. “Probably when it’s over.”
And yet Allerton Manor is here, same as always, a mix of earth tones and pale green in a quiet suburb of a small city. An afternoon round might cross paths with a few dozen golfers … and just as many Allerton residents out for a stroll. Golf is a public good here in England, and not only for those playing it, which is perhaps why this golf course is unlikely ever to go anywhere. Allerton Manor, like Liverpool around it, remains enchanted with its traditions.
The walking path to the left of the front nine will do little to disabuse you of that notion. This tiny stretch of stone and dirt connects one side of Allerton to the other, slicing through the golf course and providing the ideal shortcut for those in the know. In the summer months, vines form a canopy over the pathway, casting long shadows in the sun and providing brief glimpses into the golf landscape surrounding it.
Source: James Colgan/golf.com
