The Mere

The Mere Golf and Country Club near Knutsford traces its roots to Timperley Golf Club, whose members lost their course to Altrincham Urban Council in 1934, moved briefly to Baguley, and then founded Mere Golf Club; a consortium of local entrepreneurs bought the land that year. James Braid laid out the parkland course around the mere, reportedly mapping the routing in a single day, and George Duncan, the 1920 Open champion who had been Timperley's professional, supervised construction as the club's first pro. The first nine opened on 1 January 1935 and the full 18 on 11 May 1935. In 1971 Altrincham's Roly West, the Trinidad-born Cheshire county player later described as Britain's first Black golf professional, beat Taiwan's Lu Liang-Huan ("Mr Lu"), runner-up at that year's Open, in a tournament here. The resort hotel later closed for a £125m redevelopment, during which the golf course stayed open, and reopened in 2026 as Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere.