TODAY, we are delighted to reveal that the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake has emerged as the strong favourite to stage the Open Golf Championship again in 2014.

Nothing is certain yet. The R&A will not announce its 2014 venue until next year. However, Hoylake is now firmly back on the Open circuit, after the spectacular success of the 2006 tournament.

Yesterday’s announcement that the 2013 tournament would be at Muirfield, coupled with the fact that the 2015 event would normally be at St Andrews, means that the 2014 event will be staged at an English venue.

Birkdale had its turn in 2008, and the only other English venues on the circuit, Royal St George’s, in Essex, and Royal Lytham St Anne’s, take their turns in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

That means that this wonderful event, with its potential £80m impact on the local economy, looks set fair for a return to Wirral in 2014.

For all of us who enjoyed Tiger Woods’s unforgettable march to victory in 2006, eight years seems like a long time to wait.

However, in the timescale of major events like this, it is as swift a return as could reasonably be hoped for.

Nothing can be taken for granted. As Royal Liverpool secretary David Cromie pointed out last night, the club had to wait 39 years before staging it in 2006.

But, given the record crowds and the excellent work put in by the club, the R&A, Wirral Council, and all the other organisations involved, Hoylake is pretty firmly established back at the top of the premiere league of British golf venues.

Every golf fan, and everyone who takes pride in Merseyside’s ability to stage internationally important events so well, will look forward with relish to the Open’s return to Wirral.