Southport Golf Club was founded on 3 January 1885 at the instigation of Captain J Hardy Welsby “and a few friends”. He was one of 29 founder members some of whom, including John Dun a Past Captain of Royal Liverpool, were members of other clubs. Membership and involvement in a number of clubs was a common feature of the early golfers and part of the mechanism that resulted in the spread of the game. The land for the course at Marshside was leased from Colonel Edward Fleetwood Hesketh and the 12 holes were soon increased to 18 later in the year.

Until 1891 the course was known as the New Inn Links, named after the nearby Inn which provided a club room for the members. The golfers had to negotiate their way around the scattered cottages of fishermen and shrimpers and along the tracks on which they travelled and a further impediment were squatters who inhabited the nearby hamlet of Little Ireland. They numbered about 500 and lived in slum dwellings situated near to the present clubhouse and the problems they created motivated the club to move inland to Moss Lane in 1892. The Moss Lane Links were leased from the Scarisbrick Estates, Charles Scarisbrick having been one of the original founding members. The new course had 18 holes, one being a monster 546 yards, and membership flourished with a ceiling of 250 members imposed in 1894.

However, by 1901 the Hesketh family had sorted out their problems at Marshside having cleared out the unwelcome squatters. The Hesketh Estate decided to restore the former New Inn Links to its former glory with additional land and a new clubhouse and Charles Hesketh Bibby Hesketh issued a prospectus setting out his plans. Furthermore, he invited the Southport Club to join him back at Marshside and despite having signed a new lease at Moss Lane the members agreed to return to their original home. Thus in 1902 the name was changed to Hesketh Golf Club using the splendid clubhouse sitting on top of the old beach cliff which still serves the present members, albeit somewhat extended over the years.

The 1920s were troubled times for the club following several attempts by the landlord to sell the land. The course was saved when Southport Corporation bought the land in 1936 and granted a 99 year lease to the club. There were conditions attached but the club survived and the future was finally secured by a later 999 year lease. There have been a number of changes to the course layout over the years but the essential links features have remained.

In 1908 the possibility of a Golf Union for Lancashire had been debated and this led to 29 clubs deciding to go ahead and form the Union. The inaugural Lancashire Championship was played at Hesketh in 1910, the winner being Hesketh’s G F Smith. The brothers Arnold and Harry Bentley also played 82 times for the County and 70 times for England. The club played an even bigger part on the national scene when a Past-Captain, J Rayner Batty, convened a meeting in 1924 that was to lead to the formation of the English Golf Union and also to his appointment as its first President. Derek Holden, a twice Captain of Hesketh in 1967 and 1985, served as President of the Lancashire Union of Golf Clubs in 1997.

As a founder member of the Society, Hesketh has provided four Captains in Bryce Hanmer (1950/51), Norman Thorpe (1970/71), Peter Jones (1993/94) and Colin Roberts (2016/17).