On 10th July 1895, at 8.15pm to be precise, a group of residents of the West Derby and surrounding areas had obviously taken to the sport of golf, which was sweeping down from Scotland. For they met in a house called New Heys in Sandfield Park, Liverpool, intent on forming the first inland golf ‘links’ in South-West Lancashire.

Thanks to the drive of a Mr. T. L. Davies, or “Old T.L” as he was to became known, a parcel of land was rented from Col. Hollinshead Blundell M.P., sited between Deysbrook House, on Deysbrook Lane and Yew Tree Lane, (basically, the current front nine holes) and on 29th July 1896, the membership were informed that the club was open for play. The course was set at a Par 43 for the gentlemen and 59 for the ladies. The yearly subscription for gentlemen was set at One Guinea, equivalent to one pound and five pence today. Quite a bargain you might think. A year later, with 100 men and 70 ladies in membership, the men's fees had risen to Two Guineas.

Not having a suitable clubhouse, the first A.G.M. took place in St James' Church Institute. Sir Charles Petrie was elected as the first Captain (1896 & 1897) along with an Honorary Secretary, Trustees and Committee. In 1898, The Rt. Hon. Earl of Derby agreed to become the first President. In honour of this momentous occasion the club adopted the ‘Derby Blue and Old Gold’ as its official club colours.

In 1923, the committee appointed Mr. Michael Montgomery, later Captain and Honorary Life Member, Mr. Robert L Burns (Captain for the following year) and Mr Thomas Orrett, to investigate the possibility and oversee the purchase of additional land to restructure WDGC into 18 holes. In 1927 the club paid a total of £6,000.00 for two parcels of land, in the main, Leyfield Farm. The following year another acre and the original 50½ acres were purchased for £7,000.00, from Col, Hollinshead-Blundell, making a total cost of £13,000.00.

Over the next few years a number of cottages and pieces of land were sold off, leaving us with a total of about 98 acres. On these parcels of land most of the Yew Tree Lane housing, Vineside Road, Kendal Park and Leyfield Close, were eventually constructed. The second nine was laid out, which at that time became the front nine, as the Pro's shop was where the current member's car park is and the 14th was the then 1st, with the course played round to the current 10th (the then 7th). Players would then walk to the current 1st and play that as the 8th, then playing round to the current 9th as the then 16th and finally playing the 17th and 18th as now.

A number of devastating fires have hit the clubhouse, requiring it to be rebuilt several occasions. The last fire in 1930 was a sad reminder to the membership that they did not have the foresight to dig really deep into their pockets in 1927 and buy the Hollinshead-Blundell home, Deysbrook Hall. The magnificent old house would have made a very grand clubhouse and was situated on the land that became the Deysbrook Army barracks, when the original barracks, at the back of the Hare & Hounds pub in the village, became too small.