Hoylake proved to be a big hit with the players

Hoylake staged its first Open since 1967 this year and R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said: "It will go down as one of the best we've ever staged.

"We don't bind future committees but we have seen absolutely nothing that would prevent us coming back, certainly before another 39 years have elapsed.

"It was a wonderful Open on a course that was long overdue to host it."

Highlights: The Open final round

The Championship attracted a record crowd for an Open in England of 230,000 and was the second biggest crowd of all time - only being beaten by the 239,000 who turned up at St Andrews in 2000.

The venues for the next four Opens have already been chosen and while no contracts have been signed, reports suggest that Hoylake may stage the Championship again in around 10 years' time.

It was a wonderful Open on a course that was long overdue to host it. R&A chief executive Peter Dawson

A host of players rushed to praise the course including champion Tiger Woods, who said: "I think it's a fantastic test.

"With the course being this fast it lent itself to amazing creativity.

"If you would have had easier pins I'm sure the scoring would have gone lower - these are the most difficult pin positions I've ever seen at an Open.

"A couple of times you feel like if you hit a putt too hard you'll actually putt it right off the green and you never have that feeling at an Open. But this week it was certainly the case.

"I think because the yardage played short because it was so fast, the only defence they had was pin locations and hard, dry conditions."

Championship committee chairman Martin Kippax said Hoylake's possible reintroduction to the rota was not a bad thing for other Open courses, particularly the other two in the north-west of England - Royal Lytham and the 2008 venue Royal Birkdale.

"All three are excellent links courses and I don't think one of the others has to fall off the bottom," he said.