Nine years ago, Jordan Spieth spent 20 minutes sorting through his options for a drop with the Claret Jug on the line. The wait seemed to last forever. The time since has flown by.
Just like that, the Open Championship is back at Royal Birkdale for the club’s 11th turn as host. Before play begins, here are some things to know about one of golf’s great championship venues.
The club first welcomed play in 1889 on what was then a nine-hole course. Eight years later, it moved to its current home in the Birkdale Hills, where 18 holes were laid out by George Lowe, the head pro at nearby Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Public tee times are a no-go at Royal Birkdale this week. But there are plenty of other nearby places to play. An hour’s drive along the coast of the Irish Sea will get you to a constellation of outstanding courses, including Royal Lytham, Royal Liverpool, Wallasey, Formby, West Lancashire, Hillside and Southport & Ainsdale.
Of all the clubs on the current Open rota, Royal Birkdale is the newest addition. Though it was founded in 1889, it didn’t host its first Open until 1954, when Peter Thomson claimed the Claret Jug.
Not every great links gets the royal treatment. Royal Birkdale earned its designation in 1951, when King George VI granted the club permission to add the coveted prefix to its name. The timing wasn’t incidental. In 1946 and 1948, Birkdale had shined while staging the British Amateur Championship and the Curtis Cup, respectively. Then, in 1951, six months before the monarch gave his official sign-off, the club had proved its mettle — and an even bigger tournament was still to come.
Long before the rise of man-made stadium courses, Royal Birkdale offered a natural example — the layout, which ranks 42nd on GOLF’s list of the Top 100 Courses in the World, runs through a landscape of towering dunes. Despite those dramatic features, the design itself is relatively understated, with mostly mellow contours and few blind shots. It is often referred to as the “fairest” Open test, though don’t try telling that to anyone who spends time in the riveted fairway bunkers, which are steep, devilishly placed and central to the course’s defense.
Unlike the stately Victorian and Tudor clubhouses found at several Open venues, Royal Birkdale’s headquarters looks almost futuristic. The striking Art Deco building opened in 1935 after architects Fred Hawtree and J.H. Taylor rerouted the course, moving the opening hole and rendering the old pavilion obsolete.
Architect George Tonge won a design competition with a building inspired by an ocean liner. As he later explained, “I imagined the lines of a liner at sea; the perfect balance of the ship at whatever angle and from whatever side it was seen.”
Nearly a century later, it remains one of the most recognizable clubhouses in championship golf.
Thomson’s victory in 1954 was the first of three straight Open titles in a career that would ultimately include five. Royal Birkdale served as the bookends to that remarkable run, as it also hosted the ’65 Open, the last time Thomson hoisted the Claret Jug.
Royal Birkdale’s roster of champions reads like a Hall of Fame ballot. Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Padraig Harrington and Jordan Spieth have all lifted the Claret Jug here.
The near-misses have been almost as memorable.
In 1976, a 19-year-old Seve Ballesteros burst onto the international stage with a precocious performance punctuated by a deft chip from the fescue that bounded between bunkers to within tap-in range on the 18th hole, securing a tie for second with Jack Nicklaus.
Twenty-two years later came another breakout showing. This time it was 17-year-old amateur Justin Rose, who holed out from the rough on the final hole to finish fourth, a shot that gave rise to one of the Open’s more meme-worthy celebrations.
Then came Spieth in 2017.
The championship is remembered for a 20-minute rules discussion after his wayward drive on the 13th. But what followed was even more remarkable. Spieth salvaged bogey, then played his final five holes in five-under par, highlighted by an eagle at the par-5 15th and a hole-out from a greenside bunker at the 17th, turning one of the Open’s strangest detours into one of its finest finishes.
Championship courses often get the architectural equivalent of nips and tucks between major events. Royal Birkdale has had something closer to a facelift.
Since Spieth’s victory in 2017, the club has made several substantial changes. The old 14th hole is gone, while the new 15th is an absolute brute — a par-3 that can stretch to 240 yards. After a scouting visit, Spieth described the new hole as compelling but suggested it could get “funky” with the tees in the wrong place, perhaps playing better when moved forward into more of a 6- or 7-iron range.
The 5th hole has also been transformed from a partially blind tee shot into a drivable par-4 after the removal of a large dune, giving players a clear look at the green. Beware the pond lurking to the right.
As for the new 15th, the first bunker by the green can mess with your mind. Sir Nick Faldo has described it as an “optical delusion” because, from the tee, it appears to sit directly in front of the putting surface when it’s actually offset to the left.
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