Royal Birkdale is fairest links course in British Open rotation

SOUTHPORT, England — Winding through towering sand dunes that wonderfully frame each hole, and laying at the mercy of unrelenting winds blowing off the Irish Sea, ancient Royal Birkdale provides a proper examination of the mental and physical state of the participants in the 146th playing of the British Open.

“What a fantastic golf course,” four-time major winner and 2014 Open champion Rory McIlroy said Wednesday. “It tests all aspects of your game. You have to drive it well. You have to be smart. Everything sort of challenges every aspect of your game.

“I feel like this is a golf course where you can't really take it on too much. It dictates to you how you play it. It's so well bunkered, it's so well designed.”

Playing to a par of 70, Birkdale is a 7,156-yard stretch of narrow but flat fairways, reasonable graduated rough, and large, inviting greens. Among the collection of challenges are the crosswinds, for few consecutive holes play in the same direction. And 125 pot bunkers — about half strategically placed to guard the fairways — have everybody’s attention from the first tee onward.

“There is a great visual on every hole and you can step to the tee and see six different shots here,” said respected coach Pete Cowen, who played two Opens at Birkdale and counts among his stable of pupils Padraig Harrington, who won the last time the Open was played here; defending champion Henrik Stenson and reigning U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka. “That confuses the mind. So you have to have great imagination to play links golf.

“Having control on the pressure of the ball is the most important thing playing links golf. And you have to use the ground. You won’t see many drivers hit out here. You don’t want to get it in the air, which is what links is all about. If you keep it out of the wind as much as possible, the better you have it. This the fairest and best links course in the rota.”

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This is the 10th time Birkdale is hosting the Open. The ageless ground has also been home to the Ryder Cup in 1965 and 1969, the Walker Cup, the Curtis Cup, the Senior Open Championship and the Women’s British Open. As evidence to its brilliance, six members of the World Golf Hall of Fame have won the Open here — Mark O’Meara, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer and Peter Thomson (twice a winner).

“Bottom line, it's a strong golf course,” said Miller, who outdueled a young Seve Ballesteros to win in 1976. “You need to hit fairways, is the bottom line. The reason I won the Open in '76 is my caddie literally made me hit a 1-iron. I hit a 1-iron 12 out of the 14 tee shots. And I can see a lot of driving irons and 3-woods off the tee like Henrik Stenson did last year. Birkdale just seems to be the right amount of test that allows the top players to hang in there if they're playing good golf.”

Founded in 1889 and awarded “Royal” status in 1951, the course hasn’t seen many changes in the last 95 years aside from the addition in 1935 of the distinctive white Art Deco clubhouse that looms over the 18th green. Simply, the course hasn’t needed many changes.

“The charm about this Open is the golf course. I love it. I think it's the fairest links golf course we play. It rewards great golf,” Justin Rose said. “The vagaries of the bounces are slightly less in play here than at some other golf courses we play in the rotation.”

Unlike most of the other courses in the rotation, Birkdale begins with a bang – a 448-yard par-4 that bends slightly to the left and breaks the hearts of many.

“There is no let up on the golf course and the first hole is one of the toughest opening holes on the Open Championship rota,” said Jim “Bones” Mackay, who will start his new job as an on-course commentator this week after toting the bag for 25 years for Phil Mickelson. “And the sixth hole is one of the hardest golf holes in all of golf. Getting on that tee, my gosh, if you can somehow play that hole in even-par or 1-over for the week, you’d be picking up so much on the field. It’s a fantastic course. It provides so much excitement.”

The sixth – a 499-yard, par-4 beast that doglegs to the right – ranked as the hardest hole in the last two Opens in 1998 and 2008. Stenson said he’s pretty sure that will be the case again this year.

“The hole hasn’t gotten any easier,” he said. “ … It’s just a long hole and you’ve got to hit two good shots to get it in position on the green.”

A large bunker at the turn of the dogleg must be avoided. Laying back leaves you a longer iron into the green, which is protected by three bunkers. And the hole usually plays into the wind.

“Six is a big challenge,” two-time major winner Jordan Spieth said. “If you hit a good tee ball, you've got a long iron in. Around the greens, as long as you're not in those first two pot bunkers, you can make a four. It's really in the tee shot. And I think a lot of this golf course is in the tee ball. It's a very tough but fair test, one that's demanding off the tee. If you're in position off the tee, you're golden out here, because you will have some large opportunities.

“The greens aren't crazy. There are only a couple that have any kind of ridges to them. You can play to the center of the green and putt to the corners. So it's about controlling your ball off the tee in these crosswinds to give yourself the opportunity to hit the center of the green. It’s just a great test of golf.”