Golf Blog

The Open will pay its ninth visit to Royal Birkdale this year, having first visited the club in 1954. The event was originally due to be played at the course in 1940, but the outbreak of war meant that the championship was not held held back. Since then, it has proved a superb and extremely popular venue, and of the courses which are currently used for The Open only St Andrews has hosted the event more often.

Birkdale Golf Club was formed in July 1889 and has hosted a variety of tournaments such as The Ryder Cup and The Ladies British Open as well as many more.

All but two of Royal Birkdale’s holes have been altered in the preparations for the 2008 Open Championship. These alterations are focused on tightening the course. The key to this tightening is the addition of twenty new bunkers and the significant mounding that has been added to seven of the greens, calling for a greater variety of imaginative recovery shots. The hope is that Royal Birkdale will present a traditional links test, with hard, fast fairways and plenty of roll.