Course offers ‘great test of golf’
Venerable Royal Birkdale considered fairest links course in Open rotation
SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND Winding through towering sand dunes that wonderfully frame each hole and laying at the merc 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 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 Pete Cowen, a respected coach 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