Course renovations are always fraught with danger.
Wentworth’s West Course, home to the BMW PGA Championship, famously underwent several failed upgrades. So many, in fact, that it began to resemble the butchered face of someone with a naive trust in plastic surgeons from far off lands.
To this day, the 17th and 18th greens are as disturbing as Hollywood stars who’ve been under multiple knives: we sort of recognise them, but while some lumps have gone, other (rather peculiar) bumps have replaced them.
The Open rota is no stranger to cosmetic procedures, of course.
Consider last year’s venue, Royal Portrush, which ventured into the dunes to create two holes that replaced the old 17 and 18. Few quibble that it has added to the course’s reputation.
The new par-three 17th at Royal Liverpool has received more mixed reviews, on the other hand. Introducing a short hole to the closing section definitely works. The design, however, looks a little more Whistling Straits than the Wirral (indeed, changes were made to alleviate this dislocation after the 2023 Open).
Birkdale reviews 'overwhelmingly positive'
And so to Royal Birkdale – venue for this year’s championship.
There are Open competitors who would count the Southport course among their favourites on the rota so the notion of tinkering with it will strike fear for many, as will learning that the changes are substantial.
At this week’s Open Media Facilitation Day those renovations were revealed
The course has known change before, of course. Ahead of the 2009 Open the 17th green, which was once flat and threat-free, became a raised and more difficult challenge. And back in the 1960s there was a short par-three between the current 17th and 18th. Indeed, there are some club members who still refer to its replacement as “the new 12th”.
Ahead of this summer’s championship yet more extensive work has taken place with improvements to playability, visual aesthetics and spectator movement key considerations.
In all, nine tees have been improved or tweaked. Key among these are new tees at 5, 7 and 16 that actually shorten the holes (the first and last of those are par-fours, the 7th a par-three).
The really significant change comes midway through the back nine.
The par-five 15th has been altered with its fairway bunkering now more visually intimidating from the tee and the hole tapering to a new raised green on the right.
It also now plays as the 14th because the par-three that preceded it has become a short-game practice area and an entirely new par-three has replaced it at the other end of the altered par-five.
So the new 15th is a long par-three that plays back towards the clubhouse and will present a spectacular start to the finale with a triple deck hospitality facility behind the green.
That putting surface looks small from the distant tee yet in reality is a huge piece of land that slips away to the back edge.
Where previously three of the par-threes had travelled in much the same direction, with the new tee at 7, and the new 15th, all four are now contrasting in compass angles.
The reviews? Overwhelmingly positive. There will always be grumbles, of course, not least because the old 14th was a fine hole.
But Royal Birkdale looks set to offer a great test in July and probably a tougher one, nine years after Branden Grace thrashed a third-round 62. It remains a wonderfully welcoming plot of land for spectators, with those sandhills framing the holes so well and also offering multiple viewing spots.
Lytham set for a busy few years
The AIG Women’s Open also had its Media Day this week and more changes were unveiled, in this case to Royal Lytham & St Annes.
The course has not hosted an Open since 2012 and there had been speculation that it was unofficially off the rota, but that did not necessarily chime with the money invested in the course by the R&A – and it has duly been revealed as host of the 2028 Open.
A new utility road has been constructed and changes made at the far end of the course have opened up space for a new practice ground which will allow the current one to host the structures required of a major championship.
Royal Lytham is, of course, a famously wonderful and tough test. It begins with an unusual par-three followed by five exacting par-fours. The par-three 12th was judged by Jack Nicklaus to be among the best short holes in the world and the six par-fours that close the round were described, during the 1977 Ryder Cup, as ‘Murder Mile’.
The 7th and the 8th holes have seen minor changes, the latter designed to stop handicap golfers slicing onto the railway line. The par-four 10th has also been subtly tweaked for the drive.
But it is the par-five 11th that has been transformed. What was a rather flat and uninspiring dogleg now plays through the sandhills that previously lined the inside of the that dogleg. It is visually superb and actually achieves the exact opposite of the 17th at Royal Liverpool.
In this case, the old 11th sometimes felt like it didn’t fit with the rest of the course. Now it it entirely in keeping with the other 17. It is a significant upgrade.
- The Open takes place July 16-19 at Royal Birkdale and the AIG Women’s Open is July 30-August 2 at Royal Lytham & St Annes
