The Open Championship returns to Royal Liverpool for a 13th edition of the R&A’s signature tournament. Only St. Andrews (30), Prestwick (24), Muirfield (16) and Royal St. George’s (15) have ever hosted more Opens than the finest (and only) 18-hole track in Hoylake, England.
Royal Liverpool was not the first English links course to host an Open Championship. St. George’s holds that distinction, opening its doors for the 1894 Open that John Henry Taylor won by five over Douglas Rolland. In 1897, Harold Hilton took the first Open at Liverpool, though, by one over James Braid. Hilton was an amateur, and it was his first of seven majors (at the time anyway — he won The Open twice, the U.S. Amateur once and The Amateur Championship four times).
Royal Liverpool went on to host seven times between 1897 and 1936 plus three times from 1937-67. On account of infrastructure issues, it went 39 years before hosting the 2006 Open Championship, which Tiger Woods won by two over Chris DiMarco. Hoylake has also hosted 18 Amateur Championships, including the first one in 1885. Royal Liverpool was the site of Bobby Jones’ Open Championship win during his famous grand slam in 1930.
As far as English golf clubs go, it would be difficult to rank any above Royal Liverpool. In their recent video about Royal Liverpool, Cookie Jar Golf says it beutifully: “Royal Liverpool is the most significant club in English golf and the evolution of the game around it. When you look at anything worthy of note in the game over the last 150 years, Royal Liverpool has probably had a hand in it.”
Here are a few things to know about the golf course, specifically as it relates to the modern game and what to expect from this year’s layout.
1. Tiger and Rory (and many more): The only two Open champions at Royal Liverpool this century are Woods and McIlroy. If you’re determining golf course resumes by their past champions, that’s a tough CV to beat … but it’s also an incomplete one. You can throw in Roberty De Vicenzo, Peter Thomson, Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and several other greats from the beginning of the 20th century. Bernard Darwin once said of Royal Liverpool: “Blown upon by mighty winds, breeder of mighty champions.” It has certainly been a breeder of mighty champions, and with the quality of this field featuring some of the game’s best playing their best golf, it almost certainly will be again.
2. Protected by the wind: Like most Open Championship links courses, so much of Hoylake’s protection is based upon the wind. We likely will not see the browned out landscape (nearly moonscape) we saw back in 2006 when Tiger sheathed his driver en route to victory. However, we could get more blustery conditions than either that Open or the one back in 2014 when Rory notched his third major victory. The forecast right now predicts a somewhat steady 10 mph wind for the first few days with the possibility that it could get wild Sunday (hopefully as wild as it did at the Scottish Open). The problem with that forecast, though, is that it will likely bring about buckets of rain, which would soften up an already too-soft golf course for this 151st Open.
3. A new-look back nine: A new par-3 17th hole has been built, which is a rarity for any links course this old. The 17th has also bumped the old 16th and 17th back a hole, so they have respectively become the new 15th and 16th. That means the eagle-bogey-eagle finish Rory had in 2014 is probably no longer in play as the par 5 moved back one. Regardless, this fun, short little par 3 with its tiny green is going to be hellacious under major championship pressure late in the tournament later this week.
4. Internal out of bounds: The 3rd and 18th holes at Royal Liverpool will both employ internal out of bounds, which will absolutely come into play at some point this week. It gets at a larger point that Andy Johnson of The Fried Egg made, which is that — for an Open Championship venue — Royal Liverpool is actually a fairly closed quarters. This is why Tiger almost exclusively (and famously) hit irons off the tee in 2006 when he won, but it’s also why driving accuracy and strategy could matter more this week than at some of the other Open golf courses. An important thing to remember when it comes to making picks as well as watching the tournament unfold starting on Thursday.