Mixed reviews on major course changes at Royal Birkdale
Players have mixed reviews on some major changes at Royal Birkdale since the Scottish Open was last played at the course in 2017, including renovations to holes 5, 15 and 18.
Video Transcript
This is gonna be a huge part of the story this week, the changes that have been made to Royal Birkdale.
It's a massive transformation, Lav.
I mean, this place is no stranger to change.
It's evolved dramatically over the 150 years that it's been here, but this is a three-year project.
And what we're gonna see, as I said, is very different.
You've been working the channels.
What, what response have you heard from players?
Well, it's interesting, when you're in the States, you hear players say a strong, fair test.
That's like the- the ultimate compliment.
Here you hear it's a proper links, and that's what I keep hearing over and over again, from players and caddies, that you might not need drivers, but because of the firmness, because of the dryness, you just heard the players talk about it there, it really represents and, produces a- a different element with some of the shot-making and the shot quality that you're going to have to produce.
And some of the changes that we've seen, from 2017, you're also going to see that on this closing stretch, in those last five holes in particular.
You have now a pair of par fives.
You have a really strong, brutal par three, as well as a beefy par four to finish, over my right shoulder here.
And so I think we even saw that on Monday with this last-chance qualifier in Joe Dean.
He only shot two under, shot 68 around this golf course, but there was a lot of drama, a lot of compelling moments, with an eagle, trying to have some nervy up-and-down pars, as well, where he was really scrambling to shoot that score and get into the Open Championship.
So it's a little bit of everything, but, particularly on the past five holes, which have been fortified since 2017.
Yeah, the main changes has been focused on that back nine.
That crazy stretch that we saw from Spieth back in 2017 is essentially no more.
We're gonna get more into that, but, let's give the viewers at home an exact better sense of- of these dramatic changes of the new holes that we're seeing.
Yeah, starting on the front nine, you- you gotta look at number five right away.
These are the biggest changes we're gonna talk about right here, and when you look at the fifth hole, the fifth hole previously was 346 yards.
It was a dogleg right.
You heard Jason Day talk about it just then.
It was a blind drive.
You could see on the left, if you wanted to take driver, you could, but you couldn't see where it landed.
It was kind of a nothing hole.
The membership called it probably the weakest hole in the golf course.
Now look on the right, the difference in it.
That is absolutely beautiful.
Seven bunkers now dot that entire side on the right, and in front on the left, it's a raised green, and it is 321 yards, and it And this could play a brilliant short par four this week.
We'll have to wait and see, especially with the wind.
Now 2017, here's the 14th coming, or the 15th, excuse me, coming down.
Excuse me, the 14th.
This was the old 15th.
Now the 14th, 602 yards on the right-hand side, rebunkered, reshaped.
You could see the bunkers just better defined.
They're a little, they're, they look a tiny bit deeper to me.
And that green is now raised and falls off on that right side.
And here's the old 15th hole.
You take a look at the old 15th hole in 2017, which was the par five, which was the go get that hole, which we will not have this year.
We will not have the go get that hole.
That has now been replaced by the 14th hole, the 602-yard par five.
And then here's the new.
Now it's a par three, and they've used a piece of the land over here, that is similar to that, but it's I'm telling you, this is, this is, this could be a par five.
Could, could be, could be the easiest par five in- in all of England, but it is absolutely that brutal.
Those bunkers on the left, they're playable, but if you get up against the lips, you're gonna have some problems, and a huge fall-off on the right-hand side.
I've heard it described as redan-esque, as it I wouldn't call it a redan by any stretch of the imagination, but I would, I would say that people have described it as redan-esque, where it's kinda high in the front, releases from the front right to the back left.
Very narrow opening, hard to r- bounce it up.
Yesterday, I walked most of the back nine with Sung, well, inward nine with Sungjae Im, and he hit three wood there- 'cause of the easterly wind it was into.
Previously, I s- watched a video where Padraig Harrington kinda christened the hole and opened it up, for people to see for the first time, and he hit five iron straight downwind from 241 yards.
So it can be anywhere from five iron, six iron for the longer players, to, you know, professionals hitting head covers into that hole.
So, and if it's an easterly wind this week, it is gonna be very difficult.
I- I think 15 is going to be a big talking point.
You have the very narrow throat into the green.
You have huge fall-offs on either side.
It was described to me by some players yesterday as, quote, "An abomination."
It sticks out like a sore thumb, and this is a prime example of why you don't need a par three to be long to make it interesting.
Again, this was just on Sunday prior to the Open Championship.
Geez.
They do have some flexibility- Yeah with some of the tees.
Again, they were tipping it out yesterday for- It- for the practice round.
It could play upwards of 260, 270 if the wind was in that direction- Yeah which it was yesterday.
In the wind, you're gonna be seeing some threes.
They're gonna get easterlies or some form of easterly for the first three days of the practice rounds.
So if they get that easterly starting Thursday or Friday, which they might for a couple of days, they might wanna use a forward box on that hole just to get play around.
Otherwise, I think we can see some backups.
Yeah, I think from 200- Potentially I think from 200 yards, it's a, it's a better hole than it's certainly gonna be from 240, 250.
Yeah.
Yeah, it, it's a st- it's a stunning location as well.
When those grandstands come down for the rest of the year, you're gonna be firing it straight back into the clubhouse as well, so photo opportunities for all the Americans coming over- is gonna be primed.
A big challenge of this course is just how intimidating the visuals are off the tee.
Yeah.
The dunes are magnificent- Amazing but it doesn't make it easy.
No, it doesn't.
The, and- and that's the one thing, you- you- you look at the visuals, and then sometimes the visuals don't always, on a golf course, represent what you're actually getting out in the fairways.
Here, the visuals do represent what you're getting out in the fairways.
It's intimidating look from the tees, and then when you get out there, it's- it's as narrow as it looks.
I mean, you look down here, and you see those cranes in the background, and you're like, "Where do I hit this ball?"
I mean, there is no room out there.
You got that big dune on the left with that huge bunker that Cameron Young was in yesterday, buried under that lip.
The guys were hitting irons.
Wind is pushing hard off the right, which actually I think is the easier wind for this hole.
I mean, there is hardly any room.
And then, and then after you hit your tee shot, you pick, you pick your spots, this is what you gotta land it in if you go with driver or three wood.
You literally I paced it yesterday.
It was I'm actually being generous.
It was 19 and a half yards from cut to cut that these guys are trying to land the ball in.
Now, as Ben Hogan would say, it's wide enough for a golf ball, so it- it, it, you can fit it in there, but man, when- It's canting and it's firm.
Yeah, with- with the- It's tight exactly.
And now you look at 18, and 18, you know, another really, really treacherous hole, very difficult.
Look at the visual.
I mean, again, where do I hit this golf ball?
And this is just two of the looks.
There are a half a dozen or more looks from the tees out here at Royal Birkdale, where you just feel like you've got no room to fit a golf ball, with those bunkers dotted left, dotted right.
This is 508 yards, and it's back into the wind, again, back into that easterly breeze that's blowing right now.
And then you take a ARL.
Now, when does, when does 30 yards and 28 yards not play that wide?
When the fairways is, my colleague Ryan Laber said, when they play as fast as they're playing this week and going to play, and they angle them like that.
So you start angling fairways.
You start Now you have to figure out exactly, do I wanna draw it?
Which way, direction is the wind coming from?
Do I wanna fade it?
What do I wanna do off this tee?
And you run out of room very, very quickly with the way that this golf course, has been redesigned and- and certain bunkers have been relocated and tees have been relocated.
And that 18 tee in particular has been moved farther to the left, which is now creating a more s- a straighter shot off that tee, which I think actually creates more of a problem for players deciding kinda what shot they wanna hit.
And nowadays you're taught go with the shot that you know under pressure.
Mm-hmm.
Well, sometimes visually what you wanna do and what you see visually don't always match up- Yeah and that can be an uncomfortable tee shot for some guys this week, and I think it's gonna be an uncomfortable tee shot for most guys, quite honestly.
Yeah.
Discomfort, decision-making, patience.
This course creates a lot of discomfort visually, for sure.
