Royal Birkdale GC, Southport, England - Photo tour (9th hole posted)

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Birkdale is generally regarded of as the "fairest" and most modern of the Open rota courses. The course is very much out there in front of you and the number of bind shots encountered can be counted on one hand. There are no great surprises to be had, and the "unlucky" bounce that is expected at most older links courses, seldom occurs here. The fairways are mostly flat, and the greens are, one the whole quite tame. It is probably for these reasons that the course is well liked by professional golfers. Side hill, up-hill and down-hill lies are conspicuous by their absence.

The present location of the Royal Birkdale Golf Club is the club's second site, having previously been located due east on the other side of the railway. Work on the present course began in 1896, with George Lowe being responsible for the initial design. The early course was plagued by drainage problems, as the holes were routed between the dunes. The grassy hollows, known as "slacks" became flooded, and the course had to close during their very first winter. Top soil was brought in and it is perhaps as a result of all the work done to eliminate the drainage problems, that Birkdale now possesses disappointingly flat fairways.

The firm of Frederik G. Hawtree & J.H. Taylor drew up a plan to revise the course in 1931. In the 1960s, Frederik W. Hawtree, FG's son re-sited some greens in order to remove crowd bottlenecks and also added the much acclaimed par three 12th hole.



Royal Birkdale (1952).

Presumably, the old 17th - a par three played from a high tee (possibly the championship tee for the 18th) behind the current 17th green, down to a green 180 yards away, behind the present 16th tee - was done away with, when the new 12th hole was added.

Following the 1991 Open, all 18 greens were completely rebuilt to improve turf and drainage. This work was carried out by the Martin Hawtree. Prior to the 2008 Open, Martin Hawtree was called in again and re-modeled the 17th green. The alterations to the 17th green generated considerable discussion, and Hawtree himself is not fully satisfied with the results.



Present day layout.


Hole 1, Blue 450 yds / White 450 yds / Yellow 430 yds, Par 4.



A tought opening drive for the pros . If you just knock it down the middle of the fairway, your approach to the green will be obscured by a large mound.



To have a better angle to the green, the bunker built into the mound needs to be carried. From the back tee, it's 232 yards to the bunker, and 290 yards to clear the mound. Deduct 20 yards from those numbers if playing off the yellow tees.





The large mound on the right is about 50 yards long, and there are two greenside bunkers hidden on the right entrance to the green.







The green has some small undulations, but nothing too sporting.



A really good opening hole.

More to follow.

[Mark Saltzman]

Donal, how carryable is that lone fairway bunker?

[Jon Wiggett]

This is probably the best opening hole I have ever played. Really tough par four but very easy five. I have played Birkdale many time and have always found it a joy to play.

As far as I am aware, there was a different routing on this site prior to this one which started from the 5th tee (old clubhouse now the artisan's) playing over many of the large sand dunes rather than along the valleys. If you look there re still a couple of the marker posts up on them such as down the left of the third.

I also believe that Birkdale's clubhouse was the inspiration for the clubhouse at Castle Stuart.

Jon

[Bryan Izatt]

Donal,

If it's OK with you I'll add my pictures for each hole where they provide different perspectives to yours.   Unfortunately I'm getting upload errors with Photobucket right now.  Not sure what's going on.

I was not as concerned as you by the relative flatness of the fairways.  Royal Birkdale certainly seemed like a more modern and designed and built course than some of the the others that we played.  I thought the flat fairways fit with that.

Certainly after Royal Lytham I noticed that RB has a relatively few fairway bunkers.  They seemed to me to use angles to complicate the play on holes rather than bunkers.  The 1st is a good example.  A drive down the centre or to the right side gives you a blind second to a green that is well guarded on that side.  Challenging the one bunker left would leave a better angle to the green but leaves little margin for error.  Slightly left is dead in the rough and too far or slightly right is possibly through the fairway.  As I recall, you and Gary hit 3 woods for position, but were still left with the blind second from the centre or right side of the fairway.  All in all a tough opening hole.

Mark,

It's around 210 to 220 to carry the bunker, but there's 30 yards of rough behind it.  Long hitters could easily carry it, but there is little margin for error left or right of the line and it is the first tee shot of the day.

Jon,

I don't know if it was the inspiration, but they are both certainly art deco style.
 

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Mark:

I've updated the first hole with the yardages for the carry.

Bryan:

Yes, post pics if you can. That's correct; we both hit 3 woods and were left with a top of the flag view only (see the 4th picture) and a good 200+ yards second shot. I'm also getting error with Photobucket, so cannot upload any more photos.

Jon:

I've have a couple of pictures of the old clubhouse. It was located to the left of the 4th green I believe. The small house presently seen to the right of the 4th green was originally the pro shop, and is now the artisan's hut. I'll post them when Photobucket behaves itself.

[Bryan Izatt]

From the left side near the bunker the front of the green is visible, but that day's pin is still partly obscured.



Donal's predicament when he leaked his second shot right.  Gary's ball is in the green side bunker in the foreground.  The green appears to be tough to hit with a second shot even from the fairway to the middle or right side.



Looking back up the green.  The black footprints are from iron they had spread on the green that day.  It didn't really affect the roll.  The greens were slowish, but true.




Donal, I had uploaded these pictures previously.  I'm comforted to hear that your getting upload errors too.  I guess Photobucket has a problem at the moment.  By the way, do you use their bulk uploader - it is much faster.

 

[Bryan Izatt]

The aerial view of the first hole.  The double dogleg looks benign but really makes the hole.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Jon:

Here are two old pictures of the second clubhouse. They are contained in Harry Foster's excellent book "Links along the Line".





I'd say that's the present 4th green to the right, as the artisan's hut looks in the correct location. I'll post a picture of the 4th hole later.

[Jon Wiggett]

Dónal,

super pictures. I had always (mistakenly) thought the Artisan's clubhouse was the old clubhouse, or at least part of it.

Thanks for the postings, most informative.

Jon

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Hole 2, Blue 421 yds / White 418 yds / Yellow 397 yds, Par 4.

The second is another attractive hole where an agressive line down the left can open up the green.





The two fairway bunkers to the right are 302 yards away (278 yards from the yellows).





A drive that can carry 256 yards (232 yards from the yellows) and clear the mounds on the left, will leave this approach shot.





As viewed from the fairway, the central bunker appears to be close to the green.





There's plenty of room to land the ball short and let it trickle on.



Two more sand pits lurk behind this imposing bunker.



Hole 3, Blue 451 yds / White 406 yds / Yellow 373 yds, Par 4.

The third hole looks and feels straight, but the fairway gently curves to the left at the fairway bunkers, and then kinks to the right 50 yards short of the green. The consequence of this is that most of the putting surface lies hidden behind the greenside mounding on the right side of the green.



As with the first hole, the ideal angle to approach the green is from the left side of the fairway. Two fairway bunkers up the left side and one lone bunker on the right pinch the fairway at about 310 yards (235 yards for the yellows).







Very little of the green is visible from the centre of the fairway.



One again, the bunker in the foreground appears to be close to the green; in fact it's nearly 40 yards short of the green front.

[Ivan Morris]

That the alterations to Birkdale's 17th green are not to even 'the fixer's' complete satisfaction underscores how reticent we should always be to re-do what is generally acknowledged as a great golf course. If we can't be sure that we are making something a lot better, it should be left alone. Constant tinkering inevitably turns into a pig's ear! Let's have more 'finality' as Mackenzie called it. If a golf course needs to be re-done within 10-years of opening, the original architect should be sanctioned. Imagine how Big Jack and other modern golf architects would feel about that? What most urgently needs to be changed about golf is the ball, the ball, the ball - at least for professional tournaments. Then tackle the size of driver heads. Leave the golf courses alone - apart from shortening them. A soft, golf course that is 8000-yards long won't bother Rory McIlroy & Co but a 6800-yards one with firm and fiery greens and wind would give them all fits.  

[Adrian_Stiff]

Ivan - In fairness its easy to make mistakes when you start pushing green contours to the limit. I think I have built about 250 greens now, I reckon I have got 245 okay and 5 I would say I cocked it up, (our at least my responsibility). The 5 where I ******** were when I was pushing the boundaries, and the combination of that. USGA speccing and the finishing with the sand pro left something I know could have been better. The best lessons are often learned from the mistakes, I think if I ever spoke at a conference I would want to talk about ALL the mistakes I have made rather than the good things. I think that 17th green was just a touch crazy too.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Hole 4, Blue 201 yds / White 200 yds / Yellow 179 yds, Par 3.

All the trouble on this par three is short of the green. The green itself has some subtle undulations, but a pretty straightforward hole.
 

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Ivan & Adrian:

This is what Martin Hawtree has said about the 17th:

"There are issues which need addressing. What was built is not what I'd originally conceived. I didn't really want the spectator
mounds; the R&A did, and the club found some of the contouring a bit too sporting ".

I don't understand the reference to spectator mounds. The green is surrounded by some small dunes, but it looks natural to me. Yes, it's a bit narrow at the front, and the green has a bit more going on than the other 17 greens, but I didn't have an issue with it, and if I hadn't heard of the discussions prior to the 2008, I'd probably not have noticed anything.

Here's a few photos to of the green;

[Ivan Morris]

Based on Donal's pix and my memories of the 2008 Open I would not condemn Birkdale's 17th out of hand. It's a par five where most of us should be approaching it from a short distance for our third or fourth(!) shots and a small target is reasonable. I'd be inclined to say that the final 'step' on the green was a touch too steep and the area it protected too shallow. My experience of Martin Hawtree is that he is stubborn but fair minded and there is nothing wrong with that. At least, he will listen to an opinion. My comments were only meant in a general sense. If Bob Jones said, he learnt more from his defeats than victories why shouldn't Adrian learn more from his mistakes than his successes too? Well said! Speaking personally, I was far too slow in learning from my own (many) golfing mistakes. That's golf and life - you only get one shot at it.

[Jon Wiggett]

I must be one of the few who actually prefer the re-done 17th green over the old one. I find that for a par 5 easily reachable in 2 shots having a challenging green is very acceptable. It does contain some really easy gathering pin positions as well as the odd really tough one. It should not be forgotten that 6, 13 and 18 are par 5s from the regular tees that are also easy to hit in 2.
 

Jon

[Ivan Morris]

Again, let me stress that Jon may well be correct. I have not played the hole. My comments were largely about re-do's in general terms - leave well enough alone.

[Bryan Izatt]

One thing of note about RBGC is that the routing changes directions frequently, for instance the 2nd hole is at 90* to the 1st.  With the prevailing wind being out of the southwest this adds to the challenge of playing the holes.  Whereas on the 1st hole the wind is blowing off the left, on the 2nd it is directly in your face making the hole play longer and more difficult.

The 2nd suggests a draw off the tee to fit the ball into a fairly narrow fairway and to avoid the fairway bunkers if you are a long hitter.

Here are two aerials of hole number 2 - one before the 2008 Open and one after.  The two fairway bunkers were added presumably for the Open.  For day-to-day play they are probably redundant given their distance off the tee and being into the prevailing winds.






The fairway was 20 to 25 yards wide.  The rough provided more than enough challenge for off-line shots, again making the fairway bunkers somewhat redundant.  Advancing the ball from this year's rough was a challenge.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Royal Birkdale is one of my favourite top5 courses anywhere.
The best opening hole in golf, especially when the wind is blowing and the first three holes all play into a different wind, the fourth then turns at another angle and plays into a different wind again.
The routing in my opinion does not get enough credit, away from the usual in and out mentality it continually switches to confuse the player.
Having said it is one of myfavourite 5 , I do admit that the "new: green on number 17 is not one of my favourite changes to the course, way harsher than any of the other greens, it really does not seem to fit in very well.

However, now that I look again at the pictures posted, it does not appear as severe as I remember it,so perhaps I was just not putting well that day
I certainly agree with the two shot par five, tough green concept, I have no problems with that principle at all.

[Niall C]

Never played the course and never seen it from the players perspective either but believe it or not from what I've seen so far Trumps course looks similar with flattish fairways surrounded by dunes, albeit some but not all of the dunes at Trump are a good bit bigger.

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of the tour.

Niall

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Never played the course and never seen it from the players perspective either but believe it or not from what I've seen so far Trumps course looks similar with flattish fairways surrounded by dunes, albeit some but not all of the dunes at Trump are a good bit bigger.

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of the tour.

Niall

Niall,

I had read of Birkdale's towering dunes, but after about 12 holes I wondered when we were going to see them. In comparison to Ballybunion, Rosapenna, St. Patricks, and other Irish links courses, Birkdale's dunes are not that large. I don't put this down as a negative, as towering dunes are nice to look at, but they don't always make for great holes.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Hole 5, Blue 346 yds / White 343 yds / Yellow 316 yds, Par 4.

The fifth hole (previously the old 1st) is a short dog-leg to the right. I don't recall how this hole was played over the four days of the 2008 Open, but I have seen some video clips where players were playing approach shots from 100 yards, as the wind blew quite strongly in the early rounds. Measuring just 346 yards from the back tees, one would expect the pros to have a go at it in calm conditions, but the shot needs to be shaped from left to right. There is a pond short and right of the green, that needs to be carried if one is to reach the green. The carry to the front left-hand bunker is 292 yards (262 yards from the yellows). The green itself is angled towards the tee, but with seven greenside bunker, the risks probably outweigh the possible rewards.



If going for the green isn't a condideration, a fairway wood or iron bumped up to the corner of the dog-leg is all that is needed. The fairway is bunkerless, and I felt that the safe option is just too easy.



The direct line to the green is over right side of the large mound.



View from about 100 yards out. The pond lies somewhere into the right behind the bush.





The green slopes from back to front and from left to right and has some interesting undulations.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Hole 6, Blue 499 yds / White 488 yds / Yellow 475 yds, Par 4/5/5.

A good driving hole where the prospect of getting home in two is realistic if you can carry the right hand fairway bunker (281 yards from blue / 257 yards from yellow) with your drive.









The fairway is very flat, so getting a fairway wood or long iron shot up in the air quickly isn't a concern.
 


The raised green - which is 37 yards long - is guarded by three greenside bunkers.

[Bryan Izatt]

The 3rd hole reverses the direction from the 2nd, changing the wind direction by 180* so that it was generally helping on this hole.  An aerial of the hole shows the angles of the fairway.  This hole too asks for a small draw.  The green side bunkers do a fine job of collecting errant shots.  The bunkers are generally inside the fairway mowing lines.

[Bryan Izatt]

The 5th hole makes another 90* turn to the left changing the wind direction again to one that's off the left and down a bit.  The wind, the bunkering and firm greens would make front pin positions difficult to get to for most of us.