The 151st edition of the British Open Golf Championship tees it up this coming Thursday at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club’s Hoylake Course. The Open Championship, as they call it on the other side of the pond, is the oldest of golf’s four major championships. It is also the final grand slam tournament of 2023 and is the last chance for the likes of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, or Justin Thomas to acquire more major titles. It’s also that last opportunity this year for Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, or Rickie Fowler to win that elusive first major of their careers. Australian Cam Smith is the defending champion, having won last year at St. Andrews over Cam Young and Rory McIlroy. There is a lot of talent out there and it’s easy to come up with a short list of close to 30 golfers capable of winning this year’s Open.
This will mark the 13th time that the Open Championship has been contested at Royal Liverpool. The course first opened in 1869 and was designed by Robert Chambers and George Morris. George Morris was the younger brother of Old Tom Morris, one of the earliest British Open champions as well as the golf professional, architect, and keeper of the greens at the Old Course at St. Andrews. Because it was built some 31 years before the beginning of the 20th Century, Hoylake required some changes so that it would be tournament more appropriate for the playing of the British Open. The Royal and Ancient, the club that oversees the Open Championship, had well known architect Harry Colt come to Liverpool to strengthen, harden, and lengthen the course prior to the 1907 Open.
Colt was one of those iconic figures during the game’s golden age of course architecture. He designed 115 golf courses on his own and collaborated with some of the architectural greats of the game on another 200 works. He designed courses on all six continents. Colt is responsible for gems such as Wentworth, Muirfield, and Portrush in the United Kingdom. He co-designed top ranked American course Pine Valley with George Crump. A true Renaissance man, Colt went to Cambridge, was the captain of the golf team, got a law degree, played in the Open in 1891 and competed in 16 British Amateurs between 1891 and 1912. He was a founding member of the first R&A Golf Rules Committee in 1897.
The first time that the Open Championship was contested at Royal Liverpool was back in 1897. English amateur great Harry Hilton won his second Open title that year, beating out James Braid, a member of the Great Triumverate, by one stroke. He also won four British Amateurs and one U.S. Amateur. Sandy Herd won the Open at Liverpool in 1902 while Frenchman Armaud Massy took home the Claret Jug in 1907. In 1912 Braid won his fifth and final major at Hoylake and then World War I got in the way of a return trip to Liverpool.
The British Open returned to Hoylake in 1924 and colorful American golfer Walter Hagen won the second of his four Open titles. Six years later was the year of American amateur great Bobby Jones and his grand slam season. He won the Open at Liverpool by two strokes over American golfers Macdonald Smith and Leo Diegel. It was Jones’ third Open triumph. He would also win the British Amateur, the U.S. Amateur, and the U.S. Open that year. He then retired from competitive golf. Englishman Alf Paidham won the 1936 Open at Hoylake and then once again war got in the way of Open competition for another 11 years.
When the Open Championship returned to Liverpool following the conclusion of World War II, Irishman Fred Daly prevailed by one stroke over Englishman Reg Home and American amateur Frank Stranaham. At that time the purse for the British Open was limited, and American professionals stopped attending the tournament. Australian Peter Thomson won his third Open Championship title in a row among his five total grand slam victories during his Hall of Fame career. While Americans returned to the Open in 1960 at the urging of Arnold Palmer, it was Argentine golfing great Roberto de Vicenzo who took home the Claret Jug with his win at Liverpool in 1967. He beat Jack Nicklaus by two strokes.
Road infrastructure issues and hotel accommodations got in the way of scheduling the Open at Liverpool for another 39 years. Yet when the world’s oldest major did return to Hoylake, it was well worth the wait. Several months after the passing of his father and golfing mentor, Tiger Wood entered the 2006 Open Championship as a man on a mission. He got a true feel for the course and hit just one driver all weekend. Tiger hit long irons off the tee to avoid the myriad of bunkers and utilized a strong iron game into the greens to win by two strokes over Chris DiMarco. Upon making his final putt on the 18th green on Sunday afternoon, Tiger burst into tears as he dedicated his victory to his late father Earl. Rory McIlroy won the 2014 Open the last time it was contested at Royal Liverpool, defeating Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler by two strokes. Rory would win the PGA Championship later that summer and yet hasn’t won a major title since that summer of 2014.
Royal Liverpool’s Hoylake Course is on England’s western coast and there have been occasions when the winds and the rains from the Atlantic Ocean have reeked havoc with playing conditions. When Tiger won in 2006, the weather was benign, the course played firm and fast, and he shot 18-under. The same was true with Rory when he carded a 17-under par aggregate. However when Thomson won his aggregate score was 2-over par.
Royal Liverpool is a tough course to prognosticate because most of the field at this year’s Open Championship lacks familiarity with the links course. It will take accurate driving and concise iron play to be effective at Hoylake. I’m inclined to favor a European golfer this time around unless the winds and rain disappear from the forecast. Irishman Shane Lowry might be ready to hoist the Claret Jug for the second time. England’s best golfer without a major is Tommy Fleetwood and he continues to be a strong performer in golf’s four majors. It’s about time that Rory McIlroy adds a fifth major to his impressive golfing resume, but one can never be too sure with the putting lapses of the Northern Irishman.
The 151st British Open returns to Royal Liverpool for the 13th time. While the links is a relatively flat course, it does have its humps and its bumps that can affect the mental health of even the most talented of golfers. We’ll know a whole lot more next Sunday afternoon.
