Travis Smyth says he still has plenty to prove on golf’s biggest stage as he returns to the Open Championship off the back of a breakthrough season, including wins in Japan and a call-up to LIV Golf Korea.
Rory McIlroy’s stock draw turned into ugly left shots after range conditions at the Scottish Open masked a growing swing flaw. Here’s the technical breakdown of what went wrong, and how he plans to fix it before Royal Birkdale.
The R&A celebrates ten years of Greenlinks at Royal Birkdale, with the Open Championship achieving a 93 per cent cut in on-site emissions and zero waste to landfill for the past five years.
In exchange for volunteering two hours a week to maintain Royal Birkdale, 32 tradesmen and locals earn free membership to one of the world’s top links courses. Meet the Artisans, a club within a club with roots dating back to 1931.
Every year around Open Championship week fans and players alike obsess over the draw and the weather that comes with it. But does teeing off early or late actually decide the outcome? We looked at two decades of major championship data to measure just how much the luck of the draw really matters at golf’s oldest major, and why Padraig Harrington’s 2008 win at Birkdale might be the greatest example of overcoming it.
Some finishes fade with time. This one hasn’t. Nine years after Jordan Spieth’s extraordinary final round at Royal Birkdale, we look back at the bizarre, brilliant 13th hole sequence that could have ended his 2017 Open dream and instead ignited the most electric run of his career. From a horror drive into the dunes to a 22-minute rules odyssey and a heroic bogey, it remains one of the strangest and most captivating stretches in major championship history.
Royal Birkdale is unrecognisable in parts ahead of this year’s Open Championship. Architect Tom Mackenzie has reworked almost every hole on the Southport links including a new driveable fifth a retired par-3 14th and a brand new long par 3 to replace it. Here’s a look at the biggest changes since Jordan Spieth’s win in 2017.
With its tall dunes, flat lies and lack of blind shots, Royal Birkdale is often described as the fairest course on the Open rota. Here’s a hole-by-hole breakdown of what to expect at this year’s championship.
Ben Hogan made just a single appearance at the Open Championship. Yet his triumph at Carnoustie in 1953 inspired many more Americans to compete in golf’s oldest major. That mightn’t have eventuated if not for an act of impulsiveness by the late Patrick McCarville.
Australian Golf Digest
