Playing at the site of the 2008 British Open
By David G. Molyneaux, editor, The Travel Mavens
The entrance to Royal Birkdale Golf Club is a simple, potted country road through a pasture. Birkdale has hosted eight Open Championships -- the last in 2008 -- and the awe of being ordinary golfer playing this extraordinary course struck me on the first tee.
Out popped Bert Beddows from the starter's hut. Beddows, formerly a Royal Marine, now the official starter at Royal Birkdale, was my first golf starter attired in tie and tweed jacket, quite a change from the typical American in T-shirt and shorts.
Beddows, right, is not shy. As he ticked off my name from his list of tee times, he chatted, offered advice and set the standard of reverence for a round at Birkdale.
"I see you are using an iron," said Beddows, as I eschewed a bigger club and chose a 5 iron from my rental bag for a safer tee shot that I hoped to hit into the center of the fairway.
"Tiger Woods used an iron on this hole," he said.
Beddows took a position about 10 feet from me and stood watching, evaluating my swing like a commentator at a professional tournament.
I smacked a less than successful shot. It hit the fairway but trickled into the left rough about 175 yards out.
"Backswing a little fast," he said, respectfully, as he returned to his starter's hut to await the next golfer needing advice or encouragement.
Charlie Grimley, my playing partner at Royal Liverpool several days earlier, would have been disappointed in the weather that delightful October day -- dry and warm, with sunny skies and gentle breezes off the ocean. It was not the dreary sort that brings smiles of recognition to England's golfers.
Winds off the sea, behind the dunes, left, whip across Birkdale's 6th green.
I hacked my way for 18 holes, noting the subtle difficulties of the course, which winds around sand dunes packed with tall grass so thick that an errant ball is lost forever.
At every hole, I would imagine Tiger Woods. Then I would hit about halfway to where his shot would have landed.
Birkdale is designed to punish mistakes by good golfers who hit long shots. The course is more merciful to ordinary players whose shorter shots find less danger. By laying up in front of the guarding bunkers, thus reducing the difficulty of my final approaches to the greens, I managed to play respectable bogey golf -- thanks to Beddows' admonition to slow my backswing.
After the round, I prolonged the glorious experience by sitting with a beer on the clubhouse patio next to the 18th green, above, watching other golfers finish Birkdale. That was a choice seat at the British Open.
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