Your Web Site
John Hopkins, Golf Correspondent On 136 occasions they have gathered to contest an Open Championship and this morning the 137th starts on a stretch of dune land of such perfection that it could have been a gift from God to golfers. Royal Birkdale is a couple of hefty sloshes south of Southport, a town where Napoleon was exiled from 1844 to 1846 and where Lord Street, the main, flower-strewn artery, resembles the boulevards of Paris. The heart of this magnificent course is out past the clubhouse, down the tarmac road, along an earthy path until, after a slight climb, the short 12th is reached. This, the 11th and 13th comprise the money holes. The 11th is played up towards the highest point of the course and into the prevailing northwesterly that blew so strongly yesterday that some players were struggling to reach the fairway.... [read full story]
