Royal Liverpool Golf Club, or Hoylake next to which the course is actually located, is situated on the Wirral, only 6 miles to the west of the famous Liverpool Docks. This will be the 13th time the course has hosted the Open Championship, with the tournament’s last visit here in 2014 being remembered for Rory McIlroy’s demolition of the par-5s as he captured the Claret Jug for his first and to this point only time.
However the course that McIlroy conquered to become Champion Golfer of the Year will look different in 2023 with the addition of a new par-3 17th hole, a change of par from 72 to 71, and other significant alterations on the back nine. For information purposes, the 1st and 2nd holes for The Open actually play as the 17th and 18th for members, with the members’ par-5 16th being the closing hole for the Open week.
The Hoylake Links is an original Harry Colt design and will play as a 7,383 yard, Par 71 as the course has been extended by 71 yards since 2014 via a renovation project managed by eminent course designer Martin Ebert. The par change comes at the 10th Hole named Far, which has changed from a par-5 of 532 yards to a par-4 of 507 yards.
Yardage-wise, the main changes have come on the 2 par-5s on the run for home. Firstly the 15th, named Field, which McIlroy famously eagled on Saturday in 2014. That has a new tee box which has extended the hole to a pretty mighty 620 yards. The severity of this hole will depend on the strength and direction of the wind, but with the prevailing wind players will be able to take a significant portion of length away from the hole by attempting to carry bunkers to the right.
The new 17th hole, named Little Eye, will likely be the new signature hole of Hoylake. At around 140 yards in length, the hole features a raised infinity green with views over the River Dee Estuary to Wales in the distance. A sea of bunkers and huge fall-off areas to all sides, including all the way to the green, provide a striking scene and mean it is absolutely essential to hit the green.
Big changes have also occurred at the closing 18th par-5 hole, named Dun, where the Championship tee has been moved back around 50 yards and significantly further right, while the out of bounds down the right-hand side has ominously been moved 20 yards further left. The fairway now appears just a handful of yards wide from the tee, particularly with a carry of 240 yards to reach the fairway and dangerous bunkers down the left.
A summary of Hoylake in terms of its position within the Open Championship rota would be a fairly straightforward affair, with good play rewarded. It’s a relative flat track with few towering sand dunes. But for what it lacks in topography, Royal Liverpool gains with tall fescue in play on all holes and plenty of Out of Bounds. All par-4s and par-5s feature 2-3 yards of semi-rough. Stray over that and you’re instantly into knee- to waist-high fescue. The transition from fairway to tall fescue is both stark but also amazingly small in terms of miss distance.
Out-of-Bounds is also interesting with 6 holes featuring clear and obvious lines over which if you stray it’s an instant shot penalty. Tie that in with deep, penalising fairway bunkering which has been re-positioned for 2023 golf distances, and it becomes clear that for players to thrive here they need to have control of their golf ball from off the tee. The wayward here simply won’t get away with it enough to contend over 72 holes of golf, that’s fact.
The rest is your typical non-St Andrews links test with small green complexes, many of which are raised. They are surrounded by heavy duty, encroaching, steep-faced bunkers in many circumstances. There are a mixture though, with some greens also being of the flat and gettable variety.
As ever though at an Open Championship, the severity of the test will be dictated by the golfing weather gods. With a firm course – remember Hoylake doesn’t have fairway irrigation systems – and any significant wind, this exposed layout will provide a pretty stern and specialised test for those who don’t respect it.
Below are some revealing comments about Hoylake and how it played at the 2014 Open Championship from the players:
Rory McIlroy: “I think the par-5s. I think the par-5s are a big key this week. If you look back at ’06, I think Tiger played the par-5s in 14-under par. So the majority of his scoring was done on the par-5s. There are four really good opportunities to make birdies out here. Par-5s are going to be crucial. And then there’s a couple of tough holes on the back nine, if you can just sort of make par there you’re going to do well. Yeah, par-5s, I think, there’s a few birdie opportunities on this course, and you want to try to make as many birdies as you can on those holes.”
“ I’ll use 2-iron it a bit. I’ll use it on the first two holes, definitely. I think it will be an important club. I might use it like four or five times during the round. I’ll probably use a 2-iron just as much as I’ll use the driver. I’ll hit the driver four or five times and the 2-iron about the same. I usually carry a 5-wood instead of a 2-iron. But I just think for this terrain and the conditions and the wind, the 2-iron just goes that little bit lower, and there’s a bit of a better flight on it, which is obviously better for these conditions.”
Sergio Garcia: “Yeah, whew, it was hard work. The wind was blowing hard and different direction today. So it definitely made it quite challenging. The course, even though it rained a little bit this morning, it dried out very quickly. And a lot of the shots you had to think your way around it a little bit. For example like 17, I had 112 yards and I was just off the fairway and I was chipping a lob wedge trying to hit it 70 yards, and still hit it 8 or 10 feet by. So it was definitely more of the way you expect a British Open to play.”
“I think when Rory plays well and when I’m playing well, I feel like every course suits me. And when he’s playing well, every course suits him because he hits it quite straight. He hits it very long. He putts well. He chips pretty well. So there’s not really a lot of weaknesses on the game. At the end of the day if he’s playing well, every course would suit him.”
Phil Mickelson: “Yeah, the 2-iron. I have two clubs that are specific to this tournament; it’s a 2-iron and a 64 degree wedge that has very little bounce. Those two clubs I basically put away after this event and I bring them back out in July again. But they’ve been very important and instrumental in my success here, 2- or 3-iron. This week it will be a 2-iron. I will carry a driver. I think there will be times when I use a driver, but it will be situational on the wind, pin placement and how I’m feeling at the given moment. I carry 3-wood as well.”
“I think that last time in ’06 we were almost forced to hit the ball longer off the tee and take on more risk because the course was so firm, you couldn’t stop the ball with a mid iron. And we needed to come into some of these greens with an 8, 9-wedge downwind, because it was so firm. I think it’s going to allow us to be a little bit more conservative off the tee and a little bit more aggressive into the greens. That’s my take. And the winning score, I think, will ultimately be fairly low, provided conditions, of course. If we get a strong wind, that all changes. If we get a strong wind and rain, that changes even more. But under light wind or soft wind conditions and the golf course being as green as it is, I think the scores will be fairly low.”
“The reason I really like Royal Liverpool is the same reason that I really like Muirfield, and that is when you have to land a ball 20, 30 yards short of the green, if you hit it at the green, the ball will kick on. There is not these repellent hillsides in the landing area that kick balls off into the trouble. If you hit it off line, it will continue to go off line. It’s not going to hit a mound and kick back to the green. What I’m ultimately saying is well-struck shots are rewarded and poorly struck shots are penalized. And that’s not always the case in links golf. It could be the exact opposite many times. In fact, that happened quite a few times last week at Royal Aberdeen. So the thing I really like about Royal Liverpool is the same thing I liked about Muirfield, those last 20, 30 yards short of the green were often times you have to land a golf ball, it will continue to bounce on to the green if you strike it properly.”
Graeme McDowell: “Certainly it’s soft compared to 2006, there’s no doubt about that. It’s certainly not soft by relatively terms to what we see week in, week out, on the major tours around the world. I wouldn’t call it soft, but it doesn’t have that big bounce, either. It’s got a kind of deadness to the ground, if you like. You’re certainly not going to see balls spinning back. This is The Open Championship, that’s not really going to happen much. But there is a deadness to the turf. The golf course is playing much longer than it was in 2006. There will be a lot more drivers off tees for guys. Does it mean you can attack pins? No.
“I think this golf course still has plenty of protection with the kind of rolls and humps and undulations on these greens. It’s going to be placement off the tee to give you a chance to attack some of the pins. The greens are so shaped with a lot of very good bunkering in and around the greens. You see a lot of the greens with quite narrow entrances with bunkers right and left, with kind of down slopes over the top of those, a lot of greens where you have to be very careful with your approach shot. Yes, it’s soft by Open Championship terms, but it’s far from easy to get balls close to the hole. It’s typical links. If it blows, it’s going to be a real test. If it doesn’t blow, like this afternoon, guys can make a score, depending on pin positions. But as we know links golf, The R&A will hide these pins away behind bunkers and stuff. So it will be hard to get it close to the hole. It’s a great golf course. I think it’s very balanced. I think it’s very fair. It’s one of my favourite Open venues from the point of view of fairness. I think good shots get rewarded here.”
Henrik Stenson: ” Well, I think it’s probably some of the flattest greens that we play on links courses. And the key is going to be to get it. And the rough is a bit patchy. You can get some really decent lies, but you can be complete low wedge, hack you out as well if you get a bad one. So hitting fairways is going to be key, if you do that, you give yourself the best chances to hit the greens. In certain areas if you miss a green, you’re going to have a little trickier up-and-down as well. Some courses are a little bit flatter to the sides and maybe a little bit more undulation. On here they’re here kind of flat on the surface and then it goes away a little bit more in certain areas. So fairways and greens, like any other week, I guess. But it’s going to be pretty crucial here, I think.
And avoiding the bunkers is always more or less costing you a shot every time you hit it in the fairway bunkers. Scoring is going to be down to the wind and the weather. But again on the par 5 the most important thing is to get the ball in play off the tee, so you can at least have a second shot. If you’re hacking out or you’re in a bunker, you know you’re going to scramble for par. So make sure you hit the fairway on par 5s, if you want to have a go at it.”
Hoylake in 2023 guise has seen plenty of significant changes since McIlroy’s 2014 win.