A hole-by-hole review for a beginner golfer playing the Open course at Royal Liverpool Golf Club

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It's easy enough to think of an Open Championship course as a recreational area for the average golfer.

You may think of large clubhouses that overlook the 18th green and think that they are full of crowded members who look down on the action (and maybe we stand outside).

The business to Hoylake and Royal Liverpool Golf Club will torture you with any such ideas. Of course, there is a very large clubhouse, but both it and the members inside are kind of acceptable.

I started my two days on the Wirral by walking across the water to Hilbre Island. That may sound silly, but when the tide is out, cruising through the Dee Estuary is both practical and beautiful. In addition, it gives the golfer a unique, and unusual, view of Royal Liverpool.

The next day I was on real terra firma and ready to tackle hosting three Opens in the 21st century, won by Tiger Woods in 2006, Rory McIlroy in 2014, and Brian Harman in 2023.

The last of those happened during a wet, cold and windy week in July, but I was lucky: it was warm, dry and, well, quite windy. But who wants to play the Open course without a breeze, even a strong one?

Two unusual ones

Playing Royal Liverpool instead of watching the Open regularly reveals two interesting things.

The first is that the 18th hole in The Open is the 16th for members.

The second is the practice field, filled with tents, marquees and pavilions during The Open, a large flat area where the first (third in the Open) and 16th (18th in The Open) play.

It makes for quite a discombobulating experience. For the purpose of this article, and to avoid confusion, I will refer to the course as we all know it, from the first hole of The Open.

It is the front nine

I'm lucky because I've played Royal Liverpool four times now – but I'll admit that after the first round I was a bit disappointed.

It just seemed … flat.

But the further you travel in this course, the more it becomes clear that the holes are incredibly nuanced, expertly crafted, and far from flat.

It's also a course that asks a lot of questions about your swing, as shown by the lane.

Take the first and second holes, both par-4s. The first is a subtle right-to-left dogleg played offshore, the second is a left-to-right dogleg played away from the sea.

Soon, your long game will be questioned and you can expect more to come.

The third one is weird because, it's actually one flat hole, with a dogleg, and it's the inside of the dogleg in that practice area. It tests your faith in the scorecard and course map.

The fourth and fifth repeat the first and second in that they go to the sea, and are again hidden doglegs in reverse. The same can be said for the seventh and eighth.

These four holes are what fooled me on that first fence. However, now I love them. There is tension below the horizon rather than above it, hence my confusion​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​first-of-​confusion

Repentance

The 10th and 11th are here again, but in a slightly different way. 10 goes away from the clubhouse and parallel to the beach and 11 returns in the opposite direction.

The first of these requires a path to the top of the green dunes, and the next path descends to a storage area tucked between the base of the sand dunes.

It is from the 11th tee that I see Hilbre Island and, now that the tide has come in, I wonder how I survived my trip 24 hours earlier.

The curve also marks the beginning of pore flow attached to the edge of the structure, sinking and rising above the dunes.

The back 9

The par-4s on 12 and 14 are eerily similar. They require tee shots from the top of the sand hills to boomerang-shaped fairways that, if you find them, stop the fairways to the greens high up in the dunes.

We take a minute on 14 to remember and appreciate the 4-iron Woods hit from the fairway in 2006. One of his greatest contributions…and none of us come very close to matching it.

The 15th is a difficult hole. A long par-5 returns to the clubhouse, but is followed by a long par-4 that goes in the opposite direction.

The good news? You're sure one of them will be down.

Bad news? One will enter it.

Then there's the closing par-5 18th. Another long, long hole for handicap golfers.

But what a way to deal with it, and the Victorian clubhouse is visible to us if not to our Open competitors (whose grandchildren prevented a view).

Green tempts you. The green draw has an open front right, but there are bunkers waiting to snag any shots.

Short holes

We haven't forgotten the par-3s. They just need their class.

The sixth calls for a tee shot to the elevated green and it all carries, while the ninth green is below the tee and you can run the ball into the middle of the green.

A beautiful and familiar contrast to this building.

The back nine, the 13th hole is the worst played on top of the dunes with Hillbre Island on the horizon and North Wales as a spectacular backdrop.

Then it's 17. A new hole, it was designed and built for the 2023 Open, and some might say it was created by professionals rather than handicap golfers.

That was my opinion when I first encountered it, I feel that the tee is shot, from the bottom to the top of the hills and is very hidden from view, it was very difficult for young golfers to visualize it never forget the execution.

But the second crack at it changed my mind. You learn that the putting space has space, you appreciate that it is a magnificent place and a pure theater of golf.

I'm repentant and I'm not starting.

Like the whole course itself, the second day, it convinced me.

I'm a fan. Big – both 17 and Royal Liverpool in total.