A Day at Royal Birkdale: What It's Actually Like on the Ground at The Open
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Royal Birkdale does the big-event layout better than most. Getting in and around the grounds was smooth all day — wide walkways, good signage, no bottlenecks that cost you actual golf. That part never changes about this place.
What was different this year was the crowd. The first half of the day felt genuinely busy, busier than past Opens we've been to, and there were noticeably more locals in among the ticket holders. Southport turned out for this one.
The heat was the story of the day
Nobody talks enough about how brutal a links course can feel with no cloud cover and no wind. The heat was stifling for most of the morning and into early afternoon — the kind of heat that has you rationing water and looking for any patch of shade on a course that doesn't really have any.
One tip, and it's worth more than anything else in this post: bring a Mastercard. Mastercard run a fan tent at The Open with air conditioning, and on a day like this it is an actual game-changer. Ten minutes in there and you're a different person. If you've got one sitting in your wallet, use it.
The breeze picked up after lunch and made the back half of the day properly enjoyable. But the ground never recovered — it was bone dry all week, and the dust and sand got into absolutely everything. Shoes, bag, camera gear, all of it.
The best seat in the house: the 17th grandstand
We've been to a few Opens now, and the grandstand behind the 17th green at Birkdale was the best spot we've had yet. From there we watched Tyrrell Hatton make birdie, and Scottie Scheffler pull off a flop shot good enough to get an audible gasp out of the whole stand — that doesn't happen often.
We also watched Tommy Fleetwood and Bryson DeChambeau come through the hole. Not long after we got on the train the news started spreading about DeChambeau's penalty — a two-shot ruling for improving his lie in the fescue at the 5th earlier in the round.
Getting close to the action (almost too close)
If you want to actually see full swings rather than just approach shots and putts, the best spot on a links course is where the players hit their second shots into the par 5s — you get the tee shot landing, the club selection, the lot. The trade-off is you're standing right up against the ropes, and more than once we nearly copped one from a stray shot. Rory's second on one of the par 5s came close enough to get a few hearts going in our section.
What we'd pack differently next time
- A second, refillable water bottle — one wasn't enough on the hot stretch. The ones you could buy for £12.50 looked great, but were miniscule!
- A buff or bandana for the dust, not just for the sun
- A Mastercard, specifically for the air-conditioned tent
- A lighter layer for the morning that can come off fast once the heat sets in
- Earlier arrival if you want a seat in the good grandstands before they fill
Royal Birkdale asks a bit more of you as a spectator than some venues — the heat, the dust, the crowds — but a grandstand like the one at 17 is exactly why we keep coming back to The Open year after year.