Great Britain's 146th Open Championship begins Thursday at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, just north of Liverpool on the Irish Sea. The annual championship, known in America as the "British Open," currently rotates among multiple UK courses, and this month's tournament will be Royal Birkdale's 10th since its first in 1954. During the 2008 British Open there, contestants told the news media that Royal Birkdale was the "most fair" of the courses on the Open rota.
Nine men formed the club in 1889, and members moved it to the present location in 1897 and constructed an 18-hole course. It was then, and remains today, open ground dominated by ridges and hummocks, a seaside expanse the Scots called links or lynkis. The Old the English term for the rough ground near the seashore was hlincas, plural of hlinc; the term "links" has nothing to do with connections, such as pieces of a chain.
The club welcomed women members in 1890, and the first significant tournament held on the course was the 1909 Ladies' British Open Match Play Championship. In 1935, the members had the course redesigned to route the holes through the valleys and troughs between the dunes rather than over the tops. This allowed splendid vistas for tournament galleries atop the dunes. The club also built a new, art deco clubhouse in 1935.
Birkdale Golf Club had been scheduled to host it first British Open in 1940, but World War II intervened. Between that date and 1954, Birkdale hosted The Amateur Championship, and Curtis and Walker Cup events. British King George VI bestowed the club's Royal designation in 1951.
Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland hosted the first British Open in 1860. For much of the time since then, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews conducted the tournament and managed the rules of golf along with the U.S. Golf Association. In 2004, the Royal and Ancient shifted these administrative and governance functions to a new and separate organization, the "R&A."
Royal Birkdale has produced memorable highlights during its previous nine Opens.
