The 151st British Open Will Have a Record Crowd and Changes to the Royal Liverpool Layout
HOYLAKE, England — The 151st British Open at Royal Liverpool will see the most attendance of any Open in England in its history with 260,000 fans this July.
The sellout includes 30,000 more spectators than the crowd that saw Rory McIlroy win his only Open Championship, at Royal Liverpool in 2014 by two strokes over Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler.
The course that McIlroy conquered to become Champion Golfer of the Year will look different with the addition of a new par-3 17th hole and other significant changes on the back nine.
The new par-3 is only 136 yards and replaces the par-4 17th that played to 458 yards.
Other changes to the yardages include the 10th hole, which is converted from a par-5 of 532 yards to a par-4 of 507 yards.
The 15th was a par-3 of 161 yards and has been converted to a par-5 of 620 yards and the 16th was also changed, converted from a par-5 of 577 yards to a par-4 of 461 yards.
With all that, the total yardage of the course changes slightly from 7,312 to 7,383 and the par for the Open changes from par 72 to par 71.
In total, there are 15 significant changes to Royal Liverpool from the 2014 Open, performed by Martin Ebert of Mackenzie & Ebert International Golf Architects.
The changes are as follows:
- A fairway bunker has been added to the left of the 1st hole.
- The approach to the 4th green was raised to produce a flatter landing area to enable more pin position options. The overall size of the green was also reduced slightly during its reconstruction with a section of the back right of the green becoming surround.
- There has been a bunker change on the right of the 5th fairway.
- Sand areas have been introduced to the 7th.
- The 7th green was moved to the left of its previous location which allowed for the construction of a new tee complex for the 8th hole.
- The 10th fairway has been reorientated and recontoured to assist in the conversion to a par-4 by moving the tee up to a forward tee.
- There has been a bunker alteration on the right of the 12th fairway.
- Sand areas have been introduced to the 13th, a new runoff area was created to the left of the green and the runoff on the right side was redeveloped.
- Sand areas have been introduced to the left of the 14th.
- The 15th hole (previously the 16th) has a new back tee which was enabled by the removal of the par-3 15th. New bunkering has been added to the right of the fairway.
- A new fairway bunker has been added to the right of the 16th.
- A dune has been formed behind the 16th green.
- A new short par-3 17th hole was created, reversing the routing of what was previously the 15th hole. The hole features an elevated "horizon" green looking out over the Dee Estuary.
- The creation of the new 17th hole also allowed for the construction of a new championship tee on the 18th which significantly extends the hole.