Royal Birkdale remains a staple of the top three in our new and updated NCG Top 100s: England list for 2025.
The club was formed in 1889 and, eight years later, moved location to its current site. However, it would be a further six decades before the Open Championship would make its first visit to Birkdale.
RELATED: Check out the new NCG Top 100s: England list
What makes Royal Birkdale such a special venue?
Birkdale was something of a late bloomer when it comes to the Open. It wasn’t until 1954 that it first held the competition, almost a century into the history of the tournament. Only three years earlier had it been granted ‘Royal’ status.
As though making up for lost time, it has since held the Curtis, Walker and Ryder Cups, as well as the AIG Women’s Open and any number of prestigious amateur events.
The Ryder Cup in 1969 gave the world one of the most celebrated moments in all of golf. Tony Jacklin had levelled his singles match against the great Jack Nicklaus to take them down the 18th – in what was the decisive match of the competition. Nicklaus rolled his ball into the hole for his par and promptly conceded Jacklin’s eminently missable putt to match it. It was a gesture in the grandest traditions of the game; and it belongs to one of its grandest venues.
Royal Birkdale is just a few miles down the coast from the town of Southport, with Hillside and Hesketh flanking it on either side, and Southport & Ainsdale beyond the former, on the other side of the train tracks. It is a links-lover’s paradise.
Birkdale’s most distinctive feature is the highly unusual Art Deco clubhouse. The white exterior was (successfully) designed to resemble an ocean liner ploughing between the massive dunes that are a trademark of the club.
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READ MORE – NCG Top 100s: Royal Birkdale
Why is the 2026 Open Championship venue in our top three?
Tom Irwin, co-host of the NCG Golf Podcast, is not just a fan of the venue, but also loves it when the Open Championship is held at Birkdale.
“My good friend, and industry acquaintance, Richard Weeks, has just left Alwoodley to become the secretary at Royal Birkdale and good on him, what a good appointment on all levels. The Open goes back there next year (2026), and Birkdale Opens are always a massive success. Good crowds, a great golfing county and it will be an amazing occasion,” Irwin explained on the NCG Golf Podcast.
“I have played it more times than is normal for lots of different reasons – I have been over there for work a few times, I have played there with an American tour operator, I have played in the Birkdale Goblet, which is their scratch event every year – so I have played off varying tees in different conditions. I have always found it hard, a significant challenge.
“It is one of these golf courses that has morphed over the years. It has had lots of tinkering done to it, lots of changes made and I understand that lots of that would be at the behest of the R&A, who would be requesting specific changes ahead of Opens.
“They haven’t got everything right. They altered the 17th green dramatically before Padraig Harrington‘s Open win in 2008. They then rowed some of that back as they thought the changes were too severe.
“It is often ranked in the top two in England, and I think if you asked lots of golfers, they would say it is their favourite course. Visually, it is very pleasing that is played among big dunes, and the clubhouse is unique on its own. It is an Art Deco clubhouse and it is totally unique compared to anything else I can think of in golf.
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“They have made some significant changes that we talked about on the Best Holes at the Open pod. I think they are going to make changes to almost every hole on the property, which is almost unheard of at an Open venue. They have tried to deal with some of the given weaknesses, namely the 5th, the short 4 which plays away from the Artisans’ clubhouse. They have improved that by opening out the right side and making it into more of a risk-reward par 4. I think from the front tee at the Open, players will have a go at that. They have exposed a little wetland area on the right-hand side by the green and the whole rest of that right hand side is one giant waste area. It has improved it. I am not sure if it has improved it from being one of the weaker points on the golf course, but it is certainly better than it was.
“They have removed a hole entirely. They have got rid of what was the par-3 14th, so you know walk from the Jordan Spieth green, down the entire length of that space to what is now the par-5 14th. That hole has changed quite dramatically. It used to be a hole that swept to the right corner and the ground would help you on to the green, making it a great par 5 to play as a club golfer. It is now much straighter and the green is elevated so it is much harder to chase the ball on to the green, making it more of a test at the Open. It is a much less welcoming par 5 as a club golfer and one of the reasons they have changed that is to get this new hole in, the par-3 15th, which plays back towards the iconic clubhouse.
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“I presume in the Open it will have grandstands on either side but you will still be able to see the home to which you are heading. It is an enormous par 3, pushing past 250 yards from the back tee. It is one of the biggest greens I have seen, it must be 120 feet from front to back and it has the biggest swale on the right hand side where if you stand in the swale, you cannot see the top of the flag – it is ridiculous.
“The whole green slopes from front to back so I think it will lend itself to some spectacular iron shots which will pitch at the front of the green and then run to a back left flag. We played off the front tee so it was playing a 9-iron to a front flag. I think that hole is a very cool hole in its own right which is playable from various tees.
“It has always had a grandstand finish. Birkdale is one of those venues where you have to hang on early on and you know that it will give you something late on with three par 5s in the last five. 17 is an absolutely outstanding hole, I just love it. I think standing on that tee, it makes you feel like Rory McIlroy.
“You can’t help but hit a big, high hook from that tee shot and I think it asks you all sorts of questions on the second shot as well. Then they have redone 18, where they have got rid of the split fairway, and it is played as a much straighter hole.
“I find it an incredibly fun golf course, where lots of scores are possible on lots of holes. There are almost infinite possibilities. It will be interesting to see how those changes are received and how they bed in, both in an Open Championship, and in general play as the months and years progress.”
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Dan Murphy – chairman of the NCG Top 100s Rankings – understands why regular people love playing at Birkdale!
“People love Birkdale because you can see what you are doing and the fairways are flat, so you play down corridors and people like that – much more than they like necessarily going over the dunes. Some of us, for all our faults, quite enjoy going over dunes, but Birkdale is a different type of course, and much more acceptable to the modern eye,” he said on the NCG Golf Podcast.
“I haven’t seen the 2024-25 changes at Birkdale, the closest I have been was at Hillside last spring and looking across while some building work was still going on. I strongly suspect that the course will be better as an Open Championship venue, and I think the players will like it even more.
“I am reasonably confident that some of the changes have been made with the Open in mind, as in the whole infrastructure of the Open. The practice facilities are a long way from the clubhouse and what was the 14th green will now become a short game area, which is much more convenient and helps to move spectators around the property, so that is probably to do with hosting the championship as much as it is to do with improving the golf course.
“It is very difficult to say why you wouldn’t enjoy Birkdale because people like fair when it comes to golf. There is no reason why you could complain because you can see what is in front of you, you don’t get any funny bounces. There is a sense of grandeur, you have the amazing dunes, but you tend to play alongside them rather than through them. It is an absolutely wonderful experience.
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“I would say it is a much more modern golf course in style than perhaps Lytham or Hoylake and that is probably reflected by the amount of architectural work that has relatively recently at Birkdale compared to the other two.”
Listen to the NCG Golf Podcast in full…
Now have your say
Have you been fortunate enough to play at Royal Birkdale? If so, what did you make of it? Would you agree with us that it is the best course in the country? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!