The Open at Royal Birkdale: Front 9 Hole-by-Hole
We've used the Hole19 Premium Maps feature to give us a birds-eye view of exactly what the pros will be facing this week at Royal Birkdale.
Then, we've imagined that we're out the course, playing alongside the greats and thought about just how we would tackle each hole (realising we'd be wildly out of our depth.)
Here's a look at the Front-9...
How we would play it: It's too risky a tee-shot for our taste. We would play a long iron down the middle with a view to laying up short of those troublesome greenside bunkers.
How we would play it: A slightly more straightforward drive here; we would take our chances and put one left of the bunkers. Depending on our lie we would then look to play a safe approach into the middle of the green.
How we would play it: Accuracy off the tee being paramount, we wouldn't be greedy; anywhere down the middle is fine with us. If we were to leave ourselves without a direct view into the green we would aim to play it short of the front of the green and rely on our short game to do the rest.
How we would play it: No guts, no glory - We'd play a mid to long iron (depending on the wind situation) straight at the heart of the green.
How we would play it: As mere mortals, we wouldn't chance cutting the corner. A long iron along the right line of the fairway would leave us a decent approach into this heavily protected green...avoiding the bunkers at all costs!
How we would play it: There's no messing with this hole. We'd pray for a straight drive with a view to laying up well short of the bunkers in front of the green, leaving us a nice full approach. The green is heavily contoured so we'd really need to bring our putting 'A-game' for this one.
How we would play it: Nothing to do but pick the right club, allow for any wind and make a confident swing...sounds simple enough (but probably isn't).
Another bunker riddled fairway and yet another demand for a straight and accurate tee shot. The ideal line here is down the left, this will leave a fairly open approach to the large green. Once there though, the players will encounter a challenging sloping surface.
How we would play it:
We would play this one fairly boldly, hitting a straight drive past the bunkers on the right of the fairway. The large green makes for a relatively easy target...getting the ball in the hole is not so simple.
How we would play it:
A straight, long-iron tee shot up to the dog leg is on the menu for us here. Better to leave a longer approach from a good lie than run out of fairway. We'd play our second at the pin...luckily for us, we'd have the Hole19 App to help us with club selection.
<a href = "GHOST_URL/open-royal-birkdale-back-9" = 'new'>Check out what's in store for the pros on the back 9 and how we'd tackle it.
Want to get GPS golf course imagery like this? Take a look at our <a href = "GHOST_URL/premium-course-map-feature" = 'new'>Premium Maps feature available if you upgrade to Hole19 Premium.
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