Wednesday At The 154th Open
Another hot day has Birkdale on edge. Plus, Darbon offers updates on various R&A future venues and initiatives, Final Odds, Course Looks, and Weather.
Royal Birkdale could not look more sublime on Open Eve. The course is pristine if a tad canary-yellow, the greens are firm and speeding up, and most heartening to links lovers across the globe? The fairways are running faster than yours truly running from today’s Media Centre mystery stew.
While a little drama might have been fun, the championship has been devoid of controversy. Each side of the draw looks like they’ll get a fair crack over the opening 36 holes. And, best of all, there is little sign of any bias against the 156 of The 154th. Old and “short”, young and long, and dreamers of every type should all get a nonsense-free crack at becoming Champion Golfer of the Year.
Best of all, the predicted enthusiasm from the Merseyside faithful has been apparent every day. A huge crowd on Wednesday portends well until—perhaps—Sunday evening, depending on the outcome of tonight’s World Cup semi-final.
Before we get to highlights from the R&A press conference and a few last looks at the course, just a few housekeeping notes on where to find things:
And in case you missed any of The Quad’s lead-in coverage…
Darbon Speaks
The annual state of the R&A featured two announcements and a lively-enough back-and-forth on various topics before the organization ahead of The 154th Open.
Now over a year on the job as R&A CEO, Mark Darbon revealed a preliminary agreement with the Liverpool City region along with the Sefton and Wirral councils that guarantees staging at least three Opens and other R&A championships in the region by 2050. These three will be on top of 2028’s Open at Royal Lytham. With cashcows venerable hosts Royal Birkdale and Royal Liverpool included in this region, the R&A’s hardly getting too far ahead of themselves given the guaranteed success of Opens in the region.
The R&A has also created a new award to “recognize an individual who exemplifies the spirit of the game on a global scale and displays the values, behaviors and traditions inherent to golf.” Adam Scott is the first recipient.
Regarding other topics before the organization, Darbon’s comments from Wednesday’s packed session at Birkdale:
On the World Cup final should England play on Sunday. “Our final putt is currently scheduled for around 6:40 on Sunday. We think that, even if we go to a three-hole playoff, we’ve got time to complete the championship. So at this stage, no plans to alter anything, but we’ll maintain that under review and finalize our position after the semifinal.”
On Muirfield’s status as a member of the Open rota. “We’re excited to return an Open Championship to that venue in the future. It requires a few tweaks both around the golf course and across the site more broadly, but it’s a good dialogue with the club and one that we’ll maintain.”
On the perception that golf courses must change to accommodate The Open. “A lot of the decision-making is driven by the members themselves. I think where we are this week is a brilliant example of that. The changes to the golf course have been driven by the members…given the strength of partnership that we have with our host venues, of course we’re part of some of those discussions, and where there are things that we can do together that also help us operationally, they often make sense to do to help with the staging of the championship. But I think it would be wrong to say that all of the changes are driven by a need to accommodate spectators. They’re ultimately decisions for the clubs and their members…at no stage would we threaten a non-return to a venue on that basis.”
On the planned 2028 change in equipment rules shifting to 2030. “It’s of no surprise to anyone that not everyone is aligned behind the decision that was made in December 2023, and having heard the feedback from the industry, I think it would be remiss of us not to take some time to explore some of the other alternatives that may exist, particularly given that there’s clearly been a bit of change in the position of the PGA Tour and its players, an openness to look at some model local rules.”
On the purse. “We’ve increased our prize money this year up by three-quarters of a million up to $17.75 million. We are big believers in recognising and rewarding the players. They’re the icons of our sport. They have a disproportionate impact on the status and standing of the game. We look at prize money as part of a broader package that we offer here at The Open Championship. We’ve also increased and continued to increase our investment into the player experience.”
On the enforcement of a new fan code of conduct. “I think we feel that it’s within our gift, if someone does step over the line, to ask them to leave the venue, and I think that’s a pretty powerful display. That’s the mechanism that we’ll use rather than fining a spectator.”
On the level of disclosure planned for the new player code of conduct. “I think you’ll get a clear explanation from us around why we may distribute penalties or warnings, yes.”
On his biggest surprise since taking the job. “There’s such breadth in terms of the stakeholder relationships that you have, and navigating that is a challenge. One of my hopes for the future of our sport is that we can move through some of the duplication and tension that exists across many of those organizations because I think one of the powerful things is a lot of those organizations have shared objectives to ensure the future health of this sport.
On Prince’s as a possible future Open rota course. “It’s not under consideration at the moment…the work they’ve done in recent years down at Prince’s has been spectacular, but we’re really happy with the rotation that we’ve got at the moment.
On Portmarnock as a possible Open venue. “We’re getting pretty close. It’s a complicated venue because of the scale of The Open Championship. So there’s been a lot of great feasibility work with the golf club themselves, with the local authority, with government. We’ve undertaken a big feasibility study. That work is pretty much done. We’ve confirmed that we believe we can take an Open Championship there.”
Final Odds
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy go into the 154th as the wagering favorites around 8-1, while hometown hero Tommy Fleetwood and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick land next on the list of favorites.
Notables include U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark at around 30-1, PGA Champion Aaron Rai at 66-1, Players Champion Cameron Young at 33-1, Scottish Open champion Tom Kim at 50-1, Bryson DeChambeau at 66-1, and last year’s runner-up Harris English at 100-1.
Sadly, I won’t be parlaying winnings from Tuesday night’s virtual showdown when I had a sure-thing-exacta in the fourth at Hope Park (I boxed Biscuit Tin and Dancing Shergar because, who wouldn’t?). I also must say the Open exotics offered by Betfred and William Hill were terribly unimaginative. I’ve had no opportunity to bet on the winning score or low Fitzpatrick or number of brush fires breaking out during championship rounds. But given that I believe the winning score will be at least 15-under-par, I am resigned to asking Southport’s finest bartenders for value prop trading partners. Sad times.
Still, I’ve made multiple investments on possible first-round leaders coming out of the (forecasted-to-be-benign) morning wave. (More on the Weather below.)
Course Looks
I returned to the new 15th to see how the green surrounds are playing:
Two parter on the 14th hole, starting with the area about 400 yards down the fairway looking in both directions:
