Richard Boxall on Royal Birkdale and potential contenders for The Open
Thursday 20 July 2017 06:01, UK
Richard Boxall assesses the challenges facing the players at Royal Birkdale and looks at those likely to contend for victory at The Open.
Royal Birkdale is arguably one of the best courses on The Open rota. The fairways are well-shaped and, like on all links courses, avoiding the rough is vitally important.
The course is quite bouncy and staying out of the pot bunkers is key, as they're proper hazards and going in to those ends any chance of reaching the greens.
The par-four first is a tough opening hole for a major championship, as you're having to shape your shots from the word go to avoid a very narrow fairway.
You've really got to draw it from right-to-left to knock it up in to the breeze and land it on the fairway softly, so if you cut it slightly then it will catch the wind and run out in to the rough.
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All links courses can be taken advantage of when there's no wind, but the forecast suggests that won't be the case here this week. Wind makes links golf courses and in this part of the world, there is plenty of it.
The likes of Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler may be among the favourites this week, but I think it may not necessarily be one of the expected contenders who wins this week.
There are 28 Englishman in the field and although they're not serious contenders, it would be nice to see a long-awaited home victory.
I think it's going to be difficult for local lad Tommy Fleetwood, as well as he's playing, to really contend this week. I think he'll play okay and make the cut, but I'm not sure he'll get that close with all of the interest in him.
It could be a course where someone like Thomas Pieters or Justin Thomas could go well, but there a huge number of players you can make a case for this week.
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