DID YOU KNOW – FACTS ABOUT ROYAL BIRKDALE AND THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY ROLEX
• Royal Birkdale will be staging The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex for the first time. The Southport venue will be the 11th different course to play host to the tournament and the fourth English course, following Royal Lytham and St Annes (1991-1994), Sunningdale’s Old Course (2009) and Walton Heath (2011).
• Royal Birkdale was formed in 1889. The course moved to its new home at Birkdale Hills in 1894 and was designed by George Low. The course was remodeled and upgraded in the 1930s by Fred Hawtree and J H Taylor.
• The course was given Royal Command in 1951.
• The course first staged The Open Championship in 1954 and won by Peter Thomson. Other Open winners at Royal Birkdale following Thomson were Arnold Palmer (1961), Thomson again in 1965, Lee Trevino (1971), Johnny Miller (1976), Tom Watson (1983), Ian Baker-Finch (1991), Mark O’Meara (1998) and Padraig Harrington (2008).
• Denis Durnian created Open Championship history in 1983 when he became the first player to shoot 28 for nine holes in The Open Championship.
• Jodie Mudd became the fifth player in Open Championship history to record 63, but the only one to shoot the score at Royal Birkdale, in 1991. This was the first time 63 had been shot in the final round of The Open.
• In 1971 the 100th Open Championship was played at Royal Birkdale and won by Lee Trevino.
• The Ryder Cup was played at Royal Birkdale in 1965 and four years later was the scene of the first halved Ryder Cup Match.
• Apart from the Open Championships and Ryder Cups, the 1978 PGA Championship was played here and won by Sir Nick Faldo.
• Mark O’Meara (1987 Lawrence Batley International and 1998 Open Championship), Sam Torrance (1972 Lord Derby Under 23 Professional Stroke Play Championship) and Tom Watson (1983 Open Championship), are players competing in The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex and have won events at Royal Birkdale.
• Should Mark O’Meara win The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex he would become the first player to win three different European events on the same course.
• Should Tom Watson win The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex he would become the first player to win the event four times, following 2003, 2005 and 2007. A victory would also see him win The Open Championship and Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex at the same venue for the third time. The courses where he achieved the feat at are Turnberry and Muirfield.
