It’s easy to forget, given how thoroughly Jiyai Shin raced to victory at the 2012 Women’s British Open, that she didn’t lead from start to finish. But her triumph at Royal Liverpool, the English club often referred to simply as Hoylake, nonetheless ranks as one of the most impressive performances in the tournament’s history.
Her message to the world’s best men’s golfers, who will contest their British Open at Royal Liverpool on Thursday, can be summed up in two words: Watch out.
“Royal Liverpool has a lot of small greens, but also small, deep bunkers,” Shin, who also won the 2008 Open in Sunningdale, wrote in Korean in response to email questions.
“There is also wind,” warned Shin, who still plays on the LPGA of Japan Tour and finished second at the US Women’s Open this month. “You have to be patient against the constant toil of the wind.”
The wind may not be the only threat, not for a club with a record weather headache at the recent Opens. In 2006, when Tiger Woods won, signs warned of a fire hazard. Eight years later, before Rory McIlroy’s win, a thunderstorm forecast led to a two-tee start for the first time in Open history. And when Shin played there in 2012, bad weather condensed the third and fourth rounds into one day. At the time, she said Hoylake provided the “worst conditions I think I’ve ever played in”.
The coming days can also cause problems.
“My concern now is what the forecast is for Saturday and Sunday, and there is some uncertainty about which way it will go,” said Martin Slumbers, the CEO of the tournament-organizing R&A, on Wednesday. “But it gets wet or it gets very wet. We will see.”
Despite the weather, the course has a remarkable history: no club along the English coast, with the exception of Royal North Devon, is older than Royal Liverpool, which was founded in 1869 and first hosted a British Open in 1897, when the amateur Harold Hilton won. The men’s Open champions later included Bobby Jones and Peter Thomson.
The 151st Open, Shin predicted, “will be the beginning of a new history.”
No. 1: Royal
Par 4, 459 yards
More often than not, Royal Liverpool’s first hole will play into the wind, and there are fairway bunkers on both sides of the hole – right around the distances where many of this week’s players can tee off.
Welcome to the British Open.
“It’s a dogleg hole that bends slightly to the left, and the width of the green isn’t wide, making it difficult to place the second shot on the green,” said Shin. “It is advantageous to aim a little to the right to maintain flow for the next shot when playing this hole.”
There are three bunkers near the green, which has hardly the smoothest putting surface in Britain. Trouble at No. 1 doesn’t necessarily doom a player, though: Shin had a triple bogey there for one round.
No. 7: Telegraph
Par 4, 481 yards
Do you want to hit the fairway? Hit the tee shot at least 250 yards into what could be a decidedly forbidding wind. If you come up short, you’re likely to be in the gorse that can be found all over Royal Liverpool. However, a successful tee shot can position a player for a compliant second shot toward the green, where two left bunkers lurk nearby.
The green has been drenched in more tricks since Shin and McIlroy won, but Shin suggested that the wind was more challenging than the green.
“It was difficult to adjust the distance from the second shot to the pin because of the headwind,” she recalled. “A strong wind had the biggest impact on the first bounce.”
No. 13: Alps
Par 3, 194 yards
Few holes are more loved by members of Royal Liverpool than No. 13. Hills obscure the green from the tee box, suggesting there isn’t much green to the left.
But that’s not true, and there’s actually more green on the left than on the right.
Shin recommends not expecting much bounce from the green, which is diagonal and runs left to right, and she recalls how she “aimed a little harder for the back of the pin than the front.”
And watch out for the right bunker.
“It seems the club members know a thing or two about golf if they particularly like this difficult hole,” said Shin.
No. 17: Small eye
Par 3, 136 yards
The British Open has never been played in Wales, but the new 17th hole will bring the competition eerily close: just over Dee Estuary. The raised green awaits players after a spread of bunkers and other hazards, so there’s little room for error off the tee. There aren’t many favorable spots for a ball to roll off the green either, and the R&A hopes the hole will add some drama as the tournament draws to a close on Sunday.
Perhaps this is the year of the par-3. At the Los Angeles Country Club last month, the course featured five par-3 holes at a US Open for the first time since 1947.
“Personally, I think par 3 makes the game more exciting,” said Shin. “I think it’s going to be a great hole with a variety of new variables.”
No. 18: Thin
Par 5, 609 yards
Shin arrived at the 18th tee box on the final round with virtually no chance of losing. The only question really was whether she would win by a double-digit margin.
“When I walked to the hole and looked at the stands around the green,” she said, “I felt it was my stage and I was honored to be there.”
It goes without saying that this year’s Open may not have such a runaway winner – the most recent player to come close to Shin’s 2012 mark was Woods in 2000, when he won by eight strokes at St Andrews – so number 18 may be a bit more loaded. And it will definitely be longer after the addition of a new tee, and it will also be narrower. The R&A itself warns that the fairway can appear “only a handful of yards wide” from the tee in some places.
The hole, the 16th for members and a place where Open players have often used long irons in the past, will curve to the right, through a vast and extensive out-of-bounds area, for second shots. If a player can avoid the five bunkers around the green, including the three on the left, eagle is a possibility.
“Since the hole runs from the front to the back of the green, you can aim for the next shot without worry, even off the green,” said Shin.
On Sunday, weather permitting, someone will step on that green and hoist the burgundy, freshly engraved with his name.
