Royal Birkdale

Birkdale Golf Club was founded in 1889, moved to its present site in the Birkdale Hills in 1894, and built its white art deco clubhouse in 1935. It was named to host the 1940 Open, which the war cancelled; the first came in 1954 and the club has stayed on the rota ever since, hosting eleven times through 2026. Winners here include Peter Thomson twice, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson and Jordan Spieth.

Frederick Hawtree and five-time Open champion J.H. Taylor gave it its routing: the fairways follow the flat valleys between the dunes rather than climbing over them, so the lies are fair and the trouble is in the sandhills either side. It is 7,156 yards with a slope of 151, and it is where Branden Grace shot the first 62 in a men's major, in 2017.