SOUTHPORT, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND – There is a saying in sports: Beware the joyous father! The birth of a child is so overwhelming that the love travels right down the golf club to the ball. Now, Sam Burns, whose wife Caroline gave birth to his daughter Belle last week, stand one round away from golf immortality at the 2026 Open Championship at fabled Royal Birkdale...
SOUTHPORT, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND – For the second time in as many Open Championships Royal Birkdale has surrendered the lowest score ever posted over a single round in a major championship. Twice actually, as Australia’s Lucas Herbert posted 62 to finish the first two rounds at 8-under, then young American star Sam Burns followed with another 62, this time bogey free...
SOUTHPORT, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND – Like a dream from which you never want to wake, a walk amidst the heaving dunes and rumpled fairways of Royal Birkdale is a golfer’s greatest wish come to life. The sting of the salty spray in your nostrils, the wild, whirling winds whipping the flag, and the fairways winding through the mighty dunes like pathways through a maze: a...
The Open Championship Chronicles and Beyond Part 2 – Royal Birkdale, West Lancashire, Southport and Ainsdale, Wallasey, and Hillside [Editor’s Note: Our Indomitable Sportsman Jay Flemma continues his adventures along England’s fabled Golf Coast. Enchanting and spellbinding, the northwest England is home to one stunning links after another, heathland or coastal, or...
This was the old major championship preview I did for PGA.com back in 2008. From the article: Indeed, all Merseyside rocks every 10 years or so, as though the Beatles have returned to prominence, every time professional golfers return to Birkdale. The patrons are duly rewarded for their fervor with outstanding views of the golf: Birkdale was a stadium golf course...