Southport gets ready for Open season

Jul 14 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

As the Open Championship prepares to get under way, Ben Schofield looks at its impact on Southport

THERE isn’t a single hotel room left in Southport. Analysts reported back in March that more than seven of every 10 rooms in Merseyside were booked from this Thursday onwards, when the Open golf tournament officially starts.

A tented village has sprung up behind Greenbank High and the school has closed a week early.

Five £3m-outside broadcast units arrived at the town this morning from Loch Lomond, Scotland.

Closely following them will be the top 156 golfers in the world, here for the sport’s greatest tournament.

One of them, Padraig Harrington, was last night enjoying the final stages of his reign as champion.

After officially opening the Junior competition at Hesketh Golf Club – on the far side of Southport from Royal Birkdale, the host of this year’s main event – the 2007 victor reflected on his year at the top.

"Once you’ve won one," he told reporters, "all you want is to play major tournaments.

"Winning a second major is the next step."

And it’s much the same sentiment for the regions that get to host the world’s greatest golf championship. Once you’ve had one on your doorstep, you just want another – both for the buzz and the boost to your brand.

And Merseyside will complete golf’s championship double this week.

The Royal Liverpool club, in Hoylake, Wirral, hosted a spectacular, sun-kissed, Open in 2006. Now it’s Royal Birkdale’s turn.

The dunes course is anticipating more than 200,000 visitors through its gates over the four-day event.

It’s the ninth time the course – dubbed England’s Finest – has hosted the Open. The last was in 1998 when Mark O’Meara cleared the course four times in just 280 strokes to scoop the £300,000 prize money.

Since Tiger Woods’s departure from the tour, due to a knee injury, pundits are forecasting a close contest.

That could mean scenes reminiscent of Harrington’s nail- biting play-off against Spain’s Sergio Garcia, who had led the leaderboard for the first three days of last year’s tournament.