GOLF officials are hoping that glorious summer weather will play its part in attracting a record attendance at Royal Birkdale for the Open golf championship next year.
When Royal Liverpool in Hoylake hosted the tournament last year, 230,000 people attended over four days and the soaring temperatures were attributed as a major element in the high turnout.
David Hill, director of champion- ships for golf’s governing body, the R&A, who visited the course yester- day, said: “We are delighted to be bringing the Open back to Birkdale again. The Open championship is always well attended at Royal Birkdale and we expect golf fans to book season tickets early to take advantage of discounted rates.
“We had 230,000 at Hoylake. Our prices are up 10% since Hoylake.
“I would like to think that we will get a similar size of crowd give very good weather.
“If the weather is not as good we will do well to achieve 200,000.”
He added that everyone was welcome and officials were planning for up to 250,000. When the Open was last held at Birkdale in 1998, 193,000 spectators attended. Next year will be the ninth time the club has hosted the event.
Research carried out after St Andrews hosted the Open in 2005 suggested that £32.3m had gone in to the local economy.
Mr Hill anticipated the value of the event to be about £73.2m in direct benefits and advertising.
About £20m of that will be spent in the local economy 15 to 20 miles around the course.
Reduced price season tickets for the event, from Thursday, July 17 to Sunday July 20 have now gone on sale. Until January 31, a season ticket is £180, before April 30 they are £200, and from May they are £220.
Day tickets are £55, pensioners over 65 pay £40, 16-21 year olds pay £25, and under 16s go free.
Sefton’s head of tourism Tony Corfield said the council regarded Southport as the capital of the “Eng- land’s Golf Coast”. “We are going to use the Open to re-launch Southport. Sefton council is chomping at the bit to rise to the challenge.
“It’s absolutely vital that this event comes here and continues to be suc- cessfully delivered. We will have an exceptionally busy 2008 when the world’s cameras will be on the North West of England.”
In a council report he said the suggested budget of up to £575,000, of which around £200,000 will come from the R&A, would allow for a “no frills” Open.
He said Sefton would deliver a “world class event that the residents, businesses and visitors to Sefton would be proud of”.
GOLF NORTHWEST: PAGES 39-42
davidbartlett
