A look at the work put into hosting the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool

A successful staging of golf’s oldest major does not happen by chance. For Royal Liverpool Golf Club, thousands of contractors had – quite literally in some cases – moved heaven and earth since 2020 to ensure the venue was ready for the opening tee shot on the morning of the 20th of July 2023.

Evidently, the hard work paid off. After years of planning, the Royal Liverpool committee and R&A successfully welcomed the world to Hoylake for the 151st Open Championship.

Royal Liverpool GC is all set for the 151st @TheOpen 🏆#TheViewsBetterFromHere | @OfficialMauiJim pic.twitter.com/uZnXrMteW5

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) July 17, 2023

So, what exactly went on behind the scenes over the last 36 months?

Going deeper underground

At the end of 2021, the R&A arrived in Merseyside to begin one of the most complex tasks needed to prepare for The Open Championship in 2023. Battling the harsh Liverpool winter and strong winds off the Irish Sea, their technicians began installing 10 miles of fiber-optic cable underneath the ground of the course. These networking cables were laid down to assist with electronic scoring, internet, and phone usage, while also providing broadcasters with the means to beam back pictures to the world of the Open Championship.

It was a significant operation but the R&A – renowned for its eager approach to modernizing – was confident that Royal Liverpool could use these fiber-optic cables without replacing them for at least the next two decades. With The Open coming back to Royal Liverpool every ten years, this effectively means that the cables should last for the following two editions at Hoylake.

A grandstand finish

Another labor-intensive job that was required in order to ensure Hoylake was able to accommodate a successful Open was the installation of the grandstands. This process began in March, four months before The Open was set to begin. Organizers truly needed every minute of this preparation time.

Since the very beginning of this project, organizers had worked tirelessly against looming deadlines, with a prime example being the fact that the final touches were only made less than a week before The Open got underway this year at Royal Liverpool.

Luckily, the payoff was worth it. Having successfully installed the grandstands around the course’s 18 holes, Royal Liverpool offered patrons 14,000 fresh seats during the tournament.

The good news for members of Royal Liverpool is that it didn’t take an additional four months to remove the temporary seating. Once the presentation ceremony concluded on Sunday evening, contractors immediately began to pull down the grandstands with the dismantling project totaling just five weeks.

Naturally, even though this was a quicker turnaround time, the members still had to show a considerable amount of patience as their course resembled what could best be described as a construction site, for a short while.

IMAGE SOURCE: pexels.com

A labour of love

In general, the large majority of members were highly enthusiastic about their course hosting golf’s greatest major as a fortunate few got to see the best players in the world up close. Rory Mcllroy was one of those players this year, though he’s historically been known to have a special connection with the Royal Liverpool members because the Northern Irishman won the 2014 Open at their course.

Unfortunately, as we all know, it wasn’t a success for Mcllroy this time around. He came into the tournament hot, at least according to the outright golf betting markets who had him at odds of 6/1 in the lead-up to the first tee time. Yet it was Brian Harman who soared to victory, surprising viewers who had considered the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, and McIlroy to be star contenders.

It’s easy to see why members felt as though they were a part of the inspirational events that took place on their course. There were certainly sacrifices to be made in the short term. For example, members at Royal Liverpool had to use artificial tee boxes since late last winter in an effort to ensure that the course’s grass ones were in pristine condition for The Open. However, being able to witness history being made firsthand, despite the months of playing on less-than-favorable surfaces was probably worthwhile.

The Claret Jug at the end of the rainbow.

It’s Open week. pic.twitter.com/zgiBE6Pbh3

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2023

Undisputedly, a lot of the makeshift course changes were highly disruptive, yet many members argued that the inconvenience was a small price to pay on behalf of the welfare of the local area. It was predicted that the economy was set to generate over £200 million in revenue due to The Open’s proceedings. Only last year at St Andrews, the town was boosted by a £300 million payday during the week of The Open.

This wasn’t a once-off either as The Open at Royal St George’s in 2021 earned the local economy in Kent over £110 million; the proof has been there for a long while, The Open gives back abundantly.

A work in progress

It’s all systems go at Royal Liverpool now that The Open has come and gone, following years of back-breaking preparation. This year saw yet another special chapter in The Open’s long history play out at the Royal Liverpool’s beloved grounds.