As a young man, I lived within half an hour's drive of Southport and went there frequently. I liked it a lot. The first golf tournament I ever attended was the 1968 Alcan Golfer of the Year Championship at Royal Birkdale, won by America's Gay Brewer. I had a good time watching him do it.
This year's 11th Birkdale Open will be different because the course itself has changed significantly. The old, brilliantly Art Deco clubhouse remains largely unaltered and, to me, still looks like a ship in profile from the final fairway. No-one else seems to see it like this.
