Wow what a tour this has been, our 5th British Open Tour and it just keeps getting better!
With all our bags packed with rainwear and jumpers we arrived in Liverpool, this city has been transformed over recent years and is now a fantastic spot to visit with major docklands upgrades making this a humming town. With great restaurants and bars and clubs like the Cavern Club (where the Beatles started). This is a fun place, and a great spot to start our tour.
We played Birkdale, Royal Lytham and next year’s Open course – Royal Liverpool. It was great to play “Lytham” and re-live Adam Scott’s last round in 2012. Royal Liverpool was very hard and fast but the greens here are perfectly designed and look amazing, the par 3’s here are superb.
We then headed to Turnberry, this is a great resort and a magnificent place to stay. With the sun going down over the sea and behind the lighthouse, it is certainly one of my favourite places in the world. The history here is amazing and it was once the home of the famous Robert The Bruce. You can still see the remains of where his cool castle was located.
We played Turnberry and the group loved it, we also caught up with Geoff Ogilvy and he had a few beers while chatting to the group in his t-shirt and jeans. Great guy!
We sadly left Turnberry, but we were headed to St Andrews with a stop along the way to play Royal Troon.
Troon is “Old School” and the starter wasn’t happy with the group crowding the first tee! We were even warned off….funny!
As we headed to St Andrews the group were so excited and couldn’t believe how good this trip was!
We checked into the Rusacks Hotel which is right on the approach to the 18th green… It’s awesome having breakfast looking over the famous links.
After a great sleep and some more Tennents Lager we took on Carnoustie or “Carnasty” as it locally known. This course is brutal and I can’t wait to see The Open return here in 2018. It is demanding off the tee and with The Burn running through the course it makes it extremely challenging… It has the hardest final 3 holes anywhere in the world.
We then played The Castle Course which has amazing views of St Andrews Township and is a tremendous course. A group dinner got us all ready for St Andrews the next day.
To play St Andrews is everyone’s dream and the group loved it! Great weather and the course was in great condition made it a magic day!
We then headed to Edinburgh to finish off the tour with a few days at The Open and a game at beautiful North Berwick..
Muirfield was so dry and hard and was testing everyone. Muirfield is a great course to watch The Open as it has a lot of mounds where you can get great viewing spots. The crowds were low and it was comfortable watching and the tournament was amazing with Adam Scott, Tiger and Westwood contending, and Phil Mickelson with his terrific final round, the atmosphere was amazing.
What a great tour!
Michael Mosher
PGA Professional, Director of Golf
Teed Up