The Birkdale (as it was originally called) was a nine-hole golf course located at Shaw Hills and it opened for play in October 1889.
In 1894, the committee decided to extend the course to 18-holes and move it to its current home at Birkdale Hills. Designed by George Low, the course was ready in 1897.
In the 1930s, the course was remodelled and upgraded to championship standard by FW Hawtree and JH Taylor.
The club was simply known as Birkdale until 1951 when King George VI bestowed the royal charter on the club. Royal Birkdale Golf Club has hosted all the important events - the Ryder Cup, Walker Cup, Curtis Cup, Ladies British Open Championship. The British Open Championship has been hosted at Birkdale no fewer than eight times (most recently in 1998).
It truly is a famous links and widely recognised for its fairness. If you hit the fairways, rarely will the ball be thrown off course. The fairways are laid out in the flat-bottomed valleys between the towering dunes.
These dunes, in turn, provide superb viewing platforms for spectators. Invariably in immaculate condition, Royal Birkdale is a very tough cookie to master. The greens were re-built prior to the 1998 Open and despite their youth, are extremely difficult to read.