Our 24th wedding anniversary fell on a Wednesday this year. Lauren was, as ever, very understanding about how I chose to mark the occasion. I played golf.
Not just any golf. I played Royal Birkdale, one of the finest links courses in the world, as a guest of James, a generous member who invited me and my old friend and ex Oxford trauma boss Phil Wilde up to Southport for the day. The 153rd Open Championship returns to Birkdale in a matter of weeks. The grandstands were already up. The scoreboards were in place. The hospitality structures were rising from the dunes. We were walking the same fairways where Palmer, Watson, Trevino and Spieth have all won major championships. I am not going to pretend I was not quietly thrilled about it.
The Course
Royal Birkdale earns its place in any list of the top five courses in the UK without argument. What sets it apart from many links courses is the fairness of its design. The holes run between towering sand dunes rather than over them, which means a well-struck shot is rarely punished by a blind bounce into trouble. What punishes you here are the bunkers.
Birkdale bunkers are something else. Deep, steep-faced, with walls of stacked sod that have been there for decades. They look like they were carved into the earth rather than built. Getting in one is one thing. Getting out is another matter entirely, and the direction of travel is frequently backwards.
The greens were in also in Open condition: firm, fast, and with pin positions designed to make you think twice about the aggressive line.
Caption: The iconic stacked-sod bunkers of Royal Birkdale
The 13th: Where Spieth Made History
Standing on the 13th tee, James explained what happened here in the final round of the 2017 Open. Jordan Spieth's drive went well right of the bailout semi rough he was aiming at to avoid the tight fairway and it’s treacherous bunkers. His shot finished a ridiculous 150 yards right of the fairway and behind the tented village. What followed was one of the most extraordinary sequences in recent major championship history. Spieth played a blind approach shot to the green and set up an incredible par recovery, kept the championship alive and the rest is history.
The R&A have since closed that escape route. A huge sand dune that looks completely natural has been constructed to the right of the 13th fairway specifically to prevent players repeating the same bail-out. The course architects have literally built a wall where Spieth walked through. It is a small detail that most spectators watching the Open this summer will never know about, but standing there on the tee with James pointing it out made the hole feel very alive with history.
The Clubhouse
Before we played, James took us through the clubhouse. Every wall is a piece of golf history. Framed original scorecards from every Open winner here: Watson 1983, O'Meara 1998, Harrington 2008, Spieth 2017, all four rounds, all signed. A beautiful oil painting of Arnold Palmer playing from the rough at the 15th in 1961 with a packed gallery watching from the dunes. Out on the course itself, a small stone plaque is set into the ground on the fairway marking the exact spot where he also played an incredible recovery shot.
A brilliant story James shared concerns Tom Watson's caddie leaving the 18th green after the 1983 victory. He has at least four balls visible in his right pocket, each of which he subsequently sold as the winning ball !! At around £50 a time, in the 1980s, imagine how much that would be in today's money. A fine piece of enterprise.
Phil, the Mini Claret Jug, and Why I Should Have Seen This Coming
Phil is one of the most respected trauma surgeons in British orthopaedics. One of the founding consultant members of the trauma unit in Oxford, a novel concept that flipped trauma care on its head with the patient accessing the most senior clinician in the team the moment they arrived in The ED. It was the embryo of the major trauma centre network we have across the UK today and has saved the limbs, lives and improved the care of thousands of injured patients over the years. Phil was a great teacher and spent his career shaping the surgeons who came through his department, myself included. When I was preparing for my FRCS viva examinations, it was Phil who mentored me through the process. He was rigorous, demanding, and exactly what I needed. That preparation stayed with me, and when I passed I channelled the whole experience into writing a T&O viva book for other trainees going through the same process. Published by Oxford University Press and now in its second edition, it has done rather well!
Caption: T&O Viva book cover (OUP, second edition)
On a golf course, the debt runs deeper. We have a tradition of competing for a miniature Claret Jug. Phil is a very steady 9 handicapper with an excellent putting stroke under pressure, which is possibly not a coincidence for a man who spent decades performing trauma surgery. We first played golf together at Frilford Heath and have had several trails to open venues to compete for our mini claret jug. Unfortunately despite shooting a very respectable 5 over gross (staring with 2 doubles !) he beat me again. Maybe next year if we can navigate the ballot of the famous Old Course at the home of golf!
Caption: Nev and Phil holding the mini Claret Jug, grandstand behind
The 18th
We finished on the 18th green beneath the beautiful art deco clubhouse, with the Open grandstands filling the sky behind us. A cinnabar moth resembling a Sith Lord crossed the fairway somewhere on the back nine, which felt like a small reminder that beneath all the championship theatre this is still a living piece of Lancashire coastline.
Caption: Group photo on 18th green with Open grandstand and clubhouse
It was a day of great company, a great course, and a familiar result.
Twenty-four years in, I still don’t take any of it for granted. Between us we have built careers, raised a family, Lauren has competed in her many Ironman events, and I have dabbled in ultrarunning and continue to play scratch golf ! We have somehow managed to keep each other laughing through all of it. The fact that I can spend an anniversary on a golf course in Southport and come home to someone who just smiles and asks how I played. That’s not nothing. That’s everything
