Peter Finch has already shown how Royal Birkdale can be attacked before The Open even begins. The two-handicap golfer posted a one-under-par 69 in his Break Par series on YouTube, doing it from the forward tees only weeks before the championship returns to the course.
That score mattered because Royal Birkdale is not the same test it was in 2017. The course now measures 7,300 yards, more than 200 yards longer than when Jordan Spieth won there, and it will host The Open Championship for the 11th time in history. Finch’s round, built on five birdies, four bogeys and nine pars, offered a rare glimpse of how a strong amateur can still find scoring chances on a major venue before the best players in the world arrive.
For Finch, the 69 was also a first. It was the first time he managed to break par on some of the most famous golf courses in the world, a notable marker for a player described as a two-handicap golfer. Royal Birkdale can still give up low numbers when conditions are friendly, but it is also the kind of place that can turn brutal when the wind gets up, which is why a sub-par round there always carries extra weight.
There is a bigger benchmark hanging over the week as well. The lowest score relative to par by an Open champion came when Lee Trevino won in 1971 with a 14-under total on a par-73 course, while the low four-round total on the modern course remains Spieth’s 268 from 2017. Finch is not chasing those records, but his round at least shows that scoring is possible if the course gives up enough room and the ball is struck cleanly enough from the forward tees.
Scottie Scheffler goes into The Open as the favourite and defending champion, but Finch’s effort is the kind of early number that sharpens the conversation around Royal Birkdale. If a two-handicap player can come home in 69 weeks before the championship, the real test now is whether the lengthened course and its 123 bunkers will still allow the same freedom once The Open starts for real.
