Peter Finch returned a one-under-par 69 at Royal Birkdale just weeks before The Open, a round that gave the course a fresh test before golf’s oldest major arrives again. Finch, playing from the forward tees in his Break Par series, mixed five birdies with four bogeys and nine pars across a layout that has been stretched by more than 200 yards since Jordan Spieth won there in 2017.
The score mattered because Royal Birkdale will host The Open Championship for the 11th time, and the current setup is longer and sharper than the one Spieth conquered. The course now measures 7,300 yards, with two par-fives, four par-threes, 12 par-fours and 123 bunkers, a shape that leaves little room for error when the wind turns. For Finch, described as a two-handicapper, the 69 was his first time breaking par on some of the most famous golf courses in the world.
That makes the round useful in a way a casual practice note would not be. It offers a glimpse of how a low-handicap player handled the place before the best in the game arrive, and it does so under conditions that were not built to flatter. Royal Birkdale has been extended and reconfigured since 2017, which means any comparison with Spieth’s win is only partly a comparison at all. The yardage is longer, the margin is slimmer, and the course is set up to punish anything loose.
There is also a small wrinkle in the way Finch is described. He is praised as a two-handicap golfer in the round write-up, yet the same note identifies him as a professional golfer. That does not change the number on the card, but it does explain why the 69 carries more weight than a simple amateur benchmark: it came from a player who knows the course, the shots and the demands of a tournament week.
What comes next is clearer than the form guide. Scottie Scheffler goes in as the defending champion and favourite, and Royal Birkdale is about to ask a different question from the one Finch answered. Lee Trevino’s 14-under-par win on a par-73 course in 1971 remains the standard for scoring relative to par, but this version of Royal Birkdale looks built to make sure no one gets there easily.
