Preparing for the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale
Canadian Contenders
Corey Conners and Nick Taylor represent Canada in the 154th Open Championship, the final major of the season, and both are spending Tuesday getting acquainted with the unfamiliar layout of Royal Birkdale.
Conners, the only Canadian who has cracked the top 10 this year, said he was “working on the golf course and watching the ball bounce,” while noting that his five irons travel roughly 280 yards and that he is simply getting a feel for the conditions during practice.
Practice Round Highlights
On the final hole, a demanding par‑4 stretching beyond 500 yards, Conners aimed for the left edge of a bright yellow scoreboard, only to have his caddy, Danny Sahl, point out that the ball was heading straight for a Canadian flag perched atop the grandstand.
“Look, it’s headed right for that Canadian flag back there,” Sahl said, calling it “a good omen.” The comment sparked smiles among Conners’ playing partners, Viktor Hovland and Jackson Suber, who enjoyed watching his signature baby draw curve leftward down the fairway.
The group spent a long day exploring the links under unusually warm English weather, a condition that has persisted since Wimbledon concluded more than two weeks earlier and with no rain in the forecast for the championship week.
Course Conditions and Challenges
Royal Birkdale presents narrow, firm fairways that demand precision, especially when the wind picks up.
Conners noted that “the fairways are really narrow. They’re definitely hard to hit and it’s definitely going to be important to hit as many as possible,” adding that the relatively shallow rough offers a modest safety net if a shot drifts offline.
Taylor, who partnered with Conners in the practice round, highlighted the mental demands of links golf.
“The hardest thing about a links golf course is often hitting the lines off the tees,” he told the Toronto Sun, explaining that tournament preparation supplies artificial targets such as grandstands and TV towers to aid line‑calling later in the week.
He also praised his caddie, Dave Markle, for having inspected the course beforehand, which gave him a solid sense of the terrain after just one viewing.
Tee Times
Conners will tee off on Thursday at 7:58 a.m. ET, paired with Keegan Bradley and Casey Jarvis.
Taylor’s early‑morning start is set for 5:20 a.m. ET, sharing the tee with 2023 Open champion Brian Harman and Si Woo Kim.
Looking Ahead
With the field still untried on the historic layout, both Canadians are focused on translating their practice‑round experiences into competitive rounds when the championship begins.
The combination of tight fairways, firm greens, and the possibility of wind‑driven bounces promises a rigorous test that could reshape the leaderboard before the final round even begins.
