Golf course design firm Mackenzie & Ebert Ltd have been advising Royal Liverpool Golf Club on making the challenge for the world’s elite golfers strong and fair for this year’s Open Championship.
The most notable of those challenges is the new ‘Little Eye’ hole which will play as the 17th in The Open. Although measuring only 136 yards, it will play as long as a 5-iron or as little as a gap wedge depending on the direction of the wind. Playing directly towards the sea, a raised infinity green is surrounded by a sea of bunkers and sandy waster areas, and huge fall-off areas to all sides, provide a striking scene. Any miss will leave a devilishly difficult up-and-down on what is a small and considerably undulating green.
Speaking about the new hole to Clippd.com, Martin Ebert said: “The new par-3 17th is definitely going to be a focal point for this year’s Open Championship. The club and the R&A got together to discuss what they needed to address both from a course point of view and an infrastructure perspective ahead of the Open. One of their ideas was to reverse the par-3 13th, as the club played it. They came to us with the idea, and we thought it had a lot of merit. The brief was to create something special and dramatic that can provide a real turn and twist at the end of the Open.
“They were initially thinking about a very wide, shallow green, but it’s all very well having a 12th hole at Augusta. With links conditions ,where you can get strong winds, it was far more important to create something a bit longer and narrower that tests the alignment but gives a bit more length up the green.
Speaking about the strategy to play the hole, Ebert added: “Short is not a good place, although I’d say it’s a slightly better place to miss than the bunker to the right. If you miss short or even if you hit it on the green with a bit of spin and it’s coming backwards, it will be off the front, down the approach and into a really steep-faced front bunker, which merges into a sandy waste area. You get it out, but it can quite easily roll back down to your feet. If it does, it may well end up in the player’s footprints, which will only add to the drama and the potential for disaster.
“A front left pin is going to bring all that into play. The challenge is all about the distance from the edge of the green and the overall elevation change from base of the front bunker up to where the ball is safe. In the hole’s original conception, we had a really deep swale rather than a bunker to the right of the green but it was felt a lot of players would hit the 60 degree wedge from down there. The decision was made to put a bunker in. It’s easy enough for them to get out of but if you don’t give it enough momentum and height to get the ball onto the green surface, then it’s coming back towards you.
“The four corners of the green provide the likely pin placements. I think the pin placements on the right will be the hardest. Though it will look more open from the tee with a bit more green to the left to play with, if they want to knock it in close it will bring the right bunker into play.
“The bunker on the left will probably be the place to miss. The elevation from the base of the bunker to the surface of the green is much less terrifying. But for the right hander, if you go into that bunker with speed and it’s up at the far end, you’ve got a really awkward stance.
A back left pin is going to be tough. It’s going to be difficult to get close to that flag unless you’re really brave. Anything with a significant amount of spin might just be drawn back into the swale and off the green to the left, although that wouldn’t be the end of the world. When they put the flag back left, the green surface just starts to tip away there. If you’re long, the ball will come to rest on the longer semi-rough that’s been allowed to grow out behind the green, so anything rolling over the green won’t get into the sandy waste. It would be odd for someone to airmail the green so much that they get into the sand.
Ebert concluded: “It would be nice to think the new 17th will have some sort of impact on the outcome of The Open. It would also be nice if it was a positive one with someone hitting a great shot into a couple of feet. But if there is the odd disaster, it will only add to the lore of the hole. And I wouldn’t be disappointed if there were a few disasters! I’d love to be sitting in that grandstand on Thursday morning when the first groups come around just to see what they make of it. I might be going in disguise and just seeing how the land lies!”
Mackenzie & Ebert Ltd also advise at Royal St George’s, Royal Lytham & St Annes, Turnberry, Carnoustie and Royal Troon, as well as many other classic courses around Europe.