Jordan Spieth gives his verdict on the changes made to Royal Birkdale before The Open

Few golf courses have hosted more Open Championships than Royal Birkdale.

This year will be the 11th time the English golf course has hosted golf’s original major championship, and there are some fond memories of this place over the years.

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But the 2026 version of Birkdale will be very different from the one we saw in 2017. Some iconic holes have undergone drastic changes, like the shortening of the par-three seventh, and the total redesign of the short par-four fifth.

Jordan Spieth, who won The Open the last time it was played at Birkdale, gave his honest verdict on the changes made to the course.

Jordan Spieth’s honest opinion on changes made to Royal Birkdale

You’d imagine Spieth, having won the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale nine years ago, wouldn’t want to see a single change made to this historic golf course. But he’s all for the alterations after playing a practice round in the week’s build up to The Open.

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Speaking to SiriusXM radio, he said, “I think five is going to be a really interesting drivable hole. That was a kind of oddball hole in a pretty fantastic golf course. And now it’s got a little bit of bounce dependency to it, but that’s all drivable par fours over here, kind of having a little bit of that.

“So I’m interested to see how guys are going to play that hole. I think the change on seven is spectacular. You took a great par three and somehow made it even better, which is unusual. Normally, par threes are going back and back and back.

“And then on the back nine, I think the changes made the course harder. I think that the tee shots on what’s now 14 and 16 became a little bit easier as you shoot straight up the fairway instead of slight doglegs right.

“But then that 15th hole is harder than the old par-three 14th. And the 18th being back 35 yards and almost nowhere to hit the golf ball. You can hit a really nice shot and have to punch out there, so putting a driver in your hand on 18 rather than being able to hit a three-iron, mid-iron, it’s a huge change for the closing hole where you very well could see two-shot swings this year.”

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Very often when changes are made to golf courses it’s to lengthen them to keep up with the modern distances, but Birkdale has been smarter than that. Instead, they’ve designed holes to give them a greater risk-versus-reward dynamic. It will be interesting to see if it’s worked.