Hoylake Earns High Praise From The R&A
Monday 24th July 2006
By Mark Robinson
In his victory speech following his triumph yesterday at the 2006 Open Championship, Tiger Woods called this year's tournament "one of the greatest for many years". Now the generous praise lavished on the Royal Liverpool Golf Club by the world's best golfer has quickly been seconded by the Open's organisers, the Royal and Ancient Club. Hoylake was staging its first Open for 39 years, and the R&A promised that there would be a much shorter gap between this year's tournament and the next one at the venue.
"This year's Open at Hoylake will go down as one of the best ever staged," R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson said.
"We don't bind future committees, but we certainly haven't seen anything that would prevent us coming back - certainly before another 39 years have elapsed. It was a wonderful Open on a course that was long overdue to host it."
In a press conference following his victory speech, Woods expanded on his admiration for the venue - the setting for his first Open victory away from St Andrews.
"It think it's a fantastic test," said Woods - rounding on some of the pre-tournament critics of the historic links, which is the second-oldest golf course in England.
"With the course running so fast it lent itself to amazing creatvity. If you would have had easier pins I'm sure the scoring would have gone even lower - these are the most difficult pin positions I've ever seen at an Open. A couple of times you feel like if you hit a putt too hard you'll actually putt the ball right off the green. You never normally have that feeling at an Open, but this week it was certainly the case. We all had to concentrate massively."
This year's tournament saw a record amount for spectators for an Open Championship staged in England. The 230,000 who turned up were the second largest crowd of all time - only behind the 239,000 that attended the 2000 renewal at St Andrews. While the venues for the next four Opens have already been agreed, many are predicting that a return to Hoylake will materialise within ten years. This gives the north-west of England an enviable selection of Open venues, with Hoylake standing proudly alongside perennial Open courses Royal Birkdale and Royal Lytham & St Annes.
