By Martyn Herman
SOUTHPORT, England, July 15 (Reuters) - When Jordan Spieth won the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale, he and the rest of the field spent four days battling wind, rain and tangled fescue so sodden that iron wrists were required to hack errant balls from it.
Nine years later, the 154th Open will begin at the crack of dawn on Thursday on a course baked hard by a relentlessly warm British summer that is already into its third heatwave.
With solid sunshine predicted and next to no rain,
the 7,223-yard layout on the Irish Sea coast north of Liverpool will have a very different look, and feel, this time.
The close-cropped fairways have turned a dusty brown, the rough is wispier while one hole, the par-three 15th, did not even exist back in 2017.
Reigning champion Scottie Scheffler got an earlier than expected look at the course as a missed cut at the Scottish Open hastened his arrival on Merseyside.
"There are some extreme conditions," Scheffler, who produced a links golf masterclass to finish on 17 under at Royal Portrush last year, said of the course after a practice round.
"It's very interesting. A lot of thinking. You're going to get some weird bounces, some weird stuff is going to happen."
While moderate sea breezes gusting to around 20mph are expected throughout the four days, the biggest challenge will be controlling the ball on lightning-fast fairways.
"The ball's just going to run forever pretty much," Scheffler, attempting to become the first back-to-back winner of The Open since Padraig Harrington in 2008, said.
"The fairways this week are really tight, so you get a lot of cross-winds. They can be difficult to hold just because they're so fast and they're so firm. I think with the firmness, it creates a whole lot more challenges."
UNFORGIVING FAIRWAYS
While Spieth's rain gear and umbrella are unlikely to see much use this week, the American says the sea breezes combined with unforgiving hard fairways will give the course teeth.
"It's almost impossible to overestimate the wind," he said this week. "I feel like I underestimate it every single time the first three or four days that I'm playing golf here.
"The effect on the golf ball is magnified almost double what it is in the States."
World number two Rory McIlroy, who won his only Open across the Mersey at Hoylake in 2014, believes the Mediterranean-type weather has created optimum links conditions.
"It's as linksy as links gets," McIlroy said.
"I think I can play the course a little more aggressively than I could, so I'm excited by that possibility, but it's a great test," added the six-time major winner, who finished joint fourth at Birkdale in 2017.
"It's a lot different than when I was here a few weeks ago. The rough isn't quite as juicy. You might see guys being more aggressive off the tee, taking driver, trying to take the fairway bunkers out of play. Okay, it might go in the rough, but it's not that penal."
Spain's Jon Rahm said redesigns to the drivable fifth, a reworked 14th and a new 15th, together with new bunkers and narrower fairways have toughened up an already demanding layout.
"Weather-wise, very unusual week," Rahm said. "Looking forward to see what the challenge presents because I think we're going to see a bit of everything, six-irons off tees, drivers and long irons into par-4s. It should be a really fun one."
(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Toby Davis)
