Residents and business owners in Birkdale have spoken of the “amazing buzz” as they prepare to welcome an estimated 300,000 visitors for The Open.
Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport will host the 154th men’s Open Championship from 12 to 19 July, with local traders hoping the event will provide a significant boost.
Sally Bee, from the Sally Bee Lifestyle shop in Birkdale Village, said she would be dedicating one of her shop window’s to promoting Elsie’s Story, a charity established in memory of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe following last year’s Southport knife attack.
“We had a tricky couple of years and all the news has been negative – it’s nice to see something positive,” she said.
She said The Open was “actually about celebrating Birkdale again” and there was a “massive buzz” in the close-knit community, with “everybody really revving up for it”.
“It’s not often, at the moment, you see villages thriving, as Birkdale is, so it’s great.”
Christian Hannah, operations manager at bar and restaurant Penelope’s on the Park, said: “You can already feel the energy that’s been injected into the area with all the excitement surrounding it.
“It’s also important, especially for us, being in hospitality, in a time when it needs it the most, with over 300,000 spectators expected to come.”
He said it would give local businesses “a nice little deserved boost”.
Birkdale resident Milly George, who is sales and events manager at Penelope’s on the Park, said the return of The Open was “amazing for Birkdale, Southport and all surrounding areas” because of the amount of people it would bring to the area.
She described Birkdale as “a hidden gem” and said she was already seeing visitors from different countries.
Bella Zheng, from the Rainbow 2000 Chinese restaurant, said the business was preparing for a surge in customers.
“Obviously we’re going to get very, very busy and hopefully the weather won’t be too hard for us to work in,” she said.
Pete Searle, owner of bar and cafe Ooshka Ba, has an extra reason to be excited about the return of The Open.
His eight-year-old son, a keen golfer who plays with the Tommy Fleetwood Golf Academy, has won tickets for the practice day on Tuesday.
The 49-year-old said his son was “very excited” and looked up to golfers such as Tommy Fleetwood the same way “most children look up to Ronaldo or Messi”.
Mark Moss and John Clarke, owners of Birkdale Cheese Co, said this would be their first Open since taking over the business about five years ago.
They have been ensuring they have sufficient stock, including locally produced cheeses such as Birkdale Cheddar and Birkdale Blue, and have secured a temporary events licence allowing them to open later during the championship.
Diane Girvan and her colleagues at The Card and Gift Boutique designed a special Open-themed shop window featuring a golf-focused children’s book written by a local author, inflatable golf clubs and a painting of Royal Birkdale that was displayed during the last Open at the course in 2017.
“We are all so excited,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll have new visitors to the village and we’ll gain new customers and, if the weather plays its part, then we will be busy.”
Morgan Gladney and Faye Atherton took over Heritage Butchers about a year ago.
“I think it’s a fantastic experience, not just for the people that live around here, but also people that come from so far,” said Morgan.
He said fellow business owners were “a little bit nervous because it’s such a big event and we all don’t sort of know if we should over-prep or under-prep”, but were excited about the benefits it would bring to the village.
Candice Paterson, activities and wellbeing co-ordinator at Birkdale Tower Care Home, said residents and staff were excited about the return of The Open and would be holding a golf-themed summer fair.
“We’re lucky enough to have our own putting green, so we’re going to have a mini Open of our own, among other golf-themed fun on the day,” she said.
Jane, a volunteer at Birkdale Community Hub and Library and a member of a local golf club, said it was “a very exciting time”.
“There’s a whole buzz around the area,” she said.
The windows of the Station Master’s House in Birkdale have been painted with a golf theme, while the library has created a display of golf books and historic golfing equipment to mark the occasion.
The Southport course has hosted The Open 10 times, with Jordan Spieth the last player to lift the Claret Jug there in 2017.
Mark Darbon, chief executive of the golf governing body R&A, said the wider benefits of The Open to the region were “really significant”.
He said the championship typically generated more than £200m in direct economic benefit through spending on accommodation, local goods and services, bars and restaurants.
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