Day Trippers

GOLF.com’s Drop Zone podcasters SEAN ZAK and DYLAN DETHIER spent a blustery 24 hours in Merseyside last summer to download everything there is to know about this year's Open Championship host. Royal Liverpool. If the course (more commonly known as Hoylake, the name of its surrounding town) isn't seared into your memory or doesn't evoke quite the same deep sense of place or Open history as Muirtield, Carnoustie, St. Andrews, Turnberry or Troon, no worries. It will now

Sean Zak: Hello, Dylan. It’s been 10 months since you and I were traipsing the wavy turf at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, basking in the sun and battling killer winds along the Irish Sea. I miss it dearly. But, for readers who know next to nothing of Royal Liverpool, can you bring us there? Locate it on a map. What should we know about where the golf world is headed in July?

Dylan Dethier: Sure thing, Sean. The name nearly gives it away: Royal Liverpool is close to Liverpool, England, the fifth-largest city in the UK, known as the home of the Beatles, soccer powerhouse Liverpool FC and also your adopted club, Everton. But the course is actually in Hoylake, a charming town of about 10,000 that sits on the Irish Sea in Merseyside County. So, even though we’re not far from the bustle of big-city commerce, we’re removed enough that this Open will once again have something of a small-town feel, the way the tournament likes it. What were your impressions of Hoylake, the town?

SZ: First thought? It’s a beach town, with a major sandy enclave on either side of the course. That feels just like Portrush. There’s a Hoylake train stop, which, a century ago, is where all the golfers used to get off when they’d visit. That feels just like Troon. It has old pubs built from wood and stone, and, in the heat of the summer, locals grab their pints and head out to the stoop. Air-conditioning isn’t a priority in this part of the world. All of which is to say, Hoylake feels like an Open town. It has everything all the other Open hosts have, with one Bond-geek bonus: 007 Daniel Craig was a school kid here!

DD: What were your first impressions of Royal Liverpool?