Baked Birkdale offers different Open test from 2017

SOUTHPORT, England, July 15 : 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 expect