How England’s record heat wave has changed this Open Championship

• The Athletic has live second-round coverage from The Open today

SOUTHPORT, England — Sean McLean leaned back in his chair and turned to the right, his gaze locking in on the row of flapping flags perched atop the grandstand behind Royal Birkdale’s ninth green.

On Thursday, the sleep-deprived course manager — the keeper of Birkdale’s venerable turf — began to speak of the unusual eastward wind gracing the Open Championship venue. But then he stopped himself. Something out the window of the pavilion he was seated in had changed.

“It’s actually swung round off the sea again,” McLean said, eyes widening. “Aye, heat can do strange things to weather in general.”

Weird is part of the deal at this year’s Open, and the players, course staff and Royal Birkdale’s consulting architects are feeling it. All at once.

“You can’t plan for these conditions,” said Tom Mackenzie, the co-founder of Mackenzie & Ebert, the design firm that led the renovation of Royal Birkdale ahead of this year’s Open. “You just absolutely can’t.”

That’s because the host country is scorching. Here in Southport, a seaside town on the Merseyside coast of England, the hundred-year-old buildings were constructed with the sole mission of trapping in winter warmth. Air-conditioning units are prized possessions. The dozens of courses that litter the region take on rain storms and gusts like it’s nothing.

So, a record heat wave — with temperatures reaching a high of 82 degrees Fahrenheit earlier this week — will naturally throw things for a loop. The pressure in the air is causing the winds to act in ways the club rarely sees. Thousands of fans are flooding through the gates with sunscreen in their packs rather than wool hats. And Royal Birkdale is literally baking.

Golden brown hues dominate the links surface, the rare bits of green centered around sprinkler heads. The turf is hardening. The putting surfaces are sounding more like corkboards by the hour. Royal Birkdale is hosting its 11th Open Championship this week, but it hasn’t seen conditions like this for the tournament since 1976. That year, it was so dry and hot that a suspected cigarette butt caused a fire to ignite between the first and second fairways, holding up play for 40 minutes. Viewers would be a lot more familiar with a wet and cold Birkdale, like the one Jordan Spieth conquered during its most recent hosting duties in 2017.

It’s no 1976, but the test that the Royal & Ancient expected in 2026 is rapidly evolving, and it will continue to do so throughout the week. There is not a single drop of rain forecasted for the next three days. McLean and his team are working around the clock, sprinkling water on the course only in the mornings and evenings, barely enough moisture to keep the blades of grass alive.

“We’re basically doing the bare minimum, keeping things from ticking over,” he said. “We just try and get it through the day.”

Typically, the consequence of a sunny Open Championship is firm and fast playing conditions that make golf fans drool. The more the ball rolls, the higher the entertainment value. The browning fairways are nostalgic for another era of this game.

The course plays shorter, but it also becomes more unpredictable. Players will experience unforeseen bounces, and shots will cascade down undulations and into tricky pot bunkers. At the same time, the heat means that these golfers won’t be battling the elements typical of an Open Championship. There will be no umbrellas or layering on rain gear. For professionals, the sun is always favorable. Unless the wind picks up, the scores will drift lower and lower.

Jackson Suber, playing in his maiden Open Championship, shot a 5-under 65 to take the first-round lead. He’s not the only name unfamiliar to casual golf fans who ended Day 1 atop this leaderboard — of the top 12 players, only Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa are past major champions. DeChambeau, Cameron Young and Pierceson Coody would be the only ones classified as long hitters. Dan Brown, an Englishman tied for second at 4 under, last made a cut in May.

“If someone had given me a free shot at how I would want the course to be set up, this is it,” Mackenzie said. “I think what it will do is it will reward the most patient players.”

The heat wave is a double-edged sword for leaders like Mackenzie and McLean, though.

Mackenzie and his team are the go-to firm for the R&A as it seeks to constantly tinker with courses on The Open Championship rota and stay one step ahead of the golfers. But when they plotted out the improvements to Royal Birkdale — including a new 15th hole — they did not do it with firm, fast ground and swirling winds in mind. Birkdale is not just an Open Championship venue; it is the home of hundreds of local members who typically play in cool, wet weather.

“I’m slightly disappointed on No. 15. The idea was it would be the long par-3 playing downwind,” Mackenzie said. “The idea was to create one of the only par-3’s where you could land the ball short and run the ball on. Whereas they’ve actually brought the tee forward because it’s playing into the wind today. They’ll be able to hold it up in the wind. They probably won’t be landing it short and running it on. So I think there’s a little tinge of regret there, if I’m honest.”

McLean and his crew of maintenance workers are used to 18-hour days during championships, but the balancing act of a baked-out Birkdale adds new challenges.

“There’s a pressure on the staff to keep things on that knife-edge, to keep it playing linksy, but at the same time, we’re keeping the plant alive and not letting it just disappear,” McLean said. “You want to be in control. People wouldn’t know that it takes a lot of fine-tuning to keep things on a knife’s edge. You’re trying to push it as far as it can go.”

So far, that line has been properly walked at Royal Birkdale.

Players are coming off of their opening rounds with few critiques of the course. The scores are low, but they’re not too low. At least one TV broadcaster marveled at the differing lengths of tee shots hit by each player on each hole, making her role more difficult, but signaling that members of the field are playing the course in a variety of ways.

A crispy Birkdale is ever-changing, but it’s still doing its job.

“It’s making them think,” McLean says. “And that’s what you want, you know?”