Friday was our first opportunity to have everyone together on the trip. Since we were to spend the weekend in Liverpool prior to traveling to Harrogate, we visited Royal Birkdale Golf Club in nearby Southport. Royal Birkdale has held more Championship and International events since World War II than any other course in the world.

The weather included lots of wind, some rain and hail but we pressed on with a tour of their facilities and course courtesy of host Course Manager Chris Whittle and his deputy Rob Marchbank.

Some photos from our tour:

Deputy Rob Marchbank points out features on the course.

We saw some reels being ground by other members of the staff, but somewhat surprisingly for a club of that stature there is no full time equipment technician on staff.

Jordan Spieth won the 2017 Open Championship last July in dramatic fashion so I presented Rob and Chris with a Jordan Spieth bobblehead from the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in my hometown of Atlanta.

After the obligatory stop in the Royal Birkdale pro shop we headed just down the road for lunch and a visit to Hesketh Golf Club.