It took four goes for three-time major champion Padraig Harrington to pick the right club to hit the best shot on the new 15th hole at Royal Birkdale.

New things at the Open Championship are rare, so steeped in tradition are the revered links courses which make up the rota used by the R&A for the year’s final major.

However, when Harrington won his second-straight Open at Birkdale in 2008, or when Ian Baker-Finch saluted in 1991, the 15th hole was not even there.  

The lengthy par three has been added ahead of the 2026 Open and remains a curiosity even for Rory McIlroy.

The new 15th hole. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

The two-time Masters winner completed a flying visit to Birkdale, just one day, before the Scottish Open, a week after his caddie, Harry Diamond, also played there.

McIlroy went to Birkdale early, a trip he tried to keep secret before Nick Faldo, who was also there, told the world. He wanted to take away the pressure of too much on-course practice in Open week.

However, he conceded that to get the best idea of how to play the brand new 15th, it might take a few goes.

“Undecided,” he said at the Scottish Open, where he was asked what he thought about the newest hole in Open Championship history.

“I'll have to play it a bit more. I only played it once. It may be ... there may be a couple of hole locations on the green where the hole is a little bit too long ... like, it's maybe a little bit silly to be hitting a 3-iron into some of them.

“But if they moved up the tee box where you're hitting like a 6- or 7-iron in, it's good. But it's going to be an interesting hole. I think it's going to be a big talking point during the week.”

When Jordan Spieth won his Open at Royal Birkdale in 2017, the 15th hole was a par-five, and the hole on which he made a magical 12m putt for eagle, after which he famously demanded his caddie, Michael Greller to, “Go get that!” and retrieve the ball as he charged to the 16th tee. 

Spieth lamented the fact that, on his return, he couldn't visit the site of his memorable Open moment, but also was excited about what the new hole could bring. 

"I think that 15 can be a great hole with the right tee box and pin with the right wind direction," he said.

"I thought the old 14th was a fantastic par-3. I think this course has some of the best par-3s that we play in any Open Championship. I think the back tee with this east wind at 3-wood, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense with the way the green is, but it's also not supposed to be that wind direction.

"So I think hitting somewhere between a 4-iron that can stop - like we played the up tee today, and it was 201, but it's in your face and you're hitting 220-yard 4-irons. You still have to hit a nice shot, but if you do, you get rewarded.

"It is a really cool-designed hole, but it needs to be played at the right yardage. Otherwise, it can get pretty funky."

Harrington’s experience was a five-iron, which became a six-iron, which turned into a three-quarter five-iron as he tried four times to just land one on the green.

He won’t get four goes in the opening round of The Open, nor will McIlroy or Spieth. 

The 7th hole has a new green. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

However, it’s not the only new challenge facing the players at Birkdale.

The 5th hole is also regarded as new, albeit it sits as it did previously on the routing, but has had everything – the tee, the green and the fairway – moved.

The 7th hole, famous for its "donut bunker",  has a new green which has been raised, creating steep runoffs into what Birkdale Head Professional Gregg Pettersen called the deepest bunkers on the entire course.   

Also what was previously the 15th hole is now Royal Birkdale's 14th, redesigned as a long par-5.

Then there’s the 18th hole; the scene of some famous victories, including Baker-Finch’s, which has had the tee box moved “a long way left”.

The 18th at Royal Birkdale. Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

There have been 10 Opens played at Birkdale, but none like the 2026 version, where every hole will have the sort of attention McIlroy said was also solely the domain of links golf.

So much so, he’s been thinking about it, and talking it about with his fellow pros like Tommy Fleetwood, well ahead of his arrival in pursuit of a seventh major victory.

“The one thing that I like about Birkdale is there's usually sets of bunkers on both sides of the fairway. So you're always having to challenge one set of bunkers to get to where you want your ball to finish,” he said.

“So like Tommy [Fleetwood] and I were talking about it last night, the 10th hole at Birkdale, it's a dog-leg left and Tommy is like, 'Did you play it back at all of them?'

“And I said well, no. Because if you lay back at all of them, you don't really have a view to the green and you are hitting a 6- or 7-iron in. But if you challenge that left one to stop it short of the ones on the right, you have a full view to the green and you're hitting a wedge in, and then all of a sudden it becomes a gettable hole.

“But to be able to put your ball in that position and hit a wedge in and get a full view of the green, you have to challenge the bunker on the left.

“So there's a lot of holes like that where it's a lot of strategy, but like okay, I know I'm hitting a club that could get me into trouble, but to be in the best possible position for my second shot, that's the shot that I need to play.”

At the oldest championship in golf, some questions remain the same.

At Royal Birkdale this year however, players will be searching for new answers on a course that has never looked quite like this.