371 - Course Diaries: Royal Birkdale w/ Mike Howard
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Mike Howard, a Senior Design Associate at McKenzie and Ebert, shares the deeply personal journey behind his role in leading the Royal Birkdale renovation—his home club, where he grew up playing as a 13-year-old member with no family golf legacy. What began as a nostalgic love for the course evolved into a professional mission to balance championship-level demands with everyday playability. He reveals how the course’s history—shaped by wartime rebuilding, haphazard evolution, and shifting routing—demanded a radical rethink: repositioning the 14th hole to create a new par three, relocating the practice ground 250 meters closer to the clubhouse, and rethinking tee placements to ensure fairness across skill levels. The project wasn’t just about aesthetics; it was about restoring dignity to the course’s character while making it playable for 99.999% of golfers, not just pros. Howard also exposes the myth of the 'grand architect'—emphasizing that real golf course design is a grueling, detail-driven process involving drainage fixes, cultural translation with local labor, and relentless stakeholder negotiation. As the Open Championship approaches, his biggest hope? A warm, dry spring to deliver firm, fast conditions that honor the course’s dune-driven DNA. The episode is a masterclass in how history, humility, and human-scale design can transform a legendary course without losing its soul.
Repositioning the 14th hole created a new par three that plays opposite the other par threes, restoring variety and rhythm to the closing stretch.
Moving the practice ground 250 meters closer to the clubhouse dramatically improved the daily experience for members and visitors.
The course’s original fairways were largely man-made through dune-cutting, not natural ribbons, challenging the myth of Birkdale’s 'natural' dunes.
Tea locations were rethought to ensure all players, including those with reduced distance, experience the same strategic challenge and opening hole difficulty.
Drainage issues in bunkers—caused by proximity to the water table—were a key technical fix, making them playable year-round, not just during the Open.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
Introduction & Guest Welcome
The host welcomes Mike Howard, a Senior Design Associate at McKenzie and Ebert, and sets the stage for a deep dive into his personal and professional journey with Royal Birkdale.
Mike's Golf Origins in Spain & Ormskirk
Mike recounts his unexpected start in golf at age 8 in Spain, followed by joining a UK club at 13 through his sister's connection, and how his early exposure to diverse golfers shaped his perspective.
The Competitive Youth & the Turning Point
Mike reflects on his intense junior career, playing hundreds of tournaments, and the pivotal moment at the Brabazon when he realized his swing failed under pressure, leading to his decision to pivot from pro golf.
From Golfer to Course Designer
Mike details his transition from playing full-time to pursuing landscape architecture at Edinburgh, including a formative experience working on a project in Lima with 30+ local laborers, teaching them golf course shaping from scratch.
Early Projects: Prince's & Historical Research
Mike discusses his formative work on Prince's, where he learned the importance of historical context, and how deep dives into old aerials and war-era destruction reshaped his understanding of course evolution.
“The absolute most important thing, I think, especially somewhere like here, other places might not be the case, but I think here is, it has to be playable for 99 .999 of the people that come out and play”
“you're never going to get someone go, right, we're going to close the course. We're going to put it back exactly to like it was 80 years ago and then we're going to open up this new course and it's going to cost 15 million pounds.”
“that's why I think I learned a lot more once I got on the job versus the actual education side, because I had got a task like that and suddenly you're kind of learning all this from all these different guys.”
Host
Guest
royal birkdale
organization
mike howard
person
mckenzie and ebert
organization
tom mckenzie
person
r&a
organization
sean
person
sharon eales
person
st george's
organization
hailing
organization
edinburgh
place
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