The Open stars warned new hole could "ruin someone's career" at Royal Liverpool

19 July 2023 , 18:15

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The par-three 17th is a new hole at Royal Liverpool for The Open (Image: Stuart Franklin/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

Golf coach Pete Cowen has criticized one of the holes at Royal Liverpool ahead of The Open Championship.

Players competing in the tournament have been taking part in practice rounds and sessions in the build-up to when they take their spot on the first tee on Thursday. But one hole on the par-71 course is seemingly presenting a sizeable challenge to the players.

The par-three 17th, which is nicknamed ‘Little Eye’, is a new hole that has been added to the course for this year’s tournament. It plays 136 yards with a raised green and is surrounded by several deep bunkers.

It’s a hole that replaces the previous par-three 15th, which was part of the course the year that McIlroy won the event nine years ago. But one golf coach is not happy with the hole at all.

Cowen has coached some of golf’s biggest stars over the course of his career, McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell and Tommy Fleetwood. And the 72-year-old has explained why he is not a fan of the 17th hole at Royal Liverpool.

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“I hate it,” Cowen told . “I haven’t heard a player say a good thing about it. They’ll just deal with it. It could ruin somebody’s career if the wind goes in the wrong direction all of a sudden or there is bad luck rolling down from the wrong place.

“Why would you make a 120-130 yard par-3 impossible? It’s called an infinity green and that could be it. They could be playing infinitely backwards and forwards across the green.

“I don’t mind – provided it’s fair. With the 17th at Sawgrass, you know exactly what you’ve got to do there.

Golf coach Pete Cowen is not happy with the par-three 17th at Royal Liverpool (Tom Shaw/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

“You can’t all of a sudden run into the bunker there and then you can’t play it so it’s coming back to you three or four times. It’s just because you’ve been unlucky.”

The final major of the year takes place in England this week from July 20-23, and Rory McIlroy will go into the week as one of the pre-tournament favourites after winning the Scottish Open on July 16.

The Northern Irishman returns to the same golf course in Liverpool where he won The Open in 2014.

The major winners from 2023 - Wyndham Clark, John Rahm and Brooks Koepka - will also be looking to stake a claim to win the Claret Jug this year. Cameron Smith won the tournament in 2022, which was the Australian’s first triumph in a major.

Mark Wakefield