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Open diary

David Birtill
16/ 7/2008

JAMIE Howarth has been a familiar face around here long before they started erecting the grandstands.

For the Stockport-based player is featured in the club's yearbook, which commemorates the Open, following his victory in the Birkdale Goblet last summer when he was still an amateur.

Jamie's not expecting to add the Claret Jug to his collection - well, maybe not this time!

He said: "I was told about my photograph appearing in the book so I called in at the club last week to pick one up as a keepsake.

"While I was there I watched Phil Mickelson putting out on the last green during a practice round and he popped over and said hello to a group of us."

Jamie had a one-to-one with the American the next morning - he was staying in the same hotel and they met in the lift.

"I told him I was on my way to play the second round of the final qualifier and he wished me luck," he added.

GOLF will be child's play for the 1,000 plus youngsters expected to take advantage of free lessons at the R&A Junior Centre.

Among the 20-strong team of PGA professionals are Styal-based John Watson, Whitefield's Roy Penney and Peter Kenwright, from Haydock Park.

And providing the glamour is former country and western singer Sharon Brookes, who coaches at Leisure Lakes, near Blackpool.

To get a 15-minute free lesson, youngsters simply have to turn up on the day and book a time.

BIRKDALE railway station, where a special golf train from Manchester pulls up every day, has been transformed for the Open.

The old canopies either side of the platform have been replaced, everywhere has been given a fresh lick of paint and brightened up with pots of petunias, begonias and lobelias which coincide with the Britain in Bloom competition.

MORE than 230,000 spectators - including 23,000 juniors - descended on Hoylake two years ago which will act as a yardstick for Birkdale, which attracted nearly 200,000 the last time it was held here in 1998.