I had played Royal Lytham & St Annes before, last November, when the course looked very different compared to the present day, in this sunniest of summers.

I certainly didn’t walk off the famous 18th green with harsh sun and wind burn last winter, that’s for sure. I have no complaints though, and never will when taking the magical drive down Links Gate and into one of the most iconic venues in the sport.

The Ladies European Tour had kindly invited me to play the course the day after Shiho Kuwaki beat Esther Henseleit in a playoff to win the AIG Women’s Open.

What a venue for the best women’s players to compete on. It certainly beat a few of them up, and crowned an outstanding winner, who didn’t come out of the blue quite so much as some have suggested, having won twice this year on the LPGA of Japan Tour.

In its baked, white guise with stunningly crisp and fast greens, I took to the course at 10.30 am, and gratefully cracked a 4-iron into the heart of the first green – that daunting par 3. Unfortunately, I couldn’t maintain that quality for each of the 18 holes, but you don’t want to hear about that anyway.

What I think you’d prefer to hear about is the golf course – which has now hosted the Women’s Open six times, and will host The Open Championship for the 12th time in 2028, bookending a gap of 16 years without it.

While it was a fascinating privilege to experience what the best players in the women’s game had experienced, it is difficult not to look ahead and ponder how the best men’s players might get on at this compact and challenging links on the Fylde coast.

Here is what I picked out…

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A concerning Par 5 trend on The Open rota

The 2024 Open at Royal Troon featured the longest hole in Open Championship history. The par-5 6th was extended to 623 yards, 22 yards longer than when the famous Ayrshire track hosted the event in 2016.

This beat the record previously set from The Open the year before at Royal Liverpool – the par-5 15th hole was stretched to 620 yards. All in all, Troon was 195 yards longer between Opens.

The new 14th hole at Royal Birkdale that we saw at this year’s Open was 602 yards, and if you squint, it isn’t too dissimilar from the par-5 7th at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Each of them is extremely long, with bunkers running up both sides. The green at Lytham is smaller than the one at Birkdale, but they’re both precariously perched and punish inaccurate approaches.

The 11th hole at Lytham is a wide par 5 with bunkers on each side, too. As much as I never, ever criticise golf courses, or architects, especially at world-class venues, I fail to see the imagination here. The 7th at Lytham is a little more narrow than the 11th, but at 589 yards, again, this matches the trend.

In the sport’s battle against distance, the R&A has decided that the only way to truly test the best and most powerful players in the game on par 5s is to make them into airport runways, and construct them in a straight line.

There are bunkers there to gobble up bad lay-up shots, but I think it would be fair to have a concern for this direction of travel. Just adding more yards to these holes doesn’t make them particularly more exciting, especially when The Open leaves town, and the members are to tackle what is left.

Par 3s reward solid long iron play

I mentioned a 4-iron I hit into the 1st hole at RLSA earlier. That was a real thrill, as much as a pleasant surprise. But if you are to find the putting surfaces on the short holes at Lytham, this is what you need to do, if you can.

I hit a 5-iron into the 5th hole, then 8-irons into the 9th and 12th. My tee shot on the 9th was horrific, and annoyed me as this is such a picturesque and perfect par 3 – you don’t want to ruin your experience by virtually losing your ball in the gorse.

While the green on the 1st hole is fairly flat, there is more slope and jeopardy on holes 5 and 9. The 12th green can also punish you if you fail to perform a straight mid-iron. It is on these holes where I suggest you pitch your tent at the 2028 Open. You might just find the winner from the player who can display the best ball-striking when they have an iron in hand, instead of their driver.

The par 3s at Royal Lytham & St Annes

ALSO: The anatomy of a 62 – and what it tells us about the distance debate

The finish at Royal Lytham is brutal

You are made to sing for your supper/earn your money/pull your weight in the last four holes at Royal Lytham. Whatever you’re doing, it is tough.

Even the last five holes – the 14th requires an accurate and long tee shot between bunkers before an approach to a putting surface protected by gnarly greenside traps, and no obvious bail-out.

The 15th hole is just remarkable. You are asked to play a small fade off the tee, but there is more space on the right side of the hole than you would think standing on the tee box. The further left you hit it, the more blind your approach is to a green that really isn’t that big.

Once the players reach this green at The Open, they’re back into the throng and the inevitable hustle and bustle that will surround the 18th tee, and the opening holes down the railway line.

16 could be described as respite. There is, at least, no car park there anymore which Seve Ballesteros famously had to contend with in 1979. It will probably be driveable with the right wind – I had a putter in my hand with my second shot, albeit this was from 50 yards away and my confidence with nipping chips is in the floor.

17 is an all-timer. You fire down a corridor for your tee shot, then shoot left to a green surrounded by sand traps. You can feel the history, and see it marked among the fairway bunkers. There is a plaque that commemorates Bobby Jones’ second shot from the bunkers in the final round in 1926. He made a par from what used to be a sandy waste area, and went on to hoist the Claret Jug.

As I saw my drive soaring through the air on the 18th hole, I actually shocked myself. I’m going to be playing from the fairway with my second shot on 18 at Lytham, I thought. This doesn’t happen to many people. Well, it turns out it didn’t happen to me either.

As my ball came down the left side, it landed in a trap and sand puffed up into the air. Gutted. I chopped out, pulled my third long of the green, then scrambled Gary Player-style for a bogey. All you can see from this tee shot is bunkers, and it is so narrow. What a hole, and what a way to end a brutal stretch of championship golf.

Golf balls are flying everywhere

As my playing partners and I walked down the long par-4 14th, a ball came bounding over from the 13th tee – it is probably the closest I’ve ever been to being struck on the fly on the golf course.

On my walk from the 17th green to the 18th tee, a ball rolled near my feet from the 2nd tee box. This wasn’t a coincidence anymore – it was the nature of the golf course. This could be a particular problem on the opening holes that follow the railway. It is compact, and if there is going to be more than 200,000 fans here in two years’ time, it will be a squeeze.

I hit a fade (try to, anyway). So, I was naturally aiming left on the 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 8th tees with the hope it would spin back in my desired direction. All tour players do now is hit fades, and given they will be aiming away from the out-of-bounds railway line anyway, at least subconsciously, this could cause a problem for fans.

In the areas to the left of these holes, especially the 2nd and the 3rd, there will be plenty of trampled-down rough, and favourable lies for missing the fairways. They might lead to blind approach shots, but links golf and championship golf can be as much about missing in the right place as anything else, and the players are alert to that, too.

There isn’t much to be done about this. In a more suffocating piece of land and narrower holes, there will be errant tee shots, and there will be fore shouts. Be careful out there.

And finally, the bunkers…

I left the Lytham cliché until last. But, a cliché is a cliché for a reason. You simply cannot go in the fairway bunkers at Royal Lytham & St Annes. The well-protected and nuanced green complexes and surrounds are more than enough to confuse you, and the very best players, so you absolutely do not want to be coming into them having just splashed out of a bunker.

There are exceptions. The bunkers on the left of the 17th fairway do allow you to hit a full iron shot towards the green, if you get a good lie. I was able to hoick an 8-iron out of one and on to the green. But this is a rarity. Most of them are deep and extremely penal.

There are 174 pot bunkers in the fairways and the greens at RLSA. The players will likely be able to tolerate the greenside traps, as they are all too good to be too bamboozled by them.

But again, as I discovered and my playing partners discovered, a bad lie in these deep hazards can make any score possible on occasion.

NOW READ: Royal Lytham deserves The Open – but 2028 will be a serious squeeze

NOW READ: Why The Open will return to Lytham in 2028

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Carlsbad, CA   – Pro’s Choice Golf Shafts, Inc. announced today that the winner of the Japan Men’s JGTO Kansai Open Golf Championship 2026 event, held in Osaka, Japan, was playing a Graphite Design Tour AD GC7-TX – Tour X-Stiff flex wood shaft in his Titleist Driver and a Graphite Design Tour AD DI-9 X-Stiff flex wood shaft in his TaylorMade #5 fairway metal wood.  The champion secured a four-day score of 9 under par to win the tournament by 3 strokes, claiming his 3rd JGTO win.

“Congratulations to the champion of the 2026 Kansai Open Golf Championship this past weekend. We are elated that he chose to play two premium Graphite Design wood shafts, which helped power his performance on the way to capturing his third Japan Golf Tour victory,” stated Bill McPherson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Pro’s Choice Golf Shafts, Inc. 

Designed and manufactured at the Graphite Design Japan factory headquarters, the Tour AD GC “Game Changer” wood shafts are pearl white with bronze and orange accents and finished with a gloss clear coat.  Much like the other high-performance Tour AD wood shafts, the Tour AD GC utilizes premium, aerospace-quality carbon-fiber materials and is available in 40g R2, R1, and S flex, 50g R2, R1, S and X flex, 60g SR, S, X, and TX flex, 70g S, X, and TX flex, and 80g X flex.

The Tour AD GC shaft profile is Stiff in the butt section, Firm in the center section, and has a Firm+ tip to promote Mid launch angles and Low/Mid to Mid ball spin rates. 

The Tour AD GC shaft integrates a new material technology called AD SHIELD, which consists of strategically placed special plies of carbon fiber combined with the modern TORAYCA® M40X material technology in the handle section of the shaft, resulting in a stiff yet smooth-feeling kick point and an optimized shaft profile.

The Tour AD GC shaft also utilizes the ultra-high modulus TORAYCA® T1100G carbon-fiber material in the tip section of the shaft for unrivaled shaft stability and precise ball control without the loss of the exceptional feel that Graphite Design shafts are so well known for.

Are you ready to make a change to how your Driver or Fairway metal woods perform?  Experience the Tour AD GC and see if the new innovations that the Tour AD GC has might just be the biggest Game Changer to your golf game.

About Pro’s Choice:

Pro’s Choice Golf Shafts is the exclusive distributor of Graphite Design golf shafts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, UAE, South Africa, South America, and Australia.  Pro’s Choice Golf Shafts distributes all of the current Graphite Design shafts, including the new 2026 Graphite Design Tour AD FI wood shaft model, as well as the Anti-Gravity aG33-3, Tour AD GC, Tour AD VF, Tour AD CQ, Tour AD UB, Tour AD XC, Tour AD IZ, and Tour AD DI models of shafts.  The company is located in Carlsbad, California, with a distribution warehouse located in Southern California. 

About Graphite Design:

Located in Chichibu, Japan, Graphite Design Inc. has over 36 years of experience designing and manufacturing premium graphite-composite golf shafts.  Numerous Graphite Design shafts can be seen in play by the best professional players on all tours worldwide.  Validating the company’s “Tour AD” logo, all of Graphite Design’s Tour-proven shafts specifically promote “Accuracy and Distance”.  On Tour, Graphite Design shafts recorded 44 Global tournament victories in 2025 and have helped numerous golf professionals earn well over 580 tour victories and multi-millions of dollars in prize money since inception. 

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Carlsbad, CA  – Pro’s Choice Golf Shafts, Inc. announced today that the winner of the LPGA Tour’s Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba event, held in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, was playing a Graphite Design Tour AD FI-6 Stiff flex wood shaft in her TaylorMade Qi4D Driver.  The champion claimed her 18th career win after posting a 4-day score of 68, 67, 68, 69 for a total of 17 under par, winning by 4 strokes.

Additionally, the winner of the PGA TOUR Champions Regions Tradition event, held in Birmingham, AL, was playing a Graphite Design Tour AD XC-6 X-Stiff wood shaft in his Ping G440 MAX Driver, claiming both his second PGA TOUR Champions major and fourth win of the 2026 season.

On the Japan Men’s JGTO Tour, the winner of The Crowns 2026 event, held in Aichi, Japan, was playing a Graphite Design Tour AD GC-6 X-Stiff flex wood shaft in his Callaway Driver, as well as three Graphite Design Tour AD wood shafts in his #3, #5, and #7 fairway metal woods.

“Congratulations to the winners at the Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba, the Regions Tradition, and The Crowns 2026.  Across the globe and on multiple tours, it was a showcase of elite performance this past weekend.  We are proud that each champion relied on Graphite Design premium Tour AD shafts to deliver exceptional Accuracy and Distance when it mattered most,” stated Bill McPherson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Pro’s Choice Golf Shafts, Inc. 

The new 2026 Tour AD FI – Flight Intelligence – is the next evolution in golf shaft technology from Graphite Design.   Designed and manufactured at Graphite Design’s Japan factory headquarters for players who demand precision, power, and consistency, the Tour AD FI features a futuristic look, complete with a sleek new TOUR AD logo, and is finished with a green-to-gloss black fade with silver accents.

Like the other high-performance Tour AD wood shafts, the Tour AD FI utilizes premium, aerospace-quality carbon-fiber materials and is available in 40g R2, R1, S flex and X flex, 50g R2, R1, S and X flex, 60g SR, S, X, and TX flex, 70g S, X, and TX flex, and 80g X flex.

The Tour AD FI shaft profile is Firm+ in the butt section and Firm+ in the center section and has a Stiff tip to promote Mid-launch angles and Low to Low/Mid-ball spin rates. It utilizes Graphite Design’s proprietary AD Shield technology and the new TORNADO TIP TECH, along with the modern Torayca M40X and T1100G material technologies, to reliably transmit the player’s input to the club head, allowing for consistent shot-making and enhanced performance on the course.

Whether shaping shots or maximizing distance, the new Tour AD FI adapts to your swing, delivering unparalleled stability and responsiveness.  Elevate your game with a shaft that thinks as fast as you play – because intelligent performance starts with the new Tour AD Flight Intelligence golf shaft from Graphite Design.

About Pro’s Choice:

Pro’s Choice Golf Shafts is the exclusive distributor of Graphite Design golf shafts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, UAE, South Africa, South America, and Australia.  Pro’s Choice Golf Shafts distributes all of the current Graphite Design shafts, including the new 2026 Graphite Design Tour AD FI wood shaft model, as well as the Anti-Gravity aG33-3, Tour AD GC, Tour AD VF, Tour AD CQ, Tour AD UB, Tour AD XC, Tour AD IZ, and Tour AD DI models of shafts.  The company is located in Carlsbad, California, with a distribution warehouse located in Southern California. 

About Graphite Design:

Located in Chichibu, Japan, Graphite Design Inc. has over 36 years of experience designing and manufacturing premium graphite-composite golf shafts.  Numerous Graphite Design shafts can be seen in play by the best professional players on all tours worldwide.  Validating the company’s “Tour AD” logo, all of Graphite Design’s Tour-proven shafts specifically promote “Accuracy and Distance”.  On Tour, Graphite Design shafts recorded 44 Global tournament victories in 2025 and have helped numerous golf professionals earn well over 580 tour victories and multi-millions of dollars in prize money since inception. 

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