Last week we heard from Royal Birkdale's Course Manager Sean McClean. This week he's back to talk in some detail over the course changes that many of us watched develop over social media.

It was an extraordinary amount of work, especially for a course hosting the world's oldest Major Championship in 2026. This year, Sean and his indefatigable team and back at it - completing Phase 2 of an ambitious project.

We hope you enjoy the second half of this conversation and, as ever, please do share with anyone else who might too.

Guest from episode 6 of this podcast (December 2022!) joins us again to discuss first his preparation for Royal Birkdale's Open Championship in 2026, but also the extraordinary suite of changes to the famous links last winter and next.

I also give a shameless plug for Volume 1 of my Links from the Road series. It's been a labour of love (and sometimes despair) over the past couple of years, but today is publication day. Fortunately a lot of talented people have been working on the series, and I have them all to thank.

If you like this podcast, I think you'll like the series. You can get a Golf Badgers discount on ordering Volume 1 by following the link here: https://linksfromtheroad.com/discount/BADGER10?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fvolume-1 Or else, linksfromtheroad.com and enter the code BADGER10 for 10% off Volume 1.

Thanks for listening!

Sam & Bledge

Our loyal Badgers, you might have wondered where the promised second half of Episode 36 ended up.

After a few weeks on the road, travelling up to the Arctic Circle in our camper van, I must admit to the grievous crime of forgetting to post it. Logging into the podcast dashboard, there it was - ready to entertain and educate our legions of Badgers.

So I can only apologise for the oversight. Even with the delay, I hope it doesn't reduce your enjoyment of Graeme's experience. It was so interesting to compare the set up of an Open Championship with a US Open, and Graeme was the perfect person to discuss the similarities and differences between the two events.

We happen to have another couple of podcasts in the chamber, so as an autumnal chill returns to the golf courses of Great Britain, we hope you'll all find some warmth in these upcoming conversations.

Thanks, as ever, for listening.

Sam & Bledge