Maintaining a balance between preserving tradition and moving forward with the times is a delicate art. Yet it is one that the R&A (the commercial arm of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club) achieves each year with mastery when it stages The Open Championship.

If Willie Park Senior, who won the first ever Open at Prestwick in 1860, was able to return from the grave and stroll out on to the fairways of Royal Birkdale, this year’s venue, the sight that would greet him would be very familiar.