All that Royal Birkdale brown? Meet the guy (and dog) in charge of it

In a bustling R&A tent on Friday afternoon, during tea/beer/toasty time, two Scotsmen with deep connections to Royal Birkdale were having a wee chat. The older gent, Alastair Johnston, wearing a tailored linen sport coat, was talking about a man he knew well, Arnold Palmer, winner of the 1961 British Open at Royal Birkdale. Johnston managed Palmer’s business affairs for more than four years. The younger man, Sean McLean, wearing shorts and sneakers and a workingman’s golf shirt, was all ears. McLean knew the precise location of the plaque at Birkdale that memorializes the 6-iron Palmer hit from thick rough near a bush en route to winning here 65 years ago. McLean is the course manager here.

McLean’s joy — from this chance meeting with one of golf’s secret legends, from this lovely July afternoon, from the rugged grandeur of this 154th Open, from this unique life in greenkeeping (and brownkeeping) he has made for himself — was inspiring. When McLean worked in the United States, at Southern Hills and Oak Hill, among other places, the term of art was superintendent. When he got the top job at Birkdale, succeeding another secret legend of the game, Chris Whittle, he was assigned a title, course manager. But the term he prefers is greenkeeper, no s. Old Tom Morris was a greenkeeper. A keeper of the green. The green was the course, all of it, as in the phrase through the green.

Sean McLean is here to tell you: Brown is the great color of linksland golf. Linksland, the land itself, requires dunes and sand and wind. (Pebble Beach is not on linksland. Bandon Dunes is.) Open scoring is Open scoring — he’s not rooting for a player to shoot 59, but if it happens, it happens. Sean McLean is also here to tell you that a dog is a greenkeeper’s best friend. His is a yellow Lab named Sonny. He and Sonny have logged a lot of miles on this stretch of linksland here. McLean has 17 course workers on his crew here. When you’re working with nature, and not manipulating it, that’s an ideal number. After a visit with Sean McLean, you may be ready to embrace brown as the new green. It works here, anyway. Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at mailto:Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com