Royal Birkdale was chosen for an Open Championship later cancelled in 1940 because of World War II.
Birkdale was selected as the venue in early 1939, before the Second World War began in September of that year. The 1940 Open would have been the course’s first staging of golf’s oldest major championship, but wartime conditions led to its cancellation.
The interruption lasted beyond a single year. The Open was not held from 1940 through 1945, and the championship resumed in 1946 at St Andrews. Royal Birkdale eventually hosted its first Open in 1954, when Australia’s Peter Thomson won the title.
The venue is now known as Royal Birkdale Golf Club, but references to the planned 1940 event often say simply Birkdale Golf Club. That naming difference does not change the year. Later Birkdale Opens produced champions including Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Mark O’Meara, Padraig Harrington, and Jordan Spieth.