photo credit: ( Krikit )
Among the super sport event spectaculars that occur throughout the year, The Open Championship, or just The Open, is one of the most important golf events and the oldest major golf championship event out of them all. Held on the weekend of the third Friday of July, the Open Championship is the only major held outside of the United States and the third major that takes place each year, following The Masters and the U.S. Open. Millions of dollars are at stake, and although The Open historically had the smallest prize fund out of all the majors, it has recently surged to the front. The grandeur with which the event is put on today, combined with its rich history that goes back almost 150 years, makes The Open one of the most important sporting events in the world.
The Open Championship originated in 1860 at the Prestwick Golf Club, a Scottish golf club that is a classic links golf course, which means that the golf course is located on a coastal area with few water hazards and little to no trees. Originally, The Open was restricted to professionals, and the first championship drew a field of eight who were to play three rounds of the twelve-hole Prestwick golf course. The next year, the field opened to amateurs as well, and this drew eight amateurs to join ten professionals for the 1861 Open Championship. Winners of the first several Open Championships received a ceremonial Championship Belt. Today, instead of the belt, winners receive The Claret Jug, the colloquial name for the large, impressive trophy. Prize money was introduced three years after the first Open, but the prize was rather small, only $50. Compared to today’s prize funds in the millions of dollars, it was rather paltry compensation for the tournament.
photo credit: danperry.com
Eventually, the Prestwick Golf Club joined forces with The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers to administer the race, which was growing larger and larger as the years passed. In 1982, the number of holes doubled from 36 to 72, which worked out to four rounds of 18 holes which, by then, was the standard. By 1920, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club assumed full control of The Open. In those days, winners of the event were mostly Scottish professional golfers who worked in golf-related occupations, like greenkeepers and clubmakers. They needed to take up such occupations because the winnings from tournaments were meager in comparison to today and they would not be able to make a living otherwise. Professionalism was—and is—an important quality in achieving success in The Open Championship, because only six amateurs have won the event ever, and their victories were all between 1890 and 1930. Especially before 1939, it was also apparently beneficial to be Scottish or English because only two Americans and one French person represented the only non-British winners in the history of the event.
In the 1960s, a “Big Three” emerged in South African Gary Player and the Americans Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. These three golfers were met with overwhelming success in all of the majors, but their lasting influence, especially the Americans, increased international interest in golf and the majors. Improvements in trans-Atlantic travel were similarly beneficial for the participation in The Open, which was traditionally much easier for the British to participate in for obvious reasons. From the 1960s to the 1980s, American domination of the event was rather evident, but when American Tom Watson won The Open in 1983, it marked the end of said domination for twelve years. By 1995, The Open became part of the PGA Tour’s official schedule, which coincided with an American resurgence in the event. It also allowed the classification of all Open Championship wins before 1995 as PGA wins. This modified the list of leading winners on the PGA Tour list and added another source of prize money one on the PGA Tour’s official money list.
photo credit: danperry.com
Since 1872, the course at which The Open is played has been in rotation, determined by the number in which the current year ends. Years ending in 1, 3, 6, or 8 are played in England, and the rest are played in Scotland. In England, it is only played in the North West or the South East regions of England, and never in the other seven regions, never in Wales, and rarely in Northern Ireland. The Old Course at St. Andrews interrupts the rotation every five years or so; there are no set rules determining when this happens and it is booked years in advance. The nine courses in the rotation are The Old Course at St. Andrews, the Carnoustie Golf Links, Muirfield, the Westin Turnberry Resort, the Royal Troon Golf Club, the Royal St. George’s Golf Club, the Royal Birkdale Golf Club, the Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s Golf Club, and the Royal Liverpool Club. The Royal Birkdale Golf Club will host The Open Championship in 2008 because it corresponds with the number eight.
photo credit: Jonny Thirkill
The modern Open Championship is played by a field of 156 golfers. Over two thirds of the golfers are offered exemptions, meaning that they do not have to go through a qualifying round in order to get entrance to the race. The rest of the golfers go through local or international qualifying rounds in order to participate in the race. Exemption categories include decisions based on Official World Golf Rankings, the PGA Tour’s money list, previous Open Championship winners, recent winners of the other majors, and the top ten of last year’s Open Champions, among other categories. Amateurs must be represented in the Open Championships, as well as all member tours of the International Federation of PGA tours. Twelve places are available through a qualifying round played in Britain and Ireland, and since it is open to anyone all over the world, it tends to attract big names of those who try to come out and earn a spot. Today, many of these people play in International Qualifying rounds, which make it easier for people all over the world to get involved.
Outside of the United Kingdom, the event is most often referred to as the British Opens in order to distinguish it from the rest of the Opens that are held. The tournament itself, as well as a fair portion of Europe and most of the United Kingdom, refers to it as The Open, a colloquial term because there is hardly a reason to delineate it from the U.S. opens and such. With a rich history lasting almost a century and a half, The Open Championship is a spectacular event that attracts the attention of golfing aficionados and laymen all over the world alike. Similar to the Super Bowl and Wimbledon, the majors in golf represent the pinnacle of skill and determination in the players that participate and the stakes involved. The Opens, with the largest prize fund and the longest history of all the majors, holds its place as one of the more significant sporting events in the world, just on its own merits.
