This weekend is The Open Championship. Or simply The Open, if you are A Golfer. The British Open to most of the rest of the world. The Open is the oldest major championship in golf. The first one was played on October 17th 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club, in the town of Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. So it’s been around awhile.
The first field consisted of 8 golfers. Prestwick was a 12 hole course at the time. The tournament consisted of 3 rounds, all played on the same day. The prize was a magnificent carved leather belt with a silver buckle. The rules around the belt were the same as those around The Green Jacket. It was left at the club and the winner could wear it when they were there. In 1870 Young Tom Morris won for the 3rd time in a row, and was given the belt to keep. This caused a little bit of a problem. A proposal was made that Prestwick join with other clubs to put on the championship, and the cost of a new belt be split between the clubs. This was voted on as a good idea, but, as usual with these kinds of things( the slow pace of decision by committee being even older than the championship), no decisions on which other clubs would be included were made, so the championship wasn’t played in 1871. By 1872 they had pretty much gotten their act together and three clubs had agreed to host The Open – Prestwick, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and The Royal And Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Each club contributed 10 pounds ( which was a considerable sum in those days ) towards the purchase of a silver claret jug to be given as the prize. They didn’t get their act together soon enough though, and there wasn’t time for the jug to be made before the tournament was played. Young Tom Morris won again in 1872, and was given a medal. In 1873 the jug was present and the winner was Tom Kidd, but Young Tom Morris’ name was the first to be engraved on the jug. That Claret Jug, officially known as The Golf Championship Trophy, has been presented to every winner since then. When referring to The Masters you will hear people refer to it as ‘playing for The Green Jacket’. When they say ‘playing for The Claret Jug’ they are referring to The Open.
Since 1872 The Open has been played at a number of courses in rotation, with only a few courses added and dropped over the years. The current rotation consists of 9 courses: The Old Course at St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Muirfield, Turnberry, Royal Troon, Royal St. Georges, Royal Birkdale, Royal Lytham and St. Annes, and Royal Liverpool. These are all links style courses in either Scotland or England.
The courses involved shared hosting duties until 1920, when all responsibility for the championship was handed over to The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. (side note: The R&A if you are A Golfer. Although there is now an actual group officially known as The R&A. The Royal and Ancient was the ruling authority of golf everywhere except for the US and Mexico, where it is the USGA, until 2004, when that authority was handed over to The R&A. ).
Until Bobby Jones and his mythical Masters came along The Open was THE tournament. Even today, for many golfers on the European, or other world tours, The Open is the one they dream of winning. In the life of A Golfer, The Open runs a very close second to The Masters. Bobby Jones himself won the open 3 times. Winning The Open has always been important to American professional golfers. But before jets and trans-Atlantic cables Americans read about the action well after it was over, which cut down drastically on its popularity with your average American golf fan. Many of the great names in American golf made the trip across the pond to play in The Open. And it was a long trip, not just because of the travel time. You have to qualify to play in The Open, so they would have to get there several weeks early to play in qualifying tournaments. But in spite of it’s history and importance to the sport, most Americans ignored it. Until Arnie.
In 1961 Arnold Palmer won The Open. Arnie had a legion of fans( known as Arnie’s Army), and television had the trans-Atlantic cables. The combination of the two brought The Open to the attention of American fans. Arnie went ahead and won it the next year, in 1962, just to make sure it was cemented in American golf consciousness. In 1966 Jack won ( the first of three ) and added it to his list of ‘tournaments that must be won’. Jack is the yardstick by which all other golfers are judged, so this meant that any golfer wanting to go down in US golf history not only had to win The Masters, The US Open and The PGA Championship, they had to win The Open. Even though, at the time, it was not part of the official PGA tour schedule it was now firmly on the map of American golfers, and American golf fans. The 2005 Open was Jacks farewell tournament. It was played on The Old Course at St. Andrews. The Home of Golf. Jack waved goodbye from the bridge over the Swilken Burn.
In 1995 the PGA finally bowed to the inevitable and added The Open as part of the official tour. And just so future generations would think they had always been wise enough to include it, they retroactively classified all previous Open wins as PGA tour wins. Even golf has it’s politics.
This year The Open will be played at Royal Birkdale. You really need to watch at least some of it. Golf on these old links courses is a game of skill shots, not long drives. A ball off the fairway is a lost ball. There is no rough, just tall grass and thistle and gorse bushes. There are no sand traps, just bunkers, some of them over 6 feet deep. And many times two holes will have the same green. If you ask A Golfer they will tell you it is golf the way it was meant to be played. And if it is not rainy and windy for at least half the tournament people will be disappointed. After watching the best players in the world negotiate one of these original links courses, you will agree with me that Robin Williams had it right, the original golfers HAD to be drunk. And these guys are playing with metal clubs and high tech balls. Imagine trying to do it with wooden clubs and a ball made of feathers. Drunk, and a little mad. Okay maybe a lot mad.
Coverage is by CBS, thank goodness. And in addition to the wonderful David Feherty( whom I love, in case you’ve forgotten ), CBS always gets a couple of the British broadcasters to sit in for awhile. Try to catch them. They are a hoot. They would never be allowed at The Masters.
And finally, some thoughts on The Open from The Golfer:
Many people refer to it as the British Open. Those people live in the States. The rest of the world refers to it simply as The Open.
Without Arnold Palmer, no one in The States would really care. He was one of the few American’s (that were good) that went over to play and he won. And the way he won, well that was a thing of beauty (beauty being defined as a beast slashing his way through the heather and gorse). Once he won, he convinced the stodgy old guys in the R&A to allow people to play without flying over and having to qualify.
Then Nickalaus won, and really started going after “majors” and the popularity of the tournament in America took off. I remember as a kid, waking up early on Saturday morning to watch the English announcers from the BBC call the rounds.
The Wife, the Brother and his wife, and The Mother made the pilgrimage to Scotland a while back. On the first hole of our first round (played at Carnoustie), the Brother and I were walking into a 40 mph wind, wearing every stitch of clothing we had. We had HUGE smiles on our faces, and he said to me “This is why we came, to play golf like it was when the game was founded”.
From my perspective, that is great thing about The Open. The old links courses follow the ground. 100 years ago, they didn’t have earth movers. So the ground is not flat, the bunkers are formed from natural pits in the land, some of which are really, really deep, and the wind howls off the sea. This year, they are playing the tournament at Royal Birkdale, considered the fairest of the layouts on the rotation. But there are still enough swales, and bumps, and “unfair” things to test everyone.
That is golf. Golf isn’t meant to be fair. Good shots sometimes get punished and bad shots get rewarded. Golf is a lot like life that way.
I will be watching. I don’t care who wins. I just hope that it’s raining, the wind is blowing, and the boys are suffering. That’s real golf.
Comments