The Open Championship , often referred to as The Open or the British Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. The Open is currently the third major of the year, between the U.

Open and the PGA Championship , and is played in mid-July. The Open was first played on 17 October at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. The following year the tournament was opened to amateurs; eight of them joined ten professionals in the field.

James Ogilvie Fairlie was the principal organiser of the first Open Championship held at Prestwick in In a proposed competition for a "Challenge Belt", Fairlie sent out a series of letters to Blackheath , Perth , Edinburgh , Musselburgh and St Andrews , inviting a player known as a "respectable caddie" to represent each of the clubs in a tournament to be held on 17 October Originally, the trophy presented to the event's winner was the Challenge Belt, a red leather belt with a silver buckle.

The Challenge Belt was retired in , when Young Tom Morris was allowed to keep it for winning the tournament three consecutive times.

Because no trophy was available, the tournament was cancelled in In , after Young Tom Morris won again for a fourth time in a row, he was awarded a medal. The present trophy, The Golf Champion Trophy, better known by its popular name of the Claret Jug , was then created. Prestwick administered The Open from to In , it agreed to organise it jointly with The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.

In the event was doubled in length from 36 to 72 holes, four rounds of what was by then the standard complement of 18 holes. The Open was the first held outside Scotland, at the Royal St George's Golf Club in England. Because of an increasing number of entrants, a cut was introduced after two rounds in The early winners were all Scottish professionals, who in those days worked as greenkeepers, clubmakers, and caddies to supplement their modest winnings from championships and challenge matches.

The Open has always been dominated by professionals, with only six victories by amateurs, all of which occurred between and The last of these was Bobby Jones' third Open and part of his celebrated Grand Slam.

British Open prize money: What every golfer earns from $ million purse - unyyozeqy.web.fc2.com

Jones was one of six Americans who won The Open between the First and Second World Wars, the first of whom had been Walter Hagen in These Americans and the French winner of the Open, Arnaud Massy , were the only winners from outside Scotland and England up to The first post- World War II winner was the American Sam Snead , in In , Northern Ireland 's Fred Daly was victorious.

There has never been a Welsh champion. In the early postwar years The Open was dominated by golfers from the Commonwealth , with South African Bobby Locke and Australian Peter Thomson winning the Claret Jug in eight of the 11 championships from and between them.

The Open Championship - Wikipedia

During this period, The Open often had a schedule conflict with the match-play PGA Championship , which meant that Ben Hogan , the best American golfer at this time, competed in The Open just once, in at Carnoustie , a tournament he won.

Another South African, Gary Player was Champion in This was at the beginning of the "Big Three" era in professional golf, the three players in question being Player, Arnold Palmer , and Jack Nicklaus. Palmer first competed in , when he came second to the little-known Australian Kel Nagle , but he won the next two years.

While he was far from being the first American to become Open Champion, he was the first that many Americans saw win the tournament on television, and his charismatic success is often credited with persuading leading American golfers to make The Open an integral part of their schedule, rather than an optional extra. The improvement of trans-Atlantic travel also increased American participation. Nicklaus' victories came in , , and Although his tally of three wins is the least of his majors, it greatly understates how prominent Nicklaus was at the Open throughout the s and s.

He finished runner-up seven times, which is the record and had a total of sixteen top-5 finishes, which is tied most in Open history with John Henry Taylor and easily the most in the postwar era. Nicklaus also holds the records for most rounds under par 61 and most aggregates under par At Turnberry in he was involved in one of the most celebrated contests in golf history, when his duel with Tom Watson went to the final shot before Watson emerged as the champion for the second time with a record score of 12 under par.

Watson won five Opens, more than anyone else has since the s, but his final win in brought down the curtain on an era of U. In the next 11 years there was only one American winner, with the others coming from Europe and the Commonwealth. The European winners of this era, Spaniard Seve Ballesteros , Sandy Lyle , who was the first Scottish winner in over half a century, and the Englishman Nick Faldo , were also leading lights among the group of players who began to get the better of the Americans in the Ryder Cup during this period.

In , John Daly's playoff win over Italian Costantino Rocca began another era of American domination. Tiger Woods has won three Championships to date, two at St Andrews in and , and one at Hoylake in There was a dramatic moment at St Andrews in , as the ageing Jack Nicklaus waved farewell to the crowds, while the young challenger to his crown watched from a nearby tee.

There have also been wins by previously little known golfers, including Paul Lawrie 's playoff win after the 72nd-hole collapse of Jean van de Velde in , Ben Curtis in and Todd Hamilton in Harrington retained the Championship in In , year-old Tom Watson turned in one of the most remarkable performances ever seen at The Open. Leading the tournament through 71 holes and needing just a par on the last hole to become the oldest ever winner of a major championship, Watson bogeyed, setting up a four-hole playoff, which he would lose to Stewart Cink.

In , Phil Mickelson won his first Open Championship at Muirfield. His victory meant that he had won 3 of the 4 majors in pursuit of the career grand slam, just needing the U.

Open , where he has finished runner-up six times. In , Zach Johnson denied Jordan Spieth his chance of winning the Grand Slam by winning an aggregate playoff over Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman at the Old Course at St Andrews.

The Open is a hole stroke play tournament contested over four days, Thursday through Sunday. Since it has been played in the week which includes the 3rd Friday in July. Currently, players are in the field, mostly made up of the world's leading professionals, who are given exemptions, along with winners of the top amateur championships.

Further places are given to players, amateurs and professionals, who are successful in a number of qualifying events. There is a cut after 36 holes after which only the leading 70 players and ties play in the final 36 holes on the weekend. In the event of a tie after 72 holes, a four-hole aggregate playoff is held; if two or more players are still tied, it continues as sudden-death until there is a winner.

There are a number of medals and trophies that are, or have been, given for various achievements during The Open. The Professional Golfers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland also mark the achievements of their own members in The Open.

The Braid Taylor Memorial Medal and the Tooting Bec Cup are restricted to members born in, or with a parent or parents born in, the UK or Republic of Ireland.

The common factor in the venues is links courses. The Open has always been played in Scotland, northwest England, and southeast England, along with one course in Northern Ireland which will again stage the competition in From to The Open was organised by and played at Prestwick Golf Club. From its revival in until it was played on three courses in rotation: Prestwick, The Old Course at St Andrews , and Musselburgh Links. In the newly built Muirfield replaced Musselburgh in the rotation.

In two English courses, Royal St George's and Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake , were invited to join the rotation with Royal St George's being allocated the Open and Royal Liverpool having the event. With three courses in both England and Scotland, the meeting also agreed that the Championship was to be played in England and Scotland alternately.

The rotation of the six courses was reinstated after the First World War with Royal Cinque Ports hosting the first post-war Open in It had been chosen as the venue for the cancelled Open. Serious overcrowding problems at Prestwick in meant that the course was never again used for the Open and was replaced by Carnoustie as the third Scottish course.

While Royal St George's and Royal Liverpool continued to be used at six-year intervals the third English course varied. After Royal Cinque Ports in , Royal Lytham was used in and then Prince's in Royal Cinque Ports was intended as the venue in but in February of that year abnormal high tides caused severe flooding to the course leaving it like "an inland sea several feet deep" [11] and the venue was switched to Royal St George's.

There are nine courses in the current rota, four in Scotland, four in England and one in Northern Ireland. In recent times the Old Course has hosted the Open every five years.

The remaining courses host the Open roughly every 10 years but the gaps between hosting Opens may be longer or shorter than this. The most recent course to be removed from the active rota was Muirfield in May , following The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers refusal to permit female members to join their club.

From when it was first played in England to , it has been played 62 times in Scotland, 49 times in England and once in Northern Ireland. It was not until and that England hosted consecutive Opens. The field for the Open is , and golfers gain a place in a number of ways. Further places are given to players who are successful in The Open Qualifying Series and in Final Qualifying.

There are currently 26 exemption categories. International qualifying is through the "Open Qualifying Series" which consists of ten events played outside the United Kingdom. A pre-allocated number of places are made available at these events from 1 to 4 which are given to the leading players in those events who are not, at that point, qualified for the Open, provided they finish in a high-enough position.

A total of 32 places are available. Local qualifying was the traditional way for non-exempt players to win a place at The Open. In recent years it has comprised a number of "Regional Qualifying" competitions around Britain and Ireland with successful competitors, joined by those players exempt from regional qualifying, playing four hole "Final Qualifying" tournaments. There are 12 places available through Final Qualifying, three at each of the four venues. Up to a variety of qualification systems were used.

From to except local qualifying was used.

All those who entered played 18 holes on one of two courses and then played 18 holes on the other course the following day. Qualifying took place immediately before the Championship itself. In a system of exemptions for the leading players was introduced with local qualifying continuing for the remaining players. Since then a large number of changes have been made to the exemption criteria and to the qualifying system for the remaining players.

In Britain the tournament is best known by its official title, The Open Championship.

The British media generally refer to it as the Open with "the" in lower case [24] [25] [26] or as The Open Championship with each word capitalized. Outside the UK, the tournament is generally called the British Open, in part to distinguish the tournament from another of the four majors that has an 'open' format, the U. Open , but mainly because other nations with similar 'open' format golf events refer to their own nation's open event as "the Open".

Until , the PGA Tour referred to the tournament as the British Open, [27] and many American media outlets continue to do so. It has been an official event on the PGA Tour since , which means that the prize money won in The Open by PGA Tour members is included on the official money list. In addition, all Open Championships before have been retroactively classified as PGA Tour wins, and the list of leading winners on the PGA Tour has been adjusted to reflect this.

The European Tour has recognised The Open as an official event since its first official season in and it is also an official money event on the Japan Golf Tour.

There was no prize money in the first three Opens. Since , the Silver Medal is awarded to the leading amateur, provided that the player completes all 72 holes. Frank Stranahan won it four times in the first five years and was also the low amateur in , while Joe Carr , Michael Bonallack and Peter McEvoy each won it twice. The medal has gone unawarded 19 times. As of , European Tour Productions serves as the host broadcaster for the Open Championship. The host broadcaster, as well as British and American broadcasters Sky Sports and NBC Sports , utilized a total of cameras during the tournament.

In the United Kingdom, the Open Championship was historically broadcast by the BBC —a relationship which lasted from to The BBC's rights to the Open had been threatened by the event's removal from Category A of Ofcom 's "listed" events , a status which legally mandated that the Open be broadcast in its entirety by a terrestrial broadcaster. It had since been moved to Category B, meaning that television rights to the tournament could now be acquired by a pay television outlet, such as BT Sport or Sky Sports , as long as rights to broadcast a highlights programme are given to one of the main terrestrial broadcasters.

You have to stay in practice and keep up with advances in technology. As required by broadcasting regulations, rights to broadcast a nightly highlights programme were also sold: Dawson praised Sky Sports' past involvement with televised golf, explaining that "the way people consume live sport is changing significantly and this new agreement ensures fans have a range of options for enjoying the championship on television and through digital channels".

In the United States, ABC had historically held rights to the Open. The edition of the Open Championship had a total of The NBC broadcast network had a total of From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For other uses, see British Open disambiguation and The Open disambiguation. List of The Open Championship venues. List of The Open Championship champions. Retrieved 23 December Retrieved 1 February Retrieved 16 June Retrieved 9 November Press conference confirms Royal Portrush". Retrieved 20 October Retrieved 19 May Retrieved 28 January Retrieved 25 May Young Tom Morris gets 20 days older". Archived from the original on 5 August Archived from the original on 25 November Retrieved 21 June Retrieved 31 July Archived PDF from the original on Retrieved 26 July Sky wins rights; BBC to show highlights".

Retrieved 13 July Retrieved October 12, Retrieved July 23, Retrieved June 8, The Open Championship rota courses. Prestwick Musselburgh Royal Cinque Ports Prince's. Open The Open Championship PGA Championship.

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Royal St George's Golf Club. Marc Leishman Louis Oosthuizen. Dustin Johnson Phil Mickelson. Stuart Appleby Steve Elkington Thomas Levet. Justin Leonard Jean van de Velde. Darren Clarke Jesper Parnevik. Ernie Els Mark McCumber. Mark McNulty Payne Stewart. Wayne Grady Greg Norman. Paul Azinger Rodger Davis. Bernhard Langer Tom Watson. Andy Bean Hale Irwin. Peter Oosterhuis Nick Price. Ben Crenshaw Jack Nicklaus.

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Bob Charles Jack Nicklaus. Doug Sanders Dave Thomas. Brian Huggett Christy O'Connor Snr. Fred Bullock Flory Van Donck. Bobby Locke Dai Rees Syd Scott. Reg Horne Frank Stranahan a. Johnny Bulla Bobby Locke. No Championships because of World War II. Bobby Jones a 3. Leo Diegel Macdonald Smith. Bobby Jones a 2. Aubrey Boomer Fred Robson. Archie Compston Ted Ray. Jim Barnes George Duncan. No Championships because of World War I.

Tom Ball James Braid. James Braid Harry Vardon. John Ball a Sandy Herd Hugh Kirkaldy. Willie Fernie Andrew Kirkaldy. Willie Fernie Archie Simpson. Willie Park, Jnr 2. Willie Fernie Douglas Rolland. Jamie Allan Andrew Kirkaldy.

Willie Park, Snr 4. Tom Morris, Jnr 4. Tom Morris, Jnr 3. Bob Kirk Davie Strath. Tom Morris, Jnr 2. Tom Morris, Snr 4.

Willie Park, Snr 3. Tom Morris, Snr 3.

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