Why do we love the British Open ?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Why do we love the British Open ?

[Michael Moore]

I wish I could answer - they keep rejecting my application.

[Yancey_Beamer]

Pat,
Because it is the oldest and most honored tournament.
Sincerely,
Yancey

[JLahrman]

Because the first round leaderboard is guaranteed to consist of:

Sherlock Holmes
Eva Peron
Christy O'Connor Jr.
Enzo the Baker
The Crocodile Hunter

[Norbert P]

 Because the British Open is The Open.

Seeing Tiger and a gaggle of other 'perfect conditions' players shoot 80+ sure helped in my adoration of The Open as well.  The courses play so much more differently than ours do and the ball rolls in funny ways.  The fans are knowledgable.  The 1 and 2 iron is not just a relic over there.  The courses are stoicly beautiful.  The Claret jug.  The rising of Young and Old Tom Morris's ghosts.  Peter Aliss.

  There's still luck in The Open.  There's still the effects of weather in The Open.  The Jacks-in-the-Green rise up during Open week and make the fescue grow.  

  Go Padraig !  Go St. Georges !  Go! Unsung qualifier ! ! !

[tonyt]

Because it is one of the few weeks of the year that I see a golf course look a little more familiar to an Aussie like me than the continuously strange parkland super-green PGA Tour sites. Firm and fast. Ground game. And it has more of the best players from around the world, some whom we rarely see all year.

And although you American's don't get the same coverage we do, you should. Six hours each day of nothing but British accented commentary.

[Andrew_Roberts]

I personally enjoy the streakers and Peter Aliss.

Now, really I really enjoy the hard and fast conditions.  I like seeing that not every pin has to be tucked behind rough and bunkers like another open.  I like seeing the pins sometimes in the center of green and the best players in the world having problems.  I like seeing the players from around the world having good tournaments.  I enjoy the frustration of bunkers

I like the bad and big bounces.

[James Edwards]

i love the Open because...

Three of the four majors are played every year on great American courses (possibly with 'The Players' being worthy in this category) which is wonderful larger than life entertainment for us viewing via Sky.

"The Open" to the followers of European Tour Golf or "The British Open" to the others, is different in every way.. from the set up of the course to the commentary as touched upon earlier by Tony.  The stiff upper lipped presentation ceremony party (R&A officials and hangers on) with there blazers, the scoreboards are old style with manual scoring next to every other green not electronic super scoreboards.  No hooping and holloring, just rapturous applause and posh cries of bravo.

Watching the pros hit crisp irons off of the tight fairways is awesome.  The Open highlights every year the guys who strike it the best - and if you don't believe me, try hitting crisp bladed wedges off of these fairways.

I believe there are 9 venues for the Open around the British Coastline, and there are no weak ones IMHO.  Each Course, although links style (arguments for Lytham, here please?) has it's own individual links character.  RStG which I happen to live close to, has grown the rough up to Carnoustie 99 levels and has the arguably the most blind shots of any Open venue.

St Andrews, the most strategic,(ask Faldo after his 90 triumph where every other fairway was played for and found legitimately) is well documented on this site.

Lytham, with it's links feel, but no sea to be seen? with houses? and busy railway tracks? un heard of..  but ask Duval how much he enjoyed the course and it's playability..

Carnoustie, the most brutal in recent times with it's fairways of 15-20yards wide and not forgetting the 6th where the lay up was near impossible. (Woods hitting irons into the rough and later admitting he got his strategy wrong - Driver was the play).  The final few holes with it's burn running through and of course Jean Van De Veldes dramatic close to the championship.

Turnberry with the most beautiful long sea views and it's incredible hotel sitting on the hill.

Royal Troon, Royal Birkdale.... and soon to back, Royal LIverpool with the most amazing bunkering of any of the courses.

It's just great to see the world best players like Mickelson who hates to travel come and play on our side of the Atlantic.  We all love watching the Americans play over here and it doesn't happen hardly any other time.

I will be at the Open watching these guys play one of our best open courses in RStG and see how they will handle the course.  Beware of the blind rough monster.

[James Edwards]

Not forgetting Muirfield of course with one of the finest routings to grace any golf course let alone major championship golf course.  

A golf course determined by the wind more than most due to it's openess and lack of elevation or large dunes.  Worlds apart from RStG in this respect.

[Patrick_Mucci]

JJSE,

I would agree that the WIND is a big factor, one that can unsettle the best of players and cause the game to be played differently.

Is it the golf courses we love ?

[A.G._Crockett]

The possibility of seeing players experience all four seasons during a single round of golf.

The choice of clubs from 150 yds. varying from a lob wedge to a 3 iron, by the same player in the same round.

Balls that roll forever.

Balls that are actually lost, even with thousands of spectators there.

Players swinging in the rough, and 4 ft. long grass clippings hanging off the hosel of the club as they follow through.

Serendipity.

[Bob_Farrell]

Pat:

We love it here in the US because it is different.....totally different than what we see on the tour from week to week. With a minimum of modification to accomodate the same people we see every week, the golf courses generally stand up them for whatever reason, the weather, the wind, the layout itself. It's golf in the kingdom and it's fun to watch.

BF

[A.G._Crockett]

Golf on courses that simply wouldn't get built today, especially in the U.S., and more's the pity.

Creative, inventive shots by the best players in the world.

Scott Hoch probably won't play, which is one less person fortunate enough to play golf for a living but seeming miserable about it that we have to watch on TV.

Rain on the camera lens during the telecast, and they just keep playing.

Getting up early in the morning, watching the Open all day, then going out and playing golf myself late in the day.

[Larry_Keltto]

...Sand bunkers that are true hazards. Sand bunkers that have stairs. Sand bunkers where you have to play backwards.

[Darren_Kilfara]

Patrick - why do YOU love the British Open?

[Mike Hendren]

Longines clocks.  Slazenger golf balls.  Pringle sweaters.  Streakers, particularly the guy with "19th hole" above an arrow pointing downward on his backside.  The starter who never leaves the first tee all day.   The gallery that looks like ordinary folks on their way to the grocery store.  

Mike

[Mike Benham]

Pat -

It is not the "British Open" but simple "The Open", and that says it all ...

No trees that you have to go over, around, through or under ...

And nothing better than getting up early on Saturday and Sunday of Open week, turning on the telly, grabbing some coffee and breakfast, watching the Open to conclusion AND still have time to make your tee time (or do things with the family as is usually the case).

[Steve Lang]

 

The ritual of it all, the R&A.

[john_stiles]

Including all of the above.....

Gathering bunkers that are also hazardous.........
 
The high boom cameras that give you a sense of all the dips and rolls in the land and the open areas for the winds to come ripping through......

Watching the bump shots coming up and around and 'trundling' near the hole.........

Catching the BBC announcers' adjectives and adverbs for the play and phases like........  "  the length of the course is not a problem for Mr. Stiles,  rather it is the width. "

Good stuff.

Maybe, just maybe, we will not hear that the putt breaks from 'the right to the left'.

[James Edwards]

Patrick,

To answer your question...IMO, it is definately the courses I love or I should say we love.  They are all different and play different.  When you see the Watsons, Woods, Stewarts(RIP), OMearas etc etc etc one after another saying that links golf is golf in it's purest form, then thats good enough for me.  

I think that every person who has answered your thread has replied in the positve about the Open Championship and I'm proud to say, I agree with them all individually.

james

[RJ_Daley]

Authenticity, origins, options, weather, culture, tradition.

We can look at the courses of 'the Open' rota and say that (leaving out Carnoustie which was an abberation) there will be authentic golf demanded of the best players in the world, and their ability to play in accordance with the authentic game will be tested.  Tiger's dominant win in 2000 at TOC is more of a milestone than we have really understood.  He never got into a bunker all week!  He played the course often by means of the old game, putting or trundling a ball on the ground often.  They played off of a surface that was reportedly as hard as the pavement on an freeway.  They didn't quite have the wind that would have made 2000 complete, but other "opens" usually do have weather and wind.  The hazards are more random, and the roughs without uniformity and luck becomes the opportunity of the unfortunate players who can make the best of bad breaks.  Oz golf comes close, but 'the Open' is where we look each year to get back to the heart and soul of it all.

[R.S._Barker]

Seeing the Open on tv is a blessing, from the history of the tournament, to the wonderful courses, that is what make golf so incredible.

The British Open IS the reason to watch golf. At its purest form, the Open shows you just how the game should be played, and shows that anyone with a great sense of links-style golf, can be very successful there.

IF I were introducing someone to the game of golf, the British Open would be the tourney they would watch...period.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Larry Keltto,

I agree, the bunkering is another plus.
Bunkers that create fear are good.

Darren Kilfara,

I'm the one asking the question, but, I'll give you some of the reasons why I like the open.

The WIND as almost always a critical factor in the play of the golf course and club & shot selection.

The bunkering schemes, the need to avoid them, and the consequences for finding them.

The variety in the golf courses and the variety in the play of the golf courses.  It's doubtful that you'll see a PGA TOUR player putt from 20 feet or 20 yards off of a green in the US, but, you will see this and other interesting shots played at the British Open.

The rough is rough, not manicured green grass cut to PGA TOUR standards, it's rough.

I think that the wind, bunkering and rough create an unease in the players mind.  The competitors share with us, the same fear of making a large score on any given hole due to the combination of the above, which is unique to this tournament, coupled with the tension that comes with competing in MAJORS.

The settings also seem more natural rather than maintained.

I also like the fans at these championships and many of the other pluses that some have mentioned above.

[A_Clay_Man]

Because of everything Dick said in his opener plus, drama.

And I think it's the courses that create that drama.

Funny about the mention of the lush green parkland pga tour stops, cause, mother nature aside, all the recent tour venues have that lovely brown hue come sunday. Juxtaposed to the recent lushness of the british isle courses. Ironic.


Let's hope St. Gorje is the cause of much drama.

[Darren_Kilfara]

I'm the one asking the question, but, I'll give you some of the reasons why I like the open.

I just thought it would be nice if the guy asking the question wouldn't mind at least giving us some sense of why he asked the question. I mean, I thought it to be a pretty obvious one myself - simply "it's a major championship played invariably on great links golf courses" is enough for me - but I assumed you were looking for something more than just that.

If I had to choose a single reason as to why I love the Open Championship, to give it its proper title, it would be that its courses almost invariably defend par well without resorting to unnatural conditions. If natural conditions mean lots of rain and wind, great. If it means rock-hard fairways that spring slightly errant shots into the rough, that's fine too. Either way, it's a very rare Open (outwith St. Andrews, anyway) where anyone gets to double-digits under par...and I've long maintained that golf is at its most watchable when par is kept in balance enough to keep anyone from reaching double-digits under par.

Cheers,
Darren

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