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ArticlesThe Open Championship
17-20 July 2008 Royal Birkdale Golf Club Lancashire UK The original and arguably the most prestigeous of all the Majors is known in the UK as The Open Championship, or The British Open as it is referred to outside the UK. First played in 1860 as 3 rounds of 12 holes over the links of Prestwick in Scotland, it was won by Willie Park in 174 strokes and he duly received the first prize, which was custody of the Challenge Belt for 1 year. There was no prize money in those days. In 2008 the overall purse is well over £4million but it is the title and the silver Claret Jug which was first won in 1872, that the players are most anxious to get their hands on! There are 9 links courses in Scotland and England that are in the current rota: * Old Course at St Andrews * Carnoustie Golf Links, Championship Course * Muirfield * The Westin Turnberry Resort, Ailsa Course * Royal Troon Golf Club, Old Course * Royal St George's Golf Club * Royal Birkdale Golf Club * Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club * Royal Liverpool Golf Club, more commonly known as "Hoylake". The current course rotation in the rota (for years ending in) is as follows: * (0,5) - Scotland - (Old Course at St Andrews) * (1,6) - England * (2,7) - Scotland * (3,8) - England * (4,9) - Scotland This year, the 137th Open returns to Royal Birkdale in the County of Lancashire, for the 9th time. Situated on the North West coast of England, Royal Birkdale is one of three courses within fairly close proximity that are on the Championship rota. Hoylake and Royal Lytham are the other two and if you add the fabulous links courses nearby of Hillside, Southport and Ainsdale and Formby, any golfer in the know will tell you what a fantastic area this is for golfing terrain of the very highest calibre. Royal Birkdale was formed in 1889, although the current layout was created in 1922 by Fred Hawtree and 5 times Open Champion J H Taylor. With its large, white art-deco style clubhouse dominating the 18th green, all but two of the 18 holes have been altered for this years event. 16 fairway and 4 greenside bunkers have been added and "significant mounding" added to seven of the greens, so the emphasis has been on tightening rather than lengthening the 7,173 yard course. With its fairways threading their way through the natural valleys between the sand dunes, they tend to provide flatter lies than many of the links courses and this goes down well with the pros. And, of course, the dunes themselves provide a natural grandstand for the spectators, so they too are pleased. So who's going to be second? Well, since originally writing this piece, The US Open has been played and Tiger has announced that he will take a rest. So the real question now is, who's going to be first? In the 8 previous Opens at Birkdale, there have been 5 winners from the USA and 2 from Australia - Peter Thompson having won there twice. Not exactly reassuring for the European contingent but, you never know! The defending champion is Padraig Harrington, who won the play off with Sergio Garcia at Carnoustie last year. Article by: Martin Dawson www.effortless-golf-swing.com Postscript... 27th July 2008 Well, he did it! On Sunday 20th July, Padraig Harrington lifted the Claret Jug in victory, one of the few Champions to retain his Open Championship. This was an emphatic display of great golf on a truly testing British links course. Whereas last year it perhaps was a slightly faltering round that eventually brought him victory, this year Padraig did it in style with a fantastic back nine culminating in two great shots into the long 17th followed by a sublime putt for an eagle 3. A perfect par 4 on the 18th was a formality and the man had done it again. At the start of the week there was talk of retiring with a sprained wrist and I don't think anyone gave Padraig a cat in hell's chance of winning. This may well have been to his great advantage as expectations were understandably low...but he played like the true Champion he is and finally buried the fairy tale ending so many would have liked to have seen with a remarkable Greg Norman resurgence.
OTHER BACK-TO-BACK OPEN WINNERS (POST-WAR)
Tiger Woods 2005, 06
Tom Watson 1982, 83
Lee Trevino 1971, 72
Arnold Palmer 1961, 62
Peter Thomson 1954, 55, 56
Bobby Locke 1949, 50
And to find the last European to successfully defend the Open, we have to go back to 1906 to find James Braid's name on the Claret Jug. So, that's quite an impressive list of names that Padraig has joined. I loved the comment by Boo Weekley - "If this is the summer, I couldn't live here." Yep, I know just what you mean Boo, but some of us have no choice...! Next stop, the PGA Championship in Michigan,USA. |
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