Story highlights
- British Open begins Thursday at Royal Birkdale
- The defending champion is Henrik Stenson
Not the British Open, nor the Open Championship. Just The Open.
It’s been that way since the oldest of golf’s four majors began in 1860.
The 146th Open takes place this week at Royal Birkdale, a venerable old links north of Liverpool in the northwest of England.
It’s the only major outside the United States, and requires a different skillset to master the humps, hollows and sea-breezes of links golf.
Here’s seven things you need to know about The Open at Royal Birkdale.
Battlefield Birkdale
The Open rotates around 10 of the world’s best links golf courses in Scotland, England and, from 2019, Northern Ireland again.
Royal Birkdale was opened in 1889 and is one of the game’s most celebrated links — with two nines fanning into the sandhills of Southport overlooking the Irish Sea.
Most holes run along deep valleys between towering dunes, while rolling fairways, slopey greens, deep pot bunkers and winds off the North Sea add to the challenge.
This year marks the 10th Open to be staged at Royal Birkdale, stretching back to 1954.
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Roll of honor
Royal Birkdale has been the stage for some of golf’s biggest names as champions over the years, and has a habit of rewarding past or soon-to-be multiple major winners. Of the previous nine winners, only Ian Baker-Finch wasn’t already a major champion or didn’t go on to add to his tally.
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington won the last Open at Royal Birkdale in 2008 for back-to-back Claret Jugs and won the USPGA a few weeks later for his third major.
In 1998 American Mark O’Meara clinched the Open in the same year he won the Masters at the age of 41.
Australian Ian Baker-Finch won his sole major at Royal Birkdale in 1991 before suffering a severe and ultimately career-ending collapse in form.
Tom Watson clinched back-to-back Open titles and his fifth and final Claret Jug at Birkdale in 1983, while countrymen Johnny Miller (1976) and Lee Trevino (1971) also triumphed on the Southport links.
Arnold Palmer won the first of two consecutive Opens at Birkdale in 1961, while Australian Peter Thomson won the first of five opens at Royal Birkdale in 1954 — sparking an unprecedented run of three Opens titles — and won again when the tournament returned in 1965.
Notable names
A 19-year-old Spaniard named Seve Ballesteros exploded onto the world stage when he finished second at Birkdale behind Miller in the 1976 Open. The exciting young talent went on to become a world No. 1 and the driving force in European golf, winning three Opens (1979, 1984, 1988) and five majors in all.
Seventeen-year-old amateur Justin Rose holed his approach shot to the last to finish fourth in his very first major tournament at Royal Birkdale in 1998. The Englishman tuned pro shortly after but missed 21 consecutive cuts. Now the world No. 12, Rose won the US Open in 2013 and missed out to Sergio Garcia in a playoff for the Masters in April.
The “Great White Shark” Greg Norman was 53 and playing on his honeymoon in 2008 after marrying tennis great Chris Evert. The charismatic Australian had won the last of his two Opens in 1993 and hadn’t been close to a major title since 1999. But he led by two after three rounds before falling back to finish tied third in his first major appearance for three years.
One of golf’s most infamous missed putts occurred at Birkdale in 1983. Hale Irwin, then a two-time US Open champion, had a couple of inches for a tap-in at the par-3 14th in the third round. He strolled up and attempted to backhand the ball in, but missed completely. It counted as a stroke and he went on to finished second by one to Watson.
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Birkdale is also synonymous with arch-hoaxer Maurice Flitcroft, who claimed to be a pro and tried to qualify for the 1976 Open at the Southport course — “with Jack Nicklaus and all that lot.”
The 46-year-old crane-operator from Barrow-in-Furness armed himself with a half set of mail-order clubs and a couple of instruction books and tried to learn the game at a nearby beach before carding at least 121 — at 49 over par, the worst score in the tournament’s 141-year history — in the Open qualifier down the road at Formby.
Officials were not amused and tightened the rules, but Flitcroft tried several more times — as an American named Gene Pacecki; as a Swiss professional under the name of Gerald Hoppy with a false moustache; and as an American called James Beau Jolley.
Each time he was rumbled after a few holes, but his legend lived on.
The Open landmarks
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the famous “Duel in the Sun,” the final-day battle between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry on Scotland’s west coast.
Nicklaus, 37, had 14 majors and was the game’s big beast; fellow American Watson, 10 years his junior, was the man of the moment, having won the Masters a few months earlier for his second major.
After the third round the pair were three shots clear of the field, and on a sun-drenched Saturday they pulled clear with golf of a sublime standard. Nicklaus led by two after 12 holes, Watson fought back to level it after 16 and clinched the title by one. The pair were 10 shots ahead of the rest.
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parent container Id of the video element*/function findNextVideo(currentVideoId) {var i,vidObj;if (currentVideoId && jQuery.isArray(currentVideoCollection) && currentVideoCollection.length > 0) {for (i = 0; i 0) {videoEndSlateImpl.showEndSlateForContainer();}}}callbackObj = {onPlayerReady: function (containerId) {CNN.VideoPlayer.reportLoadTime(containerId);CNN.VideoPlayer.handleInitialExpandableVideoState(containerId);CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, CNN.pageVis.isDocumentVisible());if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {var containerClassId = ‘#’ + containerId;if (jQuery(containerClassId).parents(‘.js-pg-rail-tall__head’).length) {videoPinner = new CNN.VideoPinner(containerClassId);videoPinner.init();} else {CNN.VideoPlayer.hideThumbnail(containerId);}}},/** Listen to the metadata event which fires right after the ad ends and the actual video playback begins*/onContentEntryLoad: function(containerId, playerId, contentid, isQueue) {CNN.VideoPlayer.showSpinner(containerId);},onContentMetadata: function (containerId, playerId, metadata, contentId, duration, width, height) {var endSlateLen = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find(‘.js-video__end-slate’).eq(0).length;CNN.VideoSourceUtils.updateSource(containerId, metadata);if (endSlateLen > 0) {videoEndSlateImpl.fetchAndShowRecommendedVideos(metadata);}},onAdPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, token, mode, id, duration, blockId, adType) {clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);if (blockId === 0) {(new Image()).src = “http://traffic.outbrain.com/network/trackpxl?advid=814&action=view”;}CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onContentPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, event) {var playerInstance,prevVideoId;/** When the video content starts playing, inject analytics data* for Aspen (if enabled) and the companion ad layout* (if it was set when the ad played) should switch back to* epic ad layout. onContentPlay calls updateCompanionLayout* with the ‘restoreEpicAds’ layout to make this switch*/if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘restoreEpicAds’);}clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibraryName(containerId) === ‘fave’) {playerInstance = FAVE.player.getInstance(containerId) || null;} else {playerInstance = containerId && window.cnnVideoManager.getPlayerByContainer(containerId).videoInstance.cvp || null;}prevVideoId = (window.jsmd && window.jsmd.v && (window.jsmd.v.eVar18 || window.jsmd.v.eVar4)) || ”;if (playerInstance && typeof playerInstance.reportAnalytics === ‘function’) {if (prevVideoId.length === 0 && document.referrer && document.referrer.search(//videos//) >= 0) {prevVideoId = document.referrer.replace(/^(?:http|https)://[^/]/videos/(.+.w+)(?:/video/playlists/.*)?$/, ‘/video/$1’);if (prevVideoId === document.referrer) {prevVideoId = ”;}}playerInstance.reportAnalytics(‘videoPageData’, {videoCollection: currentVideoCollectionId,videoBranding: CNN.omniture.branding_content_page,templateType: CNN.omniture.template_type,nextVideo: nextVideoId,previousVideo: prevVideoId,referrerType: ”,referrerUrl: document.referrer});}if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onContentReplayRequest: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);var $endSlate = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find(‘.js-video__end-slate’).eq(0);if ($endSlate.length > 0) {$endSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–active’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’);}}}},onContentBegin: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {CNN.VideoPlayer.mutePlayer(containerId);if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘removeEpicAds’);}CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoSourceUtils.clearSource(containerId);jQuery(document).triggerVideoContentStarted();},onContentComplete: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘restoreFreewheel’);}navigateToNextVideo(contentId, containerId);},onContentEnd: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(false);}}},onCVPVisibilityChange: function (containerId, cvpId, visible) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, visible);}};if (typeof configObj.context !== ‘string’ || configObj.context.length 0) {configObj.adsection = window.ssid;}CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibrary(configObj, callbackObj, isLivePlayer);});/* videodemanddust is a default feature of the injector */CNN.INJECTOR.scriptComplete(‘videodemanddust’);
