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Terms & Conditions

The use of The Open website at www.theopen.com (the "Site") is subject to the following terms and conditions which you should read. The Site is managed by R&A Championships Limited (referred to as "We" or "us" or "our" below).  We are registered in Scotland under company number SC247047 and have our registered office at Beach House, Golf Place, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JA. Our VAT number is 827 8424 04. In entering the Site, you as a user ("You" or "Your") are accepting our terms and conditions. If you do not agree to our terms and conditions, you must not use the Site. We may revise our terms and conditions at any time by amending this page. Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you.

Your use of the Site is also subject to the following additional policies:

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

R&A Trademarks

If you purchase goods from shop.theopen.com our Terms and Conditions of supply will apply to the sales.

Disclaimer

All material on the Site or made available via the Site (referred to in this section as the "Content") belongs to us or to third parties who have allowed us to use and display their material. You may use the Content only for your personal, non-commercial use, and provided that you acknowledge the copyright owner. You may not otherwise reproduce, modify or in any way commercially exploit any of the Content.

Information on this Site is posted in good faith and updated regularly.  However, we cannot guarantee the completeness and accuracy of the information shown. Due to the nature of electronic distribution via the Internet, we do not give any warranties or make any representations in respect of the Site. In particular, the Site is provided on an "as is", "with all faults" and "as available" basis.

Access to our Site is provided on a temporary basis. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our Site without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period. You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our Site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our Site through your internet connection are aware of these terms and conditions and other applicable terms which also apply to the use of our Site, and that they comply with them.

So far as lawfully possible, and other than as specifically provided in relation to products purchased or otherwise obtained through the Site, we exclude all liability to you in contract or delict (negligence) (other than where negligence by us gives rise to personal injury or death) including without limitation:

(i) any implied conditions regarding the satisfactory quality or fitness for a particular purpose of the Site;

(ii) any express or statutory conditions relating to the Site; and

(iii) any conditions or duties regarding accuracy or completeness of the Site.

Additionally, we make no representation that the Site is free from infection by viruses or anything else that has contaminating or destructive properties.  We make every effort to check and test material at all stages of production.  However, it is always wise for you to run an anti-virus program on all material downloaded from the Internet.  We cannot accept any responsibility for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or your computer system which may occur whilst using material derived from this website.

Other than as specifically provided in relation to products purchased or obtained free of charge through the Site or as specified elsewhere in this section of the Site entitled "Website Terms and Conditions", we shall not be liable to pay any money to you by way of compensation for any loss suffered by you as a result of use of the Site including by way of example any loss of profits, loss of goodwill or reputation, or loss of anticipated savings.

The Site contains links to other World Wide Web sites provided by both connected organisations and independent third parties (referred to in this paragraph as "Third Party Sites"), either directly or through frames (i.e. material which is taken from a third party site but which is shown as though it is part of the Site). Where possible, we will make clear where such links are being made. We are not responsible for the reliability or content of Third Party Sites and other than as expressly provided on this Site, shall not be a party to, or in any way be responsible for, any transaction concerning goods or services available from such Third Party Sites.  The existence of links to other websites on this website should not be taken as endorsement of any kind of the other websites in question.  We cannot guarantee that these links will work all the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

Acceptable Use

- You may use our Site only for lawful purposes. You may not use our Site:

- In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.

- In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.

- For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.

- To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards.

- To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).

- To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

You also agree:

- Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of our terms and conditions.

- Not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:

     - any part of our Site;

     - any equipment or network on which our Site is stored;

     - any software used in the provision of our Site; or

     - any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.

You must comply with the spirit and the letter of the content standards set out below, which apply to any and all material which you contribute to our Site, and to any interactive services associated with it.  The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole. Any content you upload to our Site will be considered non-confidential. You retain all of your ownership rights in any content you upload to our Site, but you are required to grant us and other users of the Site a limited licence, the terms of which are set out in the Intellectual Property Rights section below. Contributions must:

- Be accurate (where they state facts).

- Be genuinely held (where they state opinions).

- Comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted.

Contributions must not:

- Contain any material which is defamatory of any person.

- Contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.

- Promote sexually explicit material.

- Promote violence.

- Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.

- Infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person.

- Be likely to deceive any person.

- Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.

- Promote any illegal activity.

- Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.

- Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.

- Be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.

- Give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case.

- Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

Where we provide any interactive service, we will do our best to assess any possible risks for users (and in particular, for children) from third parties when they use any interactive service provided on our Site, and we will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to use moderation of the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in the light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on our Site, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a user in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not. The views expressed by other users on our Site do not represent our views or values.

The use of any of our interactive services by a minor is subject to the consent of their parent or guardian. We advise parents who permit their children to use an interactive service that it is important that they communicate with their children about their safety online, as moderation is not foolproof. Minors who are using any interactive service should be made aware of the potential risks to them. Where we do moderate an interactive service, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator, should a concern or difficulty arise.

You warrant that whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload content to our Site, or to make contact with other users of our Site any contribution does comply with these acceptable use standards, and you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. If you are a consumer user, this means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

We will determine, in our discretion, whether there has been a breach of our terms and conditions relating to the acceptable use of our Site. When a breach has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate. Failure to comply constitutes a material breach of our terms and conditions, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

- Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our Site.

- Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our Site.

- Issue of a warning to you.

- Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.

- Further legal action against you.

- Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.

We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our Site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy. We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of our terms and conditions. The responses described above are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

Intellectual Property Rights

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our Site, and in the Content. All such rights are reserved. You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our Site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our Site. You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of the Content must always be acknowledged. You must not use any part of the Content for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors. If you print off, copy or download any part of our Site in breach of these terms and conditions of use, your right to use our Site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. These terms and conditions are in addition and without prejudice to the R&A Trademarks policy.

In respect of any content you upload to our Site, (i) you grant us a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform that content in connection with the service provided by the Site and across different media; and (ii) you grant any other users of the Site a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, store and copy that content and to distribute and make it available to third parties.

Your Account and Password

If you choose, or are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of our terms and conditions. If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at OpenGolf@randa.org.

Governing Law

These terms and conditions are governed by Scots law. If you live in the EU, you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in the country where you live.