The Open Championship

Links golf is nature in all its unforgiving force – and The Open is where nature is pitted against the very best of the very best.

It’s where champions must set aside what came before. Alone, skill and years of diligent preparation are not enough.

Endlessly made new

Here, on the links course, every hole is made new as the wind and weather shifts. And it has been this way since the first golfers placed the first tees into the first turf.

Links golf is how our game began, played on unforgiving shores where raw landscape meets the sea. These are fairways and greens shaped by nature. There is perfection in every imperfection.

A game fought on the inside

Links golf is much more than a battle of skill and nerve told in scorecards. It is every player’s turmoils and strengths. At The Open, our game is played out for the world to see.

The test remains as stern as it ever was. And the rewards even greater.

Sand dunes swirl, rain cuts cold through gloved hands, and cresting waves carry guillemots and seagulls. But among all this movement is stillness. A truth that we have lived out here on links courses for over 150 years: this is golf’s original, timeless test.

For this, our 151st Championship, we wanted to understand what this unique form of the game means to fans and players. So we listened to the people who come here to be part of it. But we also talked to people who simply love our game – as well as fans who love sport in general.

This latter group told us that they love being part of a world-class sporting event. And they want to share that event with their friends and family, in an all-encompassing experience.

Golf fans feel something similar. However, for them, being part of The Open is about paying homage. They see it as golf’s oldest, truest and most significant championship.

The sun. The water. The wind. The earth.

We asked golf fans to tell us what The Open means to them. What they described was a battle against nature. Of these ancient strips of turf between shore and sea creating the incredible golf courses where our game began.

And there’s the difference: the land shapes the course, not the other way around. This is what makes links golf uniquely timeless.

What makes The Open, The Open?

Links golf sets the player against the raw and unpredictable power of nature. Nothing else comes close.

It’s about pitting yourself against fate, and finding the resilience to carry on. Links golf tests the golfer’s resolve and intuition as much as it challenges their fitness and skill.

It’s why intensity and emotion flow from every shot – and it’s what makes The Open so heart-stopping to watch. Every dramatic moment amplified by a crowd that understands the privilege of being so close to these moments of sporting greatness.

Shaped by the unknowable

Our brand is based on a simple truth: every one of us faces challenges, our characters shaped by what we overcome. There will be bad luck. There will be good luck. At times, it feels as if there is no way of understanding what is going to happen.

This – all this – is what makes The Open a test like no other. These are courses renowned the world over, but which can never truly be understood. The quest never ends.

After all, this is The Open. Even the player who lifts the Claret Jug cannot claim to have all the answers.

Links golf doesn’t work like that. And that is why links golf is at the heart of what The Open stands for.

There’s nothing quite as beautiful as a sunrise on a links course. Or anything quite as cruel as the sun’s constant glare at midday. Even the sunset over the sand dunes may carry an omen of scorched greens and baked-out fairways.

Today, people in the UK still talk about the ‘long, hot summer’ of 1976. But it was a year later that The 106th Open became known as ‘The Duel in the Sun’.

The setting was Turnberry – the famous course left yellowed and hardened by a spell of intensely hot weather. Could this really be the west coast of Scotland? Our duellists for this sun-baked showdown: Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus.

Watson was named Champion Golfer of the Year at Carnoustie in 1975, and Nicklaus had already won 14 majors. The pair went into the Saturday with identical scorecards, with the crowd only seeming to crank up the heat and the drama. Watson went on to beat Nicklaus by just one shot, lifting the Claret Jug with a total scoring record of 268.

Almost 30 years later in 2006, Royal Liverpool was also gripped by a heatwave. Parched and brown, the course became so fast that Tiger Woods was able to play irons off the tee all week – only once did he have to reach for his driver. Another close-fought battle, Chris DiMarco pushed Tiger throughout the final day. However, Woods finally secured his place in history as the first Champion to successfully hold onto his title since Tom Watson at Royal Birkdale.

On these islands, on these links courses, the wind is always ready with its answer to the most perfectly struck shot. Here, the challenge is how to make the wind your friend, not your enemy, as the direction shifts from one moment to the next.

Then there’s the wind’s sheer intensity. When the players are blown off the course, it can only be The Open. This was Royal St George’s in 2011. When not one of the first 15 players on Saturday morning could better 74. When 22-year-old Rickie Fowler’s two-under 68 took everything he could give. And when Darren Clarke’s weekend rounds of 69 and 70 brought him a five-under aggregate – and the Claret Jug.

St Andrews in 1995 was even more extreme. 40 mph winds suspended play on the Saturday morning. This, after Friday’s flooding.

But the prize for windiest Open in history probably goes to Royal Birkdale in 2008. Not one player was under par. Vijay Singh went so far as to describe his opening round as ‘miserable, miserable, miserable’. Padraig Harrington would somehow go on to tame the gales – the first European since 1906 to retain the Claret Jug.

The Golf Champion Trophy

The impetus to provide the Challenge Belt had come from the Earl of Eglinton and derived from his keen interest in medieval pageantry. He was pre-eminent in encouraging sport throughout the social spectrum and was a leading light in setting up The Open Championship. The Earl donated many trophies for competition, including a gold belt for competition among the Irvine Archers. The original Challenge Belt was purchased by the members of Prestwick Golf Club.

According to the first rule of the new golf competition: “The party winning the belt shall always leave the belt with the treasurer of the club until he produces a guarantee to the satisfaction of the above committee that the belt shall be safely kept and laid on the table at the next meeting to compete for it until it becomes the property of the winner by being won three times in succession."

The first time a medal was given to the Champion was in 1872, when no trophy was available. Unlike the Claret Jug, which must be returned in time for the next Championship, the Gold Medal is kept by the winner. The early Gold Medals, which in fact were silver gilt, were large ovals with a central design of a shield and crossed clubs. Around the edge was the inscription ‘Golf Champion Trophy’. During the late 1880s and early 1890s, the design of the medal underwent several changes.

The circular medal was first introduced in 1893 and the basic size and shape has not changed since then. That same year, the medal was assigned a value of £10 and this was deducted from the advertised purse for the winner. In 1920, the value of the winner’s medal was increased to £25 and again deducted from his share of the prize fund. This practice stopped after The Open in 1929 and from 1930 onwards, the winner no longer had to ‘pay’ for their medal.

It had been suggested as early as 1922 that some recognition should be given to the leading amateur in The Open, but it was not until 1949 that a Silver Medal of the same size and design as the winner’s medal, was presented. It bore the inscription ‘Golf Champion Trophy’, with the addition of the words ‘First Amateur’. Frank Stranahan of the United States was the first to receive the Silver Medal and he went on to win it again in 1950, 1951 and 1953.

From 1972 all amateurs, other than the leading amateur, who have played on the final day of The Open, have received a Bronze Medal.

In recognition of the growing challenges facing our natural environment, The Open is committed to conserving the natural links landscapes which play host to the Championship.

Taking into account specific site sensitivities and wildlife considerations, great care is taken to protect nature throughout the entire event staging process. Working closely with an appointed ecologist and the host venue, The Open ensures that the links is safeguarded for the enjoyment of future generations.

The GreenLinks programme also addresses the broader sustainability considerations around staging a major sport event. In catering for hundreds of thousands of spectators during the week of the Championship, The Open is implementing sustainable procurement policies which focus on ethically produced food and drink from local suppliers.

To minimise the volume of waste material sent to landfill, The Open is collaborating with partner organisations to deliver effective waste separation and recycling initiatives.

Support GreenLinks

You can help the successful delivery of the GreenLinks programme by taking the following steps during your visit to The Open:

1. If possible, travel to the event by public transport or car share
2. Don't litter and be sure to use the designated recycling points
3. Observe official course access points and walkways to avoid trampling sensitive habitats
4. Enjoy locally sourced and fairly traded produce