There are so many reasons why any golf fan should watch the British Open every year. To be honest, any person who considers himself to be a golf fan should be ashamed if he does not watch at least the final round of the Open Championship each and every July.
The one thing that the Open has going for it, more than almost any other golf tournament in the world, is the drama that it creates. It is that drama that entices people who are not golfing fans to get up in the morning and watch the Open on television from countries all over the world.
Desperation and Prestige
What causes that drama that draws people who do not care about golf to turn on the television and watch the Open Championship? It is the prestige that the event carries and the desperation that the players display when trying to win the tournament.
To an American golfer and golfing fan, the British Open is one of four major tournaments that the best golfers in the world compete for every year. But to golfers in almost every other country in the world, the British Open is the only championship that matters.
The British Open started play in 1860. That makes it the oldest golf championship in the world. It has been played 29 times on the Royal St. Andrews Links Golf Course located in Scotland. Royal St. Andrews is one of the oldest golf courses in the world and it is widely regarded as the birthplace of the game. When you have that kind of history going on in a golf tournament, you will have desperate professionals doing anything to win it all.
The Landscape
If you have never seen a links golf course, then you need to watch the British Open. Golf fans all over the world are used to towering hills that contain thick forests that encapsulate a smooth fairway that leads to a picturesque green. To most golf fans, every golf course pretty much looks like the Augusta National Golf Club which hosts the Masters every year.
But links golf is not like that. Links golf does not have trees. Instead, links golf has eight-foot deep sand traps in the fairways and chest-high hay for rough. Links fairways are rolling messes that have no flat spots and can get a golfer lost if he does not know where he is going. It is almost impossible to tell the green from the fairway when you are on the course, and many links courses have holes that share the same green.
The Weather
The weather that occurs on any of the links courses that host the British Open is some of the most unpredictable weather ever seen in golf. The only way to understand it, is to watch it for yourself.
The opening round could be played wearing thick sweaters or even winter jackets with the wind whipping around the course and tee shots spraying into the audience. Then the second round could be played in a torrential downpour that doesn’t seem to affect the British golfers. By the time the final round comes around, it is 80 degrees and everyone is in a short-sleeved shirt.
The Fans
The British Open is the only golf tournament in the world where the golfer who is in the lead coming up the 18th fairway has to fear for his life. There are plenty of pictures and videos of golfers having to fight their way through the crowd that has poured on to the 18th fairway just to make the winning putt. So far, no golfers have been lost in the melee.
The British Open holds all of the character and intrigue that golf has to offer. It is the tournament that every professional golfer wants to win, and it is the tournament that every golf fan wants to attend.
When July rolls around, check your local television listings to see when the British Open will be on television. If you want to see something like you have never seen before, then spend a few hours taking in the experience that is simply known as the Open Championship.
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