The Open Championship 2012

By Bill Harvison

Many golf followers from overseas say “typically British”, they call it The Open Championship as if it was the only Open in the world.

But when it began in 1860 it was. Nowadays the title”The Open” is more deserved than ever because the field is the most international of the four major championships and certainly it is the oldest. The U.S. Open dates from 1895 or 1896 (depending on which expert you listen to), the U.S. P.G.A. from 1916 and The Masters from 1934.

The championship was inaugurated in 1860 to determine who was Scotland’s – and therefore the world’s – best golfer following the death the previous year of Allan Robertson who was recognized to be supreme. Robertson had played the Old Course at St. Andrews in 79 strokes in 1858. This was the first time 80 had been broken and given the equipment of the day and the unkempt condition of the links this is probably a greater feat than many a 62 with today’s clubs and balls.

The word “Open” for the first championship was very much a misnomer. Only professionals were permitted to enter and only eight of them did. Willie Park won by two strokes from Old Tom Morris with a score of 174 for three rounds of Prestwick’s 12-hole links on Wednesday 17th October 1860 and his prize was a red Morocco leather belt. Note that there was no financial remuneration for thi first victory, quite a difference from today!

Park’s score in 1860 did not represent particularly good scoring, even in the early days of the gutty ball, and there was discontent among several leading amateurs that they had not been allowed to enter. Accordingly, Major J.O. Fairlie, the Prestwick member who proposed the competition in the first place, acceded to their wishes. He was initially inclined to restrict the invitation to the “gentlemen” of eight leading clubs but was persuaded at the eleventh hour to be more generous and extend the offer. Accordingly, he declared on the eve of the competition “Belt to be played for tomorrow and on all other occasions until it be otherwise resolved shall be open to all the world”. Seldom can the intentions of such a grandiose statement have been so impressively fulfilled.

My next article will go through the era when prize money was introduced for the first time in 1863 and cover the eras of Old Tom Morris and his son Young Tommy up to the time of Harry Vardon and the Great Triumvirate.

Bill Harvison, once the owner of a successful textile business, is now a renowned UK Internet Marketer with a vision to help as many people as possible in the intenet work. Coming from a background with no computer skills whatsoever, he has used My Internet Business to develop all the tools to coach people to their own success. For a free marketing guide please visit http://www.internetbizforyou.co.uk or alternatively find out more about him at [http://www.whoisbillharvison.com]

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