Casual Friday kind of blows with the wind as far as determining a
favorite major each year, at least until the British Open rolls around.
The Masters has its springtime charm and dignity, the U.S. Open is
a robust, manly competition with hair on its chest and the PGA Championship
has developed possibly the best competition year-in and year-out.
But the British Open, known as the Open Championship to most of the
world, always seems to be the ultimate major, the quintessential challenge.
Maybe it's the history. As ancient as we like to think golf is, its
championship history doesn't extend into the mists of time. The Open
is the oldest of golf's competitions and dates only to 1860. The Greeks
and Romans were competing in wrestling, running and such a couple of
thousand years ago, not that age has done much for the spectator appeal
of those sports.
Still,
it's our most ancient test.
The courses also play a integral part in favoring the Open as the
best championship. Nowhere else in the world are those links courses
such as those in the Open rota. And not course are more fickle, more
affected by the weather, than these old pieces of land that link sea
and land.
The site of this year's Open, Royal St. George's at Sandwich in Kent,
England, holds a special place in the Championship's history, by the
way, in that it was the first non-Scottish club to host the tournament.
(Casual Friday thinks there's something even more special about the
Open, however, when it's played in Scotland, the land of Prestwick,
Musselburgh and some inedible food.)
Then there is the
trophy itself, the Claret Jug, a piece of silver that dates
to 1873 and cost a princely sum of 30 pounds when it was
made by Mackay Cunningham & Company of Edinburgh.
Of course, the champions, and some non-champions, are essential to
the Open's history. From the Great Triumvirate of Harry Vardon, J.H.
Taylor and James Braid to Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton,
Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus,
Tom Watson Seve Ballesteros and Tiger Woods, the greats of the game
have held the Claret Jug close to their chests in victory.
Remember Hogan in '53? How about Watson and Nicklaus in '77 in what
is probably the greatest golf tournament ever played?
More than those players, however, are the faceless thousands from
all parts of the globe who try to qualify each year. A lucky few make
the championship.
This year there are players such as Japan's Nobuhito Sato, whose
best finish in three prior Opens has been a tie for 75th.
Then there's Gary Wolstenholme, a 43-year-old British amateur who
once defeated Woods in singles in the 1995 Walker Cup. Wolstenholme
is competing in his first Open since 1992, when he tied for 147th.
From India comes Jyoti Randhawa, who played in the Open three years
ago and tied for 98th.
They all will play a part in the lore of the Open Championship, although
they seldom have much effect on the proceedings, but there they are,
for two days at least, trodding the fairways with the greats of the
game and with history.
DOUBLE CLICK
www.opengolf.com
Obviously the place for all things related to the game's oldest championship
and the only place to be come next Thursday morning.
