The 149th Open Championship thread

The name of this tournament is the Open Championship. The R&A are consciously making the decision to promote this brand, it is the only major outside of the US and they want to play to that strength. They are also looking to move it around and before long (next 10 years) it's quite likely they will be back to Ireland and maybe even move into Europe.

I heard a rumour that The Open is looking at potentially using Portmarnock in the coming years and that this is why they had the vote for the Female members. Now this was just chat on a golf course but you never know.

I think next year at St Andrews will be a massive year for the tournament. Attendance records will be broke etc. 150th year celebrations. Will be a big one.

Couldn't disagree with this post any more.

The Open's stature is not declining.

I wouldn't call Royal St George's a weak course or anything, but it wouldn't rank very highly on my list of Open venues. Just not enough stand out holes on it for my money, compared to, say, Carnoustie or Turnberry or, even, St Andrews. But they're all the same in that you need a bit of wind or worse to see them at their best and that told a bit last week, just the way it goes sometime.

On the Open v British Open debate, I'm currently reading Tom Coyne's latest book 'A Course called America' recounting him playing a lot of the most famous courses in the US including all the courses that have hosted the US Open, and it is interesting that he refers to those courses as being 'Open' Courses, as well as US Open courses. Now Tom is someone who would be acutely aware of the sensitivities around naming conventions. He would certainly call the British Open the 'Open Championship' but as an American he also refers to his own national championship as the Open.

By the way, I'd disagree with the poster above who stated that the (British) Open is in decline. Far from it I'd say. The branding and marketing around The Open is everywhere now. It's never been so popular. Remember it's not so long ago that some of the top American players would skip The Open for various reasons, travel, etc. That doesn't happen now.

On RSG, for -15 to be the winning score in such a benign week weather wise, it shows you that the course can't be that weak!

I am not worked up....

Why would someone be worked up when simply discussing the naming of a golf tournament?

It seems people replying and responding are worked up...as that is what they keep saying in replies....

I simply called it as ignorant for people to call The Open the British Open. It is incorrect.

I also have no idea what your point is as regards people not using official names when speaking. It has no bearing on this issue.

Morikawa is some player.

Has anyone tried to enter the ballot for next years Open. Have clicked on the link multiple times and tried different browsers but it falls over every time you get to the submit button

Worked fine for me on Monday. Try a different web browser. Also if you're in the office or on a VPN for work it's possible that part of the website is being blocked by the firewall/web filter - use your mobile or home connection instead. This happens quite often.