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British Open Championship Tournament Information

The Open Championship takes place every year on one of nine historic links courses in the United Kingdom. In 2007, The Open has a prize fund of well over £4 million and for the last few years has been the highest of all 4 majors.

The Open Championship has been an official event on the PGA Tour since 1995 which is run by the R&A govening body of Golf outside of the USA, which means that the prize money won in The Open by PGA Tour members is included on the official money list. In addition, all Open Championships before 1995 have been retroactively classified as PGA Tour wins, and the list of leading winners on the PGA Tour has been adjusted to reflect this. The European Tour has recognised The Open as an official event since its first official season in 1972 and it is also an official money event on the Japan Golf Tour.

Exemptions and qualifying events

The field for the Open is 156, and golfers may gain a place in three ways. Around two thirds of the field is made up of leading players who are given exemptions. The rest of the field is made up of players who were successful in "Local Qualifying" and those who came through "International Qualifying".

There are over thirty exemption categories. Among the more significant are:

The top 50 on the Official World Golf Rankings. This key sweep up category means that no member of the current elite of world golf will be excluded.
The top 20 in the previous season's PGA Tour money list and European Tour Order of Merit. Most but not all of these players will also be in the World top 50.
All previous Open Champions who will be age 60 or under on the final day of the tournament.
All players who have won one of the other three majors in the previous five years.
The top 10 from the previous year's Open Championship.

Tournament name

Outside the UK, the tournament is generally called the "British Open", in part to distinguish the tournament from another of the four majors that has an 'open' format, the U.S. Open, but mainly because other nations with similar 'open' format golf events refer to their own nation's open event as "the open." The PGA Tour refers to the tournament as the British Open, as do many media outlets in the United States, such as SportsTicker and the Associated Press.

However, in the United Kingdom and a fair portion of Europe, the tournament is best known by its official title, The Open Championship.

The Open Championship History

In 1860 Prestwick Golf Club staged an event for leading professionals. Eight players turned up and completed three rounds of the 12-hole course. The following year, in an effort to increase the entry, the event was thrown open to all the world, professionals and amateurs alike. The original winner’s trophy was a wide red leather belt heavily decorated with silver. Under the first rules of the competition it became the property of Young Tom Morris when he won the title three times in a row. No championship was held in 1871, but resumed the following year when Prestwick, the Royal and Ancient and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers combined to provide the claret jug trophy that is still awarded to the champion golfer each year.