7-15-08: The Open Championship

Thursday is the beginning of one of my favorite annual sporting events: The Open Championship, commonly referred to here in the U.S. as the British Open. This year the tournament is to be held at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England (just north of Liverpool in northwest England). It's a tournament rich in tradition and culture (and funny facts like these: the oldest winner was Old Tom Morris, who won the tournament at the age of 46 in 1867; the youngest was his son Young Tom Morris, who won the very next year, 1868, at the age of 17). It's also one of the more entertaining tournaments to watch, as the host courses are often "links" style as opposed to the green, groomed courses so often seen on the PGA Tour. They do it a bit differently in Europe.

    The other factor is the weather. It's not uncommon to see dreary, foggy, wet conditions during the Open, which can really test the nerves and talents of the world's top players. Because of this, it's not uncommon to see "no-name" guys win it. Here are the winners of the last 10 Opens:

    2007: Padraig Harrington
    2006: Tiger Woods
    2005: Tiger Woods
    2004: Todd Hamilton
    2003: Ben Curtis
    2002: Ernie Els
    2001: David Duval
    2000: Tiger Woods
    1999: Paul Lawrie
    1998: Mark O'Meara

    Any casual golf fan should be able to recognize most of those names, even though players like Duval and O'Meara have fallen off the top tier since winning. But Todd Hamilton and Ben Curtis? What have they done? Not much, relatively. But their names are in the history books as winners. And Woods isn't even in the tournament this year, which leaves yet another door open for the underdog to walk through and win… the Open Championship.