The Open Championship

The Open Championship, or simply The Open (often referred to as the British Open), is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only major held outside the United States and is administered by the R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside of the U.S. and Mexico.

Since 1979, The Open has been played on the weekend of the third Friday in July. It is the third major of the calendar year, following The Masters and the U.S. Open, and preceding the PGA Championship. The current champion is Ernie Els who won in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire. The Open moved to a Sunday finish in 1980; it had a scheduled Saturday finish from 1966 through 1979, with the first round on Wednesday. Prior to 1966, the final two rounds were scheduled for Friday. Before 1926, the four rounds were played in two days.

The event takes place annually on one of nine links courses in Scotland or England. It was held once in Northern Ireland, at Royal Portrush in 1951 but has not returned.

In 2012, The Open had a first prize of £900,000 (about $1.4 million) and a total prize fund of about £5 million (about $7.8 million). The other three Major Championships in 2012 had first prizes of about $1.44 million and prize money of about $8 million, so that all four majors had almost identical prize money. Prize money is given to all professionals who make the cut and, since the number of professionals making the cut changes from year to year, the total prize money varies somewhat from the advertised number (currently £5 million).

The Open is a 72-hole stroke play tournament with a cut after 36 holes, limited to the top 70 players and ties. Unique among the four major championships, The Open features a four-hole playoff at the end of regulation, and continues into sudden-death if tied after four holes. Introduced in 1986, this format was first used in 1989; earlier playoffs were 36 holes until 1964, then 18 holes until 1986. The PGA Championship adopted a three-hole playoff, first used in 2000, after using sudden-death since 1977. (The Masters changed to sudden-death in the 1970s and the U.S. Open retains an 18-hole playoff.)