Why it's Called The Open Championship

[boogielicious]

The July 19 Tank McNamara strip explains it all.

http://www.gocomics.com/tankmcnamara#.U8qUjxad6hM

[jamo]

FYI, on the subject of comics, if anyone follows xkcd, one of his What If?s from a few months ago was golf-related: http://what-if.xkcd.com/85/

[turtleback]

The July 19 Tank McNamara strip explains it all.

http://www.gocomics.com/tankmcnamara#.U8qUjxad6hM

If calling it the British Open was good enough for Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus, it is good enough for me.

[iacas]

The push to call it "The Open Championship" is relatively recent. The event was languishing in the 40s, 50s, 60s…

The Open is the U.S. Open to me, as a U.S. citizen.

[Grndslmhttr3]

I've always thought "The Open Championship" had kind of a snobby tone to it. If I ever refer to something as The Open then I'm probably talking about the US Open. I don't think I've ever referred to the British Open as "The Open Championship."

[chasm]

I've always thought "The Open Championship" had kind of a snobby tone to it. If I ever refer to something as The Open then I'm probably talking about the US Open. I don't think I've ever referred to the British Open as "The Open Championship."

There wasn't anything snobby about it. When it started, it was the only one. There was no need to call it "The British Open" because there wasn't another. It was simply "The Open Championship" because anyone (any professional, to start with) could enter. It's similar to why British postage stamps have nothing that explicitly say they're British. When they were introduced, they were the only ones in existence.

[Golfingdad]

There wasn't anything snobby about it. When it started, it was the only one. There was no need to call it "The British Open" because there wasn't another. It was simply "The Open Championship" because anyone (any professional, to start with) could enter.

It's similar to why British postage stamps have nothing that explicitly say they're British. When they were introduced, they were the only ones in existence.

I agree that there wasn't anything snobby about it when it was the only one.  But it's been 119 years since that stopped being the case.  To try and continue to call it THE Open now without acknowledgement of the other one (which many think to be more important) DOES come across as a bit snobby.

However, I don't care either way.  "The Open" in July refers to the British, but if it's late May and early June, then it's probably referring to the US Open.  If it's late August and early September, then we're talking about tennis.

[boogielicious]

I feel you have read snobbiness into something.  The words themselves to not necessarily reflect any emotion.  I have no issue with calling it The Open Championship other than it needing more clarification for people unfamiliar with the sport.

[Aflighter]

well it should be called the british open because that's where its played every year.in Britain.france,spain,scotland ,Ireland all have there opens.why cant the open be called britains open?heard Faldo couple weeks ago talking about it.nick says its the british open but the other English announcer said no its the open.

[Shorty]

I'll bet none of you Americans call the Masters the "U.S. Masters".

[Golfingdad]

I'll bet none of you Americans call the Masters the "U.S. Masters".

Nope. But that's because I've never spoken of any other Masters (I'm assuming there are others??) so there has yet to be anything to distinguish it from.

[jamo]

Nope. But that's because I've never spoken of any other Masters (I'm assuming there are others??) so there has yet to be anything to distinguish it from.

Scandinavian, Australian, French, Spanish, Nordic, etc. (Okay, those were all the ones I could name off the top of my head.)

[Shorty]

Scandinavian, Australian, French, Spanish, Nordic, etc. (Okay, those were all the ones I could name off the top of my head.)

British ( no longer played), European........

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Nope. But that's because I've never spoken of any other Masters (I'm assuming there are others??) so there has yet to be anything to distinguish it from.

Scandinavian, Australian, French, Spanish, Nordic, etc. (Okay, those were all the ones I could name off the top of my head.)

There are a bunch of other Open's too, including the Canadian, Scottish, French, but none have the stature of the US and British, just as no other Masters has the status of The Masters at Augusta National.

No matter how you slice it, the British Open has no more standing in modern golf than the US Open, and it has no justification to style itself as THE Open.

[Grndslmhttr3]

No matter how you slice it, the British Open has no more standing in modern golf than the US Open, and it has no justification to style itself as THE Open.

Especially when the US Open seems to be a much tougher test of golf

[pepsiplusconker]

This is obviously just a hang over because it was the first and only "Open"

I think it's abit of snobbery, it's a way of saying, we were the first, and our Open is the original Open.

[Reval14]

Probably because of tradition too. THE Open is the oldest still played Golf tournament in the world.

[turtleback]

There wasn't anything snobby about it. When it started, it was the only one. There was no need to call it "The British Open" because there wasn't another. It was simply "The Open Championship" because anyone (any professional, to start with) could enter.

It's similar to why British postage stamps have nothing that explicitly say they're British. When they were introduced, they were the only ones in existence.

Yet for years it was commonly referred to as the British Open and no one got their knickers in a twist.  Which was kind of the point about my comment that if calling it the British Open was good enough for Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus (both of whom refer to it s the British Open repeatedly in their books) it is good enough for me.

I'll bet none of you Americans call the Masters the "U.S. Masters".

We might, if there was another Masters which was a major.

And personally I do not care if people want to call it just "The Open".  I just want people to give me the same freedom to call it The British Open without them getting all condescending about it.