The Open Championship is the oldest golf tournament in the world and as such will always hold a special place in the fabric of the game. It is one of the most prestigious events around and the Claret Jug is one of the most impressive trophies you can win.
Many of the sport’s greatest players have won the Open during their careers, but many have not, and some have even missed out on a golden opportunity to immortalise their name.
Yet no one has won more Open titles than Harry Vardon (six) and no golf course is more closely associated with this great championship than St. Andrews’ Old, which has hosted the event 30 times, although Prestwick is the birthplace and has hosted it 24 times.
Played on links courses across the British Isles on a rotation schedule set by the R&A, the tournament’s uniqueness adds even more excitement to the only men’s major played outside the United States.
But what else makes the final men’s major of the season so special? Ahead of the 152nd major at Royal Troon this week, Golf Monthly asked several Callaway employees for their thoughts on the subject.
INCI MEHMET
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“The Open is a very special event because it feels like the pinnacle. I may be a little biased because I’m British, but historically it has always given me goosebumps.
“The storylines are always incredible, the showdowns we’ve seen are fantastic and the atmosphere – you can’t replicate that anywhere else in the world. That has to be the case at The Open.”
MIN WOO LEE
Min Woo Lee wears a chef’s hat while addressing the crowd on the 17th green at the 2023 Australian PGA Championship.
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“You can hear bagpipes in the background. That’s something special in itself. But you have to be creative with your shots on a links golf course – you have to putt from 10 to 20 yards from the green – that’s something different that you don’t do on most courses. Here you have to be very creative.”
Nicolai Hojgaard and Rasmus Hojgaard
Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard
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Nicolai Hojgaard: “It’s just history. It’s the tournament we all want to win. It’s cool to dig into the archives and see the whole story. It would be great to maybe be the first Dane to win it.”
Rasmus Hojgaard: “Tradition, and we don’t play links golf that often, so it’s a cool thing to play on very old links courses. And the Open has a long history, it’s one of the tournaments you want to win. Everyone in the field is so excited to be in the Open every year.”
ALEX NOREN
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“It’s special because it has tradition and history and it’s so natural. You just fall in love with it. The grass is great – it’s firm, fast and easy to run. And I also like it when there’s ‘casual golf’. You don’t have to hit every shot perfectly, you can get up and down from crazy situations – you can recover. It’s not like the US Open is sometimes set up like it’s dictating what you have to do, whereas here you’re kind of very free.”
MATTHEW JORDAN
Matthew Jordan, Member of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club
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“I think that’s just the pinnacle of golf. As a kid, you dream about it when you come out of Hoylake and you see all the greats coming here and striving to win the Open Championship. For me, that’s the reason you train. You see them win, you see how happy they are when they lift the prize. That’s every golfer’s dream and that’s the feeling you get when you turn up.”
