Why it’s simply called ‘The Open’

Last year, I committed the sin of referring to ‘The Open’ as ‘The British Open’ in an article. I received an email from a reader (whose name I cannot remember).

But I will remember the email for a long time. The subject of the email was “Dear Sir, there is NO BRITISH OPEN. There is THE OPEN!” (sic). This was followed by “you are forgiven” in the body of the email. The message was loud and clear.

This week, when I arrived at the Royal Birkdale for my first ever experience at The Open, the words that greeted me reminded me of the simple email.

At the entrance of Royal Birkdale, and on many communication material, the slogan “This is the one. The Open” will not let anyone forget that this is the oldest of the golf majors and probably the most prestigious of them all. The winner of The Open is simply known as The Champion Golfer.

The good people at The R&A, the body that governs the game of golf in the world and also runs The Open, rely on a tradition that dates back to 1860.

The preparations for this event are second to none that I have been involved in. I still don’t know how many volunteers and staff of the bodies involved in golf in the UK are involved.

I can, however, compare one aspect of The Kenya Open to The Open — we had six referees at The Kenya Open this year and at The Open, I’m one of the 85 referees.

After several meetings and walks on the golf course with fellow referees to prepare, my first assignment on Thursday was with the trio of Padraig Harrington, Pat Perez and Thomas Pieters.

The most outstanding of the three is the two times Champion Golfer, Padraig Harrington.

The last time he won the tournament was in 2008 at the same course, Royal Birkdale.

His score during the competition was three over par but it was still good enough to beat everyone else.

I may not know for sure what made the game so difficult back in 2008 at Royal Birkdale, but I have a feeling that it had something to with the weather.

The winds and rain will make a huge difference at Royal Birkdale this year. The weather men are saying that we should be getting some rain and strong winds.

In the Rules of Golf, wind is not considered as an outside agency. So, if a ball at rest is moved by wind, the ball is played from it’s new position.

Here are two scenarios that I was asked about a ball moved by wind recently:

Scenario 1:

A player replaced his ball on the green and the ball was at rest. After a few seconds and before he removed the ball marker from behind the ball, it was blown by a gust of wind into a greenside bunker.

Scenario 2:

A player replaced his ball on the green and picked up his ball marker. A gust of wind then blew the ball into the hole.

In these two cases, the wind, which is not an outside agency, was responsible for the movement of the balls in play. The players were therefore required to play from the new positions.

In the case of the ball that ended up in the hole, the ball was holed with the previous shot. It does not matter that the ball marker was had not been removed in scenario 1. The ball is back in play the moment the player replaces it on the green.

It does not matter whether the marker is picked up or not.

Should it rain, then we will be seeing some accumulation of surface water on the golf course. This is referred to as casual water. Golfers are entitled to relief from casual water. That is if the casual water interferes with the lie of the ball, the stance of the player or if it affects the area of intended swing.

In addition to these, should the casual water interfere with the player’s line of putt when the player’s ball lies on the green, then they will be entitled to relief if the casual water happens to be along the intended line of putt. In this case, the nearest point of relief may not always be on the green.

The player may be required to take their relief on a point that is off the green if it is the nearest point that affords relief from the casual accumulation of water. This year, I look forward to seeing the Champion Golfer in action.

I appreciate the opportunity to participate in my little way towards the success of this year’s event. I will bring the lessons learnt back home to help improve our tournament administration.

The Open Championship, is truly the one!