Open Championship

The Open Championship is a famous gold tournament, the oldest amongst the four major pro golf championships in the world. It was first contested in 1860 in Scotland. It has since then been held regularly and is set to take place at the Muirfield, Gullane in East Lothian, Scotland in 2013 with a seventy one par course that has a length of seven thousand two hundred and forty five yards. It is a part of several golf tours; the European Tour, the PGA Tour and the Japan Golf Tour. It is played in a stroke play format and has a five million pounds prize purse. It is a tournament to see live for fans of golf by ordering Open Championship tickets..

Greg Norman holds the record for the highest aggregate score, at two hundred and sixty seven, achieved at the 1993 Open Championship. Tiger Woods holds the record for to par, at minus nineteen, achieved in 2000. The current champion is Ernie Els from South Africa who won the tournament in 2012 held at the Royal Lytham & ST Annes Golf Club in Lancashire. This is a unique golf tournament, the only one of the four major golf championships held outside the US. It is organized by the R&A and is usually held during the year after The Masters Tournament and the US Open, with the PGCA Championship held after it.

In 2012, the Open Championship awarded the winner one million four hundred thousand dollars from a total prize fund of seven million eight hundred thousand dollars. This prize money is similar to that of all four golf majors. This is a seventy two-hole stroke play tournament with a cut at thirty six holes, which is limited to the top seventy players or ties. Amongst the four majors, the championship is unique for having a four-hole playoff at the end of regulation and then into sudden death if four-holes are passed.

It was first played at the Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland in 1860 and was restricted to golf professionals, with eight players participating then. The winner of the first tournament was Willie Park Sr. who would go on to win many a championship tournament. The winner was presented with a silver buckled leather belt with the first three tournaments having no prize money. The fourth tournament had prize money of ten pounds, which was then shared with the second, third and fourth place golf pros who participated in the tournament. In 2004, the prize money was seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds, having increased by a multiple of one hundred thousand than the original.

In 1870, the belt was retired, with three time consecutive winner Young Tom Morris taking it home. He would go on to win four more consecutive titles, and became the youngest winner of the tournament. This is thus a tournament to catch live via Open Championship tickets.