3 Facts Nobody Told You About The Open Championship 2017

 

 

Some call it the British Open. Some others prefer to call it The Open Championship, while it’s generally simply known as “The Open.”

This annual tournament sees the finest golfers from all over the world converge on a select course, take swings at golf balls and compete to be number one.

This year’s edition of The Open will take place from the 20th-23rd of July, 2017, in Royal Birkdale, a golf course in the United Kingdom that hasn’t hosted The Open Championship in nearly a decade.

So, what else do you need to know about this year’s The Open?

1. About The Championship

This year’s The Open is the 146th edition of the competition. It is usually scheduled for mid-July and features the ‘high and mighty’ of golf being the third of the four major championships to be played in a calendar year.

The Open is the oldest of all four major tournaments in the golf world. It was first restricted to a select number of golfers – eight of them – until it was declared open to all. It’s called The Open because it was the first Open Championship.

2. The Players

Apart from being the oldest golf competition, The Open has over time been able to attract golf greats, some of who came and conquered the various courses it was played on.

From Harry Vardon to Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, The Open championship has featured them all.

This year, the competition will see 156 players compete for glory, the prize money (or at least what’s left of it after the winner’s got his own share) and the prize itself, the Claret Jug.

Notably though, Henrik Stenson – last year’s winner – holds the record of the best scoring average in The Open.

3. What’s at stake?

When it first started (1860 AD), the winner of The Open Championship got £25. Fast-forward to 2017, and the winner’s share of the prize money is just a little over $1.8m. This is part of the $10.25m total prize money which the competition boasts.

Then there’s the much-coveted Claret Jug which the winner gets, gets to keep for a year before returning it to the organizers at the start of the next edition of the competition.

Now that we’ve discussed some of the facts, which players have been grouped with each other?

Here’s the list:

• O’Meara, Mark – Wood, Chris – Moore, Ryan
• Khongwatmai, Phachara – McNealy, Maverick – Manley, Stuart
• Cink, Stewart – Lyle, Sandy – Wang, Jeung-Hun
• Broadhurst, Paul – Jaidee, Thongchai – Castro, Roberto
• Lehman, Tom – Hun-An, Byeong – Fichardt, Darren
• Kjeldsen, Soren – Horschel, Billy – Willett, Daniel
• Fitzpatrick, Matthew – Stricker, Steve – Grillo, Emiliano
• Dufner, Jason – Grace, Branden – DeChambeau, Bryson
• Noren, Alexander – Knox, Russell – Poulter, Ian
• Duval, David – Marksaeng, Prayad – Kim, Kyung-Tae
• Song, Young-Han – Horsey, Dave – Frittelli, Dylan
• Lorenzo-Vera, Michael – Howell III, Charles – Kapur, Shiv
• Henley, Russell – Zanotti, Fabrizio – Uihlein, Peter
• Levy, Alexander – Steele, Brendan – Simpson, Webb
• Bryan, Wesley – Lahiri, Anirban – Plant, Alfie
• Harrington, Padraig – Perez, Pat – Pieters, Thomas
• Stenson, Henrik – Kim, Si-Woo – Spieth, Jordan
• Oosthuizen, Louis – Rose, Justin – Thomas, Justin
• Koepka, Brooks – Matsuyama, Hideki – Fleetwood, Tommy
• Holmes, J.B. – Snedeker, Brandt – Lowry, Shane
• Bland, Richard – Norris, Shaun – Cianchetti, Luca
• Chang, Yi-Keun – Kim, Chan – Foster, Mark
• Kang, Sung Hoon – Finau, Tony – Pavon, Matthieu
• Bjork, Alexander – Dean, Joe – Streb, Robert
• Dinwiddie, Robert – Suri, Julian – Hodkinson, Adam
• Johnston, Andrew – Hadwin, Adam – Hamilton, Todd
• Daly, John – Bland, Adam – Syme, Connor
• McGirt, William – Tree, Toby – Lovemark, Jamie
• Griffin, Matthew – Connelly, Austin – Southgate, Matthew
• Smith, Cameron – Haas, Bill – Shinkwin, Callum
• Hendry, Michael – Harman, Brian – Laird, Martin
• Els, Ernie – Fisher, Ross – Wiesberger, Bernd
• Hatton, Tyrrell – Kaymer, Martin – Baddeley, Aaron
• Johnson, Zach – Day, Jason – Garcia, Sergio
• Sullivan, Andy – Luiten, Joost – Lipsky, David
• Fowler, Rickie – Scott, Adam – Casey, Paul
• Kuchar, Matt – Ramsay, Richard – Fox, Ryan
• Kisner, Kevin – Hoffman, Charley – Drysdale, David
• Walker, Jimmy – Tanihara, Hideto – Olesen, Thorbjorn
• Vegas, Jhonnathan – Stone, Brandon – O’hair, Sean
• Berger, Daniel – Larrazabal, Pablo – Ikeda, Yuta
• Lawrie, Paul – Chappell, Kevin – Miyazato, Yusaku
• Mcilroy, Rory – Johnson, Dustin – Schwartzel, Charl
• Hend, Scott – Cabrera Bello, Rafael – Watson, Bubba
• Waring, Paul – Stanley, Kyle – Na, Kevin
• Gi-Whan, Kim – Schauffele, Xander – Dodt, Andrew
• Li, Hao-Tong – Bulle, Kent – McCullen, Haydn
• Kruger, James – McCarthy, Nick – Hall, Ashley
• McCarthy, Ryan – Canter, Laurie – Munoz, Sebastian

There you go. Remember that you can always click on any of the groupings above to predict and win some extra cash for yourself.

That being said, which player do you see lifting the Claret Jug on the 23rd of July? Share your views with us by leaving us a comment.

Tags: The British Open, The Open, The Open Championship, The Open Championship 2017