British Open Venues 2008 -2010
2008 July 17-20, Royal Birkdale, Merseyside.
Royal Birkdale is located on England's north-west coast; commonly know as England's golf coast. Close to the cities of Liverpool and Manchester it is one of the favorite venues for 'The Open Championship' - regarded by many as the best 'Major' on the golfing calendar. 'The Open' has been played eight times at Royal Birkdale since it was added to the list of championship courses in 1954. That year Australian Peter Thomson won the first of three Opens' in succession, returning in 1965 to add his fifth and final title. Arnold Palmer, widely acknowledged as 'the Champion' who revived 'The Open' by raising it's international profile after his memorable win in 1961 is one of a long list of golfing greats, including Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Mark O'Meara and another Australian, Ian Baker-Finch all to have won over the hallowed links at Royal Birkdale. The course is famed for it colossal sand dunes and weaving fairways and it came to dramatic prominence in the halved Ryder Cup duel between America and Great Britain in 1969.
2009 July 16-19 Ailsa Course, Turnberry, Ayrshire.
Built as a luxury hotel and golf course development by the Glasgow and South Western Railway Company in 1903, Turnberry became a landing strip for planes of the Royal Flying Corps during the first world war and for Beaufighters and Liberators on anti-submarine and convoy protection patrols during the second global conflict. A massive two-year rebuilding programme led to the re-designed Ailsa course being opened in 1951. A decade later Michael Bonallack won the Amateur Championship over the spectacular links and in 1977 Turnberry played host to its first Open Championship. In brilliant sunshine Jack Nicklaus played the two final rounds in 65-66, losing by a single shot to Tom Watson in a dramatic head-to-head contest, with the rest of the field trailing 11 shots behind. The weather and the course were tougher propositions when the Championship returned in 1986. After a brutal first day, conditions were still bad enough to allow only 15 players to beat par in the second round. But Greg Norman defied the elements and played one of the truly great Championship rounds, opening up a significant lead with a 63, to claim his first major title by five shots. There was a much closer finish in 1994 when Jesper Parnevik of Sweden dropped a shot at the last and was overtaken by Nick Price who holed a mammoth eagle putt at the 17th hole of the final round to win with rounds of 69-66-67-66.
2010 July 15-18 Old Course, St Andrews, Fife.
The 150th anniversary of The Open Championship will be marked by a return to St Andrews. The 2010 Championship will be the 28th Open played over the Old Course since 1873. Although the course has been lengthened with the creation of new tees over the past decade, the Old Course is essentially unchanged from the days of Old Tom Morris. Golf has been played over this same stretch of linksland for more than 600 years. From J H Taylor and James Braid, through the eras of Bobby Jones and Sam Snead, to Peter Thomson and Bobby Locke and on to Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo John Daly and Tiger Woods - all the great names in golf have paraded the fairways of St Andrews and carried away the famous silver claret jug from the historic grey stone city on Scotland's east coast.
