Test your knowledge with 12 difficult questions on The Open Championship, which starts on Thursday for the 146th time at Royal Birkdale in Southport.
The Brits will tell you there is only one ‘Open’ and that’s ‘The Open Championship’ – theirs, obviously. Across the pond the Americans will preach the same. The ‘Open’ is the ‘US Open’.
So, who is right? Possibly both, but we like to see ‘The Open Championship’ as being the Major of the year.
Despite there being four Majors, The Open is much as Wimbledon is to tennis. If you had to tell a golfer he had only one chance to win a Major, he’d likely say it’s the one that’s held on a different course each year in Britain.
The others are great, but the Claret Jug is something magical – followed by The Masters and its famed Green Jacket, then the US Open and The PGA Championship.
South Africans have a good record at The Open and, in fact, it was most recently, in 2012, when one of our own won a Major. That was when Ernie Els secured his second Claret Jug after surging through the field, putting a low number on the leaderboard and waited and watched as Australia’s Adam Scott threw away a golden opportunity.
Many will be saying it’s high time a South African clinches the big one again. On current World Ranking it’s Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 champion from St Andrews and joint runner-up in 2015, who might stand the best chance. As ever, though, there will be a sizeable number of ‘Saffas’ in the field and any one of them could surprise.
OPEN QUIZ:
1. Who is the last player to have won the Silver Medal (for leading amateur) and gone on to win The Open as a professional?
2. The 2017 Open will be held at Royal Birkdale. Who won the tournament when it was last hosted at that course in 2008?
3. Who were the two South Africans who featured in the top 20 in 2008 at Royal Birkdale?
4. This is the 10th time The Open will be hosted at Royal Birkdale. Who is the only golfer to have won it twice at the course?
Clue: It was in 1954 and 1965, and the golfer was from the southern hemisphere.
5. The 2010 Open winner was South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen. He finished seven shots clear of the opposition. Who was the runner-up?
6. Oosthuizen also narrowly missed out on winning in 2015 when he lost in a three-way playoff. Zach Johnson, of the US, won. Who was the other golfer in that playoff?
7. Paul Lawrie, of Scotland, won the 1999 Open in a three-way playoff, despite the winning score only being a six-over-par 290. Which golfer, though, was three shots clear with the last hole to play, but contrived to make a triple-bogey seven?
8. Which amateur golfer finished in a tie for fourth at the 1998 Open, two shots behind the winner, Mark O’Meara? He subsequently turned professional and has won one Major.
9. Since Arnold Palmer won back-to-back Open Championships, in 1961 and 1962, four other golfers have done the same. In 1971 and 1972, in 1982 and 1983, in 2005 and 2006, and in 2007 and 2008. Name them.
10. Tiger Woods, who has played in 19 Open Championships, has won the Claret Jug three times. Has he ever missed the cut and if so, how many times?
11. Only two left-handers have won The Open. Who are they?
12. Who is the youngest golfer to have won The Open since the start of the 20th century?
