DUEL IN THE SUN by MICHAEL CORCORAN

Author:MICHAEL CORCORAN
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Published: 2002-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

SIX

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP THAT BEGAN ON JULY 6, 1977, was the one hundred sixth playing of the tournament. Nearly all of the previous Open Championships had been played on a rotating basis over a small group of golf courses that came to be known as the rota (short for rotation). The concept of an Open rota didn’t exist in the earliest days of the championship since the first twelve Opens were played at Prestwick. In 1871 there was no Open because Tom Morris, Jr., won the Challenge Belt with his third consecutive championship victory in 1870. During the off year of 1871, Prestwick was joined by the R&A and the Honourable Company in conducting the Open, and when the Open resumed in 1872 with its new prize, the claret jug, the rota was born. For the next twenty-two years the championship was played alternately at Prestwick, the Old Course at St. Andrews, and Musselburgh, the home of the Honourable Company. When the Honourable Company moved to Muirfield, the golf course at Musselburgh dropped from the rota. Muirfield was first used in 1892.

Over the years the rota expanded to include new courses, and sometimes a course was dropped because it could not facilitate the growing championship. Royal St. George’s in England was added in 1894. Hoylake, also known as Royal Liverpool, was added in 1897 and held its tenth and (as of this writing) final Open seventy years later. Deal was added in 1909, but used only once more (1920). Troon was added in 1923. Royal Lytham, in England, was added in 1926, and Carnoustie was added in 1931. Prince’s, a course in England, was used once, in 1932. In 1951 the Open was played at Portrush in Ireland, the only time the championship left Scotland or England. Royal Birkdale, in England, joined the rota in 1954. Prestwick, the grand club that started it all, was dropped after 1925. It hosted the championship twenty-four times. The current-day rota includes St. Andrews, Muirfield, Troon, Carnoustie, and Turnberry in Scotland. In England the rota courses are Birkdale, St. George’s, and Lytham. In February 109 2001, the R&A cleared the way for Hoylake to rejoin the rota, possibly in 2006.

When the Open went to Turnberry in 1977, it had been twenty-three years since a new course had been introduced to the rota. Despite the tradition that oozed from the other courses used for the Open, not a single one could compare to the delightful assault on the human senses presented by Turnberry. The fact that it had a comparatively anemic championship golf history was more than made up for by the all the other history surrounding it.

If an American player who had never before been to Turnberry—and as of 1977, that would have been most of them—purchased a map to locate the place, he still could have easily missed it. There is no town or village of Turnberry. There is the Turnberry Hotel and the Turnberry lighthouse, both of which take their names from Turnberry Bay.

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