An open golf tournament usually refers to a golf tournament in which all golfers are eligible to play regardless of their professional or amateur status. Often there will be certain restrictions, commonly based on ability. Some amateur-only tournaments are also described as open, although by definition professional golfers are excluded.
The descriptor open is used in a number of sports, and especially in golf, to describe a tournament that is "open" — in theory to all — rather than being closed, i.e. one that is restricted to a particular group. [1] Thus, an amateur tournament, e.g. the U.S. Amateur, is not by definition "open", because it is closed to professional golfers; however many are titled as such since they are open to all amateurs, e.g. the English Men's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship for the Brabazon Trophy. The first precise usage of the adjective “open” in golf was in 1861 when the Prestwick Golf Club "opened" its Medal competition (launched the previous year for professionals only) to amateurs as well; ever since, The Open Championship has been open to all. Any golfer can, in theory, play in The Open either by invitation or by various forms of qualification. In practice, the event is a professional tournament in which a small number of the world’s leading amateurs also play, by invitation or qualification. [2]
Over time the descriptor "open" has been extended to include the premier national tournaments of many countries (starting with the U.S. Open in 1895) and also (mainly in the United States) to some other tournaments, e.g. the Buick Open. [2]
This is a list of the national Opens that have featured on the principal tours.
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Currently played on the respective tour | |
Formerly included on the respective tour |
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later the venue rotated between a select group of coastal links golf courses in the United Kingdom. It is organised by The R&A.
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open national championship of golf in the United States. It is the third of the four men's major golf championships, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. Since 1898 the competition has been 72 holes of stroke play, with the winner being the player with the lowest total number of strokes. It is staged by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in mid-June, scheduled so that, if there are no weather delays, the final round is played on the third Sunday. The U.S. Open is staged at a variety of courses, set up in such a way that scoring is very difficult, with a premium placed on accurate driving. As of 2023, the U.S. Open awards a $20 million purse, the largest of all four major championships.
The Grand Slam in professional golf is winning all of golf's major championships in the same calendar year. The only player who has accomplished this feat is Bobby Jones in 1930, winning the four major tournaments of that era: the British Amateur, the British Open, the United States Open, and the United States Amateur. Modern variations include a Career Grand Slam: winning all of the major tournaments within a player's career and the Tiger Slam: winning four consecutive major titles but not in the same calendar year.
The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, Women's Open Championship, and The Evian Championship.
The men's major golf championships, commonly known as the major championships, and often referred to simply as the majors, are the most prestigious tournaments in golf. Historically, the national open and amateur championships of Great Britain and the United States were regarded as the majors. With the rise of professional golf in the middle of the twentieth century, the majors came to refer to the most prestigious professional tournaments.
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Shane Lowry is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. His notable achievements include winning the 2019 Open Championship, the Irish Open as an amateur in 2009, and the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
Hideki Matsuyama is a Japanese professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is the first-ever Japanese professional golfer to win a men's major golf championship – the 2021 Masters Tournament.
The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial arm of professional snooker, which introduced the World Snooker Tour name, logo, and revised website as part of a 2020 rebranding. The principal stakeholder in World Snooker Ltd is Matchroom Sport, which owns 51 percent of the company; the sport's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), owns 26 percent. To compete on the World Snooker Tour, players must be WPBSA members.
Matthew Thomas Fitzpatrick is an English professional golfer. After winning the 2013 U.S. Amateur, he later won his first professional tournament at the 2015 British Masters. In 2022 he won his first major championship at the U.S. Open. In 2023, he won the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, his second PGA Tour victory.
Jon Rahm Rodríguez is a Spanish professional golfer. He was number one in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for a then record 60 weeks and later became world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first achieving that rank after winning the Memorial Tournament in July 2020. In June 2021, Rahm became the first Spanish golfer to win the U.S. Open. In 2023, he won the Masters Tournament, his second major championship. On 7 December 2023, Rahm announced that he was joining LIV Golf.
Collin Morikawa is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and European Tour. He began his PGA Tour career with 22 consecutive made cuts, second only to Tiger Woods' 25-cut streak. Morikawa has six PGA Tour wins – including two major championships, the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship, winning both in his debut. In May 2018, Morikawa spent three weeks as the top-ranked golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. He also became the first American to win the Race to Dubai on the European Tour.
Shugo Imahira is a Japanese professional golfer. He has played full-time on the Japan Golf Tour since 2015 and has won nine times on the tour, between 2017 and 2023. He was the leading money winner in 2018 and 2019.
Joaquín Niemann is a Chilean professional golfer. He won twice on the PGA Tour, before joining LIV Golf in 2022. He was the number one ranked amateur golfer from May 2017 to April 2018.
Viktor Hovland is a Norwegian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and European Tour. He won the 2018 U.S. Amateur and reached number one in the World Amateur Golf Ranking in 2019.
The Open Championship qualification was first introduced in 1907, and is the process that a player goes through to qualify for The Open Championship. The Open Championship is the oldest golf competition in the world, and generally regarded as one of the most prestigious. The qualifying structure is designed to reduce more than 2,500 entrants on five continents, to a field size of 156 competing in the tournament.
Andrew Ogletree is an American professional golfer from Union, Mississippi. He won the 2019 U.S. Amateur.
Rose Zhang is an American professional golfer. She won the 2020 U.S. Women's Amateur, and both the 2022 and 2023 NCAA Division I Championships, becoming the first woman to win the individual title twice. She competed in the 2019 U.S. Women's Open and was on the gold medal team at the 2019 Pan American Games. Less than two weeks after turning pro, she became the first player to win in her professional debut on the LPGA Tour since 1951.
Yu Chun-an (Chinese: 俞俊安; Wade–Giles: Yu2 Chun4-an1 born 11 August 1998), commonly known as Kevin Yu, is a Taiwanese professional golfer.
Linn Maria Grant is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour. She won the 2023 Dana Open on the LPGA Tour. As an amateur, she won the 2017 Ladies' British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship.