Royal Birkdale Golf Club

Royal Birkdale Golf Club in the town of Southport, England, is one of the clubs in the Open Championship rotation. The club has hosted the championship nine times since 1954, most recently in July 2008. Previous winners of the Open at Royal Birkdale are Pádraig Harrington, Mark O'Meara, Ian Baker-Finch, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer and Peter Thomson (on two separate occasions). The course is unique[citation needed] in that no two holes face in the same direction,[citation needed] giving obvious problems on the notoriously windy days prevalent to any links.
Royal Birkdale has also hosted the Ryder Cup, the Walker Cup, and the Curtis Cup.

The Open Championship, or simply The Open (often referred to as the British Open outside the UK), is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico. The Open is played on the weekend of the third Friday in July. It is the third major to take place each year, following The Masters and the U.S. Open, but before the PGA Championship.

The event takes place every year on one of nine historic links courses in Scotland or England (the event has been held once in Northern Ireland, but Royal Portrush is no longer used). In 2010, The Open will have a prize fund of £4.8 million, with £850,000 going to the winner, an increase of £100,000 over the previous three years.[1] Historically, The Open's prize money was consistently the least of the four majors; but from from 2002 to 2008 it was the highest. Uniquely among the four major championships, the Open features a four-hole playoff for all golfers tied at the end of regulation, with the playoff continuing into sudden death holes if players remain tied after four holes. (The PGA uses a similar three-hole playoff.)


source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Championship


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