THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
JULY 17-20, 2008
ROYAL BIRKDALE GOLF CLUB
SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND
(England is 5 hours ahead of Eastern time)



DEFENDING CHAMPION
Ireland's Padraig Harrington defeated Sergio Garcia in a 4-hole playoff at Carnoustie in 2007 to win his first major and become the first European to win a major since Paul Lawrie won the 1999 Open Championship on the same course. Harrington became the first Irish winner of The Open Championship since Fred Daly in 1947. Talk about drama; Harrington managed to win despite making a double bogey on the final hole of regulation after twice putting his ball into the Barry Burn.


TOP 5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE 2008 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Tiger Woods will miss the Open Championship as well as the rest of the 2008 season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn left ACL on June 24 in Park City, Utah. Woods revealed two days after winning the U.S. Open that he had been playing for at least 10 months with the torn ACL, and that he suffered a double stress fracture in his left tibia two weeks before the U.S. Open. Woods had played in 46 consecutive majors since turning pro in August 1996, winning 14 of them.

2. Since the start of 1997, 46 majors have been played and they've been won by 26 different golfers. Only 5 – besides Tiger Woods – have won multiple majors over this span. They are Phil Mickelson (3), Vijay Singh (3), Retief Goosen (2), Ernie Els (2) and Mark O'Meara (2).

3. Americans do well in the United Kingdom. While foreign-born players have won 4 of the last 5 U.S. Opens, 4 of the last 5, and 10 of the last 13 Open Championships have been won by Americans.

4. This is the 137th Open Championship. Royal Birkdale is hosting the event for the 9th time as it returns to the Southport, England venue for the first time since 1998. That was the year Mark O’Meara defeated Brian Watts in a 4-hole aggregate playoff. No European has won The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

5. Bad news for Padraig Harrington; this title is traditionally hard to defend. Before Tiger Woods won in 2005 and 2006, no player had successfully defended his Open Championship since Tom Watson won in 1982 and 1983.  


TV SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES EASTERN)
Thursday, July 17:      6:30 am – 7:00 pm (TNT)
Friday, July 18:        7:00 am – 7:00 pm (TNT)
Saturday, July 19:      7:00 am – 9:00 am (TNT), 9:00 am – 2:30 pm (ABC)
Sunday, July 20:        6:00 am – 8:00 am (TNT), 8:00 am – 1:30 pm (ABC)


FUTURE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP SITES
2009 Turnberry (July 16-19)
2010 St. Andrews (July 15-18)
2011 Royal St. George’s
2012 Royal Lytham & St. Annes

PLAYOFF
In the case of a tie after 72 holes, a 4–hole playoff will commence on Sunday afternoon. The player with the lowest total score on those 4 holes will be the winner. If there’s still a tie after that, sudden death will be used to break the deadlock. There have been seven 4-hole aggregate playoffs in Open Championship history, the first of which occurred in 1989. Mark O’Meara beat Brian Watts in the 4-hole playoff format in 1998, the last time the Championship was played at Royal Birkdale.


THE VENUE
Royal Birkdale, one of Britain’s finest golf clubs, has been voted the No 1 course in Britain and is among the best in the world. The course is located at the southern edge of Southport in Merseyside.

This will be the 9th time the Open will be played 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's victory in 1961 is recognized as the turning point in the fortunes of The Open, giving new life and international impact to the Championship. Only Australia’s Ian Baker-Finch, in 1991, has broken the run of American successes achieved by Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson and Mark O'Meara.

Royal Birkdale Golf Club has occupied its present site since 1897, nine years after the club was founded. The basis of today's design, with fairways snaking between huge sand dunes, was created in the 1920s. In preparation for the 1965 Open and Ryder Cup, the clubhouse was extended, a new par-three 12th hole created and the closing holes re-developed. In addition to the Open Championship, the course has previously hosted two Ryder Cups (1965, 1969), the Walker and Curtis Cups and the Women’s British Open.

Past Open Championships at Royal Birkdale
      Winner        Score Margin
1954  Peter Thomson   283   1 over Sidney Scott, Dai Rees and Bobby Locke
1961  Arnold Palmer   284   1 over Dai Rees
1965  Peter Thomson   285   2 over Brian Huggett and Christy O’Connor
1971  Lee Trevino           278   1 over Lu-Liang Huan
1976  Johnny Miller   279   6 over Jack Nicklaus and Seve Ballesteros
1983  Tom Watson            275   1 over Andy Bean and Hale Irwin
1991  Ian Baker-Finch 272   2 over Mike Harwood
1998  Mark O’Meara    280   In aggregate 4-hole playoff over Brian Watts

Open Championship Hosts
                                Last
St. Andrews             27      2005
Prestwick               24      1925
Muirfield               15      2002
Sandwich                14      2003
Hoylake         11      2006
Royal Lytham    10      2001
Royal Birkdale  9       2008
Royal Troon             8       2004
Musselburgh             6       1889
Carnoustie              7       2007
Turnberry               3       1994
Deal                    2       1920
Royal Portrush  1       1951

HELPFUL WEBSITES
www.opengolf.com – This is the best web site for live scoring, year-by-year summaries, player information and any type of Open Championship records you can imagine.