Champion Golfer of The World

The 147th Open – know by golfers as “The Open” will be played upon a course that can test each and every player. It will present the winner with the right to be known as The Champion Golf of The World” , now that is a marketing tool that many an organisation would kill to have the right to use for their merchandising campaign. It would pull in those players who did not consider it a great Tournament – well in the money stakes anyway – however to be know as the Golfing World Champion, which golfer in their right mind would prefer that accolade over money.

So why does the R&A in their normal wisdom reject this out of hand and believe that by changing the name on a golf shop from Tom Morris Golf Shop to The Open be seen as more worthwhile. Do they believe that having insulted the father of the modern game of Golf, they would attract more to visit their shop, has The Open more pulling power than the name and history of Tom Morris, noting that he and his son Young Tommy won The Open 8 times between them.

The Open is coming to Carnoustie, that is to be celebrated, its just a pity that the R&A don’t have the balls to openly call the winner The Champion Golf of The World, after all they and the Links Trust want to make money out of The Open so what better way, change a shop name to Open or call the winner The world Champion – let me tell you their choice – its to remove Tom Morris name over his shop and re title it The Open.

This yet again proves to the golfing world just how screwed up the R&A are and have been for some considerable time. Its as if they do not know what they are doing, they don’t seem to understand golf, clearly very little when it comes to golf course design and as for running The Open – just what a wasted marketing opportunity they are throwing away – still I am told that they are keen on the Tom Morris Legacy, but refuse to celebrate the centenary of his death in 2008, they have destroyed Old Tom’s old house behind the shop, they has insulted the legacy and the name of Old Tom by removing his name from the oldest golfing shop in the world and called it The Open – and that’s before we start on the golf – the distance issues, the constant meddling in course design selected for The Open and so many more golfing issues that they seem frightened to resolve.

Perhaps some of you might now see why I keep calling for their either reform or removal as the governing Body of Golf.

15th – 22nd July will see Carnoustie holding ‘The Open’ attracting some of the best golfers in the world, but not all – then if the title ‘The Champion Golfer of The World’ was used in conjunction with the Claret Jug then I would expect all the great golfer of the world to attend. As for provenance for the title ‘The Champion Golf of The World’ we could start with the Prestwick minutes of 1861 when it states that championship is open to the world; then the many newspaper reports from the 1860’s through to the late 1920’s. – then again the best provenance for that title is with The Open itself, being the fist and continuous golfing championship in the world, some 34 years before any other continuous major came into being.

The R&A willing screw the name of Tom Morris into the ground to market The Open yet refuse to address yet another issue, that of calling The Open winner The Champion Golfer of The World – proving to me that they are intent in destroying the name of Tom Morris or my God they are totally incompetent of being in charge of a paper bag let along The Royal & Ancient Game of Golf.

I trust that I will have your continued support in boycotting and blacklisting the Shop now known as The Open in St Andrews and all other R&A and Links Trust merchandising outlets.