By Tom Pilcher
LYTHAM ST ANNES, England, July 16 (Reuters) – The British
Open returns to Royal Lytham St Annes for an 11th time when
the 141st championship begins on Thursday in Lancashire,
England.
Lytham, flanked by a railway line and suburban houses, is
not considered the most beautiful of the many Open venues, most
recently staging the event in 2001 when American David Duval
clinched his only major championship.
American amateur Bobby Jones won the first Open to be held
at Lytham in 1926 when he became the only champion to have to
pay to play.
Jones, who won all four majors in 1930 to complete the
‘Grand Slam’, forgot his competitor’s ticket and was not
recognised despite being second in the tournament after three
rounds, but calmly paid an entrance fee before claiming the
first of his three Opens.
South African Bobby Locke, who fought with his country’s air
force during World War Two, ran out the winner in 1952 when the
Open returned to Lytham.
Other champions include Australia’s Peter Thomson, who
bagged his fourth of five Open titles in 1958, nine-times major
winner Gary Player of South Africa in 1974, Seve Ballesteros in
1979 and 1988 and Tom Lehmann in 1996.
As golf courses worldwide undergo more and more development
in the modern era, Lytham is a refreshingly undisturbed course
with only a few changes since the club was founded in 1886 and
the present course constructed in 1897.
Several holes have been lengthened for this year’s Open to
provide more of a test, while 206 bunkers dotted in the tight
fairways and around the greens will make accurate play key.
Continued…
