In reply to: Which The Open? * posted by ACross
It was the British Open for a very long time. Only since ESPN got the gig, did they start pushing The Open Championship stuff.
Look, we're not idiots here, we know what they are talking about, but we also shouldn't act like calling it the British Open, which we did in this country, and they advertised as much, for decades is some sort of shortcoming or misnomer.
The change back (yes, they changed it back) to The Open Championship is recent, and I believe, driven by ESPN. I know the R&A jumped on the bandwagon in the past few years as well. It's silliness. Check the link, that's from a British newspaper. They called it the British Open themselves going back decades. This notion of purity from them is bullshit. I'm with Cross here. This is all just recent branding nonsense.
And Michigan sucks.
They do have it as "The Open" as noted...but the Women's event is officially..
The AIG Women's British Open. As far as I can tell it's the only R&A sponsored event that uses the designation "British", and includes the name of a title sponsor. Sellout?
on the No Laying Up Podcast this week. When ESPN covered the event, there was never any formal directive of any kind to make it The Open vs. The British Open. He said those on the broadcast and production crews made the simple call to refer to it in the same way that those who put on the tournament do. The R&A called it the Open, so they called it The Open on the air and in advertisements. It may be true that the R&A didn't always call it that themselves, but that's what they do now, so why put up a fight about it?
SVP likened it to how when covering the Masters, the broadcast refers to the fans as "patrons", the rough as "second cut", the first and second nine holes etc. It's simply being deferential to those who organize and put on the event.
I don't get bothered by hearing it either way but I find it dumb to that it matters to many people here in the states. What is so threatening that one has to go out of their way to distinctly specify it as British? Who cares?
made them say stuff they didnt believe all of the time.
Like we should bend the knee to the Crown.
I like the British. So I'll call their tournament something nice like 'The British Open' instead of 'The Limey tourney'. Good enough.
I doubt it will have much impact, given your response.
Which has always done that, versus the recent stridency from the R&A are two different things.
I don't care if people call it The Open, but I'm also totally fine with anyone and everyone who calls it the British Open, as people have since the day I was born (and decades before).
That's my biggest problem with all of this, is the stridency of the R&A to try and cleanse the term British Open from the earth. No matter what they do, guys like Faldo and Monty and others will still call it the British Open. There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling it that.
I call it the British Open myself, but if people want to call it The Open, have at it.
However, I also don't like the all of a sudden, strident demands to scrub the term from all vocabulary, and think it's stupid. So maybe I don't agree with Cross in totality, but I've found the R&A's stridency pretty dumb, when you consider that everyone and their mom, including some of the great British golfers, have and still do call it the British Open.
I'm basically fine if you want to call it either way. But I prefer British Open, and find people trying to push The Open like some of the folks at the R&A, wankers.
they're entitled.
But I’m not going to lose sleep over this.
I mean, even Monty calls it the British Open
Monty's take
Personally, I love Faldo's take on the nonsense:
"The Open Championship is incorrect. It's now The Open," the Englishman said. "You see? It's gone from the British Open, the Open Championship, now it's The Open...In another five years it will be just called 'The.'"