KEY POINTS:
The Open Championship, as British golfing pedants constantly remind me it should always be called, returns to Lancashire's Royal Birkdale for the ninth time this week. Although the club was founded in 1889, it didn't host the world's oldest major championship till after World War II.
But the
course plays a major part in the golfing legend that became Peter Thomson. The Australian, who won nine New Zealand Open titles and maintains close links with this country, claimed the first and the last of his five Open Championships at Royal Birkdale.
Many historians dispute the quality of Thomson's first win in 1954 because of the perceived calibre of the opposition. Few Americans played and Ben Hogan didn't defend his title. But the 1965 victory established Thomson as one of the best players of all time. He left Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in his wake as he confirmed his mastery of both links golf and of the small ball that was used in those days except in the US and Mexico.
For the first 30 years of Royal Birkdale's Open Championships, the winners were from the ranks of golf's greats. In between Thomson's two wins came Palmer in 1961, a victory that was pivotal to the future of the tournament. As the game's top player of the time, Palmer's victory gave the Open the credibility it desperately sought with the top Americans and from then on they travelled over to play in ever increasing numbers.
American stars prevailed during the 1970s and 1980s. Lee Trevino denied a major championship going to Asia for the first time when he beat Lu Liang-Huan of Taiwan by one shot in 1971. Johnny Miller essentially completed what was a four-year peak in his career in 1976 when his solid and conservative play - he used his 1 iron from the tee 21 times - was too much for the erratically brilliant Spanish prodigy of the time, Severiano Ballesteros.
In 1983 another five-time winner claimed his final Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Tom Watson is the only winner of the Open on five different courses.
The other two winners at Royal Birkdale don't hold quite the same status. Ian Baker-Finch seemed to have the world at his feet when he shot 64-66 in the weekend rounds in 1991 to win by two shots. Within five years his playing declined although he's always remained a wonderful broadcaster on the game.
The most recent Open at this year's venue was 10 years ago when Mark O'Meara beat the unknown, then and now, Brian Watts in a four hole playoff after both tied at even par 280. O'Meara, now 51, has made it back to Birkdale this year the hard way - through qualifying.
He's unlikely to repeat a decade on. But one young star of that 1998 event is among the favourites come Thursday night. Justin Rose was a teenaged amateur back then but made an outrageous chip-in on the final hole to tie for fourth. Now he's ranked ninth in the world.
No Englishman has won the Open in England since Tony Jacklin in 1969. Spain's Sergio Garcia, after being fifth in 2005 and 2006 and loser in a play-off to Padraig Harrington last year, is no doubt bookies' favourite. But a Rose win would be the ultimate bloom of England's golfing summer.