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2006 British Open Championship | Golf Wagering

2005 British Open

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What is new at the British Open

The 2005 British Open Golf Championship will be played at St Andrews between the 14th -17th July. The 134th British Open Golf Championship at St Andrews in Scotland provides an opportunity to enjoy the oldest golf tournament and play some of the best golf courses in the world at the home of golf - St Andrews.

It is the Home of Golf, where golf was first played 600 years ago and yet it remains a real test of golf for today's champions. The return of the Open Championship to St Andrews in 2005 makes the Old Course the most frequently used course for the Open. This will be the 27th time the Open has been played on the Old Course. The first time was in 1873. It was last here in 2000, when Tiger Woods' triumphed by eight strokes which made him the youngest golfer to win all four majors - the Masters, the US Open, the USPGA and the Open Championship .
Past winners at the Old Course include Bobby Jones, Ruchard Burton, Sam Snead and in later years the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and John Daly have emerged victorious.

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21.000 grandstands seats for Open spectators

When the 2005 Open champion steps on to the 18th tee of the Old Course on the final day of the Championship on July 17 the most famous finishing hole in golf will be flanked by huge grandstands packed with close to 10,000 people. Well over 3,000 spectators in the giant stand behind the 17th green will get a close up view of his tee shot. Another 1,000 will be seated to his left close to the first green and more than 5,000 will be waiting around the final green. Three new stands, to the right of the first fairway, beside the second tee and behind the sixth green will add 1,500 seats to the previous total at St Andrews. It means that seating will be provided for more than 21,000 people during the 134th Open Championship. All but 1,200 at the 18th green are free of charge.

A popular vantage point with spectators is at the heart of the famous loop of holes where the course turns away from the estuary of the River Eden and heads back towards the old city. Action on the double greens of the seventh and 11th holes, and the eighth and 10th, can be watched from stands that hold more than 2,500. The same number will get a fine view of the critical tee shot at the 17th hole where players drive over replicas of the old railway sheds on the corner the out-of-bounds area that extends down the right side of the hole. This stand, which is next to the tented village area, also overlooks the 16th and second greens.

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Re-vamped Road bunker still a fearsome hazard

The damaging Road bunker that eats into the front of the 17th green of the Old Course has ruined many scores in The Open, but will play a little easier this year. There is, however, good news and bad news for the world's leading players when they gather in St Andrews in July. In preparation for the 134th Open Championship the bunker has been slightly enlarged. It now measures about nine inches more from side to side and also from front to back. The bad news is that the gound around the bunker has been slightly re-contoured. Balls that might have scraped past will now be gathered into its depths. It may be fractionally easier to get out of the Road bunker this year, but it will also be easier to get into.

Over the years it has claimed some notable victims. In 1984 Japan's Tommy Nakajima misjudged the slopes from the front level of the green and putted into the sand. He took four explosion shots to escape and two putts added up to a sad nine. Brian Barnes, who beat Jack Nicklaus twice in singles encounters on the final day of the 1975 Ryder Cup at Laurel Valley, was another player who committed the ultimate error of putting into the bunker and Costantino Rocca's bid to win the Championship finally came to and end when he bunkered his approach in a four-hole play-off against John Daly in 1995 when already two shots behind. At the Millennium Open, David Duval was the only player mounting any sort of challenge to the supremacy of Tiger Woods, when he dropped his second shot into the same bunker. From close under the face his first escape attempt fell back at his feet. His next thudded against the face and dropped into an impossible position. From there he chopped the ball backwards into a playable lie, finally escaped and two-putted for an eight. He had been only three behind Woods with nine holes to play, but finished 12 shots adrift and out of the top 10.

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Visit British Open - The Golf Open Championship Official Website at http://www.opengolf.com/