The Open Championship or the British Open? Even in Northern Ireland it depends on the audience

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Collin Morikawa can take solace in not being the only person to refer to golf's oldest championship by its unofficial name. He delivered a victory speech as sterling as his performance at Royal St. George's in 2021. As he held the precious claret jug, he paid tribute to the spectators and said, "To see some of the best fans I've ever seen out here, I look forward to making my trip every year to the British Open to see you guys cheer us on." The R&A must have cringed. It had spent the past several years on a renewed branding campaign to drive home the proper name of this major: The Open Championship. It since has been shortened to "The Open." It is the first. It is the original. And now the 153rd edition is in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom but is not on the island of Great Britain. British Open? The Associated Press referred to this major by different names at the start, but for the last century or more has called it the British Open to distinguish it from other national golf championships. Several other news outlets — mainly in the United States, but stretching to other corners of the globe — also called it the British Open. "It's meant to be The Open Championship," said Adam Scott of Australia. "I've probably slipped and called it the British Open, but I do it mostly with Americans so they know which one." Imagine his surprise — maybe disgust — to learn that when the Open first came to Northern Ireland in 1951, The Daily Telegraph in Sydney wrote: "South African Bobby Locke and English professional Tom Hargreaves today had record scores on Royal Portrush in the second qualifying round of the British Open golf championship." "Peter Thomson would roll in his grave," Scott said with a smile. The Open Championship began in 1860 when Willie Park Sr. defeated seven other golfers at Prestwick in Scotland, the home of golf. It took 35 years for another big championship to come along at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island known as the U.S. Open. That was followed by the South African Open, the Canadian Open and the Australian Open. Just about every country has an Open. The late Robert De Vicenzo has won more than 15 of them, from the German Open and French Open to the Peru Open and Uruguay Open. He also won the biggest Open of them all at Royal Liverpool in 1967. "Roberto de Vicenzo, 44-year-old golfing gaucho from the Argentine, climaxed 20 years of fruitless trying Saturday and beat out defending titleholder Jack Nicklaus by two strokes for the British Open Championship," the AP story read. When the "British Open" began is a little more unclear. J.H. Taylor won at St. Andrews in 1900 and the AP account referred to the "open golf championship." Except that a few paragraphs later, it noted Taylor registered his "third triumph in the English championships." Never mind that it was played in Scotland. British Open was used in 1914 when Harry Vardon won for the record sixth time. The Open left the island Great Britain for the first time in 1951 when it came across the Irish Sea to Royal Portrush. The AP account that year: "Methodical Max Faulkner, a par-wrecking Englishman who spent one winter milking cows to strengthen his golf hands, won the British open championship Friday in a dramatic rain-soaked finish." Arnold Palmer called it the British Open in his autobiography, "A Golfer's Life." But when asked by the R&A to write the foreword in a book celebrating 150 years of golf's oldest championship, Palmer called it "The Open Championship." When in Rome. Nicklaus was talking about his 1986 Masters victory one year when someone asked him how he decided which of his sons, Jack II and Steve, would caddie at which majors. "They started splitting it up," Nicklaus said. "I think Jackie took the Masters, and I think he had the Open. And Steve had the British Open." It's an American thing. But not always. One of the grandest occasions in golf was in 1930, when the great Bobby Jones won the British Amateur at St. Andrews and then captured the claret jug at Royal Liverpool on his way to winning the Grand Slam of that era — the impregnable quadrilateral, at it was called. Geoffrey Beazley, the captain of Royal Liverpool, presented the trophy to Jones with a passionate speech that is worth listening to now for those who feel it is sacrilege to refer to this major as anything but "The Open." "Another championship, a British Open championship, is completed," he says. Beazley congratulated Jones for not only winning the British Amateur at St. Andrews, "but being here amongst us this evening as winner of the British Open championship." Ahem. Of course, the real test will be if the British Open goes to Portmarnock outside Dublin. Unlike Northern Ireland, the country of Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom. Calling it the British Open would make no sense. The R&A is in the middle of a feasibility study. Mark Darbon, the new CEO of the R&A, says it is serious about taking the Open out of Britain for the first time. "If you go back in history, the home territory of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews is the British Isles, basically," he said in a recent interview. That should be enough for someone to call it the British Open. It might not be the correct name for branding, merchandise sales or even history. But it's not totally wrong geographically.