Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography<\/a>)<\/p>\n\tThere were an estimated 1.3 million applications that year that led to a record attendance of\u00a0290,000. From an economic standpoint, the ballot was a resounding success and that established a template that has remained in place since.<\/p>\n
\tYou just have to see the crowd numbers to understand why.\u00a0261,180 were at Royal Liverpool – where conditions had turned fairly miserable over the weekend but fans were compelled to be there – with\u00a0258,174 at Royal Troon in 2024.<\/p>\n
\tLast year saw Portrush once again deliver with 278,000 estimated to have attended across week. And now, in 2026, the Open is set to reach even loftier heights as the overall attendance is expected to reach 300,000 at Royal Birkdale, far surpassing the 235,000 (then a record for the championship in England) who made their way to Southport in 2017.<\/p>\n
\tThe ballot has artificially generated interest and has brought significant financial benefits to the R&A, who invest widely to nurture the game across the planet. The importance of that work cannot be underestimated.<\/p>\n
\tBut something has been discarded, part of the event’s soul is now a distant memory.<\/p>\n
\tThe Open is Now – Sadly – Just Another Sporting Event<\/p>\n
\tGenerations of golf fans throughout these islands and beyond had been accustomed to the Open being accessible to everyone, many had made it an annual tradition to be there each year for decades, buying a season ticket (which was remarkably good value), without the need to survive the uncertainty of a ballot or having to purchase a ticket months in advance.<\/p>\n
\tYou could literally turn up on the day, pay at the gate, and consume hours of world class sport. Maybe you lived nearby and a great weather forecast made you consider an impulsive, last-minute afternoon out. Perhaps one of your favourite players had found themselves in contention and you wanted to be there to see it. And you could. There was no other sporting event quite like it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tGrowing up in Perth, Scotland, I can remember going on a whim to nearby St Andrews and Carnoustie, where I was able to watch the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie in their primes, alongside legends of earlier generations like Tom Watson and Nick Faldo who were still competing. It was an inspirational environment for any young golfer.<\/p>\n
\tCommendably, juniors can attend the championship free of charge, but getting into the grounds, especially on tournament days, is a literal lottery these days. Those who made attending the Open each year part of their lives have seen that ambition made harder, streaks have been ended, with the idea of being there for the whole week simply fanciful.<\/p>\n
\tTicket Prices Have Also Risen Dramatically<\/p>\n
\tTicket prices have also risen markedly. Adult spectators at Birkdale will have paid a minimum of \u00a3130 for tournament days, including \u00a3150 for the final round, which is where the even higher costs to attend next year’s championship at St Andrews will start from.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tChampionship day tickets at the Old Course in 2022 were just \u00a395. Some would tenuously argue that – compared to other major events – the Open still presents acceptable value for money, but an increase of close to 60% in five years is clearly extortionate and not something to be considered remotely welcome.<\/p>\n
\tThose who have followed the Open for years will recognise just how much bigger the hospitality pavilions and offerings have become. It’s an increasingly corporatised setting that is engineered to maximise income from a different sort of crowd than before.<\/p>\n
\tPerhaps that’s just the nature of things now and the Open for too long didn’t recognise the economic opportunities out there and neglected to fully commercialise itself in the manner of equivalent events in other sports.<\/p>\n
\tWhat a shame that it finally realised what was possible.<\/p>\n
\tShould Golf Fans Just Accept The Way of Things?<\/p>\n
\tMaybe the ballot is just a reflection of where things are and that fighting against such initiatives is like trying to push back the tide. Perhaps I’m guilty of naive, nostalgic idealism and need to get with the times, such as they are.<\/p>\n
\tThe Open remains a bright and shining highlight on the calendar – I still love it – but I can’t escape the feeling that it has lost a piece of itself, part of the magic, that once gone, will sadly never be recovered.<\/p>\n
\tIt’s why, regrettably, it’s now just like any other big sporting event, when it used to be so much more than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I love the Open. You can make a convincing argument that the Masters is the perfect tournament, ideally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-694249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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