Simply known as The Open. To be considered one of the all-time greats of the game capturing golf’s oldest trophy, the Claret Jug, is a must. Winning a Major Championship is career defining, to do it in the birthplace of golf is truly special. Read on for more of GP’s Salute to the British Open.

This year The Open returns to Royal Birkdale in Northwest England for the first time in a decade. By far the least links style course in The Open rotation, Royal Birkdale is relatively flat. Players won’t have to contend with the same large rolling mounds (right in the middle of the bloody fairways) and maddening uneven lies as they would on a more traditional links course. That being said, I would hardly be licking my chops to get out there as The Open has always been defined by wind and adverse weather conditions. When was the last time you hit a 9-iron on a par 3 one day and a 4-iron on the same hole the next? Oh and how could I forget, bunkers? Tighter bunkering this year and the always unfriendly English fescue will place a premium on keeping the ball on the short grass. With Tiger out of the picture there has never been a better time for one of the game’s elite to ascend into golf immortality.