- This topic has 10 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 7 months ago by
.
- Posts
When it’s now the November meeting.
Honestly, is anyone confused by having “The Open” as the same name for a horse racing meeting and a golf tournament? I’m certainly not. If it’s that difficult to distinguish then simply call it “The Cheltenham Open”.
Not that The Open is a particularly good name, but then neither is “International” for the December meeting. Since many, if not most, runners at all Cheltenham’s meetings come from both the UK and Ireland they’re all “International” meetings.
“Showcase” ain’t great either.I think they should change the name of the racecourse as well because it’s so confusing the last time I went I ended up at Cheltenham Football club by mistake and watched the reserve side fight it out with the second string of Newport County……
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Formula One will be the next target. Their “World Drivers Chamionship” is clearly too confusing for Golf Fans.
History will also have to be rewritten to clear up any potential slur suggested by Hitler “Dying in a Bunker” Really coarse course that one.
What about a compromise? “The Ajar Meeting”?
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
Seems to be a lot of bah humbuggery on here but I, for one, have been confused all week by radio sports bulletins going for the latest from the US Open
As tennis doesn’t enter my consciousness I keep thinking the golf is on until they start recounting the unpronounceable Russians who seem to dominate tennis
So the November meeting not to be mixed up with the other 150 or so meetings in November.
The Showcase meeting in October. Must remember not to get mixed up and start betting on what they will be showing at the cinema in the next month
I found a reference to the “Thomas Pink Open meeting” from 2001. I had no idea that had been an official name for so long since I’ve never really paid any attention to such title. For me, it’s always been “that meeting at Cheltenham in November where they run the Mackeson, a few interesting novice races and more recently, the Greatwood and that two mile chase… They also have a cross country race.”
Golf is welcome to the name since it’s never been anything but a faint echo and bears zero connotation to the sport.
It seems like there’s pressure to attach a name to meetings with consecutive days or more than one important race for marketing purposes. Although this gets difficult when none of the feature races has a name which lasts longer than a few years such is the incredibly shallow and fickle nature of naming races after sponsors.
As someone with no interest in golf that doesn’t involve a series of windmills and clown’s mouths, does the term “Open” mean anything? Open to what? For whom? Are there golf games (matches? events?) that AREN’T “open” and how do these differ from those that are? Seems to be the same people always competing (if that’s the word) regardless. Mildly curious now it’s been raised.
I daresay the qualification rules have been tweaked and/or tightened over the years but it originally ostensibly meant ‘open to all’ golfers who were members of golf courses under the jurisdiction of the ruling body, The Royal and Ancient
I’ve no idea how qualification for the four-day ‘finale’ takes place today but there are always a handful of amateurs who turn up, and I believe there’s a trophy for ‘top amateur’
Qualification for the British Open is usually –
Top X players in the World Rankings at a given time, a little before the tournament takes place
Winners/High placed finishes of certain tournaments in the same season
All previous winners of The Open are invited back
Qualifying tournaments at various courses a few weeks before the Main tournament
The top amateur players are also invited but are not entitled to any prizemoney even if they win the tournament.There may be other qualifying rules. In other words it’s not open to anyone but perhaps it was when the Open began in the 19th Century. Tom Morris Snr and Jnr dominated in that day as Drone will tell you
Unfortunately,this has come about because they have woken up to the fact that most of the younger generations who visit race meetings are not fans in the sense that the older generations were/are.In other words they realise how stupid most of them are, and it would be these racing ‘fans’ who may get confused as opposed to the Golf fans
“Showcase” ain’t great either.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.