British Open?

[oldiesfan6479]

There's a golf tournament this week (on ESPN today, I assume it will slide to
ABC on the weekend) being played in Scotland. Isn't this the British Open?
For some reason, ESPN is titling it by another name.

What's the deal? General anti-BP sentiment? Did Tony "Yacht Boy" Hayward
play in the pro-am? ;D

 

[tweekafreq]

There's a golf tournament this week (on ESPN today, I assume it will slide to
ABC on the weekend) being played in Scotland. Isn't this the British Open?
For some reason, ESPN is titling it by another name.

What's the deal? General anti-BP sentiment? Did Tony "Yacht Boy" Hayward
play in the pro-am? ;D

It's name is "The Open Championship" - it's only called the British Open outside of the UK. See http://www.opengolf.com/.

And ESPN is carrying all four rounds.

 

[nathannah]

There's a golf tournament this week (on ESPN today, I assume it will slide to
ABC on the weekend) being played in Scotland. Isn't this the British Open?
For some reason, ESPN is titling it by another name.

What's the deal? General anti-BP sentiment? Did Tony "Yacht Boy" Hayward
play in the pro-am? ;D

It's been pre-planned to happen for the last couple years to move completely to ESPN. The affiliates were annoyed that they had to gag their profitable weekend morning news shows and afternoon infomercial blocks to carry it, and air ABC's E/I programming as late as 4pm to get in the required three hours per week since coverage started at near six in the morning, and thus the early start guaranteed it was the lowest-rated of the majors among the Grand Slam (they used to tape-delay it for years until they moved it to live coverage with the need to stay ahead of the Internet and pacify the hard-core fans).

 

[searadiofreak]

The "British Open" is a term used outside of the UK, it has been simply "The Open" there for a long time. However, I have noticed that many media in the US are now calling it by its proper name, "The Open" in the past few years. Not sure if it is a PC thing, or the Brits put some pressure on the issue. Regardless, the hip thing in the States now is to call it "The Open".

 

[DToTheJ]

Wonder why we don't do the same thing here in America with "U.S. Open Tennis". Maybe Sky or whoever carries that sporting event (if any) can refer to it as "American Open Tennis".

 

[BRice16]

Wonder why we don't do the same thing here in America with "U.S. Open Tennis". Maybe Sky or whoever carries that sporting event (if any) can refer to it as "American Open Tennis".

Because the proper name of both of those events is the "United States Open." The correct name for what we have called the British Open is "The Open Championship" and it's not just known that way inside of the U.K., all of Europe refers to it as such.

FWIW, ESPN/ABC has called the event "The Open Championship" for several years, with a strict on-air policy of not saying "British Open."

 

[Joe_Capitano]

It's been pre-planned to happen for the last couple years to move completely to ESPN. The affiliates were annoyed that they had to gag their profitable weekend morning news shows and afternoon infomercial blocks to carry it, ...

What? They're losing sleep over eternal reruns? Idiots.

Anyway, as a bit of a compromise, and to make nice to the three or four golf-hungry souls that still don't have ESPN to this day, ABC will be carrying a taped 3-hour highlight show at 3 PM ET Sautrday and Sunday.

 

[radioguy555]

Per Michael Hiestand of USA Today:

According to ESPN, the British Open is the "Open Championship." But Mike Tirico, in his 14th year hosting ESPN/ABC's coverage, says viewers should be used to it by now: "I want to say we've been saying that five years at least. It's referred to as the Open Championship everywhere else in the world except the U.S."

 

[TheBigA]

It was interesting to watch the live coverage on ESPN in the morning, the delayed coverage on ABC in the afternoon, and then the highlights coverage on ESPN at night. All very different approaches.