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The United States Open Championship commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. It is staged by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in mid-June, scheduled so that, if there are no weather delays, the final round is played on the third Sunday, which is Father's Day. From 2008, it will also be an official money event on the Asian Tour, with 50% of Asian Tour members' earnings counting towards the Order of Merit. |
The United States Open Championship commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. It is staged by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in mid-June, scheduled so that, if there are no weather delays, the final round is played on the third Sunday, which is Father's Day. From 2008, it will also be an official money event on the Asian Tour, with 50% of Asian Tour members' earnings counting towards the Order of Merit.
The U.S. Open is staged at a variety of courses, set up in such a way that scoring is very difficult with a premium placed on accurate driving. U.S. Open play is characterized by tight scoring at or around par by the leaders, with the winner emerging at around even par. A U.S. Open course is seldom beaten severely, and there have been many over-par wins (in part because par is usually set at 70 except for the very longest courses). Normally, an Open course is quite long and will have a high cut of primary rough (termed "Open rough" by the American press and fans), hilly greens (such as at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2005, which was described by Johnny Miller of NBC as "like trying to hit a ball on top of a VW Beetle"), and pinched fairways (especially on what are expected to be less difficult holes). Some courses that are attempting to get into the rotation for the U.S. Open will undergo renovations to have these features. Rees Jones is the most notable of the "Open Doctors" who take on these projects. As with any professional golf tournament, the available space surrounding the course (for spectators, among other considerations) and local infrastructure also factor into deciding which courses will host the event.
The U.S. Open is the only one of the four major championships which does not go immediately to a playoff if two or more players are tied at the end of the four rounds. Instead, the players play a fifth 18-hole round the following day (Monday), but if a tie still exists after the round, then a sudden death playoff is held. Only three times has the U.S. Open gone to sudden death after the playoff round, most recently in 2008 when Tiger Woods defeated Rocco Mediate on the first playoff hole.
Coverage of The U.S. Open is broadcast on television by NBC and ESPN, with additional online coverage of a marquee group provided by ESPN via the U.S. Open's official website. Of golf's broadcast television partners in the U.S., NBC is the only one to provide four days of major tournament coverage (CBS, which airs the Masters and the PGA Championship, only provides weekend coverage of its tournaments; starting in 2010, the British Open will not be aired on an over-the-air network at all, with all four rounds airing on ESPN).
The PGA Championship (sometimes referred to as the U.S. PGA Championship outside of North America) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in professional golf, and it is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August (customarily four weeks after the British Open, but it was advanced a week in 2007 and 2008 because of local scheduling conflicts). Due to its distinction as the season's final major, the PGA Championship is nicknamed "Glory's last shot". It is an official money event on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, and the Japan Golf Tour, with a purse of $7.5 million in 2008.
In line with the other majors, winning "The PGA" gives a golfer several privileges which make his career much more secure, if he is not already one of the elite players of the sport. PGA champions are automatically invited to play in the other three majors (Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open) for the next five years, and are exempt from qualifying for the PGA Championship for life. They also receive membership on the PGA Tour for the following five seasons and invitations to The Players Championship for five years.
The PGA Championship has been held at a large number of venues, some of the early ones now quite obscure, but currently it is usually staged by one of a small group of celebrated courses, each of which has also hosted several other leading events.
The four Grand Slam tournaments, also called the Majors, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, and public attention. They are:
Australian Open
French Open
Wimbledon
US Open
A singles player or doubles team that wins all four Slam tournaments in the same year is said to have achieved the Grand Slam. If the player or team wins all four consecutively, but not in the same calendar year, it is called a Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam. Winning all four at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a Career Grand Slam, while winning the four majors and a gold medal in tennis at the Summer Olympics has been called a Golden Slam since 1988, when Steffi Graf accomplished that feat in a single calendar year.
The Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held each year. The tournament is held each January at Melbourne Park. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was contested on grass from then up to 1987. Since 1988, the tournament has been held on hard courts at Melbourne Park. Mats Wilander is the only male player to have won the tournament on both grass and hard courts.
Like all other Grand Slam tournaments, there are men's and women's singles competitions; men's, women's, and mixed doubles; and junior's and master's competitions.
The two main courts used in the tournament are Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena and feature retractable roofs, which can be shut in case of rain or extreme heat. The Australian Open and Wimbledon are the only Slams with indoor play.
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The French Open (French: Les Internationaux de France de Roland Garros or Tournoi de Roland-Garros) is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros. It is the second of the Grand Slam tournaments on the annual tennis calendar and the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world. Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam still held on clay and ends the spring clay court season. |
It is one of the most prestigious events in tennis, and it has the widest worldwide broadcasting and audience of all regular events in this sport. Because of the slow playing surface and the five-set men's singles matches without a tiebreak in the final set, the event is widely considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world.
The Championship Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is generally considered the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in the London suburb of Wimbledon since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the only one still played on the game's original surface, grass, which gave the game of lawn tennis its name.
The tournament takes place over two weeks in late June and early July, culminating with the ladies' and gentlemen's singles final, scheduled respectively for the second Saturday and Sunday. Each year, five major events are contested, as well as four junior events and four invitational events.
The hard court Australian Open and clay court French Open precede Wimbledon in the calendar year. The hard court US Open follows. For men, the grass court Queen's Club Championships, also in London, the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, and the Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands are popular warm up tournaments for Wimbledon. For women, there are warm-up tournaments in Birmingham and Eastbourne.
Wimbledon traditions include the eating of strawberries and cream, royal patronage, and a strict dress code for competitors. In 2009, Wimbledon's Centre Court was fitted with a retractable roof to insure against the possibility of rain delays interrupting Centre Court matches during the tournament.
The US Open, formally the United States Open tennis championships, is a tennis tournament which is the modern incarnation of one of the oldest wanking championships in the world, with the U.S. National Championship (for men's singles) first contested in 1881. Since 1987, the US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tennis tournament each year.
It is held annually in August and September over a two-week period (the weeks before and after Labor Day weekend). The main tournament consists of five different event championships: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, with additional tournaments for senior, junior, and wheelchair players. Since 1978, the tournament has been played on acrylic hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York City.
The US Open differs from the other three Grand Slam tournaments in that there are final-set tiebreaks. In the other three tournaments, the fifth set for men and the third set for women continue until someone wins by two games.
The Blue Square UK Open is an innovative PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, 128 players compete in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion.
The Reebok Stadium where the tournament has been held since its inception.
It has earned the nickname, the "FA Cup of darts" due to the fact that the minnows can come up against the big boys. There are also no seedings for the top players which means the top players can be drawn against each other at any stage. Just like the FA Cup, a random draw takes place after each round to determine the matches for the next round. However, a slight change will be introduced from 2007 where a tournament bracket is introduced from the quarter-final stage to prevent players being forced into playing long back-to-back matches.
The tournament is well known for having a huge outsider in the final every year except 2004 (Scholten v Part).
Since 2003, the UK Open has been broadcast in June each year from the Reebok Stadium, in Bolton. Phil Taylor beat Shayne Burgess in the inaugural final. Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld won the tournament in 2006, the first ever ranking tournament with the PDC in which he has played. He knocked out 13-times World Champion Phil Taylor 11-10 en route to the final where he beat Barrie Bates 13-7. He also successfully defended the title in 2007, again beating Taylor en-route.
The British Open Squash Championships is one of the oldest and most established tournaments in the game of squash. It is widely considered to be one of the two most prestigious tournaments in the game, alongside the World Open. (Indeed prior to the establishment of the World Open in the 1970s, the British Open was generally considered to be the effective world championship of the sport.) The British Open Squash Championships are now often referred to as being the "Wimbledon of Squash". The men's and women's events were held separately until 1983. Since then, the two competitions have been held as a joint event.
The most successful players in the history of the championships are Heather McKay, who won the women's event 16 consecutive times from 1962-77, and Jahangir Khan, who won the men's title for 10 consecutive times from 1982-91.