Golf Tournaments and Events

Golf tournaments are great competitive events where you can both have fun as well as challenge your golf game along with others. There are hundreds and hundreds of golf tournaments held all over the world both for professionals as well as amateurs. Even local organizations have golf tournaments.

For male professionals, there are four major golf tournaments that are held each year. They are:

1. The Masters
2. The U.S. Open
3. The British Open
4. PGA Championship

Female professionals have their own four major golf tournament each year. They are:

1. Kraft Nabisco Championship (formerly the Dinah Shore Tournament)
2. LPGA Championship
3. U.S. Women’s Open
4. Women’s British Open

Of course, amateur golfers will have golf tournaments as well including the U.S. Amateur Championship for men and women as well as juniors. Amateur seniors and amateur professionals also have specific golf tournaments they participate in to gain experience and even notoriety.

Professional golf tournaments are almost all held the same way. There are two days of qualifying rounds after which the bottom players are cut. Then there are two more days of competition. Each round is 18 holes.

Open golf tournaments, such as the U.S. Open, are held to try and give amateurs the chance to break into the field of professional golf. Golfers participate in a series of smaller tournaments to qualify for the Open where they proceed to the big tournament where they compete against professionals. The last amateur to win a U.S. Open was back in 1933.

Amateurs also get the chance to play in the big golf tournaments. The Masters Golf tournament invites the winners of several prestigious events to participate in the big one. That includes the winner of the U.S. and British Amateur Championships.

Most local golf tournaments are held to raise money for specific organizations or for charities. Anyone can participate and they can be quite fun. Most of the local golf tournaments are one, maybe two, day events and consist of one 18 hole round. Prizes maybe awarded for skins, long drive, and long putt, to name a few. A lot of local golf tournaments are flighted – meaning that participants are separated into classes according to ability. Many are also scramble or best ball format.

When you are a regular participant in golf tournaments, you can see why the pros love them so much. Although you won’t be receiving the same big paycheck that they do, you can sure have a lot of fun!

The Masters Tournament

The Masters golf tournament has long been known as “the big show” for many golfers. It’s the BIG one – the one everyone wants to win - the one that can really define a career as a professional golfer. It has a long and storied history – one steeped in golf tradition.

In 1934 Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts wanted to provide a service to golf by hosting an annual golf tournament. Roberts proposed the event be called the Masters Tournament, but Jones objected thinking it sounded too presumptuous. The name Augusta National Invitation Tournament was adopted and that title was used for five years until 1939 when Jones relented and the name was officially changed.

The tournament is held at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, GA, where it is still hosted today. Many decisions made in the early days of the Masters still remain today. Among these are

* The four-day stroke playing of 18 holes each day instead of the then customary 36 holes on the third day
* Eliminating qualifying rounds
* Denying permission for anyone except the player and the caddie to be in the playing area
* Commercialization in any form of the tournament was limited.

The first Masters Tournament was held on March 22, 1934, and beginning in 1940, the Masters was scheduled each year during the first full week in April. That first tournament was won by Horton Smith. In 1935 Gene Sarazen hit “the shot heard ‘round the world” scoring a double eagle on the par five 15th hole tying Craig Wood and forcing a playoff. Sarazen won the 36-hole playoff the following day winning by five strokes.

In 1942, Ben Hogan lost to Byron Nelson by one stroke in an 18-hole playoff and the tournament was not played the following three years: 1943, 1944, and 1945 during World War II. To assist the war efforts, cattle and turkeys were raised on the Augusta National grounds.

Many milestones have occurred throughout the history of the Masters. In 1965 and 1966, Jack Nicklaus became the first Masters champion to defend his title successfully. Many others would have consecutive wins, but The Golden Bear was the first. Tiger Woods broke the four-day scoring record that has stood for 32 years in 1997.

The Masters is characterized by offering the winner a green jacket and having that jacket is considered a great honor in the golfing world. The previous year’s winner would always present the jacket to the current year’s winner and it is done with great flourish.

The Masters is one of golf’s greatest tournaments. The best part is that amateurs can gain entry into the tournament by invitation only giving them dreams of winning the big prize against the best in the field!

The Skins Game

In golf, a skins game has players competing for prize money on each individual hole. There is an annual skins game for male professional golfers that takes place near the end of the year after the end of the official PGA Tour season. It is recognized by the PGA Tour, but it does not count towards the official money list. It is currently played at La Quinta Golf Course in La Quinta, California.

The Skins Game differs from most PGA tour golf tournaments for several reasons. First, only four golfers are invited to the tournament and the golfers play to win individual holes or “skins” in a match play format.

Each hole is assigned a different monetary value and the golfer who has the lowest score on the hole wins the money for that hole. In the event that two or more golfers tie (which is called “halving) on a hole, the skin money carries over to the next hole. If two or more golfers would happen to halve the final hole, a playoff begins until one golfer wins the hole outright.

The Skins Game has a long tradition for being highly competitive, but also very fun both to play and to watch. In 2001, the player winning a hole outright had to tie or win the next hole to collect his skins from the previous hole. This was very tough to do. Greg Norman was the only golfer that could back up his win on the previous hole. He won the 17th and tied for low on the 18th to collect $800,000 which was the largest skin ever collected for one hole. He would go on to win $200,000 in a playoff to win the entire $1 million dollar prize money.

In the 2004 Skins Game, the first six holes were worth $25,000 a piece. Holes 7 through 12 were worth $50,000 each. 13 through 17 were valued at $70,000 a pop, and the 18th hole – known as the Super Skin – carried a value of $200,000.

Fred Couples is given the nickname of “Mr. Skins” because of his dominance in the Skins Game. He has won $3,515,000 and 77 skins in 11 appearances. He has won five of the Skins Games overall.

You can conduct your own skins game when playing golf. Of course, your holes won’t be valued quite as high as the pros are, but you can sure have a blast as you compete to see who can become your own club’s “Mr” or “Ms” Skins.

The British Open Tournament

For amateur golfers, having an “open” tournament is a great opportunity to break into the world of professional golf. But the U.S. Open isn’t the only open tournament – there’s also the British Open for the golfers “across the pond”. Open tournaments were designed to allow amateur golfers to perhaps break into the pro pool by winning one of these contests.

Many people think that the U.S. Open was the first open championship to be founded, but that just isn’t true. The British Open was being played 35 years before the United States got in on the open tournament phenomenon. Since the turn of the century, the British Open has included amateurs from all countries. The U.S. Open is currently trying to make a move towards this trend, but for years, The British Open has been known as “The World Open”.

Originally designed as a way for unknown golfers to make a name for themselves, the “opens” have long been touted as the greatest chance an amateur has for worldwide fame and fortune as a professional golfer. The British Open was the first tournament to bring forth this amazing idea, and golfers all over the world became excited at the prospect of becoming a pro.

The British Open is one of the four major golf tournaments of the year and winning it is a great honor. Just as with the U.S. Open, it is one of the championships that tournament professionals strive to achieve and wear the honor with pride. However, amateurs should beware. Because the British Open is an open event, the pros can play too.

The last time an amateur won a British Open was back in 1930 when American legend Bobby Jones won with an overall score of 291. Since that time, there have been many amateurs who have made good showings, but as far as winning the open, that hasn’t happened in quite some time.

To qualify for the British Open, you must strive for one of the 156 places that are available. Most of the field of players has achieved entry into the open through exemptions by playing well throughout the year on the tour. The rest of the field has won qualifying rounds in local events that lead them to the “big show” and perhaps the chance of the lifetime!

The British Open – just like the U.S. Open – is a wonderful way for excellent amateur golfers to break into the professional circuit by doing what they love – playing the game of golf. The British Open has a long and storied history and while considered one of the major events in the PGA, still holds a bit of mystery and hope for those who dream of a life as a PGA professional.

The Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is a golf trophy contest held every other year matching a team of players from Europe and a team of players from the United States. The name of the tournament came from Samuel Ryder who had watched the first casual match of this format and though it would be good to make the match official. He donated the first gold cup prize and they named the contest after him. The first official Ryder Cup match was played in 1927 in Massachusetts.

Each Ryder Cup team is captained by an experienced golfer. They will get to choose some of the golfers who will play on the team, but most of the team is chosen according to how well they have played since the last Ryder Cup. There is a point system that is in place and their position on the team is dependent on their points.

The matches in the Ryder cup involve various match play matches. Currently, the matches consist of eight foursome matches, eight four ball matches, and twelve singles matches. The winner of each match scores a point for their team with ½ point each for any match that is tied after 18 holes.

A foursome match is competition between two teams of two golfers. The golfers on the same team take alternate shots throughout the match with the same ball. A team takes the hole when it completes the hole with the fewest shots.

A four ball match in the Ryder Cup is also a competition between two teams of two golfers, but all four golfers play their own ball throughout the round rather than alternating shots. Whichever golfer completes the hole with the lowest score wins the hole.

A singles match is a standard match play competition between two golfers.

Many changes have been made to the Ryder Cup over the years, but it still remains one of the most exciting and competitive tournaments in the golf world. The next Ryder Cup competition will be held in 2008 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

While teams have yet to be officially picked, we do know that the United States Ryder Cup team will be captained by Paul Azinger. Right now, it appears we’ll probably see Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, and Davis Love III as team members based on their points they have accumulated.

The European Ryder Cup team will be captained by Nick Faldo. Expect to see names like Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia, and Luke Donald as probably team members.